Friday, December 1, 1972
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Three
Fr11 1 iay, Deeme 1 97 HEMCHGA AIYPaeThe
Tokyo Story
Cinema Guild
Fri.
Tokyo Story is perhaps the best
of Ozu's family-office pictures.
Several critics have put it on
their lists of top ten favorites of
all times. An elderly couple go to
Tokyo with their married daugh-
ter to visit inlaws and married
children. After returning home,
the old woman is taken ill and
dies, leaving the old man alone.
The film is deceptively simple.
Ozu's forte, however, is not
cinematic flamboyance but his
ability to develop relationships
between people and communicate
them to the audience. As Stanley
Kauffmann writes, Tokyo Story
is a film that encompasses so
much of the viewers life, that
you are convinced you have been
in the presence of some one who
knew you very well . That
seems to me to be one excellent
definition of superior art and it
applies to Ozu. As for his societal
remoteness, the most obvious and
the fundamentally truest point
about Ozu is that being the 'most
Japanese,' he has been univer-
sal."
-CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS
Tales of Manhattan
Cinema Guild
Sat. & Sun.
In 1942, this was a "bold and
amazing new picture" that rep-
resented a breakthrough in movie
style. Ten writers worked on the
screenplay, including Ben Hecht,
the co-author of Front Page.
Featured stars included Rita
Hayworth, Edward G. Robinson,
a callow Henry Fonda paired
with a young Ginger Rogers, and
Charles Laughton.
The revolutionary thing about
Tales is its episodic structure,
a rare departure from the al-
most standardized Hollywood plot
of that time. Four little fables,
plus an epilogue, center around
the activities of a gentleman's
full-dress suit in New York.
Charles Boyer gets shot in it,
Edward G. Robinson retrieves it
from a second-hand store and
C 0
QQ QMd
wears it to a college re-u
etc. Eventually, the suit p
D. B. Cooper and drops fr
plane with pockets full of m
This type of plot framewor
been done, since in, among
places, The Yellow Rolls Ro
The overall film is a
weak, since all the storiesd
really add up to any c
theme, though sporadic att
are made to point out th
significance of material trap
and of man himself. Eachc
pieces is intriguing in itself
ever, and fairly well match
mood. The big dispute
Tales is supposed to be:
Charles Laughton the only
thing about it or did he ove
his role as a rising young pi
See it and find out.
-TERRY MA
The Thirty-Nine S
Cinema II
Fri.
"I am out to give the1
good, healthy, mental shak
Civilization has become
screening and sheltering thl
cannot experience suf
thrills first hand. Therefo
prevent our becoming slu
and jellified, we have to e
ence them artificially." S
in 1935, this is as close to a
view and statement of purp
Alfred Hitchcock has evert
Since that time much has
done to make reality more
ing than his movies. But it
his credit that, until only re
his flims do exactly what
aim to do. Even his older
are no less upsetting now
they were when originallyi
The Thirty-Nine Steps (19
an early use of Hitchcock's
man theme. Richard H
(Robert Donat) finds a w
stabbed to death in his fla
union,
ulls a
rom a
ioney.
k has
other
oyce.
trifle
do not
entral
empts
he in-
ppings
of the
, how-
hed in
about
Was
great
erplay
anist?
RTIN
is accused of the crime. As
police chase him, he chases the
spy ring responsible for this mur-
der. At one juncture he must
spend a night in a hotel hand-
cuffed to a woman he loathes.
(Madelaine Carroll) and who is
not overwhelmed with him,
either.
The best feature of the film as
Hitchcock has pointed out, is
that its scenes are forever chang-
ing. Hanney speeds from escape
to escape all across England and
Scotland. Which makes for a nice
travelogue as well as good Hitch-
cockian suspense.
