Repertory Theaters

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 Mondays): Federico Fellini's impressionist portrait of his Roma (Italy, 1972) screens through Oct. 31. "Starts at dusk."

GOETHE-INSTITUT

530 Bush (at Grant), 978-2787. The place to go for German cultural events. $5.

TUESDAY (Oct. 25): Hum the "Ode to Joy" en route to this three-part program devoted to Friedrich Schiller (Joachim Burkhardt, Germany, 1990). "Frei für Studenten und Mitglieder des GISF" 7:30 p.m.

LARK

549 Magnolia (at Post), Larkspur, 924-5111, www.larktheater.net. This single-screen art deco theater mixes new and repertory programming. $8.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: The Greatest Game Ever Played (Bill Paxton, 2005) is the Greatest Film Ever Made! (Well, maybe not.) 5, 7:15 p.m.; also Thurs 10 a.m.

STARTS FRIDAY: Call theater 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 (Oct. 21-27): Garçon Stupide (Lionel Baier, Switzerland, 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 (required) reservations. $7. This cultural asset of long standing continues its fall film series. Shown on projected video, with salon-style discussions to follow.

FRIDAY (Oct. 21): Cary Grant plays a Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963) with Audrey Hepburn 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 (Oct. 22): Tom Forman's 1923 version of the oft-filmed western classic The Virginian stars Kenneth Harlan as the man's man who asks, "Smile when you say that." It screens with footage of the Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway (1898) and Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin Caught in a Cabaret (Normand, 1914). Greg Pane at the piano 7:30 p.m.

NINTH STREET INDEPENDENT FILM CENTER

145 Ninth St. (between Mission and Howard), First Floor, 552-5950, www.ninthstreet.org; 552-5950 for advance tickets to this program (recommended). $10.

SATURDAY (Oct. 22): An "Alive@9th Street" series offers a program of "Home Movie Heroics," home movies viewed and discussed by a panel of filmmakers. Also screening are relevant shorts by Jay Rosenblatt (I Used to Be a Filmmaker) and Deann Borshay Liem (First Person Plural) 7 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: Forty Shades of Blue (Ira Sachs, 2005) 6:45, 9:20 p.m.

STARTS FRIDAY: Call theater for program.

PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE

2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch), Berkeley, (510) 642-1124, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. $8, second show $2. 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: The PFA continues its "Dr. Atomic Goes Nuclear" series with Bruce Conner's appropriation of the U.S. Navy's gorgeously terrifying footage of the 1946 Bikini Atoll atomic detonation, Crossroads (1976; 7:30 p.m.), followed by Dennis O'Rourke's exposé of American use of nearby islanders as radiation targets, Half-Life: A Parable for the Atomic Age (Australia, 1985; 9 p.m.).

THURSDAY: Austrian filmmaker Peter Kubelka lectures and screens three of his very short "metric films" of the 1950s and his first movie in 26 years, the "metaphysical film" Poetry and Truth (2003) 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: "Dr. Atomic" -- A four-part 1992 miniseries by Adam Curtis (The Power of Nightmares), Pandora's Box looks at misapplied science from five-year plans to DDT 7 p.m.

SATURDAY: Elem Klimov's tribute to his wife, director Larissa Shepitko, Larissa (U.S.S.R., 1982), and his completed version of a film she'd begun, Farewell (U.S.S.R., 1982), about a village evacuated for a dam 7 p.m.

SUNDAY: Peter Delpeut's Diva Dolorosa (Netherlands, 1999) re-edits surviving Italian silent melodramas into one diva-driven movie 4 p.m. A genuine diva film, Tigre Reale (Giovanni Pastrone, Italy, 1916) stars Pina Menichelli as a Russian countess having an affair 5:35 p.m.

MONDAY: Theater closed.

TUESDAY: "Alternative Requirements" offers experimental films from Bay Area schools, including Learn Welding at Home (Brendan Bock and Sabina Nieto) and An Old School Presentation (Van Troi Pang) 7:30 p.m.

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.

THURSDAY (Oct. 20): The Chainsaw Mafia Film Festival promises local indie horror films plus a "hot zombie dance troupe," the Living Dead Girlz. $6 9:15 p.m.

TUESDAY (Oct. 25): The Parkway's "Audience Appreciation Night" presents the "apocalyptic Valley Girl vs. Zombies epic" Night of the Comet (Thom Eberhardt, 1985). Free 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.