'Faithful'

'Purple Rose Comedy Festival'

If the nuggets on stage tell us "turns," but I'll single out John Rated R
true, there was a gold mine to Seibert. As a cheating jerk/hus-
band in "The Date" and then a
very sphere of study, be it
choose from.
art, science or math, has
The first half is mostly deft, new-age Brit movie director in
its own theories wherein
flip, skit material resembling that "Rosemary and Julian," he gives
certain basic truths are
seen at Second City or on "Sat- two very pungent back-to-back
performances.
self-evident, and, as such, are
urday Night Live."
But then there's Sun Regan as eminently reliable. The same
In the first act, the cast, some
holds true for cinema.
eight fiendishly funny, sexy and a "folk singer anti-Christ." She
is a stand-out. And in
For example, there are cer-
outrageous performers,
three
consecutive
roles,
tain
indications one can look Cher and Chazz Palminteri star in Faithful.
strut their stuff. In the
THEATER
Joseph Albright gets the for that might suggest that a
second half, the comedy
mood, the style and particular film will be a flop. Such covers an intruder, Tony
has that nice edge which
character right with the
signs would include pre-release (Palminteri), in her house. Tony
makes satire into hu-
most startling actor's sparring between the director and introduces himself as an assassin
man drama. Here, the
economy. And of course,
the film's lead actors or the out- hired by Jack to kill her, explain-
performers show they're
Wayne David Parker, right refusal of the stars to par- ing that he can't make the hit un-
more than skit stars.
who even has funny ticipate in any sort of promotion til Jack gives him the signal.
Take Rich Orloff's
hair.
on behalf of the film. Another re- Faced with death at the hands of
piece, "Four Extremely
These
talented
play-
liable
indicator of doom is the someone other than herself, Mar-
Attractive Women Sit-
MICH AEL
ers — and the funny presence of actor Ryan O'Neal in garet is determined to win Tony
ting Around Fantasiz-
over — with charm or with
MARC OLIN
writers, not least of any aspect of the project.
ing about Rich Orloff."
cash.
SPECIAL TO THE
which in three quite dif- New Line Cinema and
Randall Godwin hardly
Waiting for the phone
MOUIES
JEWISH
NEWS
ferent
pieces
is
Jeff
Savoy
Pictures'
new
says a word, but can we
to
ring, Margaret and
Daniels — are more than
movie, Faithful, was re-
keep our eyes off him?
Tony
have
nothing to do but ar-
ably
supported
by
Guy
Sanville.
leased
amid
much
controversy
as
No. Orloff, the author, who seems
to have caromed off Woody Allen As a director, he is wonderful at Director Paul Mazursky battled gue and philosophize. By the time
on his way to Jules Feiffer, land- exploiting the limits of the play- with Cher over the film's final ed- Jack gets home, it becomes ap-
ing up on the funny ing space (in a set so well de- its and, reportedly, both Cher and parent that only two people will
side of Andrew signed by Bartley H. Bauer that co-star Chazz Palniinteri declined leave that house alive.
The screenplay for Faithful,
Bergman, writes de- you think the stage has died and to assist with publicity or other-
penned
by Palminteri, began as
gone
to
heaven).
wise
be
associated
with
the
movie.
licious dialogue for
Finally, the costumes by Deb-
Oh, and, did I mention that the a play, and, captured on film,
our femmes who
still feels stagey and stilted. The
film also co-stars Ryan O'Neal?
work it, like dough, orah Korastinsky deserve men-
without flattening it. tion. Blue jeans below and a
Faithful tells the story of mar- characters are broad, brassy and
They are Janet variety of tops above give unity ried couple Jack and Margaret two-dimensional. Set almost ex-
Maylie, Tamara to the disparate pieces and allow (Ryan O'Neal and Cher) and how clusively in the couple's home,
Evans, Suzi Regan slicker-than-the-eye costumes they spend their 20th wedding the actors have almost nothing
changes so one playlet can get off anniversary. Jack's day is going to do but exchange limp dia-
and Terry Heck.
pretty well — his business is mak- tribes on the nature of trust and
By the way, they and the next on. She also does
ing money, his mistress is mak- loyalty. The insights are shal-
talk dirty. But in this good underwear — no mean feat
ing moves and Jack is making low, the quips stale and humor-
Festival, we are rein- when you're reining in sex with
troduced to the sub- comedy as in "Rosemary and Ju- excuses to Margaret for why he less. In a good movie, one can
empathize with the characters.
has to work late.
tleties and niceties of lian."
Faithful, you begin to feel
With
Sex, laughs, no videotapes —
Meanwhile, back at the man-
cursing and sexual
just live comedy at the Purple sion, Margaret is lonely and de- sorry for the actors.
reference.
pressed, maybe even suicidal.
In this second Rose.
After returning home from a
half there were
Wayne David Parker and Terry Heck appear in a series
—Richard Halprin
of nine short plays centered on the theme of Life: Liberty other admirable
shopping excursion, Margaret dis-

