The big chill

>> The season isn't all blues, but almost

by MATTHEW HAYS

The truth is out there: 1999 was a great year for solid films. The bad news is, due to the rush to cinemas in order to ensure Oscar eligibility over the past few weeks, most of the great movies have already been released. So now we're down to pretty much a trickle of semi-intriguing releases for the rest of the winter. Still, there are some promising highlights. A sampling:

Just when you thought the franchise might be bled dry, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette return for Scream 3, the ultra-clever serial of spoofs on slasher films which is proving as resilient as its Halloween/Friday the 13th/Nightmare on Elm Street source material. Surprisingly, Wes Craven will not return to shoot the third (and we're promised final) chapter, but he promises the film will still live up to fans' high standards. Equally morbid but in a different vein comes Mr. Death, doc demigod Errol Morris's latest film, this one a pensive meditation on a man who designs electric chairs and his bizarre connection and involvement with fascistic revisionist historians.

Woody Allen returns to mockumentary form with Sweet and Lowdown, about a fictional jazz musician played by Sean Penn. The film received decidedly mixed reviews when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Fest, effectively polarizing critics. The ultraprolific director will be back again as soon as this summer with Small Time Crooks, in which he and Tracey Ullman star as bungling bank robbers with dreams of hitting the jackpot.

Indie fave Jim Jarmusch returns with Ghost Dog, a surreal spin on samurai and gangster movies. Forest Whitaker plays an apparently unkillable hit man who's been marked by the mob. Brian Hooks appears in Three Strikes, a comedy about the recent (and rather ludicrous) U.S. laws surrounding multiple convictions. After being falsely implicated in a crime, Hooks realizes it will add up to his third conviction, meaning he'll have to go to prison for a quarter century. He spends the rest of the film on a wild goose chase trying desperately to clear his name. With Diamonds, Kirk Douglas returns for his first post-stroke big-screen appearance. He plays an aging diamond thief who works to bond with his grandson by showing him the tricks of the trade. Lauren Bacall also stars as the madam of a whorehouse.

The Goethe-Institut continues its extensive Wim Wenders retrospective until March 10. The series includes everything from the director's bigger, more commercial works (Paris, Texas) to arthouse sensations (Wings of Desire) to his doc feature riff on the future of cinema itself (Chambre 666). An additional treat for cinephiles comes with a fully restored print of Orson Welles' The Third Man, which will begin a run late this month at the Cinema du Parc. :