Cinemachat with Elliott Stein
Film critic and historian Elliott Stein curates this film and discussion series.

The Beast (La Bête) (1975) 104min
Wed, Nov 12 at 4:30, 6:50*, 9:30pm
*Cinemachat with Elliott Stein
Directed by Walerian Borowczyk
This outrageous, erotic fairy tale, an all-out assault on social conventions, was directed by the great Polish animator Borowczyk. A huge scandal when released, it hasn’t been shown in many years. Borowczyk’s disturbing Freudian fantasy about an American heiress and her encounter with a legendary beast, possessed of a giant phallus, is a consistent joy to watch. (No One Under 18 Will Be Admitted To This Screening.)

By the Bluest of Seas (U samovo sinyego morya) (1936) 71min
Wed, Dec. 10 at 4:30, 6:50*, 9:10pm
*Cinemachat with Elliott Stein
Directed by Boris Barnet
With Nikolai Kryuchlov, Yelena Kuzmina, Elena Kouzmina
One of the films revered by French filmmakers such as Godard and Otar Iosseliani, this marvelous picture, a spontaneous and joyful romantic comedy shot at eye-popping locations, stars the delicious Elena Kouzmina as a bouncy island beauty wooed by two young shipwrecked Caspian fisherman. And it’s more fun than Alexander Nevsky. This film screens as part of the series The Extraordinary Mr. Barnet.