Friday April 16

DANCE | CityStep: A Novel Creation

The annual CityStep show, starring fifth through seventh graders who already dance better than the large majority of the Harvard student body, will hold three performances this weekend. Tickets $5 (HBO). Friday 7:30 p.m., Saturday 1 and 5 p.m. Cambridge Rindge & Latin’s Fitzgerald Theatre, 459 Broadway St. (BBC)

DANCE | HRDC Spring Concert of Modern Dance

The oldest student-run dance company at Harvard presents Collaborations, their latest collection of student- and professional-choreographed modern dance pieces. Expect an impressively diverse set of performances, including a company piece choreographed by Brenda Divelbliss. Produced and directed by Lise Lipowsky and Tim Wong. Tickets $5 (HBO). Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. Adams House Pool Theatre. (BBC)

DANCE | Ten’s the Limit

CRASHarts presents eight Boston-based choreographers and their companies performing for a maximum of ten minutes each. The third annual showcase of contemporary dance pieces and works debuts in an intimate studio setting. Tickets $12. Friday, 7 and 9 p.m., Saturday, 7 and 9 p.m. Green Street Studios, 185 Green St. (BBC)

MUSIC | Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra

Conductor James Yannatos leads the HRO in a performance of Ravel Daphnis et Chloe (Suite No. 2) and Brahms Symphony No. 4. Also featured will be the world premiere of Yannatos’ own Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, featuring soloist Joseph Lin ’04. Tickets $10/$8/$6 for students (HBO). 8 p.m. Sanders Theatre. (BBC)

MUSIC | Need New Body

A part of the Philadelphia psych scene, Need New Body create weird, unpredictable and eccentric music that still manages to be accessible to anyone who chooses to listen. Their sophomore album UFO has received critical praise for its singular deranged charm. The Mobius Band offer synth-tinged tunes as a primer. On Fire a.k.a. The Burning Paris and Morning Theft round out the roster. Tickets $8. +18. 9:15 p.m. T.T. the Bear’s Place. (SLS)

MUSIC | The 90 Day Men

Chicago’s the 90 Day Men storm Cambridge with their angular, loud and electrifying math rock. Touring off their new album Panda Park, the 90 Day Men will be joined on stage by post-punk revivalists the Ponys and garage rockers Man Man. Tickets $9. +18. 9 p.m. The Middle East Upstairs. (SLS)

Saturday April 17

DANCE | Hands & Feet Across the Water

The Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble presents a music/dance collaboration featuring a vast array of musical and choreographic styles. In addition to original works set to the music of Fritz Kreisler, Ravel and Villa-Lobos, the show will feature a Haydn piano trio and Khachaturian’s renowned “Saber Dance.” Billbob Brown and Rebecca Nordstrom choreograph and perform. Tickets $15 (HBO). 8 p.m. Rieman Center for the Performing Arts. (BBC)

DANCE | Presencia Latina: Calle Ocho

The theme of this year’s version of the annual Latino cultural show is “Calle Ocho,” the enormous annual street festival that serves as the marquee event in Carnaval Miami and is the largest celebration of Hispanic culture in the country. Presencia Latina will recreate the festival’s exuberant environment with a wealth of performances, ranging from merengue to samba to salsa. Performers include Harvard students and Cambridge residents, and the show is followed by a complimentary food reception. Tickets $5 with Harvard I.D. (HBO). 8 p.m. Lowell Lecture Hall. (BBC)

MUSIC | Jim Hall

Prolific composer Jim Hall will display his unique jazz guitar style, accompanied by the Harvard Jazz Band, in a presentation by the Office for the Arts. The recipient of the 1997 New York Jazz Critics Circle Award for Best Jazz Composer/Arranger, Hall recently held a discussion concert for Harvard students, and now presents his subtle, harmonically advanced playing for a general audience. Tickets $8 with Harvard I.D. (HBO). 8 p.m. Sanders Theatre. (BBC)

MUSIC | New Model Army

Named after the English revolutionary army of Oliver Cromwell, New Model Army are a modern punk band with lots to say about politics while sticking to their staunch working-class ethics. They’ve been putting out albums since 1984—their latest, 2000’s Eight—and count the Clash and the Sex Pistols among their influences. Also performing are Jason Bennett (of Suspect Device) and Pete Depressed. Tickets $10 advance, $12 day of show (Ticketmaster). +18. 10 p.m. The Middle East Upstairs. (SLS)

