Bigger than big-screen TV

No matter how whiz-bang your surround-sound, DVD-driven, big-screen home-theater system may be, there is simply no way it can replicate the divine pleasure of seeing a movie projected on a full-size theater screen from a 70mm print.

The fourth Great Big 70mm Festival, which runs Thursday through Sunday at the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theater, kicks off with a genuine delight: a restored print of French filmmaker Jacques Tati’s “Playtime.” Originally conceived for 70mm, for many years the film existed only in a truncated 35mm edition until Tati’s daughter recently oversaw a restoration.

“Hello Dolly!” is perhaps remembered as one of the final productions of the then-crumbing studio system. But it’s hard to turn down a chance to see the 1969 film in all of its spectacular big-screen splendor, with winning performances by Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau and direction by Gene Kelly. The film, also featuring Louis Armstrong’s now-classic rendition of the title tune, screens Saturday.

Showing on Sunday is Walt Disney’s 1959 animated classic “Sleeping Beauty,” whose rich colors and Tchaikovsky score are all the better served by the big screen.

Also screening Sunday is “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines,” a madcap blend of travel, adventure and comedy. Director Ken Annakin is scheduled to appear for a Q&A.;

Concluding the series is Stanley Kramer’s “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.” It’s hard to imagine a cast of this magnitude being assembled today, just as it may also be difficult to recollect a time when names such as Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Don Knotts and Jerry Lewis were truly top of the list.