QUICK CUTS

WORKING OVERTIME

Molly Parker, who gave a breakthrough performance in the 1997 feature “Kissed,” has also been busy this summer, showing up in three films. Currently starring opposite Ralph Fiennes in Istvan Szabo’s “Sunshine,” Parker opens Friday in “The Five Senses” from filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa, in which she plays the mother of a little girl whose disappearance links a group of Toronto denizens. The following Friday, the Canadian actress stars in Michael Winterbottom’s “Wonderland.”

‘Tomcats’ on the Loose

Former Disney studio chief Joe Roth’s Revolution Studios is off and running with the film “Tomcats,” currently shooting in and around Los Angeles. Screenwriter Greg Poirier, whose credits include “Rosewood” and “Gossip,” makes his directing debut on the ensemble comedy featuring Jerry O’Connell, Jake Busey and Shannon Elizabeth. “Tomcats” focuses on the titular group, a bunch of freewheeling, die-hard bachelors who put their money where their mouths are, contributing to a pool to be awarded to the member who survives the wedding gauntlet the longest. Things get interesting when the survivors are pared to two and the carefully invested prize has reached nearly $500,000. Sony Pictures Entertainment has scheduled a spring 2001 release.

FRENCH INVASION

This has quietly become a busy summer for fans of French cinema. No less than a dozen films are being released commercially in L.A. between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The influx began auspiciously in June with the debut of Claire Denis’ latest, the critically acclaimed “Beau Travail,” as well as the re-release of Luis Bun~uel’s 1972 classic “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.” The seminal World War II documentary “The Sorrow and the Pity” recently wrapped a one-week engagement, while writer-director Bruno Dumont’s stark drama “Humanite” continues in limited release. July 14, a.k.a. Bastille Day, brought the arrivals of Raul Ruiz’s adaptation of Proust’s “Time Regained,” plus the gritty “Don’t Let Me Die on a Sunday” featuring Elodie Bouchez (“The Dreamlife of Angels”). Still to come are Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s slapstick comedy “The Ice Rink” (La Patinoire), opening Friday, and Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis in Patrice Leconte’s “Girl on the Bridge” on July 28. Also opening that day will be the director’s cut of Luc Besson’s 1988 feature, “The Big Blue.” Coming in August will be Andre Techine’s “Alice and Martin,” starring Juliette Binoche, Frederic Fonteyne’s “An Affair of Love” and a pair of films from Francois Ozon, “Water Drops on Burning Rocks” and “Criminal Lovers.”