FRIDAY, JULY 4
THE GIANT BUDDHAS Like all Westerners, filmmaker Christian Frei was nowhere near Bamiyan in 2001 when the Taliban destroyed the two massive Buddhas — one of them then the tallest in the world — that had stood there for centuries. But he does have Al-Jazeera's footage of the destruction, a range of historical materials, and new interviews with the people who live in caves at the site, which combine for a thorough treatment of the destroyed Buddhas and their history. (2005, 95 min) 12:30 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
JAWS This horror (of nature) flick is a capable scare machine, but is today remembered mostly as the first of the mass-release mega-movies that ultimately changed the nature of Hollywood's marketing — and its art. (1975, 130 min) (Also July 5, 6, 8 & 10) 2 & 9:20 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN TWELVE PARTS See July 5. 3 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
OLIVER TWIST Alec Guinness plays Fagin in David Lean's expressionist rendering of the Dickens novel. (1948, 116 min) (Also July 7 & 9) 4:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
BONNIE AND CLYDE Breathless adapted to the Depression-era West, with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the titular bank robbers. (1967, 112 min) (Also July 5, 6, & 8) 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
THE GOONIES A bunch of essentially parent-less kids — it's a Spielberg scenario, of course — search for buried treasure, and compete with grown-up thugs for the prize. (1985, 114 min) (also July 5) midnight, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
SATURDAY, JULY 5
I WALK THROUGH MOSCOW STREETS A construction worker shows off his town to a would-be writer, newly arrived from Siberia, in this on-location classic. (1963, 78 min) 12:30 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN Teenage girls (Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt) fight for the right to dance on TV in this cheapie, which doesn't even use Cyndi Lauper's original of the hit that provided the title. (1985, 90 min) (Also July 6) 12:30, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
JAZZMAN Expelled from a Soviet conservatory for challenging the notion that jazz is "degenerate," a music student takes his case to the streets. (1983, 88 min) 2:30 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
REPETITION This film restages 1971's Stanford Prison Experiment, but the presence of cameras changes the result. (2005, 75 min) Shown with THE BATTLE OF ORGREAVE, a reenactment of a 1984 clash between striking British miners and police and a consideration of how televised images of the strike affected public opinion. (2001, 63 min) 3 & 4:45 pm, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays through Sept. 6, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 7th St & Independence Ave SW. Free.
GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN TWELVE PARTS This delightful account of Baltimore's gift to minimalism, by Shine director Scott Hicks, should engage even those who don't like (or know) the composer's work. There's lots of Glass's music in the documentary, which builds to the premiere of his 2007 opera, Barbarians at the Gate, and viewers who play close attention will learn something about the development of his style. (Nadia Boulanger and Ravi Shankar are acknowledged; Steve Reich is not.) But musical analysis gets less attention than family and friends: Glass's much younger third wife, Holly, and their two young sons; his sister and brother; his two previous wives, one deceased; longtime downtown arts-scene pal Chuck Close; and many collaborators, including directors Martin Scorsese, Errol Morris, Godfrey Reggio, and Woody Allen. Not nearly so flashy or experimental as Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, the movie takes a roughly chronological course, although the chapters are meant to be thematic. (The most targeted of the 12 details the composer's polyglot spirituality.) While the composer sometimes closes the door to Hicks's DV camera, he reveals plenty in such everyday sequences as one in which he makes vegetarian pizza at his Nova Scotia getaway. If Glass doesn't discuss great traumas, it seems to be because he doesn't harbor any. He really has found happiness, if not contentment, in nonstop work. (2007, 115 min) 4:30 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS Warren Beatty plays against Natalie Wood in his screen debut, Elia Kazan's version of William Inge's play about frustrated teen love in Depression-era Kansas. (1961, 124 min) (Also July 6) 4:45 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
SUNDAY, JULY 6
UNCLE VANYA Some rate Andrei Konchalvsky's adaptation of Chekvov's masterpiece the best screen version ever. (1970, 104 min) 2 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
THE ASCENT Soviet troops battle Nazi invaders, amid snowy landscapes and Christian symbolism, in director Larissa Shepitko's final film. (1976, 110 min) 4:30, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
MONDAY, JULY 7
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY At 42, magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby had a massive stroke that left him unable to express himself except by blinking one eye. With the help of an exceptionally patient scribe, Bauby eventually blinked the memoir that's this movie's source. Highly interior books usually defeat cinematic adaptation, but its essential subjectivity — and a dash of Gallic insouciance — is exactly what saves painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel's biopic from being a commonplace affliction drama. Much of this brilliantly realized film is shot from Bauby's viewpoint. Using such tricks as hot light, narrow depth-of-field, off-kilter perspective, Schnabel and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski persuasively simulate Bauby's physical perceptions. The patient's voiceover narration reveals that he retains his sense of humor, while flashbacks show what he's lost. No contemporary French actor could play this role better than Schnabel's choice, Mathieu Amalric; his exuberant performance animates the flashbacks, and makes Bauby's loss of autonomy all the more poignant. Equally moving are Max von Sydow as Bauby's father and Emmanuelle Seigner as his devoted ex-lover. 6:30 pm, Alliance Francaise de Washington, 2142 Wyoming Ave NW. $8.
