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2B - Thursday, March 22, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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THE VAULT 'TOM JONES' (1963)
From novel to film and back
ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS
By KRISTIN MACDONALD
Associate Arts Editor
"It is widely held that too much
wine will dull a man's desire.
Indeed it will, ina dull man."
So states the ever-understated
omniscient narrator in1963's "Tom
Jones," and however you may per-
sonally feel aboutthe effectsof too
much wine, ladies and gentlemen,
let me assure you: Tom Jones is not
a dull man. He is a young man and
a ladies' man and a borderline con
man but, at the end of the day, he
is a good man, and you can't help
but like him.
Don't mistake him for the Vegas
showman, either. Before "It's Not
Unusual," the name Tom Jones
was better associated with the
1749 comic novel by Henry Field-
ing, a literary classic following
the humorous coming-of-age of
one exuberantly rakish English
foundling. The public stir caused
by the book's sordid adventures
may have been predictable for
the 18th-century time period, but
its lively cinematic adaptation in
the 1960s made no less of a sensa-
tion. In a year whenthe Academy's
best picture contenders included
an Elia Kazan drama ("America,
America"), a mammoth Cinerama
western ("How the West Was
Won") and an unprecedented epic
("Cleopatra"), it was this quirky
British comedy that took home the
prize.
And, for once, rightfully. I've
yet to see a best picture so capably
combine pathos and comedy. Con-
densing more than 1,000 pages of
densely packed narrative into a
Ike wk~i
CONTROVERSY
Apparentlymoviepostersfeatur-
ingElisha Cuthbert beingabducted,
tortured, incarcerated and/or pos-
sibly killed is not okay. Billboards
advertising for the upcoming film
"Captivity" - in which Cuthbert is,
um, held captive - have been taken
down frommore than 30 billboards
and 1400 Big Apple taxis in New
York and L.A., E!online reports.
Film company After Dark, who
produced the flick, said the wrong
poster designs were sent to the
printer. It was simply a gruesome
- and expensive - mistake.
BROKE? .
Britney Spears spent $21 million
of her $32 million fortune inthe last
two years and may file for bank-
ruptcy after she leaves rehab - or
so the Daily Star claims. But then
again,thisisthesame"publication"
that says she was spotted mak-
ing out in the bushes with another
patient. "They weren't having sex
but there was some definite grop-
ing,", the Star's source reported.
Excellent.
mere two hours, the film careens at
breakneck pace through the vari-
ous hussies and genuine sweet-
heart of Tom's young love life, and
couldn'tbe more rollickingwere it
shipboard.
As the titular rogue, Albert
Finney ("BigFish") deserves agood
deal of credit. With the manic grin
of a young Ewan McGregor (as
well as the strange profile resem-
blance to a better-coifed Donald
Trump), Finney gives Tom all the
charm and good intentions neces-
sary to keep the ne'er-do-well so
earnestly lovable. Throw ina spir-
ited lady love (Susannah York),
her unapologetically bestial father
(Hugh Griffith) and the delicious-
ly carnal Mrs. Miller (Rosalind
Atkinson), and you've still only got
one-fifth of the film's charmingly
distinct characters.
In the end, however, it's the
lively touch of director Tony
Richardson ("Blue Sky") that so
winningly captures the book's
tongue-in-cheek spirit. He freezes
frames, runs scenes on fast for-
ward and, when he breaks the
Courtesy of Lopert
fourth wall to address the audi-
ence, doesn't just settle - for a
knowing wink. He goes for full-
out seduction. In one unparalleled
display of dinnertime food lust,
Tom and Mrs. Miller alternately
square off towards the camera
with vigorously suggestive rips
into their turkey legs.
One roaring fox-hunt sequence
could make even a vegetarian
understand the primal thrill of
the hunt. This movie is a living,
breathing monument to the spec-
tacular over-reaching of human
desire, enthusiastic to the core and
engaging to the last.
