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Cineoke Cue up a DVD of your favorite movie musical, then sing along to your friends' boozy encouragement. Or hoots of derision. 21 and over. Jewel Box Theater (Rendezvous), 2320 Second Ave., 206-441-5823. $5. 8 p.m. Mon. April 10.
Elevator to the Gallows Beginning SAM's ten-title retrospective, Louis Malle's fairly tight and ingenious little noir from 1958 has been restored with a new print and subtitles. (It's also on DVD from Rialto April 25.) Jeanne Moreau tempts former paratrooper Maurice Ronet into murdering her war-profiteering husband. It's the perfect crime—until it's not. Ronet gets stuck in the elevator; a pair of teens steal his car and become involved in another crime; and Moreau is left to walk the rainy Paris streets, wondering if she's been double-crossed by her lover. (These scenes are made doubly evocative by Miles Davis' score; they were also shot by placing the camera in a baby carriage.) There's plenty of James M. Cain and Billy Wilder at work here; Malle is making something of an homage to his American forebears, like a lot of other crime flicks from the early nouvelle vague. But it's also a crisp and uncompromising moral vision in black-and-white. (NR) Museum of History and Industry, 2700 24th Ave. E., 206-654-3121. $58-$65 (series), $7 individual. 7:30 p.m. Thurs. April 6.
The Emerald Diamond It's not all soccer and rugby in Ireland; they actually play baseball there too. This indie documentary follows members of the Irish national team—which didn't compete in last month's World Baseball Classic—through their training and competition with other European baseball powers like the Czech Republic, Norway, Poland, and Lithuania. Included on the team are many former American college players of Irish ancestry. And you can bet the post-game gatherings in the local pub are pretty enjoyable. (NR) Metro, 4500 Ninth Ave. N.E., 206-781-5755. $6-$9. 7 p.m. Mon. April 10.
The Goonies Before he was Sam in the LOTR movies (before he could shave, for that matter), Sean Astin joined fellow child actors including Corey Feldman in this 1985 fantasy-adventure flick, hatched by the powerful cartel of Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus (though directed by Richard Donner). (PG) Egyptian, 801 E. Pine St., 206-781-5755. $6-$9. Midnight. Fri. April 7-Sat. April 8.
Independent Exposure This program of 12 short docs is titled "Up in Smoke: Architecture in Transformation." Most are as much of a snore as that sounds. A Closer Look at Parking Lots literally follows a clunky station wagon circling round a nearly vacant parking area. Karolina Kowalska's God Mode gives her teleportation abilities using a remote control, but ends up feeling like a flat, boring slide show of seedy places around Poland. More interesting is Jonathan Hodgson's Feeling My Way, in which he melds his first-person view of his walk home with animated effects. What you see are his stereotypical perceptions of passing strangers and the subconscious (animated) thoughts they inspire. Strip Mall Trilogy: Part I has an amusing twist in which director Roger Beebe flashes symbols of capitalist America to a cacophony of consumer sounds, like the ringing bell of a shop door opening combined with the beep of a price scanner. (NR) KELLIE HWANG Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 206-686-6684. $5. 7 and 9 p.m. Wed. April 12.
Louis Malle Documentaries ALSO Phantom India (1969) runs six hours over two nights (Fri.-Sat.). Made with Jacques-Yves Cousteau, his 1956 World of Silence (Mon., Wed.) won an Oscar and can be seen as the forefather to The Life Aquatic. From 1974, Human, Too Human (Tues., Wed.) looks at auto factory workers; it's paired with his 1962 short Vive Le Tour, about the famous midsummer bicycle race. See Web site for full schedule and details. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 206-267-5380, nwfilmforum.org. $5-$8. Fri. April 7-Wed. April 12.
Mansex Agitprop A benefit screening for funding Oakie Treadwell's Maggots and Men (about the 1921 Russian naval Kronstadt rebellion), this event includes the short film Phineas Slipped, a kind of cross-gender fantasia; Part 3 of Patricio Guzmán's Battle of Chile (1979); and music from Infernal Noise Brigade. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 206-267-5380. $8. 3 p.m. Sat. April 8.
Maple Valley Digital Film Fest Students, locals, and participants in last month's "Crash and Burn" three-day filmmaking competition show their work. Each of the three evenings includes at least a dozen shorts in all genres, running about three hours total. See Web site for full schedule and details. Tahoma Middle School, 2445 S.E. 216th St., http://films.maplevalleywa.com. $10 (pass for series). 7 p.m. Thurs. April 6-Sat. April 8.
Rubin & Ed Billed as "a hip Hope and Crosby for the '90s," this unrelentingly oddball 1991 cult film is more like Waiting for Godot set in Death Valley. Crispin Glover dances and hallucinates in the role of Rubin, a loner who lives with his mother in a middle-of-nowhere motel (sound familiar?), while salesman Ed (Howard Hesseman) is desperate to rope some unsuspecting dimwit into a pyramid scheme. A strange, shaggy mess of a movie. (PG-13) NEAL SCHINDLER Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 206-523-3935. $1. 11 p.m. Fri. April 7-Sat. April 8.
Seattle Arab & Iranian Film Festival Three days remain in this invaluable local fest. The Letter takes a documentary look at Maine resistance to Somali immigrants (7 p.m. Wed.) Also screening at the Grand Illusion, Private is reviewed on page 95 (7 p.m. Thurs.) The Iranian drama From the Land of Silence (9 p.m. Thurs.) has two brothers smuggling contraband diesel fuel in the dangerous desert. On a lighter note, the musical comedy Bosta (5 and 8 p.m. Sun.) follows a band of Lebanese song-and-dance performers as they modernize traditional dabkeh choreography with new, and somewhat controversial, footsteps from France. See Web site for full schedule and details. Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway, 206-325-6000, www.saiff.com. $7-$9. Continues through Sun. April 9.
