Bruce Goldstein in Person! The fabulous Nicholas Brothers, Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold (1921–2000), are among the greatest dancers of the 20th century. Despite racial hurdles, the self-taught African American entertainers became one of the biggest musical acts of their time, headlining on Broadway, radio, and television, and in vaudeville and nightclubs. Their dazzling, show-stopping numbers in movies like Down Argentine Way, Sun Valley Serenade, and Stormy Weather made them international icons. Known for effortless balletic moves, elegant tap dancing, perfect rhythms, and jaw-dropping leaps, flips, and splits — along with a consummate grace and sly sense of humor — the Olympian brothers are in the end impossible to categorize. The dancer’s dancers, their fans have included Gene Kelly, Bob Fosse, Gregory Hines, George Balanchine, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Michael Jackson, and Fred Astaire, who called their Stormy Weather “staircase” number the greatest musical sequence of all time. This special tribute will be presented by Film Forum’s Repertory Program Director Bruce Goldstein, a friend of the brothers and writer and co-producer of a 1991 documentary on the team.

(Přežít svůj život, Jan Švankmajer, Czech Republic/Slovakia 2010, 109 min., Czech w/subtitles)

Švankmajer. Švankmajer’s first feature after the death of his wife and collaborator Eva Svankmajerova is a sweet, somewhat autobiographical tale of a man who enters psychoanalysis after falling in love with a woman who appears only in his dreams. Švankmajer uses a combination of live action and photographic collage to explore the smitten dreamer’s quirky subconscious.

(Procès de Jeanne d’Arc, France 1962, 65 min., French w/subtitles)

Bresson. Returning to the trial transcripts, Bresson fashions an unvarnished account of Joan of Arc’s last days that emphasizes her spiritual certainty and physical deprivation. Stripped of all spectacle and heroism, Florence Delay’s Joan offers a fittingly simple interpretation: the martyr as, above all, a teenage girl. Rarely seen in the United States, Bresson’s take on the Joan legend makes for a fascinating comparison with Dreyer’s better known version.

(Robert Bresson, France 1959, 75 min., French w/subtitles)

Bresson. Both an exploration of criminality and a plea for redemption, Pickpocket follows the young Michel as he’s initiated into the Parisian underworld of petty theft. As Michel’s acts grow more brazen, Jeanne, the neighbor of his mother, looms in the background as an angel in the flesh. There’s no crime movie more fascinated by the immediate and technical details of stealing and less concerned with its rewards.

(Terence Young, UK 1962, 109 min.)

50th Anniversary! “Bond… James Bond.” Hard to believe, but it’s been 50 years, 22 films, and 5 Bonds since those immortal lines were first spoken. Sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of a colleague, secret agent James Bond (Sean Connery) meets the bikini-clad Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) and runs afoul of the titular supervillain, hellbent on sabotaging a space launch from his island fortress. Enormously influential — it kicked off the spy craze of the 1960s, set the template for the contemporary action film, and introduced a new frankness regarding sex and violence — the first entry in the Bond franchise remains one of the best.

(John Cromwell, US 1947, 100 min.)

Essential Film Noir. In Person! Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards. Overlooked among Bogart’s many noirs, this film tempts him with the wiles of Lizabeth Scott as he attempts to solve the disappearance of the man he thought he knew. Followed by a live taping of the podcast Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir with special guests Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards.

Shannon Clute earned his PhD in Romance Studies from Cornell University. He has taught French literature, French and Italian language, great books, and the history of mystery fiction and film noir. In 2006 he completed his first mystery, a Chandler-esque tale of greed and corruption entitled The Mint Condition, which was selected as one of ten semi-finalists in the Court TV “Next Great Crime Writer” contest. He currently works for Turner Classic Movies in Atlanta.

Richard Edwards earned his PhD in Critical Studies from University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television. He has taught film and digital media production courses at USC, Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary’s College of California, and IUPUI. Currently, he is Lead Instructional Designer at the Integrated Learning Institute at Ball State University.

Clute and Edwards met as junior faculty members at Saint Mary’s College of California. Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir, came out of a shared love of film noir. Their first book, The Maltese Touch of Evil: Film Noir and Potential Criticism, an investigation into film noir that builds on the conversations begun in Out of the Past, was published in December 2011 by the University Press of New England.

(Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut, Robert Bresson, France 1956, 99 min., French w/subtitles)

Bresson. An unceasingly tense thriller, A Man Escaped draws upon French Resistance hero André Devigny’s autobiographical book and Bresson’s own experiences as a POW. Captured and sent to solitary confinement by the Nazis, French Resistance officer Fontaine slowly and methodically plans his escape, his every move marking the difference between life and death. One of Bresson’s most moving and powerful films, A Man Escaped presents a prison break as a superhuman test of faith.

(Week-end, Jean-Luc Godard, France 1967, 105 min., French w/subtitles)

New 35mm Print! A picturesque postcard of provincial France gone homicidally wrong, Godard’s acid vision of a bourgeois apocalypse still packs a sick wallop. Nominally about a typical couple plotting to collect an inheritance (and dismember each other) over the course of a weekend, their plans are interrupted by roadside cannibals, automotive orgies, and a mounting sense of regret.

(Week-end, Jean-Luc Godard, France 1967, 105 min., French w/subtitles)

New 35mm Print! A picturesque postcard of provincial France gone homicidally wrong, Godard’s acid vision of a bourgeois apocalypse still packs a sick wallop. Nominally about a typical couple plotting to collect an inheritance (and dismember each other) over the course of a weekend, their plans are interrupted by roadside cannibals, automotive orgies, and a mounting sense of regret.