A Page 6- The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 23, 1984 Francois Truffaut dead at 52 I By Byron L. Bull F RANCOIS TRUFFAUT, the widely celebrated French director who spearheaded France's New Wave movement in cinema, died of cancer Sunday at the age of 52. Doctors at the American Hospital of Paris said Truf- faut had been admitted ten days earlier, and had lapsed into a coma, awakening only sporadically before his death. Apparently Truffaut had been diagnosed with a brain tumor last year and had retreated into seclusion, seeing only his very closest friends. Truffaut's 25-year career as a film- maker revealed a substantial body of intelligent, compassionate works of the highest skill. A consumate director who subscribed intensely to the auteur school of thought, Truffaut's work was characteristically honest in tone, realistic in texture, and vitally fresh in execution. Most of Truffaut's films were done on a low budget, which suited him well as he strove for a documentarian, unglossed clarity in his studies of humanity. Truffaut's camera work and editing had an unrigid, often inten- tionally choppy feel, full of sudden cutaways and rapid montages, par- ticularly in his complex, ground- breaking Jules and Jim (1961). Unabashedly in love with film, Truf- faut's affection for his art form quite frequently spiled over into his work. From the Hitchcockian The Bride Wore Black through his loving homage to the Hollywood B-movies he loved, Shoot The Piano Player, Truffaut made films that celebrated film. In one of his wit- tiest, most acclaimed works, Day For Night (1973), Truffaut created a film about the making of a film, and cast himself in the role of director. A public school dropoutrwho later enlisted in the army only to desert, Truffaut's serious initiation into film came when the French film critic An- dre Bazin asked him to write for his periodical, Cahiers du Cinema. On the staff of the magazine, Truffaut met writers like Eric Rohmer and Jean-Luc Goddard, who shared his ob- sessive love of film, as well his own radical dreams of how they should be made. It was this pool of critics who raised French film criticism to a new level of consciousness, with effects also strongly felt abroad. It was Truffaut and his contemporaries who were the first to champion the American studio films of the late 30's and 40's, par- ticularly those by Howard Hawks and John Ford, whose works embodied many elements of auteurism. In 1958 Truffaut was ejected from the from the Cannes Film Festival due to his vehement criticism. Undaunted, Truffaut only returned the next year with his first feature, the intense, semi- autobiographical portrait of a neglected young boy, The 400 Blows, and won the Festial's Golden Palm Award. It was this that opened up financing for other hitherto ignored critic/filmmakers, that led to the New Wave revolution. Truffaut ... honest direction skill RNN 5th1-venue at LibertSt ,/ ~761 -9700h: Taj Mahal will bring his own coourof the blues to The Ark tonight. Taj Mahal movedtoArk Atlanta By Mike Gallatin Under the direction of Robert Shaw the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra played to an enthusiastic audience at Hill Auditorium Sunday. An en- thusiastic audience to works unknown can either be interpeted as a warm reception or attributed to ignorance. Separating response from the works or art persormed from.the way they are played is sometimes a tricky proposition. In this case, the or- chestra's performance was bland and dull at moments to pieces that deserved better fare. The program was a varied one begin- Symphony 4 ning with Haydn's symphony - 98 com- posed in the year 1792. The Haydn was under interpreted. The orchestra didn't seem sufficiently warmed up and the foreshortened Baroque ensemble didn't create a large enough sound to properly fill the auditorium. The symphony is one of vitality and good cheer but the orchestra's dragging tempo particularly in the opening Allegro created more a feeling of lament than jubilation. While it is true Haydn needs to be played with classical restraint and a chamber music-like in- timacy, in this case it was carried too much to the extreme. The string sec- tion came across as shy and unassuming and the brass was not for- Practicing Pharm. D.s discuss Career Opions For Doctor of Pharmacy Graduates A U-M College of Pharmacy seminar open to all students Wednesday, Oct. 24-7-9 p.m. 3554 C. C. Little Bldg.' (corner of Church & Geddes) College staff members will be present to answer questions about admission to U-M Doctor of Pharmacy program. r r r f Orchestra ceful enough. The Presto Finale showed more life but again the solo violin passages were barely audible and could have done with more feeling and less classicism. The brief entrance at the end of a rippling harpsichord ac- companiment was a breath of fresh air and reminded us that Haydn usually conducted his own works in that capacity. In this case the keyboardist was too far removed from the Baroque ensemble to create that intimate chamber music quality this disappoin- ting performance lacked. From the 18th century the orchestra moved to the present with a Symphonic Suite composed by Karel Husa in 1984. The composition is divided into three movements; "Celebration", "Meditation", and "Vision." The piece relies heavily on a modern use of the percussion section of the orchestra to create a feeling for the temper of our time. From an almost tribal African sound accomplished through the use of a gong and wood blocks in the "Vision" to the sporadic use of the xylophone and glockenspiel in the "Celebration", a full gambit of percussive potential is ex- plored. The brass section and horns in par- ticular played much better in this com- position as they rang forth hopes of exultation and promises of a bright future. Yet the "Vision" fades away in- to the mists in a haunting and eerie fashion as the strings play tritones and high-pitched half-tone harmonics reminding us in this Star Wars age that the future is always