The Michigan Daily- Friday, October 25, 1991 - Page 9
Italians do it better in Avati's Boys, Girls

The Story
and Girls
dir. Pupi Avati
by Austin Ratne
When I first saw1
Story of Boys and C
of your typical;
movie poster tag-li
girl, their passiona
One, two, three, kis
virginity and the stor
- But not in Pupi
This film is about 1
two families in fas
more - it is a richly
logue on the idiosyn
biguities of the-feelij
family life, and oni
sion in the marital bo
Angelo's (David
posal to Silvia (L
Della Rovere), who
lower class than he,]
ing of their very dif
at Silvia's old hou
pleasing Italian co
dinner they share ma
tral action of the filr
By frequently
scene to scene, and th
introduction of vario

of Boys .flicts among characters, the film
creates a realistic emotional clutter.
The large cast's subtle performance
successfully.immerses the audience
in a complicated family structure.
or With all these characters and con-.
flicts, it's often hard to keep track
the title of The of who is who and what exactly is
Girls, I thought going on all the time; yet it is just
self-important this evasion of focus which allows
ne: "A boy, a the subtlety and ambiguity of the
te discovery." family's relations to grab hold of
s, kiss, loss of our interest.
y's over. Sexual tension floods most of
Avati's version. the conversations and interactions.
boys and girls, The younger characters often tell
cist Italy, and their dreams of being married, while
y evocative dia- the actual married couples struggle
crasies and am- to maintain their equilibrium, over-
ngs which color come by feverish and sometimes
the sexual ten- adulterous desires. Meanwhile, the
and. fianc6s anticipate their union with
e Bechini) pro- excitement and anxiety.
ucrezia Lante At dinner, the tension culmi-
) belongs to a . nate$ in a scene which embarrasses
leads to a meet- Silvia in front of her well-mannered
fferent families and wealthier in-laws. Sex has been
se in the eye-. a frequent conflict in both house-
untryside. The holds - "Mother says we should
kes up the cen- do it everyday," one of Angelo's
7. sisters informs her husband while
shifting from he tries to sleep.. At dinner, though,
rough the rapid the sexual impulses of the poorer
us private con- family cross the boundaries of deco-

rum. Silvia's father rips an old
woman's blouse open and is openly
attracted to Angelo's widowed
mother.
Portrayed throughout the film,
the extreme sexual appetites of the
poorer family become highlighted
at the meal. The family reflects in-
terestingly on tensions between
sexuality and social rules. The ap-

family accepts it - with displea-
sure - but still they accept it.
The other aspects of the lives of
the familymembers break up the
overwhelmingly sexual tone, but
they do not make the characters any
easier to relate to, chiefly because
these other things are, well, kind of
weird. After getting a compliment
on her hair from one of the male
guests, a family member announces,
"I once dreamed a bat peed on my
head and then all my hair was gone."
Especially when viewed in a subti-
tle, this comment seems particu-
larly bizarre - as if someone had
sabotaged the translation.
There are several other enigmatic
moments that further confuse us,
such as a mysterious elephant sculp-
ture that inexplicably appears three
times in the film. Most of Story's
flaws, however, are easily accom-
modated by the overall movement
of the movie. These inconsistencies
become virtues, since much of the
film's strength lies in its way of
capturing the confused and con-
flicted in an absorbing group of very
human scenes.
THE STORY OF BOYS AND GIRLS
plays tonight through October 31 at
the Michigan Theater.

Avati

Whom does the Toll bellow-for? Ask the guys in the band: t1-r) Rick Silk,
Greg Bartram, Brett Mayo and Brad Circone.
Pay the Toll...

petites are so excessive, however,
that most .of the family members
become a little alienating as charac-
ters. Silvia's father rapes a maid and
openly pursues a mistress, and his



by Richard Davis*
"Tolls? I wish I could afford to
pay 'em. Not on the Pennsylvania
Turnpike you can't!"
l -Brad Circone,
 leadsinger -of the Toll

