The 1998 North American International Auto Show opens to the pub-
lic tomorrow. Venture to downtown Detroit's Cobo Center for a look
at the hottest vehicles and automotive designs of today and tomor-
row. The revved-up action in the Motor City will cost you $8, $4 for
seniors, and children accompanied by an adult get in free. The show
is open this weekend 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

,.

Friday,
January 9, 1998

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0

,'Hunting'
finds great
talWentmi
4y Matthew Barrett
T-iy Arts Writer
A few years ago, lifelong friends Ben Affleck and
Matt Damon were actors who just couldn't get a role
ih a movie. Their solution: write "Good Will Hunting"
and cast themselves in the leads. Their dream panned
out, and the result is a well-done blend of comedy and
drama.
Will Hunting (Damon) is a cocky orphan who
w'orks as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of
echnology. He's a genius, and he solves with ease the
problems that professors leave on the board for stu-
dents.to work on over an entire semester. He has a
wonderful gift, yet he seems uninterested in using it
or anything other than getting himself out of trouble
in.courts and impressing others.
. Affleck plays Chuckie, Will's
best friend. He seems to be the
only one who realizes the gift that R
Will bears. He also knows what a
waste it would be for Will to 91
pend his life knocking around
Boston with him and the boys.
Chuckie provides a good contrast
to Will, because although he is
not as smart as his pal, he is one of the few people who
is able to see through the act and challenge him.
Will and his friends spend most of their time cruis-
ipg around Boston looking for girls and trouble. One
4ay, he sees someone who used to bully him in kinder-
garten, and decides it's time for a little payback. The
fight escalates into an all-out brawl, and when the
Solice come, Will hits an officer. He seems destined
for jail when Professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard),

UMS begins
half-price sale

"N .~

Skylar (Minnie Driver) gets close to rebellious prodigy Will Hunting (Matt Damon) in "Good Will Hunting."

U

the math teacher whose problems Will solves, inter-
venes. Will is presented with two options: to go to jail
or to go work with Lambeau on math and receive
counseling for his behavior.
Will goes through a series of
E V I E W counselors, finding a weakness in
Good Will all of them, and then using the
weakness to get the counselor to
Hunting quit. But just when he thinks he's
***J beat the system, enter Sean,
At Showcase & state (Robin Williams) a down on his
luck professor and Lambeau's
former roommate at MIT. The first scene between
Will and Sean is mesmerizing, as Will toys with Sean,
and Sean tries to stand up to Will's verbal and mental
barrage. The scene sets the stage for the film's most
interesting relationship, where both characters have a
lot to teach and learn from the other.
As the story evolves, it becomes clear that
Lambeau and Sean have very different ideas about
what is and is not good for Will. Lambeau sees Will

as a brilliant mathematician, and thinks it would be a
loss to the world if he did anything other than math.
Sean knows that Will could never be truly happy if he
worked in an office for the next 50 years of his life.
Lambeau and Sean have some stellar scenes together
where they argue about what is truly important, and
their different definitions of what it means to be suc-
cessful.
Gus Van Sant does an admirable job directing, but
the script is the fuel that makes this movie burn.
Affleck and Damon knew the characters inside and
out when they were writing, and it comes through in
the words and in their performances. The story moves
along well, and it allows the audience to watch the
characters change in a way that few other dramas do.
Rather than have the characters change suddenly, it
allows the viewer to watch them evolve throughout the
story.
With strong performances from Damon, Affleck,
and Williams, "Good Will Hunting" is one of the most
enjoyable and fascinating films of the year.

