Arabic

Return to Homs

Directed by Talal Derki

(Syria/Germany, 2014, 94 min.)

As the Syrian army acts ever more brutally and their city is transformed into a ghost town, two friends rally a group of brave but inexperienced insurgents determined to help captive civilians get out of the city. Primal and visceral, this extraordinary film dives into the reality of the Syrian resistance with a frenzied immediacy.

Angelika Pop-Up Theatre

Opens Thu., Aug. 7

Cantonese

 3D Naked Ambition

Directed by Lee Kung-lok

(Hong Kong, 2014, 110 min.)

An overeducated writer of cheap erotic fiction and avid aficionado of Japanese adult videos decides he can make better porn than the pros do. The passivity and outright terror he displays in his very first sex scene make him a hit with female fans, and he inadvertently becomes one of the industry’s biggest stars — but will the pressure get to him? (Cantonese and Japanese)

Freer Gallery of Art

Fri., Aug. 8, 7 p.m.

A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora’s Box

Directed by Jeffrey Lau

(Hong Kong, 1995, 87 min.)

In part one of Jeffrey Lau’s two-part odyssey, the Monkey King, who was banished from heaven for trying to eat his master, finds himself reincarnated 500 years later as a clumsy bandit named Joker.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., Aug. 17, 1 p.m.

A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella

Directed by Jeffrey Lau

(Hong Kong, 1995, 95 min.)

The second part of this comic-action epic finds the bandit Joker traveling back in time to discover his true identity as the Monkey King, save his immortal lover, and battle the evil King Bull and his army of giant fleas.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., Aug. 17, 3 p.m.

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

Directed by Stephen Chow and Derek Kwok

(Hong Kong, 2013, 110 min.)

Xuan Zang is a naïve monk who tries, and mostly fails, to defeat demons through nonviolent means, much to the amusement of his rival, the rambunctious and beautiful Duan.

Freer Gallery of Art

Fri., Aug. 15, 7 p.m.

Once Upon a Time in Shanghai

Directed by Wong Ching Po

(Hong Kong, 2014, 96 min.)

Ma Yongzhen is a stunningly gifted martial artist from the sticks who moves to Shanghai, where he finds work with an ambitious crime lord who sees in Ma a way to take down a rival gang.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., Aug. 10, 2 p.m.

Shanghai Blues

Directed by Tsui Hark

(Hong Kong, 1984, 103 min.)

Kwok-man and Shu-Shu meet in 1937 while sheltering from a Japanese bombing raid on Shanghai, but they are separated by World War II. Ten years later they meet again, but Kwok-man’s ditzy new girlfriend is determined to hang onto her man.

Freer Gallery of Art

Fri., Aug. 1, 7 p.m.

The Way We Dance

Directed by Adam Wong

(Hong Kong, 2013, 110 min.)

A young woman’s daydreams propel her from her family’s humble tofu shop to college, where she joins a hip-hop dance crew and enlivens their routines with an injection of tai chi.

Freer Gallery of Art

Sun., Aug. 3, 2 p.m.

Czech

 Burning Bush

(Hořící keř)

Directed by Agnieska Holland

(Czech Republic, 2013, 231 min.)

Based on real characters and events, this drama focuses on the personal sacrifice of a Prague history student, Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1969, as well as the young female lawyer who became part of his legacy by defending Jan’s family in a trial against the communist government.

Avalon Theatre

Wed., Aug. 13, 6:45 p.m.

English

37 Days

Directed by Justin Hardy

(U.K., 2014, 155 min.)

This marathon screening of the three-part BBC miniseries covers the weeks before World War I, from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914, to the United Kingdom declaring war on Germany on Aug. 4, 1914.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 10, 4 p.m.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Directed by Carol Reed

(U.S./Italy, 1965, 138 min.)

Michelangelo and Pope Julius II clash during the painting of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 16, 11:05 a.m.,

Sun., Aug. 17, 4 p.m.

Around the World in 80 Days

Directed by Michael Anderson

(U.S., 1956, 197 min.)

Explorer Phileas Fogg (David Niven) and his valet Passepartout set out on a round-the-world adventure in hopes of collecting on a £20,000 bet.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 31, 1 p.m.

