Thur day, November 15, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
Troell:
By BRUCE SCHLAIN
Jan Troell's fine epic, T h e
Emigrants, ended lyrically with
the eloquent Paradisical image
of Karl-Oscar leaning up' against
a tree with his new American
farmland stretching all around
him, green with an aura of the
future. His gentle, cathartic
smile was like the pale sun af-
ter a storm.
The last scene came as a well-
earned respite after the suffo-
cating squalor of the sea voyage
with his wife Kristina (Liv Ull-
man), their children, and his
younger brother Robert (Ed Ax-
berg). They were drawn to Amer-
ica as a means of escape from
the grueling labor and unending
series of catastrophes that be-
fell them on their rock-ridden
farm in Sweden.
And so The New Land w a s
filmed, Troell's second in a ser-
ies based on Vilhelm Moberg's
quartet of novels, a reconstruc-
tion of our fragmented origins.
But the American experience of
1850 proves to be just as harsh,
Eyric
the solitude just as imposing -
and bewildering besides, because
of the language barrier. T h e
babies keep coming as a mixed
blessing with food at a premium,
but the remarkable texture of
the film, exalting the very flow
of life's everyday events, is cap-
tured with a clarity and beauty
that uncovers "the eternal in
the temporal," that allows hope
to freely mingle with despair.
The ideal conception of t h e
States as a "classless society" is
the first hope that young Ro-
!ru hlity
bert, the whistling dreamer,
learns to throw aside. Another
comes when he heads for Cali-
fornia to find gold, his ear still
bleeding from the previous film,
and almost bakes in the desert,
his friend Arvid dying of poison-
ed water because of the thirst.
The emigrants, to be sure, go
through some startling changes,
one of the most significant being
when Ulrika, the earthy and even
raunchy midwife, becomes a bor-
ing pastor's wife. Yes, the Puri-
tan experience is always around
the corner, if only the Indians
would stop trying to reclaim their
land.
The genocidal confusioin of this
American epoch is captured as
well in The New Land as in
Penn's Little Big Man. One scene
in particular recalls the entire
degradation of the slaughter of
the Indians, when 37 Sioux war-
riors are hung at once by the
cavalry in a snowstorm as they
chant in unison, almost gaily, as
the bags are placed over their
heads.
The accent in The New Land is
more on the historical, whereas
The Emigrants, the better film
of the two, was more basically a
human drama, by turns sensual
and brutally cruel. This ambi-
valent treatment of nature as a
means of survival as well as a
curse comes through in Land in
some highly evocative moments
as when Karl-Oscar must hack
a ravine in his new cow and bury
his son in the warm insides so
that he does not freeze in the
blizzard.
At the end of the film, as Kris-
tina and Karl-Oscar grow older,
the emphasis turns from t h e
darker truths and hypocrisies of
the new land to a vision of the
journey of the two films through I
the eyes of its protagonists in
flashbacks, slow and dream-like.
Never fully embittered by the
violence around her, Kristina is
told that another child-bearing
would kill her. But she refuses to
abandon the marriage bed and
becomes nrenant once again. It
is only fitting that Troall should
have her die in pursuit of the
endless cycle, for she does be-
come preenant and die.
Il the death scene, with Karl-
Oscar at her side, Liv Ullman
proves once again that she is one
of the great actresses of our
time. I probably could watch Ali
Nlr'Graw die a few thosand
tilnes (with a certail satisfac-
tion) without being moved as by
the simplicity of emotion in Kris-
tina's last earthly sigh.
OWNERS' DIRECTION
HOLLYWOOD (UPI)-Norman
J e w i s o n, whose most recent
movies are "Jesus Christ, Super-
star" and "Fiddler On the Roof,"
has been named director of the
year by the National Association
of Theater Owners.
I
SPONSORED BY
CAREER
WOMEN'S CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
Lunch Hour Discussions
The fifth in a series of informal group discussions. Come hear representatives
of various employers and graduate schools discuss their opportunities for
women. All women welcome. Feel free to bring your lunch.
Thurs., Nov.
15-12 noon
Planning
Placement
* FRUEHAUF CORP. (Manufacturer of transportation equipment)
* IBM CORP.
* JOHNSON & JOHNSON
* NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE CO.
* DUKE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL
Held in the International Center Recreation Room
This is the final lunch discussion in our Fall Term Series. Watch for mare
discussion sessions to be scheduled for Winter Term.
764-7460
Daily Photo by STEVE KAGAN
The San Francisco Mime Troupe repeats 1970's sucenss in last night's performance of Brecht's The Mother at Power.
Heroes and clowns
By MARNIE HEYN
When Don Nix sets out to ex-
press cultural synthesis in Amer-
ican popular music on Hobos,
Heroes and Street Corner Clowns
(Enterprise 1032), it works. Per-
haps the result is not as bril-
liant as more mature P a u 1
Simon, but it's just as interest-
ing.