-DAVID GRUBER
Psycho
Cinema II
Sat. & Sun.
teps If satisfaction can be defined
as total absorption in a growing
mood of terror, Psycho is one of
Hitchcock's most satisfying films.
public A secretary who finally' decides
e-ups. to take the money and run; a
e so nervous young man who operates
at we a seedy motel and who cares for
ficient his elderly mother in an errie
re, to house on the hill. The plot evolves
uggish slowly, the mood darkens grad-
xperi- ually-until Hitchcock decides to
poken attack.
world Psycho is unflawed by the blat-
ose as ant manipulation of the audience
come. Hitchcock has displayed in such
been films as Strangers on a Train.
thrill- In that and in other films, he
t is to goes out of his way, almost de-
cently, spite the plot, to construct and
they prolong artificial suspense situa-
films tions.
than In Psycho, however, both in
made. his camera work and in the un-
935) is folding of events, Hitchcock is
wrong very careful about the informa-
[anney tion he chooses to reveal, and the
oman way he chooses to reveal it. This
at _ and selectivity, together with close
--- attention to details of pacing and
internal plot consistency, so total-
ly involve the viewers that, we
marvel at Hitchcock for his sub-
tlety instead of resenting him for
his manipulation.
LARRY LEMPERT
tov.
t night
6:00 2 4 7 News
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
7 To Tell the Truth
9 Beverly Hillbillies
50 I Love Lucy
56 World Press
7:30 2 What's My Line?
The Hellstrom
Chronicle
Modern Language Bldg.
Fri. & Sat.
If, every time Russia sneaks
missiles to Cuba or Nixon invades
Cambodia you get a queezy feel-
ing in your stomach and sense
the death of Man is imminent,
sit back, take a deep breath, and
squirm before The Hestrom
Chronicle. Nils Hellstrom, a pro-
phetic biologist, firmly believes
that humans had better worry
about insects as well as each
other, for these little terrors can
be very, very mean when life
is not kind to them.
To back up this view producer
David Wolper and his crew have
ventured deep into forests, bee-
hives, termite mounds, deserts,
and backyards to capture - su-
perbly - the activities of insects
and their societies. Two things
become evident from watching
these insects. One is that they
are highly efficient, the o t h e r
is that they act instinctually, in-
stantaneously, and without emo-
tion. Amazing things are accomp-
lished when they work together.
Whatever the threat they pose
to humans, they are certainly in-
structive in communal living.
The insects are grotesque, of
course, but they are undeniably
fascinating. The black w i d o w
spider - great mother of the in-
sect realm - takes a timid lev--
er, gives him his moment, then
kills him. The queen termite pro-
pagates almost non-stop day in
and day out. Indeed, they are all
there, friends and enemies from
your last camping trip, 'all big-
ger, more sinister, and much
more interesting than ever be-
fore.
-DAVID GRUBER
WR-Mysteries of
the Organism
Modern Language Bldg.
Fri. & Sat.
Dusan Makavejev's WR - My-
steries of the Organism opened
at the 1971 New York Film Fes-
8:30 4 Little People
9 Irish Rovers
50 Merv Griffin
56 Off the Record
9:00 2 Movie
"The Chairman" (1969)
4 Ghost Story
7 Room 222
9 News
56 Realities
9:30 7 Odd Couple
9 Woods and Wheels
10:00 4 Banyon
7 Love, American style
9 Tommy Hunter
50 Perry Mason
56 International Chess
Tournament
11:002 4 7 9News
50 Rollin'
11:20 9 Nightbeat
11:30 2 Movie
"The Lelicate Delinquent."
(1957)
4 Johnny Carson
50 Movie
sWelcome Home, Johnny
Bristol" (1972)
1:00 9 Movie
"Black Torment." (English
1964)
1:30 4 News
7 Movie
"The Wages of Fear." (French;
(French; 1953)
1:30 2 Movie
"Dr.:Mabuse vs. Scotland
Yard." (West German; 1964)
3:00 2 7 News
wcbn today
fm 89.5
9:00 Morning After Show
12:00 Progressive Rock
4:00 Folk
7:00 Live Folk
7:30 The Drug Culture
8:00 Rhythm & Blues
tival a little over a year ago
to a fairly luke-warm critical re
ception, and it has its Ann Arbor
premiere this weekend. T n e
film is a movie collage, devoted
primarily to three psycho-sexual-
politically oriented pursuits: 1)
a documentary concerning in-
famously bizarre Austrian-born
psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich's in-
stitute in Maine, 2) cinema ver-
ite interviews with many Groov-
ie people (Tuli Kupferberg of the
Fugs( a New York transvestite,
a female erotic artist, a plaster-
caster, etc.), 3) a narrative con-
cerning a Reichian beautician
who attempts to sexually liber-
ate a Russian only to have her
head lopped off with an ice skate.
