RIFIFI

AUGUST 8/9/10 FRI/SAT/SUN

RIFIFI (1955, Jules Dassin) Back from the pen after taking the rap for a pal, homme dur Jean Servais rejoins his cohorts for what proves to be a classic heist — a legendary 30-minute sequence sans dialogue or music that became a blueprint for thriller directors and real-life crooks. The late Jules Dassin, then a blacklisted Hollywood exile, turned a potboiler by milieu specialist Auguste Le Breton into an existential Noir that earned him Cannes’ Best Director prize and set the gold standard for screen robberies. “For lovers of tough-guy moviemaking, Rififi really means perfection.” – Michael Sragow, New York Times. 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10:00

AUGUST 11 MON (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

SéRIE NOIRE(1979, alain Corneau) Slang-slinging salesman Patrick Dewaere murders his girlfriend’s aunt to settle those pesky debts, but then itchily open-palmed Bernard Blier seems to know all too much about it. Adapted from Jim Thompson’s A Hell of a Woman by experimental novelist Georges Perec. 1:00, 5:25, 9:50

POLICE PYTHON 357 (1976, alain Corneau) On the skids Orléans cop Yves Montand, wearing the same jacket as Dirty Harry and investigating the murder of a former love, finds himself rapidly becoming the prime suspect. Nerve-shredding suspense, with Montand agreeing to help invalid Simone Signoret end it all an intense highlight. 3:05, 7:30

AUGUST 12 TUE (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

THE THIEF OF PARIS (1967, louis Malle) Fin de siècle Paris: robbed by his sleazy uncle of his inheritance and the hand of beloved cousine Genevieve Bujold, orphan Jean-Paul Belmondo counterpunches by snatching Bujold’s intended’s family jewels. Then, after expert tutelage from underworld kingpin Julien Guiomar, finds that he’s got a taste for the “gentleman-burglar” life — but is it enough? Luscious Henri Decaë color photography amid careful period décor. 2:10, 7:00

BORSALINO (1970, JaCques Deray) In 20s Marseilles, two-bit crooks Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon begin by brawling over golden-hearted-hooker Catherine Rouvel (Renoir’s Picnic on the Grass), but soon it’s a match made in gangster heaven, moving from fixing fights and races, to going independent, to ... a final showdown? Lavish period detail — It’s the hats! — and rollicking Claude Bolling score. English-language version. 4:30, 9:20

AUGUST 13/14 WEd/THU (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

PURPLE NOON (1960, rené CléMent) As the sun beats down on a boat in the Mediterranean, two men loll back: scapegrace playboy Maurice Ronet and hanger-on Alain Delon, sent by Ronet’s Dad to bring him back. Which one’s going to leave that boat alive? And can he get away with pretending to be the other man? Delon’s star-making thriller smash, adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. WED 1:00, 5:25, 9:50 THU 1:00, 5:25, 9:45**NOTE: 9:45 SHOW ON THURSdAy IS A SINGlE FEATURE ONly

LA PISCINE (1969, JaCques Deray) Lazy vacation beside the pool in St. Tropez for lovers Alain Delon and Romy Schneider — but then Schneider’s ex-lover Maurice Ronet and daughter Jane Birkin suddenly drop in — and, as a former ménage à trois becomes a ménage à quatre, mortal consequences loom. WED 3:10, 7:35 THU 3:10

PuRPle noon

AUGUST 14 THU (SEpARATE AdMISSION)

LES TONTONS FLINGUEURS (1963, GeorGes lautner) Just when he thinks he’s stuck with fulfilling an old mob boss pal’s dying wish, ex-gangster Lino Ventura (Army of Shadows) has to clean up some loose ends, while watching out for the old man’s about-to-be-married daughter. But Bernard Blier takes violent exception to Ventura’s horning in. Often hilarious, still-quoted argot-heavy dialogue keeps the action both suspenseful and parodic. 7:35 onlY

le CeRCle RouGe

AUGUST 15/16 FRI/SAT

LE CERCLE ROUGE (1970, Jean-Pierre Melville) Impassive faces, snap-brim hats, dangling cigarettes, sunglasses after dark, raincoats without rain... We’re unmistakably in the milieu of Melville, here bringing together four archetypal tough guys for their appointment with destiny: prisoner-in-transit Gian Maria Volontè; relentless inspector Bourvil; DT-plagued ex-cop Yves Montand; and super-cool Alain Delon, all joining forces for a meticulously-orchestrated jewel heist. 1:00, 3:50, 6:40, 9:30

