THE MICHIGAN DAILY
'Mikado Tonight
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PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Bigelow Explains Disarmament Protest
Cinena 'ud4
PRESENTS.
although they need not be. When
capitalism goes abroad it sets up
feudal empires. Then the demo-
cratic nation has to come in and
defend the feudal system."
"The tragedy is that our qov-
ernment was designed to protect
individuals against government
abuse. And now it is performing
those abuses. Institutions have al-
ways thought that man was dis-
pensable. I think he is not."
LAST MINUTE--Preparations are in the final stage for the
opening of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society season with "Mikado"
at 8:30 p.m. today at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. When the
curtain rises all will be transported to the land of Japan in the
city of Titipu where the antics of an errant Prince make all
almost lose their heads over love.
ALBERT BIGELOW
. on disarmament
ETCHING EXHIBITION: -
Joachim, Stechow View Rembrandt's Influence
2 4 4 4...'
Thursday and Friday Cinema
Guild, heartened by last semes-l
ter's response, is presenting an-
other documentary program.
The Hunters gives an intimate
glimpse into the lives of the
Bushmen of Southwest Africa,
a people still living in the Stonej
Age. To survive in the barren
Kalahari Desert has meant anj
adaptation in which the men
hunt animals with a keenness
that engages all their powers
and impresses the civilized on-
looker as an uncanny and fasci-
nating skill. We live for thirteen
days with the tribe as they hunt
down the giraffe whose death
insures their existence. Pro-
duced by the Peabody Museum,
this color film won the Robert
Flaherty Award in 1958 and the
Grand Prize at Florence in 1959.
It is not often realized that
Robert Flaherty was himself a'
Michigander, born at Iron
Mountain and educated here.
The wilderness exerted such a
powerful attraction on him that
for many years he lived as a
hunter and explorer in upper
Canada. His interest in people
who lived in a constant battle
with nature made him wish to
document their lives, which he
felt were heroic and grand in a
world that was increasingly
mechanized. Revillon Freres,
the French fur concern, which
the French fur concern, which
he knew from his own opera-
tions, was persuaded to back a
film of Eskimo life. Nanook of
the North, In 1922, made Fla-
herty internationally famous.
But Flaherty could not work
well within the commercial
framework of the movie indus-
try, and his subsequent, works
were few: Moana, Man of Aran,
The Land, and Louisiana Story,
issued scatteringly over the next
quarter of a century, estab-
lished his eminence as "the fa-
ther of the documentary."
Man of Aran, his first sound'
film, recounts the lives of the
people on a windswept group of
islands off the coast of Ireland,
the same people whom Synge
immortalized in Riders to the
Sea and other works. Flaherty's
is the film equivalent of Synge's
verbal poetry. The storm scenes
have never been equalled. Fla-
herty, who refused to work with
uncongenial subjects, found in
these islands, where seaweed is
saved for soil, a perfect outlet
for his poetic primitivism; and'
many consider this his finest
film. It has not been -shown in
Ann' Arbor since the Flaherty
Festival of eight or nine years
ago.
We hope that the wide audi-
ence that we are trying to reach
will not be put off by a conde-
scension of the word "primi-
tviism." It appears to have con-
notations of escapism and un-
reality. But the metaphysic of
primitivism involves the at-
tempt of the human heart .to
believe in heroism when the
epics of our society no longer
carry conviction. Who can say
this is unreal? Great and semi-
nal works of art have precisely
this oneiric appeal, a belief that
outreaches understanding.
In contrast to Flaherty, a
dedicated person, Alfred Hitch-
cock has a huge popular public,
since his fame is broadcast
throughout the land by the ap-
paratus of commerce. An excel-
lent technician who has become
quite bored with his technique,
Hitchcock must not 'be ap-
praised by the flabby works of
his recent years, which do not .