How often do you see a film
based on a 1,000-plus-page novel
and end up sprinting out to buy the
book as soon as the credits wrap?
Even as I write, Henry Fielding's
mammoth tome sits above my
desk, the most tantalizing cinder-
block of prose to ever bell-curve
a shelf. If that backpack anvil has
even a quarter of the fun of its film
adaptation, it'll be well worth the
lifelong crippling of my eyesight
necessary to read it.
PROMOTED
Former SPIN bigwig Sia Michel
- one of the first women to edit a
national American rock magazine
(and arguably the sexiest, accord-
ing to her fans and various Chuck
Klosterman tomes) - will now be
the pop music editor at the New
York Times. Michel's promotion
from occasional NYT contributor
comes after the departure of cul-
ture editor Tom Kuntz (real name)
to the Week in Review.
WHOA
"Excellent Adventure" and
"Speed" jokes are popping up
everywhere: Keanu Reeves alleg-
edly hit a photographer with his
car earlier this week. Reeves was
pulling his Porsche out of a park-
ing space when he brushed a
paparazzo, according to the L.A.
sheriff's department said in a
statement Tuesday. The man was
taken to the hospital in an ambu-
lance but the extent of his injuries
remain unknown and no charges
were pressed.
MISTRANSLATED
According to Monday's London
Times and IMDb.com, outsourc-
ing subtitle translations to coun-
tries like India and Malaysia has
resulted in heated controversy.
Individual lines are being consis-
tently botched, ruining punch-
lines, creating nonsensical phrases
and committing accidental insults.
In "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," one
of Uma Thurman's lines about a
zero-tolerance policy for sexual
harassment was translated as "We
hold the highest standards for sex-
ual harassment."
KIMBERLYCHOUAND
CAROLINE HARTMANN
*I
Britney Spears when we loved her.
A celebration of the beauty of human movement "
By ABIGAIL B. COLODNER
Daily Fine Arts Editor
Ann Arbor is a place people come
to work on their expertise - to
hone their craft among receptive
people and institutions, whether
that craft be electrical engineering
or, as for choreographer and Dance
Prof. Peter Sparling, dance.
Many institutions that offer
entertainment in Ann Arbor fight
for preference among an educated
community. "I complaina bit about
it but I'm also thrilled at the rich-
ness," said Sparling, who is the
founder and artistic director of his
own Ann Arbor-based company,
the Peter Sparling Dance Com-
pany.
It was in part this richness that
brought Sparling
to Ann Arbor Peter
from New York
more than 20 Sparling
years ago. "I'd Dance
reached a point
where I need- COmpany
ed space and Tonight, Friday,
resources. I'd Saturday and
gotten weary Sundayat8p.m.
of leading the $10-$15
'hand-to-mouth'
life of an artist," At Rudolf
Spaing said. Arnheim Studio
Sparingaid. Theatersof Dance
Now, Spar- Gallery Studio
ling collaborates
with other pro-
fessionals on inventive pieces that
span mediums. Sparling's company
of half a dozen dancers performs at
the not-for-profit Rudolf Arnheim
Studio Theater of Dance Gallery
Studio on Main Street. His com-
pany's Home Season, which begins
tonight at 8 p.m., will include text
by author Charles Baxter, a con-
temporary author and former Uni-
versity professor, narrated over
a duet, music composed by Ann
Arborite Frank Pahl, and lighting
by the University's lighting depart-
ment head, Rob Murphy.
The collaboration that marks
this season's works speaks to the
fluidity and relevance of dance. It's
an expressive form that too often,
and unreasonably, remains in the
realm of aficionados. Sparling, who
was himself a professional dancer
for more than 30 years in the Jose said. And dance in performance
Limon and Martha Graham dance (rather than social dancing) was
companies, companies that defined first kind of a European import,
early modern dance, offered an and maybe the last art form to get
explanation of the prevalent atti- a foothold in America."
