This strong early feature (1955) by Michelangelo Antonioni, based on a novel by Cesare Pavese, focuses on a woman who returns to her native Turin to open a fashion salon, and on the troubled wealthy young men and women she gets to know. Masterfully directed in Antonioni’s choreographic manner, with strong melancholic undertones. With Eleanora Rossi Drago, Valentina Cortese, Yvonne Furneaux, Madeleine Fischer, and Franco Fabrizi. In Italian with subtitles. 97 min. (JR) Read more
A likable 1970 action comedy set in Harlem, adapted from Chester Himes’s novel and directed by Ossie Davis. With Godfrey Cambridge (as Gravedigger Jones), Raymond St. Jacques (as Coffin Ed Johnson), Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace, Red Foxx, Emily Yancy, and Cleavon Little. R, 97 min. (JR) Read more
Uneven but generally funny and lively memories of growing up black on Chicago’s west side in the mid-60s, styled after American Graffiti and directed by Michael Schultz from an autobiographical script by Eric Monte (1975). With Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris, Cynthia Davis, Corin Rogers, and Maurice Leon Havis. 107 min. (JR) Read more
The last film of the late Howard Brookner (Burroughs) and his only Hollywood feature was adapted from four Damon Runyon stories written in 1928. This lighthearted look at the prohibition era stars Matt Dillon, Jennifer Grey, Julie Haggerty, Rutger Hauer, Madonna, Anita Morris, Randy Quaid, and Esai Morales (1989). (JR) Read more
Luigi Comencini’s highly praised live-action version of the Carlo Collodi fantasy, made in 1971, with Nino Manfredi, Gina Lollobrigida, Andrea Balestri, and Vittorio De Sica. Read more