CU Cinema offers series of films from 'Soviet Walt Disney' to Burt Lancaster

Cornell Cinema reopened June 19 for its summer season, which includes a fabulous slate of new independent films, restorations of classic French and Italian films, a mini Burt Lancaster retrospective, a series of magically animated films by Alexandr Ptushko (known as the Soviet Walt Disney), special outdoor screenings on the Willard Straight terrace (July 11: "Singin' in the Rain"; July 18: "North by Northwest"; July 25: "Strictly Ballroom") and recent Hollywood and art house films.

For a complete lineup, including screening times, call 255-3522 or visit http://cinema.cornell.edu . All screenings will be held in Willard Straight Hall. New ticket prices are: $6 general admission, $5 students and seniors and $4 Cornell graduate students and kids 12 and under. Prices for the 10-admission discount card are now: $45 general, $40 students and seniors and $35 Cornell grad students.

One of several summer series, "Recent Restorations From Rialto," began last week with Jean-Luc Godard's "Band of Outsiders." Founded in 1997, Rialto Pictures has been delighting cinema buffs ever since with its restorations and re-releases of classic foreign films. The series continues this week with "Bob le Flambeur (Bob the Gambler)" from 1955. A wry and romantic film from the father of the French new wave, writer-director Jean-Pierre Melville's policier tells the story of a gallant, small-time Paris gambler who wants to make one last grand heist, the robbery of the casino at Deauville. It will screen Friday, June 28, at 7:45 p.m., Sunday, June 30, at 9 p.m. and Monday, July 1, at 7:45 p.m.

The restored print of Julien Duvivier's classic "Pépé le Moko," starring Jean Gabin, was featured at the recent Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the story of Pépé, a criminal hiding out in the Casbah. Elvis Mitchell of the The New York Times calls it "one of the most purely enjoyable films ever made." It will screen Friday, July 5, at 7:45 p.m. and Monday, July 8, at 9:45 p.m.

"Beauty, Brawn and Brains: A Burt Lancaster Mini-Retro" offers three portraits of Lancaster's remarkable talent: the dishy, tough-talking sergeant in Fred Zinnemann's "From Here to Eternity"; the cerebral J.J. Hunsecker, the powerful newspaper columnist based on Walter Winchell in Alexander Mackendrick's "Sweet Smell of Success"; and the disillusioned Ned Merrill, a Connecticut suburbanite with a secret in "The Swimmer," based on John Cheever's short story. The series begins with "From Here to Eternity," screening July 4 and 9 at 7:15 p.m.

Cornell Cinema also will present new
35 mm subtitled prints of four animated masterpieces by Alexandr Ptushko. According to series organizer Dennis Bartok at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, "Ptushko created his own epic fantasy world filled with wind demons, sorcerers and enchanted stone gardens. In 1933 Ptushko directed one of the world's first full-length animated features, 'The New Gulliver' -- four years before Disney's 'Snow White' -- and went on to make the haunting masterpiece 'The Stone Flower,' Russia's first color feature, and other astonishing fantasies." The series begins with "The Stone Flower," which will screen Monday, July 8, and Wednesday, July 10, at 7:45 p.m.