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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111 MINNA GALLERY
111 Minna (between New Montgomery and Second streets), 864-0660 and www.microcinema.com for information on this program. $5.
TUESDAY (May 27): The "May Flowers Edition" of the monthly Independent Exposure Screening Series offers 11 "highly visual short films and videos full of springtime-fresh creativity," including Ruby Gold's Visible World, Jason Woliner's Gardnener III -- Revenge, and from Spain, Laura Glines' Music for Perplexed People. All this and live shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) music by Philip Gelb 8 p.m.
ALLIANCE FRANAISE
345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.
WEDNESDAY (May 21): The murder of a young girl sparks small-town turmoil and a police inquiry in Bruno Dumont's L'Humanité (France, 1999) 7 p.m.
SATURDAY (May 24): L'Humanité 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 (May 22): An evening of eight student ethnographic videos from SFSU's Visual Anthropology Program includes work on Tibetan youth in the Bay Area, migrant motherhood and paid child-care, transgender issues, SFO airport screeners, Mexican farm workers in Napa Valley, a Death Valley father/son mining team, drum circles, and a Palestinian-American woman. Videographers in person. $3 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY (May 23): The ATA's monthly "Open Screening" offers films by you, or maybe by that coffee shop guy. First come, first screened. $4, free for artistes. Reserve your spot at openscreening@hotmail.com 7:30 p.m.
SATURDAY (May 24): A program of "Medical Madness" from curator Noel Lawrence, including Abel Klainbaum's Heimlich-maneuver doc The History of Choking, Kerry Laitala's three-screen Breathing for Others, and from the U.S. Army, How to Give an Enema 8:30 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 & THURSDAY: Jean-Luc Godard's third feature, A Woman Is a Woman (France, 1961), is a brightly colored slapstick musical about a wholesome stripper and would-be mother with two boyfriends. Easily Godard's most enjoyable film, on strictly movie-lover criteria 7, 9:15 p.m.; also Wed 1, 5 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (May 23-29): Great artist of our time? Or this year's fad? The Castro screens Matthew Barney's complete Cremaster Cycle here through June 5, beginning this week with its last-filmed episode, the three-hour Cremaster 3 (2002), the one that ends with a race up the ramp of the Guggenheim. See our review on Page 41 noon, 4, 8 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: Ken Russell's knock-knock-joke version (Who's there?) of Tommy (1975) 8:15, 10:15 p.m.
MONDAY: Closed.
STARTS TUESDAY: Sandra Nettlebeck's tasty drama of a cook under pressure, Mostly Martha (Germany, 2002), screens through June 15 at 8:30, 10:15 p.m.
JEZEBEL'S JOINT
510 Larkin (at Turk), 345-9832, www.jezebelsjointsf.com. This "Rock 'n' Roll DJ Bar" offers an "S.F. IndieFest MicroCinema" Monday through Friday (most weeks). Screenings are followed by DJ music at 10 p.m. Free.
WEDNESDAY: Jennifer Read's Owned (2002) visits a hackers' convention and a trailer park where one Fuqrag "casually wreaks havoc on government websites." John Ashcroft will hear of this 8 p.m.
THURSDAY: Enjoy a visit to the planet of the Nose People in animator Bill Plympton's latest, Mutant Aliens (2002) 8 p.m.
FRIDAY: Three seek celebrity and/or dodge infamy in Jon Moritsugu's Fame Whore (1997) 8 p.m.
MONDAY: "Silent Monday" screens Buster Keaton's beauteous epic of a man, a train, and a feud, Our Hospitality (Keaton and Eddie Cline, 1923) 8 p.m.
TUESDAY: A coma allows Christopher Walken to see the future, which includes Martin Sheen as a war-mad president, in David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone (1983) 8 p.m.
METREON
Action Theater, Second Floor, 101 Fourth St. (at Mission), 369-6098, www.metreon.com. Sony hosts screenings of popular anime series from Bandai Entertainment this month. Free.
SUNDAY (May 25): Anime fans who visit the Bandai shop by May 23 can vote for their favorites, which will be screened this "Fan Favorite Weekend," continuously from 11 a.m.-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: Andrei Konchalovsky's House of Fools (Russia, 2002). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
STARTS FRIDAY: No films on printed schedule.
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 & THURSDAY: Theater closed.
FRIDAY: A series of the films of Nicholas Ray continues with two of his studio assignments at RKO, a melodrama with Joan Fontaine, who's Born to Be Bad (1950; 7:30 p.m. ), and Flying Leathernecks (1951; 9:25 p.m. ), an aerial drama with John Wayne. The fine, underrated actor Robert Ryan co-stars in both.
SATURDAY: Nicholas Ray's two films with Humphrey Bogart, a troubled star with whom the director had an immediate affinity, the Hollywood noir In a Lonely Place (1950; 4:30, 9 p.m. ) and the liberal courtroomer Knock on Any Door (1949; 7 p.m.). Lonely Place is one of the great American films on both the entertainment industry and the world of the paranoid (is there a difference?).
