4e Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Saturday, March 13, 1971 -rr
film festival
At home or at the movies
the neighbors are with you
-Daily-Denny Gainer
Ike and Tina Turner:
Unadulterated sex
By JOHN ALLENi
Thursday night was a good
night to be under 30 or (better1
yet) over 70 at the film festival:E
the silent majority of inbetweensI
who populate middle (-aged)
Amerika received some rough 4
handling during the evening. No
less than eight films were wholly
or partly a portrait of that ma-
jority, and only a few of these
were less than harsh in their
portraiture.
The harshest was also the
shortest and funniest, Bruce
Ward's superbly edited Silent Ma-3
jority - a three-and-a-half min-
ute montage of older folk gesti-
culating and running off at the
mouth wordlessly. The musical
soundtrack, with its groans and 1
oohs, provided a contrapuntal
"commentary."
Curt MacDowell's A Visit to
Indiana was also a sound-and-
image montage, mixing home-
movie footage with a conversa-
tion between two invisible people
about the recent trip home of one
of them to see the family. This
film, too, was lightly comical, but
much more affectionate than
Ward's film,
David Laurie's Motion Analysis/
Mood Evolution was an exces-
sively overlong exercise in slow-
motion technique and lab proces-
sing but it did have as a theme
the Generation Gap and perhaps
the slowness of older people to
change their values and percep-
tions in a rapidly evolving world.
The most memorable of the
portraits was Richard Meyer's
Bill and Ruby - a husband-and-
-wife team who have been run-
ning a novelty shop in Akron,
Ohio for 30 years or so. Party
hats, noisemakers, gag gifts,
masks, holiday decorations-you
name it, they sell it. Who needs
it? Obviously thousands do-*or
at least think they do, since it's
been a good business for Bill and
Ruby. Meyer's color camera and
tape recorder have captured both
the pointlessness of a life de-
voted to the merchandizing of
junk and the counterbalancing
satisfactions that the merchants
have obviously found in dealing
with products and customers
brought together for the sole par-
pose of creating a little fun. Bill
and Ruby, whatever their limita-
tions, aren't selling 'istols or
napalm or chemical pesticides.
Their portrait is at once devas-
tating and curiously moving.
Perhaps an equally moving
portrait of an entire society was
Ralph Arlyck's Natural Habitat
an absurdist glimpse of human-
ity reduced to mechanically re-
peated rituals: a vacuous blonde
hawking a no-stick frying pan m
a department store; blank-faced
men watching bottles go by in a
brewery or selling insurance at
an airport or frying donuts on a
conveyor belt; a super hip young
advertising man capitalizing. on
the gold in them thar hills of the
counterculture.
Equally absurd were the folks
in Tom Davenport's Upperville
Show - a merry-go-rounded look
at the oldest horseshow in the
U.S.A. held in Upperville, Vir-
ginia. The trees, the horses, the
show, and especially the "folks"
are all pure thoroughbreds, and
depressingly proud of it. As one
lady drawled, you really need
to have been "bawhn heah" to
be a part of it all. That is, as-
suming you wanted to be a part
of Suthrun Soe-ciety in the fust
place.
Perhaps the best of the eve-
ning's films, certainly the audi-
ence favorite, was about the
over-70's: Manse Lipscomb and
his wife and neighbors as por-
trayed in A Life Well Spent by
Les Blank and Skip Gerson.
Blank and Gerson have under-
taken the task of doing a series
of films on the vanishing oreed
of older black blues artists of
which Lipscomb is a beautiful
example. An earlier film, The
Blues According to Lightnin'
Hopkins, was shown in Ann Ar-
bor two years ago, along with
God Respects Us When We Work
but He Loves Us When We
Dance. Another film by Blank
and Gerson will be shown tonight
at 9 p.m., Spend It All.
A Life Well Spent is smoothly,
almost slickly, photographed in
rich but controlled color. It com-
bines interviews with perform-
ances by Lipscomb, capturing his
philosophy as well as his music.
His' message is love-as a man
for a woman, as a father for his
children, as a child of God who
means it when he says, "Religion
ain't nothin' but love."
The serenity of Lipscomb's
soul, the vitality of his singing
even at age 75, are well served by
the even texture of vibrant con-
tinuity of Blank and Gerson's,
filmmaking. A Life Well Spent
throws into vivid contrast the
poignancy and shallowness of a
portrait of the under-30's like
Groupy! by Jerry Aronson. Film-
ed at Goose Lake, Groupy! is an
exploitative,, shock-troop look at
a very dreary and depressing
phenomenon - one made all the
more gloomy by its juxtaposition
with the Lipscomb portrait.
Maybe the Silent Majority is
right after all about the dogs to
which at least some of the young
are, as it were, going. But then,
on the same program, there were
the far-out, imaginative anima-
tions that the under-15's made
under the direction of Yvonne
Andersen for a collective effort
called The Film Farm. Perhaps
there's hope everywhere.
That's the trouble with film
festivals: they prove all possible
points, including mutually ex-
clusive ones.
(P.S.-Ticket Fred's continu-
ing adventures of Cinema Street,
a serial to rival Captain Video
and The Perils of Pauline com-
bined, are certainly a major
highlight of the festival. As Tic-
ket Fred says, No Smoking, and
Fold Up Your Seats, Please.)
(Final P.S.-to the girl who has
the same initials as I do, Ilove-
you; and I'm sorry about D. M.
getting all the credit. Someday
Pauline Kael will come along and
rescue you from obscurity the
way she did Herman Mankieivicz
for his contribution to "Citizen
Whatsisname.")
.50
Bob White
accompanied by
David
t Bromberg
3 NITES
FRI. - SAT. - SUN.
"Bob White . . singing
songs that reach the deep-
est feelinq of people."
-Michigan Daily
141- Kill STEET
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DICK VAN DYKE in
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"THE MAGICIAN"
directed by INGMAR BERGMAN
One of the earliest of the Swedishmaster's classic
collection of great films.
Friday & Saturday
7:00 and 9:05 p.m.
March 12,13
AUD. A-75c
NEXT WEEK:
Truffaut's
"JULES AND JIM"
with OSCAR WERNER and JEANNE MOREAU
- - -
Nominated 7 Academy
For Awards
Best Picture
Best Actress
Best Director
Best Actor
AND OTHERS
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John Marley & Ray Milland
Program Information 5-6290
603 E. LIBERTY
II
t
By BERT STRATTON
The Ika and Tina Turner con-
cert at Hill Aud. last night was
remarkable in a lot of ways. The
fact that Ike and Tina put on a
fine show is one of those ways,
but even more remarkable is
that Hill Aud. had a wild, sell-
out crowd for the first time in a
long while.
Maybe the sponsoring group
made money or broke even,
which would be a pleasant
change, and which would mean
that we might be able to expect
more rock concerts in the future.
It's nice not to have to write a
"Rock is dead." article.
Of course you got to hand it to
Lke and Tina Turner for being
able to draw a paying audience
away from its Friday night
stereos, dope, and whatever else
is less expensive than $3 a head,
and getting them to come to a
"live" concert. It's something
that Al Kooper can't do.
Ther'e was something very pre-
dominant in the Turner show, it
was sex.'If the concert had been
a high school dance, the theme
would have been "Sex Meets
South Pacific". The Ikettes, who
are three women that dance to
Tina's singing, would make great
Polynesians. Tina was the sexy
English teacher trying to make it
with all her students.
Her emitting sex, was like
Santa Claus passing out popcorn
balls. The audience couldn't get
enough to eat. She sang "Proud
Mary" and "Hanky Tonk Wo-
man", then she poured out the
orange drink (which might have
been her sweat) and everybody
loved it.
It was a great party, closer to
a fourth grade Christmas cele-
bration than to a high school
dance. "You had to be there to
believe it" is a line that appeared
in the school newspaper the next
day. It was pretty accurate too.
In fact, I'll use it, because the
only other thing that comes to
mind when I think of the Ike and
Tina Turner Revue is- sex, and
I've already talked about that.
I could get into a sociological rap
on how Tina Turner epitomizes
the black matriarchal society,
but I'd rather not, mostly be-
cause I wouldn't know what I
was talking about. I'll just say
this, it was kind of funny seeing
Tina shaking her ass off like it
was on fire, while her husband
Ike stood in the background play-
ing his guitar, looking like he
was reading the ea ening paper.
Though I do have to admit I
did see him lay Tina, during the
last blues song, where Tina in-
vited everybody over to watch
her in bed, this she did by doing
some suggestive playing around
with the microphone. It was
pretty weird, an act that could
only have been followed by her
going out into the audience and
laying every last person.
.She didn't do that, she wants
to keep us coming back for more,
which most people will probably
do some day, judging from the
standing ovation.
Considering how long the open-
ing act SRC played, I guess I
should say something about
them. OK, they were boring, and
they were unimaginative, and
their lead singer was a Ken
Barbi-doll answer to a real Tina
Turner. I don't know if he was as
Tina, it's too hard to compare,
but I'd say he was pretty enough.
If the SRC ever wake up,
they'll realize they're dead, and
then they'll be able to sign up for
guitar lessons in heaven with
Jimi Hendrix. That would be
nice.
It wasn't the most fun in the
world having to listen to their
lengthy psychedelic revival, but
Ike and Tina did a good set, so
I'm not really complaining, I'm
just trying to sum this up. All
things considered, it was an en-
joyable concert.
THE CHALLENGE:
Every man, woman, and child
to quit smoking for 30 days...
for your country, for your honor,
for $25,000,000!
Shaw Times
-Week Days
17&9onlyI
U
- DOUBLE FEATURE -
Charles Aznavour, Candice Bergen,
Ernest Borgnine, Rossano Brazzi,
and Olivia de Havilland in
"THE
ADVENTURERS"
rated R
ALSO-
"REALLY BETTER THAN THE BOOK. RIP TORN
OBVIOUSLY HAS THE TIME OF HIS LIFE. ALWAYS
LUSTING, ALWAYS HUNGRY, HE SCROUNGES
FOR FREE MEALS AND FREE LOVE WITH A SATANIC
GLEE THAT IS DELIGHTFULLY INFECTIOUS!"
-JOHN WINGATE, WOR Radiq
su m
amm.
$650.00/SIX WEEKS
SUMMER. STUDY IN
SOUTHERN FRANCE
July 5-Auqust 14 1971
" French Elementary, Interme-
diate, and Advanced Levelsy
* Earn up to 6 University
Credits
! Information: Study Abroad
Office (Miss Apple) : 764-0310
or come to 1223 Angell Hall
* Application Deadline: March
31, 1971
University of Michigan Fihu Society (ARM)
We Will Not Be Able to Show
eShanhai Express and
Saga of Anatahan
this weekend
They will be rescheduled at a later date
-
I
For the student body:
LEVI'S
CORDUROY
Slim Fits .... $6.
(All Colors)
98
"THE U.S.CUSTOMS BUREAU
BARRED IT AS OBSCENE!
READERS FOUND IT SHOCKING
AND SCANDALOUS! AND NOW,
FOR ANYONE OVER 18
IT IS A MOVIE!"--TMMOM1
HENRY MIiERSq
FIFTH For-um
PIISTI4 AvEommAT USERTV
DOWNTOWN ANN AREO0
INCORMA1'SON 761-970
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