Movies
The New Yorker Dexter Filkins Jia Tolentino David Remnick Condé Nast
GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN movie listings for August 15-21, 2007.
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The New Yorker
OPENING

DEATH AT A FUNERAL

Frank Oz directed this comedy, about an attempt to reveal secrets about a man who has died. Starring Matthew Macfadyen, Rupert Graves, Ewen Bremner, and Alan Tudyk. Opening Aug. 17. (In wide release.)

DELIRIOUS

Reviewed this week in The Current Cinema. Opening Aug. 15. (Angelika Film Center and 62nd & Broadway.)

THE 11TH HOUR

A documentary about the changing climate, directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners; co-written by Leonardo DiCaprio, who co-produced. Opening Aug. 17. (Angelika Film Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.)

THE INVASION

A remake of “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel; starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, and Jeffrey Wright. Opening Aug. 17. (In wide release.)

THE KING OF KONG

Reviewed below in Now Playing. Opening Aug. 17. (Empire 25 and IFC Center.)

THE LAST LEGION

Doug Lefler directed this action film, about the young Roman emperor Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster), who flees to Britain as the Empire collapses. Co-starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley. Opening Aug. 17. (In wide release.)

LOVE FOR SALE

A drama from Brazil, about a young woman who causes a scandal in her rural town when she seeks to raise money by raffling off her body. Directed by Karim Ainouz. In Portuguese. Opening Aug. 15. (Film Forum.)

MANDA BALA

Jason Kohn directed this documentary, about corruption and violence in Brazil. Opening Aug. 15. (Angelika Film Center.)

PRIMO LEVI’S JOURNEY

A documentary about the writer, directed by Davide Ferrario. In Italian. Opening Aug. 17. (Quad Cinema.)

SUNFLOWER

Zhang Yang directed this drama, which follows a Chinese family from the Cultural Revolution through recent boom times. In Mandarin. Opening Aug. 17. (Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.)

SUPERBAD

Reviewed this week in The Current Cinema. Opening Aug. 17. (In wide release.)

THEM

David Moreau and Xavier Palud directed this thriller, about a French couple in Bucharest who are kept under surveillance by unknown enemies. In French. Opening Aug. 17. (Cinema Village.)

NOW PLAYING

BECOMING JANE

Like much period drama, Julian Jarrold’s film aims at bookish and edifying diversion, but in this instance you cannot miss, beneath the polite exchanges and the tuneful dances, the rustling of desperation. Jarrold and his screenwriters, Kevin Hood and Sarah Williams, have decided to treat the life of Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) as if it were itself the plot of an undiscovered Austen novel, albeit a second-rate one. Jane, stuck in the bosom of her family, meets a boisterous Irishman, Lefroy (James McAvoy), who scoffs at her unripe prose, praises “Tom Jones” instead, and thereby wins her heart. The pair attempt to elope, but fail, and the broken affair duly inspires our authoress to write. This is not just pure speculation but heavy anachronism; Hathaway smolders like a late-Romantic heroine and looks like a twenty-first-century model. (Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays Jane’s sister Cassandra, would have been a neater fit for the lead.) Yet the ending, which contrives a meeting between the near-lovers in middle age, feels touched by true regret. With Julie Walters and Maggie Smith, as you might expect.—Anthony Lane (Reviewed in our issue of 8/13/07.) (In wide release.)

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM

Matt Damon, looking more like a bullet than ever—short hair, blunt nose, no stubble—returns as the out-in-the-cold C.I.A. agent Jason Bourne, who carried out illegal assassinations for the agency, which now wants to get rid of him. As before, agency powers sit at a bank of computers tracking Bourne (who may be a thousand miles away) while he tries to evade their gaze as well as the goons, some working for the C.I.A. and some not, who want to kill him. Eventually, he gets himself in a position to survey the surveyors and hunt the hunters, but all he wants is the return of his identity, which was filched from him during his training. The director, Paul Greengrass (who also made the second film in the series, “The Bourne Supremacy”), composes the movie in tiny fragments, but we see what we need to see, and the result is pretty nearly always thrilling. Some of the chase sequences go on for as long as ten minutes. With David Strathairn and Joan Allen as agency bigwigs. The screenplay, vaguely suggested by Robert Ludlum’s novels, is credited to Tony Gilroy (who has worked on the entire series) and many other writers.—David Denby (8/6/07) (In wide release.)

