Best of Boston

From Here to Eternity was the blockbuster movie of the year when the Brattle Theatre switched from presenting live stage plays to showing films in 1953. Whatever else has changed in Harvard Square, the Brattle remains the locus of earnest first dates and heated debates over the political subtext of John Ford’s westerns. Even at solid middle age, the Brattle has held its own against the nearby Hollywood multiplexes by installing new seats and a new sound system and maintaining its old-school, intelligent programming of classic, international, and avant-garde cinema. And nothing beats a single-admission double feature.