VOLUME 25 - NUMBER 01 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1989

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•Sl•SSUe published bimonthly by the Film Society of Lincoln Center Volume 25, Number 1 January-February 1989 Torching the Closet .............. 9 Midsection: Argh-the '90s ....... 27 Te st: how ma ny nationall y Crystal ball time. The 90's are well-know n publi c men are soon upon us- so why wa it a gay and wea r a dress to work? year to moa n about man's fate. Harvey Fierstein , a gay cross- Let's ge t it ove r with now: over fi g ure w ith bre ak out Beverly Walker mulls the fate pote nti al, has the sass and of the director-w ill he be sashay to se nd men running- auteur or airline pilot? (page in to their closets for dress up 28) . Actin g may veer away time . Afte r seein g Torch Song from reali sm to te le prompter- Trilogy, Jay Scott talks to the ism fears Gavin Smith (32 ). man about gend e r be nding Armond White di ag nos es and pride. Harlan Kennedy reviewers in critica l condition add s a ch apter to the ongo ing and prescribes a purge (37). saga of the Battle for Britain . Jon Jost laments the fate of This round: The Gay Film indie film s ( 42) . Karen Festi va l. Goodi es : Its orga- Jaehne romances the stone nizers . Baddies: Th atcher and cold future of love in the Bush the L egion of the D amned decade ( 46) . We draw up a list Stupid (15) . of the decade 's pass ing fancies (36), and Jack Barth pre- From Truffaut's Typewriter ....... 17 views FI Ll\\l COl\\ IMENT of the '90s- give n the low state of the Fra nr;o is Truffaut m ay b e art and our stand ard s (50) . gone , as we keep telling yo u, l'vleanwhile , Argh- 1988 . Te n but hi s work lives on. His last N ew Faces from Lawrence sc ree nplay La Petite Voleuse O'Toole (54) , O sca r sill y (The Little Thief) is now a film que s ti o n s fr o m Anne by C laud e Miller. C'es t si bon says Annette Insdorf, who Thompson (56 ), and t wO intr o du ces t wo sc en es excerpted from th e ori ginal scoundrels, Richard Corliss script. Zut alors! Magnifique! and Stephen Harvey, sum- mari ze the dirty, rotte n yea r we all just had (52) . Also in this issue: Journals ... . ... .. ...... . ...... 2 Little Vera . Anne Willi amson reveals Books: I , Puttnam ..... . . . . .. . 75 Let's get Latin for a while. Graham what they've been doing be hind that Or how I stopped makin g film s like Fuller stayed in New York and saw a Iron C urtain . Chariots of Fire and We nt Down in cross sec tion of Sa nd anista and not-so Fl ames. Gregg Kild ay rev iews Fast Sandini sta film s. And Laure nce Kar- Bigmouth Strikes Again ....... 65 Fade, the story of Dav id Puttn am's dish took in some Ca ribbea n film s at Miss ion. the Sa n Ju an festi va l, in between rum Richard Corliss sees a mov ie about Back Page Quiz #35 . ......... 80 coc tel s . Talk Radio and refl ects on thi s year's media mode l of the body politi c. Cover photo : New Line Cinema. Sergei and Vera Get Laid . .. ... 23 The Ru ss ians are coming! But it's TV: Bang Bang We're Bored ... 71 make love, not wa r as those sex crazed Gross, says Amy Taubin , afte r sitting Sovs plaste r the scree n with candid throu gh a new low in tabl oid tack TV, sce nes from Moscow's boxoffi ce hit, Manhunt-a li ve hunt for a se rial killer. Yuk. Co-E ditors: Harl an Jaco bson, Richard Corli ss . Se nior Edi tor: Ma rl ai ne G licksman . Ass istant E di tor: Gav in S mith . Art Director and Cover D es ign: Elliot Schulman. Ad vertisin g and C ircul ation Ma nager: Tony [mpavido. Business Manage r: D ori s Fe llerm an . Production: D e borah Di chter Ed monds. Wes t Coast E ditor: Anne T hompson. E uropea n E di tor: Harl an Ken nedy. Resea rch Consultant: Ma ry Corli ss. Controlle r: D omin go Hornill a, Jr. Executi ve Director, Film Society of Lincoln Ce nter: Joa nne Koch . Co pyri ght © 1989 by the Film Society of L incoln Cente r. All ri ghts reserve d. The opinions expressed in F IL MCOM~ I ENT do not re prese nt Film Society of Lincoln Ce nter poli cy. Publi cation is made possi ble in part by sup pOrt fro m the New York State Council on the Arts and the National End ow me nt for the Arcs. This publi cation is fully protected by domes tic and inte rn ational co pyrighr. Subsc ription rates in the Un ited States: $14.95 for 6 nu mbers, $26.95 fo r 12 nu mbe rs. E lsewhe re , $37 for 6 num bers, $70 for 12 numbe rs, payable in U.S. fu nds onl y. New subsc ribers shou ld includ e the ir occ upations and zip codes. Distri buted by Eas te rn News D istribu tors, Sa ndu sky O H 44870. FI L~1 COM MENT (ISSN OOJ 5- 119X) is published bimonthl y by the Film Society of L incoln Ce nter, 140 W. 65 th Sr. , New York NY 10023 . Second - cl ass pos tage paid at New York NY and additional mail ing offi ces . Postmaster: send ad dress changes to FI LM COMMENT. P O. Box 3000. D e nv ille, NJ 0 783 4- 9925

Cinema Underdevelopment CINE SANDINO L ike every other facet of Nicaraguan On the set of Mecate: ANew Song (1984). culture, cinema was invigorated by the Sandinista revolution. Until co-written) by Fernando Sommariba intercuts a pair of rueful pickers President Anastasio Somoza was deValery at a cost of $350,000 over two (exposed to malaria and hepatitis deposed on July 17 , 1979, indigenous years , portrays the Miskito being through the appalling conditions) and filmmaking consisted of propagandist bounced out of their homelands by the Somocista revelers in the lap of luxury. newsreels and shorts celebrating such Sandinistas and exploited by self-seek- The sound of rain falling and a twang- non-events as the dictator's birthday ing contra renegades. Opening shots of ing guitar track establish a plangent parties and his visits to farms and indus- the Indians' beloved river country are tone as another worker drags a huge tries, which were screened before later counterpointed by images of their pulley away from the camera, spiritu- imported features at commercial thea- ruined mines and the miserable shan- ally as well as physically under the ters. Now, nearly a decade later- ties into which they are exiled . Somoza yoke. despite a dearth of equipment and the economy-crippling contra war-the \"There's a serious ri sk of peace Mecate, meanwhile, emerges as an Nicaraguan film institute, Incine, is breaking out on the Atlantic coast,\" exuberant, eye-opening feminist tract. geared to producing an annual slate of wryly observes the English-language As peasant women mobilize into theat- one feature, four or five 16mm docu- rical collectives to advertise the need mentaries, and various video projects. commentator as the Miskito, finall y for better food for their kids, they assert Nicaragua's first full-length narrative allowed to return, turn the exodus into the biggest problem they have to deal film, The Specter of War , was recently a muddy stampede. While autonomy is with is their husbands , frequently completed by director Ramiro Lacayo a possibility, he adds , a Miskito state is drunk and jealous about the troupes' just in time for a shot at the Best Foreign a pipe dream . Most indelible is the male actors . \"Thank God I don' t have a Language Film Oscar. close-up of a \" KISAN for Peace\" guer- husband,\" says one. ''I'm husband and rilla with a crucifix at his throat and wife in my house!\" The \"New Song\" of Because the Reagan administration's grenades for buttonholes. the title , accompanied by a band play- economic embargo on Nicaragua ing on cans and bits of tube, is dedi- includes art, Nicaraguan films haven't Two earlier color documentaries, cated to literacy. been widely disseminated in the Lacayo's IS-minute Banana Company United States. Still, the films trickle (1982) and Feliz Zurita de Higes's 50- \"I tell them to keep at it,\" says one through. PBS is currently considering a minute Mecate: A New Song (1984), male sage in sympathy with these sin- broadcast slot for Children of the River respectively trace Somoza's raping of gle-minded women. \"That's the aim of (1988), an hour-long Incine documen- the banana plantations and the blos- the revolution.\" tary about the plight of the Miskito soming of the Peasants Movement for Indians of the Rio Coco and Atlantic Artistic and Dramatic Expression. The women, however, deny that coast. And a year after it's U.S. premiere Using old newsreel footage , Lacayo Mecate is a revolutionary force. Nor, at the 1987 New York Film Festival, Lacayo's black-and-white, 18-minute drama, The Centerfielder (1985), was screened along with three other fledg- ling efforts at a benefit for the Nicaraguan Cultural Alliance, spon- sored by Artists for Peace and Non- Intervention in Nicaragua, at New York's Collective for Living Cinema last October. Scarcely hard-sell immersions in Sandinismo, still less Marxist agitprop, these films delineate the struggles of the people with more irony than na'ivete, more restraint than rhetoric . Children of the River, directed (and 2 Ed

i in stores The one volume - yours fino filmgoer can alford to FREE! be without\" * \"Best organized, most complete book \"A knockout compilation of almost everything you . .. for anyone interested in movies.\" -Film World .could possibly want to know about thousands of \"No other work offers such compre- moVIes.\"-CHICAGO ffiIBUNE hensive and entertaining information in one volume.\"--Library Journal Partial (very partial) list of features in this new 6th Edition \"A real treasure.\"-Screen Interna- * 16,000 films (far more than in any comparable volume) tional * Everything you need to know about each film : plot, credits, evaluation, all *\"A vast amount of information in one convenient volume . . . something no key data filmgoer can afford to be without.\" -London Times * 171 photos and posters - all new in this 6th Edition * All Academy Awards: winners AND nominees * Over 1,000 films not found in older editions Mail coupon to get * Countless additions and corrections to older editions this $47.50 giant * 1,216 oversized 71/2 x 9lj2 pages FREE ----------------------------•--•-Yl-~-/-~-.-'-~-.'-A-I-•-•-~-.-'---- How the Club Worts It••a Ct..1t Every 4 weeks (13 times a year) you get a free copy of the Club bulletin, PREVIEWS, which offers 15 OaKland Avenue • Harrison, N.Y. 10528 the FeabJred Selection plus a nice choice of Alternates: books on fihns, TV, music, occasiooally Please accept my membership in the Movie / Entertainment Book Qub and send me, FREE and postpaid, the new *records and videocassettes. If you want the FeabJred Selection, do nothing. It will come $47.50 6th Edition of Halliwell's Film & Video Guide by *autornatically. If you don't want the FeahJred Selection or you do want an Alternate, indicate Leslie Halliwell. I agree to buy 4 additional books, records or *your wishes on the handy card enclosed and rerum it by the deadline date. The majority of Club videocassettes at regular Qub prices over the next 2 years. I *books are offered at 20-30\"10 discounts, plus a charge for shipping and handling. As soon as you also agree to the Qub rules spelled out in this coupon. Nrune _________________________________F_e_·_5_1 buy and pay for 4 books, records or videocassettes at regular Club prices, your membership may be Address *ended at any time, either by you or by the Club. If you ever receive a FeabJred Selection without City ____________ State ______ Zip _ __ *having had 10 days to decide if you want i~ you may rerum it at Club expense for full credit Fllf every book, record or videocassette you buy at regular Club price, you receive one or more Bonus Book Certificates. These entide you to buy many Club books at deep discounts, usually 60-80\"10 off. *These Bonus Books do not count toward fulIilling your Club obligation but do enable you to buy fine books at ~veaway prices. PREVIEWS also includes news about members and their hobbies. You * *are welcome to send in simiJar items. The Club will publish any such item it deems suitable, FREE. This is a real CLUB! Good service. No computers! Only one membership per household. -------------------------------------------------- 3

