FRIDAY, APRIL 18
CONTEMPT In a sense, this gorgeous widescreen drama is Jean-Luc Godard's most conventional film, faithful to its source (an Albert Moravia novel) while flaunting the physical charms of Brigitte Bardot (in shots added at the producers' insistence). But that doesn't mean it isn't characteristically Godardian, stuffed with cultural references and brilliant asides. A writer (Michel Piccoli) adapts The Odyssey for a crass producer (Jack Palance) and acerbic director (Fritz Lang), humoring their whims as his wife (Bardot) loses her respect for him. Shot in Rome and Capri, it's (literally, if ironically) Godard's sunniest film. (1963, 103 min) Through April 24 at American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
GRAIN IN EAR Zhang Lu's drama provides observes the plight of a Korean single mother, struggling to survive on the Chinese side of the border. (2006, 109 min) 7 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.
THE SWINGER Ann-Margret stars in this swinging '60s romp, which has been described as "the first music video." (1966, 81 min) Shown with Simply Beautiful, an Avon Cosmetics short that explores Hollywood actresses's beauty tricks. 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
IF I WERE KING Ronald Colman plays the 15th-century poet-swashbuckler who saves Paris from the besieging Burgundians in this version of the oft-remade tale, which features witty dialogue by Preston Sturges. (1938, 101 min) 7 pm, Films on the Hill, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh Street, SE. $5.
THUNDER ROAD Robert Mitchum wrote the scenario, and the title song, for this Deep South action flick, in which he plays a bootlegger. (1958, 92 min) (Also April 19-21, 24) 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
WOMAN IN THE DUNES Existential cinema's most devilish sand trap, this is the tale of a Tokyo entomologist who's tricked by clannish villagers into entering a pit from which there is no escape. There he's supposed to assist a fatalistic widow with the Sisyphean task of continually clearing away the sand that will otherwise envelop her — now their — subterranean home. Seen today, Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1964 film suggests everything from the work of Beckett and Camus to The Twilight Zone and The Prisoner. If the theme is less startling than it was in the '60s — when the movie was nominated for both best foreign film and best director Oscars — Woman in the Dunes hasn't dated at all badly. Toru Takemitsu's skittering score and the film's palpable eroticism and elegant images — notable for their claustrophobic framing and extreme, almost abstract closeups — are as vivid as the story, derived by Kobo Abe from his own novel. (1964, 147 min) 7pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
SATURDAY, APRIL 19
ALL THE KING'S MEN No dodgy Anglo-American accents in the original adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel, with Broderick Crawford as the Huey Long-inspired central character. (1949, 109 min) noon, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Free.
OF HUMAN BONDAGE Bette Davis plays a heedless woman who destroys a doctor in this adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel. (1934, 83 min) (also April 23) 1 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
THE EXILE A kinetic account of Charles II's exile in Holland, with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in the title role, and directed by Max Ophuls. (1948, 95 min) 2 pm, National Gallery of Art, East Building auditorium. Free.
SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE I A relationship disintegrates over the course of five hours, and many tight closeups, in the long version of Ingmar Bergman's marital autopsy. Part II shows Sunday at 3:15 pm. (1973, 300 min) 3 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
THE RECKLESS MOMENT James Mason blackmails Joan Bennett, who's trying to protect her daughter from a murder rap, in Max Ophuls's claustrophobic film noir. The movie was ineffectively remade as The Deep End in 2001. (1949, 82 min) 4:30 pm, National Gallery of Art, East Building auditorium. Free.
SUNDAY, APRIL 20
JEZEBEL Playing another petulant dame, Bette Davis is the New Orleans socialite whose behavior drives off financé Henry Fonda (Also April 22) (1938, 104 min) 3 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
OUR SCHOOL Kim Myeong-joon's documentary spends a year at the only Korean school on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, observing the struggle to maintain Korean language and culture in an environment that's often indifferent and sometimes hostile. Although the school has one Japanese teacher, local rightists are openly hostile — especially since most of the students identify with North Korea rather than South. (A school trip to Pyongyang yields student-shot propaganda footage that Kim includes without comment.) The film is probably too detailed for the casual viewer, but should fascinate students of Korean culture or the Japanese unmelting pot. (2007, 134 min) 2 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.
LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN A playboy concert pianist discovers, after her death, that a woman with whom he had a brief fling nursed a lifelong passion for him. (1948, 90 min) 4:30 pm, National Gallery of Art, East Building auditorium. Free.
MONDAY, APRIL 21
AMERICA, AMERICA Based on the life of director Elia Kazan's uncle, this is the tale of an ethnic-Greek resident of Turkey who moves to Constantinople, but hopes that's just the first step on his journey to the U.S. (1963, 174 min) 6:30 pm, 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut, 812 Seventh St NW. $6.
TUESDAY, APRIL 22
OMNIBUS. VII, VOL. 9, THE MEDIUM Composer Gian-Carlo Menotti directed this Italian-made film of his opera. (1951, 84 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
NOODLE In this dramedy, a Chinese migrant worker is deported from Israel, and a bewildered El-Al flight attendant takes responsibility for the deportee's young son, who's soon nicknamed "Noodle." (2007, 90 min) 7:30 pm, Washington DC Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th Street NW. $10.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23
WINGS OF DEFEAT: ONCE, WE WERE KAMIKAZE In this documentary, survivors of Japan's kamikaze campaign discuss their training, their feelings at the time, and their perspective some 60 years later. Director Risa Morimoto, who's Japanese-American, and producer Linda Hoaglund, a Japan-born American, will be present to discuss the film. (2007, 90 min) 6:30, Japanese Information and Culture Center, 1155 21st St NW. Free; reservations required. RSVP to jiccrsvpwinter08@embjapan.org
UNDER TWO FLAGS Playing a man who takes the rap for his brother's crime, Ronald Colman joins the French Foreign Legion in Sahara, where both Claudette Colbert are Rosalind Russell on hand — and interested in the new recruit. (1936, 112 min) 7 pm, Films on the Hill, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh Street, SE. $5.
'TIS AUTUMN—THE SEARCH FOR JACKIE PARIS Decades after jazz singer-guitarist Jackie Paris's career crashed, director Raymond De Felitta documents the now-79-year-old musician's attempted comeback. (2006, 100 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
THURSDAY, APRIL 24
MASKED RIDER: THE FIRST Based on the 1970s manga and TV series, Kamen Rider, is the tale of an "inhumanoid" who challenges SHOCKER, the terrorist organization that created him. (2005, 90 min) 6:30 pm, Japanese Information and Culture Center, 1155 21st St NW. Free; reservations required. RSVP to jiccrsvpwinter08@embjapan.org
THE UNHOLY ROLLERS This Roger Corman-produced flick stars 1970 "Playboy Playmate of the Year" Claudia Jennings as a woman who channels her rage into a roller derby career. Martin Scorsese was the film's editor. (1972, 88 min) Shown with Georges Méliès's Fun with the Bridal Party, in which the wedding guests all wear rollerskates. (7 min, 1908). 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
GREEN FISH In Korean cinema, the theme of the alienated ex-soldier didn't end with growing post-war affluence. A recently discharged Army man is the protagonist of Lee Chang-dong's bleak 1997 drama. Unable to find a job, Makdong falls in with gangsters and flirts with his new boss's mistress; a series of bloody incidents leads to calamity, and then to a coda that indulges the romantic fatalism common in Asian mob pictures. 9 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75