Sunday at SIFF is A Single Man, based on a Christopher Isherwood novel about a closeted gay college professor in the 1960s whose grief from the loss of his love and frustration at having to stay “invisible” leads him to consider suicide until his best girlfriend and a charming young man make him think twice.

Cory McAbee is the writer, director and lead actor of The American Astronaut and he’s followed that well received film with another for which he’s the writer, director and lead actor. Stingray Sam makes its Seattle debut at NW Film Forum with McAbee in person for the Friday night screenings of his six episode musical western mini-series that takes place in outer space.

Also screening Friday night at NWFF and playing through the week: Ingmar Bergman’s The Passion of Anna, the tale of two men and two women struggling with their own troubled selves and their complicated relationships with each other on the small Swedish island of Fårö.

Saturday night at NWFF: Silence is Golden. NWFF has a quarterly film challenge for local filmmakers; this fall’s was to come up with a five-minute short devoid of dialogue. Participants are allowed to use music to drive a story, but not one single spoken word. Sunday night at NWFF: Money Driven Medicine: “a behind-the-scenes look at how our 2.6 trillion dollar a year healthcare system went so terribly wrong and what it will take to fix it.”

Love 80s movies? Head to Central Cinema Friday night for the 80s movies anthem singalong with the themes from such “classic” flicks as “The Goonies” and “Ghostbuster”, featuring songs by Madonna, Prince, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Phil Collins, The Ramones, Kenny Loggins, Peter Gabriel, the Go-Gos, Huey Lewis & the News, and many more. Starting Saturday, Central Cinema screens Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game through November 25. Coincidentally, I just happened to rent this movie myself so I can attest to the merits of this 1939 satire of upper-class French society just before the start of WWII. Condemned by the Parisian crowd who saw its original debut–probably because it hit just a little too close to home–and later banned by the French government, this film has since rightly become known as one of the best films made.

The Grand Illusion hosts the Burning Fuse Film Festival. Six provocative documentaries examine topics including environment deregulation under President Bush, a stripper’s conversion to evangelical Christianity, conscientious objector soldiers, surfers in war-torn Liberia, vooting booth conspiracies tied to the 2004 national elections, and the story of Fauborg Treme, the section of New Orleans that is probably the oldest black neighborhood in America and is the birthplace of the civil rights movement as well as the home of jazz.

Somewhat–no, very much less serious is Grand Illusion’s late night weekend feature Gums, a 1976 Jaws parody featuring a fellatio-mad mermaid intent on terrorizing the seaside.

Besides turning out a very long list of chart-topping albums and singles and inspiring musicians for generations even now still to come, The Beatles managed to make a few good films. The Fab Four were never more charming than in Richard Lester’s adorable A Hard Day’s Night, a comedy that takes a clever look at the madness surrounding what was then the world’s biggest band. A fun movie filled with some of The Beatles’ best songs and definitely worth a watch.

The “New Moon” menu pays a culinary tribute to the story’s themes with “Vegetarian” Stakes, a/k/a picatta seared chicken satay over parmesan risotto and sauteed spinach (I’m not quite sure how chicken gets to be vegetarian, but, boy, does this sound tasty to me); Lion’s Love, which is paprika seared lamb chops with roasted vegetable cous cous; and Bella’s birthday cake which is red velvet cake with sour cream frosting and dark chocolate sauce.

The cocktail menu is appealing, too: Bella’s Papercut combines Absolut Mandarin, Cointreau, and Grenadine. Edward’s Cold Touch is concocted with blueberry Stoli, Poma, Sprite and Blue Curacao. Jacob’s Warmth heats things up with Clover coffee with Bailey’s, Rumpleminze, and whipped cream.

If you’re a Twilight fan, you’re probably already delirious with excitement about New Moon and really don’t need any encouragement to go see it, but why not go see it in style?

