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. 13): Shot during the Iranian hostage crisis, Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981) gleefully and vengefully applied whup-ass to the Arab world, a feel-good fix for a troubled time. Is it any wonder Indy 4 is being bruited about? midnight.
ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.
WEDNESDAY (Sept. 10): Catherine Deneuve and her daughter love the same man on a plantation in French Indochine (Régis Wargnier, 1991) 7 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 13): Indochine 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. 11): Open Up! (Marcus Major Niehaus, 2003) is described as a "socially inept comedy" about a group of misfits who meet to discuss their problems, which include their inept healer 8 p.m.
FRIDAY (Sept. 12): The MadCat Women's International Film Festival offers "Coming From...," a selection of short films on (extended) family life, including Susan Stamp's Nan Is in a Box (Australia), Tatjana Bozic's Circa Oasis (Croatia), Kristin Pepe's abstract Powwow, and Teatro Roots (Kristin Pichaske), about the history of El Teatro Campesino. $7-20 8 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 13): ATA's Other Cinema showcases the Center for Tactical Magic with a mixed-media program of slides, videos, computers, and legerdemain as it takes on surveillance hardware (The Smoky Hill River Outpost), prisons (Listening to Pelican Bay), and more 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: Party Monster (Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, 2003). See Ongoing for review 7, 9:30 p.m.; also Wed 1:30, 4:15 p.m.
STARTS FRIDAY: 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. 12 & 13): Bounty hunters patrol the future in Shinichir Watanabe's feature spinoff of the popular TV anime Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Japan, 2001). Saturday nights feature Kick the Dog and a race for the prize in a Speed Ramen contest midnight.
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. 16): Stephanie Rothman gave a feminist spin to several Roger Corman-produced exploitation films in the early 1970s, among them The Student Nurses (1970). Screens with shorts from the 1960s. 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. 12): A heist film with pretensions, Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise, 1959) mixes in the racial debates of its era, personified by Harry Belafonte and bigot Robert Ryan. In person, guest speaker and noir specialist Eddie Muller 6:30 p.m.
MILLS COLLEGE
Concert Hall, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, (510) 464-4640. Free.
FRIDAY (Sept. 12): Berkeley artist Antero Alli's Under a Shipwrecked Moon (2003), about what happens when "the rituals of a self-made shamanic punk rocker lead him into the dreams of his Finnish grandfather who lies comatose and drifting through visions of his first love, a sorceress." Filmmaker in person 8 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. 12): Barry Levinson's Baltimore-bound Diner (1982), a thoughtful buddy film talkfest with Mickey Rourke, Paul Reiser, and Daniel Stern 7, 9:30 p.m.
SATURDAY (Sept. 13): Vincente Minnelli's brilliant visual comedy The Long Long Trailer (1953) packs Lucy, Desi, and about a hundred rocks into a bright yellow camper in one of the best comedies of its era 7, 9:30 p.m.
SUNDAY (Sept. 14): Pixar's fish tale Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, 2003), scripted I would guess by a committee of single dads 4, 6, 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.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Sept. 12-18): Eleven directors offer their take on "September 11" (2003). 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 two of his earliest features, The American Soldier (1970; 5:30, 9:10 p.m. ) and Gods of the Plague (1969; 7:10 p.m. ), which like a lot of early Fassbinder consists of Rainer and his buddies horsing around playing gangsters (kinda like early Godard and Tarantino). Plague plays with his early short Little Chaos (1967).
THURSDAY: A series of films on genetic mutations screens Dave Borthwick's The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (U.K., 1993), in which the boy is a mutant. Page Professor X! Screens with shorts 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY: Fassbinder casts himself as a harassed AD in his film about filmmaking, Beware of a Holy Whore (1970) 7:30, 9:30 p.m.
SATURDAY: A faithful adaptation of Theodor Fontane's 19th-century novel of Prussian repression, Effi Briest (1974) stars Hanna Schygulla as its primary victim in one of Fassbinder's best, most disciplined films 6:30, 9:10 p.m.
SUNDAY: A series of the films of French pioneer Germaine Dulac begins with La Mort du soleil (1921), a feminist melodrama built around the search for a cure for TB 5:30 p.m.
MONDAY: Theater closed.
