MI~ie £tdkjau I huildigi
Vincente Minelli's classic Oscar-winning musical, "Gigi," screens
tonight. Check out this 1958 tale of turn-of-the-century Paris. The
film follows the Pygmalion-inspired life of a French girl as she is
groomed to be a courtesan. Starring Leslie Caron and Maurice
Chevalier, "Gigi" is a gala event not to be missed. Tonight at 7 at the
Michigan Theater. Admission is $5.

Tuesday
November 11, 1997

'Hottest,' Hawke fly into A2
on the wings of steamy novel

By Jessica Callaway
For the Daily
Anyone ambivalent about Ethan Hawke the actor
would probably do best to avoid Ethan Hawke the
writer. Yet, those who adore the awkward self-dis-
covery, doe-faced confusion and naive romantic
foibles of Hawke's screen persona in such films as
"Reality Bites" and "Before
Sunrise," just might enjoy a P F
prose that uncannily captures P R
that same tone.E
Fans of Hawke the actor will
inevitably flock to hear Hawke
the writer read from his novel,
"The Hottest State" at 7:30
tonight at Borders.
Hawke's novel is narrated by William, a grungy
young actor with an interest in the Beat Generation
poets. Perhaps not surprisingly, Hawke admitted in a
recent telephone interview, the character contains
some autobiographical elements. "It's far from a
memoir, but it's based on things that I think about and
things that my friends think about," Hawke said.
"The goal was to write something I knew something
about."
William's acting itself rarely enters into the
novel. It only seems to painlessly and somewhat
mysteriously furnish him with the money to fly to
Paris with his girlfriend and pay rent on his
Manhattan apartment. Listlessly smoking ciga-
rettes, hanging out with a stylishly troubled group
of friends and sulking confusedly about his tumul-
tuous childhood is what really occupies most of
''his time.
In fact, it seems that neither William, nor any of
a -awke's characters, have escaped a miserable
experience growing up.
When asked about the impetus behind the depic-
tion of so much childhood baggage, Hawke respond-
e: "I thought it was exemplary of the time period
everybody's growing up in right now. Basically it's
just a piece about trying to find a sense of identity
growing up right now and what love means to people
who come from broken homes."
Love hits William hard, in the form of an awkward
sinLer who's recently relocated to New York after a

I


stint in Seattle. The passionate, quirky but ultimate-
ly doomed relationship between William and Sarah
eventually drives William to begin an idiotic rampage
of destruction, smashing enough furniture and elec-
tronic appliances to make Johnny Depp cringe. Such
is the havoc of love.
And why a love story? "It's the thing most promi-
nent on my mind," Hawke said
somewhat obliquely, speaking on
 E V I E W a cellular phone from a car
Ethan Hawke somewhere in Mississippi.
Hawke described his novel
Tonight at 7: as a "young book," referring
Free both to the age of the charac-
ters (William celebrates his
21st birthday toward the end of
the novel) as well as to the "correct audience for
the book." Hawke himself was only 21 when he
began the novel, which he worked on during a
period of four years.
Indeed, Hawke's novel captures the lingo and
illogic of hip '90s youth with almost painful accu-
racy. For instance, in his initial attempts to woo
Sarah, William spouts: "I'm totally full of shit ...
Don't believe a word I say. I'm an actor. I just
thought I should tell you that right off the bat so
you don't get disappointed later. Have you ever
watched Star Trek?"
Some of Hawke's observations are genuinely
funny, as in William's description of his ex-girlfriend,
who, during her junior year in high school, pledges to
"take cheerleading more seriously." The narrator's
candidness adds a sweetness to the book, which
briefly reaches touching.
Yet, too often the novel's narrator, as well as the
novel itself, fall into breathless attempts at profundi-
ty better suited to a mediocre pop song. For instance,
after sitting up watching Sarah sleep, William rhap-
sodizes, "I thought, This must be what praying is
like."
For a first-time novelist, Hawke has been getting
a remarkable amount of attention, obviously due to
his film work. As a recognized actor-turned-nov-
elist, "you have to do all your learning in the pub-
lic's eye," he said. "The up side is it's much easier
to get my book published. I'll take the opportuni-

