Renowned animation auteur Michel Ocelot’s new film extends the distinguished shadow puppet style of his PRINCES AND PRINCESSES and AZUR AND ASMAR with black-silhouetted characters set off against exquisitely detailed Day-Glo backgrounds bursting with color and kaleidoscopic patterns. A girl, a boy, and an old man get together in a small movie theater full of wonders where they invent, draw, dress up, and become characters in magical stories. The film weaves together six of their exotic fables, each unfolding in a unique locale—Tibet, medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African plains, and even the Land of the Dead. In Ocelot’s storytelling, history blends with fairytale as he whisks us away to enchanted lands full of dragons, werewolves, captive princesses, sorcerers, and enormous talking bees. (84 mins.)

In French with English subtitles; afternoon screenings (before 5 p.m.) are dubbed in English for younger audiences.

Based on Gunter Grass’ acclaimed novel, this allegorical story traces the life of a troubled boy, Oskar, who refuses to grow up as the rise and fall of the Third Reich takes place around him. Precocious Oskar has two skills which keep the hypocritical behavior of adults at bay: he can pound his drum mercilessly, and he can scream at such a pitch that glass shatters. Exploring the links between political and sexual politics—as seen through the eyes of a child—the story takes on its own reality to convey the dark and troubled times of Germany in the 20th century and remains an eloquent and disturbing look at a country dangerously caught up in its own complacency. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, THE TIN DRUM is an unforgettable fantasia of surreal imagery, striking eroticism, and unflinching satire. This newly restored version includes 25 minutes Schlöndorff was obliged to cut from his 1979 original. (167 mins.)

Mature audiences.

Our annual compilation of recent shorts by emerging French directors offers an eclectic selection of narrative, documentary, and animated international prizewinners that give voice to the diversity of French culture and fresh new talents. The program includes: THE GREAT RABBIT by Atsushi Wada (7 mins.); EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU by Cécile Ducrocq (6 mins.); KALI THE LITTLE VAMPIRE by Regina Pessoa (10 mins.); CATHARSIS by Cédric Prévost (18 mins.); EDMOND WAS A DONKEY by Franck Dion (15 mins.); A SHADOW OF BLUE by Carlos Lascano (13 mins.); and GOD’S THE ONE TO TELL by Elsa Diringer (13 mins.). Complete program notes available at the screenings. (90 mins.)

Co-presented with the Alliance Française de Portland, with support from Le Happy.

Newly restored to pristine 35mm Technicolor glory by the Academy Film Archive in association with the British Film Institute National Archive and the Film Foundation, legendary producers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s (THIEF OF BAGDAD, THE RED SHOES) COLONEL BLIMP remains one of the classics of British cinema. Based on a famous newspaper cartoon series, the film stars Roger Livesay as Clive Candy, who describes in flashback his “illustrious” 40-year military career from the Boer War up until World War II. Deborah Kerr plays Candy’s love interests over the years in three leading roles. Made in 1942 when Britain was under perilous German siege, this sublime romantic comedy was an outrageously original and passionate rejection of the wartime stress on realism and obedience. “Like much of Powell and Pressburger’s work, it is a salute to all that is paradoxical about the English; no one else has so well captured their romanticism banked down beneath emotional reticence and honor. And it is marked by an enormous generosity of spirit: in the history of the British cinema, there is nothing to touch it.”—Time Out London (163 mins.)

2012 marks the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, whose great novels have held readers—and filmgoers—in sway for generations. Tonight, we offer the first of three of his classics on page and screen. Dickens’ tale of the miserly Scrooge, whose life passes before him when spirits visit him on Christmas Eve, finds definitive cinematic telling in Hurst’s luminous black-and-white classic. An incomparable roster of British actors—Michael Holden, Hattie Jacques, George Cole, and Alastair Sim as the comically miserly Ebenezer Scrooge—brings to life this inspiring story of hope coming only after gloom. (86 mins.)

35mm print from the British Film Institute.

David Lean delivered arguably the finest of all Dickens screen adaptations. Orphan lad Pip (Anthony Wager) struggles to get by until an unknown benefactor provides him a generous allowance. Along the way, there’s an encounter with escaped convict Magwitch (Finlay Currie) on the foggy moors; etiquette lessons in the crumbling mansion of mad Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt), where he meets the lovely but cruel Estella (Jean Simmons) and best pal Herbert Pocket (Alec Guinness); and finally adventures in London as a young man on the move (now played by John Mills). (118 mins.)

Nominated for five Oscars with wins for Best Cinematography and Art Direction.

Cavalcanti’s Ealing Studios adaption of Dickens’ third novel is notable for its gritty visuals, depicting Victorian life with the contemporary cinematic styles of neorealism and film noir. His father dead and prospects dim, young Nicholas Nickleby (Derek Bond) must rely on his wealthy but wicked Uncle Ralph (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). A teaching post at the prison-like Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire, run by vicious Wackford Squeers (Alfred Drayton), ends in violent confrontation, Nicholas fleeing with his friend Smike (Aubrey Woods) and returning to London just in time to defend his sister Kate (Sally Ann Howes) from Uncle Ralph’s predations. (108 mins.)

35mm print from the British Film Institute.