Saturday, Januory 22, 1977
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Fdge I hete
I
e
S .
events and entertainment
week of January 22-28
Happenings film reviews are'
writ/en by Christopher Potter.'
all Week
COMMERCIAL CINEMA
Black Emanuelle - (Campus)
-For a few precious days last
week, a new French film called'
The Clockmaker played at The
Campus-it turned out to be one
of the most profoundly sensitive
studies of human, relationships
you're ever likely to see. It left
town Thursday, the victim of
poor publicity and a u d i e n c e
apathy, to be replaced by a mon-
strosity whose title speaks for
itself. And we wonder why
American producers are afraid
to be inventive??
A Star is Born -(The Movies,
Briarwood)--Barbra Streisand's
gargantuan remake of the Judy
Garland classic is overwrought
emotionally, underwrought vis-
ually and barren musically. Ap-
parently a victim of too many
cooks, from the stories we
hear.
King Kong - (Michigan)-The
season's other celebrated resur-
rection really can't be compared
to the original, since the trum-
peted special-effects amount to
approximately three seconds of
jerky mechanical ape move-
ments with the remaining time
devoted to a stuntman running
around in a gorilla suit. Other-
wise, the mod updating of the
storyline is only intermittently
effective and often irreverent.
* 1/
The Enforcer-(State)-Dirty
Harry Callahan once again gets
to vent his spleen against the
assorted toadies, incompetents
and liberals impeding his right-
eous path to )justice, while sin-
glehandedly cleaning up on a
group of ruthless terrorists. Not
too bad for this type. * * *
Young D r a cua - (Fifth
F o r u m) - A third-time run-
through for the 1974 Warhol-
M o r r i s e y film, first called
Blood for Dracula, then Andy
Warhol's Dracula. The name
changes don't improve the film,
which carries just enough liter-
ary pretensions to lift it out of
Warhol tedium into normal te-,
dium, w h i c h means DULL.
Please avoid. *
The Seven Per Cent Solution
-(The Movies, Briarwood)-A
completely s t e r i1 e, bloodless
"thriller" taken from Nicholas
Meyer's equally stillborn novel
involving a fanciful teaming of
Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund
Freud to crack a kidnapping-
cocaine cartel. * *
The Pink P a n t h er Strikes
Again - (The Movies, Briar-
wood)-Herbert Lomn's frazzled
Inspector Dreyfuss completely
takes the play from Peter Sel-
lers in a brilliant comic per-
formance that makes this fourth
in the Clousseau series the best
of a not too great lot.
saturnay
CINEMA
All Screwed Up-(Ann Arbor
Film' Co-op,} MLB 4, 7, 8:45,
10:30)-An early Lena Wertmul-
ler film that tends to display
her :growing pains more than
her genius. Two Italian country
rubes arrive in the big city,
attempt to cope with the varied
and trying adjustments to urban
living; the picture is quietly
amusing, then with no discern-
able warning lurches into a
grim proletarian call to action
that baffles the viewer in light
of what preceded it. All Screwed
Up is an interesting look at an
awesome talent just beginning
to fit things together, but those
familiar with Wertmuller's later
work will find this effort just a
little on the embarrassing side.
S e v e n Beauties - (Cinema
Guild, Arch. Aud., 7 & 9:05)-
Here is truly vintage Wertmul-
ler in this extraordinary epic
'life and times' of an Italian
stud dedicated to the single pur-
pose of survival above all-even
if it means selling his own soul
to do it. Wertmuller follows her
protagonist from his debonair,
woman - chasing d a y s in the,
1930's through a murder trial,
mental ward and eventually in-
to the Dore-like visual horrors
of a Nazi death camp; eventual-
ly she forces him the choice of
surviving only at the cost of his
warped sense of "honor," and
thus whatever idealistic notions
he may have once held about
his own instincts.
The lengthy plot and cynical
theme of Seven Beauties don't
entirely hold together, but Wert-
muller's technique is exquisite
and gloriously e n h a n c e d by
Giancarlo Gianin's inspired
conception of her craven hero-
whose final line may someday
rank with Gable's Gone With
the Wind utterance in screen
immortality. * * * *
Deliverance-(Mediatrics, Nat.
