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_ARTS
The Michigan Daily Thursday, October 6, 1983
Page 6
Richard and Pia: Not much acting, lots
of skin
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By Mike Fisch
TIHE Lonely Lady is an insult. Even the title doesn't make
sense. Pia Zadora plays Gerilee Randall, a girl who
sleeps with just about anything: movie producers and their
wives, a sleazy bar owner, a leading man, and her husband.
The obvious question is: When does this laly have time to be
lonely? If she isn't having sex volunthily, she's being raped
by an 18-year-old guy with a garden hose. Gerilee believes
she has good reason to get so much exercise-she wants to
get a producer for her screen-play. Her real desire is to
become a respected screen writer. From the way Gerilee is
portrayed in the film, one wonders if she has the ability to
write the alphabet, let alone a movie script.
The whole movie is action; actions that don't flow together,
events that happen without reason. Throughout the film I
wanted to know "Why?" Why did Gerilee get divorced? Why
did Gerilee go crazy? Why did the boy rape her (with a hose
nozzle)? At the end of the movie, the question became "Why
me?" Why did I chodse to see this movie? Why did I waste
three dollars?
The horrendous supporting cast of the Lonely Lady read
their dialogue in perfect monotone. The dialogue doesn't
really deserve much better, so in that sense, everything
worked just right. Very few lines in the movie were
memorable. The few were so bluntly stupid I laughed aloud.
At one point in the film, Gerilee is "Violated" by a movie
producer's wife. After this episode, Gerilee, now in her own
apartment, goes crazy. She begins shreiking and banging on
her typewriter. This is when the "Gilligan's Island"
cinematography takes over. The room begins to spin,
becoming a gray blur, and Gerilee's contorted face pops on
and off the screen (her face all the while changing color). I
tried to keep from laughing, but couldn't.
Pia Zadora is reported as saying (in the Universal press
release), "You can only do one thing seriously at a time, and
from now on, it's acting, acting, acting." Bad choice, Pia.
t
By Emily Montgomery
F OR RICHARD Gere fans, Beyond the Limit is
everything you'd ever want in a Gere film-not much
acting and a lot of skin. Matched only by his performance in
Breathless, another loser, Gere again proves himself as the
American Gigolo we all thought him to be and varifies once
and for all that his days of being a ". . . Gentleman" are over.
The movie itself is as offensive as any film based solely on
the salability of the starring actor's name can be. It has
vulgar sex scenes, unlimited violence, even a chase scene.
Unfortunately, these factors fail to compensate for the ob-
vious lack of a respectable plot, or any decent acting.
The storyline of the film, for those of you still interested;
centers around turmoil in Argentina. Gere plays Eduardo
Plarr, un medico in the town of Corrientes who owns his own
practice and makes frequent trips to the surrounding slums
in order to treat the sick children there, F.O.C. (What 4
saint!). His status quickly changes, from model citizen td
malefactor, however, as he seduces his best friend's wife
(Elpidia Carrillo) and becomes involved in a guerilla war;
fare kidnapping sTheme to bargain for the release of somd
political prisoners.
The film's only merit resides in Michael Caine, who I was
surprised to see in such a gross example of cinematic
catastrophe as this. Even Caine, with his jovial portrayal of
an aging government official, whose one consulation in life
comes from the bottom of a whiskey bottle, cannot hope to
counterbalance the film's abundance of other obvious flaws.
For those of us who are tired of seeing Gere make millions
for nothing more than a bad Bogart impersonation and
baring his all too familiar buns during emotionless demon-
strations of unrestrained sexual activity, Beyond the Limit
offers a redemption of sorts, as Eduardo (Gere) is shot dowi
in the film's bloody conclusion. The relief comes too late, un-
fortunately, to save potential viewers from the misery of
another worhtless Gere performance in a pointless, plotless
film.
Beyond the Limit is director John Mackenzie's first attem-
pt at a movie with a wider audience appeal. Let's hope that
next time he'll use some actors and aserint.
Richard Gere and Pia Zadora: Hey, your ice cream cone's dripping.
