Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Wednesday, March 12, 1969 film festival poetry and prose *i Well, it had some nice things but... Into the. realm of fantasy By BRUCt HENSTELL It. should come as no surprisee if last night the 7th Ann Ar- bor Film Festival produced few surprises. For the record, films were lightly pre-screened by Festival's producers (stress the lightly) simply because of limit- ed time. Nobody will agree, of course, that all of these should even have been made. B u t that's just the point, at few. times and in few places do you have the chance to see so much -so much of just what is be- ing done. And for that alone we should be grateful. Last night's program demon- strated the great truth of un- derground film-making: an in- creasing technical proficiency not necessarily matched by a richness of insight or ideas. Ed Seeman's Mothers of Invention, a short film composed of fran- tic cuts, is cute only because.it is part of that great rock in group joke, the Mothers, who are more than not a bunch of kids loosed on a tape recorder yelling over and over "we're a bunch of kids," etc. etc. Frank Zappa flipping us the bone is then FUNNY. Get it?_ The National Flower of Brook- lyn, a film produced through the largess of new American Film Institute is competent and in control. It is a topographical documentary that roams in color and image over the Brook- lyn bridge, then from the bridge to the community and from the community to another of the eternal whys of existence. But Last Days on the Sand, another institutional product, this time of the University of Southern California film school, is every- thing Brooklyn isn't. It is tech- nically competent, not compe- tent but slick - also meaning- less (or rather devoid of mean- ing). The films, then, immed- iately divide into two groups: those hung-up on effect (tech- nical skill) and those on an idea, a meaning, an insight. Then there are those which try to combine the two. Those which came closer to this combination included "- --" by Malcolm Brodwick and Thom Anderson-a rock film. It is a topographical sur- vey, which tried to cover a hopelessly vast terrain by arbi- trarily reducing it to a sequence of short cuts followed by long cuts, of both image and sound. "Ecce Homo" used stark blacks and whites, negative and posi- tive reversal, in a parable about a gun as an image of power, an image to 'be worslipped. But here the problem was when to cut and the answer was that should have been more often. Improvisation on the Holly- wood Ranch Market was ano- ther film which got away from its creator. It used a vertical strip of action on the screen which remained a fast sequence of what the camera saw. gn both sides appeared various other disasters - manmade and natural. But while a tension was pr6duced between the twvo, it was neither elaborated nor resolved. We were left as per- plexed as the denizen of t h a t market who wandered in and out looking hopelessly as a set of notes In his hand. , There is no question 6f "bet- ter" about tomorrow night, only of "interest." The Festival is al- ready one night's worth of at- tending. f . By GORMAN BEAUCHAMP The overall impression that I got from the first round of the Film Festival was that any type of generalized opinion cannot be made. However, the next few days' screenings may prove this assertion false. Most of the films were of average caliber, actually not-very-good, as is usually the case. But as is also usually the case, there were a couple to make the trip worthwhile. For my' 75 cents, the best of the night was a funny look at Chicago's unveiling of its mammoth Piccaso, in Tom Palazzolo's The Bride Stripped Bare. This film was repleat with Mayor Daley's one man comic show, Seiji Ozawa and the symphony orchestra in waiter jackets, and puzzled cast of thousands. The experimental montage is old hat by now, but is defter and better organized here. However, the film was only a little too long. It also proves that Tchaikovsky is funnier for this type thing than Bill Haley and the Comets. Also better than most was The National Flower of Brooklyn, a mostly satiric, sometimes lyric look at Brooklyn and at the Bridge. "This is a film that shows a lot of things can happen in one place, ya know," Some great color, and some beautiful effects-like the moon rising over the bridge to simulate a ball hit out of Ebbet's Field. Another worth mentioning was the three minute dadaist essay on the Mothers of Invention, done mostly in a lurid red, and like them, it was pointed, grotesque and very funny. The trouble with most of the rest of the films was that, if the house lights didn't go up between them, you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. I'm of Spiro Agnew's mind: if you have seen one chop-shot hippy love-in with rock-n-roll sound track. you've seen 'em all. The question is, what's so "experimental" any more about this very recognizable, very predictable technique? How many times do you need to run an experiment before you declare a law? One notable lack in the first showing's films was the abstract son et luminere works that heretofore have been so prevalent, the sort of thing that the kiddies think Stanley Kubrick invented for 2001. These abstract effect films too tend toward sameness (the one last night, 4, was in black and white and a dud). ]Put the Festival has had some marvelous ones in the past and I hope will have at least a few this time - as a reward for the heads if nothing else. However in general (Yes, I guess I do have an impression) is that better film makers are simply using established techniques better and the poorer film makers are using them poorly. As yet I see no real breakthrough into