Murmur of the Heart is a comedy about the French bourgeoisie by the eclectic Louis Malle, light but not a triviality. The after-effects include at least fifteen minutes of one of those cartoon grins, like that on the mouse who is starstruck after getting hit by a sledgehammer--pure silly bliss. This is an okay emotion to have visited upon you, and this is a picture not to be missed. Playing at the Brattle with Stolen Kisses until Tuesday. The second show on the bill is a Truffaut tale about young Antoine Doinel; it's more incisively funny than the Malle film but not nearly as purging.

Mississippi Mermaid, another Truffaut film, comes to the Brattle on Wednesday. It seems corny once in a while, but it's a technical masterpiece. Besides, everything is great to look at: The film was made on the beautiful island of Reunion off the African coast, and it stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve. Still another Truffaut flick, The Bride Wore Black starring the wonderful Jeanne Moreau, is the second feature on the bill.

King of Hearts is in its third year at Central Square and only god knows why. The film is a worthless inanity--it's sometimes fun to watch but it's ideologically weak. If you're going to make the trek down to Central, you're much better off with a great Woody Allen double feature next door. Sleeper is his tightest work to date, precise, hilarious and painstakingly mapped out. Bananas, where Allen apotheosizes the machismo theme, is the funniest thing he's done.

The Last Detail is one of two Jack Nicholson films playing at the Harvard Sq. Theater through Tuesday. In it Nicholson gives a marvellous performance, and even if this recent film is scratchy and a bit simplistic it's worth seeing in a slow movie year like this. It's playing with The King of Marvin Gardens, sort of an obscure sequel to Five Easy Pieces: Nicholson's existential Atlantic City trip.

Cinderella Liberty, a run-of-the-mill item about sailors in Seattle, comes to the Harvard Sq. on Wednesday. With it is The Heartbreak Kid, a film directed by Elaine May with the comic touch of something like The Graduate. It's about the young, sheltered and Jewish boy being carried away. If you can handle Cybill Shepard...

Lucia is the second film from revolutionary Cuba to reach Cambridge recently, and that in itself makes it interesting. Pardoning some melodrama, this is a beautiful film about that country's blossoming through the centuries, and the toll taken by history on Cuban women. It will be at the Orson Welles for some time to come.

The Harder They Come will also be at the Welles for a while, and like The King of Hearts it is something of a Cambridge classic. It features Jimmy Cliff and some good reggae.

A Very Curious Girl, reportedly a "feminist classic," is about a French woman who becomes a prostitute and it will be at the Welles with Taking Off until Tuesday. Starting Wednesday still another Woody Allen film, Play It Again, Sam will move into town, along with Where's Poppa?