Two series open within the coming week that are short but pack a satisfying punch. Harvard Film Archive honors artists who lived fast and died young with ’’Out of the Blue and Into the Black: Pop Epitaphs." Gus Van Sant’s ’’Last Days" kicks things off on Friday. Michael Pitt stars as a Kurt Cobain-like singer almost sleepwalking through the final days before his suicide. Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, has a small role in another film in the series, ’’Sid and Nancy." Alex Cox’s movie tells the volatile, ultimately lethal love story of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb).

Rock stars aren’t the only ones who get their due in ’’Pop Epitaphs," which ends Feb. 5. Three films capture artists in other genres who had short but memorable careers. ’’The Nomi Song" profiles Klaus Nomi, a classically trained opera singer whose performance art mixed New Wave pop and a sci-fi persona; Jem Cohen paints an intimate portrait of the late and still lamented indie singer-songwriter Elliott Smith in ’’Lucky Three"; and ’’A Skin Too Few" captures the melancholy beauty of folk singer Nick Drake’s work. For more information, call 617-495-4700 or go to www.harvardfilmarchive.org.

SCARY SCREENINGS: Also this week, the Brattle Theatre begins a short series devoted to ’’Fear on Film." The program opens Friday with the area premiere of Takashi Shimizu’s ’’Marebito." The Japanese filmmaker is best known in this country for directing an American remake of his horror film ’’The Grudge." That 2004 Sarah Michelle Gellar flick can’t compare to ’’Marebito," which was released the same year. Shinya Tsukamoto plays a freelance cameraman who gets more than he bargained for while researching an urban legend about spirits haunting the Tokyo subway.

Classic suspense films and psychological thrillers round out the rest of the series, which ends Feb. 9. The lineup includes Alfred Hitchcock’s ’’Vertigo," Fritz Lang’s ’’M," and Roman Polanski’s ’’Repulsion." Call 617-876-6837 or go to www.brattlefilm.org.

NEWS FROM PARK CITY: The Coolidge Corner Theatre has been tapped for the Sundance Institute Art House Project. Curators from the Brookline art house and 13 other venues nationwide will attend this year’s festival to design a lineup of recent Sundance films and indie classics to screen at their local theaters. The Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville, Maine, is also on the list.

FREE FRENCH FILMS: Boston has no shortage of French film festivals but a series that opens Thursday at Boston College is a welcome addition. The program, which is free, bypasses often-screened classics in favor of acclaimed recent films. In ’’It’s Easier for a Camel. . .," Valeria Bruni Tedeschi has a fantasy life that rivals Audrey Tautou’s in ’’Amelie." Tedeschi’s character uses her daydreams to distract from her less-than-carefree reality. The festival’s lineup also includes Coline Serreau’s ’’Chaos," a potent drama about a bourgeois couple (Vincent Lindon and Catherine Frot) whose lives are upended when they try to help an abused young prostitute. Screenings will be held on the BC campus through Feb. 19.

Speaking of French film, Harvard Film Archive presents five films by Jean-Luc Godard in ’’5X JLG," which opens tomorrow with the New Wave classic, ’’Breathless." The series, which ends Feb. 27, also includes ’’Masculin, Feminin" and ’’My Life to Live."

SHORT TAKES: A defunct army base seems unlikely to yield a treasure-trove of films yet the HFA’s Fort Devens Collection is just that. John Huston’s ’’ The Battle of San Pietro"screens Wednesday night at 7.