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.
111 MINNA GALLERY
111 Minna (between New Montgomery and Second streets), 864-0660 and www.microcinema.com for information on this program. $5.
MONDAY (Oct. 25): The "Halloweird 2004 Edition" concludes this year's monthly "Independent Exposure Screening Series" with a program of 14 short films and videos, including Lee Lanier's Day Off the Dead, Ben Coonley's Trick or Treat Pony, and San Franciscan Aaron Hawks' Dog Catcher 8 p.m.
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. For additional screenings, see our Showtimes page.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Shane Carruth's Primer (2004). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Oct. 22-28): Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation (2004). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
MIDNIGHT SHOW (Friday & Saturday): Mel Stuart's soon-to-be-superseded version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), although I'd bet a golden ticket that Gene Wilder's candy man will hold his own vis-à-vis Johnny Depp's in the forthcoming Tim Burton remake.
ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.
WEDNESDAY (Oct. 20): Urbanite Mathieu Amalric returns to the family farm in Amour d'enfance (Yves Caumon, 2001) 6 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 (Oct. 21): "La Guerra del Gas," a program of four short films documenting recent unrest in Bolivia, including the October 2003 uprising over building a natural gas pipeline that deposed a president. Films include Workers Rebellion, No Se Vende El Gas, Octubre Boliviano, and Aftermath of Octubre. Videographer Steev Hise in person. $5-10 sliding scale 8 p.m.
FRIDAY (Oct. 22): ATA's monthly "Open Screening" of your film epics, with advance submissions recommended. E-mail Meg at openscreening@hotmail.com for submission info. Live local bands play at 7:30 p.m., films at 8 p.m.
SATURDAY (Oct. 23): Other Cinema's "Bushwhack" criticizes our beloved incumbent with a robot sculpture, live boombox set, and videos including Kal Spelletich's Propane Rain. See www.othercinema.com for more info 8:30 p.m.
SUNDAY (Oct. 24): "Curse of the Weird," a program of short films from Portland, New York, and S.F., plus live music by the Zag Men. As Donald Rumsfeld once put it, "There are things we know that we know. Then there are things that we now know we don't know but there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know" 8 p.m.
BALBOA
3630 Balboa (at 37th Avenue), 221-8484, $7.50. This great neighborhood house is a good place to catch second-run Hollywood fare. See our Showtimes page for what's at the Balboa the rest of this week.
THURSDAY (Oct. 21): The Rossignol Snow Board Film Festival's in view in "Projectour," a program of three shorts. Free DVD with admission. Pro riders in person. $5 6:30, 8:30 p.m.
BRIDGE
3010 Geary (at Blake), 751-3213, www.peacheschrist.com for this series. This popular little theater offers, in addition to its regular screenings (see Showtimes for listings), a "Midnight Mass Season of Horror" every Saturday this fall, hosted by Peaches Christ. $8.
SATURDAY (Oct. 23): Herschell Gordon Lewis' infamous gorefest Blood Feast (1963) screens with a short serial-killer spoof, Scream Teen Scream (Joshua Rosenzweig, 1996). Drag queen star Jackie Beat in person with a new music video, Really Rich Italian Satanists midnight.
CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
Timken Hall, 1111 Eighth St. (at Irwin), 703-9500, www.ccarts.edu. The San Francisco Cinematheque frequently presents programs here. $7.
SUNDAY (Oct. 24): Japanese documentarian Tsuchimoto Noriaki's Shiranui Sea (1975), about the victims of the Minamata mercury dumping 7:30 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: Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation (2004); see Ongoing for review 7, 9:15 p.m.; also Wed 2, 4:15 p.m.
FRIDAY: A week's screening of films photographed by Hollywood master cinematographer James Wong Howe opens with the very entertaining Mantrap (Victor Fleming, 1926), with Clara Bow as a manicurist who takes up life in the woods. Live music by the Baguette Quartette. $11 7 p.m. Howe breaks out his fisheye lenses for John Frankenheimer's still-disturbing science noir Seconds (1966). Separate admission 9:30 p.m.
SATURDAY: James Wong Howe -- Paul Newman enjoys a dusty black-and-white Texas life in Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963; 2:15, 7 p.m.), while outsider William Holden invades a colorful CinemaScope Kansas in Picnic (Joshua Logan, 1955; 4:30, 9:30 p.m.), from William Inge's play.
SUNDAY: James Wong Howe -- Burt Lancaster livens up Anna Magnani's life in The Rose Tattoo (Daniel Mann, 1955; 2:30, 7 p.m.) and drifts as an alcoholic chiropractor in another Inge adaptation, Come Back, Little Sheba (Mann, 1952; 4:45, 9:15 p.m.), with Shirley Booth.
MONDAY: James Wong Howe -- Ronald Colman essays two roles as The Prisoner of Zenda (John Cromwell, 1937; 7 p.m.), while John Garfield tells the Dead End Kids how They Made Me a Criminal (Busby Berkeley, 1939; 9:15 p.m.).
foam order.com
