Page 2-Sunday, December 3, 1978-The Michigan baily

The Michigan Doily-5undoy,

RAMBLINGS/m. elle en

daley

FILMchri'istopher potter

M Y ROOMMATE, Wanda, poured
generous portions of Southern
Comfort into our tall monogrammed
glasses. It was an early Saturday
evening, and we were downing Scarlett
O'Haras-our customary prepping
before going to town on victorious foot-
ball weekends.
We were very into Southern Comfort
during our frosh year, delighting pri-
marily in Scarlett O'Haras, which are
a mixture of the aformentioned liquor
and cranberry juice. On that particular
evening however, local stores were void
.of CJ, so we made do by quaffing
Southern Comfort and fruit punch, a
mixture we named "frunch pruich"
because that's what I kept calling the
fruit punch after my second drink. We
had a tendency to make our beverages
a bit strong when we were younger.
As a I mixed our fourth round, Wan-
da, in a drunken stupor and dressed
only in her underwear, stood in the win-
dow and yelled obscene phrases at
passersby.
Word was that were was a good party
at South Quad (yes, and if we knew then
what we . . .) so after another drink or
two or three we were off to Our First
South Quad Party, which was a bore.
Half the fresh-faced frosh were con-
tinuously in line for beer, and the other

half simply stood staring at each other.
We decided to get out of there. As we
were leaving, we ran into Dave, a South
Quad R.A. and my then-boyfriend
Paul's best friend Sean's brother. When
Wanda and I expressed our utter
apathy for his establishment's so-called.
bash, Dave suggested we try the party
at the dental frat. We didn't know how
to get there, so Dave offered to escort
us.
When we got to the dental frat, Dave
quickly exited, explaining that since he
was neither a dental student nor
female, he was not welcome there. We
should have left with Dave, because the
dental frat party made South Quad look
like Mari Gras. After 10 minutes we
agreed to leave and go home.
Once outside, we realized we didn't
have the slightest idea where we were.
"This way I think," said Wanda ner-
vously.
"No," I said, "I think it's this way."
"Oh my God, how are we going to get
home?"
I sure didn't know. We walked a few
blocks-nothing seemed familiar and
there was no one on the street to ask
directions.
That's the last thing either of us
remembers, although somehow the
next morning we awoke in our own

room.
I lost my taste for Southern Comfort
soon after that, opting now for Pims
and other such chic drinks. Wanda,
however, had bouts with the stuff for at
least another year, her brain turned to
molton scrambled eggs weekends on
end.
LAST YEAR, the Friday night
before the Texas A & M game,
Wanda and some other women living on
her hall polluted themselves with
Southern Comfort, then tripped down to
a local bar to drink, more Southern
Comfort. The bar was packed and there
was an unusual abundance of big drunk
Texans wearing obnoxious ten gallon
hats. The Aggies got rowdy and laun-
ched into A & M cheer, locking their
hands, extending pinkies to symbolize
longhorns.
"This is making me ill." Wanda mut-
tered. "I've got to do something." She
jumped onto the table singing "Hail to
the Victors." To her surprise,
everybody in the place, save Aggies,
sang along with her. She did a cheer,
another cheer, and everyone cheered
with her. The management turned off
the taped music, and Wanda let loose,
screaming and gyrating in her best
cheerleader fashion. The Texans sang
their fight song but Wanda and her

followers drowned them out with
another chorus of "Hail to the Victors."
It was much like that scene at Rick's in
Casablanca, and certainly it was just as
intense.
A few months later, Wanda and her
lab partner, Terry, each brought a bot-
tle of Southern Comfort to their final.
They stashed the booze under their
chairs, and when they handed in their
tests, they grabbed the bottles and
headed for the Arb where they soon
finished every drop. Nearly -stoned to
death, Terry returned to South Quad
where she and her roommate were
having a party for other chem test
refugees, and Wanda returned to our
dorm, where she tried to sober up by
taking a two-hour shower. When she
realized she couldn't sober up, she went
over to Terry's for more Southern Com-
fort.
At the party, Wanda was told that the
head of the chem labs, Alec Greely,
said that because so much lab equip-
ment had been broken during the term,
no one would get an A. Wanda, who was
expecting an A, became furious. She
took a great swig of Southern Comfort,
marched to the window, punched out
the screen and drooped it down eight
stories.
See RAMBLINGS, Page 8

