ARTS Tuesday, March 20, 1990 The Michigan Daily Feminist vision of the future falters A Handmaid's Tale dir. Volker Schiondorff by Jen Bilik Whenever a particularly good book is made into a movie, viewer beware - the movie won't do it justice. Whether the movie disappoints because of characters who don't live up to the images culled from the reading experience or the transition is just plain awkward, it's always difficult to watch. For the person who's read The Handmaid's Tale, the experience of the movie will be very different from one who hasn't. At the same time, the movie doesn't prove itself on its own terms. Regretfully, I doubt that someone will run out and by the book after seeing the film. Written by Margaret Atwood, a Canadian feminist author, The Handmaid's Tale depicts a horrific vision of an American future in which Christian religious fundamentalism has inverted the American ideal of "freedom from" into "freedom to." Citing rape, abortion and sexual deviation as the root cause of all evil, the fundamentalists have instituted a fascist state where women are incubators for a future population that will know no crime. Although this functions at the expense of free choice, the ruling power justifies its crimes by liberating women from the possibilities of sexual assault. Atwood writes in the dystopian tradition of such authors as George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Although playwright Harold Pinter transformed the bok into a screenplay, the script is perhaps the worst feature of this generally weak film. The dialogue is sparse, and the storyline cannot seem to make up its mind concerning the direction in which it will go. As in many movies adapted from books, the screenplay shirks from making definitive decisions to omit certain elements under the restrictions of a two-hour time span. As a result, the different plot-lines are confusing and jumbled, and the movie as a whole is difficult to understand. In the New England city of Gilead, where the film takes place, the society divides along strict class lines according to status and reproductive ability. A handmaid is a fertile woman, dressed in red to identify her role. She functions as a womb on legs for the upper-class, who wear blue. In the process of phasing out written language in order to eliminate the possibility for dissent, the state implements a system of pictures for things such as grocery stores and stop signs. The film is visually appealing in its crowd scenes because of the color schemes, and the set design holds interest because of its expressionistic treatment of a fascist state. Halfway into the movie the bad acting overshadows the visuals. Natasha Richardson (The Patty Hearst Story) plays Offred, a handmaid who remembers the time before fascism. At first, her pouty glances seem to offer some hope of depth and, if we're lucky, angst, but the lack of dialogue forces her to pout up until the very last scene. The book's narrative relies primarily on Offred's internal thoughts, but the facial expressions assumably meant to convey her thoughts in the movie might be chalked up to gas. Robert Duvall and Faye Dunaway play the Commander and his wife, the couple trying to conceive through Offred. Aidan Quinn, as Offred's superfluous love interest, Nick, does his best with a shallow character. None of the characters is developed to the extent that we can feel sympathy with their condition, and the terror of their world is offset by its glib treatment. What might have been a film classic digs its own grave by neglecting narrative cohesion, dialogue and acting. It's hardly the actors' fault, however, in what appears to be a disastrous job of directing by Volker Schlondorff. Even if the film won't inspire anybody to read the book, I certainly hope that its bad reviews will. At $4.95, the original article is a bargain compared to the $5.50 you could pay to see a film that is extraordinarily shabby - especially considering the story with which it had at its disposal. A HANDMAID'S TALE is playing at Showcase. Page 7 No Film Fe(a)st opens doors by Mike Kuniavsky THE Ann Arbor Film Festival has probably been one of the two most famous cultural events to have A2's moniker attached to it, with the other being the Art Fair. But unlike the latter, there really is art at the Festival. For 28 years, this, the old- est 16 millimeter film festival on Earth, has been regularly bringing the best and the freshest independent film to Ann Arbor's front door (and we don't even have to tip the driver when we get it). The Festival is a gathering at which independent filmmakers from all over the world show their films and see what other independent film- makers are doing. And fortunately, this conference of sorts is not only open to everyone, but depends on the public's attendance to fulfill what it probably considers as its destiny: the advancement of film, art and human- ity in general. Be forewarned, though, that the work at the Festival is generally pretty different. Whether challenging politics, sexual mores, senses or patience, the stuff usually seen at the Film Festival is always out of the ordinary. As a forum open to all filmmak- ers, the Festival allows a wide vari- ety - a smorgasbord, if you will - of independently produced films to be shown to a wide audience. In one showing there may be animation, documentary, narrative, and experi- mental films, not to mention