Reps Etc.

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.

We're interested in your film or video event. Please send materials at least two weeks in advance to: Film Editor, SF Weekly, 185 Berry, Suite 3800, San Francisco, CA 94107.

ACT ONE/TWO

2128 Center (at Shattuck), Berkeley, (510) 464-5980, www.landmarktheatres.com. $9.25 save as noted. One of this venue's two screens is a "calendar house" for Landmark Theatres. For additional screenings, see our Showtimes page.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: The Seagull's Laughter (Ágûst Gudmundsson, Iceland, 2001). See Ongoing for review 7:15, 9:35 p.m.

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (July 16-22): Time of the Wolf (Michael Haneke, France, 2003). See Opening for review 7, 9:30 p.m.; also Sat & Sun 1:30, 4:15 p.m.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

345 Bush (at Polk), 775-7755, www.afsf.com. French-language films shown on projected video. $5 donation.

WEDNESDAY (July 14): A teenage boy looks to his sister in Catherine Corsini's Les Amoureaux (France, 1994) 6 p.m.

ARTISTS' TELEVISION ACCESS

992 Valencia (at 21st Street), 824-3890, www.atasite.org. $5 save as noted. This venue offers all manner of strange and unusual video and film.

WEDNESDAY (July 14): Naeem Mohaiemen's Muslims or Heretics? (Bangladesh, 2004) documents the persecution of the Ahmadiya sect, whose members believe that their spiritual leader was also a Prophet following Mohammed 8 p.m.

THURSDAY (July 15): The local premiere of Until When... (Palestine, 2004), following four families in a refugee camp outside Bethlehem. Filmmaker Jess Ghannam in person 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY (July 16): Van McElwee's "video meditations" are presented in "Electronic Infinite," a "showcase of cosmic consciousness" that includes Stupaform ("an enchanting meditation on Buddhist architecture"), Waveform Modulation, and Heliogos ("six years are cut and folded") 8 p.m.

SATURDAY (July 17): A "San Francisco Bike Messenger Screening" showcasing bike messenger culture 1 p.m.

AUCTIONS BY THE BAY

Movie Palace Auction Sales Room, 2700 Saratoga (near West Red Line), Alameda, (510) 740-0220, www.auctionsbythebay.com. $7. Classic films in 35mm (save as noted) screen in a former U.S. Navy theater.

FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY (July 16-18): Marlon Brando is The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) Fri 7 p.m.; Sat & Sun 4 p.m.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY (July 17 & 18): Robert De Niro is the young Brando in The Godfather Part II (Coppola, 1974) 7:30 p.m.

BRIDGE

3010 Geary (at Blake), 751-3213, www.peacheschrist.com for this series. This popular little theater offers, in addition to its regular screenings (see Showtimes for listings), a "Midnight Mass" every Saturday this summer, hosted by Peaches Christ. $8.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY (July 16 & 17): Singalong Purple Rain (Albert Magnoli, 1984), with projected lyrics (singing required) and a pre-show "'80s Slut Pageant." An extra show has been added for this Friday by popular demand midnight.

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: Hope Lange, Diane Baker, and Suzy Parker are three young women in Manhattan seeking The Best of Everything (Jean Negulesco, 1959), in this sex and the city melodrama 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:30 p.m.

THURSDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY (July 15-21): Jacques Tati's brilliant observational comedy Playtime (France, 1967) screens in a new, expanded, 70mm print 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:30 p.m.

EXPLORATORIUM

3601 Lyon (at Marina), 563-7337, www.exploratorium.edu. Free with museum admission of $12. A "Tinkering" film series continues all summer. Screenings are in the center's McBean Theater, through the front doors and on the left.

SATURDAY (July 17): Swiss artists start a 30-minute chain reaction of teakettles and Styrofoam in The Way Things Go (Peter Fischi, David Weiss, Switzerland, 1986-87) 2 p.m.

SUNDAY (July 18): A program of puppets and mechanical toys includes films from Ladislas Starewicz's bug-laden Revenge of the Knematograph Cameraman (Russia, 1912) to John Reily's Museo Mechanique (2003) 2 p.m.

FILM ARTS FOUNDATION

145 Ninth St. (between Mission and Howard), www.filmarts.org, 552-8760 ext. 305 for this event. Free.

FRIDAY (July 16): An "Open Screening" of Bay Area short films, which are accepted first come, first served, plus free popcorn and cheap beer and pop. Works accepted 6 p.m. , door 6:30 p.m. , screening 7 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 Mondays): Terrence Malick spends the Days of Heaven in this outstanding 1978 release, screening through July 25; see Ongoing for review 8:45, 10:30 p.m.