'Girl Friends' :Unheralded

IF YOU BINKED once too often
recently, you may have easily
missed the vmherdlded opening of the
film Girl Friends at the Michigan
Theater. Released months ago nation-
wide, the picture belatedly sneaked into
Ann Arbor over Thanksgiving vacation
accompanied by a thunderous lack of
fanfare in the local media.
It may have already left town by the
time you read this article; it's doubly
sad if you failed to catch it, since Girl
Friends is a double rarity. It's a film
that makes you think (in contrast to the"
current, wretched cinema era of "pure
entertainment"), but more importantly
it's probably the first major "woman's
film," both in conception and
execution, that our domestic picture in-
dustry has allowed to be produced. And
what a complex gem of a trailblazer
Girl Friends turns out to be.
Although show biz has traditionally
congratulated itself on the notion that it
is one of the few occupations that por-
trays and welcomes equality of the
sexes, such smug assertions prove
moderately true only in front of the
footlights or camera, never behind
them. (And even from an actors' stan-
dpoint a double standard exists due to
the simple lack of female roles as com-
pared with the number available for
men; go to any audition and watch twice
the number of women than men present
compete for half the number of parts.)
The concept of women actually par-
ticipating in the creation of a work, par-
ticularly in the film medium, always
seems to have struck Hollywood's
moguls as a quaintly pixilated
idea-"let the sweet young dears emote
for the audience and make us a lot of
money, but for God's sake don't let
them tax their pretty little noggins by
thinking."
Occasionally a Lillian Hellman or a
Ruth Gordon would break the caste

system with a screenplay or two, but
they tended to be regarded as kind of
supra-sexual anomalies. Later on,
directors like Agnes Varda and Lena
Wertmuller would draw acclaim in
Europe; yet until the last few years, in
America, the thought of a woman
literally running the entire show ob-
viously seemed as far-fetched and
perhaps terrifying to the industry
barons as the thought of a woman
president.
Now along comes a young artist
named Claudia Weill to effectively
shatter this hallowed, if publically
unrecognized male domain. Still =in her
twenties and with only one feature film
(a documentary on China) to her credit,
Weill has, with Girl Friend; concocted a
stunningly crafted mainstream debut.
Her deeds perhaps outdo her words:
my only previous exposure to her was
listening to a debilitatingly bland radio
interview in which, among very few
other things, she stated her ultimate
cinematic dream was to someday
direct a film starring Clint Eastwood.
Given that and a few other less-than-
Parthenian ambitions, I began to won-
der whether, in the case of Girl Friends,
the moguls' traditional apprehensions
might prove correct. Fortunately,
Weill's finished product thoroughly
negates any preconceived doubts.
Girl Friends was begun in 1975 with a
grant from the American Film In-
stitute, and first was intended as a short
film for public television. When Weill's
China documentary was subsequently
nominated for an Academy Award, the
attendant publicity vastly enchanced
the economic flexibility of the Girl
Friends project.
C ONFRONTED WITH such unex-
pected luxury, Weill and co-writer
Vicki Polon revamped and expanded
their project into a full-length feature,

Melanie Mayron, left, captures the loneliness of u
in "Girl Friends." Claudia Weill, right, directed t


Sundaymagaze BneCRSTIC PUZZLE

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1 3I1 4I2 95 v

S 109101 0 E B 1

Q 106JJ107 tT 10

__________ -4-'-

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S13 E 134
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P 17 3 175

S 11' P113 G:
B 13jx13

114R 1151C 1161

T 137 N 138 1

I 117jD 118|1]
K 139 iC140 S

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>K l8 N l 9 ag 9 E 191 R 192 D 193

