AFI FILM FEST: THE FINAL WEEK

T he following are capsule reviews of this week’s screenings at the AFI Film Festival of Los Angeles. Screenings take place at the Los Feliz Theater, 1822 N. Vermont Ave., Hollywood, except where noted. Tickets and information: (213) 520-2000 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. SUNDAY

“Paradise” (West Germany, 1986, 9:30 p.m.). This is such an exact inversion of Doris Dorrie’s last film, “Men,” that the reversal seems premeditated. Here, two women, once friends, fall out over the husband of one. But although “Paradise” is unlikely to be as popular as its negative-image predecessor (it’s not even vaguely a “feel-good” movie), it’s in many ways, a denser, more virtuosic work: Dorrie tries more and cuts a little deeper. The visuals are more elegant, shinier; the humor blacker; the cast--mild male and magnetically impassioned women (Katherine Thalbach and Sunny Meiles)--stretch easily and impressively all the way from Billy Wilder wit to R. W. Fassbinder torment. Recommended.