10

SUNDAY

When the director-actor duo that brought us Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood delivered the mediocre Sleepy Hollow in 1999, it wasn’t the first time either member of that team had faltered; it was just the first time they had done so together. Tim Burton, whose recent credits at the time included directing the sci-fi flop Mars Attacks! as well as producing Batman Forever and Cabin Boy, was beginning to lose some of the cred he had gained earlier in his career; the ever-versatile Johnny Depp, meanwhile, had grown equally inconsistent, seemingly accepting any offbeat roles he was offered, often in ho-hum flicks even an actor of his ability couldn’t save. So it stands to reason that their latest combined undertaking, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has fans waiting with a fair degree of trepidation. A whimsical re-imagining of a dark “children’s” classic by one of Hollywood’s most visually creative directors or just another series of thematically linked set pieces? See the world as Tim Burton does when film historian Max Alvarez presents “The Cinema of Tim Burton” at 1 p.m.at the S. Dillon Ripley Center, 1100 Jefferson Drive SW. $18. (202) 252-0012. (Matthew Borlik)