TODAY’S SCHEDULE AT AFI FESTIVAL

“ZBIGNIEW RYBCZYNSKI: A RETROSPECTIVE”

Poland/USA, 1975-1987; 70 minutes, 7:30 p.m., Melnitz Theater

American audiences first became aware of Zbigniew Rybczynski in 1983, when his bizarre, almost hypnotic experimental film “Tango” won the Oscar for animated short. Made with obviously inadequate equipment, his older, Polish films offer a mordant commentary on an alienated society. Rybczynski’s rock videos for Art of Noise, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert and Lou Reed feature striking and--in Pet Shop Boys’ “Let’s Make Lots of Money,” beautiful--visuals. But these tapes are essentially empty demonstrations of what can be done with state-of-the-art electronics, and are far less interesting than his technically flawed earlier works.