HAIRSPRAY

The movie version of the hit musical (itself based on John Waters’s 1988 film) is perfectly pleasant but not as exhilarating as the show, which distilled our nostalgia for the candied period between Elvis’s early work and the arrival of the Beatles. The director of the movie, Adam Shankman, and the screenwriter, Leslie Dixon, have removed the traces of camp and blue humor that gave the stage show its happily knowing flavor. As before, Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), a chubby Baltimore teen-ager in 1962, lives to dance and to make out with the sweet, good-looking school king (Zac Efron), and much of the movie feels like a prolonged platter party. The dance numbers, however, are unimaginatively shot, and the idea of substituting John Travolta for Harvey Fierstein as Tracy’s hefty mother, Edna (played by the outrageous Divine in Waters’s original version), is a blandly earnest betrayal—Travolta gives a sincere, unfunny performance as a Baltimore housewife. With Michelle Pfeiffer in an amusing turn as the hypocritical shrew who manages a local TV station, and Christopher Walken, gruff and tender, as Tracy’s father.—D.D. (7/23/07) (In wide release.)

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

The fifth and longest of J. K. Rowling’s fantasy books gets the shortest running time, in the director David Yates’s economical take on the boy wizard. By focussing the story on Harry (a leaner and slightly meaner Daniel Radcliffe) and his exploits, Yates dispenses with many of the novel’s subplots and is able to push the story forward, ominously foreshadowing the dark times to come. The cleanly delivered story line has the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) gathering his henchmen to let loose his powers, while Harry tries to convince those around him that Voldemort is on the march. There are three great treats in this installment of the Potter franchise: Harry’s first kiss; the ethereal Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch, who won the part in a contest and is extraordinarily good); and the horrid new Professor of the Dark Arts, Dolores Umbridge, played by Imelda Staunton, whose scene-stealing, fascinatingly nasty performance is among the best in the series.—Bruce Diones (In wide release.)

HOT ROD

A goofball action comedy from the sketch group Lonely Island (the “Saturday Night Live” regular Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and the director Akiva Schaffer) and written by Pam Brady (“South Park”). Samberg stars as Rod, a small-town nerd who aspires to live up to the glorious career of the father he never knew, purportedly a stunt double for Evel Knievel. Rod has a crew—a meekly charming bunch of numbskulls (the lovable Taccone stands out)—and an old goat of a stepfather (gleefully played by Ian McShane), with whom he is in a perpetual showdown. The good-hearted, mildly ludicrous humor is held together by plenty of poorly executed stunts—Rod is, of course, an abysmal stuntman. The lovely Isla Fisher elevates her typically underwritten character (the girl) just by showing up, and the action scenes—an extended tumble down a mountain comes to mind—are occasionally pushed so far that they’re actually funny.—Shauna Lyon (In wide release.)

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY

This ribald but sentimental comedy, about a pair of rough-hewn Brooklyn firefighters, is “Brokeback Mountain” for the “Jackass” demographic. Bureaucratic fine print requires Larry Valentine (Kevin James), the widowed father of two young children, to find a new insurance beneficiary through marriage, and the only person he trusts is his colleague and best friend, Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler), a notorious ladies’ man. Through a series of mishaps, their civil union becomes tabloid fodder—and, to their surprise, an inspiration to gay men everywhere. The result is a heartfelt yet painfully sincere liberal social-problem film that offers a ringing endorsement of gay marriage but, playing to its target audience, avoids any hint of gay sex.—Richard Brody (In wide release.)