Maravejev is probably trying
to be outrageous, but it all sounds
like the momentarily very in and
hip thing solipsists will watch
twenty years from now in order
to laugh at another era. Those
were the 70's . . . (Not reviewed
at Press Time).
-STAFF
Lady Sings the Blues
State
The first reaction most people
have to Lady Sings the Blues is
"Diana Ross????" Of course,
the first reaction most people
had to Funny Girl was "Barbara
Streisand???" It just goes to
show you that you never can
tell.
Regardless of the quality of the
movie itself, Ross is definitely
worth the price of admission. For
those of this generation who have
never head the famed voice of
Billie Holiday, on whose tragic
story the film is loosely based,
the songs sound as if they had
been written to be sung by Ross.
She is indeed, . Billie Holiday,
partly because most people who
see the movie have no other im-
age associated with that name,
and partly because she throws
herself into the part with great
conviction and a total effort that
almost raises the film into great-
ness.
Almost, but not quite. ; have
two basic objections to Lady.
One, it is disconnected, in the
way that all musicals are dis-
connected: people do things so
that songs can be sung while
they are doing them. Second,
the plot line is falsified for dra-
matic purposes. Billie Holidays
life has been slightly re-organiz-
ed, and I suppose that's ok ex-
cept a lot of viewers will see it
as Bible truth. I wish Holly-
wood wouldn't do things like tha .
Anyhow, concentrate on Ross
and you won't be disappointe .
-TERRY MARTIN
Play It as It Lays
Fifth Forum
Play It As It Lays plays like
an American primer on Ingmar
Bergman. Though it is supposedly
an adaptation of a Joan Didion
novel - co-scripted by Ms. Did-
ion herself - it has somehow
pinched nearly every one of
Bergman's favorite themes. And
it gives them back to us jumbled
up, immensely lacking in mva-
tion and conviction, and some-
times word for word and shot for
shot as they were in Bergman's
works. This film knows no lim-
its; it tackles everything at once:
the silence of God, the meaning-
lessness of life, the question o
to live or not to live, the bord-
ers between sanity and insanity,
film reality and actual reality
and more.
Tuesday Weld, with a single
facial expression throughout,
plays Maria Wyeth, the ex-wife
of an insensitive, terribly avant-
garde filmmaker. Maria may or
may not be insane. Her husband
definitely is a bastard. T h e y
and their movie-making friends
(one of whom is Anthony Perk-
ins, who definitely is in despair)
live in borded luxury on the
beaches of California. Maria gets
pregnant by another man and is
traumatized, the quick f 1 a s -
backs tell us, by the ensuing
abortion. She becomes despond-
ent. Swirling freeways are h e r
symbol for purposelessness, rat-
tle snakes her symbol for t h e
horror of reality (something like
Bergman's spider god.) All this
results in the fact that director
Frank Perry has lost control of
his penchant for madness (David
and Lisa, Diary of a Mad House-
wife). He is now dealing with
people and emotions far beyond
his grasp.
-DAVID GRUBER
Fantasia
Michigan
One of Walt Disney's avowed
purposes in producing Fantasia
(1940) was to bring "culture" to
all Americans via the medium he
understood better than m o s t
everyone else - the animated
cartoon. What started out as a
Mickey Mouse short based on
the music to "The Sorcerer's Ap-
prentice" grew into a full-length
feature with music by eight dif-
ferent classical composers trans.
lated into animated form. T h e
cultural aspects are enhanced
by having Leopold Stokowski and
the Philadelphia Philharmoni,
play the soundtrack and by hav-
ing famed musicologist D e e m s
Taylor intervene periodically to
explain this "revolutionary new
concept in total experience of
sound and image".
