TITLE

INFORMATION

1984

Adaptation of George Orwell’s novel about a totalitarian future, with John Hurt and Richard Burton

2001, A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick’s baffling and ground-breaking space epic

The 39 Steps.

Alfred Hitchcock’s British film about an innocent man on the run from spies and the law

The 400 Blows
Les Quatre cents coups

Francois Truffaut’s semi-autobiographical film about a smart young boy who always gets into trouble

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Martin Scorsese film about a woman and her son who try to make it on their own

Alien

The first of the four films pitting Sigourney Weaver against space-going killing machines

All about Eve

Bette Davis as a theater star who takes a young actress under her wing, only to discover that she’s being clipped.

Almost Famous

Sort-of-true story about teenaged rock critic who gets to follow a band tour for Rolling Stone

An American in Paris

Artists in Paris, with Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron and music by the Gershwins

American Graffiti

George Lucas’ breakthrough hit about high school friends and one last summer

Annie Hall

Woody Allen’s film about a love affair between 2 neurotics, with Diane Keaton

Back to the Future

First of the time-twisting trilogy, with Michael J. Fox

Bamboozled

Spike Lee’s film about a fed-up black TV executive who dreams up a program so outrageous that he’s sure he’ll be fired—but it’s a hit!

The Bandwagon

Another Gene Kelly musical, with Cyd Charise

The Battleship Potemkin.

Eisenstein’s revolutionary silent film about a battleship mutiny

Being There

Peter Sellers in one of his last roles as an idiot that everyone takes to be a wise man

Ben-Hur

The epic film about a Jew and a Roman and the friendship that turns to betrayal, with Charlton Heston

The Birds

Hitchcock’s film about nature gone awry

Blackmail

Hitchcock’s—and Britain’s—first talking film, making innovative use of sound

Blackboard Jungle

Glen Ford as an idealistic teacher in a troubled school

Blade Runner

Harrison Ford as a hard-boiled detective tracking down killer androids in a bleak future

The Blue angel.

Marlene Dietrich’s breakthrough role as a nightclub singer who hooks an aging teacher

Das Boot/ The Boat

A German submarine crew tries to stay alive during World War II

Boudu sauve des eaux
 Boudu Saved from Drowning

Jean Renoir’s comedy about a middle-class family that takes in a bum (remade as Down and Out in Beverly Hills)

Brazil

Terry Gilliam’s comic film about an oppressive future and mistaken identity

The Breakfast Club

A group of alienated teens bonds during detention

Breathless
A bout de souffle

Jean-Luc Godard’s breakthrough film about a drifter who kills a policeman and his relationship with his American girlfriend

The Bridge on the River Kwai

David Lean’s epic film about prisoners of war in Burma during World War II

Burn!

Brando as an agent sent to a colonial island to stir up trouble

The Caine Mutiny

Humphrey Bogart as a tyrannical ship captain and the results of his leadership

Casablanca

The classic with Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in “neutral” French territory before the US entered World War II

Cat People

A young woman is afraid to consummate her wedding night out of fear that she might just kill her husband

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Tennessee Williams’ play about family conflicts, with Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor

Cet obscur objet de desir/
That Obscure Object of Desire

Luis Bunuel’s satire of middle-class life, with a group of friends who can never seem to sit down to dinner

The Chaplin Collection

DVD set includes Chaplins’ Modern Times, a satire of industry and modernity, and The Great Dictator, where he takes on Hitler

Chasing Amy

Kevin Smith’s comedy about two comic books artists and the woman one falls in love with even though she’s not attracted to men

The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth/ Henry V

Lawrence Olivier’s version of Shakespeare’s play starts on the stage of the Globe Theater, then opens out into a larger world

Cleo de 5 a 7/Cleo from 5 to 7

Agnes Varda’s film about a model dealing with the possibility that she has cancer

A Clockwork Orange

Kubrick’s film about a future that tries to eliminate the problem of violence

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Spielberg’s hit about ordinary people trying to deal with extra-terrestrial visitors

Como agua para chocolate/
Like Water for Chocolate

Love and food in Mexico

Coup de torchon

A French colonial policeman decides to get rid of the people who are causing him trouble in his life

Cries and Whispers

Ingmar Bergman’s drama about 3 sisters and their struggle for identity

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Two martial arts experts seek a stolen sword, while a young woman escapes from her arranged marriage to love with a bandit

Dancer in the Dark

Bjork as a working mother who is going blind and trying to get an operation for her son.  It’s a musical!

