FRIDAY, MAY 9
BLACK JACK Set in 18th-century Yorkshire, Ken Loach's film begins when an orphaned teenager finds that the title character, a criminal who's just been hanged, is not dead. 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
AMAZONIA INDIGENA: A VIEW FROM THE VILLAGES This festival of videos made by indigenous Amazon residents will feature discussions with the filmmakers after each program. To May 11, various times, National Museum of the American Indian, 4th Street & Independence Ave SW. Free.
ERASERHEAD Arguably David Lynch's best film, it's certainly his strangest and most haunted. Not recommended to anyone who's considering having children someday. (1977, 89 min) Midnight daily, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
SATURDAY, MAY 10
IN PRAISE OF INDEPENDENTS: THE FLAHERTY A program of highlights from the annual Flaherty Seminar, whose theme this year was "South of the Other." It features films about Senegal and India, including the 1937 Elephant Boy, co-directed by Flaherty. 2 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
ROCKY Hillary Clinton's pugnacious role model returns, ready for a cathartic beat-down. (Also May 11) 4:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
BAD FAITH This ethnic-turmoil rom-com is a tale of strained amour between a Jewish woman (Avenue Montaigne star Cécile de France) and a Muslim man, both of whom turn tribal when their families react badly to the prospect of offspring. Sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. 9:15pm, Rosslyn Spectrum.
SUNDAY, MAY 11
LOVE, MARRIAGE, AND FAMILY IN THE NEW KOREA Prior to Ad Lib Night, director Lee Yoon-ki joins other guests to discuss this theme. 1 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.
LOVE & DANCE Fundamentally a commonplace tale of a young crush that finds expression on the dance floor, this domestic drama gains some urgency from its context. The son of a native Israeli father and a Russian mother, barely teenage Chen is drawn to Natalie, an expert dancer and the daughter of Russian immigrants. The battles between Chen's mother and father are mirrored in the deteriorating relationship of the kids' dance teacher and her husband (and former professional dance partner), and also the hostility of the locals to recent arrivals from Russia. The film offers a panoply of abusive males, but the troubles they cause all conveniently evaporate with the final waltz. 1pm, 7:30 pm, Cinema Arts Theater, 9550 Main St, Fairfax. $9.50.
ANNIE HALL Originally titled Anhedonia, Woody Allen's biggest success shows how good he could be — when editor Gordon Willis and co-scripter Marshall Brickman were on hand to help. (1977, 93 min) (Also May 12-13) 1 & 7:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
AD LIB NIGHT In Korean director Lee Yoon-ki's family-breakdown parable, a young woman is asked to pose as the long-lost daughter of a dying man. 2:30 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.
CHARLY After the screening, actress (and Benoit Jacquot muse) Isild Le Besco will discuss her film, the tale of a 14-year-old runaway who encounters the title character, a small-town prostitute. (2007, 95 min) 5 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
LYNCH Shot over two years, this documentary observes David Lynch as he constructs the knotty Inland Empire. (2007, 84 min) 5:30, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
BLACK BOOK Before Paul Verhoeven became notorious as the director of Basic Instinct and Showgirls, he made a (mostly) heroic tale of the Dutch resistance during World War II, Soldier of Orange. Now he's returned to the same milieu, this time more playfully and more cynically. The film's protagonist is a Jewish woman, Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten), who survives the war. But she does not, and can not, do so with dignity. She must recite New Testament verses to earn her supper, and not only seduce but actually fall in love with a Gestapo officer (Sebastian Koch). And things only get worse after the Nazis surrender, when Rachel is wrongly accused of being a collaborator. With van Houten just as sexy and a lot more versatile than his usual Hollywood leading ladies, Verhoeven can't resist a few lascivious digressions. But the director is mostly concerned with the moral anarchy of life during wartime; controversially, he makes no absolute distinction between Nazi evil and Dutch opportunism. Black Book is his apology, not for Showgirls, but for being Dutch. (Also May 15) Sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, 7:30 pm, Cinema Arts Theater, 9550 Main St, Fairfax. $9.50.
JUST AN ORDINARY JEW Director Oliver Hirschbiegel, whose Downfall was set mostly in Hitler's bunker, here restricts himself primarily to the apartment of Emmanuel Goldfarb (Gloomy Sunday's Ben Becker). In the opening sequence, Goldfarb rejects the invitation to represent Hamburg's Jewish community, and he spends the rest of the film justifying (and second guessing) his refusal. He paces his few rooms, talking into a miniature tape recorder as the active camera looks for new ways to capture this internal discussion. Goldfarb's arguments include personal recollections, but he keeps returning to the larger issue of his identity as a Jew in a country that tried to exterminate his people. When not quoting Heinrich Heine, Goldfarb proves pretty quotable himself: "Judaism is a system of beliefs, held together by what other people believe about us,'' he growls. This is more a dramatized essay than a full-fledged film, but it's a fascinating essay, and Becker's performance is energetic, persuasive, and appropriately vehement. Sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. 9:15 pm, Rosslyn Spectrum.
MONDAY, MAY 12
ELECTROMA French neo-disco duo Daft Punk's dialogue-free film presents a world where everyone is a robot. but some crave to be human. The music includes the work of Eno, Haydn, Chopin, and Curtis Mayfield — and nothing by Daft Punk. (2006, 74 min) 6:30 pm, Alliance Francaise de Washington, 2142 Wyoming Ave NW. $8.
TUESDAY, MAY 13
STUDENTS IN REVOLT Martin Klimke, research fellow at the German Historical Institute, will discuss and show clips from this 1968 BBC documentary. 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut, 812 Seventh St NW. $6.
FAUST AND THE DEVIL This Italian adaptation of Goethe's drama uses music from Gounod's opera and Boito's Mefistofele. (1948, 87 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE A crabby Korean grad student, bitter at not yet having received a professorship, decides to rid his large apartment complex of yipping dogs. He has some unseen allies — older men who think dead dog makes a fine meal — and a righteous nemesis, a young woman who deserts her bookkeeping job in the complex's office in an attempt to catch the dog killer. Then the student's pregnant wife brings home a little dog, which promptly disappears — leading the killer and the protector into an alliance to find the pooch. This satire fro, director Bong Joon-ho (who would later make Memories of Murder and The Host) is rougher on canines than a U.S. film probably would be, but its depiction of modern urban society and its discontents won't seem especially foreign to most American viewers. (2000, 106 min) (also May 14) 9:15 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14
SMOULDERING FIRES A cussedly independent female factory owner fires, but then falls for, a younger man in this silent drama. (1925, 70 min) 7 pm, 7 pm, Films on the Hill, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh Street, SE. $5.
AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR This documentary reconstructs the career of Carroll Pickett, chaplain for 15 years at prison unit in Huntsville, Texas, and examines the case of one executed man Pickett suspected was innocent. 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
CITIZEN HAVEL Filmmaker Pavel Koutecky, a friend of Vaclav Havel, followed him around the world to make this documentary about the playwright and dissident's new career as Czech president. (2008, 120 min.) 7:30 pm, Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW. $9.75
THURSDAY, MAY 15
3:10 TO YUMA In the original of this recently remade Western, Van Heflin plays the debt-laden rancher who finds himself increasingly isolated as he escorts a slick outlaw (Glenn Ford) to the prison at Yuma. (1957, 92 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
GETTING HOME Yang Zhang's road dramedy is about a Chinese migrant worker who carries his buddy's corpse home. 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75