‘Metamorphoses’ film series at Winchester

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1998 | 10:52 a.m.

'Safe," an American film from 1995, stars Julianne Moore and was directed by Todd Haynes. The story begins with a couple living in pointedly normal suburbia but takes an unsettling direction as Moore's character develops inexplicable and debilitating physical symptoms. Haynes uses the progress of the mysterious disease to examine modern life. The film is rated R.

"Farinelli" (1995), in French with English subtitles, will be shown Feb. 10. Director Gerard Corbiau's film stars Stefano Dionisis and Enrico Lo Verso. It is based on the life of Carlo "Farinelli" Broschi, the greatest castrato of all time, one of the classical singers castrated in order to preserve his pur, boyish voice. Farinelli achieved pop-idol status throughout the courts of Europe; women swooned at his voice and the composer Handel was entranced by his talent. The film examines the ways in which great popular fame was as corrosive in the 18th century as it is today. Catsoulis calls the film "gorgeous, vibrant and intoxicating." It has not been rated.

The British film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" (1993) runs Feb. 17. It is rated PG-13. Another vicually rich film, it was directed by Sally Potter and stars Tilda Swinton and Quentin Crisp. Swinton plays a young man befriended by Queen Elizabeth I who stays young and lives into the modern world, at one point changing gender. Catsoulis says, "Sly and daring, 'Orlando' questions many of our assumptions about gender and identity."

"Angels and Insects" (1995), another British film, is also based on a novel. A.S. Byatt's "Morpho Eugenia" was named for a rare butterfly. Eugenia, played by Patsy Kensit, undergoes her own transformation and disguises her true nature while seducing into marriage an entomologist, returned from the Amazon, played by Mark Rylance. Kristin Scott-Thomas plays a drab woman among beauties. The film, which has not been rated by the MPAA, will run at 7 p.m. Feb. 24. It was directed by Philip Haas.

The final film, director Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures" (1994), is scheduled for March 3. It stars Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet, in one of her first films. "Heavenly Creatures" is based on an actual 1954 case of matricide in New Zealand, where the film was made. Two 14-year-old girls, who feel distant from their families, become infatuated with each other. THeir attachment and isolation leads to the tragedy. As Catsoulis notes, "The genius of director Peter Jackson here is to take a potentially depressing subject and turn it into a film with moments of such dizzying romanticism and breathless job that it is impossible not to be swept up in the sheer giddiness of the girls' emotions." The film is rated R.

Winchester will project this series with its new system, a 16-millimeter projector large enough to show a complete film without changing reels, onto a new 12-foot screen. Series coordinator Patrick Gaffey says, "We're especially happy to get the system in time for these films. The last four films are some of the most lushly beautiful you have seen." The series is not recommended for children.

Another five-film series, "Film Noir III," begins March 31.The films, made from 1944 through 1940, star such actors as Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, James Mason and Humphrey Bogart.

Winchester Center is at 3130 S. McLeod Drive. For more information, call 455-7340.