Commentary by Gregg Rickman (greggr1@mindspring.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.
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ACT ONE/TWO
2128 Center (at Shattuck), Berkeley, (510) 843-FILM, www.landmarktheatres.com. $6. This duplex offers a 10-week midnight movie series (plus drawings for valuable and coveted prizes). For additional screenings, see our Showtimes page.
SATURDAY (Sept. 20): The Steven Spielberg-produced (and ghost-directed) Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982) demonstrates the dark side of his suburban force midnight.
ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.
WEDNESDAY (Sept. 17): Jean-Paul Rappeneau's period adventure The Horseman on the Roof (1992) 7 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 20): The Horseman on the Roof 2 p.m.
ARTISTS' TELEVISION ACCESS
992 Valencia (at 21st Street), 824-3890, www.atasite.org for most programs, www.othercinema.com for Saturday evening programs. $5 save as noted. This venue offers all manner of strange and unusual video and film.
THURSDAY (Sept. 18): James Longley's documentary portrait Gaza Strip (2002), sponsored by ANSWER, with a representative from the Free Palestine Alliance in person 8 p.m.
FRIDAY (Sept. 19): The MadCat Women's International Film Festival offers "Divided Spaces," a selection of short films on boundaries and space including Rose Dabb's New York's Big Back Yard (Central Park, 1982) and Vivian Ostrovsky's Nikita Kino (Moscow, 2002). $7-20 8 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 20): ATA's Other Cinema showcases a program of experimental audio made the old-fashioned (analog) way in "Dead Media," featuring 16mm projections by Wobbly, Steev Hise's Detritus Manifesto, Carl Diehl's Rock Robot, and more 8:30 p.m.
CALIFORNIA PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOR
100 34th Ave. (at Clement, in Lincoln Park), 863-3330 for venue, 553-8135 and www.cineaccion.com for information and advance tickets. The San Francisco landmark hosts a fund-raising event for this year's Latino Film Festival. $25.
FRIDAY (Sept. 19): A Director's Night Gala Event screens Rolando Cruz's Chac: The Rain God (Mexico/U.S., 1974). Reception 6 p.m. Film 7 p.m.
CASTRO
429 Castro (near Market), 621-6120, www.thecastrotheatre.com, $8 save as noted. Short-run rep in a spectacular 1922 Greco-Roman-themed palace designed by Timothy L. Pflueger. Evening intermissions feature David Hegarty or Bill McCoy on the Mighty Wurlitzer.
DAILY: Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt's "The Animation Show" offers a generous program of shorts, screening here through Sept. 24 7, 9:30 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 2, 4:30 p.m.
CLAY
2261 Fillmore (at Clay), 267-4893, www.landmarktheatres.com; www.8tales.com for this series. A weekend midnight movie series continues. For the rest of the Clay's schedule, see our Showtimes page. $5.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY (Sept. 19 & 20): William Goldman's popular comic fantasy The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987). Saturday night features a Princess Rescue competition midnight.
DANGER & DESPAIR KNITTING CIRCLE
182 Second St. (at Howard), Third Floor, www.noirfilm.com/Noir_Flatiron3.htm for information; call 552-1533 or e-mail darkmarc@msn.com to reserve seats. Free with reservation; don't come without one. A "16mm Noir" series presented by the Danger & Despair Knitting Circle screens in this new location every Thursday, with round-table discussion to follow. Come at 7 p.m. for no-host bar; lobby doors locked at 8:15 p.m.
THURSDAY (Sept. 18): A Film Noir Bad Girls series screens The Sign of the Ram (John Sturges, 1949), with Jean Peters as a wheelchair-bound villainess 8 p.m.
EL RIO
3158 Mission (at Precita near Cesar Chavez), 282-3325. The MadCat Women's International Film Festival screens programs here on Tuesdays through September on this venue's outdoor patio (or indoors if it rains). $7-20 sliding scale.
TUESDAY (Sept. 23): "The F-Word," a program challenging conventional notions of feminism, includes Stephanie Gray's ode to Kristy McNichol, Kristy, and Rebecca Barten's portrait of her horse, Johnson. Free barbecue 6:30 p.m. Films 8:30 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 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 Monday): Old Snake Eyes is back -- Lee Van Cleef, considerably more charismatic than his opposite number, takes on nameless Clint Eastwood (and shameless Klaus Kinski) in Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More (Italy, 1965), screening through Sept. 28 7:30, 9:45 p.m.
