Harvard Book Store is excited to welcome back the legendary WALTER MOSLEY for a reading from his new installment about private investigator Leonid McGill, Known to Evil.

Leonid McGill—the protagonist introduced in The Long Fall—is still fighting to stick to his reformed ways while the world around him pulls him in every other direction. He has split up with his girlfriend, Aura, because his new self won't let him leave his wife—but then Aura's new boyfriend starts angling to get Leonid kicked out of his prime, top-of-the-skyscraper office space. Meanwhile, one of his sons seems to have found true love—but the girl has a shady past that is all of a sudden threatening the whole McGill family—and his other son, the charming rogue Twilliam, is doing nothing but enabling the crisis.

Most ominously of all, Alfonse Rinaldo, the mysterious power-behind-the-throne at City Hall, the fixer who seems to control everything that happens in New York City, has a problem that even he can't fix—and he's come to Leonid for help. It seems a young woman has disappeared, leaving murder in her wake, and it means everything to Rinaldo to track her down. But he won't tell McGill his motives, which doesn't quite square with the new company policy—but turning down Rinaldo is almost impossible to contemplate. 

Walter Mosley (Devil in a Blue Dress) is one of America’s most celebrated and best-known writers. His mysteries appear regularly on the New York Times Best Sellers list, and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

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Harvard Book Store

This year marks the 100th birthday of Akira Kurosawa, undoubtedly one of cinema’s most renowned, accomplished, and influential directors. In conjunction with the Coolidge Corner Theatre who are screening new restorations of his masterpieces Ran and Rashomon, the Brattle is thrilled to celebrate this amazing filmmaker. Our series includes 16 features with highlights including new 35mm prints of STRAY DOG, KAGEMUSHA, and the rarely screened DODES’KA-DEN. Descended from actual samurai and the son of an educator, Kurosawa studied painting before apprenticing at what was to become the great Japanese studio Toho. His artist’s eye allowed him to create the amazing visuals that populate his films, but it was his sensitivity to actors and performance that made his work indelible. We take the title for our series from Stephen Price’s exhaustive study of Kurosawa’s films, and we direct you to that book as well as Kurosawa’s own Something Like An Autobiography to learn more about this monumental figure.

This repertory series includes films playing Wednesday, March 24 through Thursday, April 15. See individual film and event listings below for details on today's screenings, or click the Calendar link below to see the complete line-up for this series.

Special Offer! The Criterion Collection has created the gorgeous collector's set AK 100: 25 FILMS BY AKIRA KUROSAWA. And for a limited time, you can save money on your purchase while supporting the Brattle Theatre. Buy AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa at criterion.com (link below) by April 22, enter the code AKBRAT at checkout, and you'll not only save 25% off the retail price of $399.95, you'll also be making a $25 contribution to the Brattle!

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Calendar for the 'Warrior's Camera: Akira Kurosawa Centennial' repertory series
Criterion Collection, AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa

8:00 PM  Tickets

(1949) dir Akira Kurosawa, w/Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura [122 min]
Despite his deserved acclaim as a samurai filmmaker, Kurosawa was a master of all genres, especially neo-noir, which he evokes beautifully in STRAY DOG. The master’s great counterpart, Toshiro Mifune, stars as a rookie police detective whose gun is stolen by a pickpocket. Racked with guilt, he teams with a senior officer to hunt the sweltering streets of Tokyo for the person using his pilfered weapon.

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Brattle Theatre Film Notes for STRAY DOG, by Melvin Cartagena