Future Is Now in Provocative ‘Cyberpunk’ at Nuart

Marianne Trench and Peter von Brandenburg’s provocative and enlightening “Cyberpunk” (Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Nuart) pays homage to Vancouver-based science-fiction writer William Gibson whose novels, the filmmakers persuasively demonstrate, have had a profound effect on the way science and technology are shaping the future. They put special emphasis on cyberpunks, those computer hackers dedicated to accessing and liberating the world of information.

This documentary, much of which is also a dazzling display of the possibilities of computer-generated animation, explores the impact of cyberpunks on culture--e.g., music and design--as well as the burgeoning universe of virtual reality. When the unpretentious Gibson, a visionary who’s no computer specialist, says, “The future has already happened,” you believe him. (310) 478-6379.

It’s one thumb up, the other down for this week’s midnight movies. Tsui Hark’s enchanting 1983 “Zu: Warriors From the Magic Mountain” (Monica 4-Plex Fridays and Saturdays) is a blithe, quaint fantasy in which a civil war in ancient times gives way to a supernatural struggle between good and evil as a young soldier, Ti (Yuen Biao), and his monk sidekick I-Chen (Meng Hai) embark upon a quest for the Celestial Swords, whose combined force is needed to defeat the Blood Monster. The movie’s moral is that young people must unite to save the universe from their elders. (310) 394-9741.

Dan McCormack’s 55-minute “Minotaur” (at the Sunset 5 Fridays and Saturdays) is an arty, breathtakingly pretentious parable on the decline and fall of an Elvis-like pop star (Michael Faella) that presents an overly familiar phenomenon as if it were some kind of profound revelation. Preceding it, however, is a real dazzler: Robert Beebe’s award-winning, 14-minute “In the Aquarium,” a gorgeous, surreal underwater odyssey that was produced in UCLA’s animation workshop. (213) 848-3500.

The 1922 “Monte Cristo,” which screens Saturday at 2 p.m. in UCLA’s Melnitz Theater, has got to be one of the key rediscoveries in the UCLA Film Archive’s ongoing Festival of Preservation. It’s astounding that such an ambitious and skillfully made production of Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” and starring such a major star as John Gilbert could have sunk into such obscurity that it was regarded lost until it surfaced in the Czech Republic Film Archive, where it was restored to its tinted beauty. (Think how familiar the Douglas Fairbanks “Robin Hood,” made the same year, is in comparison.) “Monte Cristo” will be accompanied on the organ by Robert Israel, playing Erno Rapee’s original score.

Gilbert was a great romantic matinee idol and, like Rudolph Valentino, was expected to roll his eyes in especially feverish moments. But under Emmett J. Flynn’s direction, Gilbert gives one of his most restrained and subtle performances as the sorely wronged sea captain Edmond Dantes, betrayed by three erstwhile friends into life imprisonment in solitary confinement. A miraculous escape after 20 years of captivity allows Dantes, calling himself the Count of Monte Cristo, to exact an elaborate and gratifying revenge.

Photographed by Lucien Andriot, “Monte Cristo” is a durably stirring work of visual grandeur with its sumptuous period settings and costumes, which have the stylized look of the popular illustrators of the day--e.g., N. C. Wyeth or Maxfield Parrish. Bernard McConville was responsible for adapting Dumas to the screen, preserving his spirit intact in this William Fox Super Production. (Be on the lookout for a single scene with Renee Adoree, who three years later was Gilbert’s leading lady in King Vidor’s classic “The Big Parade.”) Also of special note in the Festival of Preservation offerings: the impressive and engaging “James Dean on Television: Three Dramas” (Melnitz Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.). Information: (310) 206-FILM.