• New from France are two recommendable films. "Don't Worry, I'm Fine" involves a young girl's attempt to find her missing twin brother. And "One Summer," starring the very versatile Catherine Frot, concerns a good-looking itinerant worker who stops by for the summer to help out on a farm and soon finds himself drawn not only to the widow now doing much of the work herself, but also to her daughter, who offers to teach him how to read.

• From Italy is a well-done period piece, "Forget Me Not," in which nine pregnant women in 1947, just after World War II, are placed in the one large room in the obstetrics ward of a Rome hospital. Though keeping the women and their particular stories straight demands considerable attention, it is ultimately rewarding and quite moving.

• Even more powerful and consequently even more unforgettable is "Holly," by a new and promising young American director, Guy Moshe. Concerning a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl sold into prostitution in Cambodia, it features a remarkable performance by the first-time actress, Thuy Nguyen, playing the girl, as well as a first-rate performance from Ron Livingston, who plays the young man who befriends her.

• In a much lighter vein, new from Argentina and Spain is "Sighs from the Heart," a film as delightful as the ragtime-like theme music that accompanies much of it. A young man (in the Toby McGuire vein) is so stricken by the accuracy of his horoscope in a magazine that he decides he needs to get an advance look at the upcoming issue before he makes a crucial decision in his work. This brings him not only to three eccentric old men who run the family business, all wonderfully portrayed by first-rate character actors, but also the pretty young girl who happens to write the column he's anxious to read.

My first impression of the 75 films I viewed was that there were far more mediocre efforts than films worthy of attention, but I suddenly find myself, now that the almost non-stop viewing is over, happily surprised at how many movies, tucked away here and there, were really recommendable.

Let's hope they all make their way to U.S. art houses — and possibly even some cineplexes.

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E-mail: marshalldj@iveracity.com