VOLUME 25 - NUMBER 05 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1989

SKPTEMBER-OCfOBER 1989/13.00

Experience the new Peninsulais quiet elegance and European charm, nestled in the heart of Fifth Avenue's most prestigious neighborhood. Let us-indulge you with impeccable service. And offer you special amenities, including our spectacular, glass-enclosed, rooftop PeninsLila Spa.'6ainple classical French cuisine with an Oriental flair at AdHepneJs or relax,with a cocktail atthe Gotham Lounge. The Peninsul~, thelbest addressed hotel in Ne~ York for the truly discerning. \\ For- eseroations or inform~tion, call (212) 247,;-2200.

•S•l•SSUe published bimonthly by the F ilm Society of Lincoln Center Volume 25, Number 5 Septe mber-October 1989 Midsection: Lords of the Lens .....31 Back to the Wall ... ......... .. 11 With sharp e r eyes train e d Norman Jew iso n's In Country on \"the look\" of film now- - th e Last Vietn am Mov ie? as in everythin g e lse -th e Ca n a libe ral Canadian vet th e shock troop s are cine mato- co llecti ve co nsc ious once and graphers. Five years ago, FILM for all ? Jay Scott admires the COMMENT'S \"Behind the Cam- film and co ncludes with a ver- e ra\" Mid secti o n sur veyed ity: th at we lost the war but H ollywoo d's cin e matography must win th e peace of mind. talents and ide ntified a pan- theon of twelve. Where are Au Revoir les Enfants they now and wh o's on next? Todd McCarthy pi c ks up Isabe ll e Hupp e rt's bes t pe r- where he left off (page 32) form ance yet as an aborti oni st and digs the New Breed-the executed to ass uage France's Eurole nsers. Add fi ve to th e WWIl-wo unded ego. Marcia World C lass category. Carol Pally mines C laude C habrol's Rutter inte rviews the king of current Story of Women for its color, Vittori o Storaro (46). p resent-day applications. And Armond White talks to Sven Nykvist, master of nat- Lord Larry.... ural light and Bergman's right arm turned DP-for-hire (52) . Sir Laure nce Oli vie r, notes Finally, White co nside rs the Richard Schicke l, was evolving aesthetics of cine ma- more than th e e mb odime nt of tography and the role of the Briti sh Ac ting Traditi o n: at DP ove r 80 years of chec king once matinee idol, th esp, and for hairs in the gate and mak- characte r actor, he found both ing sure all's clear (54) . But is Arc hi e Ri ce a nd H aml e t the camera candid? in side him self, and the rein lay th e rub . Also in this issue: Hello, Dolly ................62 Aussies Are Coming .........73 On the occas ion of Steel Magnolias , Re membe r th e Australian New Wave, Journals ....................2 we prese nt y'a ll with The Qu otable foll owed by th e Eighties No Wave? Anne Th omp so n expl ain s how Jean- D olly by Kare n Jaehne. Young filmm ake rs D ow n U nd e r are Ja cques Ann aud tam e d The Bear , back and thi s time they are n't offe ring G avin Smith co mm e nd s a film stu- Euzhan Your Head .... . . . . . .64 nos talgia. H arlan Ke nnedy expl ains the dent-in-H ollywood opu s, The Big Pic- Euzhan Paley brings a Third World new Oz cutting edge. ture , and Marc Mancini seeks th e e dge to her ap arth e id film , A Dry creator of Freddie and Shocker, Wes White Season . M arl ain e Gli c ks m an Books: A *L*T*M* A *N .....78 Craven , lit. prof. inte rviews the angry young wo man. F ILM COMMENT regul ar Pat M cGilli- gan's new bio of Robe rt Altm an is wel- D .W. Griffith, Ladies Man .....28 Whittle Away ..... .. ... .....70 co med by Andrew Sarri s. Miriam Hansen traces the path from Capitali sm steals anoth er idea fro m the revision to restoration of D avid Wark Revo luti on- sub version in the cl ass- Back Page: Quiz #39 . ........80 G's landmark Intolerance and find s a roo m. Lo is P. She infe ld targets th e context for a cl ass ic. adm an's high sc hoo l hard-sell. Cover Photo courtesy of Museum of Modem Art/Film Society of Lincoln Center. Editor : H arl an Jaco bso n. Ed itorial Directo r: Ri chard C orli ss . Seni or Ed ito r: Marlaine G li cksman. Assistant Ed itor: Gavin S mith . Art Directo r and Cove r D es ign: Elli ot Schulm an. Ass istant Art D irector: Emil Wil so n. Advert ising and Circulati on Ma nager: Tony Imp avido . Bu siness Manager: Do ris Fellerman. Production: D e borah Di chter. West Coas t Ed itor: Anne Thompson. Europea n Edito r: Harlan Ke nnedy. Researc h Co nsultant : Ma'ry Co rli ss. Co ntrolle r: D omingo H ornill a, Jr. Exec utive Director, Film Soc iety of Linco ln Cente r: Joa nA e Koch. Copyright © 1989 by the Film Soc ie ty of L inco ln Ce nte r. All rights reserved . The opini ons expressed in FI LM COMMENT do not represent F ilm Soc iety of Lin co ln Ce nter po licy. Publicatio n is made possible in part by support fro m th e New York S tate Co un c il o n the ArtS and the National Endowme nt for the Arts. T hi s publi cation is full y protected by do mesti c and inte rnational copyright. Subscriptio n rates in the United States: $ 14.95 for 6 numbers, $26.95 for 12 num bers. Elsew he re, $37 for 6 numbers, $70 fo r 12 numbers, payable in U.S. fund s only. New subsc ribers should in clude the ir occupations and z ip codes . Di stributed by Easte rn News Distribu tors , Sa ndusky, OH 448 70. FILM COMMENT (I SSN 00 15-11 9X) is published bim onthly by th e F ilm Society of Linco ln Center, 140 W. 65 th S t. , New York , NY 10023 . Seco nd- cl ass postage pai d at New York , N Y and additi onal mailing offi ces. P ostm aste r : se nd add ress changes to F ILM COMMEN1~ P.O. Box 3000. D e nville, NJ 07834-9925

oUlllals Bear with Us QUEST FOR FUR unique: \"They have four legs. They are W ith over 500 commercials and beasts , very dangerous , menacing, three features behind him (espe- I n 1982, director Jean-Jacques cruel. When they are vertical, they are cially Quest for Fire , which employed Annalid gave screenwriter Gerard man-like, often sympathetic, pleasant, a many wild animals), Anhaud says, \"I was Brach a four-line synopsis for The fatso nice-guy truck driver leaning on a lucky that the success of a high-risk film Bear, which was planned as the follow- tree scratching his belly. A second later, like Quest for Fire gave me enough up to Annaud's hit , Quest for Fire. It he goes g-r-r-r! That's the key : you can strength to go even further, to be myself. read : root for an animal , to feel the feelings I could never promise that I was sure it experienced by an animal. The principle would work. I was sure my storyboard A big solitary bear. of the film is not to ask the bears to play was correct and that I could get it shot:' An orphan bear cub. like people but to pick a situation in Two hunters in the forest. which bears-or men-would do the Annaud didn't know if bears could The animals' point of view. same thing under the same circum- display the necessary charm to carry the After five years of preparation , nine stances. I never try to say that bears and movie, but after vis iting zoos and meet- months of filming, one million feet of men are the same;' ing several trainers , he realized , \"I had footage and one year of editing, The been told that bears displayed fe\\-\" emo- Bear was released in Europe in the fall Brach and Annaud set the story of tions. It was untrue! They don't behave of 1988 to record-breaking boxoffice and The Bear in the 19th century. \"Today, this way in zoos, where they sleep. In arrives stateside this November. there's no hope for the bear;' Annaud documentaries, where no one has the While the story is simple, the film- says. \"There is no perception of true time or money to record expressions, making techniques range from old-fash- wilderness. The film's characters would yo u don't see their expressiveness. I ioned silent movie montage tb a get a radio telephone or a helicopter. You would wait two days to get an expression sophisticated melange of Lucas/ would not believe they are lost in the of surprise. Whew a bear is surprised, I Spielberg special effects, opticals, and woods;' see that he is surprised, I doh't need any animatronic puppetry. It's easy to describe The Bear as the Annaud had no interest in making a subtitle:' ultimate man vs. environment story, cute cartoon, famil y movie with voice- stirring strong emotions in people. It has over, or a long-lens documentary. \"I de- Later during the year of post-produc- also raised ecological issues in all the termined to do a full fiction film, not a tion, editor Noelle Boisson catalogued countries where it has opened, which scientific one. I take an exceptional indi- each bear expression and movement; pleases Annaud although it was far from vidual in crisis: a bear cub becomes an the sound editors computerized all the his original intention. orphan, meets a wounded bear, and the different bear sounds. Annaud aban- Annaud's interest stemmed from his film demonstrates the extremes of doned the idea of having silent hunters Quest for Fire research into primitive behavior in order to tell a story:' and no music score. \"My bears have human behavior. He learned froin his sounds-they grunt. The sound of man Quest consultant, anthropologist Des- mond Morris, \"that not only are we not Jean-Jacques Annaud and The Bear see eye to eye. But not for long. that special, bur we share a lot in com- mon with animals. He told me to read Konrad Lorenz. I was shocked by what I read: how could so many people ignore that the sexual strategy of the antelope was so similar to man-even fish have the same strategy-or that chickens have a social hierarchy? I said to Gerard, 'Let's go one step further than Quest for Fire, let's explore before early man. Let's have an animal hero; \" Two days later Brach came back with James Oliver Curwood's 19th-century anti-hunting novel, The Grizzly King . \"I read the book through the eyes of the bear;' recalls Annaud, who did not have bears in mind at first. After some research he discovered that bears are 2

~------ / / ====---=-. © The WaJt Di.sney Company 3

is words. I decided they should talk for T he production was shot 9,000 feet his star. He climbed into the pen and non-essential pieces of dialogue:' Ph i- up in the Austrian Alps with a 200- looked up at Bart with his viewfinder. \"I lippe Sarde provided a minimal classical strong crew, including cinematographer froze as 1 realized he could see his score. Philippe Rousselot (Dangerous Liai- reflection in the lens. I kept absolutely sons). Annaud relished the logistical still as he threw himself at me. I disap- While scouting remote mountain challenges and says he learned patience peared under him but he went a little locations, revising the script to reflect while shooting commercials. \"Until 1 too far. I had read a book about bear his research, spending four years train- have it,\" he says, \"I stay with it:' Each attacks and played dead . After ten sec- ing his lead bear and locating suitable shot required concealed trainers within onds he decided it wasn't worthwhile cubs, Annaud suddenly detoured and the bear's hot-wired compound, with the and went back to his cage. Nothing was directed the adaptation of Umbereo camera and crew just outside the wire. broken, but he had clawed my flesh Eco's novel, The Name of the Rose. under my trousers. It was my fault. 1 did \"The one thing I didn't want was to be To insure his actors' safety whenever something against the rules and was perceived as a wilderness director inter- possible, Annaud avoided placing his punished accordinglY:' It was the only ested only in the world of instincts :' lead animals in the same frame. He'd cut accident during the entire shoot. Moreover Annaud refuses to describe between live dogs and fake bears, fake himself as a French director: he wants to dogs and live bears, and utilized anima- Annaud allowed some studio execu- make big-scale entertainments with Hollywood production values. Producer Claude Berri (who directed Jean de Florette) was somewhat non- plussed as The Bear's estimated budget soared toward $25 million but stuck with it. Berri even agreed to finance the film outright rather than pre-sell to inter- national and Hollywood buyers. For the lead adult bear, Annaud Douze: nothing but a natural. tives to come to Paris in early 1988 to wanted a specific type: John Wayne. He tronic puppets manipulated from out- see a cut of the film. A fierce bidding cast one very effeminate male bear as side the compound . One of the film's war was finally won by Price Entertain- the cub's mother: \"Sometimes you're most complex sequences is the opening ment through a special arrangement better off using a transvestite,\" he scene: the mother bear gets bopped on with Columbia Pictures. Chairman remarks. Fourteen cubs were selected the bean by a rock while she and the Frank Price, who had worked with Berri and given human \"mothers\" and were cub are scarfing up honey. Annaud used on the movie Tess, says he couldn't raised to be happy and expressive. All three mother bears , the cub and her two believe what Annaud had gotten his were tested at such tasks as running, understudies , a million bees and many bears to do. \" It was like they were taking swimming, and climbing trees, and bear butterflies, a false rock and a fake direction. It was very clear that some- #12, or Douze, won out. \"The trainers machine-moving mother. Through the thing unique had been done. In many weren't surprised ;' says Annaud. \"They artful use of montage, it is never appar- respects the major factor in creating said , 'She's a star!' \" All her scenes were ent that the mother bear and Douze interesting pictures is you can't say 'I saw shot chronologically, as she kept grow- never act opposite one another. that one before: Nobody's seen anything ing. After searching throughout Europe, like this before:' he found trainer Doug Seus and his ten- The last day of the shoot was also the foot, 2000-lb. bear, Bart, in Utah. \"He most dangerous: the climactic confron- -ANNE THOMPSON was very quiet, secure, safe, with a mar- tation between hunter and bear. When velous attitude-the good father, a bear Turkish actor Tcheky Karyo bowed his PIcrURE THIS you could trust. And Seus was an excep- head in submission to the towering bear, tional trainer.\" Even so, Seus thought Bart just looked at this pathetic creature H ollywood on Hollywood has, what Annaud wanted to achieve was and, despite the trainer's instructions to theoretically, always been a \"marvelous but impossible:' grovvi and threaten, turned away in dis- deliciously bitchy proposition. gust. The hardest task, which took Bart The inherent satlfIc potential of the two years to learn, was limping with one At the end of the shoot, Annaud paw under his chest while wearing a wanted a publicity photo of himself with place: which has generated more great prosthetic wound. Then there was the fishing scene. Bart was used to eating canned salmon. But Annaud insisted on tempting him with a pond stocked with fresh fish. Eventually Bart's old instincts returned and he grabbed at the fish. Later, during the actual filming, the scene was shot in one very long take, as Bart insisted on catching every single one of the 100 trout placed in the river (he only ate about 20, then slept for days). 4

,· ----~ {.·.·..·.·..l.i.·.·..i.i.i.·..n...·.E....·..·.·..·.·.}. The Motion Picture Guide '\" de- Over 53,000 movies scribes and reviews virtually every covered in depth THE MOST IMPORTANT PUBLISH- English-language feature film ever ING EVENT OF THE CENTURY FOR made ••• plus thousands of foreign The Motion Picture Guide offers REAL MOVIE LOVERS. films ••• with remarkably complete individual film critiques ••• plot casts and credits. synopses ••• fascinating back- ground material ••• extensive cast Roger Ebert says, \" ... The Motion listings including the role played by each actor ••• complete production Picture Guide is a marvelously enter- credits ••• videocassette availability ••• and much more. taining 'read' for anyone who loves movies • •• the most complete ency- And your Guide will always be up clopedia of film ever published, 'a de- to date because a Supplement is pub- finitive reference work',\" And from lished annually, covering all the films Anthony Perkins, \"•• • A glimpse into of the previous year. one of these volumes and you 're hooked for the evening!\" What \" Gone With the Wind \" is to epics ••• what \" Singin' in the Rain\" is to musicals••• what \" Casablanca\" is to love stories ••• what \" Citizen Kane\" is to cinema technique ••• that ' s what The Motion Picture Guide is to film reference works! Call toll-free or send the coupon today and find out how you can add the Guide to your home library. Call toll-free 1-800-541-5701 To receive free information about The Motion Picture Guide, Yes! Please send me a brochure illustrating and describing The Motion Picture Guide;\" sample pages, and a movie quiz. Also let me know how I can obtain the 1986 annual supplement to the Guide absolutely FREE. PLUS ••• I for readers of this maga- I Print Name zine, a special opportunity to re- ceive the 1986 annual supplement to I The Motion Picture Guide, I absolutely FREE! I Address I I City Zip I ___ State __ © CineBooks, Inc. L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______ ...J

