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HOLLYWOOD - The American Cinematheque presents Valentine's Week - Amour Fou and Offbeat Love Stories at the Aero (February 8 - 12) and Egyptian (February 17 - 19) Theatres. In celebration of Valentine's Day, the Cinematheque will screen seven very different love stories with one thing in common - offbeat, delirious depictions of unrequited amour, troubled relationships and/or doomed affairs, all done in a most entertaining and gratifying fashion. From the unfulfilled desire and emotional immolation of Max Ophuls' gem, LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (not on video) and Jean Negulesco's HUMORESQUE (with Joan Crawford and John Garfield at their best), to mental illness, May-December romance and Oedipal obsession in Robert Aldrich's AUTUMN LEAVES, to the adultery, class values and family dynamics of Douglas Sirk's WRITTEN ON THE WIND, ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS and THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (not on video), to the perverse, phantasmagorical fire of forbidden love in Sidney Lumet/Tennessee Williams' THE FUGITIVE KIND (with the combustible pairing of Marlon Brando and Anna Magnani!) and David Lynch's WILD AT HEART - these romantic tragedies, surreal dreamlike reveries and soul-baring dramas are the flipsides of the candy-coated marketing of romance on Valentine's Day. And, much more than the saccharine sentiments on greeting cards, these things are often what love is all about. All screenings are at the Max Palevsky Theatre at the Aero Theatre (1328 Montana Ave) in Santa Monica and at Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian Theatre (6712 Hollywood Blvd).

Wednesday, February 8, 2006: Aero Theatre
The Wednesday, February 8th program begins 7:30 PM with THE FUGITIVE KIND (1959, UA (Sony Repertory), 121 min.). Director Sidney Lumet conjures a sensual fever dream from Tennessee Williams' southern gothic Orpheus Descending. Itinerant hustler Marlon Brando is the ultimate snakeskin-clad loner who drifts into a redneck backwater town and falls into a torrid affair with fellow outcast Anna Magnani, the middle-aged immigrant wife of hate-crippled Victor Jory. Sparks fly from a pyrotechnic cast that also includes Joanne Woodward and Maureen Stapleton.

Thursday, February 9, 2006: Aero Theatre
The Thursday, February 9th program is a 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956, Universal, 99 min.). Commonly acknowledged as one of pantheon director Douglas Sirk's most sublime masterworks, this tale of two friends - rich, alcoholic Robert Stack and poor, sensible Rock Hudson (who also works for him) runs the gamut of emotions, examining the consequences of the pair's mutual love for radiant Lauren Bacall. But Sirk doesn't stop there as he subtly explores, through back story and character, the loneliness and spiritual degradation caused by unchecked materialism. He also manages to skillfully sidestep soap opera cliches while still delivering glossy, superior popular entertainment. Dorothy Malone won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Stack's promiscuous sister with a long-unrequited yen for Hudson.

Next on the same bill is a brand new 35 mm print of ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955, Universal, 89 min.). Jane Wyman, a lonely widow with two spoilt, almost grown children (William Reynolds, Gloria Talbot) as well as a circle of snobbish, upper middle class friends, suddenly finds herself falling-in-love with her gardener, Rock Hudson. Director Douglas Sirk examines the curious cultural barriers we set up for ourselves regarding love, skewering age and class differences in the process as well as championing fearless independence of the individual spirit - something that was not always that common in the 1950s. One of the most subversive love stories of 20th century cinema and a prime inspiration for Todd Haynes' recent, acclaimed FAR FROM HEAVEN.

Friday, February 10, 2006: Aero Theatre
The Friday, February 10th program is a 7:30 PM screening of LOVE STORY (1970, Paramount, 99 min.). One of the most gloriously sentimental and tear-jerking films ever made. Written by Erich Segal (based on his novel), LOVE STORY follows the rich boy-poor girl romance of preppie millionaire Ryan O'Neal, and "social zero" Ali MacGraw, as they first trade verbal fireworks, and then fall truly, madly in love against the turbulent backdrop of Harvard in the early 70's, before tragedy strikes. Beautifully acted by O'Neal and MacGraw, and sensitively directed by Arthur Hiller (THE IN-LAWS, THE HOSPITAL), LOVE STORY is as much a landmark of pop culture as Elton John's "Your Song."

Sunday, February 12, 2006: Aero Theatre
The Sunday, February 12th program begins at 6:00 PM with AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957, 20th Century Fox, 119 min.). Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr are two decent, middle-aged people who meet and fall-in-love on a cruise from Europe to New York. Both engaged to others, they decide to think it over before jumping into marriage and agree to rendezvous again six months later at the Empire State Building. But things don't go exactly as planned. Leo McCarey (THE AWFUL TRUTH) deftly directs one of the true perennials of movie love stories, its enduring, genuine sweetness and warmth tempered by a bittersweet
melancholy borne out of the curveballs life can sometimes throw you. With Richard Denning and Cathleen Nesbitt.

