Tuesdoy, March 18, 1975 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page, Psve: Tuesday, March 1 8~ 1975 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five FILM FESTIVAL Diversity proves trou bling By DAVID BLOMQUIST Arts and Entertainment Editor Viewers at this year's Ann Arbor Film Festival couldn't help but notice a higher-than usual quantity of boos and hisses interspersed through the nightly screenings. Audience frustration with the festival schedule seemed to be up this year, and with good reason: 1975's product featured some excellent efforts in motion photography, but very few of the usual sort of independent "theme" films. Themlast few years have seen the label "film" develop a special, ex- clusive connotation: the assembling of images captured through motion pho- tography into a cohesive unit to express a theme or philosophy. There was not very much of that in Architecture Auditorium over the past week. The thirteenth version of one of America's best independent film fes- tivals contained very little cohesive development or thematic exposition. Instead, what we saw were some nicely crafted illustrations of the expansion of traditional art forms into motion photography. Through The Corn, for example. Laugh- lin started with a frantic flute solo soundtrack and built around it a col- lection of equally frantic views of her sister running through a corn field. The result was an exquisitely timed and polished piece of motion photography. But at least in the thematic sense, resembled an abstract kaliedoscope. But again, Perz's work was visually impressive yet thematically and aes- thetically most unsatisfying-from the usual point of view of film criticism. There were, of course, several well- organized and quite innovative film efforts here and there through the fes- "The thirteenth version of one of America's best inde- pendent film festivals contained very little cohesive development or thematic exposition. Instead, what we saw were some nicely crafted illustrations of the expan- sion of traditional art forms into motion photography." made the final judging process ratherI difficult. The expressed purpose of the Ann Arbor Film Festival is to recognize "artists exploring the boundaries of the cinema world"-and that includes, of course, photographers exploitinig the motion characteristics of cinema as an expanded form of classic art. Nevertheless, I don't think it was wise to juxtapose both traditional and "art" styles at one screening. The in- tentions and orientation of each ap- proach are entirely separate-and, al- though they can be successfully inte- grated (recall the last reels of 2001), they require different critical view- points. In the end, that might have been the major fault in this year's festival. There was good material from both approaches on the schedule, but the combined presentation didn't help the viewer properly evaluate and place in context each effort. Perhaps a little better organization might have helped the festival assimilate more readily what appears to be a rapidly growing chasm between two schools of thought in independent cinema. Have a flair for artistic writinq? If you are interest- or writing feature stories a b o u t the drama, dance, film arts: Contact Arts Editor, c/o The M ichigan Daily. Hairstyling for the Whole Family Armointments Available DASCOLA BARBER- STYLISTS Arborland-971-9975 Movie Village-761 -2733 E. Liberty-.¢68-9329 E. University-662-0354 Veterans Add $108to Your GI Benalits Call ROTC, 764-2401 Consider Kathleen Laughlin's Susan Susan Through The Corn was not what we have come to call "film." TREE FALL, a five minute collage by Dan Perz, fit into the same category. Perz collected what must have been hundreds of different views of the leaves and branches of a majle tree and edited them into a continuous strip of rapidly changing images that COLLEGE OF LAW tival. Two animated shorts, Red Ball Express by Steve Segal and Mirror People by Kathy Rose, made nice use of film's ability to twist about time and space. And The Plaint of Steve Kreines, a solid (if underedited) documentary look inside a factionalized family pro- duced by Jeff Kreines, showed inven- tive use of cinema verite techniques. In fact, the dichotomy must have AnnouncinC FALL SEMESTER ... AUGUST 21, 1975 * Full-time 3-year day program * Part-time day and evening programs Al programs lead