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Friday, March 29, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
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Pick of the week:
W aiand Peace
Cinema II, Aud. A
Part 1, Sat., 6:45, 10
Part 2, Sun., 6:45, 10
Lenin once said that he felt
cinema was the most important
of the arts in Russia. Appropri-
ately, then, when it came time to
select a project to commemor-
ate the 50th anniversary of the
Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet
Government decided to produce
the world's grandest and most
expensive motion picture - an
epic presentation of Tolstoy's
War and Peace. The product has
its problems, many quite severe,
but must certainly be ranked as
one of the most breathtaking ef-
forts of cinematic history.
Sergei Bondarchuk, probably
Russia's best living director, co-
ordinated and stars in this mas-
sive six hour production. He oft-
en gets carried away with
some of the airy Tolstoy side
comments on life, but on the
whole presents a tight, respect-
able version of the original. His
helicopter shots of the battle se-
quences are brilliant.
The acting, however, is not
always of the best quality. Lyud-
milla Savelyeva, as Natasha
Rostova, wallows in a sea of
cuteness and comes pretty close
to drowning in it by the last reel.
Bondarchuk has his excellent
moments as Pierre Bezuhov, but
seems to have only one facial ex-
pression in his repertoire - and
frankly, after six hours one gets
tired of his half-worried, half-
dour stare.
-David Blomquist
Romeo and Juliet
Bursley Hall Enterprises,
Bursley West Cafeteria
Sat., 9
Thus, even though I don't
agree with all of his touches, I
do think that Franco Zeffirelli de-
serves due credit for coming up
with a distinctively different ap-
proach to Shakespeare's most fa-
mous early play.
Probably Zeffirelli's most suc-
cessful idea is his choice of two
teenage actors, Leonard Whiting
and Olivia Hussey, to fill the lead
roles traditionally played by far
older actors. The script suddenly
takes on an entirely different per-
spective ,even if hampered by an
occasional hesitant line here and
there.
Pascqualio de Santis's photog-
raphy is perhaps the most de-
lightful element of this pleasur-
able film. His stunning lighting.
gives the interior scenes a slight
yellow cast that remarkably imi-
tates the colors of a Renaissance
painting and amplifies the period
atmosphere.
David Blomquist
The Sting
State
No doubt about it: the team of
Paul Newman, Robert Redford,
and George Roy Hill simply can-
not make a bad movie. If you
liked Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid, you'll squeal with
delight at Sting.
Sting is a story of a big con
artist (Newman) who comes out
of retirement to take on an ap-
prentice (Redford) and make
one final "big con" - one final
"sting". The result is perfect.
-Louis Meldman
MCO
The Movies, Briarwood
McQ is Dirty Harry without
star Clint Eastwood, or Don Sie-
gal's taut direction. Instead, we
have John Wayne in street
clothes running around Seattle,
hunting down cop-killers with a
quasi-cannon that he uses as a
handgun.
Director John Sturges (The
Great Escape) seems to be
mainly interested in making sure
that all the scenes are in order
and that Wayne's gun is loaded.
Basically, this is an eminently
avoidable movie - unless you
like the sight of John Wayne
blowing holes in people with a
gun that could stop a trailer
truck.
-James Hynes
Jean Cocteau Festival
Cinema Guild, Arch. Aud.
Blood of a Poet: Fri., 7, 9:05
Orpheus: Sat., 7, 9:05
Testament of Orpheus:
Sun., 7, 9:05
Surrealistic filmmaker Jean
Cocteau is featured this weekend
in a unique triolgy that spans
over 30 years of his work.
Blood of a Poet, Cocteau's first
film, is a slowly unfolding drama
filled, as are all of his works,
with vivid images from his past.
His amazing artistic diversity
(Cocteau was a poet, playwright,
and artist as well) is brilliantly
displayed in this unusual and in-
fluential film.
In Orpheus, Cocteau updates
the legend of the young poet who
becomes so fascinated with death
that he almost loses Eurydice,
his pretty young wife. Unfor-
tunately, Cocteau's amazing dex-
terity with symbolism flashes by
so quickly and furiously that Or-.
pheus is virtually incomprehen-
sible in one sitting.
