3 Nov - Tuesday - 7 PM

Imaginary Witness:  Hollywood and the Holocaust [Documentary]

(2004 -- 1 hr. 43 min. -- d Daniel Anker)

An audience favorite at more than 50 film festivals around the world, and the centerpiece of dozens of panels and conferences at theaters, universities, and museums from Warsaw to Washington, DC, IMAGINARY WITNESS tells a provocative and mostly unknown story of the 60-year relationship between Hollywood and the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

With scenes from over forty films, rare newsreels, and interviews with leading scholars, filmmakers, and witnesses to the events portrayed, IMAGINARY WITNESS takes the viewer on a 60-year journey from the American ambivalence and denial during the heyday of Nazism, through the silence of the post-war years, and into the end of the 20th century. The film explores not only the question of how an industry that sells fantasy has dealt with one of the most horrifying episodes in modern world history, but also how the movies themselves reflect America's ever-evolving relationship to the events of that era.

At the core of the film is an ethical and moral debate about portrayal. Is it even possible to imagine on screen the unimaginable? Should the movie industry even undertake such an endeavor? Ultimately, the film asks hard questions: about the uneasy relationship between American popular culture and the Holocaust, about the responsibility of filmmakers in their portrayal of history, and about the power of film to affect the way we look at ourselves.

(ankerproductions.com)

4 Nov - Wednesday - 3:30 PM

Taking Sides

(2001 -- 1 hr. 45 min. -- play w Ronald Harwood  d István Szabó)

Based on the life of Wilhelm Furtwangler, the controversial conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic whose tenure coincided with the controversial Nazi era. One of the most spectacular and renowned conductors of the 1930s, Furtwangler's reputation rivaled that of Toscanini's. After the war, he was investigated as part of the Allies' de-Nazification programme. In the bombed-out Berlin of the immediate post-war period, the Allies slowly bring law and order--and justice--to bear on an occupied Germany. An American major is given the Furtwangler file, and is told to find everything he can and to prosecute the man ruthlessly. Tough and hard-nosed, Major Steve Arnold sets out to investigate a world of which he knows nothing. Orchestra members vouch for Furtwangler's morality--he did what he could to protect Jewish players from his orchestra. To the Germans, deeply respectful of their musical heritage, Furtwangler is a demigod; however, to Major Arnold, he is just a lying, weak-willed Nazi.

(movies.yahoo.com)

4 Nov - Wednesday - 7 PM
“MANY VIEWS OF FRANCE” SERIES

No Fear, No Die

(1992 -- 1 hr. 32 min. -- w Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau  d Claire Denis)

The story of two black men who are involved in illegal cock fighting.

(movies.yahoo.com)

5 Nov - Thursday - 3:30 PM

Streetcar Named Desire

(1951 -- 2 hr. 2 min. -- play Tennessee Williams  w Oscar Saul, Tennessee Williams  d Elia Kazan)

Set in the French Quarter of post WWII New Orleans, desperate and neurotic Blanche DuBois searches for someplace and someone to call her own when she is forced out of her hometown after trying to seduce a teenage boy whom she was teaching. What she finds is a wild town filled with characters more desperate than herself -- namley the brutish Stanley who is in love with Blanche's sister Stella and deeply mistrusts Blanche and her shadowy past.

(movies.yahoo.com)

5 Nov -- Thursday -- 7 PM
Thursday Nights at the Cinematheque / Jean-Luc Godard and the French New Wave

Masculin feminine, 15 faits prÉcis
(Masculine Feminine: 15 Precise Facts)

(1966 -- 1 hr. 43 min. -- w d Jean-Luc Godard)

A love affair between a young Parisian radical and a ye-ye singer.

(movies.yahoo.com)

9 Nov -- Monday -- 7 PM
Germany and the Wall - Two-part series on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

When the Wall Came Tumbling Down – 50 Hours that Changed the World [Als die Mauer fiel]

(1999, Germany -- 1 hr. 29 min. -- dir. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Gunther Scholz)

Documentary. The swift collapse of the Communist regime in November 1989 is captured through archival footage and interviews with key German and international witnesses.

10 Nov - Tuesday - 7 PM

8 ½

(1963 -- 2 hr. 20 min. -- story  Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano  w Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Federico Fellini, Brunello Rondi  d Federico Fellini)

A film director, suffering from a lack of creative inspiration, retreats into a world of fantasies and remembrances of the women in his past and present.

