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ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.
WEDNESDAY (Feb. 5): Léos Carax's love story of two vagrants, Les Amants du Pont Neuf (France, 1991) 7 p.m.
SATURDAY (Feb. 8): Les Amants du Pont Neuf 2 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.
WEDNESDAY: John Junkerman's Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times (2003) 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 p.m.
THURSDAY: The Opening Night screenings of the 5th Annual SF Independent Film Festival are Spun (Jonas Äkerlund, 2003, 7 p.m.) and the all-male Girls Will Be Girls (Richard Day, 2003; 9:30 p.m.). Dial up www.sfindie.com for more info.
FRIDAY: Live performances by Joan Baez and Reno precede a film of the latter's one-woman show, inspired by Sept. 11, Reno: Rebel Without a Pause (Nancy Savoca, 2003). $27.50 7:30 p.m. A Dessert Reception with the two artists follows for $50 (including the earlier program) 10 p.m.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: The angels hover over Berlin in Wim Wenders' masterpiece Wings of Desire (Germany, 1988) 2, 4:40, 7:30 p.m.
MONDAY: The Frameline-hosted series "Close-Up: Visionaries of Modern Cinema" offers an evening with director Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman, Stranger Inside). $12 8 p.m.
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY (Feb. 11-12): Transvestite actor-singer Akhiro Maruyama stars in a follow-up to the recently revived crime film Black Lizard, Black Rose Mansion (Kinji Fukasaku, Japan, 1969), as the star attraction at a men's club 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 p.m.
DIGITAL MOVIE HOUSE
1306 Mission (at 9th), 820-3907 and www.sfindie.com for the S.F. Independent Film Festival screening here Feb. 7-16. $8.50 evening/$6 before 4 p.m. for S.F. Indie films save as noted.
FRIDAY: "DIY and Doc" (shorts) 12:30 p.m. A romantic comedy set to Muzak, Easy Listening (Pamela Corkley, 2002) 2:45 p.m. G.W. Bush's "election" is Unprecedented 5 p.m. Five losers are Stuck (Paul Stephen and David Owen, 2002) 7:15 p.m. "Fuel for the Quirky Alone" (shorts) 9:15 p.m.
SATURDAY: UFO abductees tell all in People of Earth 12:30 p.m. Greek gods walk the earth in 12 (Lawrence Bridges, 2002) 2:45 p.m. Wealthy campers travel from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart and discover This Is Nowhere 5 p.m. The computer-animated Missing Persons (Matthew and Dan O'Donnell, 2002) 7:15 p.m. "Sex Rated " (shorts) 9:15 p.m.
SUNDAY: "Fuel for the Quirky Alone" 12:30 p.m. People of Earth 2:45 p.m. Reverend Billy & the Church of Stop Shopping 5 p.m. A cartoonist's life is taken over by a dead dog in Lucky (Steve Cuden, 2002) 7:15 p.m. The bondage underground occupies its Headspace 9:15 p.m.
MONDAY: "Sex Rated" 2:45 p.m. A genius' clone wants to be janitor in The Snowflake Crusade (Megan Holley, 2002) 5 p.m. "DIY and Doc" 7:15 p.m. A horror film, with big black goats, Horror (Dante Tomaseli, 2002) 9:30 p.m.
TUESDAY: Unprecedented 2:45 p.m. : "Sex Rated" 7:15 p.m. Xan Price's unclassifiable Nitwit (2002) 9:30 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.
WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: Mira Nair's colorful crowd-pleaser Monsoon Wedding (India, 2001) 6:15, 8:15, 10:15 p.m.
MONDAY: Closed.
STARTS TUESDAY: Gerard Depardieu stars in the highly popular costumer Cyrano de Bergerac (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, France, 1990), screening through March 2 6:15, 8:30, 10:45 p.m.
JEZEBEL'S JOINT
510 Larkin (at Turk), 820-3907, www.sfindie.com. This "Rock 'n' Roll DJ Bar" offers an "SF IndieFest MicroCinema" Mondays through Fridays. All screenings are followed by DJ music at 10 p.m. Free.