NW Film Forum continues its “Films at the Edge of the World” series with the Seattle premiere of director Lisandro Alonso’s Liverpool, which follows a sailor named Farrel on a lonely journey in the southernmost region of Argentina. He asks his captain to let him leave the ship and see if his mother still lives in their old village, setting off on a long, gloomy trek through snowy mountain ranges. Alonso will be in attendance for Friday and Saturday’s screenings.

Also at NWFF: Araya, the 1959 documentary about life in the Venezuelan peninsula of the title, restored to its full original glory by a dedicated team of film archivists and historians.

Gene Tierney was never more terrifyingly beautiful than in Leave Her to Heaven, screening at Grand Illusion with the Seattle premiere of a new 35mm print. After marrying a novelist played by Cornel Wilde, Tierney’s character decides she just can’t bear to share his affections with anyone, not the crippled younger brother whose death by drowning she helps cause, not even the baby she’s carrying until she deliberately causes a miscarriage and especially not family friend Jeanne Crain whom Tierney frames as her murderer just before killing herself.

Big Trouble in Little China was originally meant to be a Western set in the 1880s, but by the time the film was released in 1986 it became an action comedy starring Kurt Russell as a truck driver who helps rescue his buddy’s girlfriend from bandits in San Francisco’s Chinatown before heading underground to fight an ancient sorcerer. A commercial failure at its time of release, Big Trouble went on to become a cult movie; you can see it on screen at Central Cinema.

Speaking of action films with a cult following: Roadhouse, featuring Patrick Swayze as the bouncer you really don’t want to mess with, is this weekend’s Midnight Movie at The Egyptian.

La Libertad focuses on the ordinary daily life of a simple woodcutter as it ponders the significance of the mundane. Los Muertos follows a man’s attempts to reunite with the daughter he hasn’t seen in the thirty years he’s been in prison. Fantasma is a meta-commentary on his first two films that uses the lead actors from his previous films to ponder the themes presented in them. Liverpool yet again brings a solitary figure in search of his own past.

Alonso will be in attendance at screenings through Saturday and also presents a Master Class for filmmakers and those aspiring to be.

The winner of the Spotlight Award is chosen from a pool of local filmmakers whose short films are judged by an IFP jury. This year’s finalists are Justin McGowan with “Going Home”, Jeremy Mackie with “While You Weren’t Looking”, David Miller with “Love in the Year 2000″, Shawn Telford with “The Last Virgin” and Timothy Watkins and Charlie Ferguson with “Photo Booth”.

The winner will be announced at a free to the public party at Central Cinema Wednesday, November 11 at 7:00 pm (doors at 6:30). Fans of local films should definitely make it to the party to find out which of the very deserving candidates gets the award.

Couch Fest wants you to know that “watching short films in strangers’ houses = awkwardly awesome”. The second annual Couch Fest is a shorts film festival that takes place in people’s houses. On Saturday, November 7, all the houses taking part in the fest host 30 minute film programs that repeat all day. Fest goers go from house to house checking out the programs that interest them and each program has a built in intermission so people can talk about the movies they’re watching. It’s a fun way to see a lot of cool short films with a group of people who are every bit as dorky about this sort of thing as you are. There are two animation programs, two comedy programs, two experimental programs, a documentary program, a horror program, a mixed program and an “inappropriately awesome” program. It’s a mere $10 for the complete festival, which allows you to see any or all of the programs running throughout the day. The first show starts at 11 am and the final show starts at 7 pm and all programs repeat every hour on the hour. Go to the Couch Fest website for locations and other details.

If you’re looking for a more traditional film festival this weekend, head down south as the 26th annual Olympia Film Festival kicks off Friday, November 6 with an opening night gala, and a program of short films and a feature by American director Tom Schiller who will be in attendance for a post screening Q&A. The festival continues through November 14 with a eclectic collection of films that includes everything from 1920 German Expressionist classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to Seattle filmmaker David Russo’s The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, a hit at this year’s SIFF. Films on the festival calendar include well-loved classics of a variety of genres (The Muppet Movie, The Third Man, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, part 2) and rarely-screened features and documentaries both old and new well worth seeing.