Director Ramiro Lacayo. The Centerfielder (1985) according to Margarita Gurdian, head police reinforcements swarming into CINE SAN JUAN of Incine's international department , is the area for the climactic nocturnal the cinema. shoot-out suggest Marin was, indeed , O ne Way Passage, which opened rai sed on American thrillers of the For- the first CineSanJuan Festival, \"When we showed Children of the ties and Fifties, though this 16-minute and which won a 'pitirre,' a hand- River to members of the government,\" short lacks ei ther characterization or carved, hand-painted wooden sculp- Gurdian explained, \"some of them crit- tension. ture of a kingfisher, is based on a hor- icized it, saying it was an apology to rendous incident concerning a cargo of Brooklin Rivera [rebel leader opposed A far more successful attempt at men covertly quitting their native land to the Sandinistas], but we went ahead expressionistic stylization is L acayo's for what they presume will be a more and showed it all over Nicaragua and brooding, halluci natory The Center- secure life in another. The movement of internationally. If you look at the films , fielder. Based on a story by Nicaragua's people-whether from countryside to you can see that they' re not against the vice-president, Sergio Ramirez, it sifts town, from one nation to another, or govern ment. I think they' re supportive backw~rd and forward in time , from a even from home to anywhere else-is a of what is happen ing in Nicaragua, but shoemaker's imprisonment and inter- familiar subject in the Caribbean. The they're not political pamphlets. Our rogation under Somoza to memories of migration, almost always out of eco- filmmakers , like those of other coun- his youth as a baseball player who nomic or political necessity, is not self- tries, aren ' t seeking cliches-they're toured Cuba with the national team . In determined but circumstantial, and it is the game he imagines, the centerfield- treated as a form of exile. It is a question trying to capture the reality of er escapes over the prison wall. But he of move or suffer, perhaps die. Nicaragua and the human drama we all is soon brought back to reality by the live . They started with documentaries image of his son as he's shot down Populations are transient, and fami- and newsreels , but now they' re begin- among the pigs. lies are divided . Much of the drama in ning to get into fiction. \" Nicaragua's Latin American films has to do with the filmmakers have meanwhile received Lacayo is the leading practitioner of protagonist trying to reconcile 'here' training in Cuba, Italy, Mexico, and the Nicaraguan \"First Wave.\" He is with 'there.' This is Haitian Corner's Canada. Many of their films have territory but also Brascuba's, a musical recently played in some of Nicaragua's also responsible for The Specter of War, documentary with interviews directed 130 (30 state-owned) theaters. \"We are which he co-wrote with Pontecorvo col- by Orlando Senna and Santiago trying to get as many films as we can laborator Ranco Rianni. The film fol- Alvarez. The film was made on the from North America, Cuba, the Soviet lows the journey of a young Atlantic resumption of diplomatic relations bet- Union, and Europe,\" says Gurdian. coast black who comes to Managua to ween Brazil and Cuba-after a long dance but is instead drafted into the generation had passed for families sepa- Incine 's first drama, Mariano Marin's army. His family arranges for his rated by Cuba's revolution. black-and-white Guardians of the Peo- escape, but ironically he settles down ple's Happiness (1983), is actually a to soldier and lie among the villagers at No wonder, then , that emigration, docudrama that filters a Sandinista his base camp, is wounded in the leg, everyday life within a corrupt social (if police promo through film noir. After and is then told he'll never dance again. not political) system beset by ven- training with their new comrades, three dettas , and regional folklore and music rookie cops investigating a murder by a A cynical Nicaraguan For Queen and were three pervasive themes of the 200 gang of young burglars track them Country? If most Nicaraguan films entries at CineSanJuan. Held the sultry down to, appropriately, the old Palace aren't yet state of the art, neither are of Justice. Vertiginous long shots of they necessarily art of the state. -GRAHAM FULLER 4

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I.V. MAGAZINE first week of October, the festival was nection: This Colombian-Cuban film organized by the Asociaci6n Puertorri- was processed in New York. The perfect alternative to the quena de Cineasthes y Video-Artistas white bread blandness of (APICVA) in conjunction with the Insti- CineSanJuan showed a number of network T.V. magazines. tuto de Cultura Puertorriquefla. Its films made in the U.S., either by His- executive director is Ana Maria Garcia, panics or by directors with a Caribbean An upbeat amalgam ofinterviews, satire a filmmaker best known for La Opera- bent. Alex Cox's Walker, Ramon Men- and music, LV. MAGAZINE reveals the cion (1983), a strong documentary endez's Stand and Deliver, Enrique irony and absurdity of modem life with about state sterilization policy. Garcia Oliver's independently made Lola La humor powered by kinetic tension. fused government funds and business Loca, Allan Francovich's documentary contributions, but CineSanJuan was on CIA involvement in Central America -Arts & Entertainment also a product of the will and hands of The Houses are Full of Smoke , and animator Paco Lopez (Ligia Elena), Robert Redford's The Milagro Bean- Now available for your home viewing. Jacobo Morales (Dios Los Cria... And field War. Shot mostly in New York, VHS • Beta • Video 8 God Created Them), Luis A. Rosario Haitian Corner was produced by West Quiles (Cimarron), and a phalanx of Berlin's Journal Film. A sad narrative of I.V. Studios 985 Regal Rd. volunteers. exile directed by Haitian-born Raoul Berkeley, CA 94708 Peck, it is Haiti's first feature. In the mornings , the festival ran Call or write for a catalog seminars on va rious aspects of Carib- Some very good rum was poured at (415) 841-4466 bean cinema, frequentl y probing to dis- the daily 'coctels' in one historic site cover what made the Caribbean a after another, but through the pleasant cultural unit. Pol ylingual (Spanish, mind blush brought on by the sunset French, English, Dutch , Creole among daiquiris several ideas were evident. a host of indigenous tongues), the One was that there was exciting cinema Caribbean shares a history of coloniza- being made in Colombia. Although tion , and its Indian , African, and Euro- what is emerging is not so stylistically pean influences have given rise to coherent as to be called a 'school,' there stereotypes of the oppressed agrarian is a noteworthy concentration of talent peasant, the wise and dancing spiritual- in Colombia that includes Sergio Cab- ist, and the damned exploiter, respec- rera , Lissandro Duque (Visa U.S.A.), tively. But the State Department Luis Hernando (La Boda Del Acor- denied visas to the Cubans-who could deonistalThe Marriage ofthe Accordian have contributed to the panels-which Player), and Francesco Norden (Con- perhaps gives Puerto Rican nationalists dares No Entierran Todos Los DioslA another compelling argument for sover- Man ofPrinciple). eignty. Turned away was Tomas Gutier- rez Alea, who, appointed as a judge, It seems that a pan-national Carib- also planned to bring his new films. bean cinema is viable not so much There were, however, as many films because there is a particular approach or from Cuba in San Juan as there were strategy to filmmaking from country to from Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico , country as there is a shared experience and Venezuela, but through Cuba's pro- of economic underdevelopment. This ducing agency, ICAIC, there were also has to do with American 'studio' several joint Cuban co-productions on monopoly only in part but also arises hand. Sergio Cabrera's Dueling Tech- from a sacred cultural counterpoint of niques even had a slight American con- landscape, architecture, and recurrent concerns. -LAURENCE KARDISH 6

Astounding Animation and Classy Cartoons from Direct Cinema Anna and Bella Frank Film Luxo Jr. Pies Sundae in New York 1Anna and Bella Paradise ACADEMY AWARD 1985 BEST ANIMATED SHORT ...... ALA SELECTED FILMS FOR YOUNG ADULTS 1985 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION 1985 BEST ANIMATED FILM FIRST PRIZE 1985 LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL Two elderly sisters spend a heavenly afternoon looking through a ANIMATION CELEBRATION family photo album . They remember their quarrels, shared loves A little blackbird learns that fine feathers alone cannot bring happi- and tender moments through their long life together. ness, even in a brilliantly colored fantasy kingdom . Dazzling , richly A film by Ring Borge detailed art and haunting music combine to tell this gently humorous 8 minutes Color 1986 moral tale . 16mm Sale $275/Rental $30 1/2\" Video Sale $150 National Film Board of Canada A film by Ishu Patel 16 minutes Color 1985 Audition 16mm Sale $375/Rental $30 1/2\" Video Sale $100 While worrying about a theatrical audition , a young woman grapples Pies with her conflicting desires for both a career and a family. Photo- graphs of the audition serve as documentary bridges between the A surprising short filled with humor, warmth and color, Pies tells the pastel and wash drawings portraying her imagination. universal tale of how human understanding can overcome prejudice. A film by Candy Kugel National Film Board of Canada 9 minutes Color 1981 Produced by Caroline Leaf Directed by Sheldon Cohen 16mm Sale $225/Rental $20 1/2\" Video Sale $100 13 minutes Color 1985 16mm Sale $295/Rental $30 1/2\" Video Sale $100 Coney Red's Dream BLUE RIBBON 1975 AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL In this film from the makers of Frank Film, Coney Island itself be- CINE GOLDEN EAGLE comes the world's greatest amusement ride that kids of all ages will BEST OF CATEGORY 1988 SAN FRANCISCO want to take again and again . INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL A film by Frank and Caroline Mouris This film reveals what philosophers and poets have long wondered : 5 minutes Color 1975 What do unicycles dream about on rainy nights? 16mm Sale $150/Rental $25 1/2\" Video Sale $100 Writ!3r, Director, Animator: John Lasseter Technical Direction : Eben Ostby, William Reeves and H.B. Siegel 1Frank Film 4 minutes Color 1987 Produced by PIXAR 16mm Sale $1001 Rental $20 1/2\" Video Sale $75 ...... ACADEMY AWARD 1973 BEST ANIMATED SHORT In what has been called \"probably the most celebrated American Tin Toy short, \" 11 ,592 collages tell every1hing you ever wanted to know about Frank.. .and yourselL and the USA. A boisterous baby and a wind-up toy battle it out in the first of A film by Frank and Caroline Mouris PIXAR's works to feature the animation of a human character. 9 minutes Color 1973 Direction , Animation , Story: John Lasseter Technical Direction : William Reeves, Eben Ostby 16mm Sale $275/Rental $35 1/2\" Video Sale $150 5 minutes Color 1989 Produced by PIXAR 16mm Sale $175/Rental $25 1/2\" Video Sale $75 I Was A Thanksgiving Turkey A Special Letter ALA SELECTED FILMS FOR YOUNG ADULTS 1986 In an unprecedented bird's-eye view of the traditional holiday dinner, This film tells a true story of a special love between a mother and her this imaginative short presents the turkey's perspective, suggesting grown daughter. In a few short minutes, the film touches on the that all good birds go to heaven. meaning of love as an aging parent becomes like a dependent child . A film by John Schnall National Film Board of Canada A film by Bozenna Heczko 4 minutes Color 1986 5 minutes Color 1985 16mm Sale $150/Rental $20 1/2\" Video Sale $50 16mm Sale $195/Rental $25 1/2\" Video Sale $75 Luxo Jr. 1Sundae in New York ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION 1986 BEST ANIMATED SHORT This charming award-winning short, a milestone in computer . ..... ACADEMY AWARD 1983 BEST ANIMATED SHORT animation , gives three-dimensional life to a father-son team of Lu xo New York's irrepressible Mayor Ed Koch \"stars\" in this amusing and desk lamps. energetic clay animation musical extravaganza, which also features Direction , Story and Animatior. by John Lasseter \"appearances\" by Frank Sinatra, Woody Allen , and others. Technical Direction by William Reeves A film by Jimmy Picker 2 minutes Color 1987 Produced by PIXAR 4 minutes Color 1984 16mm Sale $100/Rental $25 1/2\" Video Sale $50 16mm Sale $150/Rental $20 1/2\" Video Sale $50 For information contact: Direct Cinema Limited ~'icinema r:. Post Office Box 69799 Los Angeles, CA 90069 limited Phone (213) 652-8000

