I i I
Women's Film Festival
Cinema Guild
Through Mon.
The Women's Film Festival
currently being staged by Cin-
ema Guild is a series of movies
about, and sometimes by, wo-
men. Commencing Tuesday with
Godard's Une Femme est une
Femme, it offered an evening of
women-oriented short-films on
Thursday and will be screening
Kate Millett's Three Lives, Berg-
man's The Silence, Adam's Rib,
and The Pumpkin Eater Friday,
Saturday, Sunday and Monday
respectively.
The choice of films appears
to be entirely arbitrary; no cen-
tral theme is discernible, nor do
the films illustrate any progres-
sion of feminine status from non-
liberation to emancipation. A
brief highlight of the prospective
offerings indicates their variance.
Une Femme est une Femme
has already been and gone, but
just for the record, this dazzling
Godard film focuses on a pretty
crnema
weekend
little stripper who oddly enough
longs for motherhood. When her
lover refuses to oblige, she trans-
fers her request to their best
friend, feeling, no doubt, that the
end result wil be the same. (This
maternity kick pops up again in
The Pumpkin Eaters.)
The short films have also left
us, these being a showcase of
women's talent on the other end
of the camera, with themes vary-
ing from the aggressive to the
abstruse. Tonight's film, Kate
Millet's Three Lives, is a fairly
recent (1971) documentary which
calmly explores women's roles
in a man-made society through
the simple device of face-to-face
discussions with three very dif-
ferent women. The first is Mil-
lett's sister Mallory, who describ-
es her marriage as a "hugh Az-
tec sacrificial altar." The se-
cond, Lillian, an attractive mid-
dle-aged chemist, sums up 23
years of wifehood as "fairly hap-
py, all told." 21-year old Robin,
the third speaker, is still trying
to find her place in the world.
This is the most self-consciously
feminist of the films, done with
an all-female crew; the style is
disconcertingly bare. The spec-
fic experiences of three non-ex-
traordinary women are not al-
ways entertaining or even rele-
vant but on the whole, Millett's
first venture into film-making is
a worthwhile and enlightening
probe of a still male-defined
world.
Saturday's film, The Silence, is
reviewed in more detail else-
where, but suffice to say that in
this dark venture, Bergman ex-
plicates the use of sexuality for
self-gratification, and shows is
coming up empty. Attempts at
lesbianism and a heterosexual
encounter are seen through the
sad and lonely eyes of a seven-
year-old, and each relationship
is wrong because of the motives
(possessiveness and revenge) be-
hind it.
* * *
Following this, strangely
enough, comes Adam's Rib, the
vintage (1949) George Cukor film
starring Spencer Tracy and Ka-
therine Hepburn as husband-and-
wife attorneys who (naturally)
end up facing each other on op-
posite sides of the courtroom.
Now, there are those who might
say that here is a real equality
- except for the fact that none
of it is taken too seriously. In
the Tracy-Hepburn partnerships,
from Pat and Mike to Guess
Who's Coming to Dinner, you al-
ways knew who was figuratively
wearing the pants, even if both
happened to be dressed that way.
Not that this isn't an enjoyable
film (though it isn't their best)
but the title will indicate the
extent of Hepburn's real inde-
pendence from the stock "no
brains in her pretty little head"
notion of movie women.
The series concludes with The
Pumpkin Eater, in which Anne
Bancroft plays mother hen to
her heart's content until jealousy
and her husband's urgings push
her to an abortion and simul-
taneously sterilization. From this
point on it's melancholy all the
way. Bancroft's heavy sighs and
lugubrious expressions try to con-
vince us that a woman is incom-
plete without her motherhood,
and the brood of kids she has al-
ready accumulated seems to be
little consolation. A fidgety Peter
Finch as her husband doesn't
help at all. If this were a better
film it might be more convincing.
But then, I'm not sure that I
want to be convincedsthat mater-
nity is all. Actually, this means
the Festival has come full circle,
back to the yearnings of God-
ard's little stripper. Fortunately,
for those of us who remain skep-
tical about the mesage
erhood, there's enough
in this series to makej
while.
of moth-
variation
it worth-
-TERRY MARTIN
* * *
The Silence
Cinema Guild
Sat.
