VOLUME 11 - NUMBER 06 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1975

film director and a soccer manager face den, he succeeds only in bungling matters Top: Istvan Szabo 's 25 FIREMEN 'S STREET. much the same problems of organization, to the extent that, by the end of the film, Above: Imre Gyongyossy' s SONS OF FIRE. financial support, and teamwork. Though two of the prisoners have been murdered, Below: Istvan Darda y' s HOLIDAY IN BRITAIN. the film is in color, Sandor and Ragalyi he himself has been forced to resign, and Bottom: Karoly Makk' s CATS PLAY. have tried to recreate the atmosphere of the chief warden has taken his place. the silent cinema as closely as possible: Though the film was shot in 1973, its re- tinkling piano music, intertitles, speeded- lease was held up for over a year because up motion, heavy reliance on gestures and government officials shrewdly suspected the facial \" mugging\" of Dezso Garas in the that some parallel with the contemporary leading role, and the inclusion of such political scene was being played out be- obligatory scenes as a massive battle in neath the surface. (Nevertheless , the film which cream cakes are used as missiles was released , and released uncut. At the (though this particular scene is not briskly moment, two other films are reportedly in enough timed and executed to enable it to limbo: the latest work by Peter Bacso, who stand comparison with its predecessors). specializes in criticizing inefficiencies in Larger meanings can be observed lurking bureaucracy and management; and the around the fringes of the comedy too, and second feature of one of the most talented the film ends with a riot at the Budapest of the younger directors, Gyula Gazdag.) railway station as the humiliated Hungar- ian Olympic soccer team returns to be Kosa's most recent film, SNOWFALL, is greeted with shouts of, \" We need new magnificently photographed by Sandor leaders!\" (The film is set in 1924.) Sara and boasts a superb opening se- quence, in which a young soldier finds Both Makk ' s CATSPLAY and Istvan himself driven to kill a rival in order to wm Szabo's 25 FIREMEN'S STREET take a con- an officially organized obstacle race, the temporary setting that is interwoven with first prize of which is a pass for a few days' reminiscences and memories of the past. leave. He then sets off with his grand- Beautiful though CATSPLAY is to look at and mother to search for his parents, who have to experience, it is difficult to avoid the im- vanished in the upheavals of the closing pression that Makk is marking time here days of the Second World War. Kosa, and simply repeating the successful for- whose wife is Japanese, told me that the mula of LOVE, which also deals with an old film is based on a Japanese legend in which woman's memories and illusions. 25 old people are sent off into the mountains FIREMEN'S STREET, on the other hand, is a to die, but the obvious mystical element in complex and demanding film that cer- the film never quite coexists completely tainly requires at least two viewings to be with the long, Jansco-Iike central se- fully assimilated . It is set in an old house on quence, in which the boy and some other the eve of its demolition and wanders in detainees are put through a long series of and out of the intertwining memories, enigmatic interrogations as to the reason dreams, and fantasies of its numerous in- for their presence in a zone sealed off by habitants, though eventually Szabo fixes the military. on the stories of two of the characters as the main associative threads of the film . Nevertheless, Kosa's work certainly deserves to be much better known in Szab6 has by now fully assimilated the North America, as does that of Imre influence of Resnais and gone on to make Gyongyossy, whose recent SONS OF FIRE out of it something uniquely his own- also has a Second World War setting and though it certainly helps in understanding deals with an attempted mass escape from the film to recognize that it is the house that prison by a group of Communist soldiers. is dreaming and that therefore, as Szabo Like Szabo, Gyongyossy has developed a explained to me, the apparent contradic- unique editing style, based on associative tions in time sequence and the confusions editing between human beings and of identity are both deliberate and ulti- natural objects, and flash cuts that move mately unimportant. With this film Szab6 backward and forward through time with confirms himself as a director of interna- the utmost ease and often produce al- tional stature, along with Jancso (whose ternative versions of what we had as- superb ELECTRA I discussed in detail in the sumed to be a real or actual event. The last issue of FILM COMMENT) and Istvan most striking sequence in SONS OF FIRE Gaal, who unfortunately has not made a shows the escaped prisoners being hunted feature since DEAD LANDSCAPE in 1971, down by local landowners and farmers . though he is now working on the script of Their deaths are intercut with vivid c1ose- a new film. ups of dying stags and pheasants, but the effect is both metaphOric and literal to- All the films mentioned so far have had gether: the pursuers seem to be casually some degree of political commentary shooting the animals in those rare intervals woven into them, though none so when they have no men and women in explicitly as Ferenc Kosa's BEYOND TIME, their Sights, and the impression of total which is set in a Hungarian prison in 1929 dehumanization thus becomes almost and deals with the attempt of an ineffectual overpowering. but well-meaning \"liberal\" prison gover- nor to handle a hunger strike by three The tradition of making one's comment Communist political prisoners. Put under on the present obliquely-by means of an increasing pressure by the Minister of Jus- ostensibly historical theme or a literary tice and his own proto-Fascist chief war- adaptation-is still obviously a strong one FILM COMMENT 49

NEW POLISH CINEMA. Left: Krzysztof Zanussi 's THE BALANCE. Right: Grzegorz Kroli kiewicz 's THROUGH A ND THROUGH . PHOTOS:FILM POLSKI in Hungary; but a few of the newer films to an official m eeting at which they are told based on an actual murder case from the show a refreshingly comic approach to of the honor bestowed on their son. Thirties, in which a lower-middle-class contemporary subjects. Sandor Sara, who husband and wife, driven to desperation made his previous feature, THE UPTHROWN The boy's mother rebels; she resents by misery and poverty, rob and murder an STONE, several years ago, prese nts an being made to appear in public in her bare old couple. THROUGH AND THROUGH is in amusing and yet sinister allegory of to- feet (having been carried off in a large of- grainy black-and-white, the camera work talitarianism in PHEASANT TOMORROW. ficial car while working in the fields) , and largely hand-held; the film uses available Some young campers allow a rather older she has a traditional peasant fear that her light in most scenes, and concentrates ob- man to start tidying up and organizing boy will somehow be \"changed\" by the sessively on the physical ugliness of the their campsite-for their own benefit, of experience. The officials try to \" reason\" couple, the drabness and meanness of course. The process is a slow and insidious with her. Privately they lament the in- their surroundings, the husband's torn one. First the tents are arranged in neat credible backwardness and stupidity of the dothes, grimy feet, and unshaven cheeks. rows and litter is collected; then communal peasants they are laboring to serve, but exercises and group activities are set up, to they are forced to give in and to replace the For most of the film Krolikiewicz sur- the accompaniment of incessant blasts of a boy at the last moment by a plump, doe- veys his characters with apparent cold- whistle. eyed, accordion-playing girl. The satire of ness, while building up a relentless im- the film is fairly even-handed, and cer- pression of the squalor and degradation Absurd events are intertwined with tainly the boy's parents are comic figures to into which social circumstances have frightening ones. When a youth ventures some extent (just as the youth himself is forced them. Then, in a trial scene in which beyond the marked-out and patrolled bland almost beyond the point of satire); we see only the faces of the accused as they swimming area, he is dragged into a boat but there is no doubt as to which characters answer random questions from an unseen by his hair and beaten; later, the leader a Hungarian audience laughs at most. prosecutor, the couple suddenly take on makes the campers dig a totally un- an unexpected dignity. They feel little re- necessary swimming pool ten yards away Despite the fears often expressed to me morse for what they have done (though from the river that provides such temp- in Budapest that the great period of Hun- the man says he is sorry for the old woman tations and opportunities for anarchy. garian cinema was over already, it seems they killed); they are rather vague as to Gradually everything is brought under to me dear that Hungary is continuing to how many people they actually murdered. control: sing~ongs , banquets, parades, produce a wider range of consistently in- But despite the quarreling and hostility of and races, while the leader and his cronies teresting and stylistically inventive films their earlier relationship, each doggedly present garlands to each other and listen to than almost any other country in Europe. insists on taking full responsibility for the sycophantic speeches. Muddle, untidi- Distributors here seem to assume that the crime and pleads for his partner's release. ness, and creative disorder are restored at apparent localization of theme and setting The man daims the act as the most positive the end, but not through any action of the is an insuperable barrier for North Ameri- action of his life and says that he envies campers. All that happens is that the can audiences. In the case of all the films I those others for whom life presents no leader oversteps himself in exercising the have cited, however, they would be problems. When both are condemned to sexual prerogatives of his position and is wrong. death, they rise and sit down again in slow forced into ignominious flight as a result. motion, smiling at each other, though a • narrator informs us that the sentence was PHEASANT TOMORROW is currently one of later commuted to life imprisonment-at the most popular films in Budapest, as is Polish films tend to fall into the same which we hear the woman scream that she HOLIDAY IN BRITAIN, a first feature by the three basic categories as Hungarian ones: rejects this act of \"mercy.\" young Istvan Darday. This too is a satire on historical or period works; literary adapta- bureaucracy, done in cinema-vente style tions; and contemporary subjects, usually Compared to this, most of the other so- and allowing many of the non-profession- with some social or political problem dis- cial films I saw appeared rather bland, al actors not only to play themselves but to cussed or at least implied. The stylistic though CRIMINAL RECORDS, directed by improvise much of their own dialogue. A range of Polish cinema, however, is much Andrzej Trzos-Rastawiecki, and also healthy, clean-living, mildly talented, more extreme, ranging from the full- based on an actual crime (this time a con- \"average\" child has to be selected to join a blooded exoticism of Andrzej Wajda's THE temporary incident in which two youths party of youngsters of an official visit to WEDDING to the deliberate visual ugliness commit the pointless murder of a taxi Britain. The choice is made without con- of Grzegorz Krolikiewicz's THROUGH AND driver), manages to give an authentic sulting or even informing the boy's par- THROUGH. sense of the moral vacuum within which ents, who are then arrogantly summoned its characters operate. The film alternates THROUGH AND THROUGH, though not the best, is certainly the most extraordinary Eastern European film I have seen. It is 50 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1975

