Taking our Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema series into the 90’s is Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s heart-pounding 1997 thriller Cure, widely regarded as one of the best, most original, and most influential psychological horror films of the decade.
A detective investigates a string of grisly murders—each victim killed in the same ritualistic manner, each murderer caught at the scene, unable to explain why they did it. The only connection? A mysterious drifter who seems to erase people’s memories—and unlock something buried deep inside them.
With icy precision and a creeping sense of dread, Cure is not just a murder mystery—it’s a meditation on identity and unraveling. Shot in long, haunting takes and drained colors, the film moves like a fog over post-economic-boom Japan: quiet and uncertain.
Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema is a curated 12-film trip through the evolution of Japan—from the quiet post-war resilience of the 1940s all the way to the radical reinventions of the 1990s. This July-October, we will explore a new facet of this incredible nation’s cinematic journey throughout the 20th century. All films will be presented in their original Japanese language with English subtitles, at a reduced ticket price of $8.
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A haunting masterpiece of Japanese cinema, Ugetsu is the second film in our Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema series. Kenji Mizoguchi’s hypnotic camera work, long takes, and atmospheric composition make Ugetsu a meditative, otherworldly experience that influenced filmmakers from Kurosawa to Scorsese. Winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, this is a film where myth and history blur, inviting us to reflect on the consequences of human folly.
Made just eight years after WWII, the film uses a ghostly narrative to process national memory and warn against repeating the same mistakes. Ugetsu exemplifies how Japanese filmmakers of the 1950s turned to allegory and aesthetics to navigate complex postwar identities—elevating cinema to poetry.
Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema is a curated 12-film trip through the evolution of Japan—from the quiet post-war resilience of the 1940s all the way to the radical reinventions of the 1990s. Each Monday this July-September, we will explore a new facet of this incredible nation’s cinematic journey throughout the 20th century! All films will be presented in their original Japanese language with English subtitles!
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XYZ Films is bringing you the new film Tatami, being described as a combination of Raging Bull and The Passion of Joan of Arc!
The first feature film co-directed by Iranian and Israeli filmmakers Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir, Tatami follows Leila, an Iranian judo athlete who is put in political danger when her government tells her to fake an injury and withdraw from the world championships rather than face an Israeli rival in the final.
Leila finds herself facing a life-or-death decision that could put the lives of her, her coach, an ex-competitor herself, and her family in danger. In a fight for freedom and dignity, what is she willing to give up.
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Our Technicolor Summer series gets delightfully macabre with Alfred Hitchcock’s offbeat charmer The Trouble with Harry—a murder mystery where the murder is beside the point, and the comedy is as dry as a New England autumn.
When the body of Harry Worp is discovered in the woods outside a sleepy Vermont town, the locals react not with horror, but with a series of polite, peculiar inconveniences. Who killed Harry? Was it the eccentric spinster? The retired sea captain? The single mother with a past? As each character quietly confesses—or denies—involvement, the real puzzle becomes what to do with the body… and how many times it must be buried.
Unexpected, off-kilter, and beautifully shot, it’s a reminder that Technicolor wasn’t just for musicals and melodramas—it could bring even the darkest jokes to life with a brilliant, irreverent glow. And plus, you didn’t think we could do this series without a couple of Hitchcock flicks, right?
In the early 1930s, the 3-strip Technicolor process was introduced to audiences, inviting them to experience a world dripping with vibrant saturation for the very first time. The Technicolor Summer series ranges from familiar classics to rarely-screened gems all Summer long!
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Our Page To Screen series for June is Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 masterwork Arrival! Adapted from Ted Chiang’s celebrated 1998 novella Story of Your Life, the film retains the cerebral complexity of its source while transforming it into a moving cinematic experience.
The story follows Dr. Louise Banks (played by Amy Adams), a linguist enlisted to communicate with mysterious alien visitors whose ships have appeared around the globe. As she works to decode the heptapods’ intricate written language, she begins to experience time in a radically new way—past, present, and future folding into one.
Emotional and visually stunning the way only a filmmaker like Villeneuve can deliver, Arrival has quickly become a Science Fiction classic.
