Think of it like a book club, without the laggards who fib about being up to date on the discussion material. The Center for Contemporary Arts Cinema plans to put 12 classic films under the audience’s microscope this year as part of a new series, Closer Looks: Cinema + Conversation, beginning with A Man Escaped on Thursday, Jan. 12. That 1956 film focuses on a French Resistance fighter and prisoner of war being held by the Nazis who attempts to break out of prison after learning he is to be executed.
The films were chosen by filmmaker and editor Paul Barnes, film critic and writer David N. Meyer, or No Name Cinema founder/programmer Justin Clifford Rhody.
Barnes says of A Man Escaped, which he selected: “Robert Bresson made one of the most suspenseful jailbreak films of all time ... a work of intense spirituality and humanity.”
The following are among the others that will be featured:
Feb. 9
Aferim! (2015): In early 19th century Romania, a policeman is hired by a nobleman to find a slave who has run away from his estate after having an affair with his wife.
March 9
Born in Flames (1983): Set in a near-future New York, 10 years after the “social-democratic war of liberation,” diverse groups of women organize a feminist uprising as equality remains unfulfilled.
April 13
Vertigo (1958): A former San Francisco police detective wrestles with his personal demons while becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful but deeply disturbed woman he has been hired to trail.
May 11
Not for, or Against (Quite the Contrary) (2003): This French film tracks the fall of a young TV camerawoman after she becomes involved with a group of petty criminals and their enigmatic leader.
June 8
Love Streams (1984): Director John Cassavetes’ final film, in which two closely bound, emotionally wounded souls reunite after years apart.
July 13
Persona (1966): A nurse is put in charge of an actress who cannot speak and finds that their personas are melding. Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Aug. 10
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971): While drag-racing through the Southwest, a driver and his mechanic cross paths with an alluring hitchhiker and the tall tale-spinning driver of a GTO.
All showings 7 p.m., CCAC, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, $15, 505-982-1338, cca santafe.org