AUGUST 17/18 SUN/MON (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI (1954, JaCques BeCker) Over-the-hill gangland buddies Jean Gabin and René Dary have just pulled the heist of a lifetime: enough grisbi (loot) to give them both a cushy retirement. But when Dary’s two-timing moll Jeanne Moreau spills the beans to drug-dealing bad guy Lino Ventura, it’s time for a showdown with guns and grenades on a deserted country road. SUN 2:55, 6:35, 10:15 MON 2:55

BOB LE FLAMBEUR(1955, Jean-Pierre Melville) Silver-haired ex-gangster Bob Montagné (Roger Duchesne), a “flambeur” (high roller), moves from poker to craps to the track to roulette to baccarat and back, and one last heist: the casino at Deauville — but in an outrageous climax, it all hinges on one final, ironic deal of the cards. “The cinematic birth of the cool.” – J. Hoberman. SUN 1:00, 4:40, 8:20 MON 1:00, 4:40

AUGUST 18 MON (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

RIPTIDE(1949, yves alléGret) As guests gather in a dingy resort hotel in winter to twitter about the latest Parisian crime passionel, gloomy Gérard Philipe wanders among sodden dunes and cabañas of his childhood, finding temporary warmth with chambermaid Madeleine Robinson and dodging nosy proprietress Jane Marken and sinister stranger Jean Servais (Rififi). A throwback to pre-war poetic realism. 7:00 onlY

WE ARE ALL MURDERERS(1952, anDré Cayatte) No-good punk Marcel Mouloudji moves from petty thievery in the slums to bloody intrigue in the Resistance to postwar cop-killing to the death cell. A grippingly horrific look at French penology, with Bresson’s “country priest” Claude Laydu as the rich boy lawyer turned crusader uttering the memorable final lines. 8:45 onlY

AUGUST 19 TUE (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

LA CéRéMONIE(1995, ClauDe ChaBrol) Until the almost unsettlingly efficient Sandrine Bonnaire turns up, très bourgeois Jean-Pierre Cassel and Jacqueline Bisset just can’t seem to find the right housekeeper for their country château. But when Bonnaire strikes up a friendship with local loose cannon Isabelle Huppert, disturbing incidents begin. 1:30, 5:25, 9:30

MURDEROUS MAIDS (2000, Jean-Pierre Denis) Le Mans, 1933, and M. Lancelin returns home to find his wife and daughter brutally murdered and mutilated — but unlike Lizzie Borden, sisters Sylvie Testud and Julie-Marie Parmentier use not an axe but a pewter jug. A Why-dunnit, since the the Papin Sisters case remains one of France’s most puzzling and notorious. “Testud’s depiction of madness evokes pity and terror on a scale to satisfy Aristotle’s definition of tragedy.” – Amy Taubin, Village Voice. 3:35, 7:45

AUGUST 20 WEd (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

PICKPOCKET(1959, roBert Bresson) A purse is moved almost immediately through three sets of hands; a wallet is taken, dropped in a passer-by’s pocket, then finally taken again; a wallet is plucked, looted, then returned empty. A young man’s rise and fall as a master pickpocket — though Bresson firmly declared it not a thriller. 3:00, 6:35, 10:10

A MAN ESCAPED (1956, roBert Bresson) Ultra-quiet but nerve-shredding adaptation of André Devigny’s account of his escape from a Lyons prison while awaiting a German death sentence, mostly filmed in the actual cell and given an unearthly transcendence by its Bressonian treatment. Best Director, Cannes. 1:00, 4:35, 8:10

