The Mondavi Center's Season of Shakespeare starts on the big screen, then moves to the stage, not for a play, but for Such Sweet Thunder, a 12-part jazz suite inspired by the Bard's poetry and plays.

The movie event is the first segment of the center's 2008-09 Focus on Film. Shakespeare in the Cinema comprises three films: Oct. 6 -- Al Pacino's Looking for Richard (1996). Oct. 20 -- Tim Supple's Twelfth Night (2003). Nov. 17 -- Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (1957).

Delfeayo Marsalis leads the band that is scheduled to perform Such Sweet Thunder on Oct. 9 in the Mondavi Center's Jackson Hall. He is a trombonist, a composer, a Grammy Award-winning music producer and a member of New Orleans' famed Marsalis music family -- not to mention that he studied orchestration and Shakespeare at the graduate level.

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn wrote Such Sweet Thunder in 1957 for the Duke Ellington Orchestra, then a 14-piece band. Marsalis' arrangement is for eight pieces.

The concert is set for 8 p.m. in Jackson Hall. An accompanying lecture by John Abigana, music director at Woodland High School, is set for 7 p.m. in the Studio Theatre.

Tickets are available through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org.

Here is more information on Focus on Film, sponsored by the Mondavi Center and the Film Studies Program:

FALL QUARTER: SHAKESPEARE IN THE CINEMA

Oct. 6 -- Looking for Richard (1996). Al Pacino directs and plays the lead role in a production of Richard III, and acts as interviewer in an informal documentary about the making of the production and the relevance of Shakespeare in modern life. The documentary includes observations by John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh, Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones and Kevin Kline. PG-13, 111 minutes.

Oct. 20 -- Twelfth Night (2003). Director Tim Supple's version of this Shakespearean comedy blends modern dress and Elizabethan language and brings together some of the best actors working in Britain today, including Parminder Nagra (Bend It Like Beckham) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things). Unrated, 125 minutes.

Nov. 17 -- Throne of Blood (1957). Legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa sets Macbeth in medieval Japan, mixing Shakespearean drama and formal elements of Japanese Noh theatre for a unique cinematic experience. In Japanese with English subtitles. Unrated, 90 minutes.

Starting time for each film is 6:30 p.m. in the Studio Theatre. Instead of faculty talks before each film this year, organizers are inviting people to stay for post-screening receptions and open discussion after each film.

Tickets are $10 adults, and $5 students and children. Season tickets (for all 10 films) are $75, and three-film plans (choose your own films) are $27. Tickets: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org.

The Curriculum Connections program offers $3 tickets to UC Davis students to see any film listed on a course syllabus; to purchase these tickets, contact Dave Webb, dgwebb@ucdavis.edu.

Information on the winter and spring quarter Focus on Film.