big, fluffy, fat and blue ones (though generally there are no films about ot- ters or last-minute rescues by intel- ligent dogs). Of course some of these films might be boring and some might be bad, but even these are occasionally necessary so we can be reminded of what good really is. There are even judges who hand out awards - Best Local Filmmaker, Best of Festival, the Lawrence Kas- dan Award for Narrative Film, among several others. This year's Festival looks really good. With more films submitted The Measurements of Oxford is just one of many, many, many works to be presented at the 28th Ann Arbor Film Festival. In fact, the Festival gets so many submissions that a lot of them don't get shown to the public. than in the past couple of years, a more organized administration, pretty cool judges and really cool T-shirts, the Festival promises to be a lot of fun. The judges this year are Karen Aqua, a politically progressive Boston animator whose films in- clude Kakania, which won First Place at last year's New York Film & Video Expo; Barbara Hammer, called by the Festival's organizers 'this country's leading feminist ex- perimental filmmaker" and whose film Optic Nerve won the Best of Festival award here three years ago; and Richard Kerr, a Canadian film- maker who critically examines the United States and its effect on Canada. As a bonus, all of the judges will be having free screenings of their films during the week. Finally, A Word from the Expe- rienced: unless you are an adventur- ous soul, avoid showings with films that are longer than 30 minutes, that are Untitled or that have names such as 4000 ways to not point a camera are left as a surprise for the viewer. Also, don't just go to Winners night, because what the judges think is best is often quite distant from what "normal" (or abnormal) people A Word from the Experienced: unless you are an adventurous soul, avoid showings with films that are longer than 30 minutes, that are Untitled or that have names such as 4000 ways to not point a camera at anything interesting; do go to showings with lots of short films, animation and films with interesting titles. at anything interesting; do go to showings with lots of short films, animation and films with interesting titles. Of course, there are always exceptions to these rules, but these like. Seriously, in many ways the Ann Arbor Film Festival (and all others like it) is a window into both the fu- See FILM, page 8 Adams talks jazz from the sidelines by Forrest Green III BEING a music critic, I understand how easy it can be for an outsider to reach many of the same levels of knowledge, enthusiasm and passion as the people who actually do the work. And some- times it can be that window that makes all the difference. We don't play the sport, but we can yell at the guys who do all the work until the sun goes down. You love us and you know it. After all, why dance to the music when you can sit back and listen? And why would you actually listen to the music when you can hear one of those selfsame critics discuss it? Judy Adams, a disc jockey for Detroit's ut- terly superlative radio station WDET, loves the sport. Her experience (that is, learned - not per- formed) with the jazz guitar includes the produc- tion of the nationally-syndicated radio show The Evolution of Jazz, the position of program direc- tor at DET and her 17 years on the air. Eclipse Jazz will kick off its Jazz Guitar Lec- ture Series tonight with a lecture from Adams herself, who will focus on the developments in jazz guitar since 1965 up to today. "Obviously, anybody who was around in the '60s saw how the guitar became one of the major instruments of the decade," she explains. "Even if they were going into jazz doesn't mean that they didn't hear guitar changing." Almost inexorably, our dia- logue leads into the obscure genre that so many of us refer to as "fusion." Musicians such as Joseph Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and the guitarists Scofield and McLaughlin as well as the big daddy himself, Miles, did a lot to change the face of the form, which disturbed a lot of people. Adams attributes this to the "collective un- conscious," where "you have a guy in New York City who's fusing something, and thinks he's the only one, and then another in L.A. that's do- ing the same thing." Inevitably, she explains, this leads to the evolution of the form. Given that we could not avoid "fusion" with the subject matter being jazz guitar, Adams ulti- mately resolves the conflict, explaining, "if you had to categorize it... why can't you accept it in the jazz framework as jazz? Just because it's elec- trified, and drawing on the present day influ- ence... that's what jazz is all about." Purists beware. Adams welcomes similar ar- guments at tonight's lecture, and she knows her field. Also included in Eclipse's lecture series will See ECLIPSE, page 8 CLASSIFIED ADS- SUBLET SUBLET ME NOW - MAY - AUG. Great room in a great house. $200/mo./neg. Free ldry., pkg., fum. Krissy 665-2411. SUBLET: 1 BLOCK from Cam pus.1 room in house. All utils. incl. $147, 747-9731 SUBLET: Very clean 2 person bsmt. apt. Fum, driveway, laundry. May-Aug, $350 + utils. 747-7956 or 487-0931/message. SUMMER IN CHICAGO - Lincoln Park, spacious, sunny 2-bdrm/2 bath sublet. Great view, sundeck, 24-hr doorman, parking. Act quickly. Call 312-472-1441, leave message. 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