And that's putting it mildly,
for despite this exciting innova-
tion to realize visually an a-
stracttformlikevmusic, W a 1 t
Disney also deviates more than
ever from his usually saccharine
wholesomeness to portray t h e
demonic side of Nature too. Ah
yes . . . the old struggle between
Good and Evil. Good, of course,
wins out in the end (after all,
it's 1940 and there's a war on in
Europe between the good buys
and the bad guys), but not be
fore Disney builds the profane
images up to the final satanic
outburst of "Night on Ba 1 d
Mountain"
By all rights the film should
have ended here, but no . . .Schu-
bert's "Ave Maria" is tacked
on to counteract the malevolence
of "Bald Mountain" and thus
bring the film to a "good" end-
ing! Yuck and besides, it's anti-
climactic.
Still, for all it's cultural pre-
tentions and pious sentimentality,
Fantasia is definitely a unique
experience - there are dancing
mushrooms, pirouetting ostrich-
es and hippopotami, a totally
freaked out version of Bach s
"Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor",
and of course, Mickey Mouse and
his band of berserk brooms -
and this is one time you will not
want to close your eyes w h i e
listening to the music.
-WILLIAM MITCHELL
Super Fly
Fox Village
On one level, enjoy Super Fly
for the well-made, no-holds-
barred action film that it is. On
other levels, however, the film
adds new fuel to debates that
have been burning for quite some
time. If we want to dip into the
realm of morality, for instance:
c o k e- dealing, c o k e- snorting
Priest, who should be portrayed
as an anti-hero at best by most
moral standards, comes off as a
hero of the highest order.
Priest wants to make one last,
million-dollar deal that will allow
him to stop pushing for the rest
of his life-he wants to be free.
This is made clear by a number
of melodramatic, less-than-con-
vincing verbal exchanges with his
partner and with his women (and
they are his women).
Visually, meanwhile, the viewer
is bombarded with that fine Con-
tinental, that lush apartment,
those sharp clothes-and on the
screen, the visual impression is
invariably more striking than the
verbal. The Curtis Mayfield score
in the background presents the
same paradox; we pick up the
rhythms much more readily than
we ingest the moralizing lyrics.
What we see and feel glamorizes
the dealing of cocaine far more
than the plot condemns it.
Super Fly should also be view-
ed as part of a recent film phe-
nomenon, the sudden rash of
films created by and for blacks.
Priest is an incredible mixture
of qualities: intelligent, sexist,
militant, very cool, racist, tough,
spiteful of efforts to help the
black community at large. This
raises a question that only black
Americans can answer-is this
the role model that they want to
see portrayed on the screen?
-LARRY LEMPERT
The Virgin and
the Gypsy
Campus
This has got to be the most
rational film interpretation of D.
H. Lawrence we are ever likely
to get. Based very faithfully on
one of his later novellas, the
plot concerns the restless fanta-
sies of a calmly-bred rector's
daughter about an insolent gypsy
she meets by chance one day. A
fash flood is the instrument of
fate that enables the gypsy to
make the title eventually only
half-true.
Christopher Miles directs this
film intelligently, interspersing
the encounters of the principals
with sharp vignettes of life at
the vicarage. There are strange
people at the vicarage: the rec-
tor, rendered impotent years be-
fore when his wife eloped with a
younger man; an old-maid aunt
who eats a single potato at each
meal; and a tyrannical grand-
mother who is constantly remind-
ing the virgin and her sister
about the bad blood they in-
herited from their mother.
Joanna Shimkus is a Madonna-
faced, slightly kooky virgin;
Franco Nero glowers handsomely
as the gypsy. Sometimes the sym-
bolism gets heavy-handed (es-
pecially that flash flood at the
end) but compared to the over-
heated fantasy that Ken Russell
concocted out of Women in Love,
this D. H. Lawrence is as cool
as a cucumber and twice as
classy.
-TERRY MARTIN
Elvira Madigan
Campus
Visually, this is probably, as
Newsweek says, one of the most
beautiful movies ever made. The
delicate, impressionistic land-
scapes, shifting gradually from
the warm lushness of summer
into the misty chill of autumn,
echo and intensify the stages of a
doomed love affair between a
Swedish cavalry officer and an
18-year-old girl. The two prin-
cipals - (Thommy Berggren and
Pia Degermark) do not detract
from the film's beauty either.
