SIN Entertainment
'Welcome To
The Dollhouse'
etting ballerina. Besides, they
all seem to think she is a loser,
too.
orget Friday the 13th, Hal-
In spite of the constant
loween and Nightmare on ridicule and self-doubt, Dawn
Elm Street. When it comes maintains an even keel, always
to horror, those films are bouncing back like a geek wee-
nothing compared to Todd ble.
Solondz's Welcome to the Doll-
Director/writer Solondz's de-
house. Instead of slashers,
piction of prepubescent
thrashers and killers,
angst is so accurate, one
Dollhouse is about
can only imagine what
MOVIES
something infinitely
kind of torment he suf-
more terrifying — ado-
fered in his own youth. While
lescence.
many choose to forget those
Poor Dawn Wiener (Heather troublesome times, Solondz ei-
Matarazzo) — the bespectacled ther allowed them to burn in his
little heroine in this dark com- memory, or he took really good
edy. Dawn is the ultimate out- notes. Either way, there is no
cast, the consummate loser. doubt as to which end of the
When she is not getting swirlie he was on.
ridiculed and scorned, she is
Although it would have been
shunned and ignored. And this easy to allow Dawn to be simply
is in the safety of her own home. the butt of the jokes, Solondz
At Benjamin Franklin Junior keeps Dawn balanced on the
High School, Dawn, nicknamed fine line between victim and vol-
"Wiener Dog," walks the halls unteer. Her character is neither
and classrooms with an indeli- totally reviled nor romanticized.
ble "kick me" sign imbedded on She is what she is, and
her psyche. The world is her Matarazzo plays her with the
whoopee cushion. When she right amount of awkward poise.
turns a classmate in for cheat-
Woody Allen said that com-
ing on a test, the teacher scolds edy is tragedy plus time. If that's
her. Even the other outcasts re- true, then Welcome to the Doll-
ject her. And her family is no house shows that seventh grade
help.
is a whole lot funnier when it is
Her dad is oblivious; her happening to someone else.
brother is a computerdork, and
her mom is always fawning over
her little sister, an ever-pirou-
—Richard Halprin
Rated R
f
/—
Th
As Dawn Wiener, Heather Matarano is called "Wiener Dog" by her less-than-
chummy classmates.
'A La Mode'
Rated R (some suggestive lan-
guage and nudity), with subtitles
oetry is what is lost in the
translation" — or so they
used to say when I was
studying to be a poet. I of-
ten think of this phrase while
watching foreign films. Jokes,
attitudes and mannerisms have
a cultural bias and often just
cannot be fully savored by out-
siders.
Jewish themes, however,
have a universal hue to them no
matter where or when they ap-
pear, be it prewar Eastern Eu-
rope, contemporary South
America or even France in 1964.
The film by first-time director
Remy Duchemin, A la Mode,
tosses an innocent French teen-
age orphan into a tightly knit
Jewish community and comes
up with a confection that tastes
something like a kosher
napoleon — safe to eat, lots of
puff and little pastry.
It may shock non-French-
speaking Americans to discov-
er that the first meaning for "a
la mode" is not "with ice cream
on top." As the title for this film,
the literal translation will have
to suffice - "in fashion." Our 17-
year-old orphan hero, Fausto Ken Higelin and Florence Darel from Remy Duchemin's A la Mode.
Barbarico (Ken Higelin), be-
comes apprentice to a Jewish,
A la Mode works best when it young Fausto has earned his
slightly hunchbacked tailor, Mi- accepts itself as just a bit of pure stripes as a tailor. His brilliant,
etek Breslauer (Jean Yanne of fancy — all bright colors in the if silly, marketing ploys bring
Indochine).
service of magic realism. scores of new customers to Mi-
Mietek operates his tailor Duchemin fills the screen with etek's shop. Fausto's wild, fanci-
shop just behind a kosher butch- carefree, happy people merrily ful fashions have become the
er shop and in the middle of a meeting every challenge with a rage of France's younger set. Mi-
community of Jewish merchants. smile and wearing very silly etek has adopted him as "the son
When Fausto enters this world, clothes. His portrayal of the Jew- I always wanted but never had."
he is instantly adopted as part ish community is nothing short
Fausto, in a short-legged suit
of a large extended family. The of idyllic. Husbands get along fa- speckled with bits of tsllit fringe,
gregarious, witty and philo- mously with wives. Fathers love marries Tonie in a Jewish
sophical Mietek becomes Faus- their daughters and are more wedding that takes place on a
to's new father. The butcher's than happy to give them up to fashion runway to the accompa-
wife makes sure Fausto is well hard-working, non-Jewish boys. niment of a band playing a cross
fed. The auto mechanic's beau-
Mietek strikes the strongest between traditional klezmer and
tiful Jewish daughter, Tonie pose in the film. Actor Jean disco music.
Rosengarten (Florence Darel, Yanne displays a fine sense of
If you like your films some-
who appeared in Claude Berri's timing. He alternately barks and where between La Cage aux
Uranus), makes sure Fausto is whispers a rapid-fire brand of Folles and A Stranger Among
well loved.
practical instructions on tailor- Us, then you might want to pre-
The mere wisp of a story fol- ing mixed with a quirky philoso- tend you understand French and
lows Fausto through his days in phy of life. Fausto's Italian order up a slice of celluloid A la
an orphanage, through his quick
ancestry, for instance, Mode.
apprenticeship to Mietek,
® c)112
makes Mietek worry
to his success as a chic
V IMO
about the young man's
clothes designer. Along the
—Morrie Warshawski
future as a tailor. "Af-
way, Fausto drags in his
ter all," says Mietek, "aren't Ital-
wake a colorful buffoon of a ian tailors responsible for making Morrie Warshawski is a St. Louis-
friend, Raymond (Francois the Pope look so silly?" What is based consultant and author
Hautesserre), whose major claim sorely missing from Mietek is any who writes about culture and
to fame is turning flatulence into sense at all of his past, including the arts. His latest book is
music. Raymond becomes ap- an explanation for his lack of a Shaking The Money Tree: How
prentice to the kosher butcher wife and children.
to Get Grants and Donations
and also enters the extended
By the end of the film, the for Film and Video.
Jewish family.
p