ARTS The Michigan Daily Wednesday, February 12, 1992 Page 8 01 Film and polka make r r wonderful marriage by iarah Weidman Nimbers flash in time to a catchy polka melody. A group of teenage boys saunter about town as the rest of le world glides by backward. Models appear frightfully inhuman, bedecked in Styrofoam, cardboard and other refuse. Welcome to a world created by Hadnelore Kober and Jonnie Dobele, two experimental filmmakers and prof6ssors at the University. This mardled team will be presenting sev~ej of their more popular shorts thisieriday. Kober is a professor in the Film and Video Program and teaches Video Art II, as well as Computer Aniiaation. Dobele is also a Film- V1d40 professor, teaching a course ot 4) mm filmmaking. Kober and Do We have an eye for the unusual a dtiave succeeded in producing a fasWiating array of short films over tOepast 15 years. "We try to exper- imnt with the medium, with col- or,"with music, with movement, witheverything," says Kober. 'Phe pair prefers to make inde- pendent works, but they have made commercial productions in order to support themselves. These include the witty fire prevention films in- cluded in Friday's program, as well as corporate films. "Commercial work is challenging because a lot of it involves experimenting with a lot of resources." Dobele says. Kober adds, "It's difficult, but once it's done, it's a great moment." All of the team's independent works are short, ranging from 30 seconds to 39 minutes. The couple came to the Univer- sity in 1989, having previously lived in Germany, England and New York. After receiving their Masters of Fine Arts in painting in Germany, they studied with avant garde filmmaker Malcolm LeGoice at the St. Martin's School of Art in Lon- don. They then continued their stud- ies in New York City in a joint film program with the prestigious Par- son's School of Design and the New School for Social Research. Although originally painters, Kober and Dobele have experi- mented with various art forms to see how things work together. Their first collaboration occurred when Dobele was interested in life-sized photography and wanted to enter his photographs in a particular German exhibition. "The theme that year was painting, so we couldn't enter with photography," Dobele recalls. "So I said to her, 'Could you just paint over them?"' He framed his large black and whites on canvas and Kober painted them realistically. Included in Friday's program is one of Kober's and Dobele's more famous pieces, Polkafox. This unique work has won many international awards, including the Keith Clark Memorial Award from the 1984 Ann Arbor 8 mm Film Festival. A procession of numbers pulse to a Hans Arno Simon polka hit as he sings about his girlfriend's over- done makeup. A collection of Public Service Announcements on fire prevention entitled Feuer!! -Eleven Ways to Set Your Home on Fire will also be shown. This commercial undertak- ing was a promotion for a German Insurance Company which ran these shorts before feature movies in the- aters. Although spoken entirely in German, the films' humor surpasses the language barrier, and the visual appeal stands on its own. The same two actors are used for each PSA, and their Laurel and Hardy-esque slapstick comically teaches fire pre- vention information everyone should learn. Dreiviertel Funf (4:45) is a dis- torting view into what the world would look like in reverse. It begins with a group of boys walking down the street, and becomes disturbing when a single person strides by them backward. The cluster then en- ters a German plaza, bustling with bicyclers going backward, roller- skaters gracefully in reverse and or- dinary people facing the wrong way on escalators. The audience accompanies the The dog starring in "Game," a film by University profs Hannelore Kober an star but also a connoisseur of avant-garde cinema. Note the 3-D glasses. boys while listening to eerie syn- thesized music. The combination of the strange outlook and the innova- tive music creates a unique experi- ence that shouldn't be missed. This ear-tickling music is also present in Tip Top Modenschau, a film presenting a fashion show of rubbish. Models are clothed in recy- cled materials including Styrofoam, cardboard and plastic bags. The cos- tumes have no specific plan; they are composed as they are tied on. The soundtrack of the odd tunes is by the Gennan band Pipapo, who produced the song out of their basement. The striking angled shots of the outfits and the models beat with the rhythm of the songs to bewilder and entertain the audience. The longest film to be shown is NYC, a 35-minute triple-screen win- dow into the people of Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1980. The three simultaneous screens capture the es- sence of life in the neighborhood and force the viewers to decide where to focus their attention. Kober and Dobele are an artistic team the University is fortunate to have. Their complementary thoughts are evident - they even finish each other's sentences. The va- riety of techniques employed by the couple make for short films that are humorously entertaining as well as artistically