Jacob Burns

“Hitchcock’s ultimate wrong-man comedy.” (Village Voice)

The votes have been tallied for this year's SCREENINGS UNDER THE STARS, and the winner is North by Northwest—a big, gripping thriller featuring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint and filled with scenes that have been seared into moviegoers’ minds: A crop duster “dusting crops where there ain’t no crops.” Giant stone faces on Mt. Rushmore. A train barreling into a tunnel. Screenplay by Ernest Lehman, who set out to write “the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures” and succeeded.

Join us for this FREE outdoor movie event at sundown, in Parkway Field (Marble Ave., Pleasantville, NY). Screening will be preceded by an animated short created by students in our Minds in Motion program.

Presented in partnership with the Village of Pleasantville.

Over the course of one raucous night at a seaside wedding, seven close friends reconvene to watch two of their own tie the knot. Friendships and alliances are tested as a love triangle comes to a head the night before the wedding, when the drunken friends frolic in the nearby surf and return to shore—without the groom. Based on the heralded novel by Galt Niederhoffer, The Romantics is a zeitgeist love story and generational comedy that breathes new life into the genre and recaptures the camaraderie of youth. With an ensemble cast including Katie Holmes, Anna Paquin, Josh Duhamel, Elijah Wood, and many others.

Q&A: producer, novelist, director Galt Niederhoffer will be interviewed by New York Times critic Janet Maslin

PREVIEW SCREENING! In this documentary and an accompanying book, Mary Murphy explores the power, influence, and popularity of To Kill a Mockingbird. With reflections from Anna Quindlen, Tom Brokaw, James McBride, James Patterson, Wally Lamb, Oprah Winfrey and more, Hey Boo chronicles the many ways the novel has shaped lives and careers. Though Harper Lee has not given an interview since 1964, Murphy’s reporting, research and rare interviews with the author’s sister and friends reveal the remarkable story of how the novel came to be, what happened to the author after it was published, and how it has impacted so many.

Q&A: author and director Mary Murphy will be interviewed by New York Times critic Janet Maslin

From emerging filmmakers Ben and Joshua Safdie comes Daddy Longlegs, a hit at last year's Cannes and this year's Sundance Film Festival. The film tells the story of a troubled and sometimes irresponsible single father during a two week custody visit with his two young sons in New York City. Invoking the rough, wild, and loose 1970s style of John Cassavetes and Jerry Schatzberg, "Daddy Longlegs is a risky, heartbreaking exercise in empathy toward a person who may not deserve it." (New York Times)

Q&A: writer/directors Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie

"So an 80-year quest that ranged over three continents seems finally to be over. The cumulative result is a version of Metropolis whose tone and focus have been changed. The balance of the story has been given back." (New York Times)

Finding the original version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis has long been one of the holy grails of cinema. One of the universally acknowledged masterpieces of the silent film canon, it had not been seen in full since its 1927 Berlin premiere, when a great deal of its footage was removed, and, until recently, presumed destroyed. However, a chance discovery by an Argentine film archivist at the Museo del Cine has unearthed the complete version of Lang's vision, and the Jacob Burns Film Center is pleased to announce a weeklong run of the digital restoration, with an opening night of the wonderful Alloy Orchestra to revive one of the great films of the silent era.

LIVE PERFORMANCE Sept. 17, 7:00 pm: The Alloy Orchestra will perform a live musical accompaniment to the restored Metropolis. Alloy has been lauded as "the best in the world at accompanying silent films" by Roger Ebert, and has performed the world over—from the Louvre to Lincoln Center.

LIVE PERFORMANCE Sept. 22, 7:00 pm: Ben Model will perform a live piano accompaniment. Model has been playing scores for silent films at the Burns, the Museum of Modern Art, and other venues since 1984.

Sponsored by the Westchester Community Foundation and made possible through The Rudyard and Emanuella Reimss Fund, which is dedicated to promoting Germanic culture in Westchester County.

It’s San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg (James Franco) to find his true voice as an artist, the obscenity trial that encapsulated society's reaction, and mind-expanding animation that echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. All three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that brilliantly captures a pivotal moment—the birth of a counterculture.

Q&A: writer/directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman will be interviewed by New York Times critic Janet Maslin

One of the great landmarks of cinema, this silent film stars Renée Falconetti in what Pauline Kael said “may be the finest performance ever recorded.” This haunting portrayal of the country girl from Orléans who led the French in their defeat of the British and eventually died for God and country is famous for its intimacy and power.

LIVE PERFORMANCE In the Nursery, a noted two-man musical group composed of Klive and Nigel Humberstone, joins us from London with its hypnotic new score. Blending electronica with a symphonic style, In the Nursery has performed its original soundtracks for silent classics around the world.

Directed by and starring Orson Welles as Falstaff, Chimes at Midnight is a brilliantly inventive reinvention and condensation of two Shakespearean plays. One of Welles’ best works—according to critics and Welles himself—it was never released in the US, is only rarely allowed to be screened, and is unavailable on DVD. We are thrilled to present this screening. After hearing about the film for so long, we can’t wait to see it ourselves!

Q&A Chris Welles with Foster Hirsch
Welles is the author of a new memoir, In My Father’s Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles. She will sign copies after the discussion. Hirsch is professor of film at Brooklyn College and author of many books on theater and film.

In 2007, three years before Arizona passed its infamous new immigration law, Prince William County, Virginia, initiated an ordinance requiring police officers to question anyone they think “looks like” an undocumented immi- grant. 9500 Liberty reveals the ferocious battles fought on both sides of this issue as well as the devastating social and economic impact of the law—which was ultimately overturned—on the lives of real people. An object lesson for Arizona.

Q&A director Eric Byler, followed by a dessert reception upstairs in the Jane Peck Gallery after the conversation.

This event is part of “Latin Links: Celebrating Cultural Connections,” a Neighbors Link series celebrating Latin culture, creativity, and community.

A sensation at the Cannes Film Festival! The director of Summer Hours is back, this time with a gripping 5 1/2-hour portrait of the renowned international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal. He headed a worldwide organization responsible for spectacular killings, hijackings, and bombings in Europe and the Middle East in the ’70s and ’80s before he was snatched from exile in Sudan to answer for his crimes in France. This theatrical presentation, a unique opportunity to see the film on the big screen, is an epic cinematic experience.