shrink from any device of cheap
trickery. The critics who ac-
claimed him for his master of
suspense in the 1930's-he never
then resorted to horror devices
-would have been astounded
by a glimpse Into the future,
the lifelessness of The Wrong
Man, the silliness of To Catch a
Thief, the gimmickism of The
Rear Window, and the crude-
ness of Psycho. But it must be
admitted that even so recent a
film as North By Northwest re-
deenled itself by the scene on
the super - highway. Vintage
Hitchcock should be exciting to
the person who has thought
that the watered-down beer of
this recent output represented
good' suspense films. The Lady
Vanishes shows Hitchcock's tal-
ents at their peak; but The 39
Steps, which we are showing
this weekend, is almost equally
good. The average citizen who
gets strangely mixed -up with. a
ruthless gang is an idea that
greatly interests the contempo-
rary audience. This film shows
that Hitchcock's reputation had
once a .real basis. On the same
program is another of Disney's
beautifully photographed nature
shorts, Bear Country. We warn
the viewer that the vulgarity of
the comment and the music
may be an offsetting factor.
like a brushtroke, in his etchings,
he said. Joachim traced the "deep-
ening of tones and texture" from
Rembrandt's picture of his mother,
through that of the "Great Jewish
Bride," "Doctor Faustus," "Doctor,
Toylinks," to the "Older Lutmar"
"one of the finest works in the
exhibition."
Simpler Attitude
A working towards a "simple
broader attitude," and psycholo-
gical interpretation can be defined
in Rembrandt's work. Joachim
said. He traced the treatment of
the presentation of Christ in the
temple theme toward several dif-
ferent interpretations in the art-
ists' work.
At the beginning, the picture
has a complex arrangement, and is
a straight etching, he explained.
Six years later, Rembrandt again
treated this theme, this time with
more tone, and a diagonal ar-
rangement; the best treatment of
the theme is in the "presentation"
done in the "dark manner," in the
museum's exhibit, in which there
is an interplay of etching and
drypoint, an enrichment of sub-
Ject and concentration, and a
great warmth and tone, Joachim
said.
Rembrand't use of drypoint
reached its apex in the "Three
Crosses" of 1653, in which the
whole plate was done in drypoint,
which Joachim called an "incred-
ible undertaking." In the artist's
last years, he did not etch, he
concluded.
Opposing Treatments
Prof. Stechow pointed out two
opposing treatments of nature in
Rembrandt's works -- one type,
which was dramatic and imagina-
tive, "expressing the turmoils of
the soul," and the other, in which
nature is accepted as a "guide, not
as a means of expressing his own
turbulent spirit."
The etchings belong to the works
of this second group. They have a
"less spontaneous, more formal
quality than the drawings," Prof.
Stechow said.
Portrait Placement
Zagas also used the portrait-like
placement of the main object in
a landscape foreground, which
Rembrandt followed, he said. Later
in his work Rembrandt placed his
subjects farther back, Pfor. Stec-
how,. said.
The rectangular landscapes, he
said, are "held back" from too
great an expansion by the bowl-
like curve of the lines.
The influence of Rembrandt can
be traced in "outright imitations,
high quality freer assimilation,
and association ofnRembrants
ideas by independent artists,"
Prof. Stechow said.
In the first group fall two artists
who were students of the master,
and have achieved little individual
fame. These painters copied the
motifs of the Rembrandt works,
he noted.
Rysdale Like Rembrandt j
Jacob Van Rysdale, was con-
nected with Rembrandt by his use
of subject matter andI interpreta-I
tion, and his formal organization.
The use of dramatic foregrounds is
found in his work, also as well as
landscapes with city above the
horizon line, after Rembrandt,
rather than below it. as was the
usual in Dutch painting, Prof.
Stechow added.
In the nineteenth century, use
of drypoint, and of dramatic "por-
trait" foreground, and a vague
resemblance to the clarity and
neatness of the early Rembrandt
etchings was found.
HAROLD JOACHIM
. on technique
WOLVER INE CLUtB
OHIO STATE TRIP
NOVEMBER 18-20.
For information
or reservations
call NO 5-8215
between 3 and 5 P.M.
or NO 5-8367 any time
Read DailyClassf
DRAMATIC ARTS CENTER
presents
SETC. and POETRY
Friday 8 P.M. Ann Arbor Public Library
Open to DAC member.s Memberships
at $2 (students $1) sold at the door.
rm <-o o=om s m s m s m
FACULTY-STUDENT COFFEE HOUR
with the Political Science
Department. All students
are
welcome with special
I
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