Top of page

At the Packard Campus Theater — February 2020

Share this post:

Packard Campus Theater Schedule for February 2020

Each year, the National Film Preservation Board selects 25 films that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant to the National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress. Three films added last December are on the schedule this month: Old Yeller (1957), Clerks (1994, rated R) and The Phenix City Story (1955), along with two already on the prestigious list: the documentary Paris is Burning (1990) and Buster Keaton’s silent comedy The Cameraman (1928).

In honor of Black History Month, our video presentation is a compilation of highlights from the PBS public affairs program Black Journal (for the years1968-1977) whose mission was to cover political, economic, and cultural issues to a largely neglected African-American population.

Though the theater will be closed Valentine’s Day weekend as it happens to fall on the President’s Day holiday weekend, two romantic movies will be shown earlier in the month: Doctor Zhivago (1965), among our most requested titles, and Love Story (1970).

The Packard Campus Theater is located at 19053 Mt. Pony Rd. in Culpeper, VA. Programs are free and open to the public, but children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis unless otherwise noted. For general Packard Campus Theater information, call (540) 827-1079 ext. 79994 or (202) 707-9994.

In case of inclement weather, call the theater information line no more than three hours before showtime to see if the screening has been cancelled.

Request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or [email protected].

Saturday, February 1 (7:30 p.m.)
Charade (Universal, 1963)
Cary Grant stars as Peter Joshua (who may or may not be a flimflam man) who aids the recently widowed Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) in her mission to recover a fortune hidden by her late husband. But three sinister crooks – who will stop at nothing — also covet the loot. This stylish comedy-thriller was directed by Stanley Donen, very much in a Hitchcock vein. The film is notable for its screenplay, especially the repartee between Grant and Hepburn, for Henry Mancini’s score and Oscar nominated theme song, and for Charles Lang’s lush cinematography of Paris. The cast also features Walter Matthau, James Coburn and George Kennedy. Digital presentation, 113 min.

Thursday, February 6 (7:30 p.m.)
Bedlam (RKO, 1946)
Set in London in 1761, “Bedlam” is a departure from previous Val Lewton productions in its focus on horrific social conditions instead of supernatural occurrences. In this atmospheric chiller, Nell Bowen (Anna Lee), the spirited protégé of rich Lord Mortimer, becomes interested in the shameful conditions of the notorious St. Mary’s of Bethlehem Asylum (Bedlam). As she seeks support to reform Bedlam, her efforts are thwarted by the cruel Master Sims (Boris Karloff). Directed by Mark Robson, the film was coscripted by Lewton under the pseudonym Carlos Keith. New 35mm archival film print from the Library of Congress Film Preservation Lab, 79 min. Also on the program, If a Body Meets a Body (Columbia, 1943) starring the Three Stooges. 18 min. 35mm film print from the Library of Congress Film Preservation Lab.

Friday, February 7 (7:30 p.m.)
Love Story (Paramount, 1970)
Privileged Harvard jock Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O’Neal) sparks the anger of his steely, demanding father (Ray Milland) by falling in love with and marrying plebeian Radcliffe student Jennifer Cavalleri (Ali MacGraw), prompting his disapproving family to cut off his inheritance. After graduation, Oliver lands a job with a prominent law firm, and the blissful couple has the world by the tail — until tragedy intervenes. Erich Segal wrote the screenplay, and while the movie was being produced, Paramount asked him to adapt it into a novel to help pre-publicize the film. Released on Valentine’s Day, the novel became the top-selling work of fiction for all of 1970 in the United States, and was translated into more than 20 languages. Arthur Hiller directed this romantic tearjerker which was a phenomenal success. Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw earned Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Actress and Francis Lai’s Oscar-winning original score for Love Story became one of the most familiar movie love themes of all time. Rated PG. Digital presentation, 100 min.

Saturday, February 8 (7:30 p.m.)
Doctor Zhivago
(MGM, 1965)
Omar Sharif stars in the title role as Yuri Zhivago, a married physician whose life is irreversibly altered by the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War. Julie Christie co-stars as his married love interest Lara Antipova in this epic production based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Boris Pasternak. It took two years to make Doctor Zhivago with more than 800 craftsmen in three countries working on the film. Nominated for ten Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, it won for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costumes and Best Score for Maurice Jarre. The film’s best-selling soundtrack album won the Grammy for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show. The supporting cast includes Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Oscar-nominated Tom Courtenay, Ralph Richardson, Siobhán McKenna and Rita Tushingham. Rated PG-13. Digital presentation, 193 min.