left: Walerian Borowczyk ' s STORY OF SIN. Right: Andrzej Trzos-Rastawiecki 's CRIMINAL RECORDS . PH O TOS: FIL M PO LSKI scenes of two boys on the run with glib surface of sexual liberation to examine gradation, murder, and a startling series of episodes in which their friends back home what happens when responsibilities are sexual perversions. It is filmed throughout try to explain the meaning of the crime to evaded and trust betrayed-on the part of with the detached, almost amused cool- avid journalists and interviewers (\"It could the lover as much as of the heroine. Zanus- ness of Borowczyk's French-based happen to anyone\") . The prurient curios- si' s sober, unaffected style, his method of IMMORAL TALES and presents him as the ity of the media-which extends to arrang- cutting just before the full impact of a scene only logical successor to a Bufiuel who ing a reconstruction of the boys' crimes has been absorbed, leaving it to tease and long ago lost his power trul y to shock. A after their capture, using their actual vic- reverberate within the imagination, makes somewhat similar theme, again based on a tims as props-gradually becomes a his films not only lucid, but subversive of well-known novel , appears in Janusz theme of equal importance to the youths' most of our contemporary preconceptions. Majewski' S JEALOUSY AND MEDICINE , own inarticulate lack of comprehension of though here the almost hysterical visual their actions. Zanussi is probably the only rival to flamboyance and the incessantly beating Wajda among those directors still regularly music are appropriate to the viewpoint of \"Youth problems,\" drunkenness, petty working within Poland; and it is another of the main character, a doctor who suspects, swindling, and evasion of bureaucratic the scandals of contemporary film distribu- with every justification, that his wife is be- regulations emerged regularly as the main tion that Wajda's recent work-which, traying him. theme of other films , most notably in with THE BIRCH WOOD and THE WEDDING, Janusz Nasfeter' s I WON'TLOVE YOU, which includes probably his two best films-is Both these films deserve to be seen in handles with dignity and compassion its virtually unknown in America. THE WED- America , as does Wojciech Has ' s THE potentially maudlin story of a teenage DING shows his flamboyant, baroque style SANDGLASS, though this is likely to be a girl's attempt to cope with her alcoholic at its best, an endless flow of energy as a puzzling film to a foreign audience-and father and the suicide that follows on her group of late nineteenth-century intellec- even to someone who has read some of the failure. But it is Krzysztof Zanussi's THE tuals meet at the wedding of a poet and a stories by Bruno Schulz on which it is BALANCE that most clearly raises \"prob- peasant girl and, in a haze of drunkenness based. Has moves imperturbably through lems\" into art. and sensual excitement, delude them- so many levels of dream, memory, wish- selves that they have the solution to all fulfillment, and fantasy that any attempt to Zanussi's heroine, in her thirties, intelli- their nation's problems. make a coherent sequence out of the gent and attractive, decides that she has events is doomed to disaster. The viewer is spent enough of her life subordinating The film's final shot is extraordinary. better advised simply to absorb the series herself to other people's needs, and de- The guests dance in a circle outside the of magnificent images, to enjoy the wit and termines to redress the balance. She drifts house at dawn, ignoring a call to arms from invention of each episode, and to admire into a relationship with a young man who the peasants who have been incited by the recreation of provincial, mainly Jewish looks uncomfortably like a resident of their wild talk of the previous night; the life of the early part of the century. Marlboro Country (though, as it later turns camera tracks away from them through out, this is just the point) who offers her all the empty landscape, returning after a The best Polish films, such as these, the excitement and freedom that her de- sweep of 360 degrees to a long shot of the have a style that is all their own and could cent, hard-working husband cannot pro- dancers, still circling like zombies-a vir- hardly be taken for the product of any vide for her-though she remains acutely tuoso piece of camerawork that has far other country. Even Zanussi, on the sur- aware of the hurt she is causing as the affair more substance to it than the wildly over- face the most \"international\" in his themes develops. She takes the whole thing much praised seven-minute track from Anton- and characters, creates people who are the more seriously than her lover, who offers ioni's THE PASSENGER. Wajda's latest film, products of a particular society and are not all the slick, superficial trappings of THE PROMISED LAND, is also noteworthy assembled from some handy cosmopoli- glamour, but has nothing of substance un- -a pulsating if somewhat melodramatic tan Identikit. As with Hungarian films, derneath, and when, inevitably, he drops recreation of the ruthless industrialization this intensely national quality is both the her, she returns to her husband. In an al- of Poland (carried out mainly by foreig- source of a unique strength and a limita- most totally silent sequence that stands ners) at the turn of the century. tion when the films are presented to West- comparison with the final section of SCENES ern audiences whose cultural horizons FROM AMARRIAGE, a fragile reconciliation is Walerian Borowczyk returned to Poland barely extend beyond France, Italy, and achieved. last year to make STORY OF SIN, another Germany. But if we continue to ignore literary adaptation with a period setting. these remarkable manifestations of East- Like Bergman, Zanussi, while remain- The enormously involved plot essentially ing fully sympathetic to his heroine's di- charts the descent of an initially virtuous *ern European cinema, the loss will be lemma, has the ability to probe beneath the bourgeois girl into a morass of crime, de- chiefly ours. . FILM COMMENT 51

son A CHANT OF LOVE AND DEATH Marguerite Duras interviewed by Jan Dawson Originally, Marguerite Duras' India Song checking the place of the spoken word and looking out toward the grounds; but was commissioned by stage director Peter within each shot. But there were other not her in particular; and only the spoken Hall in 1972 as the opening play for Britain's reasons as well: on the one hand, to insure word allowed her to experience and ex- National Theatre. But rising costs of both that the meaning of the shots was upper- press the generality of the term: a woman. labor and building materials combined with most in the minds of the camera crew and some well-publicized administrative head- the actors at the precise moment at which When I say \" the meaning,\" I mean the aches to provoke a series of modified plans they had to bring it out and express it; on spoken word. When I say, \"Listen to the and postponements . (At the time of writing, the other hand, to have it simultaneously meaning, \" I mean, \"Listen to the words.\" the theater is still not completed.) In 1973, brought out and expressed independently And to the knowledge of the meaning, its India Son g was published in Paris by Gal- of the efforts . Acted out and expressed irreducibility, to which one must con- limard with the cryptic subtitle \" texte theatre over here, spoken over there. So that its stantly remain very close. film.\" In the summer of 1974, Mme. Duras di- expression in part eludes them. rected the film from her own text. That same The meaning of a shot is, for me, the di- summer Claude Regg was rumored to be di- For instance, the spoken scenario would rection it takes, the direction it causes the recting a stage production in Paris, with Val- say, \"Anne-Marie Stretter comes into the next shot to take, and the direction it con- entina Cortese in the lead; the rumor per- private salon and looks out toward the tinues to take even after it's been superse- sisted for nearly a year, but the production grounds.\" Delphine Seyrig would indeed ded. Nothing else. The general meaning of never materialized. come in and look out toward the grounds; a film is the permanence of this direction but at the same time she'd be listening to a and, at the same time, its varying intensity The sheer perfection of the film may well voice telling her that she was doing it. And as it flows through the different shots. And deter stage directors from attempting what, the fact that she was listening would sub- also, of course, what you do with it in the despite the text's history, is bound to be tract a little from her entering and looking, end: you stop the current here, in the film, viewed as an adaptation of the film, of whose but at the same time add to them. They be- but instead of drying it up, there, once the every element Marguerite Duras is inclined to came less intense in themselves because film has reached its end, you give it back to use words like \" indispensable\" and \" irre- she was listening so intently to something the world. Like a river that you impound placeable .\" A stubborn lady, she insists, how- outside them. The spoken word had the and later restore to the waters of the world . ever, that a theatrical production is still possi- job of expressing what was subtracted And this restoring must be seen, be read, ble; even that she herself might enjoy direct- from her entering and looking, and of ex- in the film. Calcutta, plucked from its lodg- ing one. Provided, of course, that she could pressing it at the same time that she did. ing, must resume its place beyond and keep such indispensable elements as the outside the film . Like leprosy. Or like si- film's cast and its music score. In June 1975 in This spoken word, this spoken scenario, lence. Paris, I spoke to her about the history of INDIA was to disappear in the editing, so that SONG, and about the filming of what, for me, is Delphine alone would carry the entering The fact that the camera crew were \"lis- a passionate litany of love and death, and and the looking. But the distracted quality tening to the meaning\" in this way was perhaps the first true sound film. which derived from Delphine physically doubtless-and far more than any techni- listening-listening with her whole cal instructions I could give-what gave M.D.: All through the rehearsals for body-is nonetheless present in the film . the film its own \"step,\" its unity of move- INDIA SONG, not just the texts spoken by And as far as I'm concerned, only this dis- ment, its breathing, its body. And it was the voices off and by the guests, but also traction, this subordination to the spoken the same with the actors; it made them all t~e descripti,,:e tex;~ ,~or the different shot;: word, could-in INDIA SONG-be termed flow toward this body and espouse it. Dur- ( 'He comes m ... , He looks round ... , understanding its meaning. For at the self- ing the shooting, I sawall the performers \"He's hoping to see her. .. \") were read same moment she went through the of INDIA SONG become of a kind: similarly aloud and recorded. Where necessary, a movements, Delphine would hear it said distanced from themselves in a same second tape-recorder provided the music. that a woman was coming into the room withdrawal, all humble with the same And during the actual takes, this spoken humility. As if they were equally involved scenario was played in its entirety. The shots were long, so this was partly a way of 52 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1975

