w w w w -Iqmp- -qmp- -mmr- -Ilw- -qwr- -Iqr -Iqmp- mp-- -Iqmp- Seiture s h The big thrill Lawrence Kasdan An interview with a University alumnus By Susan Makuch < 'COLLEGE IS the best time of ,.. your life ... You'll look back on those years forever ... Your college friendships will last a lifetime... " Sounds familiar, doesn't it...Parents and older siblings continually deluge college-bound relatives and friends with their faded recollections of a mythical bohemian lifestyle. Depressing as the thought may be (is this really as good as it gets?) these folks seem to believe it. Why then is the long-term influence of the college experience so seldom a literary or theatrical theme? Surely such sentiments rise above family bar- beques or phonecalls to relatives. 'As if to fill an obvious void (perhaps inhabited by The Return of the Seacaucus Seven), University alumnus Lawrence Kasdan's latest film The Big Chill embraces this very issue. The story centers around seven University of Michigan alumni who are reunited at the funeral of their friend and former housemate. One of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters - he counts Return of the Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, among his credits - Kasdan chose in The Big Chill to use his experiences at the University as a springboard into a story about today. "It's definitely from my life," Kasdan said in a recent telephone in- terview. "Things (in The Big Chill) are very similar to what my friends are going through. The story is about things we (students of the 1960s) are seeing right now - insecurities about life and ideals." Kasdan, a student at the University from 1966 to 1972, chronicles the fears and shocks he observed - and felt - as the baby boom generation took to the world. "It really has to do with all the things that were happening to all my friends and to me, sort of, as we entered the world. I think that my experiences at Michigan, during a very exciting and turbulent time, led me to a lot of false assumptions about the way the world was. "When I entered the world, when I started working in advertising, there was a kind of a value shock - things didn't go exactly the way you thought they would. "For other generations it might not have been so shocking because they didn't have such high expectations. But for the baby boomers, we did. We sort of thought whatever we wanted to do, we could do. Things would always go our way. It turned out not to be the case. It took a lot of adjusting." Kasdan says the people in The Big Chill, his friends left over from his University years, are very real. "I'm still very close to my college friends - they're the best friends I have. They're ttill very important to me," he said. The Big Chill was intended to be true to their lives, and I think it is," he ad- ded. Kasdan both wrote (along with Bar- bara Benedek) and directed The Big Chill, which played a special Ann Arbor opening Tuesday night. As a story, the film departs sharply from the hit ad- venture moves (Empire, Raiders, andJedi) he wrote earlier. Kasdan says he was compelled to write The Big Chill, and thought he was the only person who could direct it. "It sort of imposed itself on me," he said. "It was not a script that other people could necessarily understand; it was written only for me - it would never have been made without me." Kasdan made his directorial debut with the 1981 release of Body Heat, a hypnotic investigation into sexual ob- session. Critics praised the film as spellbinding and one of the most engrossing motion pictures produced in years. "I wanted to make a neurotic film," Kasdan says of Body Heat. "I wanted to capture the intensity of their relation- ship, and that was based largely on sex." Once Body Heat hit the screens, Kasdan's worries about screenwriting and directing as full-time careers dissolved into memories. But at one time those fears were very real. Kasdan remembered that in his University days he felt he'd never see fame as a writer/director, even though he "always wanted to direct movies." While at the University, Kasdan majored in English. Never quite cognating his academic pursuits with his writing, he went on to get a graduate degree in education in hopes of becoming an English teacher. A native of West Virginia, Kasdan said he came to the University because of the Hopwood writing awards. "I didn't have the money to go to school and I heard that Arthur Miller got through school on Hopwood awards, so I thought I might as well try." Money from the Hopwood awards did help out some: Kasdan won three awards, one each for short fiction, drama, and a screenplay. He even made a short film during those years, but it was a "terrible movie," he recalls. "It was something like...I can't even remember the name of it. Something like 'Those who can, do - Those who