Reps Etc.

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.

We're interested in your film or video event. Please send materials at least two weeks in advance to: Film Editor, SF Weekly, 185 Berry, Suite 3800, San Francisco, CA 94107.

21 GRAND

449B 23rd St. (between Telegraph and Broadway), Oakland, (510) 444-7263, 21grand@onebox.com.

WEDNESDAY (April 30): Chicago filmmakers Jim Finn and Dean Rank in person with their Men and Animals Film Tour featuring Finn's Super-Max (2003), a tour of maximum-security prisons shot from a moving car, and the premiere of Rank's latest, Team (2003), all about man's favorite sport -- football. $5-10 sliding scale 8, 10 p.m.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.

WEDNESDAY (April 30): Miou-Miou, Carmen Maura, Marthe Keller, and Marisa Berenson are among the Women (1997) of Luis Galvao Teles' all-star drama 7 p.m.

SATURDAY (May 3): Aging painter Louis Ducreux is visited by his family in Bertrand Tavernier's A Day in the Country (1984) 2 p.m.

ARTISTS' TELEVISION ACCESS

992 Valencia (at 21st Street), 824-3890, www.atasite.org for most programs, www.othercinema.com for Saturday evening programs. $5 save as noted. This venue offers all manner of strange and unusual video and film.

THURSDAY (May 1): Chicago filmmakers Jim Finn and Dean Rank in person with their Men and Animals Film Tour (for details, see 21 Grand entry) 8 p.m.

FRIDAY (May 2): The Sunday Night Blues Spring Fever Film Festival screens shorts by the local comedy team 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY (May 3): A post-May Day program aims at Re-Tooling Dissent, as Street Rec's documentary of protests at a 2002 World Economic Forum puts it. Also screening are the Yes Men's Incredibly Stupid Stunt (a WTO hoax), Lord of the Rings of Free Trade, and video work by the Surveillance Camera Players 8:30 p.m.

CASTRO

429 Castro (near Market), 621-6120, www.thecastrotheatre.com. $8 for regular Castro programming; 931-FILM, www.sffs.org, and $10 for SFIFF programs. The 46th San Francisco International Film Festival closes here Thursday. 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: Hashiguchi Ryosuke's Hush! (Japan, 2001); see Ongoing for review 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45 p.m.

THURSDAY: SFIFF -- Virgin of Lust (Ripstein, Mexico) noon.Hukkle (Pálfi, Hungary) 3:30 p.m.The Closing Night film is Dopamine (Mark Decena, 2003), followed by a party at Bimbo's. Film only $20, film and party $75. It all starts here at 7 p.m.

STARTS FRIDAY: Jean-Pierre Melville's restored, rediscovered thriller Le Cercle Rouge (France, 1970), with Alain Delon, Gian Maria Volonté, and Yves Montand, screens through May 15 2, 5, 8 p.m.

CLAY

2261 Fillmore (at Clay), 352-0810, www.landmarktheatres.com. "Laugh Riot," an eight-week midnight series of comedies, continues; www.8tales.com for more info. For the rest of the Clay's schedule, see our Showtimes page. $5.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY (May 2 & 3): Before A Mighty Wind there was Break Like the Wind, an album by the legendary band This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1983), with Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean. Added attractions on Saturday include a game of "What's down my trousers" midnight.

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.

WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: A mail carrier (Massimo Troisi) seeks love and poetic license in Il Postino (Michael Radford, Italy, 1994), screening through May 4 8, 10 p.m.

MONDAY: Closed.

STARTS TUESDAY: Ken Russell's Tommy (1975) screens through May 25 at 8:15 & 10:15 p.m.

FOUR STAR

2200 Clement (at 23rd Avenue), 666-3468, www.hkinsf.com. $7.50. This enterprising theater hosts occasional special screenings. For regular screenings, see our Showtimes page.

THURSDAY (May 1): Werepad impresario Jacques Boyreau screens an underrated -- in fact almost unknown -- high school revenge drama, Massacre at Central High (Rene Daalder, 1976; 7, 10:15 p.m.), that as I recall builds up quite a head of narrative steam. Also, his own sci-fi spoof, Candy von Dewd (2002; 9 p.m.).

JEZEBEL'S JOINT

510 Larkin (at Turk), 820-3907, www.sfindie.com. This "Rock 'n' Roll DJ Bar" offers an "S.F. IndieFest MicroCinema" Monday through Friday (most weeks). Screenings are followed by DJ music at 10 p.m. Free.

WEDNESDAY: Alex Cox's acid western Straight to Hell (1987) 8 p.m.

THURSDAY: Bay Area premiere -- Karen Fischer's The Fischerspooner Documentary (2003) records the electroclash duo, known for performing with glitter, confetti, and chocolate sauce (I thought that was Karen Finley) 8 p.m.

FRIDAY: A young woman falls for a teenage rebel in Dani Minnick's Falling Like This, praised for its "truth" by Cameron Crowe 8 p.m.

MONDAY: "Silent Monday" screens John Barrymore as Don Juan (Alan Crosland, 1926) 8 p.m.

TUESDAY: Thanks to an accident and some experimental surgery, Marilyn Chambers passes along a deadly plague in David Cronenberg's Rabid! (Canada, 1977). Much more of a movie than many of Cronenberg's later, more conceptual works 8 p.m.

MECHANICS' INSTITUTE LIBRARY

57 Post (near Market), 393-0100 and www.milibrary.org for information; phone or e-mail rsvp@milibrary.org for reservations. $5. This cultural asset of long standing offers a May series of the films of Michael Powell. Shown on projected video, with salon-style discussions to follow.