[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]>