WOMM9
PAGE TWO.
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 1967
PAGE TWO TIlE MICHIGAN DAILY TITURSIIAY. JANUARY 12. 1Q~
.aa R.I RMVJ4./cl.i V.lf\ t:.ll ,l I-, LOU 0
Interview With Pauline Kael:
Controversial, Talented Critic
Survey Shows Local Boards
Unsure of Draft Procedures
I
#i/el
By ELLEN FRANK
It was big news when that bas-
tion of recipes and householdl
hints, McCall's Magazine, hired7
Pauline Kael, one of the coun-
try's most talented reviewers. The
controversial Miss Kael, they
thought, would enliven the homey
pages of McCall's beyond belief.
She did, until her review of The
Sound of Music (entitled "The
Sound of Money") attracted more
letters than anything McCall's
had ever printed. Claiming that it
made her nauseous, Miss Kael's
attack on cinematic sentimental-
ity ended her short-lived experi-
ment with McCall's. She was soon
dismissed.
But if such devastating reviews
'Aiphavlle': Successful Use
Of Sei-Fi Genre in Cinema
By DAVID KNOKE .
Science fiction as a genre adapt-
able to the cinema has been a
'notable failure.-
Science fiction as a literature
has passed its golden age of H. G.
Wells, Olaf Stapledon, the early
works of Ray Bradbury and
"Amazing" magazine. The new
generation of sci-fi writers exude
the aura of slick-journal technical
brilliance. Writers like Clarke,
Heinlein, Bradbury and Asimov
can earn top money in a field
noted for the cliquish fervency of
its adherents.
But the enthusiasm and imagi-
native brilliance of the name writ-
ers and the slick mags palls when
transferred to screen. Early sci-fi
films tended to be an agglomer-
ation of Frankensteinian horror
and Busby. Berkeley scanty-clads.
Later films dealt with outer-
wordly themes with a technical
gadgetry-mirroring no doubt the
lay ignorance of the technological
explosion in the real-world fifties.
--and a vapidity 'of substance to
plot and meaning that marked
them for a swift demise and rele-
gation to drive-in movies and the
late show libraries.
The thematic simplicity of the
American sci-fi film, like costume
epics of almost any nationality,
appear to be the greatest stum-
bling block in building a tradition,
of science fiction-oriented films
that can rank with the foreign
films whose general themes run to
the melancholia of- love and lone-
liness in the big modern world.
Jean-Luc Godard has shown
that this operation can be carried
out, in his "Alphaville" (1964)'the
second feature of the Godard fes-
tival week, playing 'at the Cinema
Use
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plausible action with those that
exist in the real world, sci-fi has
often had the charge of escapism
levelled at it. Fortunately its po-
tential for the sensitive explora-
The sci-fi genre permits, nay
requires, the suspension of belief
for the establishing of its- cred-
ibility. Because of its potential for
disengagement with situations and
tion of human feelings and com-
munications is superior to any
"realism."
The casualness is intend to
evoke the psychological mood of
the protagonists in the audience."
Edie Constantine, an American
actor best known in France for
his roles in several dozen gangster
films, visits Alphaville as a spy
and saboteur.
Apparently the Aphavilleans
under nthecompulsive mind-con-
trol of a central hierarchy of com-
puters and technicians bent on
the control of the world, or at
least as much of it as it represent-
ed in the movie.
Alphaville is doomed, dying of
its internal dry rot from the can-
cer of spiritlessness that leaves the
husk moving and unaware of its
sicknes until it collapses alto-
gether. Edie is not an admirable
person to represent the values
antithetical to Alphaville's anthill
society. But he wards off the trap
of the seductress sent 'to ruin his
mission ard succeeds in rescuing
the girl from the tendrils of the
dying city.
"Alphaville" is also a parable
of man in the technological en-
vironment and his impotence to
break out.
The parable element, brought
out almost secondarily through
Godard's style of loose control
over the development of character
and plot, is the element of the
film that makes it more than an-
other "Inside the Red Planet."
