They are some of the best movies ever made, and now you can see them the way they were meant to be seen -- on the big screen.

Starting Sept. 4 and running three days a week through Nov. 22, a new art deco theater near Culpeper will show a series of classic films from "Gone With the Wind" and "King Kong" to "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Duck Soup" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

The 200-seat theater is at Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center on Mount Pony, which is one of only five in the country equipped to show silver-nitrate prints -- the shimmeringly gorgeous but highly inflammable stock in use until 1950.

Among other things, the Packard Campus holds the Library of Congress' collection of more than 5.7 million films and recordings. The 34 movies featured in this special series are all on the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

The series begins at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 4 and 5 with showings of "The Maltese Falcon," and a 2 p.m. showing on Sept. 6 of "The Wizard of Oz."

The rest of the schedule is available online at www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-142.html or by calling (540) 827-1079, ext. 79994. Tickets are not required but reservations may be made by calling that same phone number. -- Daniel Neman