AFI FILM FESTIVAL : Three Masters at Work

These are The Times’ recommendations for today’s schedule of the American Film Institute International Film Festival, with commentary by the film-reviewing staff. All screenings are at Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica. Information: (213) 466-1767.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:

“ILL-FATED LOVE”(Portugal, 1978; director Manoel de Oliveira; 1:20 p.m.). A 4 1/2-hour Portuguese period TV film, based on a 19th-Century novel of tragic, frustrated love--and stiffly acted, in static tableaux, on obviously artificial sets--may seem unbearably heavy going. But this is the film that persuaded many international critics that then-70-year-old Manoel de Oliveira was a master. Based on Camilo Castel Branco’s “Amor de Perdicao,” which was taken from life, it’s the excruciating tale of two teen-age lovers separated by their wealthy, and insanely vindictive, fathers. Slowly and firmly, following Branco’s purple text religiously, it builds to a climax of overwhelming power. (Michael Wilmington)

“SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER”(France, 1960; Francois Truffaut; 1:30 and 9:15 p.m.). Francois Truffaut’s quirky, free-flowing adaptation of David Goodis’ thriller, “Down There”--about a concert pianist (Charles Aznavour) who tries to flee his tragic past as an anonymous cafe musician in a seedy dive, but who discovers that life and destiny are as recurrent and haunting as the melodies beneath his fingers. Georges Delerue composed the poignant score; Raoul Coutard shot the lively black-and-white Dyaliscope cinematography. This film seems to catch all its poetry on the fly; it’s a pop lament and a ballad of the underside, with a wounding after-effect. (M. W.)

“TAMPOPO”(Japan, 1987; Juzo Itami; 3:30 p.m.). Juzo Itami’s sly satire on the culinary and sexual habits and customs of the Japanese is framed as a mock-Western--with a soupcon of Clint Eastwood and a pinch of Sergio Leone. In it, a beleaguered widow (Itami’s wife, Nobuko Miyamoto) sees her failing ramen noodle restaurant rescued by the stranger in town (Tsutomu Yamazaki), a gallant noodle adventurer who helps make her soup the best in the East. Itami wittily mixes sarcasm and satire with lyric eroticism; it’s a tasty movie. (M. W.)

Recommended:

“WILD WHEELS”(United States; Harrold Blank; 6:30 p.m.). “Art cars” are automobiles customized and decorated by their owners, with everything from paint to sculptures, costume jewelry, toys, and even layers of growing grass. Harrold Blank--son of documentarian Les--is an art car owner, who has, in turn, sought out dozens of his colleagues around the country. It’s a delightfully eccentric gallery and a warm, funny movie. (M. W.)

“DUKE ELLINGTON: REMINISCING IN TEMPO”(United States; Robert S. Levi; 6:45 p.m.). Not a great documentary, but certainly a great subject: jazz’s preeminent bandleader-composer Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington, whose astonishingly fertile career is followed from childhood to Cotton Club, world fame and his death in 1973. That death was sadder than we knew: Beset by sorrows and tax problems, Ellington struggled to keep his band solvent and together. We can be thankful he did; this movie is a testament to a genius. (M. W.)

“RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND”(Armenia; Haroutin Katchatrian; 7 p.m.). A lyrical, powerful, wordless account of how a displaced young farmer and his family, persecuted and driven from their home in the republic of Nagorno-Garabagh, rebuild their lives with great determination, in an abandoned village in Northern Armenia. (Kevin Thomas)

“SHOOT TO KILL”(Venezuela; Carlos Aspurua; 9 p.m.). This gritty social-protest melodrama turns on an innocent man shot by a policeman during a brutal sweep of a Caracas high-rise tenement district, on his grieving mother and on an idealistic journalist. Though shot TV-movie style, it has considerable scope and depth; writer David Suarez shows corruption at all levels of Venezuelan government and society. (K. T.)

Others: “Street Wars” (United States; Jamaa Fanaka; 9:30 p.m.). Unavailable for press preview except in rough cut, this Fanaka film shapes up as another raw, dynamic myth extolling survival and will, focusing on a steely teen-ager who wants to rid South-Central L.A. of its crack houses. (K. T.); “Bullets for Breakfast” (United States; Holly Fisher; 1:45 p.m.). Experimentalism: An optically printed, subtitled “My Darling Clementine,” a reminiscing pulp writer and an inchoate flood of images skewer masculine myths. (M. W.)