EuroFest: Exciting, Intriguing and Accessible

The seventh American Film Institute European Community Film Festival continues tonight with Peruvian-born writer-director Mary Jiminez’s elegant and rigorous “Up in the Air.” (It screens at 7 p.m. at the Fine Arts in Beverly Hills.)

The film, made in Brussels, represents an admirable, thoughtful attempt to break away from the cliches about the individual who’s been told he or she may have only six months to live.

As Jimenez’s tough-minded heroine (Carole Courtoy) imagines herself visiting a nonexistent country (“Malinesia”)--by way of checking into a local hotel--she begins a journey of self-discovery that leaves us with the disturbing thought that only in the face of possible death do many of us truly pursue freedom.

Belgian filmmaker Hugo Claus’ “The Sacrament” (tonight at 8:45) seems far more based on his 1971 play, which he adapted from his 1963 novel, than on the novel itself. It’s one of those how-thin-is-the-veneer-of-bourgeois-propriety parables involving a family reunion that gets so out of hand as to defy credibility. The heart of the matter, however, is potent: a young, gay member of the family (Carl Ridders) finds himself attracted to a virile, coldly brilliant priest (Frank Aendenboom) who may well be the closeted homosexual the young man believes him to be. “The Sacrament” is best at capturing the self-loathing and self-denial of many gays in the ‘50s, the decade in which the drama is set.

France’s “The Man of Her Dreams” (Tuesday at 7 p.m.) is about a shy girl who becomes involved with a much older and more worldly man. It marks the feature debut of writer-director Patricia Bardon and was not available for preview. “A Wedding on the Fringe” (Tuesday at 8:45 p.m.), by debuting writer-director Vassilis Kessissoglou’s, is a warm, sentimental romantic comedy in which two elderly people, once sweethearts in their youth, decide to marry. This is much to the chagrin of the woman’s daughter, who sees such a union as an affront to family honor, no small matter for Greek traditionalists. Not surprisingly, “A Wedding on the Fringe” was a popular, prize-winning film on home territory.

Luxembourg’s Andy Bausch, represented in last year’s EuroFest with “Troublemaker,” has come through with the festival’s most exciting film, “A Wopbopaloobop a Lopbamboom” (Wednesday at 7 p.m.). It’s a gritty, vital evocation of aimless, restless ‘60s youth in a drab industrial town riddled with Franco-German tensions and sexual frustration. Bausch has so much style and energy--somewhat reminiscent of the Paul Verhoeven of “Spetters”--that he’s long overdue for greater exposure in America.

Paulo Rocha’s “Mountains of the Moon” (Wednesday at 8:45 p.m.) is one of those elliptic but persistently intriguing Portuguese fables. Inspired by the Japanese classic “Tales of Genji,” this is an intricate, gorgeous-looking modern-day tale of sex and politics in high places--very demanding, and very impressive.

Dutch writer-director Rita Horst’s “Romeo” (Thursday at 7 p.m.) is a straightforward, well-made account of a woman (Monique van de Ven) stunned by the loss of her child. For all its emotional validity, the film leaves unanswered the nagging question: Why didn’t its sophisticated couple--a successful artist (Van de Ven) and a popular stage actor (Johan Leysen)--at least consider counseling in coping with their grief?

The AFI EuroFest has saved for the last its most accessible offering, “That Obscure Illness” (Thursday at 8:45 p.m.). It’s one of the cinema’s most definitive assessments of middle-age malaise, a dark comedy that grows lighter as, paradoxically, it becomes more serious. Giancarlo Giannini has one of the best roles of his career as a hack screenwriter plagued by psychosomatic ailments and blocked from writing his long-projected autobiographical novel. The film is also a triumph for its distinguished veteran filmmakers, director Mario Monicelli and writers Suso Cecchi D’Amico and Tonino Guerra, who adapted Giuseppe Berto’s novel.

For Fine Arts recorded information: (213) 652-1330; AFI EuroFest: (213) 856-7707.