to the Juris Doctor De.ree and celibihfity for (itornio Bor exorn. Accredited Provisionally-State Bar of Calif. CONTACT STEPHANIE RITA, Admissions Officer 8353 Sepulveda Blvd., Sepulveda, Ca. 91343-894-5711 UAC CONCERT CO-OP presents: JACKSON BROWN and PHOEBE SNOW Sat., April 19 8 p.m. Hill Aud. Tickets ao on sale tomorrow at the Michigan Union box office, Union lobby (10:30 to 5:30 p.m. daily). AND PLEASE: remember there's no smoking or drinking permitted inside Hill Aud 0@0 JOHN DENVER Slim pickings diminish Film Fest Spotty showings feature family life, surrealism a magic marker, a stop watch and an IQ of about 30. Aura Corona, by Dennis Pies, was a welcome improvement. Faint, amoeba-like f o r m s a p p e a r By KIM POTTER against a plain white back- and GEORGE LOBSENZ ground, swirling around and1 A documentary with a dif- through each other. They grad-" Adncetry washeunchallenged ually evolve into larger, more highlight of an otherwise no- complex organisms, in partner- very-distinguished group at the ship with a subtle musical Satryight severo'clock score that grows along with the Saturday ght seven olc visuals (The meshing of sight; shoeff Kand sound was remarkably ef- Jeff Kreines The Pla nt oa fective and deserves special Steve Kreines may well be.a note)Crona was entirely an- landm ark: The first In-Fam ily no e. C r n as e tr l m Documentary. In chronologizing mated and surely, beautifully the tribulations of a young post- controlled throughout. graduate trying to break away The festivities swiftly return-+ from parental domination, di- ed to dudsville in the form of rector Kreines chose a very Cloth, a 21-minute bore con-1 convenient source: His own cocted by James Herbert. Three, brother and parents. The result nudes, one male and two fe- was a sometimes sad, more male, amble listlessly around often hilarious commentary on outdoors then indoors then out- both the differences separating doors again. Herbert employs1 and the bonds joining the gen- varied filters, occasional soft-+ eration gap. focus, and the usual stopframei Kreines' eye is at once both technique which has swiftly be-1 merciless and gentle. He come the biggest cliche in the; catches his subjects at their festival. The constant flashing most awkward, inept moments, picture change is extremely but there is no malice in his hard on the eyes for so long a vision. This is simply my fam- period, and unimaginably far ily, he seems to say, and what- from the lyricism the director ever comedy is there is part so obviously hoped to capture.! of the human comedy wruch af- The time slot's last two en- flicts us all, tries seemed clearly devised to The remainder of the - to 9 try audiences' souls. Paul Camp- slot was predominately abstract bell's You Can't Shoot Movies and mostly pedestrian. Harvey Vertically Unless You're Willing Choa's CC contained numbers, to Turn the Projector on itst this weekl Excitement builds as Rostropovich to return By DAVID WEINBERG Question: Where does wonder cellist/conductor Mstislav Ros- tropovich go when he has a two day break in his touring schedule? The answer is an unlikely one, and for the University Musical Society, a joyous one: The Soviet cellist comes back to Ann Arbor. This Saturday at Hill Auditorium, Mstislav Rostropovich re-1 turns for his fifth Ann Arbor concert appearance, where he will participate as both conductor and soloist. .' In this special performance, Rostropovich will conduct the University Symphony Orchestra in the first half of the program. Then after the intermission, he will solo in Saint-Saens Cello Con- certo in A Minor, with regular University Orchestra conductor1 Theo Alcantara fulfilling the podium duties. Rostropovich made his first U. S. concert recital appearance in Ann Arbor last January, and now after last week's conducting debut in Washington, D.C., he returns here to conduct prior to a Chicago appearance next week. These two facts pay enormous tribute to the University Orchestra, which Rostropovich himself has described as "highly professional," and to the Musical Society and Music School. When he was here January 19, Rostropovich said: "I am very fond of Ann Arbor and of the University of Michigan and I have been here repeatedly. I am convinced that the University plays a tremendous part in the propagation of good music and its enjoy- ment in this general area." "I would like to date