ties any day. The opportunities presented to
me I'm really grateful for."
Hawke, who said he especially admires
the writing of John Steinbeck and James x . ;;:
Baldwin, also alluded to the disadvantages . [
of his double career.
"The down sides are you garnish a little
more attention than you deserve and so
people can be angry at you about that.
Hopefully, that's not really my problem,"
Hawke said.
Hawke said he sees acting and writing
as two art forms with much in common.
"Y ou take a piece of w riting and youta t i o e u n " s.
translate it to the audience" he said .6
"Whether you're writing, directing, even
dancing - it's about articulating some kind
of story. I think most actors have a great love .
of writing. I don't think you'd be an actor if you
didn't."
C u rren tly in the m id st o f a 10 -stop college to u r4r i o l a e l c m e r y n
for his novel, H awke reflected momentarily on
his own experiences in college. Hawke attended --
both Carnegie Mellon and New York University
for a semester each before dropping out. ~.
Hawke's strongest impressions of college
life seemed to come mainly from the .,
social scene. "I don't believe in fra-
ternities." he said. "I don't like
team efforts, where. ..
everyone bonds -
together in some kind ....
of united pool of
ignorance."
Erupting into
laughter, Hawke {
mused, "I don'tsaa.
think I'm gonna
have a big turnout
from the fraternities. ~
I've never been a -r, .
fraternity type. I
don't really like '
getting my ass Ethan Hawke brings his debut literary effort, "The Hottest State," to Borders this evening. "Hottest," a tale of love
branded by another and loss, promises a steamy read. Don't miss the heat tonight, as Hawke himself reads and signs copies of his work:
guy." Borders is certainly the hot spot tonight.

Humanized 'Bean'
fails to be a real gas

Author Kauffman on
'Loose' at Rackham

By Ryan Posly
Daily Arts Writer
Mr. Bean, that lovable little twit from
England, has finally hopped the pond
-nd arrived in America, in more ways
than one. But if _______
you've never beenR
exposed to Bean
before - to his
childish curiosity
gonie awry, his out-
rageous physical
antics or his naive
detructiveness - then his new film,
cleverly titled "Bean," would probably
notbe the best place to start.
Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) was creat-
ed 16 years ago and he has since become
Britain's most popular comic character, his
top-rated TV show airing in 60 countries.
And for good reason: Mr. Bean, on televi-
sion, consistently gets himself into the
most bizarre predicaments, though they are

;E

always rooted in the mundane. Watching
Bean wreak havoc upon his world without
a care for (or even knowledge of) the con-
sequences is a sheer joy, like watching a
child discovering new toys.
____________ Unfortunately,
.1 EW "Bean" the movie
does not share that
Bean joy. In fact, it
undermines the
very attribute that
At showcase makes the TV char-
acter so funny: the
selfish, everyday quality of his antics.
In the film, Mr. Bean works at
London's National Art Gallery as a
guard of some sort who is not looked
upon very fondly by the members of the
museum board. In order to get rid of
him, they decide to send him to
America as an "expert" on the famous
painting "Whistler's Mother," which
has just been purchased by a Los

Make room for Mr. Bean: Rowan Atkinson stumbles into America with "Bean."

Angeles museum.
For those familiar with Mr. Bean, his
talking takes some getting used to.
Nonetheless, all the shenanigans up to
this point are happily reminiscent of the
television Bean. As would be expected,
Bean gets himself arrested shortly after
his arrival on U.S. soil, and director Mel
Smith cleverly uses parallel editing for
incredible comedic effect.
The second half, however, fails to live up
to its potential. The rest of the film tries to
humanize Bean, which is why it loses its
humor. Dr. Bean, as he is assumed to be by
the Americans, moves in with the family of
David Langley (Peter MacNicol), the cura-
tor of the L.A. museum. Of course, Bean
practically ruins their home (among other
things), nearly destroying David's marriage
in the process.
The film falters in trying to force Bean
to accept responsibility for his actions, to
stick around and see their consequences.

