10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 3, 1998 Can't-miss 'Sarajevo' submits powerful By Matthew Barrett Daily Arts Writer What's worth fighting for? What's worth putting your life on the line for? These are questions with which today's movies are constantly dealing. Although it's not an easy subject, it is one that direc- tor Michael Winterbottom handles with great skill in "Welcome To Sarajevo" The story is told from the point of view of several journalists who are in Sarajevo covering the war between 1992-93. This is an intense movie that grabs the audience by the throat during the opening sequence and doesn't let go until the credits roll. The constant shootings and explosions create exceptional tension that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats throughout the entire way. Citizens and foreigners are shot out of the blue and in totally unexpected moments, leading us to wonder who is next. The character at the center of the movie is British reporter Michael Henderson (Stephen Dillane). In the beginning of the film, he recognizes the problems that the people of Sarajevo have, but seems uninterested in helping, as he points out to a colleague, "We're not here to help, we're here to report." At one moment early on, a frustrated Michael is sitting in his newsroom watching the national news from Britain. His story has been pushed to the back of the newscast, something that seems to be a regular occur- rence. This moment is not meant to portray an egotistical person who wants to have the lead every night, but rather a reporter who feels he has stories that should be more important to the people than the latest happenings of the royal family. , As his frustration builds and evolves, Michael starts to go to an orphanage full of children who are barely hanging onto their existence. This touches a nerve in him, and he makes a variety of pleas to have the chil- dren removed from Bosnia. For one newscast, Michael stands in front of an almost vacant airplane that is set to return to a safer land. Welcome to Sarajevo ***i At the Michigan Michael befriends As the plane pulls away with only the few ambassadors who were in visiting the troubled land, he imagines all of the children whose lives could have been made so much better by being on that plane. At this point it is clear that Michael will do whatever it takes to get as many children as possible out of Bosnia. Dillane gives a powerful per- formance as Michael and does a stellar job conveying the struggle that his character faces. During the many visits to the orphanage, a young girl named Emira. He Courtesy of Miramax Marisa Tomel stars as an aid worker in the dramatic film, "Welcome to Sarajevo." The movie opens on Sunday at the Michigan. promises her that he will get her out of Sarajevo, and this relationship becomes a point of fierce conflict later in the movie. As time goes on, Michael comes in contact with Nina (Marisa Tomei), an aid worker. She arranges for a bus to take the children to safety during a one hour cease- fire. Although it is illegal, Michael arranges for Emira to come along with him on the bus under the condition that he will care for her once he takes refuge. Tomei's part in the movie is quite small, but it does The University of Michigan School of Music Friday, April 3 Paradise' traps readers mi Guest Lecture/Demonstration China Found Music Workshop Chinese Traditional Instrument Ensemble from Taiwan "Preservinu and Redetining Traditions" Blanche Anderson Moore Hall. E. V. Moore Bldg., 3:30 p.m. Opera Workshop Joshua Major, director: Timothy Cheek, music director .,Offenbach: The Lantern Marriage, a one act comedy McIntosh Thearre, E. V. Moore Bldg., 5 p.m. Symphony and Concert Band Wind Ensembles Rackham Auditorium (first floor), 8 p.m . BDA/BFA II Performance Media Union, 8 p.,m. Friday - Sunday, April 3 - 5 Theatre & Drama Sophocles: Antigone Glenda Dickerson, director Trueblood Theatre. 8 p.m. (Fri. and Sat.); 2 p.m. (Sun.) Admission S4; for information phone 734-764-0450 Saturday, April 4 Women's Glee Club Sandra Snow, conductor Hill Auditorium. 8 p.m. (free) BDA/BFA 1 Performance Media Untion, 8 p.m. Sunday, April 5 Campus Symphony Orchestra Charles David Burke, conductor Allen Tinkham and Adam Glaser. guest conductors Fawn Juvinall, guest clarinet soloist " music by Brahms, Weber and Tchaikovsky Hill Audiorium, 4 p.m. Faculty Recital Logan Skelton, piano Freda Herseth, mezzo soprano: Phillip Frohmayer baritone " World Premiere of Cummings Songs: An American Grab Bag by Logan Skelton. Also songs by Ives and Stevens Brinon Recital Hall, E.V. Moore Bldg.. 4p.m. Percussion Ensemble Mike Udow, music director McIntosh Theatre. E.V. Moore Bldg., 4 p.m. China Found Music Workshop Concert Chinese Traditional Instrumental Ensemble from Taiwan Rackham A uditorium (first floor), 8 p.n. Monday, April 6 Opera Workshop Joshua Major. director; Timothy Cheek, music director Opera scenes by Tchaikovsky. Bellini, Verdi, Mozart and more McIntosh Theatre, E.V. Moore Bldg., 7 p.m. Trombone Student Recital Students of Dennis Smith perform trombone repertory Britton Recital Hall, E. V. Moore Bldg., 8 p.m. Guest Lecture Franz Mohr. legendary Steinway piano technician * "My Life with the Great Pianists" Blanche Anderson Moore Hall. E.V. Moore Bldg.. 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 7 Opera Workshop Joshua Major, director; Timothy Cheek, music director Scenes from Mozart's Cosi fan tui and Gounod's Faust Mcintosh Theatre, E. V. Moore Bldg.. 5p.m. University Choir Sandra Snow, conductor " music by Beethoven, Diemer, Brunner, Ramnish and more Hill Auditorium. 