in the act of listening, even to what they M.D.: I should start by saying who Above, top to boHom: Vernon Dobtcheff, Delphine themselves, if it were expressible, had the wrote it: an enormously talented guy, Car- Seyrig, Claude Mann; Delphine Seyrig and Michel responsibility of expressing, and los d'Alessio, who wrote the music for Lonsdale; Delphine Seyrig and Marguerite Duras; elsewhere than where they actually were, Luxe, the show by the Argentinian group, Didier Flamand, Delphine Seyrig, Claude Mann. in an ideal place where the meaning could TSE. He's Argentinian too . He read the be reducible, for example, to performance. book several times . He started to write his A LL PH O TOS . NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL Or, to put it another way, in a place ideal basic themes. And we listened to the for the spoken word, a place as yet barely themes together. We worked together at glimpsed: the cinema. each stage. He showed me whatever he'd written as soon as he'd written it. And in On the soundtrack itself, there are sev- fact I accepted everything he wrote. It was eral sorts of voices. The first voices we always fantastic. At the moment when the hear, the women's voices, are what I called Vice Consul howls, I wanted the music to the a-temporal voices. They don't corre- have a completely equal and equalizing spond to any specific roles. Rather, they're function. Because the music recurs all the voice of the story, speaking about love through the film, whatever the elements in in general: about the meeting in England play. The music sets the tone, the level; it's with Michael Richardson, the ball at S. the equalizing, balanCing element. Thala, the different events of an eight- year-long delirium. Later, at the reception, You know, they've released a record of there are several different sorts of voices. the music, but it's not taken from the There are the voices of the guests. There's soundtrack. It's been re-recorded with per- that circular voice [Viviane Forrester's] fectly tuned instruments, and proper bal- which we hear in the shots outside the ance. Whereas our \"India Song\" is for a reception-I always have the impression small orchestra, the kind of instruments of a circular voice surrounding the recep- and the kind of music that you might find tion. And there are the blocks of voices. at an embassy party in the Thirties. Bearing Because we suggested the surroundings in mind that Western fashions have to through multi-voiced choruses, blocks of travel a long way to the colonies, and are voices impossible to fragment, and which apt to get modified en route. So it's really we used as a kind of murmuring hum . So what the orchestra imagines they're play- that among the guests' voices, there are ing at smart parties back in Europe. And some very clear voices, and some lost the instruments have to sound as if they've voices, of which we can hear only odd been exposed to a lot of damp . words: voices which talk about the heat, about India, about the difficulty of living in J.D.: Even in the sections of the film India, etc. which are without music, it's just as much a musical film . It feels as if you're counting J.D.: Did you conceive each different every beat. The rhythm's sustained from type of voice as corresponding to some- the start of the film. The performances thing quite precise? gave me the impression that you had a metronome hidden somewhere on the set. M.D.: Yes, but if I were to go into that Even the silences seem precisely timed. sort of detail, people might find it unset- Everything seems measured. tling. They're like different stages in the story. Some of them concern me person- M.D.: Everything was calculated. I re- ally, others just concern the spectator. Well, ally did work with a stop-watch. And as I on a very personal level, I speak in the film. said before, for all the rehearsals, we al- It's my own voice. At the end, I'm speak- ways worked with the music. Always . ing to the man with whom I lived in real life Even for the panning shots. Even for the and who's the father of my son. We're shots with no actors involved. When we starting our story again from zero. That's did the pans over the Rothschild chateau, one level of the story. we played the music for the camera and the camera crew. And we spoke the text. Then there's a direct level, which is the One day, when they were taking a shot of story told to the guests at the reception. an empty interior, I stopped for a moment; The first level in the simple past tense-the and the camera crew said they couldn't circular voice which surrounds the shoot if I wasn' t talking. I gave them the reception-is the level of death, because rhythm. Which was the same as the this voice always speaks from death's rhythm of the music. And of the sea. point of view. With the a-temporal voices There's the same rhythm in the actors' of the beginning, it's as if I'd given them movements as well as in their voices; and free rein. I let them talk as much as they in their silences; and in the music. want about the story. And suddenly we see the story-the reception. And then, Yes, I'd be happy enough with the word suddenly, we no longer see the story, and \"choreographed.\" It's not just a way of I'm the voice that's speaking. avoiding naturalism, which is completely spent; it's a way of making things com- J.D.: When I said before that I thought pletely present. How can I explain it? For INDIA SONG was the first true sound film, I instance, when the Vice Consul arrives was thinking of the music as much as the from the grounds, whether he takes three voices. It's in no sense a conventional steps or five, that's the event: the fact that background score. It's as completely inte- he took those steps, and with three sec- grated as the decors, and the film is un- onds of silence rather than five. So I talked. thinkable without the music. I talked as they performed. I'd say, \"The FILM COMMENT 53,

Vice Consul comes in. He waits three sec- SOLEIL [YELLOW THE SUN] or DETRUIRE , the film, lasts for more than an hour. To be onds.\" And I'd count them out. \"One sec- DIT-ELLE [DESTROY, SHE SAID). I did make precise, for sixty-six minutes and thirteen ond\" .. . \" Two seconds\" ... \"Three 6000 francs from NATHALIE GRANGER. But seconds. I see it primarily as a mass of seconds. \" \"And the Vice Consul comes that's not important. The only criterion is sounds turning around minimally varying slowly into the salon.\" It made the shoot- pas si o n . images-kind of fixed supports which an- ing very impressive to watch. He followed chor this mass of sounds in fixed places the voice like a light in the forest. It was as J.D.: You've used the word passion sev- and prevent it from branching into illustra- if they were all walking in the forest with a eral times. And for all its slowness, I think tion . At this stage, there's no longer any very tiny lamp. They were completely lost, the rhythm you mentioned before is an or- narrative development, according to and following the voice. They'd no idea gasmic one. The film is an act of love, episodic structure or the chronologies of what they were doing. But they knew they perhaps the definitive act of love. I'm sure space and time. I see it as a unique event, had to be co mpletel y present. And the that' s what you intended, but to what ex- of unique purport, isolated, as it were, in only way I knew to make them completely tent did you control it? the film . At this point, time must pass, and present was to place them completely in only time. The sixty-six minutes of the re- my orbit. M.D .: I controlled it. Painfully, but I ception contain only between five and six controlled it. Though it was hard to sustain hours of its development-between the Matthieu Carriere said, \"Shooting like over fifteen days . Orgasmic is right; but first hours of the night and daybreak. this is so extraordinary . I'd no idea that a without excitement, without pleasure. Whereas the twenty-nine minutes of the cigarette between one's lips could be so Death is the end, the annihilation. Release first part contain, as I see it, several weeks, heavy, or that a hand could have so much and annihilation-the two elements are several months, of Anne-Marie Stretter's weight.\" It was very mysterious, the rap- there equally. Right up to the end. Because everyday life toward the end. port between me and the actors, and the those two voices are rigorously coincident. whole crew too-it was fantastic! There Everything we do not see about the re- was total , passionate commitment to the J.D.: SO Anne-Marie's suicide is essen- ception has been foreseen, seen, and film. The shooting lasted two weeks. One tiallya triumphal one? stated. Every exit and entrance of the five day, I had to get two shots. It was a Sun- people who, alone, \"make up\" this recep- day, and it was also the fourteenth of July M.D .: It's what I call a logical suicide. tion has been motivated and explained. [Bastille Day). And the whole crew wanted And therefore a type of consummation. Everything had first to be logical and plau- to come. They preferred to come than to go It's woman's condition, or rather it's be- sible, before it could break out; at no mo- out dancing. There was a kind of joy about cause of the contradictions of her condi- ment should the apparent disorder of the making the film, a fantastic sense of frater- tion, to be suicidal. The pe<?ple who com- evening be willed as such. Quite the re- nity. Everybody always showed up early mit suicide because of some precise catas- verse. Everything had to be clear, as if the and we were always ahead of schedule. trophe or sudden misfortune are usually reception had been filmed in its entirety. men. When a woman kills herself, it's For instance, when the Vice Consul enters I'm not interested in commercial cine- more often in the emptiness of an the private salon, it's because he's looking ma, in films that are made without pas- afternoon-after doing the dishes. - for Mme. Stretter; and he's looking for her sion. I worked un INDIA SONG for eighteen there because, in the previous shot, she months without being paid a franc. I didn't J.D.: Doesn't much of the tension in was headed in a direction which could lead make one franc from LA FEMME DU GANGE INDIA SONG derive from this, that it both nowhere else. [WOMAN OF THE GANGES] or from }AUNE LE builds towards a consummation with death and is also a wake for the dead? M.D.: The reception at the French Em- bassy, which constitutes the second part of 54 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1975