It compels Bean to make good on his
multiple misdeeds, and that is simply not
funny, let alone believable or in-character.
In order to make the transition to
film, Atkinson and company obviously
felt this need to humanize Bean, to
make a semi-serious attempt at a plot
and to add these other one-dimensional
characters. But all this did was essen-
tially stretch out what could have been a
brilliant comedy sketch into a subpar,
one-horse comedy film, with a family
element, much like "Liar, Liar."
While that movie utilized a manic Jim
Carrey to his greatest potential, it got
bogged down at times by the absurdly
melodramatic, touchy-feely nature of the
story. Likewise, though Rowan Atkinson
is in top form as our childlike hero, and
even though it is at times riotous, "Bean"
ultimately pays the price of a weak plot,
useless characters and a human factor
that just doesn't fit.

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the largest summer

By Sarah Beido
Daily Arts Writer
Imagine you have invited all the
letters of the alphabet over for a
drink. The hour is getting late, you're
pouring the letter A his fifth gin and
tonic, and he's beginning to ramble
about himself in that half-drunken
confessional way.
Imagine - what P1
would he say? Or
is "A" a she? Jai
Would X and Z get
into a brawl about 1
who's more of a
badass? Or would
R attempt to seduce J by flashing her
long, sensual leg?
There isn't actually a party in Janet
Kauffman's new short story collection,
but there may as well be.
One of the most intriguing sections
of the book is Kauffman's attempts to
characterize the letters of the alphabet,
approach them outside the confines of
their use in language.
"I try to loosen language, do
something new," Kauffman said in a
recent interview. "I started writing
poetry, which I did for many year, so
I began to look at language in a dif-
ferent way, not always connected to
narrative."
This approach to language distin-
guishes Kauffman's other short fiction,
which the author admits "has less char-
acter development than other stories,
but concentrates on interactions. It's
more aim-
less'
W h a t I uselanAj
K a u ffm an
calls "aim- way an art
lessness" may aintE
also aptly be Ji
called free-
dom. The title Author of "Ch
of the new
collection,
"Characters on the Loose;'is quite fit-
ting. Kauffman is the jailer who has
just let her characters free from
restraint, she is the bartender at a party
where language itself is being cele-
brated. Her stories are quick and con-
stantly in motion, featuring first-per-
son narrators who seem to have novel

of
R

observations about what is unfolding
around them.
Yet Kauffman denies that her fiction
is riskier than any other. "Almost
writer doing anything is taking a ris ,
she said. "I'm interested in structure,
redefining structure for different speak-
ers, different forums:'
______ K a u f.f m a'n
E V W believesthat di-f
ferent groups of
et Kauffman people naturally
Today at 4 p.m use language and
Rackham Amphitheatre narrative- .struP-
Free ture differently,
and that there *
far more to fiction than the tradition-
al sequence of beginning, develop-
ment, and end - the narrative arc.
"Women use language differently
than men,' Kauffman said, emphasiz-
ing that she sees herself as a feminist
writer because she writes from the
point-of-view of a woman.
"Any woman writer is a feminist
writer, because women see the world
differently," Kauffman said.10
"My stories, my novels, are more
like poems," she said. "I use the
same language process for all of
them. I use language to make the
things I make, the way an artist uses
paint."
Many of Kauffman's stories are told
in vignettes, or in small sections which,
when pieced together, form the narra-
tive.
It is in this way that Kauffm*
grants her
c h at act e r s
wage .,. the f r ee d o m
from" the
st uses page, from
more con-
v e n.io n a 1
- Janet Kauffman notions of
racters on the Loose" the short
story. She
gives..thc@.
life and voice. She gives language}-a
forum.
Kauffman's reading at 4 p.m. in
Rackham Amphitheatre is a must for
anyone who wants to hear a fresh take
on the short story.
Or for anyone who has wondered
about the secret life of the letter 0.

I!

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EARLY A CCESS

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