October 4, 1991

The streets of this city were largely abandoned today except for soldiers manning checkpoints near the smoldering ashes of the barricades mounted during the brief civilian resistance offered to Monday's army coup. With the army's takeover of Haiti, diplomats today depicted the military leader Brig. Gen. Raoul Cedras as being largely captive of the ordinary soldiers who were patrolling streets, commandeering cars and threatening citizens.

The New York State Attorney General today filed a civil suit against a private swimming club accusing it of excluding black applicants for membership. The investigation began after a white woman said club officials told her that a black baby sitter would have to wear a uniform to enter the club.

ITALY is famous for saints and sinners, and Vittorio De Sica was fond of both. The great director and actor knew that few people are purely good or evil, and his rich, rascally understanding of human nature informs every film in "Vittorio D: De Sica Behind the Camera and on the Screen." This series of 37 films that De Sica directed or starred in opens today and runs through Nov. 12 at the Museum of Modern Art. It will be a delicious surprise for viewers who know De Sica only as the director of "The Bicycle Thief," the sorrowful classic of poverty and survival in post-World War II Italy. And even those aware of his witty, romantic sides will be amazed at how many rarely seen films have been collected here. As an actor, De Sica began as a matinee idol in 1920's romantic comedies. He aged on screen as elegantly as Cary Grant, to whom he is often and accurately compared. Though his reputation as a director was made with his sober, neo-realist works of the late 40's and early 50's -- "Shoeshine," "The Bicycle Thief" and "Umberto D" -- he never lost his taste for sophisticated comedy, never tired of pairing Sophia Loren with Marcello Mastroianni, in "Marriage, Italian Style," "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" or some other story of love and pasta.

Nigerian Parade: Madison Avenue will be closed tomorrow between 46th and 56th Streets from noon to 3 P.M. Corporate Challange Finals: Park Avenue will be closed tomorrow between 29th and 56th Streets from 9 A.M. to 10 P.M.

In a little-noticed but pivotal shift in New York City's welfare-to-work program, the Dinkins administration has changed a strategy of quickly placing welfare mothers in mostly low-paying jobs in favor of a more expensive -- and as yet unproven -- investment in education and training. The city's Human Resources Administrator, Barbara J. Sabol, is betting that teaching thousands of women on welfare reading and a variety of skills will eventually lead them out of poverty into higher-paying jobs, improving their chances of staying off the welfare rolls and thus saving taxpayers money in the long run.