SIFF for Saturday, 5/21/11: Miranda July/Black Narcissus are our picks of the day.

Nuns go batty in the Himalayas in the classic film "Black Narcissus" screening at SIFF tonight.

I know for a fact that certain high up folks at the Seattle International Film Festival are jumping for joy that it’s supposed to be grey and bleh, weather wise, for the next couple of days…SIFF prefers grey weather to nice weather for the simple fact people are more apt to go to films on a dreary day as opposed to a nice day…they’re so rare in Seattle, who wants to sit in a cinema when you can be outdoors suckin’ up the Vitamin D?

It’s deliciously bleak today, so you should check out some films. Two LGBTQ films play today: Tom Tykwers’s zexy, bisexual romance “3” screens at 1:30pm at the Neptune and the gorgeously photographed Norwegian lesbian romance/drama “The Mountain” plays at 1pm at the Admiral in West Seattle…both are worth checking out.

We also recommend seeing one of the most beautiful melodramas ever made, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 classic “Black Narcissus”.…“a study of desire, hysteria, temptation, and sexuality set in a remote convent high up in the Indian Himalayas, Black Narcissus is an erotically charged psychological drama by the celebrated British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel of the same name by Rumer Godden.” Starring Deborah Kerr and featuring the lush camera work of Jack Cardiff and the jaw droppingly beautiful production design of Alfred Junge, (both men won Oscars for their work) you’ll have a hard time believing this film was shot on the back lot at Pinewood Studios outside London, and not on location in the Himalayas. This beautifully restored film screens at 7:30pm at SIFF Cinema. Well worth checking out on the big screen.

For more modern tastes, there is the Seattle premiere of Miranda July’s latest film, “The Future” a quirky take on “the story of a young couple who decide to take 30 days to explore their destinies”. From the director of the much loved (by many; disliked by quite a few as well) Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Future is the New American Cinema Spotlight film for SIFF 2011 and screens tonight at Pacific Place at 7pm with a party following in the atrium of Pacific Place hosted by Il Fornaio and Ms July is scheduled to attend.