Before The Seventh Seal, Ing-
mar Bergman's films concentrat-
ed primarily on interpersonal re-
lationships and on the quality and
durability of love in a world that
holds little happiness for people.
These themes filtered through
the pictures concerning G o d ' s
questionable existence a n d
emerged in The Silence radically
changed. Whereas in the earlier
films people were finally recon-
ciled to one another, the t w o
sisters in this film are not. The
characters in Bergman's subse-
quent works do not come to-
gether either. They are left emo-
tionally and spiritually incom-
plete. Their failures to communi-
cate lead them to death or disin-
tegration. Actually, The Silence
is a bit more hopeful than this:
at the end the son of one sister is
given a list of "words in a fore-
ign language" by the other sister.
His ability to understand their
meaning will determine the shape
of the future.
A new theme is also at work in
The Silence: the sisters essen-
tially represent two warring sid-
es of a single "ersonality. In
this respect the film is insepar-
able from the one that immed-
iatelv followed it, Persona, which
wil be shown next week. Here
two women struggle to become
one as their images on the screen
Scarlet Empress for the grotes-
que interior decoration alone.
The plot is fairly straight-for-
ward - the Princess Catherine
(Marlene Deitrich) is brought to
Rusia to wed the Grand Duke
Peter (Sam Jaffe) and provide
an heir to the throne. Unfor-
tunately, Peter is a little goofy in
the head (who wouldn't be liv-
ing in that palace) and the mar-
riage doesn't work out. Cather-
ine is left to the mercy of the
court, and although she is re-
pulsed at first by its barbarism,
she eventually adapts herself to
the immoral standards and takes
on a few lovers, one of whom
is Count Alexei, an important
man in the military (the plot.
thickens). Peter ascends the
throne when his mother d i e s
and promptly threatens to have
Catherine assasinated, but she
gets control of the military (via
the aforementioned Count Alex-
ei) and seizes the throne for her-
self. The final shot shows Deit-
rich in pants astride the dais
proclaiming herself Empress of
Russia. Apparently Women's Lib-
eration is not such a new move-
ment -after all.
In the end, Marlene Deitrich
may be stunningly beautiful and
Sam Jaffe may be good as the
mad Peter, but again, it is those
fantastic, gargoyle interior sets
that will startle and haunt your
imagination.
-WILLIAM MITCHELL
Akiro Kurosawa's Rashomon
can be roughly classified as a
period film ('jidai-geki'). But
actually in some ways, it varies
radically from the specifications
of that genre. Rashomon repre-
sents the first break by a major
director from the rigid Japa-
nese film tradition. With its
multiple levels of reality, it is
almost completely foreign to the
Japanese, whose films (especial-
ly of the 'jidai-geki' genre) rarely
examine anything but the most
superficial elements of existence.
Rashomon is based on two
short stories by Ryunosuke Aku-
tagawa, in which a samurai, his
bride, and a bandit meet in the
woods. The girl is violated and
the husband killed while a wood-
cutter looks on. The film con-
sists of each person's version
of the encounter. In one version,.
the girl is raped and her hus-
band is killed by the bandit;
while in another, the girl seduces
the bandit and makes him mur-
der her husband. The essence
of Rashomon is its moral rela-
tivity, for the correct version of
the story is never revealed.
After Rashomon the 'atypical
period film" became more popu-
lar in Japan. Directors such as
Montgatari and Kinura were
praised for their work in the new
genre. But Kurosawa remains
the most well known of all Ja-
pan's avante-garde directors.
-CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS
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at best, for Micol keeps him as a
delicate distance. ("L o v e r s
should overwhelm each other,"
says she, "and we are alike as
two drops of water.") Their
lives and the lives of those'
around them seem to mirror the
existence of the leaves in the
Finzi - Contini garden - they
begin in a warm summer of non-
chalance, tremble ever so slight-
ly at the first signs of autumn,
and are finally scattered by the
cold, wet winds of winter.
The characterizations are bril-
liantly wrought by a fine cast,
particularly Dominique Sanda as
Micol. She is aloof, refined, and
above all, superbly ethereal.
Small wonder that she received
the Best Foreign Actress Awards
for her work here. Or that De-
Sica , won the Best Director
Award. Or that The Garden of
the Finzi - Continis was voted
the Best Foreign Film of the
year. It was well deserved.