TUESDAY: "Hy Hirsh and the Fifties" offers a program of Beat shorts from San Francisco, including Robert Breer's delightful A Man and His Dog Out for Air (1957), Shirley Clarke's Bridges-Go-Round (1958), Jordan Belson's Mandala (1953), and several films by Hirsh 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.
WEDNESDAY: The Parkway's fifth annual Film Noir Fest continues with Dark Passage (Delmer Daves, 1947) -- a good Bogart/Bacall thriller, with some excellent San Francisco cinematography, underrated perhaps due to its gimmicky structure, its first third filmed with subjective camera, its middle third with Bogie in bandages 6:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: Guerrilla News Network's AfterMath: Unanswered Questions From 9/11 (Stephen Marshall, 2003) challenges the official version of that story with nine people asking 11 questions. Filmmakers in person for Q&A after screening 6:30 p.m. Noir -- A not exactly timely screening of what's billed as the first serial killer film, Edward Dmytryk's The Sniper (1952), about a sharpshooter (Arthur Franz) stalking San Francisco. A creepy and effective movie. $6 9:15 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: Noir (or so they say) -- Kevin Spacey gives the police a lesson in Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects (1997) Fri 6:30 p.m.; Sat & Sun 6 p.m.
MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY (Sept. 15-17): Gene Hackman's a disillusioned detective in Arthur Penn's thoughtful neo-noir Night Moves (1975), with good early roles for James Woods and Melanie Griffith Mon 9:15 p.m.; Tues & 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: Surfers Step Into Liquid (Dana Brown, 2003) 9:15 p.m.; also Wed 7:15 p.m. The Secret Lives of Dentists (Alan Rudolph, 2003) 6:30, 8:45 p.m. Martin Doblmeier's Bonhoeffer (Germany, 2003) 7 p.m. Jacques Perrin's Winged Migration (France, 2002) 9 p.m. See Ongoing for reviews.
STARTS THURSDAY: Eleven directors, 11 episodes -- "September 11" (2003). See Opening for review 6:30 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH TUESDAY: 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: Michael Moore first established his reputation as a thinking man's yokel in Roger & Me (1989) 2, 7:15, 9:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: Christopher Guest and his team first established their reputations with the metal band parody This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984) 7:15, 9:30 p.m.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY: Bob Dylan consolidated his reputation as a smartass troubadour in Dont Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1965) 7:15, 9:20 p.m.; also Sat 2, 4:15 p.m.
SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY: Birds consolidate their reputation as flying feathered egg-bearers in Jacques Perrin's Winged Migration (France, 2002). See Ongoing for review 7:15, 9:25 p.m.; also Sun 2, 4:15 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: A two-week series of the films of the late German wunderkind R.W. Fassbinder continues with his sarcastic satire of backbiting bourgeoise, Chinese Roulette (1976; 2:45, 6:15, 9:45 p.m. ), and his debut feature, Love Is Colder Than Death (1969; 4:30, 8 p.m. ) -- Fassbinder's philosophy in a nutshell.
THURSDAY: Fassbinder's excellent and little-screened Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (1975), a film with something to offend both left and right 7, 9:30 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY (Sept. 12-17): 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 6:20, 10 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 2 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) 8 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 4 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: The Hollywood satire New Suit (François Velle, 2003). See Ongoing for review. Call for times.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Sept. 12-18): "September 11" (2003). See Opening for review. Call for times.
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.
THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY: Jacques Perrin's Winged Migration (France, 2002). See Ongoing for review Thurs 7, 9 p.m.; Fri & Sat 5 p.m.; Sun 12:30 p.m.; Mon & Tues 7 p.m.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY: 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. This venerable old house frequently rents itself out for special screenings.
SATURDAY (Sept. 13): Local independent filmmaker Yael Braha screens her 35mm short The Waves (2003), "a poetic social commentary." A benefit for postproduction and distribution accepts sliding-scale donations ($10 at the door). Live music by Rosin Coven 8 p.m. , film 9 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. 10): The Latino Film Festival presents Silvia Prieto (Martin Rejtman, 1999), a comedy about a woman who begins sharing the life of her namesake. $8 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY (Sept. 12): "Appetite for Destruction," a three-Friday series devoted to motorized daredevils, begins with Jesse Moss' digital video Speedo (2003), about a demolition-derby champeen. $6 7:30 p.m.
