Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
i . Friday, Apri17, 1972
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, April 7, 1972
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To Die in Madrid
Cinema II
A complete and detailed ac-
count of one of the more horrible
events of this century-the Span-
ish Civil War. Director Frederic
Rossif presents only the facts;
newsreel footage from Moscow,
London, Paris, Berlin and New
York unsparingly show both the
poverty of the liberal yet inef-
ficient reign of Alfonso and
Franco's heartless slaughter of
his own people. But the narra-
tion (by John Gielgud and Irene
Worth among others) and the
music by Maurice Jarre express
a great sorrow and revulsion at
the Fascist victory and the
grand scale murder that brought
it about. (Not viewed at press
time.) Friday and Saturday.
* * *
Maidstone
Conspiracy
If you've seen Norman Mailer
on talk shows you know how he
can smother his ideas by his in-
sistence on presenting himself,
interesting though that self may
be. This problem occurs in
Maidstone, an expensive home
movie made by Mailer with a
cast of his friends-Rip Torn,
Jose Torres, , and Joy Bang
among others--hoping to prove
that "One can make a beautiful,
tasteful, resonant, touching, evo-
cative picture with cinema verite
methods in four days. "If we
can do it, a lot of people but in
Hollywood are going to commit
suicide."
The original idea was to pre-
sent hisassembled minions with
the plot and let them improvise.
Norman T. Kingsley (Mailer),
comes to Long Island to film a
parody of Belle du Jour, and in
the course of the film-Mailer's,
not Kingsley's -Kingsley would
be proposed as a presidential
candidate, subject to assassina-
tion attempts, interviews, wo-
men, and personal relations of
various shades. Mailer's method
was to have as many cameras
as practical, so that as much as
possible could be captured on
film; which meant, despite two
years of editing, bad as well as
good; apparently the high point
of the film is an uintended fight
between Mailer and Torn, and
the ensuing dialogue by Mailer.
As far as I know nobody in Hol-
lywood's committed suicide re-
cently. (Not seen at time of
review.)
--Peter Munsing
-
crnema
weekend
The Garden of the
Findi-Continis
Fifth Fortim
Whether you think The Garden
of the Finzo-Continis is good or
bad depends on how you look at
it. If you see it as a film about
Jews awaiting the Holocaust it's
only mildly successful-it doesn't
say all that much about why
some Jews left and why some
waited, or why people in gen-
eral react to that type of amor-
phous fear in the ways they do.
If you look at the Finzi-Continis'
garden as a symbol of an olig-
archic aristocracy trying to ig-
nore a world it no longer controls
it also tells you little.
I found it most successful as
a love story, which is what dom-
inates the plot anyway. In this
context the film's setting is
merely that - not the major
theme. The basic story is the
unrequited love of Giorgio, a
middle class Jewish boy, for
Micol Finzi-Contini in an increas-
ingly antisemitic Italy, beginning
with Elvira Madigan-Love Story
theme music and ending with a.
Kaddish-type lament. In addition
to the music the film's subtlety
is marred by "lyric photog-
raphy"-lots of soft, out of focus
shots of leaves, or hazy vaseline-
over-the-lens shots, as well as an
over-emphasized hinting at an
incestuous brother - sister rela-
tionship.
However the characterizations
are sufficiently complex that the
syrupy presentation is only a
minor annoyance. The Garden of
the Finzin-Continis is directed
by Vittorio de Sica, so if it was
a nebbish romance it would have
to be the greatest directoral de-
cline in film history, but it also
means that you expect a lot
more of it.
-Peter Munsing
* * *
Mingus
A Life Well Spent
Cinema II
Mingus' strong point is also its
weakness -it was filmed while
Charlie Mingus was waiting to
be arrested for non-payment of
rent, which means that it has
great potential for being heavy.
This can be good-heavy, giving
some insight into Mingus, or
hernia heavy-"The public per-
secution and artistic assassina-
ion. of a jazz artist as performed
by the inmates of the cityof
New York." It also meant that
the director had only three to
four hours of film footage from
which to select the final cuts,
so interspersed with genuine in-
sight is Mingus play-acting for
the camera, which may have
some insight of itself but not
much more than you might get
from any random conversation
with him.
Also on the program is A Life
Well Spent, a film about coun-
try-blues singer Mance Lipscomb
and black country life in gen-
eral. If you like Son House or
early Mississippi Fred MacDo-
well you could probably dig it.