can't, teach' and it was about a professor and a student," he said. "It was technically dreadful. I think it was supposed to be a comedy, but I don't remember it being very funny." After graduation, he continued to write undeterred, although with a family to support (Kasdan married his college sweetheart; they now have two sons) he knew he had to start making some money as his screenplays were not selling. He took a job as a copywriter at an advertising agency, a job he remem- bers with some bitterness. "I was miserable," he said. "Those were five painful years. I would come home at night, play with my son for a while, and then work on my screen- plays." It was a struggle, but the experience produced a screenplay called The Bodyguard. Kasdan: The best years? The script became his first movie sale, and Kasdan says it gave him the incentive - and financial means - to quit the advertising business forever. Continental Divide quickly followed The Bodyguard, which was never produced. "Continental Divide was the first time I had a big sale, and I knew I could stay out of advertising for good," he said. "With Continental Divide it was clear I could make a good living (from screenwriting)." As it turned out, a couple of film- makers got a sneak peek at Continental Divide before it was produced. The filmmakers, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, liked what they saw. Lucas hired Kasdan to work on one of the largest-grossing films of all time, The Empire Strikes Back. A little number called Raiders of the Lost Ark, a Spielberg-Lucas combo, was the next Kasdan project. Although he is listed as one of three writers of that film, Kasdan wrote the screenplay himself. "George (Lucas), Steven (Spielberg) and I sat around for two weeks and talked about what we wanted the story to be all about. After that I went off for six months and wrote the screenplay," he said. "It was a tough one." The critics, of course, loved both Empire and Raiders. It was when Con- tinental Divide was finally produced that Kasdan tasted his first bit of vinegar from the critics. "You're always going to get half the critics," he said, "it doesn't mean much. Sometimes you get more - with Body Heat I got a lot more (praise) - it's just sort of irrelevant about the critics." Continental Divide, directed by Michael Apted and starring John Belushi in his first serious role, was a film Kasdan says "didn't work for me." The movie was panned by critics for being heavy-handed. "It would have had a very different tone if I had directed it," Kasdan said. "It would have been cast much dif- ferently...A much lighter, more sophisticated touch." That movie, however, seems to be undergoing a revival on cable television, a fact that leads Kasdan to speculate the film was not promoted or sold correctly in the first place. Of course, Return of the Jedi speaks for itself. Riding the wave of his latest suc- cesses, positive reviews of The Big Chill are becoming more numerous as the film gains momentum. Kasdan also remains closely tied to the University: He and his wife set up a scholarship fund for students who want to make creative writing their life's work, and he plans to teach a screen- writing seminar in late October. Kasdan says he has good memories of his years in Ann Arbor, but he stopped short of calling them the best years of his life. "It was a great time - it was six very exciting years for me...it was a time when we lived very vividly," he said. One has to wonder what Kasdan will tell his younger friends about college.. The Big Chill provides at least a clue. .Mostly- Mozart Amadeus Michigan Community Theater Foundation, Inc. Michigan Theater 8 p.m., Tuesday, October 4 and Wednesday, October 5 By George Adams H UMAN limitations are perhaps the most devastating of discoveries. In a world ~where greatness is measured by achievement, we often tempt ourselves to believe that anything is possible if only we try - that our shortcomings arise from a lack of effort, not a lack of potential. Sadly for most, this is not so: Genius is rare, and visible only because it disturbs a vast calm of mediocrity. It is precisely this difference between two 18th century composers that sets up conflict in Peter Shaffer's five-time, Tony Award-winning Broadway Best Play Amadeus, which opens a two-day run at the Michigan Theater October 4. On the surface, Amadeus tells of the rivalry between Viennese court com- poser Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who many believe to be the greatest musical genius of all time. Salieri was an immensly popular composer in his day, though a man of limited talent. Because he felt music was God's art, Salieri made a pact with God that if God made him a brilliant composer, Salieri would serve Him forever. When Mozart appeared in Vienna, it became obvious that Mozart, not Salieri, was