Kim Hunter and Marlon Brando star in "A Streetcar Named Desire," Elia Kazan's steamy 1951 classic. The film, which is part of both the "Hot Winter Nights" and "The Male Body: Screenings & Preenings" series at Cornell Cinema.

In January and February, Cornell Cinema bares all with "The Male Body: Screenings and Preenings," a series of six films celebrating the masculine form on screen. Showings are in Willard Straight Theatre unless otherwise noted.

The series begins with Jean-Jacques Annaud's "The Lover." In this 1992 adaptation of an autobiographical novel by Marguerite Duras, a young French woman growing up in 1920s Indochina is introduced to the world of sexual pleasure by a wealthy Chinese playboy, played by Tony Leung, whose "body" is both exoticized and eroticized. The next showing is Saturday, Jan. 22, at 7:15 p.m. in Uris Auditorium.

The Ithaca premiere of "Beefcake" is Canadian director Thom Fitzgerald's frothy behind-the-scenes look at male physique photography of the 1950s. Showings are Saturday, Jan. 21, at 7:30 p.m., and Tuesday, Jan. 25, at 7:15 p.m.

People magazine recently picked actor Richard Gere as its "sexiest man alive." He delivers a steamy performance in Paul Schrader's 1980 "American Gigolo," playing a young man who offers rich women his companionship for a price. Good looks and swanky suits can't save the pretty boy from getting caught up in an ugly murder case. Shown Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m.

Marlon Brando's muscled form can barely be contained by his ripped T-shirt in Elia Kazan's 1951 classic, "A Streetcar Named Desire." Vivien Leigh co-stars as the aging Southern belle who is unhinged by the raw, aggressive and ultimately violent sexuality of Brando's working-class character. The film is shown Thursday, Jan. 27, at 7:15 p.m.

Dressed in a tuxedo, Taye Diggs gives the male body a stylish turn in "The Best Man." He plays a rising-star author who meets an old flame at a friend's wedding, where guests try to find out if they are characters in his sexy new novel. Showings are in Uris Auditorium, Friday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 12, at 7:15 p.m.; and in Willard Straight Theatre, Monday, Feb. 14, at 9:15 p.m.

The series concludes with "Fight Club," David Fincher's new film about contemporary masculinity. Edward Norton stars as a man, bored by his white-collar life, who is drawn to the grit and blood of an underground society presided over by the charismatic Brad Pitt. Showings are in Willard Straight Theatre, Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 9:40 p.m. and Thursday, Feb. 24, at 9:35 p.m.; Uris Auditorium, Friday, Feb. 25, at 9:15 p.m. and midnight and Saturday, Feb. 26, at 10:25 p.m.; and Willard Straight Theatre, Sunday, Feb. 27, at 7:15 p.m.

In the early 1950s, television lured audiences away from movie theaters. To grab them back, Hollywood began making Technicolor spectaculars in the wide-screen format. "Widescreen Winter" showcases six of the best wide-screen films. The series is shown on Mondays at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre, unless otherwise noted.

The series opens Jan. 31 with Federico Fellini's 1961 masterpiece "La Dolce Vita." Marcello Mastroianni stars as a playboy who descends into the debauched depths of a Rome populated by vacuous starlets and cynical media manipulators.

In Otto Preminger's "Bonjour Tristesse" on Feb. 7, Deborah Kerr, David Niven and Jean Seberg star in a story of a daughter set on separating her father from his mistress, based on Françoise Sagan's precocious autobiographical first novel.

In a bonus widescreen event, the Pentangle Program presents Miklos Jansco's "The Red and the White," set in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, at a free screening Sunday, Feb. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Uris Auditorium.

On Feb. 14, catch the pure wide-screen fun of Fats Domino, Little Richard and the Platters rockin' 'n' rollin' with Jayne Mansfield and Tom Ewell in Frank Tashlin's "The Girl Can't Help It."

On Feb. 21 see a new print of the Japanese new wave classic, director Nagisa Oshima's "The Cruel Story of Youth," in which a middle-class teen-ager falls for a bad boy in 1960s Japan.

The series concludes Feb. 28 with a rare screening of Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 Russian space story, "Solaris." A psychologist investigates strange goings-on in a space station and is confronted by his own past in this sci-fi journey, often compared to Kubrick's "2001." The film also is shown Saturday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. in Uris Auditorium.

Admission to most films is $4.50 for adults and $4 for students, seniors and children 12 and under.