Page Two,
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, March 11, 1969
,a.:T.TE IHGA AL
Tuesday. March 11 1969
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cinema
THE Film Festival:
Bringing America
By ELLEN FRANK
Lately it seems that everyone
from TIME Magazine to your
art history professor look down
and around our America to con-
clude that yes, everyone is mak-
ing movies these days. But if
that Great Everyone is making
experimental, films, where arg
they all? Canyon Cinema in
California distributes mainly
West Coast films to film socie-
ties, and theatres life Detroit's
Repertory Cinema. In New York,
Jonas Mekas, whom someone
long ago named King of the Un-
derground (the appleation has
stuck) runs the Film Makers
Cooperative, a distribution out-
fit that supports film makers
like Stan Brakhage, Gregory
Markoupoulos and Jack "Flam-
ing Creatures" Smith.
However, Canyon Cinema and
Film Makers Cooperative , are
distribution o u t f it s, handling
many of the same films each
year and never touching upon
the majority of films made in
America. More than any distri-
bution, company, it is the Ann
Arbor Film Festival that dis-
plays current film making in
America. The twenty five or
more hours of film to be pre-
sented in this week's Festival
amounts to the world's largest
showing of experimental film.
To see all or even part of the
Festival amounts to an instant
insight into what type of films
people are making - whether
they are northern California
dope movies or southern Cali-
fornia extended variations on
the television commercial or
animation from Kansas City.
There are consistencies running
through the hundreds of films,
which seem the best gage of the
tastes and aversions of America.
For example this year there
was almost no nudity in the
entering films. Robert E. Davis,
professor of film making and
film theory, of the Department
of Speech, aptly commented
that young film makers have
reacted against the commercial-
ized sex movies, a la Campus
Theatre.
The Festival orients itself to-
wards getting as many films as
possible from across the coun-
try. Five thousand announce-
ment brochures are sent each
year to film schools and film
makers. Approximately two hun-
dred fifty films were received
this year, nearly twice the num-
ber entered last year. The num-
ber of public screenings has been
appropriately increased, with 11
p.m. showings Tuesday through
Friday.
-Daily-Jay Cassidy
George Manupelli
A panel of (clear your
throat) distinguished jurors will
see twenty five or so hours of
film, Sunday the panel selects
the award winning films, as well
as those that are to go on tour.
This year's jurors are: Shirley
Schnell of Ann Arbor; Nicholas
C. Bertoni, technician and
author of theatre events pieces;
West Coast film maker Bob
Giorgio; Steve Paxton, choreo-
grapher and performer; and Jill
Johnston, dance critic for The
Village Voice.
The Ann Arbor Film Festival
is financed by and held at
Cinema Guild. Co-sponsor is the
Dramatic Arts Center. Awards
money this year has come main-
ly from Cinema II, Cinema
Guild and the University Activi-
ties Center, with contributions
and special prizes from Plaster
of Paris, Dominick's Restaurant
and Student Book Service. A
number of individuals have also
given awards.
The man behind the Festival
is George Manupelli, professor
of. film in the School of Archi-
tecture and Design. Manupelli is
on leave this year at the Univer-
sity of Illinois. With some aid
from a secretary, Manupelli or-
ganizes nearly all of the Festi-
val-from the mailing of bro-
chures to the last screenings.
His work on the Festival brings
out a virtuous man who believes
more than any of us in the im-
portance of the independent
film. Without him, the Festival
would not exist.
A special highlight of this
year's Festival is the premiere
of George Manupelli's Dr. Chi-
cago on Wednesday at 9:00 p.m.
Dr. Chicago is the first in a
projected twenty film series
which "in seemingly low humor,
comment on complicated con-
temporary social problems."
The series is a new American
literature. Dr. Chicago himself
is the Hamlet, the giant char-
acter of our tip es. The following
to you
films in the series will be pre-
pared over time. Chicago No. 2,
Dr. Chicago Goes to Sweden ("A
Radio Program," "A Foreign
Film") is nearly completed now.
At the close of the Festival,
the jurors select a program of
films to go on tour of various
schools and other institutions.
Also film distributor Mike Getz
selects two programs of films
that will be shown at twenty
three theatres across the coun-
try. Festival fims are also avail-
able by special request to George
Manupelli. This post-Festival
distribution amounts to a size-
able national audience of ap-
proximately 40,000 people. The
tour, together with this week's
extravaganza of twenty five
hours of film indeed does make
the Ann Arbor Film Festival the
country's most important show-
place of independent, films.
ti
Wednesday & Thursday 4:10 P.M
lepartmaetnt of Speccha
St udent La boratIory, ThealIre
presents
IEAi OUT T II EISrE
by William Saroyan
DIAL 5-6290
Arena Theatre. Frieze Building
SUBSCRIBE TO THE MICHIGAN DAILY
BENEFIT FOR DIONYSUS '69,,
Artaud's
THEATRE OF CRUELTY
"It is not a question of the cruelty we con
practice on one another '. . . but the much
more terrible and necessary cruelty that
things exercise against us. We are not free.
And the sky can still fall down on our
heads."
TUESDAY, MARCH 11
9:00 P.M $2.00
-Once-
"AN OVERGROUND
SEX-PROTEST FILM!"
-Archer Wisfn New York Post
March 12th & 13th
ACADEMY AWARD
NOMINEE
BEST ACTOR-
CLIFF ROBERTSON
Admission Free
Arthur Grumiaux: Nothing less than best
By R. A. PERRY
If someone were to ask me the
rhetorical and rather inane
question as to who is the great-
est performing violinist today,
I would probably answer Arthur
Grumiaux, a preference that in-
deed indicates personal sensibili-
ty rather than inviolate truth.
