TUESDAY (April 20): Local filmmaker Antero Alli in person with his video feature Under a Shipwrecked Moon (2003). See what happens "when the rituals of a self-made shamanic punk rocker accidentally catapult him into the dreams of his comatose Finnish grandfather" 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: The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, France, 2003) 6:30 p.m. The Fog of War (Errol Morris, 2003) 8:30 p.m. Touching the Void (Kevin MacDonald, U.K., 2003) 6:45, 9:15 p.m. See Ongoing for reviews. Call for other programs and times.
THURSDAY: "Undiscovered Gems," a selection from indieWIRE's list of the Top 20 Undistributed Films of 2003, concludes with Sherman's March auto-documentarian Ross McElwee's latest, Bright Leaves (2003), on the history of tobacco 7 p.m.
STARTS FRIDAY: Patricia Flynn's Discovering Dominga. The Triplets of Belleville, The Fog of War, and Touching the Void continue. Call for times.
SUNDAY: "The Secrets Behind Robin Hood" are revealed as four experts, including Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt and an archer, demonstrate how the visual and sound effects of Hollywood classic The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, 1938) were achieved. The complete Technicolor swashbuckler will then screen. $9 3 p.m.
RED VIC
1727 Haight (at Cole), 668-3994, www.redvicmoviehouse.com. $7 save as noted. There's a spot on the couch for you at this collectively owned rep house.
WEDNESDAY: Hippies young and two decades later cross The Same River Twice (Robb Moss, 2003) 2, 7:15, 9:15 p.m.
THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY: A soul weighs 21 Grams (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 2003), although not necessarily in the order presented here 7, 9:35 p.m.; also Sat 2, 4:30 p.m.
SUNDAY & MONDAY: Tom Peosay's Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (2003) is a good, near-despair-inducing history of the roof of the world 7:15, 9:30 p.m.; also Sun 2, 4:15 p.m.
TUESDAY: The Coen Brothers bowl for The Big Lebowski (1998), with Jeff Bridges as the world's prize layabout. $4.20 munchie special at today's first screening 4:20, 7, 9:25 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: Artist Ray Johnson is profiled in How to Draw a Bunny (John Walter and Andrew Moore, 2002). See Ongoing for review 6, 8, 10 p.m.; also Wed 2, 4 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (April 16-22): Carlos Castaneda: Enigma of a Sorcerer (R. Torjan, 2004). See Opening for review 6, 8, 10 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 2, 4 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. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY: Businessman Walter Huston deals with trouble in his marriage in William Wyler's substantial drama Dodsworth (1936; 7:30 p.m.), from Sinclair Lewis' novel. Pro golfer Margaret Lindsay swipes Herbert Marshall from Ann Harding in The Lady Consents (1936; 6, 9:25 p.m.).
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: James Stewart in his other 1958 film with Kim Novak, Richard Quine's Bell, Book and Candle (4:10, 7:30 p.m.), about witches, warlocks, and eccentrics in Manhattan. As eccentric detective Hildegard Withers, Edna Mae Oliver investigates The Penguin Pool Murder (George Archinbaud, 1932; 6:05, 9:25 p.m.), the first of a popular series.
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 (April 14): A Latino Film Festival screening of Humbert Pardon's Family Video (Cuba, 2001), a video comedy incorporating the discovery that one member is gay and a film-within-the-film. Plus two shorts. $8 7:30 p.m.
THURSDAY (April 15): "Disquiet and Tranquility," a program of films and audio by Steve Polta and Jennifer Fieber, offers "luminous landscapes and abstracted urban structures" (Fieber) alternating with "rancorous audio syncopations (and) sensuous cinematic renderings" (Polta). $7 7:30 p.m.
FILM NOTES
This Thursday the Danger and Despair Knitting Circle screens rare 16mm prints of two films based on Cornell Woolrich's sweaty fiction, The Guilty (John Reinhardt, 1947), with Bonita Granville as two good and evil twins, plus I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (William Nigh, 1948). Both are from Monogram, star Regis Toomey, and are introduced by Arthur Lyons, author of a book on poverty noir, Death on the Cheap. For more info, see www.noirfilm.com; to make a reservation and get directions to the screening locale, contact 552-1533 or e-mail darkmarc@msn.com.