(Not seen at time of review).
Sunday.
-Peter Munsing
* * *
The Godfather
Michigan
Director Francis Coppola has
magically transformed M a r i o
Puzo's The Godfather into more
than a three-hour g a n g s t e r
movie. Without diluting the vio-
lent aspects of the hoodlums,
some great acting by Marlon
Brando and Al Pacino makes it
obvious that, although they are
heartless with respect to their
"business," they are much more
than killers. As an old man we
see Brando, playing the God-
father, romping in the garden
with his grandson. Somehow in
the context of the movie the
image of the ruthless Mafia
chieftain and the doting grand-
father are reconciled.
When Michael, the Godfather's
youngest son, slowly turns from
smooth-faced war hero to ice-
water-veined Mafioso, links are
established between the under-
world and the land of American
dreams, which Michael had be-
longed to. On this level, The
Godfather becomes a film about
the very nature of the quest for
power.
-Bruce Shlain
The Lady Eve
Cinema Guild
In the 1940's,Preston Sturges
was the best director of "sophis-
ticated comedies." In The Lady
Eve, his touch for combining
romance with pratfall farce is
very much in evidence. Starring
Barbara Stanwyck and Henry
Fonda, the story revolves around
a con man's daughter and her
adventurous attempts to ensnare
a millionaire. (Not seen at time
of review.) Friday.
* * *
MacBeth
Campus
Roman Polanski has made a
version of Shakespeare's Mac-
Beth, replete with goriness and
naked witches. The movie, spon-
sored by Hugh Hefner, is Play-
boy's first endeavor in the
cinema. Predictably, the sexual
tensions of the play have been
emphasized by the fact that the
two leading roles have been
given to y o u n g performers,
when they have traditionally
been played by distinguished,
experienced theatre people like
Ralph Richardson, Olivier, etc.
(Not seen at time of review.)
Zabriskie Point
Cinema Guild
Politics are often confused
aesthetics. Take Zabriskie
it, for example. Antonioni's
ie seems to be well liked
znd Ann Arbor; it was shown
year and here it is back
n. And no wonder; the film
s revolutionary as it can be.
k (Mark Frechette), wanted
a cop killing he did not com-
steals a plane and flies
to Death Valley. There he
ts Daria (Daria Halprin), a,
etary driving to her boss'
art palace, and the two make
in the sand. The pair then
their separate ways. Mark
gunned down trying to re-
the plane, and Daria, in the
,tacular last sequences of the
ie, envisions her boss' home
g blown apart.
retty radical. And very su-,
icial. Antonioni is an alien
i country he doesn't under-
id, and his film depicts only
aces: billboards, office build-
the desert. A beautiful and
oughly empty-headed film,
natter how revolutionary its
t may be. Saturday and
lay.
--Richard Glatzer
* * *
ade For Each Other
State Theater
ade for Each Other is not a
edy. Sure there are a few
BOX OFFICE OPEN 6:30
jokes - quiet chuckles, rarely
guffaws-but they are almost al-
ways secondary to the central
drama of two New York neu-
rotics who fall in love. Giggy
Pinimba (Joseph Bologna) is a
guilt-ridden Catholic playboy whoj
begins to doubt himself when
his most recently jilted ex-girl-
friend atempts suicide. Pandora
Gold (Renee Taylor) is a con-
fused, self-deluding, self-hating
Jew who recently found her
fiance in bed with other girls.
Both are lonely. These two meet
in an encounter session; leave
together, and
We all know that New York is
full of unhappy 30 year old sin-
gles, yet the Bolognas (the two
lead players are married in real
life), through their fine script
and acting, make Giggy and
Panda seem uniquely real. There
are faults, though. I don't like
the two personal histories inter-
woven in the film's first few
minutes (here's how Giggy and
Pondora got this way). And
TRUCKSTOP
BECKIE CHAPMAN and KAREN MANN
will be singing at Stockwell
Friday, April 7, 9:00 p.m.
ALSO FEATURED: VAkIETY ACTS
(improvisations welcome!)
NO ADMISSION CHARGE
U OF M FOLKLORE SOCIETY presents
Son House, Mance Lipscomb,
Robert Pete Williams
Stars of the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, and possibly three of the
greatest blues singers alive today.
