TODAY AT AFI FESTIVAL

F ollowing 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 , unless otherwise noted, are at Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset. Information: (213) 466-1767. Highly Recommended:

“FAHRENHEIT 451”(Britain, 1966; director Francois Truffaut; 1:50 & 7 p.m.). A calm, sterile, emotionless future state, where everyone is narcotized, no one questions or rebels, and firemen, instead of putting out fires, set them: burning the books that some of the citizenry insist on keeping--”All the books, Montag,” as the fire chief (Cyril Cusack) insists, brandishing a copy of “Mein Kampf.” Based on Ray Bradbury’s novella, with Oskar Werner and Julie Christie, this was Truffaut’s only English-language film, and it is an unsung classic of movie science fiction: It gives us dystopia and future shock in a tone of wistful, melancholy lyricism.

“INTO THE WEST”(Britain; Mike Newell; 7 p.m., Director’s Guild of America). Jim Sheridan (“My Left Foot,” “The Field”) wrote this tough modern fairy tale about two boys and their cross-Ireland flight on a mysterious racehorse, and it seems strange he didn’t make it as well--although director Mike Newell (“Enchanted April”), clearly delighted at the opportunity, lavishes much skill on the performances and images, making them sharp, scintillating. It’s a movie about children where we remember the kids less than their world--with its seedy urban blight, its vibrant Gypsy camps, its verdant countryside, its savage social inequities--and it has unusual pace, charm and visual richness.

Recommended:

“SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES”(U.S.; Jack Clayton; 4:15 & 9:15 p.m.). Another of Ray Bradbury’s horrific, sentimental, nostalgic glimpses into the heart of the pre-war, small-town Midwest--through which a very Dark Carnival is passing. One of the more sophisticated of Disney’s early ‘80s offerings; the direction by Jack Clayton (“The Innocents”) is high-style, convulsively screamy.

“HOUSE OF CARDS”(U.S.; Michael Lessac; 9 p.m., Director’s Guild of America). Excellent performances and bizarre imagery grace this slightly pat tale of a mother and doctor trying to break through the wall of silence around an autistic child: a little girl whose isolation comes to seem magical, transcendent. Writer-director Lessac doesn’t make the usual compromises here, but he’s conceived everything in “movie” terms, with slick frissons , sermons, shouts and pop epiphanies. Still, he’s fortunate: His actors--Kathleen Turner, Asha Menina, Shiloh Strong and, especially, Tommy Lee Jones-- do break the wall.

Others:

“An American Citizen”(Israel; Eitan Green; 1:30 & 6:45 p.m.). “Bones” (U.S.; Yves Cherry; 1:40, 4:05, 6:50 & 9:05 p.m.).