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Sunday, November 3, 1974 "

I

BOOKS

RENOIR'S STORY
Refreshing account of the man

sifting in the director s

chair

SUBTLE FEMINISM
Short stories of a
rediscovered writer
TIGERS ARE BETTER-LOOK- ample, describes Petronella
ING, by Jean Rhys. New York: Gray's encounters with a series
Harper and Row, $6.95. 236 pp.' of men who refuse to take her

MY LIFE AND MY FILMS,
by Jean Renoir. New York:
Atheneum, 287 pp. (with in-
dex), $10.
By DAVID BLOMQUIST
THOSE OF US with more than
justra passing interest in
cinema really expect far too
much from autobiographies of
great film performers and di-
rectors.
What we hope for are defini-
tive answers to the countless
questions that have plagued us
in screening after screening, -
that ubiquitous desire to learn
the whys and wherefores of
each memorable moment or
montage.
We know, of course, that such
SUNDAY WORKSHOP
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is not the literary intent of oir's latest book. No doubt Ren-
autobiography. We are well oir was aware that the defin-
aware that this venerable form itive technical work on his
of prose is supposed to entail films had already been written
"writing one's own life story." (by Andre Bazin.) So instead,
Nevertheless, languid tales of Renoir chose the more tradi-
childhood fantasies and broken tional but more revealing route,
adulthood dreamstalways seem electing to "recall thosee er-
totally irrelevant to the larger sons and events which I believe
study of a dynamic intellectual have played a part in mak ng
medium. me what I am."

By BETSY AMSTER

seriously because she is a chorus
girl and therefore, they assume,

HENCE THE proliferation on
film shelves at campus
bookstores of more technically
oriented volumes. Everything.
the cinema freak ever wanted
to know about the behind-the-
I camera Bergman, Fellini, Re-
noir: their lenses, lighting,
film stock, cameras. But noth-
ing about the men themselves or
the environment in which they
created their masterpieces.
Somehow, that attitude seemsI
to mock the personal, introspec-
tive nature of film. It forgets
that the backbone of film is not
the technical and artistic intri-
cacies that make up the series
of celluloid images, but rather
the human beings who created
the mood and tone that inspired
those plastic images in the firstf
place.
Perhaps that it why it is so
refreshing to read Jean Ren-

AS A RESULT, we discern I
through the chain of short'
vignettes that make up My Life
and My Films an entirely dif-
ferent vision of the director wno
created some of cinema's fin-
est pictures (like The G r a n d+
Illusion and The Rules of the+
Game). Almost surprisingly, we+
find him to be a warm, thought-
ful, and quite emotional man.+
"I was wounded in the leg'
(in World War I), and this had,
a great influence on me," Ren-'
oir says. "I was destined ;o
limp for the rest of my life.Ii
Paradoxically, I consider this
an advantage. A person who
limps does not see life in thej
same way as someone who does
not limp."
Nearly half of the book cor-
sists of memoirs from Renoir s'
first years in cinema, as y'e
talks at length about the long
process of developing a distinc-
tive directorial style.

PUBLISHERS HAVE awaken- an easy mark for their advanc
ened to the fact that there es.
Yomis a large audience for women:
writers. Not only are they pub- RUT MEN are not the only
lishing more contemporary offenders. In "Outside the
books by women, but they are Machine", Mrs. Murphy m u s t
reissuing those that have been contend with the stupid vicious-{
laHE REST of the book is out of print for years.aOne of ness of her fellow patients on'
largely a collection of ine the writers who has benefited a women's hospital ward ("IfI
ancedotes about the literary cir- from these trends is the extra- she's got a perfectly good hus-
cle n which Renoir traveled be- ordinary Jean Rhys. Tigers Are band and kiddies, what's she
tween wars. Writers Bertold Better-Looking combines her got to be neurasthenic a n d
Brecht and AntoinenSaint-Exup- most recent stories with selec- neurotic about?"). Similarly,
ery figure prominently thesetions from her first ok The in "The Solid House," Teresa, a
often amusing stories, as do Left Bank (1927), a collection would be suicide, must confront
director Erich von Stroheim and of short sketches that is no the irrational prejudices of her
singer Marlene Dietrich. (Ren- longer available, landlady. Neighbors are also a
oir claims Dietrich is an "ex- Biographical information on problem. "Let them Call it Jazz"
cellent cook, her best d i s h Rhys is scarce. Born in the West relates how a young mulatto
being chou farci.") Indies around the turn of the woman is mistaken for a pros-
Unfortunately, Renoir h a s century, at sixteen she went to titute and thrown into jail by
little to say about either his England, where she married. the "agressively respectable"
films or his life after World During the twenties, like so couple next door.
War II. There is a rather ex- many other writers of that per- Only "Tigers are Better-Look-
tended section oh the m'nths iod, she led a bohemian exist- ing" features a male protagon-
he spent in India producing The ence in Paris..She was a prolif- ist. With his sham respectabil-
River, but some of his I e s s- ic writer, and by 1939 had writ- ity - Mr. Severn's nights may
successful postwar pictures al e ten one book of short stories be riotous but day always finds
either not mentioned at all or and four novels. Then she dis- him sitting soberly at his type-
suoken of only in pasing. No appeared; almost twenty years writer - he is the kind of man
doubt his more ardent critics later, in 1958, she was discov- who makes life difficult for
will chastize him sharply for ered in Cornwall, at work on a Rhy's' heroines.
th'it omission, novel and with a number of un- BUT THE STORIES themselv-
Still, My Life and My Films ispublished short stories in her es are not so relentlessly de-

