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ORPHAN

Rating: R for disturbing, violent content, some sexuality and language.

What it’s about: Parents who have lost a child adopt a girl who turns out to be more evil than they realized.

The kid attractor factor: The horror, the horror.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Keeping secrets from your parents, especially about your new stepsister, can be dangerous.

Violence: Quite a bit, some graphic.

Language: Profanity.

Sex: Yes, and fairly explicit.

Drugs: Alcohol is abused.

Parents’ advisory: Adult in theme, if not subject matter, this is a bit much for anybody under 15.

BRÜNO

Rating: R for strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language.

What it’s about: Sacha Baron Cohen takes on the guise of a gay Austrian fashionista out to shock the world.

The kid attractor factor: Sacha Baron Cohen.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Guns and gay come-ons don’t mix on huntin’ trips.

Violence: Yes, supposedly real.

Language: Quite raw.

Sex: Nudity – and when they say “crude sexual content,” they mean it.

Drugs: Beer, hash pipes.

Parents’ advisory: Like “Borat,” only less subtle, more deserving of the R rating.

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

Rating: PG for scary images, some violence, language and mild sensuality.

What it’s about: The Hogwarts students cope with their junior year in school – with hormones and Death Eaters as their main worries.

The kid attractor factor: Harry Potter and friends, beloved by a generation.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Of all the life lessons you learn, figuring out who you can trust is the most important.

Violence: Death and destruction, blood is spilled.

Language: A bit of coarse Brit-slang, mild stuff.

Sex: Quite a bit of “snogging” (kissing).

Drugs: Butter beer is consumed in mass quantities.

Parents’ advisory: It’s a dark film that flirts with PG-13 but stays just this side of that line. Suitable for all ages.

THE HURT LOCKER

Rating: R for war violence and language.

What it’s about: A bomb squad in Iraq deals with IEDs, snipers and the tensions of the job as it finishes a tour of duty.

The kid attractor factor: It’s an action film that isn’t about robots or wizards.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Recklessness is cool, up to the moment you put somebody else at risk.

Violence: Shootings, bloody bombings, a corpse has to be defused.

Language: They cuss like soldiers.

Sex: None.

Drugs: Soldiers doing this sort of duty have been known to take a drink.

Parents’ advisory: For all the violence, this thriller is still a mild R. Suitable for 14 and up.

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Charlyne Yi stars with Michael Cera in “Paper Heart,” a festival entry that will be released in theaters.

The Sacramento Film & Music Festival, which starts tonight at the Crest Theatre, will showcase a psychological thriller with terrific production values, a documentary tribute to a time when Northern California rivers ran rich with salmon, and a modern noir about a group of fringe dwellers in San Francisco.

The feature-length films “Sensored,” “Rivers of a Lost Coast” and “Nightbeats” all were made by Sacramento filmmakers. They also illustrate the explosion of filmmaking possibilities during the 10 years the Sac Film & Music Festival has existed.

“These aren’t films you would have seen 10 years ago from this (local) filmmaking community,” said festival co-director Tony Sheppard. Though early festivals featured nifty short films by local directors, the community lacked the infrastructure – and the technology – to produce the kind of feature-length films the festival is showing this year.

“Ten years ago, if you were making your own film on your own (small) budget – even if you were the best filmmaker out there – you still ended up with a product that was clearly made inexpensively on video,” Sheppard said.

These days, widespread use of high-definition video means that even films from one’s (actual) backyard can attain a high gloss. Just as crucial, however, has been the growth of the local film community. It’s a community that the Sac Film & Music Festival and the closely aligned Capital Film Arts Alliance, headed by festival co-director Laurie Pederson (who also works in classified advertising at The Bee), has helped cultivate.

“I think one outlet enhances the other,” said Kevin Haskin, 40, writer and co-producer of “Sensored,” which stars Robert Picardo of “Star Trek Voyager” and “Stargate SG-1,” and opens the 10-day festival. With the CFAA filmmaking network and the annual festival, Haskin said, “you can help people who make the movies and have a place to show them as well.”

Haskin and his wife and producer, Jo, 39, perhaps the nicest-looking Roseville couple ever to make a film with torture scenes, showed their short films at past festivals, finding crews with the help of the CFAA. The exceptional visuals of “Sensored” (8 tonight) come courtesy of another local source: Folsom’s Silverado Systems, which provided the Haskins with an ultra-high-resolution Red One camera.

Pederson, Sheppard and festival co-founder and co-director Nathan Schemel have worked on short films with the Haskins. Schemel and Sheppard are associate producers on “Sensored,” one reason why the movie is playing out of competition as a special screening.

The opening-night festivities will honor everyone involved with “Sensored,” Jo Haskin says. And that easily could extend to everyone involved with the festival, since the making of “Sensored” could double as a game of “One Degree of the Sac Film & Music Festival.”

“We couldn’t afford to have a cast party, and because of our relationship with the festival, we are making (opening night) a reunion party for our cast and crew,” Jo Haskin said. Picardo will be among the guests at the after party at the Cosmo Café across the street from the Crest.

Palmer Taylor and Justin Coupe, who met at UC Santa Cruz and directed “Lost Coast” (11 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Aug. 1) together, arrived on the Sacramento film scene more recently than the Haskins. But the festival is embracing them as if they were veterans.

” ‘Rivers of a Lost Coast’ is a beautiful film,” Sheppard says of Taylor and Coupe’s cinematic history lesson on the California fly-fishing subculture. The festival decided to show “Rivers” twice even though it already had a run at the Crest (see sidebar) earlier this year.

“Nightbeats” director Mike Carroll, 53, who is also a camera operator at Channel 3 (KCRA), is more of a solo act than most of his filmmaking colleagues. Carroll wrote, shot and edited “Nightbeats” (8 p.m. Wednesday), an unsparing film meant for mature audiences, for just $12,000.

He had help from his wife and producer, Bonnie Bennett, and Bennett’s daughter, Lori Foxworth, who appear on screen as a lounge singer and disaffected stripper, respectively. (Carroll says he always shot with a photographer’s artistic eye, avoiding any awkwardness during the 41-year-old Foxworth’s pole-dancing scenes.)

“He’s a huge advocate for minimalist filmmaking,” Schemel says of Carroll, noting that although Carroll shot the film over an extended period of time, “Nightbeats” contains none of the continuity gaps (changes in actor’s looks, etc.) that can plague such projects.

Foxworth is based in New York, but the familiarity of most of the rest of the cast to Sacramento audiences only underscores the deep ties to the local community of even a one-man filmmaking band like Carroll. Among actors with prominent roles in “Nightbeats” are Anthony D’Juan, from Capital Stage’s “Every Christmas Story Ever Told,” and Kelly Nixon, so memorable in “Rachel,” a short in last year’s festival.

Carroll was the cinematographer on “Rachel,” directed by Chris King, a producer for the promotions department at KCRA. King returns this year with the period short “The Killing of Mary Surratt,” (6 p.m. Wednesday, 2 p.m. Aug. 2) a sympathetic, impressionistic look at a woman hanged as a co-conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.

“Surratt” further demonstrates the maturity of the local filmmaking scene, Sheppard says, since indie filmmakers lean toward scenes of people talking in rooms.

“Heavy costume dramas or space battles or cars exploding – it would cost more to shoot one scene than a whole film,” Sheppard says. “So it’s noteworthy when you see someone like Chris come out, even in a short, and shoot a fairly authentic period costume drama.”