By Stephanie Love
Campus Arts Editorf
For those looking to take an alterna-r
tive trip around the world, the searcht
may be over.
The University Musical Society
offers an artistic world tour in just fourI
months for half the price of regularl
season tickets.I
So how can one experience the
UMS world tour?I
On Saturday, UMS begins its sale atI
the Burton Tower Box Office from 10
a.m. to 1 p.m.t
Any student with an ID can obtainc
up to two tickets for the majority of the
1998 concert season. One can wait to
pay until ticket pick-up, which beginsi
Jan. 16.1
The schedule is packed with someI
of the finest talents in the music indus-1
try.
The Boys Choir of Harlem brings '
New York to Hill Auditorium on Jan.1
18.
Then it's off to Japan on Jan. 22
when the Tokyo String Quartet comes
to Rackham with a new first violinist1
and an acclaimed sound.
Canada can be quite a hike for
some, but the Canadian Brass are mak-
ing the trek to Ann Arbor on Feb. 8
instead.t
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra t
with Emmanuel Ax on piano and theI
Dale Warland Singers, and the RoyalI
Concertgebouw Orchestra of
Amsterdam comes to Hill on Feb. 11.
Put away that parka and let the hot
sounds of Juan-Jose Mosalini and his
Grand Tango Orchestra melt the ice on<
Feb. 13, and you can take your sweetie
to the Middle East on Valentine's Day
to experience Israeli percussionist
Chen Zimbalista's roller coaster ride of
sound.
Despite woe
Philharmoni

The UMS tour returns to Ann Arbor
for the Ann Arbor Symphony's perfor-
mance of Mendelssohn's "Elijah" with
the UMS Choral Union on Feb. 22_
The schedule ventures off ag1n
with the New York City Opera
National company's performance 4f
Donizetti's "Daughter of the
Regiment."
The opera that made Pavaratti
famous is at the Power Center from
March 12-14.
From New York it heads to Cub;or
the Afro-Cuban band Los Munequjtos
de Matanzas and an evening of rutrha
at the Power Center on March 18°e
This concert is sure to entail datic-
ing in the aisles. Then it's backto
Israel for the Batsheva Dance
Company of Israel's performances
March 21 and 22. -
One should not miss violinisi'01
Shaham before the season ends -
he'll be performing with the Russip
National Orchestra on March- 24.
Then UMS brings in a group 'froyn
down under with the mates .ipthe
Australian Chamber Orchestra Marh
25.
The next performance comes frdfn
Spain, with Paco de Lucia's Flarneo
Sextet. And of course, a little dornei-
tic flair from the American String
Quartet in the Beethoven the
Contemporary series is a great way to
get ready for April 3 and 4,,when
STREB: PopACTION comes to Ann
Arbor.
STREB's dancers will make _yu
sweat as they defy physics and grfuity
at the Power Center.'""
But it all begins at Burton Tower, in
Saturday, where a season of exotic
sights and sounds awaits. Tickets start
at $6, but only a limited number of are
available for each performance. {

Robin Williams and Matt Damon find themselves delivering brilliant performances in "Hunting."

Allen deconstructs his creativity in 'Harry'

By Emily Lambert
Daily Arts Writer
The new year promises to be a spe-
cial one for the Israel Philharmonic
Orchestra, which will perform at Hill
Auditorium tomorrow night. Sixty-one
years after the group was formed as the
Palestine Orchestra, the state of Israel
turns 50 and the musicians will be part
of a major party.
Special concerts and events cannot
mask Israel's troubles, however. The
musicians usually perform on less joy-
ous occasions, often during crises that
mark Israel's history.
"We alwaysP
emphasize that dur-
ing these difficult
periods, we must be
involved in activity
in our wa," said
Zeev Dorman, the
orchestra's principal bassoonist, "which
means we come and we play. It makes
life a bit happier."
The orchestra members are typically
anxious to play immediately after
authorities give the OK. During the
1973 Yom Kippur War, when Dorman
was a soldier, the orchestra held a con-
cert every night. Dorman recalled play-
ing in a concert that was halted midway
due to an alarm, which became an
added intermission.
Initially composed of European musi-
cians who lost their positions due to
Nazism, the orchestra now has a mem-
bership that reflects Israel's internation-
al population. About half the orchestra
members are native Israelis. The others
hail from Russia, Eastern Europe and
other areas across the globe.
"From so many immigrants, you
have to create a new creature," said

