Festival news: Another Hole In the Head continues through this week (ending Thursday). Frameline opens Thursday. There are, unfortunately, a lot of people in this country who would find Frameline scarier than Hole in the Head.
Unfestival news: The Pacific Film Archive opens from its early summer break today with series celebrating Arthur Penn and the Kuchars.
A+ Lawrence of Arabia, Castro, Saturday & Sunday. Presented in 70mm. Lawrence isn’t just the best big historical epic of the 70mm roadshow era, it’s one of 
the greatest films ever made. Stunning to look at and terrific as pure spectacle, it’s also an intelligent study of a fascinatingly complex and enigmatic war hero. T. E. Lawrence—at least in this film—both loved and hated violence, and tried liberating Arabia by turning it over to the British. No, that’s not a flaw in the script, but in the character. This masterpiece isn’t worth seeing on DVD, and loses much in 35mm (it isn’t yet available in Blu-ray). Shot in Super Panavision 70, it takes 70mm to reach it’s potential. And that’s how the Castro is showing it.
A Galaxy Quest, UA Berkeley, Thursday, 8:00. There’s no better way to parody a well-known genre than to write characters who are familiar with the genre and feel obliged to follow its conventions. And few movies do this better than Galaxy Quest. The cast of a long-cancelled sci-fi TV show with a fanatical following (think Star Trek) find themselves on a real space adventure with good and bad aliens. Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman star. The funniest film of 1999–one of the best years for comedy in recent decades.
A+ Top Hat, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Friday, 8:00. If escapism is a valid artistic goal, then Top Hat is a great work of art. From the perfect clothes that everyone wears so well to the absurd mistaken-identity plot to the art deco set that makes Venice look like a very exclusive water park, everything about Top Hat tells you not to take it seriously. But who needs realism when Fred Astaire dances his way into Ginger Rogers’ heart to four great Irving Berlin tunes (and one mediocre one)? And when the music stops, it’s still a very good comedy.
B+ The Miracle Worker, Pacific Film Archive, Sunday, 5:30. It was based on a popular Broadway play, and was adapted for the screen by the original playwright (William Gibson), but it never feels stagey. We have Gibsn and director Arthur Penn to thank for that. As Annie Sullivan, Anne Bancroft plays the proud and determined young teacher to perfection. But it’s the very young Patty Duke who gets the juiciest part, even without dialog, as Helen Keller. Let’s face it: even if it wasn’t based on a true story that everyone knows, it would still be predictable. But so what? It’s still a touching story. Only five years before making The Graduate, Anne Bancroft believably played a woman about the same age as Mrs. Robinson’s daughter. Part of the series Arthur Penn, A Liberal Helping.
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