The News and Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina • 18

1 1 1 1 1. 6B The News and Observer, Raleigh, Jane Alexander Director builds gentle comedy of summer love By JAMES CALLOWAY Staff Writer Marion has a perfect body and a pretty face, but she also has some addled notions about romance. She will know the moment she falls in love, she says, because true love will cause her to into flames." On a trip to the Film beach with her review 15-year-old cousin Pauline, Marion meets two men: her old friend Pierre, who affects her like a wet towel, and a stranger, Henri, who admits from the outset that he likes his women and doesn't care to be tied down by such tiresome concepts as fidelity. Henri is very good at starting fires. An arsonist of the heart, if you will.

This sounds like the makings of a melodramatic soap, opera, but "Pauline at the Beach" is something quite different. Director Eric Rohmer is a master of gentle comedy, and here he is probing the tiny joys and sorrows of summer romance, feelings that seem so important at the time but are best evaluated as bittersweet memories. The film has the same effect as those memories. I left the theater with a pleasant feeling, but at the same time I wondered whether I ever had been as silly and foolish and wise as Rohmer's characters. He has made them easy to identify with.

Each character has some good qualities and most of them have clear faults. Henri (Feodor Atkine) is a cad and proud of it, but only in matters of sex. As a friend and acquaintance, he is stable and trustworthy. Marion (Arielle Dombasle) wants to have. a good time, but she has to pretend it is love.

Rohmer doesn't try to explain why Marion deceives herself, he just shows how she does it. Pierre (Pascal Greggory) probably would get on any woman's nerves if he were as hopelessly obsessed with her as he is with Marion. At heart, however, he is a decent fellow. Despite her age, Pauline, played by Amanda Langlet, is the most mature of the bunch. She is not ready for sex, at least not all the way, but she has no illusions about love.

She watches her elders with a mixture of amusement and wonder. When they start meddling in her affairs, she rightfully scorns them, but she is quick to forgive. In real life these people probably would not be very funny, but Rohmer has a talent for making them seem humorous and genuine at the same time. The actors help in that regard. They are uniformly natural in style.

I get the impression that Rohmer likes his characters for all their foibles. That is unusual. At the Rialto. Rated (nudity, implied sex). Man who found money signs contract for film PHILADELPHIA (AP) Joey Coyle, an unemployed longshoreman who became famous when he scooped up $1.2 million that had fallen from the rear of an armored truck, has signed a six-figure contract for a movie of his story.

Coyle's lawyer, Harold Kane, said the contract was worth $100,000 and could bring in even more if the film is a hit. Coyle picked up two money bags in February 1981 after they fell out of an armored truck in south Philadelphia. THINGS FOR MORE PEOPLE AT WANT ADS WORK EVERYWHERE, N. Nov. 29, 1983 'Testament' a superior tale of nuclear tragedy By BILL MORRISON Entertainment Editor I don't tell stories very well, but I think this one applies: Author Dorothy Parker went through a suicidal period during which she developed a penchant for cutting her wrists with dull razors.

Her friends quickly tired of this morbid pastime. As Alexander Woollcott pointed out, "If Dorothy doesn't stop that, she's going to damage her health." That blackly humorous thought passed through my mind as I watched "Testament," a poignant little film that looks at life after nuclear holocaust (it presumes there will be life after the bombs fall). If world leaders don't stop playing war games, nuclear missiles may seriously affect the quality of life in these United States. "Testament" does not place blame for the tragedy. It's too late for that.

Too late to put HumptyDumpty together again. The people who did not die in the blast will die of radiation poisoning. What makes "Testament" so affecting is the struggle of a California family to continue on as though nothing had happened. The life force still STUDIO 1 7 12 Noon, Matinees 1:20, 2:40, Only! 4, 5:20" TO I LIQUID SEATS ASSETS QUESTION Film review beats within the heart of the schoolteacher played exquisitely by Jane Alexander. More important than anything on Earth is the mundane existence that was life on Earth.

(Her husband, played by William Devane, presumably died in the San Francisco bombings.) Daughter Mary Liz (Roxana Zal) continues her piano lessons; the baby (Lukas Haas) returns to his teddy bear when there is no television or electronic games. The older boy (Ross Harris) assumes his father's role without question. The mother begins a diary no one will read. When her neighbors lose their infant child, she takes up her pen with tired resolve: write this to try to keep my sanity. What if the baby is the lucky one?" WAK ART THEATRE ZEBULON.

