FRIDAY (March 5): Soldier Robert Taylor and dancer Vivien Leigh find and lose love at Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy, 1940). Doors open at 7 p.m., film at 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 (March 4): Horror host John Stanley in person with his vampire film Nightmare in Blood (1978), about a horror-film convention that goes amiss when the guest of honor starts devouring the fans. Also, Larry Hagman's spoof Son of Blob (1972) and special guests. Who shocked J.R.? $6 9:15 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.cafilm.org. $9 save as noted. This three-screen repertory theater, now officially the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, is operated by the California Film Institute. Programs are complex; check carefully and call for confirmation.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Touching the Void (Kevin MacDonald, U.K., 2003) 6:45, 8:55 p.m. Kitchen Stories (Bent Hamer, Norway, 2003) 6:30, 8:40 p.m. Blind Shaft (Li Yang, China, 2003) 7 p.m. My Architect: A Son's Journey (Nathaniel Kahn, 2003) 9 p.m. See Ongoing for reviews.
STARTS FRIDAY: Balseros (Carles Bosch and Josep Domènech, Spain, 2002); see Opening for review. Blind Shaft, Touching the Void, Kitchen Stories, and My Architect continue. Call for times.
SUNDAY (March 7): A "Family Film" screening of the animated Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids (Canada, 2002), about a happy spider family (we assume Mom doesn't eat Dad after mating). Screens with Pelswick, about an adventurous 13-year-old in a wheelchair 1 p.m.
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: A journalist fabricates in Shattered Glass (2003) 2, 7, 9:15 p.m.
THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY: Star Wars fans waiting in line for six weeks to see The Phantom Menace (boy, are they in for a treat) are profiled in Starwoids (Dennis Przywara, 2001). See Opening for review 7:15, 9:15 p.m.; also Sat 2, 4 p.m.
SUNDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY (March 7-10): Balseros (Carles Bosch, Josep Domènech, Spain, 2002); see Opening for review 7, 9:30 p.m.; also Sun 2, 4:30 p.m.; Wed 2 p.m.
ROXIE
3117 16th St. (at Valencia), 863-1087, www.roxie.com. $8 save as noted. Short-run repertory in one of the most adventurously programmed theaters in the USA.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Filmmaker Wayne Ewing offers the Bay Area premiere of Breakfast With Hunter (2004), with Dr. Thompson and his friends. See Ongoing for more 6, 8, 10 p.m.; also Wed 2, 4 p.m.
STARTS FRIDAY: MC5: A True Testimonial (2004) screens through March 18. See Opening for review 7, 9:30 p.m.; also Sat, Sun 2, 4:30 p.m.; Wed 2 p.m.
STANFORD
221 University (at Emerson), Palo Alto, (650) 324-3700, www.stanfordtheatre.org. $6. This handsomely restored neighborhood palace usually (but not always) screens pre-1960 Hollywood fare in the best available prints, with excellent projection. This spring's series emphasizes James Stewart, detective films, and Hollywood 1934-38.
WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY (March 3-5): Claudette Colbert is wooed by Fred MacMurray and Ray Milland (as a nobleman in disguise) in The Gilded Lily (Wesley Ruggles, 1935; 7:30 p.m.), screening with John Ford's comedy of mistaken identity The Whole Town's Talking (1935; 5:45, 9 p.m.), with Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY (March 6 & 7): James Stewart civilizes Oregon in Anthony Mann's Bend of the River (1952; 4:35, 7:30 p.m.). It screens with The Falcon Takes Over (Irving Reis, 1942; 6:15, 9:15 p.m.), famous as cinema's first Raymond Chandler adaptation -- the plot of Farewell My Lovely is shoehorned into a detective-series vehicle for George Sanders (as PI "Gay Lawrence").
VICTORIA THEATRE
2961 16th St. (at Mission), 863-7576. This venerable old house frequently rents itself out for special screenings.
WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY (March 3-7): Big Noise, a "not-for-profit, all-volunteer collective of media-makers ... dedicated to circulating beautiful, passionate, revolutionary images," screens the local premiere of The Fourth World War (2003), "the untold human story of men and women who resist being annihilated in the current global conflict." $10 7, 9 p.m.
YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS
701 Mission (at Third Street, in Yerba Buena Gardens), 978-2787, www.YerbaBuenaArts.org. $6 save as noted. This venue's Screening Room is a home for film and video programs of all sorts.
WEDNESDAY (March 3): A Goethe-Institut screening of Von Werra (Werner Schweizer, Switzerland, 2002), a documentary comparison of the lives of German World War II air ace Franz von Werra and actor Hardy Krüger, who played him in a movie. $6 7:30 p.m.
THURSDAY (March 4): Two by radical German film essayist Harun Farocki, Inextinguishable Fire (1969), about napalm, and War at a Distance (2003), on postmodern warfare in the Persian Gulf. $7 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY (March 5): The 2004 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival screens here Fridays in March. Tonight, Jos de Putter's Dans, Grozny, Dans (2002; 7 p.m.) looks at a youth dance group out of Chechnya, and Pinochet's Children (Paula Rodriguez, 2002; 8:30 p.m.) follows three kids affected by the Chilean coup of 1973.
TUESDAY (March 9): San Francisco Performances presents a video portrait of Israel's Batsheva Dance Company, Anaphase -- The Film, with company members in person for discussion. $6 7 p.m.
