4

The University of Michigan
Professional Theatre Program
Michigan Ensemble Theatre
A magnificent adventure into the mind
Oct.29-Nov.1, Nov.5-8
8PM
Sunday matinees at 2pm
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
Tickets at PTP-Michigan League
Call 764-0450

ARTS.

ly :

Page 6

Thursday, October 22, 1981

The Michigan Dail


"

Devo tries to save

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By Michael Huget
T HE COFUSING thing about Devo
is that you don't know whether you
should take them seriously. If you
don't take them seriously, they could
laugh at you for failing to grasp their
purpose. If you do, they could laugh
even harder because you are guillible
enough to pretend to understand their
absurdity. A third alternative might be
to ignore them, hoping they will disap-
pear.

ATTENTION
Juniors, Seniors, Grad Students
BUILD YOUR CREDIT
through VIS
Guaranteed "Bank Action" Ap and / or
plications are available to.
1,000 Univ. of Mich. students_
through CSA on a first come, first served basis only! You
must CALL NOW, to receive your approved application TODAY!
T THEY WILL GO FASTi
1-800-424-2494--24 HOURS A DAY!
CSA Marketing, Inc.
i Fu-
Ann Arbor's first opportunity to see the breathtaking
visual effects of the spectacular Okinawan dance-dramas.

Unfortunately, there isn't a third op-
tion because those specious spuds from
Akron, are currently on tour to spread
the force of Devolution across America
(and ironically, to promote their latest
Warner Brother's release, New
Traditionalists). And, much to the
delight of Ann Arbor's modish mutants,
Devo will be performing at Hill
Auditorium Oct. 28.
Devo emerged nationally in late 1978
as a band characterized by
emotionless, monotone vocals and cold,
mechanical rhythms. Their debut
album Q. Are We Not Men? A. We Are
Devo) was critically hailed as an ar-
tistic achievement because of the in-
telligent blend of subdued Ramone's
verve and electronic Kraftwerk beat.
Initially, the fundamental Devo con-
cept was to makeDehumanization fun.
It was a response to the environment
they were raised in: Akron, Ohio-the
land of rubber, and the soapbox derby.
All told, an unlikely place for a cult
band to originate.
Devo started as a cult band; their
bizarre lyrical imagery and
mechanistic sound seemed to allow
nothing more. But ever since 1978, after
the band began to rid themselves of
their arty pretensions, their sound has
become more accessible. Last year's
album, Freedom of Choice, sold nearly
one million copies and yielded the
band's first-and only-Top 40 single.
On Freedom of Choice, Devo moved
to a more common pop music theme;
boy-girl confrontations and their
myriad possible outcomes (love, lust,
etc.). "Whip It," full of sordid, sexual
lyrics and possessing a surprisingly
catchy beat, was the Top 40 hit.
Devo has even capitalized on this
success by making numerous television
appearances during the last year. They
recently performed on ABC's
"Fridays," the Tom Snyder Show, and
Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.
New Traditionalists, Devo's latest
See DEVO, Page 7
Wednesdays & Thursdays
8:00 pm to Closing
BEER YPRICE 4V lz23OF!
PIZZA 25% OFF
ON WED. ENJOY YOUR FAVORITE
OLD TIME MOVIES. ..
Laurel & Hardy
The 3 Stooges
Charlie Chaplin
W. C. Fields
Buster Keaton
On Thur. come dance to
Rock n Roll of the 50's
& 60's.
THURSDAY IS
LADIES NIGHT
114 East Washington
Downtown Ann Arbor
665-3231-

OAt '-'

'^--
Yz .
. . '
.
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f

I

Duvall and De Niro: Disillusioned in 'True Confessions.'
Truly dramatic Confessions

J

Okinawzin
Dance Troupe
Wednesdayl, Oct. 28 , at 8:00

By Adam knee
T RUE CONFESSIONS, now playing
at the Mann Village Theatre, is an
off-beat and, on the whole, successful
drama showing how the incidents
surrounding the murder of a prostitute
draw together two estranged
brothers-one a priest, the other a
police sergeant.
The film takes us through brothels,
autopsy rooms, and morgues, showing
us the seamiest side of the underworld.
Yet director Ulu Grosbard studiously
avoids creating a sensationalist or
highly stylized work. His intent here is
to let us see beyond the surface squalor
of the world depicted to a deeper truth:
the inescapable truth of human nature.
True Confessions is most certainly not
designed as exploitative or passive en-
tertainment.
Each shot has the combined frank
realism and subliminal perverseness of
a Hopper canvas; cinematographer
Rcord~s
Iggy Pop- Party' (Arista)-
MORE OF the same from Mr. Pop,
but I'm not complaining.
If you don't know whatto expect from
the Ig by now, then you should be
ashamed of yourself.. . but you still
deserve some pointers. Party, like
Iggy's other post-Bowie-resurrection
LPs, functions on a highly polished but
still tough rock and roll framework
fronted by Iggy's working man's
decadent lyricism.
Again, Iggy proves himself one of the
most versatile vocalists around on this
disc, going from his usual Crypt of
Terror croak on "Pumpin' for Jill" to
the frat-boy-next-door exuberance of
"Happy Man."
The band isn't always up to par,
prone as they are to faceless thrashing
now and then, but when they work .. -.
well, they work. The Uptown Horns
help keep the whole thing hopping, ad-
ding a little class and a lot of ex-
citement along the way.
As always, though, it comes down to
the songs. There are a couple of losers
on the album, but we've come to expect
that from a Pop LP. The only real
disappointment is that side one as a
whole seems relatively forgettable,
buoyed by only three good (not great)
songs. Side two, though, burns and