The introjection of a human 'di-
lemma and plausible human reac-
tions, facilitated by the sci-ftre-
quirement of suspended critical
judgment, shows that art can be
grafted onto science fiction.
are taboo for McCall's, they are
typical of Miss Kael. She is seem-
ingly adverse to a wide range of
"unqualified" extremes, ranging
from Andy Warhol's "Chelsea
Girls" ("I just couldn't stay
awake") to the New York Film
Critics Board ("It's terrible that
such a group of undistinguished
writers has so much influence.")
Miss Kael, who now reviews for,
The New Republic, has a remark-
able talent for transforming dull
written English into something in-
teresting and readable. Her re-
views, which have been compared
to those of the late James Agee
(recognized as America's finest
film critic), are. full of phrases like
"The film was too preposterously
purple to be successfully blue."
In a recent telephone interview
with the Daily, Miss Kael's dis-
course on films and reviews proved
to be as lively as her written mate-
rial. Excitement oozed as she dis-
cussed the recently organized Na-
tional Society of Film Critics, of
which she is a member. "It's an
exciting and interesting group. I
can think of hardly any qualified
reviewer in the country who isn't
on the, board.'
The new National Society, head-
ed by Stanley Kauffmann of the
New Republic and 'New York sta-
tion WNDT, includes Andrew Sar-
ris of The Village Voice; Joseph
Morgenstern of Newsweek; Bren-
dan Gill of the New Yorker, Miss
Kael and several others.
Last week they chose Michaelan-
gelo Antonioni as best director of
1966 and his. "Blow-Up" as the
Best Film. This film, a brilliant
development of the potential uses
of color, contrasts sharply with the
selection of the New York Film
Critics. Their choice was "A Man
for All Seasons," which represents
a clinging of cinema to dramatic
forms."
Miss Kael's personal feeling that
"many film. masterpieces have
been neglected in the last few
years' may be corrected by the
new National Society. She said,
"We hope to give citations to in-
dividuals and less known but qual-
ified films, such as those of young-
er film makers. They must have an
audience too. These films seem to
have been left out of any worthy
comment and we'd like to see them
achieve some success and recogni-
tion."
On films in general, she felt that
"Perhaps the quality- of films has
gone down in the last few years
with the nouvelle vogue." As for
1966, Miss Kael's vote in the bal-
loting of the National Society of
Film Critics last week went to
Jean-Luc Godard as best director
and his "Masculine Feminine' as
the Best Film.
(Continued from page 1)
the national policy statements
from Washington areinterpreted
similarly by all state directors and
boards throughout the nation. .
But the AP survey showed the
guidelines are interpreted on the
state level in a variety of ways.
In the case of student defer-
ments, thus far the most explosive
issue in the national draft debate,
Selective Service officials in Wash-
ington have supplied four advis-
ory guidelines for local draft
boards.
In theory, the guidelines sug-
gest, board members should inves-
tigate whether a student is full-
time, his academic progress, his
national draft test score and his
class ranking before making a de-
cision.-
In practice, the state-by-state
survey shows this array of prac-
tices, as reported by state Selec-
tive Service officials:
-New Mexico-Local boards are
more lenient to students working
their way through college.
-Maine-Boards generally do
not require students to attain
higher class ranking than others
to gain deferments.
-Minnesota-Boards tend to
put less emphasis on class rank-
ings and> student deferment test
scores.
-Iowa-Boards generally de-
mand thot students complete a
four-year course in four years.
-Ohio-Boards sometimes dis-
regard all four of the general cri-
teria "if we are having no trou-
ble filling our quota in a par-
ticular month."
-Nebraska-Many boards pay
no heed to class rankings. Oscar
Doerr, head of Local Board No. 30
in Douglas County (Omaha), the
state's largest draft board, .ex-
plained he thinks "it's unrealistic
to consider class rankings for
someone in a 100 student college
as compared to someone in a col-
lege with 5000 students. There's
a lot of difference."~
S-West Virginia - Local boards
follow guidelines as published in
newspapers, to determine, for ex-
ample,,.what class standing: a Stu-
dent must have at a given time
to be deferred if he has failed or
not taken the draft qualification
test.
