Artists' Television Access. Other Cinema: Avant to Live: Other Cinema's most recent season closes out with its customary Avant to Live spotlight on new experimental works, including short films and A/V screenings by Mike Kuchar, Julie Murray, Ben Rivers, Christopher Rohde, Jeremy Rourke, Matt Soar, and more. Sat., May 30, 8:30 p.m. $7. othercinema.com. 992 Valencia, S.F., 824-3890, atasite.org.
Castro Theatre. San Francisco Silent Film Festival: The Silent Film Festival hits the Castro for its 20th year with a typically excellent slew of voice-free moving images, including highlights like F.W. Murnau's kinetic 1924 The Last Laugh (starring Emil Jannings and his can't-stop-won't-stop muttonchops), Clarence Brown's 1926 Flesh and the Devil (with the luminescent Greta Garbo), and 1929's Why Be Good? (featuring the seriously adorable comedienne Colleen Moore, who deserves to be better remembered today than she is). May 28-June 1. $10-$22 per program. silentfilm.org. 429 Castro, S.F., 621-6120, castrotheatre.com.
Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center. Wine Enthusiast Wine & Film Series: Oenophiles and cinephiles unite for a month of movie screenings followed by wine samplings, with the films all involving fermentation of the grape and the industries that surround it, including Bottle Shock (May 7), Somm (May 14), A Year in Champagne (May 21), and Corked! (May 28). Thursdays. Continues through May 28. $12. rafaelfilm.cafilm.org/wine-and-film. Welles 100: Part One (1941-1948): The first half of the Smith Rafael Film Center's Orson Welles retrospective focuses on the singular director's early Hollywood works, including the 1946 imposturous Nazi noir The Stranger (June 7), his notoriously edited 1942 adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons (June 14), the San Francisco-set 1947 crime thriller The Lady from Shanghai (June 21), his moody Macbeth (June 28), and starting with the one and only Citizen Kane (May 31). Sun., May 31, 4:15 & 7 p.m.; Sun., June 7, 4:30 & 7 p.m.; Sun., June 14, 4:15 & 7 p.m.; Sun., June 21, 4:30 & 7 p.m.; Sun., June 28, 7 p.m. $11. 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael, 454-1222, rafaelfilm.cafilm.org.
Clay Theatre. Iris: The final film from late, great documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles is this intimate profile of 93-year-old NYC fashion icon (and stunna shades superstar) Iris Apfel. Through May 28. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: The Bawdy Caste performs onstage while the ultimate cult film plays in the background. Last Saturday of every month, 11:59 p.m. $9-$10. 2261 Fillmore, S.F., 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Embarcadero Center Cinema. Sunshine Superman: Through archival footage and modern re-creations, Marah Strauch's documentary paints a portrait of Carl Boenish, inventor of the sport of falling off very tall things and not dying — also known as BASE jumping — at least, that is, until Boenish somewhat inexplicably took on Norway's Trollveggen mountain in 1984. Starting May 29. Daily. I'll See You in My Dreams: You might go in expecting a heart-on-sleeve handout to middle-class women of retirement age, but I'll See You in My Dreams isn't charity, and director Brett Haley doesn't seem so interested in demographic premeditation. It's light touches all around, with everybody — especially our protagonist, a retiree and widow played with truth and grace by Blythe Danner — seeming to have gotten the emotional availability memo. Neither a feel-good bromide nor a cynical comeback thereto, I'll See You in My Dreams seems patiently to be working out an equation which allows getting older on one side of the equal sign and keeping calm on the other. Daily. Saint Laurent: Coming on like a narcotic, Bertrand Bonello's film presents the life of late designer Yves Saint Laurent in a series of oblique narrative vignettes, with Gaspard Ulliel seeming quite at home in boxy glasses and fey ennui, partying through the social upheaval of 1968, now and then sketching a dress with Mozart playing to help him concentrate. Daily. Wild Tales: A cornucopia of comeuppance, this exuberant pulp anthology from Argentine writer-director Damián Szifrón would like to point out how ready and willing humans still are to act like animals. The tales include a perhaps deservedly unlucky assembly of airplane passengers; a dish of revenge best served at a late-night diner; a bribery spiral spinning out of control from a drunken rich kid's hit-and-run; an elaborate road-rage duel that'll be the envy of Tarantino; a demolitionist getting his own blow-up button pushed by parking-enforcement bureaucracy; and one catastrophically tacky wedding. Daily. Clouds of Sils Maria: Much of Oliver Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria is a terrific two-hander between successful-but-aging actress Maria (Juliette Binoche) — who has reluctantly agreed to participate in a revival of the play that made her famous 20 years prior, with her original role now assayed by a troubled, tabloid-bait starlet — and her assistant Val (Kristen Stewart), who runs lines with Maria while engaging in occasionally fourth-wall-pushing philosophical debates about innocence versus maturity, what it means to have integrity as a celebrity in modern Hollywood, and everything in between. Daily. The Connection: Because in French, they don't need to call it The French Connection. The fact-based tale of cops versus smack smugglers in 1970s Marseille may be familiar from a certain celebrated American film, but this take, made with gusto by director Cédric Jimenez, doesn't seem daunted at all. Even if Jimenez hasn't exactly broken the period-crime-thriller mold, he's built a solid entertainment, with techniques well absorbed from the American movie tradition. Starting May 29. Daily. Far from the Madding Crowd: Tonight's episode of The Dating Game comes to you from 19th-century England, where our bachelorette has just come into possession of some land and multiple options for new suitors: a steadfast shepherd, a volatile soldier, and a middle-aged fellow farmer who once wouldn't give her the time of day but now can't get her out of his mind. Director Thomas Vinterberg's tastefully lush adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel may not be the most innovative literary update, but as a new episode of an old game show, it's a swoon-worthy knockout. Daily. 1 Embarcadero Center, S.F., 267-4893, landmarktheatres.com.
