Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, October 1, 1968 PQge Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, October 1, 1968 . cinema Rachel: Ode to schoolhouse sex Music A musical journey eastward By HENRY GRIX Like the ballad of Bonnie and Clyde, Rachel, Rachel (now showing at the Michigan) is rooted in the good earth of America. Director Paul Newman's first film, is outwardly an ode to the red brick schoolhouse, the revival meeting and a night in the park. But Rachel transcends its nostalgic finish with an attention to the classic American themes of death vs. the fulfillment of promise, and innocence vs. stagnation. Rachel (Joanne Woodward) is stagnating in the undertaker's house on Japonica Street where she has always lived. Her period of "ascendancy" has ended and the horror of her approaching decline is cushioned only by the American -dream she has been nursing for 35 years. Her dream, a hopelessly romantic and covertly passionate de- sire to love and be loved nourishes her, allowing her to live out each grueling day despite the fantasies of destruction that plague her. An indomitable midwesterner, Rachel is "like a trick birthday candle that won't blow out" (in the words of the mortician who bought out her father's business).. For Rachel, the daughter of a gentle undertaker (APA star Donald Moffat), death lurks both in the gentle past and the fearful future which holds her salvation. But the beginning of another summer of her discontent, calls for a renaissance of the spinster teacher. In her "last ascending summer," she hopes to bloom and flee from the cage where she lives ensnared by her mother (Kate Harrington). Obviously, Rachel is an exclusive American creation-a poten- tial Leor'a Tozer with the hang-ups of a Hepzibah Pyncheon. If her intentions were not so pure, and the quality of the film not so straiglitforward and incurably honest with itself, Rachel, Rachel would fail in its admittedly hackneyed conception. But it is sincere. The performances are tempered so beauti- fully that the characters emerge as people who might dwell and thrive in Pinckney and Dexter. Although Newman gambled by se- lecting such a sentimental story, the brilliance of his wife's perfor- mance so dominates the film that it is easy enough to interpret the production as an exquisite character study. But to view the film in such a way, is to undercut the consider- able efforts of Newman, the superb, if unsubtle, editing of Dede Allen, and the sensitive script of Stewart Stern. Rachel, Rachel's unadulterated virtues are many. The film lavishly displays some of the most beautiful footage of rural America I have seen. And Newman uses children with a grace strik- ingly like that of Truffaut. The camera dwells on detail: trophies, a rosary draped over a cross and family portraits sharing a bedside -table; the curlers and chin strap adorning Miss Harrington's grosteque face, embalmed in cold cream; Miss Woodward's slip, hanging an embarrassing shade below her skirt. But American films have seldom succeeded as displays of directorial excellence. The ultimate success of Rachel, Rachel is in its plot. Rachel's quest for love drives her to join her lesbian friend Calla (Estelle Parsons) in seeking dependence on God. When Rachel finally is loved, her dream is once again shat- tered. It is not because the body she loved leaves her, but rather because the child she felt growing inside her is only a cyst. Fol- lowing an operation to have the growth removed, Rachel quips to an incredulous nurse "How can I be out of danger when I'm not dead?" But the danger for Rachel is just beginning. She has run the full cycle and the summer is nearly over. She decides to leave the house on Japonica Street and head West-a new Nick Carra- way seeking purity and promise. Rachel does not try to abandon her old life; mother even tags along to start out fresh with her daughter. But in a final soliloquy, straight out of the closing paragraphs of F. Scott Fitz- gerald, Rachel displays her ever present innocence and honesty. "Maybe I'll find a friend," and she means a husband; "Most of the chances are against it, but not, I think, are all." By E. BANKAUSKAS They d Two new Nonesuch recordings , of the1 offer as fine examples of Indian tainlyi classical music as one could ask Thef for. Presenting the vocal tradi- employ tion of Karnatik music of South beat rh India, they are almost unique of the in the catalog of currently Indian available LP's. The three p e r - love po formers, furthermore, are all The pe first class musicians. swamy7 K. V. Narayanaswamy, com- lyrical, ing from a long line of Kerala serious musicians, carries on the tradi- The1 tion of the great Aiyangar. Pal- song ha ghat Raghu, one of the truly dance great South Indian drummers, Naraya inherits the tradition of the tremely famous mridangam virtuoso nouncia Palghat Mani Aiyar. V. V. Sub- and hi ramaniam is one of South In- believa dia's finest young violinists, listen. 