ed, hopelessly absurd.
She can conjure up a scene
using a minimum of props. We
know that the rooming house in
"A Solid House" is a citadel of
respectability not because Rhas
tells us so but because we ee
the pious sentiments framed on
the wall: the "Japanese wind-
glasses from Woolworth's" and
the "glass cases full of shep-
herds and shepherdesses." Rhys
maintains the same keenness
and economy in her characteri-
zations: "Madame Tavernier,
her shawl, her rings, her cro-
chet and her travel books, Pat
and her repertoire of songs, the
two fair, fat women who al-
ways looked so sanctimonious
when they washed."
I recommend Tigers are Bet-
ter-Looking without reservation.
One of its best features is that
Rhys is never righteous or did-
actic in her sympathy for wo-
men, never strident in her tone.
Her feminism is subtle and ef-
fective. And although her hero-
ines do not vary- significantly
from story to story, she is
enough of an artist that the
stories never seem formulaic.
It is gratifying to know that
her earlier novels have also
been reissued recently - Per-
haps Rhys will now besgiven
the attention her work deserves.


JEWISH CANTORIAL MUSIC:
"C H AZA N QOT"
WORKSHOP-PHONO
RECORDINGS OF GREAT CANTORS,
with Explanation and Discussion
MONDAY, NOV. 4-8 P.M.
at HILLEL-1429 Hill
NO CHARGE

Originally, he recounts, he
was more interested in the cam-
era work part of filmmaking.
"What mattered to me then
was a fine close-up," he sa-s.
Later, however, Renoir rever.-
ed his position. "Today the actor
is the first of my preoccupa-
tions. My work as a director
starts with the actor. He is wh it
the public sees and hears, and
it is he who will determine enr
success or failure."

a unique and tender sort of mo-
tio nicture memoir. It is an
affectionate, if romanticized,
look within the career of a bril-
liant cinema artist. It may not
tell us precisely how Jean Ren-
oir produced his classic films,
hit it certainly helps explain
why. And that, I think, is iusi
as worthwhile.

possession. presing as thes
These are the sad and beauti- might indicate.
ful stories that appear in the j easy to admire
first part of Tigers are Better- monly perceptix
Looking. Rhys's focus is rootless may be unhapp
women without money or rarely pathetic
friends. Although names and cir- sense of humor
cumstances may change from started my brill
story to story, Rhys's heroines ful career like
invariably are women who must in the chorus.
fend for themselves in a world success.") We
that mocks and threatens them stand that it is
for being down and out. "Till ers themselves
September Petronella," for ex- society that is

e short synopses
First of all, it is
e Rhys's uncom-
ve heroines. They
'y, but they a r e
Many have a
. (Petronella: "I
iant and success-
so many others,
But I wasn't a
come to under-
not the charact-

I

D~av i1loniquis/Atis
the Dail)'s (JCinea
(Oilbf II.

efllor off
Weekend

but the largerl
hopelessly flaw-I

Betsy Amster is a senior ma-
joring in English.