Thursday, February 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Hackers
(MGM/UA, 1995)
In 1988, Dade “Zero Cool” Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) is an 11-year-old computer hacker responsible for causing a 7-point drop in the New York Stock Exchange in a single day, and is forbidden from touching a computer until his 18th birthday. Fast forward seven years: Dade has become “Crash Override,” and finds himself helping a group of young hackers — including Kate “Acid Burn” Libby, played by Angelina Jolie — who are being framed for the cybersecurity crimes of an evil hacker named The Plague. Foreshadowing the climate that produced Wikileaks and the popularity of such television shows as “Mr. Robot,” this 1995 film caught and held the attention of a movie going public at a time when technology was not yet mainstream and the Internet was only a handful of years old. Hackers will be introduced by students from New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program in conjunction with their annual visit to the Packard Campus for a week of training. Rated PG-13. 35mm archival film print, 105 min.

Thursday, February 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Black Journal: A Salute to William Greaves (NET/PBS, 1968-1977)
“Black Journal” was the first national American public affairs television program that was broadcast on the NET Network (Pre-PBS). This program was developed during the turbulent 1960’s and its mission was to cover political, economic, and cultural issues to a largely neglected African-American population. Laid out in a 60 Minutes style, the show was comprised of short documentary films. A few months after production began in June 1968, co-host William Greaves was made executive producer. In 1970 under the direction of Greaves, the program won an Emmy for excellence in public affairs. Greaves was also a documentary filmmaker; his 1968 experimental documentary “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” was added to the National Film Registry in 2015. This program, curated from the Library of Congress’s television collection, consists of stories and performances produced during William Greaves tenure including Black Panthers; John Lee Hooker; Southern Consumers Co-op; Julian Bond; Roberta Flack; Mississippi Politics; Duke University Protest; the Black Music industry (which Includes a trip to Motown and Stax Records); a Black Athletes Panel with Jackie Robinson, Bill Russell and Arthur Ashe; Nina Simone and Black G.I.s in Vietnam. Digital presentation, 115 min.

Friday, February 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Marketa Lazarová (Filmové studio Barrandov, 1967)
In its native land, František Vláčil’s “Marketa Lazarová” has been hailed as the greatest Czech film ever made. Based on a novel by Vladislav Vančura, this stirring and poetic depiction of a feud between two rival medieval clans is a fierce, epic, and meticulously designed evocation of the clashes between Christianity and paganism, humankind and nature, love and violence. Vláčil’s approach was to re-create the textures and mentalities of a long-ago way of life, rather than to make a conventional historical drama. With its inventive widescreen cinematography, editing, and sound design, “Marketa Lazarová” is an experimental action film. In Czech and German with English subtitles. 35mm film print courtesy of Janus Films,165 min.

Saturday, February 22 (2 p.m.)
Old Yeller
(Disney/Buena Vista, 1957)
Stories of boys and their dogs have long been fodder for films and books, but none has ever resonated more strongly with the public than this 1957 adaptation of the Fred Gipson novel. Produced by Disney, which knew how to touch the hearts of moviegoers with both laughter and tears, the beloved film was directed by Robert Stevenson and stars Fess Parker, Dorothy McGuire, Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran. Purchased for three dollars from a Van Nuys animal shelter, the real star of Old Yeller was a yellow Black Mouth Cur that trainer Frank Weatherwax named Spike. Spike went on to appear in 20th-Century-Fox’s 1960 remake of A Dog of Flanders, as well as on the short-lived NBC series The Westerner starring Brian Keith, and sired two more generations of animal actors. Few movie endings have ever proved as emotionally affecting as the conclusion of Old Yeller. The film was included on the National Film Registry in 2019. 35mm archival print, 83 min.