-WILLIAM MITCHELL
The Damned
Fifth Forum
How can a film about incest,
sodomy, Nazism, child - molesta-
tion, transvestism, Oedipal com-
plexes, matricide, suicide, and
plain old homicide be boring?
Easy. Stretch it to two and a
half hours' length, utilize the
most monotonous, senselessly
roving camera movements in
cinema history, and give it a
moral: all Nazis were sexual de-
viants. Oof!!!!
-STAFF
Alice's Restaurant
State
When Arlo Guthrie introduced
The Alice's Restaurant Massa-
cree at the Newport Jazz Fes-
tival, people latched on to it im-
mediately - a compelling, easy-
going tale, funny with a sa-
tirical but not malicious bite and
an underlying happy tune.
In 1969, focusing on Arlo and
using the song for a framework,
Arthur Penn released an equally
compelling motion picture. Fol-
lowing the song closely at times,
Penn offers a number of hilari-
ous scenes. Who can forget dump-
ing the garbage on Thanksgiv-
ing Day, Arlo's subsequent ar-
rest and trial for littering, with
those damning 8 x 10 glossies as
evidence? Or the flower child's
encounter with the New York
City draft board, where he con-
fronts other undesirables like
mother-rapers and father-rap-
ers?
Penn's film is more than funny,
however. Termed by one critic a
"folk movie" it achieves a cer-
tain warmth by combining excel-
lent technical control and real
characterization. Some charac-
ters are literally real - Arlo as
Arlo, Chief Obanheim of Stock-
bridge, Mass., as Officer Obie;
others are believably portrayed-
Alice and Ray Brock, parents of
t h e hippie colony revolving
around Alice's Restaurant.
See CINEMA, Page 10
Yuval trio.. .
uneven exuberance
Rashomon
By DONALD SOSIN
Yuval Trio; Urn Pianka, violin; simi-
ca Heled, cello; Jonathan Zak, pia-
no; Wed., Nov. 8, 8:30 p.m. Rackham
Auditorium Chamber Arts Series of
{,. ; .r.= the University Musical Society.
Mozart-Trio in B-fiat, K. 502 Ravel-
Trio in A minor (1914) Mendelssohn-
Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66
Why do Ann Arborites have
such an aversion to piano trios?
I've talked about the scarcity of
trio programs in this city before,
so I won't dwell on the point,
# but it seems strange that, when
a reputable group does turn up,
and with a program of consider-
lable interest, a larger crowd
would not be drawn. Do people
stay away simply because the
name Yuval is unfamiliar?
(Yuval was the first musician
in the Bible, by the way.) Does
one have to proclaim that the
violinist and cellist are first-
chair players from the Israel
Philharmonic? I don't know what
- r f the answer is.
E The seldom - played Mendels-
sohn Trio in C minor capped the
E ' rr trio's spirited program Wednes-
day night. It was a pleasure to
hear this work, often bypassed
h $ f - e A A Too than d in favor of the earlier Trio in D
s -ani n ie ~cokd C o minor, and not without some jus-
tification - the latter has more
A....h -m.. noba.nsmemorable themes, and is more
r f Iq 4C. concise.
I g puy of b p dBut the C minor trio contains
{fn and s prvd with an ilx -C-ld refrei hing
p kFtr 4 you can 't e mr
~ok. Shop at
Foleftts
for Text Books
UAC-DAYSTAR presents
many passages with the sort of
genius that one finds in larger
chunks in earlier works, notably
the Octet for strings, Op. 20, one
of the great works of chamber
music. And thereare a few spots
where one can almost pick out
specific works of Chopin or
Schumann that might have in-
spired Mendelssohn.
The trio played with enormous
intensity, but often seemed so
eager to convey a mood that de-
tails were skipped over; pianist
Zak had a tendency to rush the
ends of phrases, which was more
noticeable in the Mozart that
opened the program. One also
heard more violin than cello
most of the time, which is not
to say that Pianke should have
played softer, but that Zak might
have, givinghHeled a chance to
sound through.
On the first half of the pro-
gram, the group played Ravel's
Trio in A minor. One of the most
beautiful trios in the repertoire,
it is also fiendishly difficult. Ra-
vel really had it in for his mu-
sicians, especially the pianist.
