Hard Light Cinema at UR

All screenings held in Jepson Hall, Room 118. Films start at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A discussion.

Thursday, Sept. 10:   Wilder, Double Indemnity  (1944)

A chance encounter. A forbidden attraction. A perfect crime exposing greed and desire. With all-time great performances by Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson. Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity is perhaps the perfect quintessential film noir. Wilder, a master of both comedy and tragedy, draws upon the German expressionist visual style to make this film full of shadowy interiors, bleak cityscapes, and visual symbols of modernist alienation and ennui. Raymond Chandler’s script had to work around the censorship of the Hays Code to adapt James M. Cain’s nihilist novel of adultery and murder. The scene is set early with a silhouette of a hobbled man on crutches, and the stakes only get higher from there.

Thursday, Sept. 24:   Welles, The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Nothing is what it seems in Orson Welles’s dazzling tale of seduction, deception, and murder. Enter a hall of mirrors where truth and illusion become one. Though hacked to pieces by the studio and released to mixed reviews back in 1947, Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai has only grown in estimation since its release. Welles adopts a self-consciously maximalist style that both elaborates and parodies 1940s-era film noir aesthetics.  Filmed in San Francisco and, literally, on Errol Flynn’s yacht, the movie combines athletic cinematography, baroque visuals, and a dreamy logic that culminates in an iconic hall of mirrors scene that is imitated in Bi Gan’s Resurrection, the action-packed John Wick 2, and the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon. An underseen classic, this film demands the big screen and an attentive audience. 

Thursday, Oct. 15:   Preminger, Laura (1944)

New York City provides a gritty backdrop for an everyman police detective who falls for a victim as he investigates her murder. Named one of the best mystery films by the AFI, Otto Preminger’s Laura is full of past and future stars from the era with Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Judith Anderson, and a young Vincent Price. A gothic story of ambition, obsession, corruption, and betrayal among the city’s cultural elite, Laura’s influence is seen most explicitly in on David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks, in which multiple plot elements are borrowed from Preminger’s noir classic. The ghost of Laura looks over the film in a Gothic portrait while a beautiful jazz piece by the same name repeats hauntingly throughout the film.

Thursday, Oct. 22:  DePalma, Blow Out  (1981)

He inadvertently recorded an accident. What he uncovered was something far more dangerous. Brian De Palma’s gripping neo-noir turns a single recording into a race against conspiracy and time. Blow Out wears its 70s influences on its sleeves as it balances the grimy streets of a neo-noir, the frantic anxiety of a conspiracy thriller, and the pulpy sensationalism and lighting of an Italian giallo film. De Palma, an all-time image-maker in his creative cinematography and colorful lighting, blends his iconic split diopter shots with an all-time sound design performance to create the ultimate thriller. Containing a plot echoing the JFK assassination and Watergate scandal and with an incredibly memorable ending, this film ought not be missed by film fans. Come and hear “a good scream” on the big screen this October! 

Thursday, Nov. 19:  Spielberg, Minority Report (2002)

What if you could be arrested for a crime you haven’t committed yet? Steven Spielberg’s "tech-noir" adapts classic noir’s preoccupation with questions of knowledge, fate, and agency to a futuristic landscape dominated by technology, surveillance, automation, and dehumanization. A profound and chilling examination of the consequences of knowing too much. Based on a Philip Dick short story, this science fiction piece will keep you riveted as the world in 2054 is played out on the screen with prime roles by Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Jessica Capshaw, and Patrick Kilpatrick

Thursday, Dec. 3:   Park, Decision to Leave (2022)

Filmed in Korea and along the coast, a detective is in a long-distance marriage to a nuclear power plant worker.  When investigating a suspicious death of a mountain climber, he finds himself captivated by the mysterious new widow at its center. Park Chan-wook’s haunting neo-noir asks whether love itself can become a mystery. English sub-titles.

All screenings held in Jepson Hall, Room 118. Films start at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A discussion.

La Strada
Director: Federico Fellini
1954, 115 minutes
New Date! Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026

La Strada, an Italian poetic neorealist drama by Federico Fellini, follows a naïve young woman sold to a brutal strongman and carried along the dusty roads of postwar Italy. Giulietta Masina’s luminous performance turns suffering into grace, as circus life, loneliness, and faith collide in one of Fellini’s most moving and emotional masterpieces. Italian dialogue with English subtitles.

A Fistful of Dollars
Director: Sergio Leone
1964, 99 minutes
Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026

A Fistful of Dollars, an Italian Spaghetti Western, is a 1964 reinvention of the Western inspired by Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” plays rival gangs against each other in a lawless border town, launching a new cinematic myth with iconic style and Morricone’s unforgettable score. Italian dialogue with English subtitles.

The Great Silence
Director: Sergio Corbucci
1968, 106 minutes
Tuesday, March 17, 2026

The Great Silence, a revisionist Spaghetti Western by Sergio Corbucci, follows a mute gunman who aids a town oppressed by corrupt and tyrannical authorities. Set in a frozen frontier where justice has failed, the film becomes a bleak story of resistance and injustice. Italian dialogue with English subtitles.

The Consequences of Love
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
2004, 100 minutes
Tuesday, April 7, 2026

The Consequences of Love, an Italian psychological crime drama, centers on a solitary man living a monotonous life in a quiet Swiss hotel while entangled with the Mafia. This 2004 film presents a gripping tale of isolation and obsession, enhanced by striking visuals and a haunting soundtrack. Toni Servillo’s powerful performance makes it a must-watch for fans of intricate narratives. Italian dialogue with English subtitles.

TH, October 9, Wings of Desire in Jepson 118

128 minutes; Director-Wim Wenders; 7-10 pm:  In the streets of 1980s Berlin, Wenders spins a tale of two angels providing comfort and their presence to people of Germany in years just prior to the Berlin wall toppling.

TH, October 30, Nosferatu in Jepson 118

107 min; Director-Robert Eggers; 7-10 pm. Nosferatu is a 2024 American Gothic horror film that is director Robert Eggers’ remake of a 1922 film of the same name. The movie features a vampire, a vulnerable haunted wife, and a town plague set in 19^th-century Germany.

TH, November 13, Phoenix in Boatwright Adams Auditorium

98 minutes; Director-Christian Petzoid. Set in post-World War II Germany, this film follows the lives of a Jewish woman who survived Auschwitz and her husband’s betrayal.  The Phoenix is the nightclub that serves as the backdrop to their complicated relationship.