THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
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Annual Film Festival
offers creative films
By JO MARCOTTY who cater to movies like L o v e prize winner; John Schotts a
he Twelfth Annual Ann Arbor Story; or Mary Poppins, for to photographer and graphic artist;
n Festival begins tonight with enjoy it, the audience must dlso David Robinson, a film maker
usual gamut of experimental, be willing to explore. from Ohio University, and K r-
mated, conceptual, and dou- Film freaks recognize some of en Sayre Higgins, buyer f.r the
tary films. the previous prize winners pre- University's audio-visual films.
resented by the Dramatie sented in this year's collection of Following the screenings in
Center and Cinema Guild, films including Kurt McDowell, Ann Arbor, the award winning
festival will show over 25 an old favorite and a special films will be sent on tour to
rs of artistic pieces, starting guest of the festival. Some of his nine other Universities.
ght and running through Sa- pieces are Siamese Twin Pin- The films will be shown in the
ay. heads, Ronnie and Nosy Tosy. Architecture Auditorium Tuesday
he films, often referred to as James Manupelli, one of the through Saturday at 7 p.m., 9
erground films, were describ- original organizers of the Film p.m., and 11 p.m. Tickets will be
y Jay Cassidy, Festival man- Festival, is presenting (a real on sale beginning at 5:30 in the
r, as "representative o: inde- mouthful) Portraits, Self-P o r- lobby before the shows, and ser-
dent film makers who aren't traits, and Still Lives, 1972-1973, ies tickets can be Daught for
missioned to do their films." with Special Reference to the $13.
n other words, the raison Assassination of President John The special awards Showing will
re of the film becomes the F. Kennedy, or, This is Not Auf- be presented on Sunday at the
makers choice." weidersehn, this is Good-by. same time in the Architecture
Auditorium, and in Auditorium A
hey can be called independ- But these films are just a of Angell Hall.
experimental, personal, but glimpse of what's to come.
Bring a pillow to protect your-
s difficult to pin down an Cinema Guild and the Dramatic self from the auditorium seats,
ct definition of waat they Arts Center have selected judges a bag of popocrn to muucn on,
ly are. Probably the b e s t from in and outside the Univer- and prepare yourself, not neces-
nition is an artist's means of sity to present over $2,500 hi sarily for entertainment, b u t
expression, or as Sheldon awards for the best films, which certainly for something creative
an observed i his book on will be shown in Ann Aroor on and new.
VOTE APtU I
CINEMA GUILD
proundly presents
the
12th A-nn, Arbor
Film
Festival
underground films, " medium of
and for the individual as an ex-
plorer and aun artist."
And the individual's expression
comes through in anyzhing from
a documentary, to an animated
cartoon, to an abstract expression
of an idea, with a wide variety
of camera and film te~hrique.
But the Festival is not for those
Sunday.
Awards Jury consists of people
who have shown an interest in
past festivals, but are not neces-
sarily film makers. This year
they include Richard Weigand,
the art editor of Esquire Maga-
zine; Widge Powell, a graduate
of the University's Art School:
Doug Wendt, a previous Festival
I
Daily Photo by KEN FINK
John Prine
Attention
Advertisers
for total campus
saturation over
air call
763-3501
The Rock of Ann Arbor
4
Series $ 13.00
Single: $1.00
I
ohn
great
By MARNIE HEYN
With a twang, a mild manner,
and three chords, John Prine laid
back two sardine-like audiences
at the. Ark Sunday night, and
left them lungry for 'more.
Prine shambled up to me mic-
rophone carrying a coffee mug
filled with something and opened
the first show with "Spanish Pipe
Dream." He explained that he
wrote the song for a friend of
his, a Puerto Rican dishwasher
from Chicago, who kept asking
for a song. Prine said, "He's not
a dishwasher any more. I think
he's a taxidermist, but he's still
a Puerto Rican."
His second number was "They
don't know how lucky they are,"
written about "a girl in high
school-t went out of my way on
Fridays to walk down the same
hall with her - she wore this
sailor outfit."
The crowd went quietly berserk
when he broke into "Illegal
Smile," singing along on the
chorus-with gusto. Prine paused
at one point to say that the
song was one in which people
heard their own words. "That
happened to me once with Fats
Domino's 'My Lil' Margie.' I
thought that the last two words
of the chorus were 'grumbly
bean,' and when I got a copy
of 'Hit Parade' with the words
in it, there was no grumbly bean
at all."
