to read

Howard N'wo, ffiase-winning author of "The Girl Who Dreamed
Only Geem and Other Tales of the Far North," reads at Shaman Drum
toniTh. 1e k, which retells 10 Inuit tales, should provide enter-
t A Tft r young and old allike. Join Norman at 4 p.m. this after-
M. Pm.

Tuesday
November 25, 1997

5


'Wings'

soars into audiences' hearts

Dy Gerard Cohen-VrIgnaud
Daily Arts Wrter
Emerging from the theater after seeing "The Wings
of the Dove" will be a heartbreaking moment for most
cinephiles. The film creates a magnificently lush and
ocative world where love, deception and jealousy are
'tterly intertwined. Letting go of this finely crafted
world will leave you wistful and melancholy.
Adapted from the classic Henry James novel,
"Wings" recounts the love triangle of Kate Croy
(Helena Bonham Carter), Merton Densher (Linus
Roache) and Millie Theale (Alison Elliott).
After her mother's death, beautiful but pennile
Kate Croy is taken under the wing of her rich Ad
Maude (Charlotte Rampling). Introduced into M,
society of London, Kate thrives and revels to a of
ury. Kate loves Merton Densher, a dfB~ adk-
p ing journalist of impeccable morl. Aet Nde
threatens to cast out her niece and o*p fi l sup-
porting Kate's father if she marry a ouew er. Kate
finds herself torn between hr h *r Morton and her
fondness of the comforts 4fsdd y money and
upper-class status.
Kate befriends the eqimy busiful Millie Theale, a
rfth Amermiv= S M bi a burdened by the knowl-
of r ipr& death.
t iia idhw & ate away R
- escape her manipulating aunt's
ns. Convinced by Kate that
there is no other solution, Merton
agrees to seduce Millie to obtain
her inheritance.
The screenplay, written by
Hossein Amini, is masterfully understated and does not
try to render the book onto the screen. Rather, convey-
ing the emotions of the characters is left to director lain
Softley, whose previous efforts include "Hackers" and
"Backbeat." Lingering closeups of Kate, Merton and

Helena Bonham Carter and Unus Roache shower each
other with love in "The Wings of the Dove."
Millie all reveal a complexity and depth to the charac-
ters' motivations and anxieties.
The action is divided between London and Venice;
the two cities play roles as important as any character.

tery. Whereas the lighting in London is bright and
clear, exposing a veneer of moral righteousness, Venice
is dark and misted with twisting and mazelike streets,
suggesting the endless possibilities.
The raucous and spontaneous dancing of the carni-
val in Venice displays an emotional candor and open-
ness lacking in London. The stay in Venice seemingly
invigorates the three characters, as the need for sub-
terfuge is no longer present.
Helena Bonham Carter, in a tour-de-force perfor-
mance, depicts remarkably the range of Kate's feelings
and aspirations. Lying in bed after finding out about
Millie's illness, Kate is left to think over what she has
learned. Carter's face reflects the emergence of her
devious plan and the torture her imagined betrayal
causes her.
Linus Roache measures up impressively to Carter's
performance. Persuaded by Kate to seduce Millie,
Merton eventually comes to love the American heiress
and to hate his own scheming acts. In one moving
moment, he states, "I fake passion. I fake conviction."
Strong performances are also turned in by Charlotte
Rampling and Alex Jennings. Rampling does not fall
into the easy trap of portraying the manipulative Aunt
Maude as evil but rather shows the caring and love she
holds for Kate. Jennings plays Lord Mark, a suitor to
Millie, who wants her vast fortune to secure his own
dwindling inheritance.
The music by Ed Shearmur adds expressively to the
ambiance of the film's two locations, at once refined
and sophisticated in London and passionate and mys-
terious in Venice.
"The Wings of the Dove" magnificently and elo-
quently tells the age-old conflict between love and
money. Softley is to be commended for a work that is
deeply poetic and lyrical. In the end, the greatness of
"Wings" lies in its power to uplift and affect the view-
er.

EVIEW
The Wings of
the Dove
****i
At The Michigan Theater

London is best understood
through the impressive opening
scene. Kate and Merton both ride
on the newly built underground
railway of London. The two lovers
exchange glances, but no contact
is made and we are left to wonder
whether they know each other at

The Detroit institute of Arts presents "Drawn From Nature," through Jan. 4.
DIA to showcase
wonders of nature

all. Their love for one another is later revealed in a pas-
sionate embrace once they have escaped the prying
eyes of London society. The scene brilliantly reveals
the muted and repressed passions of Kate and Merton.
Venice, on the other hand, exudes passion and mys-

Cleavage shots, bad acting cheapen Jenny'

