‘Shorts’ Long on Merit

The American Cinematheque, in collaboration with Outfest, presents tonight at 7:30 at the Egyptian Theater “Queer Shorts,” composed of eight short films of much freshness and originality. The most ambitious and rewarding is Jennifer Arnold’s 24-minute “Maid of Honor,” in which a beautiful young woman, Serena (Kehaunani Hunt), has been chosen to serve as maid of honor by her former lover Tisha (Amy Stewart) when she marries Chris (Gerritt Vandermeer). Serena has brought along her current lover, Donielle (Wendy Braun), and Tisha’s nuptials have unexpected impact upon Serena, who at once is confronted with the hypocrisies surrounding the traditional ceremony yet discovering herself longing for a monogamous commitment from Donielle, who has insisted on an open relationship. Arnold is a deft, rigorous writer-director, witty and perceptive, able to illuminate serious issues, such as the importance of marriage for gays, with a brisk touch.

In a mere seven minutes Glenn Gaylord’s “Lost Cause” satirically skewers the frustration people with AIDS can endure when they phone for help at the agencies established in their behalf; all eight shorts have merit. The Lloyd E. Rigler Theater at the Egyptian is at 6712 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood.

The Cinematheque’s “Marilyn Monroe: Actress and Icon” opens Wednesday at 7 p.m. with “Niagara” (1953) and “River of No Return” (1954) and concludes April 30 with a 5 p.m. panel discussion, “Marilyn Monroe and the Culture of Celebrity.” Hosted by Leonard Maltin, the panel will include Joyce Carol Oates, author of the recently published “Blonde,” a re-imagining of Monroe’s life and myth. (323) 466-FILM.

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Jacob Gronlykke’s “Heart of Light” (Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. at the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd.) is a demanding but ultimately rewarding tale of spiritual redemption that boasts the first major contemporary screenplay to use Greenland as a setting. In 1947 Greenland became part of Denmark, and Gronlykke deftly incorporates newsreel clips of the ceremonial transfer of power. At that time King Christian X of Denmark presents a commemorative sword to the Greenlander organizer of the event. Some 50 years later it is hanging on the apartment wall of the Greenlander’s son Rasmus Lynge (Rasmus Lyberth), an Inuit hunter who is succumbing to alcoholism, symbolic of the adverse effects of half a century of colonialism on the natives. When tragedy strikes the Lynge family, the boisterous, larger-than-life Rasmus sobers up and takes his team of huskies on an odyssey of redemption that includes elements of the supernatural, incorporated in the film with admirable ease. Lyberth is a forceful presence, drawing us into the fate of a man who initially comes across as a tiresome, loudmouth drunk. “Hearts of Light” is one of those films that gathers strength as it goes along. Note: The highly acclaimed Italian film “Not of This World,” about a nun handed an abandoned baby in a public park, returns for a Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. run at the Sunset 5. (323) 848-3500.

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Several years ago Til Schweiger won international acclaim in the giddy German comedy “Maybe . . . Maybe Not” as a hunky straight guy who takes shelter with a gay man when his live-in girlfriend catches him with another woman. Schweiger, a young man with a twinkle in his eye and a Kirk Douglas dimple in his chin, more recently scored an even greater hit at the German box office with “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” which also won some importantawards, but it doesn’t travel as well as the earlier “Maybe.” You can imagine the film, written (with Schweiger) and directed by Thomas Jahn, being taken as a rowdy homage to the American road movie, but here it plays more like simply a carbon than an affectionate tribute. In any event Schweiger and Jan Josef Liefers star, respectively, as Martin Brest (after the American director) and Rudy Wurlitzer (after the American novelist and screenwriter) as two men with terminal cancer who escape their hospital determined to see the ocean before they die and have plenty of adventure along the way. What ensues is overly familiar and highly calculated in its play of humor against much heart tugging. The result is as slick as it is dispiriting, despite its stars’ engaging presence. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” opens a regular run Friday at the Monica 4-Plex, 1331 2nd St., Santa Monica, (310) 394-9741, and the University 6, Irvine, (949) 854-8811 or (714) 777-FILM (No. 084).

