Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Friday, September 26, 1969
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, September 26, 1969
-cinema
Name PTP fellowship 1
,~'.-, ~1
A good weekend
for film freaks
By GORMAN BEAUCHAMP
For film freaks Ann Arbor can
sometimes be an exciting place.
This week is one of those times.
For the film fare on and around
campus is as interesting, im-
portant and varied as one is
liable to find in the desert that
stretches between New York and
San Francisco. Thus if one has
the stamina, time and tarriff,
he can take in Renoir's Diary of
a Chambermaid, C o e' e a u 's
Blood of a Poet, Resnais' Night
and Fog, De Sic a' The Bicycle
'Thief, Leni Riefensthal's Tri-
umph of the Will, Sternberg's
Shanghi Express, plus a week
long festival of little-seen Ger-
man expressionists films. Folks,
that ain't bad. If anything, it.
is an embarassment of riches.
Cinema Guild offers as a dou-
ble bill today J e a n Cocteau's
Blood of a Poet and Jean Re-
noir's (N o t Bunuel's as their
schedule states )Dairy of .a
Chambermaid. Like Dali-Bun-
in their surrealist cinema, Coc-
teau takes film about as far as
it will go toward the abstraction
and metaphoric tableaux vivan-
tes of painting. That path prov-
ed a deadend, but his film re-
mains a fascinating early ex-
periment by one of the most
complicated minds of the age.
Pauline Kael wrote of it: "The
first time you see Jean Cocteau's
1930 film, you're likely to find
it silly, auto-erotic, static, ab-
surd, and you may feel cheated
after having heard so m u c h
about it. But . . . you're n o t
likely to forget it -- it has a
suggestiveness unlike any other
film."
Renoir's 1946 Diary of a
Chambermaid was h is second
version of Mirbeau's novel.
Made in the States w i t h an
American cast, it has been call-
ed by Pierre I ephron the only
French film ever made in Holly-
wood. Like his earlier master-
piece Regle de Jeu, Diary deals
with the decadance of bourgeo-
ise society, but with that wry
Gallic mixture of irony and un-
derstanding that is Renoir's
trademark. Renoir is currently
being given a retrospective
showing at toe N. Y. Film Fes-
tival, part of the long-due reco-
gnition in this country that he
is one of the truly great film
makers of all time.
Cinema II is also providing
an impressive, if somewhat in-
congruous, double bill today and
tomorrow - Resnais' chilling
documentary Night and Fog
and Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle
Thief. De Sica is considered the
leading figure of Italian post-
war neo-realism and this 1949
tragedy of the poor is consider-
ed his finest film. It was select-
ed in 1960, by a poll of interna-
tional film critics, as one of the
ten best films ever and Parker
Tyler calls it "an unchallenga-
ble peak of the art of motion
pictures." This strikes me as a
bit excessive, but without a
doubt Bicycle Thief is a wonder-
ful film - honest, gentle, hu-
mane -- which involves one to-
tally.
Night and Fog (1956) is one
of Resnais' earliest a n d per-
haps (my personal prejudice)
his best film. Certainly few
films make s u c h an impact.
Part of this impact is inherent
in the subject - the Nazi death
camp at Auschwitz; but Res-
nais' restrained, unemotional
yet technically superb approach
always lets the facts speak for
themselves, and they tell a tale
of horror and inhumanity that
is at times simply unbearable.
Quite by coincidence Cinema
Guild's Sat, and Sun. showing
is an official Nazi film - Leni
Riefensthal's 1934 Triumph of
the Will. T h e connection be-
tween the mass hysteria lauded
in this film and the mass mur-
der of Night and Fog is too ob-
vious to call for comment. But
we are faced with the paradox
that a propagandist for the ug-
liest of political systems h a s
produced a film of epic beau-
ty, 'as morally distasteful as
it is shattering cinematically,"
one critic writes, Based on the
Nazi mass meetings (real mas-
ses, not the SDS handfuls) at
Nuremberg, Triumph pictured,
the frenzied glory of the Third
Reich, which time has judged
with fitting irony.
The Ark film group is show-
ing an altogether different kind
of film (Mon.>i - and one of my
favorites -- Sternberg's Shang-
hi Express. In the 30's, Stern-
berg made a series of films with
his star, Marlene Dietrich. They
are now considered classics of
high camp, and certainly this
film is campy - as in Deit-
rich's immortal line, "It took
more than one man to change
my name to Shanghi Lily." But
it is also much more. Sternberg
is the master of rococo style; his
characters move through a den-
sely textured mise en scene like
a great spider's web with Diet-
rich as the beautiful, glittering
creature at its center. It's hard
to say whether she is an exten-
sion of Sternberg's setting or
whether the setting is an exten-
sion of her femme fatalism.
NATIONAL eENERAL CORPORATION
FOX EASTERN THEATRES --
FOR VILL U6
375 No.MAPLE RD.-769-1300
Mon.-Fri.: 7:20, 9:30 P.M.
Sat., Sun.: 1:00, 3:05, 5:10,
7:20, 9:30 P M.
The Professional Theatre Pro-
gram has announced the win-
ners of a nationwide competi-
tion for eighth fellowships in the
area of theatre and speech.