Atlantic City

Directed by Louis Malle

(Canada/France, 1980, 104 min.)

For aging gangster Lou Pascal, Atlantic City never lost its glory, despite its current seedy state. He takes a shine to his pretty neighbor and becomes drawn in to a new racket.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 2, 3 p.m.

The Blue Max

Directed by John Guillermin

(U.K., 1966, 156 min.)

A lowly German infantryman moves up the ranks to lieutenant and becomes a decorated fighter pilot, but his crude ambition rankles the sensibilities of the various “vons” in the privileged officer class.

AFI Silver Theatre

Aug. 29 to Sept. 4

Boyhood

Directed by Richard Linklater

(U.S., 2014, 164 min.)

Filmed over an astonishing 12 years with the same cast, this is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason who literally grows up on screen in this nostalgic ode to growing up and parenting.

AFI Silver Theatre

Through Aug. 28

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Directed by Alec Guinness

Burma, 1943: Ordered by a Japanese prison camp commandant to construct a bridge, British POW Alec Guinness acquiesces, reasoning that the undertaking will provide a morale boost for his men. But in his obsession with detail and pride in his work, Guinness loses sight of the fact that the bridge will serve a deadly purpose — the transport of Japanese munitions.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 16, 2 p.m.,

Tue., Aug. 19, 6:30 p.m.

Calvary

Directed by John Michael McDonagh

(Ireland/U.K., 2014, 101 min.)

The good-natured Father James receives a confession from a man who says he was molested by members of the priesthood during childhood, and, as revenge, is going to arbitrarily kill a good person: Father James himself.

Theater TBA

Opens Fri., Aug. 8

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.

Directed by Raoul Walsh

(U.K., 1951, 117 min.)

Horatio and his 38-gun frigate HMS Lydia head to Central America to fend off the Spanish (allies of Britain’s enemy France), but when he arrives, the Spanish have switched sides, leaving Horatio at odds.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Aug. 22, 5:15 p.m.,

Sat., Aug. 23, 11 a.m.

The Captain’s Paradise

Directed by Anthony Kimmins

(U.K., 1953, 94 min.)

Facing a firing squad, Gibraltar ferryboat captain Henry St. James (Alec Guinness) reminisces about how good he had it when he was living large in blessed transatlantic bigamy.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 9, 6:15 p.m.,

Wed., Aug. 13, 7 p.m.

Cromwell

Directed by Ken Hughes

(U.S./U.K., 1970, 139 min.)

King Charles I (Alec Guinness) matches wits and eventually armies with upstart Puritan Parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell in Ken Hughes’s lavishly appointed, slightly one-sided account of the English Civil War.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 24, 4:20 p.m.,

Tue., Aug. 26, 7 p.m.

The Dark Crystal

Directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz

(U.K., 1982, 95 min.)

On a planet ruled by the evil, lizard-like Skeksis, an orphan raised by peace-loving wizards sets out to find the missing shard of the Dark Crystal, which may restore balance to the world.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Fri. Aug. 22, 11:59 p.m.,

Sat., Aug. 23, 11:59 p.m.

Gallipoli

Directed by Peter Weir

(Australia, 1981, 110 min.)

Australian director Peter Weir and star Mel Gibson rose to international prominence with this chronicle of the hard-fought and controversial Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, where troops from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps suffered enormous casualties fighting alongside British, French and Irish forces against the Ottoman army.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 23, 11:05 a.m.,

Wed., Aug. 27, 4:45 p.m.

Hamlet

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

(U.K./U.S., 1996, 257 min.)

In the Kingdom of Denmark, Prince Hamlet is instructed to exact revenge on his uncle Claudius, who murdered his own brother, Hamlet’s father, and then took the throne.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 3, 4 p.m.

Heroes for Sale

Directed by William A. Wellman

(U.S., 1933, 76 min.)

One of the most thrilling pre-Code melodramas, this film follows working-class hero Richard Barthelmess as he survives serious injury in WWI, overcomes a morphine addiction, faces unemployment and finds love.

AFI Silver Theatre

Aug. 10 to 14

Hitler: The Last Ten Days

Directed by Ennio De Concini

(U.K./Italy, 1973, 108 min.)

