It was December 1971. I was spending the holidays in New York City, where I decided to go to the opening night of a new movie set in Texas titled The Last Picture Show. As a native Texan, I was blown away by it. It became a national sensation, launching the careers of Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms and Jeff Bridges, and giving director Peter Bogdanovich his best film ever.

And no one, of course, can underestimate the genius of author Larry McMurtry, who wrote the novel in 1966. It was "lovingly dedicated" to McMurtry's hometown, Archer City, where the movie was filmed. He co-wrote the screenplay with Bogdanovich, earning the pair one of the film's eight Oscar nominations.

That's why the April 2 screening of The Last Picture Show, and post-film discussion with Bogdanovich at the Nasher Sculpture Center, was so memorable. It proved to be one of the highlights of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival and served as a sublime beginning to the Nasher's new series, "Free Films on First Thursdays." Next up is The Graduate on Thursday night. The beauty of the series is how it deepens your understanding of the film being shown.

Bogdanovich spoke, for instance, of giving serious consideration only to Shepherd for the role of blond femme fatale Jacy Farrow, despite having interviewed Sissy Spacek. He deemed Shepherd perfect, though she'd never acted and did not fare well in a reading. He had seen her on the cover of Glamour and was smitten by her look of insouciance. When they sat down for an interview, he noticed how she flicked away the petals of a rose resting in a vase on the table. It made him think of how Jacy would flick away men, wreaking havoc on Duane (Bridges) and Sonny (Bottoms). Soon after, they launched an affair, ending his marriage to production designer Polly Platt.

In a movie in which casting was key, he cast Ben Johnson as Sam the Lion. Initially, Johnson refused, saying the script was "too dirty." So Bogdanovich asked acclaimed director John Ford, who had worked with Johnson in Westerns, to intervene.

Bogdanovich cast the late Sam Bottoms, brother of male lead Timothy Bottoms, after meeting him on the streets of Archer City. (Sam had come to visit his brother.) Bogdanovich wasn't happy with the kid from Dallas cast as Billy, the simple-minded boy whose innocence serves as the soul of the novel and film. He asked Sam to play Billy. "He wore braces," Bogdanovich said. "I told him he'd have to lose the braces. He said, 'I'll have to ask my mom.' " Bogdanovich surprised the crowd by saying Timothy Bottoms was his least favorite cast member, calling him a "methody" actor and difficult to work with.

Bogdanovich told Johnson and Cloris Leachman that both would win Oscars, and both did. He told a terrific story about the riveting final scene, in which an angry Ruth Popper, played by Leachman, hurls a cup of hot coffee against the wall. (Ruth feels betrayed by Sonny, who had abandoned his affair with the wife of his basketball coach to pursue the manipulative Jacy.) Leachman asked several times if they could rehearse; each time, the director refused.

"We did it in one take," he said, using her anxiety to flesh out the raw emotion. The same was true of the casting of Sam Bottoms. When Billy dies after being hit by a cattle truck while sweeping the streets of Anarene (a.k.a. Archer City), Timothy Bottoms' Sonny is overcome with grief. Bogdanovich has said in interviews that having Bottoms' brother play Billy helped fuel the feeling of Sonny cradling in his arms a fallen hero he loved like a brother.

Bogdanovich has shown the film all over the world, but no matter where he goes, he said, people say the same thing: "That's my hometown. That's where I grew up." MOVIES AT THE NASHER

Upcoming films are:

Thursday: The Graduate

June 4: M*A*S*H

July 2: Jaws

Aug. 6: The Grapes of Wrath

Sept. 3: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Oct. 1: The Maltese Falcon

Nov. 5: All the President's Men

Dec. 3: It's a Wonderful Life

Movies start at 7 p.m. at the Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora. Free. 214-242-5100. www.nashersculpture

center.org.