The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 29, 1998 -11

Midler s 'heart of gold'

shines on

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4
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Courtesy of FOX Searchlight
arisa Tomel, Eli Marlenthal, Alan Arkin, Natasha Lyonne and David Krumholz star
' film "Slums of Beverly Hills."
Enventive 'Slums'
vrets too messy

Newsday
NEW YORK - Bette Midler is
throwing a "Hulaween" gala Oct. 30
to raise money for her pet project,
cleaning up New York City parks. If
Midler has her way, raffle prizes for
the event, whose slogan is "this town
needs a lift," will include a rhino-
plasty, a tummy tuck and some lipo-
suction.
"Is that a stroke of genius?"
Midler asks with a cackle worthy of
Phyllis Diller. "Imagine if I can get
really good surgeons to say, 'Yes, I'll
donate you a nose job."'
Midler pauses in mid-gloat. "Oh
my God, imagine if something goes
wrong - what if they sue me?" The
cackle becomes a roar. "It's my
fault."
Trashy, flashy humor has always
been a cornerstone of Midler's style,
but it's been missing from her last
two albums of weepy, adult contem-
porary ballads.
Enter "Bathhouse Betty," the
Divine Miss M's first new record in
three years (and her first release on
Warner Bros.), in which her campy,
over-the-top style returns to the fore.
"I wanted to do the splash-out, to
not be so one-dimensional," Midler,
now a Manhattanite, said in a recent
phone interview from Los Angeles,
where Warner Bros. was holding her
record promo blitz. "This album has
moments of great vulgarity, but also
moments of great yearning."
Yes, there are few triple hankie
jobs to satisfy fans of Midler's sug-
ary hits like "Wind Beneath My
Wings"and "From a Dista ce;" The
opening track is the sorro ul "Song
of Bernadette" by Leona, Cohen,
and the soaring "My ne True
Friend" is on the sound tr ck of the
new Meryl Streep film, ;One True
Thing."
But most of the album #vokes the
Midler whose nutty hula dances and
Andrews Sisters takeoffs, made her
the toast of the Continentpl Baths, a
gay spa on Manhattan's Upper West
Side where she became a sensation
in the early '70s.
Midler tips her hat to, her Baths
days with the album's title,
"Bathhouse Betty," which came to
her most unexpectedly.t
"We had a home in Laguna Beach
(Calif.) for a while and one night I
was alone there and heard someone
outside the door shouting,
'Bathhouse Betty! Bathhouse Betty!
Come out!"' Midler recalled. "It was
a drunken fan. I was terrified. I
thought, 'Oh my God, I don't have
the alarm on, I'm going (o be trapped
and mutilated here,' and I started
screaming, 'Go away! Go away!' and
I ran to the phone and called my bro-
ker and said, 'Sell this .douse!""

Courtesy of Twentieth Century fox
Bette Midler, shown here in the 1991 film "For the Boys," continues her music career with the release of "Bathhouse Betty,"

y ura Flyer
aims Writer
"They're deformed!" Vivian
bramowitz (Natasha Lyonne)
pans. Oversized breasts, Vivian
says, are her lat-
est preoccupa-
tion during her
Slums of on i z i n g
Bevurs o teenage years,
Beverly and also a major
* Hills topic of conver-
sation through-
At the Michigan o u t
director/writer
Tamara Jenkins'
film, "Slums of
Beverly Hills."
The movie
puts us right into
the wealthy
eighborhoods of Beverly Hills, but,
s we are looking through the
n end of a camera lens, we fol-
ow the far-from-wealthy
bramowitzes from cheap motel to
heap motel. Such is the family's
ifestyle.
Why remain nomads in a city
those, population is dominated by
hose of opulence, status and fame?
he school district, says Murray
Al Arkin). He wants his kids to
ehe education they deserve;
oney and possessions are sec-
ndary.
"Slums of Beverly Hills" aims to
xpose the more uncomfortable,
umiliating sexual tensions and
notional crises that confront an
angst-ridden high school teenage
girl. Vivian endures incessant jeers
and overtones about her physical
development from all sides - her
brothers, her father, her aunt and
un*, and the Charles Manson-
crazed next-door neighbor.
Though she is influenced by oth-
ers' judgments, she also reveals a
ertain confidence and maturity; a
oice in her head which says, "I
now what I'm going through, and
m going to face everything head-on
nd with persistence."
Her father, too, believes in Vivian
s ng the responsible one in the
iP y. When Murray's niece is
:leased from her visit to drug-rehab
enters and comes to stay with the

