Packard Campus Theater Schedule for January 2020
The January program is abbreviated due to work scheduled to replace the screen and the masking around it in the Packard Campus Theater beginning the week of January 13. Depending on how long the project will take, February programming may be delayed, cancelled, or start as usual at the beginning of the month. Check the theater web site at //www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/schedule.html or the Now See Hear! Blog //blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/ for news. You can subscribe to regular updates from the Now See Hear! blog by RSS and e-mail so you’ll get the news first.
Programs are free and open to the public, but children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Seating at the screenings 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]
Friday, January 3 (7:30 p.m.)
Wild Strawberries (Svensk Filmindustri, 1957)
Traveling to accept an honorary degree, Professor Isak Borg – masterfully played by veteran director Victor Sjöström – is forced to face his past, come to terms with his faults, and make peace with the inevitability of his approaching death. Through flashbacks and fantasies, dreams and nightmares, “Wild Strawberries” dramatizes one man’s remarkable voyage of self-discovery. This richly humane masterpiece, full of iconic imagery, is a treasure from the golden age of art-house cinema and one of the films that catapulted Ingmar Bergman to international acclaim. Wild Strawberries won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival. 35mm film print courtesy of Janus Films, 91 min.
Saturday, January 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Hugo (Paramount, 2011)
Renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese directed and produced his first (and so far only) family film with this adaptation of Brian Selznick’s imaginative New York Times best-seller, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Set in 1931 Paris, the fairytale fantasy follows Hugo (Asa Butterfield), an orphan living a secret existence in a busy railway station, as he dodges a predatory station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) and learns from Isabelle, a kind girl he befriends (Chloë Grace Moretz), that her bad-tempered uncle (Ben Kingsley) who runs a toyshop in the station, is Georges Méliès, once a well-known filmmaker. Hugo is filled with visual splendor employed to tell a story that incorporates a history lesson about the building blocks of modern cinema, a subject very close to the director’s heart. The film was released to great critical acclaim and garnered eleven Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture), more than any other film that year, winning five. Rated PG. 35mm archival film print, 126 min.
Thursday, January 9 (7:30 p.m.)
Crime and Punishment (Columbia, 1935)
Hungarian actor Peter Lorre, who became internationally known for playing a serial killer in Fritz Lang’s German thriller M (1931), left Europe when Adolf Hitler came to power. In only his second American film, he stars as Roderick Raskolnikov in this Hollywoodization of Dostoyevsky’s novel about a brilliant and cynical scholar who is haunted by a murder he committed. Recognizing the complexities inherent to the psychological novel, director Josef von Sternberg prudently chose to make a straightforward genre film about a detective and a criminal. Edward Arnold stars as the detective with Marian Marsh, Tala Birell and Elisabeth Risdon also in the cast. 35mm film preservation print from the Library of Congress Film Preservation Lab. 88 min.
Friday, January 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Musical Highlights from The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Hollywood Palace (1964-1970)
This compilation of musical guests on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Hollywood Palace was curated from the Library of Congress Television Collections to be a good representation of the British Invasion, Motown, 1960’s Pop, Folk and R&B and the San Francisco Psychedelic Rock scene. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour aired on CBS from 1967 to 1969 and was a somewhat “hip” version of the typical comedy-variety show of its era. The series show cased new musical artists that other comedy-variety shows rarely gave airtime to, due to the nature of their music or their political affiliations. The hour-long weekly variety series The Hollywood Palace was broadcast on ABC from 1964 to 1970 and unlike similar programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, the series used a different host each week. A number of popular music performers got their start on “The Hollywood Palace,” among them The Rolling Stones, who made their first US television appearance on the episode that aired on June 6, 1964. Performers on tonight’s program also include The Supremes, Nancy Sinatra, Ray Charles, Buffalo Springfield, Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, Bobbie Gentry, Pete Seeger, The Who, Judy Collins, The Temptations, James Brown, Big Brother and the Holding Co. featuring Janis Joplin, The Doors, Marvin Gaye and Sammy Davis Jr. Digital presentation from the Library of Congress Video Preservation Lab. 87 min.
Saturday, January 11 (2 p.m.)
Balto (Universal, 1995)
This family-friendly animated film begins with a live-action intro to set the stage for the story of Balto (voiced by Kevin Bacon), a stray who’s half dog and half wolf and is shunned as a half-breed outcast by both humans and his own kind. Balto eventually becomes a hero when he guides a medication-carrying sled to a townful of sick kids in the wilds of Alaska. This epic drama adventure directed by Simon Wells is loosely based on a true story about the dog of the same name who helped save children from the diphtheria epidemic in the 1925 serum run to Nome. The voice cast includes Bridget Fonda, Jim Cummings, Phil Collins (in a dual role), and Bob Hoskins with Miriam Margoyles in the live-action sequence. 35mm archival film print. 78 min.
Saturday, January 11 (7:30 p.m.)
William S. Hart Double Feature
A former stage actor known for Shakespearean portrayals, William S. Hart entered the movies in the early teens and helped define the Western genre, becoming its first bona fide star. Insisting on authentic recreations of the “old west” and often leaning more toward character development than action, Hart imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity. Both features are recent Library of Congress digital restorations and will have live musical accompaniment by Andrew Simpson.
Blue Blazes Rawdin (Paramount, 1918)
Hart, of course, plays the title character, a brawny lumberjack who enters into a poker game with a deceptively mild-looking English gambler named Ladyfingers Hilgard (Robert McKim). The stakes are Hilgard’s gambling emporium — and, it is implied, the Englishman’s girlfriend Babette Du Fresne (Maud George). Accusing each other of cheating, Rawden and Hilgard decide to settle their differences with their six-shooters. Nearly all of the familiar William S. Hart elements, including the self-sacrificial redemption of the “good bad man” hero come into play by the final reel. Digital presentation, 65 min.
The Return of Draw Egan (Triangle, 1916)
With a price on his head, the notorious bandit “Draw” Egan (William S. Hart) is hired to bring law and order to the lawless frontier town of Yellow Dog by reformist Mat Buckton (J.P. Lockney). Hiding his criminal past, Egan rules the town with an iron hand until a former collaborator, Arizona Joe (Robert McKim), arrives to make trouble. It has been described as a quintessential Hart western with him playing an outlaw reformed by the love of a good woman (Margery Wilson). Digital presentation, 50 minutes.