The Janus films: Watch and learn

“FIFTY Years of Janus Films,” holding court weekends at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is more than just a celebration of the eclectic distribution company -- it’s akin to a film school’s master class.

The series, which began Friday, features sparkling new prints of 23 seminal foreign films, including Akira Kurosawa’s Oscar-winning “Rashomon”; Jean Cocteau’s magical “Beauty and the Beast”; Francois Truffaut’s remarkable first feature, “The 400 Blows,” and his dark romance “Jules and Jim”; Roman Polanski’s feature debut, “Knife in the Water”; Max Ophuls’ lushly romantic “The Earrings of Madame de

(The American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre will present an abbreviated Janus tribute the end of March.)

The LACMA series is a big-screen reprise of/companion to last fall’s DVD release “Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films” -- an $850, 50-disc set -- and it’s meant to present the films in their original setting.

“There’s nothing to compare with seeing these movies on a big screen in a room full of strangers,” says Peter Becker, president of Janus’ sister company, the Criterion Collection, which released “Essential Art House.” His father, William Becker, and Saul Turrell took over Janus Films from original owners Cyrus Harvey and Bryant Haliday in 1965. Jonathan Turrell, Saul’s son, is managing director of Janus Films and chief executive officer of Criterion, which releases scholarly DVDs of titles from the Janus collection as well as other film companies.

“In the last 10 years, there has been an increasing consciousness of Criterion and what it has done,” says Becker. “It has gotten a lot of attention. But the Janus series has suddenly awakened this whole other thing. It’s incredibly pleasing to see Janus come alive as its own identity.”

Janus was born out of the U.S.’ post-World War II interest in international film. Harvard University friends Haliday and Harvey began programming foreign and art house films in 1953 at their Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., to packed houses. They expanded to New York and in 1956 created Janus Films, whose logo is the coin of the two-faced Janus, the Roman god of open doors and transitions. Janus is celebrated at harvests, weddings and birth, and in this instance, heralded the beginning of the golden age of foreign film in America.

“Having that Janus coin on a film was like having a Good Housekeeping seal of approval,” says Ian Birnie, head of film at LACMA, who worked at the company from 1979 to ‘84,

Janus Films got off to a successful start releasing two early Federico Fellini films: “The White Sheik” and “I Vitelloni.” It was soon forming relationships to distribute the films of Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, among others.

When the Hollywood studios began luring foreign directors to Hollywood, Haliday and Harvey sold the business in 1965 to Becker, a theater critic and financier, and Turrell, a documentary producer. They transformed Janus into what it is today, an acquisition company for established foreign and art house classics that could be preserved for distribution around the country and on TV.

Janus also took advantage of the blossoming home video market, releasing its films on VHS through Home Vision and creating Criterion for the laserdisc format and now DVD.

Becker says that whole new generations of filmgoers who have seen these titles on DVD have been attending the traveling exhibition. “They have recognized how good it would be to see them on the big screen,” he says.

The real validation of the series, he says, is that these films have weathered the test of time. “It’s not a mistake that these films are on the lists of the 10 best films ever made,” he says. “These films are the foundation of film discourse, the ways that stories are told on film. The range of expression and technique that these filmmakers are presenting are basically ... it’s film school. We don’t necessarily pay enough attention to the old classics as we should.”

susan.king@latimes.com

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‘Fifty Years of Janus Films’

Where: Leo S. Bing Theater, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

Ends: April 7

Price: $9 ($5 for second film only)

Contact: (323) 857-6010, www.lacma.org

Schedule

Friday: “Summertime,” “Pygmalion”

Saturday: “Rashomon,” “High and Low”

March 16: “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Spirit of the Beehive”

March 17: “Jules and Jim,” “Cleo from 5 to 7”

March 23: “Kwaidan”

March 24: “Viridiana,” “Knife in the Water”

March 30: “The 400 Blows,” “Monika”

March 31: “Pickpocket,” “L’Avventura”

April 6: “The Earrings of Madame de ... ,” “Death of a Cyclist”

April 7: “Zero de Conduite,” “The Rules of the Game”