Silence affects everyone in the end.

The Piano is back on the big on the big screen in a stunning 4K restoration supervised and approved by writer-director Jane Campion and cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh.

Set in the rugged wilderness of 19th-century New Zealand, the film follows Ada McGrath, a mute Scottish pianist who is sent halfway across the world for an arranged marriage. Accompanied only by her young daughter and her beloved piano, Ada finds herself caught between duty, desire, and self-discovery in a story as emotionally overwhelming as the landscape that surrounds her.

Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes and three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Holly Hunter and Best Supporting Actress for Anna Paquin, The Piano is one of cinema’s most haunting and unforgettable romances ever made.

If you run, the beast catches you. If you stay, the beast eats you.

The second Volunteer Of The Month pick for August comes courtesy of Angel, who has chosen Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund’s 2002 masterpiece City of God! 

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

Few films burst onto the world cinema stage with the raw power of City of God. This electric crime epic remains one of the defining films of the 21st century, backing up its “masterpiece” designation with pure adrenaline and style.

Our first Volunteer of the Month pick for the month of August comes courtesy of Dorene, who has chosen to spotlight Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Mamma Roma!

Anna Magnani is Mamma Roma, a middle-aged sex worker who attempts to extricate herself from her sordid past for the sake of her son. Filmed in the great tradition of Italian neorealism, the film offers an unflinching look at the struggle for survival in postwar Italy, and highlights director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s lifelong fascination with the marginalized and dispossessed.

Though banned upon its release in Italy for obscenity, today Mamma Roma remains a classic, featuring a powerhouse performance by one of cinema’s greatest actresses and offering a glimpse at a country’s most controversial director in the process of finding his style.

The brand new 4K restoration of Luchino Visconti’s White Nights is coming to The Frida Cinema starting on August 14th! 

Marcello Mastroianni, as a lonely city transplant, and Maria Schell, as a sheltered girl haunted by a lover’s promise, meet by chance on a canal bridge and begin a tentative romance that quickly entangles them in a web of longing and self-delusion.

White Nights is an exquisite adaptation of Dostoevsky’s legendary novella, transforming this romantic, shattering tale of two restless souls into a ravishing black-and-white dream.

Yeon Sang-ho’s global phenomenon Train to Busan is coming back to The Frida Cinema to celebrate its 10th Anniversary!

What begins as a simple birthday trip for a father and daughter turns into a high-octane fight for survival when a zombie outbreak ravages South Korea. Trapped on a speeding train, they must navigate a landscape of terror to reach safety. Experience the relentless action and heart-wrenching drama on the big screen like never before.

A pure action spectacle that secretly doubles as an emotional family drama, Train to Busan succeeds because it never loses sight of the people at its center. Its breakneck pacing and inventive set pieces make it one of the great zombie films of the 21st century and one hell of a time on the big screen! 

There’s only one way to win the girl of your dreams: floor it!

Our Hallucinations series for August is getting revved up as we explore the weird world of the extremely-rarely-screened 90s film Motorama!

A ten year old boy gets tired of life with abusive parents and cashes in his piggy bank and steals a Mustang. He rides off into a surreal America playing “Motorama,” a game sponsored by Chimera Gas Company. He has various encounters with different people, and eventually reaches the Chimera Gas Company where he finds they are not playing by the rules of the game.

Praised for its loopy Americana and bizarre tone while widely derided as a punishingly dark and occasionally cruel film that isn’t for everyone, look at this as more of an R-rated Pee-wee’s Big Adventure than anything else! Who wouldn’t wanna watch that!? 

He is afraid. He is totally alone. He is 3,000,000 light years from home.

Our Spielberg Summer series phones home with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, one of the most beloved family films ever made and a landmark of modern American cinema.

When a lonely young boy named Elliott discovers a stranded alien hiding near his home, the two form an unlikely friendship that changes both of their lives. As E.T. becomes part of Elliott’s family, the children must help their otherworldly companion evade government authorities and find a way back home before it’s too late.

Few films capture the wonder of childhood as beautifully as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Spielberg transforms a simple story of friendship into something genuinely magical. Decades after audiences first watched that bicycle lift off against the moonlit sky, the film, like so many others from Spielberg, continues to inspire awe from audiences across the globe.

The Order of the Angels, residing in an ominous countryside cloister, are charged with a dark and secret duty. Sister Jodie (Nora Jacobs) arrives to find the order in the midst of turmoil: the nuns are hearing strange sounds in the middle of the night and one of their number has gone missing. As the sisters begin to experience cases of demonic possession, it is up to Jodie and her new friend, Sister Salka (Katharina Maria Trenk), to discover the source of these unnatural occurrences…even if it means staring into the very face of hell.

The Demoniacs is the first feature-length film from Vienna-based artist/filmmaker Scott Clifford Evans. It is a large, collaborative, “no- budget” effort where some of the best artists, musicians, performers, and technicians in Austria (and Estonia) have applied their artistic practice in everything from acting to set design, props to special effects, in order to make this absurd study of the horror genre. The result: a unique art-horror-slapstick film that combines fine art and “trash”, the beautiful and the grotesque.

Stick around after the screening for an in-person Q&A with the director of the film, Scott Clifford Evans!