Weekend Classics

All shows free for Auteur-level members!

“The Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have a style and set of interests that are as instantly recognizable as those of any filmmakers in the world. Cine Dardenne is characterized by its hectic, rough-and-ready camerawork, impeccable performances, a concern with the urban dispossessed (specifically those living in the small industrial city of Seraing), and an unlikely affinity for Robert Bresson; the mode might be described as spiritually infused social realism… The remarkable thing about the Dardennes — who made documentaries for two decades, years before going fictional — is their visceral single-mindedness. Each of their movies is an odyssey (toward grace?) through a world that could hardly seem more drably material.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice

The Dardennes’ new film, THE KID WITH A BIKE, opens Fri Mar 16.

La Promesse

Friday, January 13 - Monday, January 16, 2012
35mm print "An impressively tough, raw realist drama, set in and around the drabber areas of Liège, in which a 15-year-old comes into conflict with his single parent father after a tragedy... more...

For the War to End, the Walls Should Have Crumbled, with Lessons From a University on the Fly

Friday, January 20 - Sunday, January 22, 2012
Both films on digital projection. FOR THE WAR TO END THE WALLS SHOULD HAVE CRUMBLED (1980, Belgium, 52 min. In French with English subtitles) "This documentary looks... more...

Rosetta

Friday, January 27 - Sunday, January 29, 2012
35mm print "A deserving Palme d'Or winner at Cannes '99, ROSETTA is in the same, grim realist mould as the Dardennes' earlier La Promesse; it, too, offers a glimmer of hope through... more...

The Son

Friday, February 3 - Sunday, February 5, 2012
35mm print "Olivier (Gourmet) is a good teacher of carpentry, but a touch gruff; even so, when he refuses to accept young Francis into his workshop, that doesn't explain why he takes to... more...

L’Enfant

Friday, February 17 - Sunday, February 19, 2012
35mm print "An infant is born into this world. His parents are homeless minors. The father, Bruno (Jérémie Renier), a feckless hand-to-mouth street hustler, casually sells the baby to... more...

Lorna’s Silence

Friday, February 24 - Sunday, February 26, 2012
35mm print "From the outstanding Belgian filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Rosetta), here's another closely observed, sociologically astute, and amazingly naturalistic... more...