Testament of Orpheus is a
star - studded (Pablo Picasso and
Yul Brynner drop by to say hel-
lo) autobiographical film told in
terms of the original 1950 Or-
pheus.The principal cast of that
film returns to join Cocteau in
what turns out to be a search
for nothing. He must have an-,
ticipated the reaction to Testa-
ment when he subtitled it "Don't
Ask Me Why", because the hap-
hazard, blah content of the film'
certainly invites that question.
-David Blomquist and
James Hynes
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Cinema II, Aud. A
Fri., 7, 9:15
It's not strange that Yankee
Doodle Dandy (1942) is Jimmy
Cagney's favorite film - the
brilliant actor surprisingly start-
ed out as a dancer and really
cuts loose in this one. Loosely
structured around a biography of
playwright/showman George M.
Cohan, Doodle is a fine picture
with excellent supporting per-
formances by Walter Huston and
Joan Leslie.
Top-notch, patriotically choreo-
graphed music and an Academy
Award - winning Cagney make
this a must-see movie. Michael
Curtiz, who did Casablanca, di-
rected the whole package with a
delicate and sensiblemixture of
nostalgia and champagne.
'-Michael Wilson
Klute
Friends of Newsreel, MLB
Klute (1969) exhibits Jane Fon-
da's exceptional acting ability, as
she depicts a mysterious call girl
involved in a sadistic blackmail
scene with more ability and tim-
ing than 10 .big - name actresses
put together. Donald Sutherland
is the cop who tries to help her,
and, predictably, falls in love in
the process.
Alan J. Pakula brings home
the suspense and elaborate de-
tail with a directorial flair un-
equalled that year in tempo and
style. His previous works To Kill
A Mockingbird, among others)
pale considerably against this
one. Klute is a twisted and fine-
ly mechanized piece of terrific
filmmaking that should not be
missed.
--Michael Wilson
Day for Night
Campus
With Day for Night, Francois
Truffaut joins the lengthy list of
directors who have attempted to
produce The Definitive Movie on
the motion picture industry. And
while the result isn't really very
meaty, it is witty, enjoyable, and
a winner - which makes it look
like a sure bet for this year's
best foreign film Academy
Award.
Truffaut himself portrays a di-
rector working on a typical
American' studio film entitled
"Meet Pamela". Cast members
Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre
Leaud, and Jean-Pierre Aumont,
among others, perform superbly
in this combination satire on and
tribute to the world of commer-
cial film.
-David Blomquist
Sleuth
UAC Mediatrics,
Nat. Sci. And.
Fri., Sat., 7, 9:30
Laurence Olivier portrays an
aging, eccentric writer of mys-
tery novels and a lover of elab-
orate games. Michael Caine
plays a young, modish hairdress-
er who is the lover of Olivier's
wife. They meet alone at the
writer's country estate to talk
the situation over. Olivier pro-
poses a game, which soon
evolves into something more
serious.
Cleverly scripted by Anthony
Shaeffer (Frenzy), Sleuth is
packed with witty dialogue and
g e n u i n e l y surprising
surprises. The plot has more
twists in it than a Chubby Check-
er record. Yet Sleuth, more than
a clever suspense, is a scathingly
satiric condemnation of the mur-
der - as - a - gentlemanly - sport
school of literature and film.
Olivier and Caine are mar-
velous, of course, but above all,
Sleuth is simply great entertain-
ment.
--James Hynes
Easy Rider
Friends of Newsreel, MLB
Easy Rider (1969) is so unbe-
lievably phony that it may well
be the worst picture ever made.
When you realize that producer
Peter Fonda and director Dennis
Hopper were actually serious
about their project at the time
it was made, the whole thing
gets a lot more pathetic.
Perhaps the most sickening
thing about Rider is that it made
a fortune - untold millions. The
only good minutes in the movie
consist of some drunken con-
versationdbetween the two co-
stars and Jack Nicholson, a
Southern lawyer who gets them
out of jail.
-Michael Wilson
The Bank Dick
Cook Memorial Films
100 Hutchins Hall, Law Quad
Fri., 7:30, 9:30
W. C. Fields plays the con-
tinually drunken Egbert Souse in
a hilarious 1940 tale that chron-
icles the star's annoyinghabit of
being in the wrong place at the
right time. Fields deftly cap-
tures a bank robber and is re-
warded for his efforts with full-
time employment in the form of
permanent bank guard duty.
The result is a comic catastro-
phe - a classic that will split
your sides. Fields' hate for chil-
dren crystallizes beautifully in
one scene when he threatens a
four year old with a five-foot
plant.