all the receipts from this performance, which includes the tickets and also contributions to the continued well-being and success of the University Musical Society. I would also like to use part of this money to establish a scholarship to be used by gifted and needy musical students," he added. Rostropovich is considered to be one of the greatest living cellists and his 33 year old career has not left a stone unturned in the cello world. In his conducting debut, last week, overwhelmed critics were at a loss for words in attempting to describe his masterful per- formance. Ann Arbor music lovers should hope for as much, as Rostropovich's yisit promises to be an unexpectedly dramatic highlight to the musical season. Brandeis University Hiatt Institute-Israel Year Program or Fall Term only Also open to qualified students for the Spring Term only 0 Juniors and Seniors eligible Side proved very much the piece of nothingness its cutesy cover- up title suggested it might be. A long series of tintype photo- portraits of couples flashed by on the screen, bathed in garish! hues of gray and pink. The sound of many ticking clocks (the second-biggest cliche in the festival) proceeded in the back-' ground. Period. Pass the reefer.: Dominating the nine o'clock showing were two fairly lengthy pieces that delved deeply into the realm of surrealism. Jeffer- son Circus Songs by Susan Pitt Kraning was the more themati- cally-oriented of the two. She offered up an incredibly elabo- rate, ornate film, containing' both animation and film footage. The two medium are interwoven to form a distiyctly other- worldly atmosphere. The sub- ject matter of this piece was loosely outlined as a far-ranging comment on elements within our society, ranging from in- tellectuality to plastic sexuality.- Because of its highly personal nature, this film was not readily comprehensible at all times. And yet, it obviously had a message of import that glim- mered through the stunningly beautiful staging. The other major work was perhaps less mentally stimulat- ing, but it was a visual tour de force. Divided into seven sep- arate images, Pat O'Neill's Saugus Series experimented with color, composition and! shape in creating some positive- ly mesmerizing sequences. Es- pecially eye-catching was a lines and dots pattern tha amazed with its intricacy and variations. The ubiquitous Curt McDowell was represented once again by a humorous little ditty called Fly Me to the Moon. McDowell satirizes just how far people will go to accommodate "artis- tic inspiration." A true comedic gem. Also provoking a couple of yucks was the straight-forward Chinese Restaurants of L.A. and Orange County by Richard Tur- ner. Turner pulls no punches in capturing the essence of Chinese restaurant tinsel. He supple-. ments the shots of various eat- ing establishments with a lilting folk song which tells a story of true love, a la "chopsuey, suki- yaki, tempura, fried rice." Some splendid animated fea- tures livened up the proceedings considerably. A Short History ofl the Wheel by Loren Bowie was a breath-taking exercise in ani- mation. Using Peter Max-ish variations in color and perspec- tive, Bowie spins a tongue-in- cheek tale of how the wheel came to be. As might be expected, this showing also had its share of duds. Loring Doyle'smBetty drives a car amused momen- tarily, then lapsed into tedium. jHomage to the Chilean Resist- ance presented the puzzling combination of socialistic pro- paganda and naked women, ren- - -- dering it a complete mystery., Famous Love Scenes by Mary' Moulton was distinguished as the only film to receive more hisses than applause. It was easy to see why. The visuals consisted of still photos of movie' stars in romantic poses. The soundtrack had several female: voices dubbed over each other in so clever a manner that nary a word could be understood. To- gether, these two components comprised the very pinnacle of boredom and irritation. , - * Childhod's halycon. days: A reality for all? By GEORGE LOBSENZ It was a child's world at the Friday night 11 o'clock showing. A full seventy minutes of foot-' age was devoted to an excursion into two starkly contrasting childhoods. By far the most ambitious effort of the night was The Abandoned Children (Los Ninos Abandonades) by Danny Lyon. This semi-documentary ran an exhausting sixty - three minutes in depicting the bleak