Aging swingers' `Lifestyle' seems sad and out of step

David Schisgall's sexually explicit documentary about swingers, "The Lifestyle: Group Sex in the Suburbs," sounds titillating. Yet for much of its length, it's like watching your grandparents swap bed partners and explain how liberated they are. Many of the participants are in their 60s, and some confess to leading a "double life" while still playing "mom and pop to the kids."

The 79-minute movie, which begins a seven-day run tonight at the Grand Illusion, examines the motives, changing values and surprising political conservatism of swingers from Orange County to Las Vegas to Littleton, Colo. (yes, that Littleton, though the film was completed before the name became almost synonymous with high-school violence).

In a series of interviews, a widower says that his late wife would have wanted him to participate in group sex. One woman claims that lesbianism "has its place" in most orgies, yet male bisexuals are asked to leave. We learn from a young couple that the husband's enthusiasm for group sex was not matched by his wife's; they eventually decided to withdraw from "the lifestyle."

They're almost the only people under 50 who are interviewed in "The Lifestyle." Intentionally or not, a portrait emerges of aging converts, desperate for a little sensation in their lives, who have become evangelical about their cause. The movie tries to be nonjudgmental, but it almost can't help making everyone look a little sad.

While "The Lifestyle" plays in prime time, the Grand Illusion is also showing the restored X-rated version of Bud Townsend's "Alice in Wonderland" (1974), at midnight tonight and tomorrow, and Ben Stoloff's "Night Mayor" (1931), starring Lee Tracy as a sleazy New York mayor who bears a resemblance to Jimmy Walker. The latter, which plays at noon tomorrow and Sunday, is the final installment in the theater's matinee series, "Pre-Code Crime Films: Wild, Uncensored Talkies from Columbia Pictures."

"Satellites 2000: Screens From Outer Spaces," an alternative series to the Seattle International Film Festival (which starts Thursday night at the Paramount), will be held at the Grand Illusion, Cinema 18 and other locations, next Friday through May 28.

First up are the Hughes brothers' documentary, "American Pimp," which plays May 19-25 at the Grand Illusion, and "Drunkdance," a collection of shorts by Seattle filmmakers. It plays at 8 p.m. next Friday at 911 Media Arts Center, 117 Yale Ave. N.

Around town

Gregory Nava's "El Norte," which is back for a weeklong run tonight at the Egyptian, hasn't aged much in 16 years, partly because hardly anyone else has imitated it. It remains our one true national cinematic epic about the plight of illegal south-of-the-border immigrants, and much of it is still harrowing: a brother and sister's escape from their violence-ridden Guatemalan home, their battle with rats as they crawl through a sewer to California, their narrow escapes from immigration officials when they find jobs in Los Angeles. What's somewhat surprising today is how much fish-out-of-water humor there is in this odyssey, and how often Nava uses jokes about restaurant service and washing machines to allow us to see our less desperate lives through the endangered immigrants' eyes. . . . The first feature from I Can Make It Myself Productions, "hundred percent," will be shown as part of a series, "Multi-Directions in Asian American Film," at 6 p.m. Monday at the HUB building at the University of Washington. Admission is free . . . The Varsity is showing Orson Welles movies for the next week: a restored 35 mm print of "The Trial," tonight through Tuesday, and a double bill of "Citizen Kane" and "The Third Man," Wednesday and Thursday . . . The Little Theatre on Capitol Hill is screening a 35 mm color print of Jacques Tati's comedy about a bicycling rural postman, "Jour de Fete," tonight through Sunday. Haskell Wexler's "Bus II," a 1983 documentary about activists protesting nuclear arms, will be shown at 5:30, 7:15 and 9 p.m. Thursday. The brand-new third part of Wexler's "bus trilogy," "Bus Riders Union," plays next Friday through May 21. It deals with a grass-roots movement aimed at improving the Los Angeles public transportation system. Wexler's first bus movie, "The Bus" (1965), dealt with a cross-country trip to a civil-rights march in Washington D.C. . . . Luis Bunuel's "Fever Mounts in El Pao," a 1960 political thriller from Bunuel's Mexican period, plays at 8 tonight through Sunday at Consolidated Works, 410 Terry Ave. N. Bunuel's 1962 Spanish classic, "The Exterminating Angel," plays at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Seattle Art Museum . . . Soundtrack Cinema, at 10 p.m. tomorrow on KING-FM, 98.1, features film scores from the 1980s, including "The Goonies," "The Terminator," "Chariots of Fire" and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" . . . After opening at the Varsity, "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg" has moved to the Broadway Market Cinemas.

Out of town

The Grand Cinemas in Tacoma are celebrating their third anniversary Thursday with a special screening, dessert and drinks. Information: 253-593-4474 . . . The Olympia Film Society is showing "Rock N Roll High School," featuring the Ramones, at 8 tonight at the Capitol Theater in downtown Olympia. Tomorrow is Comics' Appreciation Day. The lineup includes a noon showing of the Dean Martin / Jerry Lewis comedy, "Artists and Models," and a midnight rerun of "Rock N Roll High School." The epic-length French film, "The Mother and the Whore," plays at 7 p.m. tomorrow, and a double bill of "Not One Less" and "The Cup," Sunday through Thursday . . . The Clyde Theatre in Langley is showing the Danish movie, "Mifune," Tuesday through Thursday . . . According to Variety, Silver Cinemas, the Dallas company that operates the Landmark Theatre art-house chain, lost $13.6 million last year. "Independent auditors are expressing serious concerns about the financial future of Silver Cinemas," wrote Dade Hayes. He also reported that Regal Cinemas Inc. is carrying a $1.7 billion debt.