VARIED UCLA STUDENT FILM PROGRAM

The five UCLA graduate student films screening tonight at 7:30 in Melnitz Theater are most encouraging. Instead of the slick, trite stuff that so many student film makers turn out to attract the movie industry’s attention, we are presented with five highly varied, personal, thoughtful and mature works.

The two-hour program starts out on a bright note with Celia Mercer’s two-minute “Swimming,” which charmingly combines photo cut-outs and Dick-and Jane-like drawings to convey to children the fun and importance of learning to swim.

Ephraim Katz’s “Creatures of Habit” is an accomplished, if overly solemn, half-hour attempt at film noir , set in a seedy downtown L.A. apartment house. A middle-aged official from the coroner’s office (George Dickerson), while investigating a murder, becomes involved with a young waitress (Linda Nichols) without thought to the consequences to her and others in her life.

With an admirably cool, ironic detachment, Andre Michael Burke and Susan Pollack in the 15-minute “Pleas” have collaborated on both sides of the camera to depict a relationship disintegrating into a potentially dangerous kinkiness. You have the feeling that the lovers have picked up a few pointers from “In the Realm of the Senses.” But “Pleas” has the distance of a calm elegance and stunning black-and-white images.

Chihyen Yee’s half-hour “The Grasshoppers” is a gem, a beautifully controlled mood piece set in rural Japanese-occupied China in 1945. An aural as well as visual treat, it captures with subtlety and insight the reactions of two young children (John Chen, Jennifer Chao) as they cope with the intrusion of an injured American pilot (David Carl) and a Japanese soldier (Warren Sada).

Armand Garabedian’s 20-minute, razzle-dazzle sci-fi piece “Ten Seconds to Countdown” ends the program on a much-welcome note of humor. A runaway teen-ager (Christine Warren) hitches a ride with an exceptionally expressionless young man, only to regret it almost immediately. In truth, “Ten Seconds to Countdown” is sure to attract industry attention, for Garabedian and his breathtakingly large crew not only prove themselves whizzes at all the technical stuff--special effects, chases, sensational color cinematography--but also in wit, style and suspense.

Ticket information: (213) 825-258l.