Sci. Aud., 7:30 & 9:30)-A quar-
tet of cityfied middle-class Geor-
gians set out on a quest for the
"humanizing" effects of nature,
in the form of a canoe trip
through the perilous Chattanoo-
ga rapids; instead they find
terror, perversion and death.
The James Dickey novel had a
tanalizingly ambivalent conclu-
sion .filled with inferences of a'
kind of mystic macho fulfillment
to the venture; John Boorman's
film version eliminates the ob-
tuseness and portrays the ad-
venture as an ironic, disillusion-
ing horror (apparently not dis-
illusioning enough, as the many
Deliverance - inspired fatalities
over the same rapids since will
attest). Philosophical differences
noted, the film still serves the
novel well in its almost breath-
less excitement. * * * ,
Butch Cassidy and The Sun-
dance Kid - (Couzens Film Co-
op, Couzens Cafeteria, 8 & 10)-
George Roy Hill's dress rehear-
sal of The Sting, only much
more palpable. Hill's directing
is as soulless as usual, but Wil-
liam Goldman's script is quite
funny and the visual atmosphere
much less claustrophobic. The
first - time Newman - Redford
matchup is exciting and amus-
ing, whereas in The Sting it's
just a stale routine. * * *
Special Section - (Cinema I,
Ang. Ad., 7 & 9:15)-The latest
socio-political X-ray by Costa-
Gavras (Z), directing its search-
light on a special tribunal set
up by Vichy France to try its
own countrymen in the timor-
ous hope of pleasing the occupy-
ing Nazis. The usual Costa-
Gavras theme of the inner rot
in one's homeland is again
milked for all it's worth; and
while his films have usually
premiered with much accom-
panying international furor, this
effort has been surprisingly ig-
nored by the critics. For all his
notoriety, Costa-Gavras has re-
mained a technically crude,
conceptually limited artist, and
his reliance upon sensational
case histories can only camou,
flage that fact so long before
you begin to catch on to his
meagre bag of tricks. I haven't
seen Special Section yet, but
perhaps he has simply played
his hand once too often.
EVENTS
PTP-Sherlock Holmes, Pow-
er Ctr., 8 p.m.
Ark-Mary McCaslin and Jim
Ringer.
sunday/
CINEMA
Jules et Jim - (Cinema U1,
Ang. Aud. A, 7 & 9)-The ulti-
mate romantic trio: Jeanne Mo-
reau loves both Oscar Werner
and Henri Serre; they reach an
arrangement-no backbiting, fro
head trips. Lush and lyrical
Francois Truffaut that goes on
much too long, but who could
possibly mind? Play it again.
Phantom I n d i a - (Cinema
Guild, Arch. Aud., in four parts;
"The Impossible Comera" at 7,
"Things Seen in Madras" at 8;
"The Indian and the Sacred" at
9, "Dream and Reality" at 1)-
The first fourepisodes of a
much - acclaimed documentary
on Indian made by Louis Malle
in 1968. The last three parts
will be shown the following Sun-
day.
Alice in the Cities-(Ann Ar-
bor Film Co-op, MLB 4, 7 & 9-
A film by Wim Wenders about
the wanderings through America
of a young German journalist
and a nine-year-old girl. Sounds
a bit Paper Moon-ish, hope it
comes off better than that.
EVENTS
PTP-Sherlock Holmes, Pow-
er Ctr., 2 & 8.
Music School - Javanese-Ga-
melan Ensemble: Hill Aud., 8
p.m.
f
monday
CINEMA
Nothing scheduled.
EVENTS
Music School - Composer's
Forum, SM Recital Hall, 8 p.m.
Tuesday
CINEMA'
Riddance and Wives - (Ann
Arbor Film Co-op, Ang. Aud. A,
Riddance at 7, Wives at 9)-
Two entrees in the Film Co-op's
Festival of Women Directors.
Marta Meszaros's R i d d a n c e
deals with young love and class
differences in cdrrent-day Hun-
gary; Anja Breien's Wives in-
voleves three Norwegian house-
wives who take off from their
families and indulge themselves
on a spree of activities tradition-t
ally considered the male's pri-
vate domain. Sounds delightful.