Daughters of the Dust

A family living on the Georgia Sea Islands plans to move

The Day the Earth Stood Still.

1950s SF about an alien who comes to Earth with a warning

Days of Heaven

Two lovers pretend to be brother and sister as they escape from 1917 Chicago to work for a rancher in Texas

Dead Man Walking

Susan Sarandon as a nun who tries to save the soul of a condemned killer (Sean Penn)

Death in Venice

Thomas Mann’s story about a composer who becomes infatuated with a boy during a vacation

Devil in a Blue Dress

Denzel Washington is factory worker turned detective Easy Rawlins in post World War II LA.

Diabolique

French thriller about two women who conspire to kill the husband of one only to have the body disappear.

Dial M for Murder

Hitchcock again: A man plots to kill his wife and her lover, with Grace Kelly

Dirty Harry

Clint Eastwood’s first film in the series

Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee’s take on race relations and frustrated lives

Don Juan DeMarco

Johnny Depp as a young man who thinks he’s Don Juan.  Marlon Brando is his shrink.

Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

A mad general tries to start World War III.  It’s a comedy!  With Peter Sellers in 3 roles.

Duel in the Sun

Lurid Western about two brothers and the woman they both love, with Gregory Peck and Joseph Cotten

Eat Drink Man Woman

The greatest chef in Taiwan tries to deal with his daughters’ growing independence and his own future

Les enfants du paradis/
Children of Paradise

Classic French film about three men in early 19^th century Paris and the woman they all loved

Erin Brokovich

Julia Roberts as the working-class woman who brought down a chemical polluter.

E.T.: The Extraterrestrial

Spielberg’s hit film about an alien and the children who find him.

Fahrenheit 451

Francois Truffaut’s version of Ray Bradbury’s novel about a future in which firemen set fires—to books!

Fantastic Planet

Humans are the playthings of giant aliens in this animated film

Farewell My Concubine

Two boys become stars of the Peking Opera and live through a half-century of turmoil in China

Fargo

A pregnant police chief deals with kidnapping and murder in Minnesota

Forbidden Planet

Astronauts land on a planet occupied by a scientist, his daughter, a robot—and something else.  Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest!

Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Jimmy Stewart as an idealistic young man who joins the Senate and discovers Washington’s devious ways.

Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Gary Cooper as a naïve young man who inherits a fortune and discovers society’s devious ways—“remade” with Adam Sandler recently.

Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life"

Jimmy Stewart as an idealistic young man in a small town who never seems to be able to get out and follow his dreams.

Frenzy

One of Hitchcock’s last films—about a serial killer and the man who gets accused of his crimes.

The French Connection

Gene Hackman as a tough New York detective on the trail of French drug dealers.

The French Lieutenant's Woman

The parallel lives of two actors (Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons) and the Victorian lovers that they play.

Fried Green Tomatoes

The friendship and lives of two women in the South and of two other women years later.

From Here to Eternity

James Jones’ novel about servicemen in Hawaii just before December 7, 1941.  With Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra.

Full Metal Jacket

Kubrick’s take on Vietnam, from basic training to the Tet Offensive

The Full Monty

Unemployed British steel workers try to raise some cash by becoming male strippers

Gallipoli

Australian films about one of the great disasters of World War I, with Mel Gibson.

Gandhi

Ben Kingsley as the non-violent leader of India’s fight for independence.

Gladiator

Russell Crowe as a Roman general betrayed into slavery

Glory

Story of the black battalion recruited to fight for the North in the Civil War

The Gold rush

Charlie Chaplin’s classic silent film as his Little Tramp tries to strike it big in the Yukon

Gone with the wind 50th anniversary edition /

The Civil War epic, with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh

Good Morning, Vietnam

Robin Williams as a military DJ, trying to bring some music to the troops

Good Morning/

Ohayu

Yasujiro Ozu’s comic film about two kids refuse to greet their parents until they can get a TV set

Governess

Mimi Driver as a Jewish woman in Victorian England who hides her identity while working for a family

Grand Illusion.

