Winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize, Elena is a gripping, modern twist on the classic noir thriller. Sixty-ish spouses Vladimir and Elena uneasily share his palatial Moscow apartment—he’s a still-virile, wealthy businessman; she’s his dowdy former nurse who has clearly “married up.”

Estranged from his own wild-child daughter, Vladimir openly despises his wife’s freeloading son and family. But when a sudden illness and an unexpected reunion threaten the dutiful housewife’s potential inheritance, she must hatch a desperate plan.

Masterfully crafted by award-winning Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev (Golden Globe nominee The Return) and featuring evocative, Hitchcockian music by Philip Glass, Elena is a subtly stylish exploration of crime, punishment and human nature.

In May of 2011, Neil Young drove a 1956 Crown Victoria from his idyllic hometown of Omemee, Ontario to downtown Toronto’s iconic Massey Hall where he intimately performed the last two nights of his solo world tour. Along the drive, Young recounted insightful and introspective stories from his youth to filmmaker Jonathan Demme.

Named by Chicago Magazine as the Best New Film Series of 2011, Second Saturday Silent Cinema is now presented on the second Saturday of every month at noon!

All films are shown authentically in 35mm at proper silent film speed and aspect ratio with live accompaniment by Dennis Scott at the Music Box theatre organ.

German filmmaker G.W. Pabst’s late-silent classic Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) stars the hauntingly beautiful Louise Brooks as libertine dancer Lulu. Ever out for the “main chance,” Lulu persuades her wealthy lover Dr. Schön (Fritz Kortner) to marry her. But in a fit of jealous rage, he pulls a gun, a scuffle ensues, and she shoots him.

Eventually escaping to London with the doctor’s moonstruck son Alwa (Francis Lederer), Lulu takes up residence with her “adopted” father Schigolch (Carl Götz), where she is reduced to walking the streets, with tragic consequences. Pandora’s Box (based on two works by the controversial German writer Franz Wedekind) exudes smoky sensuality in every frame; regarded now as a masterpiece, the film received surprisingly scathing reviews, with most of the critical broadsides aimed at Louise Brooks (this was long before Brooks graduated from just another pretty Hollywood starlet to Cult Goddess).

Synopsis from Hal Erickson on allmovie.com

Shut Up And Play The Hits is screening across the nation for one night only on July 18!

On April 2nd 2011, LCD Soundsystem played its final show at Madison Square Garden. LCD frontman James Murphy had made the conscious decision to disband one of the most celebrated and influential bands of its generation at the peak of its popularity, ensuring that the band would go out on top with the biggest and most ambitious concert of its career. The instantly-sold-out, near-four-hour extravaganza did just that, moving the thousands in attendance to tears of joy and grief, with New York magazine calling the event “a marvel of pure craft” and Time lamenting “we may never dance again.” Shut Up and Play the Hits is simultaneously a document of a once-in-a-lifetime performance and an intimate portrait of Murphy as he navigates both the personal and professional ramifications of his decision.

Paul Verhoeven’s American breakthrough film, Robocop, is an exceedingly violent blend of black comedy, science fiction, and crime thriller. Set in Detroit sometime in the near future, the film is about a policeman (Peter Weller) killed in the line of duty whom the department decides to resurrect as a half-human, half-robot supercop. The RoboCop is indestructible, and within a matter of weeks he has removed crime from the streets of Detroit. However, his human side is tortured by his past, and he wants revenge on the thugs who killed him. The film was later followed by two feature-length sequels and a live-action television series, neither of which were as successful as the original film.

JULY 4, 1976 ENTEBBE, UGANDA – Led by Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, crack Israeli commandos race from their airplanes covered by the midnight darkness.

Methodically, they approach a non-descript airline terminal, burst inside, killing the stunned terrorists. It is all over in a few minutes.

103 hostages lift their heads and gratefully weep at the mesmerizing sight of their saviors rush out to board the transport planes waiting to evacuate the hostages to safety. During the mission, shots burst in the night — and a sharp cry for help is heard. That cry would become the cry of an entire nation, mourning the loss of its prodigal son…

Thirty-year-old Yonatan Netanyahu has been shot dead. After leading the dramatic raid to free the hostages at Entebbe, Yonatan Netanyahu becomes the “impossible mission’s” most tragic casualty. With his death, Yonatan became an international hero.

Drawn from Netanyahu’s own letters and words and featuring interviews with three Israeli Prime Ministers, Yoniʼs ex-wife (for the first time on film) and recently released audio from the Entebbe operation itself, Follow Me is an intimate journey into a young heroʼs mind. Follow Me tells both the story of a dramatic hijack and rescue but also the story of a young soldier of who struggled to find the balance between his family and the nation he loved.

Meet Ari Daniel Pinchot, Director of Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story Saturday night, July 7th, at 9:35pm for introduction and discussion of the film!