Classe tous RIsques

AUGUST 21 THU

LA VéRITé NEW 35mm PRINT!(1960, henri-GeorGes Clouzot) As opposing counsels, prosecutor Paul Meurisse and defender Charles Vanel, thunder amid courtroom dramatics, only flashbacks reveal the truth about the violent end to Brigitte Bardot’s love affair with Sami Frey. Powerful performance by the erstwhile sex kitten (although a contemporary review cooed “‘a guided tour of Bardot”) and characteristically dark vision from the director of Wages of Fear and Diabolique. 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30

AUGUST 22/23 FRI/SAT (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

PIERROT LE FOU (1965, Jean-luC GoDarD) “The last romantic couple,” as Jean-Paul Belmondo, fed up with wife and Paris, heads for the south of France with old flame Anna Karina, a classic pulp fiction moll of a gang of crooks. Echt 60s Godard, with color & Scope photography by Raoul Coutard, a cameo by Sam Fuller, and an explosive finale. 1:00, 5:25, 9:50

MISSISSIPPI MERMAID (1969, François truFFaut) Lonely tobacco planter Jean-Paul Belmondo awaits the docking of the eponymous steamboat and the arrival of his not-too-bad mail order bride... but off steps Catherine Deneuve! Seemingly obvious concealments, labored explanations, and painful deceptions escalate into gunplay and poisoning. 3:05, 7:30

AUGUST 24/25 SUN/MON (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

LE DOULOS (1962, Jean-Pierre Melville) Trench-coated Serge Reggiani is back from the slammer — but what to do now? First things first: a piece-of-cake heist to be pulled. But why are those darn flics here already? Could there be a doulos? — “squealer” in French underworld argot. A-list gangster Jean-Paul Belmondo is a prime candidate for the title. But then the head-snapping plot twists start coming. SUN 1:30, 5:35, 9:40 MON 1:30, 5:35, 10:00**NOTE: 10:00 SHOW ON MONdAy IS A SINGlE FEATURE ONly

CLASSE TOUS RISQUES (1960, ClauDe sautet) Neo-realism meets Film Noir, as tough guy Lino Ventura plans a job for some starting-up-again money, but, as the mayhem mounts, realizes there may be another life beyond the milieu. First major feature for Sautet and first teaming of two French super-icons: champion wrestler-turned-scene-stealer Ventura and New Wave wunderkind Jean-Paul Belmondo. “Tense and warm, ellipticial and human.” – Bertrand Tavernier. SUN 3:35, 7:30 MON 3:35

AUGUST 25 MON (SEpARATE AdMISSION)

COUP DE TORCHON (1981, BertranD tavernier) In a French West African colony in 1938, cop Philippe Noiret is nobody’s idea of Wyatt Earp, humiliated by wife Stéphane Audran and sneered at by pimp Jean-Pierre Marielle. But when the worm decides to turn, and the bodies start to pile up — isn’t he going just a bit too far? A blackly comic adaptation of Jim Thompson’s noirer-than-noir Pop. 1280. 7:30 onlY

DIaBolIque

AUGUST 26 TUE (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

THE CLOCKMAKER (1974, BertranD tavernier) Bad news from Inspector Jean Rochefort for quiet Lyons clockmaker Philippe Noiret: the son who-lives-but-doesn’t-live-with-him has committed murder. In the course of the case, Noiret finds new understanding with the son he realizes he didn’t really know, and a new friendship with the understanding cop. Tavernier’s first feature, from a Simenon novel. 2:40, 6:20, 10:00

GARDE à VUE (1981, ClauDe Miller) Tough New Year’s Eve for rich lawyer Michel Serrault (La Cage aux Folles): as top suspect in the rape and murder of two young girls, he’s spending it being grilled by formidable Inspector Lino Ventura — who then drags in Serrault’s estranged wife Romy Schneider to turn up the heat. 1:00, 4:40, 8:20

AUGUST 27 WEd (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

DIABOLIQUE (1955, henri-GeorGes Clouzot) Downtrodden wife Vera Clouzot and no-nonsense mistress Simone Signoret team up to eliminate their perfect salaud husband/lover... and then la terreur commence. Dizzying plot twists lead to an eyeball-glazing dénouement in Clouzot’s suspense masterpiece. Scripters Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac wrote the novel basis for Hitchcock’s Vertigo. 1:30, 5:25, 9:50

EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1959, GeorGes FranJu) The ethereal Edith Scob, in a simultaneously beautiful and creepy mask, floats through operating room and dog kennel as doves fly past. A surgeon lectures on the “heterograft.” But who’s that face-down on her bed on the top floor of the doctor’s house? Franju invested the Boileau/Narcejac script with “exquisite, dread images” in “perhaps the most elegant horror movie ever made,” (Pauline Kael). 3:40, 7:35

AUGUST 28 THU (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

THE SICILIAN CLAN NEW 35mm PRINT!(1969, henri verneuil) After fiery killer Alain Delon memorably escapes from the slammer (“a sequence worthy of Melville” – Stephen O. Murray), it’s time to team up with Sicilian gang boss Jean Gabin to heist a pre-metal-detector plane-load of jewels, but there’s Gabin’s all-too-attractive daughter-in-law and trying-to-quit-smoking cop Lino Ventura to contend with. With memorable Ennio Morricone score. 3:25, 7:35

UN FLIC(1972, Jean-Pierre Melville) Nightclub owner Richard Crenna and piano-playing Alain Delon both love Catherine Deneuve — who doesn’t? — only trouble is, one’s a cop and the other’s bent on the heist of a lifetime. Melville’s final work features a rain-sodden bank robbery done in total silence and a drug deal that entails a helicopter to train transfer — and back again. 1:30, 5:40, 9:50

eleVatoR to tHe GalloWs

AUGUST 29/30 FRI/SAT

ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1957, louis Malle) Jeanne Moreau and ex-paratrooper lover Maurice Ronet scheme to murder her husband by faking a suicide, but a forgotten rope, a fortuitous car thief, and a malfunctioning ascenseur conspire to complicate their plans, with memorable highlight Moreau’s walk through Parisian streets to Miles Davis’ score. 1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10

AUGUST 31/SEpTEMBER 1 SUN/MON

(2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

BREATHLESS (1959, Jean-luC GoDarD) Lip-stroking pug Jean-Paul Belmondo on the run, shooting cops and stealing cars — and cash from the handbag of Herald Tribune-hawking girlfriend Jean Seberg; with the couple engaging in boudoir philosophy, staring contests, sous blanket tussles and plenty of le smoking. 2:50, 6:30, 10:10

BAND OF OUTSIDERS (1964, Jean-luC GoDarD) Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey (“Belmondo’s suburban cousins” – JLG), and mutual girlfriend Anna Karina, horse around with the idea of burglarizing the villa where she’s staying, but then things go memorably awry. A jeu d’ésprit, with set pieces including the trio dancing “Le Madison” and then “doing” the Louvre in record time. “A reverie of a gangster movie.” – Pauline Kael. 1:00, 4:40, 8:20

SEpTEMBER 2 TUE

(2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

CASQUE D’OR (1952, JaCques BeCker) Murder among the “apaches” in 1898 Paris: carpenter Serge Reggiani falls for cabaret enchantress Simone Signoret (“so intensely, ripely physical that she takes command of the screen” – Pauline Kael), takes on her lover, and then must face doom for a friend. Becker’s masterpiece, with the most excitingly pure filmmaking of the cinéma de qualité. 1:00, 4:40, 8:20

GOUPI MAINS ROUGES (1943, JaCques BeCker) Going hip deep in la France profonde, naïve Parisian clerk Georges Rollin watches the gargoyles come out of the woodwork — that is, gets to meet the provincial branch of his family, The Goupis. But then one of them gets murdered. Atmospheric whodunnit with crisply autumnal location shooting. Aka It Happened at the Inn. 2:50, 6:30, 10:10

quaI Des oRFÈVRes

SEpTEMBER 3/4 WEd/THU (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

QUAI DES ORFÈVRES (1947, henri-GeorGes Clouzot) Suzy Delair sings “avec son tra-la-la” in a smoky Ménilmontant boîte, while seedy Maigret-like detective Louis Jouvet must track down the murderer of lecherous Charles Dullin. Clouzot masterfully recreates his two worlds of police station and shabby music hall with typically nihilistic touches. Cannes Grand Prize. WED 1:30, 5:20, 9:10 THU 1:00, 4:50

