Reps Etc.

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.

WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: Akira Kurosawa's Shakespearean masterwork Ran (Japan, 1985) 6:30, 9:15 p.m.

MONDAY: Closed.

STARTS TUESDAY: Tim Burton finds his trash alter ego in the world's worst director, Ed Wood (1994), screening through April 10 7, 9:15 p.m.

GOETHE-INSTITUT

530 Bush (at Grant), 263-8760. The place to go for German cultural events. $5.

TUESDAY (March 22): "Deconstructing the Foreign," a series of new documentaries, screens Havanna, Mi Amor (Uli Gaulke, 2000), about the struggles of Cuban TV fans with their constantly breaking-down Soviet sets 7:30 p.m.

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER

3105 Shattuck (at Prince), Berkeley, (510) 849-2568, www.lapena.org. This cafe for activists offers occasional film and video screenings.

THURSDAY (March 17): The Biodiesel Film Festival offers a night devoted to the alternative veggie-based fuel, with films including Fat of the Land, French Fries to Go, and Veggie Van. $10 7 p.m.

LARK

549 Magnolia (at Post), Larkspur, 924-5111, www.larktheater.net. This single-screen art deco theater has reopened with a policy mixing new and repertory programming. $9.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: The first U.S./Pakistani film, locally shot -- Night of Henna (Hassan Zee, 2005). See Ongoing for review Wed 7 p.m.; Thurs 4:45 p.m.

STARTS FRIDAY: Call for program.

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.

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (March 18-24): The 120-minute, original Japanese-language version of the anime Steamboy (Katsuhiro Otomo, Japan, 2004 -- the shorter English version is at all other venues). 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 offers a weekly film series. Shown on projected video, with salon-style discussions to follow.

FRIDAY (March 18): CinemaLit continues a month of French films with Henri-Georges Clouzot inspecting postwar mores in the very dark Quai des Orfèvres (France, 1947) 6:30 p.m.

NILES ESSANAY SILENT FILM MUSEUM

Edison Theater, 37395 Niles (near G Street), Fremont, (510) 494-1411 and www.nilesfilmmuseum.org. A weekly "Saturday Night at the Movies" series screens silent films in this historic theater. $5.

SATURDAY (March 19): 1920s child star Jackie Coogan is My Boy (Albert Austin and Victor Heerman, 1922), showing with a comedy featuring Chaplin imitator Billy West and Oliver Hardy, The Hobo (Arvid Gillstrom, 1918), and the one-reel drama A Brother's Sacrifice (Francis J. Grandon, 1917), with Lillian Hayward 7:30 p.m.

OPERA PLAZA

601 Van Ness (at Golden Gate), 352-0810, www.landmarktheatres.com. This multiplex is only partly a "calendar house" rep theater. For the rest of the Opera Plaza's schedule, see our Showtimes page. $8.75.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY (March 16 & 17): The children of Marx and Coca-Cola congregate in Jean-Luc Godard's Masculine Feminine (France, 1966). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.

STARTS FRIDAY: Call for program.

PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE

2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch), Berkeley, (510) 642-1124, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu, $8, second show $2 for regular screenings; and 865-1588, www.naatanet.org, $10 with no second feature discount for the S.F. International Asian American Film Festival. The East Bay mecca for film scholars, part of UC Berkeley's Art Museum, thrives at its on-campus location, up the steps on Bancroft between Telegraph Avenue and the Hearst Gym.

WEDNESDAY: A UCB film history class open to the public and taught by Marilyn Fabe screens Vittorio De Sica's neorealist weepie Umberto D (Italy, 1952) 3 p.m. The S.F. International Asian American Film Festival continues with Cavite (Gamazon and Llana, U.S./Philippines), with filmmaker Neill Dela Llana in person 7:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: "Radical Drifts," experimental films and comedies from UC students, includes Evan Cheng's Dream #16 and Derek Woods' Sacred Tattoo 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: A series of the B, Z, and occasional A movies of Edgar G. Ulmer opens with his big-studio horror film The Black Cat (1934), a perverse duel between Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi 7 p.m. Ulmer's Poverty Row Hamlet, Strange Illusion (1945) 8:30 p.m.

SATURDAY: An SFIAAFF screening of the 10-hour Evolution of a Filipino Family (Lav Diaz, Philippines). Part 1 12:30 p.m., with an hourlong dinner break at 6 p.m., and Part 2 at 7 p.m.

SUNDAY: SFIAAFF -- A repeat of Part 2 of Evolution of a Filipino Family 12:30 p.m. An experimental film "by and for amateurs," People on Sunday (Robert Siodmak and Ulmer, Germany, 1929), with contributions by screenwriter Billy Wilder and cinematographer Fred Zinnemann, is followed by the Ukrainian-language musical Natalka Poltavka (Ulmer, Avramenko, Gann, 1937) 7 p.m.

MONDAY & TUESDAY: Closed.

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.

MIDNIGHT SHOW (Saturday): The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975), with live performance by Barely Legal. $6. See Ongoing for review.

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.