The Bicycle (5 mins)
In the peaceful tranquility of Foster City, CA, a dastardly thief steals a bicycle and a hilarious chase ensues. This silent short by 20-year-old Bay Area artist Johnny Villar won the 2011 College of San Mateo Film Festival. It features a unique suburban visual style and frightfully funny over-the-top performances. If you love the films of Chaplin & Keaton or enjoy films that combine humor with menace, don't miss "The Bicycle".
The Night of the Hunter (93 mins)
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"One of the greatest of all American films. Compelling, frightening and beautiful, combining horror and humor... A film like no other before or since." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
The first (and only) directorial effort of the distinguished British actor Charles Laughton. Too dark for its time, the film initially flopped at the box office. By the mid 1960s it had become a cult favorite. It is now widely recognized as one of the greatest examples of film noir.
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Robert Mitchum plays Harry Powell, a charismatic and psychotic preacher who marries and murders widows for their money. Shelley Winters plays Willa, a bank robber's widow destined to be the preacher's next victim. What no one realizes is that only her kids know where their Dad’s loot is stashed — so they get pulled into the center of the drama. Lillian Gish plays Rachel Cooper, an indomitable welfare worker who can quote scripture just as avidly as the preacher, but whose determination to save the children is just as deep as the preacher's plans to bend them to his will.
“Grim, dark and brooding, ’The Night of the Hunter’ is film noir par excellence...an eerie tale of religious greed, children's lost innocence, ominous sexuality and cold-blooded murder.” Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
The screening will be introduced by Johnny Villar, director of “The Bicycle”, who will also lead the post screening discussion.