Saturday, February 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Clerks
(Miramax, 1994 – rated R*)
A hilarious, in-your-face, bawdy-yet-provocative look at two sardonic young slackers. Dante (Brian O’Halloran) toils as a New Jersey convenience store clerk while his alter-ego video store friend Randal (Jeff Anderson) works when the mood strikes him. At 23 years old, director Kevin Smith (who also plays Silent Bob) made his debut film for $27,000, reportedly financed by selling his comic book collection and using proceeds from when his car was lost in a flood. This sleeper hit helped define an era, grossed over $3 million, achieved prominent cult status among Generations X to Z, and easily garnered the most public votes in this year’s National Film Registry balloting. Critic Roger Ebert described Clerks as “utterly authentic” with “the attitude of a gas station attendant who tells you to check your own oil. It’s grungy and unkempt, and Dante and Randal look like they have been nourished from birth on beef jerky and Cheetos. They are tired and bored, underpaid and unlucky in love, and their encounters with customers feel like a series of psychological tests.” 35mm archival film print, 92 min. *No one under the age of 17 will be admitted without a parent or guardian.

Thursday, February 27 (7:30 p.m.)
The Phenix City Story (Allied Artists Pictures, 1955)
Film noir comes to Alabama in this ripped-from-the-headlines tale in a film based on notorious real-life 1954 events. Albert Patterson (John McIntire) is an attorney trying to clean up his mob-controlled town — Phenix City, aka “Sin City, U.S.A.” — and is killed while running for state attorney general. Also featuring Richard Kiley and Kathryn Grant, the film has been lauded for being both stylish and for its semi-documentary style. Noted B-movie director Phil Karlson crafted this low-budget, violent shocker using innovative camera work, which unnerved audiences not accustomed to seeing so much on-screen violence. In real life, the infamous murder quickly led the state to break up the crime syndicate, and Patterson’s son eventually became state attorney general and then governor of Alabama. The 87-minute film was also released in a longer version, which included a 13-minute newsreel. The Phenix City Story was added to the National Film Registry in 2019. 35mm archival film print, 100 min.

Friday, February 28 (7:30 p.m.)
Paris is Burning (Off White Productions, Inc., 1990, rated R*)
In a 2015 article in The Guardian, Ashley Clark noted, “Few documentaries can claim to have sparked as much discussion and controversy as director Jennie Livingston’s debut Paris is Burning, the vibrant time capsule of New York’s ballroom subculture in the 80s.” The film explores the complex subculture of fashion shows and vogue dance competitions among black and Hispanic gay men, drag queens and transgender women in Manhattan. It shifts among ballroom contests and shows and interviews with contestants, who belong to different “houses” that are like families to them, sharing their views on wealth, notions of beauty, racism and gender orientation. The film greatly influenced popular culture and was added to the National Film Registry in 2016. 35mm archival film print, 71 min. *No one under the age of 17 will be admitted without a parent or guardian.

Saturday, February 29 (2 p.m.)
The Cameraman
(MGM, 1928)
Buster Keaton stars as an aspiring newsreel cameraman out to win the heart of studio secretary Marceline Day in this silent comedy classic. Ostensibly directed by Edward Sedgwick, the film is all Keaton and includes some of the best treatises on the techniques and psychology of shooting motion pictures. Keaton is at his most deft in responding to the most outrageous situations with matter-of-fact naturalism and wearing his great stone face. A seamless, ingenious blend of comedy and pathos, it features countless creative gags involving fantastical double exposures, swimming pool changing rooms, and an organ grinder’s monkey. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Ben Model. The Cameraman was added to the National Film Registry in 2005. Digital presentation, 76 min.

Saturday, February 29 (7:30 p.m.)
The Fugitive
(Warner Bros., 1993)
Based on the 1960s television series of the same name created by Roy Huggins, this action thriller stars Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, a man wrongfully convicted for the murder of his wife who escapes from custody and sets out to find the real killer. A team of U.S. Marshals led by Deputy Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) doggedly pursues Kimble in a number of hair-raising encounters. Directed by Andrew Davis, the film was a critical and box office success and was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture; Jones won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote, “The film is larger and more encompassing than the television series. Director Davis paints with bold visual strokes so that the movie rises above its action-film origins and becomes operatic.” Rated PG-13. 35mm archival film print, 130 min.

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.