THE KING OF KONG

A fascinating documentary about a champion Donkey Kong player (Billy Mitchell) and the up-and-coming rival (Steve Wiebe) who is out to break his long-held record. Mitchell, whose tall, thin frame and dark goatee make him look as though he could be selling time-shares in Hades, defends his title by any means necessary, and Wiebe, a sometimes unemployed nice guy with a family, doggedly pursues his quest to become the new video-game champ. The film, which is populated with snivelling acolytes, understanding wives, and Machiavellian twists and turns, plays like a great Christopher Guest mockumentary, revelling in the deadpan entertainment of the obsessed. Directed, without fuss, by Seth Gordon.—B.D. (Empire 25 and IFC Center.)

THE LIFE OF OHARU

A fifty-year-old prostitute who lives on the street and can no longer attract men shuffles to a temple with her humble dignity intact. Most of what follows in Kenji Mizoguchi’s justly legendary 1952 drama of political and intimate corruption tells, in flashback, the story of the scourging of a pure soul. Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka), a courtier’s daughter in seventeenth-century Kyoto, is caught with Katsunosuke (Toshiro Mifune), a lowly page. Despite their true love, they cannot marry; Oharu and her family are degraded and exiled, and Katsunosuke is beheaded. As Oharu runs grief-stricken through the underbrush when she hears of her lover’s death, Mizoguchi’s relentless tracking shot, one of many, exalts her desperate, doomed flight from cruel authority. Ultimately pushed into prostitution to satisfy her father’s debts, Oharu bears her swift and inexorable decline with a stoic serenity born of the memory of love. Mizoguchi’s limpid heartbreaker is also a fierce denunciation of the subjugation of women, the power of wealth, and Japan’s unjust though splendid traditions. In Japanese.—R.B. (IFC Center; Aug. 17-19.)

MOLIÈRE

A bio-pic about the playwright, the details of whose life are surprisingly sparse; whole years are unaccounted for in the historical record, which gives the director, Laurent Tirard, considerable license in laying out a series of imaginary escapades. Molière (Romain Duris), the leading light of a failing theatrical troupe, is hired on a whim by a rich fool (Fabrice Luchini), who needs help composing an aphrodisiac play. The fool has a wife (Laura Morante), with whom the playwright—disguised as a priest—falls in love. And so the complications abound, the idea being that Molière was inspired by actual shenanigans to compose his great farces of later years. Sadly, the film itself is not funny, being far too stolid for either raucousness or grace, and the thuggish Duris, ideal for gloomier fare, is wholly miscast as a wellspring of human comedy. Only Morante and the nimble Luchini leaven the mood. In French.—A.L. (7/30/07) (Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and Sunshine Cinema.)

NO END IN SIGHT

The best documentary on the Iraq occupation made so far. This modest, attentive, and outraged collection of interviews, news footage, and narrated history gathers weight and strength and delivers, in chronological order, an overwhelming pattern of folly: In the run-up to the 2003 invasion and in the months immediately after it, all the people who knew anything about Iraq and the Middle East—those who had serious experience in military, intelligence, or reconstruction work—were thrown out and replaced by ignorant ideologues who refused to take advice. The movie may not offer much that’s new factually, but it provides what can only be called sensuous rewards—we need to see how badly Baghdad and Falluja have been torn up, and we need to see and hear the losers in the policy wars (including former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Colonel Paul Hughes, and General Jay Garner), who, despite getting things right, now feel guilty that they couldn’t do more to prevent the disaster. Written and directed by Charles Ferguson with steady intelligence and cumulative force.—D.D. (8/6/07) (Film Forum.)

