CRITICS' PICKS : FILM.

An almost lost classic: The most exciting revival of the year has got to be Jean Renoir's 1937 classic ``Grand Illusion'' at the Royal Theatre in West L.A. One of the great French director's towering masterpieces and a landmark of anti-war cinema, ``Illusion'' is back in a rich new black-and-white print struck from the long-thought lost original camera negative.

Set in Germany during World War I, the film outlines a complex series of relationships between French prisoners and their German captors, aristocrats and commoners, soldiers and civilians, Jews and gentiles and men and women, and how all of their suppositions about one another prove as illusory as their many rationalizations for fighting.

Perhaps the least violent war movie ever filmed, often even quite playful, it nonetheless makes a compelling case against the waste and absurdity of the Great War - and in the story of how the new print came to be, of the war that would soon come.

Unsurprisingly, Renoir's big-tent humanism did not sit well with the Nazis. When they conquered France three years after ``Grand Illusion's'' release, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels declared the movie ``Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1.'' The camera negative was confiscated and sent to Berlin, but rather than being destroyed, movie-loving Germans at the Reichsfilmarchiv managed to protect the precious footage until 1945.

When, of course, it fell into Russian hands. Say what you will about the Soviet system; at least the Communists appreciated cinema, and for two decades they, with some help from the cold Russian climate, did a better job of preserving the chemically volatile nitrate negative than Hollywood's done with many of its equivalent treasures.

Somehow, the negative remained stable after being repatriated to France's poorly financed Toulouse Cinematheque in the mid-1960s, where it sat for another quarter-century before its true value was recognized. So there you have it: French, Russians and Germans working across national and ideological boundaries to save something beautiful.

- Bob Strauss

Music

Half and half: One of you likes opera. The other loathes it; you'd rather go to a comedy club. Here's a compromise: B.J. Ward's ``Stand-Up Opera,'' a show combining arias and one-liners at the Tiffany Theaters in West Hollywood.

Ward, an L.A. resident who has honed her act over the last seven years or so, manages to combine great music and good comedy without shortchanging either. She cracks wise about the high female death toll in operas, then sings a very respectable ``Sempre libra'' from ``La Traviata.'' She gives you a pinch of education, a healthy dose of laughs and a nice taste of opera to boot.

Adding a little variety are her accompanist, pianist and baritone Joseph Thalken - who is gifted as a comedian as well as a musician - and unbilled guest stars. At 90 minutes, it's a briskly paced and enjoyable entertainment ... and a good compromise for those who either aren't sure what they're in the mood for, or can never seem to agree.

``Stand Up Opera'' plays Thursdays through Sundays at the Tiffany Theaters, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Call the Tiffany box office, [phone], for tickets ($25 to $30) and showtimes.

- Marla Matzer

The Marley tradition: For Ziggy Marley, eldest son of the late international reggae star Bob Marley, music is a family affair.

Since the late '80s, Marley and the Melody Makers have served as guardians of reggae's rich heritage. The group scored a Top 40 hit with ``Tomorrow People'' 11 years ago.

Marley and the Melody Makers, who this year won their third Grammy Award, appear tonight and Saturday at the House of Blues.

The Melody Makers' new album, ``Spirit of Music,'' produced by acclaimed hitmaker Don Was, currently holds the No. 2 position on Billboard's reggae chart.

The disc is bolstered by the seamless harmonies of sisters Cedella and Sharon Marley, along with their 26-year-old brother Stephen, who covers two Bob Marley classics, ``High Tide or Low Tide'' and ``All Day All Night.''

The House of Blues is at 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Show time is 9 p.m., and tickets are $35. Information: [phone].

- Fred Shuster

Television

A matter of taste, or lack thereof: In her recent interview with TV Guide, Cher declares, ``I'm not a huge Cher fan.'' We can relate. In a career that pretty much defines the word peripatetic, Cher has gone from dippy hippy to serious, Oscar-winning actress to infomercial hack, and made every career move seem part of the organic whole that is inextricably, indisputably ``Cher.''

It helps, though, that she has a sense of humor about things.

Her music has never been her strong point, as evidenced by her recent hit single, ``Believe,'' which was soullessly bland disco wrapped in irksomely cute techno-production, effectively stripping the package of any humanity whatsoever.

But who goes to a Cher concert for the music (or the humanity, for that matter)? Cher exists to wear outrageously vampy costumes no other diva in captivity could even stomach gazing upon, and to exude a chops-busting, no-prisoners-taking attitude that's refreshing in its ``I don't care that normal people can't relate'' demeanor - a 'tude she flaunted in her recent outing at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim.

Expect an orgy of kitsch to assault your senses in ``Cher Live in Concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas'' (actually, it won't be live for us West Coasters, but that's the least of our problems), to be broadcast 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO.

- David Kronke

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

PHOTO (1) Jean Renoir's 1937 antiwar masterpiece ``Grand Illusions'' was despised by the Nazis, who seized the film but fortunately didn't destroy it. A new print from the original negative is showing at the Royal Theatre.

(2) The Grammy Award-winning Ziggy Marley, right, and the Melody Makers will fill the House of Blues with reggae tonight and Saturday.

(3) CHER

(4) WARD