FREEZE FRAMES

A weekly update of film releases

PARIS IS BURNING - Jennie Livingston's complex, absorbing documentary about "voguing," the fashion-show posing of gay African-American young people in New York clubs that provide many of the participants with the only sense of affection and "belonging" their lives contain. The film is rude, colorful, and bursting with questions about American culture, subculture, and society. (Not rated)

THE MARRYING MAN - Neil Simon wrote this comedy about a wealthy young man whose marriage to a respectable woman is delayed when gangster Bugsy Siegel forces him into a shotgun wedding with a nightclub singer. The story is stylishly filmed by director Jerry Rees, but it's repetitious and much too long. (Rated R)

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD - In his filmmaking debut, playwright Tom Stoppard directed this adaptation of his tragicomedy about two hopelessly ordinary men trapped in "Hamlet" with all its violence and intrigue. The play is lively enough to succeed in stage productions, but the gimmicky film version brings out its worst qualities, making it seem more tricky than compelling. (Rated PG)

SUPERSTAR - Andy Warhol is the subject of Chuck Workman's energetic documentary, which conjures up much of the '60s Pop-Art scene as well as the life and work of the artist who invented "superstars" in the first place. (Not rated)