MUSIC | Savath & Savalas

Prefuse 73 and Delarosa & Asora perform their cerebral electronica as Savath & Savalas, which recently released a new album Apropa’t. Special guest Juana Molina, from Argentina, brings South American-flavored electronic tunes while DJ Nobody opens the night. Tickets $12 advance, $14 day of show (Ticketmaster). +18. 9 p.m. The Middle East Downstairs. (SLS)

LECTURE | Infinite Potential: Islamic Calligraphy in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Norma Jean Calderwood Symposium presents this lecture in connection with the exhibition, “The Continuous Stroke of a Breath: Calligraphy from the Islamic World.” The program will feature lectures by leading scholars of Islamic art, documentary films, with a live demonstration by calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya. The program includes: lectures and film, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; documentary screenings, 12:30-2 p.m.; calligraphy demonstration, 2-4 p.m. Free, tickets required (617 495 4544). Sackler Lecture Hall. (BBC)

Sunday April 18

MUSIC | Legal Love: Benefit for MassEquality.Org

AdFrank, Bostonian singer/songwriter, headlines this night of music benefiting MassEquality.Org. Likeminded singer/songwriters Annie Clark, Paula Kelley, Mary Lou Lord, Senator Jarrett Barrios, Britta Wolfrum, Representative Michael Festa and Liz Stahler add their rock tunes to the socially conscious milieu. Tickets $10. +18. 8:40 p.m. T.T. the Bear’s Place. (SLS)

Monday April 19

FILM | The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Boston’s Devil Music Ensemble will provide a live performance of their original score to accompany this influential German Expressionist horror film. The silent classic is known for its shocking visual style, recounting the tale of the mad Dr. Caligari, whose carnival sideshow features a somnambulist with vivid visions of the future. The story takes on a darker tone when a series of murders is found to coincide with the prophet’s predictions. Featuring a variety of instruments including lap steel guitar, vibraphone, and percussion, The Devil Music Ensemble has toured around the country with their unique live soundtrack experience. Tickets $10 (Ticketweb). 7:30 p.m. Coolidge Corner Theatre. (BBC)

Wednesday, April 21

FILM | Lost in Translation

Fulfilling the boundless promise exhibited in her debut effort, The Virgin Suicides, director Sofia Coppola crafts a sublime love letter to both Tokyo and transitory friendship with her Oscar-winning work. Hollywood star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) has been shipped off to Japan to hawk Centauri whiskey to the natives. There, he encounters Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), the beautiful wife of a photographer, and the pair are soon discovering the culture and a profundity in their friendship that is lacking in their respective marriages. Johansson perfects the prolonged sulk, while Murray delivers a career performance, donning the hats of weary voyager, droll companion and cynical mentor with equal comfort. There are plenty of belly laughs to be had along the way, but what remains with the viewer is the significance of the fleeting connection that these two people share. Coppola dreamily lingers on every scene, adorning each of them with the sensation of the aftermath of a first kiss. Tickets $6. 7 p.m. Harvard Film Archive. (BBC)

FILM | Questioning Faith: Confessions of a Seminarian

The hour-long documentary addresses the question: “How can anyone believe in God, any god, after experiencing life at its most devastating?” Young seminarian Macky Alston was two years from graduation, when a friend’s lost battle against AIDS forced him to explore this very question. Followed by a discussion with director Alston and Professor Claudia Highbaugh. Tickets free. 7 p.m. Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. (BBC)

MUSIC | Radio 4

New York’s Radio 4 revive the danceable post-punk of bands like the Gang of Four, P.I.L. and Mission of Burma. Exuberant indie-rockers The Fever and Certainly Sir start off this night of fun musical frenzy. Don’t forget your dancing shoes! Tickets $10 advance, $12 day of show. +18. 9 p.m. The Middle East Downstairs. (SLS)

Thursday April 22

THEATER | Freshman Musical

Catch the opening performance of this year’s freshman musical, “Hot Noise: Pecs, Jugs and Rock & Roll.” The show chronicles the rise of ’70s rock band, the Red Bricks, from its lowly beginnings at Harvard to the height of superstardom. Witness the turmoil of Vietnam and the Women’s Movement, the power of rock & roll, and the splendor of a sequined jumpsuit. Tickets $5 with Harvard I.D. (HBO). 7:30 p.m. Runs through April 24. Agassiz Theatre. (BBC)

