ARTS The Michigan Daily Thursday, April 18, 1985 Page 5 Murder can go wrong, 'Blood Simple' doesn't The Polish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by founder Jerzy Maksymiuk, will perform bowmanship tonight at Rackham Auditorium beginning at 8:30 p.m. Expect a unique and versatile program. Polish ensemble to unleash skill By Richard Campbell IT'S HARD to kill a person. First you have to want to doit. More importantly, yous have to know that youuwant to do it. Then you have to figure out how you're going to kill, and that can be very difficult-you've got to make sure that your victim is stone cold before you count your success. Finally, you've got to create the opportunity to kill; preferably an opportunity that will leave you alive and in relative safety. BLOOD SIMPLE is the kind of movie that understands the difficulty in mur- der. The film also knows how difficult it can be to make a movie. And when you compare the two, you'll probably agree that it's easier to kill somebody than to make a movie. This is why Blood Simple is such an enjoyable and exciting movie to watch. It concerns itself not only with the details of death but with the mechanics of movie-making. Blood Simple not only delights in showing you just how many ways a killing can go wrong, but also how many ways there are to make a movie of that killing go right. Joel Cohen directs his first effort with what seems to be years of experience. His cinematic treatment of a Texas love-and death triangle will hit many as being odd and stagey, but the exuberance in his art is real, the emotions direct, and the technique un- canny. Like Brian DePalma, Cohen loves to fascinate his audience with bizarre camera angles and menacing photography. When the married woman and her lover are fighting upright on the lawn outside his house, the camera starts from across the street sweeping over to them in one long rushing take. When DePalma does something like this, it's usually for no reason than to show he can do it. But Cohen should get more respect than that, for the characters to which he sub- jects his technique are much more profound. Special effects and quirky photography never work in movies on their own merit. They've got to have a strong story filled with people you care about to even have a chance of being in- teresting. Happily, Blood Simple uses it's gimmickry only to keep the story and characters working on the ideas in- side the film. The movie, written by Joel and Ethan Cohen, sounds like a Sam Sheperd play. Characters talk to one another as if they were talking only to themselves; ideas expressed are spoken more to exorcise sin or doubt than to explain motivation. The dialogue in Blood Sim- ple is sparse not just because the film is cinematic, but because it is the actions of the characters and not their commen- tary that defines the film's arena. No one will argue that the film is socially important or epic in nature. Neither does the film attempt to explain any immortal truths beyond the facts of death and killing. And yet, by the end of the plot, each character has discovered something about himself, killing, and living with killing. It's never wise to indulge in sum- maries of the plot for a murder mystery. Suffice it to say, that nobody kills anybody that they intended to kill, but there's still enough violence and blood to satisfy modern tastes. Blood Simple is the kind of film that so many people try to make. It's Hitch- cockian to the core, with some of the cinematic humor of Truffaut, and the visual excitement of Spielberg thrown in for good measure. In a genre and style at which so many fail, it's fun to watch somebody succeed. Making movies is very hard work, but not as hard as killing. The success of Blood Simple is that it knows what to do, knows how to go about it, and does it with unrestrained, hard-hitting, movie- making talent. By Neil Galanter LAND WILL represent The University Musical Society's 1 last concert of the 1984-85 season as Jerzy Maksymiuk leads the Polish Chamber Orchestra at a Rackham Auditorium concert at 8:30 p.m. this evening. Maestro Maksymiuk and these fine musician Poles con- stitute, considered one of the world's greatest chamber ensembles, appear on a regular basis at many of Europe's major music festivals including past performances at the Edinburgh, Vienna and Lucerne Festivals. This season's tour marks their sixth consecutive tour in the United States, with a tour of Japan scheduled in the very near future. Founded in 1972 by Maksymiuk, the ensemble has a respectable history of recording; under Maksymiuk they have recorded on the EMI/Angel label Mozart Diver- timenti, Bach Brandenburg Concerti, Vivaldi Four Seasons, Haydn Symphonies, and music of Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Grieg. Their Mozart recording was honored with Mozart Society of Vienna's Award for Best Mozart Recording of 1978. Now that we have elaborated about the orchestra them- selves, Maestro Maksymiuk deserves equal if not more mention. To his name he can claim Principal conductor- ship of the BBC Scottish Symphony besides leading the Polish Chamber Orchestra. His recent engagements have included such respected ensembles as the English Cham- ber Orchestra, the Birmingham Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, just to name a few. Maksymiuk is one of Europe's busiest conductors. Born in 1936 Maksymiuk is a musician of the most ver- satile qualities. He is a pianist and a composer on top of his role as conductor, having won a first prize from the Paderewski Piano Competition in 1964 and a second prize in the G. Fitelberg Composer's Competition. For this evening, Maksymiuk has chosen a most unique and versatile program. It will include music of his Polish homeland by Witold Lutoslawski; the C Major Cello Con- certo of Joseph Haydn; a romantic intermezzo by Max Reger and perhaps what may be the climax of the evening, Russian composer Shostakovich's Opus 110 which is a unique piece in its own right. Written originally as a string quartet, it developed in to an orchestral vehicle. There are references to many other works of Shostakovich in the Opus 110 such as snipets from the Fir- st, Fifth and Tenth Symphonies, a cello concerto, a piano trio, and some opera material. The Toronto Star said of the Polish Chamber Orchestra: "One of the world's finest chamber orchestras parks its fiddles in Warsaw." You too can park, but in a seat at Rackham Auditorium for between $5 and $10. Tickets are still available all day today at the University Musical Society in Burton Tower until 4 p.m.; they will also be available at the door before the performance. For more information call 665-3717. N '} ri r i? r : : ;tip :r :} h;: +7 . r :: ;, : a a :" n . .x.:: ....rah..