The Michigan Daily -Thursday, May 12, 1983 - Page 9
'Hunger' feeds on weirdness

By Ben Ticho
T HE OPENING credits roll to a pale
freakish-looking man singing "Un-
dead, undead," the Bauhaus beat con-
tinuing while the camera cuts to a
punker with purple eyeshadow and then
back to the singer and then to David
Bowie and thenl to caged test monkeys
yelping wildly and then back to the girl
with the make-up and so forth. By the
end of the song, the girl and her
boyfriend are dead, Bowie is making
out with Catherine Deneuve, and the
male monkey has eaten his companion.
Weird movie, you think, and that's
exactly the reaction the makers of The
Hunger are hoping for.
Stylish and fast photography, bizarre
costumes, extensive special effects,
brutal violence, unconventional love
The Hunger
Starring: David Bowie, Catherine
Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon
Directed by Tony Scott
Playing at State Theater
scenes, and strong acting: all conspire
to make this more than a typical vam-
pire teen flick. Drifting amongst all the
smoke, curtains, and other veiled
images, is a highly purposeful
surrealism; director Tony Scott has
succeeded in taking his audience out of
their barbeque backyard into a flaming
world of imagination and the macabre.
Bowie and Deneuve are flesheaters of
New York City, married hundreds of
years ago in Europe, and surviving
(and feeding) thanks to an ancient
Egyptian amulet. Their longevity is
marked by periodic killings to feed "the
hunger," frequent love-making (in-
cluding a steamy shower slider), and
classical music sessions.
IS THIS
WHAT YOUR
KISSES
TASTE LIKE?
I f ytu smtoke iearcues,
yu liastc A eoli.
Yttur Clothes and hair
can smel stale and
tillpleasanu. , -)o.
pople ose to y'oui do.
Especially if they dn't
smoke.
are the best pc ple it
bc. They l e
liner.
AMERICAN
CANCER SOCIETY
This space co tnbutedas

The problem starts when John
(Bowie) realizes he is beginning to
age...rapidly. His transformation from
youth to decrepitude is visually
superb-another success for make-up
artist Dick Smith (Altered States, The
Exorcist). Susan Sarandon (Rocky
Horror Picture Show, Atlantic City)
stars as Dr. Sarah Roberts, an aging
specialist John and Miriam (Deneuve)
visit in hopes of reversing the process.
Deneuve is impeccable in her por-
trayal of the lover who plans her future
with Sarah even before John is finished.
Deneuve is cruel, but she is not evil.
Sarandon is frightened, but not beyond
attraction. Bowie (The Man Who Fell to
Earth) is Bowie.
In fact, the acting throughout is just
cool enough to sustain the distant tone
which keeps the movie interesting.
Although the characters are never
highly developed and the base plot may
often seem on a par only slightly higher
than Friday the 13th, the film's pace is
unrelenting, moving inexhorably to its
conclusion.
Some viewers may be distracted or
even bored by the ambitious
photography which dominates The
Hunger. Stylistically, the film resem-
bles the New York sheen which marks
the best MTV videos. Lots of flashing
around, strange close-ups, and rakish
sets. Tony Scott has made a lot of com-
mercials, and you can tell.
If you don't like slick, you won't enjoy
The Hunger. But if you feel an urge for
visual excitation and believe ambience
is worth $3.50, take a nibble.

Daviu nowie anu natryn veneuve star as lovers anu .tesneaters in Tony
Scott's 'The Hunger.'

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