Alec Guinness’s portrayal of the Führer during his grim final days in the bunker is instead an understated portrait of ordinary madness.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 23, 4:30 p.m.,

Wed., Aug. 27, 9:20 p.m.

Love is Strange

Directed by Ira Sachs

(Macedonia, 2014, 94 min.)

After Ben and George get married, George is fired from his teaching post, forcing them to stay with friends separately while they sell their place and look for cheaper housing — a situation that weighs heavily on all involved.

Angelika Mosaic Theater

Opens Fri., Aug. 29

Meatballs

Directed by Ivan Reitman

(Canada, 1979, 94 min.)

This film follows the antics of head counselor Tripper Harrison and the counselors-in-training at Camp North Star.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 10, 9:45 p.m.,

Mon., Aug. 11, 9 p.m.

The Prisoner

Directed by Peter Glenville

(U.K., 1955, 91 min.)

Alec Guinness reprises his role as a stalwart cardinal standing up to persecution in an unnamed eastern European Communist regime.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Aug. 8, 5:15 p.m.,

Mon., Aug. 11, 7 p.m.

The Quiller Memorandum

Directed by Michael Anderson

(U.K./U.S., 1966, 104 min.)

Phoenix, a cell of former Nazis in West Berlin, has assassinated two British agents and young agent Quiller is tasked by his handler to root out the Reich diehards.

AFI Silver Theatre

Aug. 24 to 27

Royal Cousins at War: Parts 1 and 2

Directed by Richard Sanders

(U.K., 2014, 120 min.)

At the outbreak of World War I, three cousins reigned over Europe’s greatest powers: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and King George V of Britain. This two-part BBC miniseries looks at the role played by the three monarchs and their relationships with each other in the outbreak of war, arguing that it is far greater than historians have traditionally believed.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 24, 7 p.m.

Ryan’s Daughter

Directed by David Lean

(U.K., 1970, 206 min.)

A British-occupied village in 1916 Ireland is scandalized when word gets out that the much-younger wife of staid schoolteacher Robert Mitchum is carrying on an affair with a British officer Christopher Jones.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Aug. 29, 12 p.m.

Tunes of Glory

Directed by Ronald Neame

(U.S./U.K., 1060, 106 min.)

Having served as acting commander of his regiment during WWII, clever Jock Sinclair (Alec Guinness) has come up in the world from his lowborn beginnings — but conflict erupts when a bureaucratic snob takes command in his beloved army.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 3, 11:30 a.m.,

Tue., Aug. 5, 7:30 p.m.

French

Le Chef

Directed by Daniel Cohen

(France, 2014, 84 min.)

Alexandre Lagarde is the king of the kitchen at Cargo Lagarde, but his position at the top is threatened when the scheming CEO plots to have the restaurant’s Michelin star rating lowered in order to make room for a chef specializing in molecular gastronomy.

Angelika Pop-Up Theatre

Chinese Puzzle

(Casse-tête chinois)

Directed by Cédric Klapisch

(France, 2013, 117 min.)

A 40-year-old father’s life is complicated when the mother of his two children moves to New York. Since he can’t bear them growing up far away from him, he decides to move there as well.

Avalon Theatre

Wed., Aug. 20, 8 p.m.

Jules and Jim

(Jules et Jim)

Directed by François Truffaut

(France, 1962, 105 min.)

In the classic ménage à trois, best friends Henri Serre (the French “Jeem”) and Oskar Werner (the Austrian “Jules”) alternate in the affections of Jeanne Moreau before, during and after World War I (French, English and German).

AFI Silver Theatre

Aug. 15 to 21

Mood Indigo

Directed by Michel Gondry

(France/Belgium, 2013, 94 min.)

Bachelor Colin meets Chloé at a party and, before they know it, they’re dancing to Duke Ellington and plunging headfirst into a romance. But their whirlwind courtship is tested when an unusual illness plagues Chloe and a flower begins to grow in her lungs.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., Aug. 1

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.

(OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d’espions)

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius

(France, 2008, 99 min.)

It’s 1955, Franco-Egyptian relations are tense, and the situation calls for a top-level operative. Enter France’s answer to James Bond: secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, codename OSS 117, who is sent to Cairo to investigate the death of his close friend and fellow agent.

