The past and present Besson

THE American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica takes on a Gallic flavor this weekend when it pays homage to Luc Besson, the iconoclastic, influential French director, producer and writer.

“Angel-A,” Besson’s first film as a director in six years, gets a sneak preview on Friday; its official opening is set for late May.

Scheduled for Saturday is his 1985 visceral pop-art film noir, “Subway,” starring Christopher Lambert as a would-be rocker living in the Parisian subway system who falls for a woman played by Isabelle Adjani. That is followed by his 1994 violent, off-kilter noir romance “Leon,” which was released in the United States as “The Professional” -- with 26 minutes deleted. Jean Reno plays a hit man who falls for a teenage girl (Natalie Portman) who witnessed the massacre of her family.

Besson’s maligned 1988 film, “The Big Blue,” is on tap for Sunday. Like “Leon,” the film was severely truncated when released in the U.S., where it bombed with audiences and received mixed reviews from the critics. The Aero is showing the director’s cut, which was a huge hit in France and winner of two Cesar awards.

The film taps into Besson’s love of the ocean -- he wanted to be a marine biologist until he was in a diving accident at 17. Jean-Marc Barr plays a young man whose father died at sea but who is intent on competing against a childhood friend (Reno) for a deep-sea free-diving championship.

Legend at work

Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s long-running matinee film series features one of Greta Garbo’s signature films, 1936’s “Camille.” The screen legend received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in this handsome, George Cukor-directed adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas fils’ novel. Garbo is radiant as the ill-fated Parisian courtesan Marguerite, who falls in love with the handsome, young Armand (Robert Taylor).

Screening March 20 is the offbeat 1942 comedy “Once Upon a Honeymoon,” which reunites Cary Grant with his “The Awful Truth” director, Leo McCarey. Set at the start of World War II in Europe, the film finds Grant playing an American radio reporter who is investigating an Austrian baron he believes is a Nazi. Ginger Rogers plays an ambitious American burlesque performer who marries the baron without knowing of his political leanings.

Tarantino’s picks

This evening, Quentin Tarantino’s “The Los Angeles Grindhouse Festival 2007” at the New Beverly Cinema in L.A. features the 1969 crime thriller “Machine Gun McCain,” directed by Giuliano Montaldo. John Cassavetes, Britt Ekland and Gena Rowlands star in this Italian-Yugoslavian gangster flick that sparked controversy when selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival.

Rounding out the bill is Fernando Di Leo’s 1973 mob thriller, “Wipeout,” with Henry Silva and Richard Conte.

Set for Friday and Saturday is a comedy triple bill, 1977’s “The Van,” directed by Sam Grossman and featuring Danny DeVito, 1981’s “Pick-Up Summer,” directed by George Mihalka, and 1979’s “Summer Camp,” directed by Chuck Vincent.

Screening Sunday through Tuesday are 1977’s “Rolling Thunder,” directed by John Flynn and penned by Paul Schrader, a revenge thriller about two Vietnam vets (William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones) who had been prisoners of war, and Charles B. Pierce’s “The Town That Dreaded Sundown,” a 1977 thriller about a supposed true incident in which a killer terrorized the Texas border town of Texarkana in 1946. Ben Johnson stars.

Among the best

AFI’s “100 Years ... 100 Movies” screening series at the ArcLight features John Ford’s masterful “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940) on Wednesday. Nunnally Johnson penned the adaptation from John Steinbeck’s landmark novel that explores the ruthlessness of the Great Depression.

Ford won an Oscar for his work here, as did Jane Darwell as the stalwart, loving Ma Joad. Henry Fonda gives an indelible performance as everyman Tom Joad; he lost the Oscar to Jimmy Stewart for “The Philadelphia Story.”

Screening March 21 is Billy Wilder’s sassy and sophisticated 1959 gender-bender comedy, “Some Like It Hot,” starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, and featuring one of the greatest final lines in film history, uttered by Joe E. Brown.

susan.king@latimes.com

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Screenings

American Cinematheque

* “Angel-A”: 7:30 p.m. Friday

* “Subway,” “Leon”: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

* “The Big Blue”: 7:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica

Info: (323) 466-3456

www.americancinematheque.com

Tuesday Matinees

* “Camille”: 1 p.m., Tuesday

* “Once Upon a Honeymoon”: 1 p.m., March 20

Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.

Info: (323) 857-6010

www.lacma.org

Grindhouse Festival

* “Machine Gun McCain,” 7:30; “Wipeout,” 9:25 , tonight

* “The Van,” 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; “Pick-Up Summer,” 9:20 p.m. Friday, 3:50 and 9:20 p.m. Saturday; “Summer Camp,” 11:15 p.m. Friday, 5:50 and 11:15 p.m. Saturday

* “Rolling Thunder,” 3:45 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday; “The Town That Dreaded Sundown,” 5:40 and 9:25 p.m. Sunday, 9:25 p.m. Monday and Tuesday

Where: New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd., L.A.

Info: (323) 938-4038

www.newbevcinema.com

“100 Years ... 100 Movies”

* “The Grapes of Wrath”: 8 p.m. Wednesday

* “Some Like It Hot”: 8 p.m. March 21

Where: ArcLight Cinemas, 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., L.A.

Info: (323) 464-4226

www.arclightcinemas.com