FRIDAY, AUGUST 1
E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL A lonely kid adopts a stray dog — uh, alien — in Spielberg's fable, a kid's movie with all-too-child-like outlook. (1982, 120 min) (Also Aug 2-6) 1:30 & 7:10 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
OSAMA The first feature film made in post-Taliban Afghanistan, Siddiq Barmak's gender-issue horror story transpires in a country the United States helped create, but takes its cinematic inspiration from Iran. Because the Taliban has forbidden unescorted females to leave their homes, a 12-year-old girl (Marina Golbahari) poses as a boy to earn food for herself, her widowed mother, and her grandmother. When the girl and a local beggar boy are rounded up and sent to a Taliban indoctrination camp, he helps protect her, telling the others her name is Osama. The scenes at the Taliban facility flirt with comedy, but the humor is laced with dread, since Osama may be executed if she's discovered. Funded by Makhmalbaf Film House and Iran's Ministry of Culture, the film shows the influence of Makhmalbaf and fellow Iranian minimalist Abbas Kiarostami. The story is no doubt oversimplified, but then exquisite subtlety is not required to tell the story of a girl condemned simply for being a girl. Shown with MON KABUL, a documentary about a chatty Kabul cabbie. (2007, 20 min) 2:30 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI In the first of David Lean's historical epics, a proper British POW gets altogether too absorbed in the task of building a bridge for his Japanese captors. (1957, 161 min) (Also Aug. 2-3, 5-6) 4 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT An eccentric Shanghai woman's life goes into decline as she encounters a string of con artists — including her own nephew — in Hong Kong director Ann Hui's downbeat parable. Chow Yun-Fat plays an amateur opera singer, one of the tale's many rogues. (2006, 111 min) (Also Aug. 3) 7 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Constitution Ave SW. Free; tickets distributed one hour before screening.
SHANKS Gimmicky-movie maker William Castle's final film is an unusually upscale horror flick, with Marcel Marceau as a puppetmaster who learns how to wake the dead, and plans to use this knowledge for revenge. (1974, 92 min) Shown with A Fable, s short in which Marceau shows the value of friendship. (1968, 18 min) 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.
SOUTH OF ST. LOUIS In this Technicolor Western, three Texans split up after their ranch is destroyed by Union partisans. The film is a cowboy remake of The Roaring Twenties, a 1939 Warner Brothers film. (1949, 88 min) Shown with a Tex Avery Technicolor cartoon, Magical Maestro, which is known for a gag involving an animated hair that seems to be caught in the projector gate. (1952). 7 pm, Films on the Hill, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh Street, SE. $5.
SHAMPOO The Nixon era looms as a hairdresser (co-scripter Warren Beatty) juggles a large number of women (including Julie Christie, Lee Grant, Goldie Hawn, and Carrie Fisher) in this politically charged sex farce. (1975, 109 min) (Also Aug 4 & 7) 9:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
THEY LIVE Ghouls pass for human in TV commercials — no, really? — in John Carpenter's campy horror flick. (1988, 93 min) (Also Aug. 2 & 6) 11:45 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2
THE OUTCRY Antonioni's trademark existential angst begins to flower in this wintry in the Po Valley road movie, which was clearly a major influence on Wim Wenders. (1957, 112 min) 1 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
L'AVVENTURA Antonioni's breakthrough film, and arguably his best, is this haunting, impeccably composed tale of a woman who vanishes, and the friend (Monica Vitti) who searches for her in vain. (1960, 145 min) (Also August 10) 4 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
THE LEGEND OF THE SKY KINGDOM Rendered in stop-action "junkmation," this is an adaptation of a children's book about three orphans who escape from an underground city in search of the Sky Kingdom. (2003, 74 min) 2 pm, 2 pm, National Museum of African Art. Free.
THE LIFE & TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG Local filmmaker Aviva Kempner's beloved portrait of the Detroit Tiger, baseball's first Jewish star. 2 pm, Historical Society of Washington, D.C. 801 K St NW. Free.
THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN And won't give it back, in this backstage musical. With Gregory Hines and Liza Minelli, among other non-fabric stars. (1984, 94 min) (Also Aug. 3) 2 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
AUDITION Milos Forman's first major film mixes fiction and documentary in a study of artistic ambition — and self-delusion. (1963, 47 min) (Also Aug. 3) 2:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
CAN'T BUY ME LOVE A high school identity crisis occurs when an outcast uses his lawn-mowing proceeds to purchase the companionship of an attractive cheerleader. (1987, 94 min) (Also Aug. 5) 9:50 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3
STANDING UP This documentary is the result of a four-month stint observing an Afghan National Army training camp. (2006, 160 min) 4:30 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
BREAKING NEWS Hong Kong action maestro Johnnie To transplants Dog Day Afternoon to Kowloon (or thereabouts) in this thriller, a hit on the European film-fest circuit. (2004, 88 min) (Also Aug. 4) 9:45 pm. American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
MONDAY, AUGUST 4
MR. SKEFFINGTON Diphtheria steals the pretty face of vain Fanny Skeffington (Bette Davis), who doesn't love her wealthy husband, in this protracted melodrama. 1944, 145 min) 6:30 pm, National Theater, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Free; tickets distributed a half hour before screening.
THE APARTMENT In corruptly buttoned-down New York, a salaryman (Jack Lemmon) helps his boss (Fred MacMurray) take advantage of a young woman (Shirley MacLaine), only to fall in love with her. Billy Wilder directed this overrated satire. Sunset, Screen on the Green, the Mall near Constitution Ave & 4th St. Free. 877 262 5866.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5
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) Noon & 1:15 pm, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays through Sept. 6, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 7th St & Independence Ave SW. Free.
BIG WEDNESDAY In this cult film, talented macho blowhard John Milius combines an ode to surfing with an attempt to capture the spirit of Vietnam-War-era youth. (1978, 123 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, AUGUST 6
MR. DIAL HAS SOMETHING TO SAY This documentary, which features both self-taught Alabama artist Thornton Dial and the celebrated quilters of Gee's Bend, analyzes how folk art has been underrated and overlooked by the mainstream art world. (2007, 57 min) 6:30 pm, National Museum of Women in the Arts Reservations recommended; reservations@nmwa.org or 202-783-7370. $5.
JERUSALEM: THE EAST SIDE STORY This documentary analyses Israel's policy of driving Palestinian Muslims and Christians, and their culture, from Jerusalem. (2008, 57 min) Shown with SECRET HEBRON: THE SCHOOL RUN, which shows how Palestinian children climb across the roofs of buildings to get to school without being shot by Israeli soldiers. (2003, 28 min) 6:30 pm, Jerusalem Fund, 2425 Virginia Ave NW. Free.
LIFE SUPPORT Music journalist Nelson George's made-for-TV drama is the real-life story of a former crack addict who became an AIDS activist. (2006, 90 min) 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $9.75
THE JUDGE AND THE GENERAL This documentary — co-directed by The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer correspondent Elizabeth Farnsworth — charts the conversion of Juan Guzman, a onetime Pinochet supporter who turned against the former regime as he investigated its atrocities. Lehrer, Farnsworth, and Guzman will participate in a panel discussion after the screening. 8 pm, Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7
SURPRISE SCREENING All that's promised about this film is that it will randomly selected from movies never before shown at the Pickford. 7 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, Library of Congress Madison Building, Third Floor, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free; call 202-707-5677 for reservations.