August 2025

Best First Viewings:

Moving (Shinji Sōmai, 1993)

Child of Divorce (Richard Fleischer, 1946)

The Struggle (D.W. Griffith, 1931)

D.W. Griffith: Father of Film (David Gill, Kevin Brownlow, 1993)

Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc/Jeannette, l'enfance de Jeanne d'Arc (Bruno Dumont, 2017) 

Joan of Arc/Jeanne (Bruno Dumont , 2019)

El Cid (Anthony Mann, 1961)

Waco (R.G. Springsteen, 1966)

Books Read:

Spirited Away (BFI Film Classics) by Andrew Osmond

The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain

The Movies, Mr. Griffith, And Me by Lillian Gish, Ann Pinchot

D. W. Griffith: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series) by Anthony Slide (editor)

July 2025

Best First Viewings:

Judith of Bethulia (D.W. Griffith, 1914)

The Bells of St. Mary's (Leo McCarey, 1945) 

Scénarios (Jean-Luc Godard, 2024)

Exposé du film annonce du film “Scénario” (Jean-Luc Godard, Fabrice Aragno, Jean-Paul Battaggia, Nicole Brenez, 2024)

Reflections in a Golden Eye (John Huston, 1967)

The Last of the Fast Guns (George Sherman, 1958)

Gunpoint (Earl Bellamy, 1966)

Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701 (Shunya Ito, 1972)

Comrades, Almost a Love Story (Peter Chan, 1996)

Johnny Reno (R.G. Springsteen, 1966)

Stage to Thunder Rock (William F. Claxton, 1964)

The Line, the Cross & the Curve (Kate Bush, 1993)

Maiden and Men (Allan Dwan, 1912)

Babette’s Feast (Gabriel Axel, 1987)

Books Read:

Conversations with Flannery O'Connor by Rosemary M. Magee (editor)

The Presence of Grace and Other Book Reviews by Flannery O'Connor, Carter W. Martin (Editor), Leo J. Zuber (Compiler)

The Passion of the Christ (Controversies: 4) by Neal King

June 2025

Best First Viewings:

Last Summer (Catherine Breillat, 2023) 

Introduction (Hong Sang-soo, 2021)

The Wings of Eagles (John Ford, 1957)

The Rising of the Moon (John Ford, 1957)

The Whole Town’s Talking (John Ford, 1935)

Doctor Bull (John Ford, 1933)

When Willie Comes Marching Home (John Ford, 1950)

Sergeant Rutledge (John Ford, 1960)

Ouvroir the Movie (Chris Marker, 2010)

Woods Are Wet (Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1973)

Godzilla vs. Biollante (Kazuki Ōmori, 1989) 

Red Line 7000 (Howard Hawks, 1965)

Books Read:

Hawks on Hawks by Joseph McBride

The Crowded Prairie: American National Identity in the Hollywood Western by Michael Coyne

20 Drawings of Palestinian Writers by Tom Loffill, with a foreword by Ghadeer Ebrahime

Wayne and Ford: The Films, the Friendship, and the Forging of an American Hero by Nancy Schoenberger

The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín

May 2025

Best First Viewings:

The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo (Margaret Tait, 1955)

The Last Gasp (Ingmar Bergman, 1995)

Star in the Dust (Charles F. Haas, 1956)

Bergman Island (Marie Nyreröd, 2006)

Manhandled (Allan Dwan, 1924)

My Favourite Season/Ma saison préférée (André Téchiné, 1993)

The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934)

The Sunbeam (D.W. Griffith, 1912)

Ceiling Zero (Howard Hawks, 1936)

One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 1961)

Books Read:

Still in the Saddle: The Hollywood Western, 1969–1980 by Andrew Patrick Nelson

Wild Strawberries (BFI Film Classics) by Philip French, Kersti French

God and the Devil: The Life and Work of Ingmar Bergman by Peter Cowie

The Searchers (BFI Film Classics) by Edward Buscombe

For Esmé — with Love and Squalor and Other Stories by J.D. Salinger

April 2025

Best First Viewings:

La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)

Série Noire (Alain Corneau, 1979)

Hill of Freedom (Hong Sang-soo, 2014)

Silence (Masahiro Shinoda, 1971)

Passion (Allan Dwan, 1954)

The Go-Between (Joseph Losey, 1971)

Rouge (Stanley Kwan Kam-Pang, 1987)

The Life and Passion of Christ (Lucien Nonguet, Ferdinand Zecca, 1903)

Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959)

Books Read:
Westerns: Aspects of a Movie Genre by Philip French
A Congregation of Jackals by S. Craig Zahler
Woody Allen: A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham by Patrick McGilligan
Texas by the Tail by Jim Thompson

Conversations with Woody Allen: His Films, the Movies, and Moviemaking by Eric Lax, Woody Allen

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

March 2025

Best First Viewings:

Priest of Darkness (Sadao Yamanaka, 1936)

My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (Patrick Tam Kar-ming, 1989)

From Hell to Texas (Henry Hathaway, 1958)

The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman, 1998)

The Last of the Line (Thomas H. Ince, Jay Hunt, 1914)

Peter Ibbetson (Henry Hathaway, 1935)

Counting Bullets (Travis Mills, 2021)

The Prisoner (Peter Glenville, 1955)

CID: Four Moments of Life (Dawn, Noon, Dusk, Night) (Patrick Tam Kar-ming, 1976)

Books read:

High Noon (BFI Film Classics) by Philip Drummond

I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

England Made Me by Graham Greene

February 2025

Best First Viewings:

Shanghai Blues (Tsui Hark, 1984)
Mermaid Legend (Toshiharu Ikeda, 1984)
The Virginian (Victor Fleming, 1929)
By the Stream (Hong Sang-soo, 2024)
Garden of Evil (Henry Hathaway, 1954)
Benediction (Terence Davies, 2021)
But Why? (Terence Davies, 2021)
The Paleface (Norman Z. McLeod, 1948)
Moulin Rouge (John Huston, 1952)

Books read:

Blood on the Moon (Reel West) by Alan K. Rode

Poems and Shorter Writings by James Joyce

Silence by Shūsaku Endō

You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense by Charles Bukowski

January 2025

Best First Viewings:

The Faithful Woman (Roger Vadim, 1976)
Lady Chatterley's Lover (Just Jaeckin, 1981)
The Sword (Patrick Tam, 1980)
Black Tuesday (Hugo Fregonese, 1954)
Casanova’s Big Night (Norman Z. McLeod, 1954)
Here (Robert Zemeckis, 2024)
Twenty-Four Eyes (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1954)
Thunder Trail (Charles Barton, 1937)
The Halfway House (Basil Dearden, 1944)
Life in Holland (Piero Marelli, 1911)
In the Spirit (Sandra Seacat, 1990)
The Legend of Suram Fortress (Sergei Parajanov, 1985)

Books read:

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

Mere Anarchy by Woody Allen

Jimmy the Kid by Donald E. Westlake

Undressing Emmanuelle: A Memoir by Sylvia Kristel