Inexpensive movies are hard to come by these days. Rentals cost nearly five dollars and first run films are edging ever closer to double-digit prices. But free movies? Ninth grade social studies screenings of “Gandhi” and sneak preview promotions aside, when was the last time you saw a good movie for free?

Fortunately, MacCinema throws a wrench into the machine of our own “Modern Times” with free film screenings each Friday and Saturday night. This semester’s diverse selection of films from across the globe screen at seven and 10 pm in the John B. Davis lecture hall in the basement of the Campus Center.
 

October 1 & 2: “Hero” (Directed by Zhang Yimou, 2002, Hong Kong, 96 min.)

Nameless (Jet Li) recounts his quest to kill three assassins, all of whom had threatened the life of the King of Qin. Bringing to mind Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” and Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” this epic manages to be both exhilarating and poignant, as told through a series of visually stunning poetic flashbacks.
 

October 8 & 9: “Velvet Goldmine” (Todd Haynes, 1998, UK/USA, 124 min.)

Loosely based on the lives of those ageless wonders—David Bowie and Iggy Pop—“Velvet Goldmine returns to the world of 70s glam rock, only to watch it disappear into the 80s. The film borrows its narrative approach from “Citizen Kane,” and features Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, Tony Colette and Eddie Izzard. Haynes followed “Velvet Goldmine” with 2002’s “Far From Heaven.”
 

October 15 & 16: “The Cuckoo” (Alexandr Rogozhkin, 2002, Russia, 99 min.)

“Cuckoo” allegorically addresses the futility of war and the associated communication barriers. A Finnish sniper and a Russian captain end up being sheltered by a local Anni woman. Their encounter leads to miscommunication and humor, but also to suspicion and jealousy.
 

October 22 & 23: “Osama” (Siddiq Barmak, 2003, Afghanistan, 83 min.)

Osama refers not to the fugitive al Qaeda leader but to the film’s protagonist, a 12-year-old Afghan girl who, along with her mother, loses her job when the Taliban shuts down the hospital they work at. Unable to leave their home due to travel restrictions, the young girl is forced to disguise herself as a boy, Osama, in order to find work. This was the first film to be made in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.
 

November 5 & 6: “42 Up” (Michael Apted, 1998, UK, 139 min.)

Part of the longest documentary project in history, “42 Up” is the sixth and most recent portion of Michael Apted’s longitudinal study of class and its effect on British schoolchildren. In 1963 Apted interviewed 14 then seven-year-old kids, and has visited the same group every seven years since. Beyond simply chronicling lives, “42 Up” demonstrates the effect of the project itself on its participants. In the age of scripted so-called “Reality TV,” Apted’s ambitious project is a breath of fresh air.
 

November 12 & 13: “Good Bye Lenin!” (Wolfgang Becker, 2003, Germany, 121 min.)

Falling asleep in socialist East Germany one day and waking up in a capitalist nation with no Berlin Wall the next would startle anyone. For Alex, whose mother went into a coma when the Berlin Wall still stood, alleviating that shock is a matter of life and death. If his newly awoken mother were to realize that capitalism had taken hold, her frail heart would give out. Alex, his family, friends and neighbors must all conspire to keep these developments a secret from his ailing mother, as an initially simple white lie gets increasingly complicated.
 

November 19 & 20: “The Manchurian Candidate” (John Frankenheimer, 1962, USA, 126 min.)

Yes kids, this is the original. John Frankenheimer’s classic tale of Cold War paranoia and government conspiracy will forever change the way you look at a deck of cards. Angela Lansbury plays Mrs. Iselin, wife to a commie’ hatin’ senator, and mother of decorated war veteran Raymond Shaw, played by Laurence Harvey. Frank Sinatra plays Shaw’s former commanding officer, Bennett Marco. Throw in brilliant editing, an innovative use of cross cutting and depth-of-field, some brainwashing and assassination, and you’ve got one hell of a Friday night ahead of you. In fact, see it again Saturday.
 

December 2 & 4: “Elephant” (Gus Van Sant, 2003, USA, 81.)

Gus Van Sant has always seemed to take on controversial projects as if to get them out of the way so that no one else has to tackle them. Some attempts are more successful than others. While his shot-by-shot remake of “Psycho” is an acknowledged disaster, “Gerry,” which MacCinema screened last year, has inspired both strong supporters and detractors. “Elephant,” Van Sant’s take on the typical American high school, with its loneliness, beauty and violence, surprised many when it won the Palme d’Or and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
 

December 10 & 11: “Seducing Dr. Lewis” (Jean-FranÁois Puoliot, 2003, Canada, 108.)

“Seducing Dr. Lewis” is a French crowd pleaser impressively selected to screen at the Cannes, Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals. In French Canada it was the top-grossing picture of the year. “Lewis” tells the story of a quaint, impoverished fishing town that needs to persuade a young Montreal doctor to move to their city.