(Orson Welles, US 1947, 87 min.)

This quintessential piece of film noir stars a blonde Rita Hayworth as one of the movies’ great femmes fatales opposite producer, director, and screenwriter (and second husband) Orson Welles. His cinematic genius is evident in this thrilling story involving lust, betrayal, and murder, particularly in the startling, climactic hall of mirrors sequence.

(SURIYOTHAI, Chatri Chalerm Yukol, Thailand 2001, 142 min., Thai/subtitles)

Director Yukol’s impressive spectacle with astounding set pieces outlines the political intrigue that threatened to paralyze the 16th-century Ayutthayan dynasty as the Burmese began to invade. Focusing on Queen Suriyothai, a shrewd adviser to her husband who made the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield, this epic was originally produced as a TV miniseries. This theatrical version has been edited by executive producer Francis Ford Coppola, and was funded by the reigning Queen of Thailand as a national history lesson.

(Trey Parker, US 1999, 81 min.)

The foul-mouthed animated heroes from cable television’s longest-running cartoon show come to the big screen in an Oscar®-nominated musical that was a hit among critics and audiences. When Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman sneak into a controversial Canadian movie in search of new expletives, they inadvertently set off World War III! One of the funniest movies of the ’90s, highlights include a subplot about the rocky “romance” between Saddam Hussein and Satan, and the always-welcoming presence of the kids’ mentor Chef (voiced by the late Isaac Hayes).

(NE TOUCHEZ PAS LA HACHE, Jacques Rivette, France 2007, 137 min., French/subtitles)

Honoré de Balzac’s novel provides the basis for this lavishly costumed period drama that depicts the frustrated romance between a married duchess (Jeanne Balibar) and a general (the late Guillaume Depardieu in perhaps his finest performance). Director Rivette, a key member of the French nouvelle vague movement, delivers a witty and compelling study of doomed love.

(John Carpenter, US 1981, 99 min.)

then at 9 p.m.

(John Carpenter, US 1996, 101 min.)

Kurt Russell stars as action movie icon Snake Plissken in a pair of fun, futuristic thrillers directed by John Carpenter. First, career criminal Snake is plunged into 1997 Manhattan, which has been turned into a maximum-security prison for the country’s worst criminals. His mission: rescue the US President who’s being held hostage inside by the Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes). Then, Snake’s sequel takes him to the California in 2013, where Los Angeles has also become a penal colony. This time, Snake must look for a valuable destruction device and fight off warring gangs. Two films for one admission price.