TODAY AT AFI FESTIVAL

F ollowing are The Times’ recommendations for today’s schedule of the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival, with commentary by the film reviewing staff. Information: (213) 466-1767. “QUEEN OF DIAMONDS”(United States; Nina Menkes; Monica 4-Plex, 6:15 p.m.). Menkes reasserts her position as one of the most challenging, provocative experimental filmmakers. Off-the-beaten-track Las Vegas is a perfect canvas for Menkes’ vision of alienation and decay, with sister Tinka Menkes as an blackjack dealer. In Menkes’ extremely long takes, the screen is suffused with a sense of time passing, of life’s eternal cycle and an indifferent universe, with the Vegas setting becoming a metaphor for fate’s quirkiness.