Concrete Playground

Are your weekends behaving like those annoying soft toys in grabber machines? Like elusive soul-sucking hussies watching you with mocking eyes as you try to pick them up with your silly crane thing, before it's game over and you're empty handed? You rue all the lost pennies, hours and dignity, and then it's Monday again.

Here's a weekend you can come away from feeling like you sunk your metal fingers into something. It may not be as bright and fluffy, but it will leave you feeling like you actually did something, actually went somewhere - like, I don't know, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Greece, Czchoslovakia and France.

The Classic European Film Festival, presented by Washington DC film critic Eddie Cockrell, will screen eight legendary cinematic gems - including Hiroshima Mon Amour, The Fireman's Ball, The Passenger, Z, Babbette's Feast and Raising Ravens - over one weekend, with panel discussions following each film.

Image: The Fireman's Ball (1967)