Licentious and Suggestive: Hollywood Before the Code Greta Garbo delivers one of her best performances as the beautiful and powerful Queen Christina of Sweden. Loosely based on the real Queen Christina, who assumed the throne in 1632 at the age of six, this fictionalized love story depicts one of the most highly educated women of the seventeenth century who often dressed as a man and had sworn off marriage.

Kore-eda Catchup | Rochester Premiere Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author, Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) wastes the money he makes as a private detective on gambling and can barely pay child support.

Conscientious Director: Stanley Kramer Adapted from Nevil Shute’s novel, Stanley Kramer’s gripping film presents an early entry in the post-apocalypse genre, where the consequences of World War III leave Earth a nuclear wasteland. Gregory Peck leads a stellar cast of survivors (including Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins, and Fred Astaire) attempting to make the most of their final days on Earth.

Asian Americans in Hollywood: James Wong Howe Clara Bow is at her most coquettish in Mantrap, almost single handedly giving the titular Canadian retreat its name. Live piano accompaniment by Dr. Philip C. Carli.

Make Mine Musicals With a score of Irving Berlin songs as backdrop, this Twentieth-Century Fox musical (with their biggest musical star, Alice Faye) charts the growth of ragtime through the 1910s. Post-film discussion with Michael Lasser.

Licentious and Suggestive: Hollywood Before the Code This Pre-Code gangster classic stars Paul Muni as the ruthless Tony Camonte, an Italian immigrant who sets his sights on ruling the crime world of Prohibition-era Chicago.

Kore-eda Catchup | Rochester Premiere A present-day fable for the increasing disconnect we find in urban life, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Air Doll transports the Galatea myth to present-day Tokyo.

Conscientious Director: Stanley Kramer Closely based on the Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1925, Inherit the Wind relates the sensational trial of a young teacher, Bertram Cates (Dick York), who is prosecuted for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in a high school science class—a violation of state law.

Asian Americans in Hollywood: James Wong Howe This “aquatic Grand Hotel,” according to Variety, traps a disparate group of the upper class on a cross-ocean voyage on the S.S. Transatlantic. Rudolph Kramer (Jean Hersholt) is finally taking his daughter, Judy (Lois Moran) on a trip he’s been saving all his life for.

Licentious and Suggestive: Hollywood Before the Code Browning's classic, which shocked the world and was partly responsible for the establishment of Hollywood's production code, is still as creepy as it was 90 years ago, if not more. Using genuine sideshow acts like the conjoined Hilton sisters and Johnny Eck the Legless Boy, Freaks tells the story of a corrupt trapeze artist and her seduction of an unfortunate midget.

Licentious and Suggestive: Hollywood Before the Code Johnny Weismuller and Maureen O’Sullivan’s second turn as Tarzan and Jane turned out to be the most controversial due to a nude swimming scene.