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Do you want to meet a ghost? June’s second Volunteer Of The Month screening is courtesy of Justin, who has chosen Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s heart-pounding Pulse.
After one of their friends commits suicide, strange things begin happening to a group of young Tokyo residents. One of them sees visions of his dead friend in the shadows on the wall, while another’s computer keeps showing strange, ghostly images. Is their friend trying to contact them from beyond the grave, or is there something much more sinister going on?
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Join us for two screenings of James Wan’s 2004 horror classic Saw, playing this year as part of our Pride Month programming!
Two men wake up to find themselves shackled in a grimy, abandoned bathroom. As they struggle to comprehend their predicament, they discover a disturbing tape left behind by the sadistic mastermind known as Jigsaw. With a chilling voice and cryptic instructions, Jigsaw informs them that they must partake in a gruesome game in order to secure their freedom.
Join us for two screenings of James Wan’s 2004 horror classic Saw, playing this year as part of our Pride Month programming!
Two men wake up to find themselves shackled in a grimy, abandoned bathroom. As they struggle to comprehend their predicament, they discover a disturbing tape left behind by the sadistic mastermind known as Jigsaw. With a chilling voice and cryptic instructions, Jigsaw informs them that they must partake in a gruesome game in order to secure their freedom.
Saw may not wave a rainbow flag, but in the best tradition of horror, it’s deeply, delightfully queer. From its sadomasochistic aesthetics to its fixation on secrets, guilt, and transformation, Saw taps into queer-coded themes of repression and revelation. The entire franchise revolves around hidden lives, bodies under pressure, and moral tests imposed by a voyeuristic authority. Watch it again and make the choice for yourself!
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Our first Volunteer Of The Month pick comes from Ellie, who has chosen Jacques Toureur’s 1948 classic I Walked With A Zombie!
In this haunting reimagining of Jane Eyre by way of Caribbean folklore, Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) travels to the West Indies island of Saint Sebastian to care for Jessica Holland, the mysteriously catatonic wife of a sugar plantation owner. As Betsy uncovers more about the family’s tragic past, she becomes entangled in an atmosphere thick with secrets, sorrow, and superstition.
Drawn toward the eerie pull of local voodoo rites and emotional tensions within the Holland household, Betsy’s journey becomes one of descent—into both personal obsession and the island’s enigmatic spiritual world. What emerges isn’t just a horror tale, but a ghostly meditation on colonialism, love, and the things that refuse to die.
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Our Technicolor Summer series continues with the Cary Grant-Grace Kelly-Alfred Hitchcock classic To Catch A Thief!
On the sun-drenched French Riviera, retired jewel thief John “The Cat” Robie (Cary Grant) finds his peaceful life interrupted when a string of copycat burglaries threatens to frame him for crimes he didn’t commit. Determined to clear his name, Robie sets out to catch the new thief in action—posing once more as a high-society gentleman among the Riviera’s wealthy elite.
There, he meets Frances Stevens (Grace Kelly), a cool and elegant American heiress who may be more intrigued by Robie’s rumored criminal past than his attempts at innocence. As romance and suspicion intertwine, To Catch a Thief becomes a dazzling game of cat and mouse—full of flirtation, deception, and Hitchcock’s signature suspense.
In the early 1930s, the 3-strip Technicolor process was introduced to audiences, inviting them to experience a world dripping with vibrant saturation for the very first time. The Technicolor Summer series ranges from familiar classics to rarely-screened gems all Summer long!
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Our Pride Month programming takes a dark turn as we venture into the nu-Giallo genre with Yann Gonzalez’s brilliantly bizarre Knife + Heart!
Set in Paris during the summer of 1979, Knife + Heart follows Anne (Vanessa Paradis), a producer and director of gay pornography, who is grappling with the recent departure of her editor and lover, Loïs (Kate Moran). In an attempt to win her back, Anne embarks on creating her most ambitious film yet. However, the production takes a dark turn when one of her actors is brutally murdered, leading Anne into a perilous investigation that intertwines with her professional and personal life.
Exploring themes of love, obsession, and the blurred lines between reality and fiction, Knife + Heart delves deep into the world of 1970s gay pornography, offering a narrative that is both a tribute to and a critique of the Giallo genre.
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