Aero Theatre

THE Los Angeles County Museum of Art's eclectic "Through the Looking Glass (and Down the Rabbit Hole)" series exploring the real and the surreal continues with the baffling 1968 gothic thriller "Secret Ceremony" on Friday evening. Directed by blacklisted American director Joseph Losey in England, the film stars Mia Farrow as a daffy heiress who convinces a streetwalker (Elizabeth Taylor) -- whose child had drowned -- into coming home with her and pretending to be her mother.

"Flight," starring Denzel Washington, and "Half-Nelson" with Ryan Gosling are among the films featured in the Reel Recovery Film Festival-Skid Row Edition , which takes place Friday through Sunday at the Inner City Arts Theater in Los Angeles. The festival will feature three days of recovery-themed performances, film, discussions and fellowships. Three films will be screened each day. Every evening there will also be a performance of the play "The Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere," which is written and performed by members of a theater group who live and work on skid row. The South East European Film Festival kicks off Thursday evening at the WGA Theatre with the Romanian comedy "Of Snails and Men. " The festival continues through Monday and will feature films from 15 countries from the region, including the Croatian drama "Halima's Path" and the Bosnian documentary "The Living Monument.

German-born director Ernst Lubitsch, who came to Hollywood in the 1920s, had such a deft hand with comedies that it became known as "the Lubitsch touch. " The American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre in Santa Monica is to celebrate "A Touch of Laughter: The Films of Ernst Lubitsch" this weekend. The filmmaker's daughter, Nicola Lubitsch, is scheduled to be on hand Thursday evening to introduce the 1939 romantic comedy "Ninotchka," starring Greta Garbo in her first comedy -- the marketing tag line stated "Garbo Laughs" -- and Melvyn Douglas.

Film Independent at LACMA is holding a 1980s costume contest after the 30th anniversary screening of Martha Coolidge's endearing comedy "Valley Girl" on Thursday evening at the Leo S. Bing Theater. The romantic comedy was inspired by Frank Zappa and his daughter Moon Unit's 1982 hit song spoofing the stereotypical "Valley Girl" who lived in bedroom communities in the San Fernando Valley in the early 1980s. The film made a star out of a young Nicolas Cage as Randy, a young punk who falls for Valley Girl Julie (Deborah Foreman)

POP MUSIC Cee Lo Green and Big Boi Two of hip-hop and soul's most adventurous, progressive figures team up for a night of impressive beats, virtuoso mike work and, yes, a spirited take on "Forget You" in its original, bawdier version. They each had one of the best records of 2010, and this set will affirm how much ground is left to till in their genres. Club Nokia at L.A. Live, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. 7:30 p.m. $39. http://www.clubnokia.com. Martha Wainwright Her third album took a turn away from original folk tunes to a full-length tribute to legendary French singer Edith Piaf.

Cinema lost a true original on July 8 when Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine died at the age of 95. The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theater in Hollywood is celebrating his life and legacy beginning Thursday evening with a double bill of Nicholas Ray's cult 1954 Western “Johnny Guitar,” with Borgnine supporting Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden and Mercedes McCambridge, and 1958's “The Badlanders,” a Western remake of “The Asphalt Jungle”...

The language was colorful but the tone loving when friends and colleagues spoke at the American Cinematheque tribute to Samuel L. Jackson on Monday night. In what may be the most bleeped award show in history, Jackson's iconic movie lines were repeated, including the infamous "I have had it with these . . . snakes on this . . . plane!" It loses something in translation, but when Justin Timberlake uttered the full quote from "Snakes on a Plane" at the Beverly Hilton, it brought down the house.

Marcel Rasquin's " Hermano" opens the 14th Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival on Thursday at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The seven-day event includes 25 narrative and 12 documentary features and 36 shorts from the Latin filmmaking community. The festival also features numerous filmmaker panels, parties and gala events. Except for openings and closing night programs, all screenings take place at the Mann Chinese 6 Cinemas; panels and seminars are holding court on the third floor of the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel Space, and the closing night gala screening of Carlos Carrera's " Backyard" is set for the Egyptian Theatre.

With awards season in full swing, two Oscar hopefuls -- director Robert Zemeckis ("Flight") and actor Richard Gere ("Arbitrage") -- are being feted with retrospectives at the American Cinematheque. "Who Framed Smart Entertainment: An In-Person Tribute to Robert Zemeckis" is to kick off Nov. 26 at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica with two of the director's early works: the 1984 hit comedy-romance-adventure "Romancing the Stone," with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, and the 1980 comedy "Used Cars," with Kurt Russell and Jack Warden.