"RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA," the Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual glimpse into the state of that art, this year grows richer with the addition of "Rendez-Vous +" (through Thursday), a sidebar showcasing documentaries, older movies and at least one certifiable classic: Jean Grémillon's "LUMIÈRE D"ÉTÉ," presented in a newly restored version by the Cinémathèque Française. Made in 1943 during the Nazi occupation, Grémillon's film of interlocking, thwarted romances has a dreamy, corrosive atmosphere all its own. Though Germans and the war are never mentioned, the film's villain - an aristocrat with a penchant for taking target practice in a crowd - easily stands in for unwanted overlords. Vichy, unsurprisingly, banned the film. Explosions from a dam-building site rock the countryside and contribute to the sense of unease, as do all the trapped things: birds in cages, an indentured artist, women who've come to this lonely corner of France only to suffer disappointment. At the Guardian Angel hotel, guests eat and pass the time in a glassed-in porch, a kind of sun-filled specimen jar that Grémillon contrasts with the dam site: a place of clanging technology that sometimes soars skyward but more often, with its darkness and steam, seems a punishing inferno for the film's heroes, ordinary working men. 1:15 p.m. Thursday, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center; filmlinc.com; $10. MAKING an impression in the crowded cop-show field isn't easy, especially for a series on a cable network, but A&E has certainly given its drama "BREAKOUT KINGS" an attention-getting Season 2 premiere. The episode, at 10 p.m. Sunday, includes about as big a jolt as can be delivered by a show with an ensemble cast. No spoilers here, except to say that barring some corny it-was-only-a-dream twist the episode's outcome will mean that Season 2 will be noticeably different from Season 1. "Breakout Kings" is about a pair of United States marshals, Charlie (Laz Alonso) and Ray (Domenick Lombardozzi), who use three convicted criminals to help them track down prison escapees. In the second-season premiere the targets are two especially brutal serial killers who break out of separate jails in a coordinated escape. The show is always gritty, but this episode seems particularly so. It's a spunky sort of grit. In the episode's best line, one team member tells the others not to worry about the killers recognizing a tracking device. "They've been locked up for 10 years," he says. They wouldn't know GPS from UPS. MATT CHARMAN, a British writer in his early 30s, has had the kind of meteoric rise that usually happens only in the movies. Eight years ago he was working on a theater Web site when he got his big break, winning an award for his debut play, "A Night at the Dogs." His second and third plays had their premieres at the Royal National Theater, where he is a writer in residence, and he already has a pile of glowing reviews and calls from Hollywood. Now he is making his New York debut at the Manhattan Theater Club with "REGRETS," about a man who flees Hollywood in the 1950s to get a divorce in Nevada. This plot brings to mind the second act of Clare Boothe Luce's play "The Women," set in Reno, Nev., in the 1930s. It sounds as if this play has a darker edge, promising more secrets revealed than acid-tongued zingers. The Tony winner Adriane Lenox ("Doubt") stars along with Richard Topol ("The Normal Heart") and Alexis Bledel ("Gilmore Girls"). Carolyn Cantor directs. Previews start Thursday, City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan; (212) 581-1212, mtc-nyc.org. STEPHEN PETRONIO is not, perhaps, praised quite enough for his consistent ambition. Although his movement style, with its visceral whipping limbs and rippling torsos, is instantly identifiable, he almost always tries to stretch himself and his dancers beyond what they know. And while many choreographers of Mr. Petronio's stature can call on big-name collaborators, his choices always seem like deeply felt, adventurous ones. Beginning on Tuesday Mr. Petronio offers a marvelously rich program. A new piece for 11 dancers, "THE ARCHITECTURE OF LOSS," is set to an original score by the Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurdsson, with contributions by Nico Muhly, and features images by Rannva Kunoy, a painter from the Faroe Islands who is based in London. Equally intriguing is the prospect of two solos, each offering an unexpected meeting of dance minds: Mr. Petronio himself in a reimagining of Steve Paxton's 1970 "Intravenous Lecture," a meditation on censorship; and, thrillingly, the New York City Ballet principal Wendy Whelan (only Tuesday through Friday) in Mr. Petronio's "Ethersketch 1," based on a solo from his 2003 "Underland." Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $10 to $59. LAST March, bowing to his health problems, James Levine resigned as music director of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. In December he withdrew from the Metropolitan Opera's schedule through its 2012-13 season. Forging on, the Boston orchestra has altered lineups and recruited guest conductors. It has three programs this week at Carnegie Hall. On Tuesday, John Oliver, who is replacing Kurt Masur, who is ill, will stick to Mr. Levine's plans and conduct Beethoven's late "Missa Solemnis" with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and four impressive soloists: the soprano Christine Brewer, the mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, the tenor Simon O'Neill and the bass-baritone Eric Owens. The other programs have been changed significantly. Christoph Eschenbach takes the podium on Wednesday for Berlioz's Overture to "Benvenuto Cellini"; Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, with the French pianist Cédric Tiberghien; and Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique," which Mr. Levine had planned to perform. On Friday Stéphane Denève conducts Ravel's "Mother Goose" Suite, Stravinsky's exhilarating Concerto for Piano and Winds (with Peter Serkin), and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. Tuesday and Wednesday and 7:30 p.m. Friday, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $24 to $148. T HERE'S no way around it. New York this week is knee deep in contemporary art fairs. There are over a dozen, most at ARMORY ARTS WEEK , and they come in several shapes and sizes. Most open Thursday, including the sprawling Armory Show at Piers 92 and 94, at 12th Avenue and West 55th Street; the trés chic Independent, at 548 West 22nd Street, Chelsea; Volta, at 7 West 34th Street, Manhattan; and the all-video Moving Image at the Waterfront New York Tunnel, at 11th Avenue and 27th Street. Friday will bring the youthful Pool Art Fair at the Gershwin Hotel on East 27th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, and the Fountain Art Fair, which graduates to its own armory: 69th Regiment's, at Lexington Avenue and 26th Street. The venerable Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Avenue, at 67th Street) and Scope New York, at 12th Avenue and West 57th Street, start Wednesday. The unusually manageable Salon Zürcher (only seven galleries, no entrance fee), at 33 Bleecker Street, between Lafayette Street and Bowery, in the East Village, opens Monday and will feature only female artists. If you absolutely cannot wait, Pulse Contemporary Art Fair is already in action at the Metropolitan Pavilion, at 125 West 18th Street, Chelsea. The madness generally lasts until next Sunday.