Robert Bresson Series Begins At Grand Illusion

Last August, the Grand Illusion and Scarecrow Video staged a mini-tribute to Robert Bresson, the legendary French director who specializes in using non-actors to avoid conventional dramatic effects.

Now the Grand Illusion has hooked the real thing: "Poetry of Precision: The Films of Robert Bresson," a complete retrospective made up of 35mm prints of Bresson's features. The touring package, curated by James Quant of the Ontario Cinematheque and made possible by an anonymous donation and the support of Scarecrow Video and the Alliance Francaise de Seattle, begins Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. with "Mouchette."

Like the late Stanley Kubrick, Bresson was known for his bleak outlook, his precise filmmaking and his limited output; he made just 13 films in 40 years. Released in 1967, during Bresson's busiest period, "Mouchette" is the story of an abused, suicidal 14-year-old schoolgirl (Nadine Nortier). It's based on a story by Georges Bernanos, who wrote "Diary of a Country Priest."

Other Bressons scheduled for Sunday afternoons at the Grand Illusion: "Une Femme Douce" (March 21), "Trial of Joan of Arc" (March 28), "L'Argent" (April 11), "Lancelot du Lac" (April 18), "Les Anges du Peche" (April 25), "Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne" (May 2), "Four Nights of a Dreamer" (May 9), "Au Hasard Balthazar" (May 16), "The Devil Probably" (May 23), "Diary of a Country Priest" (May 30), "A Man Escaped" (June 6) and "Pickpocket" (June 13).

In addition, a documentary about Bresson's career, "The Way of Bresson," will play April 4 at the Little Theatre on Capitol Hill. It includes interviews with Bresson, who was born at the turn of the century and still lives near Paris, and with such Bresson disciples as Paul Schrader, the late Louis Malle and the late Andrei Tarkovsky.

Meanwhile, the Grand Illusion will be filling its CinemaScope screen in prime time tonight through Thursday with "Bigger Than Life," Nicholas Ray's powerful and discomforting 1956 tale of a suburban father and schoolteacher (James Mason) who develops biblical-scale delusions of grandeur when he starts taking a wonder drug.

The theater's 11 p.m. show tonight and tomorrow is The Monkees' oddball 1968 musical comedy, "Head," which features two amazing credits: script by Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson, direction by Rafelson. Two years later, Nicholson would star in Rafelson's breakthrough movie, "Five Easy Pieces."

The Grand Illusion's sister, the Little Theatre, is continuing its mini-festival of the underground movies of Jon Mortisugu. "Fame Whore" and "Mommy, Mommy, Where's My Brain?" will be shown tonight and tomorrow, and "Mod . . . Explosion" Sunday only.

Opening Thursday for a four-day run at the same location is a new 35mm print of William Friedkin's 1970 film of the Mart Crowley play, "The Boys in the Band," starring the original New York cast - some of whom became AIDS casualties.

`Fantastic Planet'

The Egyptian, which is showing "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" at midnight tonight and tomorrow, has an equally trippy movie playing in prime time tonight through Thursday: Rene Laloux's "Fantastic Planet."

This 1973 French/Czech production, which won a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival for its surreal animation and Swiftian satirical touches, is based on a Stefan Wul novel about a planet where humans are the aliens. They're treated as sub-human by the giant inhabitants, the Draggs, but one of them escapes to become a rebel.

Wul was Czech, as were the animators, and the imagery almost inevitably suggests Cold War suppression at its most suffocating. But the picture also clicks outside of that historical-social context, thanks mostly to the animators, who create a world that's as delightfully weird as the "sea of holes" sequence in "Yellow Submarine." Previously dubbed (crudely) with the voices of American actors, it's being shown here in French with English subtitles.

The Egyptian has published a new calendar that kicks off next Friday with the Seattle premiere of Julia Sweeney's "God Said `Ha!'," which won the Golden Space Needle for best picture at last year's Seattle International Film Festival. Before the film festival takes over the theater May 14, it will be screening such rarities as "The Battle of Chile," "The Apple," "A Place Called Chiapas," "Peeping Tom" and "Dr. Akagi."

The Egyptian's 11:30 p.m. show next Friday will be "Strange Parallel," a profile of singer-songwriter Elliott Smith that will play nightly at that hour for two weeks. Other Egyptian late shows through late April include "Pink Floyd the Wall," "Kurt and Courtney" and "Mighty Peking Man" (previously known as "Goliathon").

Around town

Turner Classic Movies is bringing an Academy Award Film Festival to Pacific Place, where "An American in Paris" plays at noon today through Sunday. Also scheduled are "The Philadelphia Story" (2:30 p.m. daily), "Casablanca" (5 p.m. daily), "Citizen Kane" (8 p.m. tonight and Sunday, 7:30 p.m. tomorrow) and "Bonnie and Clyde" (10:30 p.m. tonight and Sunday, 10 p.m. tomorrow) . . . . . . Cinema Seattle holds a read-through of Mark Kratz's script, "Dig," at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Alibi Room in the Pike Place Market . . . Coincidence or zeitgeist? Mikis Theodorakis' 1964 score for "Zorba the Greek" turns up on the soundtracks of two movies opening today: "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "The Deep End of the Ocean."

Out of town

The Blue Mouse Theater in Tacoma has a St. Patrick's Day special, "Widows' Peak," plus live entertainment, wine and snacks. It plays at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Ticket prices are $22. Information: 253-383-1283 . . . The Fred Astaire-Audrey Hepburn musical, "Funny Face," will be shown at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the historic Everett Theatre, and at matinees March 20-22 at the Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon . . . The deadline for the National Children's Film Festival is April 15. The contest is open to film and video makers from 9 to 18 years of age. Information: 317-464-1360.