(He put the violinist and the
cellist through the mill in his so-
nata for the two instruments,
and succeeded to a degree that
the work is scarcely ever played,
it is so hard. Oscar Shumsky
andtBernard Greenhouse record-
ed it about 25 years ago, and did
such an amazing job that few
have ventured near it since.)
The Trio is, I think, a more
delicate work than the Yuval
players made it out to be. There
was a percussive quality in the
piano playing, and an often
frenzied sound in the strings;
the reflective Passacaille went
too quickly for my taste, but it
is only a question of taste, and
thereare no right or wrong ans-
wers.
Instead, it becomes a question
of how many different, yet sensi-
ble, ways there are to play a
piece. The more varied interpre-
tations one hears, the greater
the basis one will have for evalu-
ating future performances"and
formulating one's own ideas
about the music, rather than ac-
cepting as fact the musings of a
critic, who canonly speak from
his own experience and back-
ground.
struggle to merge, and the boy Sat. & Sun.
again bears the weight of under- The Japanese are adamantly
standing the possible outcome. ritualistic in their production of
He is now a last vestige of hope. films. Each film made in Japan
From here on Bergman's outlook can be classified not only by
becomes dismal indeed. genre, but also by a well defined
-DAVID GRUBER type or 'mono'. For example, any
film with a self-sacrificing hero-
ine is a 'kachusha-mono', named
The Scarlet Empress after the heroineofTolstoy'sRe-
surrection. Likewise, the type of
Cinem? II film in which Marilyn Monroe
Fri. & Sun. appeared is a 'monro-mono'.
The Scarlet Empress by Josef The Japanese film-maker is
Von Sternberg (1934) purports to extremely conscious of the con-
have been adapted from a diary tent, restrictions, and demands
by Catherine the Great of Rus- of the particular genre and
sia. If so, eighteenth century Im- 'mono' in which he works. Thus
perial Moscow was a strange Yasujiro Ozu, often considered
place indeed. Of course, Von one of the "most Japanese of all
Sternberg exaggerates a little, directors", spent most of his thir-
and rather than historical reality, ty-six years in film perfecting
we have instead a film of fan- the 'shomin-giki': a genre of
tastic imagination. Not to men- melodrama and light comedy.
tion the terrific sets. German Ex- Moreover, the last eleven years
pressionism abounds everywhere of Ozu's life were a process of
in the countless leering gargoyles refining a subdivision of 'shomin-
and tortured forms that support giki' (thirteen films including
candelabras and surround mir- Tokyo Story) which dealt with
rors. It is worth going to the The family and office life.
The Garden of the
Finzi Continis
Fifth Forum
Quite a few people have been
waiting almost a decade now for
Vittorio de Sica to do another
film of the caliber of The Bi-
cycle Thief. Well, the wait has
not been in vain, for de Sica's
latest film, "The Garden of the
Finzi - Continis is a masterpiece
of subtle articulation. If his gen-
ius as a director was ever in
doubt, it is definitely -reaffirmed
in this movie.
The place is Italy in the late
1930's - a world of increasing-
ly narrowing possibilities for the
two Jewish families concerned in
the film. -The aristocratic Finzi-
Continis live on their estate in
remote, walled splendor, obliv-
ious to the politics that will soon
shatter their existence altogether.
