Thursday, March 27, 1975
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
U
camtpu4 (Iick.6
Blinded Bogdanovich
sticks with Cybil.
By JAMES VALK est
This Tuesday, April Fool's
Day. What's Up Doc? rolls into
town, Peter Bogdanovich's tri-
bute to the "screwball Com-i
edy". Yet another homage to ai
reflection in a long-lost-lens,
Bogdanovich's film is an earlyI
chapter in the mysterious rise
and fall of the young director.
Establishing his name as aF
reputable film director with his
second film, The Last Picturej
Show, Bogdanovich established
himself as a cinematic aficion-|I
ado who had, indeed, seen I
quite a few movies. The Last
Picture Show was a virtual
patchwork of styles borrowed
from his personal repertoire of
greats, from the transposed fun-{
eral of George Stevens' Shane
to the inclusion of Howard
Hawks' Red River as the 'lastI
picture show'.
This is not, however, to im-
ply there is anything aesthetic-
ally detrimental with that par-1
ticular technique. As a com-
plete film, The Last Picture
Show was a penetratingly pain-
ful scenario of the monotony
and degradation of the human
purpose and relevance that typ-
lified a small Texas town in the
early fifties.
In pursuing what may prove
to be his ultimate goal, a library
of contemporarily made film re-
creations, proud Peter took on
the comedy, a genre he felt had;
been compromised in quality,
and therefore deserved his ma-
gic wand to lift it from the an-
nals of cinematic neglect, or,
more fittingly, cinematic disre-
spect.
The result is just what one
might expect of a director who
knows little or nothing about
comedic execution: his attempt
at recreating Howard Hawks'
Bringing Up Baby was atro
cious; Paper Moon wasn't much3
better, although more success-!
ful. But then lightning struck.
A horrible thing happened to
Peter Bogdanovich on his road
stumbled over a rock named
Cybil Shepard. Hiding behind
the camera with the directorl
since Picture Show days, Cybii
started her "comeback", a
surge that could put Peter back
on the two-tracks.
After Daisy Miller, a putrid
film that has all the charm of
leprosy, one would think Bog-E
danovich would have learned his'
lesson - that Cybil Shepard
simply didn't possess either the
poise or the finesse to carry
herself through a substantial
part. But no - as if command-
ed by some masochistic drive to
self - destruction - Bogdano-
vich played it again, and this
tune it is worse. At Long Last
Love transcends humor; it's
just plain junk.
Just as Boydanovich seeming-
ly realized his potential as an
original filmmaker with atre-
mendous lore for the past, he
has succumbed to the apparent
love of his life. Bizarre stories I
circulated that Peter was 're-3
programming' Cybil into a cul-
tural creature, pelting her 'in-
tellect' with great novels and
fine music in a Swiftian at-
tempt at transforming her into
a person worthy of his stature;
a sort of intellectual blow-up
doll he could carry under his.
arm and out in his movies.-
It's really too bad that Bog-I
danovich has become so capti-
vated with his newly-found po-
sition of starmaker that he has
lost sight of reality, allowing his
aesthetic license to become so
self-abused as to reach the statet
of abandoned recklessness.
As Andrew Sarris asked inE
his review of At Long Last
Love, "Can love be so blind?":
Evidently, yes, as the director
has said "I'm going to make my
next movie with Cybil, too, and
I'm not going to apologize for
that." I would venture a guess{
that somewhere, sometime, to
someone, Peter will eat those
words. But perhaps we'll never
find out - until his next movie
Sluggish Arts
uneven Hill
By KAREN PAUL subdued sound. It was delicate-l
i ly performed, and Klein exhibit-i
The University of Michigan ed good control in his direct.ion.
