Calendar’s Big Oscars Issue : The Movies Come to Him : The White House theater is still the hottest ticket in town, and President Clinton is one fan who doesn’t have to wait for the video

He watches movies, he publicly critiques them, and he even advertises them by wearing goofy hats and T-shirts. This year, he’s got a role in one, the documentary “The War Room,” which is nominated for an Oscar.

Bill Clinton may never edge out that old actor Ronald Reagan as the Movie President. But it won’t be for lack of trying.

“I’m a moviegoer almost to the point of compulsion--have been since I was a boy,” Clinton told a Hollywood audience at a fund-raiser in December.

Clinton’s passion for the craft is reflected in the way he has made an invitation to the White House movie theater about the most sought-after ticket in this Administration’s Washington.

An invitation to jog with the President is, of course, much desired by power-seekers who want to linger with No. 1 in the camera’s eye. But 90 minutes of shared goose bumps in the padded comfort of the 51-seat movie theater--well, that’s intimacy.

The theater has become a sort of presidential treehouse, a sanctuary from the outside world that he repairs to with the people he finds most relaxing. Many nights he drifts in with daughter Chelsea, sometimes with one of her friends in tow.

On weekends, the core movie-hour guest list is most often the inner circle of Arkansas pals, beginning with former Associate Atty. Gen. Webster L. Hubbell (before Hubbell’s resignation last week), top adviser Bruce Lindsey and their families. (The Clintons took a break from their Whitewater concerns this week to watch “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.”)

The movie-night scene fits in with the generally pared-down scale of social affairs favored by the Clintons, who after 14 months have yet to throw a full-dress state dinner at the White House.

On many occasions larger groups have been invited. Then, the staff sets up tables outside the room with soft drinks and kitchen-popped popcorn--unbuttered, it is claimed.

The theater, 20 feet by 50 feet and located off the East Wing portico, is designed to accommodate a small audience comfortably. The oversized armchairs could fit a President with the ample proportions of a William Howard Taft or an important visitor the size of, say, the 6-foot-4 German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (a Clinton pal who has not yet shared the experience). The chairs are arranged in rows of four to six seats, on tiers that rise toward the rear of the theater.

The chairs are upholstered in a heavy beige fabric, setting off deep red carpeting. Red curtains drape the walls for optimal soundproofing. The decor is appropriately dignified but subdued, so as not to compete with the movie-watching experience.

At a time of new scrutiny of presidential perks, the White House hasn’t offered to give up the supply of first-run movies it receives from film distributors--arranged, naturally, by the Motion Picture Assn. of America. Past presidential staffs have offered the rationale that it would be a security risk--as well as a traffic obstacle--for the chief executive to roam Washington’s boulevards on weekend nights in search of a multiplex.

Clinton has yet to invite any heads of state. But he has apparently overcome his anxieties about the perception that he is star-struck and invited a few film industry people.

Tom Hanks sat in recently, as did Alan J. Pakula, director of last year’s “The Pelican Brief.” Also there was John Grisham, the Arkansas-born thriller writer, who, it turns out, is another unexpected member of the Clinton family tree--a distant cousin.

While he is watching films in the theater, Clinton can contemplate other events of personal significance that occurred there. In the very same room in fall, 1992, George Bush prepped to debate Clinton and Ross Perot in practice sessions with Chief of Staff John H. Sununu. Since then, the Clinton team has used it to practice for speeches and debates.

Clinton’s tastes in films are catholic. Just as he is reluctant to give up on any group of voters, he seems able to find something nice to say about every movie.

“Schindler’s List” was not only his favorite movie of 1993, he declared it the best in 10 years. Second place went to “Shadowlands,” the tear-tugger starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.

Clinton thought “The Piano” was “interesting” and liked “The Fugitive” and “The Remains of the Day.” He called the AIDS epic “Philadelphia” “good” but found star Hanks “brilliant.”

Likewise, he enjoyed “Mrs. Doubtfire” but most of all got a kick out of Robin Williams, whom the President considers “a comic genius.” And he thought Clint Eastwood was “terrific” in “In the Line of Fire,” the story of a Secret Service agent risking his life on the presidential detail.

Clinton went with Chelsea and a friend to see “My Father, the Hero,” a movie about a teen-age girl and her father. Partway through, he decided that this was a movie a girl would want to enjoy without parents around, and slipped out.

Apparently he has not seen “In the Name of the Father.” That may be just as well, since praise or a pan for that one could be awkward, considering how difficult Irish-English relations have been for Clinton this year.

Clinton told a group of children in Houston last month that his all-time favorite is “High Noon,” followed by “Casablanca.” And, yes, he’s seen all the Elvis movies, though he does not have them in a personal collection, aides say.

The White House movie theater was built by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the early 1940s, but every occupant since has made good use of it, with the possible exception of Harry S. Truman. John F. Kennedy liked adventure movies, especially about the Navy; Richard Nixon’s love of “Patton” is well known. Lyndon B. Johnson also liked Westerns, although it was his habit to fall asleep amid a crowd of aides in the theater.

Reagan, of course, liked Westerns and science-fiction movies. The Reagans used the theater but spent even more time watching films at Camp David on weekends. And George and Barbara Bush also spent many an evening in its comfort.

The signs of Clinton’s enthusiasm for the movies were there from the start.

On Election Day, 1992, Clinton, bone-weary from nonstop travel and partisan pummeling, took a mental vacation with a John Wayne Western whose title is lost to history. Even as a kid in Hot Springs, Ark., friends remember, Clinton would collect the 10 bottle caps needed to get him into the free Saturday matinees sponsored by a soft-drink company.

Last fall, when the New York City mayoral campaign was under way, Clinton was filmed jogging while wearing a cap promoting the film “Rudy.” Someone may have pointed out the political ramifications of this, at a time when he was supporting incumbent Democrat David N. Dinkins over Republican challenger (and eventual winner) Rudolph W. Giuliani. The next day, anyway, on a trip to New York, Clinton had the sense to wear a “Dave” cap.

Clinton has used movie promotional items to show off the odder side of his sense of humor.

In February, the Secret Service arrested a Florida man and accused him of stalking Clinton on his mornings jogs and making threats to kill him. The next day, Clinton appeared for his run in a black T-shirt from Eastwood’s movie--with the words “In the Line of Fire” above gray cross hairs on the back.

President Clinton, Hillary and Chelsea--all decked out in Oscar garb. (But no, they won’t be there.)