Te .bratIng the Arts: The Shapiro Undergraduate Ubrary will hold its second night of afe Shapiro." Readings by undergraduate student writers will take place in the atrium of the library. The event is part of the University's celebration of the YoHA, Year of Humanities and Arts. Cafe Shapiro has free admission, and complimentary coffee will be served. The event begins at 8:30 p.m. Ufbe icii~mnRuitg. tomorrow in Daily Arts: ® Check out Breaking Records, the Daily's inside look at new record releases. Featured tomorrow are James Iha and the soundtrack to "The Wedding Singer." Monday February 9, 1998 'Blues B By Geordy Gantsoudes Daily Arts Writer The first time, they were on a mission God. They would allow nothing to get in way. Not a handful of cops or an RV with the good ol' boys. This time, Dan Aykroyd (Elwood Blu left alone to fulfill a new mission. Belie or not, he succeeds. ,one are the mugging, the antics an tremendous physical comedy of the late Belushi. The movie skirt! issue of how to deal the death by not ta about it. Elwood is Blues ply informed of J Brothers death by the prison 2000 den, in a convers not heard by the At Barwood & ence. Showcase Impossible to rer Belushi's void is by three other I Brethren (though are related to Elw Mighty Mac 4 Goodman), Buster year-old Evan Bonifant) and Cab Morton)_ The three do a good job, with cial kudos to Goodman, in substituting lushi. One would think that "Blues Bro 'Tango' eaches love lesson By Laura Flyer Daily Arts Writer Of all genres of ballroom dancing, the tango is perhaps the most visually evoca- tive and alluring. That is, of course, if the (eers can produce that effect. In her latest film, "The Tango Lesson," Sally Potter assumes the roles of director, writer and lead actress. She plays Sally, an aging woman who ful- fills her childhood dream of becoming a tango dancer; she does this under the tutelage of supreme tango dancer Pablo (Pablo Veron). Sally is unconvincing in demonstrating any natural talent, and stead, she looks like a weathered twig iinst the agile, free-flowing body of Pablo Veron. "The Tango Lesson" presents many themes that aren't persuasive enough. Sally, a filmmak- er living in London who refuses to submit The Tango to the Hollywood Lesson glamorization of ** movies, decides to take up the At the Michigan tango, after she Theater experiences a performance by the Argentinean Pablo. The film is then broken up into the sequential lessons given to Sally by her teacher. A relationship *elops out of these frequent meet- ings, and we are led to believe that the love between them is kindled mostly through their dancing. Maybe if Potter weren't so stiff and stoic; and if Pablo had showed any jus- tifiable reason for his attraction to her character, we would be drawn into the vigor and passion of the tango. Instead, we are painfully aware that Pablo is a much better dancer than Sally, who ver achieves the grace and confi- ace of a talented tango dancer. So what is it that draws Pablo to Sally? Maybe his pride in her admira- tion of him, or her pathetic-looking rothers' maintain respect in second outing 2000" would do its best to stray from the for- mula set out by the first "Blues Brothers." But director John Landis and Dan Aykroyd discovered something that worked in 1980, and pretty much ran with it again for "2000.". Just like the first one, the film opens in a prison. But this time, Elwood is being released. The opening song is an a capella "John the Revelator" sung by blues great Taj Mahal. It was The Blues Brothers' cover of Mahal's "She Caught the Katy" that opened up the first film. Upon his release, Elwood decides to - surprise - put the band back together. These scenes are rather formulaic, with pretty much the same type of hijinks that occurred in the first film. It is still entertaining, though, and the musical numbers (featuring a superb "634-5789" by Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd and Jonny Lang) make it all worth while. This is pretty much the standard that is set by the entire movie. With a PG-13 rating, the writers knew they would be limited in the amount of Jump ba "blue" humor that would be allowed Goodma in the film. The adult language and theme has been replaced with myriad unbelievable music numbers that anyone can appre- ciate. The final scene compiles the most incredible group of musicians ever put on one stage. It would be awful to ruin the surprise of who ends up there, so I will leave it at that. After the credits, a bonus musical number features blues legend, James Brown, who reprises his role of Reverend Cleophus James (sans Chaka Kahn). The cast is a "fun" cast. John Goodman is more than qualified to be Aykroyd's stage partner. He encompasses the bulk and athleticism of Belushi, along with the great blues voice. Bonifant is fine but not necessarily needed. He seems to be little more than screen filler. But he is funny in the dance number and his on stage harmonica solos (performed by Blues Traveler's John Popper) are entertain- ing to watch. Along with Goodman, he has mastered the serious Blues Brother look. Morton takes a turn into comedy, away from his usual dramatic roles. His voice is Courtesy of Universal Pictures The extended Blues clan teams up in 12000." great and he displays incredible emotion on stage as a step-brother of sorts to Elwood. Together, the four brothers do a great job in the musical numbers, though Bonifant is used primarily as window dressing (he has fewer than 15 lines in the movie, yet he is on screen the whole way through). Although one gets the feeling that they have seen it all before (specifically the tremendous wreck of the police cars), the movie is great. The band is back, there are some familiar faces, and some new ones. The film is a must-see for a fan of the first one, and a great cure from the mid-semester blues. Courtesy of Universal Pictures ack! Dan Aykroyd, Evan Bonifant and John an hate the way they look in a suit. Acting makes 'Sight' worth seeing Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics Lords of the dance: Pablo Veron and Sally Potter get close in "The Tango Lesson." By Valerie Lapinski For the Daily How many people's lives can hinge on one piece of art? In Donald Margulies' two-act play, "Sight Unseen," the entangle- ments of three people's lives are explained through their per- ception of art. Directed by student playwright Kristopher Chung and starring Alex Alioto, Krista Braun, Ernie Nolan and Allyson Bakaitis. this Basement Arts performance was insight- ful and thought-provoking. Jonathan Waxman (Alioto), an American artist, is in England for an exhibit opening. He visits his ex-lover, archae- ologist Patricia (Braun), whom he hasn't seen for 15 years. Now married to a stodgy Englishman, Nick (Nolan), Patricia is a self-proclaimed "expatriate" of the United States. When Jonathan walks in the door of Patricia and Nick's home, a study of memories, buried fears and hidden motivations begins. The brilliance of the play was in the unraveling characters. The issues posed by the play were not black and white - whether Jonathan was a true artist or a sell-out was not the question. Instead, the play questioned the reduction of a per- son to his past actions or purposes. The perspective of the audience was distorted through flash- backs between present-day scenes. Whenever it appeared that a character's intentions were clear, a following scene contest- ed that clarity. The performers had a challenge in portraying the many facets of their characters and followed through, bringing depth and perception to their roles. Equally impressive was Chung's direction, which did not seem limited by the small stage area and often ambiguous dialogue. Particularly revealing were the scenes between Jonathan and Nick. Nolan was wonderful with Nick's transition from being painfully shy to bitter and insatiably curious as a result of a lit- tle too much vodka. Both Nolan and Alioto effectively brought into the conflict their characters' similarities and differences. The spare set of Patricia and Nick's home acted as an unas- suming backdrop, where people ate, drank, and succumbed to Sight Unseen Basement Arts Feb. 5-7, 1998 Braun's performance was solid as Nick's resigned wife, and in the flash- backs of her past she unearthed Patricia's youthful ambition. One scene showed Patricia and Jonathan in his old bedroom, listening to Cyndi Lauper while his father sat shivah for his moth- er downstairs. The scene was deftly played by both Braun and Alioto, who created sharp contrast with the older versions of their characters. The moving conclusion showed the three arguing over the ownership of the painting of Patricia, and then a flashback to the day it was painted. As each character's perception of its the daily task of surviving. Nothing momentous was allowed in such an environment, and the play used well-crafted dialogue rather than emotional explosions