Every Saturday at 11:30am, Monday at 7pm and Thursday at 9pm, the Charles presents repertory films in DCP format (and from time to time on 35mm film) in The Charles’ original 360 seat theatre.
| Picnic at Hanging Rock | Saturday, August 9 |
| The Hills Have Eyes | Thursday, August 14 |
| Yojimbo | Saturday, August 16 |
| True Romance | Thursday, August 21 |
| The Jungle Book | Saturday, August 23 |
| Short Cuts | Monday, August 25 |
| Polyester | Thursday, August 28 |
| Don’t Look Now | Saturday, August 30 |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey | Thursday, September 4 |
| A Man and a Woman | Saturday, September 6 |
| Mean Streets | Thursday, September 11 |
| The Color of Pomegranates | Saturday, September 13 |
| Persepolis | Thursday, September 18 |
| Withnail and I | Saturday, September 20 |
| The French Connection | Thursday, September 25 |
Today the disappearance of three schoolgirls and their minder would be a lurid true-crime tale or fodder for drawn-out “limited series” dramatic peekaboo. But Peter Weir’s breakout concocts a hypnotic haze of innocence, ardor, repression, suggestion, and emotional weight that utterly beguiles. A perfect cinema enigma. -Lee Gardn more »
In the ‘70s, few things scared moviegoers more than deranged rural people. Wes Craven cemented his budding horror career with this Texas Chainsaw Massacre homage that pits a roadtripping whitebread family (Dee Wallace makes clear why she’s the only one who had a bigger career) against mutant desert cannibals (ditto for Michael B more »
Toshiro Mifune invented the modern action hero in Akira Kurosawa’s classic. The former’s grungy ronin wanders into a village and right into the middle of a gang war, only to turn the factions' venality and dim wits to his advantage. Tatsuya Nakadai co-stars as a bonus badass. Fantastic score, too. -Lee Gardner more »
Tony Scott applied his visual verve and blockbuster sensibilities to one of Quentin Tarantino’s early scripts and delivered an instructive contrast to the latter’s style. Scott is less wink-y and puts real muscle behind the beats of this love-on-the-run/crime-flick/Hollywood-sendup mashup. He also knows how to shoot dialogue wit more »
A bunch of cartoon predators adopt a defenseless human infant instead of eating it. Comedy hijinks with a mid-century hepcat bias and some pretty decent songs ensue. Disney’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s India-set stories is charming and surprisingly unproblematic for being nearly 60 years old. -Lee Gardner more »
Robert Altman adapts a clutch of Raymond Carver short stories and, in the process, kinda invents Paul Thomas Anderson. An enormous cast plays a host of Angelenos whose lives intersect in humorous and tragic ways over the course of a few days. Also a very effective nostalgia prompt. Medflies! Cell phones the size of bricks! -Lee more »
Poor, poor Francine. Divine stars as a smell-sensitive Severna Park hausfrau beset by a porn-peddling husband, delinquent children, and demon booze. Can Tab Hunter’s hunk offer her a new life? John Waters spans the crack between his early outrages and the mainstream appeal of Hairspray with this loving Douglas Sirk pastiche. “Od more »
Haunted by the death of their young daughter, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie thread the streets of Venice and catch glimpses of what might be ghosts. Nicolas Roeg continued his incredible ’70s run (Performance, Walkabout) with a film that’s both a piercing meditation on grief and the greatest giallo ever. -Lee Gardner more »
It probably shouldn’t work at this point, but it totally does. Stanley Kubrick’s audacious sci-fi epic still dazzles with its chutzpah, invention, visual sense, and intelligence. And the scenes aboard the spaceship form one of the great pocket thrillers ever made. -Lee Gardner more »
In 1966, Claude Lelouch’s melancholy melodrama borrowed just enough New Wave flavor to cause a middlebrow sensation, and its Francis Lai-penned theme tune has haunted cocktail lounges ever since. In 2025, it’s still a treat to watch Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant brood and sigh amid Lelouch’s clever filmmaking. -Lee Gard more »
Scorsese ground zero. The director had already made features, but this deeply personal knockaround slice of NYC street life in the early ‘60 cemented everything about his world-conquering style. Harvey Keitel’s Mob bagman and Robert De Niro’s anarchic ne'er-do-well form the foreground, but everything onscreen is worth your atten more »
Talk about an art film. Soviet director Sergei Parajanov’s account of the life of Armenian poet Sayat-Nova slips narrative convention for a string of lavish, ravishing tableaux vivant, all crammed with inscrutable symbolism and visual piquancy. You could spend a lifetime revisiting it and not get it all. -Lee Gardner more »
Marjane Satrapi’s screen adaptation of her graphic memoir animates its spartan monochrome illustrations to the screen for a tale of a young girl coming of age in revolutionary Iran, as the country pivots from rule by a US puppet to an even more repressive fundamentalist state. A geopolitical history lesson and a piercing account more »
Writer/director Bruce Robinson’s script is one of the best ever put onscreen. Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann’s title unemployed actors booze and quip their way through sozzled adventures en route to personal reckonings with the end of the ‘60s and their aimless youth. Richard Griffiths and Ralph Brown deliver supporting perfor more »
The central car chase and NYC street grit made it famous, but William Friedkin’s breakout film endures for its watchfulness. A pair of rough detectives (Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider) stumble onto what they believe is a major heroin ring. As they shadow the suspects, block after block, mostly on foot, the tension and pressure bu more »
