YO-YO MA

Tickets to the remainder of the 2005-2006 Bank of America Celebrity Series won’t go on sale until September 11, but seats for Yo-Yo Ma’s opening-night solo cello recital, whose program includes Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello Nos. 3, 5, and 6, are available beginning this Monday. He’s at Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave, Boston | September 25 | 5 pm | $38-$78 | 617.482.6661 or www.celebrityseries.org.

"BOSTON APRÈS STARCK"

In this fundraiser for the French Library and Cultural Center, local fashion and design students will attempt to live up to a pair of catch phrases — "the elegance of intelligence" and "the democratization of design" — coined by superstar designer and architect Philippe Starck. Even better, Starck will be on hand himself to receive attendees on the site of his latest masterpiece, Charlestown’s Parris Landing. That’s September 14 | 7 pm | $35 | 617.912.0410.

"TOO HUMAN: THE FILMS OF LOUIS MALLE"

The Harvard Film Archive and the Museum of Fine Arts are teaming up for this month-long retrospective of one of the quintessential New Wave filmmakers. It encompasses all the classics and many rarities, from his first feature, Le monde du silence|The Silent World (1956; HFA September 9 + 11), which he directed with Jacques Cousteau, to his final triumph, Vanya on 42nd Street (1994; HFA September 23 + 25). Completists will be pleased by a marathon screening of his seven-episode, 378-minute documentary L’Inde fantôme|Phantom India (HFA September 10; also in two parts September 12 + 13) | The series runs from September 1 to October 4 | HFA, 24 Quincy St, Cambridge | 617.495.4700 | MFA, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston | 617.369.3300.

ART SHOW DOWN FUNDRAISER

Former Gallery Bershad director Roland Smart’s art often sounds like a prank, and his latest idea is no exception: a gallery exhibit/game show that will "critique and exploit" the whole notion of game shows but will also create an actual eight-episode pilot for a Western-themed televizzle production called Art Show Down. It’s still in the planning stages, but you can get a sneak peek at a fundraiser at Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass Ave, Cambridge | September 17 | 6 pm | 617.868.MSEX or http://www.artshowdown.tv/.