SATURDAY: "Banned Cinema" -- A couple of eye-openers from Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, Un chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age d'Or (1930) 4 p.m. A Hollywood blacklistees production about a New Mexican miners' strike, Salt of the Earth (Abner Biberman, 1954), still relevant today. Invited guest: Sonja Dahl Biberman. $10 7 p.m.
SUNDAY: "Beyond Borders," a series of international children's films, offers an adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel about a foundling who claims I Was a Rat (Laurie Lynd, Canada, 2001) and lands on Tom Conti and Brenda Fricker's doorstep 1 p.m. "Banned Cinema" -- The Last Temptation of Christ 3 p.m. Un chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age d'Or 7 p.m. A free outdoor screening on the Rafael facade of the Beatles' film debut, A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, U.K., 1964). Bring your own lawn chairs and beach blankets 8:30 p.m.
MONDAY: Emile de Antonio's portrait of masked 1970s radicals the Weather Underground, Underground (1976) 7 p.m.
TUESDAY: Frederick Wiseman's still-controversial examination of a Massachusetts mental hospital, Titicut Follies (1967) 7 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: The last days of the original for Charlize Theron's Oscar, Aileen, the Life and Death of a Serial Killer (Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill, 2004) 2, 7:15, 9:15 p.m.
THURSDAY THROUGH MONDAY: The Tracker (Rolf de Heer, Australia, 2002); see Ongoing for review 7:15, 9:25 p.m.; also Sat & Sun 2, 4:15 p.m.
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY (May 4 & 5): Johnny Depp deadpans his way across the west, accompanied by an all-star cast and Neil Young's guitar, in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man (1996) 7, 9:25 p.m.; also 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: Starkiss: Circus Girls in India (Chris Relleke and Jascha de Wilde, Netherlands, 2002). See Ongoing for review 6, 8, 10 p.m.; also Wed 2, 4 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY: The Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize winner Distant (Uzak, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey, 2002). See Opening for review 7, 9:15 p.m.; also Sat & Sun 2:30, 4:45 p.m.
TUESDAY: An advance special screening (it opens here next Friday) of Michael Almereyda's This So Called Disaster (2004), a record of the San Francisco production of Sam Shepard's play The Late Henry Moss. Screens as a benefit for the Magic Theatre. Discussion to follow 7 p.m. Distant 9:15 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: Charles Laughton as Inspector Javert relentlessly pursues Fredric March's Valjean in Les Miserables (Richard Boleslavski, 1936; 7:30 p.m.), well paired with Fritz Lang's fatalistic You Only Live Once (1937; 5:50, 9:30 p.m.).
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: James Stewart is The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956; 4:10, 7:30 p.m., billed with Charlie Chan at the Race Track (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1936; 6:05, 9:25 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 (April 28): An S.F. Jewish Film Festival screening of Shoes From America (Arkadiy Yakhnis, 2002), about the rebuilding of a town after the Holocaust. $7 7:30 p.m.
FILM NOTES
This Thursday the Danger and Despair Knitting Circle screens 16mm prints of two rare noirs from Eastern European directors in exile. June Lang plays two men against each other in a Lighthouse (Frank Wisbar, 1947), while Ectasy director Gustav Machaty does fine by that comparable emotion Jealousy (1945). 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.
