New this week: 11/26/10

Casablanca (1942)
Entering Casablanca is easy, getting out is much harder, especially if your name is on the Nazis' most-wanted list. At the top of the list is Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo, whose only hope is Rick Blaine, a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one - especially Victor's wife Ilsa, and the ex-lover who broke his heart. So when Ilsa offers herself in exchange for Laszlo's safe transport out of the country, the bitter Rick must decide what's more important.

Disappearance of Alice Creed
On a suburban street, two masked men seize a young woman. They bind and gag her and take her to an abandoned, soundproofed apartment. She is Alice Creed, daughter of a millionaire. Her kidnappers, the coldly efficient Vic and his younger accomplice Danny, have worked out a meticulous plan. But Alice is not going to play the perfect victim; she's not giving in without a fight.

Eat Pray Love
A happily married woman who is trying to get pregnant realizes that her life needs to go in a new direction. After a very painful divorce, she risks everything and embarks on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self-discovery.

Expendables
A team of mercenaries on a mission to overthrow a South American dictator discover that their mission has changed and they must make a choice about whether or not to attempt a dangerous rescue operation.

Her Majesty Mrs. Brown (1997)
Queen Victoria was the world's most powerful woman. Rugged Scotsman John Brown was a lowly servant who looked after her horses. Yet circumstances brought them together...the result was a passionate friendship that scandalized a nation!

House, Season 1
Hugh Laurie stars as the brilliant but sarcastic Dr. Gregory House, a maverick physician who is devoid of bedside manner. Dr. House thrives on the challenge of solving medical puzzles that other doctors give up on.

Pillars of the Earth
In the town of Kingsbridge during the middle of the twelfth century, the lives of those who are working to build the most amazing Gothic cathedral in the world become entwined through their ambitions, loves, and tribulations. At once, this is a sensuous and enduring love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age.

Secret of Kells
In a remote medieval outpost of Ireland, young Brendan embarks on a new life of adventure when a celebrated master illuminator arrives from foreign lands carrying a book brimming with secret wisdom and powers. To help complete the magical book, Brendan has to overcome his deepest fears on a dangerous quest that takes him into the enchanted forest where mythical creatures hide.

The Werner Herzog collection:
(all in German)
Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Based on a real historical event, this is the story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who appeared in a small German town in 1820 after having lived in total isolation from humans since birth. He is taught to speak, read, and write by townspeople, but is then mysteriously murdered.

Even Dwarfs Started Small
The inmates have taken over an institution in a bleak and savage world in which everyone's a dwarf. As one of the institution's directors holds a rebel hostage while issuing orders for calm, the other inmates run amok, smashing equipment, setting fires, fighting for power and tormenting two blind prisoners. In this land of reversed proportions, these revolutionary outcasts not only destroy the symbols of civilization -- cars, typewriters and dinner plates -- but trees and flowers and animals as well.

Heart of Glass
Set in the 18th-century, this film tells of a Bavarian village that loses the secret of making its unique ruby glass. The townspeople turn to madness, murder, and magic in a desperate effort to recover the pure ingredient they have lost. During the filming, Herzog hypnotized his actors in order to help convey the atmosphere of hallucination, prophecy and the visionary.

Lessons of Darkness
A documentary of 1992 post-Gulf War Kuwait, focusing on the oil well fires ignited by retreating Iraqi soldiers.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Growing up in post-WWII Germany, all Dieter Dengler, the son of a Nazi slain during the war, dreamed about was becoming a pilot. At age 18 he immigrated to the United States and worked odd jobs until he was accepted into the Navy and began pilot training. He was sent to Vietnam around 1966 and on his first mission was shot down and taken prisoner. There, the Vietcong tortured him until Dengler engineered a hair-raising escape and eventually returned to the U.S. His story is recounted here via interviews with Dengler, archival footage and new footage seamlessly spliced together.

Stroszek
Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck. After they are harried and beaten by the thugs who have been Eva's pimps, they join Bruno's neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin.