Celebrating Akerman

For over 35 years, Belgium’s Chantal Akerman has trusted more in the camera than in dialogue to explore the human condition. She has done so with much wit, clarity and compassion, and in many genres. Akerman’s images and camera movements are fraught with meaning and emotion, and while she can be a demanding artist, she is also accessible and unpretentious. Her films are suffused with feelings of isolation and longing, yet they also at times reveal an amused sense of absurdity at what it means to be alive.

Although long regarded as a major filmmaker, Akerman’s work is undeservingly underappreciated. For this reason, the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s “Chantal Akerman -- I You He She” series is most welcome and noteworthy.

After Saturday’s presentation of “Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman” (1996), which was unavailable for preview, her “All Night Long” (1982) will screen. She follows 75 different people throughout the course of a hot summer night in Brussels, during which many mainly young couples will find or lose each other, or both, while several older individuals will remain in the solitary state. “All Night Long” is a visual symphony, rhythmically paced and infinitely graceful, and Akerman leaves us feeling that we’ve learned what’s most important to know about an astonishing number of individuals.

Akerman made her film debut at age 18 in 1968 with the 13-minute “Blow Up My Town,” the first part of Sunday’s double feature. In this sharp vignette, a pretty and plump Akerman makes a nonchalant joke about planning a suicide, but this darkly funny piece is more about declaring herself a distinctive, confident filmmaker than in self-annihilation. It will be followed by “I ... You ... He ... She

The evening’s program concludes with “The Man With the Suitcase” (1983), an amusing 60-minute encounter between Akerman and the American who has sublet her apartment but is not ready to depart.

“Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” is probably Akerman’s best-known film and arguably her masterpiece. Akerman takes the old adage “a woman’s work is never done” and turns it upon the viewer in her relentless 3-hour, 20-minute study of the domestic routines of a Brussels widow (the late Delphine Seyrig) with an utterly self-preoccupied teenage son (Jan Decorte). Seyrig is truly compelling in the most demanding role of her career, and the film, seething with feminist protest, proves to be a shocker. This superbly wrought work is enormously demanding -- but also genuinely rewarding.

Spanish cinema

In Pablo Berger’s tart, wry comedy “Torremolinos 73,” a diffident encyclopedia salesman (Javier Camara) is maneuvered by his boss into making porn movies with his wife (Candela Pena). The venture unleashes the demure wife’s sensuality while allowing the husband to discover in himself a nascent Ingmar Bergman-worshipping auteur. Their adventure in the skin trade is hilarious, outrageous and poignant while offering a commentary on repressive sexual mores at the end of the Franco regime. It’s a fresh, original feature debut for Berger, who has inspired much trust in top stars Camara and Pena.

It screens Friday with another notable offering in the American Cinematheque’s ongoing Recent Spanish Cinema series: Jaime Rosales’ “The Hours of the Day.”

An eventful ‘Tour’

The Goethe Institut’s “Young Turks” series, which explores the Turkish immigrant experience in Germany, gets off to a potent start with Ayse Polat’s “Tour Abroad” (1998), an irresistible blend of grit, humor and heart-tugging. A 40-ish, flamboyantly gay entertainer Zeki (Hilmi Sozer) suddenly finds himself responsible for pretty 11-year-old Senay (Ozlem Blume), the daughter of a long-estranged couple with whom Zeki performed years before.

The husband, who had custody of the child, has died, thus propelling a reluctant Zeki on a long journey with Senay in search of her elusive mother. The film is rich in incident, humor and pathos, and its concerns with cultural dislocation carry it far beyond any inherent odd-couple sentimentality. Sozer is a formidable actor whose career has flourished in the wake of this movie.

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Movie series

UCLA Film and Television Archive

“Chantal Akerman -- I You He She”

* Saturday, 7:30 p.m.: “Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman,” followed by “All Night Long”

* Sunday, 7 p.m.: “Blow Up My Town,” followed by “I ... You ... He

* Tuesday, 7 p.m.: “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles”

Where: James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood

Info: (310) 206-FILM

American Cinematheque

Recent Spanish Cinema picks

* Friday: “The Hours of the Day,” 7 p.m.; “Torremolinos 73,” 9:15 p.m.

Where: The Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

Info: (323) 466-FILM

Goethe Institut

“Young Turks” series

* Tuesday: “Tour Abroad,” 7 p.m.

Where: Goethe Institute Los Angeles, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100

Info: (323) 525-3388