RECOMMENDED Five animated shorts: From Canada, John Raskin’s “I Am The Walrus,” about a 14-year-old who sneaks into John Lennon’s hotel room for an interview. From Canada, the dazzlingly imagined Claymation and CGI “Madame Tutli-Putli,” by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, in which an easily spooked older woman boards a strange night train. “Even Pigeons Go to Heaven,” CGI from France, by Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse, in which a priest tells an old man he has a machine that will zap him to heaven. From Russia, Alexander Petrov’s lengthy “My Love,” about a teenager in love in nineteenth-century Russia with two different women. And from England and Poland, an adaptation of Prokofiev’s “Peter & The Wolf” by Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman, in which a boy and the animals he surrounds himself with face up to the titular beast. Only “Madame”’s to my taste, but it’s all very well made. (Program 85m.) Five live-action shorts: “At Night,” from Denmark, by Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth: three women in a cancer ward over the holidays swap tales. “The Substitute,” from Italy, by Andrea Jublin, a comedy about a newcomer to a high school classroom. “The Mozart of Pickpockets,” directed by and co-starring Philippe Pollet-Villard, a funny comedy from France about two pickpockets who imitate plainclothes cops and a deaf homeless boy’s affect on them. A comedy from Belgium, “Tanghi Argentini,” from Belgium, by Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans, a nice if clichéd comedy about a man who must learn tango in two weeks with the help of a co-worker. From England, the one short I wasn’t able to watch, “The Tonto Woman,” by Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown, a drama in which, the notes tell us, “A cattle rustler meets a woman who is living in isolation after being held prisoner for eleven years by the Mojave Indians.” (Program 137m.) The two programs screen separately, call the theater for details. (Ray Pride)