Last Date, aparody of astudent film in The Big Picture. Woodward (Didn't he used to work at the Washington Post?) as JT. Walsh, a quotes from disenchanted insiders than been those that have tackled it head-on creepy, robot-cold Hollywood executive, anything except maybe the Bronx Zoo, like Blake Edward's smug, corrupt and Martin Short, uncredited , as Nick's seems to make it a perennial subject for S. OB. and, though not without its mer- hysterical , motormouth agent-than it is Awful Warnings about What They Do its , Vincente Minnelli's Two Weeks in a well-observed Capraesque parable of a To You in the Dream Factory. Another Town. Somehow Hollywood decent fellow in the Belly of the Beast. eludes even insiders bent on portraying It even starts with a Capra quote and has Fittingly, Christopher Guest and it. It took Wim Wenders, an outsider, to a clip from It's a Wonderful Life. Michael McKean, two of the co-writers nail the banal corruption and moral of everybody's fave rock music satire, intangibility of the place in The State of Hollywood has always thrived on fads This is Spinal Tap, have teamed with Things . -hot subjects or people-and The Big Michael Varhol, to make The Big Pic- Picture lays bare how young directors ture. A late-Eighties, post-film school The best satires on Hollywood have can go from being the latest Boy Wonder slanted Hollywood satire, (which the been metaphoric, most memorably, Sam to the Former Shape of Things to Come cultish Repo Man-derived Tapeheads Peckinpah's extraordinary Bring Me the faster than a flash frame in the pan. The failed to be) it follows the fall and rise of Head of Alfredo Garcia, in which Peck- Flavor of the Month phenomenon that fresh, WAsP-decent film school graduate inpah lookalike stand-in Warren Oates entraps Nick is Tinseltown's traditional Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon). takes on a de facto Hollywood trans- way of setting 'em up only to knock 'em posed to Mexico and transformed into down again-meaning, Hey nobody Head-hunted by a Hollywood execu- gangster executives sending off memos, asked you to be in this business, kid. tive after winning the \"National Film bountyhunters and assorted scum all Institute\" Student Film Award in the searching for the Deal-a million dollars What The Big Picture correctly regis- opening sequence, Nick experiences the for a dead man's head . Double-crossed ters is that with the advent of the late- archetypal sequence of co mpromise, all his life by Hollywood, Peckinpah put Sixties Movie Brat generation, the temptation , sellout and project turn- it all in the movie. Everybody dies at the talent-hungry Hollywood beast (part- around (Hollywoodspeak for bye-bye) agent, part-producer) has discovered a that is now creative routine in Commit- end. new hunting ground in the big film teewood. schools (usc, NYU, UCLA and Colum- , fter the terminal fero~ity of Pec~­ bia). It was Broadway in the Thirties, TV H ollywood filmmakers have never A inpah or Robert Aldnch (The BIg in the Fifties, the Revolution in the Six- fully realized the satiric potential ties , commercials in the Seventies and Kenneth Anger's book Hollywood Baby- Knife , Baby Jane), The Big Picture's who knows, in the Nineties the primary lon mapped out with such distinctively Hollywood satire is seemingly generous talent source may be software design or unsettling voyeurism. Until John Waters and sentimental, less resolute on engi- video game arcades. (Can't you see it? A gets around to it , the best Anger neering the acutely-embarassing mo- Nintendo agent's night-parents: guard soulmates-Tinseltown as Heart of ments that made Spinal Tap work. It your kids.) Darkness-are Sunset Boulevard and doesn't spit the vitriol of war-weary Hol- Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. But lywood vets settling old scores, and it Talent-scouting from film schools both of these deliriously gothic satires lacks the bite of true love-hate, the rage seems like a perfectly logical, legitimate were spawned on the margins of Holly- of defeat. Its approach isn't grand gui- activity, particularly if you're in one. It's wood, indexing its spiritual malaise gnol, it's observational. good for everyone-the fallacy of exploi- rather than satirizing the industry tation for mutual benefit. The Big Pic- directl y. Industry watchers and insiders won't ture begs to differ. learn anything new from The Big Pic- Part of the problem is th at Holly- ture, basic ally a cautionary tale for Its point is not just that nice, naive wood already parodies itself. The least unwary would-be and student filmmak- film students, just like everybody else, successful satires on Hollywood have ers. The film is less a parade of satirical end up colluding in their own corruption industry caricatures- Wired 's Bob and rape a la David Mamet's enjoyable but disposable Speed the Plow. For a start, film schools do that job for Holly- wood, presumably to acclimatize their graduates and provide them with a fully- rounded education. Look at Phil Joanou, an apparantly nice kid with tal- ent who ended up suing USC and getting discovered by Steven Spielberg. Film school does things like th at to you. T he Big Picture has a more perti- nent critique of the from-campus- to-backlot trend than its Just Say No storyline suggests. As Nick, Bacon sac- rifices love, friendship and integrity for the Big Score, then loses it and is left wiser. But its point is that none of these kids have a clue between them as to how to make anything worth a damn. Like all young people, they're still shallow. How 6

would you feel knowing the pilot of your SCHOOL OF THE ARTS 747 to Berlin, or the guy doing open heart surgery on you tomorrow was 25 Invites Prospective Filmmakers and still has acne? Only in movies would to Apply for a Unique Fellowship something comparable happen. Each year the Tisch School of Guest, McKean and Varhol have fun the Arts in cooperation with with the excerpts from four student the Willard T. C. Johnson films in the opening competition Foundation offers emerging sequence: The Trial vf Jailet Kingsley filmmakers a limited number with its stilted acting, cliche dialogue of $13,000 fellowships. and cringingly exhibitionist simultane- ous dolly and zoom shot-the J-ertigo For Undergraduate and camera trick all students want to try Graduate Students (Spielberg admitted saving it for Jaws); Crossed Sabres of Truth , a bloatedly NEWYORK Candidates will be judged pompous Napoleonic war epic wi th RSI1Y on the basis of creative widescreen grandeur and lavish produc- work, academic standing, tion values inversely proportional to and leadership potential. content value-the invariable mark of trust-fund filmmaking; the more accom- Graduate deadline: plished yet no less accurately-observed January 15, 1990. student film trivia of Afterbirth of a Notion , a performance art music video Undergraduate deadline: featuring Nick's wacko artsy friend March 15, 1990. Lydia (a sharp character sketch by Jenni- fer Jason Leigh), careening like a pinball For more information and an through bizarre settings courtesy of fast- application, call Dean Elena motion, shakicam and fish-eye lens; and Pinto Simon at (212) 998-1900 finally Nick's own film, Last Date , a or return the coupon below. black-and-white expressionist parody with a boyfriend-meets-girlfriend's-father Tisch School of the Arts Please send me information and an scenario in which the hero is coerced New York University into an ominous Bergman-esque chess 721 Broadway, 7th floor application for the w. T. C. Johnson Film game with a sinister paterfamilias. New York, N.Y. 10003 Fellowship. These clips are exaggerations of the Attn .: Dean Elena Pinto Simon style-without-content and ambition- o Undergraduate 0 Graduate without-talent imprimatur of most stu- dent films . You can file under either: Name ________________________ exquisite ineptitude, all-money-no-talent egomania, quirky pretentiousness or Address _____________________ hip-but-empty, otherwise known as City _________________________ Humpty-Dumpty. Indices of film school's aesthetic ahd creative ambi- StatelZip Code _________________ tions, they are the film's case against trusting anybody under thirtysomething New York University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution. Fe 9/ 89 - and even then .... Our artist-hero Nick's imaginative horizons are described in periodic fan- tasy sequences that invade his mind at moments of crisis, inserting him into movie-derived scenarios of panic and despair. Halting his Car at the entrance gate to the award ceremony in the open- ing, he hallucinates Nazi guards check- ing papers; down on his luck in a bar- pleasingly, the bartender is John Cleese - he creates a self-pitying movie Sce- nario of drunken despair, mumbling like a true loser (Bacon does a nice imper- sonation of Mickey Rourke, his Diner co-star). Nick's pivotal emotional moments are defined by B-movies. Not a new idea, except to note that an artist needs more than Multi-Million 7

Dollar Movies to in spire him . Sure leave a viewer wo ndering 'what a director petitor for Fredd y who is so strong that enough, after a speil on the skids, Nick with a name out of Poe and an eye for Freddy will be forced into retirement: ' teams up w ith Lydi a to make · a no- Buiiuel really had in mind. I was about That character is Shocker's TV repaIr- budget music video which sets the to find out. man, Horace Pinker. industry abuzz and becomes hot again (saved by MTV!). Learning hi s Capra les- After some talk about tec hnology - Stocky and shaven-headed , Mitch son - \"Don't co mpromise, for only the Shocker employs inventive matte effects Pileggi , who pl ays Pinker, seems pissed valiant can create\" - he goes back to the that permit Craven to shoot without off at the world. Maybe the scenes to be personal project that got story-con- blue screen s-and about how wonderful shot soon require a certain attitude: ferenced o ut of all recogn ition three it is to film away from Hollywood, Cra- Pinker Gets Fried; Pinker Frozen in reels ago. A black-and-white (i.e. arty ven moves o n to what we're both here Mid-Air; Pinker Explodes; Jonathan and honest) drama about a love triangle for : a discussion of what's behind his Chases Pinker into TV; Jonathan in in a snowed-in country cab in, it is as troubling im ages . Hir os hima . uncommercial as it is ... Deadly Earnest B efore filmmaking , Craven was a Jonathan in Hiroshim a? Shocker's college humanities professor. pre-release publicity strategy calls for and mindbogglingly atrocious. The cam- \"M uch has been made abo ut dreams minimum explanation of Craven's new being the source of my ideas;' he points villain-they're not even allowing photos eras roll. out, \"but I think my exposure to the of Pileggi to get out. \"At first we had deepest thought of Western Civilization imagi ned a rather conventional villain;' Rather cleverly, Guest doesn't drive has been just as instructive. says Craven. \"But other movies forced us to do some rethinking. And as much home the realization that Nick's movie is \"I was a page in a public library when as I love to exploit the irrationality of I was 15 and started reading everything I dreams, to poke holes in our psychic a stiff. You're left thinking yo u've seen a could get my hands on. Later, as a lit. armor, I knew that I needed a twist. and psych. major, I became especially That twist turned out to be television.\" nice fable about being true to yo urself fascinated by Ovid's Metamorphosis , The Golden Bough, Crime and Punish- \" I've spent a lot of time thinking and then it hits yo u. The point behind ment and especially with Joseph Camp- about TV,\" explains Craven, \"of how it bell 's idea s about re c urring pattern s anesthetizes us into a hypnotic state. Its the earlier swipe at student filmmaking about heroes descending into hell to reality isn't honest, it's pre-chewed. So face themselves on a primal level , and why don't I have a villain who can come is still in effect. and go into this television reality? And once I figured that out, the possibilities The Big Picture, desp ite the basic were limitless.\" incompatibility of Capraesque sentimen- Pinker, it turns out, is a malevolent creature who thrives on electrical tality with satire (a form designed for the charges, slides along TV transmissions an d , at times, inhabits TV shows. In purely destructive release of all-inclusive Shocker's climax, its hero must pursue him across a landscape of game shows, anger), adheres to one basic tenet: the revival hours and war documentaries-a desce nt into hell. principal object of satire is the main \"The Trojans welcomed the wooden character. -GAVIN SMITH horse into their city;' reminds Craven. \"Television is the same. We welcome it that hero and villain are rvvo sides of a into our house, not thinking about the threats it holds. On one level , Shocker is PROFESSOR GORE single personality.\" a horror film . But on another, it's some- Certainly the first Nightmare has thing much more disturbing.\" much of this, though Craven distances -MARC MANCINI I t's Wes C raven territor y. A dank , himself from the later film s: \"The first clanky downtown L.A. warehouse- film was an intact, whole film and makes not a studio so undstage- is serving as a the statement I started out to make. I production facility for Craven's latest never intended to make a sequel.\" In his film, Shocker. At the warehouse's center film, Craven's heroine co nfronts her sits a tangled, dome-shaped structure dreams and causes Freddy to vanish in a that is the set for an execution chamber. leaping rage ; self-understanding can kill Within it , lit by improbably cheery the boogie man . But, in an economic shafts of blue sky light , is an electric compromise, Craven okayed producer chair and the sign \"Rubber Soled Shoes Bob Shaye to add a fin al plot hook on Only Beyo nd This Point.\" which Freddy-and hi s victims-still hang. All this is a metaphor for Wes Cra- ven's psyc he? Perhaps. He is, after all , Craven wants his little revenge. As he the man who conceived such ambitious put it recently: \"I want to make a com- oddities as The Hills Have Eyes, Deadly Blessing , Swamp Thing, The Serpent and the Rainbow and, of course, that vil- lain-franchise, Freddy Krueger. There are some pretty telling stories about Craven: that his father was a strict, pun- ishing fundamentalist ; that in college some obscure disease rendered him par- alyzed for months ; that C raven didn't see his first movie until he was 18. I still remember the guilty pleasure I felt when I first saw Nightmare on Elm Street on cable. This was no ordinary slice-and-dice hack-work . A lot was going on beneath the surface of this film -disturbing, primal things th at could Michael Murphy (/.) and Peter Berg (r.J in Shocker. 8



THE ELUSIVE ELEMENT In the atmosphere which surrounds every being of distinction there is a subtle yet unmistakable element. Some will refer to it as style. Others may call it spirit. But almost invariably it exists beyond the powers ofthe average individual to analyze or define. To capture this rare alul fugitive quality, to communi- cate it through the media of film and television, is an endeavor callingfor the surest instin-ct, the most highly trained faculties and senses. It is an enterprise in which talent, experience and judgement are essential. I t is because of their ability to command these neces- sary qualifications that clients of Broadcast Video Rentals, Ltd. inspire our total support-the finest tele- production equipment available world-wide, cost effective rates and service, 24 hours a day. Through the years the critical clientele has found in this establishment a skill and ingenuity to assist them transform the technology into craft-with the elusive element. ® DROADCAST VIDEO RE\"TALS,LTD. People and equipment that work: Renting The Finest Teleproduction Equipment To Outstanding Professionals World Wide. 333 West Fifty.Second St., New York, NY 10019 (212) 541·5390. Available 24 Hours

-, l•rrOr, l•rrOr••• Bruce Willis as Emmett and Emily Lloyd as Samantha in In Country. by Jay Scott fill with tears-a plain gold wedding When the cast of In Country was band. published in Variety weeks before shoot- ing commenced, it inspired titters . I. In Country: in capital; Washington, II. In Country: in another country; There were several names that made D. C, October 1988. Toronto, August 1989. sense in a rural Southern movie-Judith S unrise will be at 7:03. Exactly. At \" T he Wailing Wall of America is Ivey as Emmett's girlfriend; Dukes of 6:30, in the predawn dark, the what The Wall has become;' Hazzard star Peggy Rea as Samantha's grassy knoll above the Vietnam observes Canadian director Norman grandmother-but pass the smelling Veterans Memorial-to the right, the Jewison (Moonstruck, In the Heat of the salts, the leads! As Emmett: the pneu- Washington Monument, to the left, the Night, A Soldier's Story), who with In matic $5-million action star of Die Hard Lincoln Memorial-is crowded with Country has taken on one of the riskiest or (take your feckless pick) the hard- members of a movie company, repre- ventures of his long career. As adapted assed Cary Grant of Moonlighting, Mis- sentatives of the District of Columbia by screenwriter Frank Pierson (Dog Day ter Bruce Willis, who had been called police, and a woman from the National Afternoon) and Cynthia Cidre from the many things but seldom a serious actor. Park Service who tells the filmmakers 1985 novel by Bobbie Ann Mason, who As Samantha: the luscious British baby- what they can and cannot do at the set the epistolary saga in her hometown star of Wish You Were Here , Miss Emily memorial; there is plenty of the latter, of Mayfield, Kentucky (called Hopewell Lloyd , also called many things but sel- not much of the former. (Among that in the book), In Country is an authentic dom a Southerner. which is verboten: the press. FILM American art film: it's a plotless , discur- COMMENT is disguised as a languishing sive character study that seeks, like \"The American actresses I inter- gofer.) The memorial, a double wedge every other so-called Vietnam film ever viewed , and I interviewed hundreds,\" of black granite that bears the names of made, to end the Vietnam experience Jewison shrugs, \"were 17 going on 35. I the dead or still missing, is more com- with a period. Most of the $15 million could not find innocence in any other monly known as The Wall. As the sun picture was shot in and around Mayfield 17-year-old. Emily was innocent , and caresses the reflective obsidian surface and Paducah, Kentucky, last year, and the right age: she turned 18 when we with tentative fingers, objects that have most of it is about Samantha, a 17-year- were shooting. I went with Bruce for a been placed reverently in front of it can old girl whose father was killed in Viet- couple of reasons. His desire, and his be identified. There is a letter that nam before she was born, and her tremendous look. Also, he agreed to reads, \"We will miss you at our 25th relationship with her angry but bitterly read for it, which in an actor of his stat- reunion. Our prayers are with you, wher- funny uncle, Emmett, a Vietnam veteran ure is very rare. I wasn't aware of his TV ever you may be:' There is a can of Bud- who doesn't want to talk about it. work; I knew about Moonlighting, natu- weiser. And there is-the eyes suddenly rally, but had not seen it. When I read him, he didn't seem urban. There was 11

also a vulnerability I'm sure you don't Taking the steps toward healing. he'd have been farmer, like his daddY:' see in his TV work-Steve McQueen Samantha: \"If you could do it over, had it , Humphrey Bogart had it:' planning on joining the Army, you might ask my opinion first. The ones who would you have sent Dwayne to Canada In the weeks before In Country made don't get killed come back with their instead?\" its world premiere as the opening attrac- lives messed up, and then they make tion at Toronto's Festival of Festivals, everybody miserable.\" Mawmaw: (who at one point notes, Warner Bros . saw the film and realized it \"I've never been out of my time zone\"): is an arty product with uncertain com- Following lewison's private Toronto \"Oh , Sam, people don't have choices mercial prospects : one preview screen- screening to determine what should be like that. Besides , he did a good thing ing failed \"to work;' as they say in L.A., trimmed, he elaborates on Samantha's for his country. I take comfort in that.\" because the young audience, ignorant of sentiments. \"I had been deeply involved the subject, applauded the name Bruce in the protests against the Vietnam War,\" Samantha: \"What good did he do for Willis and then apparently kept waiting he recalls , \"but I never wanted to make a his country? Fifty-eight thousand guys for him to go berserk, pull out an M-16, movie about it , partly because I am a died , for a stupid war. Emmett says they and waste half of Kentucky. Canadian. In Country changed that , all died for nothing:' though it was a difficult decision to The picture proceeds elegantly and make. I want to make sure that people Mawmaw: \"Well , Emmett can talk. laconically in the style of the novel. (Her understand the momentous effect this He didn't die:' heroine, writes Mason, \"knew very well war had on the American famil y, which th at on TV, people always had words to Bobbie Ann Mason wrote about. But In Argues lewison , \"You couldn't have express their feelings, while in real life Country is-this is where it differs from said that ten years ago. Though the war hardly anyone ever did. On TV, they had other 'Vietnam' films-al so about the was wrong, the men who came back scriptwriters.\") The only narrative is healing process; it's time to move on.\" were rejected by their families. There's Samantha's journey into the past: she nothing worse than that:' badgers Emmett and her obese grand- T here is this exchange in the film mother Mawmaw and assorted towns- between Samantha and Mawmaw In her novel , Mason indulges in a folk for information about Vietnam in concerning Samantha's father, D wayne: witty, acidulous parallel between preg- gene ral and her father in particular. nant teenagers and Vietnam veterans- Eventually, in one of In Country's two Mawmaw: '1\\t the market price, we're once seen as minions of the evil empire Kleenex-driven climaxes, she vanishes losing 8S cents to a dollar, every bushel but now classified as hapless victims: into a Kentucky swamp-she goes \"in of wheat we'll raise. Sometimes I think \"Sam thought about how it used to be country,\" as Vietnam grunts used to say Dwayne's almost better off out of this; that getting pregnant when you weren't when they were sent into the bush-and married ruined your life because of the surrealistically imagines her father's death: time is compressed to the thick- ness of a feather as Samantha watches the light leak out of his eyes. The other climax is, of course, in Washington, D.C.: Emmett, Samantha, Mawmaw, a potted geranium and a red Volkswagen travel to The Wall to find her father's name amongst the 57,939 carved into what is, without a doubt, the most pow- erful and disturbing-and therefore, the most honest and effective-monument to and against war ever constructed on the planet. I n Country thus reviews Vietnam's fall- out on three generations, the moth- ers and fathers whose boys died or returned damaged , the boys who died or were damaged, and the children left lit- erally or figuratively behind. Samantha summarizes one of the themes in a con- versation with a boyfriend: \"My mom said not to worry about what happened to Emmett back then , because the war had nothing to do with me. But the way I look at it, it had everything to do with me. My daddy went over there to fight for Mom's sake, and Emmett went over there for Mom's sake and my sake, to get revenge. If you went off to war, I bet yo u'd say it was for me. But if you're 12

