Yuzo Kawashima (Japan, 1957). Named the fifth best Japanese film of all time in a 2009 Kinema Jumpo poll, Kawashima's Edo-set comedy follows a fast-talking deadbeat (Frankie Sakai) as he works his way into-but not out of-an intrigue-filled brothel. Cowritten by Shohei Imamura, Kawashima's longtime assistant director. (110 mins)

Béla Tarr (Hungary/France/Switzerland/Germany, 2011). Winner of the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, the latest masterpiece from Béla Tarr is reportedly the director's final film, and was inspired by a true-life tale involving Friedrich Nietzsche. A father-and-daughter depend on the health of their ill-fated horse. “An auteurist triumph” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times). (146 mins)

Alile Sharon Larkin (U.S., 1982) New Print! Introduced by Leigh Raiford. An African American woman living away from her family in Los Angeles yearns to be recognized for more than her physical attributes. With short films exploring personal and social change: Cycles (Zeinabu irene Davis), Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification (Barbara McCullough), and Grey Area (Monona Wali). (112 mins)

(U.S., 2011–12). Student filmmakers in person. Introduced by student curators. Tonight's program-presenting the work of fourteen gifted college student filmmakers-includes pieces that explore the less-traveled alleys and alcoves of the Bay Area, unearth fleeting images and sounds of memories long untouched, and employ innovative cinematic structures and forms. (c. 73 mins)

Alex Cox (U.S./Mexico, 1991). Alex Cox in person. A Mexican highway patrolman learns the seedier side of the job in this straight-from-the-hip study of a young man who yearns for the noble when everything around him is grubby and corrupt. (104 mins)

William Wellman (U.S., 1950) Archival print! Introduced by J. Hoberman. An ordinary family tunes their radio into “the voice of God” in Wellman's arch drama from the Nuclear Age. “A study in terror; it acknowledges an actual anxiety and, however pitifully, responds to a real sense of helplessness” (Hoberman). (82 mins)

Alex Cox (U.S./Mexico, 1996). Alex Cox in person. Cox's ongoing fascination with Jorge Luis Borges is seen in this feature adaptation of a Borges tale. Here, we are engaged by the dogged Peter Boyle as Erik Lönnrot, a philosophical detective who uncovers a series of murders that might be the outcome of an occult conspiracy. With Pedro Armendáriz Jr and Christopher Eccleston. (86 mins)

Alex Cox (U.S., 1987). Alex Cox and J. Hoberman in conversation. A broadside at the ship of state and Reagan-era imperialism in Latin America, Walker follows the bloody campaign of an American mercenary (Ed Harris) to conquer and rule over Nicaragua in 1855. (94 mins)

Samuel Fuller (U.S., 1951) Archival print! Introduced by J. Hoberman. A gruff American sergeant and a South Korean orphan make their way through enemy territory in Fuller's ruthlessly unsentimental war film. (84 mins)