By Anna Kovalszki
Daily Arts Writer
The spring, a time of rebirth and
renewal, instills a zest for life in many
students, after the dreary, cold and
gloomy winter months. In the same
way, the wonders of nature have
inspired artists for hundreds of years, to
express their talents through the guise
of the landscape
that harbors those 111 n n

exhibited in this collection, making this
area of landscape one of the most well
represented in the exhibition. Artists
like Renoir, Pissarro, Cole, Rivera and
Derrain are represented here.
The modern area is found throughout
the Schwartz Graphic Arts Gallery,
along the main hall and within the adja-
cent hallway, which contains four

By Sangeetha George
For The Daily
Jenny McCarthy's show, imaginative-
ly titled "Jenny," is just another trying
example of what happens when the star
of the show can't act.
* From the world of the clotheshorse to
the arenaof televi-
sion, is only aR
short step when
your bust measure-
ment is bigger than
your IQ; yet mod-
els keep trying to
prove that they are
all-around entertainers. But one glance
t this sitcom will crush that hope com-
tely.
The problem with "Jenny" is that the
show isn't good enough to be consis-
tently funny, yet it's not bad enough to
be consistently funny. It just falls into
the abyss of shows that have too much
"sit" and hardly any "com." The main
premise of "Jenny" is that she is a
small-town girl who comes to
Hollywood after inheriting her late

E
E

father's house. Her father, Guy
Hathaway (George Hamilton), was a B-
movie star, whom the viewer and Jenny
get to know through his old clips of
films, commercials and home movies.
Hamilton's performance, though brief,
as the cheesy, overtanned gigolo is
about the only
funny element in
VIEW the show. Even so,
it's hardly
Jenny admirable, since he
NBC is basically just
Sundays at 8:30 p.m. playing himself. It
is difficult to decide
just how inept the other actors in the.
cast are, since next to each other, it is a
tough contest.
Possibly Heather Paige Kent wins the
prize for the most overbearing charac-
ter. She plays Maggie, Jenny's faithful
best friend, and makes her way through
the show with the unsubtlest of pres-
ence and wit.
The setting of the show is just banal.
The girls, whose uniform consists of
anything tight and cleavage-exposing,

work at a copy shop in L.A., while their
two male filmmaker friends are always
around to help them out with their unin-
teresting lives.
In last week's episode, Jenny met a
struggling musician in a bar, who hap-
pened to be in a series of MTV's "Real
World," at the time. D6jA vu?
Jenny's life must have been flashing
before her eyes. It was ironic, how their
relationship was doomed, not only
because he was a fraud, but also as a
result of Jenny's camera shyness, an
obviously laughable concept, perhaps
played on by Jenny herself. Maggie's
take on the whole MTV attitude of
stereotypical characters, which can be
summed up in a sentence, was quite
well done - until it wore thin after
being repeated so many times without
variation.
The chemistry between the two
female characters is probably one of the
strongest points of the show. Their
friendship seems believable enough to
envision them scraping through all their
adventures, yet the adventures them-

rh o' c sa

polygonal
spheres for
tion.

wonders.
The Detroit
Institute of Arts
permanent collec-

Drawn From Nature
Landscape Watercolors
Through January 4, 1998

McCarthy's "Jenny" disappoints.
selves need to be given more thought
and more subtlety in their execution. In
order to build up an interested audience,
"Jenny" is going to have to try harder to
capture the imagination of its viewers.
Perhaps, with a bit more concentration
on the script and the acting, and less on
Miss McCarthy's wardrobe, they'll have
some luck.

hemi-
exhibi-

tion of landscape W
watercolors and --
drawings chronicles the development of
this form of art, from its early incep-
tions in the 16th century to the present.
The early landscapes were backdrops
for mythical and religious themes,
sometimes containing tiny vignettes
relative to the size of the works. Claude
Lorrain's "View of Carthage with Dido
and Aeneas," (1676) a white-and-black
chalk, pen-and-ink drawing on blue
paper exemplifies this type of work.
The next trend in landscape painting
was the art of the so called Barbizon
School, where artists frequently went
outdoors to depict the real views of
nature, relative to the earlier studio
"shots." Charles Francois Daubigny's
(1817-1878) depiction of river scenes
with chalk and charcoal shows an artist
increasingly interested in the natural
environment.
Berthe Morisot, a woman
Impressionist painter, also uses this
technique, in her "Ships in the Harbor,"
(1875) with a mingling of media by use
of watercolor and graphite. This form
of depiction is typical in Impressionist
art of the late 19th century, with empha-
sis placed on the fleeting moments of
color and light that envelope natural
settings.
Modern forms of art, in both tech-
nique and subject matter, find outlets
even in the relatively simple form of the
landscape. Many well-known artists of
the 19th and 20th centuries have works