-, ~ disgrace, now it just ruined your life, and film , where although I knew who the framed by the Washington Monument nobody cared enough for it to be a dis- character was and where he had to go, I and the Capitol dome, breaks through a grace:' wasn't sure how to get him there. Nor- cottony veil. Then Jewison immediately man became my bridge. He's an actor's orders the operator of The Shotmaker, a \"Part of the point of the healing proc- director:' camera crane affixed to a large truck , to ess;' continues Jewison, anxious that In catch the sunrise \"for my collection:' Country not be received as an apologia Lloyd, who turns out to be an irre- Two days later, at dailies, the eerie for the war, \"is to learn from the wounds. pressible kid spouting endless question s beauty of the shot elicits gasps and low There's a moment when Emmett is in that reveal her intense concentration on whistles, but it will not make it into In Washington and looks up and sees a her art (\"Who was George Washington, Country. The Shotmaker is again turned Hercules transport plane of the type when was his reign?\" \"What does 'rico- toward The Wall and Emmett, Saman- used in Vietnam then and in Central chet' mean?\" \"W hat's civil rights?\"), tha and Mawmaw begin walking toward America now. I want the audience to needed an actor's director. \"She's like their shared history. think, where is that plane going... Nica- catching quicksilver;' Jewison says in a ragua?\" tone both pleased and exhausted. \"You Behind and unbeknownst to them , a expect young English actresses to have related history is approaching. Two III. In Country: in situ; Washington, trained at the Royal Academy of Dra- men, both wearing ragtag military regalia October 1988. matic Arts, but she has done only Wish -one walks with a cane, the other is You Were Here, Susan Seidelman's older and bears a bulbous beer belly- P rior to the sunrise at the Vietnam Cookie, and this. She's a very gifted confront Fran Wigglesworth, the woman Veterans Memorial, Willis and comedienne, but she has no education from the National Park Service, an abra- Lloyd sit for makeup and interviews. or technique to fall back on. At times it's sive dynamo who, members of the crew Willis confirms that he was paid \"some- been tough, but there are also times joke, must have been a prison warden in what less\" than his $5 million Die Hard when she's kept us transfixed.\" a John Waters film in a previous life. fee and praises Jewison. \"I wanted to do Wigglesworth wants to reinforce the this so badly, I was willing to do what- T he sun has risen behind a scrim of rules: because The Wall cannot be ever it took to get it. This is the first clouds. For a second, everyone is closed , cameras and actors are not per- time in anything I've done, at least on silent as the immense orange ball , mitted in its vicinity at the same time; actors can be photographed walking in front of it, but they must be shot by long lenses from several hundred yards away. Nor can dialogue be recorded by actors at The Wall. \"It's called equal protection under the law;' Wigglesworth tensely lectures. \"So, since we don't permit speeches and demonstrations right at The Wall, we don't permit movie com- panies to have dialogue:' One begins to suspect that Wig- glesworth is tense because she doesn't actually enjoy having film companies on the premises ; it's also possible that she doesn't really enjoy having anyone on the premises-the premises themselves meet with her disapproval. \"It's mis- named ;' she snaps of The Wall. \"Viet- nam Veterans Memorial ... the people on there are dead, they're not veterans. There's going to be a Korean War Memorial here. At least they've waited the right amount of time to put it up. This one attracts everyone with a cause because it's the most recent place we've lost lives :' Jewison is , in turn, tense because he has been constrained by Wigglesworth's regulations and since he has only two days to get his climactic scenes at The Wall, to match the close-ups of the actors filmed at a facsimile of The Wall constructed earlier in a cow pasture in Kentucky-a 60 percent mock-up of the memorial was fashioned from smoked glass-it cannot rain , and rain has been forecast for tomorrow. In addition, The 13

Washington Post, furious at being denied gests-and this is true-that in addition clude at the one concrete (or granite) access to the set, has today reported in a to being about the loss and grief entailed artifact of the war that will always gossip column that Bruce Willis will be by Vietnam, In Country is about loss remain. The Wall is a black mirror: visi- shooting tomorrow at The Wall, which and grief in a larger sense, that you don't tors see themselves peering into the past makes completing his sequences at The even have to know that Vietnam was a when they peer at the names of the Wall essential-the crowds a day hence mistake to understand what Samantha, slain, which is why tourists from West could be impossible to control. Emmett and Mawmaw have suffered. Germany or japan or Finland-tourists \"Wouldn't know,\" says the vet, \" Read with no emotional connection to Viet- The two visiting militia members are most things about Nam but ain't read nam-join Americans in weeping. Visi- tense for reasons that directly, if that one:' Does he know that many vet- tors to The Wall visit a specific anti-war unknowingly, address the very reason Director Norman Jewison discusses script notes with Bruce Willis. for In Country's existence. The men are erans were hired as actors and advisers memorial, certainly, but they also visit a veterans who man a 24-hour vigil in a in Kentucky? \"Nope, didn't know that. monolithic Rorshach test, a device that tent that is outside an officially desig- Wonder if they'll be responsible and conjures up the universal spectre of nated \"restricted area;' the zone that is make a contribution to our vigil here. young lives thrown away in any place for to be kept dialogue-and free speech- When Simon and Simon came here, they any reason. free. Ostensibly in honor of Vietnam did:' The younger vet chimes in with a soldiers still missing in action , the vigil question: \"Who's directin' the thing?\" On To jewison , there is nothing worse is in reality a souvenir shop with tacky hearing that jewison is Canadian, he than being rejected by your family, so In T-shirts of The Wall; Wigglesworth fer- says, \"There are 65 Canadians on the Country, in the end, becomes a film vently hopes that proposed regulations wall ' and three Canadian MIAs. They about snipped and spliced family ties. In will allow her \"to pop their sails\" and ought to make a contribution.\" This Country is no more \"about\" Vietnam remove the offending and (to her) offen- younger vet is surely too young to have than The Red Badge of Courage is sive vets. The vets and Wigglesworth, been in Vietnam: where did he serve his \"about\" the Civil War. As the war like George and Martha in Virginia country? \"Central America;' he replies recedes into the history books and as Woolf, know each other well: their fast with pride. \"Salvador, Honduras and ... the memories of those who were there and nasty repartee recalls Moonlighting, Nicaragua. My father's on The Wall, become clouded in retrospection and stripped of its wit and sexual simmer. too: MIA, Vietnam:' Then he says, as hindsight, cinematic Vietnam joins the Later, when Wigglesworth is elsewhere, Emmett, Samantha and Mawmaw walk Wild West, and outer space-it's a con- the older vet wants to know why a real slowly toward The Wall of the dead, venient aesthetic amphitheatre upon vet wasn't cast in the lead of In Country: \"They shouldn't be here at all. Nobody which to stage spectacles that are the question here is , who owns Viet- should ever make a movie here. This is a \"about\" whatever artists have on their sacred place.\" minds. The country In Country claims \" Tnam? and the answer ain't\" easy. at the termination of its journey is the hey're just makin' money off the For the vet, that's clearly a battle cry, nation of the imagination. This remark- plight of vets, prostitutin' the but he's lost his artistically imperialistic able movie says that Vietnam is owned vets allover again,\" the vet charges. war. It's fitting that In Country, a truly Someone from the film company sug- post-Vietnam Vietnam film , should con- by no one; and belongs to everyone. ® 14

WARNER BROS. © 1989 Warner Bros. Inc. All Rights Reserved

Business by Marcia Pally friend isn't ~he only woman who can't plain that these are the scars of fending support another blessing, Marie begins among punitive options. I saw Claude Chabrot's Story of charging for her services. Arguably, the M arie quickly earns some money Women in the lulling glint that alternatives-black marketeering or turn- from her cottage industry and is moats the Lido in the summer. The ing tricks-are worse. Her exhausted cli- sun, as travellers since the Victorians ents are spared the further poverty of able to buy clothes, even ice cream, for have unstoppably gushed, skates over another mouth to feed and Marie can her kids and move the family to a bigger the canals on the Venetian side of the feed the ones she has at home-which flat; but she is far from the perfect island and, on the other, blanches the now include her husband, returned from mother, at times impatient and sharp Adriatic. I couldn't think that by the the front, who walks in the door, dis- with the children, and more so as she time the film opened in the U.S. it misses the kids and grabs her tits, and becomes a tougher businesswoman. would land smack in the center of the over the next weeks and months can't Neither is she the perfect wife; willing to new explosive abortion issue or that it find a job. support her husband, she will no longer would spark a small uproar in France sleep with him and, in a particularly that included one theater firebombing in infelicitous gesture, suggests that her which a man died in the crush to escape. The case for a \"selfish\" assistant have an affair with him for The French objection wasn't so much W011Uln is still a tough added wages. to the practice of abortion as to a closing one to 11Ulke, As his camera moves around Marie, scene where leading lady Isabelle Hup- Chabrol frames her ups and downs from pert, sitting on death row in a Vichy every point of view-her children's prison, hisses a heretical prayer, \"Hail de11Ulruling that delight, for instance, at toys and sweets Mary, full of shit. ..\" (and they thought and her son's loneliness trying to amuse Qodard transgressed). At least the film11Ulkers overcome himself in the grey courtyard when she's French no~iced that her rage-not the the knee-jerk at work. In the scene where Marie prof- abstract right to abortion-is the emo- fers her husband to her helper, Chabrol tional and political punch of the film. assumption-held by reveals the links of her internal conflicts: Huppert's character Marie faces the she has a hunch the arrangement will choice between hammering poverty and please them both (it does), but is emb,!r- rassed even as she tenders her offer, women as well as menviolating conventional morality. Hers is -that women justifythe anger of recognition: she did the knowing it's manipulative and unredeem- best she could amid options rigged to ably crass. Just as viewers feel confident their actions by what isher ruin. in disliking Marie, Chabrol next sets her . Story of Woman is based on a case goodfor others. in one of the film's most plaintive pas- brought to the Vichy courts ,!nd is sages, treating herself to singing lessons, adapted from Une affaire des femmes by a lifelong dream made more poignant by Francis Szpiner. Colo Tavernier O'Hagan her childlike warbling soprano. Seen cowrote the script with Chabrol; Marin Up to this point, Chabrol's story has through the lace curtains of her teacher's Karmitz produced. A young womap dur- the makings of melodrama, but Story of studio, standing dutifully at the piano, ing the Nazi occupation of France, Women attains the stature of tragedy by Marie-the woman who wants to make Marie tries to keep warm with cardigans the complex evolution wrought in each money-wants to be a little girl for just a and feed her two small children with of the characters and Chabrot's penchant few moments and have someone else beans while her husb;l.nd (Francois Clu- for looking at moral questions in the call the tough shots. Huppert illumi- zet) is interned with the rest of the col- messy amoiguousness of life where at nates her every contradiction. Bringing lapsed home army. Her friend across the times no path is a good one, men are not together a girlishness, p~tulance and hall goes with Germans because they always pillars and women not only self- edge that she has never so affectingly might leave milk or a chocolate bar less. To draw Marie merely as a down- melded before, she creates the most behind. Pathetically, the women paste trodden victim of war and poverty . finely-wrought role of her career. together some finery for a few hours out · driven to abortion by the meanness of Chabrol sketches Marie's husband at the local bar, only to be leered at by a life (hers and her clients) is an effective Paul with the same range of palette and pride of drunks . When her neighbor but easy pro-choice argument. Chabrol, in far fewer scenes. Though a lout at the panics at a pregnancy she can by no with a history of feminist films dating outset, he softens through the film till means afford, Marie agrees to hdp with back to his 1959 Les Bonnes Femmes, he spends days with his kids while mom a home abortion. Afterwards , still shoots for more than that. His portrait rushes about her business. In these pas- crouching over the bloody water basin, of Marie is full of smudges and blotches, sages, Chabrol inverts the initial sym- she asks if she might keep the leftover sketching her mistakes and selfishness pathies of his audience with the well- soap. as well as her courage. As she is cal- meaning Paul ignored by bristling Marie. Smart enough to realize that her loused by her business, Chabrol makes But Paul would've likely had neith~r 16

- motive nor opportunity to so improve Marie, her friend and clients scurry where Marie mingles with strollers his profile had he not been taken down a among the trials and errors of unwanted sporting the easy bearing of people who peg by unemployment and his wife's choices, and Chabrol aptly shoots the don't make choices as much as deter- success. One winces at his humiliation film in the cluttered rooms and dim mine the possibilities from which others knowing that he deserves this compas- courtyards that make up Marie's maze. mu st choose. She tries to feel like she sion mostly by chance. His one wry exception is the carnival belongs , and fails. Marie's quandary- scene, shot in open air and sunshine, between poverty and using the one skill In the last third of Story of Woman, the demands on Marie and her desires Marie (Isabelle Huppert) awaits her fate in Story of Women. for relief begin to exhaust her resources. To ease the burdens of streetwalking (and collect a bit in rent) , Marie offers her prostitute friend Lucie (Marie Trin- tignant) use of the back room. Marie is now supporting two kids, a husband and assistant while trying to run a brothel in part of the house and what amounts to a combination Planned Parenthood and battered women's shelter in the other. She takes a lover. Lucien (Nils Taver- nier) brings stockings, champagne and affection, and collaborates with the Nazis. Marie doesn't sympathize with Lucien's politics because it doesn't occur to her to think about them ; she just allows herself his company and pleasure. Never missing an ironic turn, Chabrol points up that it's Lucien's money payi ng for the children's trip to a local carnival where Marie and famil y are hardly the only people finding a way to enjoy a Sunday in the park with Petain. Chabrol doesn't excuse Marie as much as ask his audiences how well they would hold up under the circumstances. Or under these: an impoverished woman with six children tries to self-abort by ingesting poison. Her husband, finally recognizing the impossibility of having another child, brings the woman to Marie's, where the assistant, now doing abor- tions by herself, fails to save her. When the woman's sister confronts Marie shrieking that \"babies in a moth- er's belly have a soul;' Marie replies , \"Do you think their mothers do?\" She is rigid with defensiveness, and Chabrol shoots the scene for all its multiple meanings . Though Marie is far better dressed than the sister, she is also smaller and shakier, and seems even frailer shot from above. The sister has the confidence of moral outrage and the knowledge that she's right, while Marie has only guilty confusion. She knows that women cannot survive under so much \"rightness:' Marie may be careless at times and sharp, but she cannot be cynical, reminded daily that women seek abortions to save what lives they have. She also knows, in contemporary parlance, that she shouldn't have to take this shit, but in trying not to, risks seem- ing the heartless bitch. 17

she discovers she has-changes her, as cett's victim is so senselessly assaulted paltry in the pants of men is too well does the temptation of brief pleasures. that she earns enough sympathy to last known to warrant a rehash here-look- Yet if we see the tragedy of Louis Malle's through her retaliation against her ing for Mr. Goodbar, look what hap- Lacombe, Lucien, where the peasant attacker. Shame, made just last year by pened to Diane Keaton. And the Lucien joins the Gestapo for the food Australian director Steve Jodrell , again Rorschach of misogyny, Fatal Attraction and the uniform, can we not appreciate pits rapacious teenage thugs against the -with Anne Archer's cozy wife-and- Marie's bind? Chabrol suggests that we standard sweet young thing. In The mother avenging her family against cannot, or do not , judging women by Accused, however, Kaplan and Torpor Glenn Close's dangerously unhinged \"higher\" standards. took the tougher route of making their career girl-relied on the same idea: if a heroine what some still call a loose little woman goes after sex she'll bring chaos Marie's loved ones certainly couldn't. and evil in her wake and deserves what- Her husband , emasculated and jealous, At a local carnival, ever violent punishment she gets. Nev- informs on his wife. Marie was impris- Marie andfamily are ertheless, Kaplan and Torpor give Foster oned by the Nazis (where she prayed hardly the only people her sexual flair, painting her with many her \"Hail, Mary\"), tried for practicing finding a way to enjoy of the same strokes that Chabrol applies abortion, and executed in Paris in 1943. a Sunday in the park to Marie. C habrol accomplishes in Story of with Petain. Like Chabrol's dubious heroine, Fos- Women what director Jonathan ter's Sarah is a working-class kid, a wait- Kaplan and writer Tom Torpor did in tart, and risked pressing their viewers to ress in a crummy small town who has an 1988 in The Accused: they make the a she-asked-for-it judgment. (Torpor also inept lug of a boyfriend. She also case for the bad girl, the woman who wrote the play Nuts, which he adapted patches together a hot little outfit for a crosses convention not only for the sake in 1987 for director Martin Ritt and night out at the local bar and meets up of others but for her own. It would have actor-producer Barbra Streisand, putting with randy drunks. Both women want been simple for Kaplan and Torpor to up a fight for a badder girl, a hooker who some respite from their drudging lives; garner audience sympathy for the rape kills a john in self-defense.) Marie finds it in the money she earns victim in their film (played by Jodie Fos- from performing abortions, Sarah in ter) by casting her as the ingenue. Such The legacy of discrediting women flirting and getting a buzz off the flattery. is the time-honored King Kong approach with a sexual appetite that would appear When she walks through those tavern to rape and ravishment, deployed in doors, she slinks around with a pout and films ranging from Michael Powell's a taunt and both straps falling off her 1960 Peeping Tom to Robert Young's shoulders, wanting attention and getting 1986 Extremities, where Farrah Faw- it. She teases and puts out in an explo- FALL THEATRICAL RELEASES: INTERAMA and INTERAMA Roger VADIM's Dangerous Uaisons VIDEO CLASSICS 1960 (Les Uaisons Dangereuses) Classic and contemporary films from the great masters Jean-Luc GODARD's Pie\"o' Le Fou the French Cinema for use in Jean GREMILLION's Pattes Blanches theaters, classrooms, and home video. Jean RENOIR Marcel PAGNOL Jean-Luc GODARD Jean-Pierre MELVILLE Claude CHABROL Bertrand BLIER George FRANJU Robert BRESSON Eric ROHMER Jacques DEMY Raymond DEPARDON Jacques RIVETTE Pierre ••••••••••••••••• For a complete film or video ~~ catalog contact: , . , INTERAMA 301 West 53rd Street Suite 19E New York, NY 10019 (212) 977-4830 Fax(212)581~2 18

