Best Bets / DECEMBER 5-11, 1999

MOVIES

“The Green Mile,” a story set on Death Row in a Southern prison in 1935, stars Tom Hanks as a a guard who develops a relationship with an inmate (Michael Clarke Duncan) who appears to possess unusual gifts. Directed by Frank Darabont from the Stephen King novel. Opens Friday.

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“The Cider House Rules,” adapted by John Irving from his novel, stars Tobey Maguire as an orphan who forms an extraordinary bond with the orphanage’s doctor, played by Michael Caine. With Charlize Theron, Delroy Lindo and Paul Rudd. Opens Friday at selected theaters.

THEATER

Classical theater company A Noise Within, continuing its inaugural season in residence at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State L.A., is making its holiday offering for family audiences a brand-new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ evergreen tale of redemption, “A Christmas Carol.” Opens Friday.

MUSIC

A “Hansel and Gretel” updated and relocaled to turn-of-last-century New York City is director James Robinson’s production for Los Angeles Opera, opening Wednesday (through Dec. 21). William Vendice leads all seven performances of Humperdinck’s beloved opera--in English except for the immigrant parents’ German language. The cast includes Paula Rasmussen and Clare Gormley.

JAZZ

Mark Cantor has long been one of the West Coast’s top collectors of jazz films. At the Beverly Hills Public Library tonight at 7 he will present rare historic clips of jazz dancers and vocalists in a presentation titled “Dancers, Divas & All That Jazz.”

POP MUSIC

Season-themed concerts for all tastes pop up on Saturday, with KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas bringing Beck and others to the Arrowhead Pond, the 92.3 the Beat Holiday Cooldown offering an evening with D’Angelo at the Wiltern Theatre, and Windham Hill Records presenting David Arkenstone and others at Marsee Auditorium.

VIDEO

Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows and Samuel L. Jackson head the cast of the thriller, “Deep Blue Sea.” Directed by Renny Harlin, “Sea” is a delicious shark-on-the-rampage thriller that will keep you jumping. Just don’t pay too much attention to the inane dialogue the actors have to recite. The box office hit swims into video stores Tuesday.

ART

“Linda Hudson: Ellipsis,” a single installation composed of four related elements, will open Saturday at Otis College of Art and Design. Continuing her perceptual investigation of light and space, Hudson looks at the transitional spaces in architecture by placing plastic works at the window, floor, wall and ceiling of the gallery.