In a world where there's nothing to do but watch movies.
In a city full of theaters, museums, and libraries.
One moviegoer who can be in three places at once.

This week, Al Franken becomes a politician, David Hasselhoff dresses up as a scifi hero, every girl becomes a star, and ancient religious art turns into modern heaps of rubble.

Friday 9/29

Piccadilly
The Hays Code, adopted by the American film industry in 1930, didn't just stop American moviegoers from seeing breasts for decades—it also thwarted the career Anna May Wong (born Huáng Liǔshuāng), who was effectively barred from romantic roles by anti-miscegenation restrictions. Fortunately, Piccadilly was made by Brits in 1929, so she was allowed to play a hot-dishwasher-turned-dancer. It's black and white and silent, but the silence will be filled by Peter Freisinger's lively piano accompaniment (he's also been known to pick up a violin when necessary), and the black and white will shift from ambers to blues in the restored 35mm print.
Harvard Film Archive
7 pm, $8
Piccadilly: IMDB
Anna May Wong: Globe article | tobacco cards

Saturday 9/30

The Giant Buddhas
Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley was home to two ginormous stone Buddhas for approximately fifteen hundred years. They survived cannon fir and Ghengis Khan but, in 2001, they were finally evicted by modern explosives and the Taliban.
Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts
10:30 am, $7
The Giant Buddhas: IMDB | web site | trailer

Starcrash
Some other titles under which this film, starring the incomparable David Hasselhoff, has been released internationally: Star Battle Encounters, The Adventures of Stella Star, Scontri stellari oltre la terza dimensione, and Female Space Invaders.
The Coolidge's glorious midnight screening will include a retrospective of Hasselhoff career highlights and a costume dance competition.
Coolidge Corner Theatre
Midnight, $7.50
Starcrash: fan site | | trailer

Monday 10/2

Love Me or Leave Me
Doris Day stars as Ruth Etting, a dancer whose transformation to a singer and a movie star is engineered by a Chicago mobster known as "The Gimp."
Rabb Lecture Hall, Boston Public Library (Copley Square)
6 pm, free
Love Me or Leave Me:IMDB | trailer

Wednesday 10/4

She Done Him Wrong
Mae West's saucy demimondaine attempts to seduce a young Cary Grant's temperance missionary. Brutal, witty dialogue ensues.
Robin M. Bernstein, a Harvard women's studies professor, will be on hand to discuss.
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute (10 Garden St., Cambridge: directions)
6 pm, free
She Done Him Wrong: IMDB

Al Franken: God Spoke
War Room documentarians Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker follow comedian-turned-pundit-turned-politician Al Franken as he feuds with Bill O'Reilly and contemplates a run for senator in Minnesota.
Coolidge Corner Theatre
3 pm, $7
God Spoke: web site | IMDB | trailer