New York Boston Chicago Dallas Houston Los Angeles Philadelphia San Francisco Washington London Corporate Headquarters: Julien J. Studley, Inc . 300 Park Avenue New York , New York 10022 212-326-1000



too ready to deny who they really are, \" to play around for a while , but I don ' t buggered . I think now it leaves you he harumphs. \"A friend of mine went think you can make sex the center of wanting more, but when there was on and on about this guy he met, how your life. People who do that usually more, it left you wanting less.\" Says perfect he was. 'But?' I said. 'But, ' he don ' t have jobs they enjoy-they don't Shaye: \"The reaction at previews said , 'he's a little effeminate.' 'What are have careers. But I don't think that wasn't universally negative, but it you,' I said , 'Crocodile Dundee?' It's there is anything wrong or dirty about stopped the general audience momen- self-hatred. I think there are a lot of sex for its own sake, as recreation.\" tum-the heterosexual community, if gays who hate effeminacy because they Robert Shaye, whose New Line Cin- you will. It became a little too gay hate it in themselves. There's no such ema stepped in where Hollywood burlesque. They stopped laughing and thing as gay pride, there's gay shame angels feared to tread and financed the sat there. \" and normalcy. Normalcy is when you $4 million Torch Song , echoes Fier- accept yourself. Without gay shame, it stein: \"The bare bones of the story are I n the journey from stage to screen , would be impossible to victimize not what it is really about. It is about the meaning of Torch Song has inev- gays.\" Tell that to the SS. relationships couched in the story of a itably shifted slightly and not only gay man trying to live honestly. \" because the scene in The Stud is, like On screen , as on stage, Torch Song The Stud itself, a mere shadow of its Trilogy is about accepting yourself and Consequently, the bare boners of the former self. Fierstein agrees with Shaye learning not to be victimized: It's no story have been softened in the film , that the \"bare bones\" are somewhat coincidence that Fierstein, Pulitzer which covers a nine-year period beside the point; the point is that we prize in pocket for Torch Song , would (1971-1980), not counting a brief pro- are all people. \"I don't think it's a jump at the assignment to transform the logue, circa 1952, in which Arnold's message movie,\" Fierstein rumbles , film La Cage Aux Foiles into a Broad- mother (Anne Bancroft) discovers him treating the word message with a dis- way musical and should end it with a in her closet (his last closet, one pre- corsets-off cri de coeur, \"I am what I am,\" belted out by the swishy but psy- chically muscled , spinach-eating drag queen heroine . Torch Song Trilogy is essentially the straight(er) edition of La Arnold orders his mother to respect him for what he is. Arnold Beckoff is Doris Day with a dick. Cage Aux Folles , a heart-warmer and a Ma Beckoff (Anne Bancroft) and Arnold (Harvey Fierstein) in Torch Song Trilogy. tearjerker in which the sideshow grabs the main stage with unexpected sumes) dressed in her clothes. taste that would do a mogul proud. \"I'm machismo. Politically, it's on the bour- Trimmed to the bare whatever is the trying to tell a story, a very specific geois side of monog~my and family long, famous comic scene in The Stud, story about very specific people; but if (though the gay guys perforce adopt a long-gone, famous Greenwich Village you're really honest about your feel- their boy) and even celibacy-its argu- bar with a back room that was visited by ings, your emotions-for gays or ment, stiffened into rigidity by many gentlemen with no gentility on their straights-are always the same. And gays in the age of AIDS, is that homosex- minds . there are so many kinds of gays-there uals are emotionally and .morallY identi- were gays for Reagan, straights who are cal to upstanding straights. In the play, Arnold, illuminated onl y anarchists. In my mind , Torch Song is a by a pin spot on his face , was royally celebration of our humanness.\" The hero of Torch Song , female screwed while he talked to the audi- impersonator Arnold Beckoff (Fier- ence about the experience and, eventu- Still, the suspicion lingers that Torch stein), lusts for a permanent, faithful ally bored, tried to light a cigarette Song's celebration of a specifically gay lover and a child. \"Everyone wants whilst bobbing like a bath toy. In the but metaphorically universal \"human- what Arnold wants,\" Fierstein movie, the tantalizing remnant serves ness\" would be less accessible to a het- announced in an interview last summer the same structural purpose-Arnold erosexual audience if the celebrant with the Los Angeles Times, \"an apart- learns the difference between sex and were an acerbic, relatively masculine, ment they can afford, a job they don't love with a prick up his ass-but the non-drag queen: a young Gore Vidal, hate too much, a chance to go to the jokes have been excised. The decision for instance . Two recent pictures that store once in a while, and someone to to shorten the scene was Fierstein's. revelled in the \" bare bones\" of their share it all with. \"The comic bits worked ,\" he recalls, stories, Donna Deitch's Desert Hearts \"and we shot the whole thing. But it and Bill Sherwood's Parting Glances, \"I know there are gays who don ' t was too long looking at a guy being never did break out of the cinematic gay want to get married,\" Fierstein now says. \" I know there are straights who don't want to get married. People like 10

ghetto. Deitch offered grateful lesbians swooning, erotical'ly explicit high romance, and Sherwood, adopting the techniques of Robert Altman at apo- gee, thoroughly humped ew York's contemporary gay male middle-class milieu; the emotions may have been universal, but the specifically repre- sented sexuality must have been some- thing of a turn-off for straight audi- ences. Word didn't seem to get out to the straight men infatuated by lesbian lovemaking that the trysts in Desert Hearts between Helen Shaver and Patrice Charbonneau couldn't be cov- ered by anything less than an asbestos bedspread. There is sex in Torch Song but not much of it, and it's never hotly homo- sexy (Arnold can take his mother to the movie). Stripped of the innovations of the stage version (the set for the farcical Arnold's ultimate refusal to permit his mother to hide from his homosexuality is much more dignified and personal than Simon's sentimentalization of himselfas a horny, put- upon would-be writer named Eugene. second act was a monumental bed) and relentlessly linear in construction , Torch Song, directed by the numbers by Paul Bogart, does indeed universal- ize the gay experience, and it feels like the Hollywood \"breakthrough\" that gay audiences have so long demanded and fantasized about-the jockstrap Gone With the Wind. Hollywood had nothing to do with Torch Song, but its texture-the snappy scenes, the bland studio lighting, the presence of star Matthew Broderick as one of Arnold's lovers-and its narrative-from Arnold's drag turns down the byways with a bisexual Ken doll (Brian Kerwin), with a younger gay guy (Broderick) who wants a mother, and with Arnold's own mother, who wants to be mothered- add up to a superb sitcomish product Hollywood should have been able to understand and embrace. Now that it's Ma finds Arnold in the closet circa 1952.

Matthew Broderick, Harvey Fierstein and Brian Kerwin : life's no drag . been financed by someone with cour- \"There were gaysfor Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Broadway age, of course. Reagan, straights who Bound. are anarchists. In my Torch Song is about a dreamy, funny, mind, Torch Song is a The \"victimization\" shared by the instantly likable gay man (unless Simon and Fierstein alter egos is com- you've got that nervous Nellie phobia) celebration ofour parable-both are odd kids on the who learns that it's better to save him- humanness.\" block, both have classic unresolved self for Mr. Right. At the end of The Oedipal dilemmas-but Arnold's ulti- ThriLL of It ALL, Doris Day declared her Fierstein and adopted son David (Eddie mate refusal to permit his mother to (pre)feminist independence; at the end Castrodad). hide from his homosexuality is much of Torch Song Trilogy, Arnold takes a more dignified and personal than similar sta nd and virtually orders his Simon's sentimentalization of himself mother to respect him for what he is. as a horny, put-upon would-be writer Arnold Beckoff is Doris Day with a named Eugene. It is also less careerist. dick . Eugene's revenge on his family, the revenge that finally allows him to make And Harvey Fierstein is Neil Simon peace with the past, is a function of his with balls, a farceur with a fertile status as a wildly successful play- embarrassment of quipping riches ; if wright-we all know that Eugene is he's a sissy, he's the punch-line apo- going to grow up to be Neil Simon and theosis of the sissy. Not since Bob Fosse show 'em all. But to imagine that the condensed all of A Chorus Line into the sweet-tempered, unambitious Arnold \"On Broadway\" audition sequence of of Torch Song will ever win a Tony for a All That Ja zz has there been such a play about himself is to imagine that generous, nose-thumbing display of truth really can be stranger than fiction. reckless talent-Fierstein not only com- Eugene asks to be accepted for what he presses all of Outrageous and Outra- does. Arnold asks to be accepted for geous, Too! into the first ten torchy who he is. minutes of Torch Song , he earns more laughs than Doc Simon was able to milk T orch Song Trilogy is dedicated \" to from the entirety of his bovine auto- all people involved in the struggle biographical trilogy, Brighton Beach 12

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Arnold and Alan (Matthew Broderick) the morning after. against AIDS.\" Because the movie con- Torch Song is about a bringing in another goddamned issue,\" cludes in 1980, the disease is never dreamy, funny, but some of the story he does tell has mentioned, and Fierstein is fiercely gained resonance precisely because of courageous in rejecting the currently instantly likable gay' AIDS . In the play, the death of Arnold's fashionable notion in many gay circles man (unless youve got lover, Alan , at the hands of fag-bashers that blame for the epidemic can be hinted at theatrical contrivance: It was a assigned to the promiscuous (and often that nervous Nellie device through which Arnold could joyful) gay group sex of the Seventies , phobia) who learns that find himself and, his emotional evolu- a continuous orgy that is honestly, if tion complete, confront his mother. In glancingly, recalled in tlie scene at The ifs better to save the movie , Alan's death and Arnold's Stud. \"There's nothing wrong with himselffor Mr. Right. grief now read not as personal tragedies sex,\" Fierstein reiterates by way of but as personalizations of a global expressing nostalgia for the wild and from doing that. That's why I show The catastrophe. crazy years. Stud as a swinging, hot bar. It was. And nobody knew about AIDS.\" Ten years ago, few young people in \"I had become celibate before AIDS, Torch Song's audience , straight or gay, because I got personally bored with There is another, more pertinent rea- had experienced the loss of a loved one back room sex. But the onLy thing son AIDS does not have to be directly their own age. Now the numbers of wrong is this goddamn virus. I didn't mentioned in Torch Song: It is already those who recognize what Arnold is include AIDS for a lot of reasons . Gay there, in symbolic but unmistakable going through , and who cheer him on in people should be able to see them- evocation. Fierstein may claim, \" I have his effort to go through it, are legion : selves as more than a high-risk group. enough fucking story to tell without Some of their best friends are ... gone. The majority of gay people don't have AIDS, even if a frightening number of us On the one hand Torch Song TriLogy do. The straight press would love to is dated ; it's about a hopeful , militant, sum it up: GAY equals AIDS. More erotically playful time that no longer importantly, gays have to stay away exists. On the other hand, it is as uni- versal and up-to-date as death . ® 14

The Gay Gaze, II: For Queens& Country First film to promote agay lifestyle? Wings (1916). But a moment's pause for thought (the infamous Clause 28 of the Local raises the worrying question: Whose Government Bill)-they' d better not by Harlan Kennedy hand is on the oxygen cylinder tap? promote it. O n two major fronts-political and When it comes to pronouncing on what Both these issues-freedom of our personal morality-Thatcherism is laying down repressive new laws and TV programs can or cannot show, final screens , freedom of self-expression booby-trapping old avenues of free expression. Nowhere in Britain today is right of veto or approva l has always about sexualit y-converged in the the evidence of her offensive more striking, or to some more offensive, belonged , at least in peacetime , to the Third Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. than on cinema and the media. Within a single week in late October, the lady TV authority concerned. Not any more. The festival represents an instance and her ministers blew holes in two historic freedoms. Not content with Nurse Thatcher has the oxygen cylin- of how one form of benevolent, mission- announcing the abolition of the crimi- nal suspect's 300-year-old right of der, Nurse Thatcher monitors the ary centralism-the acceptable face of silence without self-incrimination- such silence can now be cited in court patient'S chan, and Nu rse Thatcher what David Hockney recently called and used as evidence-the Tories decreed that television could no longer even operates the screens. Britain's ' nanny state'-has the gung ho show interviews with the Irish Republi- can Army or any film of IRA spokesmen Bu t no less frigh tening than to fight Tory-style centralism, based on actually speaking. This, said Mrs. T., was done to starve the enemy of the Thatcher's marauding advances on paranoia and autocracy. 'oxygen of pubiicity'. political-sector truths and freedoms is Thanks to the British Film Insti- As Thatcher metaphor, oxygen star- vation is a beauty. It goes right back to her march on the private sector. In the tute's network of 33 affiliated regional the wartime spirit. On with the gas masks, chaps, and let's asphyxiate the world of late-Eighties Toryism , per- film theaters, the gay-lesbian junket enemy. sonal morality is no longer personal starts at London's National Film The- morality. In the Thatcherite view, what atre and then whirls out to major cities consenting adults do in the privacy of throughout the U. K. Far-flung burgs their own homes is probably extremely like Manchester, Glasgow, and Bristol objectionable and should be stopped. get to lap up stuff like 2 in 20, the sapphic soap from Boston; New Zea- N umber 1: Let's get all that sex and land's mold-breaking AIDS drama A violence off the screen; it en- Death in the Family; the cheery posing- courages nasty behavior. (Britain has pouch compilation Muscles from Outer less sex or violence on its screens than Space; Eisenstein and Dorian Gray almost any other Western European male bonding in Canada's time-trip fan- country, but never mind that.) Number tasy Urinal; Mauri tz Sti ller's just- 2: If people must have a minority sexual unearthed The Wings (1916), boasting persuasion, they'd better not go about the tag 'first ever gay film'; plus roof- pretending it's a pleasant or viable way raising readouts on gay and anti-gay of life. In a word-or at least in a clause attitudes today like Rights and Reac- 15