... . .. ...-



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AT THE HOSPITAL
Potboilers for the pre-meddie


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AMBULANCE CALL by
Elizabeth Harrison. New
York: Pocket Books, 144 pp.,
$.95.
ACCIDENT CALL by Eliz-
abeth Harrison. New Y o r k:
Pocket Books, 144 pp., $.95.
EMERGENCY CALL by
Elizabeth Harrison. N e w
York: Pocket Books, 143 pp.,
$.95.
By REBECCA WARNER
There's a lot to be said for
bad literature. Elizabeth Har-
rison's Class B trio, Ambulance
Call, Emergency Call and Ac-
cident Call have all the charac-
teristics of the lousy novel -
but one has to admit that read-
ing about scandal, surgery, and
even a little soft-core sex, can
be fun.
The Calls feature three major
plot variations: doctor haunt-
I ed by scandal, doctor crippled
by tragic accident, and doctor
hindered by both scandal and
injury. As the University's Sla-
vic languages and literature
Prof. John Mersereau might
say, Harrison's novels are like
a starving cow: the structural
plan is painfully evident.
In Emergency Call, for exam-
ple, accident surgeon Richard
Collingham is crushed by a rail-
road car in the process of per-
forming an emergency amputa-
CENTICORE BOOKSHOP
336 Maynard Street
invites everyone to a
FREE MAGIC SHOW
by
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of
HANK MOOREHOUSE'S
MAGIC EMPORIUM
Sunday, November 3
12:30 to 3:30
FREE GIFTS AND
TRICKS FOR ALL

tion. Yet he lives and manages,, his boss's secretary. Felicity
though wheel-chair bound, to ( proves too cold for Tom's liking.
face up to his shattered man- The novel's packaging, al-
hood with a courageous act of though typically slick, is quite
paraplegic sex, fuzzily described misleading. The back cover
of course. blurb on Emergency Call, for
Ambulance Call features Tom examples, centers on nurse Vic-
I Bennison, another surgeon, who toria Marshall: "What greaten
I unwittingly smuggles Swiss wat- fulfillment could there be far
ches across the English Channel a nurse than to give a desper-
and is picked up by the inter- ately ill man the will to live?...
national police. The prestigious Now, alone with him in the
London hospital which employs castle by the sea where he had
him turns hostile, but Tom rises gone to convalesce, Victoria
to renewed glory at a country sensed the ecstatic stirrings of
hospital, where, sure enough, her new love. But even as Ri, h-
he meets Ms. Right. , I ard's openly admiring gaze
Accident Call combines these ' brought the blood rushing to her
two basic plot lines. Tim Her- face, she could not forget that
rington, (you guessed it) ano- soon a great act of love would
ther young surgeon, is injured be required of her - to give
on the highway when he sto';s Richard back to his wife and
to help out in an accident. To children . . ." Actually, Vicky
make things worse, he is later is *a flighty little twit w h o
accused of performing a back- threatens to break up Richard's
room abortion on the sister of marriage, and he's staying at a
Jenny Armitage, medical sec- friend's house, not at the cas-
retary. Naturally, Tim is clear- tle by the sea, to which he pays
ed. He and Jenny find married a brief visit.
happiness at the end of the But this kind of froth just
novel points up the special charms of
Actually, the Calls are most the Calls.Each comprises two
fun for the psychological under- or three hours of mindless be-
pinnings they reveal. All Har-m wd
rison' s surgeons are male, young guilement twice as good as
and handsome. Women, on the watching Medical Center on TV,
other hand, are happier if they and all in one sitting it you
content themselves with the like. For the pre-meddie, Har-
roles of secretary or wife - rison's novels can offer a spec-
even nurses seem a little too
career-oriented for Harrison. tal view of life as it really isn't.
Tom Rennison in Ambulance And after all, who doesn't like
Call makes a choice between hospital intrigue?
his beautiful former girlfriend,
Felicity, an anatomist just out Rebecca Warner is Managing
of medical school, and Emma, I Editor of the Daily.
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Professional Theatre Program
FIVE NEW YORK HITS
PLAY OF THE MONTH SERIES
USHER APPLICATION
Name
Add res. ___- _______
Telephone._ U. of M. I.D. No.__ _
RULES
1. You must be a U. of M. student.
2. You must choose your series in order of preference.
3. Married students may send applications together.
4. This application must be posted by U.S. mail ON OR
AFTER MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4 (fourth), 1974. Mail
to: PTP Office, Mendelssohn Theatre, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 48104.
5. Include a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
PLEASE NUMBER CHOICE 1, 2, 3, 4
--_SERIES A: Friday eveninas: November 15, Decem-
ber 13, January 17, February 14, March 28.
SERIES B: Saturday eveninas: November 16, De-
cember 14, January 18. February 15, March 29,