Cinema Sundays

"The Dish," a charming nougat of a film about a giant radio telescope stuck in the middle of nowheresville, Australia, used to beam back pictures of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, is this weekend's offering for Cinema Sundays at the Charles Theatre. Based on real events, the film stars Sam Neill as the scientist in charge of the 1,000-ton telescope. The film was directed by Rob Sitch. Pierre Bely, chief engineer for the Next Generation Space Telescope, will serve as host for the screening, which begins at 10:30 a.m. Admission to Cinema Sundays is $15; four-film mini-memberships are available for $52. Free bagels and coffee will be served.

"I'm in heaven," says Baltimore filmmaker Michael Lawrence, whose documentary "Bach & Friends" will receive its local debut Sunday. "Screenings are coming all the time. " The film features more than two dozen musicians, including composer Philip Glass, violinist Joshua Bell, bassist Edgar Meyer and ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro, discussing their passion for Bach. Showings are scheduled in Virginia, Northern California and Holland this fall; Washington and Los Angeles may soon be added to the list.

In the course of its three-year lifetime, Cinema Sundays at the Charles has become a staple for film fans. Another season wraps up on June 21. Cinema Sundays founder (and cinephile extraordinaire) George Udel will return Sept. 13 with another 10-week program that combines bagels, coffee and conversation with previews and exclusive showings of noteworthy films.Members usually pack the Sunday morning ritual, but go to the Charles at 9:45 a.m. to see if single tickets are available. Next Sunday, June 14, Cinema Sundays presents "Detention," written and directed by Baltimore filmmaker Darryl LeMont Wharton.

"Gold Diggers of 1933," this weekend's entry in the Charles Theatre's blissfully eccentric Saturday revival series, is one of those relics from a bygone era that can't help but win your heart. Director Mervyn LeRoy and, especially, choreographer Busby Berkeley turned on all the charm they could find, employed just about every chorus girl within a 20-mile radius of Hollywood (maybe that's an exaggeration, but not by much) and managed to put out a movie that made the Depression appear exciting and, more important, winnable.

Cinema Sundays at the Charles, the film series of early-screened art films, is back on schedule this week after some serious blizzard rearrangements.This Sunday's presentation, which will be screened at 10:30 a.m., is an Irish film billed as an "offbeat romantic tale about a young dwarf, his French mother and his interest in the stars." (The Charles is obliged not to release the name of the film in advance.)It features Gabriel Byrne, Anne Parillard and Matt Dillon and was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

Cinema Sundays at the Charles will continue this Sunday with a look at a Hong Kong thriller with a wicked premise. The screening, at 10:30 a.m., will be introduced by Stephen Hunter, The Sun's movie critic.The screening is the second in a three-film miniseries at the downtown art theater, with the final showing set for July 16.The series promises high-quality art-house films weeks before their commercial release, although titles are never announced in advance. Some previous films in the series have been "Crumb," "Martha and Ellen," "Firinelli" and "Burnt by the Sun."

Cinema Sundays opens its 2001 Winter Series Sunday with "State and Main," a new comedy from David Mamet. The film, which skewers the make-this-picture-at-all-costs Hollywood mentality, stars an ensemble cast headed by William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. In it, a major Hollywood production takes over a small Vermont town after being kicked out of a New Hampshire hamlet under mysterious circumstances. Although initially glad to partake in the Hollywood glamour and ballyhoo, the town's residents soon develop a less-flattering attitude toward the invading hordes - particularly after realizing that the only thing these people care about is getting their movie made.

Cinema Sundays at the Charles continues this weekend with the showing of an award-winning English film adapted from aplay about a crime that took place in a provincial town in France in the 1930s involving sisters, maids and a matron's murder.The Charles is contractually obligated not to release the name of the films it shows during the Cinema Sundays program.The film will be introduced by David Bergman, a Towson State University professor of English and a published poet, editor and critic.

The 41st season of Cinema Sundays kicks off this weekend at the Charles, 1711 N. Charles St., with Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage. The film stars Belen Rueda as Laura, a woman who purchases the orphanage in which she was raised, with an eye toward running it as a home for disabled children. But when strange things start happening in the house, including her son's increasing obsession with an invisible friend, it's time to call in the parapsychologists. Showtime is 10:35 a.m. Sunday, preceded by 50 minutes of no-extra-charge coffee and bagels.