International Spy Museum

Wed., Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m.

Wooden Crosses

(Les crois des bois)

Directed by Raymond Bernard

(France, 1932, 110 min.)

Raymond Bernard made one of the definitive World War I movies in 1932 with this portrait of a regiment made up of men from all walks of life united by a fraternité born on the front.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 2, 12:45 p.m.

German

Comradeship

(Kameradshaft)

Directed by G.W. Pabst

(Germany/France, 1931, 93 min.)

Even though the Great War is over, tensions run high in the towns along the French-German border. But after a mining disaster on the French side traps some 600 French miners below ground, German miners volunteer to aid the French effort to rescue the men.

AFI Silver Theatre

Aug. 31 to Sept. 3

Käthe Kollwitz – Images of a Life

(Käthe Kollwitz – Bilder eines Lebens)

Directed by Ralf Kirsten

(Germany, 1986, 96 min.)

Käthe Kollwitz was a well-established artist in Germany and abroad when her youngest son volunteered to join the German army in WWI and was killed two weeks later. This painful tragedy changed Kollwitz’s life and art forever.

Goethe-Institut

Mon., Aug. 18, 6:30 p.m.

The Lost Angel

(Der verlorene Engel)

Directed by Ralf Kirsten

(Germany, 1966, 59 min.)

In 1937, when the expressionist German sculptor Ernst Barlach learned that the Nazis had dragged his famous memorial for WWI victims out of the Güstrow cathedral, he started reflecting on his experiences in WWI and on his works, which the Nazis had either confiscated or denounced as “degenerate.”

Goethe-Institut

Mon., Aug. 25, 6:30 p.m.

Hebrew

Kazablan

Directed by Menahem Golan

(Israel, 1973, 95 min.)

This Israeli “West Side Story” unfolds when Kazablan, a dark Sephardic Jew, takes time out from hassling the poverty-stricken tenants of the Jaffa ghetto to court the fair-skinned Rachel, an Ashkenazi Jew.

Washington DCJCC

Tue., Aug. 12, 7:30 p.m.

Hindi

Siddharth

Directed by Richie Mehta

(Canada/India, 2014, 97 min.)

Mehendra is a chain-wallah, eking out a living fixing zippers on the bustling streets of New Delhi, who slowly begins to suspect that his 12-year-old son was kidnapped by child traffickers. With few resources and no connections, Mehendra desperately travels to Punjab and Mumbai with the hope that whoever took his son might return him unharmed.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Opens Fri., Aug. 15

Italian

5 Dolls for an August Moon

(5 bambole per la luna d’agosto)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy, 1970, 80 min.)

A wealthy industrialist invites a group of investors to his private island to discuss a top-secret new venture, but the greedy group’s scheming and backstabbing derails the meeting. After a series of mysterious killings, however, they must band together lest they all perish one by one.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 16, 10 p.m.

A Bay of Blood aka Twitch of the Death Nerve

(Reazione a catena aka Ecologia del delitto)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy, 1971, 84 min.)

Looking for a love shack, four lusty teens break into a seaside cottage, not realizing that they’ve intruded not only upon a murderous squabble among a family of decadent aristocrats, but also a murder plot cooked up by greedy real-estate speculators.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 23, 9 p.m.

A Five Star Life

(Viaggio Sola)

Directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi

(Italy, 2013, 85 min.)

Stylish and independent, Irene is a single career woman in her forties with a job to die for as a luxury hotel critic, but when Irene’s small support network is fractured, she struggles to balance a glamorous career with the growing desire for something more.

Avalon Theatre

Opens Fri., Aug. 1

Baron Blood

(Gil orrori del castello di Norimberga)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy/Germany, 1972, 100 min.)

Baron Otto von Kleist aka “Baron Blood” is resurrected after a spell is unwittingly read by his modern-day ancestor and an architect hired to turn the family castle into an upscale hotel.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 24, 9:20 p.m.

Danger: Diabolik

(Diabolik)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy/France, 1968, 105 min.)

An investigator and gangster pursue a super-thief who runs around stealing jewels, murdering innocent people, and being a nuisance to the government of a generic European country.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Aug. 15, 9:30 p.m.,

Tue., Aug 19, 9:40 p.m.