PéPé LE MOKO(1937, Julien Duvivier) Trapped by a police raid while slumming in Algiers’ Casbah, Mireille Balin encounters the caïd of the labyrinthine quarter, Jean Gabin’s impeccably-dressed French crook-on-the-run Pépé Le Moko. Then, as they share wistful memories of the Paris Métro, it’s clear that if les flics can’t get Pépé, l’amour can. “Raises the thriller to a poetic level.” – Graham Greene. WED 3:30, 7:20 THU 3:00

SEpTEMBER 4 THU (SEpARATE AdMISSION)

THE WAGES OF FEAR (1952, henri-GeorGes Clouzot) Bottom of the bottle denizens of a nameless Central American fleapit sign up to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerine over hair-raising mountain switchbacks and bottomless jungle tracks to put out an oil field fire; their reward: the price of a ticket out. Clouzot’s masterpiece is both the epitome of the nerve-shredding suspense melodrama and existential art film. Best Picture, Cannes and Berlin festivals. 7:00, 9:40

cAlENdAR pROGRAMMEd By BRUcE GOldSTEIN

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AUGUST 8 - SEPTEMBER 11 FivE WEEKS!

Film Noir & Thrillers, 1937-2000SpEcIAl THANkS TO dElpHINE SEllES, NIcOlAS dENOIzE (FRENcH MINISTRy OF cUlTURE, NEW yORk); AdRIENNE HAlpERN, ERIc dIBERNARdO (RIAlTO pIcTURES); SARAH FINklEA, BRIAN BElOvARAc (JANUS FIlMS); FlEUR BUcklEy (BFI, lONdON);

RON HAlpERN (STUdIOcANAl, pARIS); pHIlIppE cHEvASSU (cONNAISSANcE dU cINEMA, pARIS); SARAH cHOyEAU, EMElINE cASSIAT (GAUMONT, pARIS); cATHERINE MONTOUcHET (pATHé, pARIS); ROSS klEIN (MGM): JAcOB pERlIN (THE FIlM dESk); ScHAWN BElSTON, cAITlIN ROBERTSON (TWENTIETH cENTURy FOx): JONATHAN HOWEll (NEW yORkER FIlMS); RAcHEl MURRAy (MIRAMAx); GARy pAlMUccI (kINO INTERNATIONAl);

MElANIE vAlERA, BARRy AllEN (pARAMOUNT); cAROlINE yEAGER, pAT lOUGHNEy, lEEANN dUGGAN (GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE); MARTIN ScORSESE, MARk McElHATTEN (SIkElIA pROdUcTIONS); ANd lENNy BORGER.

PRoGRAMMEd By BRUcE GoldSTEin

A NoNprofit

CiNemA SiNCe

1970

$ 1 1 . 0 0 N o N - m e m b e r S / $ 6 . 0 0 m e m b e r S e - m A i l : f i l m f o r u m @ f i l m f o r u m . o r g W e b S i t e : f i l m f o r u m . o r g

209 WeSt HouStoN Street NeW York, NY 10014 box offiCe: (212) 727-8110

reViVAlS & repertorYSummer/fAll 2008

ThiS SERiES iS dEdicATEd To ThE MEMoRy oF JUlES dASSin (1911-2008)

la VéRIté tHe WaGes oF FeaR

François TruFFauT’s

shooT The PiANo

PlAYerstarring Charles aznavour

SEPTEMBER 5-11 ONE WEEK! “QUINTESSENTIAL NEW WAVE! A MOVIE LOVER’S MOVIE!” – ThE ONION

NeW 35mm PriNT!

