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Around town: James Caan takes a bow, films from France, India, Japan and Chile, and the return of Tony Clifton

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The 15th annual City of Lights, City of Angels French film celebration continues Thursday at the Directors Guild of America with a screening of Bertrand Blier’s 1979 dark comedy ‘Cold Cuts,’ followed by an hourlong conversation with the Oscar winner. He also will be on hand later in the evening at the screening of his latest comedy, ‘The Clink of Ice.’

The highlights of Friday’s programming include the international premiere of ‘The Night Clerk’ as well as the West Coast premiere of veteran director Claude LeLouch’s ‘What Love May Bring,’ which will also feature LeLouch in conversation. Saturday’s programming includes the L.A. premiere of ‘Copacabana,’ with Isabelle Huppert, the West Coast premiere of the Gerard Depardieu comedy ‘My Afternoons With Margueritte,’ and the comedy ‘Beautiful Lies’ with special guest star Nathalie Baye. Sunday evening’s closing film in competition is the comedy ‘Nothing to Declare,’ starring, written and directed by Dany Boon, who will attend. Monday’s offering are screenings of two of the festival’s award winners. http://www.colcoa.org

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— The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles also continues at the Arclight in Hollywood through Sunday. The closing-night gala is the world premiere of ‘Zokkoman.’ http://www.indianfilmfestival.org — The Japan Film Festival Los Angeles resumes Saturday at the Starplex Cinema 5 in Irvine with a daylong program that includes ‘The Billion Yen Jackpot.’ Sunday’s offering at the Yamaha Music Center in Irvine includes ‘Ashes to Honey’ and a short film program. http://www.jffla.org

—UCLA Film and Television Archive’s retrospective ‘Looking for Richard Brooks: An Appreciation’ continues Saturday afternoon at the Billy Wilder Theatre with two films for which he wrote the screenplay: 1943’s ‘White Savage,’ a Technicolor fantasy starring the popular team of Maria Montez and Jon Hall, and the 1948 classic noir ‘Key Largo,’ directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Claire Trevor in her Oscar-winning performance. Screening Saturday evening are 1955’s seminal ‘Blackboard Jungle’ and 1947’s film noir ‘Brute Force,’ featuring a script by Brooks directed by Jules Dassin.

UCLA also opens its retrospective of the works of Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman on Friday at the Wilder with a preview screening of his latest film, ‘Nostalgia for Light.’ The festival continues April 29. And on Sunday, UCLA will present a screening from the ‘Between Disorder and Unexpected Pleasures: Tales from the New Chinese Cinema’ festival — 2008’s ‘A Disappearance Foretold.’ http://www.cinema.ucla.edu

— The American Cinematheque’s tribute to James Caan at the Aero Theatre features a double bill of films Thursday evening directed by Mark Rydell: 1976’s ‘Harry and Walter Go to New York’ and 1973’s ‘Cinderella Liberty.’ Caan will appear at the Aero on Friday with the screening of Michael Mann’s 1981 ‘Thief’ and 1980’s ‘Hide in Plain Sight,’ which Caan directed. And the series concludes Saturday evening with 1975’s ‘Funny Lady’ and 1990’s ‘Misery.’

The Aero goes family friendly Sunday afternoon with a screening of the popular 1988 family animated film ‘The Land Before Time.’ There will be a discussion afterward with Will Ryan, the voice of ‘Petrie.’ Later that evening writer-director Kelly Reichardt (‘Meek’s Cutoff’) will be attend the screenings of her 2008 drama ‘Wendy and Lucy’ and 2007’s ‘Old Joy.’

And on Wednesday, the Aero presents the Los Angeles premiere of the 2010 Belgium production ‘Turquaze’ with director Kadir Balci in attendance.

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The Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre continues its annual film noir festival Thursday with a Robert Ryan double bill: 1949’s ‘Caught,’ directed by Max Ophuls, and 1952’s ‘Beware My Lovely,’ with Ida Lupino. Friday’s offerings are two rarities directed by William Castle — 1956’s ‘The Huston Story’ for which costar Jeanne Cooper will attend — and 1955’s ‘New Orleans Uncensored.’ Peter Ford, son of Glenn Ford, will attend Saturday to discuss his dad in between the screenings of 1947’s ‘Framed’ and 1949’s ‘Mr Soft Tough.’ Sunday brings two new 35mm prints of the rarely seen 1959 ‘Cry Tough’ — star John Saxon will attend — and 1954’s ‘Down Three Dark Streets’ with noir icon Broderick Crawford. The noir festival closes Wednesday with the 1944 mystery thriller ‘Gaslight,’ for which Ingrid Bergman won her first Oscar, and the cult favorite 1945’s ‘My Name is Julia Ross,’ with Nina Foch.

