>>On Thursday, La Maison Française (4101 Reservoir Rd. NW) is hosting a double screening of two of the funniest movies ever made in France. First, at 6:30 p.m., it is Patrice Leconte’s Les Bronzés (1978), whose story follows a group of nutcases trying to relax at a vacation resort in Ivory Coast. Second, at 8:45 p.m., they will show Jean-Marie Poiré’s Le Père Noël est une ordure, which mostly takes place in a suicide hotline call center on Christmas Eve, where nothing goes right. Both movies are the work of a legendary group of French actors known as the équipe du Splendid, but in the great tradition of French comedy, they are less about their supposed storylines and more about skewering French social attitudes. Mention either movie to any French person you know, and it will be evident that both are cult classics. Enjoy a cup of French vin chaud (mulled wine) between the screenings. $5 for one film, $8 for both, but the mulled wine is extra. You must make a reservation in advance.

>> Opening on Friday (December 15) at AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring is the new British film The History Boys. An adaptation of an award-winning recent play of the same name, the story follows a class of bright troublemakers hoping to survive school and get into college at Oxford or Cambridge. Consult the AFI Web site for times and tickets.

>> Also opening at the AFI Silver Theater on Friday (December 15 through 21) is one of those movies that was made for the big screen, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979). The AFI’s Coppola Festival continues into early January.