Scarface-(Cinema Guild, 7 &1
9:05)-One of the Great Trium-
virate of '30's gangster films,
ranking beside Cagney's Public
Enemy and Robinson's Little
Caeser. Howard Hughes sat ont
the rights to this picture for1
years after its initial release,
and it's only recently that the,
film's again been available for
public view. Scarface's techni-
cal side is a little old-fashioned,
but still brought viciously to life
by director Howard Hawks and
star Paul Muni's thingly-dis-
guised portrait of Al Capone.
* * 1 /
EVENTS
Michael Ponti, pianist-UMS,;
Rackham, 8:30.
Wednesday i
CINEMA
M*A*S*H - (Ann Arbor Film
Cop-op, Ang. Aud. A, 7 only)-
Item: An army doctor is aurally
spied upon by his fellow workers
during lovemaking, is subse-
quently taunted about it so un-
mercifully that he goes berserk
and is carted off to a mental1
hospital. Yuk. Item: A disliked'
nurse is publically humiliated
when her shower curtain is de-
liberately yanked and she is ex-
posed to the rest of the medical;
corps, who have set up chairs'
for the event-she goes into hys-
terics. Haw.
I , skeptically await the day
someone is able to define the
intrinsically humorous value of
such scenes permeating this
leering, heartless excuse for a
comedy; until then, I will con-
tinue to regard M*A*S*H as an3
anti-war film that makes me
long to root for the generals.*
Brewster McCloud-(Ann Ar-
bor Film Co-op, Ang. Aud. A, 9
only) - Aesthetics should im-
prove as the current Robert Alt-
man Festival progresses, since
I can't conceive he'll ever again
make a film quite as bad as
this one. Brewester McCloud is
a pseudo-absurdist fantasy about
a strange youth (Bud Cort) who
wears mechanical wings, has a
fairy bird-godmother (Sally Kel-
lerman) and hides out in the
Houston Astrodome. This seems
to be a movie one either loves
or hates; it's cherished by many
as what they perceive as a ni-
hilistic nose-thumbing atasociety,,
but from this corner it's simply
a coddled, crashing bore. Inept-
ness is m a d e insufferable
through scene after scene trail-
ing off into nothingness, through
amateurishly non-realized char-
acterizations all presented with
cutesy stares and smug winks
to the audience, implicating it
Pick of
the week
... Diana Ross, in
"Lady Sings the
B l u e s" (Friday),
Old Arch. Aud., 7
& 9:05) . . . and
Francois Truffaut' s
"Jules et Jim"
(tomorrow in Ang.
Aud. A, 7 & 9).
Diana Ross
Truffaut
as a knowing partner in a joke Aud. A, Aloise at 7, Nathalie
which was obviously unknown Granger at 9) - The second
to the cast and director them- half of the Festival of Women
selves. It's all topped off with Directors. Liliane de Kerma-
a circus finale that's such a dec's Aloise tells the factual
blatant rip-off of Fellini's 8 story of a middle-aged woman
,-- :_ - 1... 1 A 7 .._ L - ...--. - 4 C 1 -,9
that some critics should be! s
ashamed at themselves for not i
taking Altman to task. Will they,
avail themselvbs of the oppor-i
tunity come the director's ap-t
pearance in April? BOMB
Pretty Poison-(Cinema Guild,1
Arch. Aud., 7 only)-The cloak-
and-dagger fantasies of a dis-
turbed young man (Anthony
Perkins) take on frightening
reality when he finds a partner
(Tuesday Weld) all too willing1
to put his criminal daydreamsC
into action. This was one of thet
most notable "sleeper" films off
the '60's, with Perkins investing
a complexity to his part con-
siderably beyond his standard
psychotic shtick, and W e 1 d
comes across genuinely terrify-?
ing as his murderous girll
friend. * * * %
Play It as It Lays - (Cinema
Guild, Arch. Aud., 9:05 only)-
One of the most persistent un-
derground rumors among film'
critics used to be that Tuesday'
was a potentially brilliant ac-
tress if she woul donly be given
the chance. These whispers
swiftly ceased following the ap-
pearance of Play It as It Lays,
from John Didion's novel of a
young woman's emotional and
s p i r it e d disolution. Director
Frank Perry seems only to un-
derstand t h e ultra-pretentious
technique of depicting the exis-
tential emptiness of humanity
by having people sit around dis-
cussing the emptiness of human-
ity. It's bad enough when An-
tonioni does it, and since Perry
has none of the Italian's genius
for visuals Play It as It Lays
gives us absolutely nothing.
