Commentary by Gregg Rickman (greggr1@mindspring.com). Times compiled from information available Tuesday; it's always advisable to call for confirmation. Price given is standard adult admission; discounts often apply for students, seniors, and members.
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ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.
WEDNESDAY (July 31): A Catherine Deneuve series continues with what the Alliance's Web site is calling "Beauty of the Day," which we can assume is Luis Buñuel's landmark Belle de Jour (France, 1967) 7 p.m.
SATURDAY (Aug. 3): Belle de Jour 2 p.m.
BRIDGE
3010 Geary (at Blake), 751-3213, www.peacheschrist.com for this series. This popular little theater offers, in addition to its regular screenings (see Showtimes for listings), a summer "Midnight Mass" on Saturdays. $8.
SATURDAY (Aug. 3): Kids hunt pirate treasure in one of Steven Spielberg's more annoying, loud, and heavy-handed productions from his years as the King Midas of Candyland, The Goonies (1983). The kids include Corey Feldman, Martha Plimpton, and future hobbit Sean Astin. A live "Treasure Hunt" accompanies the festivities -- hunt for the reason screenwriter Chris Columbus established himself this early as the wrong person to direct Harry Potter midnight.
CASTRO
429 Castro (at Market), 621-6120, www.thecastrotheatre.com; 621-0556 for the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. $7 save as noted. Short-run rep in a spectacular 1922 Greco-Roman-themed palace designed by Timothy L. Pflueger. Evening intermissions feature David Hegarty or Bill McCoy on the Mighty Wurlitzer.
WEDNESDAY: The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival continues with From Bombay to Tel Aviv 11:30 a.m. A free matinee screening of Weintraub's Syncopators 2 p.m. A Home on the Range and Song of a Cowboy 4:45 p.m. Que Vive 7 p.m. Unfair Competition 9:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: The Jewish Film Festival's Closing Night picture is Anna's Summer (Jeanine Meerapfel, Germany, 2000), with party to follow. $15 8 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY (Aug. 2-7): Karmen Geï (Joseph Gaï Ramaka, Senegal, 2000); see Opening for more 7, 9 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 1, 3, 5 p.m.
EL RIO OUTDOOR CINEMA
El Rio Bar & Patio, 3158 Mission (at Precita near Cesar Chavez), 282-3325, www.microcinema.com for this program. $7. This once-a-month summertime alternative film and video series offers movies projected on a screen hung between a lemon and a fig tree in the back yard of this venerable neighborhood bar.
TUESDAY (Aug. 6): A three-month series of movies drawn from San Francisco's new Microcinema program "Independent Exposure" begins with a "Night Life Edition" of 17 short films, videos, and digital works from around the globe 8 p.m.
FILM ARTS FOUNDATION
346 Ninth St. (between Folsom and Harrison), 552-8760, www.filmarts.org/exhibition/nowplaying.
FRIDAY (Aug. 2): A free "Open Screening" of "a spontaneous mix of independent works by local film and video makers" 7 p.m.
FINE ARTS CINEMA
2451 Shattuck (at Haste), Berkeley, (510) 848-1143, www.fineartscinema.com. $7. After a hiatus, Berkeley's innovatively programmed art house returns for some summer programming.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Claire Denis' acclaimed version of Melville's Billy Budd, set in the French Foreign Legion, Beau Travail (France, 1999; 9:50 p.m.; also Sun 5:45 p.m.) screens with John Huston's The Misfits (1960; 7:30 p.m.), set in the deserts of Nevada, with a lost legion of Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift.
STARTS FRIDAY: Call for program.
FOREIGN CINEMA
2534 Mission (between 21st and 22nd streets), 648-7600, www.foreigncinema.com. Free with meal. This restaurant screens foreign films, usually in 35mm, on the back wall of its outdoor patio, with drive-in speakers available for the tables of those who want to watch while they dine. Closed Mondays.
WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: Don't reveal the sensational secret of The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, U.K., 1992)! It's his sled! 8:30, 10:30 p.m.; also Fri & Sat midnight.
MONDAY: Closed.
STARTS TUESDAY: Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita (France, 1990) screens through Aug. 25 at 8:15, 10:15 p.m.; also Fri & Sat midnight.
ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA
425 Washington (at Battery), Suite 200, 788-7142, www.sfiic.org. Video screenings of Italian films.
TUESDAY (Aug. 6): A policewoman hallucinates when she sees particular works of art in Dario Argento's horror film The Stendahl Syndrome (1996). I thought Stendahl wrote books, actually 6:30 p.m.
JEZEBEL'S JOINT
510 Larkin (at Turk), 820-3907, www.sfindie.com. This "Rock 'n' Roll DJ Bar" offers an "SF IndieFest MicroCinema." All screenings are followed by DJ music at 10 p.m. Free.
WEDNESDAY (July 31): Sonny JL Aronson's documentary of an unusual slice of NYC nightlife, Punk Rock/Heavy Metal Karaoke 8 p.m.
THURSDAY (Aug. 1): Two friends search for a lost buddy in Richard Schenkman's psychodrama Went to Coney Island on a Mission From God ... Be Back by Five 8 p.m.
FRIDAY (Aug. 2): A nerd's robot sets him up on dates in Tom Sawyer's The Strange Case of Señor Computer 8 p.m.
LUMIERE
1572 California (at Polk), 352-0810, www.landmarktheatres.com. This multiplex is only partly a "calendar house" rep theater; for the rest of the Lumiere schedule, see our Showtimes page. $8.75.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Nijinsky (Paul Cox, Australia, 2000). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
STARTS FRIDAY: Anne-Sophie Birot's Girls Can't Swim (France, 2000). See Opening for review. Call for times.
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