Magiclmage Filmbooks ATTENTION: Collectors! Film Students! Archives! Libraries! Magiclmage is proud to announce our newest releases: UNIVERSAL CLASSIC FILMSCRIPTS For the fIrst time in its 75-year history, Universal Studios has opened its vaults and is allowing us to view these rare artifacts offIlmmaking. Previously seen only by the stars and technicians, we now have the opportunity to review the complete original shooting scripts from these classic motion pictures. Each book is approximately 180 pages and contains the complete story ofthe making ofthe fJJrn, many rare behind -the-scenes photographs, interviews with the people in front of and behind the camera and a facsimile of the original shooting script. Frankenstein The Bride of Frankenstein Son of Frankenstein Ghost of Frankenstein Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4 Each volume is only $19.95. See below for ordering information. (For serious collectors, a hardbound limited collectors edition, numbered and signed, is available for $60.00 plus $5.00 shipping.) Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman House of Frank~nstein Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein The Mummy VolumeS Volume 6 Classic Comedy Series - Volume 1 Volume? CALL OR WRITE TODAY TO PLACE YOUR ORDER Each volume only $19.95 each. All major credit cards accepted (Please add $2.50 per item for shipping & handling - NJ residents add 6% sales tax) Magiclmage Filmbooks 740 S. 6th Avenue· Absecon, NJ 08201· (609) 652-6500

sively riveting scene, Foster's best in the Huppert with Fran~ois Cluzet as husband Paul. smile. film. Then, Kaplan and Torpor ask, interest of the child. The argument for Chabrol makes clear that, appointing when the hour gets late and she wants to the best interest of the woman seems so go home, does she deserve a gang rape? flimsy, so cavalier. women man's \"better half;' we're set up Put another way, is rape Sarah's punish- to punish them more often and severely ment for wanting a good time and an In The Accused, if Sarah had not -the higher the expectations, the easier ego-boost? wanted to flirt for her own enjoyment, to fail them-women no less so than she would have been yet another inno- men. Women test each other and them- The wonder of The Accused is that it cent victim of brutality. Her coloring selves on the parapet of selflessness that sustains sympathy for Sarah not in spite turns scarlet, however, when she wants allows no misstep. Chabrol shows Marie of her wiles, but because of them. To pleasure for herself and, like other play- at crossed purposes with herself, know- assure audience allegiance, however, ers in the game, wants a say in setting ing she did the best she could but Kaplan and Torpor save the bar scene the rules-selfish again. Marie also doubting herself nevertheless and for the film's final moments, running it would've been a victim any audience becoming snappish and callous in self- as a flashback. Until then, Sarah has could love (albeit a duller character) had defense. In her final prayer, Marie knows been nothing but a victim . We see her she never spent a penny of the money she's been had, the rules and standards bruises in the hospital immediately after she earned on herself and had kept up, were rigged. Chabrol asks for a less the rape in the movie's opening through the years of financial and emo- sequence, and later we see her jeered at tional pressures, a soothing, inviting duplicitous measure. ® and taunted in public. We see her cry, frustrated and enraged, when her attack- Escaping with lover Lucien (Nils Tavernier). ers get off with barely a blemish. Only after two hours of pain and injustice are Kaplan and Torpor confident that taint- ing Sarah's reputation will not cost her our good will. By the time they get to the barroom flashback, we are tired of Sarah's tears and plight. And suddenly we see her with spunk. Suddenly she's feisty, a charmer and anything but lost. Viewers are smitten and love her just when she's at her worst. I n daring to fight for their bad girls, Chabrol, Kaplan and Torpor hedge their bets against losing audience com- passion-Chabrol by going for the safer finale of making Marie a victim at the movie's end, shivering in a Nazi prison, Kaplan and Torpor by the victim-first- flashback-later ploy. The case for a \"self- ish\" woman is still a tough one to make, demanding that filmmakers overcome the knee-jerk assumption-held by women as well as men-that women jus- tify their actions by what is good for oth- ers . So implicit is the feeling that we often don't notice when it kicks into gear, when we hold women to standards of devotion that would be unseemly for men who, after all, are supposed to stick up for themselves. One need not elabo- rate on the opinion of those who are willing to tolerate abortion when a woman has been victimized by incest or rape but not when she had sex by choice -and certainly not when having the baby would prevent her from completing high school or land her on welfare. In short, not where it would merely be ruinous to her life. Those in favor of reproductive choices often argue that having an unwanted baby under strained economic conditions is not in the best 20

.. UH I V E R S PI (T U RES _ _ _ _ AN ®MCAcOMPANY _ _ __



alchemizing her into an equally fascinat- of plain people in battle are usually for him to be it. Not day in , day out. My ing phantom, did him no harm, either. dear chap-the noise, the confusion. the benefit of the swells. Even Olivier's movie Hamlet , follow- But how well the mantle of romance B it of fame, indeed. Bit of luck, too. ing the Freudian pattern he had laid that those first important film roles And Olivier, especially when he down earlier on the stage (he consulted threw over him served unromantic puttied his spirit with false humility (one with Freud's disciple-biographer, Ernest Larry. He shrugged and shrugged, but of his least gratifying disguises-see his Jones , on his characterization), repre- he never quite shook it off. And a good speech accepting his honorary Oscar in sents a reductive impulse. After all, if thing, too. For the movie stardom that 1979) liked to stress that luck, along you can \"explain\" Hamlet by resorting resulted from this essentially false first with talent and stamina, was essential to to the Oedipal theory, you rob him impression made on the great world set a successful acting career. Perhaps more of romantic glamour. Noble mystery him apart from his peers and permitted so than even he admitted. For these pic- becomes a quotidian-indeed, if we are him at least to begin not merely the tures, this flamboyant passage in his life, to believe classic psychoanalysis-uni- most singular acting career of our cen- did not, I think, express his true nature. versal, understandable problem. Famil- tury, but one of its most remarkable The performances, particularly the cru- iarity, as we all know, is the enemy of public lives, regardless of profession. cial Heathcliff, were greater triumphs of romance. Without Heathcliff and Max de Win- acting, of false colors worn as if they ter, Mr. Darcy and Lord Nelson, the were the true hues of his soul, than we O livier played life as he played his alteration of theatrical classics and mov- have generally recognized. roles, in particular rejecting the ies like Q Planes would probably have continued unabated-as it did for For he was not truly .a romantic. He lacked the brooding core, the deep, romantic notion that great art is neces- Richardson and Gielgud, for Michael dark, essentially unfathomable center, sarily the product of great, intellectually Redgrave and Anthony Quayle and the that forces this bree9 in upon them- other great Brits with whom he started selves in endless investigation of their out and to whose careers his, had it con- own enigma. Nor was he entirely com- tinued along its original lines , would log- fortable in world-well-lost heroics, which ically have been compared. Doubtless is another aspect of the romantic tem- he would have earned a good living and perament. He was, of course, a marvel- a good reputation with that not-quite- ously physical actor. Part of his theatrical mass public that cares greatly for theatri- legend (the American observer is, alas , cal performance and forgives their almost completely dependent on rumor legendary heroes' descents into movies when discussing the most important that are not-so the higher fandom aspect of Olivier's career) is based on fondly believes-quite worthy of them. the whirling energy he brought to his Eventually, of course, he would have had stage duels, some sense of which we get his knighthood. But not his peerage. For from his Shakespearian movies. On the fact is that none of Olivier's real stage, at a distance from the audience, peers, the other knights of the English movement and nobility of diction could theatrical realm, was ever what we have be used to create qualities that were not now learned to call \"bankable:' That is of the actor's essence. But in his less to say, none of them could have prom- conventional leading film roles, a certain ised, with their presence, a reasonable weakness showed in closeup-not so boxoffice return on the Shakespeare much between brow and nose, where, unapproachable genius. Offstage he films, which Olivier-thanks to his Hol- taking his cue from his first acting had, as the novelist Enid Bagnold put lywood successes, circa 1939-41-could teacher, he located it (hence all those it, \"a quality of invisibility:' And he when he sought backing for his Henry V false noses), but in the eyes, where wari- was himself contemptuous of self-pro- and his Hamlet in the Forties, his ness , even a curious timidity, sometimes claimed singularity. ''I'm not a genius;' Richard III in the Fifties. lurked. Simon Callow, the actor, quotes him. His direction of these movies-very His greatest sustained screen per- \"There's no room for genius in the the- straightforward and welcoming, and formance, his cackling, scuttling, richly ater, it's too much trouble. The only demonstrating a capacity to manage comic Richard III, owes its greatness, I actor I ever knew who was a genius was complex production logistics efficiently, think, to its lack of romantic overtone, Charles Laughton. Maybe that's why he in turn enhanced his bankability in its refusal to brood overlong on ill-use, was so difficult:' another realm. Besides being a distin- or to propose that Richard's monstrous- Another way of putting that is to say guished actor and a great celebrity he ness is that of a deeply disappointed that, unlike Laughton, he was a proso- had now shown himself to be quite a lover of the world, potentially redeem- dist, not a poet-a man who, as Callow practical manager where budgets and able if someone would just try a little suggests in his remarkable biography of personnel and all that boring stuff were tenderness on him. Similarly his Henry Laughton, liked to find a scheme for a concerned. (He would later say, in fact, V avoids the poses of grandeur. He's a performance, an \"interpretation;' which that his happiest professional moments bustling, up-and-doing sort of monarch, permitted him at all times to know con- came when he was directing movies.) narrowing the distance between himself sciously what he was doing, or trying to All of this suggested that-again unlike and his troops-and between himself do. Tapping into the flow of his own per- his peers- he might possess that rare and his wartime audience, who did not sonality was not for him. He could, in blend of qualities necessary to lead a need to be reminded that the exertions short, act the Byronic, but it was beyond noncommercial theater. His stardom 23

would broaden the audience when he Ifyou have seen only music hall comedian. Its mistaken obli- appeared in one of the company's pro- gations to realism and to montage inter- ductions , his celebrity would generate the movie version of rupt the arc of Olivier's performances. interest in all its works and his knowl- The Entertainer, you Or maybe you just have to have had the edgeability would help to insure busi- living presence before you to fully appre- nesslike management of the enterprise. have seen only the ciate this piece to work. In any case, shadow ofOlivier's seen within the simple yet effective styl- H is first effort in this direction , as izations of the original playscript it was co-leader of the Old Vic with greatness. breathtaking, one of the greatest per- Rich ard so n immediately after World formances I've ever seen on a stage. The War II , ended abruptly and mysteriously. The Entertainer is the mixture of fear and feeble bravado, the But there was Chichester and, ulti- only play I've ever seen palpable contempt for self and context mately, The National still to come. In all in which the audience with which Olivier invested Archie, three venues, of course, he had the pick above all the brilliance with which he of the plum s, the famous Oedipus dou- ends up drenched in surfaces any performer's worst fear-loss ble bill , a premature Lear, a perfectly- jlopsweat. of dominance over his audience-was timed Othello, not to mention Chekhov riveting. It's the only play I've ever seen and Strindberg and Ibsen, and heaven willingness of the acknowledged leader in which the audience ends up drenched knows what else for which one feels per- of the older English theatrical genera- in ftopsweat. manently deprived for not having wit- tion to appear in a work by John nessed . Talk about stamina! In a sense, Osborne, the acknowledged leader of It was something else, as well. It was, he revived the old tradition of the actor- the next, was both an important in the sympathy he generated for this manager. But now he was actor-manager endorsement and an important renewal. character without ever asking for it, a to a nation-maybe even the world. great statement of solidarity for every- Also, and here I do speak from per- one who dares to perform (no actor We fed off the international word-of- sonal knowledge of Olivier's perform- more obviously relished the company of mouth his faraway performances gener- ance in the play, it was a magnificent players or wo rked harder not to prevent ated, and the Shakespearian films vehicle, something that permitted Oli- his titles and honors from distancing seemed to guarantee the authenticity of vier at last to unleash all his antiheroic himself from them). It was also a great what we heard . As did the tantalizing impulses, even (possibly) his preacher's statement of contempt, on Olivier's glimpses of Olivier that we caught in son doubts about the appropriateness of part, for high-falutin' definitions of the other films of the Forties and Fifties. a life spent upon the wicked stage. If you performer's art, for the breathless awe His Hurstwood in Wyler's mostly mis- have seen only the movie version of the with which the innocently . romantic judged film version of Sister Carrie had play, you have seen only the shadow of often greet him . This, he seemed to be a brave weakness about it- so mething Olivier's greatness as Archie Rice, the saying, is the essence of our occupation confessional about it, one now thinks- broken-down (and breaking down) -this terror, endured in aid of this and the dashing intellectuality of his ephemera, in hopes of a moment's \"Gentleman Johnny\" Burgoyne in The approving applause. Absurd, isn't it? Devil's Disciple film was exquisitely exe- cuted. I even thought his work as The At the time, Olivier was heard to say Prince of Carpathia (''The fox of the Bal- that he had never been Hamlet, that he kans;' as he is referred to in The Prince had always been Archie Rice at heart. and the Showgirl) was a marvelou sly sly People chuckled indulgently at his and full y realized comic performance- becoming modesty, and, of course, the great man on working holiday, by no being a complex man, he did have more means taking the money and heading for idealistic definitions of what he did . (\"I the border. believe in the theater,\" he said, in a nicely turned phrase in his maiden-and There was, though , the beginning of only-speech in the House of Lords, \"I a certain querulousness in crjtical and believe in it as the first glamorizer of middlebrow response to that film . What thought: ') But I took him seriously at was Sir Laurence doing? Directing Mari- the time, and I still do. lyn Monroe, working for the first time since his youth in so obviously a com- I was never to be in his presence again mercial enterprise? It didn't seem ... well after that night at the Royale Theater ... fitting. on Broadway in the winter of 1958-59. Like most people, I had to make do with The questions were, of course, the movies. But I must say that I loved almost immediately- if temporarily- much of what Olivier did in them. stilled by his appearance, first in Lon- There was, for example, his marvelously don , then in New York and on film in seedy police detective in Bunny Lake is The Entertainer. Yes, yes, it was com- Missing. There was his Mahdi in Khar- mercial theater, and not even a terribly toum, blacked up, whistling through the well-made play, at that. But it contained gap in his front teeth (which gap was a serious, I-can-read message about the taken by the faithful to be a sign that the decline of empire. Implicitly, it con- historical Mahdi was a true prophet) , tained another message as well. The 24

- I Th e F r st An uaI - ~ARA~OTA fR~NCH fILM f~~TIVAl II I / '\\ November 14-19, 1989 , / , ,/ ,, France comes to Aorida • tributes to importal7l • openil1g and closing night Don 't miss the excitement this Nouember J4-J9for an figul1!S in Fl1!I1ch cinema celebratio11S with the stars, ofthis in£luguralyear! For unprecedented celebration and more- ofFl1!nch cinema... • presentatio11S bypromi- / morf! infonnation 11'1£1illD. \"\"\"' A O f)RE$S STATe ZIP all in a dazzling selling of The Sarasota Frf!nch Film PHONe • Pl1!miere screenings ofthe nent u.s.filmmakers of powder-wbite beacbes and Festival, 5555 North finest new Fl1!I1ch films crystal clear blue-g reen Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, available, programmed by theirfavorite Fl1!I1ch film water. Florida 34243, or call Sf Artistic Director Molly Haskell TOllrsat J-800-780-8877. .;' , • a round-table discussion featuring n£ltionally 11!I10wned American and Frf!nch film critics PR£SF,vT£O BY: T HE A SOLO CEN T£1l \"'0 11 Till;\" P ERFO RM/he ARTS; SPON5QRI::n lit': THF. STArF. 0 '\" fi.ORIDA, IN ASSOCIATION Il' /TH UN /FRA NCE F ltM /\"7F.RNATfONAL AND THE F RENCH C ULTURAL SF.RVlCES; DI:.SIG,\\~ K flJl1&Dlm col.1 Dt.sIGN GR Ot'l', TA LLAIIA SS£F., F , ORIO,,: C ONCF.PT: MANTHA TIPPIN, SARA SOTA, FL O RIOA ,/