Jean Renoir’s film about French prisoners of war during World War I

The Grapes of Wrath

John Ford’s film of the Steinbeck novel, with Henry Fonda

Great Expectations

David Lean’s adaptation of Dickens’ novel about a young man who comes into money unexpectedly.  Watch for a young Alec Guinness.

The Great Gatsby

Robert Redford as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s millionaire with a shady past.

Gremlins

Joe Dante’s comic monster and anti-Christmas movie.

Hamlet

Lawrence Olivier’s film of the Shakespeare play

He Got Game

Denzel Washington as a convict who will be given a reprieve if he can recruit his son for a university basketball team

Heartland

A woman comes to work for a rancher in a still-wild Wyoming

Henry V

Kenneth Branagh’s more realistic take on Shakespeare’s play about the hero king

High Noon.

Gary Cooper as the sheriff left by the town to face his enemies all by himself, costarring Grace Kelly.

His Girl Friday.

Gary Cooper as an editor trying to win back his star reporter—who’s also his wife.  An adaptation of The Front Page.

I Confess

Hitchcock film about a priest who hears a killer’s confession, then gets accused of the crime himself.

I Know Where I’m Going

A determined young woman finds her life taking an unexpected turn on a trip to an island off Scotland.

The Innocents

Adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, about a governess who is sure that the ghosts of two servants are trying to harm her pupils

Intolerance

DW Griffith’s epic comprised of 4 different stories in 4 different ages

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The original version of the SF story about human beings replaced by alien look-alikes

It Happened One Night

Frank Capra’s screwball comedy about a spoiled heiress and a cynical reporter traveling by bus, thumb and leg.

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte’s novel about a young woman who falls in love with a brooding gentleman, played by Orson Welles

Jaws

Spielberg’s fish story

Ju Dou

A man works for his brutal uncle and falls in love with the uncle’s wife

The Lady vanishes.

Hitchcock’s British film about travelers on a train in pre-war Europe

The Last Temptation of Christ

Martin Scorsese’s film of the Kazantzakis novel explores the human side of Jesus’ character

Lawrence of Arabia

Peter O’Toole in David Lean’s film about the World War I hero who led Arab partisans against the Turkish empire.

Little Big Man

Dustin Hoffman as a white boy who grows up with the Cheyenn and becomes the sole white “survivor” of the Little Big Horn

Local Hero

Peter Riegert is sent to buy a Scottish town by oil tycoon Burt Lancaster but finds new directions in this strange environment

Lord of the Flies

Children revert to savagery in the first film version of the William Golding novel

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

First of the epic adaptation of the Tolkien fantasy trilogy

M

Peter Lorre’s first starring role, as a child murderer hunted by the police and the underworld

The Magnificent Ambersons

Orson Welles’ second film, about the decline and fall of a wealthy Midwestern family

Magnolia

Different individuals try to cope with life’s pains and with unexpected events

The Maltese Falcon

Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade, who encounters a strange crew of characters all looking for the black statue of a bird.

The Man who shot Liberty Valance.

John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart in a Western town threatened by outlaw Lee Marvin, recalled in flashback in John Ford’s film

A Man for All Seasons

Sir Thomas More, friend of King Henry VIII, loses his head when he won’t back the king’s plan to break from the Catholic Church.

The Man Who Knew Too Much

The first of Hitchcock’s two films about a couple whose child is kidnapped to keep them from revealing a secret

The Manchurian Candidate

A Korean veteran is brainwashed to become an assassin in this satire of Communism and anti-Communism in the 1950s.  With Frank Sinatra.

Manhattan

Woody Allen, Diane Keaton and Mariel Hemingway are a romantic triangle in a love letter to New York in black-and-white

MASH

Robert Altman’s film that inspired the TV comedy about army doctors in Korea

Matewan

John Sayles’ film about labor organizers and a brutal strike in the West Virginia coal fields

The Matrix

First (and best?) of the trilogy

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Altman’s “anti-Western” with Warren Beatty as an entrepreneur who sets up a bordello run by Julie Christie

Meet John Doe

Frank Capra’s film with Gary Cooper as a naïve drifter who winds up becoming a front for a politically ambitious newspaper publisher

Metropolis.