Abramowitzes, Vivian is in charge of
taking care of Rita (Marisa Tomei).
All of these conflicts and issues
are contextualized into light-hearted,
sometimes hilarious moments.
Creative, clever camera shots
enhance some of the best scenes in
the film. One time, Murray opens the
bedroom door to find Vivian and
Rita provocatively dancing around
the room with a vibrator. All move-
ment ceases, and Vivian - nun-like
- stands straight as a pole with her
battery-operated device held like a
she is holding a candlestick. We see
Rita in the far-right background, a
silent yet ever-present abettor in
their lewd performance.
Other interesting camera angles
are sprinkled throughout "Slums of
Beverly Hills." The first and last
shots of L.A. palm trees shooting
into the sky are exaggerated in
height and give an overwhelming
effect that the Abramowitzes feel in
Beverly Hills.
Also, the effect of the panning of
the camera over Vivian and Eliot (the
neighbor) in a sexual encounter in
the backseat of his car is as though
we are viewing a painting of pas-
sionate lovers.
On the other hand, Jenkins slightly
overemphasizes, and even exagger-
ates the sexual/bodily issues that
Vivian is coming to terms with. She
is sparse with her subtlety, which
makes some scenes memorable, and
others a bit tedious.
The casting of Alan Arkin was,
however, an excellent choice. His
character deepens as the film pro-
gresses; we discover a new side of
sentimentality to him and reach a.
better understanding of the
Abramowitz family.
Natasha Lyonne (Woody's daugh-
ter in "Everyone Says I Love You") is
equally fit for her part. To Vivian,
the world (not just her family) frus-
trates her. Full of snide comments
and smug looks, she nevertheless
reveals a sweet, childish demeanor
that is particularly appealing.
The intriguing cinematography
and funny, yet honest, sequences in
the film perhaps make up for Jenkins
lack ofjudgment in presenting issues
subtly and succinctly.

She also called police, but in the
meantime the fan took off. "He left
me a very pretty bouquet," Midler
purred.
Midler collected some songs for
the album in a similar fashion. "This
one came to me through my hair-
dresser," she volunteered of the
show-stopper, a remake of the 1994
Uncanny Alliance club hit "I'm
Beautiful."
An ode to accepting who you are,
whoever that may be, "I'm
Beautiful" is a turbo-charged funk
tune over which Midler raps (yes,
raps): "I simply believe with all my
heart, I'm beautiful, I'm beautiful,
I'm beautiful, damn it!"
"Too wack, too smart, too fast, too
fine, too loud, too tough, too too
divine!" a backup group chimes
behind her.
The Divine Miss M, now 53, said
the song serves as a riposte to the
kids who ignored her during her dif-
ficult childhood in a predominantly
Samoan neighborhood of Honolulu.
"I was always being left out, always
being the last one to be chosen," she
recalled.
Another reminder of her Hawaii
days is the inane hula number,
"Ukelele Lady." A smoking version
of the Big Maybelle song "One
Monkey Don't Stop No Show" fea-
turing zoot-suited hepcats Royal
Crown Revue, adds young blood to
the mix. So does "The Boxer," a song
by Ben Folds (of the innovative
piano-led rock trio Ben Folds Five)
which Midler said reminds her of "a
two-minute, hard-boiled movie."

As for movies, Midler just fin-
ished a comedy slated for release
next year titled "Isn't She Great," in
which she plays pulp fiction writer
Jacqueline Susann. "It's a riot. She
was really bigger than life, she was
like the last gasp of a certain kind of
show-biz moll," Midler said with
another cackle.
Midler, whose film appearances
range from her Oscar-nominated
lead in "The Rose," loosely based on
the life of Janis Joplin, to the Disney
comedy "Down and Out in Beverly
Hills" to the appropriately titled flop
"Jinxed," prefers music to movies
because "you have a lot more con-
trol." To get more of that, she's start-
ed her own film production compa-
ny, All Girls Productions, which has
bought the rights to, among other

things, a script called "Avon Ladies
of the Amazon" (the imagination
reels) in which she hopes to cast
Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn.
Amid these projects, she maintains
cozy domesticity with her husband,
Martin von Haselberg - a com-
modities trader cum filmmaker
whom she let shoot her video for
"My One True Friend," even though.
he's banned her from their kitchen'
because she makes "too big a mess'
-- and their I -year-old daughter"
Sophie.
"She's got a mouth on her. She's
scary," Midler exclaimed with mater;-
nal pride. She makes the faces and
she has all the attitudes. But if you
really press her, she has a heart of
gold.
Kind of like Bathhouse Betty.

"

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Especially

Michigan Union Program Board and
1Michigan Union Bookstore proudly present

(tires)

rturo Hernandez
Author of Peace in the Streets:
"a moving account of gang
involved youth..."
Lecture Tuesday, Sept 29
7pm University Club
Book Signing/Reception to follow
8pm Art Lounge
Both events located on the first floor
of the Michigan Union

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We'll be on campus Oct. 13th in the Dow Building, Rm 1010, 6pm-8pm to discuss opportunities in the
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"Peace in the Streets gives a vivid and realistic view of the problems
that confront Latino youth. It is an important contribution to
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