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.

ACT ONE/TWO

2128 Center (at Shattuck), Berkeley, (510) 843-FILM, www.landmarktheatres.com. $6. This duplex offers a 10-week midnight movie series (plus "drawings for valuable and coveted prizes"). For additional screenings, see our Showtimes page.

SATURDAY (Sept. 13): Shot during the Iranian hostage crisis, Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981) gleefully and vengefully applied whup-ass to the Arab world, a feel-good fix for a troubled time. Is it any wonder Indy 4 is being bruited about? midnight.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

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

WEDNESDAY (Sept. 10): Catherine Deneuve and her daughter love the same man on a plantation in French Indochine (Régis Wargnier, 1991) 7 p.m.

SATURDAY (Sept. 13): Indochine 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 (Sept. 11): Open Up! (Marcus Major Niehaus, 2003) is described as a "socially inept comedy" about a group of misfits who meet to discuss their problems, which include their inept healer 8 p.m.

FRIDAY (Sept. 12): The MadCat Women's International Film Festival offers "Coming From...," a selection of short films on (extended) family life, including Susan Stamp's Nan Is in a Box (Australia), Tatjana Bozic's Circa Oasis (Croatia), Kristin Pepe's abstract Powwow, and Teatro Roots (Kristin Pichaske), about the history of El Teatro Campesino. $7-20 8 p.m.

SATURDAY (Sept. 13): ATA's Other Cinema showcases the Center for Tactical Magic with a mixed-media program of slides, videos, computers, and legerdemain as it takes on surveillance hardware (The Smoky Hill River Outpost), prisons (Listening to Pelican Bay), and more 8:30 p.m.

CASTRO

429 Castro (near Market), 621-6120, www.thecastrotheatre.com, $8 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 & THURSDAY: Party Monster (Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, 2003). See Ongoing for review 7, 9:30 p.m.; also Wed 1:30, 4:15 p.m.

STARTS FRIDAY: Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt's "The Animation Show" offers a generous program of shorts, screening here through Sept. 24 7, 9:30 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 2, 4:30 p.m.

CLAY

2261 Fillmore (at Clay), 267-4893, www.landmarktheatres.com; www.8tales.com for this series. A weekend midnight movie series continues. For the rest of the Clay's schedule, see our Showtimes page. $5.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY (Sept. 12 & 13): Bounty hunters patrol the future in Shinichir Watanabe's feature spinoff of the popular TV anime Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Japan, 2001). Saturday nights feature Kick the Dog and a race for the prize in a Speed Ramen contest midnight.

EL RIO

3158 Mission (at Precita near Cesar Chavez), 282-3325. The MadCat Women's International Film Festival screens programs here on Tuesdays through September on this venue's outdoor patio (or indoors if it rains). $7-20 sliding scale.

TUESDAY (Sept. 16): Stephanie Rothman gave a feminist spin to several Roger Corman-produced exploitation films in the early 1970s, among them The Student Nurses (1970). Screens with shorts from the 1960s. Free barbecue 6:30 p.m. Films 8:30 p.m.

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.

DAILY (Closed Monday): Old Snake Eyes is back -- Lee Van Cleef, considerably more charismatic than his opposite number, takes on nameless Clint Eastwood (and shameless Klaus Kinski) in Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More (Italy, 1965), screening through Sept. 28 7:30, 9:45 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 an autumn film series. Shown on projected video, with salon-style discussions to follow.

FRIDAY (Sept. 12): A heist film with pretensions, Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise, 1959) mixes in the racial debates of its era, personified by Harry Belafonte and bigot Robert Ryan. In person, guest speaker and noir specialist Eddie Muller 6:30 p.m.

MILLS COLLEGE

Concert Hall, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, (510) 464-4640. Free.

FRIDAY (Sept. 12): Berkeley artist Antero Alli's Under a Shipwrecked Moon (2003), about what happens when "the rituals of a self-made shamanic punk rocker lead him into the dreams of his Finnish grandfather who lies comatose and drifting through visions of his first love, a sorceress." Filmmaker in person 8 p.m.

MOVIE PALACE AUCTION SALES ROOM

2700 Saratoga (near West Red Line), Alameda, (510) 740-0220, www.auctionsbythebay.com. $7. Classic films in 35mm screen in a former U.S. Navy theater, the Alameda facilities of Auctions by the Bay.

FRIDAY (Sept. 12): Barry Levinson's Baltimore-bound Diner (1982), a thoughtful buddy film talkfest with Mickey Rourke, Paul Reiser, and Daniel Stern 7, 9:30 p.m.

SATURDAY (Sept. 13): Vincente Minnelli's brilliant visual comedy The Long Long Trailer (1953) packs Lucy, Desi, and about a hundred rocks into a bright yellow camper in one of the best comedies of its era 7, 9:30 p.m.