BOMB
EVENTS
Music School/Multi Ethnic Al-
liance, Alina Brychova, Stefan
Ehrenkreutz, "Songs of Many
Lands," Lec. Hall, Rackham, 81
p.m.
thursday
CINEMA
Aloise and Nathalie Granger
- (Ann Arbor Film Co-op, Ang.
who has spent most of her lire
in a mental institution, who sub-
sequently does a series of paint-
ings which bring her interna-
tional acclaim. Marquerite Du-
ras' Nathalie Granger reported-
ly depicts a day in the life of
several characters in a French
town, and features Jeanne Mor-
eau.
Metropolis - (Cinema Guild,
Arch. Aud., 7 & 9:05) - In-
habitants of a giant futuristic
city are forced to live as vir-
tual slaves to a small ruling
elite. Fritz Lang's looney 19271
silent masterwork is one-third
science fiction, one-third sorcery
and one-third labor-management
relations seminar; the film
makes a minimum of sense as
it spirals out its bizarre plot,
but is often crazily brilliant.
The babel-like images of the
soaring city are unforgettable
(Hitler loved them), and a flood
scene near the end remains one
of the best choreographs of mob
panic you'll ever see. ***
An Evening of '60's Protest/
Riot Films - (Peoples' Bicen-
tennial Commission, Nat. Sci.
Aud., 7 & 9:15) - A blood-and-
guts nostalgia trip to where it
was at a decade ago. Food boy-
cotts were joyously joined; Uni-
versity football crowds chanted
peace slogans instead of cheer-
ing Jerry Ford. Was it all so
superficial? In not, how could
it have died so fast? Perhaps
this retrospective might pro-
vide some sober answers.
EVENTS
Guild House - Poetry read-
ing, Kerry Thomas: 802 Mon-
roe, 7:30.
Bensinger Library - Poetry
reading, Jim Grondin: EQ, 10
p m.
I f riday
CINEMA
Lady Sings the Blues-(Qine-
ma Guild, Arch. Aud., 7 &
9:05) - Diana Ross's spectacu-
lar portrayal of Billie Holiday
fights a running battle against
the scriptual disjointedness and
technical crudity of this film
biography of the great singer.
The result is approximately a
standoff, but if there ever was
a movie where a single per-
formance is alone worth the
price of admission, then this is
it; Ross is incredible. ***
The Reivers - (Ann Arbor
Film Co-op, MLB 4, 7 only)
- In 1962 William Faulkner's
last novel, The Reivers, won
the Pulitzer Prize. It may. well
be a good book, but you'd nev-
er know it from Mark Rydell's
insufferably cutesy-poo mon-
strosity that makes Walt Dis-
ney look like Henry Miller in
comparison. Rydell lards on the
story of a young boy (Mitch
Vogel) growing up in Mississip-
pi who falls under the influ-
ence of a lovable scalawag
(Steve McQueen). The two of
them emberk on all kinds of
gee-whiz keen adventures guar-
anteed to make even the bland-
est viewer fumble for the Mal-
lox.
McQueen squints, twitches,
winks and scratches in his at-
tempts to look impishly rustic;
his efforts stand in good stead
with the aw-shucks-we's-jest-
plain-folks impersonations of the
rest of the cast, the three-day-
old banana split color photog-
raphy, and topped off by the
most throbbingly obtrusive neo-
Coplandesque musical score that
ever stopped up an audience's
ears. The Reivers presumably
had some serious literary as-
pirations hidden in there some-
where, but it comes out as
Faulkner by way of Lassie.
BOMB
King of Hearts - (Ann Ar-
bor Film Co-op, MLB 4, 9 on-
ly) - Did it ever occur to the
disciples of this film that the
idea of the sanes on the inside
vs. the crazies on the outside
isn't exactly the most original
theme in literature or film? And
that even in its inception the
notion 'carried a distinct phony-
superiority leer that rendered
it all too smugly arch even from
the start? Or am I being a
pseudo-intellectual snob? (I
don't think so; don't forget --
I liked Freebie and the Bean.)
Gimmie Shelter - (Cinema
II, Ang. Aud. A, 7 & 9) - Billed
as the dark side of Woodstock,
this film chronicles The Rolling.