tions (the fight for New York's gay- ADeath in the Family. Another technique for fighting off rights bill) or Pedagogue . The latter is a society's tendency to stigmatize is to ten-minute gem: a slyly funny Clause ton, and new ones most recently in hurl their stereotypes back at them. 28 spoof, whose teacher protagonist, Washington, Seattle, and Portland, Finch's festival proudl y wears the title protesting non-gayness , elaborately Oregon. AIDS has increased awareness 'A Queer Feeling When I Look At You' explains to the camera his briefcaseful of the gay community in a positive (from SyLvia ScarLett via Andrea Weiss), of chains, poppers, jockstraps, and way,\" he explains. flaunting straight society's ace pejora- Adonis mags. tive , the 'Q word'. And Lumpkin Even America draws the line at hud- recalls that the hit of last year's San Mark Finch, BFI program adviser dled masses of gay celluloid. Witness Francisco Gay Film Festival was a glitzy and season organizer, is happy to have Lumpkin's reluctance to trust U.S. Australian soap called The EverLasting thi s Gay Fest viewed as a riposte to Customs when importing gay movies Secret Family. Thatcheri te oppression. The movies for his festival from abroad. \"A lot of could be prosecuted under Clause 28 as them we bring in through diplomatic \"It's like Dynasty for gays. It's over- designed to promote homosexuality, channels,\" he says. blown and gaudy and a bit ridiculous . couldn't they? It's about this network of gay senators If Mark Finch has an easier time and politicians who recruit young boys. \"Well , the case would actually be importing movies for hi s fest, it's Which is , of course, exactly what peo- brought against the local authority in because he works for a government- ple say we do . I had a lot of friends the city concerned, not us , for having sponsored institution-the BFI is tax- saying I really shouldn't show this, but I licensed the showing of the films. But, funded-and because his festival con- don't think there 's any better way to in fact, no action has yet been brought tains zero in the way of overt eroticism. defuse stereotypes than to have a big in Britain under Clause 28. That's why \"I want to get away from the idea of audience-l,500 people in the Castro the thing is such nonsense, because lesbian-gay film fe stivals as places Theatre- happily laughing at them. \" even if you do bring a case, how do you where tack, dull documentaries are argue it? 'Promotion' is in the eye of the shown and show that gay movies can be The main arrested party in Britain beholder. caught up in the feel , flavor, and plea- today is Britain herself. If the Third sure of Hollywood , in ways a politically Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, a brave \"The whole thing began as a scare oriented film festi va l might not be.\" bunch of cinephiles, are trying to pull about gay books being circulated in their country out of Mrs. T 's 'Victorian schools and the fear of our children all For Finch, this is a way of encourag- values' womb and into the late 20th being corrupted. But, of course, there ing homosexuals to rebound from the century, the new head of the British were no 'books' plural. There was just negative image society is trying to Film Institute, Wilf Stevenson, sees one-Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin, paste on them-as either pariahs or mar- Clause 28 as a symptom of the times. a sort of informational fable for kids , tyrs-and show that 'gay' is a word that aimed at liberalizing attitudes to gays. \"We've campaigned long and hard It was in a London suburban library for still has some meaning in the gay against Clause 28. First of all not to a few weeks, and as 'far as I know was community. have it enacted, then to help people lent once before it was withdrawn.\" who might be caught by it. We think it's a very wrong piece of legislation. But if cases under Clause 28 haven ' t ye t been brought, it's not for lack of \"O ne member of the BFI resigned , encouragement from the government. out of a membership of 43,000,\" says Why are homosexuals having such a Stevenson. \" It's been one of the most bad time, and bad press , under popular seasons we've put on. Virtually Thatcher? everything is sold out. A season like this is exactly what a cultural institution \" I don't know. It's partl y because of should be doing-testing whether some the AIDS scare. And it's also because of the arguments in this debate can be this government is so obsessed with brought out: How do you intentionally reactionary va lues and with 'the family.' 'promote' homosexuality? The festival But the depth of feeling about the has tried-fairly 'camply'-to ask what whole thing is baffling: Is heterosex- would happen if you were trying to sell uality so fragile, is the famil y so diffi- homosexuality to people?\" cult to keep together that you' re having constantly to squash these things like More power to the BFI's gaze. New flies?\" Finch wonders. ways of looking-a nd listening and arguing-have always been the weapon I n Britain today, there's a sense of of progress and the measuring stick of calculated risk attached to Finch's liberty. Only in a society where the festi val-or to any display of gay free Wise Monkey rules are the issues of expression-and it's pointed up by the good and evil banned from sight, presence of another gay-fest organizer, sound, or speech. Only a state deter- San Francisco's Michael Lumpkin. mined to gather power to itself and They order these matters differently, syphon it from its citizens skywrites the he says, in America. commandments of censorship: Thou Shalt Not See, Thou Shalt Not Hear, \"Gay festivals are increasing in the Thou Shalt Not Speak. U.S. There are dozens across America: Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York, Bos- ~ 16

LittleThief' Scenes from the Last Truffaut H ad Franc;ois Truffaut li ved , hi s next film proba bl y would have bee n La Petite Voleuse (The Little Thi ej), from hi s sc ree npl ay co-writte n with longtime coll ab- orator C laud e d e G ivray. T he story of the rebe llious 16-year- old girl (pe rhaps a fe male Antoine D o ine l) set in the France of the Fifties had long bee n on hi s mind . In hi s 670-page Correspondance, the critically accla imed bes t-selle r rece ntl y publi shed in F rance, he wrote th at as ea rly as 1964 he had pl anned th atLa Petite Voleuse woul d, like In gmar Bergman's Monika , d e tail \" the birth of fe min inity and coquetry in a little delin q ue nt . .. a fe male 400 Blows.\" In a late r le tte r to H e le n Scott in 1965 , he planned to visit a former mi stress w ho had bee n in pri son, worke d the stree ts, and now had three children ; he would brin g hi s tape record e r to gathe r materi al for the sc ree nplay of The Little Thief. H ere , too, was the e mbryo of Su ch A Gorgeous Kid Like Me in whi ch soc iologist Stani slas Prev ine- a role Tru ffa ut ori ginally inte nd ed to pl ay him se lf- tapes Ca mille Bliss for hi s thes is on crimin al wome n. Truffaut, however, died in 1984, before he could direc t La Petite Voleuse. Fortun ate ly, producer fri e nd s C laud e Be rri and Alain Va nnie r, as we ll as Truffaut's forme r ass istant C laud e Mille r (director of The Best Way and Garde aVue), rev ived the proj ec t. The rece ntl y compl e te d comed ie dr ama tiqu e , directed by M iller, stars C harl otte Ga in sbourg as Janine, a feis ty adolesce nt w ho lives with he r aunt and uncle afte r be in g aband oned by her mothe r. Janin e b eco mes attrac te d to a n old e r ma n , lVli c he l D avenne (pe rh aps a re lation of Juli e n D ave nne , the charac te r Truffaut played in The Green Room ), whom she meets in a mov ie theate r. But ulti mate ly it's Raoul th at Janine fa lls for, a pu gnacious youth who apprec iates he r thi ev in g skills. robbin g the home of the bourgeo is couple for w hom she works as a maid , Janine and Raoul fl ee to the sea , whi ch-as in The 400 Blows-they've never see n before . Janine , howeve r, ca n' t fle e her d estin y- a conve nt school/ reform atory, where a girl named Dargelos (like Jean Cocteau's be loved charac te r) pro- vid es a meas ure of sa lvation by teac hin g her photograph y. The screenplay is fille d with typica l Truffaut mome nts-a cat drinks milk from a tray pl aced in the hall outsid e a 'hote l- room door by lovers just be hind it (The Soft Skin , Day for Night, Th e Man Wh o Loved Women). The sc ript eve n alludes to Truffaut's re lationship w ith hi s me ntor Jea n Re noir, whe n it compares Janine to he r bourgeois employe r: \"As in the film s of Jean Renoir, the re isn' t a great age diffe re nce be twee n the two wome n-only a diffe rence of situ ation .\" If Janine/ D oine l is an allusion to Truffaut's youth , and lVlichel to hi s middle age, the scre enpl ay is among Tru ffa ut's most self-reflective, an apt culmin ation of a life 's work . And so, two sce nes we thought we would neve r see .. . . -ANN ETTE INSDORF

To CATCH A THIEF He points with his chin to a photo on the chest. Next to Aunt Lea is her sister, an attractive brown-haired woman who looks like Janin e. At the table, UNC LE ROU LEAU has p ushed away the rest of his ROU LEAU meal. He indulges in his favorite pastim e: the \"pentagraph \" (a small apparatus with an ingenious mechanical system that allows you 10 trace Ya k now, your mOthe r's style . She was always fallin g d own because over any image). This particular evening, glasses on his nose, he she didn ' t eat. \"draws\" the Cha rtres Cathedral . JANINE arrives f rom her corner JANINE room , swipes an apple f rom the chest... O h , yea h? Because she wa nted to look atuacti ve? JANINE ROULEAU Eve nin' . (foll owi ng her line of thought) We ll , if it was to loo k good , hey, yo u could say she succeede d . \\ ou' re ROULEAU th e li ving proof. (w ithout raising hi s eyes) Janine shrugs her shoulders, murmuring, \"I don' t give a damn .\" She's Good evening, who? Good evenin g, my dog? used to sarcasm about her mother. . JANINE AU NT LEA comes in fro m the courtyard , a bundle ofdamp laundry (poutin g; polite ness costS he r) in her arms. Good evenin g, U nc. ROU LEAU LEA You have n' t eate n? (to Janine) So what are you up to? JANINE Sh e brutally throws the package of laulldry toward JANINE who I had a snac k. catches it. ROULEAU JANINE S nac kin g isn' t eatin g. We ll , I don' t give a damn if you wa nt to kee p (loudl y, but lame ly) your suin g-bea n fi gure. I was just coming to he lp you. JANINE LEA W hat's a suin g-bea n fi gure? Yea h, yea h, nice ac t. Brin gon the violin s! ROULEAU JANINE The new look- the bag-of-bones style, ya know? I don' t pl ay th e violin . 18

ROULEAU ROULEAU Will you keep quie t , both of you , you' re makin g me miss! L ook at H e re 's he r be d! H e re a re he r sc hoolboo k s! Wh at more d o you wa nt, this, it's all c roo ke d now! sir? Th at we loo k be hind th e bed ? F ine , th e n , we' ll loo k behind the be d! He's erasing and crossing out. aRouleau moves her bed , bends over. Silence. Astonishment. In recess, Lea approaches , looks over ROULEAU 's shoulder at The dra wing, and compares it to the original. The 1001. Pens, inkwells, bags, books , 100ls , coSlume jewelry, carlOns of American cigaretTes. A lot of clothing and underwear, most still wilh LEA tags ; all that Jalline has stolen over the lastfew months. Well , w ha' d'ya know, loo ks the sa me . Now the DireClOr picks out the clothes on the kitchen table. ROULEAU DIRECTOR Of course it looks the sa me. Othe rwise, w hy bothe r? I d on' t d o This is m y skirt. This is m y fox. Picasso, I do thin gs th at loo k like something. (H e shakes it at Lea) This makes Janin e laugh . But not f or long. Through the window she sees You wa nte d to see a s tol e th at's ove r a thousa nd ? We ll , here it is! And a car arriving in the courtyard . Th e young girl loses her cool. Th e this! Isn' t thi s from \" Folies de Pa ri s\"? L oo k , the tags a re still on . DIRECTOR of the FOLIES DE PARIS (clothing store) gets out (Sa lac ious ly to Janine) Say, M iss , you wouldn ' t have a thin g for leathe r and skin s, would of his car with aferocious look. Very determined . you ? A f ew moments later, a pale Janine, the bundle of laundry in her arms, Totally guilty, Janin e, her fa ce blank , kneads her arm ; this is her tic waits f or all hell to bre.ak loose. when there's no way out. Lea and Rouleau are very upset. Especially Rouleau, seaTed on a stool, his head in his hands. The DireclOr looks at LEA them , irritated . He weighs the situation , hesitates, and while gathering his clothes: (v.o., very wound up ) I'm not ge ttin g upset , s ir, I'm simply as kin g if vou have proof! DIRECTOR I do, madam: DIRECTOR (condescend ing) daughte r! All ri ght, it's rea ll y because thi s is be twee n me rc ha nts, e h ? You're (try in g to s tay ca lm ) luc ky to have me t up with me ! have th e tes timony of a c ustome r w ho saw your Lea and Rouleau thank him with a silent look . LEA LEA Firs t of all , Janin e isn' t my d aug hte r; she's m y ni ece! Second , thi s customer-a ll she has to d o is come he re and tell it to my face ! (toJa nine ) You couldn ' t say th ank you , huh ? It wo uld burn your mouth ? ROULEAU Janin e remains mute. (co ncili atory, still seate d be hind hi s pe ntagraph ) Listen , L ea, if everyone s peaks at once, we won' t hea r anythin g! DIRECTOR DIRECTOR You must be ste rn , m y good peo ple, th at's the onl y way, believe me . (b egin s to leave) I'm tellin g vou th at your ni ece s lippe d the skirt und e r he r dress. And th at the desc ription conc urs w ith th at of E laine 's, m y top sa lesgirl , Well , the main thin g is th at I gOt m y merc handise back . a bout the di sappea rance of a stole las t wee k and ... JANINE LEA (und e r her br_eath ) (c uttin g him off) Eve n w hat was n ' t his! Well , 1.. . E xc use me, but I don' t und e rsta nd a wo rd you' re sayin g, sir. \"s lipped a skirt und e r her dress.\" And w hat's a \"stole,\" for Bam! She gelS a stinging slap from Lea-a down payment. s t a r t e rs? The shopkeeper has left. Teeth clenched , Rouleau is methodically But M ad am , a stole . .. DIRECTOR twisting one of the wet cloths into a kind of club. Th e clumsy violence of the weak: He hits 100 hard. Janine slips on the soapy fl oor andfa lls onto (to Rouleau) the table. A basin tumbles down . Today it's a little skirt in imitation leather th at's onl y 140 fran cs-but LEA las t week , it was a fox at over a thousa nd! Stop, Andre , you' re go ing to kill her with yo ur dirty paws! STOP! LEA A bit frightened , Rouleau helps Janin e up. \" O ve r a thousand\"? Come on , what was your fox m ad e of? Janin e's corner bedroom . Her bed is in the f oreground. ROULEAU ROULEAU (pla inti ve ly, sha king Janine) Wh at's w ron g w ith you ? Come on , w hat the hell is wron g~ Shit! (v.o. ) don' t wa nt a ny more of this c rap, understand ? You wa nt us dead or We' re not tryin g to m ake up stories, sir. M y w ife is simpl y tellin g you w h at ? th at the wrong pe rso n is some times acc used . All you have to do is se arch the house a nd you' ll see! He sends her flying against the wall and takes a few steps toward the corner room. The three enter. Janin e f ollows Their movements anxiously. ROULEAU L oo k at all this Stuff! It's worth a fortune! Wh at are we gonn a d o with it?

