TODAY AT AFI FESTIVAL

F ollowing are The Times’ recommendations for today’s schedule of the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival, with commentary by the film reviewing staff. Information: (213) 466-1767. Highly Recommended:

JURAJ JAKUBISKO TRIBUTE: “FEATHER FAIRY”(Czechoslovakia/West Germany, 1985; director Juraj Jakubisko; Music Hall, noon). The source is a Grimm Brothers fairy tale (“Mother Holle”); the inspiration is early and middle Fellini. Giulietta Masina plays the good witch of the title. The country and mountainside setting is spectacular in deep focus shots; the style is a rich cornucopia of dazzling light, swooping camera movements, wild, gorgeous, shimmering colors and soaring aerial shots. A children’s movie that’s a little densely packed and sophisticated for some children, it’s still a prime example of Jakubisko’s unique cinematic magic. (Jakubisko will be present.)

“THE MATCH FACTORY GIRL”(Finland; Aki Kaurismaki; AFI Mark Goodson/Warner, noon). Kaurismaki’s harsh tale of a downtrodden factory girl who finds her Prince Charming, only to wake up with a blond toad, suggests both a post-modern Hans Christian Andersen and a pop-culture Robert Bresson--without the Catholic intensity and with a mean sense of humor. It’s very spare, very bleak, very cold, very blue. Few cities have ever looked more pitiless and barren than Helsinki does here; few actresses glow with such sullen, beaten-down radiance as match girl Kati Outinen.

“STEAL AMERICA”(United States; Lucy Phillips; Monica 4-Plex, 8:30 p.m.) The story, structure and monochrome photography suggest Jim Jarmusch. But the mood and technique come straight from the French and Czech ‘60s new waves. Set in San Francisco, it’s about a quadrangle of rootless, sexually sportive foreigners: kids who treat the country like a video arcade, popping from game to game, slipping in and out of each other’s beds and lives. The budget is low, but the talent is high. Ingenuity, wit, beauty and weird exhilaration at life’s impermanence pop out of nearly every scene. Director/writer Phillips and co-writer/cinematographer Glen Scantlebury are two major discoveries of AFIFEST 1991.

JURAJ JAKUBISKO TRIBUTE: “BIRDS, ORPHANS AND MADMEN”(Czechoslovakia, 1969; Music Hall, 8:30 p.m.) Jakubisko’s second feature, another legendary, long-banned film, is actually the source of his marvelous 1989 “Sitting Pretty on a Branch.” Like its predecessor, it has a postwar backdrop and a triangular romance--among Gentile and Jewish war orphans--that begins in high spirits and heads toward darkness. But this film, paradoxically, is bleaker than its predecessor, more stylistically audacious. It’s a young man’s movie: clearly a young man of genius. (Jakubisko will be present.)

Recommended:

“THE MOON IN THE MIRROR”(Chile; Silvio Caiozzi; Nuart, 6:15 p.m.). The poetry of losers is usually ignored in today’s cinema, but director Caiozzi and novelist/screenwriter Jose Donoso capture it in this harrowingly poignant romance. The setting: the steep urban hills of Valparaiso, reachable only by cable cars; claustrophobic rooms with glimpses of the ocean, the moon gleaming in smashed mirrors. The characters: a gentle, porcine introvert, his bedridden martinet/soldier/father and the aging, flirtatious belle next door. Donoso’s script is delicately weighted, clear-eyed, compassionate; the direction moody and subtle; the acting perfect.

“I HIRED A CONTRACT KILLER” (Finland; Aki Kaurismaki; AFI Warner, 4:15 p.m.). A distraught French national in London (Jean-Pierre Leaud, at his most morose) is discharged from his job, bungles several suicides and hires a contract killer to finish the job. Even as he discovers life is worthwhile--and romance possible--the killer, dying himself, keeps fiercely pursuing him. It’s a great idea, but Kaurismaki isn’t yet thoroughly comfortable in English. The film’s often admirable mix of comedy and horror, irony and despair, doesn’t always mesh.