Ongoing

FILM | An Amazing Couple

Lucas Belvaux’s The Trilogy continues with Part 2: An Amazing Couple. The experiment of The Trilogy is to have three films with interlocking stories—main characters in each one have brief appearances in the others—each made in a different genre. An Amazing Couple is the romantic comedy of the set, featuring a sensitive hypochondriac named Alain Costes and his wife, Cecile. Alain misunderstands a need for a minor operation as an indication that he is soon to die. Deciding to keep his wife from worry, he secretively visits doctor after doctor, arousing his wife’s suspicion that he is having an affair. Soon, she has put a private detective on his trail who only has eyes for Cecile and the dignified yet madcap hilarity inherent in a French love triangle commences. Tickets $7.50. 5:30, 7:30, 9:30 p.m. Brattle Theatre. (SAW)

FILM | Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation

Deeply troubled festival organizers Spike and Mike celebrate their 25th year of showcasing crude, ultra-violent and occasionally thought-provoking shorts. This year’s show is all new, featuring such titles as “How To Cope With Death,” “Mama I’m a Thug” and “The Big Abandoned Refrigerator Adventure.” Approach with caution and a strong stomach; once you’ve paid the admission fee, you’ll feel obligated to sit through even the most shudder-inducing clips. Tickets $9. Fridays and Saturdays, midnight. Runs through May 22. Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline. (BBC)

THEATER | The Crucible

The Harvard Law School presents a modernist interpretation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Director and professor Bruce Hay envisions the play as a parable of racial intolerance, including a controversial scene from the original script that’s found in the appendix and rarely performed, suggesting racial undertones in the work. Tickets $5 with Harvard I.D. (HBO). 7:30 p.m., with additional Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Runs through April 24. Ames Courtroom Auditorium, Austin Hall, HLS. (BBC)

THEATER | Iolanthe

The Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players are putting on Iolanthe, this season’s offering of Gilbert and Sullivan’s zany operatic musing. The operetta follows the story of a band of fairies, residents of Fairyland, who attempt to reunite the half-fairy, half-mortal son of Iolanthe with his true love. Tickets: Evenings $12/$10 regular, $8/$6 students and seniors; Matinees $10/$8 regular, $6/$4 students and seniors. Through Saturday, April 17. Agassiz Theatre. (SLS)

THEATER | Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club presents a production of this drama by Tom Stoppard (author of Travesties, The Real Thing and Shakespeare in Love). The play, an imaginative retelling of Hamlet from the perspective of two of its minor characters, won the 1968 Tony Award for Best Play. Tickets: regular $12; students (2 per I.D.) $8; seniors: $8; groups of 10 or more $7. Through Saturday, April 17. Loeb Mainstage. (SLS)

THEATER | A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams’ classic play is coming to the west end of Eliot’s now cramped dining hall, under the direction of David Kimel. The production also marks the revival of the Eliot House Drama Society. Tickets $5 with Harvard I.D. (HBO). Through Saturday, April 17. Eliot House Dining Hall. (BBC)

VISUALS | Bussewitz Photography Exhibit

The exhibit presents the work of naturalist-educator Albert Bussewitz, a dedicated student of the Arboretum landscape. His photographs are on loan from the Masachusetts Audubon Society’s Visual Arts Center in Canton, Mass. Through May 17. Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain. (BBC)

VISUALS | Design-Recline

Chair enthusiasts won’t want to miss this new exhibit at the Busch-Reisinger, which tracks the development of the chaise lounge from 1928 to 1955. The exhibit promises to examine “in a fresh way the now well-known tenets of modern architecture, from the radical use of new materials and technology to concepts of indoor-outdoor living and issues of sickness and health.” Runs March 20 through July 11 at the Busch-Reisinger Museum. (NAS)

VISUALS | Gary Schneider: Portraits

The first major exhibition to bring together a full range of photographer Gary Schneider’s work. Schneider’s fascination with science, work with found objects, and use of biography and autobiography are all part of the new exhibit, and display his roots in the post-minimal conceptual art of the 1970s. Runs through June 13. Tickets $5, free admission for Harvard I.D. holders and visitors on Saturdays until noon. Sackler Museum, 32 Quincy St. (LFL)

