Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY PageTwoTHE ICHGAN AIL Tuesday, March 17, 1970 7 - A winner no more than ' ro' NOTICE NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS Of i 1 f 1 F ENGLISH J* By JOHN ALLEN J'M GLAD it's over for another year. It was a great week, but enough is enough. Film festivals are like Christmas - fun to unwrap if you get what you were hoping for, but exhausting either way. Happily, I got what I was hoping for, so once I catch up on my sleep and get my eyes readjusted to the daylight I'll have no complaints. What I was hoping for, of course, was a chance to see "the" film - sotne film, any film, that would wash away the glaze of forty hours of screen- ings and burn fresh images on the mind. Morley Markson's Tragic Diary of Zero, the Fool was just such a film. I left the Saturday night screening of it absolutely certain it would take top honors and the judges did not disappoint me. It is difficult to verbalize the amazing portraiture of this film. Markson's camera picks up an incredible luminosity from the faces of his performers and translates that luminosity into the images of classic simplicity, yet, also of intense expressiveness. One feels in watching the film that one is seeing ani- mated marble - perhaps even alabaster. The confluence of light values - of line, texture, and surface - is starkly sculptural, yet, by no means cold or static. The interplay of the pure and beautiful images and the emotional intensity of the performances generates an energy that for me, at least, is precisely what film is all about. The role-playing of the characters within the film, their attempts to relate to one another, to the audience, and to the film itself as it is in process of coming into being, creates that sense of intensified presence that is genius of the medium. But it is a film to see, not to discuss. One can only hope it will be shown again here in Ann Arbor. ONE COULD go on more or less indefinitely praising the bits and pieces that either pleased or excited as the festival went on, just as one could make a long list of the particular failures that stretched out some of the evenings. But in any summary such as this it is perhaps permissible to allow oneself the luxury of some generalizations. The greatest virtue of the festival this year is simply stated: I wasn't very often bored. While that sounds like damnation In the guise of faint praise, any- one who has survived an entire festival in the past will know exactly what kind of virtue I am referring to, and will know that it is no small thing to say. To say I was seldom bored is a reflection on the festival as a whole, however. Of the individual films I would say that the cardinal sin of the experimental film is its inability to know when to quit. Most three-minute ideas seem to be wrapped in ten minutes of celluloid, and most ten-minute ideas are too often swatched in a half-hour of film indicative of the filmmaker's affection for his footage, and, his understandable yet critical inability to be more of a litter-bug in the cutitng room. Too much of the litter makes it onto the screen and some- times one grows impatient with the tape and the ribbons and the bows and the tinsel. The little gift in the big box becomes an annoyance, not a cute joke, about the third time around. Even so, I was often enough rexarded for the long hours in the Architecture Auditorium seats to cushion the blisters. And, occasionally, I was genuinely thrilled. One of the definite advances in this past festival seems to have been an increasingly sophisticated sound track. Perhaps the thing that impresses me upon a too-soon backward look at the festival is this: when it came down to a choice between the environmental teach- in and the film festival, when it came down to a choice between MUSKET and the Speech Department and the Play-of-the-Month and the film festival, it wasn't any great strain to opt for the festival. The festival, in fact, Interests me a good deal more than Z, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Downhill Racer combined - maybe because the latter films will be around a while and the film festival is far more ephemeral. It goes beyond that, however. There is something so incredibly exciting about the prospect of more than a hundred films; all of them unknown, most of them by filmmakers one has never heard of, a majority of them free to be as kookie or vulgar or brilliant as their makers can make them, that it overrules the almost certain knowledge that most of, them will be duds or faint fizzles. Perhaps what I like most about the festival is the proof it offers me that I am still at heart an optimist, no matter how doomed the world outside the screening room proves to be. The "Tragic Diary of Zero, the Fool," by Morley Markson, was the big money winner of $390 in the Eighth Ann Arbor Film Festival which drew to a close Sunday night with a six hour showing of winners and highlights. The festival, organized by Cinema Guild and the Dramatic Arts Center, showed approxi- mately 130 films over a five-day period last week. Before this, the organizers had eliminated 150 other films from those en- tered. A total of 12 hours from the festival will be chosen to go on tour to about eight other college campuses. At each there will be monetary