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Page 10-The Michigan Daily -Monday, September 25, 1989

Almodovar
deserves
praise,
On Saturday night at Angell Hall
life became almost as absurd as the
movie we were about to see. We
were all there for the Ann Arbor
premiere(!) of Pedro Almodovar's
What Have I Done To Deserve
Tis?(1984), a screening arranged by
the Ann Arbor Film Co-op. As the
titles and opening credits passed be-
fore us it soon became apparent that
we'd lost the soundtrack. One of the
Co-op members rushed frantically
around the auditorium trying to fig-
ure out the reason for the technical
hitch. "We had the sound before,"
she told the audience as she fiddled
about behind the screen. "I don't
know where it's gone," she added,
pleading for our patience and hasten-
ing to the projection room. There
were spirals of laughter as the spec-
tators saw a comically sexy (and
mute) scene before them. Eventually
the gremlin was removed, the film
rewound, and we started all over
again. There wasn't much time to
dwell on the Bunuelesque interlude.
The movie was worth the wait,
for What Have I Done To Deserve
This is even better than the recent
hit Women On The Verge Of A
Nervous Breakdown. Set in Madrid
it stars the wonderful Carmen Maura
as Gloria, an overworked and frus-
trated cleaning woman living with
her strange family in a working class
neighborhood. Her husband Antonio
works all hours of the day and night
as a taxi driver, paying scant atten-
tion to the needs of his family, and
dreaming about Berlin where he
chauffeured for an operatic diva. His
diabetic mother, who has the thick-
est eyeglasses seen on celluloid,
yearns for the village she came from
while she gobbles the cupcakes she's
stashed away for personal consump-
tion. She also finds a green lizard on
the street, adopts it and christens it
Money. Money becomes the only
witness to a homicide, but gets
squashed before he can reveal the
traih. Gloria's teenage son is a dope
dealer, supplying her best friend and
*ikhbre-with-heart-of-gold Cristal.
1l0ria's younger son lives with
older men if creature comforts are
provided for.
As in all of his movies,
Almodovar's characters are painted
with broad strokes, bumping into
each other and falling into farcical si-
tuations together. The direction is
very playful with kooky camera an-
gles galore and queer ways of seeing
the mundane. Finally, what makes
What Have I Done a better Women's
Picture than Women On The Verge
is its greater poignancy and social
bite. These characters aren't as afflu-
ent, and the look of the film is much
grittier and dirtier. Just imagine
Bunuel making The Indiscreet
Charm of The Proletariat. .
Nabeel Zuberi
Strong
opening for
AASO.
More than just the pipe organ re-
verberated last Saturday night in the
vintage Michigan Theater -a venue
which constantly challenges Ann

Arbor audiences with the unusual,
the provocative, and the classic. The
Aan Arbor Symphony Orchestra, in
their season-opening concert, fash-

