ARTS
I
Page 10
Saturday, August 6, 1983
The Michigan Daily
'Vacation' deserves some time off
By Richard Campbell
C HEVY CHASE has a knack for
starring in comedies that aren't
funny. What is funny is that they don't
seem to do any harm to his career.
Everyone knows that Chase is a won-
derful comedian, and capable of per-
forming deadpan humor as easily as
slapstick. That reputation, however,
rests solely on his days as a regular on
"Saturday Night Live." His feature
films have consistantly portrayed him
as a somewhat amusing yet unin-
teresting character.
National Lampoon's Vacation stars
Chase as the quintessential suburban
father who has planned the great
American road trip, a journey from
Chicago to California for the ultimate in
family fun, three days at Wally World.
National Lampoon's Vacation
Starring Chevy Chase, Beverly
D'Angelo and Christie Brinkley
Directed by Harold Ramis
Now playing at Fox Village Theaters
This could have been a wonderful pic-
ture. With a look at middle-age
fatherhood, the American dream, mar-
ital tensions, and family all wrapped up
in the classic structure of the odyssey,
Vacation might have been both funny
and poignant. Instead it's neither.
Director Harold Ramis and screen-
writer John Hughes have slapped
together senseless comedic bits that
have little to do with either the plot or
style of the film. You could direct this
movie in your sleep: An aerial shot of
the family stationwagon cruising along
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Chevy Chase and Beverly D'angelo take a vacation in the latest movie from National Lampoon.
a highway with the words "St. Louis" at
the bottom, cut to a city street and tell a
joke. Repeat that formula for 100
minutes at various locations across the
continent and you've got yourself a
movie.
At several points the film screeches
to a halt just for the sake of a paltry
joke. Ramis recreates the shower scene
from Psycho as Chase attacks his wife
with a banana; as father and son race
the final 50 yards to Wally World, the
theme from Chariots of Fire thunders
on the soundtrack.
Beverly D'Angelo manages the role
as Chase's wife with a fair amount of
tolerance and understanding. But when
Chase strays from the pressures of
family for a romp in the pool with
Christie Brinkley, she forgives him
University
T HE MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL, the
annual gala, nonprofit fair, is being
held today and tomorrow at the School
of Music. The fair will include music,
dance, food, plays, sword fights and
medieval arts and crafts as participan-
ts become knights and damsels for a
day.
Ron Kramer, Medieval Festival
technical director and professional
stagecrafter at the Performance Net-
work, helped design and build between
90 and 100 props out of cloth, felt, silk,
muslin, wood, glue and paper for the
four morality plays - each which will
be performed twice.
"We had to build furniture which
could withstand severe punishment for
the Second Shepherd's Play," Kramer
said, "because an untidy housewife
throws around rustic benches in this
play.
"For Death In A Tree, the German
immediately and forgets about the in-
cident completely. The dramatic back-
bone of the film, such as it was meant to
be, is completely broken. What should
have been an essential ingrediant in the
character's story is shown only to be a
prop on which to hang a few laughs.
All of this is surprising coming from
Ramis. His earlier effort, Stripes, was a
similar pastiche of jokes built around a
skimpy plot, but they were jokes that
worked. And the plot, Bill Murray's
growth from wise-cracking loon to a
leader of men, was never sacrificed for
a laugh or directed with a heavy-hand.
The result was a light, airy, summer
comedy, rather than the barren, poin-
tless monotony of Vacation.
In the background of this limp film
are a few good performances. John
Candy comes up with an effective ver-
sion of the 300-pound-nerd-character for
his cameo; Imogene Coca buffoons her
way through her role as the aunt
nobody likes; Randy Quaid aw-shucks
himself into farmland obscurity; and
Eddie Bracken sputters through the
character of Mr. Wally.
It may be that Chase is in a similar
situation as Richard Pryor. Both are
fine comedians capable of brilliance.
Yet neither has demonstrated it in any
film of substance. Breaking Loose, Stir
Crazy, Modern Problems, and Cad-
dyshack are all tame, uninspired films
as opposed to the wild, inventive
comedy that we know these two can
produce. You can add Vacation to the
list and pray that Chase finds a movie
soon that will really stretch his talents.
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draws Medieval Fest
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meister play by Hans Sachs which
features a coward, a bully a cynic and a
hermit, we had to build a lot of
weaponry, especially daggers."
The other two plays will be Company
of Wayward Saints and Gammer Gur-
ton's Needle. All of the plays will be
held in the School of Music Walnut
Grove area, a natural ampitheatre.
Four concerts will be held inside the
School of Music Recital Hall. The Early
Music Ensemble, made up of 23
musicians who play recorders, crum
horns, sakbuts, zinks (a woodwind with
a trumpet mouthpiece), shawms (early
oboes), viols, harpsichords and violins,
will perform early German Renaissan-
ce music at 1 p.m. Directed By Mat-
thew Steel, the Ensemble will also per-
form songs by John Dowland at 3 p.m.
"Rediscovering the Spanish
Baroque" will be performed at 5 p.m.
This will mark the first performance of
some music that School of Music
professor Thomas Taylor discovered at
the Vallididlid Cathedral in Spain three
years ago while on sabbatical.
The Conjunto Hispanica will also per-
form, directed by Thomas Taylor at
3:30 p.m.
"My involvement in the Medieval
festival had bearing on my decision to
becomea Medievalist," said Steel.
"The festival has provided a spring
board for the formation of many
groups. -A vocal group and a dance
group that both formed at the festival
went on to perform elsewhere in
Michigan. The Ann Arbor Morris Dance
Team also formed at the festival.
"The festival, which first began 14
years ago is held together by a small
group of volunteers who meet monthly
throughout the year," Steel said.
- Ellen Lindquist
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