Though the local aspect of the festival is vital to its success, much of its programming comes from elsewhere, with Schemel and Sheppard, the event’s chief programmers, fielding hundreds of submissions each year. The festival’s reputation has grown to the extent that the powers behind the new Michael Cera film “Paper Heart” approached Schemel and Sheppard about showing the film.

A sort-of documentary in which comedian Charlyne Yi starts out making a film about love and in the process falls for nerdy heartthrob Cera (as himself), “Paper Heart” plays at 7 p.m. July 31 as an official festival entry in advance of its theatrical release.

“It was kind of fun for us, because it was the first submission we got to see on 35 millimeter,” said Schemel, who usually screens submissions on DVD.

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In his second meeting in as many months with leaders in Sacramento’s arts community, Mayor Kevin Johnson laid out an initiative to boost the arts and attract more film productions to the city.

In a hourlong meeting Wednesday at Sacramento’s Verge Gallery, Johnson revealed plans for monthly arts meetings, the creation of five subcommittees, and his intention to raise $100,000 to fund the initiative’s first year. He reserved an emphasis, however, for his desire to have Sacramento host more film crews.

The meeting encouraged many in the arts community, who said they believe the arts are now a major concern at City Hall. Others said the mayor’s fledgling initiative, dubbed “For Art’s Sake,” lacks specifics. They cautioned that bringing more film production to Sacramento does not address concerns facing the local arts community.

“I’ve heard you loud and clear,” said Johnson about concerns of the art community. “We will fight for the arts the next 3 1/2 years.”

Johnson said the arts will have a voice in his administration, through his initiative and the monthly meetings.

“We will not meet just to meet,” said Johnson.

Five subcommittees will meet monthly to address funding, facilities, marketing, arts education and film.

“He outlined a doable plan that is, at least, not a pie-in-the-sky plan,” said Michael Laun, associate producing director at the Sacramento Theatre Company.

The facilities issue, especially the lack of a viable concert hall in the city, is a vexing one. The city lacks a suitable performance hall that seats 700 to 1,000 for events such as opera and symphonic music.

“I would like us to take a good look at resources that we currently have and see how we can best utilize those facilities,” Laun said.

Laun said, as an example, that the Music Circus tent is a valuable and underrated asset to the city.

“Maybe we can become the city that created this idea of doing many things in the round. That has never been done.”

For Johnson, Wednesday’s meeting allowed him to once again home in on the idea of film production.

That focus surprised some.

“It was an interesting idea, and I was not aware that film was a target,” Laun said.

Others were puzzled that film production seemed a stronger focus than the plight of the local film community.

“It seems odd to me that all the focus for film seemed to be on bringing more film production from outside to Sacramento,” said Robert McKeown of Movies on a Big Screen, a 3-year-old film festival of independent films and documentaries.

“If there is an effort to do large-scale marketing of the arts in Sacramento, I’d prefer people be aware that there is a filmmaking community here,” McKeown said. “There wasn’t much said about local filmmakers, or local film festivals.”

Film production brought Sacramento over $900,000 last year, and in past years as much as $2 million, said Lucy Steffens, film commissioner with Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The most recent production was here for an episode of the HBO show “Big Love.” The cast and crew spent $300,000, Steffens said.

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Filmmakers Palmer Taylor, 27, and Justin Coupe, 29, have redefined do-it-yourself filmmaking.

After spending four years on “Rivers of a Lost Coast,” which chronicles Northern California fly-fishing in the days before dams, logging and other factors drastically diminished fish populations, the filmmakers began a tour of independent theaters.

“We have had a ton of success in contacting local conservation groups in the cities where we are showing it,” and the groups spread the word to their memberships, Taylor says. “Lost” has now traveled the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, with an occasional inland stop like ones in April – and this weekend and next – at the Crest Theatre.

They have chosen places with interests in fishing and conservation. But audience members in various towns have told Taylor that they enjoyed “Lost Coast,” which artfully incorporates archival footage and photographs, just on a human-interest level. Along with presenting an overall picture of the Northern California fly-fishing scene, the film focuses on the late fishing greats Bill Schaadt and Ted Lindner – iconoclasts with little use for material things, or for each other.

“We definitely knew there were many layers to this story,” said Taylor, a San Diego native who met Coupe, who is from Roseville, at UC Santa Cruz and later moved to the Sacramento area. With funding from Coupe’s father, Jeff, the pair researched their project, identifying and eventually winning over the old-timers who share their memories on film.

“It was very important for us to capture this history before it was lost forever,” Taylor said. “A lot of people we talked to and interviewed were pretty old, and a lot of them already have passed away.”

– Carla Meyer

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Coraline

3 stars

Maybe it’s the rag-doll button eyes on people. Or the steel-drum tightness underlying Teri Hatcher’s voice performance. But at some point early in “Coraline,” it becomes clear that this PG-rated animated film, though visually splendid and thoroughly engaging, is also too eerie for most kids. Eeriness, unlike violence or shock, is hard to quantify. Yet you recognize it once it chills the bones. It permeates “Coraline” even before the story takes a turn for darker regions. Despite its rating and marketing, the movie isn’t really for kids at all. Rather, it’s an arthouse film that might be destined for cult status among adults who don’t mind a touch of the macabre with their visual flourishes. Rated PG

Watchmen

2 1/2 stars

“Watchmen” takes us into dark, gruesome, complicated places without properly illuminating its characters. As a result, this adaptation of the acclaimed 1980s graphic novel never fully satisfies, despite strong visuals, powerful fight scenes and a superb performance by Jackie Earle Haley as the finger-breaking, moralizing vigilante Rorschach. Dark, gruesome and complicated are fine when there’s commensurate character and story development. But “Watchmen” doesn’t give us enough background on its masked-superhero characters and spends too much time on the least interesting of them. Rated R

Echelon Conspiracy

2 stars

Glenn Whipp of the Los Angeles Times writes: Technology and a story line run amok in “Echelon Conspiracy,” a poor man’s “Eagle Eye,” a thriller that feels irrelevant not just because it follows so closely in Shia LaBeouf’s footsteps but also because its Big Brother, Bush-era political hand-wringing already seems like yesterday’s news. The movie pings from Bangkok to Prague to Moscow to Omaha, Neb.(!), as computer engineer Max Peterson (Shane West) discovers that free cellphones sometimes come with hidden charges. And per current Hollywood fashion, technology is viewed with fear and loathing. Rated PG-13

The Great Buck Howard

2 1/2 stars

Robert W. Butler of McClatchy Newspapers writes: Slight but satisfying, “The Great Buck Howard” examines an over-the-hill performer with an objective eye that is borderline brutal. Yet this comedy softens the blow with laughs, heart and a lingering sense of mystery. Stage mentalist Buck Howard (John Malkovich) reads minds, but Buck is an anachronism. In the mass-market era of Penn & Teller … Buck plies his same old cornball act. Colin Hanks plays a young man who goes to work for Buck, and Emily Blunt plays a cynical publicist who comes to help Buck sell his big new stunt. Rated G

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The Haunting in Connecticut

2 stars

Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel writes: “The Haunting in Connecticut” is an “Amityville Horror” variation “based on the true story.” If you’ve seen any of the “Amityville” movies, you know the arc of the story. Nobody believes in ghosts but one guy. There’s a holy man (Elias Koteas) who senses the evil in the house but whose warnings may not be enough. Then one bang-up night, all hell breaks loose. Rated PG-13

