A 'TS Welles film festival *ends with 'Third Man' By SCOTT PLAGENHOEF Film Noir is a concept in filmmaking that seemed to have died along with the extinction of black-and-white. The rich texture of the depth of focus and the degrees of shadow have been exchanged in our day for pyrotechnics and renegade cops. Too psychological and too dark, they have been mistakenly relegated to the archives, of Ted Turner or another media horde. "The Third Man" is an archetypal film noir thriller and the conclusion to 'Abe Michigan Theater's six-week Orson Welles festival. Though adapted from Graham Greene novel, director Carol Reed's film still oozes of the influence The Third Man of Welles. The creation of characters who are intrinsically good and evil, Directed by Carol Reed; written struggling to balance between the im- by Graham Greene; with Joseph pulses of their two sides portrayed Cotten and Orson Welles against the black-and-white canvas of light and shadow is not unlike other Welles projects. * .The film also climaxes, like many Welles works, in an elaborate visual sequence, which in this instance takes place in an underground sewer. The film is marred by association with modem-day suspense films which have paid a tribute to "The Third Man" by lifting some of its plot devices. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), an American author of western novels travels to post- war Vienna to accept employment with a friend only to discover that the friend has been killed in an accident. Or murdered? Or neither? The basic plot, along with the subsequent sub-plots involving Holly and his friend's lover Anna (Valli) and the investigating officer, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) involve a mix of blackmail, sexual repression, dishonest ,olice work and a struggle between morality and friendship which has been played so poorly in numerous more recent films that the audience's first impulse is to associate "The Third Man" with the formulaic crap which emulates it. However, if the temptation can be diverted, then the film will be enjoyed. The setting of the "The Third Man," in a post-war Vienna divided into four spheres of influence, allows the filmmakers to exploit the paranoia of Europe following the Second World War and explore the nationalism of the European citizens. It is no accident that the two central characters, Holly Martins and Harry ime, portrayed with a delicate combination of swarm, confidence and , onchalance by Welles, are the lone Americans amongst the primary charac- ters. The pulling apart of Vienna and Europe into different directions is an appropriate metaphor for the stretching of Holly's loyalties and the examina- tion of his priorities. Welles does not deliver the only strong performance of the film. Cotten and Howard, each portraying men struggling to balance morality and personal bias, convey a range of emotion without having to be passionate. The subtlety of their performances contrasts the obnoxious over-acting of Valli. "The Third Man" may turn off some audiences by shifting into a lower gear and emphasizing the moral and the psychological dilemmas of the film during the middle. However, the introduction of Welles' character, which does not occur until about two-thirds into the picture, alters the direction of the film altogether and rewards the patient viewer. THE THIRD MAN is playing Tuesday and Wednesday at the Michigan Theater. Through the actual instruments and dress of some villagers in Guinea, "Les Ballets Africains" provided viewers with a realistic glimpse of daily life there. 'Ballets Africains11' authentically geuine By MARIA SARNACKI If the word ballet summons images of women in tutus resembling dying swans, "Les Ballet Africains" offers a change of pace. The produc- tion "Silo: The path of Life" blends traditional Les Ballet Africains of the Republic of Guinea Power Center October 16, 1993 African dance, music and story-telling. Through authentic instruments and dress, the audience catches a glimpse into the lives of the villagers who live in the four natural regions of Guinea. In a tiny fishing village, a heedless youth challenges the power of the Giant, protector of moral values. His misjudgement is obvious as energy surges through his limbs causing his entire body to convulse uncontrollably. "The Bull's Dance," begins as a villager strolls among the straw huts playing his flute. His fellow villagers join him until the stage overflows with pulsating drumsand chanting dancers. The dancers remain still as the balls of their feet begin to move to the beat. Next, the energy crawls up their legs and travels until their entire body is overwhelmed by the frenzied music. The women contrast their motion by curling into a crouched position and throwing their heads back as they arch their spines. Life's harsh reality resurfaces as the scene returns to mother of the youth. She pleads with the gods as she stumbles