existence of "street urchins" in Colom- bia. It was a polished, affect- ing work that captured much of the desperate, hopeless en- vironment these children growI up in. Relying minimually on narration, the film preferred to make its point through the su- perbly expressive camera-work: and snippets of "live" sound- track. This made for a high de-I gree of realism in the condi-I tions the movie portrayed. Un-, fortunately, what the film gain- ed in authenticity from this, it lost in over-all impact. Mean- dering too much as it was, the lack of explanation only worsen- ed the fuzzy focus of the film. When this combined with the excessive length, it blunted the sharp edge this piece couldt have had. An altogether different child's world is explored in Allen Moore's Play Grounds. Moore, demonstrates a masterful grasp of his medium, in this case, black-and-white film. Display- ing an impressive array of spe- cial effects, Moore illustrat-s a familiar part of every American childhood. Moore presents the playground as a child might ex- perience it. Swings soar high into the sky, climbing structuresi tower above, skip-rope chants drone in the background, creat- ing a melange of sight and sound which evoke wistful mem- ories of childhood. Besides these two related films were a grab-bag of cine-: matic follies of a considerably lower calibre. My Blue Heaven by Charles Johannsen copped the head- scratcher award for the night in recognition of its disjointed quality. Things began with a tempting crumpet flirting with a priggish young man in a' quasi-Victorian setting. The film then progresses (if that's the word for it) to scenes of the two dancing whereupon sudden- lv an enormous slimy monster lumbers into view, thrusts the young man aside, and waltzes away with the vamp. Through- out this nonsense, we catch glimpses of sexual connatation but nothing emerges approxi- mating a coherent theme. Rounding out the showing with seventeen minutes of good-ana- tured fun was Night of the Moles by Chris Ucker. Night of the Moles is an unabashed spoof of all those lovably dreadful T.V. horror movies. Starring none other than the incompar- able Jerry Mathers (of Leave it to Beaver fame), Moles fol- lowed the prescribed plotsto a T. This film has got so many great little flourishes, that you can forgive the occasional mo- ments it falls below the level of moronic. Finally, we come to W.I.N. or the Soma Blues by Izzy Star- buck which is eleven seconds of abysmal taste or sheersgen- ius, depending on your perspec- tive. In a utshell, this picture consists of several long-hairs vomiting variously c o lo r e d liquids. The point of this piece was unclear. April 24 8 p Tickets st Michiaan .m. Cris ill available at the Union box office ler Arena I UAC Leadership Search UAC Senior Officers 1975-76 are accepting applications for chairpersons to head UAC committees including MUSKET, Future Worlds and Soph Show. For more information, call UAC (763-1107) or stop by the UAC offices, 2nd floor, Michigan Union. MUSKET presents: GUYS AND DOLLS Power Center March 20-23, 8 p.m. March 23, 2 p.m. Tickets on sale March 17-23 at the Power Center box office. Group rates available. Call UAC MUSKET (763- 1107) for more information. MEDIATRICS presents: SERPICO "Godfather" star Al Pacino in the true story of a police- man who uncovers believable corruption in the New York City police department. March 21, 22 (Fri., Sat.) 7:30, 10 p.m. Not. Sci. Aud. -STILL ONLY $1- cominq next weekend: "CAMELOT" starring Richard Harris and Renessa Redcrave. NEW SHOWS If you'd 'like to start o new entertainment activity on campus, call UAC (763-1107) and leave your name and telephone no. with Jane Stecer. / ..! ITA V1SKY1 TRY DAILY CLASSIFIEDS ® --COUPON- 2 for 1 Special -COUPON- GOOD ONLY 3/18, 3/19 and 3/20 Buy 1 Super Salad-GET 1 FREE Wednesday, March 19th 2-10 p.m. DROP IN I I A l A large portion of fres mushrooms, cauliflowe ( h greens, tomatoes, cheese, I er, olives and sprouts with ssing. NOT AVAILABLE FOR CARRY OUT Longevity Cookery 314 E. Liberty I Ann Arbor, Mich. (313) 662_2019 MOVING ON A Workshop for Americans Going Abroad The International Center 603 E. MADISON 764-9310 --------------- Indochina Peace Campaign PRESENTS TONIGHT GOURMET NATURAL FOOD RESTAURANT m -- - - - - - ®m I -- d I The Univeresity of Michigan Professional Theatre Program 7:30 9:30 you in 162? o 1/VA 1 U. ;I U