FRIDAY, MARCH 5
THE REAL DRAGON EMPEROR This documentary applies recent archaeological research and imaging techniques to the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, and the terra cotta warriors buried with him. (46 min) Noon, Grosvenor Auditorium, National Geographic Society, 1600 M St NW. Free.
A FOREIGN AFFAIR In this Billy Wilder black comedy, Jean Arthur plays a congresswoman on a fact-finding mission to Berlin. Her target is the black market, which is why an Army captain decides to romance her: to distract her from his own illicit operations, as well as his girlfriend (Marlene Dietrich), a lounge singer who's trying to hide her relationship with a notable Nazi. (1948, 116 min) 4:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $10.
BECLOUD In this Mexican drama, three longtime friends meet to deal with an issue from their childhood, one that links the fates of everyone in their Mexico City neighborhood. (2009, 111 min) Presented by Reel World Underground Link. 7 pm, Letelier Theater, courtyard, 3251 Prospect St NW. $8.
THE COVE Following onetime Flipper dolphin trainer Richard O'Barry, director Louie Psihoyos and an unusual film crew head to Taiji, a Japanese fishing port known for its link to dolphins. In an annual roundup, local fisherman herd dolphins into a cove, where trainers from around the world pick the ones they want. O'Barry, who no longer believes that humans should keep small cetaceans captive, opposes this practice. But entrapping dolphins for aquarium shows is the least of it: The remaining animals are brutally slaughtered for meat, even though there's not much of a market for their mercury-heavy flesh. The film is not easy to watch, but it's urgent and unforgettable. (2009, 90 min) 7 pm, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Free.
HIGH FIDELITY Despite switching the location from London to Chicago, Stephen Frears' adaptation of Nick Hornby's cult novel is in many ways faithful to the original, and in some ways an improvement. Rob (co-scripter John Cusack) runs a small, struggling record store and broods about the recent departure of live-in girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle); he uses the occasion of Laura's exit to investigate his "top five" biggest previous breakups. Although it features pieces of 59 different songs, ®MDNM¯the movie bungles the musical aspect of Hornby's tale. Cusack and the other filmmakers don't understand the subtleties of rock snobbery embodied by Rob's clerks (Jack Black and Todd Louiso), but they're more adept at romantic comedy. Their screenplay owes much to Hornby — Rob recites large chunks of the novel directly to the camera — yet they've managed to make their protagonist's romantic travails both more appealing and more convincing. Think of the movie as the Guyville sequel to such scruffy but unthreatening Frears comedies as The Snapper. (2000, 113 min) 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $10.
BIRD Forest Whitaker plays Charlie "Bird" Parker in director Clint Eastwood's loving portrait of the jazz saxophonist, an innovator (and heroin addict) who died at 34. (1988, 161 min) 9:15 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $10.
TROLL 2 A reportedly inept Italian horror flick, this was given its title even though it's not a sequel to Troll, and doesn't actually have any trolls in it. Sounds like a midnight movie, all right. (1990, 95 min) Midnight, Landmark E Street, 11th & E Sts NW.
SATURDAY, MARCH 6
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON A matinee sneak preview of this animated action comedy, in which a Viking boy tries to end that old dragon-slaying business, and instead turn the fire-breathers into pets. (2010) 10 am, Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW. $10.50.
THE FORGOTTEN ROOT This film addresses the largely unremembered role the Africans who were brought to Mexico as slaves or who escaped there from slavery in the U.S., with emphasis on the African legacy in Veracruz and Costa Chica. (2001, 50 min) 10:30 am, Anacostia Community Museum®MDRV¯®MDNM¯, 1901 Fort Pl SE. Free.
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM NOMINEES This year's Oscar nominees in the category: The Door, Instead of Abracadabra, Kavi, Miracle Fish, and The New Tenants. Noon, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Free.
SHANE Jean Arthur made her last screen appearance as a farmer's wife in this classic tale of range war between growers — helped by Alan Ladd's enigmatic Shane — and cattle ranchers. (1953, 118 min) Noon, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $10.
BYE BYE BIRDIE In this musical, Conrad Birdie — a parody of Elvis — is drafted into the Army, and his managers stage a farewell kiss with the current Middle America Miss, a star-making turn for Ann-Margret. (1963, 112 min) 2 pm, Middle C Music, 4530 Wisconsin Ave NW. Free.
THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES In one of his favorites among his own films, director Clint Eastwood plays a farmer who become an outlaw after his family is massacred by Union soldiers. (1976, 135 min) 2:20 & 7:20 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $10.
THE BLACK MARIA: SELECTIONS FROM THE FESTIVAL Now in its 29th year, the fest named for Thomas Edison's New Jersey film studio specializes in documentary and experimental shorts. Festival founding director John Columbus will present such 2009 fest entries as When Herons Dream, Worlds of Sound: Ballad of Folkways, The Solitary Life of Cranes, Train, Pickles for Nickels, Sitting, Breaking Boundaries: The Art of Alex Masket, and Memory Leak. (Approx 150 minutes) 3 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
ANIMATED SHORT FILM NOMINEES This year's Oscar nominees in the category: French Roast, Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, The Lady and the Reaper, Logorama, and A Matter of Loaf and Death. 3:30 pm, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Free.
