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October 17, 1972 - Image 3

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Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1972-10-17

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Tuesdgy,.:. October 1.:7, 1972

THE WCH'iGAN DAILY

Page Three-

Tuesday, October 17, 1972 THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Pone Three

Everyone W
Fun, Food,
NEW PEOPLE WA

Velcome 1
GRAD
COFFEE
HOUR
Wednesday, Oct. 18
8-10 p.m.
West Conference
Room, 4th Floor
RACKHAM
OUTSIDE ON THE TERRACE
People
VELCOME!

I

SPECIAL EVENINGS- SHE
Sunday and Monday: Quarter NihIs
(BEER AND WINE) j
Tuesday: All drinks 1/2 Price
HE~ Wednesday: Singles Night
free admission and ail drinks
/2 price for women
341 So. Main, Ann Arbor 769-5960
VOTE SALLADE
{.PROSECUTOR
A month ago, George Sallade charged that the in-
cumbent prosecutor had no women, blacks,. Chi-
conos, or members of other minority groups on his
professional staff.
The prosecutor admitted it was true and did nothing.
SALLADE will do something about it.
IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE!
VOTE SALLADE FOR PROSECUTOR
NOV. 7t h
DEMOCRAT
Paid Political Advertisement

CULTURE DALENDA
UPCOMING THEATRE TIP-University Players present Sam-
uel Beckett's Endgame in the Arena Theatre at 8, Oct.
19-22; 24-28.
THEATRE-Bernard Shaw'sDon Juan in Hell this afternoon
at 2 in Pease Aud. by EMU faculty cast; Sound of Music
opens tonight at Detroit's Fisher theatre.
MUSIC-Guitarist Ernesto Bitetti presented by University
Musical Society tonight at 8:30, Rackham Aud.; Michael
Radulescu of the Vienna Academy in organ recital to-
night at 8:30, Hill;
FILMS-Ann Arbor Film Coop shows Midnight Cowboy to-
night in Aud. A, .7, 9:30. About this film Daily reviewer
Matthew Gerson writes:
Texas-born dishwasher-turned-stud Joe Buck hits
the "big city" of New York to make his fortune. He en-
counters a series of bizarre failures, runs out of money,
and finally befriends a waddling, diseased runt named
Ratzo. Poignancy of these two losers' relationship-and
their trust and desperate closeness-form the story of
this 1969 John Schlesinger film, starring Jon Voigt and
Dustin Hoffman.
Also showing tonight by Cinema Guild, Nights of
Cabiria in Arch Aud., 7, 9:05; Women's -Studies Film Ser-
ies shows tonight Women on the Other Side of the Easel,
UGLI Multi-purpose room, 7.
Lght oot in Detrot

By RICHARD GLATZER
I had thought I knew what to
expect from a press conference
with Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-
Pierre Gorin. Not that I was
particularly familiar with their
films. Godard's pre-'68 movies
(at least those I had seen)
struck me mostly as cinematic
doodling, new forms without sub-
stance - the work of a man who
had nothing to say, but was con-
stantly in search of new ways to
say it.
When Godard joined forces
with Gorin in '68 and turned
from aesthetics to politics, I was
less interested than ever. Half
of a N.Y. Film Festival audi-
ence walking out on the direc-
tors' Wind From the East was
more than enough to keep me
away. And as for their other
films, I neither knew how many
they were nor what they were
called - nor did I care.
That is, until I learned that the
two directors were coming here
and that I would have the op-
portunity to interview them.
My reading only made me dis-
like the directors more than ever
before. In a 1970 N. Y. Times
interview, Godard and Gorin
seemed strident, outspoken, in-
tentionally offensive. No cine-
matic shop talk here! Pure pol-
itics. Aesthetics was strictly a
concern of the past.
Yet the two men who appeared.
at the press conference Satur-
day were not at all what I had
expected. (Which says something
both about the changes that
have come about in Godard and
Gorin and about the biases of
the media) Godard politely ans-
wered questions while eating
danish and drinking coffee - not
all the flaming politico I had
pictured. And Gorin was down-
right friendly, open, doing his
best not to offend anyone.
Naturally in preparing my
questions earlier, I had care-
fully avoided any film ques-
tions that were not closely tied
to politics. Yet here was God-
ard admitting, "I'm very per-
verted. I like commercial T.V.
I like any movie. I just like the
flow of the images." Here was
Godard explaining that, for the
first time, he felt close to the
American masses when he paid
his three dollars to see The
Godfather. Here were Godard
and Gorin willing to explain why
they think Clockwork Orange is,
"a paranoid movie . .i. a com-
plete fascist movie."
As for politics, the two men
were, as they themselves put it,
no longer willing to "sneak about
politics," but preferring rather,
"to speak more oliticallv about
things." Doctrinaire ideologies
were strictly avoided (quite a
change from Godard of La Chi-
noise): "If Mao is what I'm do-
ing, OK, I'm a Maoist."
And the directors' specific
views on certain issues were
careflly avoided, if they were
thought to be offensive. Take,
for example, what happened
when I asked, what, in view of
the fact that the directors had
made a film for Al Fatah in Jor-
dan, Godard and Gorin thought
of the r'~cent events at the Olym-
pics. Godard, king of double-
talk and of question evading,
simply explained that their Arab
film was not financed by Al Fa-
tah, but rather by several Arab
friends, that, after having re-
turned from Jordan with the
footage, the directors decided

