A Weekend of ‘Ritual,’ ‘Ridicule’ and Santa

* MOVIES: “Losing Chase” (at the UA Westwood and the Los Feliz) is a graceful, poignant film in which its executive producer, Kyra Sedgwick, beautifully plays a companion to a woman (Helen Mirren, remarkable, as usual) recovering from a mental breakdown. Beau Bridges co-stars as Mirren’s well-meaning husband. . . . Patrice Leconte’s “Ridicule” (Music Hall, Beverly Hills; Monica 4-Plex; and South Coast Village 3, Costa Mesa) is an exceptionally involving costume drama set in the decadent world of Louis XVI’s Versailles, where “vices are without consequences but ridicule can kill.” It strikes a rare balance between the warmth of a traditional romance and an acid portrayal of a corrupt world. . . . Doug Pray’s “Hype!” (selected theaters) is an impressively evenhanded documentary on the Seattle music scene, brilliantly synthesizing social anthropology and entertainment. . . . Keyed to the current stage revival of “Show Boat” at the Ahmanson, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Tribute to Jerome Kern” series commences tonight at 7:30 with “Till the Clouds Roll By” (1946), MGM’s glossy, all-star musical bio of Kern starring Robert Walker. (The 1936 James Whale version of “Show Boat” is being shown Saturday at 7:30 p.m.)

* MUSIC: Guest conductor Matthias Bamert leads the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the USC Contemporary Music Ensemble tonight at the Veterans Wadsworth Theater in Westwood and Saturday night at the Alex Theatre, Glendale, in a program of Haydn, Stephen Scott and Schubert. . . . Take your choice of “Messiah” performances, Saturday at 3:30 p.m. by the Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale, Richard Westerfield conducting, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, or Saturday night at 7:30 by the Paulist Boy Choristers, conducted by Dana Marsh, at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westwood. . . . Familiar non-seasonal music by Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens and Stravinsky makes up the admission-free program of the Santa Monica Symphony, Allen Robert Gross conducting, Sunday at 4:30 p.m. in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

* ART: “Ritual and Splendor: Ancient Treasures From the Shumei Family Collection,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art through Feb. 9, is a breathtaking example of a holding selected with a Japanese aesthetic. Stopping in Los Angeles before opening at the new Miho Museum outside Kyoto next year, this portion of the collection includes treasures from China, West Asia, Bactria, Greece, Rome and early Iran. In conjunction with the exhibition, Trudy Kawami of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation presents a lecture, “Glorious Creatures: Ancient Near Eastern Animals in the Shumei Family Collection,” Sunday at 1 p.m.

* DANCE: Multiple casts dance the San Francisco Ballet “Nutcracker” tonight, twice Saturday and Sunday afternoon at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. . . . Eight contemporary dancer-choreographers offer “A Festival of Solos and Duets” tonight through Sunday afternoon, at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood.

* POP: Candye Kane, Strangefruit, Tribe 8 and others team up for the second annual Gender Bender Christmas Ball at the Alligator Lounge in Santa Monica, Saturday night at 8:30.

* JAZZ: Drummer Billy Higgins leads the list of all-stars, including Cedar Walton, Dorothy Donegan, Horace Tapscott and Oscar Brashear, paying tribute to Marla Gibbs Sunday at the Visions Theatre Complex in Leimert Park. . . . Inner Voices, the a cappella vocal ensemble, makes merry with music of the season this Sunday and next at the Jazz Bakery in West Los Angeles.

* THEATER: If you want to slip out of the holiday groove, catch these unusual offerings, both closing this weekend: “The Skin of Our Town” (at Glaxa Studios in Silver Lake), playwright Kate Noonan’s comic, off-beat examination of L.A., as inspired by Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” and “The Skin of Our Teeth”; and at the West Coast Ensemble in Hollywood, David Ives’ “Don Juan in Chicago,” an enjoyable comedy that catches up with the 16th century Lothario 400 years later, when he is exhausted and the devil is demanding his due.

* FAMILY: Children’s music faves Dan Crow, J.P. Nightingale, Uncle Ruthie Buell and Fred Sokolow, joined by rabbi-songwriter Neil Comess-Daniels of Beth Shir Sholom, present “Sharing the Holiday Lights,” a multicultural holiday concert Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Robert Frost Auditorium in Culver City. . . . Santa and his reindeer--a 40-foot banner powered by the 138-foot AltaVista Holiday Airship--will fly over the Long Beach, South Bay and Santa Monica areas Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The flyovers will continue above greater L.A. through Dec. 24 as part of AltaVista Internet Software’s campaign to increase awareness of the “For the Children” charities.

--Compiled by Calendar writers