When we want artistically soulful, intellectually satisfying, and more visually challenging filmgoing, we'll stick with the one that's been giving it to us for decades. As always, the Charles' programming leans to the artier, the indie, and the auteur-embracing, and while it would be nice to see it try something riskier on every now and again, its various film series provide much-needed cinematic food for the soul. Between the John Standiford-booked revival series (which brought some new prints of classic Jean-Luc Godard titles to town and revisited the films of Robert Altman), the contemporary French movies that screen intermittently as part of the solid La Cinematheque series, or the midnight film series that revisited some fun classics (Videodrome, RoboCop, The Serpent and the Rainbow, They Live)--not to mention the international opera and ballet series broadcast from Europe--the Charles is inching closer and closer to its halcyon 1980s programming schedules, where almost every night offered some new kind of kick.

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