Louis Valray was born in 1896 and died in 1972. Beyond that, little is known of the man except what we can glean from his two marvelous feature films, La belle de nuit (1934) and Escale (aka Thirteen Days of Love, 1935), works that combine the visual invention of Jean Vigo and the humanism of Marcel Pagnol. Both movies, each clocking in at a neat 84 minutes, display a confident and expressive style that seems to take particular inspiration exploring the differences between the soulful rank and file of Marseilles and their more coldly urbane Parisian counterparts. Valray was, above all, a personal filmmaker and these two features evidence an enormous compassion for women, the underprivileged, and society\u2019s outcasts. It seems likely that Valray considered himself a real outsider too, as there was very little printed about him in France when his movies were originally released to disappointing box office returns. Thanks to the heroic film preservation efforts of Serge Bromberg and his distribution company Lobster Films, Escale and La belle de nuit have been made available for the first time in nearly 80 years. The films are also being championed by some of America\u2019s finest film critics like Imogen Sara Smith, who writes in Film Comment that \u201cstylistically the films are startlingly original and rather odd, blending exhilaratingly fresh location shooting, lyrical images, heavy-handed melodrama, and idiosyncratic composition and editing.\u201d Now you can discover these Louis Valray masterpieces for yourself in this special double feature program that allows you to see both Escale and La belle de nuit for one ticket price. (JH)