The Michigan Daily - Weekend etc. - Thursday, November 10, 1994 - 3 Better Nate Than Never German film opens a 'Box' of delight instead of tortures Lauhtr:Rx for ailments After a grueling two hours and five minutes of punching numbers into a calculator, marking circles com- pletely with a No. 2 pencil and trying to remember the one formula missing from my 3 x 5 index card, I felt slightly relieved, having survived the last mid- term of this semester. After picking up the answer key and thinking, "Hmmmm, this is inter- sting," the relief quickly turned to laughter. I have grown accustomed to using laughter as a sort of tranquilizer in such situations. This Prozac-esque method tends to draw odd looks when used in public, but it makes me feel better nonetheless. I learned this trick when I was five years old and starting to get allergy shots. Before seeing the allergist, I had eard horror stories from otherkids. In nestory,thenurse hadstuck theneedle too deep into apatient's arm,jabbing it through the bone and out the other side of his arm. It would be an understatement to say that I was tense going into the office. The allergist did a rather poor job of calming me down. In an effort to prove that allergy shots don't hurt, he asked, "Does this hurt?" and began , 9nching my arm. "Yes," I said. It hurt. Not only was my arm going to be on a shish kebab skewer, but I had an old man pinching me. This was a nightmare. It was the nurse and my parents who brought me back to Earth. They joked with me, made fun of me and got me laughing so that I didn't even notice the serum being injected. The laughter turned to teals after I oticed the blood coming from the ounds, but laughing helped nonethe- less. Sometimes I think I have become too skillful at laughing. Once while out to eat, the waitress - let's call her Flo - took my family's order and served my mom, my dad and me with no unusual activ- ity. Then, not wanting to reach over to sister, Flo held the plate in the ddle of the table, and said, to my bsentminded sibling, "Could you take this?" I thought about that phrase - not a particularly funny one - through- out dinner, and the tone in which it was said. As soon as the meal was over, I broke out laughing, and con- tinued to laugh so hard that I began crying. I couldn't even look at Flo *hen she returned, since the entire situation had become so funny in my mind. I ended up walking out to the car, coughing and gasping the whole way. But I felt much better after it was all over. People sometimes need to step away from it all - and laugh. With the depressing news of death and vio- lence, which just becomes more and ore unreal, there is often no way to 'rationalize it - no emotion fits. Following the recent barrage of negative election campaigning, I'm sure there were plenty of laughing, smiling faces coming out of voting booths - it's over. The possible uses of laughter are endless. No one was looking forward to the -half-full, early-morning flight from ,hicago O'Hare to Detroit Metro - -the last leg of a return trip from Ha- waii a few years ago. Despite passengers' glum expres- sions, the head flight attendant began with the safety instructions. "If oxy- gen masks should appear above your head, put on your own first and then help the person next to you if they are a child - or if they just seem child- Ph. rior to landing, the flight atten- dant, who I'll call Betty just because Wilma is such an overused name, came on the intercom again: "That loud thud you just heard was the landing gear. The pilot thinks he spotted Detroit." Even though we had departed from By SHIRLEY LEE In the dark, with a cigarette and a double vanilla latte, I situated my lethargic self on a couch in front of a painfully blurry television screen. As I stare drowsily at a silent German film in the comfort of my lovely earthly room, "Pandora's Box" hits upon a rush of images and actions; they come naturally and beg to be sculpted into beguiling shapes. In an endearing way, the film is a blushing dramatization. Chronicling fetishist Lulu (Louise Brooks), who entices every man that crosses her path, "Pandora's Box," filmed in 1928, is laced with more layers of modernistic eroticism and subtle seductiveness than you can shake a remote at. Lulu's finger exudes more sensuality than all the combined body parts of Sharon Stone. Thematically, "Pandora's Box" hews tight to the alien- ated heart of its The story Home presented Entertainment tellsatale Center of a femme fatale and men falling victim to hercharisma. By unfastening her casket of evils in the world, Lulu risks allowing disasters to explode onto the screen. She also allows her enticing ways to gradually work against her. G.W. Pabst starts in the most familiar, even cliched, ground imaginable and takes off to the moon. These hackneyed characters find themselves dropped into absurd yet believable situations: the enticing Lulu commits a crime and must fend off a handful of policemen only to find herself the subject of a 600 marks transaction. The most striking unorthodox element in "Pandora's Box" is one fantastically ahead of its time. Pabst takes a crafty yet daring glance into realm of bisexuality in the '20s, further making the film eclectic and heavenly. Another departure is its portrayal of women in a less than mainstream fashion. Rather than putting repressed women in the spotlight, Pabst's work unflinchingly explores the many social and psychological complexities of sexuality. Pabst's delicate as well as ingenious ma- nipulation twists "Pandora's Box" into a com- plex and compelling monster. It has irresistibly gleeful music despite the absence of dialogue. Though "Pandora's Box" does not grab the audience by the scruff of its neck and shake it around, sparks lodge in their eyes. Pabst arouses that heightened awareness that makes silent filmgs more than messages emanating from every frame of film. "Pandora's Box" transcends into a fusion of feelings, sensations and images. SPECIALIZING IN BLACK HAIR CARE T HE TIMBERLAND SHOP + " Custom Hairstyling * Haircuts *Spiral Perms* Relaxers *Weaves * Braids 15% off all chemical treatment 312 Thompson St. 995-5733 t RET DRUiS ANN ARBOR "The Musicians' Pro Shop" Guitars -"Amps -Drums - THE ONLY SHoE ON Go ToE To TOE WITH A TIMBER LAND Boor. The Best Price The Best Selection The Best Service ALL THE TIME BLOWNOUT SALE! DRUM S Friday & Saturda November 11-12th Prices this good happen only once a year. RIT carries the major brands you want in both Guitars and Drums, and has a huge selection! If you have considered making a purchase, there will never be a better time. 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