New ‘Singin� print is anniversary gift

The American Cinematheque will mark the 50th anniversary of “Singin’ in the Rain,� long regarded as the one of the greatest -- if not, indeed, the greatest -- of American film musicals with several screenings daily through Wednesday. Warner Bros. Classics has prepared a new print with digitally restored sound and images. Friday night’s 7:15 opening screening will be introduced by Barbara Freed Saltzman, daughter of producer Arthur Freed

A fresh viewing of the film, a holiday treat if ever there was one, on a pristine print only reinforces the film’s enduring stature. Its evergreen songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Freed are set off by Betty Comden and the late Adolph Green’s script, one of the wittiest ever for a musical, a knowing, affectionate satire of Hollywood as it was hit by the talkie revolution.

It’s directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly and stars Kelly as a Douglas Fairbanks-type swashbuckling star coping with the advent of sound. So is his gorgeous leading lady (an unforgettably funny yet poignant Jean Hagen), cursed with a screechy voice and low-class accent that might defy the most skilled and persistent of elocution teachers. It co-stars Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor.

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The New Beverly Cinema is offering a double feature tonight of recent films by Takashi Miike, one of Japan’s most venturesome contemporary filmmakers. “The Happiness of the Katakuris� (7:30 p.m.) is in the Japanese tradition of pitch-dark absurdist comedy. It combines a spoof of the cliches of the Hollywood musical with a plot that faintly echoes that of the French classic “The Red Inn� (1951) but with the difference that the few guests of this film’s inn tend to wind up dead inadvertently rather than intentionally.

Miike’s “Audition� (at 9:30 p.m.) begins like a classic, gentle Yasujiro Ozu parent-and-child drama, but 45 minutes into it we get hints that we’re in for something rather different. Even then there’s no way of knowing that this audacious film, to describe it mildly, will present some of the most horrific images ever seen in a serious work produced for general release.

Miike is such a compelling filmmaker that he makes it hard to turn away from the unspeakable. While he packs a major jolt for horror fans, “Audition� is actually carrying a critique of the lingering subordinate status of women in Asian society to its horrendous, hideous extreme.

Ryo Ishibashi stars as a good-looking, long-widowed 42-year-old businessman who thinks he has met the perfect mate in Eihi Shiina’s exquisite, waif-like onetime ballet student. “Audition� is a diabolically adroit piece of filmmaking that goes even further than the films of Italy’s excruciatingly macabre Dario Argento.

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Note: The New Beverly also has a terrific French double feature, “Read My Lips� and “With a Friend Like Harry ... ,� on Friday and Saturday.

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Screenings

What: “Singin’ in the Rain�

Where: American Cinematheque, Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

When: Today through Dec. 25

Info: (323) 466-FILM

What: “The Happiness of the Katakuris� (7:30 p.m.) and “Audition� (9:30 p.m.)

Where: New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd., L.A.

When: Tonight

Info: (323) 938-4038