WEDNESDAY: After The Fly, Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis teamed again for the hi-fi sci-fi musical comedy Earth Girls Are Easy (Julien Temple, 1989), featuring Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans in furry alien suits 8 p.m.
THURSDAY: Not coming soon to PBS' American Masters -- Rage: 20 Years of Punk Rock West Coast Style (Michael Bishop, Scott Jacoby, 2001) features Jello Biafra, Duane Peters, Keith Morris, Gitane Demone of Christian Death and Don Bolles of the Germs discussing '80s punk 8 p.m.
FRIDAY: "Rockabilly aliens who come to earth to kill hippies" in John Michael McCarthy's The Sore Losers (1997) 8 p.m.
MONDAY: Louise Brooks opens Pandora's Box (G.W. Pabst, Germany, 1928) 8 p.m.
TUESDAY: Isn't it Nekromantik (Jörg Buttergereit, Germany, 1987)? "Love means never having to say you're dead" 8 p.m.
MECHANICS' INSTITUTE LIBRARY
57 Post (near Market), 393-0100 for reservations and information. $5. This cultural asset of long standing offers a "February Film Noir" series of projected video of classics, with salon-style discussions after the films featuring noir expert Eddie Muller.
FRIDAY (Feb. 7): Edmund Goulding's startlingly blunt Nightmare Alley (1947), with Tyrone Power developing a taste for chicken that would chill even David Lynch 6:30 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: Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann's Shanghai Ghetto (2002). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Feb. 7-13): Alex and Andrew J. Smith's The Slaughter Rule (2002). See Opening for review. Call for times.
PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE
2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch), Berkeley, (510) 642-1124, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. $7, second show $1.50. 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: A UCB film history class open to the public screens D.W. Griffith's still effective melodrama Way Down East (1921) 3 p.m. "Urban Renewal," a program of video art mapping cities from NYC to SF, with works by Scott Rankin, Bull.Miletic and others. Bull.Miletic, complete with dot, in person 7:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: "Merce Cunningham: Dances for Camera" screens four films documenting the choreographer's career 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY: A three night Human Rights Watch Festival opens with The Last Just Man (Steven Silver, Canada, 2001), on the 1994 Rwanda genocide 7:30 p.m. Ken Loach's latest, Sweet Sixteen (U.K., 2002) 9:10 p.m.
SATURDAY: Human Rights Watch -- Thierry Michel's Iran, Veiled Appearances (Belgium, 2002), with discussion to follow 3 p.m. Israel in August (Avi Mograbi, Israel, 2002), just before the outbreak of the latest catastrophic struggle 7 p.m. Afghanistan Year 1380 (Alberto Vendemmiati and Fabrizio Lazzaretti, Italy, 2002) looks at that country after 9/11 and screens with James Longley's Gaza Strip (2002) 8:35 p.m.
SUNDAY: A Children's Film Festival screening of Scars (Lars Berg, Norway, 2002), about a boy's coming of age. English subtitles read aloud 1 p.m. Human Rights Watch -- Blue Vinyl (Judith Helfand, Daniel B. Gold, 2001) tracks said plastic's worldwide eco impact 5:30 p.m. A police shooting in NYC's the subject of Justifiable Homicide (Jon Osman, Jonathan Stack, 2001) 7:30 p.m.
MONDAY: Closed.
TUESDAY: A tribute to filmmaker Gus Van Sant commences with his first feature, Mala Noche (1985) and his short films Junior the Cat (1988), My Friend (1988) and Ballad of the Skeletons (1996) 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 (Feb. 6): Pam Grier stars as Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974), with live music by Oakland's Mocha Velvet Combination before each screening. $8 6:30, 9:30 p.m.