challenging. Friday's program is a must for anyone studying film, or just inter- ested in watching a couple's beauti- ful compilation on Valentine's Day. THE FILMS OF HANNELORE KO- BER AND JONNIE DOBELE will be shown this Friday at 8 p.m. in Angell Hall Auditorium A. Tickets are $3. who what where when Cheery Time, with lots of angst The Shamen ("Move Any Mountain") bring their Anglo- Scottish rave to Detroit on Thurs- day, despite band member Wil Sin's death earlier this year. They have been dubbed a "holographic house band" by critics because of their light-show effects and in-residence reflective clothing designer from London's Space Time company. A picture in Interview's November is- sue shows a lovely out-fit that re- sembles a giant holographic disco sticker. Will the new fashion order be revealed Thursday? The Shamen play at Industry in Pontiac on Thursday, with guest Mobay. Doors open at 8 p.m. for those 21 and over. Call 645-6666 for ticket info. - " I p KaraoaeSin-a-lon every WEDNESDAY Cash prizes NO COVER by Jenie Dahlmann "Like everyone, each character in The Time of Your Life has a dream but they look in the wrong places to fulfill those dreams," says Troy Hollar, assistant director of the University Players production. William Saroyan's "play of our time," as he called it, was written in 1939 out of a challenge by an ac- tor/producer named Eddie Dowling. Dowling told Saroyan he would buy any play Saroyan would write. After holing himself up in a New York City hotel room for six days, Saroyan emerged with The Time of Your Life. Mr. Dowling kept his word, both producing and directing its first production. The play went on to become the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Director Richard Klautsch and Hollar have been working to pro- duce Saroyan's 1939 study of the American dream in such a way that it will effectively speak to audiences today. There will be no transformation of time setting, no avant-garde surrealism injected into Saroyan's realistic script in order to hold the attention of audiences who are used to fast-paced video imagery. Instead, the directors are allow- ing Life's colorful characters to speak for themselves. Klautsch says, "Saroyan peoples his play with a rich and varied cast of characters in order to represent the many facets of (the American) dream. The play is so well crafted that we seem to instinctively know who these peo- ple are, and we sympathize with them as they search to find balance in their lives." A myriad of characters gather to share their hopes for the future and to forget about their unfulfilled ambitions at Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertain- ment Palace. People from all walks of life stream in and out of this Cheers-like environment. There's Kitty, the prostitute with a heart of gold; Mary, a frus- trated housewife; Harry, the dancer/comedian wanna-be; and the mysterious barfly, Joe - just to name a few. Joe's constant presence at the bar links all of these life sto- ries together. It's his subtle philos- The Shamen ANN A RbOR &2a 5TH AVE. AT UBERTY 7619700 $3 00 DAILY SHOWS BEFORE 6 PM DALLDAY TUESDAY STUDENT MI. D. $3.50 The Prince of Tides (R) Naked Lunch (R) ophy lessons that force the charac- ters to question how they are get- ting what they claim they want. Just as Joe asks his bar-mates how they are actively seeking their dreams, Saroyan seems to ask audi- ences "What does society want?" According to Hollar, The Time of Your Life was written at a "time of transition from a society that pur- sued and enjoyed art, poetry and the exchange of ideas into a society fo- cused on making money." The de- scription lends relevance to a simi- lar society, 50 years later. This play's timelessness also lies in it's theme of trying to fit fan- tasies into reality - sometimes they just don't fit. Regardless of that harsh truth, Hollar believes that "the play communicates that the one place you can become com- pletely self-actualized is in your heart." THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE will be presented this Thursday through Saturday at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre at 8 p.m. with a Sunday ma- tine at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 and $9, $6 with student I.D. at the League Ticket office. Call 764-0450 for more information. Hairstyling to Please! 6 Barber Stylists- No waiting DASCOLA STYLISTS *I Upstairs at 516 E. Liberty St. " Ann Arbor " 994-5426 l ' ri '^ p I ... .. ,,, :: ... . Present this coupon when purchasing a large popcorn and receive one FREE LARGE DRINK Expires 2/21/92 I I . N 9 44 I .E VES J ONLY IN THIS SUMMER, YOU CAN... " Choose from over 1,000 courses " Study with a distinguished faculty " Live in New York City for as little as $100 per six-week session: For Reservations, call 1-800-695-5150 or 1-305-294-3773 opposite Jacobson's I(EY WEST! Phi SigmaKappa 668-9329 10.99 CD 7.99 CS Catch The Rave February 13th at Industry Call the party line at 1-800-487-7849 for more details! I RR t1 R l.7 _1873? |New York University I m um If you are looking for a house which is looking to DEFINE Fraternity 0 L. - Make the NYU Summer AJ :) :Fl/