PARAMOUNT BEFORE THE CODE This year, Film Forum is devoting its annual extended summer retrospective to one of the great hoards of relatively unseen American films: those frequently astonishing, often impressive and always interesting features produced by Paramount Pictures between the coming of sound and the enforcement of the Production Code in 1934. Now owned by Universal, as are most of the pre-1949 Paramount films, these titles have gone largely unexplored since their television exposure in the 1970's, and there are many that have not been seen at all since their original release. Now, thanks to Bob O'Neil, Universal's vice president for film preservation, many pre-code Paramount films are returning to the scene, most in 35-mm prints. Among the 46 programs that Film Forum will be screening from today through July 21 are a handful of famous titles, such as the double bill of Ernst Lubitsch's "Trouble in Paradise" (1932) and Josef von Sternberg's "Blonde Venus" (above with Marlene Dietrich and Sidney Toler), which opens the series today and tomorrow. Paramount's most celebrated directors, Lubitsch and Sternberg prospered in the freedom that reigned before the censorship crackdown, Lubitsch to create his sensual and suggestive comedies, Sternberg to spin his shadowy erotic fantasies starring Dietrich. While the studio's image was closely associated with Sternberg and Lubitsch's continental sophistication, Paramount also turned out quite a few of the gritty urban melodramas usually associated with Warner Brothers, and this fine series, programmed by Bruce Goldstein, gives pride of place to some surprising rediscoveries from this neglected side of the studio's output. Sylvia Sidney, Paramount's Bronx-accented answer to the innocent ingénues played by Janet Gaynor at Fox, stars in a double bill on July 5 and 6 of "Ladies of the Big House" (1931) and "Pick-Up" (1933), two gruff, working-class dramas directed by Marion Gering, and even Sternberg made his contribution to the genre by casting Sidney in his 1931 adaptation of "An American Tragedy" (July 9), one of his most underrated films. Paramount's confectionary, cosmopolitan side is also much on display, as in the double feature of July 1, Frank Tuttle's droll romantic comedy, "This Is the Night" (1932), and Harlan Thompson's musical ode to plastic surgery (really!), "Kiss and Make-Up" (1934), both featuring a young Cary Grant. In other words, it's pretty hard to go wrong once you plunge into the schedule, available at www.filmforum.org.
Movies
Ratings and running times are in parentheses; foreign films have English subtitles. Full reviews of all current releases, movie trailers, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/movies.
'THE ADVENTURES OF SHARKBOY AND LAVAGIRL IN 3-D' (PG, 94 minutes) There's a reason that children aren't allowed to vote, drive or make movies with multimillion-dollar budgets. Lively and imaginative as their inner worlds may be, the very young still lack the discipline and maturity to shape their dream worlds into coherent and compelling stories - a task the director Robert Rodriguez ("El Mariachi," "Sin City") also fails to accomplish in this muddled quest narrative based on characters and themes created by his 7-year-old son, Racer Max. (Dana Stevens)
* 'BATMAN BEGINS' (PG-13, 137 minutes) Conceived in the shadow of American pop rather than in its bright light, this tense, effective iteration of Bob Kane's original comic book owes its power and pleasures to a director (Christopher Nolan) who takes his material seriously and to a star (a terrific Christian Bale) who shoulders that seriousness with ease. "Batman Begins" is the seventh live-action film to take on the comic-book legend and the first to usher it into the kingdom of movie myth. (Manohla Dargis)
* 'CATERINA IN THE BIG CITY' (No rating, 106 minutes, in Italian) In this contemporary political allegory from Italy, a disgruntled teacher and his family move from the country to Rome, where his 12-year-old daughter finds herself the object of a furious tug of war between two cliques, one left wing and bohemian, the other right wing and materialist. Bold, richly textured and entertaining. (Stephen Holden)
'CINDERELLA MAN' (PG-13, 144 minutes) The best part of Ron Howard's ingratiating, Depression-era weepie about the boxing underdog-turned-topdog James J. Braddock are, unsurprisingly, Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti, actors who could steal a movie from a basket of mewling kittens and an army of rosy-cheeked orphans. Renée Zellweger also stars. (Dargis)
'CRASH' (R, 107 minutes) A gaggle of Los Angeles residents from various economic and ethnic backgrounds collide, sometimes literally, within an extremely hectic 36 hours. Well-intentioned, impressively acted, but ultimately a speechy, ponderous melodrama of liberal superstition masquerading as realism.
