7pm / Architecture

For 50 years, Wayne McAllister was one of countless anonymous architects who helped create a distinctly 20th century Los Angeles. Tonight, the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee honors the 91-year-old McAllister with a lecture MCALLISTER GOING TO GIVE THE LECTURE? and three-week exhibition. Some of McAllister’s most notable work adapted roadside buildings to the booming car culture, incorporating neon and streamline design in drive-in restaurants and Las Vegas motels. Among the McAllister buildings still standing is the Bob’s Big Boy on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake, designated a California point of historical interest in 1992. Built in 1949, it was the third Bob’s constructed and is the oldest one remaining.

* Wayne McAllister lecture and reception at the Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. Members, $10; nonmembers, $12. Exhibit continues Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Ends Nov. 19. Free. (213) 623-2489.

8 pm

Film Festival

The City of Angels Film Festival kicks off with a 70th anniversary screening of Carl Dreyer’s silent classic “The Passion of Joan of Arc.” This festival, which grew out of a dialogue between filmmakers and theologians, features quality films that celebrate art and raise vital religious and social issues. The theme of this year’s fest is “Chasing the Sacred: The Cinema of Spirituality.” Other films to be screened: Robert Duvall’s “The Apostle,” Lars von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves,” Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire” and Denys Arcand’s “Jesus of Montreal.” Panel discussions will follow many of the films.

* City of Angels Film Festival, Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Friday, noon, 4:15 and 8 p.m.; Saturday, 3:30, 7:15 and 10:15 p.m.; Sunday, 12:15, 2:50, 6:30 and 9 p.m. Opening night, $10-$15. General admission, $8-$10. Festival pass, $40-$60. (626) 304-3775.

8:30pm

Pop Music

Velvet Underground founding partner John Cale is the opening attraction in the L.A. version of the Divx Soundtrack Festival, a four-city event sponsored by New York’s avant-garde entrepreneurs the Knitting Factory. Cale, playing music from a wide range of his film projects, is joined by the Coen Brothers’ composer Carter Burwell (with David Torn and Geoffrey Gordon). The festival concludes Saturday with Shudder to Think and the Red Elvises at the Roxy, and Mark Isham and Stephen Endelman at the Dragonfly.

* Divx Soundtrack Festival with John Cale and Carter Burwell, El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd. $20. (323) 936-4790. Festival information: (212) 219-3006.

Freebie: Conductor Barry Brisk leads a Beethoven program by the West Los Angeles Symphony, Sinai Temple, 10400 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. 8 p.m. (213) 931-0889.