e UOn 'Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available
to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most
terrifying thing is what the people do want.'
-Clive Banes
Hey Babe, it's Juliana
Ex-Blake Baby grows up
by Scott Sterling
Sure,mostofuscollege-rockalternateensknow fullwellthat thelBlakeBabies
were one of the few flashes of true brilliance to emerge from the tail end of that
decadentdecade.Brimming withsmartandsardonicpopsongs,theBoston-based
trio' stwo albums (Earwigand Sunburn) earnedthemaferventfollowing. Sohow
is it that when the Babies' singer/songwriter Juliana Hatfield went solo this year,
everyone from Vogue magazine to Entertainment Weekly are hailing her as the
new pop messiah?
"I think all of this attention shows that's there's a lack of people doing what
I do," explains Hatfield on the phone from her Boston apartment.
"Imean, there's not alotofchicksrocking,notthatIrock or anything. There's
a serious void for something really great from a woman that's somewhere
between L7, or the other extreme, something really light. Not that I'm filling that
void,butI'm working on it," she says in the most self-effacing voice imaginable.
Most of these recent accolades are in response to Hatfield's new album, Hey
Babe. Full of heavenly harmonies and sonic guitars, it's still not quite what she
I mean, there's not a lot of chicks rocking, not that I
rock or anything. There's a serious void for something
really great from a woman that's somewhere between
L7, or the other extreme ...'
- Juliana Hatfield
had planned.
"In the beginning, I kindahated it. But I've grown to accept it, and to see its
goodpoints.Ithinkit'sallright,butIknowIcandoalotbetter.It'slikeaninstinct
for me to write catchy pop songs, but I want to move away from that. I want to
play hard, that's all. I have alotof aggression. It'sjusthard forme to put it across
sometimes."
Unlike Blake Babies material, most of that aggression is directed at herself.
"I was listening to Blake Babies songs, and I thought, 'God, I keep putting
people down, that's a really dumb thing to do.' So I started putting myself down
instead," she says in a mocking but very serious tone.
Listening to her songs, one would be led to believe that Hatfield lives a
complicated life, filled with boy troubles, tension, desire...
"I dont really live through the stuff I sing about," she laughs.
"I'm really a pretty solitary person, I don't have a lot of relationships or
anything, although in my songs it might sound like I do. I make stories out of
things that are real to me."
Preparing for her first tour without former Babies-in-crime Freda Love and
John Strohm, Hatfield's excited to do her own thing with the new lineup (Paul
Trudeau on drums and Bob Weston on bass).
"It'spretty stripped down, pretty raw. The show will pack alittlemore punch
than the record, which is I think is kinda restrained and timid."
As for the future, Hatfield's looking to put together apermanent band, and to
keep getting louder and heavier.
And the Blake Babies?...,
'That's done. It's justme now-"
JULIANA HATFIELD performs at St. Andrew's Hall tomorrow with the
LEMONHEADSopening. Ticketsare$6.50inadvanceatTicketMaster(p.e.s.c.).
William Hurt, in Wim Wenders', Until the End of the World, debates whether to snuggle with Solvoig Dommartin.
World crashes - then Uranus
t
t
I
r
I
l
1
I
i
Untilthe End oftheWorld Moreau,is superb.Therocksoundtrack bourgeois ideologue with a mother fe-
dir. Kim Wenders is a who's who of alternative music tish), dislike and harass the enigmatic
'Wm d today. Even athis worst, Wenders is at Leopold.
Wim Wenders' follow-up to his least taking risks that are compelling to What Leopold knows about evil
1988masterpiece WingsofDesirefmds watch - even when they fail. opportunist entrepreneur Monglat
the innovative German director at his Until the End of the World is play- (Michel Galabru), whp used the war to
most pretentious and self-indulgent. ing at the Michigan Theater through make a profit, could ruin him. In tum,
There are so many potentially interest- July 16. Monglat browbeats his eamest, nay
ingelementstossedintothis 160-minute -Michael John Wilson sensitive, son Michel (Dominique
mess that most are hopelessly lost. Bluzet).
The story and its protagonist Claire UranuS But the height of intertwining per-
(Solveig Dommartin) obsessively pur- sonal-p r politics isexlored amon
sue a mysterious figure, Sam (William dir. Claude Berri cramped eighbors in the household of
Hurt) literally around the world. In the Though war itself may be hell, the
meantime, it's 1999, the world is about aftermath is surely no better. French By exploring the grand
toend,butthis factisallbutforgottenin director Claude Beni's adaptation of ideas of hypocrisy and the
the film's clutter. And about two hours Marcel Ayme's novel Uranus (pub- aCt of doing the right
into the film, the plot suddenly turns a lished in English as The Barkeep of thing for yourself as well
completelynew andevenmoreobscure Blemont) is a complicated tale of the as the people around you,
direction before it heads toward a sur- politicalinfighting in aheavily bombed Uranus may sound dull
prisingly pat ending. village in France after World War H.
But if it's a mess, it's a beautiful, Uranus focuseson politics, but it's not and heavy handed, but It
visionary mess. The cast, which also on a symbolic, people-in-power level. Isn't.
includes Max von Sydow and Jean Rather, the politics is personal: what the conscious engineer Archambaud
side were you on during the war; what (Jean-Pierre Marielle) and his family,
side are youonnow; and what doesthis the charming Gaigneux and his family,
- affect on a local and family level? Watrin, and the man whom the Com-
By exploring the grand ideas of munistsareafterforbeing an unabashed
hypocrisy and the actof doing the right supporter of the Nazis, Maxime Loin
ri lithing for yourself as well as the people (Gerard Desarthe).
around you, Uranus may sound dull When the personal and political are
and heavy handed, but it isn't. as one, as all these characters must bein
For example, engaging bistro pro- the ruckus to grab power after the war,
prietor and budding poet Leopold it'seasytomakethemsymbols,leaving
(Gerard Depardieu) - obsessed with them withno soul.Noone is like thatin
Racine as taught to students by matter- Uranus, making the film fascinating,
UNIVERSITY of-fact educator Watrin (Philippe personal, and touching. A bit of each
TOW ERS Noiret) in Leopold's place because the person's life, his or her past or current
school itself has been destroyed-up- motivation, is carefully but subtly in-
The Best of Campus Life! lifts the political into his world. Those serted. Gaigneux, for example, is often
Furnished Apartments in power, the Communists (in the per- shown with his cute three little daugh-
Oreat Location
Corner of S.University & S. Forest sons of Gaigneux(MichelBlanc), who ters as a nurturing father would handle
536 S. Forest Ave. believespowercomesinthevoteinthe them. Leopold's unabashed opinions
761-2680 imageoftheparty,andthe workers,and are spiritedly flung for the world to see,
Jourdan (Fabrice Luchini), the absurd See FILM, Page 7
"-5
xbox _C .,....
at 8 4'' deO eetfes
Xe 'it
-