awards made of at least $350. A total of $1500 is given out at the festival when it initiates in Ann Arbor. Other prize winners, besides Markson, include: Howard Les- ter's "Airplane Glue I Love You" ($175), "Tappy Toes" by Red Grooms ($100), "Moon 1969" by Scott Bartlett ($130), and "River Bodies" by Ann Severson ($125). Also: "Necrology" by Stand- ish Lawder ($65), "Spider God" by William E. Baker ($60), "Incident in a Glass Blower's Shop" by Byron Bauer ($50), "Porch Glider" by James Her- bert ($50) and "Camden Texas" /by James Bryan ($50)., Other prize winners were: David Devensky's "Old Time Comedy Night" ($50), Lane Bloebaum's "Side Show" ($50), "Tyrannus Nix" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti ($50), "Chase Tri- logy" by Ronald Chase ($50), "The Sixties" by Charles Bra- erman and "Campus Christi" by J. K. Jennings ($25). A trip to Europe was also won by Bloebaum and the local prize of $25 went to Jay Cassidy for "Jupiter Egg." The panel of six judges for the contest included Gorden Hitchens, editor of "Film Com- ment" magazine and instructor at the School of Visual Arts, New York City and Skip Wendt, director of motion pictures at Jim Handy, Inc., Detroit. Local judges were Robert Sheffield editor of "Big Fat" magazine; Lewis Simpson, an Ann Arbor 'funk' artist; Ellen Frank, past president of Cinema Guild, and Pat Oleszko (the hippie-strippie), a senior in art school. Pat featured her strip acts during the festival. By BRUCE HENSTELL Film festivals are sifted through and examined like the entrails or the back of tortoise shells. There is some portent for the future, so the argument goes, if only we could read it. The copy produced in this fashion usually has the consistency of stale Quaker Oats. Certain characteristics are immediately obvious, such as the gradual intro- duction of color in film. And there is always a good and simple reason. In this case, that color became increasingly less expensive. Or, to pick a more pertinent case, the use of video tape and manipulative techniques derived from television. There were several films this year, and last, and the reason is again simple - greater access to machinery usually from educational television. If there are other trends they will be of the abstract metaphysical type. Those who find such trends proclaim them explicatory of the state of mind of American film. But a simple examination of the difficulty of the task should be sufficient to divorce us from such concerns. Here we are examining 300 films, from a variety of authors, in disparate parts of the country, often totally out of touch with one another. Let us be ;satisfied with what was immediately apparent in the festival. The films were, as a whole, better than previous years. A high level of technical competency was in evidence, but so too was a richness of ideas. The established film makers such as Scott Barlett, Ed Emshwiller, and Kenneth Anger have lost much of their emotional head; and younger men such as Morley Markson and Howard Lester are producing the finer product. Scott Bartlett's film Moon '69 is a visual montage, utilizing video tape techniques. Emishwiller's film Image, Flesh and Voice, is an orchestrated dance. Anger's Innovation of My Demon Brother a glossary of a personal, esoteric mythology. In each case, the film these men submitted this year is almost a double for one they have done before. What is increasingly clear from the list of winners is that more film this year than last depended upon some aspect of narrative technique rather than being mainly abstractions. Markson's Tragic Diary of Zero, the Fool, Lester's Airplane Glue, I Love You, Groom's Tappy Toes, and Bloebaum's Sideshow, all used narrative. Sideshow did this in being a documentary as did another award-winner Camden, Texas. Hardly new, but nevertheless well executed. But the bigger winners, Tappy Toes, Zero, and Airplane Glue, used narrative in different ways, to different ends. One of the problems is defining what we mean by narrative. And that is precisely the question under examination. The narrative film has been historically the property of Hollywood and for years American film makers and film writers ran in horror from the native product. It was the French (Godard, Truffaut) who rediscovered, in narrative, the ability to express other insights and who embraced the genre film. They recognized that there had come a time when the audience had experienced enough to develop a mental framework that could be called into the making/viewing of a film. This, then, is the way in which we see Tappy Toes. We know the Hollywood musical enough so that the film need be no longer concerned with exploring its own premises. It can be a play, not upon words, but upon visual images. This is what is at work in Tragic Diary of Zero, the Fool. It is, in a sense, a post-movie movie. It calls upon an audience not merely to view, but to participate in the making of film, by bringing to it a knowledge of what has gone before. It is similar to Manupelli's Chicago films which are narrative and also require a. knowledge of the genre film. These films are movies, and more importantly, are aiming to become pieces of theater. What is also interesting is that Markson's film, that of Manupelli and certainly a majority of the winners of the festival