Debra Winger

FOR A period in the early '80s, no one could do it like Debra Winger. She was just 25 years old when she made "Urban Cowboy," and her emotionally ferocious performance sent shock waves through the movie world. In the film, when she asks costar John Travolta if he's a "real cowboy," audiences could immediately grasp what Winger was all about: Here was the kind of woman who craved the truth and had to seek it out. In 1982, she gave Richard Gere all he could handle in "An Officer and a Gentleman."

Big Hollywood studios will take a back seat at this year's Venice Film Festival, with the competition lineup highlighting independent U.S. cinema, Italian productions and Japanese animation movies. Last year, U.S. and British movies dominated the lineup, with nearly half of the films in the main competition. This year, only five English-language movies will vie for the top prize at the world's oldest film festival. It opens Aug. 27. Among them is Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married," starring Anne Hathaway and Debra Winger in the story of an ex-model returning home for her sister's wedding after spending 10 years in and out of rehabilitation centers.

Polanski case: An article in Tuesday's Section A about Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland misstated actress Debra Winger's role at the Zurich Film Festival. She is president of the festival jury, not the festival itself.

"Look at the light here," Billy Crystal implored, holding his palms aloft and gazing at the skies. "Will ya just look at the light?" It was one of those perfectly clear, cool, autumnal Parisian days, the massive Arc de Triomphe glowing in the pale noonday sun. You'd need a great Impressionist painter to do it justice. "These buildings!" Crystal went on with childlike, genuine enthusiasm. "The Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower. They're monumental.

The film "Divine Rapture" looked like a contender. Instead it is on the ropes. The $16-million cornball comedy about miracles in small-town Ireland may need some outside intervention of its own to resolve the drama that has Marlon Brando, Debra Winger and producers on one side and its backer, CineFin Corp., on the other. Producers Barry Navidi, Mark Crowdy and Demian Burger were left holding the bag in remote Ballycotton after CineFin partner David Lowe said the company wouldn't pay.