Max Fleischer's Superman 1941-1942
More than just a landmark in superhero animation, Max Fleischer's Superman shorts were no less than the foundation for so many shows that succeeded it. Playing in theaters in 1941-42, only a few years after the Man of Steel made his debut in Action Comics, these 17 exciting films were produced by Fleischer and made famous the phrase "This looks like a job for Superman!" At 10 minutes, each film had just enough time to run the opening credits, establish the threat, let Lois Lane make a headstrong rush into peril, and allow Clark Kent to change to his alter ego and save the day. The films show a remarkably dynamic and atmospheric storytelling style that enables them to hold up for modern viewers. At first the films followed a science fiction-fantasy theme, but not unexpectedly for that time soon focused on wartime concerns.
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The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell
One of the greatest storytellers of our time, and arguably the greatest mythologist, Joseph Campbell spent most of his long, rich career explaining how ancient myths like the Hero’s Journey are relevant to modern life. In understanding the importance of myth as a vital, vibrant source of "mankind’s one great story," Campbell inspired others to embark on a quest for the meaning of myth in their own lives. This biographical portrait, filmed shortly before his death in 1987, follows Campbell’s personal quest—a pathless journey of questioning, discovery, and ultimately of delight and joy in a life to which he said, "Yes."
The Nude Bomb
When KAOS develops a bomb that can dissolve all clothing, Maxwell Smart is brought in to foil the evil plot.
Green Lantern: First Flight
Test pilot Hal Jordan finds himself recruited as the newest member of the intergalactic police force, The Green Lantern Corps.
Z: A Zombie Musical
After three Catholic Nuns are attacked by a Zombie Dog and turned into Zombies, they discover a group of articulate, educated, singing & dancing Zombies living in the idyllic enclave of Zomburbia. One of the Nuns refuses to accept her new-found Zombie-osity and sets off on a comic journey of self-discovery and mayhem...with, naturally, much singing and dancing along the way!
PDQ Bach In Houston - We Have A Problem
For decades, Peter Schickele has kept audiences rolling in the aisles with his rib-tickling presentations of the alleged music of P.D.Q. Bach, classical music's answer to the Marx Brothers. This special December 2005 performance of P.D.Q.'s greatest hits celebrates 40 years of this uniquely appealing act. Includes Schleptet in Eb major, Iphigenia in Brooklyn, Unbegun Symphony, Fuga Meshuga, The Seasonings, and New Horizons in Music Appreciation. Extras include Unbegun Symphony with theme identification, Odden und Enden (rounds), KUHT interview with Peter Schickele, and more.
Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection
From animation legend Chuck Jones comes the big cheese of mouse collections! Enjoy 19 remastered animated shorts featuring some mischievous mice and their daring adventures! Legendary animator and director Chuck Jones first began animating cartoons for Warner Brothers in the early 1930s. By 1939, Jones had become an integral part of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon-creation team with his animated shorts about Sniffles the mouse.
Black Swan
The story of Nina, a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her retired ballerina mother Erica who zealously supports her daughter's professional ambition. When artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice.
Tomie: Rebirth
Young art student Hideo paints an unnerving portrait of Tomie, who whispers that she loves him. Inexplicably, he reacts by stabbing her to death with a painting trowel. Two friends, Takumi and Shunichi, arrive on the scene and help him dispose of the body. To cheer him up, the boys take the unwitting murderer to the nearest bar for a party... but a mysterious girl named Tomie shows up, bearing a few odd physical resemblances to the dead girl in the ground.
Q
When growing up in a community where gang violence is a way of life and Basketball is a way to escape it.
Autumn Sonata
After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.
Broadway Danny Rose
A hapless talent manager named Danny Rose, by helping a client, gets dragged into a love triangle involving the mob. His story is told in flashback, an anecdote shared amongst a group of comedians over lunch at New York's Carnegie Deli. Rose's one-man talent agency represents countless incompetent entertainers, including a one-legged tap dancer, and one slightly talented one: washed-up lounge singer Lou Canova, whose career is on the rebound.
Timbuktu
Just outside of the Malian city of Timbuktu, now occupied by militant Islamic rebels who impose the Sharia on civilians and inconvenience their daily life, a cattleman kills a fisherman.
Night and the City
Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of putting up with Harry's schemes, his girlfriend, Mary, becomes fed up when he taps her for yet another loan.
Welcome in Vienna
Freddy, a Viennese Jew who emigrated to New York after Hitler's invasion, and Adler, a left-wing intellectual originally from Berlin, return to Austria in 1944 as soldiers in the U.S. Army. Freddy falls in love with the daughter of a Nazi, and Adler attempts to go over to the Communist Zone. But with the advent of the Cold War and continuing anti-semitism, the idealism of both characters is shattered as they find themselves surrounded by cynicism, opportunism, and universal self-deception.
Alphaville
Lemmy Caution is on a mission to eliminate Professor Von Braun, the creator of a malevolent computer that rules the city of Alphaville. Befriended by the scientist’s daughter Natasha, Lemmy must unravel the mysteries of the strictly logical Alpha 60 and teach Natasha the meaning of the word “love.”
Crimes of the Future
Crimes of the Future is set in a future where sexually mature women appear to have been obliterated by a plague produced by the use of cosmetics. The film details the wanderings of Adrian Tripod, director of the dermatological clinic the House of Skin. Tripod seems at a loss following the disappearance of his mentor Antoine Rouge.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
After the death of a United States Senator, idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. Soon, the naive and earnest new senator has to battle political corruption.
Matador
A conflicted youth confesses to crimes he didn't commit while a man and woman aroused by death become obsessed with each other.
The Passion of Joan of Arc
A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.
The Longest Day
The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"