Making Marathon that the slightly feeble excuse for busy- \"You should learn to Man, Dustin Hoffman ing himself with trivia was no longer act, dear boy,\" his kept himselfawakefor available to him. Lordship murmured to two days to look and, Hoffman. \"Then you above all, feel properly Now, at last he told the truth. He wouldn't have to put haggardfor his scenes simply would not have known what to yourselfthrough this do with himself if he had stopped acting, with Olivier. might well have died before his time if sort ofthing.\" he had embraced the invalid's idleness that was his for the asking. Indeed, in his autobiography he publicly thanked God for the movies, which enabled him to keep working after the energy required for stage work failed him . For all we know he thanked God for holo- which may be the most wicked portrayal In Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman. d of Third World lunacy we have yet had this side of Evelyn Waugh. There was graphs, too, since one of those was used There it is-the essence of what he his ponderously clever Soviet premier in a couple of years back to project his stood for-craftsmanship, professional- The Shoes of the Fisherman-so very image on stage in the London musical ism, practical intelligence and the high- Russian. These were all marvelously Time. est seriousness. That I define as not observed performances, in which com- taking yourself, or your mission, or your mon types were given shrewd particular- In these last decades some of us sent reviews, too seriously-let other people ity by the actor. Indeed, as age and some grateful thoughts heavenward for do that for you if they are so disposed. illness crept up on him, he seemed his continued presence. To those of us This is especially important for actors, more than a little grateful to shuck off who believe that the best kind of hero- who must not let anything-especially the pretense of leading-manhood, to ism is to be found in the relentless prac- self-importance-congeal their ability to hide out under curious costume and tice of one's profession-how else do do what they must always do, which is to thick makeup. His Lordship did not you continue learning, for God's sake- retain the capacity to \"play;' in the most condescend to this work. He was what he now became a genuinely heroic fig- basic definition of the word. he loved best to be-an actor acting. ure.' And in his basic approach to work, which involved a rather cool and objec- In his long maturity, Olivier main- People fussed at him about it, wish- tive search for the mannerism or accent tained that ability better than anyone- ing that he would stand on his dignity or physical detail that revealed the inner better than he had done in his youth, instead of rolling around on the floor spirit of a character, there was some- better than the carping critics of his life- with the kids. Also they suspected a thing salutary. For it was the antithesis saving and, yes, life-enhancing \"cameos\" prolificacy that verged on profligacy. of the new romanticism , or should we could see. We must, of course, be grate- Greatness is supposed to be hard come call it merely the new egotism, of ful that at least some of the great sus- by, doled out in small, widely separated method acting. It is said that when they tained performances-including half an doses. That Polaroid commercial, those were making Marathon Man Dustin Archie, which is better than none-are not-so-hot American accents in the tele- Hoffman kept himself awake for two preserved on film and tape. But these vised Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and in The days so that he could look-and above other, smaller, perhaps more casual Betsy and Inchon, that all-purpose mid- all, feel-properly haggard for one of his actor's moments, this little night music dle European accent only slightly varied scenes with Olivier. \"You should learn to of his, are part of his legacy too, and in projects as various as Dracula , The act, dear boy;' his Lordship murmured . they are by no means the least instruc- Boys From Brazil and The Jazz Singer. \"Then you wouldn't have to put yourself tive part of what he leaves behind for But he charmed me in A Little Romance through this sort of thing:' and he scared me in Marathon Man, those who follow in his ... let's call it craft. ® and in TV's Brideshead Revisited Lord Marchmain's ferocious dottiness , an old man's impersonation of old age, demon- strated that he had not lost the capacity to let experience instruct him . There was bravery in this , I think, or maybe just a shrewd sense of self-preser- vation. In the Sixties and Seventies he occasionally let it be known that he was so readily for hire because he felt a need to provide for his considerably younger wife, Joan Plowright, and their three children. But somehow he managed to survive the onslaught of illness that marked his last two decades, and some- how the kids finally grew up and went out on their own, and he had to admit, 26

r From the director of II Women OnTheVe Of ANervous Breal(down ':.. WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS!7 (iQue he hecho yo para merecer esto!?) Spain 1985-Comedy 100 min. ColorVHS/ Beta $79.95 Spanish w/subtitles Starring: Carmen Maura. Chus lampreave. Juan Martinez. -Pauline Kael The New Yorker You're not likely to find this part of Spainin aguidebook for tourists. Gloria. avery resourceful working class \"THE HAPPIEST, most entertaining hedonist in film housewife. is atrue feminist heroine who's on the go 18 hours aday. trying to keep her outrageously wacky today!\" -Enrique Fernandez, Village Voice family afloat. Comedy and tragedy blend to portray a surreal and perverse fable of contemporary life. \"NOT SINCE BUNUEL has atalent been seen like that \"An absolutely wonderful black comedy. It is quite of Almodovar!\" -Archer Winston, New York Post simply asmall masterpiece!\" \"THE FASSBINDER for the '80s, Almodovar has the -RichardGrenier. The New York Times same daring, virtuoso command of the medium!\" \"A superb. absolutely mad film!\" -los Angeles Weekly -Kellin Thomas, los Angeles Times \"A totally wacked out laugh riot. Almodovar's a deranged. demented and comic filmmaking genius!\" LAW OF DESIRE Written and directed by Pedro Almodovar. With - Miami News Spain 1986-Comedy Carmen Maura. Eusebio 100 min. Color VHS/ Beta Poncela. Antonio Banderas. DARK HABITS $79.95 Spanish w/subtitles (Entre Tinieblas) Set against the backdrop of amad. mad. Madrid. this film .. Spain 1984-Comedy swirlsaround an outrageous cast of characters. Our hero 116 min . ColorVHS/ Beta is absorbed in aca t and mouse game with an obsessive IS? $79.95 Spanish w/subtitles love which before long entangles his transsexual brother/ sister. afather/s on detective team and amother who Starring: Christina Pascual. makes the Spider Woman look tame. Julieta Serrano. Marisa Paredes. Carmen Maura. Almodovar brilliantly examines the idea and the attractions Chus lampreave of absolute desire in this hilarious and tragic film. \"A lively cast! A turbulent plot... an entertaining jumble!\" -Janet Maslin. The New Ynrk Times \"Surreal Humor! Clearly an original talent!\" Yolanda. anightclub singer who goes on the lam after her -leo Se/igsohn. N.Y. Newsday lover dies of adrug overdose. takes refuge in the Convent of the Humble Redeemers. The eccentric nuns. who greet Spain t986-Comedy her with open arms. have their own problems. with the Color VHS/ Beta Church. with the law and with their benefactor. In the end. $79.95 Spanish w/subtitles it's hard to say who is redeemed. if anyone. Also available from CINEVISTA VIDEO: \"H ilarious. irreverent fu n!\" CARAVAGGIO / DONA HERLINDA AND HER SON / IN A GLASS CAGE / TAXI ZUM KLO -VA. Musetto. The New York Post A MAN LIKE EVA / L'HOMME BLESSE / IMPROPER CONDUCT \" Keeps you smiling!\" - Goodman. The New York Times \"Carmen Maura at her bongos is ashiny faced imp. adadist clown. which. of course. is what Almodovar himself is!\" - Pauline Kael. The New Yorker CINEVISTA 353 WEST 39TH STREET/NEW YORK 10018 TEL (212) 947-4373/TELEX 288182 CINEV FAX (212) 947-0644

Griffith s Real by Miriam Hansen After the New York One addition in particular makes the premiere, some ofthe sexual dynamics of Intolerance actually W atching ow. Griffith's Intol- powers-that-be said, more explicit~if not quite in the sense erance in the standard ver- .of Griffith's backers-than the sheer dis- sion circulated by the \"You ought to have play of female flesh in Babylon. This Museum of Modern Art , you might have more sex in it.\" addition is the episode of Mary Magda- wondered about various loose ends. lene in the Judean story, represented by What, for instance, happened to the In reconstructing Intolerance , Peter a frame from the copyright deposit modern couple's pudgy infant who is last Williamson at MoMA and Gillian (which still accompanies a review in the seen in an institutional bed, separated Anderson, a music specialist at the Chicago Tribune , December 24, 1916). from his mother and neglected by Library of Congress, have relied on a Played by Olga Grey, the Magdalene female nurses dancing with each other? variety of sources besides these two appears \" bedizened... in a luxurious litter\" In MoMA's restored version of the film- \"standard\" ve rsions: one surviving, (George Soule in The New Republic, an amalgam from various sources com- though shortened, print dated 1917; still September 30, 1916), surrounded by plete with a live orchestral performance frames from the June 1916 copyright slaves carrying her palanquin. of the lost score, set for this year's New deposit; a copy of the original score by York Film Festival-the infant resurfaces Joseph Carl Breil cued for performance U nlike \"The Woman Taken in in time for the happy ending. with the film; and contemporary reviews Adultery\" (with whom she was to and other documents. However, we be conflated in the credits of later ver- The fate of Intolerance is one of the should not expect anything like a \"co m- sions), the Magdalene is neither cen- major legends in film history, dramatized plete\" version of Intolerance , a restora- sured nor redeemed from her wicked to a large extent by Griffith himself. Fol- tion of the work in timeless originality. ways; her only function in the narrative lowing the runaway success of The Birth For even prior to the major mutilation of is to further incriminate the Pharisees of a Nation (1915), Intolerance was 1919 , Griffith kept revising the print who interfere with the lives and loves of released with an unprecedented boost of during the film's first runs , taking into the \"common\" people. This emphasis is advance publicity in September 1916. It account audience response in various reinforced , through parallel editing, by a drew large crowds in urban theaters scene in the modern story in which the across the country, but after four months CIties. puritanical Industrial Overlord rejects attendance dropped off, leaving Griffith the flirtatious smile of a millworker look- unable to recoup the $386,000 invest- Aware of that problem , the archivists ing for a date and instead picks up a ment (not the $2.5 million of legend). conceive of their project not as a restora- dime on the pavement. With similar While many reviewers admired the film , tion but as a \"reco nstruction;' with the nonchalance, the Magdalene theme is some noted that popular reception aim of recreating the film as it premiered resumed in the police raid on a brothel might be impeded by its experimental in New York on September 5, 1916 , supervised by the \"Ves tal Virgins of narration, the systematic intercutting of including tinting and live orchestra. Uplift,\" a sequence that explicitly links four different stories set in different peri- Inevitably, this self-imposed limitation to female reformist activity to sexual frus- ods of history and geographic locations. one moment in the film's history tration. involves some losses: one casualty, for As if to atone for his original violation instance, will be the infamous footage of How do such overt-if compro- of classical linearity, Griffith proceeded the \"Handmaidens from Ishtar's Temple mised-expressions of female sexuality to cut up the original negative in 1919 to of Love and Laughter;' which, according get into a film by as eminent a Victorian make two separate films , The Mother to Griffith's research assistant, actor as Griffith? Let me backtrack for a and the Law and The Fall of Babylon. Joseph Henabery, was added only after moment to the production context of When a British institution requested a the New York premiere, when \"some of Intolerance. As advanced by the direc- print of Intolerance in 1922, Griffith re- the powers-that-be said, 'You ought to tor himself, the attack on the puritans, edited the film from memory, since have more sex in it.' \" uplifters and reformers-\" meddlers\" there had never been a shooting script. across history-was his answer to the It is this version that he later donated to But the gains far outweigh the losses. liberal intellectuals who had publicly the Museum of Modern Art, and which condemned the racist slant of The Birth has become the film shown all over the of a Nation , notably Jane Addams, Fre- world as Intolerance. deric Howe, Rabbi Stephen Wise and 28

groups like the NAACP. For one thing, Griffith meant to deflect the political charges against Birth by merging them with the threat of film censorship in particular and the cause of free speech in general. Moreover, by including prostitution in the text, Grif- fith invoked an analogy (common during the Progressive Era) between the 19th century opponents of slavery-the vil- lains of Birth-and the contemporary vice crusaders whose position towards prostitution was likewise dubbed \"aboli- tionist:' Thus, rather than renouncing the racist premises of Birth, the new film reiterated and justified them in diluted form, under the cover of univer- sallove and tolerance. But the anti-reform, anti-puritan agenda of Intolerance , in combination with the effects of excessive parallel editing, also confused the Victorian oppositions Griffith had been asse ·ing so relentlessly in his previous wo;k; indeed, it made the film a testimony to the sexual and social changes that Grif- fith most feared and desired. Intolerance could almost be subtitled Variations on the Theme of Femininity in Crisis, cen- tering as it does on the fate-and fatal attraction-of unmarried female charac- ters throughout the ages. The question of the single woman, the woman no longer contained by mar- riage and motherhood, had an over- whelming impact on an artist who moved from a rural Southern economy into the modern, urban-industrial mar- ketplace. Not only did he compete there with unprecedented numbers of women in the workforce-teachers, writers, typ- ists, editors and even film directors; more importantly, the emerging film industry was becoming increasingly dependent on the woman who had money to spend-the female consumer. The host of female figures that populate Intolerance-the inhumane spinster, the perverse old queen, the bereft mother, the tomboy, the charity girl, the adulter- ess, the prostitute-betray a profound anxiety about these changes, an anxiety that propels the film into a climax of par- allel catastrophes. At the same time, the sympathetic portrayal of the Magdalene suggests that Griffith also identified with the victims of change, since he knew first hand how it felt to put oneself, body and soul, into the marketplace. In its excessive and ambivalent response to the crisis of fem- ininity, Intolerance rerriains Griffith's most modern film, a film that projects its contradictions forward into our time. ~ Intolerance through the ages: Babylon, the mocJem age and inMary Magdalene's era. 29

Real Video Limited Home Video Being with John F. This landmark film presents a burdened President in crisis, \". .. an absorbing production, Kennedy unique, candid look at JFK on and concludes with the world- deftly edited and intriguingly the campaign trail and in the wide impact of his death. nostalgic.\" Calling the Shots Oval Office. Employing exclusive footage available \"... 'Being with John F. - The Hollywood Reporter Nobody Listened nowhere else, this intimate Kennedy' is an essential portrait traces Kennedy's viewing experience.\" Produced by Nancy Sweet Sweetback's progression from young Dickerson and Robert Drew Baadasssss Song senator to winning candidate, -Tom Shales in association with through the glories of the The Washington Post Golden West Television New Frontier, to heavily 100 minutes B&W/Color 1983 who are directing dramatic 1/2 \" VHS Video $59.95 Calling the Shots is the first feature films throughout the film to focus on the accom- world today. The participants \"[An] accomplished and plishments of women in front include Chantal Akerman, detailed documentary .. . of and behind the camera. Martha Coolidge, Lee Grant, pungent, probing and witty.\" Using archival footage and Amy Heckerling, Katherine candid interviews with direc- Hepburn, Sherry Lansing, -Daily Variety tors, producers, screenwriters Jeanne Moreau, Susan and actresses, this compel- Seidelman, Joan Micklin A Cineplex Odeon Film ling documentary presents a Silver, Penelope Spheeris, Produced and Directed by comprehensive and heartfelt Agnes Varda and many more. Janis Cole and Holly Dale look at contemporary women 118 minutes Color 1988 collective experiences the film 1/2 \" VHS Video $79.95 The most talked-about film of reveals the circumstances in the Miami Film Festival and Cuba on various levels- \"In its formal quality, Nobody winner of the Special Jury historical, political and Listened avoids the pamphlet Award in Houston , Nobody emotional-offering an elo- and rewards the viewer with Listened presents the candid quent and moving perspec- its lucidity. But it is, above all, and often disquieting testimo- tive on a controversial and very humane.. .\" nies of some thirty people difficult topic. -La Opinion (Los Angeles) who were direct or indirect victims of oppression in Fidel this is perhaps the most A film by Nestor Almendros Castro's Cuba. Through their controversial black film ever and Jorge Ulla made, the film that started the 117 minutes Color 1989 Sweet Sweetback is the black cinema boom of the 1/2\" VHS Video $79.95 story of a professional sex- 1970s. Black Panther Huey show stud who kills two po- New10n called Sweet film survives today as both an licemen who are beating up a Sweetback 'the first truly important historical document black youth . Using his street- revolutionary black film.' as well as a still powerful and wise survival skills, he eludes Rated X by an \"all-white jury\" relevant motion picture his pursuers and escapes to at the time of its release, the experience. Mexico . Written , produced, A film by Melvin Van Peebles directed, scored by and Music performed by Earth, starring Melvin Van Peebles, Wind and Fire 97 minutes Color 1971 1/2 \" VHS Video $59.95 Thomas Hart Benton During his lifetime, Thomas ken ways and his dream of \"The best damned painter in Hart Benton became the best- instituting a distinctly Ameri- America.. .\" known American artist of his can art form enraged the es- generation . With the detail of tablished art world. This fas- -Harry Truman a social historian , Benton cinating documentary juxta- recorded the vitality and poses interviews with Benton Florentine Films variety of American life and and his contemporaries to tell A film by Ken Burns strove to make his paintings the story of this distinctly Produced by Ken Burns and murals accessible to the American artist. and Julie Dunfey . general public. His outspo- 86 minutes Color 1988 1/2\" VHS Video $39.95 photo by Scott Dine All orders must be pre-paid by check or Order by phone, fax or mail from: ~'iReal Video Limited credit card. Please add shipping charge of $5.00/first tape, $2.00/each additional Post Office Box 69799 tape . Foreign shipments add $3.00/tape. California residents add 6.5% sales tax. Los Angeles , CA 90069-9976 cinema Phone (213) 652-8000 Q Telefax (213) 652-2346 limited

ction . Cinematographers:

by Todd McCarthy That Euro-wood Look T he last five years have seen ee greater change in the names, nationalities and backgrounds The Music Lovers, shot by Douglas S/ocombe. of the men who shoot the world's major motion pictures than any time since the The Hitcher, cinematography by John Seale. dawn of talking pictures. Five years ago, when FILM COM- MENT conducted its first comprehensive survey of leading cinematographers, it was not difficult to compose a list of a dozen Americans who, along with a handful of Europeans, convincingly ranked as the industry's best. There were as many other young U.S. camera- men who appeared ready to break into the front ranks based upon highly prom- ising early work. As the decade draws to a close how- ever, the Yanks have virtually been wiped off the map. Long shut out of Holly,,;'ood and, to an only somewhat lesser degree, the rest of the country by protectionist union and visa policies, foreign lensers now utterly dominate names in the field, and almost invariably win the most coveted jobs on the top pictures by the best directors both here and abroad. It took many years, but a combina- tion of factors finally permitted this revo- lution to take place. In the Seventies, art-minded directors such as Robert Altman, Terrence Malick, John Huston and Monte Hellman spirited overseas aces Nestor Almendros, Gerry Fisher and the late Jean Boffety into the coun- try when they locatio ned in right-to- work states. But the decisive moment came in 1978, when producer Dino De Laurentiis won a stand-off with the New York camera local over Sven Nykvist's hiring on King of the Gypsies by threat- ening to move the picture out of the city if the Swede was not permitted to work. Additionally, more foreign directors came to the United States, often bring- ing their collaborators with them. Inde- pendent companies, notably Cannon, with its foreign owners, enabled many a cameraman to obtain wor~ing visas. The walls of the citadel, Hollywood, have not yet been entirely breached, but the change is demonstrable: when Vitto- rio Storaro shot Hollywood studio sequences for Reds in 1981, the union would not even allow him to touch the camera, even though he had lensed the entire picture on different international locations up until then. The following year, he could shoot One From the Heart on Hollywood soundstages, but he had to receive a \"Photography By\" 32