. -Louisiana-Draft boards gen-
erally follow the national guide-
lines.
------_-___-______
-New York-Except New York follow national standards. In prac-
City-Draft boards generally grant tice, said draft Director Norm L.
deferments to first-year college Erb, "this means as long as the
students. 'colleges continue to keep them in
-New York City-Draft boards school, they're exempt."
follow national standards. Similar national variations were
-California-Draft board offi- reported among criteria for teach-
cial at Fresno says a student does er, craftsman or other occupation-
not always have to finish his four-
year course in four years to get
deferred.
-Michigan - Draft standards
vary because of the human ele-
ment. "One board might give a
boy a deferment based on his
presentation of his case while an-
other might not," said Col. Ar-
thur Holmes, state draft director.
--Nevada-Main derefment cri-
teria is whether a student can get
his desired degree in the normal
amount of time.
-Mississippi - Students must
meet class standings requirements
as set by the national standards
or score 70 or better on the na-
tional draft tests.
-Massachusetts - Boards re-
quire no test standards or class
rankings. Students simply must be
full time, stay continuously in
school and expect a degree "in a
reasonable amount of time."
al deferments, although many
state officials argued that uni-
formity generally exists statewide
because of the critical labor rec-
ommendations supplied bythe La-
bor and Commerce Departments
and the statewide scientific advis-
ory committee in each state.
Whether teachers are drafted
usually depends on the immediate
local needs of the community, pro-
ducing inevitable inequities. In
some states, teachers in the hu-
manities and social sciences often
are drafted when their colleagues
teaching math and physics are not.
The survey also disclosed a wide
variation in state requirements for
hardship deferments, although
most states left it up to the poten-
tial draftee to demonstrate his
plight. Some states sent welfare
workers to affirm conditions cited
by youths seeking hardship defer-
ments; other areas simply relied
on proof delivered by the appli-
cant.
SABBATH SERVICE
Friday at 7:15 P.M.
PROF. ERIC KING-SMITH
Visiting Professor from the University of Melbourne
and very active in the Jewish Community of Australia
JEWISH LIFE DOWN UNDER;
A PECULIAR SITUATION!
John Planer, Cantor and The Hillel.Choir
will chant the Sabbath Music
A+
4"
q!!
Steven Ovitsky, Director
1429 HILL STREET
Jean Spitzer, Organist
ALL WELCOME
.e
-Arizona - Boards
generally
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Wmn~ lou jaoobiN.
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COLUMBIA
PICTURES Presents
An IRVING ALLEN
Ptoduction
DEAN
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"SUPERIOR OFF-BEAT, AND
ORIGINAlI-N.Y. TIMES
FESTIVAL WEEK
OF
JEAN-LUC GODARD
TONIGHT & TOMORROW
ALPHAVILLE
Science fiction with Eddie
Constantine, France's gangster
star.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
BANDE A PART
7:00 and 9:05
All films in French with subtitles
ARCHITECTURE AUDITORIUM
STILL ONLY 50c.
eotning,.
CAMI .A SPAI - JAM[S GR[GY BEVEILY ADAMS
Introducing DINO. DESI and BILLY'" Featuring the "Slaygirls" Screenplay by HERBERT BAKER
Based on the novel by DONALD HAMILTON'- Music by Lain Schifrin'+ Produced by IRVING ALLEN
Directed by HENRY LEVIN 'A Meadway Claude Picture -TECHNICOL.OR
ENDS TODAY
Shows at 1 :00-
3 :00-5:00-7:00-9:00 P.M.
' 4pow ~ fReaeed thr
PANAViSiON'O UNITED
COLOR by DeLuxe ARTISTS
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GRAND PRIZE WINNER
1966 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
"A BEAUTIFUL FILM"-The New Ygrker
"A beautiful and sometimes breathtaking exposition
of visual imagery. A free,vigorous cinematic style.
Incidents that have poignancy and charm."
-Bosley Crowther. N.Y. Times
'
11
IS OPE.N
during your day
Stop in for coffee, doughnuts, hot cider
also
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