Plan now for February Film Series

Director Alan Rudolph’s films focus upon isolated and eccentric characters and their relationships and frequently are ensemble pieces featuring prominent romanticism and fantasy.

The 74-year-old Rudolph has written almost all of his films and repeatedly has worked with actors Keith Carradine and Geneviève Bujold, and composer Mark Isham.

The Churchill Art Council’s February Film Series is featuring three of Rudolph’s films beginning Feb. 2 with “Choose Me.”

For all the movies, the box office, Art Bar and gallxeries open at 6 p.m. followed by the movie at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 for members and $12 for nonmembers. For information, go to http://www.churchillarts.org, or call 775 423-1440.

Rudolph came to prominence with “Choose Me” followed by “Trouble in Mind.” The film was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival.

His movie, “The Moderns,” is a love story set in 1926 Paris. In 1990, Rudolph wrote and directed the private eye love story, “Love at Large,” which was filmed in Portland, Ore.

“Choose Me” is a conscious throwback to noir of the 1940s — to movies made up of dark streets and wet pavements, hookers under street lamps, pimps in shiny postwar Studebakers, and people who smoke a lot. It’s also about lonely, smart, complicated people who are trying to clear a space for themselves and use romance as an excavating tool.

Filmed in Seattle, “Trouble in Mind” on Feb. 9 is a neo-noir film that follows an ex-cop who was released from jail after serving time for a murder sentence as he returns to the mean streets of the fictional “Rain City.” The leading characters all display traits of the opposite of what they seem to be (the heroic ex-cop, for example, is a convicted murderer; the protective mother abandons her child; criminals show themselves to be sensitive philosophers; the wayward husband loves his wife; the straight woman shows a dark past; etc.).

The film stars Kris Kristofferson, Carradine, Bujold and Lori Singer with an out-of-drag appearance by Divine. It won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

“The Moderns” on Feb. 16 tells of struggling American artist lives in 1926 Paris among the expatriate community during the period of the Lost Generation and at the height of Modernist literature. The artist spends the majority of his time drinking and socializing in cafés while trying to sell his paintings. He then becomes involved in a plot with a wealthy art patron to forge three paintings.