are essentially humorous. Many words have been spent upon the theme of whether tragedy is dead. Of course, the argument has no point. What is significant is that a great deal of the major films are comic in character and that this represents a value choice on the part of the artists making the films. It is undoubted that there is now a great disruption in the political fabric. There is like-wise a disruption in the cultural fabric. The end of tragedy in acquinessence, in acceptance is less valuable now than repose and humor- the end of comedy. We need, like the characters in Zero, Chicago and Airplane Glue, to muddle through, to find simpler, more direct and more encompassing ways of treating ourselves. If we can laugh, we can possibly make it. All Speakers of English as a Second Language* Are Invited to Take Part in an Experimental Test of Eng- lish Language Proficiency to be Given in AUDI- TORIUM A, ANGELL HALL AT 7:15 P.M. ON THE 19th OF MARCH. You Will Receive $5.00 for Ap- proximately 1-1 1 to 2 Hours of Your Time. If In- terested You Must Call and Register at the Follow- ing Number 764-2416, on or Before March 18th. *NO ELI STUDENTS CURRENTLY ENR6LLED IN THE INTEN- SIVE ENGLISH COURSES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE TEST AT THIS TIME. " moulkh, CCh olkli, ieck us out... recommend us to your Ann Arbor visitors... bask in the glow of their enthusiasm. ANN ARBOR'S I log FINEST MOTOR HOT EL 615 East Huron Street at State Street -769-2200 4.- /000, Join the "International Jet Set" by "Winning your Wings" as a Pan Amn Stewardess _ - - - cinema Downhill Racer': An uphill fight music Iris Bell: Beyond the tinsel By DONALD KUBIT Americans tend to place moral value on their athletes; in Eur- ope, sports are a way of life. The concept of a champion and everything such a title suggests would seem to be excellent ma- terial for the movies. However, producers refuse to concern themselves with any descriptive presentations of "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" and instead center their efforts around the essence of success, forsaking the meaning of what the struggle entails and leaving the. moral distinctions to the viewer's imagination. Such is the case with Downhill Racer,' the story of a young skier on the move, whose determination pays off (in the American way) as .he wins an Olympic medal. David Chappellet (R o b e r t Redford) is the poor athlete from Idaho Springs, whose im- petus to succeed stems from a warped sense of esthetics. His agility in the back seat of a Chevy is equal to that he dis- plays on the slopes, and his big- gest thrill is seeing his mug in Sports Illustrated. He is a snow bunny's Joe Namath deluged with the idea of being a "champion" even though his humble f a t h e r claims, "The world is full of champions" - the most, intel- ligent line of the entire film. So what does it mean to be an athletic hero? Why does a young man strive to win; train for a state of perfection? Is it because he can enjoy the bed- room maneuvers of a legal pros- titute (Camilla Sparv) intent on getting her employer's skils as- sociated -with an Olympic win- ner? Or it is the congratulating mob that surrounds you after you've come down the hill with the best time? These are the reasons offered by Downhill Racer, but we hope there are others, if only for the sake of verifying our worship of these heroes. The story is shallow, cliche- ridden, with a dialogue that only a third string reserve could ap- nreciate. Written by James Sal- make his effort perfunctory. Only the exciting ski shots pro- vide any source of interest. Redford, who supposedly had a hand in initiating the idea for the film, seems to have displaced his usual shrewdness in accept- ing only meaningful roles, and he comes off as one more wor- ried about his physical attrac- tiveness than his acting talent. The final hope of redemption is left to Gene Hackman, who acts as the coach of the Olympic squad. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Knute Rockne school of coaching, lecturing his 'boys on team spirit, sportman- ship, and the humility granted most American athletes. How- ever, his efforts fail, and his feeble sermons on the virtues of competition are more humor- ous than compassionate. From Downhill Racer it ap- pears that the difference be- tween success and failure de- pends to a large extent on luck. The non-champion falls and break his leg, the champion gets up to ski again. It's a tough pill to swallow-this cocky; muscle- bound illiterate making good be- cause his extra training involved running additional laps around a track. We wonder if David learns anything when the Ger- man skier falls thereby insuring David of the medal, its doubt- ful, and we realize he is content with just being the champion disregarding what the title means. Downhill, unlike its name, starts at the bottom and de- scends from there. Until movie- makers decide to present the real story of athletic competi- tion and define the true char- acteristics of a champion, we are forced to continue to wor- ship these idols and only pray that some day they will take their skiis out of their mouths and tell the story themselves. If you enjoy skiing and are interested in some very thrilling (almost Cineramic) shots of a racer coming down a mountain