IN THE STREET Crescendo music. Thefilm ends. Light. Back to: lanine and her neighbor. She is sleeping like a log on his shoulder. lanine's legs pass other legs. They stop before an illuminated shop THEMAN window. Hesitation. They move again. Arrive at a movie theater. Pretty poster of a romantic musical: Song of Love (1947) with Katharine Miss ... Hepburn . Embarrassed. He'd like to leave. He disengages himself carefully, lanine is tempted. Now we see her full body. Made-up. Dressed to the holding her up so she won' tfall. She wakes up. nines. A child disguised as a woman. JANINE We hear bits ofromantic music, sentimental dialogue. Excuse me! IN THE THEATER lanine sits in the second or third row, her neck tilted back, mouth open. THE MAN (kindly) Oh , no, it's nothing. Two youths sit down near her, one in the next seat, one behind. A I'm really sorry. JANINE strategic move to pick her up. She wants to be left alone, shrugs her shoulders at their propositions, wards offa wandering hand. The youths (getting up) insist. No harm done. THE MAN She looks for another seat. A bit farther down her row, she spots A DIMINUTIVE MAN of40 . He wears glasses and a suit with vest JANINE and tie, and sits straight up next to a proper-looking woman . Did I sleep much ? lanine gets up and sits down next to the couple. The man looks at her quizzically: Many empty seats are left in the row. THE MAN A luminous beam emergesfrom the projector. Enough . A moment has gone by. The woman suddenly looks at her watch lit by the JANINE screen, and leaves. This was not the guy's wife. I'm so embarrassed! lanine is embarrassed to be sitting alone next to this man. But it doesn't matter because, entranced by the film , he no longer pays attention to (she moves toward the exit, her. stumb ling and yawn ing) Oh , no , this isn' t much better. THE MAN (MICHEL) You should drink some coffee. It would wake you up. BARORCAFE. They sit down . JANINE Oh, I know whe n I fell asleep-when Clara was knitting. THEMAN Clara Shumann!? At what point? JANINE She.. .she was sewing. THE MAN

, JANINE JA NIN E Right. E mbroide rin g. And she was arguin g with the musician . S ~e (lookin g at him , pauses) was te lling him off, We ll , it was e ndless ... and by the way, how dId the film e nd , anyway? You don' t like new thin gs, do you ? THEMAN THE MA N Badl y. Well , it de pe nds on your tas te. M e, I rather like it whe n it Why do you say th at? e nds badl y. JANIN E JANINE Dunno . Like the film was n' t exactl y modern- it took place a long (incredul ous) time ago. I think it's more fun whe n it e nds happily. Silence. He drinks his mineral water. He looks gentle and modest and a bit lost. He looks at her kindly. Great. She thinks she said something dumb . She JANINE is silent. The WAITER arrives. And you go to mov ies alone. WAITER THEMAN What ca n I bring you? (softl y) THEMAN So what ? So do you. L et's see, coffee for th e youn g lady and .. . JANINE JANINE We ll , all ri ght, but th at's norm al. I wa nt to be pi cked up. No, no... (to the wa ite r) THEMAN Do you have Coca-Cola? (s urpri sed and amused ) Reall y? WA ITER JANINE A Coca-Cola, of cou rse. Yes, And the movie was more for wome n th an me n. JANINE THEMAN With a straw. No, I don' t ag ree. T he proof is th at ne ithe r my wife nor my WAITER daughte r- who must be about your age-wa nte d to come with me. With a straw. And for the ge ntle man? TH E MAN JANINE A Vitte l [mine ral wate r] please. (shakin g he r head no) (indulge ntl y) They don' t like mov ies? You' re go ing to drink th at Ame rican stu ff th at tas tes like a dru gstore? TH E MAN D oesn' t it disgust you ? Yes, but not class ical music. JANINE JANIN E What?! Coca-Cola's great! And it wa kes you up like coffee but And you like it? THEMAN doesn' t keep you from slee ping. (with conviction) Small talk . Arrival of drinks. Janine pulls on her straw. He looks at her amusedly. Yes. A lot. JANINE JANINE Come on, give it a try. THE MAN W h y? You think so? This is a difficult question . He thinks, trying to be precise. Janine looks at him encouragingly. THEMAN THEMAN We ll , because... M usic is li ke painting or poetry, you see , it's ... you know, everythin g ge ts old , everythin g di es in thi s world . And it's sad , I'm not too keen. isn' t it? All these fee lings , all these ideas we have, they shouldn ' t be forgotte n. He obeys anyway. Makes a fa ce. She isflattered that he is speaking to her so sincerely about such serious things. THEMAN THE MAN It's te rri ble! And music is precisely a way to preserve these mome nts in our Janine laughs, delighted. me mory, to re me mber what di sappears, and w hich wi ll never re turn . THEMAN JANINE N o way. You' ll never make me drink this stuff. To re me mbe r peo ple's li ves or some thin g. 21

THEMAN An institute? A newspaper sticks out ofa neighboring customer's pocket. She reads on it the word beauty. JANINE Yes, a \"beauty\" institute. THEMAN A beauty institute? JANINE Righr. A terrific place. THEMAN (happy for her) That doesn't su rpri se me! You're planning to be a cosmetician? Another word she doesn' t know. She waves evasively. JANINE A bit of this , a bit of thar. Anyways, I' m real glad it's vou I ended up meeting. Usua ll y, when I'm with a n adult, it's either to take orders or to be pawed. Th e man hides his embarrassment behind an understanding look . JANINE I mean... ( b r ie f s ile n c e ) Can I ask you a question ? THEMAN Please. JANINE If [ te ll you mv first name, wi ll you te ll me yours? THEMAN THEMAN That's ir. People and all that they loved. I'll tell you ri g ht away: if y na me is Michel. IVlichel Davenne. He looks at her warmly. She smiles prettily at him . JANINE And I'm Janine. Janine Castang. Nor tOO gorgeous, huh? JANINE MICHEL Is th at what you are , a musician ? (sincere) Why? 'Ot at all. It's very fine , Janine . It's soft, it's determined. THEMAN JANINE No, I work at City Hall. At the land-survey register. Ir's ve ry boring. (with a radiant smile ) (smi les) You reall y think so? But twice a week, I lead a choir: \" Big thin gs and little thin gs , but on ly beautiful thin gs\" ... Handel , Cimarosa, H aydn , IV/ozan... From her seat, she sees the entrance ofa small hotel. Coming and going offLlrtive couples. She shakes her head. It's beyond her. THEMAN Mich el catches her look, misunderstands it,fears she is shocked. And what do you do ? You go to sc hool ? MICHEL JANINE I have my ca r pa rked nea rby. At this hour perhaps it's better I drive you home? Where do you li ve? Oh , no , [ work. He waits for her to say where, what. She sees afence outside with pieces JANINE ofposters. On one of them is the word\" institute.\" Park Avenue. Number 11. A chic neighborhood. JANINE MICHEL I'm at an institute. (surp rised) I don't know number 11 , but Park Avenue, well , you' re doing OK . ~ 22

Rubles oftheGame \"Tiby Anne Williamson the likes of N ikita M ikh alkov intri gu- and ce nsors in >\" hi ch audi e nces beca me ochin kh ochish ?\" a in g aga in st the film swirled in cine ma ade pt at dec iphe rin g subtext res ulte d sweaty, naked little Vera circ les as far away from Moscow as in a numbe r of fin e film s. And those ras ps to he r lover as she Tbilisi, Od essa, and Baku. film s th at did not successfull y negoti ate happily bobs up and down as tride him . the mine fi e ld of censorship are the very The lover, Serge i, whose hand g reedil y For old e r ge ne rations w ho have had ones th at have bee n so admired in the encompasses one jiggling breas t, never to bea r an uncomfortable se nse of infe - Wes t since the takeover of the Union of quite manages to say exac tly how much ri o rit y b e fo re th e a l ways -m o re - Film Make rs in the sprin g of 1986. he would like a child . D oe sn' t matte r. adva nced Wes t, airin g one's dirty lau n- The subj ect he re is hardly responsible d ry be fore an inte rn ational public-the Now, howeve r, with Little Vera, the famil y pl annin g. And bes id es , little controversy rece ntl y mad e the fro nt West will have a loo k at the sharpes t Ve ra has already informe d he r mothe r page of The New York Tim es-re m ain s e dge of glasnost. Pi chul was as ke d to th at she is pregnant. Onl y she isn' t. anathe ma. And the n along comes put in a stint at Robe rt Re dford 's Sun- Pi chul's gritty, docume ntary like film , da nce In stitute las t s umme r, was A lu sty, willful Vera has simpl y found w hi ch cas ts an unblinkin g eye on the invited to the Montreal and Te llurid e the s udde n prese nce of a roomm ate sea mier sid e of Soviet society. film fes ti va ls, and the film was picke d from \"a frate rn al Afri can nation\" one up for comme rcial re lease by the Inte r- more bothe r in Serge i's hos tel di gs. So Pichul's ca mera repeate dl y sweeps national F ilm Exchange (IFEX), a small she decid es to e nginee r for he rse lf a ac ross the bleak , indu stri al land scape, importe r that has steadil y re leased Rus- more co nve ni e nt ca rn ality- at home whi ch mirrors a mode rn , di sintegratin g sian product in the U.S . long be fore with Mom and D ad be fore the tolling of family in a sc ript co-writte n with hi s glasnost days. we ddin g be lls. N ot exactly your typica l wife, Ma ri a Khme lik. In pl ace of smil- devyshka-nex t-d oor, but the n 28-yea r- in g, peace-lovin g Sovie t citi ze ns or the R eaction to Little Vera by Moscow old Vass il y Pi chul's Little Vera is hardl y d a rk , broodin g c ha rac te rs of th e audie nces has bee n rathe r diffe r- a typi cal Sov iet film . Yes, des pite the national lite rature, Little Vera takes a e nt. T hough Sovie ts are linin g up, mos t explicit sex in pl ace of the usual e le- hard look at pand e mic Sov ie t failure find the film too depress ing, too cl ose vate d the mes, we are talkin g Sovie t and the ge nerati ons' d ysfun c tio na l to the de bri s of the ir own li ves . The ir cinem a he re. strategies of co pin g: hot little Ve ra's des ire for e nte rtainme nt , for escape, sexual appetite , he r father's alcoholi sm , re main s largely unfulfille d , and so the The hi story of Little Vera prov ide s an and he r inadequ ate mothe r's bitter com- Soviet Union thirsts for fore ign film s. objec t lesso n in both th e state of pl ainin g. Little Vera's cha rac te rs ca n Ru ss ians, however, rathe r fancy the m- glasnost 1988 and the poss ible future of onl y be sure of the ir own cy nicism and se lves above the crass comme rc iali sm Sov iet cine ma. Though the film was des pe ration when faced with a moral of the Wes t, though a favorite bootleg invite d to Cannes las t sprin g, Mos film cri sis of the ir ow n makin g. cassette is The Last American Virgin. hi gher-ups apparently couldn ' t brin g Still , Soviet filmm ake rs are proud ofthe them se lves to allow the film out. Whi s- H ard-hitting features on conte m- c in e m a le gacy of E ise n s t e in , pe re d reportS of established directors pora ry Sov ie t life have b ee n Pud ov kin , D ovzhenko, Kalatasov, and almos t non-existe nt for nea rly the las t T a rkovs k y. 50 yea rs. Whe n L e nin decl are d cine ma to be the mos t important of all the arts, he inte nde d to harness film 's e ne rgy to the ambitions ofth e Sovie t state. Under Stalin these aims were furthe r re fine d in Soc ia li s t Rea li s m , w hi c h th e n pro mptl y stra ng le d Sov ie t c in e m a . Afte r Stalin 's pass in g, the e ffort to shape and lead the audie nce devolved into sentime ntal drivel. Still , the shackles of offi cial poli cy never e ntire ly preve nte d the production of outstanding film s. The ca t-a nd- mouse ga me pl ayed out by filmm ake rs Little Vera: Sex soviet style.