12

3 stars

Stephen Holden of the New York Times writes: In “12,” Nikita Mikhalkov’s grandiloquent remake of “12 Angry Men,” the elements of that modest courtroom classic have been enlarged to operatic dimensions. In this modern interpretation, directed by Mikhalkov – whose 1994 movie “Burnt by the Sun” won an Academy Award for best foreign-language film – the clashes among 12 Muscovites charged with determining the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of murder form a composite portrait of post-Soviet Russia. With its thunderous drama and larger-than-life characters lending it a brawling energy, “12″ is never dull. Rated PG-13

The Edge of Love

2 stars

Ty Burr of the Boston Globe writes: “The Edge of Love” is a “great poet” movie, the poet in this case being Dylan Thomas, and it’s utter bollocks. “The Edge of Love” isn’t really about poetry, or even Dylan Thomas, but about the two women who love him – his roistering wife, Caitlin MacNamara (Sienna Miller), and friend with occasional benefits Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley) – as they hash out a complicated sisterly bond during the worst days of World War II. This may be Knightley’s first truly mature performance. Too bad it arrives wrapped in doggerel. Not rated

The Color of Magic

3 stars

Nathan Lee of the New York Times writes: Originally broadcast on British television before receiving a limited theatrical run here, “The Color of Magic” mashes together a pair of comedic fantasy novels by Terry Pratchett into one long, rambling saga, one whose rickety effects and lackadaisical pacing are decidedly more suited to the small screen than to the large. Set on Discworld – a flat expanse of pseudomedievalism floating through space on the backs of four elephants supported by a monumental turtle of indeterminate sex – the story concerns the intertwined fates of two bumbling heroes: Twoflower (Sean Astin), a naive but enthusiastic tourist; and Rincewind (David Jason), a dropout from Unseen University of Magic. Not rated

TV on DVD:

Bewitched (Season

ER (Season 11)

Grey Gardens (HBO movie)

Leverage (Season 1)

Mad Men (Season 2)

Wire in the Blood (Season 6)

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HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

Rating: PG for scary images, some violence, language, mild sensuality.

What it’s about: The Hogwarts students cope with their junior year – with hormones and Death Eaters their main worries.

The kid attractor factor: Harry Potter and friends, beloved by a generation.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Of all the life lessons you learn, figuring out whom you can trust is the most important.

Violence: Destruction and death; blood is spilled.

Language: A bit of coarse Brit-slang, mild stuff.

Sex: Quite a bit of “snogging” (kissing).

Drugs: Butter beer consumed in mass quantities.

Parents’ advisory: A dark film flirting with PG-13, it stays just this side of that line. Suitable for all ages.

I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER

Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, some teen drinking and drug references, and brief violence.

What it’s about: A high school valedictorian confesses his nerdy love of the school hottie in a speech and it changes his life.

The kid attractor factor: Hayden Panettiere in a high school setting.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Nothing ventured, nothing gained; if you join the military, you must be on steroids; and if all your friends say you’re gay, you must be.

Violence: Beatings, the threat of more beatings.

Language: Lots of profanity.

Sex: Sexual situations.

Drugs: Underage drinking, a coke joke.

Parents’ advisory: For a “graduation” teen comedy, this is oddly pitched to an older crowd. Take the PG-13 seriously.

BRÜNO

Rating: R for pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language.

What it’s about: Sacha Baron Cohen takes on the guise of a gay Austrian fashionista and sets out to shock the world.

The kid attractor factor: Sacha Baron Cohen.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Guns and gay come-ons don’t mix on huntin’ trips.

Violence: Yes, supposedly real.

Language: Quite raw.

Sex: Nudity – and when they say “crude sexual content,” they mean it.

Drugs: Beer, hash pipes.

Parents’ advisory: Like “Borat,” only less subtle, more deserving of the R rating – offensive to gay and gay-basher alike.

MOON

Rating: R for language.

What it’s about: An astro-miner starts to wonder if he’s losing his mind on the far side of the moon.

The kid attractor factor: Science fiction set in “The Final Frontier.”

Good lessons/bad lessons: Just because you’re paranoid, that doesn’t mean “they” aren’t out to get you.

Violence: Accidents, injuries.

Language: Rough enough.

Sex: None.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: A bit intense and cerebral for younger kids, but language alone is all that keeps it from being PG-13.

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Storeowner Ayman Abu Aita has unwillingly gained fame as an unwitting star of “Bruno,” the movie starring Sacha Baron Cohen.

BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank – Ayman Abu Aita knew there was something odd about the Austrian television reporter who asked to be kidnapped last year, showed risque video clips of himself stripping, and suggested that “King” Osama bin Laden shave his beard so he wouldn’t look like a “dirty wizard.”

It wasn’t until last week, however, that the middle-age Palestinian store owner realized that he’d become an unwitting movie actor now known worldwide as “Bruno’s terrorist.”

In the past week, Abu Aita has been propelled to unsought global stardom as the perplexed “terrorist group leader” meeting the ditzy, gay Austrian fashion television-show host “Bruno” in British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s new hit movie. After realizing that he’d become one of the latest people to be duped by the actor, Abu Aita has hired lawyers and is preparing to join the line of critics to sue Baron Cohen over his hit “mockumentaries.”

“He’s mean, he’s ruthless and he’s a liar,” Abu Aita said during an interview this week in the cramped storeroom office of his small market near Bethlehem. “I told him that I was not a terrorist, that I am a political moderate and that I would not help him become famous by kidnapping him.”

The threatened lawsuit is likely to be one of several to target Baron Cohen for “Bruno,” the new film starring his ostentatious, on-screen alter ego. Baron Cohen faced lawsuits from unwitting stars of his first blockbuster “mockumentary” film, “Borat.”

Baron Cohen met Abu Aita last year when the comedian came to the Middle East to film part of “Bruno” in which the character seeks fame by trying, unsuccessfully, to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

In promoting “Bruno,” Baron Cohen has depicted his interview with Abu Aita as a dangerous mission that required special security to take him into the West Bank for a clandestine meeting.

Abu Aita is no terrorist on the run. He’s a 39-year-old father of four and a local political leader with the pro-Western Fatah Party. His Christian family owns two markets that sell groceries and alcohol in Beit Sahour, a small West Bank town next to Bethlehem.

While Abu Aita did serve two years in prison in Israel for his role as a Fatah leader during the second Palestinian uprising, he dismissed Baron Cohen’s depiction of him as a nefarious terrorist mastermind.

Although several Palestinian activists identified Abu Aita as a member of al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, he said he’d never been part of the militant group that the United States and Israel classify as a terrorist organization.

These days, he works with the Holy Land Trust, a Bethlehem-based charity that promotes nonviolence.

Officials at Universal Pictures, the film’s distributor, had no comment Thursday on Abu Aita’s criticism.

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Current films are reviewed each week to provide parents a guide to decide what may be appropriate for younger viewers.

ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS

Rating: PG for some mild rude humor and peril.

What it’s about: That herd of friends from the Ice Age encounters, against all logic, a lost world of dinosaurs.

The kid attractor factor: Funny, cute extinct critters talking and doing their thing in 3D.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Anybody can learn to be a parent – even Sid the Sloth.

