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Around Town: Special movie screenings for Easter and more

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In celebration of Easter this Sunday, the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre is presenting a 50th-anniversary screening of the religious epic ‘King of Kings,’ starring Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus and Robert Ryan as John the Baptist and directed by Nicholas Ray. On Saturday afternoon, the Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre is presenting Bugs Bunny shorts, the 1920 Buster Keaton short ‘One Week’ and an Easter egg hunt. www.americancinematheque.com

The New Beverly Cinema is getting into the holiday spirit Sunday and Monday with the Technicolor 1948 MGM musical ‘Easter Parade,’ with Judy Garland and Fred Astaire in their only pairing, as well as Ann Miller and Peter Lawford. Also screening is 1952’s ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’ with Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds. www.newbevcinema.com

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And the Art Theatre of Long Beach is presenting a ‘The Sound of Music’ sing-along and costume contest for Sunday afternoon. www.arttheatreoflongbeach.com

In non-holiday events...

Writer-director Tom Holland will talk about the horror genre in between a double bill of two of his hits, 1985’s ‘Fright Night’ and 1988’s ‘Child’s Play,’ which launched the entire Chucky franchise, Thursday evening at the Aero Theatre. On Friday, the Aero kicks off its ‘Fall Down Laughing: The Hilarious, Risky Cinema of Buster Keaton’ series with a triple bill: 1924’s ‘Sherlock Jr.,’ 1925’s ‘Seven Chances’ and ‘One Week,’ which also screens Saturday. Saturday evening’s double bill consists of his 1926 masterwork, ‘The General,’ and 1925’s ‘Go West.’ The fun ends Sunday with 1928’s ‘Steamboat Bill Jr.’ and 1924’s ‘The Navigator.’ For dinosaur fans, the Egyptian presents a ‘Jurassic Park’ triple feature on Saturday. americancinematheque.com

The Art in the Streets screening series--in association with MOCA’s exhibition of the same name--will show French director’s Agnes Varda’s 1981 documentary ‘Murs Murs,’ which looks at the street murals in L.A., Thursday evening at the Silent Movie Theatre. Also screening Thursday is the 1981 short ‘Stations of the Elevated.’ Friday’s offering is a program of shorts, ‘Global Graffiti: Graffiti Films Around the World.’ The festival ends Saturday at the Natural History Museum with Werner Herzog’s latest documentary, ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams,’ a 3-D look inside the Chauvet caves in France. www.cinefamily.org Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences film scholar David E. James hosts ‘An Evening with Pat O’Neil,’ Thursday at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theatre. O’Neil, an experimental filmmaker and optical effects artist , will screen a newly preserved print of his 1989 feature ‘Water and Power,’ which won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival. www.oscars.org

‘King Dong,’ Thursday evening at the Echo Park Film Center, features the comedic works of filmmaker Len Cella, who has been turning out low-budget shorts--he’s a one-man production team--since the 1960s. Cella will be in attendance. Friday evening, the center presents an evening of new works by queer feminist media collectives. www.echoparkfilmcenter.org

The Skirball Center’s ‘The Films of Amos Gita’ retrospective concludes Thursday evening with his first film, 1986’s ‘Esther,’ a retelling of the Purim story. www.skirball.org

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents five screenings Friday through Sunday of a new 35-millimeter print of Robert Bresson’s 1951 French classic ‘Diary of a Country Priest,’ which the late critic Pauline Kael called ‘one of the most profound emotional experiences in the history of film.’ lacma.org

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‘Between Disorder and Unexpected Pleasures: Tales From the New Chinese Cinema’ presents Zhao Ye’s 2008 ‘Jalainur’ Friday at the Billy Wilder Theater. And on Saturday, UCLA’s Richard Brooks’ retrospective continues with 1960’s ‘Elmer Gantry,’ for which Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones earned acting Oscars and Brooks won an Academy Award for his screenplay adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ novel. Douglas K. Daniel, who wrote the new Brooks bio ‘Tough as Nails,’ will appear. www.cinema.ucla.edu

The Downtown Independent is presenting a ‘Drink-Along and Beer Pong’ presentation of two John Waters cult flicks Friday evening: 1990’s ‘Cry-Baby’ with Johnny Depp, and his seminal 1972 ‘Pink Flamingos’ with the one and only Divine. Bring along a designated driver. On Monday evening, the Independent welcomes the 16th Film Courage Interactive with David Branin and Karen Worden who will present the feature ‘Once & for All.’ And on Wednesday evening, ProjectFresh presents the documentary ‘Skid Row,’ directed by Pras of the Fugees. www.downtownindependent.com

Ray Milland, who won the lead actor Oscar for 1945’s ‘The Lost Weekend,’ made several top-notch film noirs in the 1940s. The New Beverly Cinema is presenting a double bill of two of his best Friday and Saturday: 1944’s ‘Ministry of Fear’ and 1948’s ‘The Big Clock,’ which also stars Charles Laughton. www.newbevcinema.com

Maria Schneider burst onto the international movie scene nearly 40 years ago in Bernardo Bertolucci’s erotic masterpiece ‘Last Tango in Paris,’ which opened in the U.S. in 1973. She played the free spirit who enters into a relationship with a widower (Marlon Brando) in an empty Paris apartment. This Friday, the Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre pays tribute to the actress, who died in February at the age of 58, with a screening of ‘Tango’ as well as Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1975 ‘The Passenger,’ in which she starred opposite Jack Nicholson. www.americancinematheque.com

The Nuart Theatre’s midnight show Friday is the original 1982 ‘Tron’ starring Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner. www.landmarktheatres.com

The Cinefamily and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center present 1960’s ‘When a Woman Ascends the Stairs,’ directed by Mikio Naruse, Saturday at the Silent Movie Theatre. www.cinefamily.org

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Art Directors Branch governors host ‘Evolution or Revolution: Production Design in the 21st Century,’ a series of seminars that begin Monday at the Linwood Dunn Theatre and continue Mondays through May 16. The first offering is ‘The Convergence of Production Design in Live Action and Animation.’ www.oscars.org

The ArcLight Cinemas’ celebration of 1980s cinema continues Monday at the ArcLight Hollywood with John Hughes’ 1987 classic ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles,’ with Steve Martin and John Candy. On Tuesday, the Sherman Oaks ArcLight features the 1982 comedy hit ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High,’ which stars Sean Penn as the stoned surfer dude Jeff Spicoli. Michael J. Fox headlines Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 blockbuster ‘Back to the Future’ Wednesday at the ArcLight Pasadena.

The New Beverly Cinema features a double bill of French animator Sylvain Chomet’s Oscar-nominated films Tuesday and Wednesday: 2010’s ‘The Illusionist’ and 2003’s ‘The Triplets of Belleville.’ www.newbevcinemas.com

The Cinefamily’s ‘Mondo Superhero!’ festival, presented in conjunction with Meltdown Comics, kicks off Wednesday evening at the Silent Movie Theatre with a ‘Silent Superheroes Serial Sampler’ featuring live scores by the Cabeza de Vaca Arcestral. www.cinefamly.org

The Korean Cultural Center presents a free screening of the 2008 romantic comedy ‘My Wife Got Married,’ Wednesday evening. www.kccla.org

-- Susan King

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