Stones' 1960 American tour, cul-
minating with the apocalypse
at Altamont. Gripping and hor-
rifying, although there has al-
ways been some lingering doubt
as to how much of the docu-
mentary may have been stage-
managed by the filmmakers.
It's certainly an absorbing mob-
rock psychology study nonethe-
less. ***
The Longest Yard - (Medi-
atrics, Nat. Sci. Aud., 7:30 &
9:45) - Director Robert Ald-
rich's crude tribute to macho
sadism is one of the most re-
pellent films to emerge thus
far from the '70's. A washed-
up pro quarterback and current
con (Burt Reynolds) is coerced
by a fanatical prison warden
(Eddie Albert) to organize a
ragtag group of inmates to play
Warden Eddie's crack team of
guards. Naturally, everything
climaxes with The Big Game.
This film prides itself in be-
ing about REAL men bravely
and humorously bucking' the
system, but comes across about
as funny as a Brownshirt rally.
Aldrich obviously expected au-
diences to cheer and laugh at
the collection of stomps, gouges
and assorted brutalities on-
screen, and Longest Yard's box
office receipts have proven him
right. Can's we find better value
systems than this? *
Construction of the first blast
furnace in the United States be-
gan at Falling Creek, Va., in
1621..
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Volume LXXXVII, No. 92
Saturday, January 22, 1977
Is edited and managed by students
at the University a Michigan. News
phone ?64-0562. Second class postage
paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.
Published c a il y Tuesday through
Sunday morning during the Univer-
sity year at 420 Maynard Street, Ann
Arbor, Michigan 48109. Subscription
rates: $N, Sept. thru April (2 semes-
ters); $13 by mail outside Ann
Arbor.
Summer session published Tues-
day through Saturday morning.
Subscription rates: $6.50 in Ann
Arbor; $7.50 by mai outside Ann
Arbor.
I
ANN AIrIcDIF[LAACC=CU
TONIGHT in the Modern Languages Building
ALL SCREWED UP
(Everything's Ready, Nothing Works)
(Lino Wertmuller, 1976) MLB 4
Wertmuller's least seen film is certainly her
funniest and probably her best. Completing her
trilogy (LOVE & ANARCHY, SEDUCTION OF
MIMI) on class, work, and sex in industrial so-
ciety, ALL SCREWED UP tells of a group of Sici-
lian immigrants living together in a commune in
Milan, struggling desperately to survive econom-
ically and spiritually. "Breathtaking . . . Exhuber-
antly funny! Watching ALL SCREWED UP is to
be witness to a great talent."-Vincent Canby.
SHOWTIMES-7, 8:45 & 10:30
ADMISSION-$1.50
SUNDAY IN MLB-
"AI.ICE IN THE CITIES"
TUESDAY IN AUD. A, ANGELL HALL-
A FESTIVAL OF WOMEN DIRECTORS
Marta Mezaro's "RIDDANCE"
AND
Anja Breien's "WIVES"
FRI.-SAT. $3.00
MARY McCASLIN
AND /
JIM RINGER
SINGER-SONGWRITER
oxmw
-d i
Rolling Stone: "An
exceptional album right
up there with today's
best. McCaslin's
unorthodox guitar
tunings create unusual,
ethereal melodies of
striking beauty." "Jim
Ringer seems plucked
out of a Tijuana
*r> barroom."
Sun.: TONY BIRD from South Africa
SINGER-SONGWRITER
An excellent writer with a great deal to say.
I
1421 HILL
8:30
761-1451
LINA WERTMULLER S 1975
SEVEN BEAUTIES
Giancarlo Giannini stars as the bewildered brother of seven ugly sisters
whose honor he is sworn to defend. His commitment or foolishness
leads him to prison, then the Italian Army and eventually to a German
Concentration Camp where he determines he must survive. This biting
satire is one of Wertmuller's finest films-rich in texture, long on
meaning and realistic in its comedy.
SUN.: PHANTOM INDIA
CINEMA GUILD -TONIGHT AT OLD ARCH. AUD.
7:00 AND 9:05 Admission $1.25
COSTA-CAVyRAS 1975
-ANN ARBOR PREMIERE SHOWING
OF
t 04 w wAm 'A OR /fnu/f, 3II
U ______ ________
i
P--r,-ng nd Diso'
ANJN AFE30R
I rJ-5J55
215 N. Main Ann Arbor 6637758
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