FILM REVIEWS : Imaginative Crafting of 4 Movies by Graduate Students at UCLA

The four films of Monday evening’s quarterly presentation of UCLA graduate student work (in Melnitz Theater at 7:30 p.m. and again at 9:15) are most encouraging as examples of craftsmanship and imagination. They aren’t slick, showy items, made to impress Hollywood agents and producers; instead they’re evidence of talented fledgling film makers exploring their medium and testing their skills.

The curtain-raiser is John Di-Minico’s 12-minute “Subjects One Thru Four,” a slight, absurdist send-up of lurid tabloid stories. It has four largely amusing vignettes linked by a magic bracelet--actually clunky pipe fittings--that has the power to transform the most mundane lives. Each segment features the versatile and very funny actress Cec Verrel.

Most ambitious of the four is Jeffrey Bell’s 20-minute “Radio Inside,” a non-linear tale of a young man (Errals Berl) attracted to his brother’s girl friend (Nancy Rommelman). “Radio Inside” is a spare, evocative expression of spiritual yearning as well as sexual longing that is spiked with wit and confidence in the communicative power of images.

Pamela Beere Biggs’ 23-minute “Out of the Rain” is a splendid example of the traditional film narrative at its most succinct and moving. With subtlety and the utmost economy, Biggs interweaves the lives of two women whose paths cross when each is in the midst of crisis. In both Biggs’ writing and direction and in the playing of Denise Simone and Ana Deveare Smith, there’s a keen sense of observation and concern for the nuances of emotion.

The evening ends on the humorous note with which it began, thanks to Andre Burke’s amusing “The Gossips,” a 20-minute comedy making fun of the irrepressible nosiness of neighbors in a bungalow court. Burke and his co-writer Mike Werb sustain their joke beautifully as one half-heard, half-seen incident leads to one misapprehension after another; even the court’s children, armed with walkie-talkies, get into the act.

It’s worth noting that all four films were shot by the versatile and skilled William McDonald, who in 1986 became UCLA’s first recipient of an MFA in cinematography.

Admission is free but reservations are advised: (213) 825-3597.