WOMEN'S LIVES
Conversations On How Women
Grow and Change
OCTOBER 7
MARGUERITE OLIVER
Ann Arbor Businesswoman
AT NOON
GUILD HOUSE, 802 Monroe
Program is sponsored by Guild House Campus
Ministry and funded in port by Michigan
Commission/United Ministries in Higher
Education
Lunch (Home-Made Vegetarian Soup)
is available at $1.00
More info, Guild House, 665-5189
7 HAIRCUTTERS
" NO WAITING
DASCOLA STYLISTS
Liberty off State...... 668-9329
Maple Village........ 761 -2733
'Betrayal'
:
0
Real people
raise their voices
By Joshua Bilmes
ETRAYAL. The title is accurate.
B The movie has a lot of misleading,
deceiving, revealing. Not only does
it have a lot of betrayal in it, but it is a
betrayal. The filmmakers are so busy
making a work of art they betray the
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actual art of moviemaking, which is not
the art of making art, but rather the art
of providing belief, caring, catharsis.
Betrayal does not have any of that. All
it has is Art.
It starts off innocently enough, with
Art that also serves to draw the audien-
ce into the film. The camera draws up
to a house from which people are
exiting following some kind of party.
The soundtrack is perfectly quiet as the
camera pans along showing us Emma
and Robert (played by Patricia Hodge
and Ben Kingsley). They are talking.
The audience has no idea what they are
saying, and then they start to fight.
There is a slap. Little son Ned enters
the kitchen. The fighting stops, and
Emma takes son back up to bed. Swit-
ch scenes. Skillfultechnique makes for
engrossing opening. But what were
they talking about?
The next scene reveals the answer.
Emma has an affair with Jerry,
Robert's agent. She tells him that
Robert has betrayed her with another
woman. The marriage is soon to be en-
ded, as Emma tells Robert their all-
night conversation. Three lines of
dialogue: Jerry: "Ned's five?"
Emma: "You remember."
Jerry: "I would remember that."
Try to imagine saying those words
yourself.
Wow, the film has a little problem.
Once the reality of the affairs
(dates, etc.) have been fleshed out,
there really isn't much else to do. So
Betrayal tries something unusual. It
starts to travel back in time to tell us alr
why and fill in any gaps. But the trip
back fulfills the same purpose as Helter
Skelter. Just as that book and movie
goes into all the gory details of the
Manson murders to those who are in-
terested, this movie goes into all the
gory details of a divorce.
The autopsy begins two years before
the start of the film's action. Jerry and
Emma break up. The next stop before
that is a year earlier. Robert and Jerry
discuss if boy or girl babies make more
noise: Robert: "You didn't find that to
be the case?" Jerry: "Yes, I think we
did." Robert: "Yes."
One year before that, Robert finds out
about Emma and Jerry. The dialogue
itself is more important than who says
what about what: "Can you remem-
ber?"
"No."
"you can't."
"No."
"How odd."
"We're lovers."
"Ah yes. I thought it might be
something like that,"
"She's your wife.",
"Yes, yes. You're quite right."
Next stop, three years before that.
And then one year before that, when
Emma and Jerry started their affair.
And all through it, the dialogue. It is
all full of people yessing and noing each
other, people telling each other what
they feel and what the other person
feels, people who can't speak without
making dramatic pauses, people who
never, ever, raise their voices. They
rely on nothing more than an arched
eyebrow and perhaps a slight raising.
But real people yell. Real people ram-
ble on and disagree and get upset when
other people start speaking for them.
Betrayal lacks real people, and I was
not able to care about what happened to
these speaking automations. Yes, Ben
Kingsley and Patricia Hodge and
Jeremy Irons can act. They do it well.
But the screenplay by Harold Pinter
and the direciton by David Jones do not
call for genuine acting; the movie does
not want the actors to behave like real
people.
Some people can really enjoy this;
my sister says she was on the edge of
her seat. But I felt betrayed by
Betrayal. The artful script made no
real attempt to draw me in to things. All
it seemed to do was
pause-dramatically. I guess maybe if
I was as New Yorker-like as I thought I
was I could relate to these people. I am
not, and Betrayal is not for general con-
sumption. Only see it if you like to see
people pause........dramatically.
GREAT NEWS!
BEGINNING MONDAY, OCTOBER.3, 1983
PRO-RATED SUBSCRIPTION RATES
4
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$5.00/semester
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