THE EDUKATORS Radical twentysomethings Jan (Good Bye, Lenin's Daniel Bruhl) and Peter (Stipe Erceg) break into the suburban palaces of Germany's ruling class, but not to steal. Calling themselves "the Edukators," the two men merely rearrange furniture and knickknacks, then leave messages like, "Your days of plenty are numbered." Jan is the more zealous of the two, yet capable of making a serious blunder when he becomes infatuated with Peter's new girlfriend, Julie (Julia Jentsch). While their pal is out of town, Jan and Julie fool around, both sexually and ideologically. They enter the house of Julia's upscale tormentor, only to have the man come home unexpectedly. The caper becomes a kidnapping, with Peter dragged along as Jan and Julia take their captive to a mountain hideaway. Paced by English-language rock, director and co-writer Hans Wiengartner's film is lively but glib. The tale's connection to '70s German youth politics is contrived, and the ending evasive. 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut, 812 Seventh St NW.
NO EXIT A blind Israeli veteran stars in a Bachelor-like program in this look at "the darker side" of reality TV shows. (2006, 90 min) 7:30 pm, Washington DC Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th Street NW. $10.
MAD DETECTIVE Long considered eccentric, Hong Kong police inspector Bun finally goes too far, and is fired. Several years later, he's unofficially reactivated to chase a suspect with seven "inner personalities." This screening offers a chance to see co-directors Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai's latest brain-teaser almost two weeks before its New York commercial debut. (2007, 89 min) 9:20 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
TUESDAY, JULY 8
THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR German director Tom Tykwer's second homage to leading lady Franka Potente, following Run Lola Run, is a much more cosmic affair, beginning when a former soldier saves the life of a psychiatric nurse who's pinned under a truck. (2000, 135 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9
THE WARRIORS In his final swashbuckler, Errol Flynn plays the 14th-century "Black Prince" who tries to hold France for his father, England's Edward III. (1955, 85 min) 7 pm, Films on the Hill, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh Street, SE. $5.
AWAY FROM HER Although the scenery is similar, this old-age drama is no On Golden Pond. Derived from Alice Munro's The Bear Came over the Mountain, it's the wrenching saga of Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona (Julie Christie), a married couple who have seldom been separated. When her memory starts to fade, Fiona insists on moving to Meadowlark, a senior citizens' home. Grant wonders if he'll be able to bear the separatioeast of it: As Fiona settles in at Meadowlark, she develops what the staff calls "an attachment'' for another patient, Aubrey, and Grant's sorrow becomes mingled with jealousy. Directed by actress Sarah Polley, Away from Her is overly literary in places, and its chronological jumps are not especially effective. But the story is moving, and the performances powerful. (2007, 110 min) 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
THE INDIAN AND THE NURSE This Czech film is a tale of forbidden love between "white" and "black" — that is, between a Bohemian sawmill worker and a Romany (aka gypsy) nurse whose family expects her to marry a prominent Romany businessman. (2006, 90 min) 8 pm, Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW.
THURSDAY, JULY 10
MAGIC LANTERN PERFORMANCE: THE MINWA-ZA COMPANY On its first U.S. tour, this Tokyo ensemble demonstrates utsushi-e (literally, "projected drawings"), a form that combined image, music, and narration in the days before cinema. 7 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Constitution Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.
THE OUTFIT An ex-con seeks revenge in writer-director John Flynn's film, whose cast includes Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, and Robert Ryan, as well as Timothy Carey, a character actor with a cult following. (1974, 103 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
OFF AND RUNNING A government minister's ex-mistress (Nathalie Baye) and a small-time car thief (Edouard Baer) make a mismatched couple, but one thing brings them together: They're both on the lam. 7 pm, La Maison Francaise, 4101 Reservoir Rd NW. $8. Reservations required: e-mail culturel.washington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr