Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, April 14, 1972 THE MICHiGAN DAILY Friday, April 14, 1972 I Macbeth Campus Without outlandishly chang- ing the setting, costuming, or lush Shakespearean language, Roman Polanski has created a "modern version" of Macbeth. While injecting a generous dose of spilt blood, overt sexuality, and the muddy squalor of Me- dieval times, Polanski has still endeavored to avoid relegating that fellow Shakespeare to a meagre billing below the direc- tor, cinematographer, and make- up man. In a casting coup, the Mac- beth couple is played by young people, including a fair-haired and attractive Lady Macbeth (clearing up that age-old mys- tery over why he ever listened to her anyway). The sexual im- agery is carried all the way through - even the witches are seen naked in their steaming, evil lair. The Godfather Michigan Director Francis Coppola has magically transformed Mario Puzo's The Godfather into more than a three-hour gangster 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 Godfath- er's youngest son, slowly turns from smooth-faced war hero to ice-water-veined Mafioso, links are established between the un- derworld and the land of Amer- ard Vole (Tyrone Power), ac- cused of murdering an old biddy who left him a large will. Vole is defended by Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton) who plays tht part of a cranky Miss Marple, almost a parody of Win- ston Churchill. He also has a heart condition, which means that he needs a nurse, Miss Plimsoll (Elsa Lanchester). Billy Wilder has integrated the humorous with the dramatic, avoiding the potential boredom of a long procession of witnesses, though much of the credit must go to Laughton. No, it was not Ms. Peacock in the conservatory with a wrench. -Peter Munsing * * * Dr. Chicago; Dr. Chicago, Ride Modern Languages Building I have no doubt that 30 years from now when folks look back teurish, student films elicting self-conscious yuks of narcis- sism; they are carefully crafted and studded with gems, most of which shine as bright as, or brighter than, any screen comedy in the last decade, though a few of the gems admittedly have a dull gloss. But then nobody, not even Manupelli, is perfect. Al- most should be good enough. Friday and Saturday. * * * Rugles of Red Gap Cinema Guild Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) features Charles Laughton as Ruggles, a pudgy, droll, and ir- resistible comic butler. Ruggles, lost by his original master in a card game, is hurled into the American frontier, life of Red Gap, where he learns that men are created equal and that even the lowliest of men are allowed to place their left foot upon the cinemci weekend status of a film classic. No, not a UNESCO goodwill film about India (though the film does docu- ment the modernization of In- dia), but a sophisticated, hu- man, and brilliant work. Pather Panchali (Song of the Road-1954) is the first of the film cycle and Ray's first movie. Here, Ray first established his lyrical, Indian version of Neo- Realism. Most actors are non- professionals, much of the movie is filmed on location, the film's subject is everyday life in a poor village. The plot, if it can be called a plot, concerns Apu as a small boy, his sister, his ideal- istic father and his practical mother. The pace is very slow- Indian life is much less hurried than ours-and the tone is both matter-of-fact and poetic. Fri- day. Aparajito (The Unvanquished -1957) picks up Apu and his parents now living in the city of Benares. Apu is now approach- ing his early teens. His father dies. He and his mother move to a smaller village where Apu goes to school. Then to college at the University of Calcutta. All of the virtues attributed to Pather Pan- chali are attributed to Apara- Aito--fine photography, beautiful compositions, exceptional music (written by Ray, played by Ravi Shankar), and most importantly a. touchingly humane vision. Sat- urday. The World of Apu completes the cycle. Apu is now an adult. He marries a woman he has never met out of loneliness, a sense of friendship, and a sense of Hindu custom, and he learns quickly to love the girl. Ray wrote the story line of World himself (the other two screen- plays were based on a popular Indian novel), and this film is somewhat different from its pre- decessors. It is more quickly paced, more Western, less fo- cused on India's past, but it faithfully completes the trilogy. Sunday. The final impact of all three films is reputedly enormous. (Not seen at press time). -Richard Glatze; . The Epic that Never Was Cinema Giuld When Alexander Korda decided to produce a film version of Robert Graves' novel I Claudius, he wanted to do a top notch job. So he hired Joseph von Sternberg as director and Char- les Laughton as Claudius, the Roman emperor. Which soon turned out to be a mistake; von Sternberg saw Claudius as a di- rector's movie while Laughton saw it as an actor's showcase. After several weeks of unpleas- ant shooting, Merle Oberon, the female lead, was involved in an auto accident. Everyone work- ing on the film agreed; this was a fine opportunity to can the works. I Claudius was never conpleted. In 1965, almost 30 years after the original project was forsak- en, BBC television decided to produce a documentary investi- gating why a potentially great film, one that had already in- curred many expenses, was so quickly and almost gleefully abandoned. The result: The Epic that Never Was-highlights of the existing original footage 'in- tercut with interviews with Obe- SHOWCASE 4! ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE ARENA THEATRE THRU SAT. Box Office opens 2:00 ron, von Serntberg, Graves, and others, and narrated in a very British manner by Dirk Bogarde. Saturday. -Richard Glatzer TV & Stereo Rentals $10.00 per month EEO DEPOSIT FREE DELIVERY, PICK UP AND SERVICE CALL: NEJAC TV RENTALS 662-5671 FREE AM & FM Stereo FREE! WITH PURCHASE OF ANY '72 TOYOTA FREE TOYOTA of Ann Arbor 11 - ---- CINEMA II aud. a; angell hail Shows at 7 & 9:00 P.M. Tickets on sale at 6-75c THIS WEEKEND: THE APU TRI LOGY Dir. by Satyajit Ray; Indian "APU, whose conscious- ness develops from the village life of 'Panther Panchali' and the univer- sity life of 'APARAJITO,' m a r r i e s the exquisite Sharmilla T a g o r e in 'WORLD OF APU' and grows beyond self-con- sciousness. Rich and con- templative; and a great, convincing affirmation." --C,1NA ERDREICH, Cinema Retrospective FRI.--PANTHER PANCHALI (1954) SAT.- APARAJITO (1957) SUN.-THE WORLD OFAPU (1959) all films in Bengali; with music by Ravi Shankar 4r Whether it is "the way Shakespeare would have wanted it' is dubious, but if the Old Bard liked picturesque earthi- ness, he woul probably see this one more than once. -Bruce Shlain * * * The Garden of Finzi-Continis Fifth Forum Whether you think The Gar- den 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 Holo- caust 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 general react to that type of amorphous fear in the way they do. If you look at the Finsi-Con- tinis' garden as a symbol of an oligarchic aristocracy trying to ignore a world it no longer con- trols it also tells you little. I found it most successful as a love story, which is what dom- inates the plot anyway. In thi 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 in- creasingly anti-semitic Italy, beginning with Elvira Madigan-- Love Story theme music and ending with a Kaddish-type la- ment. In addition to the music the film's subtlety is marred by "lyric photography" - lots of soft, out of focus shots of leaves, or hazy vaseline-over-the-lens shots, as well as an over-empha- sized and incestuous brother- sister relationship. However the characterizations are sufficiently complex that the syrupy presentation is only a minor annoyance. It's not as bad as Sunflower, but it lacks the depth of de Sica's earlier films. Better luck next time . -Peter Munsing Hospital Fox Village Whatever may happen to you on the streets of our cities in these troubled times, there is always the chance that you'll survive with hospitalization - the last resort. Hospital com- pletes the cynical circle with a hospital that kills its patients in a bureaucratic quagmire, a world where "It is axiomatic that n u r s i n g home doctors are wrong.' The film describes the mur- ders of five medical personnel and their solution by the medi- cal director of the hospital (George C. Scott), alternating between black comedy and good potboiler. However the events are all plausible, and the plot moves quickly enough so that it never degenerates into soap opera - there are too many things going wrong to have long stretches of unadulterated angst. The tone is cynical but not despairingly so. As George C. says, life is "like pissing into the wind" but he does it anyway. -Peter Munsing ican dreams, which Michael had belonged to. On this level, The Godfather becomes a film about the very nature of the quest for power. -Bruce Shlain The Last Picture Show State Theater Anarene, Texas-1951: I guess you had to be there at the time. I just can't get worked up about The Last Picture Show, though I can see why it's so popular among critics and the film-going public. It's a simple narrative, no flash backs, no New York style neurotics, just plain folks, a time when things were simple. Director Bogdanovich, a critic and film historian, has photo- graphed it in black and white to give it that authentic classic feeling. Which is part of the problem- its main point seems to that this is 1951, not surprising when you consider that Bogdanovich has compared it thematically with Orson Welles' Magnificent Ander- sons. However I happen to think that the change from the nine- teenth to the twentieth centuries was a true change of eras, that Bogdanovich's metaphor of the small t h e a t r e is pretentious whereas Welles' use of the car was natural, and that overall Andersons was a helluva lot bet- ter film. The Last Picture Show is a good TV show (another era-now it would be a made-for-TV movie) and equally forgettable. Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bot- toms) has the hots for the local rich girl, as does everyone else including his buddyrDuane (Jeff Bridges). He discovers something like love with the wife of his high school football coach, and with the interitance of the town's pool hall, he passes into man- hood as America goes through a change of life. Nice, linear, unconfusingabut it didn't tell me much about friendship, love or the early fif- ties except that they had a dust problem. -Peter Munsing * * * Witness for the Prosecution Cinema Guild With a script by Agatha Chris- tie, you know this film is going to be mere courtroom drama in the Perry Mason tradition. The witness for the prosecution is Marlene Dietrich, who is testi- fying against her husband Leon- DANCE ELLSWORTH-ELLIS THESIS CONCERT Friday and Saturday April 14& 15 8 P.M. Schorling Auditorium School of Education FREE on our films (McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Dirty Harry, The God- father), they'll shake their heads and grouse, "Movies today aren't as good as they used to be . except maybe comedy." Why the exception? Because aside from the biennial Woody Allen epic, there just isn't very much funny happening on the screen. Sure, Norman Lear can try to resur- rect Preston Sturges' old eye- brow-arching, but in the 70's cynicism comes off as really cyn- ical and not sympathetic. Sure, Peter Bogdanovich can scoop up the wacky screwball formula and try to set it down in our modern soil, but that transplant doesn't take either. Ours is the era, of the Great Stone Face. Thank God we have George Manupelli (cinematography prof at the U) struggling in the comic mines and making a claim as one of the best comedy directors ai'ound. His claim is well justi- fied. Not too many people have heard of Manupelli or his fan- tastic creation, Dr. Alvin Chi- cago, which just goes to show how slowly genius surfaces in our cultures-even a genius as neces- sary, amid the humorlessness, as Manupelli's. His are not ama- $ . &I* $2.OO rail of the corner saloon. Not just buffoonery - Ruggles' wrestling with his traditional habits vs. his new environment manages to say a lot about the Old West. Friday. --Bruce Shlain The Apu Trilogy Cinema H We Americans, no matter how cosmopolitan we may try to be, have an insti11ed prejudice against Eastern culture. Take the Chinese ballet recently tele- vised here; I was totally amazed how finely photographed that film was. Much better than any American film of stage action I've seen. Satyajit Ray is another case in point. Can an Indian from West Bengal make good films? Well, in spite of our tendency to dis- regard Eastern art, The Apu Trilogy has by now achieved the 907 N. Main 663-8567 Open Mon. and Thurs. till 9 p.m. Sat., April 15 8 p.m. Power Center ..-....-... . DR. CHIC AG is back "the underground film classic" Special Benefit Sponsored by Students for Walter Shapiro, Candidate for U.S. Congress the original DR. CHICAGO Friday, April 14 AND RIDE, DR. CHICAGO, RIDE Saturday, April 15 7 and 9:30 p.m. Modern Language Bldg. Aud. 3 Tickets $1 at the Fishbowl or at the door the incredible Robert Pete Williams, Discovered in Angola State Prison, like Leadbelly, Robert Pete williams was able to sing his way out. One of the most intense and moving artists of blues today, in one of his rare appearances in the North. A hit at the New- port and Ann Arbor Blues Festivals, Robert Pete Williams is a man with a style of immense strength who creates blues out of his own experiences worthy of the term tragic. Perhaps the effect on his fellow prisoners in Angola' is the best testimony to his power: "T made up a sad talking blues about my family (Prisoner's Talking Blues). Some of the prisoners around there, they couldn't stand it so I had to cut off. All them prisoners, standing around crying, thinking about their homes." Son House, and Mance Lipscomb in what evening of music. ROBERT PETE WILLIAMS See Robert Pete Williams, promises to be a legendary TICKETS: $3; at Salvation Records, the Michigan Union (11-2 p.m.) or at the door ii U ow SATURDAY NIGHT, APRIL 15, 9 p.m. Bursley Hall Enterprises Presents: MAGGIE SMITH and ROBERT STEVENS in the Academy Award Winning THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE 25c popcorn charge (at door) FOR ALL THE POPCORN YOU CAN EAT! Admission complimentary SURSLEY HALL WEST CAFETERIA PRESENTS ELSA LANCASTER-Star of the Bride of Frankenstein, Witness for the Prosecution, Wife of Charles Laughton, Author of My Life with Charles ELSA LANCASTER WILL APPEAR AT 8:30 THIS EVENING IN ARCHITECTURE AUDI- TORIUM FOLLOWING THE 7:00 SCREENING OF THE EPIC THAT NEVER WAS DIR. JOSEF YON STERNBERG, 1937 Commentary and sequences from the unfinished, detailed epic I, Claudius. LAUGHTON AT HIS REAL BEST EPIC SHOWN AT 7 & 9:30 P.M. ELSA LANCASTER WILL APPEAR ONLY 4i ::5:?t - w-*- -- -