June 5: The Big Sleep – [original archival print]
In one of Bogart’s best roles, he plays tough-talking Phillip Marlowe in this heavily atmospheric rendition of Raymond Chandler’s novel. Don’t try too hard to follow the story, just get swept away by the mood of the film. Watching Bogie and Bacall interact is worth the price of admission. Enjoy the stunning costumes, the crisp cinematography, the snappy script, and the brilliant Max Steiner score. Then stay in your seat for a 20 minute documentary on the restoration work done by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. (Directed by Howard Hawks; USA; 1945; 140 min)

June 12: Vertigo
Full of suspense and intrigue this Hitchcock favorite stars Jimmy Stewart as Scottie Ferguson, a San Francisco detective afraid of heights. He is hired by a friend to trail his beautiful wife (Kim Novak), but when he unexpectedly ends up rescuing her from a suicide attempt, Scottie starts falling in love with her. San Fran never looked better, the score (by the fabulous Bernard Hermann) is stirring, and the sexual tension crackles. (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock; USA; 1958; 128 min)

June: 19: The Third Man
Set in post-war Vienna, a pulp fiction writer (Joseph Cotton) discovers that his old friend (Orson Welles), who he thought dead, may be a powerful, shadowy figure. A spectacular black and white film, it features some of the screen’s most memorable set pieces, including a chase through the city’s elaborate sewers. This is the fully-restored, director’s cut. (Directed by Carol Reed; UK; 1949; 104 min)

June 26: Diabolique
This is the original, not the remake with Sharon Stone. Prior to Hitchcock's Psycho, this French classic was considered one of the scariest (and most artistic) films ever made. Adapted from the novel, Celle qui n'etait plus, the setting is a provincial boys school. The school is run by a dictatorial bully but owned by his gentle wife with a bad heart. If she dies the school will belong to him. A murder takes place and the body is hidden in the school's swimming pool, but when the pool is drained the body is missing! (Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot; France; 1954; 114 min)

June 22-23:
The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice
There are no villains in Ozu movies, but sometimes the characters are foolish, or prideful, or naive, or disrespectful, but he doesn't beat them down. He helps us understand them. Here, a wife grows tired of her husband’s unsophisticated manners. The spoiled, snobbish Taeko escapes on a hot spring getaway with her girlfriends from the rich wives club. In her absence, her husband encourages her young niece to run away from an arranged date. The unpardonable faux pas provokes Taeko to unleash her full fury. Ozu returned to the social satire for this genial, comic examination of how well the traditional folk virtues -- embodied by the unpretentious husband -- stand up in a flashily modernized, bourgeois setting. It’s an unexpectedly dynamic depiction of postwar Tokyo, complete with pachinko parlors and baseball games. (1952; 115min)

June 29-30:
The Only Son
Alternately poignant, comical, and bittersweet, The Only Son is a thoughtful exposition of Ozu's familiar themes of estrangement and acceptance of life's inevitable disappointments. It is a quintessential Ozu drama that revolves around the relationship between a widowed mother and her son, Ryosuke. Encouraged by her son's ambitious elementary school teacher, the mother slaves at a silk manufacturing factory, sacrificing personal and financial comfort and security, in order to support Ryosuke's education so that he can grow up to be a "great man." Thirteen years later, she travels to Tokyo to visit Ryosuke and finds that his once seemingly bright future has become quashed by limited opportunity and personal obligations. (1936; 87min)

Coming in July: Late Spring; Early Summer; Tokyo Story; Equinox Flower