Series
In the Year of the Grifter
That “Fake it ‘til you make it” has become the unofficial motto of these United States isn’t an unexpected development—way back in 1857 Herman Melville’s satirical The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade proposed a vision of the Republic as a ship of fools, lured in by a shapeshifting flim-flam artist. America and the world have gotten older but no wiser, and yesteryear’s snake oil salesmen and false prophets seeking actual profits give way to a new breed of fakers, art world hustlers like Anna Delvey and born-rich real estate swindlers who turn a long history of bankruptcies into a campaign for public office. The real-world results aren’t anything to celebrate today, but cinema, based as it is on feats of audio-visual deceit, has long had a kind of love affair with fabulous frauds, and we’ve brought some of the rogues, rakes, mountebanks, and outright bastards together. It’s a special, and perhaps especially insightful, collection of movies—and that’s no lie.
Previously Screened
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The Bling Ring
DIRECTOR: SOFIA COPPOLA
2013 / 90min / 35mm -
Chameleon Street
DIRECTOR: WENDELL B. HARRIS JR.
1990 / 93min / dcp -
The Color of Money
DIRECTOR: MARTIN SCORSESE
1986 / 119min / 35mm -
Desire
DIRECTOR: FRANK BORZAGE
1936 / 95min / 35mm -
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
DIRECTOR: FRANK OZ
1988 / 110min / 35mm -
F For Fake
DIRECTOR: ORSON WELLES
1973 / 89min / 35mm -
Femme Fatale
DIRECTOR: BRIAN DE PALMA
2002 / 114min / 35mm -
The Grifters
DIRECTOR: STEPHEN FREARS
1990 / 110min / 35mm -
House of Games
DIRECTOR: DAVID MAMET
1987 / 102min / 35mm -
The Lady Eve
DIRECTOR: PRESTON STURGES
1941 / 94min / 35mm -
Mr. Arkadin
DIRECTOR: ORSON WELLES
1955 / 93min / 35mm -
The Spanish Prisoner
DIRECTOR: DAVID MAMET
1997 / 110min / 35mm -
The Talented Mr. Ripley
DIRECTOR: ANTHONY MINGHELLA
1999 / 139min / 35mm -
The Wolf of Wall Street
DIRECTOR: MARTIN SCORSESE
2013 / 180min / dcp -
Yolanda and the Thief
DIRECTOR: VINCENTE MINNELLI
1945 / 108min / 35mm