PARAGUAYAN HAMMOCK

Though this film by Paz Encina is said to be the first produced in Paraguay in decades, it has an artistic refinement and an emotional power that allow it to transcend all novelty value and vault to the front lines of world cinema. Its sixty-eight minutes carry Ramón and Cándida (Ramón Del Rio and Georgina Genes), an aging couple living in the deep country, from sunrise, when they hang their old hammock between two trees in a clearing, to sunset, when they take it in. Settled in its tenuous grasp, they talk about the heat, the rain, the dog that won’t stop barking, the war, and their son, Máximo, who is doing his military service and hasn’t been heard from lately. The father lives in hope, the mother in fear, and scenes of their daily rounds of labor and rest—images of a contemplative pictorial exaltation—are joined by voice-over flashbacks revealing the story of their son’s departure and the rumors that followed. Encina’s film, balanced exquisitely between the concrete and the abstract, between the specific and the absolute, is a quietly devastating indictment of the eternal waste of youth as cannon fodder in this and all wars. In Guaraní.—R.B. (BAM; Aug. 20.)

RATATOUILLE

For Remy (Patton Oswalt), the restless rodent who is the leading figure in Pixar’s brilliant new animation feature, the omnivore’s dilemma can be solved only by eating well. Rejecting the usual rat’s feast of garbage, Remy realizes that he needs to cook. Though “Ratatouille” starts out as a minor conceit about a rat who turns himself into a connoisseur, it becomes a gripping comic fable about the implacability of an artist. Washed into a sewer, Remy lands in Paris, where he makes himself known to a young man, Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano), who has inherited a famous restaurant but cannot crack an egg. Quietly, Remy rides under Alfredo’s toque and pulls tufts of his hair, controlling the young man’s chopping and sauce-stirring techniques like a master puppeteer. Brad Bird’s animation crew is good at so many things (for instance, the geography of the restaurant kitchen where much of the movie takes place) that one is released into the pleasures of the story and the details of culinary lore.—D.D. (7/23/07) (In wide release.)

RUSH HOUR 3

The director Brett Ratner seems like a regular guy, and in this installment of the franchise he holds Jackie Chan’s increasingly stiff acrobatics and Chris Tucker’s familiar shtick in the mainstream’s dead center with a cheerful dose of frat-house jingoism, sexism, and ethnic joshing. The story, such as it is, involves the Chinese triads, and sends the mismatched pair from Los Angeles to Paris, where they meet a suavely contemptuous detective (Roman Polanski), a crudely contemptuous cabdriver (Yvan Attal), and a multilingual chanteuse (Noémie Lenoir). This is filmmaking by the yard, but Ratner perks up near the end and delivers a vertigo-inducing chase through the latticework of the Eiffel Tower. Only the pounding music and sound effects might keep a viewer awake to that point; such formulaic fare cries out for a director with Quentin Tarantino’s studious flair.—R.B. (In wide release.)

SICKO

In the beginning of Michael Moore’s attack on America’s health-care system, he records heartbreaking interviews with families who have been betrayed or neglected by H.M.O.s and insurance companies. But then Moore hauls off three ailing Ground Zero rescue workers and other seriously ill people to Guantánamo Bay, where the detainees allegedly get good (and free) health care. The sick Americans are turned away, of course, and the joke seems insensitive. Moore does find some help for the rescue workers in Havana (the other sick Americans mysteriously vanish), and the rest of the movie is devoted to the wonders of health care in Canada, England, and France as well as in Cuba. But Moore accepts what doctors and patients abroad say at face value—as a report on national health services in different countries, the movie is worthless—and he doesn’t interview a single American who might have ideas about reforming our own system. Since the majority of Americans want some form of national health care, Moore, for once, seems behind the curve.—D.D. (7/2/07) (In wide release.)

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE

The incomparable gang at full length for the first time, with enough jokes, satire, nonsense, and sentiment to justify the eighty-eight minutes. Homer falls in love with a pig, interrupting the sadomasochistic bond between him and Bart, and pollutes Lake Springfield with pig poop. (The family’s home state, in case you were wondering, borders on Maine and Kentucky.) As a result, President Schwarzenegger quarantines the town, prompting the locals to drive the Simpsons to Alaska, where Homer has mystical visions with the help of a befurred Inuit woman. Written by the show’s creators, Matt Groening and James L. Brooks, among many others. Directed by David Silverman.—D.D. (In wide release.)