hese are the things I learned
from the Purple Rose The-
atre's newest production,
running now through May
19: There is a typo in the Bill of
Rights which, comically or trag-
ically, depending on your point of
view, affects one of our most pre-
cious rights; sports bars are the
Ninth Circle of Hell; a live sex
show transferred from 42nd
Street to Broadway could con-
ceivably win a Tony for Best Play;
and, finally, "art is not about hav-
ing a good time."
This last reference, however,
is debunked by the hour and
three-quarters I spent laughing
at the bag of funny tricks in the
Purple Rose Spring Comedy Fes-
tival. Called Life: Liberty and the
Pursuit ofLust! , it comprises nine
short playlets. These nine were
winnowed down from 40 sub-
mitted by Purple Rose play-
wrights, other regional writers
and one New Yorker, Rich Orloff.

PHOTO BY RICHARD TO PPER

T

and the Pursuit of Lust!

'Jane Eyre'

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Rated PG

first it was Jane Austen. Now
19th-century novelist Char-
lotte Bronte is making a
comeback, and her master-
piece, Jane Eyre, is hitting the
theaters tonight as a new motion
picture. The man doing the adapt-
ing is director and screenwriter
Franco Zeffirelli, whose flair for
recycling melodrama has been
previously illustrated in film

E

®cc

transformation to the silver
screen. And to withstand her un-
fortunate youth, Jane (child ac-
tress Anna Paquin, The Piano)
must be all of these things.
An orphaned child, the girl
lives with her wicked aunt (Fiona
adaptations of Shakespeare's Shaw). As the film begins, Jane
Romeo and Juliet, Othello and is being booted out of her aunt's
Hamlet. Jane Eyre may be no home and sent to Lowood School,
Shakespeare, but it's pure Zef- a strict and grim institution that
firelli; lush panoramic imagery
thrives on discipline.
and elegant Victorian dia-
Although life at
MOVIES
logue abound.
Lowooi stinks, Jane
Bronte's Eyre was a bold
(Charlotte Gainsbourg),
and daring creation for the
now a young lady, does get an ed-
time period. Unlike the majority ucation which prepares her to be-
of her Victorian counterparts, she come a governess. She is hired at
was willful, independent and re- Thornfield Hall, a massive iso-
silient, traits that survive the lated estate owned by Mr. Ed-

ward Rochester (William Hurt), '
to teach Rochester's ward, Adele
(Josephine Serre). Mrs. Fairfax
(Joan Plowright), the kindly
housekeeper, helps Jane get sit-
uated, and soon Jane feels right
at home.
Life, at this point, is definitely
looking up. But what are those
noises she keeps hearing in the
attic, and who is that mysterious
maid, Grace Poole (Billie Whit-
law), who spends all her time
there?
When the frequently absent
Mr. Rochester finally arrives
home, the plot
William Hurt
thickens consider-,,_/
and Charlotte
ably. Enigmatic, -"
Gainsbourg
sarcastic and brood-
inJane Eyre.