With the lid pried off only in the last Another fear among some Soviet D espite 70 years of being richly three yea rs , even filmmakers are san- filmmakers is Holl ywood's ability to sauced with state subsidies, the guine about new Soviet production . \" I culturally colonize-the potential \"cow- infrastructure of Soviet studios has boyization\" (though the Western died declined. Space is at a premium. Mod- don ' t know if it will be better or not,\" of old age) of Soviet cinema. There is ern equipment is in short supply, as is mused Eldar Shengelaia, the promi- no question that some Soviet film- Kodak film- both remedied only by nent director and head of the Georgian makers want no part of Western co- purchases from the West, because Film Makers' Union. \" The young ventures at all. The American dollars Soviet products remain inferior. But directors are very direct and tough. gained are seen as Soviet culture lost. these purchases require hard currency, They say what worries them. Still, J Nonetheless, few directors deny that which, along with toilet paper and would not like to see the indirect style the most serious challenge facing the profits , is in mighty short supply. lost, as there is much of aesthetic inter- future of Soviet cinema is the demand est in it. Our generation had to seek of the market. As khozraschot (self- Confused by a slew of awards for opportunities to express ourselves.\" financing) looms nearer, the boogey- glasnost-sprung films on the interna- And here he paused , moving hi s joined man named \"Boxoffice\" is out of the tional film fe stiva l circuit, the Soviets hands in a snakelike movement, \"while Soviet closet. had hoped to clean up in Western mar- these young directors , they just say it. \" kets with the films' commercial re- leases. It was only after realizing that Everything for the filmmaker, the international market is strictly producer, actor & film buff English-language and that only one percent of the play dates in the U. S. are Samuel French foreign that Soviets turned to co-ven- tures with the West. Theatre & Filtn Bookshops The co-ventures, however, remain PlA YS, and BOOKS Hollywood: fraught with difficulties for potential on filM, THEATRE and the 7623 Sunset Blvd. Western partners. Contradictory laws MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY (213) 876-0570 on foreign investment, the expense entailed in doing business halfway Business of Film Film History Studio City: around the world, the sorry state of 11963 Ventura Blvd. Soviet communication and transport Screenplays Documentary systems, and the ever-tiresome quan- (818) 762-0535 dary of how to liberate profits in rubles Screenwriting Music are just part of the downside . And Samuel French, Inc. though it is now trend y in Hollywood to Professional Directories Video Play Publishers and hobnob with visiting Soviets and, even better, to make the pilgrimage to Reference Television Authors Representatives Moscow, nothing more than a lot of kissing and cooing has resulted. The Cinematography Opera Soviets' dance card remains largely empty. Animation Dance The dilemma is always found in the Special Effects Directing mirror: The Soviets know that they alone must revitalize their culture and Directing Biographies their industry even as the tap of state subsidies runs dry. Realizing that fresh Film Theory Film Genre themes and new approaches are central to engaging the glasnost audience, Acting Largest selection Vladimir Dostal film director and now general manager of Mosfilm Studio, of PLAYS says that \"a script used to have to be approved by the Cinematographer's in the world Association, the main editorial board, the General Directorate, the Editorial .. .and more Board of Goskino [the state film agency], and so forth. Now scripts are WORLDWIDE MAIL ORDER approved by the Cinematographer's Union, which, in turn , informs the Edi- phone: (800) 8-ACT NOW (US) torial Board of Mosfilm and Goskino (800) 7-ACT NOW (CA) that the project is going into production. \" mail: 7623SunsetBlvd.• Hollywood.CA 90046 The government has retained the send for a copy of our current right to release films nationwide. And if FILM BOOK CATALOGUE (free) or for some reason it won't release a film, BASIC PLAY CATALOGUE ($2.25 postpaid) there had better be a good reason. Yet that does not mean that the West should VISA • MC • Am EX expect to see any time soon any Chevy 24

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Chase-types bungling along in the role tor with a diploma was given a job. disbanded .\" Dostal sees an even larger of a lovable but lame Politburo mem- Today only the best are to receive jobs . problem, \" the biggest problem\": dis- ber. Or even as a common soldier. We have to decide what to do with tribution. \"It doesn't make sense to people who have diplomas but don't have a monopoly on distribution. We Structurally, however, the specter is have enough talent. We don't have the have 4,000 city movie theaters alone unemployment in an industry right to simply fire them, because that and about 100,000 small-village thea- experiencing a severe labor bloat. would result in some social problems.\" ters. It's too much for one central orga- Mosfilm's new internal organization is nization. We badly need the ability to composed of nine creative teams of E Idar Shengelaya, whose smaller negotiate with a number of distribu- directors , each of which is headed by a Georgian studio is organized around tors. \" The struggle to decentralize film director. Dostal confirms that this four creative teams , freely admits that Goskinoprokat , the distribution internal restructuring and the paring of \"although the four u'lits were re- monopoly, has only just begun. the censorship apparatus has already quested by the filmmakers, econo- resulted in dismissals. mists tell us that only two units can And Dostal cites the problem of work at a time. I believe that when we shrinking audiences. \"Television, \" In the past,\" says Dostal , \"a direc- start counting money, two units will be VCRs, and the development of coopera- tives means that we have more cafes The Film Division and restaurants, all of which tempt School of the Arts audiences away from the theaters. Now Columbia University our directors are saying, 'I'm not going to do Chekhov, I'm going to do some- warmly congratulates our M.FA. degree candidates: thing that will attract an audience. ' Yet, each studio has agreed to create a fund TOM ABRAMS, Writer and Director of from some of the profits from commer- SHOESHINE cial films to finance purely artistic films.\" The trick, of course, is first to • 1988 Academy Award nomination make a profit. • 1987 Grand Prix de Montreal C ompetition will likely result in a Montreal World Film Festival totally new struggle. Soviet direc- tors whose films are commerciall y suc- ROBERT A. KATZ, Writer and Director of cessful are to be enriched accordingly. WHERE OR WHEN How this will fly within an \"egalitar- ian\" society that equates enterprise • First Place, Narrative Film Category with plunder is yet to be seen. 1988 Nissan Focus Student Film Awards After months of official silence, how GREG MOTTOLA, Writer, Director and Producer of long will it be before all these contem- SWINGIN' IN THE PAINTER'S ROOM plated attempts at reconstruction are instituted? \"We think that the transi- • Silver Hugo tion period will last until about 1990,\" 1988 Chicago International Film Festival says Dostal. \"Years and years and years,\" says Shengelaia, falling back ALEX ZAMM, Writer and Director of into his seat and laughing ruefully. MAESTRO Some directors frustrated by their • In Competition , 1987 Cannes Film Festival economic dependence on Goskino are impatiently experimenting with other arrangements. Rolan Bykov, a promi- nent actor and director, negotiated the creation of a new state-owned studio, which he now heads. Vassily Pichul , however, has formed his own indepen- dent production company, Podarok (\"gift\"). With so many challenges confront- ing Soviet filmmaking-the lens on the larger society-what we know to date is that glasnost works and perestroika hasn't yet. Little Vera is only the first of a series of cutting-edge films-·includ- ing The Black Monk, Solovetsky Power , Confession, and The Fountain-nearing release. Perhaps, though these films promise little respite for Soviet audi- ences who know the terrain too well, they will further startle us all. ~ 26

ection . , •• • 6 . -• .' ~ 27

Other directors seesaw with a bewil- dering imbalance exacerbated by the fragmentation of the film industry on the one hand, and the consolidation of power in a few big talent agencies, studios, and stars on the other. \"I don 't want to go to work any more because the pressure is unbearable, \" comments Sydney Pollack who has not directed a film since Out ofAfrica in 1985. \"We' re caught in an economic spiral, which makes any mainstream film-a large studio picture with stars-an incredible gamble.\" Pollack calls the combination of logistics and the $35 million budget on Africa \"excruciating.\" The problem is pandemic: * Randa Haines at Paramount has not directed since her successful debut picture, Chil- dren ofa Lesser God, in 1985 . \"I can't find material 1 like,\" she says, , explaining that \"character-based sto- ries which explore humanness\" are in short supply. * Penelope The Spheeris (The I)isap·~lrl Decline ofWestern Director Civilization) is try- by Beverly Walker ing to create a A merican motion picture direc- mainstream image tors are embroiled in an iden- tity crisis. Over the past in order to tap into decade, their role has shifted from pri- marily creative to executive and entre- more traditional preneurial. Or worse, they have been reduced to the status of Tom Wolfe's money sou rces and astronauts: intelligent, high-profile monkeys with the right stuff. Only possibly even material. She has a high Woody Allen works regularly from his own aesthetic or philosophical predilec- media profile but no box office record; tions, thanks to a unique relationship with Orion Pictures. she feels cornered. 28 * Jonathan San- ger) respected producer of The Ele- phant Man and head of the Discovery program for new directors at Colum- hia. wants to switch to directing, but the majors are skittish about newcomers . * Wes Craven enjoyed notable success with The Serpent and the Rainbow but strug- gles to break out of the horror genre. \"I'm trying to establish c1ear- cut credentials in the marketplace so studios will trust me and offer the bud- gets and freedom 1 want. \"