Arts Chorale, directed by May- After a brief warmup, the
nard Klein, gave an enjoyable choir performed Anton Bruck-
if somewhat sluggish conc-rt ner's "Cristus Factus Est".;
Tuesday night in Hill Auditor- The piece never seemed to
ium± reach the proper level of forte,
The program began rather but the gradual crescendoing3
lifelessly with Gustav flilst's effect provided dynamic con-E
"Turn Back 0 Man." The choir trast through the score. Donald.
seemed uncertain of themselves, Williams' organ accompaniment4
and were nearly overpowered was played with expertise. j
by the organ accompaniment. Mozart's "Vesperae Solemnes
"Adoramus Te", the second de Confessore" featured solos1
number, seemed more suitable by Linda Mohler, Cecelia (tier-
to the choir's wel-blended but ra, Richard Ingram and Stephen
La serium: lgts
colors that blowV y
Poulos. The soloists, Mohler es- panists Barbara Topel and Ron-
pecially, performed admirablv. ald Fracker played efficiently summer.
The soprano had many solo pas- and the choir usually kept up
sages, and she sang them with with the changing character of Gr L
a full and lovely mellowness, the pieces.GreatLocation
something often lacking in a Of the 18 short waltzes, the 1 345 WASHTENAW ( Near S. Univ.
soprano. faster ones tended to emerge
The Chorale had some ensem- as superior, because the choir
ble problems in the Mozart - showed more life in them. Coed Liing-nexpensive
uneven tempi and balane -- There was a problem in bal-
but demonstrated spirit and c;-l ance. The tenors and basses?662-5474
bility. were on the whole, strongest,
but now and then the sopranos
Last on the program was curiously dominated the choir. --
Brahm's waltz series, "Lieb- Barbara Tuss and Philip Smith- ---
slieder Walzer" originally writ-! sang their solo passages well.
ten for piano duet. Piano accom- The 65 member Arts Chorale, D a il C lassifieds
made up mainly of non-music
majors, on the whole did an ade-
quate job. Mostly, they seemed 4
)tterns to enjoy performing under Klein Get Results
and that made for a pleasur-
0 able concert.
our m ind ____-----__
SERGEI & GEORGY VASILIEW'S 1934
Box" by the Peppers. Kaufman
goes wild with a dazzling d s-
play of brilliantly colored cir-
cles, stars and dots that se.m See the Red Army commander Chapayev, the ruthless Colonel Borozdin,
to explode from the center. Anna the machine-gunner and the heroic partisans in what is probably the
"Hoedown," another Emerson' most popular Soviet movie ever. Eisenstein liked it too.
Lake and Palmer piece, was
also excellently done to finishA TG
the show. MAI ZETTERLING'S 1969
Laserium may well be the 9R .5
next major medium to emerge (at 9:05)
and unlike mass media and The darkness of memory, the way we feel about personal relations long
communication, it leaves muchr!
of the interpretation up to the after they have been severed is the crux of Zetterling's film about an old
viewer. As is explained before man trying vainly to remember sensual experiences from the past. ANN
the show begins, whatever one ARBOR PREMIERE. Danish with English susbtitles.
wants to receive, he or she will, BOTH SHOWS
What you put in to interpreting FCINEMA$GUILD.OTH SHO.S
the show will determine what FOR $1.5A
you will get out of it. ~__- -
Chorale gives
performance
Theta Xi
Offers shelter
from the storm
this spring and
(Continued from Page 1)
AT YESTERDAY'S first show-l
projected in four colors on a; ing, laserist Adam Kaufman It
special screen by a unique one- skillfully illustrated the fullI
watt krypton gas laser. The range of effects that the me-1
laser light is mechanically scan- dium can create.
ned and diffused through lenses Kaufman frequently u s e d i
and prisms into relaxing, cap- floating clouds of vibrant color
tivating images. to illustrate such slow, calm
The basic lens and scanner w o r k s as "Neptune" f r om
adjustments that make up the Holst's The Planets. Yet the*
dancing light effects are pre- rainbow-like clouds also appear-
programmed at the Van Nays, ed at the center of designs for!
Calif. headquarters of the show more rhythmic selections like{
on a track of the tape that car- Strauss's Blue Danube waltz,!
ries the musical accompaniment but embellished with circles and'
for the orogram. figure-eights.