the chosen conduit of divine genius. Jealousy, and revenge move the play to Mozart's tragic death - possibly at the hands of Salieri - at the age of 36. Underlying the outward themes of vengeance and envy, Shaffer explores the hatred a man of mediocrity feels for effortless genius, the anarchy of the universe, and the internal tragedy of recognizing one's limits. Shaffer suggests that a man's genius has little or nothing to do with his character. The author sees Salieri as a courtly man, public spirited, generous to his colleagues, and morally and spiritually dedicated to God. Mozart, on the other hand, appears as an 18th century John McEnroe: eter- nally adolescent, foul-mouthed, vain, and openly critical of his colleagues. At the same time, Mozart is capable of producing celestial music that ap- pears to come straight from the heavens. The dichotomy between the public Mozart, so base and vile, and the creative Mozart, so majestic and glorious, drives Salieri mad; unable to reconcile the disparity, between the coarseness of the man and the purity of his music, Salieri vows to destory Mozart to get back at God. The great irony of the play lies in the title: Amadeus, Mozart's middle name, means "beloved of God." This is what Mozart was in Salieri's eyes, and this is the only thing Salieri wanted for him- self. Shaffer reminds the audience that Salieri had the dubious honor of being the man who may, or may not, have murdered Mozart. The author stops short of condemning Salieri, but suggests that Salieri at least wanted to destroy Mozart. As in his other Tony Award-winning play Equus, Shaffer runs an icy thread of hysteria through the play; the limits See MOZART, Page 11 Staged rivalry The Rivals Professional Theater Program Lydia Mendelssohn Theater 8 p.m. Wednesday, October 5-Sunday, October 9 and Thursday, October 13- Sunday, October 16 By Bob King Bennigan's' Gets Happy All Day Long! OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK FOOD SERVED 1 1:00 _ 10 0A. 95C a day will buy you a hot dog. 59C will rent you a Color TV. Eat the hot dog. Its gone. But the TV will give you months of pleasure. Rent for three months or more and get fuil in-dorm service with free parts and labor.- No security deposit. Just a minimal \ I $10 installation fee. 13"TV at 59c/day 19"TV at 76c/day VCR at 82c /day Appetizing rates on cameras, too. ICall Rentacolor TODAY and get the facts on the best TV deal in town. esVverarald VLDEO CENTEIR Two-semester rates based on: . at $22.95 per month IN ANN ARBOR CALL DAN, 662-1736 (EVENINGS & WEEKENDS) VCR at $24.95 per month LIVONIA 1-425-1600 (DAYS) D RAMATIC RIVALRY takes the form of 18th century classic theater Wednesday, October 5, when the Michigan Ensemble Theater opens its 1983-84 season with The Rivals, Richard Brinsley. Sheridan's social satire based on human confusion and innocent love, is a wonderful opener for MET's '83-84 season and marks the course that they will follow throughout the year. Harriet Harris will play the lead role as Lydia Languish, a 17-year-old caught in the confusion of "ill-directed" love, with Carol Schultz playing Julia, her elder and equally distrought confidant. The action revolves around Lydia's desire to marry her sub-bourgeois lover Jack Absolute, played by Dennis Bacigalupi. Jack really isn't the hum- ble army ensign that he has led Lydia to believe, rather, he is the wealthy son of Sir Anthony Absolute (Emiry Battis). Sir Anthony has already been cun- ningly contriving with Lydia's Aunt Malaprop (played by Beth Dixon) to have Jack marry the young Lydia. But Jack, being the only person not shrouded in the fog of ignorance, is refusing to marry Lydia, which, suffice it to say, spawns even more confusion. Confusion, however, is a good source of variety, and a great source of enter- tainment, which are two of the reasons that MET Art Director Walter Eysselinck chose The Rivals for the opener. His choice of director, Edward Stern, is equally appropriate. Brim ming wit he is just lusty ecce Beyond been ded his entire from a n& for this co do a grea that's v the privi not being Beyond belief tha continue mon pers per ticket hollow. Stern's founding Theatre, regional most re Nickfeby Playhous majority c Rivals frc jump for "They lov this cali mosphere Harriet includes Playhous Houseman well as t Harris in' Carol Si TV's "Gui the Classi series of ri David [ Julia's be to coast in on televis naby Jon yes, "Gen whole sp quality, a played by students. The play changes ui changes youthful Se 2 For IDrinks I 1:001 .k. N.-7:40 I'. i 1 1:00 i.M.-1:45 A-M. Full Menu - Featuring: Qilic App CIctiz rs Fricdl \Cgcruhlcs D csscrts tiluunttt ;it ,.StI~r ui t 575 Briarwood Circle, Ann Arbor, MI (corner of State Street and Briarwood Circle) (313)996-0996 i 4 Weekend/September 30. 1983 Stern, is equally appropriate. Brim- 9 Week