TODAY AT THE AFI

Following 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, 800 Sunset Blvd. Information: (213) 466-1767.

Highly Recommended:

SALUTE TO FILM PRESERVATION(1:30 & 6:45 p.m.). The superb preservation programs of UCLA, the Motion Picture Academy and the AFI--which have rescued many gems and curios from nitrate oblivion--is celebrated with a showing of several films, including the restored 1933 “Secrets.” Mary Pickford’s last star vehicle and a flop at the time, “Secrets” bears watching now for our renewed interest in director Frank Borzage, writer Frances Marion (adapting the Rudolph Besier-May Eddington play), and stars Pickford and Leslie Howard--as a New England couple who defy conventions by going West, only to discover that conventions are somehow inescapable.

“THE CRYING GAME”(Ireland, 1992; Neil Jordan; 1:40 & 6:50 p.m.). Jordan’s mesmerizing romantic thriller--about a reluctant IRA man (Stephen Rea), whose guilt over the death of a British hostage (Forest Whitaker) drives him to the arms of the victim’s sensuous hooker-lover (Jaye Davidson)--is famous for its mid-story shocker twist. But it’s much more: a canny Graham Greene-like portrayal of shifting loyalties, a Hitchcockian evocation of fear and desire, with an emblem (the scorpion fable) right out of Welles’ “Mr. Arkadin.”

“THE BIRCH WOOD”(Poland, 1970; Andrzej Wajda; 1:50 & 7 p.m.). A highly uncharacteristic film from Wajda, who usually specializes in political or social nightmares. Here, the focus is narrowed, the mood reflective and sweet, the style pure. A young pianist (Olgierd Lukaszewicz, who has the herky-jerky, gangly buoyance of a silent comic) returns to the countryside and his dour brother (Daniel Olbrychski). Life is bucolic and slow, the air thick with sunlight and bird-song. Romance beckons. But, slowly, we realize that this joyous young musician is doomed, that these few months are his last.

“THE COCA-COLA KID”(U.S.-Australia, 1985; Dusan Makavejev; 4:15 & 9:15 p.m.). Probably Makavejev’s most conventional film, but a delight all the same: a wonderful carnal comedy about the travails and courtship of a dedicated Coca-Cola trouble-shooter (Eric Roberts) sent to Australia to capture every last soft drink market, and annex the local bubblies.

Recommended:

“IT’S BETTER TO BE WEALTHY AND HEALTHY THAN POOR AND ILL”(Slovakia; Juraj Jakubisko; 4 & 9 p.m.). The latest film from Jakubisko, Slovakia’s most important filmmaker (“The Millenial Bee,” “Sitting Pretty on a Bench”), this puckish examination of Eastern Europe’s post-Iron Curtain chaos takes a subject shot through with terrifying uncertainty and treats it with a voluptuous Felliniesque wit and flamboyance. Jakubisko’s heroines--two women-on-the-loose abandoned by their men, wading recklessly through the flotsam of political dissolution, triumph over fear.