Friday, February 1 - Thursday, February 7

IndieFest

The Fourth Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival returns to the Roxie for seven big days of the best new independent features, shorts, animation and documentaries. Tickets go on sale Monday, January 14. General admission is $8.00. Matinees, all films before 4pm, are $6.00. A festival RoxiePass, good for addmission to all films at the Roxie is only $75.00. Advance tickets and passes will be available with no service charge online at www.sfindie.com Advance tickets are also available through TicketMaster by calling 415-421-TIXS and at most Bay Area Rite Aid stores and all Tower Records. Phone and web orders will be available for pick up at the Will Call table the day of the show. Same day tickets are only available at the Roxie. The box office will open 30 minutes before the first show of the day and will sell tickets for that day's shows at the Roxie only. For full program information and info about the IndieFest Benefit event taking place January 11 check out www.sfindie.com or call 415-820-3907.

Friday, February 8 - Thursday, February 14

U.S. Theatrical Premiere
New Rose Hotel

Over the years Abel Ferrara has been drawn to dangerous, ultra-volatile heroes, often criminals living violent lives who nonetheless crave spiritual redemption, as epitomized by Harvey Keitel's tormented cop in "Bad Lieutenant" and Christopher Walken's benevolent gangster in "King of New York." It takes actors like Keitel and Walken to play these roles-mature, forceful men with intellect to match their intensity. Willem Dafoe is also such an actor, and he has now teamed with Walken to star in, as well as produce NEW ROSE HOTEL, which director Ferrara adapted with Christ Zois from a short story by William Gibson. NEW ROSE HOTEL is as emotion-charged as any Ferrara film ever, a fatalistic fable which takes us "five minutes into the future," a time when Fox (Walken), who has spent his whole life making shady deals, is in Tokyo. There he and his longtime junior partner and pal, X (Dafoe), are planning to deliver from one corporation to another Hiroshi (Yoshitaka Amano), a brilliant geneticist. Fox and X are looking at a whopping $100 million if they can deliver Hirsohi to the competition. Fox has also found in Sandi (Asia Argento), a European working as a bar girl in Tokyo, just the woman sultry and shrewd enough to seduce Hiroshi away from his job and wife. There may be a hitch, though: X has grown tired of Fox's endless wheeling and dealing and is also drawn to Sandi, with whom he falls in love with as he instructs her on the finer points of seduction. Shows nightly at 6:00, 8:00 & 10:00 with additional Wed., Sat., and Sun. matinees at 2:00 and 4:00. Starring Christopher Walken, Willem DaFoe, Asia Argento, Yoshitaka Amano. Based on the story by William Gibson. Directed by Abel Ferrara. In Color. 35mm. 92 mins.

" Three Stars!" -- Jeff Anderson, SF EXAMINER
"NEW ROSE HOTEL is a bravura mood piece, a fatalistic fable about a central character with the delusions of grandeur of an Orson Welles hero."
- Kevin Thomas, LA Times

Friday, February 15 - Thursday, February 28

Mulholland Drive

Oscar nominated for Best Director, "Mulholland Drive" is the most womanly of David Lynch's movies. To call it feminine wouldn't be the same thing: That implies a shy delicacy, almost an air of propriety, that "Mulholland Drive" just doesn't have. Instead it's wily and sophisticated, stylized like an art deco nude, and suffused with so much feline glamour and beauty and naked eroticism that its chief aim seems not to be to dazzle us with its typically Lynchian plot twists, but to seduce us into its sway and keep us there. This is a movie with hips. "Mulholland Drive" is beautifully and intricately structured: Those who delight in disassembling Lynch's puzzles will have a great time flipping the plot around, tracing its breadcrumb clues back from the end to the beginning. But it also works out perfectly if you're interested only in the interplay between its hypnotically beguiling characters (or even if you're interested only in seeing them go to bed with one another). At the very least, the luxe air of menace that hangs around "Mulholland Drive" like a vapor is evidence of Lynch at his best. --- Salon.com Directed by David Lynch. Ensemble cast includes Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Ann Miller. Official Web Site Running Time: 146 minutes. Showtimes: Nightly at 7:00 and 9:45 Sat, Sun, Mon and Wed matinees at 1:00 and 4:00 Rated R for violence, language and some strong sexuality.