Bride of Cinemania by MATTHEW HAYS The Cinemania Film Festival returns for its fourth incarnation this week. It might seem odd that a French film festival with English subtitles would catch on in Montreal--Canada's only truly bilingual metropolis--but Cinemania's caught on. Looking over this year's line-up, one can understand why. Fest organizers have put together a highly intriguing collection of cinema, including Terminale, Soleil and La Vie de Jésus. The fest includes 11 premieres--their best record yet. The opening film, Paparazzi (which premieres tonight, November 5), is a droll comedy about the life of an unemployed man who aspires to become a sleazy Paris photographer. It isn't as funny a comedy as one might have hoped for, but the rest of the festival easily makes up for it. Also playing during the festival will be Un 32 août sur Terre (August 32nd on Earth), local boy wonder Denis Villeneuve's feature directorial debut. Cinemania info: 878-0082. Continuing until November 30 is the fifth edition of Images du Monde Arabe, a festival of Arab film, visual arts and music. For those truly pissed off with Hollywood's rather embarrassing and irritating portrayal of Arabs (see the furore over this week's The Siege), they will find a welcome respite here. Info: 982-6606. Rerelease fever is getting out of hand. This Friday (November 6) sees both The Wizard of Oz and The Big Chill re-entering cinemas. Neither film has any new footage added, they're just spanking new prints of the originals. I would never (nor could I ever) knock The Wizard of Oz; I, for one, will be skipping down the yellow brick road to see the film myself. But good God, what ever did people find so appealing about The Big Chill? To me, it was an empty, utterly superficial glimpse of a bunch of boring old yuppies sitting around talking about how they'd all sold out. The Goethe Institut presents a marathon movie (275 minutes!) this Saturday, November 7 at 4 p.m. Ulrike Ottinger's Exil Shanghai recounts the stories of those Jews who settled in Shanghai after fleeing the Nazis in Europe. A panel discussion will precede the film; among the panelists will be several Jews who spent time in exile during the war. Though the admission is free, tickets must be reserved for this event in advance. Info: 499-0159. A screening of Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting will take place on Thursday, November 12 at the Université de Montréal (Room C9141, Pavillon Lionel-Groulx), at 7 p.m. The erudite and eloquent Andrew Lesk, a hit at the recent Sex on the Edge conference, will present a paper on the film directly after the screening, titled "A Homosocial Good Will Hunting... and other Hollywood Myths." Montreal's stellar female-impersonating theatre troupe, The Children of a Looser God, will be presenting benefit performances of Les Elles du monde, November 19­21. Yes, it's a couple of weeks off, but tickets are going extremely fast, so book yours soon. Tickets are 10 bucks in advance, $15 at the door. The show, which will include impersonations of big-screen divas, will take place at the Mississippi Club (1592 Ste-Catherine E.) and proceeds will go to local AIDS charities. COMMENTS: matt_hays@babylon.montreal.qc.ca