Saturday, January 22, 1977
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
?age I hree
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67
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events and entertainment
week of January 22-28
/
Happenings film reviews are The lengthy plot and cynical i
written by Cristopher Potter. theme of Seven Beauties don't
__r___n yrentirely hold together, but Wert-
Ekmuller's technique is exquisite
and gloriously e n h a n c e d by
Giancarlo Giannin's inspired
COMMERCIAL CINEMA conception of her craven hero-
whose final line may someday
Black Emanuelle --'(Campps) rank with Gable's Gone With
-For a few precious days last the Wind utterance in screen
week, a new French film called immortality. * * *
The Clockmaker played at The Deliverance-(Mediatrics, Nat.
(Campus-it turned out to be one Sci. Aud., 7:30 & 9:30)-A quar-
of the most profoundly sensitive tet of cityfied middle-class Geor-
studies of human relationships gians set out on a quest for the
you're ever likely to see. It left "humanizing" effects of nature,
town Thursday, the victim of in the form of a canoe trip
poor publicity and a u d i e n c e through the perilous Chattanno-
apathy, to be replaced by a mon- ga rapids; instead they find
strosity whose title speaks for terror, perversion and death.+
itself. And we. wonder why The James Dickey novel had a
American producers are afraid tanalizingly ambivalent conclu-
to be inventive?? sion filled with inferences of a,
A Star is Born -(The Movies, kind of mystic macho fulfillment
Briarwood)-Barbra Streisand's to the venture; John Boorman's 1
gargantuan remake of the Judy filn version eliminates the ob-
Garland classic is overwrought tuseness and portrays the ad-+
emotionally, underwrought vis- venture as an ironic, disillusion-
ually and barren musically.' Ap- ing horror (apparently not dis-
parently a victim of too many illusioning enough, as the many'
cooks, from the stories we Deliverance - inspired fatalities
hear. * * over the same rapids since willi
King Kong - (Michigan)-The attest). Philosophical differences1
season's other celebrated resur- noted, the film still serves the+
rection really can't be compared novel well, in its almost breath-
to the original, since the trum- less excitement. * * * 11
peted special-effects amount to Butch Cassidy and The Sun-+
approximately three seconds of dance Kid - (Couzens Film Co-1
jerky mechanical ape move- op, Couzens Cafeteria, 8 & 10)-1
ments with the remaining time George Roy Hill's dress rehear-
devoted to a stuntman running sal of The Sting, only much
around in a gorilla suit. Other- more palpable. Hill's directingI
wise, the mod updating of the is as soulless as usual, but Wil-
storyline is only intermittently Liam Goldman's script is quitei
effective and often irreverent. funny and the visual atmosphere
* * l%,2much less claustrophobic. The
The Enforcer-(State)-Dirty first - time -Newman - Redford
Harry Callahan once again gets matchup is exciting and amus-
to vent his spleen against the ing, whereas in The Sting it's
assorted toadies, incompetents just a stale routine. * * *
and liberals impeding his right- Special Section - (Cinema II,
eous path to justice, while sin- Ang. Aud., 7 & 9:15)-The latest
glehandedly cleaning up on a socio-political X-ray by Costa-
group of ruthless terrorists. Not Gavras (Z), directing its search-
too bad for this type. * * * light on a special tribunal set
Young D r a c u 1 a - (Fifth up by Vichy France to try its
F o r u m) - A third-time run- own countrymen in the timor-
through for the 1974 Warhol- ous hope of pleasing the occupy-.
