HERE & NOW

ART

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IN THE LATEST BATCH of exhibitions at the Katzen Arts Center, there's something for everyone -- seven shows. There's new art from Northern Ireland, featuring a helicopter made of yellow yarn. From closer to home, there's a tiny survey of the history of African American art. "High Fiber" is a show of tapestries designed by well-known artists and executed on digital looms: Chuck Close's photographic portrait of composer Philip Glass, turned into a wall-size weaving in black and white thread, is the most impressive piece. The exhibition "Made in America" is drawn from purchases made by collectors from the Washington Print Club: Several prints of ants by Californian Ed Ruscha, and "Lucky Strike," by Larry Rivers, are what most caught my eye.

-- Blake Gopnik

Katzen Arts Center at American University, open Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ward Circle at Massachusetts and Nebraska avenues NW. Free. Call 202-885-3634 or visithttp://american.edu/katzen.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

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THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA has changed its program for this week, leading to a postponement of the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Piano Concerto. The originally scheduled soloist, Lang Lang, will still appear, but playing the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. And there will be a Washington premiere -- Higdon's "City Scape." The program will also include Enesco's Romanian Rhapsody No. 2. Leonard Slatkin will conduct. The piano concerto will be performed by the NSO at a later date.

-- Tim Page

At the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Thursday and Friday nights at 7; Saturday night at 8. Tickets range from $20 to $80. Call 202-467-4600 or visithttp://kennedy-center.org.

FILM

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"A WOMAN CAN REFUSE jewels she hasn't seen. After that, it's heroism." So declares a female character in Max Ophuls's 1953 romantic tragedy, "The Earrings of Madame De . . . " -- itself a cinematic gem.

Ophuls was a sublime visual stylist. His camera twirls with Oscar Straus's lovely waltz theme and his film is loaded with unforgettable images, such as a torn love letter that dissolves into a snowfall. "Earrings," a French-language beauty starring French-language beauty Danielle Darrieux, is showing this week at the AFI Silver Theatre.

The film inaugurates a retrospective of foreign-made classics distributed by Janus Films, which celebrated its golden anniversary last year. The Janus collection is now touring North America with new 35mm prints of some of its holdings. The AFI theater is presenting about 30 of them through September, including the work of Federico Fellini, Francois Truffaut, Akira Kurosawa and Luis Bu?uel, among other directors.

The Janus films, which tend to get labeled "art house" movies, can be lots of fun. Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) is a witty espionage thriller set on a train. Even Ingmar Bergman's 1953 masterpiece "Summer With Monika," starring Harriet Andersson, is more sexy than gloomy.

-- Adam Bernstein

At AFI Silver Theatre & Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. "The Earrings of Madame De . . . " shows May 13, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. For further showtime information, call 301-495-6700 or visithttp://www.afi.com/silver. $9.25 general admission; $7.50 AFI members, students, children and seniors.