Philadelphia Weekly

Ambler Theater
$4.50-$8. 108 E. Butler Ave. 215.345.7855. www.amblertheater.com

The Hidden Fortress
(1958) (Shown on film): Best known for heavily inspiring Star Wars--a feisty princess, two bickering peasants/droids, a rascally interloper, a war-torn landscape, etc.--Akira Kurosawa's samurai actioneer is one of his few pure-genre outings, with few pretensions beyond entertainment. But in its sneaky way, it's at least as affecting as Ikiru or Seven Samurai. A- Thurs., Oct. 11, 7pm.

Janus Revisited: A Film Forum With Jennifer Steinberg
(Clips on DVD): Named for the Roman god of gates, Janus Films has been distributing art-house fare--most of it foreign--for 50 years, having amassed what's virtually the world cinema canon: Much of the Criterion Collection originates from their warehouse of Kurosawa, Bergman, Truffaut and so on. As the Ambler/Bryn Mawr/County plow through a small selection of their wares, the great Jennifer Steinberg, documentary curator for the Philadelphia Film Festival and all-around knowledgeable cinephile, returns to offer up a refresher course. Tues., Oct. 16, 7pm.

Andrew's Video Vault
Free. Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. 215.573.3234. www.armcinema25.com

Le Sang des B�tes/Safe/The Designated Mourner
(1949/1995/1997) (Shown on DVD): If a naked but concealed Alicia Silverstone doesn 't turn you off meat, maybe Le Sang des B�tes will. French director Georges Franju is best known for Eyes Without a Face, a more patently October-friendly horror whose centerpiece is a squirmingly real-looking scene of a woman's face being surgically removed. But Franju began his career with the real deal. The most stomach-churningshort this side of Stan Brakhage's autopsy short The Act of Seeing With One's Own Mind, Le Sang des B�tes visits the outskirts of Paris, namely the area's slaughterhouses. We see a horse looking idly around before it's shot in the head and sliced up before our eyes. Franju shows us cows and veal getting the same treatment, his tone not mournful but sterile, detached, oddly beautiful and strikingly nonjudgmental. This isn't a PETA screed, nor is it necessarily against meat-eating. Indeed, its focus on workers--who carve mindlessly away with ciggies in their mouths--seems to suggest this is merely part of the food chain, not much different than life in the wild (save of course that the animals are instantly killed before feeling any pain). The trio of unlikely horrors continues with one of the most terrifying films of all time: Todd Haynes' Safe. Julianne Moore plays a housewife so shallow she seems to be literally empty. When she starts showing signs of a mysterious ailment, she's soon diagnosed as being allergic to everyday toxins and industrial chemicals. And so begins bullshit new-age therapy and her slow evacuation from all things social. It's never in doubt where the final shot will wind up, but Haynes (whose forthcoming I'm Not There is reportedly seven kinds of genius) uses that to his advantage, letting the inevitability eat into our minds, all with a sound design of low-level hums that gradually drives us mad. The night concludes with playwright David Hare's film adaptation of Wallace Shawn's postapocalyptic, Beckettish play The Designated Mourner. Few know the squirrely, diminutive character actor of The Princess Bride and Clueless moonlights as a scabrous playwright, and fewer still know that director (and, lest we forget, former comic) Mike Nichols is an arresting film presence--jovial at first but menacing the more he speaks. Hare keeps things stagebound, with Nichols at a desk (surely meant to evoke Spalding Gray) alongside fellow blabbers Miranda Richardson and David de Keyser, who can barely keep up. (Richardson's awful.) But rather than evoke claustrophobia, the minimalism yields mostly flatness, though at least it proves Nichols should direct less and act a lot more. A-/A-/C+ Thurs., Oct. 11, 8pm.

Bryn Mawr Film Institute
$4.50-$9.25 (unless otherwise noted). 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. 610.527.9898. www.brynmawrfilm.org

The Hidden Fortress
(1958) (Shown on film): See Ambler Theater. A- Wed., Oct. 10, 7pm.

The Seventh Seal
(1957) (Shown on film): Checkmate, Ingmar. B Wed., Oct. 17, 7pm.

Chestnut Hill Film Group
Free. Screening room at the Chestnut Hill Branch of the Free Library, 8711 Germantown Ave. 215.248.0977. www.armcinema25.com

Night and the City
(1950) (Shown on film): Before the blacklist sent him scuttling around Europe and into the arms of the dreaded Melina Mercouri, Rififi director Jules Dassin churned out many a crackerjack Hollywood thriller. Shot in London, this one gives smartass Richard Widmark one of his more central roles, casting him as a two-bit con artist whose flirtations with the seedy wrestling underworld lead to him chasing the British mob. It's swift, lively and even occasionally abstract. Co-starring Herbert Lom and Gene Tierney as the Girl. B+ Tues., Oct. 16, 6pm and 7:45pm.

Colonial Theatre
$4-$7. 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville. 610.917.0223. www.thecolonialtheatre.com