I'm sorry, once I start talking about the slow texts, kind of chronicles of the recep- spectator has only that to watch, and that if reception in INDIA SONG, it's hard for me to tion we've just left and of this woman's he rejects it, it must be a total rejecti on, stop. But to get round to your ques- Calcutta. Of before-now that it's pOSSible without smudges, a rejection which in- tion ... For us, the reception-what we to talk about it. cludes the film itself. My certainty is that if wished to distill from it-was the pursuit people run away, they can only run away of Anne-Marie Stretter, her stalking-down It was between the last two drafts of the from everything. by death; or by death's personification, the shooting script [between April and June, Vice Consul of Lahore. This pursuit should 1974] that we decided to eliminate the addi- I avoided \"breathing-space\" scenes like end in the final drawing together of the tional characters from the reception. Later, the cinematographic plague. You can' t mix two of them, him and her, at the end of the the characters of Georges Crawn and of the ge nres. With our particular pa st, it's night: the mortally convincing expression the Ambassador-the husband-were difficult to extract, depopulate, unbuild. of their common understanding, their re- also abandoned . Georges Crawn still ap- Progress is when we succee d in this . If I fusal, their love . In other words, in the pears once, very late, at dawn; the ambas- didn' t think it was sometimes possible to final suicide. sador never again. The last character we succeed, I'd never make another film . jettisoned was the Woman in Black. The And throughout all the comings and go- Woman in Black was both a photograph I said somewhere in my work notes, be- ings of the reception, this pursuit should and woman. Her photo played a part in fore we started filming: \"INDIA SONG will never be lost from sight; it should be in- the first section; during the reception, we build itself, first through the sound and scribed with the greatest clarity on the ap- saw her show up, alone, and look on. In then through the light. \" I was already on parent disorder, and never lost in the sec- the end, we never saw her. Niki de Saint the track of the final depopulation , right ondary vicissitudes. To try and obtain this Phalle turned the part down, and she was from the start. result, we decided that the whole recep- replaced by three photos of a woman, the tion should be contained within a single same woman, taken by Edouard Boubat J.D.: You've said before that although space, which we called \"the rectangle\"- after the war. you greatly admired his work, any the rectangular space of the private salon similarities between your films and opposite the mirror, plus the space of its Once we'd made the decision , it was Straub's were purely accidental. Yet by re- image as reflected in it. A double rectangle impossible to go back. All the abandoned stricting to a minimum the movements of filmed on only two axes, one running from characters became superfluous. If we'd put actors and camera, you both give the the French windows to the invisible recep- them back in the film, they would have slightest gesture a ritual significance- tion, the other running along the dividing cluttered it up, only this time they'd have what you yourself have called an over- walls of the private rooms. This double rec- done so artifiCially. We also discovered that whelming presence. tangle contained the epicentral zone of the a lot of the things we'd intially taken for whole film: the altar-the photograph of granted were merely a habit, and that the M.D.: It's a kind of fear. I think it derives the dead Anne-Marie Stretter on the piano extras' only function would have been to from the fact that silence and immobility with the roses and the incense in her fill up a space-a space we wanted to keep are just the potentials of movement which memory . The film was shot, the film was free-and to lend credibility to the events are not unleashed. For example, there' s the possible, because the story of this woman of Calcutta and Lahore; whereas it was enormous pan inside the salon which ends had been stopped by death: the altar was a she, this woman from Venice, and he, the in the death photo. It's completely silent, constant reminder of this. It was also the Vice Consul, who were Calcutta and and suddenly we hear the birds. And it altar of suffering, my own suffering. Its Lahore. By giving them two-or ten- feels as if something's being torn apart. spring welled out here. accompanists, we were robbing them of Like a piece of fabric that you start to rip. At their essential function. In other words, one point, someone rings a bell; it's the Through this space, this rectangle, pass whatever was not indispensable im- only movement in the shot. And the fear the five people delegated to \"make\" the re- mediately became useless, and thence comes from this, from this sense that ception, the murmuring voices of the false . something could loom up at any moment. others, the music, the guests' voices, the We're afraid of the unknown . dances, the conversations, the howling of She is Calcutta. With her, there's the the madman of Lahore. Within this inter- beggarwoman's ramblings, her Laos When you start, you have the whole nal space, they speak of the story in the chant. There's also the slowed-down elec- shot to cover. And when you start out present tense (\" He's looking . .. ,\" tric fan, the sweat on her naked body, the thinking thatit's going to last five minutes, \"They're dancing,\" etc.). Whereas in the birds, and the dogs. I don't think there's anything might happen. Someone could places we called the reverse side of the in- anything else. He, alone and unaided, is go mad, scream, howl; a bird could get in terior shots-the pans along the ruined Lahore. Of Lahore, we see nothing except and break something. This physical fear of facades of the Rothschild chateau-they him, the Vice Consul . the cameraman and the director, it's in the speak about it in the past (\"People had al- shot. Our fear is inside the shot. There's no ways talked about here . ..\"). The inner So the extras had to join Lahore, of other reason for those shots to make space is regularly filled by people passing which we see nothing, that balcony in people afraid. through it, and no less regularly emptied, front of the Shalimar gardens, that beg- becoming once again the space of the altar, garwoman, the faceless guests. The voices J.D. : Cocteau spoke of the camera's the space of death, of recent death- were enough. In the images, only the indis- power to capture the passing of death. because the flowers are replaced, and pensables should be left her, Anne-Marie someone comes to light the incense. Stretter; him, the Vice Consul of Lahore; M.D.: The camera can do everything. Whereas with the reverse side shots (with her other lover, Michael Richardson; and The suspense is there. Only in Hitchcock, the exception of the tennis court), there's those two young men-the young attache its direction is always signaled. And the no longer any coming or going, they're un- and the young guest-in other words, the music announces its color. Whereas in my inhabitable and uninhabited, emptied for witnesses. In other words, us. Like us, films, we don't know what we're going to all time by time itself and by the engulfing these two have no links with her, in either find at the end. For the scenes in front of of everything by death. the past or the present. Like us, they don't the mirror, we'd shoot without knowing know the story and discover it gradually. what the mirror was going to do, because it For these exterior shots, too, there are Or rather, they watch it, they follow it with had a life of its own. We treated the mirror only minimal variations in the images, their eyes. like a stranger-and the person in the mir- which are all in deepest night. The skin of ror as someone we didn't know. I knew these images is the voice of Viviane Forres- So I tried to clean the space so that the what Delphine Seyrig would do in front of ter: it covers the Rothschild facades with geometry of the hunt which I mentioned the mirror. But I'd no idea what that would earlier might be inscribed in it unadorned. lead to inside it. And that, too, was fantas- With us alone watching . To insure that the tic. Even for me, when I see the film some- times, I'm caught up as a spectator in a kind of vertigo.~~l FILM COMMENT 55

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CONTINUED FROM PACE 34 A BICENTENNIAL AWARDS*PROGRAM with every sound from unearthly whisper Sponsored byWells F~o Bank to a chattering Laotian beggar woman and in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution man's shriek that is like a culture's death *$100,000 IN AWARDS pangs. While the sinuous, off-screen movie 1. Your view of America's future: \" Toward our Third Century\" in words, on film, or on tape. On the P. O. Box 44076 ravishes itself with talk about the forbid- occasion of the Bicentennial , Wells San Francisco , California 94144 ding heat, great love affairs, the defeat of Fargo Bank is asking all Americans Leftist Movements in the Thirties, the vis- to consider the critical issues facing Entries must be the original work of ual side of INDIA SONG is a slow ballroom our nation in its third century, and to the entrant , and entrants under 18 dance with Delphine Seyrig in hypnotic express thoughtfully and creatively must include the signature of a parent movement with one of five male dancers. their ideas and recommendations for or guardian . Entries become the Some of its stylistic moves: shaping an even better future. The property of the sponsor, all rights Smithsonian Institution will cooperate reserved. For return of materials , 1. Movements that barely crack the sur- in judging the entries, which should include a stamped, self-addressed face; deal with America 's third century in return envelope . The sponsor reserves terms of one of the following themes : the right to rule on all matters related to 2. A hermetically still, glazed scene: no the competition. Employees of Wells bit players, few props; 1. Individual Freedoms in our Society Fargo Bank, the Smithsonian Insti- tution, and agencies connected with 3. The camera behaves like one of the de- 2. American Arts and Culture this program, and their families, are tached languid characters; not eligible to enter. 3. Science , Technology, Energy and 4. Creation of stasis and order. Waiting; the Environment 4. $100,000 in Cash Awards. 5. Constant doubling: in casting; staging Category (1): First award $10,000; the work against a giant mirror; having the 4. Family Life, Work and Leisure Second-$5 ,000; Third-$3,000; plus look-alike actors in operations that hug the 17 Fourth awards of $1,000 each . border of the screen; everyone but the 5. The United States and the World Category (2): First $10,000; Second- beggar woman talks In aesthetic $5,000; Third-$3 ,000; and 22 Fourth monotone. 2. Categories of Entries by Indi- awards of $1,000 each. Category (3): Most of the formal qualities in INDIA viduals or Groups. (1) Essays by First $10 ,000; Second-$5 ,000; Third SONG seem motivated by the filmmaker's those under 18; (2) Essays by persons -$3,000; plus 7 Fourth awards of language, her talent for cryptic writing: the 18 or older; (3) Films or tapes by $1,000 each. elegance, ironic humor, women's- persons of any age. magazine sentimentality, the excessive 5. Final judging will be by a panel control. The whole affair trembles between 3. All entries must relate to of nine distinguished Americans the fiction in third-rate women's America's future and contain ideas selected by the Smithsonian Insti- writing-\"what bliss, what heat\" (and concerning it. Any resident of the tution. Judging of entries at all stages what perfect spun-silk trousers)-and a United States or its territories may will be based primarily upon imagi- slow moving horizontal structure in which enter. Written essays must be no more nativeness, creativity and effectiveness tempo, silence, pause, repetition, modula- than 3,500 words with a maximum of of expression . The judges will allow tion are stressed. A sort of fine-laced acer- three photos or illustrations, if any. the widest latitude for freedom bity and irony cut through the GATSBY-like Film (8mm or 16mm only) and tapes, of thought and expression . Winners acting and scene. The film has a mysteri- 15 minutes maximum. Include name, of the Awards will be announced ous ponderousness, and one wonders age, and address . Group projects nationally on July 4, 1976. about the importance of elegantly held should be submitted under one name . cigarettes, a Venetian red gown which is Entries must be postmarked no later possibly held in place by adhesive tape, than January 31, 1976. Mail all entries and the over-dosage of a Thirties fox trot, or inquiries to: \"Blue Skies,\" re-phrased and played 300 choruses. One thing about the Festival: it didn't overturn, or even begin to contest a five- year-long fascination with the films of Herzog, Straub, Fassbinder, and Duras. The Kaspar film perhaps over-runs into its ironic autopsy with doctors poking Kas- par's brain, the camera holding on the limping clerk's fadeaway exit. There are scenes in MOSES where the documentary approach, the severe clarity, approaches il- lustration more than in HISTORY LESSONS, the Straub's meditation on didacticism or political discourse. Shots of the golden calf, a bad dance, the erotic moments, are closer to De Mille and Rossellini's late his- tory films than to Schonberg'S mind and music. Still, to sum up, there were no films that even touched the fervent, uncom- promising starkness of the MOSES, the snarling energy and frankness of FIST. You would have to be blind not to realize the responsibility for movies as a medium, the energy, and ideas, in any of the above films ..~::. FILM COMMENT 57

