Reps Etc.

WEDNESDAY: Scholar Russell Merritt's film history course, open to the public, screens Jean Renoir's early sound film La Chienne (France, 1931) 3 p.m. Video essays by Ursula Biemann include Writing Desire (2000) and Remote Sensing (2001), about e-mail-order brides and international sex trafficking, respectively 7:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: A series of films by women directors in Islamic societies screens The Season of Men (Moufida Tlatli, Tunisia, 2001), about a village where men working in the city return home one month out of the year 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: The Woman of Color Film Festival presents a program on "Constructing Identities" including Yvette Smalls' Hair Stories 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: Women of Color -- A program called "The Hunger" addresses obsessions. Films include Fredeswinda Z. Santos' A Haunting and Jennifer Thuy Lan Phang's Love Ltd. 7:30 p.m.

SUNDAY: Women of Color -- Exilees remember their earlier lives in this program, "Forward Reflections," which includes the dreams of six Nepalese women, She Wants to Talk to You (Anita Wen-Shin Chang, 2001) 7:30 p.m.

MONDAY: A UCB class on the musical screens Vincente Minnelli's evergreen The Band Wagon (1953), which is also a docudrama about an aging Fred Astaire, who at one point declaims, "I am not Marlon Brando!" 3 p.m. A UCB class on "Cinema and the Sex Act" screens Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (France, 1973), which is also a docudrama about an aging Marlon Brando, who does very little dancing. He's no Fred Astaire 7 p.m.

TUESDAY: The German documentary B-52 (Hartnut Bitomsky, 2001) looks critically at the history of the long-lived "Stratofortress" bomber 7:30 p.m.

PARAMOUNT

2025 Broadway (at 20th Avenue), Oakland, (510) 465-6400, www.paramounttheatre.com. $5. This beautifully restored picture palace's ongoing "Movie Classics Series" regularly includes a feature plus a newsreel, cartoon, previews, and a few spins of the Dec-O-Win prize wheel.

FRIDAY (March 1): Alfred Hitchcock's espionage thriller North by Northwest (1959) 8 p.m.

PARKWAY

1834 Park (at Lake Merritt), Oakland, (510) 814-2400, www.picturepubpizza.com. $5 save as noted. Pizza, beer, and movies on two screens. Call theater for programs, booked a week in advance. The Parkway also offers occasional scheduled special programs.

THURSDAY (Feb. 28): A rare 35mm print of Ted V. Mikels' The Doll Squad (1973), about a gang of female action heroes. $6 7:30 p.m.

MIDNIGHT SHOW (Saturday): The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975) with live performance by Barely Legal. $6.

RAFAEL FILM CENTER

1118 Fourth St. (at A Street), San Rafael, 454-1222, www.finc.org. $8.50. This three-screen repertory theater is operated by the Film Institute of Northern California. Programs are complex; check carefully and call for confirmation.

WEDNESDAY: Bruce Weber's Chop Suey (2001) 6:45, 9:15 p.m. No Man's Land (Danis Tanovic, Slovenia, 2001) 7, 9 p.m. Daniel M. Cohen's finely cut and well-shaped Diamond Men (2001) 6:30 p.m. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001) 8:45 p.m.

THURSDAY: The Rafael's "We Love New York" film series screens Gene Kelly's debut as a dancer/director, On the Town (Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1949) 7 p.m. Also, Chop Suey (2001) 9:15 p.m. No Man's Land 7, 9 p.m. Diamond Men 6:30 p.m. Mulholland Drive 8:45 p.m.

STARTS FRIDAY: Ram Dass: Fierce Grace (Mickey Lemle, 2001) and Time of Favor (Joseph Cedar, Israel, 2000); see Opening for reviews. Call for times.

RED VIC

1727 Haight (at Cole), 668-3994, www.redvicmoviehouse.com. $6.50 save as noted. There's a spot on the couch for you at this collectively owned rep house.

WEDNESDAY: Don't mess with Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, France, 2001) 2, 7:15, 9:15 p.m.

THURSDAY: A three-day "Identity Crisis" series kicks in with Robert Altman's Three Women (1977), which with its Southern California setting and swapping-identities plot is very much an ancestor for Mulholland Drive 7, 9:35 p.m.

FRIDAY: "Identity Crisis" -- Bill Pullman loses everything, and turns into a surly teenage garage mechanic, in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997), which for clarity and resolution makes Mulholland Drive look like a straight story. It's the ride that counts, though 7, 9:45 p.m.

SATURDAY: "Identity Crisis" -- It's only the detective who doesn't know who's who in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) 2, 4:30, 7, 9:35 p.m.

SUNDAY & MONDAY: A documentary on chronic fatigue syndrome, I Remember Me (Kim Snyder, 2000) 7:15, 9:15 p.m.; also Sun 2, 4 p.m.

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY (March 5 & 6): The Kornbluth Brothers' workplace comedy Haiku Tunnel (2001) 7:15, 9:15 p.m.; also Wed 2 p.m.

ROXIE

3117 16th St. (at Valencia), 863-1087, www.roxie.com. $7 save as noted. Short-run repertory in one of the most adventurously programmed theaters in the U.S.A.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: It's a lost highway for two women with vertigo in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001) 7, 9:45 p.m.; also Wed 1, 4 p.m.

STARTS FRIDAY: Ram Dass: Fierce Grace (Mickey Lemle, 2001); see Opening for review 6, 8, 10 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 2, 4 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO CINEMATHEQUE

S.F. Art Institute, 800 Chestnut (at Jones), 822-2885, www.sfcinematheque.org. $7 save as noted. The San Francisco Cinematheque specializes in avant-garde, historical, and experimental films here and at venues around the Bay Area (see the Yerba Buena Center for a Thursday program).

SATURDAY (March 2): Hollis Frampton comes alive with his seven-part investigation of cinema, Hapax Legomena (1976) 7:30 p.m.

SUNDAY (March 3): A program of work by women filmmakers of the 1970s screens Gunvor Nelson's Take Off, Anne Severson's Near the Big Chakra, and many more 7:30 p.m.

SHATTUCK

2230 Shattuck (at Kittredge), Berkeley, (510) 843-3456, www.landmarktheatres.com. $8.25. This venerable theater assigns one of its eight screens to repertory programming. For the rest of the Shattuck's schedule, see our Showtimes page.