SOME CAME RUNNING

When a frigid blond professor (Martha Hyer) tells a lapsed author and war veteran (Frank Sinatra) that he has an exciting talent, it’s unintentionally comical. But Vincente Minnelli’s 1958 screen version of James Jones’s sprawling novel about a literary black sheep in a small Midwestern town develops an irresistible momentum that sweeps aside objections to its campy depictions of culture, both high and low. Minnelli’s hyperexpressive camera style, set loose in real locations, makes pop opera out of the rift between the heartland demimonde and the bourgeoisie. Sinatra is sensationally moody (he often was in this era); Shirley MacLaine manages to mine pathos, sweetness, and exuberance from her clichéd part as a gold-hearted factory girl; and Dean Martin, as a sardonic gambler, has a genius for just being himself that turns his character’s affectation—never removing his white Stetson—into an indelible signature.—Michael Sragow (Anthology Film Archives; Aug. 16 and Aug. 18-19.)

STARDUST

A manic fairy tale, directed by Matthew Vaughn, based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. The film is a rollicking adventure story that combines romance, over-the-seas swashbuckling, supernatural kingdoms, palace rivalries, and echoes of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” For a good-hearted fantasy, it’s more surprising and effective than the usual kiddie-matinée madness. Vaughn’s direction is steady, if at times a bit rushed, and the story is convincingly delivered with verve and humor by actors who are clearly out to have a good time. The cast includes Michelle Pfeiffer as the evil witch, Claire Danes as a heavenly star made flesh, Ricky Gervais as a shady dealer of stolen goods, Peter O’Toole as the ailing king, Jason Flemyng and Rupert Everett as Primus and Secundus, the heirs to his throne, and Robert De Niro as the captain of an airborne pirate ship who dances the cancan.—B.D. (In wide release.)

SUNSHINE

The British director Danny Boyle has energy to burn, but the effects are most ardent and spectacular when he stays close to home—witness “Trainspotting” and “28 Days Later,” set in Scotland and London, respectively. When he drifts away, as in “The Beach” and “A Life Less Ordinary,” much of that verve declines. Now he has left Earth altogether, with mixed results. A crew of astronauts is sent to administer a nuclear kick-start to our dying sun. The mission, like the film, falters as they veer from their appointed course to dock with a sister ship: a lunatic risk, as anybody could have told them, leading to fire, murder, suicide, bodily evaporation, and other unhealthy results. Logic is lost in space, the clarity of the buildup is squandered, and the climax of the film, however ravishing, becomes a blur of mystical confusion. With Cillian Murphy as a blue-eyed physicist and Michelle Yeoh as an interplanetary gardener.—A.L. (7/30/07) (In wide release.)

2 DAYS IN PARIS

A loving but ill-matched couple, Marion (Julie Delpy, who also wrote and directed the film) and her American boyfriend, Jack (Adam Goldberg), make a brief stop in Marion’s home town before returning to New York. Their stay is more than long enough, however, to open up carnal and cultural rifts: Jack is bemused by his girlfriend’s mother and father—unkempt anarchists played by Delpy’s real-life parents, Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy—and nagged by continual revelations of her past desires. The resulting conflict is largely played for laughs, with nods to Woody Allen, but there is a rude harshness in Delpy’s approach, a taste for close confrontation, which both sours and enlivens what might otherwise have drifted into an easygoing comedy of manners. Delpy seems genuinely torn between two worlds, and, where the Allen of “Manhattan” was lost in reverence for his city, the Parisienne delivers little more than a bitter billet-doux.—A.L. (8/13/07) (In wide release.)

