'1984' Screening

More than three decades after the titular year of George Orwell’s 1984, the cautionary novel continues to engross readers, even rising to the top of Amazon’s best-selling books list in January. Also still timely: Michael Radford’s cinematic adaptation of the same name. Released in that year, it stars the late John Hurt as protagonist Winston Smith, a government employee for the Ministry of Truth who rewrites historical records in accordance with the Party’s latest policies—until love leads him to rebel against Big Brother. Kick off National Library Week when the film screens with François Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 in a dystopian double feature at the Brattle Theatre on April 9. / Arden Stringer