At The Movies POLLOCK r MONDAY Si TUESDAY SPECIAL Sunday Night Special Dinner for Two 15% OFF each dinner entree with a party of up to 6 peop le.* $ Expires 3/4/01 L A 2299 (Dinner for one a i i WE DO CATERING I DELIVERY' . Marcia Gay Harden as Pollock's Jewish wife, Lee Kramer. • Corporate and private parties •Showers, birthday parties, etc. •At our restaurant or location of your choice. • Call us for more details! SPLASH ' Coupon can't be combined with any other offer or discount. One coupon per visit please. 25938 Middlebelt Rd. tat 11Mile RID (2483 476.1750 Open 7 days • Lunch: Monday - Friday • Dinner: Monday - Sunday WHO NEEDS A TONY® WHEN BROADWAY'S GOT THE BEST - A JACKIE! r March 12-25 • 14,c,SeccudiCeti. Theatre Call 248-645-6666 Tickets are available at the Second City box office and all tic Icetnriaster locations. For more information call 313-965-2222 DINNERS FABULOUS SELECTION AND VARIETY READY FOR YOU TO PICKUP ON THE WAY HOME To Go! A Little Bit Of New York Right Here In Bloomfield Hills 6646 Telegraph at Maple CALL AHEAD OR FAX YOUR ORDER, IT WILL BE HERE WAITING FOR YOU. WHAT COULD BE EASIER? • Bloomfield Plaza • 248,932,0800 from page 59 figure. She is both submissive and aggressive, martyring herself with a curious combination of compliance, devotion, vision and purpose. Surprisingly, the notorious misog- yny of the art world is largely sup- pressed. At their first meeting Pollock praises her and calls her a good "woman painter." Its subtle. We hear only faint echoes of Hans Hoffinan's alleged evaluation of Krasner's work in 1937: This is so good, you wouldn't know it was painted by a woman." What does it mean to be regarded as an artistic genius? And who gets to decide what qualifies? Again, Harris' film remains surprisingly complacent with the cliché. Pollock critiques the art elite in familiar terms: it is superficial, arbi- trary and self-congramlatory, but at the same time it is a necessary means by which culture defines itself Art is, regretfully a product that must be marketed to society In its most memorable and insightful episode, Harris' Pollock offers a meta-examination of the role of the media in generating the leg- end of the "great artist." When Pollock begins his ascent, he agrees to be the subject of a film. The director wants to capture Pollock's intensity as an artist and an innovator. But Pollock, the reluctant subject, reacts violently to the process of filmmaldng. "I'm not the phony. You're the phony" he hisses insistently at the filmmaker. How much is Harris revealing here about his own conflict over telling Pollock's story? "I've never been interested in exploiting Pollock," Harris has said. "In fact, there were times I would say to myself, 'Why are you making a movie about this guy? Let him rest in peace."" ❑ from page 59 To prepare for Pollock, the actress stud- ied painting ("I suck," she says), listened to audiotapes of Krasner and interviewed her surviving friends and relatives. "Her nephew told me, 'If you want to play Lee Krasner, start screaming from the minute you walk in the door until the minute you leave," Harden says. In fact, Krasner focused much of her creative energy on keeping Pollock together and furthering his career. But by 1956, the tension in their marriage had escalated; Pollock often stormed off to a tavern or to the arms of his mistress. Their rows became so violent that Harden braced herself to receive an anti-Semitic slur in the film's most explosive scene. "I debated a lot as to whether to leave that in the movie," Harris confid- ed. "But to me, it was symbolic of just - how low the relationship had deterio- rated, and of the despair and anger Pollock was feeling about himself. "He wasn't anti-Semitic, but the slur was just the most heinous, ugly thing he could think of to say." Harris helped Harden understand why Krasner put her own career on hold to nurture an abusive husband. "Lee realized this man had the poten- tial to create art that she loved," he said. "But she also had her own prob- lems as a woman. "Her relationships with her brother and a previous lover were quite masochistic. Her brother would degrade her and talk down to her, and she fol- lowed him around like a puppy dog." It wasn't until after Pollock's 1956 death in a car wreck that Krasner began one of the most productive periods of her career, Harden notes. Her impressive body of work was showcased in a 1999 retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of . Art (with additional stops in Akron, Ohio, and Brooklyn, N.Y.), but the actress was glad she saw the exhibit after she had completed Pollock. "The work in the show was confident and big and bold, and that is not the person Krasner was while Pollock was alive," she explains. "My Lee Krasner was much more insecure. The woman who could create those big, bold paint- ings hadn't come into being yet." ❑ The Detroit Film Theater at the Detroit Institute of Arts screens Pollock 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday; 4, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 1, 4 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23- 25. $6. (313) 833-3237.