Film for the Ages

Alamo Drafthouse’s home programming team takes film more than seriously. To wit, these words from Sarah Pitre of company’s home team in Austin: “Asking an Alamo programmer to name his or her favorite movie is like asking a mother to name her favorite child. Wait, no, that makes it sound too easy. Asking an Alamo programmer to name his or her favorite movie is like asking a mother to name her favorite child, knowing that the rest of her kids will be taken away. Nope, that still makes it sound too easy. Asking an Alamo programmer to name his or her favorite movie is like asking a mother to name her favorite child, knowing that the rest of her kids will be killed. Okay, yes, that’s exactly how it feels. And that, ladies and gentleman, is why we are presenting the Alamo 100, and not the Alamo 10 or the Alamo 50.” That’s dedication. Pitre is talking about the Alamo 100, a new hand-picked series of essential films that debuts this month at Alamo outposts across the country, including at our own Alamo Littleton.

The series officially kicked off locally on Friday with a Monty Python and the Holy Grail quote-along screening, but things get down to the nitty gritty of classic film tonight with Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece Raging Bull, a film many have called the filmmaker’s greatest work. The biopic of boxing great Jake LaMotta, who is played with explosive determination by Robert De Niro (who won an Oscar for the role), is filmed in noirish black and white, features top-notch performances by Cathy Moriarty and Joe Pesci, and screens at 7 p.m. Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights follows on January 14, and Terry Gilliam’s brilliant cult favorite Brazil plays on January 15. For a complete schedule of Alamo 100 screenings in January, visit drafthouse.com/denver/littleton.

Mon., Jan. 13, 7 p.m., 2014