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FRIDAY

Like his Lodz Film School classmate Roman Polanski—whose Knife in the Water he co-wrote—Jerzy Skolimowski left Poland in the late ’60s and was soon directing English-language movies. He never got a breakthrough assignment like Rosemary’s Baby, though, and is best known for such small-scale masterpieces as Deep End and Moonlighting. Skolimowski hasn’t directed a film in a decade, but his career might have gone differently if he’d had a hit with The Adventures of Gerard, a big-budget 1970 production. Set in Spain during Napoleon’s 1808 campaign, this elegantly photographed movie is a comedy-adventure romp, with Peter McEnery as a dashing French officer who wins the battles and gets the girl (Claudia Cardinale). Oddly, it’s one of only two movies based on the swashbuckling Napoleonic tales of Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes has inspired more than a dozen flicks. The Adventures of Gerard screens at 7 p.m. at the Library of Congress’ Pickford Theater, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Free. (202) 707-5677. (Mark Jenkins)