Series traces development of Kubrick's genius
Legendary director Stanley Kubrick reportedly dismissed his first feature film, 1953's ''Fear and Desire," as childish scribbling. But just two years later his second feature, ''Killer's Kiss," showed clear outlines of the genius that flourished in later films. In this thriller, down-and-out boxer Davy Gordon (Jamie Smith) falls for dancer Gloria Price (Irene Kane), whose boyfriend doesn't take kindly to Gordon's attentions and sics his thugs on him. The movie lacks some bite as film noir, but it caught the eye of Kirk Douglas, who pushed to have Kubrick direct ''Spartacus" in 1960.
''Killer's Kiss" opens the Brattle Theatre's ''Complete Kubrick" retrospective on Friday. It's followed by ''The Killing," in which plans for a racetrack heist unravel brilliantly. Ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) is looking for a quick score, but things get complicated in a hurry. No one is supposed to get hurt, but you can imagine that things don't quite turn out that way.
The retrospective moves from Kubrick's early work to the films that cemented his reputation: ''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," ''A Clockwork Orange," and ''2001: A Space Odyssey." The series ends Sept. 15 with ''Eyes Wide Shut," featuring then-married Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise as a couple whose fantasies about infidelity become a dark reality.
For more information, call 617-876-6838 or go to www.brattlefilm.org.
SINGULAR POINT: Argentine director Lucho Bender made only one film in his career but it offers a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been. ''Felicidades," from 2000, was Argentina's Academy Award entry for best foreign language film. In the movie, Bender uses the type of crisscrossing plot lines that have become Robert Altman's trademark. It's Christmas Eve in Buenos Aires and a series of coincidences brings together a comic, a doctor, a young father, and a writer as they get ready for the holiday.
The Museum of Fine Arts presents a two-show engagement of ''Felicidades" on Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. and Sept. 10 at 3:45 p.m. For more information, call 617-369-3306 or go to www.mfa.org.
WOMEN'S WORK: Women in Film & Video/New England's aptly named Chicks Make Flicks weekly series celebrating local female filmmakers kicks off its third year on Sept. 6. First up is Maryanne Galvin's ''The Pursuit of Pleasure." Galvin, a Boston-based forensic psychologist and documentarian, interviews seven women about their thoughts on subjects including marriage, sexuality, and gender roles. Maria Agui Carter's ''The Devil's Music" follows on Oct. 4. The film looks at race, class, and censorship in the world of jazz. Gayle Ferraro's ''Anonymously Yours," a clandestinely shot film about the South Asian sex trade, screens Nov. 1. The series concludes Dec. 6 with ''West 47th Street," a film on mentally ill homeless New Yorkers directed by June
All screenings will be held at 7 p.m. (except for ''The Devil's Music, which screens at 7:30) on the first Tuesday of the month on the MIT campus, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Room 6-120. For more information, call 617-612-0091 or go to www.wifvne.org.
SHORT TAKES: After four days of screenings, panels, and filmmaker Q&As, the Roxbury Film Festival wrapped on Aug. 21 with an awards presentation. Thato Rantao Mwosa (''Don't Tell Me You Love Me") was named best emerging local filmmaker; Nisha Murickan (''Maria") won the award for most original voice of a New England filmmaker; and Northampton filmmaker Jeff Zimbalist won the audience favorite award for ''Favela Rising." The festival's top prize went to Jordan Walker-Pearlman, whose film ''Constellation" stars Billy Dee Williams, a special guest at this year's event.
Rhonda Stewart can be reached at rstewart@globe.com. 