A FOREIGN AFFAIR See March 5. 5 pm, AFI.
GODS This Peruvian satire is about a working-class woman who's eager to marry into money — until she realizes how much her future stepchildren's revolt against affluence will complicate her life. (2008, 91 min) Presented by Reel World Underground Link. 5 pm, Letelier Theater, courtyard, 3251 Prospect St NW. $8.
BURMA VJ: REPORTING FROM A CLOSED COUNTRY This Oscar-nominated documentary is a powerful, galvanizing account of the citizen journalists who used new video and Internet technology to show the world the brutal (and, thus far, successful) crackdown on protesters in Burma (aka Myanmar). (2009, 84 min) 7 pm, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Free.
LEO'S ROOM The title character lives in a small room in downtown Montevideo, uninterested in finishing his college thesis or getting a job. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Leo has a chance meeting with an elementary-school crush and begins to analyze his stunted life. (2008, 92 min) Presented by Reel World Underground Link. 7 pm, Letelier Theater, courtyard, 3251 Prospect St NW. $8.
THREE TIMES Cool, shadowy, and deliberate, Hou Hsiao-hsien's 2005 film may initially seem more a duty than a pleasure. Yet this three-part meditation on love — and the director's recurrent theme, Taiwanese history — actually has a strong, albeit understated, sense of play, and is lighter in tone than such Hou monuments as A City of Sadness. Rather than make another masterpiece, the filmmaker elected to have some fun, even if that fun is entirely on his own austere terms. Each segment dovetails with a previous Hou movie, functioning as an addendum to, respectively, A Time to Live and a Time to Die, The Flowers of Shanghai, and Millennium Mambo. The same actors, Chang Chen and Millennium Mambo's Shu Qi, play the central roles in all three episodes, set in 1966, 1919, and 2005. The chapters are stylistically related, yet the director has given each its own mode of illumination and camera movement. The mood of the final story is bleak, yet it looks as ravishing as the other two. Hou's Taiwan may have lost its sul, but not its beauty. (2005) 8 pm, GWU Marvin Amphitheater, 800 21st St NW. Free.
HIGH FIDELITY See March 5. 10:10 pm, AFI.
TROLL 2 See March 5. Midnight, E Street.
SUNDAY, MARCH 7
FANTASTIC MR. FOX This over-extended stop-action animation version of Roald Dahl's story is not as indigestible as Where the Wild Things Are, but has a similar arrested-development quality. The Clooney-voiced Fox isn't as a cute as he thinks he is — and neither is director Wes Anderson. 10:30 am, Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW. $10.50.
A SECRET Adapted from Philippe Grimbert`s novel, Memory, Claude Miller's film is about a young Parisian boy whose imaginary family history yields to the truth when he unravels the mystery of how his kin were affected by the Holocaust. (2007, 105 min) (2007) 10 am, Sponsored by Cinema Art Bethesda. 10 am, Landmark Bethesda Row, Woodmont & Bethesda Aves, Bethesda.
BABAK AND FRIENDS: A FIRST NOROOZ This animated film is about an Iranian-American boy who first encounters the traditional New Year's celebration when his cousins arrive from Iran. (2005, 30 min) 11 am-4 pm, Freer/Sackler Galleries, 12th & Independence Ave SW. Free.
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT NOMINEES This year's Oscar nominees in the category: China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, The Last Campaign of Gov. Booth Gardner, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, Music by Prudence, and Rabbit à la Berlin. Noon, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Free.
A FOREIGN AFFAIR See March 5. 12:45 pm, AFI.
LEO'S ROOM See March 6. 2 pm, Letelier.
NORTH DALLAS FORTY Nick Nolte plays a smartass quarterback surviving with the benefit of heavy painkillers in this sharp adaptation of former Dallas Cowboys receiver Peter Gent's semi-autobiographical novel. (1979, 119 min) 3:15 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $10.
GODS See March 6. 4 pm, Letelier.
EVERLASTING MOMENTS Click here for a review of Swedish director Jan Troell's tale of an early-20th-century wife and mother who finds herself through photography. (2008, 131 min) Preceded by PAUSE IN THE MARSHLAND, an early Troell short with Max von Sydow as railway worker. (1965, 30 min) The director will be present to discuss the films. 4:30 pm, National Gallery of Art East Building auditorium. Free.
WHICH WAY HOME This documentary follows unaccompanied child migrants from Central America on their journey through Mexico toward the United States. Featured are two 9-year old Hondurans whose parents are in the U.S., a 10-year old El Salvadoran who was abandoned by smugglers, a 14-year old Honduran sent by his mother to earn money for the family in the U.S. (2009, 90 min) 4:30 pm, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Free.
