Hard Light Cinema at UR

Hard Light Cinema is a Richmond-based collective of cinephiles bringing arthouse and non-mainstream films to central Virginia’s young professionals. The collaboration with the Film Studies Program and Italian Studies at the University of Richmond aims to connect UR students with Richmond city film fans and provide additional Italian films playing on campus around the inaugural Italian & French Film Festival held on March 27–30. Hard Light as a microcinema focuses on repertory films and new international or indie films typically unavailable in standard movie theaters. From spaghetti westerns to neo-realist road films, this semester will have a wide variety of Italian classics that deserve to be seen on the big screen.

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  • Spring 2026: Focus on Italian Film

    All screenings will be 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
    Tuesday, Jan. 27, 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.

  • Fall 2026: Focus on German Film

    Wings of Desire
    Director: Wim Wenders
    1987, 128 minutes

    Few films can truly feel transcendental, but Wim Wenders’s poetic masterpiece, Wings of Desire has that claim. Angels wander the world looking for love. Will they find it in the dreamy streets of 80s Berlin where history and archaic arthouse culture are around one corner and a rocking Nick Cave concert is around the next? A true immortal epic, and not just because it has Peter Falk playing himself, Wings of Desire is a film that needs to be seen and felt on the big screen. We’re excited to bring this one, a true arthouse classic by one of the great international directors, to the city of Richmond.

    Nosferatu the Vampyre
    Director: Werner Herzog
    1979, 107 minutes

    This 1979 adaptation of the Weimar era Dracula story blends beauty with destruction as plagues and dreams ravage the silver screen. Klaus Kinski, of Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo fame, scream queen Isabelle Adjani, from Possession and The Tenant, and Werner Herzog, the prolific and effective German master of fiction and documentary, team up for this arthouse horror must-see.

    Phoenix 
    Director: Christian Petzold
    2014, 98 minutes

    Phoenix, Christian Petzold’s haunting riff on Vertigo, is the exciting capstone to our Hard Light Cinema at UR: Focus on German Film series. It’s equal parts tender and thrilling as it balances espionage and survival in post-WWII Berlin. One of Nina Hoss’s great collaborations with Petzold, Phoenix tells the story of a former cabaret singer who survived the concentration camps and returned to find those who betrayed her to the Gestapo. With scenes that will move you and keep you on the edge of your seat, Phoenix concludes with one of the 21st century’s great cinematic endings.