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) 464-5980, www.landmarktheatres.com. $9.25 save as noted. One of this venue's two screens is a "calendar house" for Landmark Theatres. A midnight series starts this week. For additional Act One/Two screenings, see our Showtimes page.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Reality games go too far in the "reality doc" Games People Play: New York (James Ronald Whitney, 2004). See Ongoing for review 7:30, 9:45 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (April 9-15): Mayor of the Sunset Strip (George Hickenlooper, 2004). See Opening for review 7:15, 9:30 p.m.; also Sat & Sun 12:30, 2:45, 5 p.m.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY (April 9 & 10): David Fincher's Fight Club (1999); Tyler Durden says, "Use soap!" Prize drawings on Saturday. $7.50 midnight.
ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.
WEDNESDAY (April 7): Isabelle Adjani stars as Queen Margot (Patrice Chéreau, 1994) 7 p.m.
SATURDAY (April 10): Queen Margot 2 p.m.
ARTISTS' TELEVISION ACCESS
992 Valencia (at 21st Street), 824-3890, www.atasite.org. $5 save as noted. This venue offers all manner of strange and unusual video and film.
THURSDAY (April 8): At the River I Stand (1993) records the anti-war activities of Martin Luther King Jr. 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY (April 9): Paul Leni's late silent horror classic The Man Who Laughs (1928) screens "newly butchered," shorn of a half-hour of "crucially important footage," and with a live score full of "heavy distortion" by the Zag Men 8 p.m.
SATURDAY (April 10): Film scholar Noel Lawrence lectures on 1960s found-footage auteur J.X. Williams and screens his long-lost Peep Show (1965), a conspiracy-theory noir using bits from The Man With the Golden Arm and newsreel footage to take on the Mafia's role in the Kennedy administration. Also, Williams' shorts Psych-Burn, Satan Claus, and Virgin Sacrifice 8:30 p.m.
AUCTIONS BY THE BAY
Movie Palace Auction Sales Room, 2700 Saratoga (near West Red Line), Alameda, (510) 740-0220, www.auctionsbythebay.com. $7. Classic films in 35mm (save as noted) screen in a former U.S. Navy theater.
FRIDAY (April 9): Technicolor was never more beautifully deployed than in the Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger drama of nuns in the Himalayas, Black Narcissus (U.K., 1947). Photographed by Jack Cardiff 7, 9:15 p.m.
SATURDAY (April 10): Fred, Judy, and the late Ann Miller join the Easter Parade (Charles Walters, 1948) 7, 9:15 p.m.
SUNDAY (April 11): Easter Parade 5 p.m. Black Narcissus 7:15 p.m. Separate admission.
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: A Thousand Clouds of Peace (Julián Hernández, Mexico, 2003); see Opening for more 7, 9 p.m.; also Wed 1, 3, 5 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY (April 9-14): It didn't take forever, but you waited and your reward is a new print of Jacques Demy's all-sung, boldly colored musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (France, 1964) 2, 4:30, 7, 9:15 p.m.
CLAY
2261 Fillmore (at Clay), 267-4893, www.landmarktheatres.com or www.8tales.com for this series. "Bling -- 8 Incredibly Random Tales," a midnight movie series, continues. For additional Clay screenings, see our Showtimes page. This series $7.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY (April 9 & 10): The Coen Brothers' greatest hit, The Big Lebowski (1998), finds Jeff Bridges in search of his old rug. On Saturday, a Dude-style chug-a-lug, plus bowling 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.
DAILY (Closed Monday): Ol' gravel voice is back -- Robert Evans narrates the story of his life in The Kid Stays in the Picture (Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen, 2002), screening through April 25 7:45, 9:30 p.m.; also Fri-Sun 11:15 p.m.
LITTLE ROXIE
3125 16th St. (at Valencia), 863-1087, www.roxie.com. $8 save as noted. Popular holdover programs from the "big" Roxie two doors down. Call ahead to see if the scheduled film is actually continuing, as movies play here on an open-ended run.
DAILY: The course of human folly is followed in the documentary Stupidity (Albert Nerenberg, 2004). See Ongoing for review 6:15, 8, 9:45 p.m.; also Wed, Sat, & Sun 2, 4 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. $9.50.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Games People Play: New York (James Ronald Whitney, 2004). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (April 9-15): Mayor of the Sunset Strip (George Hickenlooper, 2004). See Opening for review. Call for times.
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 screens films on projected video, with salon-style discussions to follow.
FRIDAY (April 9): Neorealism mixes with marsh water in the drama Bitter Rice (Giuseppe de Santis, 1949) 6:30 p.m.
foam order.com
