REVELING IN REVIVALS

Film Forum 2, located at 209 West Houston Street, is the most likely place in town to meet fellow movie buffs this summer. Now playing: a sharp new 35mm print of "Kiss Me, Stupid," Billy Wilder's joyfully smutty 1964 lark pairing Dean Martin as a horny lush of a crooner and Kim Novak as what may be the dumbest hooker in Climax, Nevada. Unlike Wilder's "Double Indemnity," "The Lost Weekend," "Sunset Boulevard," "Some Like It Hot" and "The Apartment," "Kiss Me, Stupid" did not carry home any prizes. But it did win a C (for Condemned) Rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency.

How do you follow a lewd comic act like that? With a puzzling, dream-like drama from Robert Altman. Pauline Kael and John Simon didn't much care for "Three Women" when it was released in 1977, but most of the major critics thought it was some kind of masterpiece. You can judge for yourself on June 28, when Film Forum 2 kicks off its one-week revival of the film.

Starting July 5 and running through July 11, Film Forum 2 will make a home for "Rocco and His Brothers," Luchino Visconti's powerfully realistic yet bigger-than-life portrait of a woman from Southern Italy who, with her five grown sons, struggles for survival in the mean streets of Milan. The 1960 film made an international star of Alain Delon, and it's easy to see why.

"Metropolis," one of the truly golden silents, will be revived at Film Forum 2 for a two-week engagement, starting July 12. This meticulously restored version of Fritz Lang's 1927 experiment in sci-fantasy is not completely silent, of course. It will be complemented by a new recording of Gottfried Huppertz' original orchestral score.

So what do you do for the rest of your summer? That depends on how you feel about director Akira Kurosawa and his favorite actor, Toshiro Mifune. Beginning July 26 and running through September 12, Film Forum 2 will present a festival of the great movies on which they teamed. See you there.


* * * * * * * *