Antidotes to this perception can
be found in dance thatincorporates
No jargon needed what Sparlingcalled "idiosyncratic
gesture," or motions from daily
to describe this life that tell a story. "The System,"
a duet in tonight's performance, is
choreography. built on these.
Sparling didn't need jargon to
describe how his choreography
feels: "I work from the inside out,
tude toward dance as a rarefied from the core of the body - torqu-
form. ing, spiraling, using the idea that
"I think American culture has the body can wind around itself,
some strange inhibition about the then release like a spring," he said.
human body and movement," he He admitted how strongly he
I NOW IN THEATERS
At the State Theater,
Quality 16 and Showcase
* * OR *****
According to our dueling crit-
ics, "300" is either an "aggressive
and exuberantly stupid spectacle
IObc.(that) purports to get the audi-
ence off, but there's no fire here,
Enruott in a Kaplan -cnmprah accsur a tno heat, and in the end the whole
by March 31 aCid get a $o0 rbat* thing tu noa d parde
by limbs and egos mutilated beyond
lStet rt yc>u r p rcg C r or i n Ar nn ArIc> r e cl repair," or it "speaks to themes of
. s n.E \loyalty, honor and duty, but no one
f I y i S I I r yC . r h O r E tc Wvnu! bought a ticket to see 'themes,
A , dlw ayS, ic9 trciriiifir fEIEIs. they came to see abattle.
And the fighting itself is so
beautiful and well-orchestrated it
carries the movie." Either way, it's
'- aaO- K APF-T E T j beapte st#corn/ -eb te ecometthe film event of the late
winter
MCAT, C7A, C , and P 00000.0,0,,, 0oo ourser, Class , ,,. v Courses,0IS-."2-, ar00t.3500.00"r 0rivate'0Tutoring. 00,, 000 00,,,,o0 0n
frcond"tioer w raen ormat"foosand Wild Hoes
was influenced by the movement
styles of Graham and Limon. He is
a regisseur of the Martha Graham
Trust, which has been embroiled in
controversy over the rights to stage
the deceased artist's works. Spar-
ling is one of the privileged few
who hold those rights.
The Gallery Studio's perfor-
mance space, carved out of a con-
verted ballbearing factory, allows
audiences an intimate closeness to
the performers.
"There is so much on campus that
often people forget about the local,
the grassroots production compa-
nies," Sparling said. This weekend,
with springofficiallyhere,seewhat
kind of growth comes from expert
roots.
just any superhero - Ghost Rider
(Nicolas Cage) is a superhero with
a motorcycle, flaming skeleton
head and powers of a satanic min-
ion, although for some reason he
uses them for good. Actually, this
whole package is a hard pill to
swallow. But Eva Mendes is hot,
right?
Zodiac
At Quality 16 and Showcase
"Zodiac" opens in 1968 and
doesn't stop jumping weeks from
there, months and even years, fol-
lowing the various men - a drug-
addled San Francisco Chronicle
reporter (Robert Downey Jr.), a
family-man detective (Mark Ruf-
falo) and, eventually, a cartoonist
(Jake Gyllenhaal) - who take
charge of and are slowly con-
sumed by the investigation into
California's most notorious (and
elusive) serial killer.
The Lives of Others
At the State Theater tomorrow
*****
In pre-unification East Berlin,
Gerd Wiesler dutifully begins an
investigation of a German couple
suspected of espionage. As they
begins smuggling anti-party lit-
erature out to West Germany's
sympathetic press, the East Berlin
government increases surveil-
lance over the seemingly average
couple. Percise and articulate.
Premonition
At Quality 16 and Showcase
****
Linda is a bored housewife,
minding after two boringly cute
daughters and a boringly attrac-
tive husband. Day after day, she
awakes to find herself ina bizarre
series of events, leading her, in
non-sequential order, to find that
her husband has died. The prob-
lem with this lumbering Sandra
Bullock vehicle is that by the end,
we just don't really care.
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