ioned their own breed of drama with
thrusting bows, shimmering metals
and a man who paints in the air -
charming, vibrant Carl St. Clair.
Drama was the first and last word
in Saturday's concert. Members of
the brass and percussion sections
first welcomed the new season with
Copland's famous Fanfare for the
Common Man. Although the gong
was flat-sounding (probably due to
the instrument itself, not the per-
former) the well-balanced sonorities
of the brass and the sonic blasts of
the bass drum heralded the beginning
of this 61st season.
The drama set up by AASO brass
and percussion was somewhat re-
laxed when 21-year-old David Perry,
a well-seasoned violinist and begin-
ning masters student at the Juilliard
School of Music, performed a
somewhat dry but delicate and pre-
cise rendition of Max Bruch's
Concerto for Violin. Although there
were a few gleaming moments, his
style was a little too cool for this
romantic concerto. It was St. Clair
who seized the essence of the piece
with his gestures and his facial ex-
pression, which we caught in profile
when he occasionally turned to
Perry. It was Perry's solo, but it was
St. Clair's concerto.
For the finale, the full orchestra
(now free from the restraints of con-
certo accompanying) burst forth with
Shostakovich's Symphony No. S.
Some new personnel, including var-
ious University School of Music
students, and a full-bodied string sec-
tion helped to achieve a convincing
performance. St. Clair captured the
dramatic nature of the piece and held
onto the intensity from the first to
the last measure. The low brass
overpowered at times, but the spirit
was right and'this very taxing sym-
phony was as alive as if
Shostakovich himself were conduct-
ing - and in a sense he really was.
A success for the AASO.
-Sherrill L. Bennett
Well-respected
Kinks
1989. In this year of reunion
tours, music lovers of all genera-
tions have flocked to see the megas-
tars of the '60s and early '70s live
on tour. Everybody who was any-
body is back in the spotlight again.
We've seen the Stones, the Who, the
Beach Boys, and even Paul
McCartney declare that rock music
exists for those over 40. But did you
ever expect to hear from Ray Davies
again?
Yes, it's true. The Kinks are once
again back on the music scene,
although this time around they're
taking a passive route. Their concert
last Friday at Pine Knob was so
poorly advertised that ticket prices
were cut by fifty percent and the
pavilion still didn't sell out - the
box office actually gave refunds to
those who had purchased tickets at
full price. Rather disappointing for a
band which has had a strong follow-
ing for the past two decades. Still,
the crowd that did show up, tiny as
it was, was chock full of devoted
fans.
Unfortunately, the faithful were
let down by the opening act, John
Eddie. This unknown singer will be
better off left unknown. His style is
a sort of mix between George
Michael, Bryan Adams, and Prince:

very trendy and ridiculously simple.
Eddie's main problem is his own
cockiness. While self-confidence is
essential to any performer, Eddie's
obvious love for himself was obnox-

ious and unjustifed. He mockingly
called himself "trash" and com-
plained to the audience that they
didn't treat him as though he were
"big and famous." He mostly per-
formed covers, but did attempt some
originals. These were so poorly
composed that Eddie himself had to
stop the song in mid-verse to ex-
plain what had just occurred in the
lyrics.
Things livened up a lot when the
Kinks themselves finally took the
stage. There was no need for intro-
ductions as they started out with
"Living on a Thin Line" and "Low
Budget." The crowd was immediately
responsive. One especially excited
girl started the trend for the night by
throwing Davies her bra. He joked
about a "brassiere telethon" which
resulted his collecting quite a wide
range of underwear by the end of the
night.
The purpose of this tour became
apparent within the first four songs
of the show. The band is coming out
with a new album in October, and
naturally they want to remind the
general public of their existence.
They performed a few selections
from their new LP to give the audi-
ence a taste of what's coming up.
Judging from what was played at the
concert, the album, titled UK Jive,
will not be typical of their style.
The title track is surprisingly peppy,
with a strong beat. The lyrics are not
up to par with the philosophical
songs previously written by Davies,
but are catchy and bouncy.
In addition to their soon-to-be re-
leased selections, the band performed
most of their greatest hits. The high-
lights of the night were "Come
Dancing" and, of course, "Lola."
Halfway into the show, when the
band started the opening chords to
that song, the crowd went wild. In
response, Davies silenced the band
and announced they weren't going to
play it. Despite the booing of the
audience,. the band went on to per-
form one of their new songs. The
crowd wouldn't let them forget it.
Needless to say, they played their
all-time greatest hit before they left.
The Kinks still have what it takes
to please an audience. Despite Ray
Davies? taking time out for at least
ten costume changes, the fans were
never bored. The crowd even over-
looked the omissions of "Destroyer"
and "Father Christmas." Although
the show was not incredible, it was
definitely fun and well worth the
price of the tickets, even without the
refund.
-Jennifer R. Ballew
comic
evolution
From cave drawings to illumi-
nated manuscripts to pictures of
Stalin on the walls of the Moscow
subway, we have always told stories
visually. In this century the Sunday
Funnies turned into comic books
which turned into graphic novels.
Tracing this last path is what
Canadian Ron Mann does in Comic
Book Confidential. Through inter-
views with both contemporary
artists and some of the founders of
the modern comic book industry,
Mann examines the history, evolu-
tion and impact of the comic indus-
try on American society. Though a
general history, the film does con-
centrate on two specific elements of

the comic industry: the censorship
(and virtual demise) of horror comic
in the fifties and the emergence of
See REVIEWS, page 12

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