* Lizzie Bord en were directed by Fred Zinnemann. Zinneman: \"The From London , by le tte r, Zinnemann director's vision is and create d a stir with Working Girls, contributed the eve ning's most lucid , has been an unapologetic statement: \"The direc- indispensable reality released in 198 7, tor's vision is and has bee n an indispen- since Griffith. To hear but she's findin g it sable reality since the days of D .W. difficult to come up Griffith. [It's l...what we are paid for. It it described as a with financin g for is a compass as well as a launching pad 'romantic notion' '\\, I new projects. \" It's a shows how far down the no-man's-Iand-the $3 to $5 million for the making of a picture. To hear it road we've traveled in a turf between independents and main- described as a ' romantic notion ,' a wish- few short years.\" stream ,\" she says. dream , shows how far down the road we've trave led in a few short years.\" Borden and Craven are iconoclastic Indeed. pragmati sts who will find a way to make the ir pictures . But true se lf-express ion The se ries, and particularly the is crucial to both of them , and that directors' panel-eomprised of Law- mea ns control of subj ec t matte r. \" In re nce Kasda n and James L. Brooks, Holl ywood right now the ' best' direc- 'c ross ove r' direc tor Tim Hunter tors are those who are most mallea ble ,\" (River's Edge), regional filmmaker Vic- says C rave n. '\" Easy to work with ' tor Nunez (Gal You ng' Un ), maveri ck mea ns someone who will le t othe rs in as Robert Ellis Miller (Reuben , Reuben collaborators, who can be influenced to and The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter) and do what stu dio executives think they Briti sh upstart Julian Temple (A bsolute should do.\" B eg inners)-uninte nti onall y reveaJ'ed how compromised, how desperate and Craven has no compl aints abou t hi s trapped , and how unde r siege Ame ri- experience at Universa l on the $11 mil- ca n directors feel. Ma ny have created lion Serpent, but he has just com ple te d their own com pani es to produce film s Shocker, the first offour modestly bud- by others. George Lucas and Franci s ge ted pictures fin anced by Alive's Shep Coppola did it a decade ago. The Gordon. names are te lling: Steve n Spielberg, Sydney Poll ac k , Mel Brooks, Ron Borden 's obstacle is her subj ect mat- Howa rd , Rob Rei ne r. ter-fe mini sm. \"Lots of studio people sa id they were interested in working Taylor H ackford acq uire d New Cen- wi th me but on their ideas, not mine,\" tury-Vista, a production/distribution she re lates. \" I rece ived an end less com pany, w hi ch he re name d ew strea m of dumb comedies where a Vision s. James L. Brooks (Terms of woman married for love in stea d of Endearment and Broadcast News) is money. That was co n s id ere d likewise busil y producing-for televi- fe mini sm. \" sion (The Tracy Ullman Show) as we ll as features (Big)-and is in no hurry to W hen these and 25 other directors return to film direc tin g. came together in November 1988 for \"The Director in Action,\" a series of T his is a sorry state of affairs, to see semi nars sponsored by the Directors so many gifted people in re trench- Guild of Ameri ca (DGA) and Indepen- ment. Equally onerous is the frequency dent Feature Project, the topics them- with which indi vidu als wi th no pre- se lves inadvertently revea led the cri sis: vious directori al expe ri e nce-is thi s \"Eye of the Hurricane\" di scussed the entrepreneurial or cheap or both?-are importance of a support group of c re- hired to helm mov ies. C lint Eastwood, ati ve tec hnicians (c inem atographer, in particul ar, has flexed hi s star muscle editor); \"The 7 Cinematic Sins\" was by placin g lon gtime associate James about the va rious facets of power-trip- Fargo to work on The Enforcer; former ping (ego, envy); \"C ut! Print! Pos t and stuntman Budd y Va n Horn on three Beyo nd \" implied a ll-encom pass in g pictures (Any' Which Way You Can , responsibilities for today's director. Dead Pool, and the curre nt Pink Cad- illac); neophyte Richa rd Tuggle (who The on ly panel purportin g to dea l w rote ALca tra z) on Ti ghtrope. And wi th the arti sti c si de of filmm aking was C lint pers uade d Wa rne r Brothers to e ntitled: \"The Grand l11usion: Is There make two films , Rat Boy, and the a Director's Vision ?\" Panelist Stanley upcoming Impulses, by hi s longtime Kramer insisted there is a vision , but it companion, actress Sondra Locke. does n' t always belong to the director. To the consternation of other panelists, Another oddity: the director who he took credit for High Noon and The \"s upervi ses\" a fe llow director at the Men, two film s he produced , whi ch behest of the studio. For example, if 29

Pollack: \"You get no Randa Haines makes another film for As a future plan, Pollack suggests creditfor a picture's Paramount, she is to be backed up by that people at his level \"become part- success but blamefor Roland Joffe in some manner unclear ners\" with the studios . \"It's only fair we to her. This may be what Heaven 's Gate take some risks. \" He predicts that a its failure.\" finall y hath wrought: an infusion of revamping along these lines will come discipline into the creative process about within the next five years, led by simultaneous with a constriction of the major agencies. Since Pollack is financial and artistic ri sk. Schedule has represented by Creative Artists Agency become king. (CAA), one assumes such discussions are currently under way there . \"This is too simple, but if you can actually get a job directing,\" says But wou ld such a fusion of talent and Kasdan , \"i t's not that hard to finish the financiers ' trickle down' to others, even job. You may not do it well, but essen- those of mainstream inclination? How tially it runs itself because everybody is could it possibly nurture the indepen- there to get it over with. You can be dent movement, from which most new amazingly incompetent. The hardest ideas in form and content currently part is getting the job, and that takes flow? What happens to newcomers? ambition and politics, which have noth- And the larger question is: Who's going ing to do with telling an actor how to to control the artist-be he a soothsaye r, playa scene.. .. \" visionary, or entertaining fool? Isn't that issue already the heart of the mat- W hen Sydney ,Pollack decided to ter, or is it just pure greed? Is this crisis produce other directors , it was reall y about money, as the main- \"as a way of being creative without streamers who make it all insist, or is it assuming the total burden of the pic- about the ability to create and survive ture , to realize material I like, to which as independents maintain? I think I can contribute, without the backbreaking burden of making it. \" Perhaps, as a friend suggests, the He has a standard arrangement with e levation of the film director and TV Universal-a svvap of overhead in return writer-producer to superstar status for first look at material. evolved as defenses against corporate takeovers of content. They were the But the experience hasn ' t been alto- talent-without them , there was noth- gether salutary. \"You scatter yourself, ing. But as directors received more you don ' t reall y have control, you get no media attention, power, and compensa- credit for a picture's success but blame tion during the Eighties, their actua l for its failure.\" This is the POV usuall y control over form and content has reserved for studio executives. diminished. If final cut is a ya rdstick, on ly a handful of directors have it, and \" For a lon g time , di rectors have been even fewer exercise it. If the head of the confused about whether they belong to studio ca lls, they get into an accom- management or labor,\" continues Pol- modation mode.... But God forbid the lac k. \"It has been quite a dance , but writer shou ld want to be on the set. I've concluded the director is part of management. If you' re going to control It's hard not to blame directorial the project, you've got to prod uce .\" megalomania for this distress. The ludicrous credit \"A Film By... \" at the And yet, hasn ' t the obsession with front-end of a picture, now part of a \"COntrol \" led , at least in part, to the standard contract, illuminates direc- present crisis? Directors seek propri- tors' in ability to share credit and etary rights over every aspect of a responsibility with others, particularly motion picture , including distribution writers and actors . Like an architect, and marketing. Stanley Kubrick the film directors in the 20th century of approves every stil l. collaborative large-scale arts yearn to be a singu lar artist like the 16th-century Since directors want all the respon- poet or painter. sibi lity, they get the lion's share of blame when a film fails . Where the F or a bracing dose of enthusiasm, average studio budget is $15 million and ideas, and potentially good news , $20 to $25 million, th at's a lot of blame. one turns to three media wizards who But it's good to remember that the proclaim that everybody can be an director's own fee is part of that stupen- artist in the 21st century, and it won't dous figure. What does it mean when cost an arm and a leg. In March 1988, 60 percent to 75 percent of a budget the DGA's innovative Special Projects goes to the director, sta rs , producers, Department sponsored the seminar, and wr iters? Junk-bond sa le smen, \"Everything You Wanted To Know move over. 30

About Directing in the 21st Century shootin g phase . In an upgrade of pre- Kasdan: \"The hardest But Were Afraid to Ask.\" The partici- se nt rear-sc reen projection techniques, part is getting the job, pants who shook up the audience were directors will simply bring back moving and that takes ambition Stewart Brand , author of The Media pictures from a location and work with Lab and originator of The Whole Earth actors in the studio. Presumably, major and politics, which Catalog ; Jay Ogilvy, former director of changes in the time and economics of have nothing to do with the Values and Lifestyles program at filmmakin g are to e nsue . telling an actor how to the Stanford Research Institute; and Peter Schwartz, former director of the The demographics of the near play a scene....\" busi ness-environment division at Royal Dutch Shell. Ogilvy and Schwartz now future , according to Jay Ogilvy, will be have their own media consulting firm , linked to A) Value systems , B) Cul- with AT&T and the London Stock tures , and C) Life-styles rather than Exchange among its clients. Director age, economics , or even nationality, as Alexa nder Singer conducted the panel: are our present inclinations . From his Profou nd structural changes are hap- study of nine different life-style seg- pening in the transition from the indus- ments , Ogilvy foresees a whole indus- trial to the information age. Go with it, try of film s for, about, and poss ibly by or va nish like the dinosaur. older people-cutting across th at same segmentation. Blockbusters mi ght be Ongoin g R&D at the MIT Media Lab far fewer, and unnecessary, as films and Stanford Research Institute pre- targeted to specific groups increase. sages a democratization of technology, Mass marketing, too , will give way to includin g a co ncomitant move ment segmented sell. Aiding and abetting both upward and downward in sca le. In the sift will be macro-cosmic innova- other words , conglomerates will con- tions such as satellite-direct broadcasts tinue to conglomerate but within their to theaters. Celluloid will be found in gigantic empi·res wi ll be multitudinous museums. small units with virtual autonomy. Fur- ther, this tendency will parad oxically The \" paperback movie\" is another be both global and entrepreneurial. intriguing possibility. Advances in sig- nal compression could create a compact Specifically, for example, they point disc costing about 50 cents to manufac- to the recent emergence of desktop ture and to be retailed for $4.95. The publishing. A few companies world- studios as well as the networks know wide dominate the hardware , but there very well what is going on technologi- are numerous purveyors of software-in cally. They contribute to MIT's many languages. Put these elements research , and they get the information into the hands of human beings and- according to Deac Rossell , director of vo il a! Books! Newspapers! Magazines! the DGA's Special Projects. All directed to a specific readership. International , yet localized. F rom this futuristic perspecti ve, the topsy-turvy present looks very It's not hard to see how thi s can much like a transition to an age of change education, religion , politics , accelerating transitions. The studios art, and, deeply, the relationship be- will probably become international con- tween the giver/doer and the receiver. glomerates within the next few years \"Art happens in a director's mind and but in a more integrated context of also in a viewer's mind ,\" says Stewart ownership by companies like Sony, Brand. He gleefully predicts a \"person- NEe, and Phillips rather than Coca- alization of the medium\" via the mira- Cola. cle of di gitization. If it pleased the consumer, he could substitute Jane In the New Age of Movies, \" main- Fonda for Meryl Streep in Out of stream\" may be the lair of the dinosaur Africa, for example, or even create his and \" final cut\" a form of nostal gia . own movie starring himself as Marilyn Directors might be first among several Monroe's boyfriend . equall y creativ~ entities makin g movies , and \"control\" an unnecessary This , of course, is far out and pie in encumbrance: Perhaps there will also the sky, but technology is making film be a secure place for Lizzie Borden , more malleable. Electronic storyboard- who has something important to say ing is virtually here , as is seamless edi- about women, one half the population ting between take s-i.e. , stitching of the planet. together pieces of different takes to make a whole. Soon it will be possible Only one thing is certain : The sto- to digitally lay in all kinds of back- grounds-scenery, weather-in the stu- ryteller will always exist. ® dio , which formerl y was part of the Be verly Walker would parlicularly like to thank Nanc), Russov of the Independent Feature Project and Dea c Rossell ofthe Directors Guild ofAmerica/or their in valuable assistance. 31

Actors Face the Truth Arnie, never viable as a modelfor masculinity in the Eighties, semi- cleverly opted to be its mockery. by Gavin Smith Arnold Schwarzenegger: read the T-shirt. the cover of People is considered the pinnacle of credibility by the Publicity- M icke y Rourke , Arnold status, acceptance, power, success, Media machine, smart actors know it's Schwarzenegger, and Molly credit, respect, the ability to open a the opposite. Robert De Niro, who Ringwald are quintessential film . Cher's got it (though she had to recently started doing interviews again, Eighties actors. The fact that they can fight hard for it). Sean Penn had it from all be considered of the same profession film one and Stallone had it for a while said it all years ago. \"What's so impor- is a notion you may have trouble getting (around 1979) but lost it in an orgy of tant about where I went to school, and your head around and is indicative of steroids and ego-stroking. Don John- my hobbies... ? What does any of that where the aesthetics of acting lie today, son will never have it, though Bruce have to do with acting, with my own as well as where they might be headed Willis actually might. The irony is, you head?\" in the Nineties. Though one thing's don't have to want it to have it. certain: What constitutes good acting- It's tempting to say that the future of believability, emotional truthfulness , Most actors don't give a damn about acting will be giving good interviews, and honest personal investment-won't the sifting status-of who's hot and that the authority of acting will be change. who's not, who's cool and who's drool , located in personality rather than tal- and they're right-it, and money, and ent. But that's not where the Credibility What differentiates Rourke from ego-tripping have nothing to do with Grail Quest has had its impact. What's Schwarzenegger, and Ringwald from acting. At the same time anybody striv- truly discouraging is that it's inserted both? Red ucti ve ly, Rou rke 's a ing to be good is striving for acknowl- itself into the actor's work. While movie \"Method\" actor who's more appreci- edgment that they are good. (But/rom stars and actors have always been to ated in Europe than in the U.S. who? is the rub.) some extent concerned with how they Schwarzenegger is a persona-actor look, in the Eighties it's evident in the who's built a career on publicity and Obsession with personality and acting. smart moves. And Ringwald is a \"Brat glamour has generated a pallid, weary- Pack\" actor who works with talents like ing semiotic circus of credibility man- In the decade of President Actor, John Avildsen and Jean-Luc Godard. agement and media narcissistic actors- with politics reduced to public relations What they all crave is that ever-elusive those who willingly define themselves and show-biz, Credibility has become Credibility. Call it recognition, A-list in relation to celebrity culture and \"the the dominant imperative in the projec- competition,\" as Schwarzenegger did tion of personality; it's not what you do, with Stallone, or those unwise enough it's how you look doing it. Publicity is to collude with the ostensible villain in changing the aesthetics of acting as this mess, Publicity. While being on 32

