By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Emory University’s Cinematheque launches a series of 35mm screenings, “Painting with Light: 13 Masterpieces of the Art of Cinematography (1928-2002),” at 7:30 Wednesday. First up is a showing of the 1928 silent film “The Crowd” featuring a live performance by pianist and silent film accompanist Donald Sosin. The free screenings continue Wednesdays (except March 14) through April 25 on the Emory campus, White Hall, Room 205.

“The art of cinematography — which stages the exact ways in which the camera frames, filters and records each image in a film — is a crucial and often neglected one,” series curator and Emory associate professor Karla Oeler said in a release. “Often the full physical effect of a film is simply lost in our modern smaller formats — and along with this, the remarkable precision, power and elegance of images created only by talented cinematographers working with the best directors.”

The rest of the lineup:

• Feb. 1: “Shanghai Express” (1932)

• Feb. 8: “Visions of Light” (1992)

• Feb. 15: “Sweet Smell of Success” (1957)

• Feb. 22: “T-Men” (1947)

• Feb. 29: “Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1935)

• March 7: “Baby Doll” (1956)

• March 21: “Raging Bull” (1980)

• March 28: “Black Narcissus” (1947)

• April 4: “Leave Her to Heaven” (1945)

• April 11: “The Conformist” (1970)

• April 18: “Personal Velocity: Three Portraits” (2002)

• April 25: “Out of Sight” (1998)

Full details: www.filmstudies.emory.edu/home.