(1960) “Even when he’s with somebody, he walks alone.” Tickling the ivories in a two-bit dive, dead-panned Charlie Kohler is obviously a burnout, although timidly tending toward involvement again with lively barmaid Marie Dubois (Jules and Jim) — but didn’t he used to be Edouard Saroyan, the distinguished concert pianist? (Of course he is, here played in a masterpiece of casting by Piaf protégé and already legendary maître de chanson Aznavour.) But after the tragic demise of his marriage, and the ensuing abandonment of his career, can he come back to life? Thanks to his doing-it-for-free hooker neighbor Michele Mercier, waitress Dubois, and his sudden need to rescue his roughneck brothers from tough guy wannabes so gangsterish it’s as though they knew they were acting in a Warner Bros. programmer, he actually starts to begin again, but then... Both an homage and a parody of the B movie (also referencing Bogart’s The Big Shot for the concluding snow scenes), Truffaut’s adaptation of David Goodis’ pulp classic Down There is packed with searching conversations, never-seen-again strangers, Boby Lapointe’s brawl-calming song, and zany visual gags (an otherwise unseen old lady collapses directly after a tough swears on his mother’s life) in “perhaps the only comedy about melancholia” (Pauline Kael). Photographed by New Wave legend Raoul Coutard (Breathless, Contempt), with music by Georges Delerue (Jules and Jim, The Conformist). “Filled with good and bad jokes, bits from Sacha Guitry films, clowns and thugs, tough kids, songs and fantasy and snow scenes, and homage to the American B gangster pictures of the 40s and 50s. Nihilistic in attitude, yet by its wits and its spirits it’s totally involved in life and fun. Nothing is clear-cut; the ironies crisscross and bounce.” – Pauline Kael.

a Janus FIlms Release. 1:00, 2:40, 4:20, 6:00, 7:45, 9:30

SpEcIAl THANkS TO MARGARET dERIAz, SUE JONES (BFI, lONdON); JAREd SApOlIN, GROvER cRISp, HElENA BRISSENdEN (SONy pIcTURES); MARIlEE WOMAck (WARNER BROS.); SARAH FINklEA, BRIAN BElOvARAc (JANUS FIlMS); AdRIENNE HAlpERN, ERIc dIBERNARdO (RIAlTO pIcTURES).

SEpTEMBER 12/13 FRI/SAT (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

GREAT EXPECTATIONS NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1946) From the electrifying appearance of Finlay Currie’s convict, the great literary adaptation, Dickens’ story of an orphan enriched by a mysterious benefactor. The director’s first non-Noël Coward adaptation features Anthony Wager/John Mills and Jean Simmons/Valerie Hobson as the young/adult Pip and Estella, Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Alec Guinness (in his first major film role) as Herbert Pocket, and Francis L. Sullivan (Night and the City) as Mr. Jaggers. “Dickens was a superb screenwriter.” – Lean. 1:00, 5:25, 9:50

OLIVER TWIST NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1948) From its ominously storm-ridden opening, Lean’s child’s-eye-view adaptation of Dickens’ classic about a London waif trapped in a pickpocket gang is alternately humorous and hair-raising, notably in the dog desperately scratching at the closed door and Robert Newton’s taut conclusion as Bill Sikes. With John Howard Davies as Oliver and a young Anthony Newley as the Artful Dodger. Original U.K. version; the U.S. version was edited to tone down Alec Guinness’ scenery-chewing Fagin (played with a “sly, depraved charm” – Pauline Kael). 3:15, 7:40

SEpTEMBER 14/15 SUN/MON (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

BRIEF ENCOUNTER NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1945) Suburban housewife Celia Johnson, on her weekly trip to town, meets equally married doctor Trevor Howard, and a tender, doomed love affair begins. Both contracted and expanded from Noël Coward’s one-acter, this is the most romantic of films, unforgettably underscored by Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2. “Its simplicity remains unsurpassed.” – Derek Malcolm, The Guardian. 2:50, 6:20, 9:50

BLITHE SPIRIT NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1945) Novelist Rex Harrison finds his séance going awry when eccentric medium Margaret Rutherford conjures up his Technicolored first wife Kay Hammond, leaving him trapped in supernatural bigamy when she bonds with long-suffering #2, Constance Cummings. 1:00, 4:30, 8:00

SEpTEMBER 16 TUE (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1949) As illicit lovers Trevor Howard and Ann Todd exchange guilty looks over cocktails, knowing husband Claude Rains smilingly offers “Ice?” Perhaps Lean’s most complexly structured work, while its theme of a woman’s need for independence — one of the few elements retained by spy fiction legend Eric Ambler from H.G. Wells’ original — remains provocative. 3:40, 7:35

