LEWISBURG -- Eric Faden's current obsession started last year when he moved to Lewisburg to become an assistant professor of film studies at Bucknell University.

After learning that Faden had studied film, a real estate agent insisted on showing him the town's historic downtown movie theater.At first, Faden wasn't interested. But, when he saw the Campus Theatre, with its art deco design, murals on the walls, light fixtures that dated back to the theater's opening in 1941 and double steel doors to protect the rest of the theater in case of a fire in the projection room, he was hooked.

Nine months later, Faden had bought the Campus Theatre and arranged for it to play host to a two-week festival of classic film, Pennsylvania's only stop for the National Film Preservation Tour.

Twenty-five films are selected each year to be added to the National Film Registry, chosen for their historic, aesthetic or cultural relevance. They range from box office hits to home videos.The film tour began in 1995 as a way to make the films available to the public, with organizers emphasizing historic theaters.

"We look for restored theaters, because there is something about seeing great movies in something which isn't a multiplex that warms the cockles of your heart," said Rebecca FitzSimons, the tour coordinator. "Even though it's small, I realized that it's a wonderful place for the tour to come to."

But, the Campus Theatre was not so wonderful a year ago. It was still operational as the only first-run movie house in Lewisburg, but at 60 years old was starting to show its age.

Faden bought the theater over the summer and immediately began renovations.

"Structurally, it was in good shape, so we're lucky about that," Faden said. "But we're talking 1930s wiring, 1930s plumbing. We've fixed the things we needed to fix, but we'll still be going for probably the next five or six years."

The first thing Faden did was remove about half the theater's 700 seats, installing a platform in the back that will serve as a cafe and coffee lounge. Moviegoers will have the choice of taking their seats or of sipping espresso on a sofa in the back of the theater.

There also were technical improvements that needed to be made specifically for the film tour.

Silent films run at a different speed than modern movies -- that's why characters often seem to be running around at a comical pace -- and were shown in a square format instead of a letterbox.

In order to show silent films as part of the tour, the Library of Congress required that the theater have the proper motors and lenses to give the films their proper appearance.

Faden went one better. Silent films "Big Business" and "Safety Last," showing the afternoon of Oct. 28, will be accompanied live by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, which specializes in vintage American popular music. Led by Bucknell music professor Rick Benjamin, the orchestra will use original scores written for the movies.

The program begins Friday with a collection of previews Faden found in the theater's attic, followed by "Tin Pan Alley," the first film shown at the Campus Theatre. In a nod to history, admission that night will be just 25 cents.

The gala opening is on Saturday, with a showing of Orson Welles' 1958 thriller "Touch of Evil," starring Janet Leigh, one of the most outspoken proponents of film preservation.

"I had a really sad experience at one of the honor dinners where they showed an early movie of mine," said Leigh, 74, who will speak before Saturday's screening. "I was so shocked at the condition of the print -- I had never realized that film wasn't forever.

"It just struck me how vulnerable film is. I just thought, whenever I can, I want to do something about it. There is no better way to reflect and preserve film's place in our heritage."

Nearly 30 classic films will be shown during the tour's two-week stop in Lewisburg. With each, a new print has been made from original negatives, eliminating the grainy appearance and the scarring that often are associated with old films and with a clarity far superior to that of video.

"These films are just going to leap of the screen," Faden said.

Movies for the tour are chosen from the Library of Congress National Film Registry, with each site selecting its own program.

The Lewisburg program ranges from some of the earliest known films ("The Great Train Robbery," 1903) to modern classics ("Raging Bull," 1980), including several little-known but influential shorts and documentaries.

Faden said he chose the films to represent the "variety of American cinema," but also to show it's international character. Noted British filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock worked extensively with the Hollywood studios, and entire genres were influenced by more general international art movements.