The Stranger

Gregory Euclide uses sumi ink and the clean lines of modernist architecture to create foggy, mystical-industrial scenes on paper. Zac Culler riffs in charcoal and chalk on the pioneer psychodrama of SuttonBeresCuller's beautiful photograph Beast of Burden. Michele Carlson's cheerful pattern-and-decoration planes puncture the anxiety of post-9/11 flight. These artists and others are in Free Parking, a becoming group drawing show at a becoming little gallery called OKOK. (OKOK Gallery, 5107 Ballard Ave NW, 789-6242. 11 am—5 pm, free.) by Jen Graves

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Stephanie Timm writes grim comedies that happen somewhere between the world we live in and the one we remember from fairy tales. In Crumbs, a snowy small town is our setting, the local crazy is our narrator, a sexually precocious little girl is Little Red Riding Hood, a menacing stranger is the Big, Bad Wolf—and that's just one of a dozen subplots. Plus: pet murders, little old ladies, fishing, an ice pick, and enough sexual tension to power all of Nebraska. (Washington Ensemble Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 800-838-3006. 8 pm, $15—$18.) by Brendan Kiley

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Originally conceived by Shohei Imamura (The Eel, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge), Kazuo Hara's first film is a documentary about an elderly World War II veteran named Kenzo Okuzaki. It touches on cannibalistic war crimes and lunatic political activism and distinctly unromantic matchmaking. Let us now praise those bygone days when all it took to protest a form of government was distributing pornographic pictures of one's emperor. (Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St, 523-3935. 6:30 and 8:45 pm, $5—$7.50.) by Annie Wagner

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This improbably awesome film about a self-absorbed singer waiting to hear whether she has cancer is by Agnès Varda (The Gleaners and I)—the only female filmmaker and feminist to be associated with the French New Wave. The purpose of this Northwest Film Forum screening, however, is to consider the Michel Legrand score; the 9:00 p.m. screening of Cleo is paired with a 7:00 p.m. screening of the candy-colored musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, by Varda's husband Jacques Demy. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 267-5380. 9 pm, $5—$8.50.) by Annie Wagner

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The new year-round cinema programmed by the diabolically expanding Seattle International Film Festival Group is opening its doors with over 30 pristine prints from Janus Films. The series kicks off with a rarely screened spritz of genius from Max Ophüls, The Earrings of Madame de..., about adulterous thoughts, 360-degree shots, diamond pendants dripping with irony, and highly meaningful acts of candle snuffery. It's totally ludicrous, and pretty much perfect. (SIFF Cinema at McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St, 464-5830, seattlefilm.org. 7 pm, $9.) by Annie Wagner

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The primary elements of The Aura, a carefully constructed noir by the late Argentine director Fabián Bielinsky, are an epileptic taxidermist, a rusty rifle, a strange dog, a busy casino, two exhausted thugs, a wild woman, a ruthless patriarch with a German name, and the opportunity of committing the perfect crime in the middle of nowhere. It all comes together to form an impressive thriller. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 267-5380. 7 and 9:30 pm, $5—$8.50.) by Charles Mudede

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