http://www.americancinematheque.com

— The New Beverly Cinema pays homage to the late actress Tura Santana on Thursday with screenings of 1965’s ‘Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill,’ directed by Russ Meyer, and 1973’s ‘The Doll Squad.’ Friday’s midnight movie is the 2010 comedy ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.’ Jean Harlow, who would have been 100 this year, is featured in two of her best comedies Friday and Saturday: 1932’s ‘Red Headed Woman’ and 1936’s ‘Libeled Lady,’ which also stars William Powell, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. Saturday’s midnight offering is John Carpenter’s 1994 horror film, ‘In the Mouth of Madness.’ Producer Sandy King is scheduled to appear. Sunday through Tuesday, the New Beverly goes Parisian with the Oscar-winning 1958 musical classic ‘Gigi’ and Billy Wilder’s acerbic 1957 romance ‘Love in the Afternoon’ with Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper. Two films from Sofia Coppola screen Wednesday: 2010’s ‘Somewhere,’ for which she won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and 2003’s ‘Lost in Translation,’ for which she won an Oscar for her original screenplay. http://www.newbevcinema.

— The four-day Los Angeles Harbor International Film Festival, a nonjuried, noncompetitive festival, opens Thursday and continues through Sunday at the Warner Grand Theatre. The festival will also honor the 1957 musical romance ‘April Love’ and its stars, Pat Boone and Shirley Jones. http://www.laharborfilmfest.com

— The Echo Park Film Center features ‘Clay Dean and Tuni Chatterji: (Un) Related Films by Lovers,’ Thursday evening. The program features selected films by Dean and the 10-year-anniversary screening of Chatterji’s experimental musical, ‘Twitterpated.’ On Friday, Echo Park kicks off its new PBS ‘POV’ series, which features documentaries from the long-running anthology program. The first offering is 2006’s ‘The Oath.’ Screening Sunday evening is 1980’s ‘Underground USA,’ written and directed by Eric Mitchell. Set for Monday’ is ‘Light on Surface, Reflection on Screen: Recent Japanese 8MM Films,’ with curator Tomonari Nishikawa in attendance. http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org

— The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater features ‘Tony Clifton: Live on the Sunset Strip,’ Thursday evening. Taped last May in L.A., the film headlines Andy Kaufman’s alter ego lounge singer. Cinefamily also presents the series ‘Art in the Streets’ in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition of the same name. Screening Friday is Charlie Ahearn’s 1983 ‘Wild Style,’ a documentary on early hip-hop history. There will be an after party with Ahearn and others. Tuesday’s entry is 1981’s ‘Downtown 81,’ Edo Bertologio’s look at the New York bohemian subculture of 30 years ago. There will also be the 1982 short ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Fun Gallery.’

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— Friday’s midnight movie offering is the 20th anniversary of ‘Body Part,’ a thriller starring Jeff Fahey and directed by Eric Red of the original ‘The Hitcher’ fame. And on Saturday and Sunday, indie director Allison Anders will be on hand. Screening Saturday is her 1996 film, ‘Grace of My Heart,’ with 1992’s ‘Gas Food Lodging’ and 1994’s ‘Mi Vida Loca’ on tap for Sunday. Screening Saturday evening after ‘Grace’ is the latest edition of Cinefamily’s Pajama Party — the 1982 animated ‘The Last Unicorn,’ from directors Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass.

— Wednesday’s silent movie presentation is William Ruttman’s 1927 ‘Berlin: Symphony of a City’ featuring a live score by Brian LeBarton. http://www.cinefamily.org

— The First Annual Barbie Film Festival, Friday evening at UCLA’s James Bridges Theatre, features two-minute films shot on the Barbie Video camera by students, faculty and staff at the UCLA School of Televison, Film and Television. http://www.tft.ucla.edu/calendar/academic/barbie/

— The Autry National Center’s ‘Crossing Borders’ film series features two Saturday afternoon screenings of 1960’s ‘Macario,’ based on B. Traven’s book, and 1947’s ‘La Pearla,’ based on John Steinbeck’s novel, ‘The Pearl.’ http://www.autry.org

— The Redcat International Children’s Film Festival concludes Saturday and Sunday. http://www.redcat.org

— The Korean Cultural Center presents a free screening of the 2010 Korean action/drama ‘Secret Reunion.’ http://www.kccla.org

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— The 7 Dudley Cinema at the Talking Stick in Venice features ‘Russ Forster Films: Tributary,’ a documentary on tribute bands, plus several of his short films. http://www.laughtears.com/7dudleycinema.html

— Redcat offers the Los Angeles premiere Monday evening of ‘Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Where is Where?,’ the Finnish multi-media artist’s experimental narrative made in 2009. The evening will also feature earlier shorts by Ahtila. The filmmaker will appear in person. http://www.redcat.org

— The Arclight continues to celebrate the 1980s with 1986’s blockbuster ‘Top Gun,’ with Tom Cruise, Monday at the Arclight Hollywood. On tap Tuesday at Sherman Oaks is Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror flick, ‘The Shining.’ On Wednesday, Pasadena screens Kubrick’s 1987 Vietnam War film, ‘Full Metal Jacket,’ while the Beach Cities theater features 1984’s ‘The Karate Kid’ featuring current ‘Dancing With the Stars’ contestant, Ralph Macchio. http://www.arclightcinemas.com

— Susan King

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