SUNDAY: Nicholas Ray's highly colored western Johnny Guitar (1954; 5:30 p.m.) -- despite its outrageousness, played too straight to really qualify as camp -- and one of his best films, the rodeo drama The Lusty Men (1952; 7:40 p.m. ), with Robert Mitchum hitting middle age.
MONDAY: Theater closed.
TUESDAY: Belgian formalist Chantal Akerman continues a newly political turn in her work with her new film on the U.S./Mexico border, From the Other Side 7:30 p.m.
PARAMOUNT
2025 Broadway (at 20th Street), Oakland, (510) 465-6400, www.paramounttheatre.com. $5. This beautifully restored picture palace's ongoing "Movie Classics Series" regularly includes a feature plus a newsreel, cartoon, previews, and a few spins of the Dec-O-Win prize wheel.
FRIDAY (May 23): Amnesia meets surrealism in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), with Gregory Peck forgetting himself with Ingrid Bergman. This isn't the movie about a kid's spelling bee that's opening today elsewhere. Doors open at 7 p.m. , film at 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.
THURSDAY (May 22): Viewers vote in a "Punishment Poll" as to how Mr. Sardonicus (William Castle, 1961) pays for his sins in this audience-participation Gothic, with bushy-eyebrowed Oscar Homolka getting his. $6 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.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: Jacques Perrin's Winged Migration (France, 2002) 7, 9 p.m. Abbas Kiarostami's Ten (Iran, 2002) 6:45 p.m. Aki Kaurismäki's The Man Without a Past (Finland, 2002) 9:15 p.m. Nowhere in Africa (Caroline Link, Germany, 2002) 6:30 p.m. Jean-Pierre Melville's thriller Le Cercle Rouge (France, 1970) 8:45 p.m. See Ongoing for reviews.
STARTS FRIDAY: A spelling bee leaves kids Spellbound (Jeff Blitz, 2003); see Opening for review. Winged Migration, The Man Without a Past, and Nowhere in Africa 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: Girlfriends in a coma -- Talk to Her (Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2002) 7, 9:25 p.m.; also Wed 2 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY: Scot sculptor Andy Goldsworthy works with time (and ice, leaves, branches, and water) in Rivers and Tides (Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2001) 7:15, 9:15 p.m.; also Sat & Sun 2, 4 p.m.
TUESDAY: Call for program.
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 U.S.A.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Abderrahmane Sissako's Waiting for Happiness (Mauritania, 2002), about a Eurocentric young man killing time in a small seaside village 6, 8 p.m.; also Wed 2 p.m. Bill Macdonald's Forbidden Photographs (2001), about photographer and anthropologist Charles Gatewood and his snaps of S/M activity 10 p.m.; also Wed 4 p.m.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY: The third annual San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Video Festival noon, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 p.m., midnight.
STARTS SUNDAY: Call for program.
SAN FRANCISCO 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 and here, its home base.
SUNDAY (May 25): Filmmakers José Rodriguez and Tony Wu in person. Wu, who prints black-and-white 16mm film onto 8mm film, and vice versa, will screen work including Intimacy, More Intimacy, and During Chaos 7:30 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: Andrei Konchalovsky's House of Fools (Russia, 2002). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
STARTS FRIDAY: No films on printed schedule.
SPANGENBERG THEATRE
Gunn High School Campus, 780 Arastradero (at Foothill Expressway), Palo Alto, (650) 354-8263, www.spangenbergtheatre.com. This newly refurbished Center for the Arts offers a 35mm film series on a large 30-foot screen. $5.
WEDNESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY (May 21-24): Roman Polanski's The Pianist (Poland, 2002) Thurs & Sat 9 p.m.; Fri 7 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. Closed Mondays.
DAILY: Continuous-loop screenings of three DVDs, part of the visual arts exhibition "Time After Time: Asia and Our Moment," run through July 13 -- From China, Chinese Utopia and Living Elsewhere, plus Haunted Houses, on Thai soap operas 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
WEDNESDAY (May 21): A Film Arts Foundation screening of Joslyn Rose Lyons' Soundz of Spirit (2002), a video documentary in praise of hip hop. KRS-One, Blackalicious, the Last Poets, and Outkast are featured. $7 7:30 p.m.
THURSDAY (May 22): The S.F. Cinematheque sponsors "Haptic Refractions," an evening of films made sans camera, including a live performance of silt's triptych Untitled, "a continuation of their investigations of film emulsion as a microcosmic peering into the earth's crust." Also, Rock Ross' Psycho Porpoise, Saul Levine's Light Lick: Only Sunshine, Alexis Bravos' The World's Dry Lever, Steve Polta's A Glimpse of Soviet Science, and Phil Solomon and Stan Brakhage's ... (The Seasons), plus more. $7 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY (May 23): "On Fire," a monthlong series of recent Korean films, screens Lee Chang-dong's Memento-style look at a middle-aged man's loss of hope, dreams, and love, Peppermint Candy (2000). There remains to be made a film about a middle-aged man's loss of sex drive and gain of weight 7:30 p.m.
