Movies and Plays This Weekend

STAGE

The Bacchae--A triumph for the Charles Playhouse and all concerned. Director Timothy S. Mayer has updated Euripides' play in translation and costumes, invested it with modern music, and staged it almost vertically. The devices are amazingly consistent with one another, also with the interpretation, and most of all with the play. The cast is fine. At the CHARLES, 76 Warrenton (542-3325).

Benito Cerino--Directors David Wheeler and Frank Cassidy have constructed Robert Lowell's penetration of an American mind into a simple tragedy of racism. An awkward flat production. At the THEATRE COMPANY OF BOSTON 136 Mass. Ave. (426-6609). Ends Sunday.

The Measures Taken--Brecht. At the HARVARD EPWORTH CHURCH, 1555 Mass. Ave. (491-9579).

Misalliance--In which a man drops out of the sky, by Shaw. At EMERSON COLLEGE, 130 Beacon (262-2010 ext. 240).

Paradise Now--The Living Theatre's house special, in which the actors are sometimes called upon to mingle with the audience. At KRESGE AUDITORIUM, M.I.T., tonight. Sold out.

The Proposition--Local satirical revue. At 241 Hampshire St., Inman Square, Cambridge.

Tambourines to Glory--The Langston Hughes play, done by the Negro Repertory Theatre of Boston. At NEW ENGLAND LIFE HALL (442-0955).

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown--Which somehow works. At the WILBUR (426-9366).

The Zoo Story & Dutchman--Edward Albee & Leroi Jones. At the ATMA, 496 Tremont (338-9791).

SCREEN

Barbarella--Roger Vadim's very public salute to Jane Fonda; more or less what you'd expect. At the CIRCLE, Cleveland Circle, Brookline (566-4040).

Belle de Jour--Luis Bunuel in high gear, with Catherine Deneuve. At the WEST END North Station (523-4050).

The Bride Wore Black--Truffaut's highly symmetrical murder mystery, with quotations from Hitchcock. A splendid, unnerving movie, probably in badly dubbed version. At the SYMPHONY I, 262 Huntington (262-8820).

Camelot--An overblown adaptation of the Lerner & Lowe musical, with Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave. But swell music. At the FRESH POND in Fresh Pond, Cambridge (547-8800).

The Charge of the Light Brigade--A movie which argues that mid-Victorian England was a pretty inhuman place, revealing that quality most clearly in its incredibly stupid wars. Not as exciting as the book (Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Reason Why), but for those who like their wars with lots of gory realism and facile satire, may make enjoyable viewing. At the CHERI 3, Dalton St. in Prudential Center (536-2870).

Duffy--Hoo boy, a clinker. At the CHARLES, 195 Cambridge (227-2832).

Finian's Rainbow--A heavyhanded, poorly acted film version of the musical, with nothing but the splendid score and the magnificent Fred Astaire to recommend it. The director, Francis Fred Coppola, has a bad habit of chopping people's hands and feet off; stars Petula Clark and Tommy Steele ought to act their age. At the SAXON, Tremont and Stuart (542-4600).

Funny Girl--If you like Barbra Streisand, there is no getting around the fact that this movie works. The score, the screenplay, and even Omar Sharif are fine. The photography, on the other hand, is unfortunate, as is the editing. At the CHERI 2, Dalton St. in Prudential Center (536-2870).

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter--Very weighty stuff, with the sensitive Alan Arkin as a sensitive young man who happens to be blind. At the ASTOR, Tremont St. near Boylston (542-5030).

I Love You, Alice B. Toklas--A cheap celluloid account of the swinging sixties, atrociously filmed, with Peter Sellers as a representative youth. At the BEACON HILL, Tremont between Beacon St. & Govt. Center (227-6676).

The Legend of Lylah Claire--Either awful or great, depending on how you feel. In either case, worth seeing. At the PARAMOUNT, Washington Street across from Raymond's (482-4820).

The Lion in Winter--Pretension unleashed, most notably that of Anthony Harvey, the director, who seems bent on doing everything as conspicuously as he can. Neither Peter O'Toole nor Katharine Hepburn gives much of a performance in this cumbersomely filmed version of James Goldman's play, which was unconvincing to start with. At the PARIS CINEMA, 841 Boylston (267-8181).

A Lovely Way to Die--A thriller, they say, with Kirk Douglas and Sylvia Koscina. At the ORPHEUM, Washington St. across from Filene's (542-5557).

Loves of a Blonde--Poignant comedy, if you like poignant comedy, out of Czechoslovakia. At the BRATTLE (876-4226).

My Little Chickadee--A watershed in the separate careers of W. C. Fields and Mae West, who collaborated on the script. At the SYMPHONY II, 262 Huntington (262-8837).

The Odd Couple--Not nearily as funny as a picture with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau should be (or, for example, as The Fortune Cookie actually was). At the HARVARD SQUARE (864-4580).

Paper Lion--An ambitious attempt to depict George Plimpton in all his complexity. Sports columnists seem to like it better than movie reviewers do. At the GARY, Stuart near Tremont (542-7040).

Rachel, Rachel--Paul Newman tries his hand at directing and at stream-of-consciousness, with basically good results. At the MUSIC HALL, Tremont St. near Stuart (423-3300).

Romeo and Juliet--The Shakespeare play, dressed up for the color screen by Franco Zefirelli, with teenage stars. At the ABBEY, 600 Commonwealth Ave. (262-1303).

Star--Despite wonderful music, ranging from Kurt Weill to Cole Porter, an aimless, fruitless movie. The theatrical history, however, is fun, and Julie Andrews and Daniel Massey are likewise as Gertrude Lawrence and Noel Coward. At the GARY, 131 Stuart (542-7040).

The Two of Us--A dog and a little boy loom large in this French-made tale of human understanding, but any cute moments are salvaged by the formidable Michel Simon. At the EXETER, Exeter St. between Sommonwealth & Newbury (536-7067).

2001--Stanley Kubrick's epic of human advancement, externally motivated. The special effects must be seen, and can best be seen from the first five rows. At the CINERAMA, Washington Street near Essex (482-4515).

West Side Story--Much, much worse than the show. Badly dubbed and drippily sung, but funny in places. At the SAVOY, 163 Tremont (536-2120).

You Are What You Eat--Tiny Tim and friends romp through a small budget. At the ESQUIRE, Mass. Ave. on the Boston side of Harvard Square (491-7730), and the KENMORE, Kenmore Square (262-3799).

You Can't Cheat an Honest Man--Among the funnier Fields pictures, this one offers him as a circus impressario with a desirable daughter and debts. The Lake Titicaca episode and the ping-pong game are pure genius. At the SYMPHONY II, 262 Huntington (272-8837).