Coolidge Corner Theatre Launches New Season of Big Screen Classics

The Coolidge Corner Theatre ('the Coolidge') has announced the early lineup for its Winter / Early Spring 2023 Big Screen Classics series.

The series kicks off on Monday, January 9 with a screening of Martin McDonagh's critically acclaimed black comedy In Bruges, featuring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. By popular demand, the Coolidge will present a special President's Day screening of Kathyrn Bigelow's high-adrenaline masterpiece Point Break, and in March we'll return to Middle Earth for a 12-hour marathon screening of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which was recently named the Greatest Film of All Time in the 2022 Sight & Sound International Film Critics' poll, will play on Monday, January 30, and new restoration of Bertolucci's The Conformist will screen on Monday, February 27.

A full schedule for January - April 2023 is listed below; additional titles will be announced in early 2023.

"In addition to representing some of the best and most innovative films of the past century, these titles are all going to look fantastic on our big screen," commented Director of Special Programming Mark Anastasio. "We're excited to revisit some old favorites and introduce audiences to masterworks that they may be encountering for the very first time."

The Coolidge's screens are accessible by elevators. All are also equipped with a variety of options for patrons that are hard of hearing, deaf, blind, and/or visually impaired. For questions about accessibility or to request any special accommodations, please email info@coolidge.org.

All screenings take place at 7pm unless otherwise indicated; for tickets and showtimes, please visit coolidge.org. The Coolidge Corner Theatre is located at 290 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $16.25 general admission and $13.25 for Coolidge members.

The nonprofit Coolidge Corner Theatre is a premier American independent cinema renowned for its curated feature film programming and innovative signature educational, cultural, and entertainment programs. A beloved movie house, the Coolidge welcomes over 225,000 patrons per year and has been pleasing audiences with the best in cinematic entertainment since 1933.

In addition to showcasing the best in contemporary independent cinema, the Coolidge has developed a wide range of programing to reach all sectors of the community, including: Big Screen Classics, After Midnite, Senior Matinees, Talk Cinema, Science on Screen, Cinema Jukebox, PANORAMA, The Sounds of Silents, Kids' Shows, Rewind!, Box Office Babies, and adult education film classes. The Coolidge hosts several prominent film festivals and has welcomed film luminaries such as Meryl Streep, Werner Herzog, Jane Fonda, Liv Ullmann, Ethan Hawke, Viggo Mortensen, and more. For more information, visit coolidge.org.

JANUARY - APRIL 2023 BIG SCREEN CLASSICS

All screenings take place at 7pm unless otherwise indicated.

In Bruges (2008)

Monday, January 9

More than a decade before they reunited for The Banshees on Inisherin, Academy Award-winning writer/director Martin McDonagh and actors Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell teamed up for this critically-acclaimed black comedy about two hitmen who are banished to the quaint Belgian city of Bruges by their boss (Ralph Fiennes) after a job in London goes awry.

Runtime: 1h 47m

Format: DCP

Yi Yi (2000)

Thursday, January 19

The extraordinary, internationally embraced Yi Yi (A One and a Two . . .), directed by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang, follows a middle-class family in Taipei over the course of one year, beginning with a wedding and ending with a funeral. Warm, sprawling, and dazzling, this intimate epic is one of the undisputed masterworks of the new century. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 3h 13m

Format: DCP

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

Monday, January 30

Pre-screening Coolidge Education seminar at 6:15pm, taught by UMass Boston Art and Cinema Studies Professor Sarah Keller

Chantal Akerman's 1975 masterpiece was recently named the Greatest Film of All Time by the Sight & Sound international film critics' poll (besting the likes of Vertigo and Citizen Kane). A singular work in cinema history, the film meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged widow-whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her son, and turning the occasional trick. Whether seen as an exacting character study or one of cinema's most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment.

Runtime: 3h 21m

Format: DCP

To Sleep with Anger (1990)

Thursday, February 9

A slow-burning masterwork of the early 1990s, this third feature by Charles Burnett is a singular piece of American mythmaking. In a towering performance, Danny Glover plays the enigmatic southern drifter Harry, a devilish charmer who turns up out of the blue on the South Central Los Angeles doorstep of his old friends. In short order, Harry's presence seems to cast a chaotic spell on what appeared to be a peaceful household, exposing smoldering tensions between parents and children, tradition and change, virtue and temptation. Interweaving evocative strains of gospel and blues with rich, poetic-realist images, To Sleep with Anger is a sublimely stirring film from an autonomous artistic sensibility, a portrait of family resilience steeped in the traditions of African American mysticism and folklore. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 1h 42m

Format: DCP

Before Sunrise (1996)

Tuesday, February 14

After they hit it off on a train bound for Vienna, the Paris university student Celine (Julie Delpy) and the scrappy American tourist Jesse (Ethan Hawke) impulsively decide to spend a day together before he returns to the U.S. the next morning. As the pair roam the streets of the stately city, Richard Linklater's tenderly observant gaze captures the uncertainty and intoxication of young love, from the first awkward stirrings of attraction to the hopeful promise that Celine and Jesse make upon their inevitable parting. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 1h 41m

Format: 35mm

Point Break (1991)

Monday, February 20

Special President's Day screening! FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) goes undercover to infiltrate a cadre of Southern California surfers suspected of robbing banks. But things get complicated when the group's philosophizing leader Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) puts Utah under his charismatic spell. One of the greatest action extravaganzas of the '90s, this no-holds-barred ode to adrenaline from director Kathryn Bigelow also happens to represent one of the greatest on-screen bromances ever committed to film.