Tucker, shot by Vittorio Storaro. credit, while a union man was cited Do the Right Thing, shot by Ernest Dickerson. as DP. J ust as the foreign invasion has been mounted , the most talented Ameri- can DPs have gone into a curious retreat. With the exception of Haskell Wexler, none of 1984's Golden Dozen have done consistently first-rate work, or have even participated in many inter- esting projects, photographically or directorially, during the past five years. At the same time, most of the camera- men then falling in second rank or The Jury's Still Out category have largely been working in a familiar or blandly slick commercial style. Some of The Comers of five years ago, notably John Bailey, Stephen H. Burum and Alan Daviau, have developed impressively, but even they have mixed in a surprising amount of average, impersonal jobs wi~h their more notable outings. Running through the leading twelve cinematographers from the 1984 list, the descent into the humdrum and unambitious and, in some cases, inactiv- ity, is mildly shocking: John Alonzo, responsible for the likes of Chinatown, Farewell, My Lovely and Scarface, has been busy in TV between random assignments on such filler as Nothing in Common, Overboard and Real Men. After bombing out as a director on Clan of the Cave Bear, Michael Chap- man returned to the camera as house DP for Bill Murray on Scrooged and Ghostbusters II as well as on the appall- ing The Lost Boys and the presentable Shoot to Kill. The great Caleb Deschanel has become even more removed, disappear- ing after knocking off the long-forgotten The Slugger's Wife, to direct the even less-seen Crusoe. William A. Fraker, the godfather of heavy diffusion, was inexplicably nominated for an Oscar for the stylisti- cally mundane Murphy's Romance and achieved a nifty Forties deja vu with Chances Are, but has otherwise been employed on a steady stream of artisti- cally indifferent concoctions, including Protocol, Fever Pitch, SpaceCamp and Baby Boom. Even worse has been the gifted but maddeningly erratic Richard H. Kline, the maestro of The Fury and Body Heat, who has churned out the likes of Howard the Duck, Touch and Go and My Stepmother is an Alien. Hollywood's two hotshot Hungarian emigres, Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond , have been relatively quiet of 33

late. Laszlo Kovacs sailed into dreary big camera superstars earn for shooting Nichols (Heartburn) have been nothing budgets with Ghostbusters and Legal commercials, which actually make special. Eagles, was self-effacingly plain on spending months on a feature highly Mask, and neither here nor there with uneconomical. But it is clear that the VITTORIO STORARO. There is Little Nikita and Say Anything. Europeans and Australians represent the little dissent from the proposition that vanguard in the minds of everyone from Storaro is the best cinematographer in After indelibly establishing himself the world today. With almost every film, as the leading exponent of wide- leading directors and film critics to the this most international of talents aston- screen lensing in his collaborations Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sci- ishes audiences with glorious color with Altman, Boorman, Schatzberg, ences, which has awarded the cinema- images, whether they be for Bertolucci Spielberg, De Palma, Richert and tography Oscar to a non-American (The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky Cimino, Vilmos Zsigmond lowered his consistently for more than a decade. in the works), Coppola (Tucker, New sights for No Small Affair and Real Pointedly in five years there has been York Stories, Captain EO), Beatty Genius. The Witches of Eastwick repre- no apparent movement of women enter- (Reds, Dick Tracy upcoming) or on TV sented something of an evocative return ing the ranks of mainstream cinemato- (the quite remarkable Peter the Great). to form, and one can eagerly anticipate His one ugly duckling was Elaine May's his teaming with Jack Nicholson, the lat- Ishtar, a film of such surpassing visual plainness that one imagined Storaro was The decisive momentter as director this time, on The Two Jakes, for which a hard-edged noir style came in 1978, when under instruction to hide the film's cost is promised. Dina De Laurentiis by making it resemble a made-for-TV movie shot by someone else. Owen Roizman has mysteriously shot only one film, the unlamented won a stand-off VITTORIO STORARO: (b. 1946) 1968: Vision Quest, since his heyday in the Seventies with The Exorcist, Network with the New York Youthful, Youthful (Franco Rosso). 1969: Crime at and four Sydney Pollack pictures, culmi- camera local over the Tennis Club ; The Spider's Stratagem nating in Tootsie. (Bernardo Bertolucci); The Bird with the Crystal Sven Nykvist. Plumage (Dario Argento). 1970: The Conformist Also falling off was perhaps the Sev- (Bernardo Bertolucci) ; Adventures of Enea. 1971: enties' most influential American cine- 'tis Pity She's a Whore (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi); matographer, Gordon Willis over the graphers, making this the only branch of Bad Day for the Aries; Body of Love. past five years has lensed two James filmmaking to remain entirely male- 1972:Adventure of Orlando; Bleu Gang . 1973: Bridges clinkers, Perfect and Bright dominated. We are also in an era where, Giordano Bruno (Giuliano Montaldo); Last Tango Lights, Big City, the inexplicable The for the first time in perhaps 40 years, in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci); Malizia (Salvatore Money Pit (Willis shooting a stupid, Hollywood cinematographers are Samper). 1975: The Driver's Seat (Guiseppe brightly lit comedy?) and James roughly the same age as, and not far Patroni Griffi). 1976: 1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci). Toback's The Pick-Up Artist. older than, their directors. 1977 : Submission. 1979: Agatha (Michael Apted); Apocalypse Now (Francis Coppola); La Beverly Hills Cop and Pale Rider Over the last few years a cadre of Luna (Bernardo Bertolucci). 1981: Reds (Warren were good, clean jobs, but since then it's obviously talented young American Beatty). 1982: One From the Heart (Francis been strictly downhill for Bruce Sur- cameramen, mostly on independent Coppola). 1983: Wagner (Tony Palmer). 1985: tees, the erstwhile Prince of Darkness films, has formed. Several, including Ladyhawke (Richard Donner). 1986: Peter the on Out of Bounds, Psycho III, Ratboy, Juan Ruiz-Anchia, Toyomichi Kurita, Great (TVM); 1987: /shtar (Elaine May); The Back to the Beach and License to Drive. Adam Greenberg, Yuri Neyman and Oli- Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci). 1988: ver Stapleton may have been born and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Francis Cop- Jordan Cronenweth has been trained elsewhere, but they seem des- pola). 1989: New York Stories , (\"Life Without much choosier, shooting just for Francis tined to stay here and enrich the Ameri- Zoe\") (Francis Coppola) . Coppola on the sentimentally burnished can cinema along with domestic Peggy Sue Got Married and the more counterparts Frederick Elmes, Ernest SVEN NYKVIST. One of the few prosaic Gardens of Stone. Dickerson, Ed Lachman, Robert members of the older generation of cin- Richardson and Walt Lloyd. ematographers clearly not content to Only Haskell Wexler has entirely coast on his reputation, the veteran maintained his standing, lifting John WORLD CLASS Swedish master has continued to mix Sayles to undreamed-of visual heights European work (Tarkovsky's The Sacri- on the low-budget Matewan and helping T he aforementioned Haskell Wex- fice, Von Sydow's Katinka) with his Dennis Hopper make his comeback on ler is the only active American American projects, even since the retire- Colors, where the cameraman precisely cinematographer who indisputably ranks ment of his longtime colleague lngmar but almost off-handedly evoked the in this category on the basis of his work Bergman. After allowing Carlo Di Palma parched, bleached-out look of sunbaked to warm up his films with reds and L.A. streets. But then, in a complete flushed skin tones, Woody Allen has career anomaly, Wexler shot the anony- seemingly encouraged Nykvist to con- mous Disney release Three Fugitives. tribute an icier, more monochromatic look to Another Woman and even his T o analyze why all these talented across the last five years. Nestor \"Oedipus Wrecks\" chapter in New York men are accepting such lackluster Almendros does too, although his only Stories. Phil Kaufman wanted some- exciting recent work is Martin Scorsese's thing very different for The Unbearable assignments, or are being passed over in \"Life Lessons\" chapter in New York Sto- Lightness of Being and got it-as favor of foreign cameramen for the plum ries. He clearly could use more of this Nykvist's images have rarely been so projects is to conclude that to a great sort of stimulation from a fresh collabo- luminous or rich; as always, he was extent, the career relaxation can be ration, for his efforts in league with superb in the intimate scenes, showcas- explained by the astronomical fees these Robert Benton (Nadine) and Mike ing the beautiful actresses to maximum 34

TWENTY-SIXTH NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL This New York Film Festival poster is a I enclose $ lor _ _ _ _ _ _ 26th New York bold graphic statement from the well-known Film Festival posters. designer, Milton Glaser. Silkscreened in five SIGNED UNSIGNED colors, Glaser's design harks back to the Art Deco era. Name The poster measures 30\"x45\", and is silk- Address screened on high-quality stock. It is suitable for framing. The signed, limited edition is $75; City /StatelZip an unsigned limited edition poster $35. Price includes postage and handling. Daytime Phone Please allow 6 weeks lor delivery. Offer good in US only. Mail check or money order payable to : Film Society 01 Lincoln Center , 140 West 65th St. , New York , NY 10023 . You may use postage·paid envelope in this magazine .

advantage, but he got a rare chance to Fosse) . 1983: La Tragedie de Carmen (Perer long-standing collaborator Wim Wen- demonstrate his reflexes to the chal- Brook). 1984: After the Rehearsal (Ingmar ders, for whom he will shortly photo- lenge of bringing history vividly to life Bergman); Swann in Love (Vo lker Schlondorff) . graph the epic road movie Till The End on a broad canvas. 1985: Agnes of God (Norman jewison); Dream of the World. Lover (Alan Pakula) . 1986: Nobody 's Child SVEN NYKVIST: (b. 1922) 1945: 13 Chairs . (TVM) (L ee Gram) ; The Sacrifice (A ndre ROBBY MULLER: 1970: Summer in the City 1949: Spring at Sjosal. 1952: When Lilacs Blos- Tarkovsky). 1988: Another Woman (Woody (Wim Wenders). 1972: The Scarlet Letter (Wim som . 1953: Barabbas (co-phot. ); Laughing in Allen) ; Katinka (Max Von Sydow); The Unbear- Wenders); Th e Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty Sun shine (Dan Bin) ; The Naked Night (Ingmar able Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman). 1989: Kick (Wim Wenders). 1973: Jonathan (Hans W. Bergma n). 1954 : Salka Iillka; Karin Mansdotter; New York Stories, (\"Oedipus Wrecks\") Geissendorfer) . 1974: Alice in the Cities (Wim Storm Over 1Juro. 1955: True and False (M ichael (Woody Allen) . Wenders). 1975: Wrong Movement (Wim Wen- Road). 1956: Children of the Night ; Girl in a ders); Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders) . 19 77: Dressing Gown. 1957: A Dreamer 's ijfjlk. 1958: ROBBY MOLLER. The greatest The American Friend (Wim Wenders) ; The Left Lady in Black . 1960: The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Handed Woman (Perer H andke). 1978: Mysteries Bergman); The Judge ; A Matter of Morals (John Dutchman with light since Vermeer, (Paul D eLussaner) ; Saint Jack (perer C romwell). 1961: Through a Glass Darkly Muller has spent recent years bouncing Bogdanovich). 1980: Hon eysuckle Rose (Jerry (Ingmar Bergman) . 1962: Winter Light (Ingmar between major Hollywood films , low- Scharzberg). 1981: They All Laughed (Perer Bergman); Make ijfjy for Lila (Rolf Hu sberg); budget independents and the occasional Bogdanov ich). 1982: Un Dimanche de Flics The Silence (Ingmar Bergman). 1964: All Th ese European di version , w ith some just (Michel Vianey) . 1983: Les Tricheurs (Barber Women (Ingmar Bergman); To Love (Jorn Don- slightly off-the-mark work slipping in as Schroeder). 1984: Body Rock (Marcelo Epsrein) ; ner) ; Loving Couples (Mai Zetterling). 1966: The final sequence of \"Life without Zoe\" (shot by Storaro) from New York Stories. Sven Nykvist's Cinematography for The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Persona (Ingmar Bergman). 1968: Hour of the a possible result. Creative tension Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders); Repo Man (Alex Wolf(In gmar Bergman) ; Shame (Ingmar between the lenser and William Cox). 1985: Finnegan Begin Again (TVM) (Joa n Bergman). 1969: The Ritual (Ingmar Bergman) ; Friedkin on To Live and Die in L.A. Micklin Silver). 1986: Down By Law (Jim jar- The Passion ofAnna (Ingmar Bergman). 1970: yieloed astonishing results , the ne plus musch) ; Th e Longshot (Paul Banel) . 1987: Barfly First Love (Maximi lian Schell). 197 1: The Touch ultra of the hard-edged, neo-noir look. (Barber Schroeder); The Believers (John Schle- (Ingmar Bergman) ; The Last Run (Ric hard Fleis- Similar difficulties between Muller and singer). 1988: Piccolo Diavolo. 1989: Mystery cher) ; One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Paul Bartel on The Longshot produced Train (Jim j armusch). (Caspa r Wrede) . 1972: Cries and Whispers indifferent visuals. The attractive but (Ingmar Bergman) ; Siddhartha (Co nrad Rook) ; unsurprising slickness of Schlesinger's CHRIS MENGES. Very hot as a Summer Lightning (Vo lker Schlondorff) . 1974: meretricious The Believers demon- Th e Dove (Charles j arrott) ; Ransom (Caspar strated that even a talent of Muller's stat- director after his debut with A World Wrede) Scenes From a Marriage (Ingmar ure can fall victim to conventional Apart, Menges will likely never simply Bergman); Th e Magic Flute (Ingmar Bergman). norm s, and his evocation of the dingy photograph a movie again, but he must 1975: Monismanien 1995; Black Moon (Louis world of Barfly for Barbet Schroeder, be saluted here not only for his aptly Malle). 1976: The Tenant (Roman Polansk i) ; Face while impressive, was just a hair soft, a honored O scar-winning work on Roland to Face (Ingmar Bergman) . 1977: The Serpent 's notch below his own standard as well as Joffe's The Killing Fields and The Mis- Egg (Ingmar Bergman) . 1978: Autumn Sonata that set by Conrad Hall for similar mate- sion, but for his less-heralded shooting (Ingmar Bergman); King ofthe Gypsies (Fra nk rial in Fat City. Muller serves directors of Roger Donaldson's Marie , a brilliant Pierson) ; Pretty Baby (L ouis Malle). 1979: Hurri- in total accord with his own offbeat sen- metamorphosis of hand-held TV-news cane (Jan Troell) ; Starting Over \"(A lan Pakula). sibility, notably Jim Jarmusch (Down By aesthetics to widescreen. Whether using 1980: From the Life of the MarioneTtes (Ingmar Law, and currently Mystery Train) and a big canvas or small, Menges has invari- Bergman) ; Willie & Phil (Paul Mazursky). 198 1: ably informed his style with lessons The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson). learned from his extensive background 1982: Cannery Row (David j . Ward); Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman); Star 80 (Bob 36

in documentaries. His contributions to (Witness, The Mosquito Coast). The trast, Moonstruck was perhaps his dark- Bill Forsyth (Local Hero, Comfort and Hitcher proved his bag of tricks is as est lighting job , and one of his most Joy), Ken Loach (Fatherland, Looks deep as anyone's, while his close-ups conventional. The downside is that and Smiles), Clare Peploe (High Sea- and wet landscapes in Children of a Watkin seems to take work where it is son) and Andrei Konchalovsky (Shy Peo- Lesser God were of an uncommon offered , and thus ends up on such fod- ple) have always been impeccable, sensitivity. der as Sky Bandits , Last Rites and the specifically in servicing the material. unreleaseable Journey to the Center of the Earth. CHRIS MENGES: (b . 1940) 1969: Kes (Ken JOHN SEALE: 1973: Alvin Purple (Tim Loach). 1971: Black Beauty Oames Hill); Gum- Burstall) . 1976: Deathcheaters. 1980: Fatty Finn . DAVID WATKIN: (b. 1925) 1964: The Knack shoe (Stephen Frears). 1978: Black Jack (Ken 1981 : By Design; Doctors and Nurses; Fighting (Richard Lester). 1965: Help (Richard Lester). Loach). 1979: Before the Monsoon; Bloody Kids Back; Goose Flesh; Horror Movie ; The Survivor. 1966: Mademoiselle (Tony Richardson); Marat / (TV) (Stephen Frears) Radio On (Chris Petit) . 1982: The ~ar of Living Dangerously (Peter Sade (Peter Broo k) . 1967: How I Won the War 1980: The Gamekeeper (Ken Loach) ; Babylon Weir) ; Ginger Meggs; Goodbye Paradise . 1983 : (Richard Lester). 1968: The Charge of the Light (Franco Rosso) . 1981: Looks and Smiles (Ken BMX Bandits ; Careful. He Might Hear You (Carl Brigade (Tony Richardson). 1969: The Bed Loach) ; Couples and Robbers (Clare Peploe). Schultz). 1984: Silver City (Sophie Turkiewicz). Sitting Room (Richard Lester). 1970: Catch-22 1982: Angel (Neil Jordan); Battletruck (Harley 1985: Witness (Peter Weir) ; The Empty Beach. (Mike Nichols). 1971 : The Devils (Ken Ru ssell) ; Cokliss). 1983: Local Hero (Bill Forsyth); Loving 1986: Children of a Lesser God (Randa Haines) ; Walter (TV) (Stephen Frears). 1984: Winter The Hitcher (Robert Harmon); The Mosquito Flight. 1986: Fatherland (aka Singing the Blues in Red) (Ken Loach). 1987: High Season (Clare Peploe); Shy People (Andrei Konchalovsky) . SEALE. Australia has lately Coast (Peter Weir) . 1987: Stakeout Oohn The Boyfriend (Ken Russell) . 1973 : The Home- been nearly as fertile a breeding ground Badham). 1988: Gorillas in the Mist (Michael coming (Peter Hall) ; A Delicate Balance (Tony for leading international cameramen as Apted); Rain Man (Barry Levinson) . 1989: Dead Richardson) ; The Three Musketeers (Richard Britain, and John Seale has quickly Poets Society (Peter Weir). Lester). 1974: The Four Musketeers (Richard emerged as the foremost among his Lester). 1975: Mahogany (Berry Gordy); To the countrymen, although he too is cur- DAVID WATKIN. When he wants Devil. a Daughter (Peter Sykes). 1976: Joseph rently making the plunge as a director. to be, Watkin can clearly be as good as Andrews (Tony Richardso n); Robin and Marian Most recently represented by Dead anyone around; when Streisand couldn't (Richard Lester) . 1977: Jesus ofNazareth Poets Society, Seale enjoyed the advan- get Storaro to shoot Yentl, she sensibly (Franco Zeffirelli). 1979: Cuba (Richard Lester) ; tage of a one-two punch in late 1988 chose this veteran Englishman, whose Hanover Street (Peter Hya ms) ; That Summer with two very different pictures, Rain work dating back to the Sixties (Harley Cokliss). 1981: Chariots of Fire (Hugh Man and Gorillas in the Mist, both of bespeaks the beauties of warm sunlight Hudson) ; Endless Love (Franco Zeffirelli). 1983: which he handled in exemplary fashion. and light colors. He finally won his ~ntl (Barbra Streisand). 1984: The Hotel New His use of lenses and dense color Oscar for Out of Africa, which certainly Hampshire (Tony Richardson); Return to Oz orchestration to set characters in intelli- looks splendid but doesn't stand with his (Walter Murch). 1985: Out of Africa (Sydney gent relief within their environments best previous credits. Masquerade was Pollack) ; White Nights (Taylor Hackford). 1986: was particularly astute in his two pre- handsomely Hollywood and The Good Journey to the Center of the Earth (Rusty vious American outings with Peter Weir Mother unassertively lovely, bathed in Lemorande); Sky Bandits (Zoran Perisic) . 1987: natural light whenever possible. By con- Moonstruck (Norman Jewison). 1988: The Good Mother (Leonard Nimoy); Last Rites (Donald P. Bellisario); Masquerade (Bob Swaim). 1989: Murder by Moonlight (Michael Lindsay-Hogg); Memphis Belle (Michael Caton-Jones). 37