M o r r i s e y film, first called ing Nazis. The usual Costa-
Blood for Dracula, then Andy Gavras theme of the inner rot
Warhol's Dracula. The name in one's homeland is again
changes don't improve the film, milked for all it's worth; and1
which carries just enough liter- while his films have usually
ary pretensions to lift it out of premiered with 'much accom-
Warhol tedium into normal te- panying international furor, this
dium, w h i c h means DULL. effort has been surprisingly ig-1
Please avoid. * nored by the critics. For all his+
The Seven Per Cent Solution notoriety, Costa-Gavras has re-
-(The Movies, Briarwood)-A mained a technically crude,t
completely s t e r i1 e, bloodless conceptually limited artist, and
"thriller" taken from Nicholas his reliance upon sensational
Meyer's equally stillborn novel case histories can only camou-'
involving a fanciful teaming of flage that fact so long before
Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund, you begin to catch on to hisl
Freud to crack a kidnapping- meagre bag of tricks. I haven't'
cocaine cartel. * * seen Special Section yet, butt
The Pink P a n t h e r Strikes perhaps he has simply played
Again - (The Movies, Briar- his hand once too often.1
wood)-Herbert Lom's frazzled EVENTS
Inspector Dreyfuss completely PTP-Sherlock Holmes, Pow-1
takes the play from Peter Sel- er Ctr., 8 p.m.r
lers in a brilliant comic per- Ark-Mary McCaslin and Jim1
formance that makes this fourth Ringer.
in the Clousseau series the bestl
of a not too great lot. * * *
CINEMA
saturday Jules et Jim - (Cinema I,
CINEMA Ang. Aud. A, 7 & 9)-The ulti-'
All Screwed Up-(Ann Arbor mate romantic trio: Jeanne Mo-.
Film Co-op, MLB 4, 7, 8:45, reau loves both Oscar Werner1
10:30-An early Lena Wertmu- and Henri Serre; they reach an1
ler film that tends to display arrangement-no backbiting, no
her growing pains more than head trips. Lush and lyrical
her genius. Two Italian country Francois Truffautbthat goes on
rubes arrive in the big city, much too long, but who could1
attempt to cope with the varied possibly mind? Play it again.
and trying adjustments to urban phantom I n d i a- (Cinema
livinig;' the picture is quietly Phnot ia Cnm
amusing, then with no discern- Guild, Arch. Aud, in four parts;
aThe Impossible Comera at 7
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 current-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-
ally considered the male's pri-
vate domain. Sounds delightful.
Scarface-(Cinema Guild, 7 &
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 on
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 lifea
by director Howard Hawks and
star Paul Muni's thingly-dis-
guised portrait of Al Capone
*. * *2%2
EVENTS
Michael Ponti, pianist-UMS,;
Rackham, 8:30.
wednesday
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 mental
hospital. Yuk. Item: A disliked
nurse is publically humiliated
when her shower curtain is de-
liberately yanked and she is ex-
posed to the restof 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 an
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
that some critics should be ! who has spent most of her life
ashamed at themselves for not in a mental institution, who sub-,
taking Altman to task. Will they sequently does a series of paint-
avail themselves of the oppor- ings which bring her interna-
tunity come the director's ap- tional acclaim. Marquerite Du-
pearance in April? BOMB ras' Nathalie Granger reported-
Pretty Poison-(Cinema Guild, ly depicts a day in the life of
Arch. Aud., 7 only)-The cloak- several characters in a French
and-dagger fantasies of a dis- town, and features Jeanne Mor-
turbed young man (Anthony eau.
Perkins) take on frightening Metropolis - (Cinema Guild,
reality when he finds a partner Arch. Aud., 7 & 9:05) - In-
(Tuesday' Weld) all too willing habitants of a giant futuristic
to put his criminal daydreams city are forced to live as vir-,
into action. This was one of the tual slaves to a small ruling
most notable "sleeper" films of elite. Fritz Lang's looney 1927
the '60's, with Perkins investing silent masterwork is one-third
a complexity to his part con- science fiction, one-third sorcery
siderably beyond his standard and one-third labor-management
psychotic shtick, and W e I d relations seminar; the film
comes across genuinely terrify- makes a minimum of sense as
ing as his murderous girl it spirals out its -bizarre plot,
friend. * * 2 but is often crazily brilliant.
