* "Tango" continues to screen at the Michigan Theater. This
visually appealing Spanish film was nominated for an Academy
Award for Best Foreign-Language Film. 9 p.m. $5.50
Monday
April 5, 1999

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.

The Daily reviews the 1997 Iranian film "The Children
of Heaven."

1. 1 1

Mediocre writing brings 'Train' to halt

Daiy Arts Wrixtr
Someone - maybe Rhett Butler,
maybe he cribbed it - once said that
lost causes were the only ones worth
fighting for. If that's the truth, then the
cast and crew of "Orphan Train" should
certainly be envied, because there's no
question they all went gallantly down
with the ship.
It's a shame so much talent was lav-
ished on the mess of a script the theater
department performed last weekend,
and will continue
to perform this
coming week-
end.
Orphan The cast
Train seemed devoid of
Trueblood any opening-
Theater night jitters as
Apr. 1, 1999 they threw a
great deal of
heart into their
portrayal of a
Depression-era
Kansas farming
town racked by
the Dust Bowl.
The trouble was that most actors
have precious little character to play,
especially the leads. Kim Woodman
has one of the most thankless parts of
all time as Nettie McCleary, the grief-
ridden sufferer of two miscarriages and
one infant son lost to disease, who can
see folks' auras and talk to the Angel of
Death.
She and Quinn Strassel, who plays
her husband Tyler, are hamstrung by

Courtesy of David Smith Photography
Cortney L Wright and Kimberly Woodman run the household in "Orphan Train."

chorus crossed with a virtual reality
chamber.
It is a concept that works efficiently
and excitingly, and it keeps matters
afloat until the last scenes of the play,
when the hitherto mediocre script col-
lapses into outlandishness.
This is when the New Age aspects of
the plot are developed the most, and
they never integrate well with the gritty
naturalism of the farmers' struggles,
possibly because nobody in town
except the preacher bothers much to
think about spiritual matters.
The spectacle of Nettie's departed
son Jake being transmogrified into the
body of an orphan on the train (who, at
the age of eight is much older and has a
much wider vocabulary than the new-
born Jake was a few months ago!), then
an angel taking a bullet for Jake and
becoming the world's first martyred
cherub, is one of the most mind-blow-
ing sequences of playwriting sabotage
in some time.
The feel-good veneer is particular-
ly troubling since it ignores the awful
hardships the locals continue to suf-
fer; except for the McClearys, they
are literally and figuratively left
behind.
The bluegrass band composed of a
handful of the actors was one of the
highlights of the night. Under the ver-
satile leadership of ace guitarist
Michael Spatafora, they were tight and
bittersweet throughout. They captured
in their music the dignity of the com-
mon folk so that everyone could under-
stand it.

STEVE GERTZ/Datiy
Elliott Smith played to a large crowd at St. Andrew's Saturday night.
Unimaginative set;-

one-dimensional parts, and their sturdy
endurance in the face of hardship is
matched by the equally sturdy, equally
soporific venality of Jeff Steger's cold-
blooded, foreclosure-happy banker.
Josh Parrott and Krista Braun, play-
ing the big-city scam artists who run
the Orphan Train and market their
"wares"- a boxcar full of children -
in town after town, also have little to
work with, but at least they add a
deranged gleam in their eyes that livens
up the repetition of their parts.
The only characters the playwright
writes well are those with a relatively

comic function to the plot. Dan Kahn,
as Tyler's crotchety father J.C., and
Cortney Wright, as the McCleary's
sassy housemaid, at least have some
juicy lines to deliver, and the actors
make the most of them.
It is a testament to Guy Sanville's
direction that some genuinely moving
moments are wrung from this
pablum. The effect of the entire cast
remaining onstage for the duration,
speaking from throughout the house,
playing different characters and con-
tributing songs, sound effects, and
faraway voices is like that of a Greek

Martin, Parker revive Mexican films

Los Angeles Times
As the lights dimmed inside the Fox theater in the
Northern California town of Salinas, Kit Parker
thought he was in for some good Mexican cinema.
Movies that showcased exotic, sultry women and
macho men in romantic settings.
Instead, on that day five years ago, Parker, a film
buff and distributor, was shocked to see a wreck of
a movie filled with slapstick: dumb "gringos" trip-
ping over furniture and pseudo-action heroes stiffly
reading poorly written lines.
It was a painful reminder that the era of classic
Mexican film had come and gone.
"It was so sad because I remember those Jorge
Negrete and Pedro Armendariz films which were
wonderful," Parker said. "And now it had sunk to
this stuff."
So Parker and his friend, Lawrence Martin,
*hose family exhibited Spanish-language films for
four decades, began their quest to revive the popu-
lar Latin cinema they fondly remember from their
youth.
Unable to rely on Mexico for film distribution,
Parker and Martin have founded a fledgling pro-
duction company, New Latin Pictures, to produce
Spanish-language movies made in the United
States. Despite a lack of film products, they remain
convinced that the market for Spanish-language
films in the United States is not only still there, but
bigger than ever.
As the Spanish-speaking population in the States
continues to grow, so has the Latin entertainment
industry. In radio and television, the Latin divisions
take in millions of dollars annually. Parker and
Martin have set out to prove that commercial