FOUR STAR

2200 Clement (at 23rd Avenue), 666-3468, www.hkinsf.com/4star/. $7 for this program. This enterprising theater hosts occasional special screenings. "Midnites for Maniacs," a 10-week, 17-film series of rarities in 35mm prints, continues. For the Four Star's regular schedule, see our Showtimes page.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY (July 16 & 17): Jeff Bridges turns blue over Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982) midnight.

LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER

3105 Shattuck (at Prince), Berkeley, (510) 849-2568.

WEDNESDAY (July 14): The International Working Class Film & Video Festival commemorates Bastille Day with Rendezvous at the Docks (Paul Carpita, France, 1955), about a dockers' strike against the Indochinese war. A discussion with ILWU workers follows. $7-10 7 p.m.

THURSDAY (July 15): Pablo Neruda's centennial is marked not with Il Postino but with ¡Neruda Presente! (Mark Eisner, 2004), a video including an interview with the man who taught Neruda to ride a horse and led him to exile in Argentina. $8 7:30 p.m.

LITTLE ROXIE

3125 16th St. (at Valencia), 863-1087, www.roxie.com. $8 save as noted. Popular holdover programs from the "big" Roxie two doors down. Call ahead to see if the scheduled film is actually continuing, as movies play here in an open-ended run.

WEDNESDAY: Artist Andy Goldsworthy plays with time, ice, and mud in Rivers and Tides (Thomas Riedelsheimer, U.K., 2001). See Ongoing for review 7, 9 p.m.

THURSDAY: Misused by gangster Bill Murray, Uma Thurman should consider killing Bill in Mad Dog and Glory (John McNaughton, 1992), the last film in the Murray series, which had been ongoing at the big Roxie 7, 9 p.m.

STARTS FRIDAY: "Fear and the selling of American Empire" after 9/11 is tackled in the Michael Moore-less Hijacking Catastrophe (Jeremy Earp and Sut Jhally, 2004). See Opening for review 6:30, 8, 9:30 p.m.; also Sat & Sun 2, 3:30, 5 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: The Seagull's Laughter (Ágûst Gudmundsson, Iceland, 2001); see Ongoing for review. Call for times.

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (July 16-22): Time of the Wolf (Michael Haneke, France, 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 Berkeley's Art Museum, thrives at its on-campus location, up the steps on Bancroft between Telegraph Avenue and the Hearst Gym.

WEDNESDAY: An "Exploit-O-Scope" screening of Rollercoaster (James Goldstone, 1977), with rumbly Sensurround re-created as Sub-Sonic Sound for this thriller about Timothy Bottoms blowing up carnival attractions 7:30 p.m.

THURSDAY: Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami seeks the cast of an earlier film after a devastating earthquake in And Life Goes On (Iran, 1992) 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: A western series screens two good films from 1957, Sam Fuller's cult favorite Forty Guns (7:30 p.m.) and Delmer Daves' male-bonding High Noon variant, 3:10 to Yuma (9:20 p.m.).

SATURDAY: An Ingmar Bergman series screens one of his finest, Cries and Whispers (Sweden, 1972; 5, 9 p.m.), and Autumn Sonata (1978; 7 p.m.), with Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Bergman (no relation).

SUNDAY: The shorts program "Thomas Ince and the Origins of the Western" offers a nice lineup of little-seen early films, including "the first great western," The Invaders (1912) 5:30 p.m. Victor Schertzinger's Redskin (1929) casts Richard Dix as a Navajo with a college education. Filmed in color on location at Canyon de Chelly, Ariz. 7:30 p.m.

MONDAY: Theater closed.

TUESDAY: Film and video artist Takahiko Iimura in person with his work, including On Eye Rape (1962) and Seeing / Hearing / Speaking (2002-03) 7:30 p.m.

PALACE OF FINE ARTS

3301 Lyon (at Bay), 567-6642 and www.palaceoffinearts.org/events.html for venue; (843) 272-8524 and www.avataroftheage.com for this program. This nine-decade-old remnant of a World's Fair has an excellent auditorium, often used for film programs. $10, $5 matinees (first two shows).

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY (July 14 & 15): The premiere of Meher Baba: Avatar of the Age (Irwin Luck, 2004), billed as "a documentary Love story of the human and Divine side of God when he returns as the Avatar on earth," covering 15 years of Baba's life in India 4, 5:40, 7:30, 9:10 p.m.

PARAMOUNT

2025 Broadway (at 20th Street), Oakland, (510) 465-6400, www.paramounttheatre.com. $6. 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 (July 16): Sidney Lumet's odd film adaptation of the Broadway hit The Wiz (1978) stars an overage Diana Ross as Dorothy and an underage Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. 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.

MIDNIGHT SHOW (Saturday): The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975), with live performance by Barely Legal. $6. See Ongoing for review.

