The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 16, 1999 -- 11
'Fi hter'
Iits witli
lite nex
Radio host Rehm writes
autobiography without 'Voice'
L
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Virtua Fighter 3tb
Dreamcast
#'Virtua Fighter 3" came out in the
arades several years ago, and it shows
on the Dreamcast. Sega avoided
releasing the game on the Saturn
bicause it was not felt to be a strong
enough hardware platform and it was
in its death throes. The strategy has
backfired on them, however, because
"Virtua Fighter 3tb" is not a strong
enough piece of software to compete
the Dreamcast.
ith figures that look a step and a
half behind newer fighting games and
more or less the same fighting system
to be found in "Virtua Fighter 1 and
2", "Virtua Fighter 3tb" stagnates,
mistaking past glory for present com-
petitiveness.
Characters are more complicatedly
rendered than in past entries in the
series, but this seems to twist them into
ugliness. It's like having a new skin
that's wrinkled and scarred. In exchange
there are less planes, making old
favorites like Pai appear to have a more
realistic structure, and a realistic home-
liness.
To complete the experience, the
learning curve imposed by the disc is
not user friendly to the non-veteran. The
fighting system is still counter intuitive
and fighter movements seem delayed
compared to its Dreamcast peers.
The game does succeed in creating
some interesting environmental
quirks. You can fight on a slanted roof
or on a staircase, and gain an advanta-
geous position over an opponent.
Other games have succeeded more in
that regard, but this game has the
virtue of being a traditional looking
3D fighter. And it is certainly an evo-
lution of the "Virtua Fighter" fran-
chise, and some level effects like
undulating levels of water around a
tiny island you're fighting on come off
incredibly well.
In a lot of ways, this is not as good a
game as "Virtua Fighter 2." "3tb" is
not cutting edge in the visual or play
departments, and altogether falls short.
It is fun, just not as fun as the series
indicates it should be.
- Ted Watts
Finding My Voice
Diane Rehm
Knopf
**
There are usually a couple things to
keep in mind when writing a celebrity
autobiography: first off, make sure that
you're a celebrity. Second, hire some-
body to write it for you. Diane Rehm
breaks both rules with mixed results in
her autobiography, "Finding My Voice."
Right now most of you reading are
probably wondering just who Diane
Rehm is. If you're not from Washington
D.C. and don't listen to public radio
with great frequency, I can assure you
that you're not alone. Diane Rehm is
the host of her self-titled radio program
on NPR which deals with a topics rang-
ing from politics and health to music
and art. It has aired since 1979 and has
been syndicated nationally since 1995
(okay, so she's sort of a celebrity).
Knowing that she is not a high pro-
file celebrity and that she took it upon
herself to write 240 pages of her life
story by herself, I was surprised that it
wasn't as terrible as it probably should
have been.
The first half of the book deals with
issues in Diane's childhood, from her
abusive mother and Christian Arab
upbringing to her short-lived first mar-
riage and into her second marriage.
This section suffers from noticeably
disorganized writing; the paragraphs
jump from topic to topic very quickly
with barely anything connecting them
to one another. It reads like an extended
application to a country club with only
a few fits of heartfelt honesty mixed in.
When she gets'around to recounting
her voyage to radio stardom, her writ-
ing improves, and she becomes a more
likeable person. She talks about work-
ing through constant feelings of low
self-esteem and her willingness to
push herself forward (often with the
encouragement of her husband)
despite them.
Throughout the '70s, Diane started
as a part time radio host for WAMU-
FM public radio in D.C. After a few
misadventures in television, she
returned to WAMU in 1979 to host the
same show that she helped out on ear-
lier (which was called "Kaleidoscope"
until it was renamed after her in 1984).
Throughout her 20 year career, some
of the people she has interviewed
include Hilary Rodham Clinton, Newt
Gingrich, Tom Clancy and Salman
Rushdie, along with a whole host of
medical experts in just about every
field imaginable. Being a mother of
two and a sufferer of a rare voice ail-
ment known as Spasmodic Dysphonia,
health issues have always been an inte-
gral part of the show.
By the time she gets around to
describing her marginally successful
struggles with Spasmodic Dysphonia,
she loses the reader almost complete-
ly in an inundation of medical terms.
It is understandable that she would
trip herself up in this fashion; most
people who suffer from specific ill-
nesses tend to become paranoid and
compulsively over-explain their plight
simply to set their mind at ease.
However, it doesn't help the reader out
any.
The lack of real adventure on the
radio is also tough to deal with. She
doesn't have any fascinating stories to
share. I guess that's what we have
Howard Stern for. A few misadven-
tures, embarrassing mistakes or bright
and shining moments shouldn't be too
much to ask for.
Throughout her career in radio,
Diane Rehm remains grateful to her
fans and has maintained a surprising
amount of integrity at the same time.