Play It as It Lays -- (Cixnema The babel-like images of the
Guild, Arch. Aud., 9:05 only)-' soaring city are unforgettable
One of the most persistent un- (Hitler loved them), and a flood
derground rumors among film scene near the end remains one
critics used to be that Tuesday of the best choreographs of mob
was a potentially brilliant ac- panic you'll ever see. **'*V2
tress if she wolil donly be given An Evening of '60's Protest/
the chance. These whispers Riot Films - (Peoples' Bicen-
swiftly ceased following the ap- tennial Commission, Nat. Sci.
pearance of Play It as It Lays, Aud., 7 & 9:15) - A blood-and-
from John Didion's novel of a guts nostalgia trip to where it
young woman's emotional and was at a decade ago. Food boy-
s p i r i t e d disolution. Director cotts were joyously joined; Uni-
Frank Perry seems only to un- versity football crowds chanted
derstand t h e ultra-pretentious peace slogans instead of cheer-
technique of depicting the exis- ing Jerry Ford. Was it all so
tential emptiness of humanity superficial? In not, how could
by having people sit around dis- it have died so fast? Perhaps'
cussing the emptiness of human- this retrospective might pro-
ity. It's bad enough when An- vide some sober answers.
tonioni does it, and since Perry EVENTS
has none of the Italian's genius Guild House - Poetry read-
for visuals Play It as It Lays ing, Kerry Thomas: 802 Mon-
gives us absolutely nothing. roe, 7:30.
BOMB EBensinger Library - Poetry
EVENTS E reading, Jim Grondin: EQ, 10
Music School/Multi Ethnic Al- rpdi, JmGodi:E,1
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 MICIIGAN DAILY
Volume LXXXVII, No. 92
Saturday, January 22, 1977
is edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan. News
phone 464-0562. second class postage
paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.
Published daily Tuesday through
Sunday morning during the Univer-
sity year at 420 Maynard Street, Ann
Arbor, Michigan 48109. Subscription "
rates: $12 Sept. thru Aprii (2 semes-
ters); $13 by mail outside Ann
Arbor.
Summer session published Tues-
day through Saturday morning.
Suzbscription rates: $6.50 in' Ann
Arbor; $7.50 by mail outside Ann
Arbor.
at 1-3-5-
PLAfr($ YV , C , _ i
ANN A ifl" D E CC-tV
TONIGHT in the Mgdern Languages Puilding
ALL SCREWED UP
(Everything's Ready, Nothing Works)
(Lina 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-
lin 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.
T6gayat 1-3-5-7-9
Under 18 not admitted
Emanuelle in
"BLACK
EMANUELLE
with KarinSchubert
ELastmancoky
Riance, Alina Brychova, StefanI
Ehrenkreutz, "Songs of Many
Lands," Lec. Hall, Rackham, 8
p.m.
thursday
CINEMA
Aloise and Nathalie Granger
- (Ann Arbor Film Co-op, Ang.
Friday
CINEMA
Lady Sings the Blues-(Cine-
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
Today at 1:30-405.6:35
Openatl1:15
SHOWTIMES-7, 8:45 & 10:30
AtMISSION-$1 50
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 O Y 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.
"Things Seen in Madras" at 8;
"The Indian and the Sacred" atc
9, "Dream and Reality" at 10)-t
The first four episodes of at
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.
i
yt
t
FRI.-SAT. $3.00
MARY McCASLIN
AND
JIM RINGER
SINGER-SONGWRITER
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
barroom."
Sun.: TONY BIRD from South Africa
SINGER-SONGWRITER
An excellent writer with a great deal to say.
SUNDAY IN MLB-
"ALICE IN THE CITIES"
TUESDAY IN AUD. A, ANGELL HALL-
A FESTIVAL OF WOMEN DIRECTORSM
Morto Mezaro's "R IDDANCE"
AND F'anvrin E ,+
Anja Brejen's "WIVES" P
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-CAVRAS 1975
-ANN ARBOR PREMIERE SHOWING-
OF
1421 HILL
8:30
761-1451
IMIN mm,%
. )n~ngand Disco
ANN ARBOR
215 N. Main Ann Arboi663.7753
The Professional Theatre Program
Best of tBroadway
MON'T JUST READ
THE SHORT STORIES
Series
£
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