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The fourth annual “City of Lights, City of Angels: A Week of New French Films” returns to the Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Tuesday-April 29. It opens at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday with Tonie Marshall’s “Venus Beaute (Institut),” which won four Cesars, including best picture, director and screenplay. The film takes its title from a Paris neighborhood salon, not for hair but everything else: massage, facials, depilation. It is of course a woman’s picture but transcends genre with its exceptional wit, depth and grace. The central figure is played by Nathalie Baye, in one of her best roles (which is saying a lot) as a lovely 40-something woman longing for men but scornful of love, a combination that throws her when she’s suddenly pursued by an ardent young sculptor (Samuel Le Bihan). Baye’s Angele works for Bulle Ogier’s brisk, blond and bossy Nadine. There is a raft of wonderful roles for actresses of several generations, and it is a delight to see such esteemed veterans as Ogier, Edith Scob and, as Angele’s aunts, Emmanuelle Riva and the eternally glamorous Micheline Presle. (Marshall, who will be present, is the daughter of Presle and the late American actor-producer William Marshall, whose wives included two other screen legends, Michele Morgan and Ginger Rogers.)

The heroine of Laurent Bouhnik’s “1999 Madeleine” (Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.) could really use the services of Venus Beaute, which could refer her to a good hair salon and throw in some fashion tips. She’s a 35-year-old seamstress who has the regal features and figure of a Greek goddess but is dowdy to the point of plainness. She is a country girl who has landed in a sterile Paris suburb, where she works altering second-hand clothes in a struggling shop. Madeleine herself is struggling--to connect with a man--but is hindered by her lack of sense of self. Despite her work, she hasn’t a clue as to how to dress, how to fix her hair or how best to talk to a man yet is an engaging person--brave and determined to push on with her quest no matter what. Vera Briole’s portrayal of her is utterly and compellingly selfless, and Anouk Aimee is outstanding as her mother, beautiful but on the verge of being overtaken by senility. Bouhnik tells Madeleine’s story with much style and no sentimentality. (310) 206-FILM.

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We most likely will never know for sure who fatally shot top Paramount director William Desmond Taylor in his home in the then-fashionable Westlake area on Feb. 1, 1922, but we can now understand why Paramount signed Mary Miles Minter to a three-year, million-dollar contract when Mary Pickford left the studio in 1919. Minter had become infatuated with the 25-year-old Taylor, who had directed her in some half-dozen pictures, and the discovery of her love letters to him ruined her career and made her domineering mother a prime suspect in the killing. That he was a close friend to Mabel Normand was enough to ruin the gifted comedian’s career as well.

The Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., West Hollywood, screens Wednesday at 8 p.m. “The Eyes of Julia Deep” (1918), a charming and clever romantic comedy starring Minter, and will follow it with a slide presentation of the Taylor murder case by film historian-archivist Marc Wanamaker. On April 27 the theater will again screen at 8 p.m. “Julia Deep,” followed by a splendid 1915 Civil War melodrama, “The Coward,” in which Margaret Gibson has a small role. Gibson appeared in four films with Taylor in his acting days. In 1964, at age 70, she died in her Hollywood Hills home in obscurity and under a different name. But while suffering the heart attack that caused her demise, she told neighbors that she had shot Taylor. Film historian Robert Birchard will discuss Gibson and her confession, which only recently has come to light.

Minter, who died a recluse in her Santa Monica home in 1984, was a talented, radiant beauty with genuine star quality. “Julia Deep,” written by Elizabeth Mahoney and directed by Lloyd Ingram, has Minter--16 at the time--in the title role as a department store employee who saves the life of a playboy (Allan Forrest) about to shoot himself after having run through his inheritance. Julia must endure hypocrisy and a mischievous deception before she and Forrest’s Terry Hartridge are able to tie the knot. The film is breezy yet affecting and has a delightful screwball comic touch. Sadly, Minter was exactly one month short of turning 20 when scandal cut short a promising career. Bob Mitchell will provide live organ accompaniment.

A painstaking evocation of period, “The Coward,” written by C. Gardner Sullivan and directed by Reginald Barker, opens at the estate of a proud Southerner (Frank Keenan, father-in-law of comedian Ed Wynn and grandfather of character actor Keenan Wynn) just at the outbreak of the Civil War. His son (Charles Ray) flinches at the prospect of enlisting, and from there the film evolves into a tale of redemption capped by tragic irony. “The Coward” made the boyish-looking Ray a star for his sympathetic portrayal of a young man beset by fear and guilt. Gibson, who later changed her professional name to Patricia Palmer, is seen briefly as Ray’s demure fiancee, but her presence has rescued an exquisitely wrought and well-preserved silent from obscurity. Mitchell will provide live piano accompaniment. (323) 655-2520.