Gay and Lesbian Festival Continues With ‘All the Rage’

Outfest ‘97, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, continues through Sunday in West Hollywood with more worthy movies. The venues are the Directors Guild, 7920 Sunset Blvd., and Harmony Gold Preview House, 7655 Sunset Blvd., and the Sunset 5 (for special Friday and Saturday midnight screenings), 8000 Sunset Blvd. Among the films that were available for preview were these:

Roland Tec’s debut feature “All the Rage” (DGA I today at 5 p.m.) is a knockout, a sexy, witty and razor-sharp satire of “guppie” society in which a handsome young man blots out his need for love with casual sex.

Beneath a layer of gratuitous contrivance and melodrama, there is a tender love story told in the British film “Different for Girls” (DGA I tonight at 7:15 p.m.) about a brave kid who sticks up for his effeminate best friend.

Aurelio Grimaldi’s “Nerolio” (Harmony Gold tonight at 9:15 p.m.) is a persuasive imagining of the last several days in the life of Pier Paolo Pasolini, the controversial Italian actor-poet who was murdered by a hustler in 1975. Grimaldi envisions Pasolini--he never calls him by name--as a brilliant, arrogant man who compulsively cruised handsome young men until he at last met one whose masculinity he taunted too much.

Victor Mignatti’s “Broadway Damage” (DGA I Friday at 5 p.m.) is a stylish comedy, set in Greenwich Village, a kind of “My Sister Eileen” with a gay twist. Directed by Nancy Meckler, who made such a memorable debut with the lesbian drama “Sister My Sister,” and written by “Bent’s” Martin Sherman, “Alive and Kicking” (DGA I Friday at 7:15) is one of the festival’s strongest films. It reflects the terrible toll AIDS has exacted from the world of dance.

Jason Flemyng stars as a tall, handsome ballet dancer in a London company who becomes caught up in a tempestuous relationship with the short, stocky AIDS counselor (Anthony Sher, who recalls Bob Hoskins) to his dying best friend. Flemyng’s dancer has AIDS himself and has already lost his lover to the disease. What gives this film its heart and soul is that the counselor and the dancer are honest enough to acknowledge that they wouldn’t be together were it not for the dancer’s condition.

If Gael Morel’s “Full Speed” (Harmony Gold Friday at 9:15 p.m.) reminds you of Andre Techine’s superb “Wild Reeds,” it should. Techine has been a mentor to Morel, and he has created a remarkable companion film to Techine’s study of coming of age at a time when France was torn by the Algerian War.

Ronnie Larsen’s often hilariously raunchy “Shooting Porn” (DGA I Friday at 9:30 p.m.) suggests that a sense of humor is as crucial as the more obvious requirements for being a performer in gay male erotica.

Kristine Petersen “Sexing the Label” (DGA II Saturday at 9:45

p.m.) provides a vibrant view of gay and lesbian life in Australia with a provocative emphasis on transgendered individuals.

Margaret Westcott’s “Stolen Moments” (Harmony Gold Sunday at 1:15 p.m.) offers a comprehensive, international survey of lesbian life and history. The film reminds us that lesbians have often suffered the same horrific fates simply for their sexual orientation as gay men have.

Set largely in seedy Memphis side streets in summertime, Ira Sachs’ wrenching “The Delta” (DGA Sunday at 2 p.m.) tells, with much compassion and skill, about an encounter between two gay men from different worlds.

The closing weekend brings one of the festival’s most venturesome movies, Seattle actor-playwright Ted Sod’s crackling “Crocodile Tears” (DGA I Sunday at 4:30 p.m.), which director Ann Coppel has brought from stage to screen. A stinging allegory, it stars Sod as an art teacher who, learning he’s tested HIV-positive, makes a pact with a devil’s envoy, the school’s homophobic principal.

Outfest ’97 closes with Deepa Mehta’s superb English-language “Fire” (DGA I Sunday at 7 p.m.), a subtle, powerful account of the growing attraction between New Delhi sisters-in-law married to obtuse traditionalists. Following the screening of “Fire,” Outfest ‘97, in a banner year, will present its grand jury and audience awards. (213) 852-1400.

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More screening notes:

* The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., will screen Friday at 8 p.m. “Jason and the Argonauts,” the 1963 fable that combined live-action and stop-motion animation. After the screening, there will be a discussion with Ray Harryhausen, the film’s visual effects creator. (310) 247-3600.

* Filmforum will present experimental filmmaker Hollis Frampton’s “Magellan Cycle” on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. at the Art Center, 1700 Lida St., Pasadena, and Sundays at 7 p.m. beginning this weekend and continuing through Aug. 25. (213) 526-2911.

* Glaxa Studios, 3707 Sunset Blvd., Silverlake, screens Paul Bojack’s “Glass, Necktie,” a dark comedy of infidelity, Monday at 8 p.m. (213) 663-5295.