ALSO PLAYING

EL CANTANTE: In wide release. CROSSING THE LINE: Cinema Village. DANS PARIS: IFC Center. ROCKET SCIENCE: In wide release. THE TEN: In limited release. UNDERDOG: In wide release. THE WILLOW TREE: Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.

REVIVALS CLASSICS ETC

Titles with a dagger are reviewed above.

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

32 Second Ave., at 2nd St. (212-505-5181)—Melodramas by Vincente Minnelli. Aug. 15 at 7, Aug. 17 at 9, and Aug. 19 at 4: “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952). | Aug. 15 at 9:15, Aug. 17 at 6:30, and Aug. 18 at 9:15: “The Cobweb” (1955). | Aug. 16 and Aug. 18 at 6:30 and Aug. 19 at 8:45: “Some Came Running” (+). | Aug. 16 at 9:15, Aug. 18 at 4, and Aug. 19 at 6:30: “Two Weeks in Another Town” (1962).

BAM ROSE CINEMAS

30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn (718-636-4100)—“Hong Kong Film.” Aug. 16 at 4:30, 6:50, and 9:15: “2 Become 1” (2006, Law Wing-cheong; in Mandarin and Cantonese). | Aug. 17 at 3 and 7: “After This Our Exile” (2005, Patrick Tam; in Cantonese). | Aug. 18 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, and 9:15: “Perhaps Love” (2005, Peter Chan; in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English). | Aug. 19 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, and 9:15: “Breaking News” (2004, Johnnie To; in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English). | Films from the New Crowned Hope Festival. Aug. 20 at 4:30, 6:50, and 9:30: “Paraguayan Hammock” (+). The 6:50 screening will be introduced by Peter Sellars. | New York Korean Film Festival. Aug. 21 at 6: “The General’s Son” (1990, Im Kwon-taek; in Korean). | Aug. 21 at 9:30: “Chunhyang” (2000, Im; in Korean).

FILM FORUM

W. Houston St. west of Sixth Ave. (212-727-8110)—“NYC Noir.” Aug. 15 at 1, 4:25, and 7:50: “Phantom Lady” (1944, Robert Siodmak). | Aug. 15 at 2:40, 6:05, and 9:30: “Cat People” (1942, Jacques Tourneur). | Aug. 16 at 1:20, 5:40, and 10: “The Killer That Stalked New York” (1950, Earl McEvoy). | Aug. 16 at 2:55 and 7:15: “Dr. Broadway” (1942, Anthony Mann). | Aug. 16 at 4:15 and 8:35: “Street of Chance” (1942, Jack Hively). | Aug. 17-18 at 1, 4:35, and 8:10: “Superfly” (1972, Gordon Parks, Jr.). | Aug. 17-18 at 2:50, 6:25, and 10: “The Warriors” (1979, Walter Hill). | Aug. 19 at 2, 5:35, and 9:10 and Aug. 20 at 1 and 4:35: “Side Street” (1949, Mann). | Aug. 19 at 3:40 and 7:15 and Aug. 20 at 2:40: “Scarlet Street” (1945, Fritz Lang). | Aug. 20 at 7: “Manhandled” (1924, Allan Dwan; silent). | Aug. 20 at 8:20: “It” (1927, Clarence Badger; silent). | Aug. 21 at 1, 4:30, and 8: “Cry of the City” (1948, Siodmak). | Aug. 21 at 2:50, 6:20, and 9:50: “The Sleeping City” (1950, George Sherman).

IFC CENTER

323 Sixth Ave., at W. 3rd St. (212-924-7771)—In revival. Aug. 17-19 at noon: “The Life of Oharu” (+). | “Waverly Midnights.” Aug. 17-18: “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” sing-along. | “Slamdance Documentary Showcase.” Aug. 21 at 7: “Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa” (2006, Jeremy and Randy Stulberg) and “Commode Creations: The Artwork of Barney Smith” (2005, Danny Bourque), introduced by the filmmakers. | Aug. 21 at 8:45: “A Dream in Doubt” (2006, Tami Yeager) and “Long Haul” (2006, Erin Hudson), introduced by the filmmakers.