Fritz Lang’s ground-breaking SF film about a city of the future and the divided classes that inhabit it. 

Midnight Cowboy

John Voight as a would-be gigolo who becomes friends with a small-time New York con-man played by Dustin Hoffman

Mississippi Masala

A woman from an Indian immigrant family falls in love with a black man (Denzel Washington)

Mitt liv som hund

My life as a dog

An orphaned boy in Sweden is sent to live with his eccentric relatives in the country

Mon Oncle/ My Uncle

Jacques Tati’s visual satire of modernity and machines upset by his character, Mr. Hulot

Monsoon Wedding

An upper-middle class Indian family plans a wedding while people fall in and out of love and family secrets are revealed

Moonstruck

Cher as a widow who falls in love with one-handed baker Nicholas Cage

Mr. Hulot's Holiday

Tati’s bumbling character takes a vacation at the seaside

My Brilliant Career

A young Australian woman tries to stake a claim to her own life in the Outback a century ago

My man Godfrey.

Screwball comedy about a bum with a mysterious past who becomes butler to an eccentric family

Nashville

Music and politics mix with the lives of 24 characters in Altman’s film

North by Northwest

Hitchcock again having a man on the run for a crime he did not commit, with Cary Grant

Nosferatu

The first film version of Dracula, making striking use of cinematic tricks and lighting

Notorious

Hitchcock’s film about a woman whose past makes her perfect to spy on Nazis working in Brazil.  With Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant

On the Town

Three sailors have one day to see New York and change their lives.  With Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, music by Leonard Bernstein, and location shooting

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Ken Kesey’s novel with Jack Nicholson disrupting business as usual in a mental institution

Ordinary People

A suburban Chicago family tries to cope with a son’s death.

The Philadelphia story

Socialite Katharine Hepburn is about to get married but is attracted to her ex-husband, Cary Grant, and to reporter Jimmy Stewart

Platoon

Oliver Stone’s groundbreaking film about Vietnam

Pride and prejudice

Adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel about love and marriage in the English countryside

Psycho

Hitchcock’s film about stolen money, motels, showers and mothers

Pygmalion

GB Shaw’s play that inspired My Fair Lady, as a speech teacher tries to pass a flower girl off as a woman from high society

Raging Bull

Martin Scorsese’s film about the life of boxer Jake LaMotta, with Robert DeNiro

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The first of Spielberg’s Indiana Jones films

Rebecca

Hitchcock’s first American film, based on the famous novel about a young woman who marries a mysterious widowed aristocrat

Rebel without a Cause

James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo are troubled teenagers.  See this one in wide-screen format only!

Rules of the game/
La regle du jeu

The French upper class and their servants swap loves and lose lives in Jean Renoir’s satire of French society before World War II

Sabotage.

Hitchcock’s film about a terrorist in London who runs a movie theater and his wife, from a novel by Joseph Conrad

Saboteur

Hitchcock has Robert Cummings as a factory worker accused of sabotage and trying to find the real spies in a cross-country chase

Le salaire de la peur/
[Wages of fear

An international group of truckers takes a shipment of nitroglycerine to an oil field over bumpy, treacherous roads

Saving Private Ryan

Spielberg’s take on World War II from the Normandy invasion to after

Scarlet Street.

Edward G. Robinson is a meek little painter who is taken in by a glamorous woman.

The Searchers

John Wayne goes looking for a niece who was kidnapped by Indians

Secret Agent.

Hitchcock’s spy film has agent John Gielgud going to Switzerland to find an enemy spy among the snow and chocolate

Secrets and Lies

A woman discovers the daughter she gave up for adoption and that she’s black, causing complications for everyone

Seven Chances

Buster Keaton’s silent comedy about a man who will inherit a forturne if he can get married by the evening.

The Seven Samurai

Kurosawa’s film about 7 men who are hired to defend a village against bandits

The Seventh Seal

Ingmar Bergman’s film about a knight returning from the Crusades who challenges Death to a game of chess while he tries to cope with his fate

Sex, lies, and videotape

A young man gets people to confess about their love lives to his camera and upsets the rest of their lives

Shadow of a Doubt

Hitchcock’s film about a family happy to have a visit from their lovable Uncle Charlie, not knowing that he’s a serial killer.  With Joseph Cotten

Shakespeare in Love

A comic take on how Shakespeare might have been inspired to write Romeo and Juliet

Shane

A gunslinger tries to put his past behind him but finds it difficult.