Prine then sang a series of
songs well-known to fans from
his records, "Donald and Lydia,"
"Sam Stone," which completely
altered the mood in the room
from euphoria to introspection,
and "Dear Abby," "about a wo-
inan I run into whether I want
to or not."
Before s i n g i n g "Paradise"
Prine explained some of the
song's history. "My parents are
from the town of Paradise in
Meuhlenberg County, Kentucky.
They moved to Chicago about 16
years ago so that my dad could
make some money, and they al-
ways planned to move back. But
they never made enough money.
"I had a cousin there, and we
did a lot of bumming around.
The place we like to go to best
was this abandoned prison that
had been empty since the Civil
War. But that was forbidden
territory. When my aunt found
out we'd been there-my aunt,
she is this short, square person
with a scary voice-she used to
say 'I love you' in this deep
rumbly voice and she scared the
shit out of us.
"She was really frightened
about our playing near the. pris-
on, because there was lots of
- TONIGHT -
Series Tickets go on sale at 5:30
in the Architecture Auditorium
Prine gives
performance
Man and Family:
loony British rock
Shows at 7, 9, and I1 (each different)
Tuesday - Saturday
Sunday: Winners and Highlights
in both Auditorium A and Architecture Aud
INFO: 662-8871
snakes. She said we had to take
a pistol with us whenever we
went, and if anything smelled
like cucumbers, we were sup-
posed to shoot like mad. But we
never saw any.
"Then Mr. Peabody and his
company-they'd been buying up
land for a long time-decided
that they were gonna dig up all
the coal. I don't know if you peo-
ple have ever seen a strip mine.
Now the' place looks like the
moon-that was the most disap-
pointing thing I ever saw. I ex-
pected Judy Garland and stuff."
During .the second half of the
show, Prine delivered more fine
music, playing straight-forward
and effective guitar and address-
ing the mike in an easy, con-
versational way. Called back by
a delighted crowd for a three-
song encore, he performed "An-
gel from Montgomery" with a
different m e lo d y -than people
were expecting from his record-
ing of the song. "I liked this
tune, but I was too lazy to write
new words to it, so I just used
it with these."
After being barraged with re-
quests, and responding to one
for "Christmas in Prison," Prine
talked about one of the events
described in "Everybody needs
somebody that they can talk
to." "This guy wo'd run Jesus
down with-his boat realized that
the only people wo'd seen Jesus
in a long time were the ones
who subscribed to the (National)
Enquirer."
Prine began the second show
with "They oughta name a drink
after you" and "Torch Singer"
from his Diamonds in the Rough
album. He told the audience
that he had played in Buffalo
the night before. Loud groans
were heard. He said, "Guh. I
only been there three times but
it feels like thirty."
He introduced his next song:
"This song is about bein' left.
Everybody gets left once or
twice-if they haven't been, they
oughta."
After a couple more numbers,
Prine got tanged in the logistics
of pulling on his coffee mug and
cigarette and balancing his gui-
tar ,and sort of lurched into the
piano. He chuckled and said
"I can see it now. Years from
now you'll be reading the Variety
obits and come across my name
and say, 'Prine? Oh yeah, he
played Ann Arbor once and got
his ass caught in the piano.' "
As a prelude to "The Great
Compromise," P r i n e told an
anecdote: "Me and Francis Scott
Key wrote this next song. He
hadn't had a hit in 200 years,
and it was between basketball
and football seasons so he wasn't
even getting any residuals. He
set out to, find America, and
found it the first place he stop-
ped-with a girl in a drive-in
movie-you know when we were
driving in on 1-94 this morning,
we passed a drive-in and there
was just this one car, all steam-
ed up with the top down."
Prine talked about his long,
relationships with his guitars: "i
started playing 12 years ago-
it doesn't show. My parents
bought me my first guitar--from
Sears I. think-JC Higgins-it
was a lot like their bikes-it was
metallic blue with a white heart
on it. I learned seven chords in
six months and thought I was a
musical genius. Then the neck
fell off and the strings came
apart. It was okay because I
wanted a good guitar anyhow-
but I had no money so I got a
job dusting pews. I must have
dusted 18 or 19 hundred pews
that summer, and I got a red
Gibson with a white humming-
bird on it. I wrote a lot of songs
with that guitar, but eventually
it got busted up. I traded it in
on this one. But I kinda missed
the old one and I wrote it a
song: 'Souvenirs.' "
Prine tickled his listeners with
"Billy the Bum," a story about
his booking agency and "Onoma-
topoeia,"and a. slew oftother
songs, each number getting a
warm response and close atten-
tion from the crowd. Prine again
returned for an encore, closing
with "Everybody needs somebody
that they can talk to." Every-
body had sore palms.