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

Roy and Niuta Titus Theatres, 11 W. 53rd St. (212-708-9480)—“MOMA Laffs,” a comedy series. Aug. 15 at 6:30: “Ruggles of Red Gap” (1935, Leo McCarey). | Aug. 15 at 8:30: “Bringing Up Baby” (1938, Howard Hawks). | Aug. 16 at 6: “It Should Happen to You” (1954, George Cukor). | “Automatic Update,” films about technology. Aug. 17 at 4:30: “Synthetic Pleasures” (1996, Iara Lee). | Aug. 18 at 2: “8 BIT” (2006, Marcin Ramocki and Justin Strawhand). | Through Aug. 27: “The Other Claude Chabrol.” Except where noted, all films are in French. Aug. 17 at 6:15: “The Necklace” (2007) and “Unusual Stories: The Earring” (1979). | Aug. 17 at 8:15: “Fantômas: L’Échafaud Magique” (1979). | Aug. 18 at 6: “Unusual Stories: Invitation to a Hunt” (1974). | Aug. 18 at 7:30: “The Bench of Desolation” (1974). | Aug. 19 at 2:30: “The Color of Lies” (1988). | Aug. 20 at 6:15: “Dr. M” (1990; in English). | Aug. 20 at 8:30: “Masks” (1987).

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE

35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria (718-784-0077)—“Uneasy Riders: American Film in the Nixon Years, 1970-1974.” Aug. 18 at 3: “The Heartbreak Kid” (1972, Elaine May). | Aug. 18 at 5:30: “Drive, He Said” (1971, Jack Nicholson). | Aug. 19 at 3: “Charley Varrick” (1973, Don Siegel). | Aug. 19 at 5:30: “Play Misty for Me” (1971, Clint Eastwood).

PIONEER THEATRE

155 E. 3rd St. (212-591-0434)—In première. Aug. 15-23 at 9: “Zebraman” (2005, Takashi Miike; in Japanese).

RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART

150 W. 17th St. (212-620-5000)—“Cabaret Cinema.” Aug. 17 at 9:30: “The Third Man” (1949, Carol Reed), introduced by Kurt Andersen.

THALIA THEATRE

Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th St. (212-864-5400)—“Garbo & Dietrich: Screen Goddesses.” Aug. 18-19 at 6: “The Blue Angel” (1930, Josef von Sternberg; in German). | Aug. 18-19 at 8: “Flesh and the Devil” (1926, Clarence Brown; silent).

WALTER READE THEATRE

Lincoln Center (212-875-5600)—The films of Gérard Depardieu. All films are in French. Aug. 15 at 2: “Police” (1985, Maurice Pialat). | Aug. 15 at 4:15 and Aug. 17 at 8:45: “Mon Oncle d’Amérique” (1980, Alain Resnais). | Aug. 15 and Aug. 18 at 6:30: “Le Garçu” (1995, Pialat). | Aug. 15 at 8:45 and Aug. 19 at 2: “Too Beautiful for You” (1989, Bertrand Blier). | Aug. 16 at 1:45 and 6 and Aug. 19 at 6:15: “Under Satan’s Sun” (1987, Pialat). | Aug. 16 at 3:45 and Aug. 17 at 1:30 and 6:30: “Tous les Matins du Monde” (1991, Alain Corneau). | Aug. 17 at 3:45 and Aug. 18 at 4: “Cyrano de Bergerac” (1990, Jean-Paul Rappeneau). | Aug. 18 at 2 and Aug. 19 at 8:15: “Changing Times” (2004, André Téchiné). | Aug. 18 at 8:45 and Aug. 19 at 4: “Colonel Chabert” (1994, Yves Angelo). | “Independents Night.” Aug. 16 at 8: “Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa” (2006, Jeremy and Randy Stulberg), followed by a Q. & A. with the directors.