Different ‘Shade’ of Love

The American Cinematheque’s Alternative Screen has one of its strongest offerings in tonight’s presentation at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., at 7:30 p.m. of “The Shade,” debuting French director Raphael Nadjari’s spare, compelling adaptation of the Dostoevsky short story “A Gentle Creature,” transferred to New York’s Spanish Harlem. (The late Robert Bresson also filmed it as “Une Femme Douce” [1969], which launched the career of Dominique Sanda.)

Shot (by Laurent Brunet) in harsh, high-contrast images, “The Shade” concerns a rigid young pawnbroker, Simon (Richard Edson), of Russian-Jewish descent, a perfectionist obsessed with accounting for every penny he takes in from customers he has come to regard with deep distrust. He runs a business in a high-risk area catering often to desperate characters, and this has made him increasingly paranoid and judgmental.

One day, an attractive, troubled young woman, Anna (Lorie Marino), starts bringing Simon high-quality antique jewelry and trinkets to pawn. Her vulnerability pierces Simon’s armor, and he urges her to dispose of her items with a dealer in quality antiques, who would be in a position to buy the items for far more money than he can afford to give her in pawn. But she won’t hear of it, and his unaccustomed concern gives way to emotion so swiftly and intensely that he winds up proposing to her. Once she overcomes her shock, she accepts out of the need for a safe port in the storm.

Anna intends to make a go of it, and for all his uptight, austere ways, Simon is not unattractive. The question becomes whether or not he can unbend sufficiently for them to develop a happy, loving relationship--and, if not, what then will be the consequences for both?

Nadjari tells their story briskly and succinctly, his economy and detachment heightening its impact. He guides his actors, who include Barbara Haas as Simon’s caring mother, into giving sharply focused portrayals. Edson will participate in a discussion following the screening. Edson, who made his screen debut in Jim Jarmusch’s “Stranger Than Paradise,” also appears in Mike Figgis’ “Time Code” as the director trying to deny he’s back on drugs. Marino is best known for her starring role in Britta Sjogren’s powerful and distinctive “Jo Jo at the Gate of Lions” (1994) as a young woman in the clutch of the voices she hears. Playing with “The Shade” is Luke Jaeger’s animated four-minute “Out the Fire,” accompanied by--and inspired by--a 1946 calypso song of the same name, which takes an amusingly nonchalant and fatalistic view of a group of New York firefighters dispatched to an especially capricious fire.

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The Cinematheque launches on Friday “Mods & Rockers 2000: More Fab Flicks From the Shag-a-Delic Sixties!!” (at 7 p.m.) with Desmond Davies’ “Smashing Time” (1967), in which gawky country girls Lynn Redgrave and Rita Tushingham navigate Mod London with the help of scenester photographer Michael York. It will be followed at 9:30 with a double feature: Silvio Narizzano’s “Georgy Girl” (1967), one of the best films of the era, in which Redgrave played the memorably awkward Georgina, pining for Alan Bates. She nonetheless catches the eye of older businessman James Mason. The second feature is the early Merchant Ivory film “The Guru” (1968), in which disaffected rock star York travels to India seeking enlightenment. Tushingham co-stars. Redgrave and York will appear in person.

Saturday brings (at 5 p.m.) the Beatles classic “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964), followed by the Los Angeles premiere of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s “The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus” (1968), a psychedelic combination of circus acts and the Stones in performance. The evening concludes with a 10 p.m. screening of a newly restored version of “Yellow Submarine” (1968).

“Mods and Rockers” gets underway Sunday at 2 p.m. with “33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee” (1968), the Monkees’ only network TV special; a discussion with Mickey Dolenz follows. The 4 p.m. presentation is the minor coming-of-age movie “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” (1967), notable for its Spencer Davis Group and Traffic psycho pop soundtrack; Davis is scheduled to attend. “Mods & Rockers,” which continues through July 12, screens at 6 p.m. a reprise of last year’s hit, the concert movie “Go Go Mania!” (1965) followed by a tea party featuring live music, a ‘60s fashion show and costume contest and British food and drink. (323) 466-FILM.

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“Spike & Mike’s 2000 Classic Festival of Animation,” which opens a one-week run Friday at the Nuart, is in its 23rd edition and is chock-full of gems. Among them is Russia’s Konstantin Bronzit’s hilariously absurd “At the Ends of the Earth,” in which a peasant couple and their animals attempt to live in a shack teetering seesaw-style on a pyramid-like mountaintop; it’s a lovely metaphor for the absurdity of the human condition. The Netherlands’ Paul Driessen’s Oscar-nominated “Three Misses” is a delightfully cockamamie retelling of the Cinderella fable with allusions to David and Goliath, the parting of the Red Sea and “The Perils of Pauline” thrown in. Kirby Atkins’ “Mutt” is set in a canine comedy club, in which Jerry Mutt, “the pooch you love to smooch” is making his successful stand-up debut. Norway’s Pjotr Sapegin’s “One Day a Man Bought a House” is a sweet and funny tale about the unexpected relationship between a man and the rat occupying the old house he acquires. (310) 478-6379.

The Hummadroz Global Sounds Film Festival presents at the Vogue Theater, 6675 Hollywood Blvd., Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. venturesome programs of short films that experiment with sound as well as image--Ian Toews’s “Four Corners” uses an increasingly intense static crackle to evoke the impact of uranium mining on Navajo lands. (323) 934-9010. Documental presents Saturday at the Midnight Special Bookstore, 1318 3rd. St. Promenade, Santa Monica, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. two different programs of documentary and experimental films and videos. (310) 393-2923.