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'Phenomenal Woman' reads tonight
Poet Maya Angelou, who has written everything from President
Clinton's inaugural poem to verse for the film "Poetic Justice," speaks
at 7 o'clock tonight at Eastern Michigan's Pease Auditorium. Call 487-
1221 for ticket information.
; i
Diabolical
'y Christopher Corbett
Daily Arts Writer
"Put it in your mouth, swallow it,"
-the husband says to his frump of a wife.
-He's talking about the cold plateful of
.mushy eggs before her in the cafeteria
of the boys' school that they own and
operate.
We are supposed to hate this guy and
-think he deserves to be murdered. But
the cafeteria scene is as heartless as we
REVIEW
Diabolique
Directed by Jeremiah
Chachilt; with Sharon
Stone and Isabelle Adjani
At Briarwood and Showcase
see him treat his wife. Well, he did say
it kind ofmean ... but what the hell?! As
his wife Mia (Isabelle Adjani) might
say, "He made me eat eggs, the unfeel-
ing beast ... Let's off him."
"Diabolique," a remake of the 1955
French thriller (based on the novel
"Celle Qui N'Etait Plus" by Pierre
Boileau), gets egg on its face. Director
Jeremiah Chechik ("Benny and Joon")
I
direction nuns film
needs to look up the word "subtle" and
try to apply it to his film.
. How bad does it get? We have every
detail of the story shouted out to us right
before it happens. When the car pulls up
to the driveway of the house, we hear,
"This is our alibi." When Mia hands the
glass of bourbon to her beastly hus-
band, we hear, "It's so cloudy" (while
Mia glares at him, her eyes so wide you
wonder how they're staying in herhead).
When Mia commits the crime, we hear,
"I'm SURE he's dead." OK! Yes, Mr.
Director, why spell just one thing out
for us when you can ruin it all!
Sharon Stone, though, as the cold-
blooded co-killer, becomes perhaps the
best part of"Diabolique." She, with her
throaty voice and chiseled features,
makes you wanna shoop. She keeps her
clothes on here, but holds on to every
bit of the devilish, playful, threatening
quality she had in "Basic Instinct."
Her sneers and calculating, slow-
moving, peeled eyes - enormous on
the screen -make us believe her later,
when she kicks the body over the ledge
into the slimy pool and more or less
says, "Bastard ... He made you eat
those cold eggs."
Chechik had the bleak film noir feel
down pat with "Diabolique." Shadows
- from the house, the grounds and
even the husband himself - seem to
suffocate the two women. Mia often
appears like a rag doll lying on her bed,
with her husband towering over her, his
torso and arm blacking out most of the
frame. The film, with all its glossiness,
looks great.
Too bad the movie diabolically sinks
like the body wrapped in plastic. Where
are these girls from? Don't they kill
people over there?
When you kill your husband, what do
you do? Do you sleep all night after you
kill him and then transport him out to the
car in a bamboo crate in the middle of the
afternoon? Do you pull over, talk to the
state trooper and give him a nice, long
look at your face when your co-conspira-
tor (with a corpse in her car) gets in a pile-
up ahead of you? Do you leave the crate
sticking out of the trunk of your hatch-
back and cruise around? It's as if they are
saying, "You can't see this huge damn
thing sticking out, can you?"
We actually would love to see the
police catch Mia because she's so
dumb. Take the way Sharon Stone
wants to kill the husband: She holds
his head underwater in the bathtub
and tells Mia to "Get the water bottle."
Mia wheels in a huge jug of water,
which they place on his chest to hold
him down. Death by Evian? Some-
Hey kids, smoking won't make you sexy like Sharon Stone. She is already sexy. You may be hopeless.
'Summit' masters show
amazing versatility
By Craig Stuntz
Daily Arts Writer
In the eagerly awaited sequel to last
year's Guitar Summit, the University Mu-
:sical Society brought four of the world's
-mostaccomplishedguitariststo Rackham
Auditorium this past Saturday. Each per-
former brought his own style and tech-
REVIEW
Guitar
Summit II
Rackham Auditorium
March 23, 1996
nique to the concert, demonstrating the
versatility of the instrument.
The evening began with Detroit native
Kenny Burrell, a master jazz musician
who was Duke Ellington's favorite guitar
improviser, and who has played with
John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Benny
Goodman and other jazz legends.
Beginning with an acoustic steel-
string guitar and later switching to a
semi-acoustic electric, Burrell's set was
a steady progression from the folksy
sound of early jazz to the persistent cry
ofelectric blues. As he performed songs
ranging from Duke Ellington's "Black
and Tan Fantasy" to a medley of early
blues influences, Burrell projected an
air of utter sincerity and dedication to
his music.
Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane co-
founder Jorma Kaukonen, performing
on a steel-string guitar with a pickup,
gave the audience a small sampling of
his repertoire, which he estimates at
more than 700 songs. Specializing in
bluegrass and old-time country blues,
Kaukonen's trademark is his crisp fin-
ger-picking style.
Saturday's performance included the
Jefferson Airplane signature instrumen-
tal, "Embryonic Journey." The only non-
original piece he performed was a blues
adaptation of a Pete Seger and the Weav-
ers song. Whereas Burrell's blues were
soulful, with ajaunty rhythm, Kaukonen's
were lively and almost upbeat.
Classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco's
repertoire spans from the Baroque to
20th century Spanish music-and then
some. Introducing one song early in his
set, he said that it "will sound like it was
written by Bach or Handel or Scarlatti,
but in fact it's 'Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds."' He also played three un-
titled songs by Chick Corea, which,
even though written for children, sound
nothing like Raffi.
Barrueco concluded his set with Isaac
Albeniz's "Asturias," which, despite
having been conceived for the piano, is
now a standard part of the classical
guitar repertoire. In comparison to John
Williams, who performed the same
piece during his appearance at Rackham
in February, Barrueco was more dy-
namic with his use of tempo, but less so
with volume.
Classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco was a delegate at the "Summit."
Stanley Jordan gave what was for
him a technically very restrained per-
formance - which is to say that he
only played one electric guitar at a
time, and he didn't use his guitar syn-
thesizer. But even this was enough to
utterly astonish the audience.
Jordan plays by tapping the strings
against the fretboard with both hands.
With twice as many fingers to pluck
with, and a gift for improvisation, he
sounds like two or three very talented
guitarists in perfect artistic sync.
Jordan is always captivating to watch,
as he gets very physically involved with
his music. Saturday's performance in-
cluded a 10-minute-plus improvisation
around "Eleanor Rigby," which sounds
less and less like the Beatles every time he
plays it.