Evil leaders, enslaved citizens, the orgiastic super-rich, and messiah robots populate Lang’s dystopian classic. Now over ninety years old, and still one of the most essential, influential science fiction films of all time.
A proud hotel doorman falls from grace in Murnau’s classic of German Expressionism, whose roving camerawork and hallucinatory imagery “changed the way that movies were made” (Dave Kehr).
Murnau’s version of the Faust legend is a masterwork of chiaroscuro lighting, and helped redefine what black-and-white cinematography could accomplish. Emil Jannings stars as a subtly mischievous Mephistopheles.
Lang’s extravagant globetrotting serial moves from San Francisco’s Chinatown to Peru and Asia as an adventurer battles the worldwide criminal gang known as The Spiders, led by femme fatale Lio Shia.
Lang’s version of Madame Butterfly changes the title character from geisha to noblewoman, and was one of the first European films to depict Japanese culture. “Refreshingly stereotype-free, the film demonstrates that silent film can rival opera in emotional impact” (Tom Vick).
A rabbi in medieval Prague conjures a monster to protect his people from destruction in this visually astounding retelling of the Golem myth, shot by gifted cinematographer Karl Freund (The Last Laugh; Metropolis).
Lil Dagover stars as a woman who tries to save her lover from “the weary Death” in this Expressionist fantasy said to have influenced both Douglas Fairbanks and Alfred Hitchcock.
Still among the most unnerving and poetic of horror films, investing the natural world with eerie incandescence. Max Schreck’s vampire is unforgettable—a living death, a walking ruin.
This film is also screening on Wednesday, February 13, 3:10 PM as part of our series In Focus: Writing for Cinema featuring speakers David Thomson and Michael Ondaatje.
Sunday, January 20 2 PM
A precursor to American noir, Lang’s masterpiece is a terrifying excursion into an urban underworld where there are few moral distinctions between organized crime and organized law enforcement. With Peter Lorre in his definitive performance.
Evil leaders, enslaved citizens, the orgiastic super-rich, and messiah robots populate Lang’s dystopian classic. Now over ninety years old, and still one of the most essential, influential science fiction films of all time.
Lang’s two-part superproduction of the thirteenth-century saga that also inspired Wagner’s Ring cycle is a triumph of studio artifice. “Stunning . . . very highly recommended” (Chicago Reader).
This film is also screening on Wednesday, February 13, 3:10 PM as part of our series In Focus: Writing for Cinema featuring speakers David Thomson and Michael Ondaatje.
Friday, February 8 8 PM
A precursor to American noir, Lang’s masterpiece is a terrifying excursion into an urban underworld where there are few moral distinctions between organized crime and organized law enforcement. With Peter Lorre in his definitive performance.
The head of an international bank doubles as a criminal mastermind in Lang’s compelling thriller. “Granddaddy of decades of intrigue epics, Spies, in its rigorous austerity, remains the most modern of the bunch” (Village Voice).
Lang’s final silent film takes viewers to the moon and back in a fantastical exploration of space travel. Abstract animation pioneer Oskar Fischinger helped create the special effects.
A vicious portrait of post-WWI social breakdown (in fabulous art deco settings). A fiendish mastermind gifted with sinister hypnotic powers, “Mabuse is history’s secret agent” (J. Hoberman).
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