ANGELS AND INSECTS AND PHILIP HAAS, OH MY

Writer/director Philip Haas' 1995 gem, Angels and Insects -- adapted from A.S. Byatt's novella, Morpho Eugenia -- is a sumptuously creepy tale of class conflict and sexual goings-on in Victorian England. Mark Rylance, playing a down-on-his-luck entomologist, becomes involved with a pale and delicate young upper-cruster (Patsy Kensit), and gets in a complicated tangle with her wealthy family's intellectually formidable nanny (the great Kristin Scott Thomas). Then stuff happens -- bizarre, beautiful stuff.

Haas, whose credits include Up At the Villa (also with Scott Thomas) and the Paul Auster adaptation, The Music of Chance, will screen Angels and Insects Tuesday, Oct. 30, at Drexel Univeristy, with a discussion to follow. The filmmaker is spending a week at Drexel's Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, conducting classes, critiques and screenings as the Majorie E. Rankin Scholar in Residence.

The screening of Angels and Insects is FREE and open to the public. Facts: Monday, October 30th, 7 p.m., Stein Auditorium (Nesbitt Hall - 33rd & Market Streets).