T H E A R T S
Miming her directions because 'I'm an actress':
Garry created two lower-middle-class girls
to double-date Richie and Fonzie on "Hap-
py Days." The duo-Laverne and Shirley
(Cindy Williams)-was spun off the next
fall and became an instant hit.
As "Laverne and Shirley" zoomed to the
top, it passed "All in the Family," costar-
ring Marshall's second husband, Rob Rei-
ner. She'd met Reiner-the son of produc-
er-director Carl Reiner-while they were
performing in an improv troupe. But
the marriage unraveled under prime-time
stress. By the time "Laverne and Shirley"
ended its run in 1983, Marshall was di-
vorced and very, very tired. For the next
three years, she had little to do with show
business.
Marshall jumped back into the business
by deciding to direct, but the choice was
hard. "I need an enormous amount of en-
BRIAN HAMILL
Working with Hanks on the set
couragement to do anything-even go out
to dinner," she says. She took on "Peggy
Sue Got Married" in 1984, but was fired
after three weeks. "It was like being kicked
in the stomach," says Marshall. A year
later she got another chance. Whoopi Gold-
berg's director on "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
was leaving after eight days of shooting.
Could she be there on Monday? She could,
and now she remembers with a laugh, "It
was like cramming four years of college in
one semester." The finished movie didn't
win enormous praise, but it showed that
Marshall could deliver even in difficult
circumstances.
Comic timing: She was more than ready
when "Big" came along. Dressed in perma-
nently creased pants and neobright Con-
verses that matched her ponytail ribbons,
she would mime her acting instructions to
flesh out her one-word commands of "hap-
py," "sad," "scared." "I can't help it," says
Marshall. "I'm an actress." And, she adds,
while chewing gum and smoking at the
same time, "I was directing a 13-year-old,
after all." Unorthodox as this directorial
approach may have been, it drew praise
from Elizabeth Perkins, who plays Hanks's
workaholic adult girlfriend in the film:
"Penny has an incredible sense of comic
timing. It's rote with her-line, two beats,
vaboom. She never misses."
Directing has gobbled up so much time
that Marshall has had to forgo acting-to
her regret. "It doesn't take a year and a half
to do a role," says the exhausted director
who might take her next job in front of the
camera. Her only recreation now is the
Sunday New York Times crossword. "I
don't have time to be depressed," she
smiles. After "Big" comes out she may not
have any reason.
JANET HUCK in Los Angeles
A Feast for
Eye and Ear
With his second film, "Powaqqatsi,"
director Godfrey Reggio shows that
he has the courage of his convic-
tions. His first motion picture, "Koyaanis-
qatsi" (1983), was a stunning, iconoclastic
piece of work. A documentary without
narration about America, "Koyaanis-
qatsi" combined time-lapse photography
and a beautiful, relentless musical score
by Philip Glass into a dazzling feast for the
eyes and ears. Now comes "Powaqqatsi,"
the second of his projected "qatsi" trilogy
named after the Hopi Indian term for
"life." Reggio has broadened his scope
from the United States to the world, but
he's maintained the non-narrative blend
of riveting cinematography (high-speed
photography, which translates normal ac-
tion into slow motion) and propulsive mu-
sic (again by Glass).
"Powaqqatsi" spans the globe, but it
focuses on such Third World countries as
Nepal and Peru. It's hard to decipher a
specific message out of "Powaqqatsi," but
Reggio splices a pointed contrast between
native, undeveloped cultures and emerg-
ing, semi-technologized societies. Simple
folk societies seem especially pristine
next to the squalor of newly overcrowded
Third World cities. The word "powaq-
qatsi" roughly translates into "an entity
that consumes the life forms of others to
further its own life." Through Reggio's
eyes, it seems unfortunately clear that
man is both the exploiter and the
exploited.
RON GIVENS
I
Number 1: Cast of Laverne and Shirley'
Technologized squalor: Child in Nairobi
46 NEWSWEEK ON CAMPUS
MAY 1988