BOOKS obscurity of Humphrl!1J Bogart; but then film, but there are tw o minor flaws in the the latter vo lum e h as ge n era ll y been book that worry me because, in less com- REVIEWED BY GERALD WEALES trea ted shabbi ly by Pyramid. Even in its pe tent hands, they represent major sins in fourth printing, eas il y ca tchab le erro rs film scholarship . We are not first intro- PYRAMID ILLUSTRATED (for instance, dating BODY AN D SOUL with duced to Frenchy in DESTRY \"seated on the HISTORY OF THE MOVIES two different years on a single page) have bar singing\"; she is singing \"Little Joe,\" but go ne un co rrec ted. The chief pr o bl em th e camera elbows its way throu gh the paperback; illustrated, with bibliography, with the illustra tions, however-and it is crowd around her, where we see her, back filmography and index a central shortco min g of most books o n to the ca mera, standing by the bar. This is the movi es- is that th e photographs do a n unimporta nt error onl y if o ne is willing HUMPHREY BOGART, by Alan G. not illustrate. The pictures a nd the tex t go to ignore the character-introduction ga me Barbour, 1973, 160 pages, $1.75 their separa te ways , so that eve n in a vol- that George Marshall is playi ng during the ume like GRETA GARBO, in w hich Richard song, which I am not, since it is an active JOAN CRAWFORD , by Step hen Harvey, Corliss em pha sizes the vis ual quality of part of my sense of the film as a w hole. 1974,159 pages, $1.75 scenes a nd in w hich many photographs Nor ca n the place and date of her birth BETTE DAVIS, by Jerry Vermilye, 1973, are published for the first time, the pic- \"ma tter onl y to pedants. \" These facts are 159 pages, $1.45 tures do not s upport what the author is obvio usly of less importance than any of tryin g to say abo ut the films. her performances, verifiable on film , but to MARLENE DIETRICH, by Charles Silver, dismiss them is to let film scholarship drift 1974, 160 pages, $1.75 Each volume co ntain s a brief biblio- back to fan-mag or PR-release gossip . g raphy (less a g uide to the scholarship on Silver might at least have tried to verify CLARK GABLE, by ReneJordan, 1973, 159 the star than a n indication of th e sources Dietrich's connection with Max Rein- pages, $1.45 used by th e a uth o r) a nd a filmo gra ph y. hardt's th ea ter (none of the Reinhardt These la st are valuable to th e ex te nt that material is mentioned in the bibliography). GRETA GARBO, by Richard Corliss, 1974, the y all ow o ne quickly to place a film in (To be fair to the authors, Pyramid's set fee 157 pages, $1.75 the performer's ch ronology, bu t they are for a certain number of pages is not really otherwise limited since they list on ly di- conducive to extended scholarly research; KATHARINE HEPBURN, by Alvin H . rectors, authors, and a. few leading we ca n only be glad that some of the writ- Marill, 1973, 160 pages, $1.45 pla yers. In so me insta nces (Garbo, Hep- ers had the chance to re-see their subjects' burn, Dietrich) , the photographer is of films.) If the seven volumes under review here major importance, and in some (Davis, can be co nsidered a fair sa mpling of the Bogart, Gable), it might be useful to know If Silver is sometimes give n to overin- sin gle-perform er monographs in the the relative billing the ac tor received; par- terpretation, Corliss-whose Greta Garbo Pyramid Illu s tra ted Hi s tory of the ticularly in earl y films. There is no consis- is primaril y a critical book that be lo ngs Movies, the series s uffers from th e limita- te ncy about the non-movie listings in the a lo n gs id e Marlene Dietrich - is handi- tions of its established format and varies informational pages. The stage credits of capped by overwriting. His volume con- grea tl y in quality accordi ng to the indi- Bogart or Davis (not given) would be as sists of a genera l discussion of Garbo in the vidual con tributors. First, the general useful as those of H epbu rn (given), and context of Hollywood and MGM of the s h or tcom in gs. Alth o u gh the authors s urely th e television credi ts o f Da vis or Thirties (useful , even though I insist that seem to have considerable freedom of ap- the recordings made by Dietrich would be his \" we\" is more edi torial or roya l than proach, all of them are bound to a restric- as valuable to the scholar-or the fan plural: I may share his impatie nce with tive 25,OOO-word length, in which they are ex- -as the radio appearances of Hepburn. Thalberg's midcult Art, but f am very pected to cover the complete career-in co mfortable in the Victoria a nd Albert film, a t least-of the performer under There is little room in a group review Museum), followed by a series of mini- consideratio n. In such circumsta nces, a n such as this to deal extensively with the in- essays on each of th e available Garbo aut h or dealing wi th Gre ta Garbo (31 dividual volumes, but I do want to make movies. What he ha s to say about the film s films, co unting h er Swedish commer- some differentiation among the seven is valuable, but one too often has to side- cia ls) or Katharine Hepburn (39, w h e n works under consideration, if only to indi- step his prose to get to his substance. Lines thi s volume was published) sho uld have a cate the range that one might expect in the like \"most of her scripts were typed with great deal more e lbow room than one Pyra mid series . The most interesting of the one finger, and in one-key\" or \"She was a writing abo ut Be tte Davis (83) or Joa n group, the one that reads most comforta- Rolls-Royce with a second-class cargo (her Crawford (81). In fact, the d egree to which bly as a unified essay, is Charles Silver's scripts) and no driver (director)\" are, like th e mo nogra ph s avoid looki ng like th e Marlene Dietrich. H er career falls (or is Sidney Furie's camera angles, too ornate catalogues they obviously are depends pu shed) neatly into four periods, four var- for what they have to say, eve n when the more on the skill and th e stra tegy of the iations on her personality, which Silver can metaphors do not need pare nthetic expla- a uthor than on the o utput of his s ubject. present as they occur and then, discarding natio n . My favorite comes in a comment chronology for the years after World War on THE MYSTERIOUS LADY. \" But Tania Hari As the series title s uggests, the volumes II, return to by wa y of wi nding up. It is not has a n ace up the sleeve of her Adrian are h eavil y illu stra ted, both w ith still s the structure, however, that makes the gown: she shoots von Seyffertitz,\" writes from the movies and publicity po rtraits. book interesting, but the sense that a single Corliss, and Pyra mid 's obliging produc- Given the diminutive size of the pa pe r- critical senSibility is focusing on the actress tio n d e partm e nt provi d es a still o f that backs (about 5\" by 71/2\"), the reproduction and her film s a nd attempting to make us sce ne on the opposite page s howing is und e rs tandably bad , particul ar ly o f respond to the m as artistic achieveme nts Garbo in a gow n that is not only sleeveless those photogra phs, reduced to half-pa ge, or failed attempts. but held up by a single strap. Corliss has a in which several characters make vain at- good eye, as his criticism indicates, but he tempts to be seen. The quality varies from It is a mark of the author's success that I needs an ear to match . volume to volume, from the reasonable read hi s work w ith pleas ure w hile dis- clarity of Marlene Dietrich to the atrocious agreeing with him strongly; he defends a A cut below the Silver and Corliss vol- film like ANGEL, which always sends me to umes are Jerry Vermilye's Bette Davis and bed ea rly, and underra tes DESTRY RIDES Rene Jordan's Clark Gable. Essentiallyeffi- AGAIN because he is judging it less in its cient catalogues, both are rather pedes- own terms than as a Dietrich vehicle. Criti- trian . Jordan is occasionally a bush-league cal differences of opinion are inevitable Corliss (\"to reduce O' Neill's baroque cre- (and healthy) in any serious approach to 58 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1975