MADELEINE NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1950) 1857: merchant’s daughter Ann Todd (then Mrs. Lean) finds penniless ex-lover Ivan Desny won’t stay ex-, despite her impending engagement — so... Lean’s treatment of 19th century Britain’s real-life equivalent of the O.J. Simpson trial is a tour de force of ambiguity, acting, and pure filmmaking. 1:30, 5:25, 9:20

SEpTEMBER 17 WEd (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

HOBSON’S CHOICE NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1954) Early 20th century Lancashire bootmaker Charles Laughton lords it over his three daughters and nerd assistant John Mills while lolling in the pub, but eldest daughter Brenda de Banzie has other plans. Lean’s last comedy finds one of his trapped, repressed women triumphing at last amid the trappings of Expressionism. British Oscar, Best Picture. 1:15, 5:30, 9:45

THE SOUND BARRIER NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1952) “A piece of cake” scoffs pilot Nigel Patrick to Ann Todd, but, before the ultimate triumph of aircraft exec Ralph Richardson’s dreams, Lean’s camera — in one of its greatest moments — will inexorably track to a smoking hole in the ground. His first original story, dramatized by Terence Rattigan, is, even today, perhaps the screen’s greatest evocation of speed. Oscar for Best Sound, British Best Film Oscar, NY Film Critics’ Award to Richardson. 3:20, 7:35

BRIeF enCounteR

SEpTEMBER 18 THU (2 FIlMS FOR 1 AdMISSION)

IN WHICH WE SERVE NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1942, noël CowarD & DaviD lean) As the survivors of H.M.S. Torrin cling to a lifeboat amid oil-streaked waters, flashbacks unroll toward the Home Front: Captain Noël Coward delivers staccato compliments to wife Celia Johnson at cocktail time; CPO Bernard Miles good-humoredly contends with Mother-in-Law; Seaman John Mills romances Kay Walsh (then Mrs. Lean). Coward fictionalized his friend Lord Mountbatten’s career, then recruited ace editor Lean to co-direct. Best Film, New York Film Critics. 1:00, 5:15, 9:30

THIS HAPPY BREED NEW 35mm RESTORATION!(1944) Twenty years in the life of 17 Sycamore Road, Clapham, as returned WWI vet Robert Newton and his family move into their first unshared house, and then — after youthful radicalism, a tragic auto accident, the General Strike, a family scandal, and the coming of a grandchild — move on as a new war looms. The surface complacency of Noël Coward’s story is jarred by the tightly wound, neurotic performance of Celia Johnson as the wife. Lean’s first in color. 3:10, 7:25

DaviD Lean (1908-1991) is best remembered now for making ’em big, but he started out by making ’em small, too. The child of Quakers who disapproved of “the pictures,” he escaped an exciting career in accountancy to become a clapper boy at Gainsborough Studios. Moving quickly to the editor’s chair, he cut documentaries and quota quickies, to become Britain’s top “film doctor,” until he was tapped by Noël Coward to handle the technical side of the stage titan’s first film. Lean went on, seemingly inexorably, to become one of the most honored and successful directors in movie history, helping to put British cinema on the map with quintessential war films, romantic melodramas, and Dickens adaptations; and proceeding to the massive international spectacles he’s identified with today. For sheer mastery of the camera, precision of editing, and his pure delight in elegant carpentering of film structure, Lean still stands alone. In celebration of the director’s centennial year, Lean’s first ten films have been meticulously restored by the BFI National Archive and Granada International, in association with StudioCanal, and with the generous support of the David Lean Foundation. As David Thomson has written of these early Lean masterworks, “They are lively, stirring, and an inspiration — they make you want to go out and make movies, they are so in love with the screen’s power.”

David Lean

i n a s s o c i at i o n w i t h t h e B F i

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SEPTEMBER 12-25 TWO WEEKS!

tHe PassIonate FRIenDs David Lean Continues on reverse

THE FRENCH NEW WAVEXCRIME