for drama. Between the tense domestic scenes came snatches of an interview of Jonathan with Grete, a German art critic played by Allyson Bakaitis. Bakaitis delivered her questions with a believable German accent and innocent smoothness, masking any underlying motives Grete had in interviewing the Jewish Jonathan. wistful smile that makes her look as though she's ingested one too many psychedelic drugs. Pablo doesn't like mixing the profes- sional with the personal, and he offers a suggestion: transfer all of their mutual emotions into their dancing. An interesting idea, except there are two resulting glitches: first, Sally can't seem to put her lust for him into the tango, and as a result, Pablo is frustrat- ed by her. Second, they struggle to face the unavoidable fact that they are attracted to each other, and cannot sub- due their desire for one another. The movie weakens when Pablo con- fesses that he feels like he has no roots as an Argentinean living in Paris with the long-forgotten traditions of his inherited religion, Judaism. This theme is loosely connected, perhaps complete- ly unrelated, to the plot of "The Tango Lesson." Set aside these contradictory pit- falls, and there is still plenty to appre- ciate about this filnm. The cinematog- raphy by Robby Muller is astounding, particularly in the opening scene. Sally has an extreme obsession with sterility, orderliness and cleanliness. The first shot in the film is of a stack of clean white paper and a perfectly sharpened pencil atop a spotless, stark-white table. The black-and-white scene then immediately switches to a complete opposite effect, showing the vibrant colors of the dresses of three supermodels, who are murdered by their legless publicity man. This dis- turbing image of Sally's idea for an upcoming film is profoundly effec- tive, in contrast to the previous frame. Her obsessive character traits. howev- er, are not incorporated into the rest of the movie. Another interesting technique is used by the camera during the group tango sessions where the gliding movement of Sally from one dancer to another pro- duces a sensual effect. Because nearly half of "The Tango Lesson" is devoted to the visual aspect of tango dancing between Sally and Pablo, we are drawn into the seductive motions of their long, slender legs and how the partners are gracefully inter- twined. In fact, some of the tango scenes are suggestively erotic, particu- larly when two other male dancers join in on Sally and Pablo. producing an eerie, provocative unity among them. Potter demonstrates the capability of producing reimarkably original films. If she provided some meaning into her symbolic visual effects and greater depth into character develop- ment. she could really teach Hollywood a lesson far better than any tango with Pablo. meaning was revealed, fatal distance grew between the group. In the second half, Nick said of Jonathan's art, "I just don't get it." Jonathan replied that his job is complete once the painting is done; the viewer is responsible for his own interpretation. Perhaps this was Margulies' philosophy in "Sight Unseen" - the audience may "get" whatever truths it finds in the play, though it is no longer the responsibility of the playwright. The result was an intriguing performance, well worth the efforts of all involved and all who experi- enced it. .l "RICHARDSON'S 9 P! T I !C A Student discounts on eye exams and eyeglasses Great Brands Polo TommyHilfiger Calvin Klein W' Achev YurMaximum Score At EXCEL, we focus upon the key distinctions that result in great scores. You will learn to anticipate the exam's thinking, manage your time more effectively, control exam-day anxiety, and refine your test-taking stratege. Professional Instruction, Innovative Materials, Individual attention, & Affordable Tuition. GRE Classes begin Sun., 218 & Mon., 2/16 Preparation also available for April DAT, April GRE Psychology & GMAT (computer) CEL llO South University 996-1500 Cafe Shapiro A study break of student readings & free coffee Where talking in the Library is encouraged... Come hear your peers read from their works. You'll hear stories, poems, mm i n name it. Each night will feature different writers. "What a GreatExperience." f Learning the language. Meeting people. Coming face to face with history, art and architecture, culture, food and fun. UNIVERSITY STUDIES ABROAD CONSORTIUM... ' Small classes. Personal attention. Fully z3rart-d- rp~iv ,r.univrsity credit.