denza of a play into a conve nie nt lowboy of cl es.\" Thi s too freq ue nt reaching for sig- experie nce\" if eve r there was o ne), whi ch a movie\"), and his Gable image does ride nifi ca nce may be simpl y a variation of a mea ns tha t, for the most part, he te lls us more obvious wri ting fa ult: his inability to ve ry littl e abou t Bogart as acto r o r abo utthe his text too relentl essly, but his exte nded hear his own contraclictions. H e early d e- films. He does recognize th ose movi es that discussion of THE MISFITS indicates that he scribes her style as relyin g \"surprisin gly lit- most clea rl y mark steps in Bogart's growth mi ght have writte n a more va luable book if tle o n pa rticul ar ma nneris ms,\" alth o ug h as an ac tor a nd sta tu s as a s tar, b ut he he had not felt constrained to force eve n later he me nti ons \" her cache of customary see ms particu la rl y ill- at-ease discu ssin g th e mo st imp o rta nt Gable films into a ma nn e ri s m s\" o r h e r \"ove rl y fami lia r a ny fi lm which, however fragi le, is abo ut parag rap h or tw o. The ea rl y sections o f ma nnerisms.\" so mething(v., hi s mis understa nding abo ut Ve rmil ye's bo ok depend too mu ch o n th e ma jor thrust OfTH E CA INE MUTINY). For quoted reviews as criticism and are too full The boo k is also marred by a kind of all its faults , however, the Barbour vol ume of often peripheral trivia -and the book as anti-intell ectual, a nti- critic attitude th a t is not as bad as Alvin H. Marill 's Katharil1e a whole lea ns too heavi ly o n The Lon ely runs through much w riting abo ut the Hepburn. Heavily a necdotal, it wo uld in- Life-but Vennilye does a ttempt, in his li- movies, but it is par ticu larly inappropriate terest me minimall y eve n if I could tru st it, mited space, to cha racterize th e va rio us in Harvey since he makes casual judg- w hich I ca nn ot. Marill completely messes Davis performa nces; and he is not so reve- ments which we are pres umably to accept up th e plo t of CH R ISTOPHER STRONG, makes rent toward his s ubj ect as to ig no re the as honest critica l statements eve n while he a mi s take a bo ut th e e nd of BRI GI NG UP mannerisms that mar her ea rl y Hollywood dis misses anti-Crawford comments as BABY, p oints o ut th e \"a bsen ce of any yea rs (even in celebrate d roles) and have s nobbish. In discussin g RAfN , for insta nce, ro ma ntic inte res t\" in KEEPER OF TH E FLAME become the self-parody of her most recent he says that the critics (unidentified) de- (how then explain Tracy's line, \" I under- film s. no unced Crawford 's performance becau se stood love now,\" o r the role played by Au- \" they refused to believe th a t the idol o f drey Christie?), and even gets the charac- Stephen Harvey's Joan Crawford probab- millions of ribbon clerks\" could play \" the ters confu sed in the one-line description of ly belongs with these volumes, is in some sa inted \" Jeanne Eagels' part; ye t, he dis- A DELICATE BALANCE in the film ogra ph y. ways superi or to the m, but three of his dis- misses Somerset Maugh am's s tory as Why should I believe anythin g else he tells concerting writing habits annoy me more \" prete ntious kitsch to begin wi th .\" I ca rry m e? than do the routi ne performances of Jor- no drum for Maugh a m, but the moti va- dan and Vermil ye . Harvey labels too many tions for one man's d enuncia tion is s urely Th ere is, then, no particular virtue in the of Crawford 's film s or roles arc hetypal , no purer than another's. Pyra mid nIustra ted History of the Movies prototypical, or definitive of her image; as a series; there is in formation in many of for instance, he finds the \" hedonistic but Alan G. Barbour's Humph rey Bogart is a the volumes, in sights in a few, but even the principled creature\" of OUR DA N CI NG very un sa tisfyi ng volume, largely beca use bes t of th e m leave me w ishin g th a t th e DAUGHTERS (1928) s urfacin g in Crawford Barbour, the King of the Split Infinitive, is writers were no t co nfin ed by th e roles all during the following deca de, al- such a sloppy writer. H e uses the worst publisher's concept. tho ugh te n pages a nd two yea rs later, he is kind of critical cliches (Bogart gave \"a sear- findin g in PAID (1930) \"a new prototype on ing, provoca ti ve performance\" in DEA D .. !... wh ich to pa ttern future Crawford vehi- END, \"a probing, so ul- w ren ching scree n '.' FILM FlRSTI From Hopkinson &Blake, Publishers of Books on the Cinema: Now for the first time the orig inal shoot- ing scripts of award win ning films are Soundtrack: The Music being made available to the general pub- ofthe Movies lic through this special offer ... com- plete sc ripts of : by Mark Evans Henry V, The Big Sleep, A Streetcar Named Desire : Book I Here is a comprehensive work that gives movie music High Noon, Twelve Angry Men, The it s due . In tracing and analyzing its colorful , if Defiant Ones : Book II neglected , history , Mark Evans rescues from near The Apartment, The Misfits, Charade : Book III oblivion the composers and conductors of the A Hard Day's Night , The Best Man, Darling : Book IV movies , man y of them far more gifted than the Included in these fine 8 '12 X 11 comb-bound paperbacks is a com- prod uce rs , directors and acto rs looming over them in prehensive te xt on the h is t o ry of film and the background info r- the credits . In its sco pe and detai I, the book is mation vital to eac h script. Plus , a total glossary of terms neces- encyclopedi c , but Dr. Evans has enlivened his sary for film-making! All this for the low pri ce of only $7.50 per narrative with intimate glimpses into the careers of book (add $1 handling and shipping for the f irst book ; 50t for the composers. each additional book). ORDER TODAY ... SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED! Mark Evans is a co mposer, conductor , lyric ist , Send check or money order to Irvington Publishers, In c . author, and host of a syndicated radio talk show , 551 Fift h Aven ue \" Mark My Words. \" New York , N.Y. 10017 Libraries and other Institutions may send purchase orders 304 Pages Clothbound $10.00 and we will bill. Send check or money order for $10.00 plus $1 .00 SPECIAL-SAVE $7 .00 : For a short time only, order all four for handling and postage to : books for the package price of $23 (add $2 for handling and ship- ping) . NYS residents add 8 % sales tax . Chesford Incorporated 370 Lexington Avenue Suite 416 New York, N .Y . 10017 Libraries and other Institutions may send purchase orders and we will bill. N.Y. State residents add 8 % Sales Tax FILM COMMENT 59

BOOK American auteur masterpieces as SUSPI- ing Hitchcock up against Clouzot, Wilder, CION and NOTORIOUS, w hich he does not film nair, Anthony Asquith, Ea ling com- MARKS markedly distinguish from the Selzn ick edies, Jea n Renoir, Bui'iuel, Antonioni, cycle w herein he sees Hitchcock unpro- Gra ham Greene. This app reciative- by Richard T. Jameson ductively succumbing to the stylistic and interp retive play parall els hi s sense of narrative blandishments of \"women's pic- Hitchcock's art less as something co nfined, Raymond Durg'1at belongs to that rare tures .\" (That Durg na t does no t dis miss defined, and s heltered wi thin its ow n breed of film critic-Manny Farber is the \"women's pictures\" out of hand is amply proscenium than as a process of merging only ot her member wh o sprin gs to demonstrated in other writings; his objec- and diverging refractions. mind-whose commentary scarcely ever tion here is couched in a belief that the di- fails to oscillate between the stimulating rector may have wrapped himself in an Speaking of the \" pierci ng realism\" and and the exasperating (often on alternate overa ll ge n eric comp lacen cy tha t run s \"vibrant irrealism\" of some miniatures in lines), yet almost invariably conducts the counter to his most exploratory and dis- NUMBER SEVENTEEN, Durgna t argues that reader toward a richer comprehension of turbing work .) \"They relate to Hitchcock's curious blend the subject at hand. The Strange Case of of insight and insulation, understa nding Alfr ed Hitchcock, \"extensively rewritten Durgnat persists in seei ng Hitchcock a nd solitude, sy mpathy and ma nipula- and expanded\" from a series offilms & film- and his movies in the context of everybody tion . The effect is enhanced not by the fa ct ing ar ticl es , may we ll induce minor and everything else in the cinema. He is of melodra ma, but by the poe tic quality traumas in just about any imaginable n ever g uilty of that ex clusory narrow - which melodrama at its best may possess. reader. (Wh o doesn' t have some invest- minded ness (tho ug h sloppy w ritin g is Thus it might be said tha t Hitchcock is ment in The Hitchcock Question?) But this probabl y th e cause m ore oft e n) which unique neither as a moralist, nor as a realist, is the first volume in English to deal with suggests that, say, John Ford cinematically nor as a dra matist, nor as a melodra matic both the director's entire feature-film out- invented the stagecoach . He keeps bump- poet, but that he sometimes achieves a cer- put on a film-by-film basis and virtually all the notable critical a pproaches to it. Be- qUARTERLY REVIEW OF cause he leaps from the specific to the gen- eral, from the technical to the stylistic, from Film STUDIES the visual to the literary to the philosophi- cal to th e religious, etc . -th e whole in- The FI RST professional journal in the area of formed by his spiky, often vernacular film studies that is truly scholarly in intent, inter- inquisitive ness-Durgnat has presented national in scope, and interdisciplinary in outlook. us with the first relief map of this endlessly fascinating filmic territory. As such, by de- Editor : Michael Silverman, Brown University finition, it just ma y be the best book on Associate Editors: Ronald Gottesman, usc Hitchcock now available. Brian Henderson, SUNY, Buffalo The subtitle Th e Plain Man's Hitchcock bespeaks Durgnat' s uncommo nly com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Descriptive brochure available upon request. monsense attitude and his lack of awe at QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM STUDIES- Subscription Order Form previous, dogmatized treatments of Hitch- cock's work. It also reminds us that, de- Enter indi:,idual subscription(s) for _ __ year(s) spite his Swiss birth and his recent gravita- - '(-nu-m---:-b-er')- Inst ltu t 10 na I ti on toward American film magazines , there's something vehemently English 1 year 2 years 3 years about him . He confesses that a major factor in determining his way of looking at Hitch- Individuals $14.00 $25.00 $38 .00 cock is an abiding nostalgia for his English Institutions $22.00 $40.00 $58.00 childhood (during w hich h e viewed con- temporary Hitchcocks, of course) and for Subscriptions are on a volume-year (4-issue) basis only. the England that the sharp-eyed director not o nly re-created in the corners of his Name (please type or print) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ __ films but also, as in the original MAN WHO Address _ _ __ __ ___________________________________ KNEW TOO MUCH, dre w on for essential cinematic tensions. He repeatedly refers, City, State, Zip _ _______________________________________ implicitl y or explicitly, to a \"dra ma tic realism .. .[w hose] infiltration of sub- o Check enclosed o Please bill me o Please send brochure sequent [post-1929] thrillers, as against their novelettish plushness, often accounts I - REDGRAVE PUBLISHING COMPANY for much of their richness .... \" A division of Docent Corporation 430 Manville Road, Pleasantville, New York 10570 Thus he is fundamentally disposed to take a hard line against such foremost 60 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1975

