AFI FESTIVAL : ‘Soft Skin’ Tops Today’s Film Schedule

Following 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. All screenings, unless otherwise noted, are at Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica. Information: (213) 466-1767.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:

“THE DIVINE COMEDY”(Portugal; director Manoel de Oliveira; 1 and 6:15 p.m.). Manoel de Oliveira’s most recent film, shot last year when he was 82, is set in an asylum where a group of lunatics--including flower-like Maria de Medeiros (Anais Nin in “Henry and June”)--indulge in philosophical debates, while imagining themselves a gallery of biblical and literary immortals. The film takes its main texts from Nietzsche, the Bible and Dostoyevsky, and though its dialogue and subject are deadly serious--the limits and justifications of faith--the tone of the acting is light: a theme for Kierkegaard done with the subtle, arch rhythms of a Moliere comedy. Like Dreyer’s “Gertrud,” it’s an old man’s film--withdrawn, interior, somewhat static--but a glorious one. (Michael Wilmington)

“THE SOFT SKIN”(France, 1964; Francois Truffaut; 1:45 and 7 p.m.). Francois Truffaut’s tense romantic drama about a soft-faced, nervous little critic’s infidelity with an airline stewardess. This film seemed slight at the time, a misperception: It’s about his major themes, everyday guilt and the primacy of passion. It also gives us Catherine Deneuve’s older sister Francoise Dorleac as the stewardess; at 22, Dorleac has the self-contained, wondrous, heart-catching beauty of a cat-goddess, a Renoir painting come to life. (She died in a car crash only three years later.) (M.W.) (Thomas concurs: “A poem on modern love . . . flawless.”)

“BERDEL”(Turkey; Alif Yilmaz; 3:30 and 8:45 p.m.). Superb Turkish film that takes its title from a cruel, archaic Anatolian custom, whereby a man may exchange a daughter for a second wife. One might expect stark drama from this . . . but the dire consequences of the barter are told with swiftness and dispatch. Tarik Akan, as the macho husband, and Turkan Soray, as his regal wife, are both remarkable, in a film that deftly makes the point that, in a society where women are chattel, both sexes suffer. (Kevin Thomas)

RECOMMENDED:

“MOTORAMA”(United States; Barry Shils; 1:30 and 6:45 p.m.). In this funny, weird road movie, the hero is a pugnacious 10-year-old (Jordan Christopher Michael), who takes off for the Southwest in a stolen car, playing an endless gas premium game, and encountering, in cameos, everyone from Drew Barrymore to Mary Woronov. Working from Joseph (“After Hours”) Minion’s script, Shils has a tendency to overreach. (K.T.)

“THE BORDER”(Yugoslavian; Zoran Masirevic; 3:45 and 9 p.m.). Intimate personal and political saga, set along the postwar Hungarian-Yugoslav border. On one hand, the film depicts the cruel hand of Stalinization and confiscation. On the other, it’s a tale of two families, one a landed Hungarian farm clan, the other, newly arrived Serbian peasants, from Bosnia. The modern parallels are inescapable. (K.T.)

“KING OF CHESS”(Hong Kong; Yim Ho, Tsui Hark; 4 and 9:15 p.m.). A Hong Kong ad exec recalls childhood days in China, as he encounters a Taipei chess prodigy with ESP. Tsui Hark does the Taipei scenes; Yim Ho, the Chinese flashbacks. There’s considerable contrivance, but this provocative film effectively contrasts the Cultural Revolution with capitalist modern Taiwan. (K.T.)

“THE WIND OF EMPTINESS”(Armenia; Haroutin Katchatarian; 4:15 and 9:30 p.m.). This poetic documentary richly evokes time and place . . . as we follow popular, political activist singer Ruben Hakhvertian, accompanied by a dying friend, to the hinterlands of the former Soviet Union, to interview exiled Armenians. An austere film of great pictorial quality and painful emotion. (K.T.)

“ABIGAIL’S PARTY”(Great Britain, 1977; Mike Leigh; 9 p.m. at AFI Goodson). A tour de force performance for Alison Steadman and very much a departure for Leigh. Shot on video, it is the stage-bound, one-set reproduction of an enormously successful play about a wildly unsuccessful middle-class dinner party. With a short film, “Permissive Society”: a comedy of working-class sex and romance. (Kenneth Turan)

Others: “Memories of the Caucasus” (Russia: Georgi Vlasenko; 1:15 and 6:30 p.m.). For admirers of the late Sergei Paradjenov: spectacular clips from his films, intercut with interviews and remembrances. (M.W.) “A Few Short Laughs” (United States; Jeff Baron, John Helliker; John Lugar; Peter Rosevski; 7 p.m. at AFI Goodson.) Variable short comedies. (M.W.)