Downhill can be satisfying. But if lethargic dialogue wears you out and you, have a passion for By JOE PEHRSON The Sheraton Hotel Ballroom seems an unlikely place for any sincerity, musical or otherwise. The 5-lb. Reynolds aluminum chandeliers dangling over my head seemed to forecast a sim- ilar musical tinsel, and at best I hoped to be mildly entertain- ed. Not so. The Iris Bell Adven- ture, three people who fall in no particular category - music be- yond the mailslot for rock, jazz, blues, or even entertainment, guaranteed an involvement. A sincerity, both in message and delivery, made us more t h a n spectators. We were to share a common experience. This music, a well-crafted per- formance of familiar rock songs, already is charged with ener- gy. The interpretations are new, and technically flawless - this is one sort of energy, but this is only craft. Combined with this is an energy which comes f r o m a personal integrity - a de- sire to spread the excitement from the stage, an involvement with people. Iris Bell, pianist and leader of the group, seems to direct most of this sentiment. She de- finitely is into her own music, but music isn't the term. Let's say she is involved with a phil- osophy of life. Love is all you need. Of course, we've heard this thousands of times, and al- ways as part of that chandelier. By the time Iris is finished you know she believes it, and after a while even the skeptics have to smile. Iris wants us to reach out, but reaches out first to touch us with her sounds. Most of the songs her group performs a r e already energy packed: mater- ial from Crosby-Stills, Jefferson Airplane and the Beatles. This energy, which often is the craft of these groups, is enlarged- actually enhanced, although there are only three people on stage. Iris has weeded out every- thing superfluous, boiling t h e songs down to structure, and molding that structure so we really believe there are twenty people on stage, and a host of audio engineers as well. The technical abilities of Iris, Butch Miles, the drummer, and Derek Pierson on bass' are not n hn _ aaa~rnrlAa - ma - n subtlety in rhythm seldom heard in current rock performances, has substituted his technique for five days in the echo cham- ber of a recording studio. This does not mean, though, that the group has no conception of elec- tronic techniques - Derek Pier- son, not only plays acoustical bass proficiently, but adjusts the voice and instrumental balance of his amplifying equipment in a way that suggests remarkable knowledge of sound and sound effects. It does suggest, however, that these devices are only - used when needed - sparingly, at best, and to enhance, n o t elaborate, the performance. Iris means what she sings - when she speaks of "Triad",sthe Jefferson Airplane three-way love song, she believes it, and is willing to extend this type of honesty past personal, or even physical, relationships. "Magical Mystery Tour", the first song of this performance, is the path she would have us follow-t h e tour doesn't stop, though, in the lobby of the Sheraton. It begins with technical perfection - the blend of voices, and the piano which, like Iris, is never ove bearing. It travels through jazz; blues, and even the hard rock of the Stones, and makes its way to the orient as Pierson imi- tates a sitar on bass. It enters the minds and bodies of the lis- teners - generates an excite- ment through the energy of technical proficiency, and goes past this teclhnique as Iris, at the conclusion of this perform- ance, makes her position clear. "Why don't we do it in the road", sings Iris, but this is a I. parody - both on what she considers a narrow definition of love and on the whole concept of entertainment. "Why don't we do it in the Sheraton", s h e sings - and this time "it" is something different. ."It" is life, and extending our lives and concerns past the ar- tificial ego-boundry of our own heads. Iris wishes to touch, to reach out, and if not with the body, at least with an o p e n mind. This might seem trite, or a performance gimmick - but Iris is sincere. She means her philosophy; one part of a much larger music. Program Info: NO 2-6264 SHOWS AT: 1:00-3:00-5:00 7:00-9:10 P.M. NOMINATED FOR 9 ACA DEMY AWA RDS 3020 Washtenow, Ph. 434-1782 Between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor NOW SHOWING Nominated for Seven ACADEMY AWARDS including * Best Picture " Best Song f CENTURy-Fox PRESENTS THE SUNDANCE KID Fly to the international capitals of the world. PARIS * LONDON * ROME * TOKYO Immediate overseas flights are yours after only 5 weeks training. Must be single. Minimum age 20. Height 5'3" to 5'9". Weight 105-140 pounds. Good Health. Good Vision. Knowledge foreign language. Positions are based in: NEW YORK * CHICAGO * MIAMI * WASHINGTON SEATTLE * LOS ANGELES * SAN FRANCISCO Interviews on campus will be conducted March 24, 1970 0 I PANAVISIONO COLOR BY DELME ...,. LET hg~W orMAUR gsm K For Interview Appointment contact your Placement Director. An Equal Opportunity Employer - ...6 ANN ARBOR BLACK THEATRE, Inc. I PRESENTS .. THREE ONE-ACT PLAYS March 17,18, Tues., Wed. American Film Studies CITIZEN KANE "A SON COME HOME" and "CLARA'S OLE MAN" by ED BULL INS --plus-- 1 I I "AND WE OWN THE NIGHT" I SellI by JIMMIE GARRETT I Q MARCH 18-24.8 p.m. i II I 0 I .^ S