Art cinema

Cornell Cinema brings Polish painter and poet Lech Majewski's "The Mill and the Cross" to Willard Straight Theatre Nov. 18-19.

Director Mejewski turns Bruegel's masterpiece "The Way to Calvary" into a living canvas of morbid curiosities and insightful meditations, with a cast of international stars including Rutger Hauer, Michael York and Charlotte Rampling.

The film is included in Cornell Cinema's Passport to the World, an incentive to travel more widely throughout the cinematic globe. Passports are free at the Cinema office, 104 Willard Straight Hall. Get a stamp at four foreign-language films and then see a fifth film for free.

The Passport program is cosponsored with the International Students Programming Board, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, the International Students & Scholars Office, and the Public Service Center.

Cornell Cinema also continues its Alums Make Movies series, with "The Devil's Double," a 2011 documentary about the body double for Saddam Hussein's son that was executive produced by Harris Tulchin '74, on Nov. 19; and the comedy "Friends with Benefits," directed by Will Gluck '93, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10.

Natural words and images

Frank Robinson, retired director of the Johnson Museum of Art, and Ithaca photographer Dede Hatch have collaborated on a new book of poetry and images, "Soft Applause for the Day."

The title comes from a line of haiku by Robinson, who has published three previous chapbooks of verse. The words and photographs in the new book both focus on the intimate details of the natural world and our place in it.

Robinson and Hatch will hold a presentation and book signing Nov. 19 from 3-5 p.m. at Buffalo Street Books, in the Dewitt Mall in downtown Ithaca. The public is invited. Information: http://www.buffalostreetbooks.com/.

Jazz scene

Cornell students, in collaboration with Obie Award-winning actor Alec Duffy and visiting artist Godfrey L. Simmons Jr., will present a staged scene from "Beneath the Underdog," a work in progress adapted from the autobiography of jazz great Charles Mingus, Nov. 20 at 3 p.m. in the Flex Theatre at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, 430

College Ave. Admission is free.

Mingus's book is a colorful depiction of the heyday of the jazz era in America, and a fevered exploration of race, music and the musician's lifestyle. The scene the students are staging is from one of the first stories in the book, about Mingus's teenage romance.

The project is supported by the Cornell Council for the Arts, the Cornell Jazz Ensemble, the Africana Studies and Research Center and the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance. For information, contact Simmons at gls34@cornell.edu.

Also at the Schwartz Center: Jean-Paul Sartre's "No Exit," Nov. 17-19 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. in Kiplinger Theatre. Tickets are $11/$13, at the box office, 607-254-ARTS or www.schwartztickets.com. The Fall Dance Theatre Concert will be staged Dec. 1-3 at 7:30 p.m.; tickets are $5.

Address to staff

President David Skorton gives his annual President's Address to Staff, Monday,Nov. 28 at noon in Bailey Hall. Hosted by the Employee Assembly.

The 2011 Employee Appreciation Award winners also will be recognized, and a take-out lunch will be provided to attendees following Skorton's address.

High-wire act

Sigma Phi's Lawrence and Judith Tannenbaum Lecture Series will present a talk by high-wire artist Philippe Petit, "Nothing Is Impossible," Dec. 1 at 5:30 p.m. in Statler Auditorium. Free; tickets required, available at the Willard Straight Hall ticket desk.

Petit is most famous for his 1974 high-wire walk between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, a feat chronicled in the Oscar-winning 2008 documentary "Man on Wire." He will speak about creativity, tenacity, motivation and the pursuit of excellence, and stories from his life with the help of slides, demonstrations, sketches and magic tricks.

Polenberg's last lecture

Richard Polenberg, the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History, will reflect on his Cornell teaching career in a Last Lecture, Dec. 1 at 5 p.m. in Bache Auditorium, Malott Hall. Free; presented by the Mortar Board Senior Honor Society.

Polenberg has taught at Cornell since 1966 and is retiring this year; the last lecture in his American Constitutional Development course also is Dec. 1. In both lectures he will talk about people who have helped him; discuss his philosophy of teaching, "offer my students some good advice, and say a little about my future plans," he said.

Polenberg is a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow with interests in modern American political and social history, the writer or editor of 10 books, and a folk musician.

Each semester, the Mortar Board Society invites one of Cornell's most prestigious professors to speak as if it were his or her last opportunity to address the community and impart valuable insight and wisdom.

Polenberg also gives a brief lecture, "Keith Huff: The Playwright as Historian," after evening performances of Huff's play "A Steady Rain," Dec. 2-4 at The Space@Greenstar, 700 W. Buffalo St., Ithaca.