At The Movies

CONEY ISLAND

Greek and American Cuisine
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

154 S. Woodward, Birmingham
(248) 540-8780

Helmed, by Jewish director Richard Lester,
the Beatles' debut film remains one
of the greatest pop musicals ever made.

Halsted Village
(37580 W. 12 Mile Rd.)
Farmington Hills
(248) 553-2360

6527 Telegraph Rd.
Corner of Maple (15 Mile)
Bloomfield Township
(248) 646-8568

JESSICA YADEGARAN
Copley News Service

I

don't know why I waited so long to see A Hard Day's Night.
Even though the film was made 12 years before I was born,
director Richard Lester's rock 'n roll mockumentary kept me
and my two friends (all of us in our early 20s) chuckling the
entire time. Finally, I know what a feel-good movie is.
Visually and digitally remastered by Miramax Films, this reissued
A Hard Day's Night peeks inside the life of the young Beatles
immersed in screaming-teen, hair-pulling mega-fame, and bril-
handy pokes fun at the madness.
In the opening scene, our four lads from
Liverpool — John Lennon, Paul McCartney;
find
George Harrison and Ringo Starr
themselves on a train accompanied by an old sourpuss
(Wilfrid Brambell), supposedly Paul's grandfather.
An unspoken mischief bonds the boys, and they spend the next
24 hours dodging their manager, press conferences, sound checks
and even the police. It's 1964. Defying authority is a fresh idea.
From Lester's fearless filming — in the final concert sequence, he
uses six cameras, providing multiple angles of the stage — to its
unabashed portrayal of superstardom, A Hard Day's Night was
ahead of its time. It captured the frenzy of the rock 'n roll lifestyle
as no film had before it: It manages to make us feel zany and
thoughtful at the same time.
Clearly, too, A Hard Day's Night has influenced rock movies
since, from U2's Rattle and Hum to Cameron Crowe's Almost

4763 Haggerty Rd. at Pontiac Trail
West Wind Village Shopping Center
West Bloomfield
(248) 669-2295

841 East Big Beaver, Troy
(248) 680-0094

SOUTHFIELD SOUVLAKI
CONEY ISLAND
Nine Mile & Greenfield
15647 West Nine Mile, Southfield
(248) 569-5229

FARMINGTON SOUVLAKI
CONEY ISLAND
Between 13 & 14 on
Orchard Lake Road
30985 Orchard Lake Rd.
Farmington Hills
(248) 626-9732

Famous.

NEW LOCATION:
525 N. Main
Milford
(248) 684-1772

UPTOWN PARTHENON
4301 Orchard Lake Rd.
West Bloomfield
(248) 538-6000

HERCULES FAMILY RESTAURANT
33292 West 12 Mile
Farmington Hills
(248) 489-9777
Serving whitefish, lamb shank,
pastitsio and moussaka

I 1 Receive
1
:
1 I 0 ° 1' 0 Off

111111 =II IMO MI MIMI NM 111011 NM MIMI

1 not Entire
Bill
to go with any other offer

I

12/22

2000

80

I
I

with coupon
Expires 12/30/2000

=II MIN MON MIMI INII

MI MI MN NM

Hard Day's Night

1

Perhaps the most endearing thing about A Hard Day's Night —
besides watching John play with a toy submarine in the bathtub —
is that we really get a feel for each Beatle's personality. They may
be on camera, but, for the most part, they are playing themselves.
First, they love girls. Paul is the obvious heartthrob who loves to
be in the spotlight. John, on the other hand, is absolutely wacky,
spitting out so many witty one-liners he practically reduces his
manager (Norman Rossington) to tears. George is the band's mys-
tery man. Second to John in cheeky humor, his looks and his
charm are both off-center. George is the bad boy for the girls who
find Paul just a bit too pure.
And then there's Ringo. Goofy but pensive, his solo adventure
— which begins with a camera and a walk by the river and ends
with his being arrested — is sparked by a conversation with Paul's
grandfather, who convinces Ringo that the others rake him for
granted.
Furthermore, the wily grandfather says, musicians don't lead nor-
mal lives. They don't know what it means to get their hands dirty
and really live. Ringo, takina the old man to heart, disappears for
the afternoon and contemplates
b his life. Moments like these keep
A Hard Day's Night within the grasp of a young, contemporary
audience perhaps grappling with the same issues.
At the end of the film, following a televised performance before
an audience of screaming fans, John, Paul, George and Ringo hop
in a helicopter and head to their next gig. Suddenly, the laughing
stops and I feel incredibly sad. I want to keep hanging out with
them. They're the funniest, cutest, most irreverent guys I've come
across in a long time. Most of all, they rock. ❑

A Conversation
With Richard Lester

A

child prodigy who at the age of 2 was capa-
ble of reading and writing 250 words,
future director Richard Lester entered the
University of Pennsylvania at age 15, and gradu-
ated with a degree in clinical psychology. Lester,
the Philadelphia-born son of Broadway play-
wright Elliott Lester, was a successful TV director
with CBS by age 20.
In 1956, the 24-year-old Lester settled in
England, where he soon became associated with
Peter Sellers and a new absurdist brand of come-
dy. His experimental use of jump cuts with fast
slapstick jokes in The Running, Jumping and
Standing Still Film impressed the Beatles, and
Lester was hired by another Jewish American
expatriate, producer Walter Shenson, to direct A

,

Hard Day's Night.
Shenson had worked out a
Above: Director
deal with Beatles manager
Richard Lester
Brian Epstein, also Jewish,
is the architect
before the Beatles' triumphant
of today's
appearance on The Ed Sullivan
MTV-style
Show in 1964.
pop videos.
Lester went on to direct the
Beatles a second time in Help,
broke into non-musical territory with The Knack
and How to Get It, and returned to musical film
with the screen version of A Funny Thing Happened
on the Way to the Forum, starring Zero Mostel.
Lester also directed John Lennon in the satire
How I Won the War and followed that with his
masterwork, Petulia, starring Julie Christie. He
went on to direct a critically praised version of The
Three Musketeers with Oliver Reed and Richard
Chamberlain, and in 1990, re-teamed with Paul
McCartney for the documentary Get Back, which
followed McCartney's 1989-1990 world tour.
Currently retired and living in England, Lester
recalls his groundbreaking film with the Fab Four.

Q: You obviously gave a lot to the Beatles in
terms of helping them have their personalities
defined in A Hard Day's Night. What if anything
did they give you or teach you?
A: They gave me a film career for starts. I was
able to trade on that for about 40 years. So I
think that in terms of gratitude, I of them a lot
more than they owe me. All I did was try to
make sure that they were presented in a way that