it would make for a miserable
movie, and that the rushes for
the film are still sitting unedited
somewhere in France.
All very interesting, but all an
avoidance of my question. When
pressed further about the events
at Munich, Godard struck off on
another tangent. This time it
was a list of oppressed people
for whom Godard had sympathy
("I have sympathy for the wo-
men because they are oppressed
by men - especially by me.")
Finally, though, Gorin decided
to answer the question straight-
forwardly. He explained that the
two directors view of the event
is unique, that many people
would refuse to talk further with
them if they knew what this
view was.Gorinesaid simply
that they do not believe in mar-
tyrs, that they, "don't believe in
dying revolutionaries."
Contrast this with the out-
spoken Godard and Gorin of the
past: "When the astronauts were
out there in space, I wished
that they would not return. I
would have been glad if they had
died," Godard told a N. Y.
Times reporter two years ago.
Why are these once overly vo-
ciferous directors trying to be-
come somewhat inoffensive and
agreeable?. Perhaps partially
because Godard has had two
very close brushes with death in
the past two years - he seems
to have mellowed. But, more
importantly, in addition to this
(or possibly because of this),
Godard and Gorin seem more
genuinely interested in commun-
icating with people, in avoiding
the alienation of the movie-go-
ing public, than they were -two
years ago.
And this desire to reach more
people is the directors' justifica-
tion for making Tout Va Bien,
an almost commercial, 35 milli-
meter film, replete with two big
box-office stars, Yves Montand
and Jane Fonda.
Godard and Gorin want their
movie to be more widely seen.
Hence the use of two "loud-
speakers," the two stars. Hence
the wide (or wider than usual)
commercial distribution of the
movie. Hence the directors' cur-
rent tour of ten American cam-
puses and their recent visit to
the New York' Film Festival.

Reflecting

on

Godard,
holding fairly securely until he
turned completely revolutionary
after Weekend; in 1968.,
Godard and Gorin seem to
me to be quite sincere in their
desire to awake the movie-going
public to the problems of our
contemporary , existence a n d
what can be done about it.,
Yet sincerity and the desire to
communicate do not necessarily
guarantee a successful film.
Godard and Gorin realize that
their recent films have not
reached a large audience (God-
ard calls Vladimir and Rosa, "a
completely miserable movie"),

Gorin
tion of the movie gets underway.
T h e s e Brechtian techniques,
designed to keep the audience
aware of 'the fact that they're
watching a film, continue once
the action begins. Godard'and
Gorin insist on showing us that
the factory in which part of the
film takes place is- nothing more
than a movie set. Actors enter
their roles a split second after
the camera is turned on. Char
acters talk straight to the cam-
era. And, once Tout has run its
hour and a half length, an off-
screen voice says, "Every film
has to end."

By DIANE LEVICK
Relaxing with a beer after his
concert Saturday night, Gordon
Lightfoot responded to questions
from the press and excited fans.
"What do you think about when
you're singing in concert?" ask-
ed one rehearsed fan. "Mostly
about getting through the song!"
Accompanying himself on six
WASHBOAR
and his SUPER SUDS
OF RHYTHM
NO COVER
217SASH 2M-2Atv

and 12-string guitars, Lightfoot
forgot some of the lyrics of four
songs in what was an otherwise
spirited concert. At one point,
during his "Looking at the Rain,"
he miraculously ad libbed some
words when his memory failed.
Half the audience seemed to en-
joy it; the other half didn't even
seem to notice the new lines.
Despite these occasional mem-
ory lapses, the long-time folk-
singer shared with his audience
a rapport more cordial than the
one he mustered in Ann Arbor
last February. At that time,
Lightfoot's divorce was reflecting
a bitterness on stage, and the
humor he attempted didn't come
off very well. But Saturday night
the old enthusiasm came back-
even in a song like "Canadian
Railroad Trilogy" which he has
played at every concert for
years.
After he bemoaned the theft
of his old guitars in Saginaw and
urged that they be returned, he
sensed a strange anticipation
among the teenyboppers in the
audience. "You want me to give
out my address right here?" he
asked with mock incredplity.
"Yeah!" squeeled a few fans to
their lace-shirted idol.
But he launched into some re-
cent songs instead. Accompanied
by Terry Clements on a fine
acoustic lead guitar and Richard
Haynes on bass, Lightfoot per-
formed a number of songs from
his "Don Quixote" and "Sum-
mer Side of Life" albums, plus
a few older tunes and five brand
new ones.
Lightfoot previewed his album
"Old Dan's Records," scheduled
See MORE, Page 7