Violence: Dinosaurs were known for eating most anything that moved.

Language: “Rude humor” about body parts.

Sex: None, though the mammoth couple is pregnant.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: Wackier and more physical than the other “Ice Age” films, though you will need to correct its biology with the kids afterward.

PUBLIC ENEMIES

Rating: R, for gangster violence and some language.

What it’s about: John Dillinger and the gangsters of the ’30s try to outwit J. Edgar Hoover and his G-men.

The kid attractor factor: It’s Captain Jack Sparrow! (Johnny Depp) and Batman! (Christian Bale)

Good lessons/bad lessons: Live by violence, you die violently.

Violence: Sadistic beatings, brutal shootings, torture.

Language: Some profanity.

Sex: Suggested.

Drugs: Alcohol and cigarettes.

Parents’ advisory: Not the hardest R, but too violent for a PG-13, suitable for 15-and-up.

YEAR ONE

Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence.

What it’s about: Hunter-gatherer losers travel the biblical world in search of knowledge and the women they love.

The kid attractor factor: Jack Black, Michael Cera, raunchy laughs, toilet humor.

Good lessons/bad lessons: “There’s got to be more to life than hunting and gathering.” And Sodom wasn’t as much fun as it sounds in the Bible.

Violence: Attempted hunting, sword fights and beheadings.

Language: Quite a bit of profanity.

Sex: Suggested, imitated.

Drugs: Intoxicants are consumed.

Parents’ advisory: Edited down to lose its R rating; hip kids will still get the gist of the off-color stuff – too raunchy for the very young.

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Thursday

Pop music

Beyoncé

WHAT: The superstar singer and actress brings her international tour and alter ego, Sasha Fierce, to Arco Arena. R&B quartet RichGirl opens the show.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 6:30.

WHERE: Arco Arena, 1 Sports Parkway, Sacramento

COST: $47.25, $67.25, $87.25, $123.25 (plus service charges).

TICKETS: www.ticketmaster.com or (866) 448-7849

– Carla Meyer

Thursday

Music

Alejandro Escovedo

WHAT: The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Davis, kicks off its 2009 Summer Music series with Escovedo, a founding member of the Nuns, a San Francisco band.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: UC Davis Quad

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (530) 754-2787, toll-free (866) 754-2787, www.MondaviArts.org

– Dixie Reid

Thursday

Classical music

Jeremy Denk

WHAT: The New York-based Denk is a rising star on the concert scene, and one of the most underrated pianists. but not for long. Denk will tackle Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 “Emperor” in an all- Beethoven program with the San Francisco Symphony that includes the Fifth Symphony and the “Coriolan Overture.”

WHEN: 8 p.m.

WHERE: Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco

COST: $15-$65

INFORMATION: (415) 864-6500 or www.sfsymphony.org

– Edward Ortiz

Saturday

Film festival

Trash Film Orgy

WHAT: The ninth edition of the 18-and-over schlockfest kicks off at midnight Saturday with the campy 1980 sci-fi film “Flash Gordon” and runs every Saturday through Aug. 15.

WHEN: Doors open at 11:30 p.m. for the live pre-show

WHERE: Crest Theatre, 1013 K St., Sacramento

COST: $9.50

INFORMATION: (916) 442-7378 or www.trashfilmorgy.com

– Carla Meyer

Saturday

Walking tour

‘San Francisco’s Big Earthquake and Fire’

WHAT: The San Francisco Museum & Historical Society presents a look back at the events of 1906 and some of the era’s characters, such as Enrico Caruso and Lotta Crabtree. Harlan Hirschfeld leads the tour.

WHEN: 10-11:30 a.m.

WHERE: Meet at Market and First streets, San Francisco

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (415) 537-1105, www.sfhistory.org

– Dixie Reid

Saturday

Class

Strawberry jam making

WHAT: It’s strawberry season, and Beverly Green, a University of California master food preserver, will demonstrate two methods for making jam. The class is presented by Friends of Elk Grove Library.

WHEN: 1 p.m.

WHERE: Elk Grove Library, 8900 Elk Grove Blvd., Elk Grove

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (916) 264-2920, www.saclibrary.org

– Dixie Reid

Saturday

Cemetery tour

‘Mausoleums’

WHAT: Rick Roberts leads a walking tour that features architecture and some of the best stories about cemetery “residents.”

WHEN: 10 a.m.

WHERE: Sacramento Historic City Cemetery, Broadway at 10th Street (park in lot across Broadway from the main gate)

COST: Free (donations accepted for cemetery upkeep)

INFORMATION: (916) 448-0811

– Dixie Reid

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OPENING WEDNESDAY
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Daniel Radcliffe, right, is back as the boy wizard, along with Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and Emma Watson as Hermoine Granger.
Rated PG (153 minutes)

The previous “Harry Potter” movie was a big deal, yes, but it came out less than two weeks before the seventh and final chapter of J.K. Rowling’s phenomenally popular series hit bookshelves everywhere.

That the movie “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” was overshadowed by the book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” two summers ago was fitting, an almost formal acknowledgment of the film series’ subordinate status to Rowling’s original works.

But “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the film series’ sixth installment, opens Wednesday (at 12:01 a.m.) in a dramatically different landscape. Now that the books’ many million fans know the fates of Harry and Voldemort, the movies can and must stand on their own. So how do they measure up? Are they comparable to the James Bond movies, which long ago eclipsed their literary origins? Or are the “Harry Potter” films still ultimately to be judged by how expertly they translate what Rowling put on the page?

If you assess the movies solely in box-office terms, they’ve been a smashing success. The five films released so far have grossed more than $1.4 billion in North America and almost $4.5 billion worldwide. In not-adjusted-for-inflation dollars, that figure exceeds the global gross for all six “Star Wars” movies.

Often when a series reaches its sixth entry, it’s struggling to keep the critical and commercial flame lit (“Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” anyone?), and few last that long. Yet the “Potter” momentum keeps building as it moves toward the climatic seventh and eighth movies to be devoted to “Deathly Hallows.”

“I had no idea when we were making the first film that it would do as well as it did,” series producer David Heyman said.

“It was only when we started making the fourth film (‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’) that I realized we would be doing this all the way to the end.”

Early reviews for “Half-Blood Prince” have been especially strong, but then, the critical reception for the entire series has been consistent, with Rotten Tomatoes’ tally of positive reviews ranging from 77 percent (“Order of the Phoenix”) to 89 percent (“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” the 2005 fourth entry).

Consistency may be the films’ greatest hallmark.

When the producers signed three 10-year-old unknowns to play the lead characters in the first two movies, they had no assurances that Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson would be accepted as their Potterworld counterparts and would grow along with the characters as the films tried to keep up with the books’ year-to-year chronology.

“You don’t cast for the future,” Heyman said. “You cast for the present. We thought they would be great for Harry, Ron and Hermione at the time, and we’ve just been very lucky that they’ve grown even more into the parts, that they’ve grown as individuals and actors.”

The stellar adult cast (Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith and other British all-stars) has been near-constant as well. The only major casting hiccup has been the replacement of Richard Harris, who died after playing Professor Dumbledore for the first two movies, with the somewhat friskier Michael Gambon.