The Shining

Kubrick’s version of the Stephen King novel about a haunted hotel, a clairvoyant boy, and a father with monumental writer’s block.

The Shootist

John Wayne’s last film, about an aging gunfighter who comes to the aid of a widow and her son.

Singin' in the Rain

Musical set in Hollywood just when sound is coming to the movies.  With Gene Kelly, Debby Reynolds and Donald O’Connor

The Sixth Sense

A child psychiatrist goes to the aid of a young boy who sees dead people

Slaughterhouse Five

Kurt Vonnegut’s semi-autobiographical story of a man who survives the firebombing of Dresden, comes unstuck in time, and meets aliens

Sleepy Hollow

Tim Burton’s take on Washington Irving’s story about the Headless Horseman, with Johnny Depp

Smoke Signals

Two young Native Americans leave the reservation to bury the father of one when he dies

The Spirit of the Beehive

Two young girls in Franco’s Spain see the movie Frankenstein and one goes to look for the monster

Star Wars: A New Hope

First of the Lucas epics but 4^th in time

Strangers on a Train

Hitchcock’s film about a tennis player who meets a stranger on a train with an offer to kill the player’s wife if he’ll kill the stranger’s father

A Streetcar Named Desire

Film of Tennessee Williams’ play, with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh

Sullivan’s Travels

A film director hits to road to discover the “real” America and winds up on a chain gang.  Inspired O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Sunset Boulevard

Billy Wilder’s cynical look at Hollywood as an out-of-luck writer winds up tending to an aging silent movie star. 

Suspicion

Hitchcock’s film about a woman who suspects that her husband may be trying to kill her.  With Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant.

A Tale of Two Cities

Dickens’ novel about look-alikes and the French Revolution

A Taste of Cherry

One of the new wave of Iranian films that reveal a changing culture—a man looks for someone to help him commit suicide

The Thing

Scientists and soldiers in the Arctic discover a spacecraft and something that wants to get them

The Third Man

Joseph Cotton comes to post-war Vienna to work with a friend of his, only to discover that the friend has been killed.  With Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles.

Three Kings

Three US soldiers in the first Gulf War go after hidden treasure but find more than they bargained for.  With George Clooney

The Time Machine

Version of HG Wells’ story with special effects by George Pal

To Catch a Thief

Hitchcock has Cary Grant as a retired cat burglar trying to find the culprit in a new string of robberies.  With Grace Kelly

To kill a mockingbird

Gregory Peck as a southern lawyer trying to defend a black man from a rape charge, as seen through his daughter’s eyes

Touch of Evil

Orson Welles pits a corrupt sheriff against an idealistic Mexican attorney and a family of gangsters.  With Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Humphrey Bogart joins two other prospectors to look for gold in Mexico and face bandits and greed.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

An Irish immigrant family struggles to make ends meet in Brooklyn while the young girl dreams of becoming a writer

Trouble in Paradise

Two thieves fall in love but wonder if they can trust each other

The Trouble with Harry (1955)

Hitchcock’s comedy about a body in a small New England town that just won’t stay put

Vertigo (1958)

Hitchcock’s film about a retired police detective with a fear of heights who becomes obsessed with the woman he’s hired to follow

Wild Strawberries (Sweden, 1957)

Ingmar Bergman’s film about a doctor who comes to terms with his past and his life as he’s about to receive an award

Witness (1985)

An Amish boy witnesses a murder and must flee to the Amish countryside with his mother and a police detective.  With Harrison Ford.

Working Girl

Melanie Griffith as a secretary who has more business smarts than her boss.  With Sigourney Weaver and Harrison Ford.

The Wrong Man (1956)

This Hitchcock story of man accused of a crime he did not commit is a true one this time.  With Henry Fonda.

Yojimbo

Kurosawa’s film about an unemployed samurai who comes to a town torn by two rival clans who both try to hire him

Zero for Conduct

Mayhem and rebellion in a French boarding school