tain balance between the four, in which cinema, halfway between anthology-of Teachers of English and their Compleat each enriches the other, allowing him per- which William Johnson's Focus on the Sci- Guide to Film Study) reduces METROPOLIS , fection within a limited but significant sec- ence Fiction Film is a more comprehensive THINGS TO COME , 1';184, ALPHAVILLE , and tor of experience.\" example-and teacher's manual. In the 2001 to theme-units handily containable on latter connection, sci-fi not only comes a single blackboard; this occasionally in- An index to the quickness and incisive- with impeccable future-shock credentials volves doing violence to the scenario, but ness of Durgnat's apprehension as a critic but also is something the kids don't terribly what the hell-MacPherson is more in- is an offhand acknowledgment of some- mind studying. The editor, Ralph J. terested in showing how films can be used one at the B.F.I. who enabled him to see Amelio, and several of his contributors are to teach other things , with film itself a VERTIGO \"for a second time\": the cha pter rather disingenuous in their assumption peripheral consideration . Frank D . on Vertigo is one of the longest and that they're all but alone in regarding sci-fi McConnell's \" Song of Innocence: THE strongest in the book! As politically prog- movies as deserving of serious interest, but CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON\" hon- rammed structuralists and semiologists what seems naive considered within the ors its subject with a carefully argued, hymn a future of studying films via casset- pages of a film magazine makes a good stylistically substantiated analysis, but the tes admissible of an infinite number of in- deal more sense in the understood context writer' s critical persona is such a tortuous stant replays and mathematical calibra- of the curriculum committee or faculty example of the academician-as-basically- tions of shotlengths, Durgnat invaluably lunchroom. right-guy that it tends to bring out the po- tential for unintentional comedy that even personifies all that is quirkily best about Not that some of the contributors lack the most defensible Freudian interpreta- a distinctive and perceptive sensibility con- some portion of that context within them- tion contains, rightly or wrongly. R.C. fronting movies on a screen. selves. William MacPherson's \"For the Fu- Dale's piece on KING KONG , while some- ture: The Science Fiction Film in the Class- what out of place in this particular volume, • room\" (written for the National Council of comes closer to the mark, implicitly acknowledging the outrageousness of his Hal in the Classroom is a brief collection of interpretation and the film by adopting a articles relating to science fiction in the playful tone while still getting the job done. The Black The collection also includes William Experience in Johnson's introduction to his own anthol- Motion Pictures ogy, Susan Sontag's \"The Imagination of Disaster,\" Stuart Kaminsky on INVASION OF From silent era Stepin Fetchits to \"Blax- THE BODY SNATCHERS , two approaches to ploitation\" Superflys, the story of the black THX-1138, and a Velvet Light Trap survey of in films is a study in social history. This \"Political Attitudes in American Science authoritative new book vividly shows how Fiction Films.\" Illustrations are plentiful, this ever-changing screen stereotype has though mostly accidental in placement. served as a grim metaphor for modern American blacks . More than 80 illustra- • tions and photos are included , many of them never before reproduced. I Remember It Well is an ironical title on Vincente Minnelli's part since he is quick to From acknowledge that dozens of former co- Sambo workers contributed their own reminis- cences to jog his imperfect grasp on things to past. Would that this refrain from GIGI be- tokened a more suffusing sense of reverie Superspade than is apparent in this book (co-written with Hector Arce) . It makes pleasant by DANIEL J. LfAB enough reading to merit a place on one' s night-table, but its inventory of people and $15. now at your bookstore places is only fitfully compelling and, about the time the Minnelli-Garland mar- HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY riage falls to pieces, it locks monotonously into an\"And then I directed ...\" mode. The more bygone the year, the more likely one is to come upon something, if only a throwaway detail, against which to juxtapose one's acquaintance with Min- nelli the filmmaker: the revelation, for in- stance, that his first \"directing\" experience came in dressing department-store win- dows; an account of Minnelli's Herculean labors as creator of a new stage show, week in and week out, for Roxy's Radio City Music Hall; or the meticulousness of con- cept that led him, during one of his first major stage productions, to cover both sets and dancers with colored cellophane be- cause the number was a parody of early- Technicolor musicals and the Technicolor of that day tended to blur the edges of things .:{. FILM COMMENT 61

FISHERMEN BE READY TO CATCH THE Super Deluxe BIG FISH! ANYTIME! ANYWHERE! Gold Lined Labels NEW FISHING ROD FITS IN YOUR POCKET! Only $2.00 TELESCOPES TO A FULL 6 FEET! Dr. John Leonard You 'll never miSS a c hance to fish agaln l 6 foot Fish ing Rod 2545 Walnut Street telesc opes down to only 15 '1,\" . Stows away In glove co mpart- Anywhere, California ment. back paCk . travel bag or poc ket. Great for c asting . spin- 94544 ning Or spin-cast use Tubular glass rod . rugged . Positive gnp 500 GOLD LINED cork handle Complete With It'S own Vin y l case . You would ex- RETURN ADDRESS LABELS pe c t 10 pay more than $2500 lor thiS fa ntastic Rod-Yours for Quick and easy way to put your Name and Return on ly address on le~ters , books, records, etc . Any Name , Address and Zip Code up to 4 lines beautifully printed 99~ with large Gold Strip . 500 labels only $2.00. Introductory offer l Dublin Valley.Press, 11683 Betlen Drive, Dublin, Calif. 94566 . Ma il o rd ers Approved by add $2 .00 Dr. Trikie- for tax and Used on his postage big fishing expedition! L.D. PARSONS 18592 MADISON AVENUE CASTRO VALLEY, CALIF. 94546 \"Worthwhile reading for anyone interested in Japanese films.\" -Audience \"This profusely illustrated book consists of interviews between Mellen, an American film scholar, and Japa- nese filmmakers, mostly directors. Each interview is preceded by an introductory essay on the filmmaker. The interviews are placed in chronological order, so the book also presents a rough history of Japanese films . .. . Useful both as an introductory survey of Japanese films and as an in-depth study of their directors.\"-Library Journal Illustrated with photographs \"~~~6~~C~lo~th~'~$I2Li~;;i~h;O~ 500 Fifth Avenue, New York 10036 62 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1975

