From acclaimed filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War) comes Fatherland, a striking new black-and-white portrait of postwar Germany, starring Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler.

In the summer of 1949, Nobel Prize-winning author Thomas Mann returns to Germany after years of exile, embarking on a road trip with his daughter Erika across a country split between East and West. As they travel from American-occupied Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar, old wounds resurface and difficult questions emerge about national identity, artistic responsibility, and what it means to return home when the place you remember no longer exists.

With Pawlikowski’s signature visual precision and Hüller’s quietly commanding performance, Fatherland transforms a journey across a fractured nation into an intimate reckoning of guilt and the complicated bonds between parents and children. A true standout at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Pawlikowski once again finds extraordinary emotional weight in what remains unsaid.

Calling all ghouls, ghosts, and hopeless romantics! Join us at The Frida Cinema on Sunday, November 8th, for a spooky celebration of Tim Burton and Mike Johnson’s Corpse Bride, presented by our pals at FanMail Cinema Club!

In a gloomy Victorian village where arranged marriages are the norm, nervous groom-to-be Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) accidentally proposes to the wrong bride…and she just happens to be dead! Swept into the underworld by the ghostly and gorgeous Emily (Helena Bonham Carter), Victor finds himself caught between the drab world of the living and a fantastical land of the dead that might just have more life in it.

The festivities kick off when doors open at 12:00PM, with vendors set up in the parklet and outside the theater on both sides of the entrance. Strike a pose at our photo-op inside the auditorium before the main event: a cosplay contest just before the film starts at 1:00PM!

Whether you’re Team Victor, Team Emily, or simply here for Danny Elfman’s unforgettable music, come dressed to impress in your finest gothic wedding attire.

Tickets to this event are $20. Frida Cinema member discounts and comp passes do not apply.

“Get the funk up!” Our Unsung 80’s Soundtracks series continues with Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman – or what happens when a movie studio also owns the recording contract of a pop superstar!

One of the defining films of its decade, Batman stars Michael Keaton as billionaire Bruce Wayne, who secretly spends his nights stalking the streets of Gotham City as the costumed vigilante Batman.  As Batman closes in on dastardly villain Joker (Jack Nicholson, oozing charismatic menace), he also finds himself drawn to photojournalist Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger). With Burton’s gothic visual style, Danny Elfman’s soaring score, and Oscar-winning Art Direction-Set Decoration by Anton Furst and Peter Young, Batman proved that a comic-book movie could be dark, stylish, and strange, while also humorous and wildly entertaining.

Batman is something of an unusual entry in the soundtrack canon, with two very different albums coming out of the film. Danny Elfman’s orchestral score became one of the most recognizable superhero themes ever written, while Prince was brought in to create a separate album of songs inspired by the film. The resulting Batman soundtrack became a massive commercial success, spending six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and spawning hits including “Batdance,” “Partyman,” and “Scandalous.” The album was conceived around the Joker and Vicki Vale, with Burton reportedly giving Prince a rough cut of the film to inspire the songs. Elfman’s score and Prince’s album rarely appear together in the film, but both became essential parts of the movie’s identity, making Batman one of the biggest soundtrack phenomena of the 1980s.

Our Spielberg Summer series ventures off-path and into the Fall as we visit the future in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a haunting Science Fiction fairy tale that stands among the director’s most ambitious and deeply misunderstood works.

In a world where advanced robots live alongside humans, a young android named David (Haley Joel Osment) is programmed with the ability to love. When he is abandoned by the family he was created to join, David embarks on an extraordinary journey to become “real,” believing it is the only way to win back the affection he longs for.

Originally developed by Stanley Kubrick and ultimately realized by Spielberg, A.I. is an unsettling vision of technological loneliness. Over two decades later, its questions about what it means to love feel more relevant than ever, revealing a far more profound than many audiences recognized upon its release.

Our 4 Clásicos De Terror: Presented by Trash-Mex continues with Fernando Méndez’s Misterios de ultratumba (1959)!

Doctor Mazali (Rafael Bertrand) makes a pact with his dying colleague, Dr Aldama (Antonio Raxel), in order to learn the secrets of the afterlife. Instead, the spirit of Aldama exerts a supernatural influence on him from beyond the grave, summoning his daughter, Patricia (Mapita Cortés), to Mazali’s asylum, where a series of horrific events ensue.

From the director of El vampiro, this atmospheric Mexican horror gem is steeped in gothic dread and deals with the terror of what awaits us beyond the grave. The dead have a message…and you won’t want to miss it!

Just added: our friends at Hong Kong Cinema Club will be intro’ing the 7:30PM screening on Sunday, November 8th! 

The penultimate film in our Hong Kong Action Essentials series is Bullet In The Head, which also happens to be our final John Woo film in the series, as well. There’s no better way to end his chapter in this lineup than with his most brutal and personal film to date.

Three friends fleeing Hong Kong after a violent crime find themselves trapped in the chaos of the Vietnam War, where their loyalty and morality are tested beyond repair. What begins as a desperate bid for escape descends into a harrowing portrait of friendship under unimaginable pressure. As war strips away ideals and innocence, the bonds between the men fracture, leading to betrayals that cut deeper than any bullet.

Fueled by rage and grief Bullet in the Head trades balletic elegance for raw emotional devastation. This is heroic bloodshed turned inward, and a legendary filmmaker pushing himself into completely new territory.