* 'ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM' (Not rated, 110 minutes) This sober, informative chronicle of the biggest business scandal of the decade is almost indecently entertaining, partly because it offers some of the most satisfying movie villains in quite some time. Recommended for everyone except those likely to be in the Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling jury pools. (Scott)
'5x2' (R, 90 minutes, in French) A couple's relationship unravels backward, from divorce through the birth of their child to their first meeting. Interesting, but chilly. (Scott)
'HEIGHTS' (R, 93 minutes) In its aspirations, design and worldview, "Heights" resembles a number of other films about cozily connected souls, a soap-operatic subgenre that might be called We Are the World. Everybody hurts, as Michael Stipe likes to sing, but people in "Heights" seem to hurt more or at least spend a lot of time nursing that hurt in brooding silence and noisy confrontation. (Dargis)
* 'THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY' (PG, 103 minutes) In this hugely likable, long-awaited film of Douglas Adams's beloved book, the world comes to an end not just with a bang, but also with something of a shrug. Nicely directed with heart and sincerity by the newcomer Garth Jennings, the film features Martin Freeman, a sensational Sam Rockwell and some gloriously singing dolphins. (Dargis)
'THE HONEYMOONERS' (PG-13, 90 minutes) Not the greatest, baby, but not as bad as it might have been. (Scott)
* 'HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE' (PG, 118 minutes) The latest animated enchantment from Hayao Miyazaki. Lovely to look at, full of heart and mystery. ( Scott)
'THE INTERPRETER' (PG-13, 123 minutes) A political thriller, both apolitical and unthrilling, notable for two accomplishments: turning the United Nations into a movie set and, even more remarkably, giving Nicole Kidman the opportunity to embody the suffering of Africans everywhere. (Scott)
* 'KINGS AND QUEEN' (No rating, 150 minutes, in French) About a hapless man and a woman who is alternately, perhaps even simultaneously, a mistress, monster, mother, murderer, object of lust and subject of loathing, this latest work from the wildly talented French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin is essential viewing. (Dargis)
'LADIES IN LAVENDER' (PG-13, 104 minutes) Two dames of the British empire (Judi Dench and Maggie Smith) inhabit spinster sisters in Cornwall who nurse a handsome Polish violinist back to health in 1936. Amiably bogus. (Holden)
'LAYER CAKE' (R, 104 minutes) Directed by Matthew Vaughn, making a smoothly assured debut, and written by J. J. Connolly, this is the newest in British gangland entertainment and the tastiest in years. The star of this show is the very good British actor Daniel Craig, who slices through "Layer Cake" like a knife. (Dargis)
'THE LONGEST YARD' (PG-13, 97 minutes) In this crummy remake of the 1974 film of the same title, Adam Sandler stars as the former N.F.L. quarterback Paul Crewe, who years earlier was booted out of the league for shaving points and is now charged with leading a team of prisoners against a team of guards. In the original film, directed with seriocomic facility by Robert Aldrich, Crewe was played by Burt Reynolds with effortless charm and the tightest pants this side of Tony Orlando. The Aldrich version was recently released on DVD and makes for a nice evening in. (Dargis)'MADAGASCAR' (PG, 86 minutes) Like many computer-animated features, this one, about four celebrity-voiced animals exiled from the Central Park Zoo - expends most of its imaginative resources on clever visuals. These, in the end, are not enough to compensate for the lack of interesting narrative, real characters or jokes on subjects other than flatulence, excrement and contemporary pop culture. (Scott)
'MAD HOT BALLROOM' (PG, 105 minutes) This documentary follows fifth graders from three very different New York City public schools as they prepare to compete in a ballroom dancing tournament. The sight of 10-year-olds trying to master the graceful, grown-up motions of the fox trot and the tango is charming, and the glimpses of their lives in and outside of school are fascinating, though unfortunately the film offers little more than glimpses. (Scott)
