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When Rachel Jacobson opened Film Streams in 2007, one of her goals was to celebrate the history of film as an art form.

The nonprofit arthouse theater has continually done that ever since, putting together enlightening retrospective series of movies spotlighting noted directors (Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa), genres (screwball comedies, gay films, Spanish-language films), film artists (Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, John Cassavetes) and standout film periods (French New Wave, 1960s Europe, 1970s Hollywood).

Now Film Streams is celebrating the preservation of 10 movies that have mattered across history. Its latest retrospective, which started last weekend, is titled "World Cinema Revivals."

All the movies to be shown have new 35mm prints.

"No one asks if we should restore paintings," Film Streams quotes director Martin Scorsese as saying. "We have to restore and preserve movies. It's our duty to our culture and our future. These films can't be locked away in a vault. They have to be presented, they have to be shown."

Sometimes a movie is recognized as a masterpiece in its time. Sometimes its stature rises over the decades after its release. This retrospective includes examples of both.

It began last weekend with "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti in 1963. Burt Lancaster stars in this story of a noble Sicilian family in the mid-19th century. It is an escape into a previous time, while also serving as a warning about clinging to the past.

The rest of the series:

"World on a Wire," 1973, screenings Sunday and Tuesday. German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder looks at paranoia in this science-fiction epic. A reluctant action hero (Klaus Lowitsch) uncovers a massive corporate and government conspiracy.

"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," 1953, screenings Feb. 26 and 28. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell play showgirls, and they make humor look easy. Hollywood director Howard Hawks gives new life to the premise of a gold-digger by pushing it over the top. And who can forget Monroe crooning "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"?

"The Makioka Sisters," 1983, screenings March 2-8. Japanese director Kon Ichikawa's movie, based on Junichiro Tanizaki's novel, is structured to follow the changing seasons. Four siblings run a family kimono manufacturing business just before World War II. Changing times put pressure on an old custom about younger sisters not marrying until the older ones do.

"The Bride Wore Black," 1968, screenings March 9-15. French director Francois Truffaut's film stars Jeanne Moreau in a story of revenge. A widow tracks down the people responsible for her husband's death, killing them one at a time. Shades of Hitchcock here. Did Quentin Tarantino know about this movie?

"Battleship Potemkin," 1925, screenings March 16-22. One of the most influential silent films of all time, Russian director Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece about a naval mutiny and subsequent police massacre was subjected to censorship and severe editing. This print restores dozens of missing shots, original title cards and a score by Edmund Meisel. Eisenstein is considered to be film's "father of montage."

"Le Amiche," 1955, screenings March 23-29. Italy's Michelangelo Antonioni combines diverse plot strands, character psychology and camera control into greatness in this story of female friendships.

"Black Girl," 1966, screenings March 23-29. Some say the evolution of African cinema began with this movie, which left an impression at international film festivals. Shooting in New Wave style, director Ousmane Sembene tells a bitter story of exile and despair. A Senegalese maid taken to the Riviera realizes her place in the world.

"Weekend," 1967, screenings March 30-April 5. A couple travels across the French countryside determined to collect an inheritance from a dying relative. Meanwhile, civilization crashes and burns around them. The movie's famous centerpiece is a massive traffic jam. Director Jean-Luc Godard's movie is surreal, funny and deeply disturbing. It is said to have been a seminal influence on future movies.

"On the Bowery," 1957, screening March 30-April 5. This movie nominated for Oscar's best documentary feature chronicles three days on skid row in New York City. Director Lionel Rogosin reveals how what was once an elegant place of mansions and respectable theater was ruined by elevated trains that covered the street in darkness.