Old and new by MATTHEW HAYS Montreal moviegoers will be pleased by a healthy diet of both vintage and never-before-seen celluloid, thanks to the 28th edition of the New Film Festival, which begins Thursday, Oct. 14, and the Cinema du Parc's tribute to film noir, which opens this Friday, Oct. 8. The New Film Fest goes through some major evolution this year. This will be the first time the event is held in the Ex-Centris cinema complex, that impressive bit of architecture on the Main which opened its doors last summer to mixed reviews (for what it's worth, Euro-film guru Wim Wenders told me "there's nothing like this, anywhere else in the world," after marvelling at the complex.) And it's not just the setting that'll turn heads. Claude Chamberlan, the fest's key programmer, has assembled a truly smashing array of contemporary cinema. Pedro Almodovar's much anticipated All About My Mother, a hit at Cannes, will open the fest. Critics are saying this is a realistic turn for the director who usually deals in surreal farce--and that the film is a touching ode to the auteur's matriarch. Peter Greenaway's 8 1/2 Women will also screen. After premiering at Cannes, this film again raised charges that the director has a wicked streak of misogyny. SuperCanuck Atom Egoyan will arrive in town to present Felicia's Journey, his riff on serial killers which stars Bob Hoskins (and which also divided the critics at Cannes and Toronto). Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a truly bizarre samurai/gangster hybrid, with Forest Whitaker playing an unstoppable hit man who's been marked by the mob. It's a funny, lively performance by Whitaker, who clearly delights in his role as the Zen Mafioso type. Steven Soderbergh, who was so unfairly overlooked by audiences with his stellar Out of Sight, is back with the equally cool The Limey. The brilliant Terence Stamp stars as an out-of-towner in L.A. seeking revenge for an old crime. On the local front, local media star Peter Wintonick will be presenting his documentary Cinema Verite, a film about the doc movement itself. The feature includes interviews with many pioneers in the style, as well as those who've imitated and capitalized on it (the directors of Blair Witch Project chime in). The fest runs until Sunday, Oct. 24. Fest info line: 847-1242. Web: www.fcmm.com In the old dept., the Parc is screening Orson Welles' classic The Lady From Shanghai tonight (Oct. 7) and Friday, followed by the equally wondrous The Killers on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 11-12, and my personal noir fave, Gun Crazy (Wednesday & Thursday, Oct. 13-14). You've got to admire the hot pipe in this movie! Also of note at the Parc is the ultrastrange doc Idi Amin Dada (screening this Sunday, Oct. 10 and Wednesday, Oct. 13), a cult oddity in which Amin, using a foreign film crew led by Barbet Schroeder, attempts to spin some PR BS to make the murderous dictator look sweet-natured. COMMENTS: matt_hays@babylon.montreal.qc.ca