Steve Kloves has written all but one of the screenplays (“Phoenix”), and the series has had four directors, with British director David Yates taking the reins for “Order of the Phoenix” onward. Their challenge has been different from, say, Peter Jackson in his three-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” which at the time wasn’t so fresh in so many moviegoers’ minds. A Fandango survey of more than 3,000 moviegoers planning to see “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” indicates that 85 percent of them have read all seven “Potter” books.

Keeping a team together to film eight blockbusters in 11 years (the last is due in summer 2011) certainly is ambitious, and if the results haven’t attained the cinephile stature of “The Lord of the Rings,” they’ve certainly grabbed and maintained the world’s attention.

” ‘Harry Potter’ is a bona fide phenomenon,” Maltin said. “It was that in the literary world, and it’s just as much a phenomenon in the movies, and that is extremely rare.”

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Criterion Films
“Beauty and the Beast” will be shown at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

SACRAMENTO FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL

SATURDAY

All films will be shown at the Crest Theatre, 1013 K St., Sacramento.

11:30 a.m. “Beauty and the Beast”: With this 1946 film, director Jean Cocteau transformed a fairy tale into a masterpiece of surrealist cinema.

1:45 p.m. Short films program

4:25 p.m. “The Rules of the Game”: Jean Renoir’s 1939 satire of the French upper classes is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time.

6:55 p.m. “I Do”: A perfume tester (Alain Chabat), prodded by his family to marry, hires a woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) to pose as his fiancée.

9:10 p.m. “Séraphine”: This biopic of self-taught painter Séraphine Louis won the 2009 César for best picture and best actress (Yolande Moreau).

Midnight: “Fear(s) of the Dark”: A compilation of suspense shorts directed by graphic artists and animators (for mature audiences only).

SUNDAY

11 a.m. “The Rules of the Game”

1:30 p.m. “Beauty and the Beast”

3:50 p.m. “I Do”

6 p.m.: “Séraphine”

8:45 p.m. “Welcome”: This drama examines the illegal immigration issue in France through the story of a French swimming coach who befriends a young Kurdish man. (Followed by a closing-night champagne party.)

COST: From $10 (single tickets) to $36 (weekend pass). Closing-night film and party: $14. Individual tickets available at the Crest. Passes available at the Crest, through www.tickets.com or by calling (800) 225-2277.

INFORMATION: (916) 442-7378

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Esquire IMAX Theatre in downtown Sacramento is marking its 10th anniversary on July 11.

The theater will show the 45-minute film “Wild California” for free every hour on the hour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is a pictorial tour of the state and appropriate for all ages.

IMAX Corp., based in New York City and Toronto, was founded in 1967. After multi-screen films were well received at EXPO ’67 in Montreal, Canadian filmmakers designed a single projector that works like multiple projectors.

The IMAX projection system provides an “immersive” movie experience using such technologies as 3-D.

There are about 370 IMAX theaters around the world.

Mock lease negotiations

Two veterans of the retail industry will stage mock landlord-tenant negotiations to help real estate professionals grasp the shifting dynamics.

Sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers, the mock lease negotiation event begins at 5 p.m. July 30 with registration at Aura Restaurant, 2427 J St.

ICSC’s Next Generation events are educational and networking programs for new retail real estate professionals.

Paul Petrovich, president of Petrovich Development Co., which owns retail developments such as the new Woodland Gateway Center and Safeway R Street Market, will square off with Rick Martinez, senior vice president of CB Richard Ellis.

The two will negotiate five specific issues of a lease as a demonstration.

Petrovich said the perception during a recession is that it is a tenant market.

Small, new businesses, led by their brokers, are asking for concessions that large, national retailers routinely get, options that are not always feasible, he said.

Retail leasing presents challenges that are different from industrial and office leasing, he said.

“It’s by far the most challenging of the disciplines,” he said.

For more information, including registration fees, go to www.icsc.org or call the ICSC Information Center at (646) 728-3800.

‘Adopt a Small Business’

Running a small business smartly?

Office Depot would like to reward you.

The office supply chain has launched an “Adopt a Small Business” contest, which will award 500 winners with a $1,300 Office Depot gift card and a year of tech support and print services.

Contestants must submit a two-minute video online by July 31, detailing the strategies that are getting their businesses through the recession. It could be using social networks, such as Facebook, or an unusual promotion that increased sales.

Go to www.thesurvivalofthe smartest.com for more information on how to submit a video and official contest rules.

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Marcel Dalio and Roland Toutain star in Jean Renoir’s 1939 classic “La Regle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game),” to be shown June 27-28.

With last year’s record attendance cementing its status as the area’s premier film event, the Sacramento French Film Festival probably shouldn’t have stirred things up this year.

But sometimes life intervenes, especially with a festival run primarily out of a house in Curtis Park. It happened for artistic and executive director Cécile Mouette Downs in the form of her son’s school schedule, which precipitated the festival’s move this year to June from its usual dates in July.

“I would never have been able to go back to France again” if planning the festival had consumed most of 6-year-old Maxence’s summer breaks, Downs said. By moving the two-weekend festival to this Friday-Sunday and June 27-28 at the Crest Theatre, the family can vacation in Downs’ native France, and the festival can, perhaps, draw new audience members from college students who might still be kicking around town.

Family also played a key role for festival co-founder Connie Georgiu, who bowed out as administrative director. Georgiu wanted to free up time for her new grandchild, Downs said.

“That made it harder because (Georgiu) was not helping as much” this year, Downs said. “We worked so well together.”

But despite officially stepping down, Georgiu still contributes plenty.

“She can’t help it, and I can’t help calling her!” said Downs, bursting into her signature boisterous laugh. ” ‘Connie, I am sorry for calling you, but can you please tell me what you think of this?’ “

The economy, unfortunately, has been less flexible.

“It was really hard to raise money this year,” Downs said. “We had really good sponsors … who were not able to do it this year.”

Rather than skimp on programming, Downs decided to front the festival part of the small sum she receives for running the event. That way, she could still afford to bring to Sacramento the most buzzed-about French films, most of which come with hefty rental and shipping costs.

“People will not see any difference, hopefully” on the screen, Downs said. “We have the same amount of films we did, and we spent the same amount of money on films.”

Indeed, the 2009 lineup is as impressive as any before it, mixing award- winning recent films (“Séraphine,” a biopic of little-known painter Séraphine Louis and winner of the 2009 César for best picture) and classics (Jean Renoir’s “The Rules of the Game” and Jean Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast”), all shown in 35 millimeter, which increases expenses but enhances the viewing experience considerably.

The festival kicks off tonight, after a reception in the Crest lobby, with “Paris,” another crowd-pleaser from “L’Auberge Espagnole” director Cédric Klapisch. The ensemble romantic drama features several well-known actors, including Juliette Binoche and Romain Duris.

“The opening-night film is different from any of the other films in (that) there is a reception before,” Downs said. In other words, the film must go down well with the open wine bar that precedes it. “They can be funny or sad, but they have to be easy to follow – not avant-garde.”

The festival also offers plenty of challenging and/or politically themed films, including “Born in ’68,” which follows a group of student revolutionaries through the decades, and the closing-night feature “Welcome,” which looks, via the story of a Kurdish boy and the French swimming instructor who befriends him, at the French government’s tough stance on citizens who assist illegal immigrants.

On the comedic side, there’s “I Do,” in which a pampered perfume tester (Alain Chabat – Napoleon in “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”) hires a young woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) to marry him to satisfy family demands; and “Camping,” which offers a tableau that might startle American audiences: French people who vacation in trailers and might even be a bit trashy.