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 8 Opera Workshop Joshua Major, director; Timothy Cheek, music director Opera scenes by Tchaikovsky. Bellini, Verdi, Mozart and more McIntosh Theatre, E. V. Moore Bldg., 7p.m. Arts Chorale David Fryling, conductor " music by Britten, Copland, Haydn, Schubert and more Hill Auditorium, 8 p.m. Thursday, April 9 Opera Workshop Joshua Major, director; Timothy Cheek, music director Paradise Toni Morrison HarperCollins There arq'only a handful of writers brilliant enough to instruct and enter- tain on a multitude of levels, while innovating stylistically and critiquing cultures through shrewd and wise eyes. Never mind. There's just one, and she has just released a new novel, "Paradise," which can only add to her stellar reputation. Toni Morrison conceived "Paradise" as the final novel in a tril- ogy, beginning with the famous "Beloved" (currently being made into a movie by Oprah Winfrey) and continuing with the dark rhythms of "Jazz." Morrison's newest novel has been long-antici- . pated, and is less , anticlimactic (fol- lowing her 1989- Nobel Prize in Literature) than one would expect. "Paradise, as its name suggests, has been well worth the wait. Morrison's extensive read- ings in African American history partly inspired this book, as well as "Beloved" and "Jazz;" all are based on little-known incidents that she ran across in her reading. Discovering that groups of ex-slaves had traveled to the northwest post-Civil War and attempted to establish all-black utopian communities, Morrison imagines one of these towns as the setting for her novel. The hopes of these adventurers are contrasted with the realities of their town, Ruby. Although all the citizens are black, and thus protected from a large amount of the racism that blacks in desegregated more diverse cities were suffering, the ugliness of social structure still emerges. Political and religious factions form; there are a few very rich blacks, and the rest are middle-class or poor; the young are rebellious; unplanned pregnancies occur; insanity seems almost regular. This segregated utopia does not work, and Ruby's citizens cannot let go of their pride to see it. Morrison employs Ruby masterfully as a microcosm of U.S. society, showing us many of the communicative prob- lems and inherent prejudices within our supposed Land of Opportunity. Racism is not, however, the dominant theme of Morrison's work. It provides a background, undercurrent and frame- work for the very feeling of "otherness" that she can so powerfully convey. Every character in the book has experienced liminality at some point. The men may be powerful in a patriarchy, but Morrison's men are black in a white world, Their power is lost in certain groups. When they are threatened by an outlying house of women (the "Convent"), they are frightened enough to decide that these women are the root of all evil in Ruby, form a posse and attempt to murder them (hence the novel's shocking first line: "They shoot the white girl first."). Some of the male characters allow themselves to be gov- erned by the women they have sex with, even to the point of bringing extramari- tal affairs, illegitimate children, and abortion into pure Ruby. The whites who venture into Ruby also are marginalized. For a moment, they are the only white people in a town full of black residents - delicious reversal. Their discomfort at their "oth- erness" leads them out into a blizzard that the blacks had warned them about, and the entire family is found dead in their car the next spring. The most brilliant marginalization Morrison portrays in "Paradise" is that of its women. Compared to "Beloved" and "Jazz'" "Paradise"'s women have incredibly little space in which to speak. This peripheral presentation, however, only serves to make Ruby's women more dynamic to the reader; when they speak, their voices are often the bravest. They are the ones acknowledging the failure of their segregated utopia. They are the ones trying to balance the disaf- fected youth (who are reacting strongly to the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and attempting to recover an African heritage that their elders advise them to ignore) with the disillusioned founders (men who insisted that a symbolic oven be carried on their search for a home, rather than an extra crib or badly need- ed food). They are the one mately, band together to ove vidual differences for the aspiration: life on their own1 only Morrison's widely-var who get anything done. The etly, they do it instinctively regardless of personal dis tress's and their lover's wi each other) and they do it o Love, which is always most beautifully wrought Morrison's writing, is slowt "Paradise."Yet it finally doe such a force that the reader ing, dizzy from the evang Morrison slips into, confu of the simultaneous appe murder and love. Finally, one of the stron between "Beloved," " "Paradise" is seen: the co-e murder and love. Love exist People can murder ou People can love someone w dered. Love itself cannot b Morrison layers, weaves, these two severe aspects o together so deftly, withs prose and wide-ranging sk are ensnared in the great b this tiny little Paradise. Butt from which we do not wa free. -Am report give her one great scene to showcase her talent. During the ride across Bosnia, a bus is taken over by soldiers. As the situation escalates and becomes more and more frenzied, Tomei aptly portrays the anger of her charac- ter while trying to shout over the crowd. The frantic pitch of the scene is also due to superb direction