(movies.yahoo.com)

12 Nov - Thursday - 3:30 PM

From Here to Eternity

(1953 -- 1 hr. 58 min. -- novel James Jones  w Daniel Taradash  d Fred Zinnemann)

The epic tale of pre WWII enlisted men, their women and the grim destiny that overtook them all. Robert E Lee Prewitt arrives at his barracks in Pearl Harbor. His new commander promises that if he boxes on the company team he will be given the job of bugler, which he very much wants. But he refuses, haunted by previous ugly experiences in the ring. In revenge for this obstinacy, he is given all the dirty jobs. Meanwhile, the officer who assigns these tasks is having a secret affair with the wife of the company commander.

(movies.yahoo.com)

12 Nov -- Thursday -- 7 PM
Thursday Nights at the Cinematheque / Jean-Luc Godard and the French New Wave

Made in U.S.A.

(1966 -- 1 hr. 30 min. -- w d Jean-Luc Godard)

Unconventional narrative follows a young woman as she delves deeper and deeper into the mystery surrounding her lover's murder. The story is broken up by unrelated political and pop art images.

(movies.yahoo.com)

16 Nov -- Monday -- 7 PM
Germany and the Wall - Two-part series on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

The Promise
[Das Versprechen]

(1995, Germany/France/Switzerlnad -- 1 hr. 55 min. -- dir. Margarethe von Trotta) 

Two young lovers are separated by the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Their parallel stories in the East and West dramatically mirror 30 years of tumultuous German history.

17 Nov -- Tuesday -- 7 PM
Studio Screening

BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS

(Not yet released -- stars Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, and Val Kilmer -- 2 hr. 1 min. -- dir. Werner Herzog) 

A rogue detective is as devoted to his job as he is at scoring drugs -- while playing fast and loose with the law. He wields his badge as often as he wields his gun in order to get his way. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina he becomes a high-functioning addict who is a deeply intuitive, fearless detective reigning over the beautiful ruins of New Orleans with authority and abandon. Complicating his tumultuous life is the prostitute he loves. Together they descend into their own world marked by desire, compulsion, and conscience.

(movies.yahoo.com)

There is a class assigned to this screening. Seating is limited.

18 Nov - Wednesday - 3:30 PM
“MANY VIEWS OF FRANCE” SERIES

Jean de Florette

(1986 -- 2 hr. 2 min. -- novel Marcel Pagnol  w Claude Berri, Gérard Brach  d Claude Berri)

The first of two parts of the classic Marcel Pagnol story set in southeast France in the mid 1920s. In a small provencal village, where water is scarce and the earth dry, only one piece of property possesses an underground spring to irrigate the soil--and the wily, greedy César (Yves Montand) will do anything to get hold of it. His dreams seem on the verge of coming true when the owner (with a little help from César) dies unexpectedly. But then Jean Cadoret (Gerard Depardieu), an outsider who inherits the farm, arrives with the intention of settling down and cultivating the land with his good-hearted wife Aimee (played by Depardieu's real wife, Elisabeth Depardieu) and young daughter Manon (Ernestine Mazurowna). Jean, a hunchback and sensitive dreamer, glories in his new life while César and his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) secretly decide to stop up the spring so his plans will fail. The good-hearted Jean, too naive to imagine that anyone would sabotage him, struggles fruitlessly to make his garden bloom. His continual failure erodes his spirit, setting the stage for a tragedy with consequences for all. Director Claude Berri focuses a well-trained eye on the heart-stopping scenery of the rural provencal landscape in this beautifully filmed tragedy, establishing a farmer's reverence for his land and native soil. Gerard Depardieu delivers an unforgettable performance as the failed dreamer. Followed by Berri's MANON DES SOURCES (MANON OF THE SPRING).

(movies.yahoo.com)

18 Nov - Wednesday - 7 PM

Runaway Train

(1985 -- 1 hr. 51 min. -- story Akira Kurosawa  w Djordje Milicevic, Paul Zindel, Edward Bunke d  Andrei Konchalovsky)

Two escaped convicts inadvertantly jump aboard a freight train that they discover is barreling out of control, without an engineer.

