Drawn from Life: The Graphic Novel on Film

9/10/10 to 10/31/10

The comic book and its high-brow brother, the graphic novel, hit the screen with this eight-film tribute spanning Popeyes, Pekars, Hellboys, and Swamp Things.

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  • Hellboy, September 11

  • Upcoming
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  • Upcoming
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  • Selected
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  • Past
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  • Past
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Past Films

  • Swamp Thing

    • Sunday, October 31 7:30 PM

    Wes Craven (U.S., 1982). Horror-king Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street) campily adapts the DC comics about a scientist turned into a raging half-man, half-vegetable (and sometimes-lover, whenever busty Adrienne Barbeau is around). “One of those movies that fall somewhere between buried treasures and guilty pleasures.”-Roger Ebert (91 mins)

  • American Splendor

    • Saturday, October 2 8:30 PM

    Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (U.S., 2003). The everyday workplace woes and hypochondriac harangues of the anti-bard of the Rust Belt, Harvey Pekar, are brought to life, starring Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, and Pekar himself. “A profound tribute to lives lived on the fringes of society.”-Variety (101 mins)

  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

    • Sunday, September 26 6:45 PM

    Roger Zemeckis (U.S., 1988). Gumshoe Bob Hoskins finds himself on the wrong side of the tracks-the cartoon side-in Zemeckis's delirious merging of the real and the animated, set in a noirish postwar Los Angeles. “A film whose best moments are so novel, so deliriously funny and so crazily unexpected that they truly must be seen to be believed.”-New York Times (104 mins)

  • Tank Girl

    • Friday, September 24 9:15 PM

    Rachel Talalay (U.S., 1995). In the future there's no water, and less power, until a grrrl-rocking superheroine Tank Girl (Lori Petty) aims her tank at the system. With music by Courtney Love and appearances by Ice-T and Iggy Pop. (104 mins)

  • Sin City

    • Saturday, September 18 8:50 PM

    Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez (U.S., 2005). The director of El Mariachi combined with underground comic artist Frank Miller for this hard-boiled adaptation of Miller's graphic novels. Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, and Benicio del Toro star. “It's something Hollywood seems to have given up on: a bold, uncompromised vision.”-Rolling Stone (124 mins)

  • Popeye

    • Thursday, September 16 7:00 PM

    Robert Altman (U.S., 1980). Robin Williams is Popeye, with Shelley Duval his Olive Oyl, in Nashville's Robert Altman's musical comedy, adapted from the 1930s comic by Jules Feiffer. “Altman takes one of the most artificial and limiting of art forms, the comic strip, and raises it to the level of high comedy and high spirits.”-Roger Ebert (114 mins)

  • Hellboy

    • Saturday, September 11 8:45 PM

    Guillermo del Toro (U.S., 2004). Graphic artist Mike Mignola in person. Demon-spawn Ron Perlman aims his flaming charms against the forces of evil in Guillermo del Toro's fantastically rendered vision of Mignola's graphic novel. “Fun. It's a crucial but often overlooked element in a summer blockbuster comic-book adaptation and it's in Hellboy by the spadeload.”-Time Out (122 mins)

  • Flash Gordon

    • Friday, September 10 9:00 PM

    Mike Hodges (U.S., 1980). Quarterback/superhero Flash Gordon battles Ming the Merciless (and plenty of oversexed goddesses) in this eighties' camp vision of the future, a Star Wars designed by Frederick's of Hollywood. Music by Queen. (115 mins)