FALL PREVIEW : The Calendar Critics’ Best Bets for the Rest of ’90 : Movies

How can you tell fall has arrived in eternally sunny Southern California? Well, one way is by the start of the autumn arts and entertainment season. This special fall preview section provides listings of events from today through the end of the year and our critics’ picks for the best bets in film, pop music, jazz, stage, music and dance and the visual arts. (Some box-office telephone numbers may not be in operation yet.) This is a gun-to-the-head tip list of films between now and Christmas, based on showings at film festivals, early previews or the books from which the films have been made.

Among September and October openings, “Miller’s Crossing” is the Coen brothers’ rich period look at the gangster scene circa 1929 with Albert Finney and Gabriel Byrne. In “Memphis Belle,” tension surrounds the 25th mission of a young B-17 crew in World War II; with Matthew Modine and Eric Stoltz. And director Barbet Schroeder shakes our assumption that Claus von Bulow did it in “Reversal of Fortune,” with a superb Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close and Ron Silver.

“Vincent and Theo,” opening in November, is Robert Altman’s moving study of painting’s inseparable Van Gogh brothers.

In December, John Malkovich, Debra Winger and director Bernardo Bertolucci explore Paul Bowles’ divine decadence in the desert in “The Sheltering Sky.” There’s love and espionage between Sean Connery’s British publisher and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Russian editor, in “The Russia House” another taut John LeCarre story, directed by Fred Schepisi.

One fateful drive and an accidental death sets off New York City in “Bonfire of the Vanities.” Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith, Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman star. Tim Burton directs “Edward Scissorhands,” a fable about the pain of being different. Johnny Depp’s Edward is very different; Wynona Ryder loves him anyway.

As usual, Woody Allen’s “Alice” is shrouded in mystery, and it stars, in the usual alphabetical order, Alec Baldwin, Blythe Danner, Judy Davis, William Hurt, Judith Ivey, Joe Mantegna, Bernadette Peters, Cybill Shepard. Everyone is certainly waiting for Francis Coppola’s “The Godfather Part III.” Al Pacino’s don divests the family of its illegal businesses but tangles with the Vatican.

Also look for “To Sleep With Anger,” directed by Charles Burnett; Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in “Mr and Mrs. Bridge,” and “Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” the directing debut of Tom Stoppard, who wrote the play from which the movie was adapted.