4 both as accompanist and as Thes soloist and he has often ac- votes a companied the nightingale of two pe South Indian vocal music, Shri- of mus mati Subbulakshmi. "mridan The first record (2018) is de- thm b voted to the vocal artistry of Ons Narayanasamy. He sings three ceives t Kritis, a Javali, and a Tillana. of arti The Kriti is a major South In- accomp dian art-music form, usually fully. preceded by a prelude in free shorta rhythm. Composed of a devo- unal, t tional poem, the Kriti is very by Dik expressive musically, of serious with g nature and expositive strength. giving1 The first Kriti is by the 19th Subram century composer Bharatiyar, former the second by the greatest'com- A w poser of South India, Tyagara- physica =a, and the third by Muthu- wonder swamy Dikshitar. purely The second and third pieces ance, i are noted by strong svara kal- all Sou pana, which are fast improvisa- is voca tions of melodic and highly strume rhythmic nature, employing the nique first syllables of the names of voice; the notes in the Indian octave. respeeb demand fierce virtuosity performer and they cer- receive it here. fourth piece is a Javali, ing a less common four ,ythin. A JTavali is one lighter forms of South music, usually having a oem as the main theme. rformance of Narayana- in the piece is sweet and quite different from the mood of the Kritis. last song is a Tillana, a hose origin lies in the music of the region. naswamy's voice is ex- y well-trained, his pro- Ation fast and flawless, is technique almost un- ble. He is truly a joy to to. second record (2019) de- a side each to the other rformers of this fine trio icians. Side one offers a agam solo in 4-2-2 rhy- y Raghu. I side two, the violin re- the focus, and the echoes stry heard previously as paniment are brought out The first piece is a very and lovely Kriti by Tir- he second a longer Kriti kshitar; both are played great depth and melody, tribute to the quality of maniam as a solo per- r. ord about the records as ;l entities. For those who xWhy texts accompany a instrumental perform- it must be understood that ith Indian classical music al in character, with in- nts imitating the tech- and expression of the the most often heard and :ed' concert musicians are vocalists. The instrumentalist has the same repertoire of melody and song as the vocalist. These Nonesuch discs are magnificent in every detail. Front covers are a model of crisp, clean commercial art, with fine lettering and stylish drawings. Both records provide complete translations of texts; photos of all artists are provid- ed, as well as the scales of the ragas and the structures of the talas. Processed by the revolu- tionary Dolby noise-reduction system, the discs sound finer than almost any other Indian recordings available. At $2.50 list price, Nonesuch is practi- cally giving their wares away. NATIONAL .ENERAL CORPORATION _ FOX EASTERN THEATRES FOX VILLBGE 37 No. MAPLE PD. "769.1300 ENDS THURSDAY MON.-THURS.--7:15-9:15 JU[Ic GEORGE C. the uncommon movie. * STARTS FRIDAY * "HOW TO SAVE AMARRIAGE" Phone 434-0130 Estac4eOw CUPINTIARO"I Doisay Nyf Brian Keith '"iguth Six r Get Eggroll" Color by Deluxe.Filmed in Panavision, PLUS. . irs NOT WHO YOU CON... !T'S NOW YOU DO 1T! PAULOIHEUJRR Th-ur t-rof TECI4NICOLOPO A UNIVERSAL PICTURE 11 3020 Washtenow, Ph. 434-1782 Between Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor NOW SHOWING Feature Wed.-Sat.-Sun. -3-5-7-9 Mon.-Tues.-Thurs.-Fri. 7,9 %1),MAN production of rhachel, LareELA 10'FOM- -RRG.1YE NS M I' And we'll have Funn, Funn, Funn U By LITTLE SHERRI FUNN' Explanation Expert A great deal of poof has hit the fan during the last few days in regards to several record and concert reviews I've written, and my critical guidelines in general. A bearded fellow for example, stopped by The Daily Saturday night to instruct me in no un- certain terms, to "Go to hell." A young lady at a party, later on said I was"incredibly stupid, unaware," and totally devoid of any personal quality, that might be construed as "taste." Letters have arrived describing me as a "hysterical 123 student," a "disgrace," and a "nincompoop,," So now, instead of blithely going ahead and infuriating still more people with more sup- posedly stupid reviews, , I'm going to tell you why I do the things I do. And, after that, if I'm still infuriating you, call me up and let's rap about it. I'd like to begin with what the bearded man said after he was through with the "hell" business. He told me that a lot of his friends, who are allegedly well-versed in rock, music, felt that I "know nothing about music" and I was "putting down a lot of people who shouldn't be put down." His first remark has to do with my essential qualifications' as a valid rock critic and the second with my criteria for determining what makes