Owen Roizman allows us to see the sur-
face world as he wants us to, without
allowing us to become lost in that
world. Compositions are always unob-
trusively simple and well-balanced, yet
they are designed for specific
emotional effects-for example, in the
visual (hence spiritual) separation of
characters as each moment requires.
Correspondingly, lighting is for the
most part flat and bluntly revealing,
and the soundtrack is suffused with dry
background noises: howling winds, the
cry of a lone crow.
On this simple framework the
separate, yet undeniably similar
realities of Father Desmond Spellacy
(Robert De Niro) and Sergeant Thomas
Spellacy (Robert Duvall) complexly in-
terweave. The spiritual world of the one
and the earthly world of the other
become increasingly difficult to tell
apart. Desmond devotes most of his at-
tention to gritty political and financial
maneuvers, within his archdiocese,
sparkles from start to finish. This
string of rock and roll greats (both old
and new) can make you forget any
complaints. So, I'll shut up already.
-Mark Dighton

while Thomas' brutal work in keeping
law and order is consistently under-
mined by his basic human passions, by
a love he wants to deny.
The implication here is that the two
worlds are indeed one-that the
Spellacy's are brothers by more than
virtue of having the same parents. It is
through a communion with each other
that they ultimately come to realize this
attachment, and through a mutual
vulnerability that they can admit
disillusionment with their social roles.
The thematic repercussions of their
relationship are so significant that they
overshadow the surface narrative flow
of the film; we never do explicitly learn
of such details as the ultimate outcome
of an investigation into the prostitute's
murder, because they are not truly
relevant to the spiritual matters at
hand.
At times, however, scriptwriters
John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion
(working from Dunne's novel) cut cor-
ners in the narrative a bit more than
they should. For example, Desmond
ultimately follows a spiritual path
traced for him by Father Seamus
Fargo (Burgess Meredith), who is
ousted from his parish for political
reasons. Nevertheless, we get only a
vague picture of Fargo and what he
stands for.
Yet for the most part, Grosbard and
Dunne are successful in presenting the
vision they aim for. De Niro and Duvall
are appropriately never over-
sentimental in their portrayals, but the
characters are so real that we can sen-
se powerful emotions beneath their
callous surfaces. When these emotions
begin to break through, the film's
usually subdued form varies sym-
pathetically, resulting in some inten-
sely moving scenes.
In one such powerful yet simple
scene, Desmond meets his brother at a
seedy luncheonette and starts to admit
his disillusionment with his. work.
Thomas, too confused and afraid of his
emotions to do anything else, feebly of-
fers to order him a slice of pie. We are
moved because we know what a strong
but supressed love this gesture
signifies. The two men now quietly
stare in the same direction out a win-
dow, as a powerful white light spills in
on both their faces.
This same white light comes up
repeatedly at key points in the film; it i
actually an antagonist in itself (an ef-
feet for which Grosbard is indebted to
Bergman). It is the revealing truth
neither brother can hide from. It is the
universal human experience.

The B-52s-'Warty
(Warner Bros.)

Mix'

Power Center
Tickets at $9.00, $8.00, $7.00, $5.00
irton Tower, Ann Arbor, M
Weekdays 9-4:30, Sat. 9-12(313)665-3717
Tickets also available at Power Center
1N hours before performance time

Tickets at Bu

I 48109

N O MATTER what aesthetic
objections you might have to this
LP, you certainly can't argue with its
danceability. What they've done with
these remixes is take three tunes from
each of the two B-52s albums, and
rearrange them for maximum dan-
ceability with quite a few dance effects
thrown in for good measure.
Personally, I have few quarrels with
these reworkings. Sure, the gimmicky
effects are overused sometimes, but
that seems true to the B-52s' spirit of
overexuberant trashiness. The only ob-
jection I have is to their unflattering
remix of "Dance This Mess Around."
But just to keep things fair, I have to
admit that their version 'of "Gimme
Back My Man" actually has me liking
that song for the first time.
I'm not exactly sure why someone
thought it necessary to make "dance
versions" of these songs by America's.
best pop dance band, but I'm sure glad'
they did!
-Mark Dighton

[ I IVESITYc7vIUSICAL 8OCIETY
In Its 103rd Year

Ammompmm-

a
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M$4
V
4.

enter THE
p find THe Typos in

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the Daily

" kon/tes t

I-

Its eZy to w!n, just reedthru thu 'Daily &
circl* evry tyPOgraf2cal error you csee. Thr m ore,
YOU Pfind. the ® better you're chanses of3/4; w
innlNG(typos in this ad are excluded).,


Pacific as andElcompany
ENGINEERING STUDENTS


-0

6Retyrn paper

w/circuled errors

by NOOn

PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC COMPANY
invites all upper division
and graduate engineering students
to an informational session regarding
career opportunities with PG&E.
When: 7-9 pm, Thursday, October 22, 1981
Where: West Engineering, Room 227

I

the pfollowing day(return weekend

papers

on

Monday); leaveing you'r name and fhone % w/it.
WInners wil 3be CONtacted.

Members of our engineering staff will
be on hand to discuss career opportunities
with PGandE. Challenging positions are
available in the areas of: