Just added: we are delighted to announce that Lesbian Vampire Expert Annie Rose of Girls, Guts, & Giallo will be joining us to introduce the 8:15PM screening on Thursday, February 26th!

In 1993, invited by David Lynch to come up with a low-budget genre movie, filammaker Michael Almereyda recombined characters from Bram Stoker and set them loose in contemporary New York. The result? A cult classic known simply as Nadja. 

Nadja (Elina Löwensohn) is a disillusioned “young” vampire who imagines herself liberated by the death of her father, Count Dracula, but the unhinged Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Fonda) wants to destroy her as well, interrupting her reunion with twin brother Edgar (Jared Harris) and pursuing them into “a netherworld of shadows” (J. Hoberman).

Part seductive reverie, part spoof, Nadja is a delirious mashup of Andre Breton’s 1928 surrealist novel of the same name and Universal Pictures’ Dracula’s Daughter (1936). Simon Fisher Turner’s ethereal score is offset by propulsive pop songs from My Bloody Valentine, The Verve, and Space Hog.

Executive producer Lynch fully financed the film when other investors faded out and even has a cameo as a hypnotized morgue attendant. This 4K restoration was generated from the print in the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the version of the film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1994, three minutes longer than the commercial release. 

Just added: Robert Daniels, the Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com, will be giving a pre-recorded introduction before each screening of The Annihilation Of Fish!

Robert has also written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Reverse Shot, Screen Daily, and the Criterion Collection. He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto to the Berlinale and Locarno. He lives in Chicago, and is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association

The final film in our Three By Charles Burnett series is his charming 1999 drama The Annihilation Of Fish, now restored in a beautiful 4K restoration!

Lynn Redgrave plays Poinsettia, a former housewife with an imagined lover in the form of 19th-century composer Giacomo Puccini. She moves into a Los Angeles boarding house with an energetic landlady (Margot Kidder) where she meets a Jamaican widower, Fish (James Earl Jones), who has recently been released from a mental institution despite his continued battles against unseen demons. In the face of personal challenges and differences, the couple grows together and begins to discover new things about themselves and the nuances of love and happiness.

Released in partnership with Milestone Films, restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Some girls will do anything to meet their idols.

Our Staff Pick series has brought us to Robert Zemekis’ I Wanna Hold Your Hand, brought you courtesy of our staffer, Isa, who will be introducing the screening!

The story follows a group of wide-eyed New Jersey teenagers who descend on New York City in hopes of getting close to their idols. What begins as a simple plan (to see The Beatles) spirals into a chaotic, cross-town odyssey filled with manic Beatlemania-fueled hijinks.

More than just a period comedy, I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a joyous time capsule of a cultural turning point. Come see this rarely screened gem on the big screen with fellow Beatles fans!