Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Run Time: 97min
Georges Franju, 1963, 97min, DCP
Starring Channing Pollock, Édith Scob, Francine Bergé, Théo Sarapo
Franju’s playful, hyper-stylish homage to Louis Feuillade’s silent serials is as marvelous a crime caper as the films that inspired it. Judex (noted American magician Channing Pollock) is an elusive black hat and cloak–wearing vigilante whose latest target is a thieving banker (Michel Vitold), whom he demands give half his fortune to his victims, and kidnaps him when he refuses. Soon, a virtuous daughter (Édith Scob), her child’s scheming governess (Francine Bergé), and a detective on Judex’s trail (Jacques Jouanneau), are entangled, as the film rollicks along bolstered by magnificent camerawork and costumes.
“If the visual intensity of the silent film had never existed, Franju would have invented it.” – Raymond Durgnat
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Franju’s wild final feature, and second foray into Feuillade territory, is a pulpy fantasy/crime thriller featuring a search for treasure hidden by the Templars, a red-masked villain known as The Man Without a Face (plus his army of zombielike killers), and Gayle Hunnicutt equipped with a catsuit and deadly darts.
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
In this adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s novel, delusions of reality are conveyed through two very different yet equally idealistic protagonists in WWI France: a Polish widow (Emmanuelle Riva) who aids wounded soldiers on the front lines and a starry-eyed teenager (Fabrice Rouleau) who creates a new identity in order to enlist.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Part Agatha Christie whodunit, part William Castle gimmickry, with a dash of giallo, Franju’s mischievous follow-up to Eyes Without a Face watches a greedy family (including a baby-faced Jean-Louis Trintignant) scramble to inherit a fortune… all while the beneficiaries begin turning up dead.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
An exquisite Emmanuelle Riva appears in the title role of a complex woman stifled by a confining provincial existence and loveless marriage. Her increasing resistance to playing the role of perfect wife and mother triggers an intense, murderous hatred for her boring, landowner husband (Philippe Noiret)
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
An early body-horror marvel, Franju’s influential chiller sees a surgeon/mad scientist (Pierre Brasseur) take extreme measures to restore the face of his daughter (Édith Scob) after a disfiguring car accident. Misunderstood upon its release and now rightfully recognized as a masterpiece, Franju’s best-known work is memorably gruesome and gorgeous.
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
A hard-hitting look at mental health misdealing, Franju’s first fiction feature stars Jean-Pierre Mocky as a young man adrift from purpose, who is institutionalized by his dad, a miserable lawyer. Audiences feel François’s pain as he struggles to reclaim his freedom, especially now that he has fallen in love (Anouk Aimée).
Friday, March 20, 2026
Before directing his debut narrative feature in 1958, Franju made a series of extraordinary documentary shorts beginning with Le Métro (1935), co-directed by Henri Langlois. After an extended break, he created La Premiere nuit (The First Night, 1958), Notre-Dame, Cathédrale de Paris (1957), Mon Chien (My Dog, 1955) and the legendary Blood of the Beasts (Le Sang des bêtes, 1948). These films and more will be featured in this program.
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