(movies.yahoo.com)

19 Nov - Thursday - 3:30 PM

Gosford Park

(2001 -- 2 hr. 17 min. -- story Robert Altman, Bob Balaban  w Julian Fellowes  d Robert Altman)

It is November 1932. Gosford Park is the magnificent country estate to which Sir William McCordle and his wife, Lady Sylvia, gather relations and friends for a weekend shooting party. They have invited an eclectic group including a countess, a World War I hero, the British matinee idol Ivor Novello and an American film producer who makes Charlie Chan movies. As the guests assemble in the gilded drawing rooms above, their personal maids and valets swell the ranks of the house servants in the teeming kitchens and corridors below-stairs. But all is not as it seems: neither amongst the bejeweled guests lunching and dining at their enormous leisure, nor in the attic bedrooms and stark work stations where the servants labor for the comfort of their employers. In this luxurious setting, we're made witness to a series of events which bridge generations, class, sex, tragic personal history--and culminate in a murder... (or is it two murders?).

(movies.yahoo.com)

19 Nov -- Thursday -- 7 PM
Thursday Nights at the Cinematheque / Jean-Luc Godard and the French New Wave

2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle
(Two or Three Things I Know About Her)

(1966 -- 1 hr. 35 min. -- w d Jean-Luc Godard)

The story of a housewife who must work the streets to earn an extra living--and who becomes the starting point for a larger socio-political essay.

(movies.yahoo.com)

20 Nov - Friday - 7 PM
“REEL DILEMMAS” SERIES [Films from the 1950s]

RashÔmon

(1950 -- 1 hr. 28 min. -- story Ryunosuke Akutagawa  w Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto  d Akira Kurosawa)

(movies.yahoo.com)

23 Nov - Monday - 7 PM

The Mentalist

(Screen the season finale then a Q&A with Chris Long [Exec Producer/Director], Chris Cibelli [Editor and CSUN Alumni] and Bruno Heller [if available/series creator])

A man, once a fake TV psychic until a personal tragedy, has an uncanny ability to read people. He now uses his powers of observation to help the police solve crimes.

(http://www.film.com/tv/the-mentalist/23455523)

California detective Patrick Jane is notorious for his flamboyant personal style, not to mention his former career as a phony psychic, but what can you say? The guy has a remarkable track record for solving major crimes through uncanny powers of observation. That doesn't mean California Bureau of Investigation Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon, along with her staff, has to be thrilled to have such a loose cannon as a key member of her team.

(http://tv.msn.com/tv/series/the-mentalist.2/)

24 Nov - Tuesday - 7 PM

49th Parallel

(1941 -- 1 hr. 44 min. -- w d Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell)  

A taut, suspenseful World War II drama about Nazi servicemen trying to reach neutral American land after their U-boat is sunk in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. Academy Award Nominations: 3, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay. Academy Awards: Best Original Story.

(movies.yahoo.com)

25 Nov - Wednesday - 3:30 PM
“MANY VIEWS OF FRANCE” SERIES

Manon des sources
[Manon of the Spring]

(1986 -- 3 hr. 10 min. -- novel Marcel Pagnol  w Claude Berri, Gérard Brach  d Claude Berri)

A wild girl who lives in the hills, takes revenge on the villages who live down below, particularly two men who indirectly caused her father's death.

(movies.yahoo.com)

25 Nov - Wednesday - 7 PM

The Formula

(1980 -- 1 hr. 57 min. -- w Steve Shagan  d John G. Avildsen)

Director John G. Avildsen's mystery thriller, adapted by Steve Shagan from his best-selling novel, stars George C. Scott as police officer Barney Caine, who uncovers a mysterious secret while investigating the murder of a friend. During World War II, a German general had in his possession a valuable formula for synthetic fuel. He was kidnapped by U.S. major Robin Clarke, who stole the secret. Decades later, Clarke is murdered, and the documents that contain the formula disappear once again. Caine sets out to solve the murder and find the missing papers. During his investigation, Caine discovers that his buddy engaged in numerous underhanded activities and that the people he questions develop a strange habit of dying violently. In his struggles to unearth the truth, Caine comes face-to-face with powerful oil magnate Adam Steiffel (Marlon Brando), who will stop at nothing to keep the top-secret formula hidden. A daring suspense film, THE FORMULA highlights the charismatic acting of Scott and Brando.

(movies.yahoo.com)