(Film screening suggestions for the week of Jan 27-Feb 2) Gummo. What can I say about Gummo? Not until it appeared on the Cinémathèque québécoise's calendar did I even revisit my memories of Harmony Korine's doc-style portrait of a sad little American town. Or should I say memory, because (apart from visions of bunny ears and taped breasts), my sole concrete memory of Gummo is pictured above. Beautiful in exposition, it is also revolting: the underfed homely kid, dirty bath water, stunning azure blue tiles, rotting wood, milk and plastic, and a perfectly fine plate of spaghetti. The film plays Saturday. (+)

The Cinémathèque's programming also includes some other great cult favourites. An alien is mistaken for a black man and dropped in Harlem in The Brother from Another Planet, playing Saturday. (+) Sansho the Bailiff, Kenji Mizoguchi's samurai classic, screens with French subtitles on Sunday. (+) Finally, if you missed it last week, Ghost World returns next Thursday. This time, Satanist's allowed.

The cult goodness keeps on coming at Blue Sunshine. Not to miss is a rare screening of The Plague Dogs on Saturday. This animated film from director Martin Rosen is a spiritual follow-up to the animal rights classic, Watership Down. In this film, two dogs escape from a lab and are hunted down. (+) The center for horror studies will also screen a 16mm projection of The Sentinel, a 1977 film about a fashion model who must find salvation after a series of events haunt her new apartment. (+)

If classics are your bag, grab some mini pizzas and popcorn at the Rialto Theatre on Monday for a screening of the musical-comedy 42nd Street (+). And if you don't check out Cineplex's digital screening of The Godfather on Monday, you can sleep with the fishes. It plays at Cinema Banque Scotia downtown or at the Colisée Kirkland. $5 Admission. (+)

I get quite a few imaginary comments and queries regarding Reel Forecast, and the one that most frequently comes up is: "What about free screenings?" The important thing to note with free screenings is they mostly occur at cultural centres. This week, you can catch L'Illusioniste, the latest animated film from the director of The Triplets of Belleville. It plays at the Salle de diffusion de Parc-Extension (421, rue Roch) on Sunday at 2pm.

The big news this week for local film was the Academy Award nomination for Monsieur Lazhar. Not to be missed, the film continues to screen at various theatres on and off the island. Residents of Lachine will be treated to a free screening on Monday at 7:30pm at the Complexe culturel Guy-Descary (2901, boul. St-Joseph, Lachine QC). Timely is Cinema du Parc's Tribute to Denys Arcand who has thrice been nominated in the Foreign Film category at the Oscars; namely for Jésus de Montréal, The Decline of the American Empire and its sequel, The Barbarian Invasions. Check out his entire filmography during the weeklong event starting tomorrow. (+)

Image courtesy the recesses of my memory.