PERENNIALS by John Seale. \"'-\"ell in 'The ,·\\itcher, shot F our veteran European cameramen C. Thomas HU'\" belong on , or very near, this top The French lieutenant's Woman, shot by Freddie Francis. level , having shot some of the most Tequila Sunrise, shot by Conrad L. Hall. sumptuous films of the past 30 years. Some slackening off of late, however, indicates a 9.6 rather than a 10.0 for credits achieved over the past five years . DOUGLAS SLOCOMBE. (b. 1913) A veteran of the Ealing Studios dating back to the Forties, Siocombe, now 76, kept outdoing himself through the Seventies with works of rigorously controlled beauty, from The Music Lov- ers , Travels With My Aunt and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea to Love Among the Ruins, Julia and Nijinsky. Since then, he has distin- guished himself mainly by shooting Spielberg's Indiana Jones trilogy. The Pirates of Penzance and Lady Jane were unimpeachable as traditional studio jobs. Siocombe's tendency, more pro- nounced in the middle years than now, of using shallow depth-of-field has occa- sionally resulted in some mismatched or jarring cutting, notably on The Great Gatsby. But Siocombe can justly be considered one of the very major light- ing cameramen of the post-war era. GERRY FISHER. (b. 1926) Working in brilliant summer colors with Joseph Losey on Accident in counter- part to Siocombe's sinister b&w on The Servant, Fisher has rarely matched the nuanced , resplendent oil-like canvases he achieved during his eight-year collab- oration with Losey-perhaps only on The Seagull, The Three Musketeers, Wise Blood and Wolfen. These credits alone assure Fisher's high standing, but despite occasional solid outings, such as last year's Running On Empty, too many of his films look routine (The Holcroft Covenant), or worse (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother). FREDDIE FRANCIS. (b. 1917) An Oscar-winning DP in 1960 for Sons and Lovers, Francis was recruited from his stalled post-Hammer directing career by David Lynch for The Elephant Man due to his black-and-white expertise. He then exploded in an orgy of burnished reds for his finest color work, The French Lieutenant's Woman, did the exceptional TV film The Executioner's Song, returned as director for The Doc- tor and The Devils, reteamed with Lynch on the intelligently stylized but unwieldy Dune, and has since executed more conventional assignments . He's a master when the occasion calls for it. 38

GIUSEPPE ROTUNNO. (b. SCHOOL OF THE ARTS 1923) The preferred man behind the Film Is the Art Form lens for Visconti (Rocco and His Broth- ers, The Leopard) and Fellini (8 Ih , That Defines Our Time Satyricon) , Rotunno long ago earned his place among the greats. A familiar name At Tisch, we believe the studyof film on major international productions for develops analytic skills, hones crit- 30 years (On The Beach, The Bible, ical thinking, and broadens Candy, Man of La Mancha) , he best perspectives. combined his sharp eye for highly con- trolled design in conjunction with a rig- Film Is a Liberal Art orously stylized directorial conception in Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge and Because film is trulyan inter- Bob Fosse's All That Jazz . Among his disciplinary art form, our program Eighties' titles , Rollover and Five Days includes the studyof related sub- One Summer remain especially memora- jects such as art, history, and psy- ble for their attractive color coordina- chology as well as film production. tion, and he no doubt helped pull As a result, our students also get a together the teeming visual elements of broadly based liberal arts education. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen into a reasonably coherent whole. But Indeed, the diversity and nature of the assignments , for the most part, have our program has given Tisch its out- become more pedestrian in recent standing reputation in the world of years. the arts. \\ Moreover at Tisch, students study in New York City-the most indepen- Carnal \\l.noWIedeble, shot by G.luseppe Rotunno. dent and aesthetically creative film center in the world. A BREATH AWAY For more information on the Cinema T hese cinematographers have dis- Studies Program, call (212) 998-1600 played all the talent necessary to or return the coupon below. make the photographic pantheon , but have either been on the scene too short Tisch School of the Arts Please send me information on the Cinema Studies a time or have career peculiarities that NewYork University Program. make one think twice. 721Broadway, 7th Floor NewYork, NY. 10003 o Graduate 0 Undergraduate CONRAD L. HALL. (b. 1926) Attn.: Dr. Roberta Cooper o Junior Year in New York 0 Summer Sessions Hall's work represented the ultimate in Nev.' York University is an aftirmativeaction! N~e _______________________ fashionable Hollywood slickness for a equal oPJXlrtunity institution. decade beginning in the mid-Sixties , Address _______________________ after which he retired from features and City _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ran a lucrative commercials house with Haskell Wexler. He returned in his StawZip Code___________________ familiar vein with Black Widow and Tequila Sunrise, both faultless and gen- Teleph one_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ erous to their actresses, but a tad over- calculated as well. Soc. Sec. No._____________________ FC 9-10/89 39

EJ pI in tb at EUGENE: I want you to show me how you danced. (He turns on the radio and begins to search for the appropriate music.) KATE: Show you how I danced thirty-five years ago? I don't even walk like I did thirty-five years ago. EUGENE: Come on. You dance every year with Pop at the Garment Industry Affair. Just show me how you danced with George Raft. KATE: They danced differently in those days. They don't even do those steps anymore. EUGENE: Not a whole dance. Two steps . . . one turn. . . . KATE: Stop it, Eugene. I'm not in the mood. EUGENE: Come on.... I'm George Raft. Everybody is watching us. . . . Don't let 'em down, Mom.* * From Broadway Bound by Neil Simon

Enjoy your favorite scenes, lines and ~I~,..~...~.... . Acting in plays again and again with membership Television in The Fireside Theatre. We bring you -'. . -, ...U H.a U,,,..H I(fllll N Ccmmercials the best plays, musicals (complete book furFun ® and lyrics), anthologies and film-related ·0067 1222 ·0885 books in permanent, and ,4;Ri3 hardbound, jacketed editions, many featuring photographs ProfIt~ from the original productions. 0059 Begin with 0927 4119 0562 7997 0380 ANY FOR$ with membership 0307 0539 0315 0281 3822 3384 0844 0430 0919 0901 8003 0224 0877 6080 0166 0836 0802 • Warning: Subject matter or language may be offensive to some. -dllle~. -----------, @HiRe~ YES! Please 1 HERE'S HOW MEMBERSHIP WORKS! e~1 Garden City, Please write book YOU GET: • 4 books of your choice. A FREE Hirschfeld Calendar. A bill for $1 (plus shipping and handling). If not satisfied, return the books within 10 days at our expense. We 'll cancel NY 11530 numbers here: membership and the bill. Keep the calendar, free. :Thea*..:iiie enroll me jn L-....L----L---'-------' YOU ALSO GET: • Our Club bulletin about every 4 weeks (14 times a year). It describes the U. Featured Selection(s) plus Alternates. • Twice a year, you may also receive offers of Special !• The Fireside 1 Theatre according to the risk-free membership plan ~=~=~=~=~ Selections. To get the Featured Selection(s), do nothing. They'll be sent automatically. If you prefer any Alternate(s) or no Selections, return the Member Reply Form by the date shown. described in this ad . Send me the 4 BOOKS I've indi- 1 WE GUARANTEE: If you ever get unwanted Selections because your bulletin arrived late and cated-and my FREE Hirschfeld Calendar. Bill me '--.l...--'----'--' you didn't have 10 days to decide, you may return the books at our expense. just $1, plus shipping and handling . I,--.l...--'---'---' t YOU AGREE: As a member, you need buy only 4 more books at regular low Club prices during the coming 2 years. You may resign membership anytime after that, or may remain a member ES370 without any obligation. Mr.lMrs. please print I WE PROMISE: The Fireside Theatre offers a wide range of top plays and theatre-related books Miss/ Ms. to choose from, sometimes altered in size to fit our special presses. ALL SAVE YOU UP TO 40% OFF HAROCOVER PUBLISHERS' EDITIONS. Address A shipping and handling charge is added to all shipments. We reserve the right to reject any application. Send no money now. FREE HIRSCHFELD Apt. CALENDAR with membership City State Zip If you're under lB , parent must sign here _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Members accepted in U.S.A. only. We reserve the right to reject any application. L_____________________ ~~~~~

BILLY WILLIAMS. (b. 1929) David Watkin's Academy Award·winning work on Out of Africa. Williams began at the top with Ken Rus- at low cost, to leading international cam- Comer five years ago, Bailey made sell (Billion Dollar Brain, Women In eraman and Oscar winner for Missis- extraordinary contributions with light Love) and John Schlesinger (Sunday sippi Burning. His flashy work for Alan and color on Paul Schrader's Mishima Bloody Sunday) and has pretty much Parker, (Bugsy Malone and Pink Floyd- and Norman Mailer's Tough Guys Don't stayed there ever since, both on the The WaLl), and Adrian Lyne (Nine Ih Dance, and lovely shades to the more grand scale (The Wind and The Lion , Ui?eks), has been impressively balanced conventionally intended Brighton Beach Gandhi) and the intimate (Going in by quieter, more classical contributions Memoirs and Silverado. Having recently Style, Dreamchild, The Rainbow). Once to Another Country and A World Apart. suffered from an aborted attempt to in a while, Williams gives in to soft, direct, it is presently unclear what sentimental long lens work that can be ALEX THOMSON. Since Bailey's future holds. cloying (On Golden Pond) or just undis- ciplined (Monsignor), but he's generally announcing himself loudly with the MICHAEL BALLHAUS. One one of the most consistent lensers resplendent, earthy Excalibur, Thom- around today. son has straddled the Atlantic doing of Fassbinder's aces through the Seven- lively work on the misfired projects of CARLO DI PALMA. (b. 1925) interesting directors, such as Nicolas ties, BaUhaus moved to the U.S. and in Roeg's Eureka and Track 29, John Irvin's the mid-Eighties had the great good for- Oi Palma's greatest moments have Raw Deal, Neil Jordan's High Spirits tune to become Martin Scorsese's steady essentially been in collaboration with and, . most of all, Michael Cimino's visu- cameraman, synching up with him espe- Michelangelo Antonioni and Woody ally agile lear of the Dragon, as well as cially well on After Hours and The Last Allen, and have been separated by many The Sicilian. Thomson has proved his Temptation of Christ. His sleek black- years. Red Desert and Blow Up were expertise many times over by now, and and-white plasticity on Prince's insane inarguably two of the signal photo- his luck will no doubt shortly change to Under the Cherry Moon recalled some graphic achievements of the Sixties, and provide him with top-drawer credits. of the early Fassbinder and Working Girl was as handsome as you could want. Oi Palma's 1982 reunion with Anto- ON THE VERGE Every so often, he displays a tendency toward slightly grainy dinginess-Death nioni, Identification of a Woman, was F ollowing are some of the industry's of a Salesman and The House on Car- also of the highest order. The Italian hottest and mostly younger cam- roLL Street-but the collection of Ameri- brought a new warmth to Allen's work in eramen who only recently appear to can credits over just six years has been Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days have hit their stride and from whom awfully impressive. and September, and showed he could major work should be expected in execute a commercial assignment as future. RUSSELL BOYD. In his collabo- well as anyone with The Secret of My Success. JOHN BAILEY. A prominent rations with Peter Weir, Gillian Arm-' strong and others, Boyd shot many oj' PHILIPPE ROUSSELOT. After the breakthrough Australian films of the: Seventies and early Eighties, thent a dozen years working his way up in France, Rousselot was suddenly thrust into the international limelight by John Boorman in 1985 with The EmeraLd Forest. A repeat with Boorman on Hope and Glory and his simple but precise treatment of Dangerous Liaisons and Therese have confirmed his position as a bold colorist capable of composing for both normal and widescreen with den- sity and depth. IAN BAKER. Baker is the only cameraman under major consideration who has worked, by all accounts, exclu- sively with one director, in this case Fred Schepisi. This raises some ques- tions about what the visual contribu- tions of each may consist of, but the fact remains that these eight films, from The DeviL's PLayground through A Cry in the Dark, are among the most pictorially powerful pictures of their period. A Cry in the Dark, in particular, posed enor- mous visual challenges with its huge groupings of people, countless mundane locations and mandated semi-verite approach, ones which the cameraman and director met with complete success. PETER BIZIOU. Biziou rose quickly from Monty Python house OP, where he put a great deal on the screen 42

Passage to India, which offered great clarity in whites and pastels , while Par- ents featured a lot of amusingly oddball stylization. ROGER DEAKINS has quickly become Britain's African specialist on the basis of The Kitchen Toto , White Mischief and Rafelson's upcoming Mountains of the Moon. At this early stage, he seems a likely great, respon- sive to the unique moods of disparate locations (Another Time, Another Place, 1984, Sid and Nancy, Pascali's Island) and genres (Stormy Monday). PHIL MEHEUX has yet to emerge prominently, but has done gritty lensing for the likes of The Long Good Friday, Beyond the Limit and The Fourth Protocol. DOUGLAS MILSOM~ learned his stuff as the late, great John Alcott's operator on A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon, and was then entrusted by Kubrick with Full Metal Jacket. Milsome will have to be judged on his efforts apart from the master, who knows lighting and lenses better than most DPs. He most recently shot the Hope and Glory, shot by Philippe Rousellot (top) and popular TV miniseries Lonesome Dove. APassage to India, shot by Ernest Day (bottom). lDNY PIERCE - ROBERTS shone on Skolomowski's Moonlighting and his showed the world, with the Crocodile cially Garp, have been highly polished, Oscar-nominated A Room With a View. Dundee smashes, that Aussie picture5 but Mike Nichols' Silkwood seemed A Private Function was dankly evocative could be as satisfyingly slick as any Hoi· more self-consciously arty than neces- of its time and place, and the rest has Iywood confection. Burke and Wills left been little seen. no doubt of Boyd's taste for the big can· sary. vas, while Mrs. Soffel was daringly dark . ROGER PRATT has made a hall- REYNALDO VILLALOBOS. MATTHEW F. LEONETTI. mark out of gloomy, monumentally Villalobos rated a question mark five scaled studio stylization in Brazil and Coming out of TV, and still active there, years ago, and still does. Most of his Batman, and was a prince of darkness as Leonetti has stirred little interest over a output has a standard, if attractively well on the smaller Mona Lisa. dozen years except for his recent work sharp look to it. But he is occasionally with Walter Hill (Red Heat , Johnny capable of lovely, small-scale mood MICHAEL SERESIN turned Handsome), who delivers consistently pieces, such as Desert Bloom. vibrant visuals regardless of who hap- director for Mickey Rourke on Home- pens to be behind the camera. RIC WAITE. It is possible that boy, and it remains to be seen if he can stick in his new role. Prior to that, he DONALD McALPINE. McAl- some cinematographers get overrated did Alan Parker's bidding for more than when they work on pictures with the a decade, most impressively and elabo- pine made the transition from Australia, visually sure-minded Walter Hill, and rately on their last together, Angel where he made an early reputation with such might have happened with Waite, Heart . The Getting of Wisdom, My Brilliant who shot 48 HRS. He has done little Career, Breaker Morant and The Man with other directors to merit much COMING ON STRONG comment. From Snowy River, courtesy of Paul Mazursky, who has used him on four Top NEW BRITS T he following lensers have made pictures (starting with Tempest) with strong impressions on the basis of ADRIAN BIDDLE was plucked -few credits, and will doubtless be major attractive but hardly remarkable results. Similar competence without inspiration from obscurity to handle James contributors in the coming years. has marked his collaborations with Alan Cameron's Aliens, which was exception- Pakula and Bruce Beresford. ally nimble and resourceful. Since then, TOM ACKERMAN did the lively- The Princess Bride, Willow and The Tall MIROSLAV ONDRICEK. On- looking indie Girls Just Want to Have Fun, the heavily designed Beetlejuice dricek enjoys an exalted reputation due Guy have all been strong. and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. to his career-long teamwork with Milos Forman, but didn't anyone else find ERNEST DAY has been on the HOWARD ATHERTON dazzled Amadeus disappointingly drab visually? His outings with George Roy Hill, espe- scene for a long time, mostly as an oper- with high visual energy on Fatal Attrac- ator and second unit cameraman. David tion, and was nearly as good with The Lean gave him his big break on A Boost. 43

