REEL LIFE / FILM & VIDEO FILE : Award Winner From France Will Screen in Ojai : 'Un Coeur en Hiver' explores a beautiful violinist's romantic obsession.

REEL LIFE / FILM & VIDEO FILE : Award Winner From France Will Screen in Ojai : ‘Un Coeur en Hiver’ explores a beautiful violinist’s romantic obsession.

By PANCHO DOLL

Nov. 4, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Tonight the Ojai Film Society presents the award-winning French film “Un Coeur en Hiver.” Set in the world of French classical music, the film uses the rounded contours and tapered waist of the violin as a female metaphor and instrument of attraction between a beautiful young violinist and her two male love interests.

Camille, the violinist, is involved with the debonair owner of a violin repair business. His partner, a monkish violin maker who’s only passion is his craft, attracts her attention and then becomes her obsession. The movie is about the asocial violin maker’s response to the woman who would have him tune her instrument.

The film will be shown at 4:30 p.m. at the Ojai Playhouse, 145 E. Ojai Ave. Admission is $6.

The controversy between TV networks and the cable operators that distribute network programming has made Thursday nights difficult for thousands of fans of “The Simpsons” in Ventura.

Avenue Cable no longer carries KTTV Channel 11, the local Fox affiliate, thereby depriving subscribers of easy access to America’s favorite four-fingered family.

To get the KTTV signal, Ted Bittl of Ventura has to take his wristwatch television outside. So dedicated a fan is he that on Thursday nights Bittl even takes his watch to a bar on Seaward Avenue where he works.

“Last Thursday I had about a dozen people behind me, all watching and laughing.”

A related television note: If you can’t get your fill of the Homer Simpson, try this substitute. The Bravo channel is broadcasting “Day of the Locust” in which Donald Sutherland plays a hick who woos a Hollywood star. The name of Sutherland’s character: Homer Simpson.

Here’s one not to take the kids to.

“Blasphemous and obscene,” is how the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Assn. described “Damned in the USA,” a film about censorship battles in America.

The film travels from Cincinnati, where Robert Mapplethorpe stood trial on charges of obscenity, to Florida, where rappers 2 Live Crew faced similar charges. “Damned in the USA” follows attempts by conservatives to influence the arts.

“Damned in the USA” will be shown tonight at 6 and 8 p.m. at the Plaza Players Theatre, 34 N. Palm St. in Ventura. Admission is $5.

Pancho Doll compiles Reel Life each week for Ventura County Life. If you have information on local film, television or video events or personalities, write to him at 5200 Valentine Road, Suite 140, Ventura, 93003 or send faxes to 658-5576.