Thursday Happenings

Movies

-- Shoot the Piano Player (1962) is film noir as done by the French New Wave. It's the François Truffaut film to see if you like irony. A flurry of jump cuts—the editing seems improvisational—it's an arty melodrama that both takes Hollywood at its word and takes the piss out of genre pictures. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge. Tickets and showtimes.

-- Anglophones aren't the only ones obsessed with serial killers. We have Jack the Ripper, Son of Sam, the Boston Strangler, and Zodiac. The Japanese have the Daylight Demon, a murderer who killed more than 30 women during the 1950's. The HFA continues its Nagisa Oshima retrospective with Violence at Noon (1966), Oshima's treatment of the case. Considered by many to be Oshima's first masterpiece, the film follows two women who had been the killer's lovers. Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge, 7 p.m. $8/$6.

Solstices

-- Gardner After Hours gets its pagan on tonight, in celebration of the winter solstice. The event, which caters to younger art lovers, will feature "Renaissance party music," a tour of the Izzy G's most pagan artworks, food, booze, and people-watching. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway, 5:30, Various prices.

Getting Down

-- Hella Juice, the Milky Way's monthly hip hop throwdown, turns one year old tonight. Join DJs Leanski and Neebor, artist Mayan Tamang, and b-boy crew the Floorlords in a celebration of hip hop's many elements. Milky Way Lounge, 403 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, 9 p.m. Free.