HIGH FIDELITY See March 5. 6:15 pm, AFI.
BIRD See March 5. 8:30 pm, AFI.
MONDAY, MARCH 8
THE REAL DRAGON EMPEROR See March 5. Noon, National Geographic.
ONE DAY IN EUROPE Director Hannes (Berlin is in Germany) Stohr's ensemble film divides the issue of European unions into four comic vignettes, each set on the same day and involving parallel plots: As soccer teams from Spain and Turkey play a championship match in Moscow, travelers arrive in that city, the teams' hometowns, and — since this is a German movie — Berlin. (2004, 100 min) 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut, 812 Seventh St NW. $6.
SHANE See March 6. 6:45 pm, AFI.
THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES See March 6. 9:05 pm, AFI.
TUESDAY, MARCH 9
THE PIGEON MURDERS and BROOKLYN'S PIGEON GAME are two shorts about the birds in their natural habitat: New York. (200 & 1986, 39 min) Noon, Grosvenor Auditorium, National Geographic Society, 1600 M St NW. Free.
SHANE See March 6. 6:45 pm, AFI.
CAFE ELECTRIC One of Marlene Dietrich's early films, Gustav Ucucky's silent has a moralistic plot but provides an interesting look at the 1920s German café scene. This screening will accompanied by a live pianist. (1927, 91 min) 7:30 pm, Austrian Embassy, 3524 International Ct NW. Free; reservation required. 202 895 6776.
BLACK HEAT In this blaxploitation flick, cagey Vegas cop Kicks Carter investigates a fancy hotel that fronts for gun-running, loan-sharking, drug-dealing, and prostitution. (1976) 8 pm, Washington Psychotronic Film Society. The Warehouse, 1021 7th St NW. Free; $2 donation requested.
A FOREIGN AFFAIR See March 5. 9:05 pm, AFI.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10
THE REAL DRAGON EMPEROR See March 5. Noon, National Geographic.
MIYORI IN THE SACRED FOREST Dragged from Tokyo after her parents's divorce, 11-year old Miyori hates her grandparents's countryside home. But then a river spirit leads her into the forest where a mystical woodland creatures welcome her. When she learns that the forest is set to be flooded by a new dam, Miyori becomes the land's protector. Nizo Yamamoto's animated parable is based on Oda Hideji's manga. (2007, 116 min) 6:30 pm, 6:30 pm, Japan Information and Culture Center, 1155 21st St NW. Free; reservations required. RSVP to jiccrsvpspring09@embjapan.org.
THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES See March 6. 6:30 pm, AFI.
SHADOWS Co-director May Ayubi's first-person documentary follows her attempts to document Afghan women's newfound freedoms, and her expulsion from the country for her efforts. (2005, 52 min) Ayubi will discuss the film after the screening. 7 pm, Grosvenor Auditorium, National Geographic Society, 1600 M St NW. $10.
LA TRAVIATA A film of the Verdi opera. 7 pm, Atlas Theater, 1333 H St NE.
NORMAL: THE DUSSELDORF RIPPER This Czech thriller is set in 1930s Germany, where an ambitious young lawyer's first big case is the defense of an alleged serial killer. Sure that the defendant is mentally ill, the lawyer explores his past, and finds himself being manipulated by the client and his duplicitous wife. (2009, 95 min) 8 pm, Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave NW. $10.50.
HIGH FIDELITY See March 5. 9:30 pm, AFI.
THURSDAY, MARCH 11
NOSFERATU, A SYMPHONY OF HORROR The special effects in German expressionist F.W. Murnau's unauthorized version of Bram Stoker's Dracula look primitive today, but are all the more powerful for it. For sheer mood, this vampire flick has never been topped. (1922, 81 min) Accompanied by the Thad Wilson Group, performing an original live score. 6:30 pm, Smithsonian American Art Museum, McEvoy Auditorium, 8th & G Sts NW. Free.
DARATT (DRY SEASON) Set in Chad, this parable begins with the news that the government has granted amnesty to all war criminals. So an aggrieved man orders his grandson, Atim, to kill the man who murdered Atim's father during the war. But the task proves more difficult, emotionally at least, than the boy first imagined. (2006, 96 min) Sponsored by Alliance Française. 7 pm, Letelier Theater, courtyard, 3251 Prospect St NW.
NO TIME TO DIE In this romantic comedy that's also a primer on Ghanaian funeral traditions, a hearse driver falls in love with a dancer who's planning her mother's elaborate tribute. (2006, 95 min) 7 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $10.
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH In this post-apartheid drama, a librarian who stayed in South Africa reckons with the life of his late brother, who became a hero of the struggle while in exile in London. Writer-director John Kani, who plays the lead role, originally produced this script as a play, which was widely acclaimed. (2008, 118 min) 9:30 pm, American Film Institute Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Rd. $10.