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 an autumn film series. Shown on projected video, with salon-style discussions to follow.
FRIDAY (Sept. 19): Robert Young discovers that They Won't Believe Me (Irving Pichel, 1949), especially when he has a wife and two mistresses at all-American MGM 6:30 p.m.
MOVIE PALACE AUCTION SALES ROOM
2700 Saratoga (near West Red Line), Alameda, (510) 740-0220, www.auctionsbythebay.com. $7. Classic films in 35mm screen in a former U.S. Navy theater, the Alameda facilities of Auctions by the Bay.
FRIDAY (Sept. 19): A champagne reception officially christening this site at 6 p.m. precedes Alfred Hitchcock's adventure North by Northwest (1959) 7, 9:30 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 20): Fred Astaire's first starring musical sans Ginger, A Damsel in Distress (George Stevens, 1937), features Burns & Allen, some great numbers, and an evidently terrified teenage leading lady, Joan Fontaine 7, 9:30 p.m.
SUNDAY (Sept. 21): Ever been stung by a dead bee? Walter Brennan displays his peculiar charms with this come-on line in Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not (1944), also featuring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall 4, 6, 8 p.m.
OAKLAND METRO
201 Broadway (at Second Street, in Jack London Square), Oakland, (510) 763-1146, www.oaklandmetro.org. $5.
TUESDAY (Sept. 23): The "Autumnal Edition" of the monthly Independent Exposure Screening Series (now in Oakland as well as San Francisco) offers 15 films from four countries marking the season's change, including the city's own Skye Thorstenson's Confessions of a Piggly Wiggly Cashier, and from Pakistan, Zarin Gul's Chorus of Death 8 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: Eleven directors offer their take on "September 11" (2003). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Sept. 19-25): Jeanne Moreau is Marguerite Duras in Josée Dayan's Cet Amour-là (France, 2001). See Opening for review. Call for times.
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's Berkeley Art Museum, thrives at its on-campus location, up the steps on Bancroft between Telegraph Avenue and the Hearst Gym.
WEDNESDAY: An R.W. Fassbinder series continues with the little-seen Fear of Fear (1975; 5:30, 9:10 p.m. ), a good study of a woman's nervous breakdown, and the sarcastic social satire Chinese Roulette (1976; 7:20 p.m. ).
THURSDAY: A series of films on genetic mutations screens Andrew Niccol's futuristic Gattaca (1997), with Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, an evolved couple themselves (or devolved, as it were) 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY: Fassbinder casts himself as a prole victimized by the upper crust in Fox and His Friends (1974) 7, 9:25 p.m.
SATURDAY: Fassbinder's excellent and little-screened Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (1975), a film with something to offend both left and right. With the splendid Brigitte Mira, still active in her 90s 7, 9:15 p.m.
SUNDAY: A series of the films of French pioneer Germaine Dulac continues with Ame d'artiste (1925), a feminist melodrama about a famed actress and her married but enamored playwright 5:30 p.m.
MONDAY: Theater closed.
TUESDAY: A program of the short films of Germaine Dulac features the masterful (in every sense) The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923) plus the lesser-known La Fète espagnole (Louis Delluc and Dulac, 1919) and L'invitation au voyage (1927) 7:30 p.m.
PALACE OF FINE ARTS
3301 Lyon (at Bay), 567-6642 for venue, (212) 320-3709 and www.resfest.com for this program. The Resfest 2003 Digital Film Festival screens programs of digital shorts, music videos, and one feature here this week, with free digital filmmaking seminars all weekend. $10 advance, $12 door.
THURSDAY (Sept. 18): "Resfest Shorts #1" 8 p.m.
FRIDAY (Sept. 19): "Resfest Shorts #2" 8 p.m. "Cinema Electronica" includes music videos with Björk and Yoko Ono, with a late-night after-party to follow 10 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 20): A repeat of "Resfest Shorts #1" 2 p.m. "Off the Map" (shorts) 4 p.m. "Resfest Shorts #3" 6 p.m. A "Michael Gondry Retrospective" screens shorts and music videos with Björk (different one), Radiohead, Foo Fighters, plus Nike and Levi's commercials 8 p.m. A feature by Daft Punk and Leiji Matsumoto, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003) 10 p.m.
SUNDAY (Sept. 21): "Cinema Electronica" (repeat) 2 p.m. "Videos That Rock" 4 p.m. "By Design" (shorts) 6 p.m. A program of "Spike Jonze Rarities" including The Oasis Video That Never Happened with Closing Night party to follow 8 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.
WEDNESDAY: The Parkway's fifth annual Film Noir Fest continues with Arthur Penn's thoughtful neo-noir Night Moves (1975), with Gene Hackman and a young James Woods and Melanie Griffith 6:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: Noir -- Kafka does stand-up in Penn's bizarre nightclub fantasia Mickey One (1964), with Warren Beatty in a continuously inventive film. $6 9:15 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: Noir -- Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, together again in John Huston's Key Largo (1948) Fri 6:30 p.m.; Sat & Sun 6 p.m.
SUNDAY: James Longley's documentary portrait Gaza Strip (2002), sponsored by ANSWER, with a representative from the Free Palestine Alliance in person noon.
MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY (Sept. 22-24): Noir -- Raoul Walsh's outstanding gangster noir White Heat (1949), with Jimmy Cagney, top of the world Mon 9:15 p.m.; Tue & Wed 6:30 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), 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.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Eleven directors, 11 episodes -- "September 11" (2003) 6:30, 9:10 p.m. Surfers Step Into Liquid (Dana Brown, 2003) 7:15, 9:15 p.m. Jacques Perrin's Winged Migration (France, 2002) 6:45 p.m. The Secret Lives of Dentists (Alan Rudolph, 2003) 8:45 p.m. See Ongoing for reviews.
FRIDAY THROUGH TUESDAY: Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt's "The Animation Show" offers a generous program of shorts. Step Into Liquid, The Secret Lives of Dentists, and Winged Migration continue. Call for times.
RED VIC
1727 Haight (at Cole), 668-3994, www.redvicmoviehouse.com. $6.50 save as noted. There's a spot on the couch for you at this collectively owned rep house.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Peter Sollett's seriocomic romance Raising Victor Vargas (2003) 7:15, 9:15 p.m.; also Wed 2 p.m.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY: Ang's eye on the green guy produced a misfiring makeover in The Hulk (Ang Lee, 2003) 7, 9:50 p.m.; also Sat 2 p.m.
SUNDAY & MONDAY: Before Winged Migration there was the lovely and insect-o-centric Microcosmos (Claude Nuridsany/Marie Perennou, France, 1996) 7:30, 9:15 p.m.; also Sun 2 p.m.
TUESDAY: An excellent film about life among church-dwelling predators, Kestrel's Eye (Mikael Kristersson, Sweden, 1999) -- it's about birds, brethren 7:15, 9:15 p.m.
ROXIE
3117 16th St. (at Valencia), 863-1087, www.roxie.com. $8. Short-run repertory in one of the most adventurously programmed theaters in the USA.
WEDNESDAY: The World According to Shorts Festival offers two programs daily. Program 1 screens films on themes of love from Germany, Belgium, and Austria, plus Katja Pratschke's Transposed Bodies (Germany), on her two fathers 2, 6:20, 10 p.m. Program 2 includes films on nature and boxing from Brazil, Estonia, and Switzerland. A businessman's deal with witches comes undone in Guy-Désiré Yaméogo's The Pact (Burkina Faso) 4, 8 p.m.
THURSDAY: The local sex shop Good Vibrations sponsors G Marks the Spot, a how-to video about the search for the mysterious Graffenberg spot. Cast and crew in person. $8 8, 10 p.m.
FRIDAY: An R.W. Fassbinder series returns with the compassionate Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1973) 6, 8, 10 p.m.
SATURDAY: Fassbinder reviews the history of postwar Germany in The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978) via his muse, Hanna Schygulla 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30 p.m.
SUNDAY: Fassbinder's allies eat his soul in Fox and His Friends (1974) 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30 p.m.
MONDAY: Fassbinder's breakthrough to proletarian melodrama, The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) 6, 8, 10 p.m.
TUESDAY: Hanna Schygulla shines and suffers in Fassbinder's faithful literary adaptation of a German classic, Effi Briest (1974) 7, 9:30 p.m.