-Michael Wilson
The Exorcist
The Movies, Briarwood
Director William Friedkin
(French Connection) has said that
this movie was intended to scare
people. It is the story of how a
little girl (Linda Blair) becomes
possessed by the Devil.
The little girl masturbates with
a crucifix, =turns her head all the
way around, and swears a la
Jack Nicholson.
-Louis Meldman
Butllit
Michigan House, West Quad
Sat., 7
Peter Yates's Bullit (1968) is a
truly powerful action-filled flick
with enough shotgun bursts of
violence and obscene car chases
to last you a lifetime. Yet the
flawless performance of Steve
McQueen in the title role gener-
ates more energy than anything
the actor's done since his classic
Blob in 1958.
--Michael Wilson
Serpico
The Movies, Briarwood
Serpico is a fine example of
how a film can wrestle with a
controversial subject and come
out on top.
Al Pacino exquisitely portrays
Serpico, a Greenwich Village in-
tellectual who decides to join the
New York 'City police force. Dis-
gusted by rampant corruption
among patrolmen, he complains
to his superiors, but each time
receives the same blunt answer
-an order to keep his damn
mouth shut.
Easily Sidney Lumef's best
movie, Serpico also happens to
be Dino De Laurentis's first film
since moving his operations from
Rome to New York.
--David Blomquist
SHOW TIMES
Mon.-Sat.,
7:15 & 9:00
Sun., 5:30, 7:15, 9:00
JEAN COCTEAU WEEKEND
ILOOD OF APOET13
Cocteau was versatile in virtually every 20th century art form, and this film is one
result of his interests. The metaphoric happenings of a p o e t. Shorts: Un Chien
Andalou Bunuel and Dali, Entr'acte Rene Clair, and a f i I m clip from La Fille
D'Eau Renoir
SAT.: Cocteau's ORPHEUS
Tonight at ARCHITECTURE
cU Iu 7 and 9:05
C~ne~naAdm. $1
EASTERN MICH IGAN UNIVERSITY-MAJOR EVENTS COMMITTEE
is pleased to announce the only Detroit area performance of
T~0T""EM PTATIONA
e-
SAT., SUN., & WED. AT
1, 3, 5, 7, & 9:05
THURSDAY & FRIDAY at
7 p.m. & 9 p.m.
,I L
-17
1:10 MZW6'..
Attention
MICHAEL CURTIZ'S 1942
Advertisers
for total campus Yankee Doodle andy
saturation over
air' Call JAMES CAGNEY as George M. Cohan in a nostalgic view of the world of
763-3501 show business in the golden days of Vaudeville. Cagney's brilliant per-
formance wan him both the Academy Award & the N.Y. Film Critic Award
as best actor of 1942 James Cagney, Walter Huston, Joan Leslie.
SAT.: WAR AND PEACE-PART ONE
Pack AUD. A
CINEMA 11 TONIGHT AT ANGELL HALL
-T 650 AM-CN 7 & 9A:1nr Adm. $1.00
The Rock of Ann Arbor
WINNER
Best Foreign
FILM
ACADEMY AWARD
NOMINATION
T RUFFAUT'S
FOR
603 E. Liberty
DIAL 665-6290
Open 12:4$. Shows at
1. 3. 5 7 and 9om.
with special guest stars
Tower of Power
in
Bowen Fieldhouse
April 5-8:00 p.m.
TICKETS:
$6.00 (reserved),
$5.00 and $4.00 (general)
AVAILABLE AT:
I
McKenny Union, Grinnell's,
son's, Ann Arbor Music
Huckleberry Party Store,
Spaghetti Bender.
Hud-
Ma rt,
and
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r
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PREMIERES TONIGHT
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Pando Company in association with Raybert Productions presents
UU5HIDUR
An American Odyssey
- _ --
JANE FONDA
Academy Award winning performance
as a New York calTgiri in
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with DONALD SUTHERLAND
WINNER
OF
10
ACADEMY AWARD
NOMINATIONS
including
BEST MOVIE
starring
PETER FONDA - DENNIS HOPPER
JACK NICHOLSON
directed by Dennis Hopper, written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern,
produced by Peter Fonda, Executive Producer Bert Schneider
I
"Jane Fonda here emerges as probably
actress of her generation."-Life
the finest screen
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'fil l I I-rE' .r .tl., ..s......
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