April 15 Power Center 8:00 P.M.
ALL SEATS RESERVED-$3.00
Tickets available today and every day at the Michigan Union
ticket office from I1 A.M.-2 P.M. only.
FOR~ INFO CALL 761-6945
Don't miss 'A Life Well Spent': "A portrait of the musical route
of Mance Lipscombe" Sunday April 9, 9 pm, at Cinema I in
Angell Hall.
#i
See
CINEMA, Page 10
STATE AMATEUR BOXING
CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
4t
Saturday, April 15, 1972
Yost Field House, Ann Arbor
,._
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L 1ltr r r : - - --. .a -- -
"SHOWS STARTS AT DUSK
PM
FLY GIRLS WHO KNOW WHAT TO DO!
"Swedish Fly Girls" (R)
2 SHOWINGS NIGHTLY 7:15 & 10:35
-PLUS-
A Game Called BACKYARD BINGO!
"THE SWAPPERS"-9:10.
k1
NOVICE CHAMPIONSHIPS AND SELECTED OPEN SEMI-FINALS
1 :30 P.M., All Seats $2.00. Tickets sold only at door.
NOVICE AND OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
7:30 P.M., Balcony $2.00, Floor Bleachers $3.00, Ringside $5.00
Tickets for the open finals may be purchased at door or the U.M. Athletic Dept.
Ticket Office (State and Hoover)
Sanctioned by the Michigan Association of the AAU
AUD. A, ANGELL HALL, shows at 7 & 9 P.M.; Tickets on sale at 6
FRIDAY & SATURDAY:
TO DIE IN MADRID (French) 1965, ROSSIF dir.
Frederic Rossif directed this haunting document of the Spanish Civil War, compiling newsreel films
of the period. Intercutting intimate close-ups of victimized peasants with panoramic scenes of brutal
warfare, Rossif captures the grim brutality of this modern tragedy. Madeleine Chapsal and Maurice
Jorre, who also worked on Rossif's THE ANIMALS and THE WITNESSES, have created a memorable
script and musical score, respectively.
The director has said of the film: "All the footage has its own musical beat, and 6Or each battle
I sought the correct rhythm. For me, it is above all a film of remembrance." As a prolonged and
tormented memory, TO DIE IN MADRID bears a striking resemblance to Alain Resnais' LA GUERRE
EST FINIE.
"Starklyand stunningly memoralized . . . it traces the whole bloody business of the rise of the
republicans, the overthrow of the king, the gathering of the forces of reaction by the military and
the church . . . the intervention of the Italians and the Germans on the Franco side and the Inter-
national Brigades and the Russians in support of the republican loyalists . . . a thorough unrelenting
resume of what occurred . . . a powerful emotional experience."-Bosley Crowther, New York Times
THIS SUNDAY: MINGUS & MANCE LIPSCOMB: A LIFE WELL SPENT. See Saturday's separate ad.
NEXT weekend: SATYAJIT RAY'S INDIAN CLASSIC: THE APU TRILOGY
FRI: PATHER PANCHALI SAT: APARAJITO SUN: THE WORLD OF APU
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Falstaff-A Broadway opera
Academy Award Nominee!
BEST ACTOR: GEORGE C. SCOTT
"The Hospital" (GP)
p 2 SHOWINGS NIGHTLY AT 7:15 & 10:50
L JASON ROBARDS BRITT EKLAND
U "THE NIGHT THEY
S RAIDED MINSKY'S"
4
. By JONATHAN P. MILLER
If you seek an adventure in
1 t g h t hysterical opera, the
School of Music's production of
Falstaff at Power Center ad-
mirably fills the bill. The eve-
ning passes in a second while
Verdi or one should say Shake-
speare) expounds the folly of
man and his actions. The story's
plot jis taken from Shakespeare's
The Merry Wives of Windsor,
and the characterization of
Falstaff from Henry IV. Its
characters are concerned with
harmless revenge, and, "living
happily ever after.
Written in 1893 as the last of
Verdi's o p e r a s, one sees a
change in the composer's mu-
sic, and the work shines as his
best plot. Rather than the story
being the means towards a
grand musical expression, the
harmonies of Falstaff serve to
complement and enforce the
characterizations of its prin-
cipals. Personification of char-
acters in the music is always
evident -- a busy scherzando
accompanies the merry wives,
the mellowest lyricism surfaces
for the lovers, and one awaits
Falstaff after the blustering
phrase whose sixteenth notes
fall to short detached chords.