+i .: r}_.4 ., ...,._ ...: $ :".. .....:} 4s ti ht$::i. ti t 3va=X k { 2 if~i f..;?.it. :u1 r ir. 0a ....1-9700 .: e COUPO~N -Y, - t j. 1U wOO OFF - l --------------X I with this entire ad $1.00 off any $4.00 admission. 1 or 2 tickets. Good all features thru 4/24/85. -1 Zx '!a ii. .:r."......rr,:. ":: r""^"." R.". ": ":::... ;au::...vfi'.rv'".,}%r:%r.3::":" %":,.::r ":e"... ,.;:;.:: :; " s,:".a:.^"."2": ."<:+";rix : ";2: + .% % :c%:; ;i:;:::b r .. ..?i.:.tr+ ...N " ",.t..:.v:"14:"v :.Y.:;.fiZ ;.r:.. a . F..,: :: 1::" . ........ :'t:"x:.; :. ";;t:..s;r.. :.; ...tit[{ x;r. r""tr."?trt . " :: wt : ".'">5; '<:: t ",:;a::":$..:,>:r..rk;;:::% : " 'x;"r " a:"::"rt. :""; 4 _ _ _ _ :3etA : ; ' I LAST TE SENIORS BASED ON A TRUE STORY t 7 K!U EVENING MASK I OLLNS L C HLR r iSAM ELIOTT ® and ERIC STOLTZ > DAILY 4:30, 7:00, 9:05 $3.00 DAILY 5:00, 7:20, 9:40 r WF :":'; yi;""t$ { :ti ": "t '"::.: " ,. "sv""S;::..:"s "s"s"": ,j '..r;l .,, 4: sj.,. ~",; . .s:r", ~ r " .. 3-,''+.2$ rr ,. ,f;.?r E; NE.k";:;:, r i.y r, % $ "7'+ I I.1 Records Come enjoy the mat nem tias ¢emntown4, Katrina and Katrina the Waves- and the Waves (Capitol/EMI) First of all, let's make it very clear that "Red Wine and Whiskey" is a dream of a song, the kind that makes you wonder (if you're jadedly ignorant like me and honestly don't know what's going on on those FM-rock air- waves( because here's a song that's got to be there. Colossal slowed-down wine-cooler beat, drawley woman (not girl, for on- ce) vocal, guitar mmm-mmm- goodness, lyrics about being somewhere over the hill (you know, twenty-four or so) and dirt poor 'cause we had alot of money/but we blew it down the line and no apologies for it. Jack Kerouac fun-on-the-run stuff for the young 'n' dumb, big chords and big mood of summer-breeze restlessness. A song to blast out the car stereo as you cruise, a little drunk, in somebody else's car to the state park rendezvous where you'll get a lot drunk. Hope I die before I get old, etc. A goodAmericana feel-good, uh-uh-oooh kinda AOR song, built to last. The rest of Katrina and the Waves' debut LP is a bit of a letdown, but it grows on you. It has a bit of the same trash/groovin'/bemused feel the Pretenders' first did, with a bit less distinctiveness all around and a bit more kidding self-consciousness about its teen themes. Where Chrissie Hynde was freely pouring a short lifetime of sandpaper-smooth living into the medium-to-hard rock mediums she grew up loving, the Waves' Kimberly . Rew is shrewdly distilling the tough- girl mythos from Shangri-Las toJoplin to Runaways. The result sounds more calculated than cathartic, and vocalist Katrina Leskanich's style is just a shade to the preferable left of Pat Benatar-ish generic rockgirl bluesy- pouting. But there's still a lot of skill at work here. Rew used to be the mastermind of one of the best and least sung of late 70's/early 80's bands, the Soft Boys, and what the Soft Boys hinted at with their agreeably rowdy revivals of early "earthy" and "brash" (to quote the press fodder) in a way carefully balan- ced to both appease those (mostly critics and other commercially irrelevant snots) concerned with fin- ding the all-important 'roots,' and to rev up kids who just want a girl singing a sexy song with big drums and mime- inspiring guitar. It works and it doesn't work. When it doesn't, it's because you're left too well aware of what sour- ces Rew is milking; it's like rock- animation day at Madame Tassaud's. Crisply produced (as is everything here), "Machine Gun Smith" still sounds like any song you can remember with a similar title ever did; "Cry for me" is such a blatant invitation to Katrina's Joplinesque screamouts that you'd swear it's some half-forgotten oldie; and "Mexico's" verse blithely rips off "La Bomba," or whatever that hoary old standard was called. On the other hand, "Game of Love" has a delightfully plain rockabilly ap- peal, "The Sun Won't Shine" sounds like the Pretenders at their most plain- tive (though they would have done it better), and "Que to Quiero" recycles yet more south-of-the-border cliches with such bounce that you can't possibly cry deja vu. The British single "Walking on Sunshine" is a cheerful hunk of Lovin' Spoonful-ish happy-idiot pop, though it probably doesn't need the horn section. "Going Down to Liver- pool" is a great song, or at least it is as performed by the splendiferous Bangles on last year's All Over the Place LP. Here, Rew's own song retains its overall appeal but the more conventionally AOR arrangement and vocal are less intoxicating. Katrina and the Waves is an ex- ceedingly clever, almost convincing piece of tomfoolery-its mimickry is sb exact that you might almost think you were listening to the various Real Things from time to time. You can't really begrudge a band that's gotten down the formulas to a science and very nearly succeeds in faking spon- taneity on top .of it all. If that sounds snide, well, I don't mean it to. Not exac- tly. All this immaculately conceived record needs is (go ahead, groan) a lit- tle original sin. --Dennis Harvey JJ. Muggs Restaurant is the great new taste in town! 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