s
I

s, Israel
c plays on
Dorman, who likened Israel to the
United States and called compromise
vital. Musicians have differing ideas
and interpretations, he said. "You have
to find the golden way."
The result, which fuses such sounds
as deep "Russian" strings with, clan
"American" winds, has been enormous-
ly successful. The orchestra has"per
formed with numerous leading soloists
and is acclaimed worldwide as IsraeVs
most musical ambassador.
That role has its disadvantages,
acknowledged Avi Shoshani; the
orchestra's ifn-
aging director.:
"We are an easy
Israel target," he said,
Philharmonic citing the -}vo
Tomorrow at 8 p.m. security guards
Hill Auditorium that travel ,With
Student Rush $10 the orchestra. "I
don't see any American orchestrAWAY-
eling with security provided by the gv-
ernment," Shoshani said.
Despite the dangers, Shoshani clled
the thought of keeping the musicians
home "ridiculous," and Dorman agreed.
"As much as it's difficult, we go on
with daily activity," Dorman said. 'fe
must go on."
The orchestra travels widely, butnot
everyone has the opportunity to hear its
music. The musicians have never yen-
tured, for example, to Cairo, Beitutor
Israel's occupied territory.
"Once we went to play there forthe
soldiers, but not for the inhabitants,"
Dorman said of the latter. He admitfed
the possibility of playing there unlikely
during his time in the orchestra.
"Who knows?" he asked. "Maybe
one day if peace exists here, then we
will be able to play also for them:'

By Ryan Posly
Daily Arts Writer
For more than 25 years, Woody Allen has been con-
sistently churning out about a film every year, making

that the novelties in the previous films meant some-
thing; they were all essential to the stories. In
"Deconstructing Harry," Allen himself doesn't seem
to know what he's trying to say.
The film is about a writer,
wEHarry Block, suffering from
VIE writer's block (don't discount the

him one of the most prolific
filmmakers in history.
What is unusual about this is

K7R

_ at despite his high output, fDeconstructing easy name-theme connection,
Allen's films are almost always Harry though - it also comes from
well-crafted, inspired and sub- **' Antonius Block, the tor-
Jirnely funny; audiences have At the Michigan mented protagonist
come to expect a good new crc- of "The Seventh
ation by him every winter. Seal," the masterpiece by Allen's
But it's gotten harder and harder to believe in Allen favorite director, Ingmar
he's gotten older and older, and his personal life has Bergman).
jotten weirder and weirder. He has recently written an
He has almost become the classic "dirty old man" autobiographical book, thinly .
- both on-screen and off- as he confronts the same disguising all his friends
old issues year after year, film after film. while exposing their most
,There are two things about "Deconstructing Harry," unflattering attributes.
-Allen's latest foray into the lives of neurotic New Needless to say, his
Yorkers, that surprise the audience immediately. First friends/lovers/ex-wives are not
is.the clipped, disconnected use of jump cuts through- pleased.
out, ostensibly to illustrate the fragmented, disorga- The thin strand of a plot -
ized mental state of the film's main char- comes directly from
cter, Harry Block (Allen). Bergman's "Wild
The second surprise is the perva- Strawberries;'
.,.sive, uncharacteristic use of a film Allen Young lovers Stank
obscene language, particularly also aped Moore deconstruct
4.from Block; it is actually star- in 1988
ting to hear Woody utter with "Another Woman." It

What makes this film frustratingly confusing is that
many of the characters have two actors that portray
them: one to play the character in Harry's real world,
and one to play the character in reenactments of
scenes from Harry's book. Demi Moore plays the
character by Kirstie Alley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is Judy
Davis - it's difficult to understand exactly what
occurs.
To add to the confusion, Allen uses those jarring
jump cuts in many scenes, sometimes in
machine gun fashion. Dialogue gets
clipped and the impact of the scene
(as well as the understandability of
it) is lost.
The film essentially consists
of Harry's car trip to Adair, as
well as his continuous
attempts to talk Elisabeth
Shue out of getting married
(to Billy Crystal).
Interspersed with this are
scenes from Harry's short sto-
ries and his book.
From all of this, especially the
more unusual of his short stones
(Robin Williams is an actor who
walks around out of focus,
Tucci and Demi Harry goes to hell where Billy
ach other in "Harry." Crystal is the devil), we are sup-
posed to get a sense of Harry's
character and feel a need for him to be redeemed at
the concluionn of the film. For the most Dart the film

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