Look closer... The University Detroit Observatovis holding an open house tonight. From noon to 3 p.m. $5 suggested donation. WEDNESDAY michigandaily.com/art~s A.,SOTOBR 11, 2000 GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN Lades step up the standards ini 'Girfight' and 'Girl on the Bridge' By Wilhelmina Mauritz For The Daily The eyes of our heroine, Diana, play an impor- tant role in the movie "Girlfight." The first and last scenes of this movie are extreme close-up shots of them. Eyes are and have always been windows to the soul. "Girlfight," a movie Girifight about exploration and trans- formation, uses Diana's eves Grade: A- to portray her inner-change. At Showcase At first, tier eyes are filled and Qualty 16 with so much anger and rage that you feel like you're looking at a death stare- down. By the end of the movie this has changed, revealing satisfaction, almost peacefulness. "Girlfight" is slightly low budget by today's high Hollywood standards but nevertheless uses everything it has to pull off a truly great film. It's all about the small details. Just the use of music alone is a work of art. The way it sets the feel of every scene and is orches- trated around distinct shots is just elegant - sub- tle things like this give away the fact that a lot of effort and energy went into the making of this movie. Thse movie revolves around Diana played by newcomer Michelle-Rodriguez. Diana is lost and has so much anger inside of her with no outlet that it just keeps seeping out of her at inopportune times. At the start of the movie, she is one fight away from being expelled from school. While looking for her own personal niche, Diana falls into the world of boxing. However, this movie is not about boxing, it is about Diana's inner-struggle and her journey into self-discovery. Rodriguez is spectacular as Diana - a difficult character for the actress to work with. She had the potential to be played so one-dimensionally, but she wasn't. She's not just a tomboy who liked to fight. She was a girl with a past that explains her present state. Diana is a rebel but she's not a loner. Diana cares about other people dearly and is always interested in their stories and where they come from, where they want to go and why. She listens, which is what so many people in this movie seem to need. There are many stories going on in "Girlfight." The deliberate way that the plot slowly unwinds its intricate story lines is timed perfectly. By the time you hit the climax of the movie, there is so much that comes together that it's like an explosion. For example, throughout the movie, there is a lot of anger between Diana and her father. It is not explained why exactly this animosity exists but it is obvious that it goes beyond the typ- ical parent-teenager angst. The tension builds and by the time you find out the reason for all of Diana's hatred toward her father, you literally feel like you just got the wind knocked out of you. The movie's romantic spin between Diana and another boxer, Adrian (coincidentally the very same name as the girlfriend from the Rocky movies) is one we've seen a dozen times over but it is played out with such sweet sincerity that it's See GIRIFIGHT, Page 10 Banessa Paradis stars as Adele, the heroine in "Girl on the Bridge." "Of thee I sing" blends music, politics By Lisa Rajt For the Daily The song goes, "I like a Gershwin tune, how bout you?" If you in fact also enjoy a Gershwin tune, or even if you just enjoy a romp through the politics and music of the 1930's, do not miss out Of Thee I on "Of Thee I Sing." in In what promises to be a first-rate production by the Mendelstohn Theater University's always-talented pensTor8 spm. Musical Theater Department, politics, American history, catchy music and lyrics by the fabulous Gershwin brothers will all be standard fare. A satire about politics in America during the Great Depression, this musical has been widely praised as one of the best of all time. Purists in the realm of musical theater will be glad to know that the show presented this coming week- end will stay true to its original story, music and overall style. Appropriately, this musical will premiere at the University just a few weeks before our nation's own Presidential election. Director Brent Wagner stated that, "like any classic, many aspects of (the show) apply to our society today, particularly to our political cam- paigns." It will be interesting to compare and contrast the politics of the 1930's shown in"Sing" to the polit- ical climate of today. In fact, the New York Times deemed the musical "funnier than the government and not nearly so dangerous." A Pulitzer Prize winner in 1931, "Of Thee I Sing" was regarded as the premiere play of the times, with the music considered to be secondary. In hindsight, however, many believe the music to be just as important as the storyline, if not more so. Brian D. Sweeny, of the Savoyard Light Opera Company, once wrote, "'Of Thee I Sing' remains unchallenged as the greatest American operetta ever written." It also stands out as the first musical to ever wilt a Pulitzer Prize for drama. Particularly important to lovers of music and drama alike is the quality of the performers. The University's Musical Theater Department is wide- ly recognized as being one of the best in the coun- try. On the quality of the performers, Wagner com- mented, "This production will feature impressive performances by undergraduate musical theater students who are training to become professional actors." Additionally, the directors of music, scenery, costumes, lighting and choreography are all sea- soned professionals within the school of music. By Joshua Gross Daily Arts Writer Her large brown eyes are intoxicating pools where loneliness floats like disem- bodied tree trunks and desperation drifts like a toxic spill. That's what Girl On draws you in, at the Bridge first, the eyes, the Grade: A- puppy eyes that seem to grow At Tato larger and larger MieigaTt until they appear ready to burst. This is the open- ing scene, an ago- nizingly polite int errogation through which Adele, "The Girl On the Bridge's" dream-eyed heroine, constructs the depressing spiral of passionless sex that has consumed and implanted the happi- ness in her life. It is details like this, the infinite emotion in fluttering of the human eye, the love story imbedded in a single sigh, the seduction in the way a ray of light can drape itself over a female body that sucks you into "Girl." Everything else, the atmosphetic light- ing, the hypnotically jazzy soundtrack, the breathtaking cinematography, the sharp, witty writing, the abundance of sharp knives is all soft padding so the emotional whip does not sting too strongly. "The Girl on the Bridge" is a quintes- sential love story, an impossible, unat- tainable, beautiful fairy tale. Adele ke., at her future and sees nothing, she looks at her past and sees nothing, she looks at her present and sees nothing. She goes to the bridge to jump. Gabor, the knife thrower, goes to the bridge to find atar- get. Very few women wish to have kntves thrown at them; so Gabor recruits those unstable types who have already give, up. What follows is an argument that sways between cuteness and harshness, sweetness and bitterness, dreams and reality. Director Patrice Leconte does not allow the limits ofreality to taint his film, the characters converse telepathically through rooms or overseas so naturally that the audience can do nothing but accept this connection and sigh at their itability to achieve it with their lovers, He toys with the myth of luck, then redefines it ie his own terms. The two characters become unexplainably 1 in each others company, wmnnmn roulette, clearing tip raity skies, but in turn become painfully unlucky when apart. Over and over again we are presented with occurrences that could only happen in a movie, yet that is what makes them so appealing, their fantastic impossibili- ty. Although the boundaries of possibili- ty are stretched beyond repair within the ninety minutes of "The Girl on tb Bridge", we welcome this dissol and smile serenely at the celebration tar is the romantic imagination. Only in a movie. Sigh. 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