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BY
S TEPHEN J.
POZSGAI
Copyright 1978
INSTRUCTIONS
Guess the words defined at the
left and write them in over
their numbered dashes. Then,
transfer each letter to the cor-
responding numbered square
in the grid above. The letters
printed in the upper-right-hand
corners of the squares indi-
cate from what clue-word a
particular square's letter
comes from. The grid, when
filled in, should read as a
quotation from a published
work. The darkened squares
are the spaces between words.
Some words may carry over
to the next line. Meanwhile,
the first letter of each guessed
word at the left, reading down,
forms an acrostic, giving the
author's name and the title of
the work from which the quote
is extracted. As words and
phrases begin to form in the
grid, you can work back and
forth from clues to grid until
the puzzle is complete.

then talked Warner Bros. into
distributing it on a bigtime level.
Though the film's final budget of
$500,000 was still microscopic by in-
dustry standards, Girl Friends exudes
an astonishing professionalismn that is
intertwined with an obvious, im-
passioned involvement with its subject
matter-a stark contrast to the mer-
cenary slickness of Hollywood's
current crop of epics.
Girl Friends' plot is laced with humor
and sex, but essentially gives testimony
to the abject loneliness of urban living.
It poignantly details just how
frightening and difficult it is to achieve
or, subsequently, to maintain good
relationships, especially in an en-
vironment which promotes imper-
sonality.
The story's protagonists are Susan
and Anne, postgraduate roommates in
a New York City apartment. Susan

~! 1 10

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dreams
photogra
is a woul
Anne ult
hand-in-
marriage
other thrc
and frust
given fa:
than is S
news to
marry he
For Su
abrupt de
an umbi
chorless,
compreh
As Girl f
her reac
trying to
abortivel
sitive, pa
pictures
snobbish
affair wi
never ge
engages
wane al
acquaintz
Periodi
new envi
try hom
fastidiouE
couples'
fection, it
has turi
satisfying
affair. Su
husband'
days wh(
miserate
knows th
gone for
finally a
person ex
finds the
fully sma
solitude.
Though
beat in
spright in
tial for
proves ap
has af Pin
ters often
phrases ld
in betwe
budget b
tackiness
and well-I

A. Questionable; malodorous
8. Futility: ineffectuality
C. Sea monster
D. Lasting; established
E. Science (2 words)
F. Modify; replace
G. Straighten
H. Triangular pyramid
i. Producing effects
. Allow for extra expenses or
K %CJ cks (3 words)
K. Cl:;sod _,sp
1. lo1;er >ST; -

24 61 36 79 67
25 1 44 .94 98 103 119 135 144 164 169
43 63 158 116 140 9 15 183 56
60 105 23 54 87 97 120 118 147 131 193 73
4 72 103 88 124 134 150 191 53 168
12 165 171 179 14
46 91 2 184 186 26 40
6 16 20 148 48 65 71 28 176 110 121
18 126 93 152 117 85 123
37 29 77 104 107 125 142 82 122 167 173 180
3 17 109 27 39 51 64 139 154 187 178 159
11 50 92 145 160 81 166 76 177

M. Science of metaphysics
N. Cigarette butt
0. Desert refuge
P. Body cycles_
Q. Interval between an order and
its delivery (2 words)
R. Nihilist; vandal
S. The appearance or semblance
of truth
T. Having two equal sides
U. Trying to look wise
V. Movements that break with
tradition (2 words)

22 30 130 151 188 163 101 70
33 157 75 138 98
38 59 8 133 155
42 61 127 146 162 156 113 174 89 55
68 80 90 31 106 129 47 153
7 21 149 49 192 115 143 170 136 78
62 13 34. 52 74 84 141 112 128 189 161 175
185 100
32 10 181 19 132 66 95 108 137
57 182 111 41 83 45
5 35 58 172 69 190 86 96

Answer to Previous Puzzle
All the vegetable sedatives
and narcotics, all the
euphorics that grow on trees,
the hallucinogeis that ripen in
berries or can 1w squeezed
from f o : ;11 , with out
111"o hv wn known
;Wf .,V' t4'hO tjC \ usae d 1w
(1 i a i i tilH frIno lifili
T h los u1e
PERCEPTIO

Melanie Mayron and Anita Skinner play best friends separated by marriage in a scee from "Girl Friends."

22 14,- '. - ,f. .


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