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: The Story of the Weeping Camel (Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni, Mongolia, 2003) 6:45, 8:45 p.m. Control Room (Jehane Noujaim, 2004) 6:30 p.m. The Corporation (Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, Canada, 2003) 8:30 p.m. Facing Windows (Ferzan Ozpetak, Italy, 2003) 7, 9:10 p.m. See Ongoing for reviews.

FRIDAY THROUGH TUESDAY: The Hunting of the President (Nickolas Perry and Harry Thomason, 2004); see Opening for review. Control Room, The Corporation, and The Story of the Weeping Camel continue. Call for times.

RED VIC

1727 Haight (at Cole), 668-3994, www.redvicmoviehouse.com. $7 save as noted. There's a spot on the couch for you at this collectively owned rep house.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: James Nachtwey, War Photographer (Christian Frei, 2001) documents the life and work of a man who never needs fear unemployment 7:15, 9:20 p.m.; also Wed 2, 4 p.m.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY: Cory McAbee's sci-fi musical The American Astronaut (2001) 7:15, 9:20 p.m.; also Sat 2, 4:15 p.m.

SUNDAY & MONDAY: Jonathan Demme's worthy documentary The Agronomist (2003) follows the life and death of Haitian dissident Jean Dominique 7:15, 9:15 p.m.; also Sun 2, 4 p.m.

TUESDAY: The 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention debacle is recorded in the rare documentaries The Seasons Change and The Yippee Report 7:15, 9:15 p.m.

ROXIE

3117 16th St. (at Valencia), 863-1087 and www.roxie.com. $8 save as noted. Short-run repertory in one of the most adventurously programmed theaters in the USA.

WEDNESDAY: A Bill Murray series continues with Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993), which you'll be watching every day for the rest of your life 2, 4:30, 7, 9:15 p.m.

THURSDAY: Bill Clinton is targeted in The Hunting of the President (Nickolas Perry and Harry Thomason, 2004), previewing with Thomason and star (and Ken Starr target) Susan McDougal in person. See Opening for review 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (July 16-22): The Hunting of the President 6:30, 8, 9:30 p.m.; also Sat, Sun, & Wed 2, 3:30, 5 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 & THURSDAY (July 14 & 15): Yoji Yamada's excellent, low-key The Twilight Samurai (Japan, 2002) 7:30 p.m.

THURSDAY (July 15): Nathaniel Kahn looks back at his mysterious dad in the highly personal documentary My Architect (2003) 5:10 p.m.

FRIDAY (July 16): Scrabble buffs fight Word Wars (Eric Chaikin and Julian Petrillo, 2004) 4:30 p.m. A father comes home in The Return (Andrei Zyvagintsev, Russia, 2004) 6 p.m. A godfather fights for home in The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) 8 p.m.

STANFORD

221 University (at Emerson), Palo Alto, (650) 324-3700, www.stanfordtheatre.org. $6. This handsomely restored neighborhood palace usually (but not always) screens pre-1960 Hollywood fare in the best available prints, with excellent projection.

WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY: Ronald Reagan finds that Virginia Mayo is the perfect woman in The Girl From Jones Beach (Peter Godfrey, 1949; 7:30 p.m.) but that Priscilla Lane is the real Million Dollar Baby (Curtis Bernhardt, 1941; 5:35, 9 p.m.).

SATURDAY THROUGH TUESDAY: Jane Wyman supposedly divorced Ronald Reagan so that she wouldn't have to watch King's Row (Sam Wood, 1941; 7:30 p.m.; also Sat & Sun 3:10 p.m.) again. Now it's not just Ronnie who thought it was his best film. Second feature Juke Girl (Bernhardt, 1942; 5:45, 10:10 p.m.) casts Reagan as an oppressed migrant farmworker in the era before Cesar Chavez. Chapter 3 of Superman (1948) precedes King's Row.

YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

701 Mission (at Third Street, in Yerba Buena Gardens), 978-2787, www.YerbaBuenaArts.org. $7, $2 for second feature, save as noted. This venue's Screening Room is a home for film and video programs of all sorts.

WEDNESDAY (July 14): A Latino Film Festival screening of Julio Medem's Earth (Spain, 1996), a sex farce about an exterminator with a split personality. $8 6, 8:30 p.m.

THURSDAY (July 15): A series devoted to the films of the late Frank Perry screens Last Summer (1969; 6 p.m.).

FILM NOTES

A monthly "Old Oakland Outdoor Cinema" screens the baseball epic Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989) Friday night on Oaksterdam's field of dreaminess, Washington Street between Ninth and 10th streets. Limited seating provided; BYO chairs and blankets. Free parking at Eighth and Washington. For more information, call (510) 238-4734 or visit www.filmoakland.com. Free. Live music 5 p.m., shorts and feature 8 p.m.