something new and exciting, but it's still early: there are five more nights to go. ___________ ___________________________- -_______- - - --______ '' l By KIRK HAMPTON Donald Hall's poetry reading, which was given yesterday in the UGL Multipurpose Room, was one of those rare and up- lifting occurrences which con- vince one that the universe is, after all, a delightful place to, live in. Of the many people who came, there may have been some who were disappointed in becom- ing less acquainted with Mr. Hall's poetry than with the poet himself. But if such people exist, they are surely incurable fuddy-duddies, or else they were t just having a bad day. After Prof. Hornback's blank verse introduction, Mr. Hall proceeded to chat informally and to read some of his early poems (which have been re-. vised) plus several unpublished works, and others which h a v e appeared in past volumes. The selections were mostly new, and they focused around his forth- coming book, The Alligator Bride, which shall be a most' excellent collection. In his latest poems, Hall is stretching himself far into the realm of fantasy. He tries to communicate on the deepest level, "to talk from one inside to another inside without the in- tervention of intellect." And at his best, he produces moving visions which grow with each reading and stay always just be- yond the touch of reason. In the intense need to ex- press his inner self with unadul- terated directness, he occasion- ally slips and only presents to us puzzling and bizarre fantasies, which, though polished to his satisfaction are merely poems from and to himself. The dan- ger in such a personal approach is that freedom from the bonds of logic will go too far and be- come freedom fromcraftsman- ship. Such works would not be art, but mere gushing. Luckily Hall is an excellent craftsman, and we cannot help but be impressed when he reads a work that points us straight and sure to a clear specific image:. "the six-sided odor of disinfectant," "hovering unfixed sockets of lights." He rarely fails, even with his oddest fan- tasies. And in short, almost all his poetry is of the highest quality - eternally alive. Ye'sterday's reading was es- pecially meaningfpl for those who were already familiar with his work and who desired con- r Donald Hall Kosinshi receives top book award tact with the poet himself. He is a greatly talented mah, who presents himself both in verse and in person with an unforget- table and deep intensity. "God knows where they come from" he says of his visions. And sure- ly no one else knows - but we can all be happy that Donald Hall is here to paint them with such unequalled skill. The National Book Committee yesterday announced the seven, winners of their annual b o o k awards. The winners will be pre- sented with $1000 awards at a. formal ceremony today in Lin- coln Center. Jerzy Kosinski received the award in the fiction category for Steps. Mr. Kosinski served as this year's writer-in-residence at the University. The other winners include: Arts & Letters: Armies of the Night, by Norman Mailer, New American Library; Children's Books: -Journey from Pepper-5 ment Street by Meindert De- jong, Harper and Row; History and Biography: White Over Black American Attitudes To- ward the Negro, 1550-1812 by Winthrop D. Jorden, University of North Carolina Press. Poetry: His Toy, His Dream, His Rest by John Berrymen Farrar; Straus & Grioux; Sci- ence: Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima by R. J. Lifton, Random House; Translations: Cosmicomics by Italo Clavino, translated by William Weaver, Harcourt Brace and World. The winners were selected from five nominations in each category submitted' by the judges. Norman Mailer's Miami and 'the Seige of Chicago re- ceived a nomination in the his- tory and biography category. This year's judges included Irving Howe, Wright Morris, Renata Adler, Stanley Kauff- man, Alfred Kazan, and Allen Nevin. B a r gain prices, for MOSCOW State Concert Special student tickets ar e available for tonight's perform- ance of the Moscow State Sym- phony. These tickets are avail- able at the University Musical Society office in Burton Tower and are priced at $1.00 and $2.00. The symphony, under the di- rection of Maxim Shostakovich, will present the Overture of Russian and Ludmilla by Glinka and Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33 by Tchaikovsky, with Cellist Feodor -Luzanov. The Orchestra will also pre- sent Prokofieff's Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 with pianist Nikolai Petrow, and Symphony No. 5, Op. 47, by Dimitri Shosta- kovich, the conductor's father. 3020 Washtenaw, Ph. 434-1782 Between Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor STARTS TODAY FEATURE TIMES Today-i :00-3:10-5:20- 7:30-9:40 Thurs. and Fri.-7:00-9:15 Today is LADIES DAY All Ladies 1-6 P.M. 75c 1 , 4i A IOLNTE - _ '° ,( Ii TONIGHT NEW REVISED HOOT with the BALLOON MAN 1421 Hill St. AND W. S. (ILBERtT & ARTHUR SULLIVAN FRI. &iSAT.- Singing traditional I r i s h English, Scottish, Canadian, American Ballads & Lyrical Songs. Roger Renwick and II i' i; Box Office Open Weekdays 10-5:30, March 12-18. Open Saturday, March 15, 10-2. And Show Dates from 10 A.M. to curtain. I Barry O'Neill Guitar, Concertina, Dulcimer, Cruth Ii,' pi Dai y Classifieds Get Results The University of Michigan Players Department of Speech presents Anton Chekov's THE CHERRYORCHARD Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre MARCH 12-15 8:00 P.M. Saturday Matinee-March 15 2:30 P.M. ADMISSION I -STARTS-TOMORROW- CLINT EAST 00D gives New York 24 hours... to getoutoftown 4 >. :.::::.. :: ... -:...r.:..:.' 11111 A II Xf..-.iv ncnca,.~ch radr o ,'Nlkoai IPetrov, Pianis~t 1111l 1111 J