Alex Cox (U.S., 2007). Ed Pansullo in person. Two men in a lengthy odyssey to exact revenge for past wrongdoings-not John Ford's anguished oater The Searchers, but Alex Cox's road movie redux, which follows two former actors on a trail of vengeance. A road romp filled with film references, sly homages, buddy banter, and a love of the panoramic. (96 mins)

John Ford (U.S., 1948) Archival print! Lecture by J. Hoberman, followed by a book signing. The first entry in John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy, Fort Apache sets the nineteenth-century war against the Indians within the sensibility of post-WW II combat. With Henry Fonda, John Wayne, and Shirley Temple. (127 mins plus lecture)

René Clair (France, 1928). Judith Rosenberg on piano. A masterpiece of silent comedy, The Italian Straw Hat is a tribute by René Clair to the early French pioneer filmmakers, but one that moves with a rhythm and tempo unseen before its time. “One of the funniest films ever made, and one of the most elegant as well” (Pauline Kael). (84 mins)

Rose Lowder (France, 1979–2010). Rose Lowder in person. Introduced by Greta Snider. French filmmaker Rose Lowder has made over fifty experimental films, many of them shot frame-by-frame in rural Europe. Scott MacDonald has observed, “The most memorable of Lowder's films are experiments in creating distinct visual experiences.” Films include Colored Sunflowers, Poppies and Sailboats, Sun Garden, and Sea Salt Flower. (77 mins)

William Cameron Menzies (U.S., 1953). Student Pick! A terrified thirteen-year-old witnesses an alien invasion, in Menzies's paranoid Cold War-era yarn. “Stylized and almost avant-garde in its use of minimal forms, forced perspective, and bursts of color-field frames, Invaders from Mars suggests a Cold War Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, complete with added dream ‘frame'” (Hoberman). (78 mins)

Samuel Fuller (U.S., 1953). Pickpockets and cheap whores battle Commie provocateurs along the seedy New York waterfront in Sam Fuller's noirish potboiler of gutter-level loyalties, both personal and political. With Richard Widmark. (80 mins)

René Clair (France, 1930). René Clair's first sound film involves entanglements among a comely immigrant (Pola Illéry), a street singer (Albert Préjean), a petty criminal (Gaston Modot), and the singer's best friend (Edmond Gréville); the film's creativity and wit lie not in the plot but in Clair's inventive technique. (82 mins)

René Clair (France, 1955). René Clair's first color film is set in a provincial garrison just before World War I. Gérard Philipe plays a cavalry officer and self-styled Don Juan who wagers that he can seduce any woman in town, chosen at random. (106 mins)