under the stress of his limp body. Mercifully, the giant removes the trance. Overcome with joy, the villagers gather to express their gratefulness. As the women spin with out- stretched arms, their skirts ruffle outwards form- ing concentric circles around their bodies. Every- thing like the jingling ankle bracelets serve as instruments which add to the spectacle. A mysterious rite of passage into adulthood occurs in "The Sacred Forest." The spirits wear elaborate headpieces and face paint as green smoke seeps out of the secret entryway that the initiates must enter. In the finale, the dancers spill into the aisles as the audience begins to clap in unison with the reverberating beat. The dancer's beads twirl as their arms create invisible circles with their rapid motion. The performers whirl in a circular forma- tion, creating a cyclone of bright colors. "Silo: The Path of Life" juxtaposed the seri- ousness of life's traumas against its whimsical side. The elaborate props and various instruments only add to the authenticity of the production. *Thomas Chapin balances jazz and jounce By CHRIS WYROD Over the last 25 years, the confluence ofjazz and non-traditional "experimental" music has posed an especially difficult problem for audi- ences and critics. While many musi- cians revel in the new possibilities and freedoms, listeners grapple for n understanding of the squonks and dissonant overtones which have per- meated jazz during the past decades. Critics often misdirect their en- ergy into evaluating what qualifies as an acceptable extension of the jazz tradition, althoughjazz's protean his- tory is an intricate and circuitous ar- chitecture of derivations and innova- tions. .0 Paradoxically, this expansion of jazz has caused a rift in previously amicable musical dialogue,. Some ad- venturous musicians are put off by the tired staticity of jazz phrasing. In the other camp, many adept musicians, like David Murray, have shied away from creative sonic experimentations, opting for more widely accepted "tra- ditional" jazz voicings. It takes an adept musician to walk this tightrope, and Thomas Chapin balances jazz roots and contemporary abstraction with agility. Leading on alto sax, Chapin's trio compositions bring free jazz closer to its roots of inspiration: R&B honking, strutting, low-down dirty squonking. The melodic riffs and blues-driven grooves ground the songs for dilation into free tirades, which can smoothly lead back to the basic melody's terra firma. Some adventurous musicians are put off by the tired staticity of jazz phrasing. Chapin openly admits his jazz in- spirations, stemming primarily from his 1980's direction of Lionel Hampton's Big Band. But, his rever- ence of multi-instrumentalist, divinely crazed Rahsaan Roland Kirk has most profoundly shaped his approach to music (hence his facial-hair homage to Kirk). Like Kirk, Chapin creates unique pieces with slightly off-kilter instru- mentation, blowing some fresh, crisp dissonance into melodic tunes. By mixing bopping solo runs with ex- temporaneous sax cranks and blus- ters, Chapin's tunes have mass appeal while remaining harmonically chal- lenging. As with Kirk, Chapin's idiosyn- cratic song mapping is twisted and gritty, but also coherent. The com- fortable and comprehensible recur- ring themes make Chapin's abstruse ventures more tolerable for audiences confused by freeexperimentation. His music is orderly without sounding methodical, visceral without dissolv- ing into chaos. Although Chapin uses chickens and donkeys as musical sources along with Kirk and James Brown, the key to his music is his short, recurring phrases. His embellished ostinatos gain momentum with each reiteration through subtly different intonations. By controlling all aspects of alto tim- bre, Chapin evokes an array of ex- pressions, a skill honed by perform- ing with home-state poets. What his style lacks in ornate architecture he supplements with intricate phrasings. Spreading himself around many musical projects allows Chapin to tap different angles of his persona, keep- ing him from getting trapped in a few musical euphemisms. His trio pieces have more direction than the friction of his raging Machine Gun perfor- mances, but less complexity than his intimately crafted duos with Borah Bergman and Ned Rothenberg. Since Chapin blends jazz infused riffs with turbulent rumblings, his music is approachable by audiences from both sides of thejazz-new music rift. Enliven your hum-drum Monday night and appreciate this trio's bal- ancing act close up. The Thomas Chapin Trio will be performing tonight at 8p.m. on center stage at The Performance Network (West Washington). Tickets are $8 for students, $10 for all other personages. The theater staff of the Michigan Daily is looking for additional talented writers. Call Liz at 763.0379 for details. The Thomas Chapin Trio makes its way to the Performance Network tonight. -:,S M., x 11'1%