and a variety of camera angles. The only other actor of note in the film is Wood Harrelson. He plays a loud and obnoxious American reporter, and adds some well-needed humor to the film. Harrelson's shares a memorable conversation with Michael in their apartment about the differences between their homelands. Director Winterbottom does a tremendous job with "Welcome To Sarajevo" He splices real footage of Bosnia into the story and it works. Often times this does not work so well on the big screen because the "real" footage looks out of place in a movie. Since the story is done from the point of view of television reporters, it is entirely believ- able that the footage could have been theirs. Winterbottom also uses very little light in nearly every scene that takes place inside which helps create the feeling that the characters are hiding from some- thing truly horrible outside. He also fills the movie with shots that are not important to the plot, but that add to the overall story. "Welcome To Sarajevo" is an amazing movie that was somehow passed over by both critics and audiences alike. Be forewarned though that it is extremely graph- ic and contains several images of mutilated dead b ies. If you can overcome the violence and grueso imagery, you should be in for one of the best movies of 1997 - a few months removed. e-M poetic prose s who, ulti- tures." rcome mdi- Doty tears into that uneasy gap ir common between plastic, unreal experienc terms. It is and appreciation of modern beauty ied women in "Lilies ip New York." y do it qui- Contemplating a sparse, unfinished , they do it sidewalk drawing of flowers, he putes (mis- curses the frenzy of city life ves support "Trumpet, now New York's a smear ut of love. and chaos of lilies." But before leav.- one of the ing his urban vision, he realizes "a aspects of sketchy, possible bloom, about to, to appear in going to, going to be, becomin es, and with open," the traces of resurrection in r is left reel- dark corner of modern decay. elical tones The poem "Fog Suite" deepens sed because these feelings from a literary per- earances of spective. The fog serves as both a metaphor for his own confusion wh ngest bonds words and the "visible uncertainty" azz" and of contemporary alienation. In all existence of this confusion, Doty reassures, 4it s in murder. feels like home here, held - like any it of love. line of text - by the white margins ho has mur- of a ghost's embrace." e murdered. By translating the overcrowded, intertwines consumer world into similarly diffi- f humanity cult language, Doty calls poetry such poetic itself into question. He proves that ill, that we the days of natural, reassuring pas- ig world of toral images are gone. In his poem this is a trap "Concerning Some Recent Criticism nt to break of His Work," Doty answers com- plaints about his dissonant, over- 7my D. Hayes loaded lines. Calling his new idea ideal art "an opera of atmospheres, he defends his flashy, strange words by writing, "every sequin's an act of praise." In "Murano," Doty mourns the loss of natural creation driving his collection, crying for a world that became "a struck match-head of a city, ungodly lonely ... why do you break yourself further and faster?" Doty's craft is strongest and crus m is over," elest in his title poem, "Swe a swan, set Machine." He pounds out of th y, mechani- tragedy of a young crack addict with world that the frightening, stunning lesson of collection, contemporary life. "We're all on dis- s the world play in this town, sweet machines, here beauti- powerless, consumed, just as he con- d by gaudy, sumes himself." e same new Underneath the darkness in those us. lines, Doty saves the end of the book four books for images of "Mercy on .Broadway." Prize, and The chaos of words and meanings tics Circle his poetry is translated into a new. er confronts rhythm and hope for salvation. For, of poetry's beneath this sweet machine, Doty s: how the finds "lonely and fragile armor rld building dressed up as tough, its so many beats there's something you can dance to." ns with an That powerful, deep foundation ade color, holds his wild, consumed poetry to glass with human roots, a balance rare in poets sters in ref- who tackle the darkness of modern 'In contrast lives. "What did you think, that j nd this arti- was some slight thing?" he co covers "the eludes, finding a source of fire and insist that hope for poets with whom to work in ok centers years to come. e new beau- - Jason Boog of tiny ges- ast day to place your vote for n Arbor. Give credit to some of places to visit on campus and i u love best about Ann Arbor. A e found on page 2 of today's you may also vote online at ubumich.edu/ daily/. Cast your Sweet Machine M ark Doty Harper Collins "The beautiful kingdo Mark Doty meditates on against the contemporary cal and unnatural city- man has created. His new "Sweet Machine," probes all poets struggle with, w} ful swans are overwhelme man-made creations -th kingdom that holds all of Doty's career includes of poetry, the T.S. Eliot the National Book Cri Award. This mature writ in his new collection one most difficult problems lyric can survive in a wo over natural beauty. "Sweet Machine" ope ode to the man-ma "Faurille," a color of "compounded metallic lu erence to natural sheens.' between natural beauty a ficial object, Doty disc luster of things which they're made." The bo around this uncomfortabl ty, in the modern "world I. .1 Trapped between MODERNITY and TRADITION, 0 a 0 ad m 6 Today is the 1 the Best of An your favoritej the things yo ballot can b paper, and http://www.pi I ~ ,t