The Great War

(La grande guerra)

Directed by Mario Monicelli

(Italy/France, 1959, 137 min.)

Two slackers become friends, united in their efforts to avoid duty as much as possible. But with the Austrian army approaching, their mettle will be tested nonetheless.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 16, 11 a.m.,

Mon., Aug. 18, 7 p.m.

Hatchet for the Honeymoon aka Blood Bribes

(Il rosso segno della follia)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy/Spain, 1970, 88 min.)

The handsome owner of an upscale bridal shop who suffers from crippling impotence that has left him unable to consummate his marriage begins luring women to his shop, dressing them in his wedding gowns, and then murdering them.

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Aug. 15, 9:30 p.m.,

Tue., Aug 19, 9:40 p.m.

Kill, Baby, Kill

(Operazione paura)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy, 1966, 85 min.)

A Transylvanian village suffers from a spate of strange murders, the victims found with silver coins embedded in their hearts. Is the killer the town witch? The mysterious baroness? Or the ghost of the baroness’ murdered daughter?

AFI Silver Theatre

Fri., Aug 1, 12 a.m. midnight,

Sat., Aug 2, 12 a.m. midnight

Many Wars Ago

(Uomino contro)

Directed by Francesco Rosi

(Italy/Yugoslavia, 1970, 100 min.)

After being ordered on a series of suicide missions to attack the superior Austrian forces on the Balkan front, Italian troops mutiny against their reckless and tyrannical officers.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 17, 11 a.m.,

Wed., Aug. 20, 7:20 p.m.

Planet of the Vampires

(Terrore nello spazio)

Directed by Mario Bava

(Italy/Spain, 1965, 86 min.)

On a deep space mission from Earth, the crew of two spaceships become possessed by a mysterious force, first causing them to slaughter one another, and then reanimating their corpses.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 30, 10:30 p.m.

Mandarin

Ilo Ilo

Directed by Anthony Chen

(Singapore, 2013, 99 min.)

Set in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, this film chronicles the day-to-day drama of the Lim family: troublesome grade-schooler Jiale and his overstressed parents, as well as the Filipino immigrant they hire as a live-in nanny.

Angelika Pop-Up Theatre

Silent

The Big Parade

Directed by King Vidor

(U.S., 1925, 141 min.)

An idle rich boy joins the U.S. Army and is sent to France to fight in World War I, where he befriends two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 23, 2 p.m.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Directed by Rex Ingram

(U.S., 1921, 132 min.)

The spoiled scion of a wealthy international family enlists in the French army after a mystical vision of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, prophesied in the Book of Revelation, convinces him to do his duty.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 17, 1:15 p.m.

Four Sons

Directed by John Ford

(U.S., 1928, 100 min.)

The loving matriarch of a Bavarian family watches as her four boys grow up and go off to war — three in the Kaiser’s army, but one having immigrated to America, enlisting in the Allied Expeditionary Force.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sun., Aug. 3, 2 p.m.

J’accuse

Directed by Abel Gance

(France, 1919, 166 min.)

An arranged marriage between a young woman and a much older man separates her from her true love, a poet, while the cataclysm of the Great War turns their love triangle topsy-turvy.

AFI Silver Theatre

Sat., Aug. 9, 1:15 p.m.

Tagalog

Norte, the End of History

(Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan)

Directed by Lav Diaz

(Philippines, 2014, 250 min.)

After an embittered law student commits a brutal double murder, a family man takes the fall and is forced into a harsh prison sentence, while a mother and her two children wander the countryside looking for some kind of redemption.

West End Cinema

Opens Fri., Aug. 8

Turkish

The Long Way Home

(Eve Dönüs: Sarikamis 1915)

Directed by Alphan Eseli

(Turkey, 2013, 115 min.)

At the Battle of Sarikamis in 1915, some 90,000 Ottoman troops froze to death after an ill-advised offensive against the Russian army. Seven shattered survivors, soldier and civilian alike, find themselves huddled around a fire in an Armenian village — desperate to survive but unable to trust one another.

AFI Silver Theatre

Mon., Aug. 25, 7 p.m.,

Thu., Aug. 28, 7 p.m.