Michael Radford

The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre is getting into the spirit of award season with a retrospective of Oscar-winning favorites. Two best picture winners -- 1954's "On the Waterfront" and 1969's "Midnight Cowboy" -- will screen tonight.

Playing a scarily spot-on Andy Warhol in "I Shot Andy Warhol" was a blessing and a curse for Jared Harris. It got him noticed, but no one saw the real him behind the wig, glasses and accent. Now, though, at 36, the London-raised son of actor Richard Harris has two breakout roles: a pivotal part in "Lost in Space" and the co-lead in "B. Monkey," director Michael Radford's first film since "Il Postino," coming May 8.

I can stop looking now. I've found my dream island. It's Salina, one of seven small Aeolian Islands (also known as the Lipari Islands) cast up by volcanoes in the Tyrrhenian Sea about 50 miles north of Sicily. They're accessible only by helicopter or boat, so that keeps crowds at bay. All of them are enchanting, including the main island of Lipari, where my Italian grandfather was born. FOR THE RECORD: Salina, Italy: A Travel article Sunday about the Aeolian Islands, including Salina, reported that many residents immigrated to the U.S. around the turn of the 19th century.

"Dancing at the Blue Iguana" goes backstage at one of those flashy strip clubs that dot the arid industrial neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley to reveal as much of the hearts and souls of the strippers as they do of their bodies. The film was developed by Michael Radford, the versatile director of "Il Postino," from a five-month period of workshops with the film's actors, who created the characters they were to play.

By rights, "White Mischief" (selected theaters) should have been a barn burner. It's inspired by the infamous goings-on of a clot of British colonials living near Nairobi in the early 1940s, who played at sex, drugs, "rogering" each other's wives and finally murder, while Mother England and the rest of the world went up in flames.

"Leaving Las Vegas," the downbeat drama about a hopeless alcoholic and the prostitute who loves him, was voted best picture of 1995 on Saturday by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. The movie by Mike Figgis captured four of the critics' awards. Nicolas Cage won for best actor, and best actress went to Elisabeth Shue. Figgis received honors for best direction. Figgis also was runner-up in the screenplay category.

Stephen Schwartz's " 'Il Postino,' an Homage to Stalin" (Column Right, March 10) faults the Clintons and Gores for appreciating Pablo Neruda's poetry and the movie loosely based on an episode of his life. I have difficulty faulting Neruda for having an affair with communism. In the world in which he lived, you were either rich or a slave to the rich. If you stood up for what you believed, the right-wing death squads hunted you down like a dog; the death squads that America trained and supported.