FILM SERIES

The Bicycle Thief (1948)

Tuesday, March 30 | 6 p.m.

In 1952, a poll by Sight & Sound of filmmakers and critics was taken. From that survey, the Italian neorealistic film, The Bicycle Thief, was deemed the greatest film of all-time. The British Film Institute in 2005 ranked The Bicycle Thief as one of the top 10 films “you should see by the age of 14.”

The movie tells the story of a poor, unemployed man searching the streets of Rome for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to be able to work. The picture is also in the Vatican’s Best Films List for portraying humanistic values. Roger Ebert wrote, “It is a simple, powerful film about a man who needs a job … A man loves his family and wants to protect and support them. Society makes it difficult. Who cannot identify with that?” The film earned a special Academy Award in 1949, seven years before the Foreign Language Film was created.

Arthur Miller called the movie, “a lyrical masterpiece … writing, "The Bicycle Thief is Everyman's search for dignity - it is as though the soul of a man had been filmed."

Joyeux Noel (2006)

Tuesday, April 13 | 6 p.m.

On Christmas Eve of 1914 a remarkable event took place in the trenches, on the frontlines of World War I, where the Germans faced the British and the French. There was a spontaneous cease-fire as troops from the three sides laid down their weapons and observed the birth of Christ.

The irony of this gesture is made clear in the opening scenes of “Joyeux Noel”, in which schoolchildren of the three nations sing with angelic fervor about the necessity of wiping the enemy from the face of the earth.

Oscar and Golden Globe Nominee … Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Tuesday, May 4 | 6 p.m.

Dr. Strangelove was deemed “culturally significant” by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The American Film Institute listed Dr. Strangelove at number three on the AFI’s all-time best comedy list, AFI’s 100 Years … 100 Laughs.

The movie, directed by Stanley Kubrick, stars Peter Sellers in multiple roles, George C. Scott and Slim Pickens and satirizes the nuclear war threat during the Cold War. Film critic Roger Ebert said the movie is “arguably the best political satire of the century." The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Beyond Belief (2006)

Tuesday, May 18 | 6 p.m.

Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer moms living in the affluent suburbs of Boston until tragedy strikes. Rather than turning inwards, grief compels these women to focus on the country where the terrorists who took their husbands' lives were trained: Afghanistan. Over the course of two years, as they cope with loss and struggle to raise their families as single mothers, these extraordinary women dedicate themselves to empowering Afghan widows whose lives have been ravaged by decades of war, poverty and oppression - factors they consider to be the root causes of terrorism.

As Susan and Patti make the courageous journey from their comfortable neighborhoods to the most desperate Afghan villages, they discover a powerful bond with each other, an unlikely kinship with widows halfway around the world, and a profound way to move beyond tragedy. From the ruins of the World Trade Center to those of Kabul and back, theirs is a journey of personal strength and international reconciliation, and a testament to the vision that peace can be forged... one woman at a time.

“A moving and beautiful film …” – Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner … “Heart-wrenching scenes of the pair expressing still-jagged emotions at fund-raisers and press conferences alternate with shots of their sweet if destitute Afghan counterparts hiding from the Taliban. The shared griefs are the same; the posttraumatic realities couldn't be more different.” – New York magazine … “Shared widowhood shatters class and cultural barriers,” – Variety … Official Selection 2007 Tribeca Film Festival

The Hurt Locker (2008)

Tuesday, June 1 | 6 p.m.

Listed on over 260 Top Ten Lists for the best movies of 2008, The Hurt Locker has earned numerous “Best Picture” awards from the National Society of Film Critics and the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics. The film follows a U.S. Army Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team during the Iraq War as the team contends with defusing bombs, the threat of insurgency and the tension that develops among them.

The story is based on accounts by a journalist who was embedded with an American bomb squad during the Iraq War. The New York Times said that the director, “practicing a kind of hyperbolic realism, distills the psychological essence and moral complications of modern warfare into a series of brilliant, agonizing set pieces."

“A near-perfect movie” – Time Magazine

“A Full-Tilt Action Picture” – Los Angeles Times

“Ferociously Suspenseful” – The New York Times