Opera Plaza Cinemas. About Elly: Reviewable only with heavy spoiler protection, Asghar Farhadi's About Elly is masterfully character-driven, full of narrative switchbacks, reveals within reveals, and electrifying recriminations. Farhadi has a uniformly excellent ensemble cast and a fine sense of dramatic proportion, and while the cultural tension between progressivism and religious tradition seems explicitly Iranian, the human behavior seems precisely universal. Daily. In the Name of My Daughter: A true crime story of money and power and sex and betrayal and missing persons and the mafia, André Téchiné's French Riviera-set film stars Catherine Deneuve as a casino owner and still somehow manages to be dull. The point where detached French-movie sophistication tips over into forgettability seems to have been passed before this film, for all its calmly agile camerawork, even began. Daily. Félix and Meira: Ever since the first full-length talking picture, Alan Crosland's 1927 The Jazz Singer, the struggle between Orthodox Judaism and the secular world has been a recurring theme. In Maxime Giroux's Félix and Meira, the latter (Hadas Yaron) is a young Hasidic wife and mother living the sheltered life her culture demands, when a chance encounter with the kind yet secular Félix (Martin Dubrueil) inspires Meira to consider the possibility of living life on her own terms, rather than those dictated by her religion and her strict husband Shulem (Luzer Twersky). Daily. What We Do in the Shadows: In this mockumentary written and directed by two Flight of the Conchords guys, Vladislav, Viago, Deacon, and Nick are vampires of varying antiquity who cohabitate in a grungy flat in New Zealand. Followed by a documentary crew, they go on about the business of both being undead (if foppish) ghouls who feed on the blood of humans to survive, as well as being a bunch of straight men living together, which means the dishes and other basic chores tend to go undone. Daily. Aloft: Set in the Arctic, Claudia Llosa's film — starring Jennifer Connelly as a single mother and Cillian Murphy as her grown son — seems keen on remoteness, lack of warmth, and perpetual dusk. This is one of those movies with a deep aversion to telling you anything directly, except that tragedy has befallen its characters, with Llosa's willful narrative ellipses freezing out the feeling of whatever tragic pietà its maker may intend. Starting May 29. Daily. Dior and I: Frédéric Tcheng's latest contribution to ever-burgeoning field of fashion documentaries follows newbie Christian Dior artistic director Raf Simons, erstwhile fashion "minimalist," through the expedited creation and delivery of his first haute couture collection, seeming like the movie equivalent of one of those glossy multi-page ad spreads that thicken up your favorite perfume-scented magazines. Or, at best, like an extended and extremely haute episode of Project Runway. Daily. 601 Van Ness, S.F., 777-3456, landmarktheatres.com.
Roxie Theater. Jauja: Gunnar (Viggo Mortensen) is a Danish military engineer in 19th century Argentina, brought on to help quell the natives. Along for the ride, and causing something of a stir among the Argentine soldiers, is Gunnar's 14-year-old daughter Ingeborg (Viilbjørk Malling Agger) — but when Ingeborg disappears, the ill-equipped Gunnar sets off into the unforgiving Patagonian desert to find her. With its hard, Mulholland Drive-worthy left turn in the third act, Lisandro Alonso's stark and puzzling film will be off-putting to some, but for those willing to get on its challenging wavelength, it's worth the ride. Through May 28. Shake the Dust: Director Adam Sjoberg traveled the world to capture break dancing's continued influence on the world's poorest youth in this hip-hop documentary that was executive produced by none other than Nas. Sjoberg makes a personal appearance to answer questions at tonight's special screening. Tue., June 2, 7 p.m. $7.50-$10. San Francisco Green Film Festival: For its fifth annual festival, the SFGFF presents five dozen documentaries about global pollution — and its possible solutions — as well as retrospective screenings of features like Silent Running and WALL-E. Film topics include food production, fossil fuels, preservation of ecosystems, alternative transportation (translation: bikes), endangered species (including humans), and much more. May 29-June 3. greenfilmfest.org. 3117 16th St., S.F., 863-1087, roxie.com.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Not Suitable for Children: Scary Animal Animation: If your kids can't handle the trauma of Bambi's mom — spoiler alert: hunters are jerks — don't let them get anywhere near these animated films that include unvarnished scenes of animal testing, vivisection, and violence, including Felidae (7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 30), and The Secret of NIMH (2 p.m. Sunday, May 31). $8-$10. 701 Mission, S.F., 978-2787, ybca.org.
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