VISUALS | Gauguin Tahiti

This exhibition features the paintings that Paul Gauguin produced between his departure for Tahiti in 1891 and his death in the Marquesa Islands in 1903 are currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The canvasses are among Gauguin’s most mysterious, colorful and exotic. The exhibition’s Boston stop will be its only showing in the U.S., so be sure to see it while you can. “Gauguin Tahiti” runs through June 20 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. (SLS)

VISUALS | In the Mountains: Photographs by Bradford Washburn

Featuring 35 photographic images selected by this acclaimed photographer, mapmaker, mountaineer, and native New Englander. The exhibition presents work from 50 years of his storied career, with some of his earliest shots in the French Alps at the age of 19 years old, and dramatic photographs taken in Alaska as a septuagenarian. Free. Harvard Museum of Natural History. (BBC)

Films

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

In director Michel Gondry’s latest effort, a company named Lacuna Incorporated has acquired the technology to erase the foul taste of a past partner. Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) discovers this after tracing a note to ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet), asking mutual friends not to raise his name in conversation with her. Since the ex is not supposed to see these notes, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), the inventor of the treatment and the founder of Lacuna, agrees to perform the operation on Joel as well. The centerpiece of the movie begins as Joel slowly realizes that, though his final memories of the relationship are tough to handle, he wants to remember at least some of the more pleasant aspects. Jim Carrey is actually quiet for significant pieces of the role: he underplays, giving Joel a quiet dignity that makes the eventual disgrace in losing control over his own mind that much sadder. Exiting Sunshine is looking at the world with new eyes, possibly the highest tribute that can be paid to art. (SAW)

GOOD BYE, LENIN!

Good Bye, Lenin! centers on the experience of East Berliner Alex Kerner, played by wide-eyed 24-year-old Daniel Brühl, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. After fainting during the Berlin riots, Alex’s mother (Katrin Sass) enters a deep coma for several months. Upon his mother’s release, the doctor cautions Alex that he must insulate her from any shocks, because a stressful event could kill her. Since his mother was fiercely loyal to the idealism of the DDR, Alex makes it his goal to keep her from finding out about the dramatic political changes through which she slept. Good Bye, Lenin! is dotted with distilled illustrations of the many facets of the reunification, some of which shine much brighter than others. He does not fall into the trap of romanticizing the past at the expense of historical fact; his characters cherish their new conveniences and freedom of expression, and don’t miss the panoptic party structure of socialism. (WBP)

INTERMISSION

Irish native John Crowley handles the 11 interlinked stories and 54 characters so deftly in his directorial debut that the movie successfully delivers an almost unrelenting barrage of comedy, romance and excitement and earns comparisons to Robert Altman’s best work. John (Cillian Murphy) is inarticulate, unsure of what he wants and desperately insecure. As a result, he decides to “test” his girlfriend Deirdre (Kelly Macdonald) by breaking up with her, an action that has consequences for everyone in their small Dublin suburb. Simultaneous to the romantic drama, another local suburbanite, Lehiff (Colin Farrell) has his thoughts on a big robbery that, as always, will enable him to settle down for life. Although the language is often colorful, it symbolizes the working-class ethos that sustains the interweaving narratives of this dense story. Crowley deepens the glimpse of the working class by opening an eye to the often overlooked quirky and ridiculous things of daily routine. (EBOR)

MY ARCHITECT

If we viewed architects as celebrities, Louis I. Kahn’s life would have been made into an “E! True Hollywood Story” a long time ago. Kahn battled early obstacles–a fire that permanently disfigured his face, his family’s immigration from Estonia to America—to become a celebrated designer of famous buildings all over the world. Then he lost it all, falling deep into debt and finally dying of a heart attack in a train station restroom. Thirty years after his death, Kahn’s son has created a tribute to him on film, glorying in his architectural triumphs, but supplementing the laurels with an honest assessment of his personal failings. Farrah Fawcett wasn’t one-tenth as interesting as this guy. (BJS)