The members of the Tol
their name from the many
which they had to pay during

took-
tolls.
their

more than anything else, it pisses me
off. If they would have spent the
money on an AIDS shelter or a
homeless shelter or somethin', I
think it would have been a lot.bet-
ter. Christopher Columbus really
didn't discover shit. He was actu-
ally lookin' for something else, if I
know my history right. The
American Indians pretty much set-
tied this country."
Geographic location aside, the
Toll's music with a message was
enough to earn the band a record deal
with Geffen ("We got Guns n'
Roses, so there!") Records.
"Geffen has been real supportive
with our band. At the same time,
it's sometimes hard not to get lost
in the shuffle, because Geffen is such
a big label and does have a lot of
See TOLL, Page 10

Alumni
by Alexandra Beller
Football games aren't the
reason you'll be seeing some
iar faces around.campus. The u
ing Guest Artist Serie
Celebration of Alumni Dance
brought 15 of the Dance d
ment's illustrious alumni ba
their alma. mater for a de
packed and richly diverse tw
concert.
Having received-national a
ternational acclaim in their
trifold careers as performers,c
ographers and teachers, this ta
group of mostly women ha
turned for the weekend to pa
.ute to their education. The
give a younger generation of d
a glimpse toward their owni
nent careers, while providin
rest of the University with a
but fascinating, tour of the pa

celebrate movement, m
The dancers have worked in This geographical scope gives us
places throughout the country, de- a broad look at the contemporary
only veloping their own unique, and of- dance world and the current dance
famil- ten daring, styles. Jessica Fogel, a trends in America. For instance,
pcom- present faculty member who is re- Carolyn Dorfman, here with her
s: A sponsible for the concert's fruition, company, will perform her new
rs.has said, "The artists are coming from work, Video/ Vantage, which incor-
Lepart- all over the country... North porates the use of video technology.
ack to Carolina, New Hampshire, Georgia, Local dancer Whitley Setrakian,
ensely Kentucky and Rhode Island, among artistic director of People Dancing,
vo-day other places." often uses text, song and comedy.

omentum
She will be premiering an excerpt
from her new work, Lobster at
Granny's.
Also notable are the different
explorations of emotional depth.
Beth Corning presents her duet,
Special Delivery, an ironic look at
unrequited love, back to back with
Elizabeth Bergmann's intense solo,
Portrait of Frida Kahlo. Likewise,
See ALUMS, Page10

extensive touring.
. "When we first started," says
Circone, "it seemed like every time
we set off for a gig, we had to drive
through a toll booth. We kept hav-
ing to stop and panhandle to collect
enough quarters just to get to where
'we had to pay."
Once the band finally arrived at
the gigs, it pleased the crowds with
only one type of music - Rock. The
music on the Toll's two albums is
reminiscent of an Alarm/Replace-
ments love-child, but the band
credits many different sources.
"In the early days a lot of our in-
fluences were drawn from punk mu-
91 the Clash, U2, the Sex
Pstols, bands like that. But for this
latest record it was more along the
lines of seventies rock, with some
rhythm and blues, that being
AC/DC a lot, Aerosmith, the
Stones, and right now we're kind of
even dabbling into blues a bit. Yeah,
because we. went to Memphis, and
we were very much turned on by
that scene," says the singer.
Even with all of these influ-
ences, Circone .admits that the
band's hometown of Columbus,
Ohio provides the greatest influ-
ence,.
"This is a good place for us to
be," Circone says. "It's the heart-
land. It's where we were raised. It's
where our inspiration comes from. I
mean, the most common folk of
*common folk live here, and that's
pretty much what inspires me to
write. It's the little things for me,
not the stuff you read in the paper.
It's the things that Charles Kuralt
writes about, that kind of stuff."
But the singer admits that even
the people who inspire him weren't
very wise when it came to his home-,
town's recent Columbus Day cele-
bration.
"Well,. I think it's ridiculous
that we spent a lot of money on a
fuckin' boat (a replica of Columbus'
ship) when there's homeless all
over the city," Circone says. "And

end in-
often
chore-
Lented
ve re-
y trib-
y will
ancers
immi-
ng the
brief,
St


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