uncertain. The final composition was Paul Hin- demith's most popular and best known work, "Mathis der Maler." (Mathias the Painter) This symphonic poem is based on orchestral interludes taken from the opera of that name also by Hindemith. This piece is a fine exam- ple of the program music as the suite describes scenes from Mathias Grunewald's (c. 1480-1528) tryptich in his Isenhein Alterpiece. Unfortunately again the string section played in a dull, stiff and mechanical fashion as if they were sawing wood instead of making music but the brass possessed a full- throated sound and overall the or- chestra played up to par. The danger of program music is that too great a reliance on extraneous associations can weaken the status of music as an art in its own right. There are two basic kinds of program music; that which is good music regardless of the program and that which is poor music although it may have an in- teresting program. The Hindemith composition is both good music and an interesting program; one of the few and far between of the exceptions. The audience greeted the conclusion of the concert with a warm applause and Robert Shaw and The Atlanta Symphony responded in kind by playing a badly needed encore of Hector Berlioz's "Roman Carnival Overture" to wash away the bad taste the Haydn had left in this critic's mouth. By Andy Weine If mid-terms have given you the blues, you might want to share your blues with someone who's been in them for a couple of decades: Taj Mahal. This veteran blues and folk performer, who will play at the Ark tonight, is one of the best kept secrets of folk music today. That's not to say he's been in hiding, though. Taj Mahal has played professionally since the late sixties, when the folk movement had strong momentum from popular singers like Dylan, Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary. Taj Mahal has made ten albums in all, including "The Natch'l Blues," "Recyclin' the Blues," and "Giant Step/ De Old Folks at Home." Mahal's credits also include the musical scores for the films Sounder and Brothers. Critics from Los Angeles to El Paso to New York have acclaimed Mahal's virtuosity on a wide variety of instruments, including guitar, bass, piano, vibes, mandolin, and dulcimer. And according to one Ann Arbor folk fan, he plays a very mean harmonica. When Mahal launched his musical career, his blues were primarily un- der American (particularly Afro- American) influence, as he lived in New England and Los Angeles for some time. The Stones rollicked to his music in the late sixties and helped him to tour Europe. After that, Mahal's ethnic Musical scope widened to include Jamaican and African influences, so today, his blues could be called pan- .African. He traveled West Africa in the late seventies, rounding out his musical abilities and knowledge. Mahal has put that knowledge to use not only in his concerts but also as a musicologist, sharing panels and conducting workshops world-wide. Knowing the history and influence of blues ranks him with only a few folksters, such as Oscar Brand and Michael Cooneywhbo understand and appreciate what folk really is and how it came to be what it is. Strict 'blues are Mahal's homeground, but he won't just have you wallowing in the doldrums. As in his last Ann Arbor appearance a year ago, the blues he plays usually spark many smiles that relieve academic anxieties and move knees and hands to thumping. Long drive, low pay won't deter jobless Vii. i .' .,}x}ti .4. . {. ''iY:2t _. .. . 'i 5/ MEE STAR in the Kuenz DR.C Director of t toa proudly presents CAMPUS F THE PRESS TS TOMORROW el Room of the Michigan Union Special Guest: aEORGE GAMOTA he U-M Institute of Science and Technology ATHOL, Mass. (AP) - Hundreds of unemployed residents of this depressed milltown began lining up at daybreak yesterday, hoping for the chance to travel 70 miles each way toa $4-an-hour job in a city whose economy is so strong it can't find enough workers. The round trip from Athol, tucked in the hills of central Massachusetts, to Framingham, a bustling metropolitan area west of Boston, could take three hours a day. But the job seekers were not discouraged. "I'VE BEEN out of work for three years. I would take anything," said former machine operator Eugene Labor. "My benefits are completely exhausted now. If it wasn't for my parents, I'd be out in the streets." Labor was among 400 people who filled out applications for five com- panies, including McDonald's and Burger King, which had come to town in search of employees for the Christ- mas rush. The program was created and spon- sored by the state Division of Em- ployment Security. "THE PEOPLE of Athol are good, hard-working people," said Dee DiTerlizzi, a division representative. "They want a happy holiday. They want a turkey on the table at Thanksgiving. They want presents un- der the tree at Christmas." Once a thriving factory town that churned out shoes, tables and tools, Athol, a town of 8,700 residents, how has an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. Framingham, once a quiet Boston suburb, has become one of the state's fastest-growing urban areas with 70,000 residents. Its jobless rate is just 2.3 percent. FRAMINGHAM'S retail merchants turned to DiTerlizzi when they realized they could not find the nearly 1,O, workers they will need for November and December. HUSBANDS and wives, mothers and teen-age sons, graying men and housewives gathered around long tables to fill out applications, and then patijntly waited for interviews. "I just need something to keep my head above water," said Herman Foster, a janitor who has been out of work since July. "You can survive on welfare, but you've got nothing. I hav4 five kids. How can I buy them a pair of shoes? "THEY SAY the economy is booming, but where is it? It's not at my house," he said. "I hear Reagan talk about how great the economy is going. But not around here. He ain't done nothing for us." For the Framingham employers, the recruitment campaign was a success. 6. ddr udry v L, you