Our weekly list of special event movies to see in L.A.

Friday, Nov. 30

The Beat generation — or, as Cinefamily puts it, the “O.G. hipsters” of the 1950s — is a pretty tough group to beat. They smoked, drank and wandered aimlessly, all while producing literature that through the decades has avoided the free-books bin at your local library. To celebrate the release of Walter Salles' new adaptation of On the Road, Cinefamily, in collaboration with IFC, presents the Beats on Film series. Tonight's opening party features Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's short Pull My Daisy, featuring Jack Kerouac's narration and starring Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, among other Beat poets. Then catch a free sneak preview of Salles' On the Road the next evening at 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 2

Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone doesn't open in Los Angeles until Dec. 7, but USC's School of Cinematic Arts is holding a free screening tonight at the Ray Stark Family Theatre. Marion Cotillard plays an orca whale trainer in this 2012 Cannes Film Festival hit. 

Thursday, Dec. 6

Before Memento and his Batman trilogy, a 28-year-old Christopher Nolan wrote and directed his feature debut, Following (1998). With a shoestring budget, the director produced a masterfully dark film (literally — it was shot on 16mm black-and-white stock) about a writer and a burglar who have gotten a little too strung out on their breaking-and-entering shtick. A Q&A with Nolan follows the American Cinematheque screening at the Egyptian.

Dreaming of a white Christmas? The folks at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences are providing “real fake Hollywood snow” for tonight's screening of the 1954 Holiday classic White Christmas. Expect crisp temperatures and holiday treats like only Los Angeles food trucks can bring.

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