SHATTUCK
2230 Shattuck (at Kittredge), Berkeley, (510) 843-3456, www.landmarktheatres.com. $9. This venerable theater assigns one of its eight screens to repertory programming. For the rest of the Shattuck's schedule, see our Showtimes page.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: "September 11" (2003). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Sept. 19-25): Jeanne Moreau is Marguerite Duras in Josée Dayan's Cet Amour-là (France, 2001). See Opening for review. Call for times.
SOMARTS GALLERY
934 Brannan (at Eighth Street), 552-FILM and www.filmarts.org for this special screening. Free.
FRIDAY (Sept. 19): The 14th annual Straight Out of Film Arts screening offers films produced in FAF classes over the past year. Barbecue 7 p.m. Films 8:30 p.m.
SPANGENBERG THEATRE
Gunn High School Campus, 780 Arastradero (at Foothill Expressway), Palo Alto, (650) 354-8263, www.spangenbergtheatre.com. This recently refurbished Center for the Arts offers a 35mm film series on a large 30-foot screen. $5.
WEDNESDAY (Sept. 17): Jacques Perrin's Winged Migration (France, 2002). See Ongoing for review 7 p.m.
THURSDAY (Sept. 18): Alan Rudolph explores The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003), a marital drama enlivened by Denis Leary's choppers. See Ongoing for review 7, 9 p.m.
VICTORIA THEATRE
2691 16th St. (at Mission), 863-7576 for venue, 553-8135 and www.cineaccion.com for information and advance tickets. This venerable old house hosts the 11th San Francisco Latino Film Festival. $7 save as noted.
WEDNESDAY (Sept. 17): The festival's Opening Night film, Vivir Mata (Living Kills, Nicolás Echevarría, Mexico, 2002) 7 p.m. A horror program includes two shorts and the 1931 Universal Pictures Spanish-language version of Dracula (George Medford) -- preferred by some aficionados to the Bela Lugosi version 9 p.m.
THURSDAY (Sept. 18): A "Youth Festival Program" 10 a.m., 1 p.m. A youth basketball program is Runnin' at Midnight (Toledo, U.S.) 3 p.m. A "Political Shorts" program 5 p.m. A tribute to Founding Visionaries Ralph Maradiaga and Joe Camacho screens Incident at Downieville and El Pachuco 7 p.m. Pasaporte Rojo (Red Passport, Xavier, U.S./Dominican Republic) 9 p.m.
FRIDAY (Sept. 19): The "Youth Festival Program" repeats 10 a.m., 1 p.m. A staged reading of The Andalusian Marvel 3 p.m. A "Narrative Shorts" program includes the potty-training memoir What Really Happened During the Cuban Missile Crisis 5 p.m. Hunting of Man (Menendez, U.S.) 7 p.m. A shorts collection, "From Aztlan, With Love" 9 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 20): A labor-themed program screens a documentary about day laborers, Los Jornaleros (Bishop, U.S.) 11:30 a.m. "Our African Legacy" (documentaries) 2 p.m. "A Call to Memory" marks the 30th anniversary of the Chilean coup and includes short films, live music, and art. $10 4 p.m. Something in the Air (Raton, Brazil) 7 p.m. "Queer Temple Voices," a Latino GLBT program 9 p.m.
SUNDAY (Sept. 21): "Latino Canadian Program" noon. "Afro-Latino Spirits Program" 2 p.m. Speeder Kills (Mendiola, U.S.) 4 p.m. Rosa La China (Sarmiento, Cuba) 6 p.m. Closing Night: The Original Latin Kings of Comedy 8:30 p.m.
YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS
701 Mission (at Third Street, in Yerba Buena Gardens), 978-2787, www.YerbaBuenaArts.org. $6 save as noted. This venue's Screening Room is a home for film and video programs of all sorts.
DAILY (Closed Mondays): Continuous screenings of "Looking Is Better Than Feeling You," a loop of videos by women, through Oct. 5 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
WEDNESDAY (Sept. 17): Jack Bibbo's documentary Full Circle (2003) tells of a man who has traveled America and now lives in a yurt in the woods, where Bibbo's film was edited (using solar energy). $7 7:30 p.m.
