Alexei Guerman/Grigori Aronov (U.S.S.R., 1967). New Print! Set during Russia's Red and White Terrors, Guerman's first film follows a former tsarist officer turned Revolutionary sympathizer who finds himself adrift between both worlds. (89 mins)

Les Blank (U.S., 1988). Les Blank in person. Slide-guitar great and world music alchemist Ry Cooder and a handpicked orchestra of virtuoso musicians play The Catalyst in Santa Cruz. Preceded by Sword to the Drum, a tribute to Afro-Cuban drummer Francisco Aguabella. (120 mins)

Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy, 1962). Pasolini captured the great Anna Magnani “like a found object” (Village Voice) in her role as a spirited prostitute; her downtrodden exuberance stands in for Rome itself. (105 mins)

David Fincher (U.S., 1999). A bored white-collar worker (Edward Norton) meets the charismatic Tyler (Brad Pitt) and they form a bare-knuckle “fight club,” a form of escapism that escalates into something more dangerous. “The teamwork of Mr. Norton and Mr. Pitt is as provocative and complex as it's meant to be” (Janet Maslin, NY Times). (139 mins)

John M. Stahl (U.S., 1934). The lives of a black maid (Louise Beavers) and a white widow (Claudette Colbert) intersect in a scheme to manufacture pancake batter, in this melodrama from an unfortunately little-known director. Nominated for three Academy Awards, Imitation of Life was named by Time in 2007 as one of the twenty-five most important films on race. (116 mins)

James Clavell (U.S., 1967). When Sidney Poitier, a new teacher in London's tough East End, is faced with an unruly mob, known as students, he keeps his cool. The ever-caring educator turns the other cheek and in the end gets the young hoodlums to call him “sir.” (105 mins)

Alexei Guerman (U.S.S.R., 1984). The adventures of the varied inhabitants of a 1930s communal flat reveal a world still optimistic about Communism, yet poised to be devoured by Stalinism. Simultaneously hopeful and mournful, realist and fabulist, Lapshin was named the best Soviet film of all time in a 1987 poll of Russian critics. (100 mins)

Joseph V. Mascelli (U.S., 1963). Free outdoor screening on Center Street! Smooth Toad jug band, artist Michael Campos-Quinn's sensored sculptures, and Jeremy Martin-Shepard's introduction to Connectomics (the newest thing in mapping the brain's neural connections) jumpstart our first evening of cerebral cinema. Then in The Atomic Brain, an aging spinster finances the brain transplant experiments of a mad scientist in the hope that her brain can be transplanted into the bod of a younger babe. (70 mins, plus pre-movie mania)

Raj Kapoor (India, 1955). New 35mm print! A country hick finds honesty won't get him far in the city in Kapoor's delirious underdog tale, informed in equal parts by India's post-Partition urban realities and Frank Capra's joyful thirties comedies, and boasting more Kapoor/Nargis charisma. Shankar-Jaikeshen's soundtrack includes several immortal songs. (169 mins)