Cornell Cinema presents four fall break premieres at the Straight

Canadian director Guy Maddin's "Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary" screens Oct. 11, 13 and 14 at Willard Straight Theatre. The film is part of Cornell Cinema's Contemporary Sureelists Around the World series.

As is its custom, Cornell Cinema offers four exciting new films over the fall break period. Three are recent releases and one is a new compilation of archival shorts by Britain's forgotten comic genius; all are Ithaca premieres.

Screenings take place in the Willard Straight Hall Theatre. Ticket prices are $6 general; $5 for students and seniors; and $4 for Cornell graduate students and children 12 and under. For more information on these or other October screenings call 255-3522 or visit http://cinema.cornell.edu.

On Thursday, Oct. 9, at 7:30 p.m., Cornell Cinema presents "How to Be Eccentric: The Films of Richard Massingham," a special touring program of archival shorts from the British Film Institute (BFI). Massingham's comic routines are credited with having taught 1940s Britain how to cross roads, sneeze into a handkerchief, bathe in 5 inches of water (a wartime necessity) and post early for Christmas. His "absurd humor and visual jolts would have tickled a Surrealist's heart," said the BFI, and perhaps influenced the work of Monty Python. The compilation will be shown with "The Birth of a Robot" (1930, 7 minutes), a magically surreal advertisement for Shell Oil.

Writer-director Karen Moncrieff's film "Blue Car" was a Sundance hit, and revolves around Meg (Agnes Bruckner), a talented student from a troubled family who falls increasingly under the sway of Mr. Auster (David Strathairn), her charismatic but unreliable creative-writing teacher. The screenplay and the complex, nuanced performances avoid a simple scenario of victimization, instead portraying a complex, escalating standoff between two formidable personalities. Rolling Stone calls Bruckner a "revelation, and the film, a small gem." "Blue Car" screens Oct. 10, 12 and 15.

Originally commissioned to translate the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Dracula to television, the wonderfully bizarre Canadian director Guy Maddin has created a visual experience that stands on its own while remaining true to the spirit of Mark Godden's choreography in "Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary." Screening as part of Cornell Cinema's Contemporary Sureelists Around the World series, it will be shown with the classic Surrealist short "The Life and Death of a Hollywood Extra" (1928) by Robert Florey. "Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary" screens Oct. 10, 11 and 14.

Ryosuke Hashiguchi's delightful "Hush" is a contemporary Japanese domestic comedy about two male lovers and the feisty, female dental hygienist who demands to have a baby with one of them. The film, which will be shown Oct. 11, 13 and 14, follows the three characters through a gently comic series of encounters, hopefully leading all three to a new kind of familial bliss.