"Finding My Voice" is at best a decent
autobiography, but is only going to be
interesting to her more avid fans.
- Nick Broughton
jovovich brings humanity to
Joan'
U,
LosAngeles Times
There is a striking photograph of
Milla Jovovich taken by Italian fash-
ion photographer Paolo Roversi that
the actress and cover girl brought
home one day to show her husband
Wench film director Luc Besson.
SIt was, she recalls, the portrait of
this creature, neither woman nor
$oan,with Medusa-like curls snaking
apart and stiff, powdered hair going
this way and that, and crazy, sepia-
rohed, "Blade Runner"-type makeup
filled with shadows and strange
expression.
"YWouldn't it be amazing if some-
body represented Joan of Arc like
Oat?" the tall, cat-eyed Jovovich
sked her bearded mate.
Soon, they were tossing out vari-
ous ideas and images about France's
fanious teen-age warrior-saint, dis-
cussions that would lead to Besson's
new film, "The Messenger: The
Story of Joan of Arc," which stars
Jovovich in the title role.
The $60 million-plus movie from
Columbia Pictures and French film
*mpany Gaumont co-stars Dustin
offman as Joan's conscience, John
Malkovich as King Charles VII and
Faye Dunaway as Yolande d'Aragon,
Charles' shrewd mother-in-law.
The union of Besson and Jovovich
would not outlast the film's post-pro-
duction process. In April, the 23-
year-old actress and the 40-year-old
director announced they had separat-
ed.
But their collaboration has led to a
Saring and controversial take on one
of history's most puzzling heroines.
Filled with bizarre, dreamlike
sequences, gory battles and palace
intrigue, "The Messenger" is an
unorthodox look at Joan as a human
being wrestling with doubts.
Filmmakers have long had a fasci-
nation with Joan of Arc, for her story
did she have to learn how to mount
and dismount horses wearing 50
pounds of armor, but she also had to
give off a constant flow of intensity,
whether yelling orders to her troops
or whispering secrets in the king's
ear.
Besson admits that he has taken lib-
erties with the historical record but
defends his script thusly: "I'm not a
historian looking for truth. I'm just an
artist - I watch this part of the puzzle
with this line beginning (here). I see
the line go here, and I figure the line
goes here, and I try to have a picture
of the whole puzzle which makes
sense."
While it will be interesting to see
whether "The Messenger" finally
gives Besson the critical acclaim that
generally has eluded him, the film
could also go a long way toward
determining whether Hollywood
views Jovovich as a serious actress.
Does Morality Need God?
A public lecture by
Dr. John Hare
Philosophy professor at Calvin College
And author of The Moral Gap
Date: Thursday, November 18th, 1999
Time: 7:30 pm
Place: Rm. 116, Hutchins Hall, School of Law
NE corner of Monroe and State Streets
For more info, see www.campuschapel.or
Sponsored by Campus Chapel Ministries, Graduate Christian Fellowship,
Christian Legal Society, and Ad Hoc (Christians at SSW)
Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
Milla Jovovich plays Leonardo DiCaprIo In "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc."
is compelling on almost any level.
Convinced she was acting under
divine guidance, this peasant
farmer's daughter led the French
army to a monumental victory over
the English at Orleans in the 15th
century, only to be betrayed by her
king, captured by her enemies,
declared a witch and burned alive at
the stake at age 19.
Pronounced innocent 25 years
later, she was canonized a saint by
the Roman Catholic Church only in
this century.
The Ukrainian-born, California-
raised Jovovich was a L'Oreal model
with the million-dollar cheekbones
and a curious acting resume that
includes "Return to the Blue
Lagoon," "Chaplin," "Dazed and
Confused" and "He Got Game."
Only when she appeared as the
orange-haired, bioengineered Leeloo
in Besson's "The Fifth Element" did
Hollywood really begin to take
notice of her acting skills.
With the exception of Carl
Theodor Dreyer's 1928 masterpiece,
"The Passion of Joan of Arc,"
Besson said he was dissatisfied with
how filmmakers have depicted Joan,
including the recent CBS miniseries
"Joan of Arc" starring Leelee
Sobieski.
Besson believes that even though
Joan did great things, she must have
had some doubts because of the death
and destruction left in her wake.
"They always start with her as a
saint," Besson complained. "For me,
she became a saint at the end (of her
life) because she has to admit, 'I was
wrong.' By accepting it, that is the
only way she can purify herself."
Jovovich echoed Besson in a sepa-
rate interview, where she pointed out
that "The Messenger" attempts to
place Joan in a human context.
"She had her good points and her
bad points," the actress explained. "I
think nobody in the past has dwelt on
the strange side of the fable and the
myth because she is a saint, but she is
responsible for death. So, what about
that? What about that dark pocket
that nobody has really reached into?"
The script's demands on Jovovich
were particularly daunting. Not only
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