June 20th - To Catch a Thief, 1955

Titled from the proverb “Set a thief to catch a thief,” this romantic thriller is considered to be one of Hitchcock's most beautifully rendered, thanks in no small part to the elegant screen presence of Grace Kelly in the role of Frances Stevens, the daughter of a well-to-do jewel collector. When the Stevens' collection is stolen and the crime resembles those of retired cat burglar John Robie (Cary Grant), only he can save his own skin by tracking down the real bandit. But first he'll enlist the help of Frances—intentionally or not—to catch the thief.

June 27th • The Queen, 2006

The aftermath of Princess Diana's tragic death in 1997 unfolds with honesty and fragility as Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren, in an Oscar-winning performance) struggles to treat with delicacy and balance the contrasting forces of the Royal family's private mourning and the public's desire for a more tangible display of affection. Michael Sheen's powerful portrayal of Prime Minister Tony Blair adds timeliness to director Stephen Frears's poignant rendering. A pioneering film that has opened up the recent history to fictional retelling.

July 11th • Happy Feet, 2006

Awarded the year's Best Animated Feature Oscar for its playful audio-visual design and meaningful thematic undertones, Happy Feet represents a welcome departure from the oft-perplexing humor of contemporary kid and parent-friendly animated features. The rhythmic talents of acclaimed tap-dancer Savion Glover and the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, and Robin Williams tell the story of Mumble, an Emperor Penguin whose surprising skills as a dancer proves invaluable to his entire community.

July 18th • The Namesake, 2006

Director Mira Nair ( Vanity Fair, Monsoon Wedding ) set out “ to tell the story of three generations of a family with one foot in the USA and one in India” using novelist Jhumpa Lahiri as her guide. The Namesake , based on Lahiri's novel of the same name, tells the story of Gogol (Kal Penn), an American-born son of Indian immigrants, and his struggle to balance family traditions with his modern American assimilation. Nair described this as her “most personal work yet” and expressed her hope that “everyone can see themselves in this film.”

July 25th • Rear Window, 1954

What was Hitchcock's recipe for this classic thriller? He took a hard-boiled detective story from Cornell Woolrich and mixed it with a love story from screenwriter John Michael Hayes. Then he built an enormous set on Paramount's backlot, used only sound which had a source from within the film (diegetic sound), and filmed one of his most loved movies. World-class photographer L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart) has broken his leg. Confined to his wheelchair and bored out of his mind, Jefferies takes to spying on his neighbors—his voyeurism evolving into paranoia as he begins to suspect, without any proof, that Mr. Thorwald (Raymond Burr of Perry Mason fame) may have murdered his wife. Jefferies's point of view, through his camera lens and window, echoes the framing of the film itself, drawing the audience into Jefferies's growing obsession.

August 1st • Cars, 2006

Pixar is perhaps the only Hollywood studio consistently producing quality movies today. With Cars they deliver on both visual and comedic fronts, employing colorful talking, you guessed it, cars in a story about cooperation, community, and sportsmanship. Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), a rookie racer cruising smoothly on his newfound fame, crashes in the town of Radiator Springs en route to a big race. Sentenced to community service for the damages, Lightning rebels at the thought of coexisting with the town's inhabitants.

August 8th • North by Northwest, 1959

Saul Bass's frantic opening credit sequence and Bernard Herrmann's sweeping musical score set the tone and pace. The story is one of Hitchcock's great variations on the theme of the innocent man wrongly accused. And the cast is dynamite. Cary Grant transitions from standard issue ad-man to mistakenly suspected spy with the ease that only he possesses. Eva Marie Saint brings intelligent to their cat-and-mouse romance and to Hitchcock's wry visual jokes. And James Mason imbues the shadowy Phillip Vandamm with a welcome gravitas. With perhaps the single most iconic, if not bucolic, Hitchcock chase sequence, shot in nearby Indiana, this isn't to be missed.