We'll try to be patient. And
please come back to Ann Arbor
soon.
ANN ARBOR MOVIE
THEATRE GUIDE
By TOM OLSON
Man brings us another varie-
ty of loony British' rock, a dou-
ble album called Back Into the
Future '(United Artists LA179-
H2). The best songs all arrive
on the first side, and they all
have the odd quality of a wind-
up toy gone berserk.
"Just for You" brings togeth-
er Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
moog-ery and the rhythmic
style of John Philip, Sousa. Mid-
way through, the group breaks
out in wacky Beatle harmonies
that sound like a lullaby in the
middle of a military march.
The album photograph would
have you believe that Man has,
regressed to the turn of the cen-
tury, but really they are just do-
ing some creative tinkering with
the music of the past dec-
ade. Unfortunately, only about
half of the material on these two
discs is good enough to justify
using up precious vinyl. Like ev-
ery double album, this one has
its share of padding.
An "A" to Man for making
two sides of good music, and a
"C" to their producers for not
stopping with that.
It's Only a Movie (United Ar-
tists LA181F) brings the 7-year
career of the fine British band
Family to a dazzling close. Fam-
ily's music sounds like a collabo-
ration between Charlie Chapin
and the Rolling Stones: 95-mile-
an-hour rock and roll propelled
by 426 cubic inches of irony on
the back. What other group has
written a song - a song you
could dance to - about the night
life of a child molester?
Vocalist Roger Chapman has
refined his deadpan to the point
that he could make you smirk
by singing about your mother's
funeral. Chapman and lead gui-
tarist Charlie Whitney are the
Lennon and McCartney of the
lunatic fringe, patiently craft-
ing-pretty rock songs that mock
everything in sight. They de-
serve to be cultural heroes, but
over here they are nobodies. It's
Only a Movie is the madcap
album of the year.
-_
TON IGHT!-Tuesday at 7 & 9 p.m,
Summner of '42
JENNIFER O'NEILL, GARY GRIMES,
with Jerry Houser and Oliver Conant
DIRECTED BY ROBERT MULLIGAN
An end-of-innocence sage, set in the movies' favorite season for
this ritual, and during World War 11 An endearing film. WIen
Hermie, 15, first sees Dorothy, 22, whose husband is in the
service, he knows he will never quite be the same again. MUSIC
by Michel Legrand.
'WED. & THURS.
at7 & 9p.m.
Philippe De Bgroe
"kig HCAW
With ALAN BATES,
GENEVIEVE BUJOLD
OUR MOST POPULAR FILM
RETURNS AGAIN, AFTER ALL!
(if you like this movie be sure
to see the same dIrector's DEV-
IL BY THE TAIL, March 27th)
M~h n . . . fil . . . aiv
auditorium a, angell hall
NEXT TUESDAY-McCABE AND MRS. MILLER. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20-FRITZ THE CAT
"Uproariously amusing!" N.Y. Times
HAPPY ENDING and
DAY OF ABSENCE
Two comedies by Douglas Turner Ward
Obie Award Winners of the Negro Ensemble Co.
GUEST DIRECTOR
CARLTON MOLETTE II, Spelman College
MARCH 13-16, 1974-8:00 P.M.
MENDELSSOHN THEATRE
U Players Ticket Office open 10 AM-1 PM, 2 PM-5 PM 764-6300
University of Michigan Players
U
5
BIG
50 %
SALE
OFF
L
J
T
at
ROBERT REDFORD and
PAUL NEWMAN in
HE STING" (PG
1:30, 4 p.m., 6:30 & 9 p.m.
(Winner of 10 Academy
Award nominations!)
mediatrics presents
"AN OFFERING YOU CAN'T REFUSE"
On select men's and women's
SHOES & CLOTHING
MON., MARCH 11-SAT., MARCH 16
$3 Pont Sale
Thurs., March 14
thru Sat., March 16
GUITAR LESSONS
Learn all the latest styles in guitar tech-
nique. Concepts I i k e k e y relationship,
scales, arpeggios, modulation, and reading
of music are discussed. For enrollment call:
I
I
JACK NICHOLSON in
"THE LAST
DETAI L"
(R) at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 p.m.
3 Academy Award Nominations
including BEST ACTOR!
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This coupon good for one free pair of I
pants with any purchase over $20-.valid
I Thurs. thru Sat. or as long as supply lasts. I
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