Friday, February 17, 2006: Egyptian Theatre
The Friday, February 17th program is a 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is a new 35 mm print of LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1948, Paramount, 86 min.). Was there ever a more swooningly romantic film than genius French director Max Ophuls' American masterpiece? And a love story that sidesteps all the sentimental Hollywood contrivances too often afflicting movie romances of the era? Shy young girl, Lisa (Joan Fontaine) grows into womanhood while nurturing a lifelong love-from-afar for debonair composer and worldly lothario, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) who lives upstairs in her building. Even after she enjoys a brief tryst with Brand, Lisa's dreams seem destined to evaporate into thin air. Ophul's device of Brand, finally learning of Lisa's deep feelings from a letter to him, as he readies for a duel-at-dawn, bookends the narrative with a tragic anguish that is extremely moving.

Next on the same bill is HUMORESQUE (1946, Warner Bros., 125 min.). Jean Negulesco directs one of the most emotionally complex and psychologically rich love stories of the 1940's. Joan Crawford gives one of her greatest performances as Helen Wright, a beautiful but lonely, tormented society matron who falls for younger violin virtuoso, Paul Boray (John Garfield). Garfield's Boray returns her affections, but his prodigious talent and demanding career, his concerned mother (Ruth Nelson) and adoring friend, Gina (Joan Chandler) slowly cause Helen to lose her self-assurance. Believing herself unlovable and jaded by experience, Helen's personality gradually unravels in a noirish spiral of self-destruction. With one of the most deliriously devastating climaxes you'll ever undergo in a film.

Saturday, February 18, 2006: Egyptian Theatre
The Saturday, February 18th program begins at 6:00 PM with AUTUMN LEAVES (1956, Columbia (Sony), 108 min.). "In the dark, when I feel his heart pounding against mine - is it love? or frenzy? or terror?" Joan Crawford is a middle-aged typist, long out-of-circulation after taking care of an invalid father. When young Cliff Robertson comes along to sweep her off her feet, it seems too good to be true. And, after a whirlwind courtship and Mexican wedding, Joan finds it is. Robertson is mentally unstable and a pathological liar, tortured by his previous marriage to vixen Vera Miles and creepy, unspoken things about his virile dad (Lorne Greene.) Will Joan stick by her man as he slips down the rabbithole of burgeoning schizophrenia? Director Robert Aldrich (KISS ME DEADLY, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?) looks at the deep, psychological scars of both Crawford's and Robertson's characters, visually supplying subtle hints of loneliness, Oedipal fixations and incest. An underrated gem ripe for rediscovery. NOT ON VIDEO!

Following at 8:30 PM is a Double Feature. First up is THE FUGITIVE KIND (1959, UA (Sony Repertory), 121 min.). Director Sidney Lumet conjures a sensual fever dream from Tennessee Williams' southern gothic Orpheus Descending. Itinerant hustler Marlon Brando is the ultimate snakeskin-clad loner who drifts into a redneck backwater town and falls into a torrid affair with fellow outcast Anna Magnani, the middle-aged immigrant wife of hate-crippled Victor Jory. Sparks fly from a pyrotechnic cast that also includes Joanne Woodward and Maureen Stapleton.

Next on the same bill is WILD AT HEART (1990, Samuel Goldywn (Sony Repertory), 124 min.). Blending elements of THE WIZARD OF OZ (!) with a catalogue of film noir subplots, director David Lynch leads us on an intoxicating, bizarrely perverse Southwestern odyssey with romantic ex-con and Elvis fan Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) and his teen girlfriend Lulu (Laura Dern) as they flee psycho matriarch Diane Ladd (Dern's real-life mom). With an unforgettable Willem Dafoe as demonic slimeball Bobby Peru. Also starring Harry Dean Stanton, Isabella Rosselini.

Sunday, February 19, 2006: Egyptian Theatre
The Friday, February 19th program begins at 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956, Universal, 99 min.). Commonly acknowledged as one of pantheon director Douglas Sirk's most sublime masterworks, this tale of two friends - rich, alcoholic Robert Stack and poor, sensible Rock Hudson (who also works for him) runs the gamut of emotions, examining the consequences of the pair's mutual love for radiant Lauren Bacall. But Sirk doesn't stop there as he subtly explores, through back story and character, the loneliness and spiritual degradation caused by unchecked materialism. He also manages to skillfully sidestep soap opera cliches while still delivering glossy, superior popular entertainment. Dorothy Malone won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Stack's promiscuous sister with a long-unrequited yen for Hudson.

Next on the same bill is THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956, Universal, 84 min.). Hard-working toy manufacturer, Cliff (Fred MacMurray) thinks he has a fairly idyllic family life until old flame, Norma (Barbara Stanwyck) blows back into town, still carrying the torch. Cliff suddenly realizes his wife (Joan Bennett) and teenage kids (William Reynolds, Gigi Perreau) alternate between being insensitive, judgemental and oblivious to him, and that his own inner emotional life is decidedly barren. Maestro Douglas Sirk brilliantly and compassionately looks at a common mid-life crisis and draws a heartbreaking picture, showing just how painful inner growth can be and what maturity is all about. NOT ON VIDEO!