The fellows were chosen from
more than 100 graduates from
the nation's leading university
drama departments. Profs. Wil-
liam P. Halstead, Claribel Baird,
and Richard Burgwin of the
theater area of the speech de-
partment participated with Prof.
Schnitzer and artistic director
Marcella Cisney of the Profes-
sional Theatre Program in the
auditions held in New York, Ann
Arbor, and San Francisco.
The fellowship winners will
each receive a stipend of $2,400
plus tuition and work in the
theater area of the department
of speech while earning credits
toward advanced degrees.
The five winners in the acting
category were William Tate, a
graduate of the University of
Birmingham in England; Kath-
leen McGill and James Hos-
bein, University of Michigan;
James Baffico, University of Ne-
braska, and Donna Haley,
Clarke College in Iowa.
A technical and design fel-
lowship was awarded to Stuart
K. McDaniel, a graduate of the
University of Redlands in Cali-
fornia.
Donald Ellis, a graduate of
the University of Kansas, was
awarded a fellowship in ad-
ministration and public rela-
tions.
The Shubert Theatre Founda-
tion Fellowship in Playwriting
has been awarded to Ransom
Jeffrey for his original play,
"The Guest," soon to be produc-
ed by La Mama Workshop Off-
Broadway in New York. Jeffrey
comes to Ann Arbor from the
University of Iowa, where he
did graduate work, and will be
in residence during the 1969-70I
term while working on a new
play. He was awarded the ANTA
Playwriting Prize last season
and has been a winner in sev-
eral other playwriting competi-
tions.
The eight fellows have arrived
to commence work with the
APA Repertory Company in its
eighth Fall Festival in Ann
Arbor in three new productions,
"Macbeth," "Chronicles of Hell"
and "Private Lives."
They will also participate in
the world premiere of E v a n
Hunters' new play, "The Con-
juror," in early November. Pro-
ductions by the theatre area of
the speech department will fea-
ture Professional Theatre Pro-
gram fellows during the f o r t h-
coming season.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 26
9-12 PM
UNION BALLROOM
FEATURING
-,The Irat 4tore
IAT
ALL CAMPUS
MIXER
,I
BUFFY
SAINTE
MARIE
October 4!
3020 Washtenow, Ph. 434-1782
Between Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor
SHOW TIMES:
Wed., Sat., Sun.- -3-5-7-9
Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri.--7-9
a.Y
IHA presents
BUFFY
SAINTE
MARIE
Saturday, Oct. 4 - 8:30 P.M.
HILL AUDITORIUM
TICKETS: $2.00-$2.50-$3.00
On sale at
SAB Sept. 29-Oct. 3
Mail Orders and Block Ticket Requests (Sept. 22-
Oct. 1) IHA Concert, 1511 Student Activities Bldg.
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
A PROGRAM OF
LN\E ' POLW
VISION FOR A NEW WORLD
Just arrived from Australia
Bewildering-Fascinatinq
POON-TANG TRILOGY by Ben Van Meter
Completely uninhibited New
American Cinema film
FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
Rare 1928 avant qarde classic
Visually influenced by THE CABINET
OF DR. CALIGARI
Highly expressionistic
THE MAGICIAN
Powerful anti-war fantasy
FLAG
Extremely creative satire on 'OLD GLORY'
Excellent creative cartoon surrealism
SNOW WHITE
Cab Colloway sings "St. James Infirmary"
LINES VERTICAL
Subtle abstract film from The
National Film Board of Canada
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN BANDS
present
VAR SITY NIGHT SHOW, 1969
featuring
-4
FLI P WiLSON and SRAH VAUGHN
SATURDAY, September 27 8:00 P.M.
UNIVERSITY EVENTS BUILDING
TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE
TODAY: Student Activities Bldg.
BOX OFFICE
8:00 A.M.-4:30 P.M.
SATURDAY: Events Bldg. Box Office
Before and after the game and 7:00 P.M. on
$2.50, $3.00, $3.50, $4.00
4
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PIONEER HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM, ANN ARBOR
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ILABLE:
16 1 %#.
$3.00
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DISCOUNT
RECORDS
Ann Arbor
GRINNELL
BROTHERS
Ypsilanti,
THURSDAY and FRIDAY
Double Feature
DIARY of A
CHAMBERMAID
-Renoir
Blood of a Poet
dir. JEAN COCTEAU (1930 )
t
$3.25
at
Door
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,
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KI ,
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,
,
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1I
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7 &
662-8
Both films each show,
come twice
9 ARCHITECTURE
3871 AUDITORIUM
;PPTH 1'oruM
FRI.-1 1 :00 p.m.
SAT.-3:00 matinee and
11:00 p.m.
.4
I
I
Not continuous with "STAIRCASE"-separate admission
1
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,
.. ..
,.
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±:+
6
-- - - - ------
VITTORIO DESICA'S
The kydle Thief
TONIGHT AT 8:00 P.M.
and
ALAIN RESNAIS'
SEPTEMBER 26-27
7-9:30 Aud. A 75c (cheap)
"EXCITING
EXCEL LE
;, ;, "ALL FIRST RATE"
41! 11
-Toledo Blade
-Detroit Free Press
Fri.-Sat.
I
Sept. 16-Sept. 28,
1969
A
"Irresistibly fascinating . .
Ann Arbor News
t SHAKESPEARE'S
RICHARD
EASTON
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INI