Edition: U.S. / Global

ARTS ABROAD; A Western With Real Spaghetti? In Amsterdam, It Got Third Prize

Published: June 6, 2001

The second annual Rocket Clip Film Festival, a competition for budding filmmakers, was held on May 14 at the Paradiso Club here. The contestants' mission was to create a new film around an existing film soundtrack, choosing from ''La Dolce Vita,'' ''Doctor Zhivago,'' ''Run Lola Run,'' ''Trainspotting,'' ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'' and a few others.

At the door of the Paradiso Club, which once was a church, some leggy women greeted the guests. They wore white feather headdresses and white wings that extended out from long crossbars attached to their shoulders. These tall angels handed out small plastic bags of confetti and tossed some of it in the air.

When asked why this event is called the Rocket Clip Film Festival, they gave a mysterious answer: ''It used to be that there would be live music playing under films. Now it's reversed.'' When pressed to explain what this has to do with rockets, they repeated their first answer, but more adamantly. What kind of church was this in its preclub days? One woman shrugged and said, ''Catholic.'' A man disagreed. He said, ''Protestant.'' Then, watching his friend roll a joint, he changed his answer, ''A very liberal church.'' It was time for the competition to begin.

The room, with its vast vaulted ceilings, carved balconies and stained glass, was filled with warm smoke and cool filmmakers. One of the old stained glass windows had been removed to make way for a new one depicting a naked man in a semiaroused state. On the movie screen simulated fireworks went off, and the theme from ''Goldfinger'' played over and over. The crowd was ready. The jury was ready. And the contest began.

It didn't take long before it became clear that the film score of choice was the techno music from ''Lola Rennt,'' or ''Run Lola Run,'' a 1999 German movie about a Raggedy Ann redhead who sprints for 81 minutes straight to save her drug-dealing boyfriend. Six of the 23 Rocket Clip entries were based on it. One of them, called ''Beertje and Jane,'' made by M. Mok and M. Ooms, spliced shots of a crouching dog with shots of a dominatrix with a whip.

The dog seemed to be having a little too much fun. But the movie won second place. Another ''Lola'' takeoff, ''I Killed a Rat,'' a movie by Chad Rea, featured a nocturnal rat whose eyes shone white in the blackness. The rat examined some garbage and ran under a rug. A man with white socks appeared. He whacked the rat under the rug with a white plastic shark. It moved. He whacked it again. It stopped moving.

Then there was ''Lola vs. Rocky'' by Ruut van der Beele. Much like the dominatrix and dog show, this film spliced shots of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky training with shots of the redheaded Franka Potente as Lola running. Rocky looked much more concerned about the upcoming match, and he had reason. The fight, enacted in Claymation, was won by Lola.

Many of the moviemakers stayed surprisingly close to the themes of their scores. To the sound of ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,'' Annie Motion composed a spaghetti western from actual spaghetti. And in the manner of Vik Muniz, the photographer who makes pictures in dust, sugar and chocolate, she arranged spaghetti, both cooked and raw, in the shape of a holster, a snake, an eye, a clock. In the end there was bloodshed, nothing but meat sauce. The punch line: ''Hasta la Pasta, Baby.'' It won third place.

If there had been a prize for hugging the mother narrative tightly, Andre Maat would have won it for ''The Brothers' Race.'' Using the music for the chariot race in ''Ben Hur,'' he filmed two brothers racing on tractors to win a girl in a knit cap. Ultimately, she ran off with the man at the gas pump. After the six-and-a-half-minute film, my companion for the evening said, ''I thought the middle part dragged a bit.'' It won fourth place.

At intermission, one of the very best parts of the show, the leggy angels in white feathers, returned bearing tiny cups of candied popcorn for the crowd. In place of their white feather headdresses, they had fine heads of hair made of long loops of film. They sprinkled some of their confetti-dust around. It was good to have a break. Before the night was over, we'd seen robot dogs going up elevators and getting crushed on the highway; a fat, bald man running in the woods to -- what else? -- ''Lola Rennt''; a gushing fountain of red water set to a tune from ''Shallow Grave''; strobe lights and flashing words, ''Ne, Ne, Ja, Ja'' (''No, No, Yes, Yes'').

The winner, chosen by the jury of filmmakers, was ''Game Over,'' done to the tune of ''You Only Live Twice.'' Its director, Thom Bouman, seemed to have simply shot the screen of a video game he was playing.

Maybe it was just the church setting, but the loudest cheer of all was for ''De Kruisiging'' ('''The Crucifixion'') by Tom Vullings. To the sound of ''Jesus Christ Superstar,'' the lone animated character erected a cross and crucified himself in one minute flat. Despite its speed and dexterity, however, it did not win the popular vote.

That went to a movie involving public housing by S. Bryan and J. Gundlach called ''Rood Wit Blauw'' (''Red White Blue''). At the end of the evening, last year's winners were shown. They seemed somehow better for wear.

One, set to ''Singin' in the Rain,'' imagined a support group for men who had taken ill-fated tourist shots -- pictures of tourists being run over by trains, buried by avalanches and consumed by volcanoes. Another, using the theme from ''The Godfather,'' showed a news announcer sitting at a table and smiling.

Behind him a rocket was about to be launched, but rather than reporting on that he talked about having sex with his sister, at length and in great detail. Yes, even in liberal Amsterdam you can still get a rise out of people by showing dirty movies and crucifixions in a church. At midnight the Paradiso Club turned into an after-hours party, but the white-winged angels had already left the building.

Photo: Franka Potente in ''Run Lola Run,'' about a runner trying to save her boyfriend. It was the favorite film to imitate at a Dutch festival. (Bernd Spaulke/Sony Pictures Classics)(pg. E2)