ERNEST DICKERSON keeps improving, having started murkily with The Brother From Another Planet but growing in tandem with Spike Lee on his three features and giving high-tech gloss to Wayne Wang's The Laserman. STEPHEN H. BURUM. A Empire of the Sun, shot by Allen Daviau (top) and Comer in 1984 on the basis of Body Choose Me, shot by Jan Kiesser (bottom). Double and his teamings with Coppola, Burum has not yet emerged decisively, DEAN SEMLER. Australian five years ago on the basis of Dressed to yet h~s contributed memorable imagery Semler made smashing contributions to Kill, Raggedy Man and Gorky Park, to 8 Million Ways to Die, The Bride, the last two Mad Max epics and pro- Bode has since accumulated a bunch of Nutcracker, The Untouchables and vided a luminous argument for Greta nondescript credits, but recently mer- Casualties of War. Scacchi as the sexiest woman in movies ited renewed attention for Cousins. in The Coca-Cola Kid. Uneven since, he ALLEN DAVIAU. Steven went ultra-Hollywood with Cocktail, BOBBY BYRNE. Byrne remains Spielberg's youthful cameraman on his was surprisingly murky on Young Guns, something of an enigma, working fre- short Amblin' has grown with every col- but rebounded in beautiful fashion with quently in TV after having indicated con- laboration to the genuinely impressive Dead Calm. siderable promise early in his career Empire of the Sun, in which the Shang- (Blue Collar), but still occasionally hai sequences in particular exhibited PETER SUSCHITZKY. The emerging with above-the-ordinary work, great subtlety in the midst of spectacle. British Suschitzky has been around such as Bull Durham. The rest has been routine. since the Sixties. First attracting notice on Mike Hodges' Pulp, he has popped DEAN CUNDEY. Cundey's star JAN DE BONT. Connoisseurs up every so often on such attractively rose along with that of collaborator John have been familiar with Dutchman De shot international productions as Jillen- Carpenter from Halloween through The Bont for years due to his exceptionally tino , The Empire Strikes Back and Fall- Thing. Over the past five years, the cin- vibrant teaming with Paul Verhoeven ing in Love. With David Cronenberg's ematographer has worked as often in TV (Turkish Delight, Keetje Tippel, The daringly icy Dead Ringers, however, he as in features, and has distinguished Fourth Man). But after a number of raised expectations anew, and may yet himself only in his fruitful teaming with promising American credits, his glim- step into the front ranks. Robert Zemeckis (Romancing the mering, visceral shooting of Die Hard Stone, Back to the Future, Who Framed really brought him to the attention of USUALLY SOLID, Roger Rabbit). Hollywood, and there is doubtless no SOMETIMES MORE looking back now. ALAN HUME. A reliable, if unre- ANDRZEJ BARTKOWIAK. markable, Brit craftsman for years on TAK FUJIMOTO. A Comer five Now shooting his eighth picture for Sid- international productions big and small, years ago, Fujimoto always looked inter- ney Lumet, Bartkowiak has edged away Hume has grandly filmed several of the esting as he came up from the Corman from the eye-squintingly dark look of Bonds and Return of the Jedi, and once factory, where he first hooked up with Prince of the City and The Verdict to a in awhile is capable of delivering some- Jonathan Demme. To date, he has only sunnier, slicker style on the especially thing extra (Eye of the Needle, Runaway excelled with Demme, especially with attractive The Morning After, as well as Train). the riotous color schemes of Something Twins. Prizzi's Honor marked a satisfy- Wild and Married to the Mob, while the ing middle ground. MARK IRWIN. The Canadian cin- remainder (e.g., Pretty in Pink) is nice ematographer, especially due to his daz- but not more. RALF BODE. A promising upstart zling ongoing collaboration with David Cronenberg, Irwin has branched out STEPHEN GOLDBLATT. The into U.S. and international assignments British Goldblatt's gifts have been obvi- with less exciting results. It remains to ous ever since the stylized glories of The Hunger and The Cotton Club. He also gave the two Lethal Weapons that some- thing extra to put them over as special treats rather than just expensive actioners. FRED MURPHY. A longtime toiler in the independent vineyards, beginning with Martha Coolidge and Mark Rappaport more than a decade ago, Murphy made a strong impression in a darkly seductive Willis-like style with Richard Pearce's TV film Sessions. Making his name slowly, he has proved himself nimbly adaptable to the needs of disparate intimate material, shining with the warm gloom of The Dead and the wet, early winter bleakness of Fresh Horses. 44

- Chris Menges' Academy Award-winning cinematography for The Mission. a bang on sex, lies, and videotape , one of the most exquisitely judged, sensi- be seen whether this represents a transi- War, which surely indicates he will be tively shot American features in recent memory. tional period or complacency. heard from on further features. YURI NEYMAN, a Russian emi- FREDERICK ELMES, longtime FRANCIS KENNY is a former gre, has exhibited a talent for modern David Lynch associate, came into his operator for Ed Lachman , and pro- noir in the flamboyant Liquid Sky and own on Blue Velvet. Diane Keaton's vided visuals for Heathers that were as D.o.A. His teaming with Bigelow on Heaven was show-off time, but Tim colorful and witty as the script and Blue Steel would appear to promise Hunter's River's Edge was low-keyed performances . more hard-edged urban nightmare. and well-judged. His \"Tristan und Isolde\" episode of Aria for Franc Rod- JAN KIESSER made his break- STEVEN POSTER has had the dam was stunning. through with Alan Rudolph on the noir- advantage of a collaboration with Ridley ishly romantic Choose Me, and they Scott on Someone to Watch Over Me, an JACK N. GREEN, Bruce Surtees' teamed again on Made in Heaven. excellent calling card but one that leaves long-time operator, graduated to DP for Given Rudolph's own visual gifts, it may the cinematographer's own talents open Clint Eastwood. Heartbreak Ridge and be as risky to evaluate a cameraman's to question. Pink Cadillac were blah, but Bird was work on his films as it is on Walter Hill's, daringly dark and won a technical prize but Some Kind of Wonderful was partic- ROBERT RICHARDSON is in Cannes. His big canvas work on ularly well-shot for a John Hughes Oliver Stone's man behind the camera, Eastwood's next, the African-lensed picture. and his work has evolved from the White Hunter, Black Heart, should tell incredibly vivid verite style of Salvador a lot. TOYOMICHI KURITA can boast and the impressively lean, muscular Pla- of The Moderns, which is a great deal. toon to the slicker interior compositions of Wall Street and Talk Radio. Along the ADAM GREENBERG emerged Again, Rudolph was calling the shots, way, he distinguished himself most of all from Israeli hack work for Golan-Globus but a very special visual touch was on the radiant, evocative Eight Men Out with exciting images on Sam Fuller's unmistakable. for John Sayles. The Big Red One, and indicated a real feel for stylization on Kathryn Bigelow's ED LACHMAN for years has had JUAN RUIZ-ANCHIA, after Near Dark. Even the slickness of Three the reputation as the hip young New starting in Spain, broke through in the Men and a Baby was permeated by a York cinematographer to watch, due to U.S. with the potent location lensing of welcome warm light that created an his associations with Herzog, Wenders, The Stone Boy, At Close Range and appeal entirely separate from the banal- Bertolucci, Roeg and others, and finally Maria's Lovers. The stylization and dra- ity of the events it bathed. seemed to have made his long-awaited matic night shooting in House of Games breakthrough on the stylishly hip Des- was particularly striking. ROBBIE GREENBERG has perately Seeking Susan. Less Than Zero mainly worked in TV, but got a chance to was just as meaninglessly mannered as BARRY SONNENFELD gar- show his stuff in Karel Reisz's Sweet one expected. nered immediate attention for Blood Simple. The reunion with the Coen Dreams, Sam Shepard's Far North and WALT LLOYD is another graduate brothers on Raising Arizona proved less exciting, and Three O'Clock High was a Robert Redford's The Milagro Beanfield of the Lachman school, and arrived with box of camera tricks. With the transition into big studio films, Sonnenfeld's potential has seemingly been sup- pressed , as Throw Momma From the Train looked genuinely ugly and When Harry Met Sally ... utterly conventional. DANTE SPINOTTI was brought over from Italy by Dino De Laurentiis to work at the latter's North Carolina studio, and seems to have stuck. Manhunter for Michael Mann was a tour de force, and Beaches was perfectly fine, but Illegally Yours was the worst-shot Peter Bogd'anovich ever. OLIVER STAPLETON pushed the hyperactive, long-take, Steadicam style to the max with Julien Temple on Absolute Beginners, and came to Amer- ica with him for the similar \"Rigoletto\" sequence from Aria, and Earth Girls are Easy. His other significant collaboration has been with Stephen Frears, on My Beautiful Laundrette, Prick Up Your Ears and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. Having recently shot Cookie for Susan Seidelman, he seems intent upon remaining in this country. ~ 4S

Vittorio Storaro Ie e Vittorio Storaro interviewed \"Light evolves from infatuation with lush vibrant colors; he matter to energy, and refers to his own low-contrast color by Carol Rutter shots as \"monochromatic:' For Storaro, I try to record sequences showing Tucker's conflicts A mong the elite of contempo- energy spath. \" with the Big Three car industry powers rary international cinematog- are \"monochromatic;' yet highly astute raphers , Italian-born Vittorio viewers perceive only cooler colors at these points. Storaro's work gained instant recogni- tion with his early Bernardo Bertolucci collaborations- The Spider's Stratagem , The Conformist, and Last Tango in gem he felt \"the collaboration was pre- Y ears after a film's release, Storaro destined. I was on the photographic refers to his contribution as a vis- Paris . He shot all Bertolucci's subse- road of life and reached maximum ual analog of and a supplement to the expression with The Conformist:' director's vision and screenwriter's quent films up to and including The Last intent. He conceptualizes his style the- His early and protracted attention to matically: for example, he uses a four Emperor (for which he earned his third detilil shows in his work today: no seasons metaphor to describe Bertoluc- moment is too small to meticulously ci's 1900. Production spanned from one Academy Award) and collaborates regu- plan. His stylized efforts in transitional spring to the next: the first spring repre- or seemingly throwaway shots unify and sented the boys' (Gerard Depardieu and larly with Francis Coppola (on Apoca- sustain a director's overall vision. Storaro Robert De Niro) birth, \"the revolution incubates ideas long before pre-produc- lypse Now, for which he won his first tion and writes \"photographic concepts:' or partisan period\"; summer stood in for For Coppola's Tucker, he wrote a thou- childhood; autumn \"was the boys' adult Oscar, One From the Heart, and Tucker) sand-word lyrical essay about \"a new fascist period\"; winter exemplified image for a new car in a new world ... an aging; and the final, second spring sym- and Warren Beatty (on Reds, winning his image that spills from the cinematic win- bolized their \"spiritual rebirth :' dow through which it leans out to second Oscar, and currently Dick become amplified in the future.\" He The Storaro style has several notable refers to Tucker interiors as \"Norman characteristics besides lush, rich color; Tracy). Rockwell-inspired for a simple and natu- in particular, he expresses cinemato- ralistic everyday life, wrapped in a soft graphic similes by bold camera move- Born in Italy to a film projectionist in penumbra:' ment and light. His camera circles characters, most memorably Maria 1940, he learned to develop, retouch, His body of work reveals such an Schneider and Marlon Brando during and then frame and compose stills before studying cinematography in his early twenties . In the Sixties, he served as an assistant cameraman and debuted as di~ector of photograpby in 1968 for Franco Rossi's Youthful, Youthful. He felt ready \"to express myself completely. The feeling was incredible, like a first love,\" Storaro said. When Bertolucci contacted him for The Spider's Strata- 46

- their erotic dance-hall tango in Bertoluc- as if the main actors had changed. ing rhythm, but is there a camera ci's Last Tango in Paris. \"I want to show How does the camera communicate? rhythm? many character dimensions in a given Through its position in relation to No doubt. The rhythm is created by moment. Even a statue looks different selected space and lighting. A shot's actors and how the camera interacts meaning can change perceptibly through with them. Later the editor can re- ..from a fresh angle.\" Storaro credits his penchant for light adjustments, low or high camera emphasize or push this rhythm in one breathtakingly long tracking shots to angles, or whether it's static or moving. way or another, through expansion or ~~~~~~~~~ Tucker: \"a new image for anew car in anew world.\" Bertolucci, who \"showed me a Rene \"Ifan American compression. The late Franco Arcalli (who edited Magritte painting with an open door that cinematographer even thinks about camera The Conformist, Last Tango and 1900) conveyed endlessness, and beyond that choreography, he's could significantly develop any idea. stepping outside his During The Conformist, Bernardo cre- an open window and after, another ated rhythm through long takes for assigned role. \" entire sequences. Arcalli added so much world:' through montage. Bernardo shot certain Each shot has multiple messages Last Tango sequences two ways: one for Storaro spoke passionately about the- because individual elements enhance camera rhythm in one long take and the framing and composition. other in different shots. Arcalli then oretical and aesthetic issues during pre- developed our ideas. It was the best les- The look we settle upon can change son I ever had in editing's relationship to production at Universal Studios for the performance as well. In Last Tango, cinematography-always foreseeing the when Jeanne and Paul first make love in end from the beginning. Beatty's Dick Tracy. Tall, trim and dap- the vacant apartment, Brando wears a coat that shades his performance. The Bernardo and I avoid generic work per, with a classically defined Roman orange of the room reflects their passion like master shots where actors do entire and the maternal glow containing them. scenes, followed by close-ups and profile, his photogenic face infers his Orange sends vibrations to the audience inserts. And we don't COURt on the edi- beyond the actor's contributions. tor to inject rhythm. We already know photographic talent. He described the the shot order, so we can imprint our The editor also changes the cine- rhythm during production. interview as an \"emotional experience, matic language with his choice of shot order and length. Of course, we need a What are the differences between like a confession;' and annointed me his conductor who leads everybody-the American and European actorlcamera director. But all these other co-authors choreography? \"priest:' -C.R. contribute identifiably, making this opera different from any other. The emphasis in the average Holly- E xpand on your theory that cinema wood film is on acting and story struc- is a language of images. J-Je're familiar with recognizing edit- ture, and cinematographers are confined If cinema were only a language of to recording performances. If an Ameri- written words, it would be literature. If it can cinematographer even thinks about were only sound or music, it would be a camera choreography, he's stepping out- record. If it were only actors or live per- side his assigned role. formance, it would be theater. \"Cinematography\" translates to light (photo) written (graphy) in movement (cinema). The cinematographer orches- trates these elements in intelligent form and uses his culture, sensitivity, and experience to form an image, and this combination varies tremendously. If Gordon Willis had been replaced, The Godfather would have changed as much 47

Italian cinematographers learn early \"Critics seem to be ble and understood that color's energy that the camera is part of the director's stuck in the cinema of changes audience reaction. So he care- mise-en-scene, or visual language. fully planned through wavelengths, Bernardo moves around the empty set the Thirties, only going from one color to another. This is with a viewfinder and imagines the cho- know black-and-white, what I try to do, too. reographic possibilities. So he almost sets the camera before the actors, but he and don't even Of course, color comes from the set, really does both simultaneously. When understand color.\" costumes, actors and lighting. Collabo- we decide on a static camera with fig- ration with the art director and costume ures moving in and out, we're saying this hattan, Stardust Memories, etc., but designer is very important, because the is the best way to express that shot. comparing b&w and color is like com- combination of these colors gives the paring sketches and paintings. I can full effect. Certain scenes invoke a feel- Do you find European critics resist appreciate the b&w work of others, but ing that needs a visual translation. If I technological advances like THX, Steadi- it doesn't mean I'd ever feel comfortable can't find this emotion within the frame, cam, Skycam, etc., or seem to confuse working without color. The world then I add color either by moving the started from saturated black. The more scene to dawn or dusk or with whatever athem with special effects la Star Wars? saturated the black, the brighter the lighting is necessary. white and the more shades in-between. I Critics often come from a literary like stories that start desaturated, or You don't often use mirrors. Why did background and read a film solely by its drained of color and end in full rich you use one for the flower-eating scene story. As soon as they hear about 70mm color. in Bertolucci's The Last Emperor? Dolby or Showscan, they assume tech- nology removes emotion, spirit and I did my first movie, Youthful, Youth- I prefer using mirrors to communi- intelligence. If they wrote in an informed ful (1968), in b&w, but after exploring cate something, instead of for their manner, they could help us improve. color I never returned. Even if Coppola, beauty. For this scene, we conveyed Pu Bertolucci or Beatty offered me a b&w Yi's collapsing status. Is he the Emperor Although resistance slows things project, I'd refuse. Leonardo da Vinci or not? His wife insists he's fake, a pup- down, technological advances can't be called colors \"the children of shadows;' pet in the hands of the Japanese. The stopped. Human communication began and as Newton proved, inside white mirror reflects this conflict, because with primitive mural graphics but now light is color. I would feel deprived with- she's eating an orchid, which is part of we express ourselves through laser-com- out specific emotionally influencing col- the Manchurian flag's design. The mir- posed images, superceding canvas, vid- ors as a way to express sentiment. ror image is already unreal, so if you jux- eotape and other media. tapose something with its reflection, you How do color combinations figure show the conflict between real and artifi- Critics seem to be stuck in the cin- into storytelling? cial. ema of the Thirties, only know black- and white and in some cases, don't even This refers to Sergei Eisenstein's the- Did the cultural environment of understand color. Our best efforts are ories in his essay entitled \"Color:' He China affect your work in The Last trivialized by ignorant evaluations like did one color section of Ivan the Terri- Emperor? \"good photography;' or \"great scenery:' The story's culture influenced our y ou only work in color, but what do work, but we decided on the basic struc- you think of Gordon Willis' b&w ture before our arrival. We wanted to work with Woody Allen? build visuals with colors representing different stages of Pu Yi's life. We started Black-and-white really suited Man- 48