The film is the passing of an age
as seen through the eyes of Bior-
gio, the son of a middle class
Jewish family who falls in love
with Micol Finzi - Contini. How-
ever, their relationship is furtive
0
0
tonight
6:00 2 4 7 News, Weather, sports
9 Eddie's Father
50 Flintstones
56 Bridge with Jean Cox
6:30 2 4 7 News
9 Jeannie
50 Gilligan's Island
56 Book Beat
7:00 2 Truth or Consequences
4 News, Weather, Sports
7 To T)ell The Truth
9 Beverly Hillbillies
50 I Love Lucy
56 World Press
7:30 2 What's My Line?-Game
4 Hollywood Squares
7 Wait Till Your Father
Gets Home
9 Lassie
56 W~all Street Week
50 Hogan's Heroes
d:00 2 Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour
4 Sanford and Son
7Brady Bunch
9 Amazing World of Kreskin
56 Washington Week in Review
50 Dragnet
8:30 4 Little People
7 Partridge Family
9 Irish Rovers
50 Merv Griffin
9:002 Movie
"Hornets' Nest" (1970)
4 Ghost Story
7 Room 222
9 News
56 Realties
9:30 7 Odd Couple
9 Woods and Wheels
10:00 4 Banyon
7 Love, American Style
9 Tommy Hunter
50 Perry Mason
56 High School Football
11:00 2 4 7 9 News, Weather, sports
50 Rolin'
11:20 Nightbeat
11:30 2 Movie
"Not with My Wife, You Don't"
(1966)
4 Johnny Carson
7 Dick Savett
50 Movie
"ThePoppy Is Also a Flower"
(1966)
12:00 9 Movie
"The Mystery of Thug Island"
(1966)
1:00 4 News
7 Movie
"Night People." (1954)
1:30 2 Movie
"A Mother's Revenge." (Swede
ish; 1960)
3:00 2 7 News
wcbn today,
fm 89.5
9:00 Morning After Show
12:00 Progressive rock,
4:00 Folk
11:00 Oldies show (runs until 3)
7:30 Rhythm & Blues
rCULTfUjR E CLEA
DANCE-Macedonian folk dance workshop with Pece Atana-
sozski of Yugoslavia, a leading folk musician and dancer.
The U of M Folkdancers will present the workshops Fri-
day at 8 at the Barbour Gym and Saturday morning and
afternoon from 10-12 and 2:30-4:30 at the Woman's
Athletic Building. No experience necessary.
MUSIC-Bandorama, tonight at 8 at Hill; University Colle-
gium Musicum concerts, directed by Prof. Thomas Tay-
lor at the Christian Reformed Campus Chapel (1236
Washtenaw) tonight and tomorrow at 8. Admission
complimentary; Owen McBride performs tonight at the
Ark at 8; Live Entertainment tonight at Rive Gauche;
Radio King and his Court of Rhythm and Blue Jukes
tonight at 8 at the People's Ballroom.
WEEKEND BARS AND MUSIC-Bimbo's, Gaslighters (Fri.,
Sat., Sun.) cover; Blind Pig, John Nicholas and the Boo-
gie Woogie Red (Fri., Sat.) cover, Classical Music with
Denise Petrick (Sun.) no cover; Del Rio, Armando's Jazz
Group (Sun.) no cover; Golden Falcon, Wooden Glass
(Fri., Sat.) cover; Mackinac Jack's, New Heavenly Blue
(Fri., Sat.) cover, Okra (Sun.) cover; Mr. Flood's Party,
Mojo Boogie Band (Fri., Sat.) cover; Odyssey, Stone
Front (Fri., Sat.) cover; Pretzel Bell, RFD Boys (Fri.,
Sat.) cover; Rubaiyat, Iris Bell Adventure (Fri., Sat.,
Sun.) no cover; Bimbo's on the Hill, Cardboard (Fri., Sat.)
cover.
41J il 1v IE %o 1 -%1 .WE' 1
with SECTION
DANNY KORTCHMAR-RUSS KUNKLE
CRAIG DOERGE-LELARD SKLAR
NOVEMBER 17
FRIDAY, 8 P.M.
$3.50, $4.50, $5.50
Crisler arena
Reserve your seats today
at Michigan Union.
(You'll receive a receipt-
coupon which you ex-
change for a ticket when
they arrive from the print-
ers Nov. 14)
OR BY MAIL-
Money Order to:
UAC-DAYSTAR
P.O. BOX 381
ANN ARBOR 48107
(sorry, no personal checks)
Coming: Dec. 9 Sat.
The Allman Brothers
and Dr. John
$4.00 Gen. Admission
TONIGHT-and-SATURDAY
FRIENDS OF NEWSREEL
continues
its pioneering
experiments with duplex
film showing on campus.
--THIS WEEKEND-
Arthur Penn's brilliant
BONNIE & CYLDE
SIDE-BY-SIDE
Peter Fonda's
beautiful and violent
THE HIRED HAND
TONIGHT-and-SATURDAY
Tey're-
young..
nthey're
Peter Funda " rmnOats Vuernalli
"ThA WiraIIIRandi"
"sensitive, exciting, the
images are ravishing!"
--
"a sharp sense of realism,
a surprising share of
-N.Y. Times
1im~-NI<v mlmr el m G~ ' ~,
ii .7T;Y' .' a .. .: s , .,....
I