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 Da ily Classif ied Ads Guild tonight and tomorrow. 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 ,she's the worldkni b heatiful WATE rnetro-goldwyn-mayerpe flatAleM"o "~starrng jafibannen di p6eefak ila b , 1af mli1 Fo bel >s{ TO DAY* Dial 5-6290 Mays, ho- T R TOMORROW at 1 3:00 7:15 :00 5:05 9:25 licksliaw Wmn~ lou jaoobiN. iters in avision~wdMettMIOor COLUMBIA PICTURES Presents An IRVING ALLEN Ptoduction DEAN MARTIN as MC HELM. f SI 11 "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 4 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 i i t I 1 r t 1 HOLY MOLEY! TOM RUSH I . I - e * - -_I CLAUDE GIROUX PRESENTS * A £ lLiI * Ir &na 4