TUESDAY (Feb. 11): The disappearance of an immigrant woman in Manhattan sparks local filmmaker Nitza Henig's black comedy Penny Ante (2002). Digital projection, filmmaker in person 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.finc.org. $8.50 save as noted. This three-screen repertory theater is operated by the California Film Institute. Programs are complex; check carefully and call for confirmation.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Terry Gilliam is Lost in La Mancha (Keith Fulton, Luis Pepe, U.K., 2002) 7, 9 p.m. Shanghai Ghetto (Dana Janklowicz-Mann, Amir Mann, 2002) 6:30, 8:30 p.m. Rabbit-Proof Fence (Phillip Noyce, Australia, 2002) 6:45, 8:45 p.m. See Ongoing for reviews.
STARTS FRIDAY: Linguist/activist Noam Chomsky articulates opinions about 9/11 in Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times (John Junkerman, 2003) 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 p.m.. Call theater for other films and times.
SUNDAY: A weekly Pre-Code Hollywood series introduced by Mick LaSalle continues with Clarence Brown's exciting courtroom melodrama A Free Soul (1931), with Clark Gable in his early brutal mode 7 p.m.
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: Matt Ehling's Urban Warrior (2002) documents the incursion of military battle techniques into American cities 2, 7:15, 9:15 p.m.
THURSDAY: Errol Morris crossed The Thin Blue Line (1988) to free an innocent man in this famed documentary 7:15, 9:30 p.m.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY: Bad sex at the office: Secretary (Steven Shainberg, 2002) 7:15, 9:30 p.m.; also Sat 2, 4:15 p.m.
SUNDAY & MONDAY: Uli Gaulke's Havana Mi Amor (Germany/Cuba, 2000) dramatizes the lives of Cuban soap opera fans in this S.F. film premiere 7:15, 9:15 p.m.; also Sun 2, 4 p.m.
TUESDAY: Screening in conjunction with the S.F. Bluegrass Fest, Arthur Penn's gangster classic Bonnie & Clyde (1967) featured, of course, the splendid picking of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs 7:15, 9:35 p.m.
ROXIE
3117 16th St. (at Valencia), 863-1087, www.roxie.com; 820-3907 and www.sfindie.com for the S.F. Independent Film Festival screening here Feb. 7-16. $8 regular admission; $8.50 evening/$6 before 4 p.m. for S.F. Indie films save as noted. Short-run repertory in one of the most adventurously programmed theaters in the U.S.A. See Digital Movie House for more plot descriptions of Indie films.
WEDNESDAY: A double bill of fine films noir, Fritz Lang's outstanding The Big Heat (1953; 2, 5:30, 9 p.m.) and Edward Dmytryk's grim little S.F.-filmed The Sniper (1952; 3:45, 7:15, 10:45 p.m.).
THURSDAY: More noir, both rare -- Barbara Stanwyck is Witness to Murder (Roy Rowland, 1954; 7:30, 10:30 p.m.) while Raymond Burr kidnaps Natalie Wood in A Cry in the Night (Frank Tuttle, 1956; 6, 9:05 p.m.).
FRIDAY: The 5th Annual SF Independent Film Festival screens here for ten days, starting with a film about the struggles to republish a suppressed G.W. Bush bio, Horns and Halos 5 p.m. A drama of pregnancy, Expecting (Deborah Day, Canada, 2002) 7:15 p.m. Jay Lee's thriller Noon Blue Apples (2003) 9:30 p.m. Nitwit 11:30 p.m.
SATURDAY: Indiefest -- Experimental filmmaker Harry Smith's remembered in American Magus noon The Austin bicycle scene's immortalized in Bike Like U Mean It 2:15 p.m. "Drawing Outside the Lines" (animation) 4:30 p.m. Controversial Gasper Noe's Irreversible (France, 2002) 7 p.m. A Canadian triangle, Inertia (Sean Garrity, 2002) 9:15 p.m. A Hong Kong s.f. adventure filmed in San Francisco, The Wesley's Mysterious File (Andrew Lau, 2002) 11:30 p.m.