Speaking of both SIFF and rarely-screened features worth seeing, Le Combat Dans L’île opens Friday, November 6, at SIFF Cinema. Romy Schneider plays Anne, a woman in a difficult marriage who discovers a carefully wrapped anti-tank bazooka in the hall closet. What’s a woman to do? After the bazooka is used in the attempted assassination of a left-wing member of Parliament, Anne ends up turning to her husband’s college friend as a confidante and a lover. Torn between the past and the present, Anne’s complicated path neatly stands in for the political struggles of France in the early 1960s when this film was made.

Austrian director Ulrich Seidl guides two untrained actors into powerful performances in Import Export, a look at “the horror and the beauty of existence” (Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York) that tells the parallel stories of Olga, a Ukrainian nurse who moves to Austria to try and make ends meet and Austrian Pauli, who travels to Ukraine to deliver video game consoles as they struggle with unemployment and existence. Opens at NWFF on Friday.

Also at NWFF: the Seattle premiere of 35 Shots of Rum, a beautifully shot study of human relationships by director Clair Denis that is centered around the complex relationship between Jo, a Parisian university student, and her father, Lionel, a train engineer.

The Grand Illusion hosts the Seattle premiere of a new 35mm print of 1947’s Odd Man Out, a film noir that tells the story of an IRA operative named Johnny McQueen. On the lam after breaking out of jail, Johnny (James Mason) decides to rob a bank to raise funds for the IRA but the robbery goes bad and he is seriously wounded by the police. Johnny meets a series of people who either want to help him or turn him over to the police as he makes his way through Dublin until finally he ends up heading for the waterfront and freedom–but can he make it there before the police?

Central Cinema pays tribute to the recently deceased John Hughes with a special screening of The Breakfast Club, perhaps his most popular work. The pre-show tribute includes a selection of Hughes trailers, classic movie moments, John Hughes trivia, and a sing along to a selection of soundtrack favorites.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s sweet and utterly charming comedy of romance, self-discovery and transformation Amelie is this week’s Midnight at the Egyptian film. Audrey Tatou is radiant as the quirky, kind-hearted title character who masterfully manipulates the people around her for both good and bad, depending on what they deserve, but may not have the courage to change her own life.

Ewan McGregor is a reporter in search of his next story when he encounters Geroge Clooney as a man who claims to be part of an experimental US military unit focused on using the paranormal as a new form of combat in The Men Who Stare at Goats, a based on a true story comedy screening at the The Guild 45th.

Japanese film director Kenji Mizoguchi was admired by the likes of Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard and Akira Kurosawa for his work. He began his career with remakes of German Expressionistic films and adaptations of O’Neill and Tolstoy. Later he moved towards realism, spending much time documenting Japan’s change from feudalism into modernism and he would spend much of his film career exploring social and political issues of the day.

One of his older films, The Downfall of Osen focuses on one of the issues that intrigued Mizoguchi for all of his career, the struggles of a “fallen woman” to cope with the world that imprisons and debases them. Isuzo Yamada portrays the abused mistress of a den of thieves who seeks redemption through her love of a young man who dreams of becoming a doctor.

The silent film is accompanied by a live music and sound score featuring an English language translation of the benshi – the live soundtrack given to Japanese silent films. Seattle’s Aono Jikken Ensemble return from touring with quirky Canadian director Guy Maddin’s film Brand Upon the Brain to lend their talents to The Downfall of Osen.

This special event is one night only, so don’t delay in getting your tickets. It plays SIFF Cinema on Sunday, November 15, 7:00 pm.

Four friends head to the beach to party and have a good time in director Ryan Gielen’s feature directorial debut, The Graduates and from the start of their journey it seems like that’s just what they’re going to do. Ben, Andy, Nickie and Mattie make their way to Ocean City, Maryland for Senior Week in this smart, funny coming-of-age comedy that took the Best Comedy prize at this year’s STIFF festival.

