June 11, 2013

6:30 p.m.

The Heiress

The Heiress is a 1949 film based on the 1880 novel Washington Square by Henry James. Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland) is a plain, awkward young woman who falls in love with a handsome young man, Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), despite the objections of her emotionally abusive father who suspects the man of being a fortune hunter.  Havilland won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actress.  The film also won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. (115 min.)

July 9, 2013

6:30 p.m.

The Day of the Jackal

The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 political thriller based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel.  During the early 1960‘s, former members of the French Foreign Legion hire a professional assassin, known only as “The Jackal,” to kill French President Charles de Gaulle. Director Fred Zinnemann presents the story with precise, dramatic flair. Edward Fox is coldly alluring as the Jackal.  The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Editing, and was nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and five additional BAFTA Awards.  (145 min)

The Painted Veil is a 2006 film based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel. British socialite Kitty (Naomi Watts) marries Walter Fane (Ed Norton), a timid bacteriologist, and they soon find they have nothing in common. When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he impulsively volunteers to work in a Chinese village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship. The film won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score. (125 min.)

September 24, 2013

6:30 p.m.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered by many to be the greatest American novel ever written. In this 1939 film, Mickey Rooney plays Huck, a fun-loving, superstitious kid who can't give up his free-and-easy life of fishing and smoking, despite the best efforts of his kindly guardians. When his souse of a Pap blackmails the well-meaning matrons, mischievous Huck fakes his death and heads down the river with his friend Jim (Rex Ingram), a runaway slave. Along the way, they get mixed up in the larcenous schemes of the "King" (Walter Connolly) and the "Duke" (William Frawley.)   Rooney's thoughtful performance captures Twain's Huck better than any version before or since. (89 min.)