Cornell Cinema presents series 'When New York Was a Woman'

Carol Kane stars as a young wife who joins her husband in the Jewish immigrant community of New York's Lower East Side at the turn of the century in "Hester Street," the first film in the Cornell Cinema series "When New York Was a Woman."

In conjunction with the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art's exhibit "Changing Roles-Changing Views: A Woman's New York," Cornell Cinema presents the series "When New York Was a Woman: 1900-1950," seven films about how women made the city their own, before the rise of feminism, during New York's heyday as America's cultural and economic capital.

Unless otherwise noted, admission to each screening is $4.50/$4 students, seniors and children 12 and under.

The series begins with Joan Micklin Silver's 1974 "Hester Street," which is set at the beginning of the 20th century in the Jewish immigrant community on New York's Lower East Side. The film focuses on the marriage of Jake, who desperately wants to be "American," and Gitl, who is caught between the values of her past and the need to adapt to life in New York. "Hester Street" will be shown Friday, Sept. 8, at 7:15 p.m. in Uris Auditorium. Associate Professor Mary Woods, whose class organized the Johnson Museum exhibit, will introduce the film and the series before the screening.

Women themselves have documented their visions of the city in every era, and the series includes a program of city studies by female film pioneers. Helen Levitt's "In the Street" and Shirley Clarke's "Bridges-Go-Round" are both early 20th century examinations of the urban landscape. The two films will be shown Sunday, Sept. 10, at 3 p.m. in the Johnson Museum. Admission is free.

Other films in the series include:

• "It" (1927), which established Clara Bow as a sex symbol for the Jazz Age with its racy portrait of a shop girl who charms the boss' son during a night of fun at Coney Island, Friday, Sept. 15, 7:30 p.m., Willard Straight Theatre.
• 1954's "It Should Happen to You," starring Judy Holliday as a working girl who plasters her name on a Manhattan billboard and becomes an instant celebrity, Saturday, Sept. 30, at 7:15 p.m. in Uris Auditorium.
• "Possessed," the 1931 drama with Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, a movie that balances its visual imagination with a mature and sexy story of urban corruption and personal redemption, Monday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m., Willard Straight Theatre.
• Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 classic "Rear Window," starring Grace Kelly as a glamorous New York career woman who must navigate a treacherous passage between public and private space in a thriller that's as much about urban architecture as murder, Monday, Oct. 23, 9 p.m., Willard Straight Theatre.