[From a press release, excising 230 adjectives]

   The San Francisco Film Society and San Francisco Opera present films
   featuring the music of Guiseppe Verdi, at the Castro Theatre from May
   25-31 and at Landmark*s Park Theatre in Menlo Park from June 1-7.

   The series, compiled by Doug Jones, presents 14 features,
   documentaries, comedies, and shorts.

   When Verdi died in Milan in January 1901, cinema was still in its
   infancy. Leopoldo Fregoli, the first Italian filmmaker, made the
   first Verdi film in 1898.

   Lotfi Mansouri, San Francisco Opera general manager, said of the
   series: "Throughout my career, my two great loves have been opera
   and film. Cinema has been very kind to opera, and the movie industry
   has always featured opera, from the era of the silent film to the
   present day. The ongoing love affair of opera and film has a lineage
   from Jeannette McDonald to Ezio Pinza to THE GODFATHER. Operatic
   themes are constantly used as background to film, perhaps because
   the heightened drama and emotions of opera accompany and delineate
   so well the numerous and varied moments captured by film."

   The schedule:

   CASTRO THEATRE
   Friday, May 25
   7:00 pm    LA TRAVIATA
   Franco Zeffirelli. Teresa Stratas, Placido Domingo.

   9:45 pm    THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
   (With "La Traviata" excerpts.) Stephan Elliott. Terence Stamp, Hugo
   Weaving, Guy Pearce.

   Saturday, May 26
   2:30 pm    THE PROMPTER
   Hilde Heier. Norway, 1999.

   4:45 pm    TOSCA*S KISS
   Daniel Schmidt.

   7:00 pm    OTELLO
   Franco Zeffirelli. Domingo.

   9:45 pm    THE PROMPTER

   Sunday, May 27
   2:30 pm    A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
   Sam Wood. Marx Brothers.

   4:30 pm    THE NIGHT OF SHOOTING STARS
   Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.

   7:00 pm    REQUIEM FOR A FOOL
   Hans Alfredson. Sweden, 1981.

   9:30 pm    ARIA
   Julien Temple, Charles Sturridge, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford,
   Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Julien Jarman, Franc
   Roddam, Nicolas Roeg and Ken Russell.  England/USA 1987.

   Monday, May 28
   2:00 pm    JEAN DE FLORETTE
   Claude Berri. Gerard Depardieu, Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil.
   4:30 pm    MANON OF THE SPRING
   7:00 pm     JEAN DE FLORETTE
   9:30 pm    MANON OF THE SPRING

   Tuesday, May 29
   7:00 pm    IN THE SHADOW OF STARS
   Allie Light and Irving Saraf.

   9:15 pm    LUNA
   Bernardo Bertolucci. Italy/US, 1979.

   Wednesday, May 30
   1:00 pm    FITZCARRALDO
   Werner Herzog. Germany, 1982.
   4:30 pm    FITZCARRALDO
   8:00 pm    FITZCARRALDO

   Thursday, May 31
   7:00 pm    LA TRAVIATA
   9:30 pm    OTELLO

"Janos Gereben" <[log in to unmask]>