So overwhelming are all these
visual effects that you tend to
forget the basic thinness of the
underlying story. It is, after all,
a lovely little pipe dream, be-
cause all we know, don't we, that
things like pimples and obesity
and crudity and filth exist, even
if movies like this try to make
us forget. Wisely, director Bo
Widenberg has refrained from
blowing this up into a big pro-
duction, and concentrated on
simply depicting his romantic
idyll. If the nineteenth century
had really been like this, too
bad the twentieth came along.
-TERRY MARTIN
* *art 7 cinema
A
R
T
S
LFIRST RUN AUMOIES 4
(
8:00
4 Hollywood Squares
7 Wait Till Your Father Gets
Home
9 Lassie
56 Wall Street Week
50 Hogan's Heroes
I 2 Oral Roberts on Campus
4 Sanford and Son
7 Santa Claus is Coming
to Town
9 Amazing World of Kreskin
56 Washington Week in Review
50 Dragnet<
J-
"AN ORIGINAL WORK
OF MOVIE ART"
-Archer Winsten, N.Y. Post
"***V2*-An acid-paved freeway trip which has the
sting of a rattlesnake!
Tuesday Weld is extraordinary!
Anthony Perkins plays his part beautifully!"
-N.Y. Daily News
"BEAUTIFULLY PERFORMED"
-Canby, N.Y. Times
__________________I U
STARTS
TODAY!
603 E. LIBERTY
PHONE 665-6290
CULTURE fCALENDAR
MUSIC-The Choral Union will perform Handel's Messiah
tonight at 8:30 at Hill. The School of Music presents
Reid Stringer, baritone, performing at the SM Recital
Hall tonight at 5, and Patricia Deckert, contralto, at the
Recital Hall at 8.
FESTIVAL-The Center for Russian and East European Stu-
dies presents a Russian Festival, consisting of three or-
iginal plays and music, tonight at 7:30, at Schorling
Aud., SEB.
ART-Joan Miro opens an exhibit tonight at the Lantern
Gallery, reception from 7-9.
DRAMA-Ann Arbor Civic Theater continues its run of Cole
Porter's Anything Goes tonight at Lydia Mendelssohn
at 8.
WEEKEND BARS ANb MUSIC-Ark, Kate McGarrigle (Fri.,
Sat.) admission; People's Ballroom, Stroke and Manikoss
(Fri., Sat.), admission; Union Station, Jane and Craig
(Fri., Sat.) free; Bimbo's on the Hill, Gabriel (Fri., Sat.)
cover, Pretzel Bell,RFD Boys (Fri., Sat.) cover; Rubal-
yat, Iris Bell Adventure (Fri., Sat., Sun.) no cover; Bim-
bo's, Gaslighters (Fri.; Sat., Sun.) cover; Del Rio, Ar-
mando's Jazz Group (Sun.) no cover; Odyssey, Deliver-
ance (Fri., Sat.) cover; Mr. Flood's Party, Diesel Smoke,
Dangerous Curves (Fri., Sat.) cover; Mackinac Jack's,
Ramblecrowe (Fri., Sat., Sun.) cover; Golden Falcon,
Grant Green (Fri., Sat.) cover; Blind Pig, Houston
Stockhouse (Fri., Sat.), cover, Classical Music (Sun.) no
cover.
OPEN 12:45
FEATURE promptly
at
1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m.,
7 p.m., 9:05
DOMINICK DUNNE AND F P FILMS INC.ERESEI
A NEW
FRANK PERRY FILM
The show YOU
ASKED FOR
r4-CAMPU
DIAL
8-6416
TUESDAY WEI
REST PERFORMI
1972 VENICE FILM
TUESDAY WELD ANIHONY PERKINS
4 PLAY IT AS IT LAYS'
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1ANCE bon flnnorve F ,"WA, b
FESTIVAL JOAN DIDION aw JOHN GREGORY OUNNE -JOANDIDION
P'd b D-1.0 by
FRANK PERRY adDOMINICK OUNNE ,fRANK PERRY-Ai A NOWICiuIE " llCHiCG[Dl'
THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE FOR
EVERYONE !
May well be
the most
beautiful film
ever made.
-Newsweek
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1%
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VOTED ONE OF THE TOP TEN FILMS
OF ALL TIME!
_ r. . . .._1...._ . ... . J . ...a-. . . . .L . _ I . . .
"RANKS HIGH AMONG THE BEST
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