This album was recorded in'
three countries, and it shows.
There's a sprinkling of Jacques
Brel, a dash of Jagger and Har-
rison, and a whole ladle full of
Deep South blues. The best cut
on the album, "When I Lay My
Burden Down," has Furry Lew-
is leading off for the first two
verses to be joined by Nix and
company. The result is amplified
backwoods Baptist Church, and
it's great.
All of the album's bad points
are technical: sloppy fracking,
overbalanced amplified instru-
ments, and hastily taped vocals
that drop lyrics clean off the re-
cording. With better technical
work, Nix's next attempt could,
put him well over the esoteric
folk horizon.
FILM-Cinema II presents Wyler's Wuthering Heights in Aud.
A at 7, 9; Cinema Guild shows Lang's The Big Heat at 7,
9:05 in Arch. Aud.: Cook Memorial Festival features Wil-
der's The Fortune Cookie in 400 Hutchins Hall at 7, 9:30;
Mediatrics presents The African Queen at 7, 9:30; Ann
Arbor Film Co-op shows Mankiewitz's Sleuth at 7, 9:30
in Aud. A; New World Film Co-op features Pontecorvo's
Burn in Aud. 3, MLB at 7:30, 9:45 and Fellini's Clowns
at 8:30, 9:45 in Aud. 4, MLB.
MUSIC-The Music School presents Mozart's "The Marriage
of Figaro at 8 in Mendelssohn; The Bach Club features
the Marais Trio; The Musical Society presents Modern
Jazz Quartet at 8 in Power.
DRAMA-RC Players enact Stoppard's Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead at 8 in East Quad Aud.
HURRY! ENDS TODAY!
Jon Voight aid Burt Reynolds in "DELIVERANCE" (R)
at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 p.m.
"JEREMY" HAS NOTHING GOING
FOR IT EXCEPT THE PEOPLE
WHO LOVE
IT.y
TV
highlights
9:30
9 This Land -nDocumentary, "In
Search of Silence" follows camera-
man Paul Guy and family on a
canoe trip through northern Man-
toba lake district.
56 Reddick - Canadian actor 1on-
aid Harron stars as "Reddick,"
youthful minister whose faith Is
tested by young people.
10:00
2 Orange Blossom Festival - Lor-
etta Lynn and George Lindsey
head guest list for hour of com-
edy.
9 Stampeders - Music show with the
Stampeders, one of Canada's top
rock groups.
11:30
Movie - "The Proud and the Pro-
fane," stormy WWII romance of a
marine colonel (William Holden)
and a Red Cross worker (Debo-
rah Kerr),
50 Movie - "Larcen, Inc." comedy
about crooks who buy a luggage
shop to rob the bank next door
with Edward G. Robinson and
Jane Wyman.
1.2:00
9 Movie - "To Die in Paris," Louis
Jordan as a French underground
leader who is hunted by both the
enemy and a compatriot assassin.
1:30
Movie "Don't Make Waves," a
sand-and-surf farce for adults
with Tony Curtis and Claudia Car-
dinale.
- CORRECTION -
The Daily regrets an error made in the adver-
tisements in Tuesday's paper.
"HAROLD AND MAU DE"
WILL NOT BE SHOWN
THIS WEEKEND !
by ~Med jotrics
ALL STUDENTS INTERESTED in Latin-
American studies are invited to attend a
meeting to be held in the Cpmmons Room
of the Romance Languages Department to
discuss the organizotion of a possible pro-
gram in lbero-American Studies, Thursday,
Nov. 15 at 12 p.m.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL 1. O'MALLEY AT 761-4437
oe
F
NEW WORLD FILM COOP-presents-
MARLON BRANDO and RENATO SALVATORI
in GILLO PONTECORVO'S
Brando's favorite performance
(UR
(QUEMADA)
One of the rare cinematic achievements of the decade, Pontecorvo (Battle of Algiers) achieves a depth
of feelLng for his characters that is rarely achieved by other filmmakers. Burn was suppressed by United
Artists in this country and abroad, forcing Pontecorvo to chance the. title from "Qwemaod" to "0010"
which would presumably de-popularize the film by conjuring-up visions of inflamotory rhetoric and qGhetto
insurrections. "Pontecorvo can show brutality without giving the audience cheap shocks, and h, does't
arrange suffering in pretty compositions. He has a true sift for ep c fImmokin: he can keep masses of
people in movement on the screen so that we care about what happzns to them."
--Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE
WED. and TH u RS. NOV. 14&15MODERN LANGUAGES BLDG., AUD. 3
7:30 & 9:30
Pierre Etaix, Annie Fratellini, Gustav Fratellini & Baptiste in
It's about
so s IN /!9 11& .