Mexican film by Arturo Ripstein takes San Sebastian top prize

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain - A dark comedy set in rural Mexico, ''The Ruination of Men'' (La Perdicion de los Hombres), took the top prize Saturday at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

The film, directed by Mexican Arturo Ripstein, was among the favorites for the Golden Shell prize after it was screened at the festival, which began Sept. 21 in this elegant seaside resort.

Screenwriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego won the Best Screenplay Award for her work in the Mexican-Spanish coproduction about two murderers who stone their old friend to death because he doesn't know how to play baseball correctly.

It was the second time that the 57-year-old Ripstein, better known for directing the adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's ''Nobody Writes to the Colonel,'' won the top award in San Sebastian.

The veteran Mexican filmmaker was given the festival's highest prize in 1993 with ''Principio a Fin'' (From Beginning to End).

In a unanimous vote by the jury, headed by British director Stephen Frears, veteran Spanish actress Carmen Maura was named best actress for ''The Common Wealth,'' a comedy about a group of greedy neighbors.

Peruvian actor Gianfranco Brero won the Best Actor Award for his performance in ''Tinta Roja'' (Red Ink), a film by Francisco Lombardi about journalists covering crime in Lima.

The award for contribution to cinema was shared by New York-born Robert De Niro and British actor Sir Michael Caine. Past winners included Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, John Malkovich and Anjelica Huston.

The Best Director honor went to Iranian Reza Parsa for ''Before the Storm,'' a film about war memories and an accidental friendship between a 12-year-old boy and a taxi driver.

The prize for best photography went to the French production ''Harrison's Flowers,'' a movie about the Bosnian war.