New Films From Abroad at Melnitz Theater

“The Cutting Edge II,” the International Film Circuit’s second collection of new films from Europe, Asia and the Soviet Union, begins tonight at 8 in UCLA’s Melnitz Theater with Taiwanese film maker Hou Hsiao-hsien’s superb “Dust in the Wind” (1987).

Austere yet beautiful, detached yet compassionate, it tells a classically simple story of two rural young people who are in love and who seek a better life in Taipei. Not surprisingly, the struggle for survival is harder than they anticipated; in fact, nothing is really surprising in the entire film, yet thanks to the director’s masterly talents it is deeply compelling.

Throughout, Hou’s discretion is palpable, manifested in his middle-distance, deep-focus shots; it’s as if he did not wish to intrude upon his vulnerable couple. At the same time Hou’s vision is unwavering, and we come away with both a sense of timelessness and a sense of immediacy, of how the unskilled or semiskilled are losing out in an increasingly technological society. Wang Chien-wen is the young man, Hsin Shu-feng is the young woman, and they are perfect.

Another UCLA Film and Television Archive presentation, “Marin Karmitz and MK2,” continues Saturday at 8 p.m. in Melnitz Theater with two films that Karmitz produced and Claude Chabrol directed. Karmitz has been credited with reviving the career of the new-wave pioneer, who directed four hits in a row for Karmitz’s MK2 Productions. Perversely, none of the four has yet been released in America, although the most recent and most dazzling, “A Matter Between Women,” starring Isabelle Huppert as a small-town abortionist during World War II, was shown at the 1988 AFI FilmFest.

“Poulet au Vinaigre” (“Chicken in Vinegar,” 1985) and “Masks” (1986) are, however, vintage Chabrol, expressing his mordant, witty view of the more lethal aspects of human nature. “Poulet,” which Chabrol wrote with Dominique Roulet, proceeds with delicious unpredictability. At first, it seems to be a David-and-Goliath tale: A small-town widow (Stephane Audran), confined to a wheelchair, battles to hold on to her old house against the local attorney (Michel Bouquet), physician (Jean Topart) and butcher (Jean-Claude Bouillaud), who are intent on developing her property.

Murder, however, strikes from out of left field. What’s more, far from being sympathetic, the widow, played with great elan by Audran, is a crazed harridan intent on ruining the life of her young son (Lucas Belvaux), a postman. This youth is the film’s key character, the person who must get free not only of his mother but from the bourgeois hypocrisy of the men so eager to grab his mother’s property. Also involved are Caroline Cellier as milquetoastish Bouquet’s glamorous wife and Jean Poiret, who plays a shrewd, tough cop. (So successful was this film that Chabrol brought back Poiret as the star of his next picture for Karmitz, “Inspector Lavardin.”)

If “Poulet au Vinaigre,” as enjoyable as it is, is occasionally wearying in its thicket of plot twists, “Masks” proceeds with unflagging zest. A startlingly thin, vigorous Philippe Noiret stars as the unctuous TV host of an amateur geriatric talent show. When he invites a would-be biographer (Robin Renucci) to his grand country estate, it soon becomes clear that the film is an homage to Hitchcock’s “Notorious,” with Noiret the equivalent of Claude Rains and with Renucci and Anne Brocher (as the TV host’s goddaughter) in the Cary Grant-Ingrid Bergman roles. (We even hear Hitchcock’s TV series theme--twice.) Even so, “Masks” is very much Chabrol’s film, charged with his preoccupation with bourgeois mores and marked with considerable stylistic flourish. “Masks” is as amusing as it is sinister.

The Karmitz Sunday offerings are Romain Goupil’s 1981 documentary “Half a Life,” which screens at 8 and was unavailable for preview, and Ken Loach’s 1981 “Looks and Smiles,” a poignant drama revealing the bleak future of British youth, written by Barry Hines and shown at Filmex ’82. Information: (213) 206-8013, 206-FILM.

The 1927 silent, “Hotel Imperial,” starring Pola Negri will be screened at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills on Sundayat 7:45 p.m. For information, (818) 888-3770.