"Into the Arms of Strangers," an Oscar-nominated documentary on British efforts to rescue German and other children targeted by the Third Reich, is this weekend's Cinema Sundays offering. Director Mark Jonathan Harris' film looks at the Kindertransport, a rescue effort that saved more than 10,000 children from the Nazi concentration camps. Transported to Britain, the children were placed in foster homes or hostels, with the idea that they would be reunited with their families at war's end. For most, the war ended with no family left to return to. One of those children was the mother of "Into the Arms of Strangers" producer Deborah Oppenheimer.

Director Radu Miahaileanu's 2005 "Live and Become" ("Va, vis et deviens"), a drama that begins in a Sudanese refugee camp sheltering Ethiopians displaced by civil war and famine in 1984, will be the kick-off feature Saturday of this year's Columbia Jewish Film Series. The story follows a young boy, named Schlomo, who is air-lifted from Sudan to Israel, where he is adopted by a liberal Jewish family - and finds that assimilation into this new culture is harder than he thought. Complicating matters: he is not the Falasha, or Ethiopian Jew, that his adoptive family believes.

SUNDAY DON MCLEAN: As music legend has it, McLean's "Empty Chairs" inspired "Killing Me Softly with His Song." He also provided Madonna with another hit with her dance version of his classic "American Pie" and now he comes to Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis, 33 West St., at 5 and 8 p.m. The early show is all-ages. The late show is 21 and up. Tickets are $55. Go to tickets.ramsheadonstage.com. CINEMA SUNDAYS: "Flame and Citron" is this week's Cinema Sundays selection at the Charles Theatre, 1711 N. Charles St. The drama from Denmark concerns two fighters from the Holger Danske World War II resistance group and is based on actual events.

'Watchmen' returns : Watchmen, the big-screen adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic-novel exploits of a group of outlawed superheroes, will return this weekend for a limited run at Bengies Drive-In Theatre, 3417 Eastern Blvd. Showtime through Sunday is 10:45 p.m. on what is not only the last surviving drive-in screen in Maryland but also the biggest screen in the U.S., at 52 by 120 feet. Information: bengies.com, 410-687-5627 or 410-391-1956. Free 'Millionaire' : Reigning Oscar champion Slumdog Millionaire, director Danny Boyle's tale of undying love and unexpected riches among India's poor, will be shown at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute's Mountcastle Auditorium, 725 N. Wolfe St. Admission is free.

POP MUSIC Black Lips The Georgia band the Black Lips filters punk-rock sentiments through a blues lens. On its new album, 200 Million Thousand, the band plays music that remains appealingly ragged and loose. The band plays at 8 tonight at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. N.W., Washington. Tickets are $13. Call 410-547-7328 or go to ticketmaster.com. FILM 'Barking Dogs' The new Hopkins film series, "Lovers and Liars: Contemporary Films From Korea," kicks off tonight with Barking Dogs Never Bite, a dark comedy about an adjunct college teacher with time on his hands who decides to quiet an irritating barking dog. Presented by the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Office of Cultural Affairs, the screening starts at 7:15 p.m. at the Mountcastle Auditorium, 725 N. Wolfe St. Admission is free.

The Spring 2008 Cinema Sundays series wraps this weekend with documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney's Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Former Cinema Sundays programmer Gabe Wardell, now executive director of Independent Media Artists of Georgia, Etc. (IMAGE), and organizers of the annual Atlanta Film Festival will be on hand for the introduction and post-film discussion. Showtime at the Charles, 1711 N. Charles St., is 10:35 a.m. Sunday, preceded by 50 minutes of no-additional-charge coffee and bagels.

The 41st season of Cinema Sundays kicks off this weekend at the Charles, 1711 N. Charles St., with Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage. The film stars Belen Rueda as Laura, a woman who purchases the orphanage in which she was raised, with an eye toward running it as a home for disabled children. But when strange things start happening in the house, including her son's increasing obsession with an invisible friend, it's time to call in the parapsychologists. Showtime is 10:35 a.m. Sunday, preceded by 50 minutes of no-extra-charge coffee and bagels.