Highlights of the AFI Festival

Following are capsule reviews of a selection of today’s screenings in the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas:

‘Landscape in the Mist’

Greece, 1988, 126 minutes 9 p.m.

Two illegitimate children, deceived by their mother into believing their father is away in Germany, embark together, on an odyssey to find him, over the Greek highways and railroads across a dreamy, desolate and fantastic land, filled with dispossessed traveling players, kind motorcyclists, rapacious truck drivers and haunting, mystical incidents. Theo Angelopoulos, like Andrei Tarkovsky, is a great cinematic poet almost unknown in America; his nine films are largely unseen here despite numerous international awards. Perhaps it’s because his style is so slow, deliberate and lyrical. Like Mizoguchi, Antonioni or Murnau, he’s a master of breathtaking images and exquisitely staged and composed long takes and tracking shots. “Landscape” is a masterpiece, one of two at this year’s festival. No movie lover should even consider missing it. RECOMMENDED.