“Americans are not used to this kind of French cinema,” Downs said of “Camping,” a big hit in France. “People who go see films with subtitles usually go to see something intellectual.”

But the French Film Festival, now in its eighth year, always has been about trying new things – and expanding on new things that work, like a fashion show that proved popular but all too brief last year.

“In five minutes, it was done,” Downs said of the inaugural show on the Crest stage. “People wanted an encore, but the models had already gone to change.”

This year’s more extensive fashion show, on Saturday night, is tied to the 1955 film “Lola Montés,” acclaimed German director Max Ophüls’ only film shot in color and a fictionalized account of the real-life Montés, lover of great men, tragic figure and short-time resident of Grass Valley. The fashion show derives from the film’s presentation of Montés as a circus act.

Featuring 50 models, the show will demonstrate how “the Greatest Show on Earth inspired designers,” said Joni Jacobs, a show organizer and owner of Opaline’s Closet vintage clothing story in midtown’s Atelier design co-op. The show will reflect circus influences on punk, pinup, Goth, burlesque and mod styles, and on the general idea of a fashion spectacle.

Jacobs, who has been involved previously with Bay Area film festivals, is working with the French Film Festival partly because “Coco Chanel is my muse. … I love the French, and when you think of fashion, we certainly cannot leave out the French.”

She also was inspired by Downs, an energetic, persuasive advocate for French film who, in her constant search for new people to help with festival, first contacted Jacobs because the name “Opaline” sounded French.

The festival will offer a different kind of spectacle with its midnight screenings of erotic and/or scary content. This year, these Saturday night films will be shown on the Crest’s big screen, available now that the French festival no longer shares the Crest with July’s Trash Film Orgy.

On June 27, the festival will show “Fear(s) of the Dark,” a collection of suspenseful animated shorts. But first off is this Saturday’s “A l’Aventure,” the latest from Jean-Claude Brisseau, a French filmmaker who seems to tailor his films so they someday can be shown at midnight in Sacramento.

The festival previously allotted midnight slots to Brisseau’s “Secret Things,” a film nominally about an ascent up the corporate ladder by two young women but mostly about masturbation; and “The Exterminating Angels,” in which a French filmmaker auditions young women for an explicit film much like “Secret Things.” “A l’Aventure,” to the surprise of none, involves mysticism and the erotic journey of an attractive young woman.

“It’s Jean-Claude Brisseau,” Downs said with a shrug. “What can I say?”

SACRAMENTO FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL

TONIGHT

All films will be shown at the Crest Theatre, 1013 K St., Sacramento.

6 p.m. Opening-night reception

8:30 p.m. “Paris” (2008).

Director: Cédric Klapisch

SATURDAY

11 a.m. “The Beaches of Agnès” (2008). Director: Agnès Varda

1:35 p.m. “35 Shots of Rum” (2008). Director: Claire Denis

3:55 p.m. “Z” (1969). Director: Costa-Gavras

6:45 p.m. “Camping” (2006). Director: Fabien Onteniente

9 p.m. Fashion show

9:40 p.m. “Lola Montés” (1955). Director: Max Ophuls

Midnight: “A l’Aventure” (2009). Director: Jean-Claude Brisseau

SUNDAY

11 a.m. “Z”

1:40 p.m. “Camping”

3:55 p.m. “Born in ’68″ (2008). Directors: Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau

7:20 p.m. “35 Shots of Rum”

9:35 p.m. “The Beaches of Agnès”

JUNE 27

11:30 a.m. “Beauty and the Beast” (1946). Director: Jean Cocteau

1:45 p.m. Short films program

4:25 p.m. “The Rules of the Game” (1939). Director: Jean Renoir

6:55 p.m. “I Do” (2006). Director: Eric Lartigau

9:10 p.m. “Séraphine” (2008). Director: Martin Provost

Midnight: “Fear(s) of the Dark” (2007). Directors: Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire

JUNE 28

11 a.m. “The Rules of the Game”

1:30 p.m. “Beauty & the Beast”

3:50 p.m. “I Do”

6 p.m.: “Séraphine”

8:45 p.m. “Welcome” (2009). Director: Philippe Lioret

(followed by a closing-night champagne party)

COST: From $10 (single tickets) to $80 (full festival pass). Individual tickets available at the Crest. Passes available at the Crest, through www.tickets.com or by calling (800) 225-2277

INFORMATION: (916) 442-7378

“Nes en ’68 (Born in ’68)” follows a group of student revolutionaries played by Yann Trégouët, Laetitia Casta and Yannick Renier.

Famed director Agnès Varda appears in her own film “Les Plages d’Agnès (The Beaches of Agnes)” with her family.

Famed director Agnès Varda appears in her own film with a troupe of circus acrobats.

“Nes en ’68 (Born in ’68)” follows a group of student revolutionaries played by Yann Trégouët, Laetitia Casta and Yannick Renier.

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Current films are reviewed each week to provide parents a guide to decide what may be appropriate for younger viewers.

YEAR ONE

Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence.

What it’s about: Hunter-gatherer losers travel the biblical world in search of knowledge and the women they love.

The kid attractor factor: Jack Black, Michael Cera, raunchy laughs, toilet humor.

Good lessons/bad lessons: “There’s got to be more to life than hunting and gathering.” And Sodom wasn’t as much fun as it sounds in the Bible.

Violence: Attempted hunting, sword fights and beheadings.

Language: Quite a bit of profanity.

Sex: Suggested, imitated.

Drugs: Intoxicants are consumed.

Parents’ advisory: Edited down to lose its R rating; hip kids will still get the gist of the off-color stuff – too raunchy for the very young.

THE PROPOSAL

Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language.

What it’s about: A boss who needs a green card blackmails her assistant into pretending they’re about to marry.

The kid attractor factor: Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock pretty much naked.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Sexual harassment is only funny in the movies.

Violence: None.

Language: A little profanity, here and there.

Sex: Nudity, with the naughtiest bits hidden.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: More a date movie than one you take the kids to; dating teens might get a chuckle out of it.

IMAGINE THAT

Rating: PG for some mild language and brief questionable behavior.

What it’s about: Workaholic dad picks up stock tips and how-to-live-life advice by visiting his daughter’s imaginary world.

The kid attractor factor: Eddie Murphy, a cute kid and wacky singing and dancing.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Listen to your kids. They have the best stock tips.

Violence: None.

Language: Quite clean.

Sex: None.

Drugs: A child is force-fed Red Bull.

Parents’ advisory: A shockingly sweet and surprisingly charming Eddie Murphy comedy, but too slow and talky for very young children.

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123

Rating: R for violence and pervasive language.

What it’s about: A gang seizes a New York subway car and threatens to kill the passengers unless the city and the subway dispatcher meet their demands.

The kid attractor factor: Travolta and Denzel, chases, shootouts and thrills.

Good lessons/bad lessons: You can find out anything on anybody on that Internet thingy.

Violence: Shootings, the threat of more shootings and perilous crashes.

Language: Plenty of profanity.

Sex: Teen Internet flirtation.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: A summer thriller that’s heavy on the violence and profanity. Take the R seriously. Not for kids.

UP

Rating: PG for some peril and action.

What it’s about: Cranky old man and chatty little boy float into great adventures in a house suspended from balloons.

