La Guerre Est Finie is a political essay about the remnants of the Old Left revolution, directed by Alain Resnais and starring Yves Montand. The film is not casual entertainment in any sense, and if that's what you're up for this week see something else. But if you're interested in how it felt to be a leftist in the days of the party line, if you feel any sympathy at all for the single-minded pursuit of a political dream, then see this by any and all means. Resnais's movie will touch you, inform you, will make you understand something about the dialectic between men and history. It is a sad film in many ways, and this very sadness is the key to comprehending the human side of political struggle. The action takes place in Spain and France, and it's about a group of people who are still trying to win the Spanish Civil War 25 years after Franco had already sealed his victory.

Virdiana is the co-feature at the Brattle this week, playing with La Guerre Est Finie. Luis Bunuel made this film in 1961, his first in Spain since Franco threw him out at the end of the Civil War. Franco's generosity was not too long-lasting. The dictator, who is about to go to his just deserts, so disapproved of Bunuel's anti-clericism that he banned the film from his country's movie houses. Anything Franco doesn't like can't be too bad; this is actually quite good.

Serpico, playing at the Harvard Sq. this week with The Friends of Eddie Coyle, is the best police movie to come out of American studios since the days of Cagney and Bogart. It has its requisite amount of action and violence, but it also has more than its share of intelligence. The most amazing thing about the movie is how much Al Pacino (who's very good in the title role) looks like the real Frank Serpico. Serpico flew in from Switzerland a few months ago to endorse Ramsey Clark's Senate bid in New York and had people wondering why The New York Times was running Pacino's picture on the front page. Eddie Coyle, about the life of lower-echelon thugs in Boston, stars Robert Mitchum and is surprisingly well done.

Magical Mystery Tour is back at the Welles "by popular demand," which probably means that enough people were sufficiently curious to see it the first time it played to make it worth the Welles's effort to bring it back. It's not really all that good, but who can help being curious about The Beatles?

Lucia is being shown for the last time at the Welles today, and if you haven't seen it yet and you don't see it now, you're making a big mistake. It's boring in parts but it's truly a great film.

Alice in Wonderland, Disney's cartoon version of Lewis Carroll's classic, is the big event at the Welles this week. Disney's biographer insists that wonderful Walt was not a member of the John Birch Society, and if that's the case you might as well see the movie because it's sort of fun. But don't be fooled by all the hype: It's not all that great and if you're going for the art it's no Fantasia.