Associated Press
Lawrence Martin and Kit Parker meet with Richard
Fay, president of AMC Theaters.
Spanish-language films can be just as popular and
profitable.
"This is the piece that is missing from the
Spanish entertainment scene," said Martin, whose
father and uncle owned a chain of theaters
throughout California from 1940 to the late 1980s.
"We want to bring Spanish-language films to a
new era."
"In this industry, grosses have a tendency to
speak louder than just about anything else," said
Richard Fay, president of AMC theaters film mar-
keting: "As we watched ('Nueba Yol') we were
pleasantly surprised to see the grosses. It turned out
to be very successful for all of us."
New Latin Pictures' target audience are Latinos

living in the United States. The movies they want to
produce are not highbrow art films; rather they're
light, entertaining movies they hope will have a
broad appeal.
So far, however, no major studio has shown an
interest in backing the pair's production company.
Without studio support, they can only afford to pro-
duce about one film every three years, even though
their films are extremely low-budget - usually
under $500,000 - by Hollywood standards.
The Martin family has retained only five of the
20 theaters they once owned, and only one of those
shows movies anymore. "I saw (the industry) col-
lapse before my eyes," Martin said. "It was the most
frustrating thing because it didn't have to happen."
So Parker and Martin set out to prove their idea
would sell with "Nueba Yol."That miovie -a roman-
tic comedy that cost $350,000 to make - brought in
$3.3 million domestically. In New York, the movie
out-grossed all the other English-language films
showing at the same theater. "Nueba Yol's" sequel -
"Nueba Yol 3" (there is no 2) - made for $550,000,
brought in $2.1 million domestically.
For "Nueba Yol" (which is a play on the
Dominican pronunciation of "Nueva" York), Parker
himself sought out the film buyers for theater
chains in heavily Latin areas of Manhattan.
Initially, the theater representatives sent him to
"art house" theaters in rundown sections of the city.
"At first they told us, 'Nobody is going to go to a
foreign-language film,"' recalled Parker, 51. "I
said, 'Well, Spanish isn't a foreign language in your
theater.' Once we showed those theaters that our
movie would deliver, all of the previous prejudices
were gone."'
Read the.
Daily

By babe Fajuri
Daily Music Editor
Elliott Smith isn't you're average
songwriter. He isn't your average rock
'n' roller, either. So when he brought
his live show to St. Andrew's Hall on
Saturday night, a nearly full house
greeted him.
In just the last year, several major
music publications have called Elliott
Smith one of the most important song-
writers of the decade. Yet somehow,
despite all the accolades, good press
and four outstanding recordings, Smith
failed to deliver the goods in person.
Armed with a
pair of electric
guitars and
Elliot backed by a
drummer and
Smith electric bass play-
St. Andrew's Hall er, Smith's short
Apr. 3, 1999 set struggled con-
stantly to hold the
attention of much
of the 18-and-
over crowd on
Saturday night.
For that matter,
Smith and his
cohorts didn't
seem like they cared much for what
they were doing, either. As he sang the
lyric "Stares into space like a dead
china doll" from the title track to
"XO," many in attendance had to be
considering the irony of the situation.
From the concert's outset, Smith
seemed detached and disinterested in
his performance, paying little if any
attention to the crowd. Throughout the
evening he kept a reserved and quiet air
about him, reinforcing an image of
"Elliott Smith, unlikely rock star."
The music, as a result, suffered. On
most of his records, Smith makes
heavy use of acoustic guitars. On
Saturday night, the power was on and
the amplifiers were buzzing, which
changed the sound and tempo of sever-
al songs. On "XO," Smith's use of a
wide range of instrumentation made
the record his most textured and intri-
cate work to date. Yet while live, the
drums, bass and electric guitar format
seemed to kill the newer material.
Songs like the radio friendly "Baby

Britain" and "Bottle Up and Explode"
both made the set list on Saturday
night, but missed the mark. Despite his
unique qualities as a songwriter and
recording artist, Smith followed a fair-
ly simplistic, tried and tested format in
his live performance. He opened the
show by racing through several num-,
bers from his self-titled release,
"Either/Or," the album from which
some of the songs from the "Good Will
Hunting" soundtrack were taken.
Later on, he neglected, despite the
repeated cries of several audience
members, however, to play the Oscar-
nominated song. In addition, Spith
further alienated the crowd by includ-
ing four brand new songs in the set and
maintaining a detached attitude. Fat his
first encore, Smith, sans backing ny
cians, took requests from the swe,
chatty throng. The first song, "Say
Yes," was probably the best he played
all night, proving that he didn't need
anyone else on stage to make the show
worthwhile.
A cover of Neil Young's "Harvest
Moon" was also well appreciated: As
Smith bowed off the stage for the sec-
ond time, a friend leaned over to me
wondering if he'd come back again,
the combined running time of the fi
set and encore didn't even make it to
the one-hour mark. Despite the unin-
spired showing, the crowd brought
back the truculent singer for another,
two-song encore.
Maybe all the hype was just too
much for Smith to live up to. After all,
he started out as a punk rocker,.,and
made the switch to singer/songwriter
by recording tapes in his bedroom and
garage. Only a few years later,.
nominated for an Oscar, and has bee
labeled so many times that he's started
to look like a package, not the unas-
suming indie-rocker from Oregon.
Smith was at his best on Saturday
night when he was alone on stage,
playing the ballads that helped him
build a reputation. His show wasn't
bad, iust uninspired, and lackina.sub-
stantial quantities of enthusiasma
energy. On record he may be
unique, inspired and original artist,
but as far as live shows go, he could
use a few pointers.


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America, We Must Leave No One Behind
A Celebration of Diversity

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