a "good" rock album or perform- ance and my general outlook on the rock scene today. We'll take these one at a time." As far as knowing "nothing about music" goes, all I can say that I was a member of a rock band for two years, I have loved and lived rock since my elementary, school days,' I have talked about, thought about, and read about rock intensively for half my life, and I listen to nearly every rock album that is currently released., If that makes me musically ignorant in the eyes of some, then you must forgive me, gentle readers, for I know not what I do. Then, assuming we have es- tablished that possibly I have some idea as to what the spec- trum of the rock scene entails, what do I go by when I judge a rock album or performance? when they made the album. Sometimes this is painfully un- true.) Because I hold honesty to be so essential, then I can become as completely blasted by U.S. Bonds' "Twist Twist Senora," a crude, crude rock recording, as I can by the sophistication of Buffalo Springfield's "Broken Arrow" or The Collectors' "One Act Play." None of these re- cordings have anything in com- mon: except for a deep rooted feeling and compulsion to state how a human being feels, in his' own special way, about aliena- tion, groupies, or how great it is to do the twist with your baby. Of course I am aware of the technical aspects of recordings such as musical proficiency, studio work, and various record- ing techniques, and I do deem these important. But no amount of synthezising, compressing, 4iixing, or whining "E" strings can fill in an essentially dis- honest album and make it truly satisfying to the listener over a long period of time. I have mentioned Cream in several reviews, always in a de- meaning manner, and thereby alienating the huge crowd of Cream fanatics in Ann Arbor. I a-ever said that I haven't en- joyed an occasional Cream ef- fort because, in actuality, I have; but they exemplify per- fectly to me what is rancid about today's rock scene. What I have said is that it's . too bad that a group I consider to be so dishonest, so overly Madison Avenue slick, and so creatively sterile, can have a number one selling album while so many much more rewarding efforts nestle near the bottom or stay off the charts. I can only say that I realize I'm not a wondrous fount of rock knowledge, just waiting for the opportunity to shower good taste on the peasants below me. I realize I'm not the final rest- ing place for rock criticism and that my opinions may indeed be stupid in your mind. I'm not trying to tell you what to like, as some of you appear to think, and I am not trying to make you angry. I'm just trying to react as honestly as I- can, as clearly as I can, to some of the music we call contemporary. That's all. and AIALWALS .,,O NOW i TODAY ot 7 & 9 "Yes, 'Belle de Jour' is sensational. It does--let's be honest about this-turn you on!" t.i---Lfe o, zn IGER RoDDy ...%U .'Y' STED[S McIXJWII i~FT- FAllWAY ROBERTS First and foremost, I con- sider the honesty of the per- formance, and I believe abso- lutely that this is the only truly valid ground on which an al- bum can either be praised or condemned. That is to say, when all of the electronic effects are sorted out, when the words have, been defined, when the per- sonal prejudices and opinions of the listener 'have been dis- pensed with, what remains is what is honest about the album, and that is something I believe cannot be disputed. I'm not saying I have to agree with the content of the message the artists are conveying to me for that, in many cases, is ir- relevant. But I must prove to my own satisfaction that the effort has been an honest one, an honest attempt to accurately recreate in my mind what was going on in theirs when they made the album. (Of course I'm assuming here that something was going on in their heads ROBER a n MN AI present BELIE dE JOUR WINNER BEST PICTURE' VENICE FILM FESTIVAL EASTMAdNCOlORRsl b . N Ao'S n' ' S I SHOWS AT 1:00-3:00-5:00 7:10-9:20 (Feature 10 minutes later) 4TATE NEXT- PAPER LION 4 ' .r t ........................ 0 N ars SATURDAY, OCT.,5th ---7:00 and 10:00 P.M. U I f I The Cream coming SATURDAY, OCT. 12 UNIVERSITY EVENTS BUILDING 0 8 P.M. at 11I DIAL . 5-62 0 i thePAUL NEM AN rdtc wr ~rir~irl rahel, mohS OLYMPIA STADIUM-Detroit I 11 TODAY AT 1, 3, 5, 7,,9 P.M. TICKETS: $6, $5, $4 ON SALE at Olympia, Grinnell's and all major J. L. Hudson Co. stores I I MAIL ORDERS: send check or money order and self-addressed envelope to Olympia Stadium, 5920 Grand River, Detroit, 48208 _____ ____log wmwpwi I HIGR S '69 is now accepting petitions for the following Central Committee positions: Tickets on sale thru Friday, SAB lobby 8:30-5:00 P.M. .s BOOKLET. PUBLICITY CARNIVAL TICKETS I ' SECRETARY. -r - f ' rlii- n" Saturday-Univ. Events Bldg. Box Office 9 A.M. rizi-b Ks-r'r nr-r' A A "N "r k C N 1 1'+I t II F I J W M W I-eI--~ I ,. 5