New 35mm Prints!
PFA proudly salutes the distribution company Janus Films on the occasion of its golden anniversary. Founded in 1956 by Bryant Haliday and Cyrus Harvey, owners of Cambridge's Brattle Theater and the 55th Street Playhouse in Manhattan, Janus began with a mandate to bring important contemporary art films to U.S. audiences. As the distributor of masterpieces such as Bergman's The Seventh Seal, Truffaut's Jules and Jim, and Olmi's Il posto, the company was essential to the watershed moment of art cinema in the United States in the late fifties and early sixties.
In 1965, Haliday and Harvey sold the company to William Becker and Saul Turrell, who decided to broaden the scope of the collection. Janus soon became known not only for contemporary art films, but also for classics such as Renoir's The Rules of the Game, Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, and Dreyer's Day of Wrath, as well as a distinctive collection of