Detroit Institute of Arts
exemplifies the
abstraction of a
this landscape

mbat battles mortal flaws, yet entertains

Paul Klee'
"Garden," (1915)
depicted with
watercolor over
graphite pencil,
modern form, with
few flowers creating
image. It could be

argued that this is more aptly phrased a
still-life than a landscape, but since it
contains landscape elements, it instead
shows the range of the landscape.
Douglas Bulka's "Cover Up" (1995)
is the most recent work in the exhibi-
tion, and shows a modern lawn-job illu-
minated by the bright lights of a park-
ing lot atmosphere. This mixed media
painting has gone from the traditional
naturalistic setting into an entirely mod-
ern subject matter.
The media of drawing and watercol-
or has been associated with clear read-
ing of the expressiveness of art, since
most pieces are rapidly executed, with
clear lines that show the "hand of the
artist:' It is not only this aspect that
makes this exhibition a success, but_
also the wide historical range of cover-
age and the installation's ambiance. The.
uniform eye-level display and similar
framing of the works, along with the
soft-lighting of the galleries contribute
to the overall effect of the exhibition.
The wealth in these 100 works, made
evident in the inclusion of original
sketchbooks, provides the final impetus
for heading down to the DIA over the
upcoming holidays and partaking in
this exhibition, along with admiring the
rest of the fifth richest art collection in
the nation.

By Joshua Pederson
Daily Arts Writer
Upon the release of "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation,"
I was afraid. The fact that someone could release the
sequel to a movie based on a video game is truly terri-
fying.
*So, in anticipation of the Armageddon that would
surely come as payment for this -sue
crime against humanity, on the
release date I sequestered myself 1
in a steel-reinforced chamber with _

enough canned string beans to last
me until the end of the millennium.
I cowered in my small corner
expecting large explosions and dis-
ease, but strangely enough, nothing of the sort
occurred. Opening the titanium gate of my cubicle, I
an saw the light of day and surprisingly, the world
round me was left unscathed, for the most part. I decid-
ed that if such a film did not end the world as we know
it I had to see it, if only out of some twisted curiosity.
When a viewer goes to see a movie, he or she is view-
ing the movie in two separate lights. One is artistic value;
the other is entertainment value. Some movies are cre-
atively brilliant, but about as exciting as a tax form.
Others are artistically excellent and thoroughly entertain-
ing. And there is the final category, into which "Mortal
Kombat: Annihilation" falls: those movies that are enter-
ining but devoid of any artistic merit whatsoever.
"Mortal Kombat" does not concern itself with the
fetters of superfluous artistic details such as, for
instance, plot. It doesn't need one. All it needs is cool
fight scenes randomly and pointlessly linked by strange


U
r


bits of dialogue.
Well, as not to do a disservice to the "writers," it
couldn't hurt to describe the general storyline. The
world is coming to an end because of the tyrannical
dominance of a power-hungry younger son. Five fight-
ers must band together to battle this horror and take
back the world from the clutches of evil. If one choos-
es to call this "plot," feel free to do
V I E1 Wso, I shall refrain.
Another aspect in which the
tal Kombat: film does not involve itself is,
Annihilation well, writing. It relies solely on the
** clich6s of the action flick canon.
At Showcase The entire script is hijacked from
any number of B-movie action
classics - the screenwriters have given the actors a top
notch collection of witty one-linefs to massacre.
Luckily, being that the creators of "Mortal Kombat:
Annihilation" are not dealing with true "writing," they
have no need to enforce the practice of "acting." Heck,
as long as the "actors" aren't holding their scripts in
their hands, who really cares anyway, right?
To distract the viewer, the film has dazzling explo-
sions and fireballs galore. Bright lights ought to dis-
suade the audience from the realization that the "actors"
were probably reading a large percentage of their lines
off the large stone pillars that spot the movie's bleak
landscape.
Well, now that I have successfully trashed each qual-
ity that this film possesses, I must step back for a
moment and add a disclaimer. Now don't get me
wrong. The viewer of "Mortal Kombat II" must expect
no intellectual enlightenment or moral betterment. But,

it is one heckuva fun movie.
The fight scenes are pretty darn cool. And if one can-
not appreciate this, then one ought to have a blast mak-
ing fun of this humorous attempt at filmmaking. I was
content making lewd comments about the assortment
of ridiculous costumes, and that, in itself, made the film
worthwhile for me. Or, if you don't like any of my sug-
gestions, find your own "Mortal" flaw and have fun
with it.
So, in conclusion, while the audience will likely gain
very little in the viewing of this film, they may well end
up having a great time in spite of themselves. If you've
got a free Friday night, and aren't quite in the mood for
an emotionally taxing or intellectually engaging flick,
go to see "Mortal Kombat I1" with a bunch of friends.
Remember that asinine entertainment can be a great
thing.


r-- -- -

i
I
I
I
I
I

we

- ® m - - m
t 4,

I
I'

Four unknown actors will most likely stay that way
with the B-flck sequel, "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation."

I END OF SEMESTER SPECIAL! i
'Buy any drink, get a second drink'
I... - .



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S AV IT WITH COOKIE' I

I

I