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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.
