A varied palette of filmmaking art

In Patrice LeConte’s enigmatic “Intimate Strangers,” a woman named Anna knocks on the wrong door of a professional building in Paris, leading to a quirkily suspenseful psychological pas de deux. The misunderstanding between Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) and William (Fabrice Luchini), the man who opens the door, builds to a craftily comic level, with the truth becoming increasingly elusive.

Bonnaire is splendid as a troubled woman who subtly transforms from a rain-drenched bud to a flower blooming in spring. LeConte’s charmingly Hitchcockian tale is buoyantly entertaining as it carefully moves between drama and comedy, romance and suspense.

Two Korean women, linked by adultery and a message left on an answering machine, solitarily struggle with personal issues in Gina Kim’s contemplative diptych “Invisible Light.” Gah-in (Choi Yoon Sun) is a college student marooned in Los Angeles over winter break, tormenting herself about her affair with a married man.

The second part of the film follows Do-hee (Lee Sun-jin), the wife of Gah-in’s lover, as she returns to Seoul after a long absence, pregnant by another man.

Kim carefully uses composition and light to evocatively create mood while dealing with feminist themes, particularly that of women’s relationships to their bodies. Intimate to the point of voyeurism, “Invisible Light” is also a deeply introspective and accomplished art film.

The poignant film “The Last of the First” makes a nice bookend to fellow documentary competition entry “Rock School.” While the latter film looks at student musicians ages 9 to 17, “Last of the First” profiles the Harlem Blues & Jazz Band, an ensemble of Jazz Age veterans in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

The group was founded more than 30 years ago by Dr. Albert Vollmer to spotlight the talent of these still vital musicians, who performed with the likes of Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie. Director Anja Baron makes a moving record of their music and remembrances, and to see an octogenarian such as Al Casey shed decades the moment he picks up his guitar is a truly awesome sight.

The festival’s centerpiece selection is Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunset,” a sequel to the 1995 film “Before Sunrise.”

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who starred in the earlier film as a pair of strangers sharing a night of walking and talking in Vienna, reprise their roles here, reuniting awkwardly in Paris nine years later to spend an afternoon figuring out what it all meant.

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Festival schedule

Centerpiece premiere

* “Before Sunset,” 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, ArcLight Cinerama Dome, 6360 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. (866) 345-6337, www.lafilmfest.com.

Selected screenings

* “Rock School,” 5:30 p.m. today, Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd., L.A.

* “Invisible Light,” 5 p.m. Tuesday, Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., L.A.; 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, Directors Guild of America.

* “The Last of the First,” 3 p.m. Wednesday; 7 p.m. Thursday, Laemmle’s Sunset 5.

* “Intimate Strangers,” 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Directors Guild of America.