The Belgian Grumiaux, who stu-
died with Enesco and Ysaye,
has certainly been unmitigating-
ly satisfying throughout his
recording career.
His performances in the fif-
ties with Clara Haskill on the
Epic label of the -sonatas for
violin and piano by Beethoven
and by Mozart remain standards
to which comparisons of more
recent performances are in-
evitably made. On the Philips
label, his rendition of the Bach
Sonatas ,and Partitas for Unac-
companied Violin balance most
beautifully the precise intensi-
ties of Heifetz and the cool
elegance of Szeryng. It is to his
peformance of the Beethoven
concerto, with Van Beinum, to
which I somehow find myself
returning over all others. The
list of his satisfying recordings
would be lengthy.
A re-issue on the budget-
label World Series line (PHC
9103) of Schubert's Opus -137
Sonatinas and the Opus 162
Sonata should allow many peo-
ple unfamiliar with Grumiaux's
style to acquaint themselves with
the artist in the most pleasant
of circumstances. While the
.music represented may not be
monumental, all of the pieces
are exceedingly lyrical and easy
to listen to. Furthermore, they
reveal, for all of their simplicity,
those qualities which make
Grumiaux great.
The Opus 137 Sonatinas were
written when Schubert was twen-
ty and working as a school-
teacher; composed as they were
for students, they consequently
make few demands on the solo-
ist's virtuosity and imply little
metaphysical import: they are
melodic, folk-tune oriented exer-
cises. Ironically enough, this
very lack of an involved musical
content has foiled many major
violinists who have genty tac-
kled the pieces; it requires a.
great artist to make the simple
relevant-as Jorge Bolet did
last summer. in Ann Arbor with
Mendelssohn's Songs Without
Words.
Grumiaux throws away not
one note; he regards no phrase
with any half-minded concen-
tration. On the contrary, he im-
bues each movement of each
small piece with a total aesthetic
commitment that charges these
works previously heard as trivia
with the full singing joy of the,
S c h u b e r t. ..Orumiaux's tone,
warm without being fat and
sloppy, is always expressive and
never perfunctory.
The Duo Sonata stands as a
more important work in the
Schubert oeuvre, with implica-
tions more personal and de-
manding. Although this sonata
has received many fine record-
ings, few are as satisfying as the
Grumiauz at hand, and I in-
clude the old Szigeti-Hess edi-
tion. All of the charm, all of
the cantabile lines and rhythm-
ical variations, all of the inef-
fable musical meaning Grumi-
aux captures in his singularly
communicative phrasing.
The involvement that hall-
marks Grumiaux's performance
is well-shared on this World
Series disc by pianist Riccardo
Castagnone, of whom I know
nothing except that he has re-
corded previously with the vio-
linist a splendid recital of the
Debussy Sonata for Violin' and
Piano and the rarely heard but
lovely Lekeu Sonata in G Ma-
jor, both on Epic LC 3667.
For once, electronic rechan-
neling for pseudo stereo has not
proved pernicious and "the re-
corded sound remains focused
and clear. I enthusiastically en-
dorse this "sleeper."
Arthur Grumiaux has also
recently recorded the Vieux-
temps Concerto No. 4, the
Chausson Poeme, and Ravel's
Tzigane, all on Philips PHS 900-
195. Vieuxtemps, a recincarna-
tion of the devil Paganini, com-
posed wedding cakes of virtuosic
effects, .but all of the fancy,
technically demanding icing has
always seemed to me to be built
on a cardboard core. Be that
as it may, Grumiaux tightens
his tone and, in true fashion,,
injects as much expression as
humanly possible into the work.
C~fALy
TECHNICOLOR'
TECHNISCOPE
I
4-.
3020 Washtenow, Ph. 434-1782
Between Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor
BREAKING ALL RECORDS
Feature
Wed., Sat., Sun.
1 -3-5-7-9
Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri.
7-9
inDAVI70/N WEN
SA-~kMg
C -7A Z
.Bes
3t
~oV~ 6ACAD~HELD 01
y E D
including,,4
t Actress-Joanne Woodward,
Best Actor-Alan Arkin
VER
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NAMED ON459 "TEN BEST" LISTS
cfMaxn c5kiddxl
'Ge Ileait is a
CLondl 'Hunter
E
. . r .
SCREENPLAY. BY CHARLESNIRSCH AND IRIA E PALMA DIRECTED ,Y BRIN DEPALMA PROUCEO BY CHARLES IRSCN
' EST END ILMS PROOUCION - A INSIMA IIIRELEASE AN COtC*
X no one under 18 will be admitted
6:30, 8:05, 9:40
I
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I :t
4
f
4
I, I
Cy-.clIes sell
in Classifieds
- .
B d
10 r
in the PAUL NEWMAN production of
rachel.
rachel
Best Picture
ONE SHOW ONLY TONIGHT AND THURSDAY
"RACHEL" at 7:15 * "Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" at 9:05
I
*i
* !
~"
STARTS TOMORROW
FEATURE TIMES
Wed.-1:00-3:10-
5:20-7:30-9:40
Thurs. & Fri.-7:00-9:15
Eyery Wednesday
is
LADIES DAY
All Ladies 1-6 P.M.
75c
CINEMA GUILD Presents
THE SEVENTH
ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL
MARCH 11-16, 1969
Architecture and Design Auditorium
SCREENINGS at 7:00, 9:00 and 11:00 P.M. (excluding Saturday)
SATURDAY MATINEE at 3:00 P.M.
Each program is different except Sunday when the Award-Win-
ners ore-repeated at 7:00,-9:00, and 1 1:00 P.M.
liii
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U
WALT DISNEY'S .
- 77 mrnvArmdrn Nln;Ptav-hatt,
f'
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