The kid attractor factor: Two words – “Disney” and “Pixar.”

Good lessons/bad lessons: The real adventure is the life you live while waiting for your “big” adventure.

Violence: Dog attacks, dogfights, shots are fired.

Language: Disney clean.

Sex: None.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: A winning blend of sentiment and whimsy that parents won’t mind taking the 10-and-unders to.

THE HANGOVER

Rating: R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.

What it’s about: Bachelor party pals get blasted in Vegas, lose the groom and can’t remember what happened the night before.

The kid attractor factor: They’ll buy tickets to “My Life in Ruins” (PG-13) but sneak into this.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Never drink with a stranger with mental problems, and “That’s gay” as a put-down never gets old.

Violence: Threatened.

Language: Pretty darned profane, even by today’s standards.

Sex: Nudity and Heather Graham.

Drugs: Lots.

Parents’ advisory: As politically incorrect as comedies come, with more “Don’t try this at homes” than any movie this year.

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Buckle up. It’s kind of a bumpy ride for Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn as their romance blossoms in “Management.”

Steve Zahn was at his farmhouse in Kentucky when he received a script about a hapless Arizona man who works at his parents’ second-rate motel and wants to touch the butt of a pretty guest on a business trip.

“It was one of the better scripts I’ve ever read,” he recalls. “I was truly floored by it.”

And that was even before Zahn learned the butt in question would belong to Jennifer Aniston.

In fact, by the time that bit of news came along, Zahn had already flown to Los Angeles to meet with the indie flick’s producers and inform them that “I thought they should hire me. … I pleaded my case.”

It worked, and when he heard Aniston would be the leading lady, “I was thrilled,” he says.

The two have worked together before, as any “Friends” acolyte will recall. Zahn played Phoebe Buffay’s ice-dancing husband, Duncan, on exactly one episode.

It has been that kind of career for Zahn, a Minnesota native who decided he wanted to be a professional actor during college but “didn’t really know the first step,” he explains by phone from a New York hotel the morning of the “Management” premiere.

But a lack of pedigree or planning didn’t hold him back long.

He landed a professional stage show at 19 and made his film debut seven years later when Ben Stiller cast him as Wynona Ryder’s gay friend, Sammy, in 1994′s “Reality Bites.”

It has since been a string of quirky films and oddball characters: “Happy, Texas” (1999), in which he played an ex-con disguised as a gay beauty pageant consultant, to Eddie Murphy’s sidekick in “Daddy Day Care” four years later. And now, 15 years after his big break in that first slacker classic, he is back at the corner of directionless and lost – this time with a sapped bank account and dad forever barking at him to clean the scum off the motel pool.

Zahn’s life in Kentucky is very low-key and centered on his two kids with wife Robyn Peterman, daughter of the catalog magnate J. Peterman. Before moving there five years ago, they lived for a decade on a New Jersey farm an hour outside New York, telling themselves, “we’ve got the Met, we’ve got the best Italian food, we’ve got the theater,” all in spitting distance.

But the reality was, “we made macaroni and cheese.” So they decided to move to Kentucky.

If he’s missing out on anything by not living on one of the coasts, Zahn doesn’t know about it – and thus, it doesn’t bother him.

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Was there ever an American actor as truly Everyman-ish as Jack Lemmon? The versatile actor worked in every genre from musical to Western, from straight drama to comedy – at which he especially excelled – and in every instance, he was real and accessible.

As Father’s Day approaches, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has just released “The Jack Lemmon Film Collection,” a six-disc set that includes five early Lemmon comedies – all remastered and remixed – plus a two-part documentary hosted by Chris Lemmon, the actor’s son and biographer.

Speaking recently from his home in Connecticut, Chris Lemmon remembered his dad as “a great actor who transcended every role” and “my best friend.”

Jack Lemmon died June 27, 2001, and with Father’s Day coming on June 21 this year, this anniversary will be especially tough.

Chris Lemmon wrote the book “Jack Lemmon: The Man Behind the Magic” after his father’s death. He is promoting the release of the DVD set and says he’s delighted with the choices of films – “Phffft!,” “Operation Mad Ball,” “The Notorious Landlady,” “Under the Yum Yum Tree” and “Good Neighbor Sam” – even though they were picked by Sony, not by him.

He sees the package as a companion piece to his book and the interviews he conducted for the sixth disc in the set as an extension of the biography.

“The book was really a defense mechanism,” Chris Lemmon said. “It was written during the last months of my father’s life when he was dying of cancer. He was there but he wasn’t there. There was a great despair in my life, and it was a sort of catharsis to write my memories down.”

He asked some of his father’s friends and fellow actors – Shirley MacLaine, Peter Gallagher and Kevin Spacey, among them – for their remembrances of his father. “Kevin’s became the forward to the book, and it ends with Peter’s, which brings me to sobbing tears every time I read it,” he said.

In the documentary accompanying the films, these actors and others speak on-camera about Jack Lemmon. Actor Andy Garcia and former Bee movie critic Joe Baltake also are among those interviewed.

Jack Lemmon made his film acting debut in a bit part in “The Lady Takes a Sailor” in 1949. His debut as a leading man came opposite Judy Holliday in the 1954 comedy “It Should Happen to You.” He won two Academy Awards – for “Mister Roberts” in 1955 and “Save the Tiger” in 1973.

This collection features none of Lemmon’s best-known films, but it does contain five fine examples of his craft in lesser-known works.

“Phffft!,” the 1954 romantic comedy, re-teams Lemmon with Holliday as a married couple who divorce, only to discover they’re no better at that than they were at being married.

“Operation Mad Ball,” a madcap 1957 comedy about a group of enlisted men trying to keep their party plans secret from the commanding officer, featured a cast that also included Mickey Rooney and Ernie Kovacs. It’s no “Mister Roberts,” but it’s quite good.

“The Notorious Landlady,” which co-starred Lemmon and Kim Novak in 1962, was written by Blake Edwards and Larry (“M*A*S*H”) Gelbart. Lemmon plays an American who’s sent to work in London and who rents a room from Novak, later to discover that Scotland Yard suspects she may have killed her missing husband.

“Under the Yum Yum Tree,” the 1963 Golden Globe-nominated comedy, cast Lemmon as landlord. It’s based on a risqué Broadway play and may be the weakest film in the set, only because Lemmon’s character is uncharacteristically kind of pervy. Carol Lynley and Dean Jones play a young couple who decide to live together platonically to see if they’re compatible enough for marriage, and Lemmon gets all lusty for the young lady.

“Good Neighbor Sam,” the 1964 comedy that virtually defines the word “wacky,” has Lemmon as a married man posing as the husband of his sexy neighbor so she can inherit $15 million. All’s well until her greedy in-laws show up. Romy Schneider and Edward G. Robinson are among the co-stars.

The films, “basically one every other year for the first 10 years of his career,” trace his dad’s rise “from upcoming young star to the No. 1 Hollywood star,” Chris Lemmon said.

“I speak about listening a lot when I talk about Pop’s acting,” he said. “It’s a major part of his art, listening to the other actor, the interplay, actually being there in the moment. The greater (an actor’s) art, the greater their ability to include the other (actor). That’s what Pop excelled at.”