Runtime: 2h 2m

Format: 35mm

The Conformist (1970)

Monday, February 27

In Mussolini's Italy, repressed Jean-Louis Trintignant, trying to purge memories of a youthful, homosexual episode-and a murder-joins the Fascists in a desperate attempt to fit in. As the reluctant Judas motors to his personal Gethsemane (the assassination of his leftist mentor), he flashes back to a dance party for the blind; an insane asylum in a stadium; and wife Stefania Sandrelli and lover Dominique Sanda dancing the tango in a working class hall. Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece, adapted from the Alberto Moravia novel, boasts an authentic Art Deco look created by production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti, a score by the great Georges Delerue and breathtaking color cinematography by past Coolidge Award honoree Vittorio Storaro.

Runtime: 1h 51m

Format: DCP

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001 - 2003)

Sunday, March 12 at 11am

Join us for this special marathon screening of Peter Jackson's epic, Academy-Award winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Set in the fictional world of Middle-earth, the trilogy follows the hobbit Frodo Baggins as he and the Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring, to ensure the destruction of its maker, the Dark Lord Sauron. The Lord of the Rings is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential film series ever made. Each film was critically acclaimed, with high praise for their innovative special effects, acting, set design, musical score and emotional depth, and heavily awarded, with the series winning 17 Academy Awards.

General Admission: $33 / Coolidge Members: $30

Runtime: 12h [with intermission between films]

Format: DCP

All About Eve (1950)

Monday, March 13

"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night." In Joseph L. Mankiewicz's devastatingly witty Hollywood classic, backstage is where the real drama plays out. One night, Margo Channing (Bette Davis) entertains a surprise dressing-room visitor: her most adoring fan, the shy, wide-eyed Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). But as Eve becomes a fixture in Margo's life, the Broadway legend soon realizes that her supposed admirer intends to use her and everyone in her circle, including George Sanders's acid-tongued critic, as stepping-stones to stardom. Featuring stiletto-sharp dialogue and direction by Mankiewicz, and an unforgettable Davis in the role that revived her career and came to define it, the multiple-Oscar-winning All About Eve is the most deliciously entertaining film ever made about the ruthlessness of show business. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 2h 18m

Format: DCP

Hoop Dreams (1994)

Thursday, March 23

Two ordinary inner-city Chicago kids dare to reach for the impossible-professional basketball glory-in this epic chronicle of hope and faith. Filmed over a five-year period, Hoop Dreams, by Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert, follows young Arthur Agee and William Gates and their families as the boys navigate the complex, competitive world of scholastic athletics while dealing with the intense pressures of their home lives and neighborhoods. This revelatory film continues to educate and inspire viewers, and it is widely considered one of the great works of American nonfiction cinema. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 2h 50m

Format: DCP

Paris, Texas (1984)

Thursday, March 30

New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire) brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in Paris, Texas, a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard. Paris, Texas follows the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape all its own) as he tries to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing wife (Nastassja Kinski). From this simple setup, Wenders and Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family, as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons and neon. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 2h 27m

Format: DCP

The Red Shoes (1948)

Monday, April 3

The Red Shoes, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is cinema's quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Technicolor feasts ever concocted for the screen. Moira Shearer is a rising star ballerina torn between an idealistic composer and a ruthless impresario intent on perfection. Featuring outstanding performances, blazingly beautiful cinematography by Jack Cardiff, Oscar-winning sets and music, and an unforgettable, hallucinatory central dance sequence, this beloved classic, dazzlingly restored, stands as an enthralling tribute to the life of the artist. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 2h 13m

Format: 35mm

La haine (1995)

Monday, April 17

Mathieu Kassovitz took the film world by storm with La haine, a gritty, unsettling, and visually explosive look at the racial and cultural volatility in modern-day France, specifically the low-income banlieue districts on Paris's outskirts. Aimlessly passing their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui)-a Jew, an African, and an Arab-give human faces to France's immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point. A work of tough beauty, La haine is a landmark of contemporary French cinema and a gripping reflection of its country's ongoing identity crisis. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 1h 37m

Format: 35mm

Eve's Bayou (1997)

Monday, April 24

"The summer I killed my father, I was ten years old . . ." So begins Kasi Lemmons's spellbinding feature debut, an evocative journey into the maze of memory, steeped in fragrant southern-gothic atmosphere. In 1960s Louisiana, a young girl (Jurnee Smollett) sees her well-to-do family unravel in the wake of the infidelities of her charming father (Samuel L. Jackson)-setting in motion a series of deceptions and betrayals that will upend her world and challenge her understanding of reality. Rooted in Creole history, folklore, and mysticism, Eve's Bayou is a scintillating showcase for a powerhouse ensemble of Black actresses-including Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, and the legendary Diahann Carroll as a voodoo priestess-as well as a profoundly cathartic exploration of trauma, forgiveness, and the elusive nature of truth. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 1h 55m

Format: DCP

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