Daily Photo by KAREN KASMAUSKI
Jean Luic Godard (right) and Jean Pierre Gorin

and they are now trying to find,
"new forms to bring out new
contents," Hence their renewed
interest in aesthetics, in film,
and in engrossing, rather than
boring, the mass audience. God-
ard himself said during the press
conference that many people
who despised Weekend will like
Tout Va Bien.
And I think he is right. I for
one found Tout inoffensive, pro-

i
i
I
{
ARTS

1

Skeptic that I am, I can't help
wondering how much money
has to do with the making of
Tout and its distribution, rather
than allegiance to revolutionary
causes. Financial interest must
play some role.
Yet Godard and Gorin are not
making very much -more than
their plane fare on this tour, and
the film has only been seen by
150,000 people in France. If
Godard himself was interested.
in making money, he would
never have left his post as lead-
er of the high-brow cinematic
avant - garde, a post he was

vocative, surprisingly ambigu-
ous for a political film. Yet I
don't think it is Godard-Gorin's
new techniques that are prin-
cipally responsible for the suc-
cess of their new movie.
Sure, there are all sorts of
Brechtian touches. The film
opens with two off - screen
voices discussing the making of
the movie; "I want to make a
film . . . that makes money."
Cut to a shot of a hand rapidly
signing the various checks cov-
ering the costs of Tout. "If we
hire stars, we'll get money."
And so on until the actual ac-

These devices are. nothing
new - they seem to be the.
mainstay of most every avant-
garde film around, from Pamela
and Ian to Parades to Maidstone
-and I don't believe they are
ever truly successful, yet God-
ard andr Gorin's use of themis
as clever and entertaining as
any I have seen.
But what I found To be Tout
Va Bien's major asset is its lack
of pat doctrinaire political mean-
ings, its realistic assessment of
the problems confronting every-
one from harassed workers to
middle - class intellectuals try-
ing to reconcile their life-styles
with their leftist leanings.
He (Yve Montand) is a film
director who ran the crest of
the New Wave, only to be shak-
en by the events in Paris of
May, 1968. (The parallel to God-
ard is obvious). He now makes
his living by creating insipid
commercials rather than pro-
duce escapist films he now sees
as being "obscene". She (Jane
Fonda), his wife, is an Amer-
can journalist working for th1e
American Broadcasting Serv-
ice. She too is concerned with
leftist causes, yet is uncertain
as to just what she should do
about the state of things.mb
He and She's problems come
to a head when they arrive on
the scene of a workers' revolt in
a sausage factory. By listening
to the workers' personal reasons
for hating their jobs - the smell
of the meat clinging to their
bodies, the ennui of their daily
routines - the contradictions' in
His and Her lives become unig-
norable.
Godard and Gorin offer no
See DIRECTORS, Page 7
Organization Notces
U of M Ski Club, mass meeting, Oct.
17, 7:30 PM, Union Bailroom. Sched-
uled trips: Christmas - Steamboat
Spring, Colorado and Sprink Break -
Aspen Colorado.
ENACT, recruitment meeting,. Oct.
18, 7:30 PM, Natural Resources.

- 1
" h
Sunday Feast
The Ah Ahk troupe provides a feast for both eye and car as they
bring to Ann Arbor a program representing the full history of
Korean performing arts. In this, the first program of an expanded
East Asian Series, Korean classical and folk music and dance-
all with authentic costumes-will be presented on tha stage of
Rackham Auditorium, Sunday afternoon, October 22 at 2:30.
Tickets at $5, $4, and $2.50. (A few series tickets remain for four
events of the East Asian Series $8.50.) Future programs:
Chinese Skin Shadow Puppets, Saeko Ichinohe & Company from Japan,
and Topeng Dance Theater of Bali.

New Phoenix Troupe Flexes Wings

By GEORGE , NT
The cast of 17 sat on
metal camp chairs as Ste-
phen Porter, director with
the New Phoenix Repertory
Company, advised them on
what to expect during the
next five weeks of rehearsal
of Moliere's "Don Juan."
Standing unobtrusively
behind one of the chairs, in
a tangle of designers and
photographers, was Harold
Prince, one of Broadway's
foremost producer-directors
of musicals, who is sched-
uled to direct Eugene
O'Neill's "The Great God
Brown" at the Phoenix this
season.
The New Phoenix Company,
which opens at the Lyceum
Theater here Dec. 10 and
presents the Moliere and
O'Neill plays on alternate
nights, initiates this ,season
its program aimed at bring-
ing repertory theater closer
to a larger public.
COM/NG/

MORE
THAN
TREES

I

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