Of the five films, he said, “one that really stands out to me would be ‘The Notorious Landlady.’ Pop was such good friends with (director) Dick Quine, who was involved with Kim Novac; and Larry (Gelbart, who co-wrote the film with Edwards) is such a great friend, that that film is just so special to me. I have a big crush on all those people. With that kind of powerhouse at the top, it could hardly fail. It’s a wonderfully constructed film.”

It is that, and “The Jack Lemmon Film Collection” is a wonderfully constructed tribute to an outstanding actor.

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Current films are reviewed each week to provide parents a guide to decide what may be appropriate for younger viewers.

IMAGINE THAT

Rating: PG for some mild language and brief questionable behavior.

What it’s about: Workaholic dad picks up stock tips and how-to-live-life advice by visiting his daughter’s imaginary world.

The kid attractor factor: Eddie Murphy, a cute kid and wacky singing and dancing.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Listen to your kids. They have the best stock tips.

Violence: None.

Language: Quite clean.

Sex: None.

Drugs: A child is force-fed Red Bull.

Parents’ advisory: A shockingly sweet and surprisingly charming Eddie Murphy comedy, but too slow and talky for very young children.

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123

Rating: R for violence and pervasive language.

What it’s about: A gang seizes a New York subway car and threatens to kill the passengers unless the city and the subway dispatcher meet their demands.

The kid attractor factor: Travolta and Denzel, chases, shootouts and thrills.

Good lessons/bad lessons: You can find out anything on anybody on that Internet thingy.

Violence: Shootings, the threat of more shootings and perilous crashes.

Language: Plenty of profanity.

Sex: Teen Internet flirtation.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: A summer thriller that’s heavy on the violence and profanity. Take the R seriously. Not for kids.

UP

Rating: PG for some peril and action.

What it’s about: Cranky old man and chatty little boy float into great adventures in a house suspended from balloons.

The kid attractor factor: Two words – “Disney” and “Pixar.”

Good lessons/bad lessons: The real adventure is the life you live while waiting for your “big” adventure.

Violence: Dog attacks, dogfights, shots are fired.

Language: Disney clean.

Sex: None.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: A winning blend of sentiment and whimsy that parents won’t mind taking the 10-and-unders to.

LAND OF THE LOST

Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference.

What it’s about: Disgraced scientist discovers all his theories about parallel universes are true, to his dismay.

The kid attractor factor: Dinosaurs, aliens and Will Ferrell.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Just because Matt Lauer thinks you’re crazy doesn’t make it true.

Violence: An arm yanked off, assorted beastly attacks, mostly for comic effect.

Language: Surprisingly off-color – lots of profanity.

Sex: Mating and masturbation jokes aplenty.

Drugs: Pot is joked about, hallucinogens are consumed.

Parents’ advisory: Not even remotely a younger kid-friendly film, more a Will Ferrell movie for the crass 15 year-old in us all.

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Current films are reviewed each week to provide parents a guide to decide what may be appropriate for younger viewers.

LAND OF THE LOST

Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and for language, including a drug reference.

What it’s about: A disgraced scientist discovers that all his theories about parallel universes are true, to his dismay.

The kid attractor factor: Dinosaurs, aliens and Will Ferrell.

Good lessons, bad lessons: Just because Matt Lauer thinks you’re crazy doesn’t make it true.

Violence: An arm yanked off, assorted beastly attacks, mostly for comic effect.

Language: Surprisingly off-color – lots of profanity.

Sex: Mating and masturbation jokes aplenty.

Drugs: Pot is joked about, hallucinogens are consumed.

Parents’ advisory: Not even remotely a younger kid-friendly film, more a Will Ferrell movie for the crass 15-year-old in us all.

THE HANGOVER

Rating: R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.

What it’s about: Bachelor party pals get blasted in Vegas, lose the groom and can’t remember what happened the night before.

The kid attractor factor: They’ll buy tickets to “My Life in Ruins” (PG-13) but sneak into this.

Good lessons, bad lessons: Never drink with a stranger with mental problems, and “That’s gay” as a put-down never gets old.

Violence: Threatened.

Language: Pretty darned profane, even by today’s standards.

Sex: Nudity and Heather Graham.

Drugs: Lots.

Parents’ advisory: As politically incorrect as comedies come these days, with more “Don’t try this at homes” than any movie this year.

UP

Rating: PG for some peril and action.

What it’s about: Cranky old man and chatty little boy float into great adventures in a house suspended from balloons.

The kid attractor factor: Two words – “Disney” and “Pixar.”

Good lessons, bad lessons: The real adventure is the life you live while waiting for your “big” adventure.

Violence: Dog attacks, dogfights, shots are fired.

Language: Disney clean.

Sex: None.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: A winning blend of sentiment and whimsy that parents won’t mind taking the 10-and-unders to.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Family Watch: Keep under-15s away from ‘Orphan’
• Power of 10: A decade of local filmmakers
• Mayor wants to boost arts by attracting more film productions to Sacramento
• Indie duo angles for movie showings
• New DVDs

Current films are reviewed each week to provide parents a guide to decide what may be appropriate for younger viewers.

UP

Rating: PG for some peril and action.

What it’s about: Cranky old man and chatty little boy float into great adventures in a house suspended from balloons.

The kid attractor factor: Two words – “Disney” and “Pixar.”

Good lessons/bad lessons: The real adventure is the life you live while waiting for your “big” adventure.

Violence: Dog attacks, dogfights, shots fired.

Language: Disney clean.

Sex: None.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: A winning blend of sentiment and whimsy that parents won’t mind taking the 10-and-unders to.

DRAG ME TO HELL

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of horror violence, terror, disturbing images and language.

What it’s about: A banker is cursed and spends three days avoiding being dragged to you-know-where.

The kid attractor factor: Alison Lohman and PG-13 horror, catnip to kids.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Foreclosing on a gypsy could get you cursed (and, no, that’s not a good lesson).

Violence: Horrific, but with little blood or gore.

Language: Some mild.

Sex: None.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: Teen- friendly, not too violent, though the gypsy stereotyping might be offensive to some.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN

Rating: PG for mild action and brief language.

What it’s about: The exhibits from New York’s Museum of Natural History, displays that come to life, are moved into storage at the Smithsonian, where all heck breaks loose.

The kid attractor factor: Stiller and monkeys and octopi, oh my.

Good lessons/bad lessons: When it comes to making a living, earn it doing something you love.

Violence: The threat of death, a lot of spears, a decent brawl, no blood.

Language: The D-word, used sparingly.

Sex: Amelia Earhart was quite the kisser, apparently.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: Very much a kids movie, with a little history and “Let’s go to the museum” mixed in with the laughs, slapstick and special effects.

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• Family Watch: Keep under-15s away from ‘Orphan’
• Power of 10: A decade of local filmmakers
• Mayor wants to boost arts by attracting more film productions to Sacramento
• Indie duo angles for movie showings
• New DVDs

Tony Awards 2009 Winners Performance YouTube Videos.

Watch exclusive Tony Awards 2009 Winners YouTube Videos Performance Videos. Rock of Ages Tony Awards 2009, Hair -- Tony Awards 2009, Billy Elliot’ wins 10 Tony Awards 2009 YouTube Video & many more…

Billy Elliot’ wins 10 Tony Awards 2009

Hair -- Tony Awards 2009

Rock of Ages Tony Awards 2009

Tony Awards 2009 Images

Find out the Tony Awards 2009 Winners list from here.

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