Bolstered by an excellent indie rock soundtrack, The Graduates flavors its humor with a welcome dose of thoughtfulness, well written and acted by a cast who give depth to the sort of roles that are all too often reduced to one dimensional stereotypes.

The Graduates makes its post-festival debut in Seattle on Monday night at Central Cinema. A film maker discussion panel follows the Monday screening; the movie continues through November 5.

The popular Silent Movie Monday series returns to the Paramount Theater for three Mondays in November, starting November 2 with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, released in 1916 and directed by Stuart Paton.

Like the other two films in the series, (German director Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 release, The Adventures of Prince Achmed on November 9, and classic American sci-fi adventure The Lost World, directed by Harry O’Hoyt and released in 1925, screening November 13), 20,000 Leagues is a marvel of its time, a science fiction film created long before even the most primitive of digital F/X were anywhere near development. These filmmakers used cardboard cut outs, clay, cedars and anything they could get their hands on to create their fantastic landscapes, creatures and other imaginative details. To the modern eye much of this looks a bit primitive but all these years later, they’re still entertaining and impressive for the creativity their creators imbued into them.

Based on the classic Jules Verne novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is notable for its groundbreaking underwater photography; since there weren’t underwater cameras available at the time, camera operators George M. Williamson and J. Ernest Williamson created a system of watertight tubes and mirrors rigged to allow the camera to shoot the reflections of scenes set underwater. (November 2)

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated feature film. The film features a silhouette animation technique invented by director Lotte Reiniger using cardboard cutouts and thin sheets of lead. (November 9)

Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 novel The Lost World was adapted into a film in 1925. Willis O’Brien created pioneering stop motion effects to tell the story of a group of adventurers head to Venezuela where they encounter a group of prehistoric beasts surviving into the modern world.

Jim Riggs will be playing the Wurlitzer Organ to accompany all three films. Doors open on all three nights at 6pm; films start at 7 promptly.

SIFF Cinema presents the Nordic Lights Film Festival, sponsored by the Nordic Heritage Museum. Featuring contemporary and award-winning films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, the festival includes such films as Nazi zombie gorefest Dead Snow, a movie about three Sami women for whom reindeer herding isn’t just a job, it’s an integral part of their life and culture, and festival opener Everlasting Moments which tells a story of how a young Swedish woman’s life is permanently changed when she wins a camera in a lottery.

NWFF presents a look at the disparity between the upper and working classes in The Headless Woman, an eerie film in which a dentist strikes something with her car–an object? a dog? one of the street kids playing as she drives by?–but doesn’t stop. Even after driving away she can’t shake her feelings of guilt and unease.

Also at NWFF: This Is Not a Show, a documentary film of REM’s “working rehearsal” at Dublin’s Olympia Theater back in July 2007.

Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard star in 1939’s The Cat and the Canary, a spooky and suspenseful tale of the six potential heirs to the fortune of a millionaire trapped in his mansion on a night when the spirit world warns that one of them will die and a guard from the local prison lets them know a homicidal maniac has escaped and is on the loose. The Grand Illusion screens a brand new print of this classic thriller. It’s paired with another spooky Bob Hope movie: 1940’s The Ghost Breakers stars Hope as a radio broadcaster who accompanies Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard again) as she attempts to take possession of her family’s ancestral home–an allegedly haunted castle–on an island off of Cuba. Are death threats and zombies enough to keep her from succeeding?

Midnight at The Egyptian: Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon in one of the sexiest vampire films ever: The Hunger.

Hilary Swank plays the title role in Amelia, a look back at legendary aviation pioneer Amelia Earhardt, who thrilled the world as the first woman to pilot a plane across the Atlantic and became a celebrity and inspirational figure before mysteriously disappearing in the midst of a solo flight around the world. At the Guild 45th.