'MR. AND MRS. SMITH' (PG-13, 112 minutes) What counts in a movie like this are stars so dazzling that we won't really notice or at least mind the cut-rate writing (from Simon Kinberg) and occasionally incoherent action (from the director Doug Liman). Sometimes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie succeed in their mutual role as sucker bait, sometimes they don't, which is why their new joint venture is alternately a goof and a drag. (Dargis)
* 'MYSTERIOUS SKIN' (Not rated, 99 minutes) Gregg Araki, onetime bad boy of the New Queer Cinema, has made a heartbreaking and surpassingly beautiful film out of Scott Heim's cleareyed novel about two Kansas boys dealing with the consequences of their sexual abuse by a Little League coach. Superb performances, especially by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (Scott)
'THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS' (PG, 119 minutes) On a shopping trip, four teenage girls find a pair of thrift-store jeans that mysteriously flatters all four of them, despite their differing shapes and sizes. Deciding the jeans must be magic, they make a pact to share them for the summer, wearing them for a week apiece and then mailing them to the next friend. Like the four girls at its center, this fresh-scrubbed, eager-to-please film makes up in charm for what it lacks in sophistication. (Stevens)
* 'STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH' (PG-13, 142 minutes) George Lucas saved the best - or at least one of the best - for the end. Or for the middle. In any case, the saga is now complete, and has regained much of its original glory. (Scott)
'WAGING A LIVING' and 'ROSEVELT'S AMERICA' (No rating, 85 and 25 minutes) An eye-opening, often heartbreaking documentary tracking four members of the working poor in the Northeast and California. Roger Weisberg's feature is accompanied by his short film, "Rosevelt's America," a vérité profile of the Liberian refugee Rosevelt Henderson. (Jeannette Catsoulis)
Film Series
HANNA SCHYGULLA (through June 30) The Museum of Modern Art concludes its 11-film retrospective of the work of Ms. Schygulla, the multi-award-winning German actress. On Sunday, Volker Schlöndorff's drama "Die Fälschung" (1981), in which Ms. Schygulla plays a wealthy widow having an affair with a German journalist, will be shown. The final offering, on Thursday, is Bela Tarr's "Werckmeister Harmoniak" (2000), about political rebellion and a traveling circus. At 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 708-9400, $10; $8, 65+; $6, students. (Anita Gates)
IFC CENTER The new IFC Center, in the former Waverly Theater, is showing "Don't Look Back," D. A. Pennebaker's 1967 documentary about Bob Dylan on tour in Britain in the spring of 1965, as its premiere attraction. It is also showing Marc Singer's 16-millimeter documentary "Dark Days" (midnight show); Yasujiro Ozu's 1947 drama "The Record of a Tenement Gentleman"; and a new film, Miranda July's "Me and You and Everyone We Know," 323 Avenue of the Americas, at West Third Street, (212) 924-7771, $10; $7, children 12 and under and 62+. (Gates)
NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL (Through July 2) Subway Cinema presents 31 mainstream Asian films, including "Kekexili: Mountain Patrol" (2004), from China, about the pashmina trade; "One Nite in Mongkok" (2004), from Hong Kong; "Green Chair" (2003), from Korea; "My Brother ...Nikhil" (2005), from India, a Bollywood drama about AIDS; and the self-explanatory "Godzilla: Final Wars" (2004), from Japan. Anthology Film Archives (through Sunday), 32 Second Avenue, at Second Street, East Village, (212) 505-5181. ImaginAsian Theater (today through July 2), 239 East 59th Street, Manhattan, (212) 371-6682; (212) 868-4444, $9.50.(Gates)
VILLAGE VOICE BEST OF 2004 (through Wednesday) BAMcinématek continues this festival of critics' selections with the class-conscious "Talaye Sorkh" ("Crimson Gold"), from the Iranian director Jafar Panahi, tonight; "Darwin's Nightmare," Hubert Sauper's documentary about globalization and the Nile perch tomorrow; and "Mo Gan Doh" ("Infernal Affairs"), Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Hong Kong crime drama, on Sunday. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 777-FILM or (718) 636-4100, $10. (Gates)