261 9009 All About Annette AND That's My Daughter Open Every Day Definitely at 1 P.M. ADULTS ONLY 1D's Required After one of her children dies, she sews a shroud around the body. Her lack of emotion is more frightening than the bombs that the holocaust. launched, entries: silent tears for her older boy, "the man he has bere come, the man he would never live to be." For Larry, the orphan they adopt: "Larry left us today. He just crawled into a ball and died." She goes ahead with the school play (a dramatization of "'The Pied Piper of Hamlin').

The piper was not paid for luring the rats away from the town, so he has taken the children hostage. But don't worry, says a little tyke, stumbling through his lines, "Your children are not dead; they are just waiting until the world deserves them." The mother tries to commit suicide with her son and another orphan. She brushes her hair, clips on her good earrings, seals the door of the garage and turns on the car engine. She can't go through with it. The life force refuses to die.

We must remember it all, she says, the good and the awful. The world must endure until that time when it truly deserves the children. "Testament" will remind viewers of "'The Day After" in that both films deal with the same topic and were produced originally for television for the "American Playhouse" series on PBS). I didn't see "The Day After," which ABC aired Nov. 20, but I'm told that it was a slapdash affair done in predictable grade-B movie fashion.

Mon. thru Thurs. showsTRYON 9:10 TATOR WILLS SHOPPING CENTER 111 3-D Glasses are extra NEW THE IS THIRD TERROR. DIMENSION ALL NEW 00 ALL 861 W. MORGAN THE RAVES ARE TERRIFIC! 832-0998 NOV.29-DEC.

3 TUESDAY IS RICHARD JENI AMATEUR NITE JOEL BAUER Center stage Is SHOW TIMES yours. Hit us with 8:30 your best shot. THURS. FRI. SAT.

RESERVATIONS 8:00 10:30 RESTAURANT COMEDY CLUB RECOMMENDED Why pay on ACNE Bank orVirginia NONE 3 658 NONE National Bank 412. VISA 780 First MasterCard 4342 acPenney CITIBANKE BOBBY 80 VISA WHATE 4128 240 234 006 10 86 when ours costs less. Wachovia MasterCard. 5329 5620 1234 5678 110-84 PAT Wachovia You'll pay less interest on your Wachovia Prime-Plus balance than on almost card you carry with no strings attached. Wachovia's Prime-Plus MasterCard Master rate for the month of November 1983 is Annual Percentage (APR), compared to APR charged by most other financial institutions and merchants.

So if you're carrying a Wachovia MasterCard, use it Wachovia and save. If you don't have one, see or call a Personal Banker. Bank Trust Wachovia's prime rate in effect on the next to the last business day of each month plus The prime rate is set by Wachovia as the basis for interest on many on will with market conditions. While automatically providing the benefit of any decline in the prime rate, under current North Carolina law, the loans and vary money MasterCard variable rate cannot exceed APR. Like many other bank cards, the Wachovia MasterCard is available for an annual fee of $18.

Wachovia then, is infinitely superior. Paramount Pictures bought the movie despite the rough edges, the shoestring budget and the original need to fit the film into a specific time slot. Lynne Littman, the and John Sacret from Young, who adapted the script a story by Carol Amen, have triumphed overt these life limitations. their world They've celebrated as lay dying. At Mission Valley Cinema.

Rated PG. STUDIO 1 1 1 1 FEN Shows Nightly THE STATE 8:00 P.M. Sun. Matinees Only OFTHINGS at 3, A New Film By WIM WENDERS 5:30 K- Litchfield Michael Caine- Julie Walters Eve Bargain Mon. thru Fri.

Educating Rita Weekdays 7:10 9:35 (PG) Tony Roberts-Tess Harper Eve. Bargain "Amityville 3-D" (PG) Mon. thru Fri. Wk. Days: 7:00 9:00 2 SCARY VILLAGE SQUARE Chevy Chase- Gregory Hines Eve.

Bargain Mon. thru Fri. "Deal of the Century" Wk. Days: 7:05 9:15 (PG) Chris Atkins Eve. Bargain Lesley Ann Warren Mon.

thru Fri. "A Night in Heaven" Wk. Days: 7:10 9:10 (R) MOVIE INFO 467.0009.