SUNDAY: Indiefest -- "Salinger's Sort" (shorts about teens) noon Inertia 2:15 p.m. This Is Nowhere 4:30 p.m. The Snowflake Crusade 7 p.m. Killers Just Want to Be Alive (Ryuhei Kitamura, Japan, 2002 ) 9:15 p.m.
MONDAY: Indiefest -- "Drawing Outside the Lines" 5 p.m. Easy Listening 7:15 p.m. Monday Night at the Rock 'n Bowl (Genevieve Coleman, 2002) 9:30 p.m.
TUESDAY: Indiefest -- Stuck 5 p.m. Horns and Halos 7 p.m. 12 9:30 p.m.
SAN FRANCISCO CINEMATHEQUE
S.F. Art Institute, 800 Chestnut (at Jones), 822-2885, www.sfcinematheque.org. $7 save as noted. The San Francisco Cinematheque specializes in avant-garde, historical, and experimental films at venues around the Bay Area, including the Yerba Buena Center (see separate entry).
SUNDAY (Feb. 10): Filmmaker tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE in person with his "recent media manipulations" Space Ballet (condensed), Lab Rats Explain Their Veggie-Oil Powered Van and more 8 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: Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann's Shanghai Ghetto (2002). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Feb. 7-13): Alex and Andrew J. Smith' s The Slaughter Rule (2002). See Opening for review. Call for times.
STANFORD
221 University (at Emerson), Palo Alto, (650) 324-3700, www.stanfordtheatre.org. $6. This handsomely restored neighborhood palace usually screens pre-1960 Hollywood fare in the best available prints, with excellent projection and a courteous staff.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Edward G. Robinson's a ruthless editor in Five Star Final (Mervyn LeRoy, 1931; 7:30 p.m.) while reporter Lee Tracy tracks down a Blessed Event (Roy Del Ruth, 1932; 5:55, 9:10 p.m.).
FRIDAY: Tyrone Power gets lost in Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947; 7:30 p.m.) while late-career Erich von Stroheim is The Great Flamarion (Anthony Mann, 1945; 6, 9:30 p.m.).
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Lewis Milestone tracks The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1947; 7:30 p.m.; also 3:45 p.m. Sun), screening with Nicholas Ray's very good film blanc, On Dangerous Ground (1951; 5:55, 9:40 p.m.). It's a noir that turns into a sincere tale of redemption.
MONDAY & TUESDAY: Theater closed.
STUDIO Z
314 Eleventh Street (at Folsom), 820-3907 and www.sfindie.com for more information on this program. $8.50
TUESDAY (Feb. 11): The Fifth Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival (SF IndieFest) screens Off the Charts (Jamie Meltzer, 2003), a documentary about the composers of "song poems" 10 p.m.
YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS
701 Mission (at Third Street, in Yerba Buena Gardens), 978-2787, www.YerbaBuenaArts.org. $5 save as noted. This venue's Screening Room is a home for film and video programs of all sorts. Closed Mondays.
DAILY: Continuous loop screenings by Swedish video artists through April 13 -- On Wednesdays, Annka Ström's The Artist Live; on Thursdays, Ström's Ten New Love Songs; on Fridays, Anneè Olofsson's Ricochet and The Thrill Is Gone; on Saturdays, Annika Larsson's Cigar; on Sundays, Larsson's 40-15; on Tuesdays, Anneè Olofsson's You Need Her and You Want Her Golden Hair. Free with gallery admission 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
WEDNESDAY: The Goethe Institute sponsors Karin Jurschick's It Should Have Been Nice Afterwards (Germany, 2000), a daughter's investigation of her mother's suicide. $6 7:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: The San Francisco Cinematheque opens its Spring season with an in-person appearance by one tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE and his "vaudeo magazine" of shorts, "Imp Activism Issue #3" 7:30 p.m.
TUESDAY: A Bay Area Video Coalition presents David Hoffman's Bluegrass Roots (1964), a record of a tour by folklorist and musician Bascom Lamar Lunsford. $7 7:30 p.m.
