2005 Schedule

May 28 Sweet Charity, with Shirley McLaine. After several years as the hottest musical director on Broadway, Bob Fosse made his film directorial debut with this movie version of his Broadway hit, which was based on Fellini's Nights of Cabiria. Shirley MacLaine is terrific as the proverbial hooker with the heart of gold, one who is convinced that she will find the right man if she just turns enough tricks.
June 11 Cool Hand Luke. This 1967 classic features Paul Newman in one of the defining performances of his career. Playing the stubbornly tough and independent title character, Newman cemented his place as a beautiful-rebel screen icon.
June 25 The Graduate. Few films have defined a generation as The Graduate did. The alienation, the nonconformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack--they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time.
July 9 Breaking Away. Peter Yates's 1979 flag-waving film stands with To Kill a Mockingbird and American Graffiti as one of the best films about small-town Americana. Steve Tesich won an Oscar for his semi-biographical screenplay about four 19-year-olds who don't know what to do after high school. Starring Dennis Christopher and Dennis Quaid, Breaking Away rehabilitates the word heartwarming as Tesich's uncommonly intelligent script gives us well-rounded characters and a potent sense of place.
July 30 Million Dollar Baby . One of the most acclaimed films of 2004, Clint Eastwood's 25th film as a director stands proudly with Unforgiven and Mystic River as the masterwork of a great American filmmaker. This simple, humanitarian example of classical filmmaking features Hilary Swank in an Oscar-winning performance, Eastwood, and Morgan Freeman,
August 13 Fargo. The Coen brothers' (Joel directs, Ethan produces, they both write) fiendishly clever kidnap caper is simultaneously a comedy of errors, a Midwestern satire, a taut suspense thriller, and a violent tale of criminal misfortune. William H. Macy, playing a hapless car salesman, is hunted down by the pregnant sheriff, played by Frances McDormand in an Oscar-winning performance. At times shocking and hilarious, this 1996 hit is utterly unique and distinctly American, bearing the unmistakable stamp of its inspired creators.
August 27 Dr. Strangelove. Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick's 1964 cold-war classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove is a perfect spoof of political and military insanity, beginning when General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) mounts his singular campaign against Communism by ordering a squadron of B-52 bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The cast includes Peter Sellers (playing several roles) and George C. Scott
September 10 Amadeus. Winner of 8 Oscars in 1984 (incluing best picture) Amadeus depicts the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II--official royal composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), and the younger but superior prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). Amadeus creates peculiar and delightful contrasts between the impeccably re-created details of its lavish period setting and the jarring (but humorously refreshing and unstuffy) modern tone of its dialogue and performances.
September 24 Rain Man (Viewers' Choice). Rain Man is the kind of touching drama that Oscars are made for--and, sure enough, the film took Academy honors for best picture, director, screenplay, and actor (Dustin Hoffman) in 1988. Hoffman plays Raymond, an autistic savant whose late father has left him $3 million in a trust. This gets the attention of his materialistic younger brother, a hot-shot LA car dealer named Charlie (Tom Cruise) who wasn't even aware of Raymond's existence until he read his estranged father's will.

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