Stirring tales from beyond our borders

THE imagination of Hollywood often seems limited next to the offerings of filmmakers elsewhere in the world, and this fall an influx of foreign films will give movie lovers a chance to take in the differences. There are few familiar names among the directors, but there are several whose work is always anticipated.

One of the most bleakly amusing films of the last decade is Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Celebration,” a mordant take on an extravagantly dysfunctional family. Now Vinterberg is directing “Dear Wendy,” written by ever-controversial Lars von Trier. The film, opening Sept. 23, explores guns and violence in America.

By coincidence, another notable film opens on the 23rd, a Swiss film in French, Lionel Baier’s “Garcon Stupide” (“Stupid Boy”), one of the strongest offerings in July’s Outfest. An inspired blend of spontaneity and sophistication, it offers a clear-eyed, fully dimensioned portrait of a 20-year-old gay Swiss youth named Loic (Pierre Chatagny), who seeks out myriad sexual encounters, sometimes for pay, yet begins to yearn for knowledge and meaning in his life.

As has been increasingly the case over recent decades, many of the season’s new foreign films will be available only as one-time screenings as part of special series presentations at institutional venues.

Below is a sampling of new films, festivals and retrospectives, broken down by country and date. For a more complete list, please go to www.calendarlive.com/foreignfilms.

AUSTRIA

Oct. 5: Peter Kubelka, the renowned Austrian avant-garde filmmaker and theorist, will present a program of his “metaphoric films” at REDCAT and is scheduled to make a UCLA Film Archive appearance as well.

BRITAIN

Sept. 30: A dream film centering on a 15-year-old girl’s longing to escape her circus family’s existence into “real life,” “Mirrormask” was written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Dave McKean, both graphic novelists. Nuart.

FRANCE/FRENCH LANGUAGE

Sept. 16: Gael Morel’s “Three Dancing Slaves” focuses on three brothers, each of whom face a turning point in his life.

Oct. 1-29: Jacques Rivette at UCLA.

Oct. 14-29: Louis Malle retrospective at LACMA.

Oct. 24: Hany Abu-Assad’s “Paradise Now,” a Franco-German co-production, tells the story of two young Palestinians as they embark upon what may be the last 48 hours of their lives. REDCAT.

GERMANY/SWITZERLAND

Sept. 16: Roland Suso Richter’s brisk, tense “The Tunnel” is the true story of a champion East German swimmer (Heino Ferch) who narrowly escapes to the West just as the Berlin Wall is going up but becomes determined to rescue his sister and her family.

Sept. 27-Oct. 25: “Crossing Borders,” a Tuesday series of Swiss and German documentaries. Goethe Institut.

Oct. 20: Two rarely seen German silents: Leopold Jessner and Paul Leni’s “Backstairs” (1921), a love triangle starring Wilhelm (later William) Dieterle, Henny Porten and Fritz Kortner, and Wolfgang Hoffmann-Harnisch’s “The Streets of Algiers” (1927), in which a woman (Camilla Horn) has no idea her mother (Maria Jacobini) leads a double life. With live piano accompaniment by Robert Israel. Skirball Cultural Center.

INDIA

Oct. 21-30: “Filmi Melody: Song and Dance in Indian Cinema.” UCLA Film Arch0ive.

ITALY

Through Sept. 24: LACMA offers a comprehensive Michelangelo Antonioni retrospective. Series highlight: “The Passenger” (1975), starring Jack Nicholson, at the Academy on Thursday at 8 p.m.

Sept. 21: Antonioni’s “Chung Kuo -- China” is a rare 220-minute 1972 documentary in three parts that focuses mainly on people’s faces. Italian Cultural Institute.

Sept. 22: The elegant and poignant 1980 “Mystery of Oberwald,” Antonioni’s title for Jean Cocteau’s “The Eagle Has Two Heads,” a period tale of doomed lovers starring Monica Vitti and shot as a bold video-to-film transfer experiment in color. Italian Cultural Institute. (Repeats Sept. 23 at LACMA.)

Sept. 28: Gabriele Salvatores’ “I’m Not Scared” (2003), a perceptive study of character and an edgy suspense drama. Italian Cultural Institute.

Oct. 6-16: American Cinematheque’s “Cinema Italian Style 2005: New Films From Italy.” Egyptian Theater.

JAPAN

Friday: A “Japanese Outlaw Masters” double feature, Hideo Gosha’s “The Wolves” (1971), an epic chronicle of two warring yakuza clans of the 1920s, and Eiichi Kudo’s samurai classic “Thirteen Assassins” (1963). The American Cinematheque at the Aero.

Oct. 14: “Three Extremes,” a trio of horror stories told by Takashi Miike, Fruit Chan and Park Chan-Wook.

Nov. 4.-Dec. 3: Mikio Naruse retrospective, six films of one of Japan’s lesser-known but most accomplished filmmakers. UCLA Film Archive.

KOREA

Friday: The American Cinematheque’s second annual Korean Film Festival begins at the Egyptian.

SPANISH LANGUAGE

Oct. 14: Luis Mandoki’s “Innocent Voices” is based on its screenwriter Oscar Orlando Torres’ embattled childhood in El Salvador during its civil war in the 1980s.

Oct. 21-30: The annual Latino International Film Festival. American Cinematheque at the Egyptian.