ARTS
Wednesday, September 19, 1984
The Michigan Daily
-- g
Page 6
Wilder lusts
for 'The
Woman in Red'
By Marcella Harb
If one enjoys Gene Wilder's brand of
comedy, one will be mildly amused by
The Woman in Red. For the rest of the
audience, however, Wilder overexposes
himself as director, writer and star of
yet another Hollywood remake.
The film is an adaptation of the
classic French comedy, Un Elephant
Ca Trompe Enormement. Boy sees
girl, boy lusts for girl, and finally, boy
sacrifices wife, family, and job in order
to satisfy lust.
When Teddy (Wilder) gets his first
glimpse of Charlotte (Kelly LeBrock),
she appears non-descript. As she
passes over an air vent, however, her
red silk skirt flies up, revealing skimpy
red satin panties. Teddy's eyebrows
shoot up as Charlotte revels atop the air
vent. She wiggles about in simulated
playful abandon as Wilder leers. (One
would hope LeBrock's performance
here is not compared with its in-
spiration, Marilyn Monroe's perfor-
mance in The Seven Year Itch.)
In a film such as this, where women
are seen either as sex objects or
cuckolds, the male chauvanist:
viewpoint is bound to reign. When
trying to cheer up a friend, for exam-
ple, Buddy (Charles Grodin) offers,
"Hey, let's go see some tits and ass."
In another attempt to cheer up a
friend, Buddy fakes blindness and in
the process destroys a restaurant,
slapstick humor which is reminiscent of
the restaurant scene in My Favorite
Year.
Grodin develops his character well,
at least until the part where it is
revealed that Buddy is a closet
homosexual. Grodin appears uneasy in
this role, probably because it is an ab-
surd attempt to delve into the
psychological reasons for why and how
men desire.
This aspect of the film also leaves the
audience somewhat befuddled. The
scene in which Buddy's male friend
drives up to Buddy and his straight
friends and calls Buddy a "bitch"
before dumping the contents of Buddy's
suitcase into the street is as unexpected
as it is irrelevant. To make things wor-
se, Teddy accompanies Buddy back to
Buddy's unfurnished apartment and
inanely asks, "So, what color are you
going to paint this place? To which.
Buddy, in tears, responds, "shocking
pink." This scene between the two men
is tender and deep, but has no place in
this film.
Kelly LeBrock, perhaps best known
as "the mouth" in the Christian Dior
lipstick ad campaign, may be sensuous
in her role of Wilder's object of desire,
but her performance reminds one of
Christie Brinkley's infamously insipid
role in National Lampoon's Vacation.
Gilda Radner, one of the main
reasons why anyone would see this
film, is disappointing in her role as Ms.
Milner, the woman Wilder mistakenly
thinks is "the woman in red." After
being rejected by Wilder, radner
destroys his car, upsets his office, and
continually shoots him looks of venom.
Radner could have done more with her
role, but instead makes Ms. Milner as
unappealing and one-dimensional as
possible.
The scene stealer in this film is,
without a doubt, Michael Zorek, who
plays Shelley, Teddy's daughter's
boyfriend who lusts after Teddy's wife.
Shelley is a pudgy, odd-looking young
man with an orange mohawk who gets
laughs simply by appearing on screen.
Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick
provide the film's score.d It is in-
teresting to note, however, that the
music is not geared to the talents of
either of these fine musicians. Stevie
Wonder and Dionne Warwick singing a
combination of Top 40 and Muzak? It's
nauseating.
In The Woman in Red, Wilder attem-
pts to cast himself as an innocent.
When Charlotte tells Teddy he is "very
gallant," he replies in a ridiculous
voice, "I'm just a romantic." The sad4
thing about this scene is that it has the
potential to be absurdly funny, but it
just lies there growing moldy.
Wilder is unable, despite his
numerous responsibilities, to suc-
cessfully hold this film together. He
should have stopped acting after Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a
movie in which the sweetness wasp't
sickening.
Kelly LeBrock plays Charlotte, the focus of Gene Wilder's lust in 'The woman in
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"Black Stations," with its straightfor-
ward integration message. "Cooling
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drowning and life after death, for
example, and "Sleep and Reason"
about thinking too hard, but with all the
wrong intentions.
The two ingredients that have always
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most of the music. Martha Johnson has
a voice. that could melt ice, and is as
impassioned here as always. Arguably,
however, it is Mark Gane's influence on
the sound of the compositions tha gives
them their edge.
Gane plays guitar like a junior-league
Robert Fripp, switching tonal qualities
and chords with effortless effervescen-
se - he is one of the most subtly effec-
tive guitarists I've ever heard. Plus the
songs he sings here - like the ones
from past albums - are the most
strange and alluring.
"Big Trees" is a short one poem
about - you guessed it - trees; it's
backed musically by what sounds like
treated percussion and toy pianos
making a tinkling, washy background.
Preceeding "Trees," Gane tears
through a particularly Frippy solo in "I
start to Stop," which also features
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ces, making it the highlight of side one.
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Mystery Walk's best song, "Nation of
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songs. On "Garden in the Sky," John-
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