(George Cukor, US 1949, 100 min., 35mm)
This sophisticated screwball pits unbending DA Spencer Tracy against his talented lawyer/wife Katharine Hepburn in an attempted murder case involving Judy Holliday as a jealous lover with a knack for mishandling handguns. Adam’s Rib is generally regarded as the best of the Hepburn-Tracy collaborations, as well as perhaps the quintessential “Battle of the Sexes” comedy.
(NEBO ZOVYOT, Soviet Union/Russia, 1959, 80 min., Russian with subtitles, 35mm)
The interstellar tale of an aborted Mars expedition (the cosmonauts crash-land on a nearby asteroid instead) features spectacular spacescapes and a prescient visualization of the Earth’s orbit cluttered by manmade satellites. Roger Corman and Francis Ford Coppola later helped themselves to the film’s footage for their 1963 opus Battle Beyond the Sun.
(Alfred Hitchcock, US 1958, 129 min., 35mm)
Hitchcock’s deeply personal study of creator and creation stars James Stewart as Scotty, a retired police detective hired to follow a mysterious femme fatale (Kim Novak). Complex and heartbreaking, Vertigo never fails to astound with its glamorous sophistication, deep poignancy, and multiple layers of meaning. Not just a great movie, it’s one of the 20th century’s most significant works of art.
Click here to read more about Slavoj Zizek and The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema series.
(Sophie Fiennes, UK 2006, 150 min., Digital Projection)
Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek delivers a passionate, funny, and extremely provocative three-part lecture on his favorite topic: the movies. Utilizing clips of everything from the psycho-sexual nightmare worlds of David Lynch to early Joan Crawford melodramas to Tarkovsky’s Soviet sci-fi epics to Walt Disney cartoons, Zvizvek delves into the hidden language of cinema uncovering what movies can tell us about ourselves. If you love cinema, don’t miss it!
Click here to read more about Slavoj Zizek and The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema series.
(Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979, 163 min., Russian with subtitles, 35mm)
In an apocalyptic wasteland of the future, stories spread of a mysterious Zone containing a room that grants wishes. The “Stalker” will take travelers there for a fee, past military checkpoints and other more mysterious dangers. Soviet cinema giant Tarkovsky’s (Solaris) most accessible and influential masterpiece is a tense and incredibly moody epic vision.
Click here to read more about Russian Fantastik Cinema.
Click here to read more about Slavoj Zizek and The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema series.
