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FRAMEUP -- The ill-starred odyssey of two losers who hit the road for an adventure of love and crime. Jon Jost, one of the most dedicated American independent filmmakers, has directed the melodrama with a stylized panache that recalls some of Jean-Luc Godard's liveliest works. What's questionable is his choice of subject; while the main characters embody a pungent critique of contemporary alienation and materialism, they're so utterly brainless that it's hard to feel much connection with them. Howard Swain and Nancy Carlin, a married couple known for their West Coast stage performances, play the protagonists in the improvisatory manner long favored by Jost, who filmed the production in 10 days of on-the-fly shooting. Note that some scenes contain a sexual explicitness unusual in his work. (Not Rated, World Artists Home Video)

LANCELOT OF THE LAKE -- French filmmaker Robert Bresson uses the last days of King Arthur and the Round Table as a springboard to his usual fascination with the relationship between worldly suffering, human integrity, and spiritual faith. The expressive cinematography by Pasqualino de Santis makes palpable the sheer physicality of medieval existence, aided by typically Bressonian performances that avoid histrionics in favor of a crisp concentration on the basics of ordinary behavior. Made in 1974 as ''Lancelot du Lac.'' (Not Rated, New Yorker Video)

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE -- Vivien Leigh plays an aging American widow who goes to Rome in search of renewal, only to become entangled with a handsome gigolo and the predatory woman who manages his affairs. Tennessee Williams's short novel is drenched in decadence, but little of this survives in the sanitized screen version made in 1961 by Jose Quintero, a theater director who can't shake his stagebound techniques no matter how much they bog down the action. Warren Beatty and Lotte Lenya bring occasional sparks to the picture. (Not Rated, Warner Home Video)

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