Commentary by Gregg Rickman (greggr2006@yahoo.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. For additional Reps Etc. listings, go to sfweekly.com.
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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.
WEDNESDAY (Jan. 31): Bike Night at the Movies II features a mix of cycling movies and a birthday cake for local favorite Puck. $3 8 p.m.
FRIDAY (Feb. 2): A free screening of a film-in-progress by Amir Jaffer and Joyce Lee Kinney, Eve, about a woman's struggle with her past. Feedback welcome 8 p.m.
SATURDAY (Jan. 27): The latest by prolific Berkeley auteur Antero Alli, The Mind is a Liar and a Whore (2007), set during a "bioterrorist attack" that may not be real. $6 8 p.m.
BALBOA
3630 Balboa (at 38th Avenue), 221-8484, www.balboamovies.com. $8.50 save as noted. This great neighborhood house shows films of all sorts.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Two outstanding visionary films: in Theater One, Alfonso CuarÓn's near-future Children of Men (U.K., 2006; 12:20 p.m.; 2:40, 5, 7:20, 9:30 p.m. ); in Theater Two, Guillermo del Toro's fantastic past Pan's Labyrinth Spain, 2006; noon, 2:20, 4:40, 7, 9:10 p.m. ).
STARTS FRIDAY: Call for films and times.
CASTRO
429 Castro (near Market), 621-6120 and www.thecastrotheatre.com. $10 save as noted. Short-run rep in a spectacular 1922 Greco-Roman-themed palace designed by Timothy L. Pflueger. Evening intermissions feature David Hegarty on the Mighty Wurlitzer.
WEDNESDAY: A Noir City series continues with two scripted by Roy Huggins, I Love Trouble (S. Sylvan Simon, 1948; 7:30 p.m. ), with Franchot Tone as a wisecracking detective, and the excellent Pushover (Richard Quine, 1954; 9:30 p.m. ), with Fred MacMurray as a not-so-honest cop, and a good early role for Kim Novak.
THURSDAY: Noir City — A beautiful print is promised of Fritz Lang's grim Scarlet Street (1945; 7:15 p.m. ), a classic usually seen in bad public domain copies. It screens with Beverly Michaels as a man-killing Wicked Woman (Russell Rouse, 1953; 9:30 p.m. )
FRIDAY: Noir City — Two photographed by master noir cinematographer John Alton, the well-regarded The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955; 7:30 p.m. ), and the little-known The Spiritualist (Bernard Vorhaus, 1948; 10 p.m. ).
SATURDAY: Noir City — Burt Lancaster is an ex-con on the track of Kirk Douglas in I Walk Alone (Byron Haskin, 1948; 1, 5, 8:40 p.m. ) and then asks Joan Fontaine to Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (Norman Foster, 1948; 3, 7 p.m. ).
SUNDAY: Noir City — Joan Crawford is a gangland moll who learns The Damned Don't Cry (Vincent Sherman, 1950; 1, 5, 9:15 p.m. ) and then is Possessed?(Curtis Bernhardt, 1947; 3, 7:10 p.m. ) by, of all people, Van Heflin.
MONDAY: Closed.
TUESDAY: A "Troubled Terrestrials Tuesdays" series opens with Richard Dreyfuss delving deep into the mashed potatoes of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977; 7 p.m. ), plus Emilio Estevez slinging generics in the cult favorite Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984; 9:40 p.m. ).
CERRITO SPEAKEASY
285 Ninth St. (at Folsom), www.cerritospeakeasy.com. This recently restored second-run theater, a sister theater to Oakland's Parkway, offers occasional special screenings, including "Cerrito Classics," a different revival every weekend. $5.
SATURDAY (Feb. 3): A musical series opens with he unmusical Marlon Brando mixing it up with Frank Sinatra in Guys and Dolls (Jospeh Mankiewicz, 1955) 2:30, 6 p.m.
DARK ROOM THEATRE
2263 Mission (between 18th and 19th "between the pawn shop and the laundromat"), 401-7987, www.darkroomsf.com. Live cabaret, plus regular film screenings with audience cat-calling encouraged.
SUNDAY (Feb. 4): Dark Room's "Bad Movie Night" begins a two-week "D-Long Vowel-Consonant Month" with Doom (Andrezj Bartcowiak, 1997), a videogame adaptation co-starring Karl Urban and the Rock (both of whose names also end in consonants). Next week: Dune (hey, that's not a consonant!). $5 8 p.m.
EL RIO
3158 Mission (at Precita near Cesar Chavez), 282-3325, www.elriosf.com. This neighborhood bar often screens programs on its outdoor patio (or indoors if it rains).
THURSDAY (Feb. 1): A benefit for the documentary film-in-progress Cigarra, about Mestranda Marcia Cigarra and other women involved in the Brazilian art of capoeira. Music and dancing follow. $10-$50 sliding scale 7 p.m.
FOREIGN CINEMA
2534 Mission (between 21st and 22nd streets), 648-7600), www.foreigncinema.com. Free with meal. This restaurant screens foreign films, usually in 35 mm, 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: Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault star in the popular farce La Cage aux Folles (Edouard Molinaro, France, 1978), screening through Feb. 25 "Starts at dusk."
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. $9.75.
STARTS FRIDAY: Flannel Pajamas (Jeff Lipsky, 2006). See Opening for review. Call theater for times. Filmmaker in person both evening shows Friday.
MECHANICS' INSTITUTE LIBRARY
57 Post (near Market), 393-0100 and www.milibrary.org for information; phone or e-mail rsvp@milibrary.org for reservations. $10. This cultural asset of long standing concludes a summer film series this week. Shown on projected video, with salon-style discussions to follow.
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