THE FOREMOST AUTHORITY ON CineBmoao-kTsVM-Oalgas,PPhioxt,oognra: phy Jan Dawson is a frequent contributor to Sight and Sound, The Monthly Film Bulletin, FILM CARE AND REPAIR Catalog Cinema-8 $T.00 and Time Out (London) . Manny Farber is a film critic for City Magazine (San Francisco); SCRATCH REMOVAL. INSPECTION Hampton Books-Dept. FC his collection of criticism, Negative Space, COMPLETE FILM REJUVENATION Route 1 Box 76 has been published in paperback under PEERLESS PROCESS FOR NEW FILM PROTECTION Newberry, S. Carolina 291 08 the title Movies . Stephen Farber is FILM COMMENT s Los Angeles correspondent, FILMTREAT INTERNATIONAL and writes frequently for The New York 730 SALEM ST • GLENDALE CA 91203 . 2131242·2 181 Times. Roger Greenspun writes film criti- 250 W64 ST • NEW YORK NY 10023. 2121799·2 500 cism for Penthouse and the Soho Weekly News. John Hughes recently directed the FOR SALE FOR tst TIME! Ell~1el' BenlstellYS film u .s. 76. Wayne Kabak is a student at both the Columbia Law School and the 16 & 35mm prints rllnmUJIC COllECTiOn BEATLES Columbia School of Journalism. James . ~~ '~ '~ '.'~'~' ~'~'@'.'. McCourt is the author of Marwdew \"MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR\" Czgowchwz. Patricia Patterson writes the -Reasonably Priced- featuring new recordings of complete classic City film column wi th Manny Farber. film scores by such composers as Steiner, Graham Petrie teaches at MacMasters CEG, 1145 Willora, Stockton, Waxman, Herrmann, Friedhofer, Rozsa, University in Hamilton, Ontario. Elliott available on a membership basis only. Send Stein has prepared an expanded edition of Ca. 95207 this ad to P.O. Box 261 , Calabasas, Ca. 91302 Leon Barsacq's Le Decor du cinema for publi- for a free copy of Film Music Notebook. cation by New York Graphic SOCiety. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• •• •• ••• , •••• ••• , •••••• STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION (Act of August 12, 1970: Sec- tion3685. Title 39. United States Code) 1. titleofpub- lication Film Comment 2. date offiling October 8, 1975 3. frequency of issue bimonthly 4. location of mawn of- ••• , •••••••• fice of publication 1865 Broadway New York NY 10023 • , ••••• 5. location of the headquarters or general business offices of the publishers 1865 Broadway New York NY 10023 6. names and addresses of publisher, editor, and business manager:publisher The Fihn Society of Lincoln Center 1865 Broadway New York NY 10023 editor Richard • Corliss 1865 Broadway New York NY 10023 business •• manager Suzanne Charity 1865 Broadway New York NY 10023 7. owner The Film Society of Lincoln Center 1865 Broadway New York NY 10023 8. mawn • Who got the Oscar? •••••••• bondh olders, mortgagees, and other security holders awn- ing or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities none 11. extent and nature of circulation: ..aclual number of copies of single • issue published nearest tofiling date •• average number of oopies each issue during preceding 12 months •An all-time history of the Oscar Q. total number copies printed (net press run) 11,192 11,750 b. paid circulation 1. sales through awards ceremonies and the win- •••• dealers and mrriers. street vendors 5, 228 6,931 ners and losers from 1929 to now. and co unter sales 3,834 3, 994 With hundreds of memorable 2. maiL subscriptions 9,062 10, 925 photos (many full-page) of the c. total paid circulation •honored actors, actresses. and • d. free distribution by mail , carrier or 489 445 films (both domestic and for- other means - sampLes, complimentary, 9,551 11,370 and other free copies •eign), plus listings of winners in • e. total distribution (s um of c and d) 390 380 •all categories, and a separate unkn own • ••• ••chapter for each year. f. copies not distributed 1. office use, •• TH~CADEMY ••• • 1,251 at date leff-aver, unaccounted, spoiled of filing after printing 11, 192 11,750 2. returns fro m news agents g. tota[(sum of e & f - should equal net press run shown in A) • AWARDS ••• ••A Pictorial History POSITIONS AVAILABLE by Paul Michael••• •••Third Revised Edition ••• ••~_ UCLA Theater Arts 75-76 & • •••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••~tn(fIC. CROWN PUBLISHERS, 419 Park Ave. South, New York, N.Y. 10016 possibly year following. MFA $9 .95, now at your bookstore, or send check or money order to & university experience pre- ferred. Lecturers in film pro- duction area & screenwriting. Women & minorities urged to apply. Send vitae to Chairman, Theater Arts, UCLA, Los Angeles, 90024 before De- cember 31, 1975. FILM COMMENT 63

BACK Joe Adamson, Tex Avery: King of Car- sion, Hastings House. PAGE toons, Popular Library (paper). Leonard Maltin, TV Movies (1975 edi- NO-MAN'S LAND tion), Signet (paper). By Richard Corliss Richard Corliss, Talking Pictures , Pen- James McCourt, Mardew Czgowchwz , The achievements, even the importance guin Books (paper). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. of the filmmakers and filmic tendencies in- Raymond Durgnat, The Strange Case of vestigated in this issue of FILM COMMENT Joan Mellen, Voices from the Japanese are subjects for productive debate; but it's AlfredHitchcock, M .l.T. Press; Sexual Aliena- Cinen1a, Liveright. unlikely that the debate would ever take tion in the Cinenla, Studio Vista. place in the pages of the mass-circulation James Monaco, A Standard Glossary of movie and book reviews. With a few in- Manny Farber, Movies , Hillstone (pa- Film Criticism, New York Zoetrope (paper). trepid exceptions (Sarris and Haskell in perback version of Negative Space). Th e Village Voice, Kael in 771e New Yorker, George Morris, Errol Flynn, Pyramid Greenspun in Penthouse, Manny Farber in Brendan Gill, States of Grace: Eight Books (paper). City), the great media middle-ground- Plays by Philip Barry, Harcourt, Brace, where knowledgeable critics could cajole Ted Perry, Filmguide to 8 1/2, Indiana Uni- and educate open-minded readers-has Jovanovich. lately become a no-man's land, a de- Michael Kerbel, Henry Fonda, PYTamid versity Press (paper). militarized zone separating two hostile camps: the philistines and the specialists. Books (paper). Gene Phillips, Stanley Kubrick: A Film Lawrence W. Lichty (co-author with Odyssey, Popular Library (paper). The idea of film as an art form, which big-time book and magazine editors M.e. Topping), American Broadcasting: A Marjorie Rosen, Popcorn Venus, Avon whimsically entertained for a while in the Source Book on theHistory of Radio and Televi- (paper). ::.. Sixties (when so many things seemed pos- sible), has given way to the notion of the SCREEN movie as social phenomenon, valuable mainly for What It Tells Us About Our- WORLD selves: in Andrew Sarris's words, cinema as mirror rather than as window. Millions If it happened in the movies last year, it's here ... The of words on Judy Garland and Walt Dis- authoritative pictorial and statistical record of the movie ney, but not a paragraph for Murnau or the scene is back in another lavish edition. This new vol- modernists . It's symptomatic of this dis- ume features many large pictorial spreads covering piriting return to normalcy that a first book each of the hit films, and more than 1,000 profile and of film criticism by Michael Wood (777 eNew scene shots from virtually every domestic and foreign York Review of Books) should be considered film released in the United States during the year, plus at length in The New York Times Book a 1O,OOO-entry index. Illustrated. $9.95 Review-an honor never accorded Robin Wood, whose work is vastly more impor- Now at your bookstore, or send check or money order tant and influential. There may as well be a to CROWN PUBLISHERS, 419 Park Ave. South, want-ad in the Times back pages: \"Wanted: New York, N.Y. 10016 ~~ Myth-breakers and Necrophiliacs; Liberal Humanists Need Not Apply. \" Publishers themselves didn't create this situation, but they can't help but respond to it. That many of titles listed below (re- cent books by this years contributors to FILM COMMENT) were published at all indi- cates that, in a few bookman's hearts, mer- cantile savvy has not entirely over- whelmed the old-fashioned impulse to publish good books. But with even the university presses greedy for black ink, it becomes obvious that some kind of sub- sidy is needed to assure that the voice of the serious film writer is heard. Only if that quirky voice is raised can the inter- rupted dialogue between creative critic and adventurous reader hope to be re- sumed. 64 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1975

The Spoken Seen Film and the Romantic Imagination Frank D. McConnell Making no separation between \" high \" and \" low\" culture, McConnell argues that film is a direct outgrowth of the Romantic tradition in literature. He draws on such varied ex- amples as The Wizard of Oz, 2001 : A Space Odyssey, and Citizen Kane to back up his argument. Illustrated with numerous stills from recent Hollywood productions and ac- knowledged classics, this book should prove an invaluable guide to the art form most characteristic of our era. What other book on film links Wordsworth , Byron and Descartes with Frankenstein, Tarzan , and Charlton Heston? $11.95 hardcover, $2.95 paperback new in paperback REVOLUTIONARY Soviet Film Posters Mildred Constantine and Alan Fern \" Some of the most dramatic posters I've seen , reflecting the high excitement of the early Soviet film days. \" - Stanley Kauffmann , New Republic ':A very valuable work at the cross- roads of Mtlrx and Madison Avenue, Modern- ism and the masses. It evokes an exc iting era in motion picture history.\" - Andrew Sarris, Village Voice \" Quite astonishing this: the vitality that was squeezed out of Russian painting in the 1920s re-surfaced in poster after poster that even today impresses us as a masterpiece of galvanic invention.\" - New York Times Book Review $5 .95 paperback , $12 .95 hardcover The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland 21218

CaonedHant Blow the lid off your laugh button MAKE MINE MINK Contemporary/McGraw-Hili Films with our thin tins! Our films pack Terry Thomas helps little 01 ' ladies more fun per ounce than the law steal little 01 ' furs for charity. Rate us \"E\" for Entertainment. allows. Serve them deviled, spicy or Directed by Robert Asher. With sugar-cured . . . However you slice Athene Seyler, Hattie Jacques and For booking information and free it, each one 's a prime rib tickler. For Billie Whitelaw. catalog , call or write : gourmet guffaws, one's a treat. But two are mmm better! QUACKSER FORTUNE HASA Amy Hustedt Princeton Road THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY COUSIN IN THE BRONX Hightstown, New Jersey 08520 laurel and Hardy, Will Rogers, Jean Gene Wilder loses girl, wins bus (609) 448-1700 Harlow, Carole lombard, Ben company. Directed by Waris Turpin, Harry langdon, Charlie Hussein. With Margot Kidder. Ruth Daniel Chase, et al. make the twenties roar 828 Custer Avenue again. Produced by Robert Youngson. PLAYTIME Evanston , Illinois 60202 Jacques Tati and a cast of (312) 869-5010 THE TWELVE CHAIRS thousands explore the future Mel Brooks gives the old borsch a imperfect. Directed by Jacques Tati. Robert Magoffin belt. Directed and written by Mel With Barbara Dennek, Georges 425 Battery Street Brooks. With Ron Moody, Dom Montant and John Abbey. San Francisco, Californ ia 94111 Deluise and Frank langella. (415) 362-3115 I LOVE YOU ALICE B. TOKLAS U.S. Distribution Only Peter Sellers pollinates among the flower children. Directed by Hy Averback . With Jo Van Fleet and leigh Taylor-Young. Film Society of Lincoln Center second class postage paid at Boston Mass. 1865 Broadway New York, N.Y. 10023