East Side Story. Communist ideology is fine as far as it goes, but at some point, human beings have to stop being utilitarian cogs in a system and start being, well, human beings. During the chilliest days of the Cold War, state-run film production companies behind the Iron Curtain attempted to split the middle between propaganda and escapist entertainment, cranking out a series of Western-style musicals that espoused the virtues of being a good worker and learning to be happy with one's lot in life. This oft-hilarious, more often poignant documentary intercuts clips from those films with reminiscences by the people who tried to sneak as much art as they could into the production. Also weighing in are the audiences who knew they were being indoctrinated, but who went along for the ride because the songs were good and the costumes were pretty. What hangs in the air is a kind of wistful pragmatism, as citizens who had their best years stolen by well-intentioned totalitarianism describe the ludicrousness of their leisure hours with a blend of sarcasm and genuine nostalgia. (NM)

Irma Vep. This verit French comedy about a low-budget remake of Les Vampyrs alternates brittle comedy, piercing perception, and willful abstraction in a fashion that could almost be called Altman-esque, if Robert Altman's style weren't so distinctly American. Instead, Irma Vep draws on the peculiarities of the French character, gently mocking their national obsessions with fashion, cinema, and patriotism. The charismatic Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung stars as "herself"--an HK actress drafted to play the lead female vampire for an over-the-hill director with immense personal problems. The film is told largely from Cheung's point of view, as she deals with the insecure lesbian dresser who has a crush on her, tries to talk frankly with an oblivious TV interviewer, and takes direction from a crazy man who wants her to emulate Catwoman. The onscreen production soon goes into a tailspin, leading to a final, haunting image of Cheung on a film print that has been scratched and painted and chopped--an expression of one man's, and one country's, impossible, paranoid vision. (NM)

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