But the system operator, or The greatest experience of the
"laserist," can change the mov- evening was the sequence usiag
mg figures and objects into dif- Emerson, Lake and Palmer's
ferent variations of the original "tank." Kaufman's effects ;n-,
themes by modifying controls terpreted Carl Palmer's drm
on a panel located next to the solo with incredible accuracy.
laser in the middle of the audi-soowtinrdbecurc
torium. Consequently, each Las- PERHAPS JUST as comnet-
erium performance has some- ently done, though, was the
thing slightly different to offer. short sequence using "Pepper
I
to cinematic recovery - he is released.
Raab's poetry shows
imagination's power
By MARY LONG ; ted together neatly as dramas.
Unfortunately, only a handful But Raab's work often shifts
of people were present Tuesday to an opposite pole and is char-
afternoon when Lawrence Raab acterized by qualities of imagi-
read his work as part of the nation and spirit. Vampires
English Department's Poetry make an appearance, as do
1975 series. princesses and sorcerers, mem-
Those who were faithfully ories of the dead and presences
scattered throughout the Mod- not completely understood. The
ern Language Building audi- words "emptiness" and "ab-
torium heard carefully finished sence" appear with startling
poems of haunting strangeness frequency.
-works that claim man's exper- Raab is reluctant both to sep-
ience continually touches on , arate his work into two isolat-
stories and legends and the spir- ed styles and to explain the es-
it of our own lost consciousness. !sence of his more purely per-
For Raab, the key to recover-
ing this consciousness lies in be- sona poems.
coming alert enough to every- "Poems remain mysterious"
day surroundings. "I want to he insists. "Poetry doesn't draw
say 'Look - see what the char- merely on what you can see o
acters are doing"' Raab ex- say. It comes from memory,
plained. from the subconscious, from
"The difficulty is in how to dreams. These things have pow-
look at things and how to contin- er, yes, when you use them in;
ually discover new qualities in poetry - but the power remains
those things that move you. An mysterious."
enormous problem arises just in
the attempt to see clearly and:
there's no end to trying to find
a solution," he said.
Raab attempts to present the
pain that acute perception can
involve in a subtle way - by
placing his poems in a context'
that is familiar to a reader -
such as popular novels or mov-
ies-and in a situation designed
to make a listener laugh.
"You laugh," Raab says,
"but out of that laughter a re- r
cognition comes. I am attempt-
ing to amuse and then disturb.
Throughout my work you are
constantly aware that under its F
easy surface something a little
darker is happening."
That sly intervention of a
deeper level of emotional truth
is an ever-present characteris-
tic. Raab's poems are often
written in a prosaic style, fit-
Read and Use
Daily Classifieds
SPIRITUAL. COMMUNITY OF THE SUN
PRESENTS
DICK GREGORY
* SpeakinQ on the food crisis and survival of humanity *
FRI., MAY 16, 1975-7:00 P.M.
UNIV. OF MICH. BALLROOM
Donation $4 plus 1 con of food
orofits ao to world community food bank
ann arbor. mi
GET TICKET in ADVANCE of show!
Available at David's Bookstore-529 E. Liberty
and ;n the Michigan Union
I
_-
h-"
I the a n*ra i lS S -. S r* S *
PRESENTS
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
from the novel by Charles Dickens
directed by David Lean
(director of Lawrence of Arabia)
Thursday, March
AU D.A 7:00& 9:00
27
$1.25
TOMORROW: MLB 3 and 4
BANANAS and PUTNEY SWOPE
THIS WEEK
ONLY!
IA JOY! NEIL SIMON'S
BEST PLAY YET."
- Clive Barnes, N.Y. Times
ED~DIE ARNY
BRACKEN FREEMAN
NEt 51HOHS
NEW cOMEDY
___S 4
W ANTED:
Talented, active candidates for student office.
Must be interested in revitalizing student
Cgovernment at the University of Michigan.