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

Director Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ represents the teachings of Jesus through a gore-drenched recreation of the final 12 hours before his death. Here, the son of God is a wholly human figure, and Gibson constantly reminds his audience of this with an unceasing depiction of shredded flesh and spattered blood. The effect is alternately piercing and numbing. Nevertheless, Gibson eventually succeeds in overwhelming his audience with potent visual poignancy, finding narrative might in the passion plays’ minor characters. There are only glimpses of Christ’s words in the movie, and his resurrection is given minimal screen time, but these are provided in such well-timed respites that their resounding impact is ultimately The Passion’s greatest, most awe-inspiring achievement. (BBC)

There are three fatal flaws that damage Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ for nonbelievers: almost no characterization or narrative, a spectacularly large amount of violence and almost all of the Jews are evil Christ-killers. In Gibson’s mania to present the extent of Jesus’ suffering, character is lost, and by the end of the film, Jesus begins to resemble a piñata more than a man. The effect is that it is hard to understand quite what the point of all this is. It is never clear why he is so dangerous. It is never clear why everyone is so passionate about this presence, who, in the film, shows as much depth as Tyrese in 2 Fast 2 Furious. The film’s violence is physically exhausting and, ultimately, numbing; ultimately, these shots begin to resemble pornography, complete with a money shot. (SAW)

SPARTAN

After the President’s daughter is kidnapped from Lowell House, shadowy super Secret Agent Scott (Val Kilmer) is assigned to track her down using whatever means necessary, in writer-director David Mamet’s newest film. Although the dialogue often bounces with Mamet’s rat-a-tat flair, this movie’s deep flaws destroy the elegantly crafted political thriller that might have been. Cheap budgets, mind-numbing incoherence and nonsensical plotting overshadow the few genuine surprises and admirable political idealism to leave only a square-jawed action movie for pseudo-intellectuals that never lives up to its ambition. (SAW)

TOUCHING THE VOID

This story of a 1985 Andes mountain-climbing disaster comes courtesy of director Kevin MacDonald, whose film One Day in September won the Oscar for Best Documentary a few years ago. But in the vein of his last work, Touching the Void, is not a clear-cut documentary; the events it examines are real, but MacDonald uses re-enactments of the story’s events to supplement a narrated account from the disaster’s survivors. The nut of their crisis: halfway through a climb, one of the two team members falls and breaks several leg bones. The other climber decides to lower his injured partner to safety, 300 feet of rope at a time, until he accidentally lowers him over a precipice. Knowing that soon both of them would tumble to their deaths, he makes a critical decision and cuts the cord. (BJS)

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE

Sylvain Chomet’s film aims for a multinational texture and is largely devoid of dialogue, but nevertheless retains a distinctly French sensibility with a penchant for shrewd cultural allusions. A clubfooted widow, Madame Souza, trains her chubby grandson Champion to become a stick-thin cyclist with the help of bulky canine Bruno and her restless whistle. One day, Champion is mysteriously kidnapped, along with two of his fellow Tour de France riders, by amusingly ominous members of the French mafia. In hot pursuit, Madame Souza travels to the Dionysian metropolis Belleville, where she enlists the help of the eponymous triplets—former scat singers turned household-item instrumentalists—in liberating Champion from the clutches of a diminutive wine magnate. A marvelous fusion of color, music, and caricature, each splendid offbeat frame restores faith in traditional hand-drawn animation. (TIH)

THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND

Seemingly intelligent high school student Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling) has just killed an autistic boy for no clear reason. In juvenile hall, he has to come to terms with what he has done. Outside, his alcoholic father (Kevin Spacey), his girlfriend (Jena Malone) and others in the community grapple with the repercussions of this terrible act of violence. What does it mean for their community? Although many critics have mocked the film as a now predictable execration of the darkness behind modern suburbia, in this time of school shootings and anti-depressants, Leland at least stands out as an interesting and intentionally boundary pushing work. (SAW)

WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF

Although this is not a title you’d normally associate with humor, Lone Scherfig’s Sweedish film is a dryly sweet comedy. Harbour and Wilbur have inherited their father’s used book store and Harbour has inherited the task of taking care of his suicidally depressed younger brother. One day, Alice and her young daughter Mary walk into the book shop and sparks fly. Soon, a romantic quadrangle develops and this man who has never liked life learns to love it. (SAW)

—Happening was compiled by Ben B. Chung, Tiffany I. Hsieh, Elsa B. Ó Riain, Will B. Payne, Sarah L. Solorzano, Benjamin J. Soskin, and Scoop A. Wasserstein.