The bassoon signals his sar-
casm. Indeed, the music falls
so naturally to the ears, that
one perceives the opera experi-
ence with the casualness usually
reserved for a Broadway musi-
cal. Gone are the extended vo-
cal exaggeration so typical of
the bulk of Verdi's works, which
although enjoyable, tend to
relegate vocal music to the cen-
ter of attention rather than that
of an enthralling theatrical ex-
perience.
The plot concerns a portly,
good-humored, and debt-ridden
Sir John Falstaff, who seeks an
amelioration of his fortunes. His
method is to falsely woo rich,
lovely, and married ladies. He
might be successful were it not
for worldly coincidence, which
provides for a close friendship
between two women he is am-
bitious enough to "love" at the
same time. When they compare
love notes, and find them dupli-
cates, their mutual revenge be-
comes an obsession.
As befitting an easily compre-
hensible work, acting plays a
more important role than usual-
ly found in operatic works. The
players proved quite equal to
the task. Marc Gruett in the
title role. proved to be the epi-
tome of a character actor. He
typified the rowdy robust and
yet loveable pre - Elizabethan
tavern dweller, whose foremost
aim was to live life. His power-
ful baritone pushed the lessons
taught by negative responses to,
"can honor mend a leg, Can
honor fill a paunch that is emp-
ty"? Patricia Deckert was su-
perb in her mocking syncqpa-
tion of honor due, as she sang
the part of messenger to Fal-
staff. Charles Roe created an-
guish hysterical to the audience
as the jealous husband, as did
his wife in her well-defined ma-
chinations.
The consistently imaginative
blocking was especially evident
in the final scene, where the en-
semble proclaims the folly of
man. In a true romantic, chore-
ographic and musical fugue, the
chorus assembled, to come to-
gether for the final proclama-
tion of, "all the world's a stage."
The orchestra had their mo-
ments - the bad ones emanat-
ing from the violins who had no
pitch, and the excellent from
the woodwinds, who put full
heart into expression. Overall,
they, as was the entire produc-
tion, were excellent.
--- -
Academy Award Winner
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 1971
"Woodstock" (R)
SHOWN NIGHTLY AT 9:00
$2.50 PLUS $2.50
per "NAKED UNDER per
carload LEATHER" 7:15 carload
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People's Republic of China
Table Tennis Team
j]
THE WORLD'S BEST, PLAYS FOR
THE FIRST TIME AT A U.S. UNIVERSITY
_____
TONIGHT
Ann Arbor Premiere
TON IGHT
NORMAN MAILER'S
MAID
"an astonishing adventure!"-Time..
XSi
"Brilliant!"-N.Y. Times
!ONE
a mystery
1:30 p.m. Saturday, April 15
CRISLER ARENA
Tickets now on sale-First Come, First Served
Students $1 General Public $2
ATHLETIC TICKET OFFICE, Hoover and South State Streets
8:30 A.M. TO 5 P.M. DAILY
8:30 A.M. TO NOON SATURDAY
{
,Cf
!
I
with NORMAN MAILER-ULTRA VIOLET-RIP TORN-JOY BANG
'1
7:30 & 9:30
conspiracy
330 Maynard
$1, free beverage
..1
Markley Hall Council Film Festival
Presents
A Horror Weekend
Fri. and Sit.-April 7 & 8
Dining Room No. 1-7:00 p.m.
House of Wax
The Mosque of the Red Death
Creature From the Black Lagoon
Tales of Terror-Morellia
Dining Room No. 3-7:00 p.m.
-,-I - , r. i -
APRIL Photography Workshops
BEGINNERS-Learn to use your camera and light meter and then:
DEVELOP your own film, make enlargements, crop and mount your
finished photograph. FOUR DARK ROOM SESSIONS
ADVANCED-Learn to photograph a model under studio lights, push
ASA to GOOD, Make Kodalith Drop outs, murals, burning and dodg-
ing, etc.
CLASSES MEET ONCE A WEEK FOR 5 WEEKS.
All supplies furnished by the CENTRE. Workshops
are limited in size.
CLASSES begin week of April 17.
REGISTRATION ends April 12.
New Studio Location at Sight & Sound
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