The Big Picture

Wednesday, April 26, 9:30 p.m., AMC Kabuki; Friday, April 28, 2:30 p.m., Castro; Sunday, April 30, 8 p.m., Pacific Film Archive

Romance and Cigarettes

Brothers of the Head.

Executive Koala.

Princess Raccoon.

Romance and Cigarettes.

See You in Space.

Sólo Dios Sabe.

The Wayward Cloud.

Details

Through May 4

For festival information and tickets, call (925) 866-9559 or visit www.sffs.org

Screenings take place at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theater (1881 Post at Fillmore); the Castro Theatre (429 Castro near Market); the Pacific Film Archive (2575 Bancroft at Bowditch, UC Berkeley campus); and the Aquarius Theatre (430 Emerson at University, Palo Alto)

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More About

• Michael Fox
• Isild Le Besco
• Emmanuelle Seigner
• Wildlife
• Nature and the Environment

(U.S., 2005)

Actor-turned-director is a common breed these days. Some, like John Turturro, should be discouraged before they do more damage. What could have possessed him to let a respectable cast of actors perpetrate this ghastly "musical" nightmare? James Gandolfini and Susan Sarandon play a crude working-class married couple on the rocks. The husband is messing with an even cruder Kate Winslet, and Sarandon's three daughters (all played by excellent actresses) take her side when she reports, "Your father went on a beaver diet." You know a film is in trouble when even Christopher Walken can't provide a moment of relief, and "You must think I'm the cucumber in the gardener's ass" is a laugh line. Most unforgivable is the precipitous mood shift by the end, with one perfect moment involving a knife. The scant funny scenes involve Mary-Louise Parker at the piano and Elaine Stritch at a hospital bedside. Otherwise, try to fuhgeddaboutit. (Frako Loden)

Saturday, April 29, 8 p.m., AMC Kabuki

See You in Space

(Hungary, 2005)

A talky look at the precariousness of relationships in a time of rampant deceit and political violence, See You in Space passes itself off as a smart date movie for worldly Eastern Euro twentysomethings. In fact, its veneer of sophistication is closer to cynicism, and its view of male-female dynamics shallow and sophomoric. The intriguing but undeveloped characters include a psychologist attracted to a man locked up for killing his wife and a Russian cosmonaut stuck on a space shuttle while his spouse falls for a playboy Italian magician. A hairstylist befriends the elderly customer she accidentally sliced with her scissors, while a microbiologist pursues his African co-worker. The movie adopts a whimsical tone at the outset, setting up pleasant expectations of a breezy farce. Instead, an air of self-satisfaction and pseudo-profundity takes over, exacerbated by a grab bag of film-school techniques of no discernible impact or meaning. (Michael Fox)

Thursday, April 27, 4 p.m., AMC Kabuki; Tuesday, May 2, 8:45 p.m., AMC Kabuki; Thursday, May 4, 5:45 p.m., AMC Kabuki

Sólo Dios Sabe

(Mexico/Brazil, 2005)

We're supposed to love the mystical stalker played by Diego Luna in this Mexican-Brazilian love story, but the pasty-faced nerd who steals Alice Braga's passport as a means to force her into a road trip to Mexico City gave this viewer the creeps. It's another "ancient ways are the best" road movie, done in a hyped-up, arty style that uses the old traditions more as props than as inspiration. Filmmaker Carlos Bolado keeps raising the stakes — visually, dramatically, and even geographically. There's no way this reactionary tosh won't be successful: Never bet against the house. (Gregg Rickman)

Sunday, April 30, 8:45 p.m., AMC Kabuki; Monday, May 1, 3 p.m., AMC Kabuki

The Wayward Cloud

(Taiwan/France, 2005)

The nonstop rain that pervaded Tsai Ming-liang's previous films (Goodbye, Dragon Inn, The Hole) has finally stopped; in fact, Taiwan is in the grip of a drought. That's not all that's new: The director has traded his trademark dinginess for gorgeous compositions and has mixed quicker cuts in with his usual long, fixed-camera takes. The story centers on an alienated porn actor and a lonely museum guide who venture into an affair. Their minimalist interactions suggest sleepwalking, while dreamily outrageous and hilarious production numbers reflect the depths of their unfulfilled desire. (So do the ever-present watermelons, touted as a water substitute.) The Wayward Cloud continues Tsai's exploration of lives of quiet desperation and the way people isolate and imprison themselves behind bars of their own construction, but stylistically it marks a major growth spurt for an important young director. Uh, there's lots of fucking, too. (Michael Fox)

Wednesday, April 26, 3:30 p.m., AMC Kabuki; Friday, April 28, 9:15 p.m., Pacific Film Archive