Mickey Rourke: narcissistic but compelling. Molly Ringwald: facing the post-Brat Nineties. surely as film aesthetics once did. The athleticism of can sever our links with the timelessly Hoffman and Brando universal in the time it takes to switch P redominantly, acting has, until has, via the fascinated channels. While Mark Harmon does now, and most certainly will con- introspection ofDe what passes for acting now and is held to tinue to answer the mandate given in Niro, given way to an be more realistic , I'll bet it's Bogie who acting class: \"Doing\" truthfully under had a better claim on universal experi- imaginary circumstances. And so long aesthetic ofself- ence. Mark Harmon will continue to as human behavior continues more or involvement that haunt us in the Nineties? Ugh. less to be what it is and doesn't suc- Rourke practices. cumb to post-modern psychosis or The so-called Method (a slur now some other current of theoretical prog- recognition of its universality, however, implying pretension to many) has a par- nosticative thought, what is lifelike and is subordinated to historically mutable ticular affinity for the pitiless gaze of \"real\" in acting will continue to renew codes and conventions of artistic repre- the film camera, which sifts the authen- itself in the would-be ahistorical waters sentation that dictate what real, tic and the fake 24 times a second, to of universal experience and the time- depicted behavior looks like. In the paraphrase Jean-Luc Godard. It is the less patterns of human nature. While Sixties, for instance, cinema verite best example of acting technique these latter notions are conceptually documentary forced us to revise our responding to the aesthetic and techno- problematic, their general acceptance sense of what films say is real. The fact logical demands of film. As film aes- makes them actual. Existing as suffi- that Mark Harmon 's acting might thetics have continued to evolve in the cient rationale of the how and why, to appear more real than Humphrey Seventies and Eighties toward hyper- actor and audience alike, they should Bogart'S is a function of contemporary clarity and hyper-realism, acting has be left undisturbed. Acting cannot be aesthetic conventions. It underlines the had to withstand greater demands , not intellectualized or even analyzed, in degree to which representational codes on its truthfulness-which is absolute- truth. but on its recognizability to an audi- ence that takes sitcom TV non-acting as The personal experience actvrs draw naturalism and is bombarded with sen- upon-their truth-ultimately unites sation rather than sense-asked increas- with the audience's empathy because it ingly not to pay attention , but to be distracted: Park your brain here for 90 originates in the timelessly universal, a minutes . la Joseph Campbell. In mOVIes, our 33

At the same time, untruthful acting action. OK once in a while, but all the street-hip credibility. While infinitely is unmasked more completely than ever machinery is dead from a human point preferable to Mark Harmon, Rourke before by the technology that captures of view. represents a convergence of talent, per- it. It's too bad that the technology is at sonality, and cool that obscures acting the disposal of people who are blind to The shift toward hyper-realism behind a smokescreen of attitude and what it reveals. Young Guns was a case stresses film form for its own sake or as a dovetails perfectly with the accesso- in point--{;ynically packaged entertain- celebration of aesthetic power subor- rized, fetishized aesthetics of hyper- ment that's enjoyable at that level while dinating the real. It dwells upon a haze realism. The Look has taken over from affording us the spectacle of state-of- of surface texture, effacing the exis- the Doing. the-art technology in the hands of film tence of an interior reality or underlying school whiz kids with no sense of real- social/political forces . While very post- Actors don't pay attention to one ity trying to make five post-Brat Pack modern-and very Eighties-it is in another anymore; their attention is actors look halfway real. It's a glimpse absolute opposition to the job of the placed on themselves in narcissistic of the Nineties unless somebody gets actor, who works from the inside . introversion. The acting athleticism of control. Dustin Hoffman and Brando has, via Mark Harmon: TV acting as Nineties minimalism? the fascinated introspection of De G reat directors like Martin Scorsese Niro, given way to an acting aesthetic of and Brian De Palma, and not-so- Schwarzenegger self-involvement that Rourke uninten- great techies like the Coen brothers, all represents the tionally practices . He may be setting a have shown in recent efforts (Color of trend: Method Posing, maybe. Money , The Untouchables, Raising Ari- flattening offilm to the zona, Fatal Attraction, and also partic- fullest degree: the actor He is, in fact, visibly struggling to ularly Stephen Frears' Dangerous overcome Attitude and simply act, just Liaisons) that all that firepower can kill as cartoon. as Richard Gere did . I hope he makes the human life of the film in one clean it. That struggle makes him compel- sweep. To some extent this problem is Sweetheart's Dance: is there an actor in the house? ling, even when he's bad. faced in all films of any aesthetic ambi- Mickey Rourke is a case in point. An tion. Fair enough. But sometimes a film A rnold Schwarzenegger, on the can end up being a package of dramatic extraordinary talent blessed with tech- other hand, represents the flat- coups de grace done more for effect nique , commitment, and a ce~tain edgy tening of film to the fullest degree: the than dramatic emphasis. And film adventurousness, he works not with the actor as cartoon, so much larger than technology becomes the black hole of authority of a Brando or a Robert Duvall life as to bear no relation to it-except as drama-sucking everything in. Noth- but out of anxiety and attitude-distin- parody and exaggeration. That Arnie ing escapes, everything is flattened. guished only because of his talent. can't act-I , a devoted fan, must admit We've seen it this year in film after this-doesn't matter. film. Seemingly sure-fire propositions Humorless, self-regarding, self-sat- like Midnight Run, Who Framed Roger isfied, his problems are minor com- The Schwarzenegger joke is the Rabbit, Big Business , Red Heat, The pared to the damage he may inflict delirious surrender of suspension of dis- Good Mother, Married to the Mob, and upon himself by becoming an icon of belief. We go beyond What If? and find Another Woman appear so flat you could Eighties Cool. It is specifically the idea ourselves in Sure-it's-ridiculous-but- slide 'em under a door-not withstand- of Method Acting that defines his watch-this-bit, where intellectually the ing the work that, for instance, Charles release from believability becomes the Grodin and De Niro are actually doing. audience's liberation. There is no tech- nique, no interior life: Arnie's acting is It used to be that if the acting was so highly \"self-referential\" that when good , it didn ' t matter if a film had he reuses lines that first worked in The weaknesses. Increasingly, it's going to Terminator-\" I'll be BACK!\"-in sub- be the case that as· film directors sequent films, the audience gets it, and become more like technocrats than, the need to be believabk is side- well, actors' directors, the films are stepped in the wink. going to get flatter as they grow more technically compelling. Arnie is the Woody Allen of shoot 'em ups-any second he's going to In the Eighties, form has appropri- wheel out Marshall McCluhan and say ated a larger proportion of film terrain to the audience, \"If only life was like than ever before. This growing kinecti- this.\" In effect, he does that every time cism and dynamism has created an he delivers another exquisitely unsub- indifference to the actor's truth and tle payoff to accompany the mangling with it the integrity of the human of yet another adversary. We love it-we exchange and the dramatic moment. As wai t for the payoff. It's more a result, rather than tell a story, many Wrestlemania than drama-and so, films are about aesthetics, e.g. Die quite logically, Arnie has included Hard's infatuation with techno-excess. wrestling stars in two of his movies. You Others (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and can't say he doesn't know his audience. in a way, Dead Ringers) have substi- tuted human with technological inter- When we enter Arnie's Terminator cyber-consciousness POY as his comput- erized mind scans a list of suitable ri- postes to a nosy hotel janitor and 34

Young Guns: all technique, no philosophy. The industry used the the BP as a marketing/publicity con- Brat Pack to exploit a cept to exploit a demographic, but now selects, \"Fuck you ASSHOLE!\" , we demographic, but now it's hooked and can't kick. It deliber- see the world as an omnipotent infra- it's hooked and can't ately opted to infantilize experience in red readout and are party to one of the a slew of films about the teen experi- defining moments in Eighties film ico- kick. ence and has inherited an aesthetic of nography: the point at which acting is at adolescence and superficial posing once reduced to hyperbolic irony on the credit alone isn ' t. both potent and vacuous , artificial and one hand and programming on the Acting does draw upon personal truthful (to something: teen fantas y). other. Stallone's Ramboization of screen John Hughes now makes adult come- macho posturing six months later in- experience (which is what makes dies. Soon he'll be doing the films serted it into the mainstream without Schwarzenegger so inadequate), and Adrian Lyne and Leonard Nimoy pass grasping the parody Arnie gave it and most actors in their early 20's can't on. They will probabl y all be like has never been able to top. expect to be able to be the equal of Sweetheart's Dan ce-not life as we Gene Hackman-as Matt Dillon found know it, Spock. Where Schwarzenegger represents in Target. (As Arthur Penn , Target's something especially valuable is as a director said , \"He's a nice kid , but he As we near the Nineties the chal- last-gasp parody of post-feminist has no technique. His idea of acting is lenge to screen actors-especially of the machismo. Never viable as a model for to do it and see what happens. \") All Eighties-will be to shrug off the masculinity in the Eighties , he semi- Ringwald can do is concentrate on her seduction of the superficia l and attempt cleverly opted to be its mockery. But craft and strengthening her technique to relocate their acting in authentic since he can't act, all it adds up to is a (look at Jodie Foster, Sean Penn , Mary experience , wherever it's found. They portfolio of career moves and Acting as Stuart Masterson, Matthew Broderick, will have to overcome debilitating Publicity. Very Nineties. Jennifer Jason Leigh). She can't carry a obstacles: the Publicity Monster; the film , and she shouldn't be asked to. director as rock fan/camera fiend /TV N ow we're in the post-Brat Pack movie sentimentalist (all close-ups and era, a new generation of Young The so-called Brat Pack is not a Bad tacky music) ; and the movie as techno- Actors will be the stars and celebs of the Thing. A lot of them are good, serious monolith , dehumanizing as its scrutiny Nineties , and Molly Ringwald mayor actors. But for the BP's man y moments becomes more exact and less insightful. may not be one of them. It's hard to say. of authentic brilliance and authentic As long as film directors like Robert Ringwald has some talent-and is dead teen age escapism , there are just as Greenwald or John Avildsen equate serious-which differentiates her from many phony ones. The industry used emotion with close-ups (see H arold Arnie. But her range is still limited . Becker's The Boost or Mike Nichols' What is often visible, as in Fresh Horses Working Girl for the antidote), actors and the totally-in-the-dark confusion of are going to be awfully lonely in their King Lear, is someone who's deter- efforts to create believable life on film . ~ mined to be a good actor. The striving is respectable , but the above-the-line 35

Think It Can't Get Worse... ? EIGHTIES NINETIES Agents Producers Schwarzenegger De Vito Geriatric Pack Brat Pack Tarkovsky Eastwood VCRs replace rep theaters Drive thru video stores Sydney Pollack John Hughes Actors who don't read Actors who read MTv/hyper-realism Neo Mellow neo-realism Jewish nostalgia WASP nostalgia John Sayles Spike Lee Return of Dennis Hopper Return of Bruce Oem Women on top in sex scenes Cu taways to waterfalls Actors as directors Cinematographers as directors Daryl Hannah Kelly Preston Vietnam films Armenian Romeo/Azerbaijani Juliet Robert Zemeckis Phil Joanou Matt Dillon Dweezil Zappa Sci-Fi Nasties Day Care asties Geraldine Page Sandy Dennis Black cop partners Black cop partners Robots Republicans High Concept No concept British Films Norse sagas Molly Ringwald Winona Ryder Last Chance, Michael Cimino Last chance, Elaine May David Bowie Phil Collins Apartheid films Civil Rights films Stephen King William Gibson Bergman's comeback Godard's comeback Mary Stuart Masterson Dianne Wiest Guerrilla filmmaking Stephen Bochco Runaway productions New Age soundtracks Michael Mann Japanese landlords Tim Burton Rock 'n' roll soundtracks Movies based on Nintendo characters Russian invaders Glenn Gordon Caron Joe Dante David Byrne as Attenborough Remakes Publicists James Brooks Albert Brooks Brought to you by... Attenborough as David Lean Schwarzenegger & Shriver TV movie critics Condom scenes Woody Allen Hitchcock's Seiko Troma Product placement Minnie Rourke Simpson & Bruckheimer Condo scenes Women as biological clocks Cannon Mickey Rourke Colorization Feelies Oliver Stone I'II-have-a scotch Columbia Paramount True Stories based on movies Movies based on True Stories 36

TwoThumb.s Down credits, and q uality assess me nt-will Ame ri ca n Film Re na issa nce In th e be by e mpowering each viewer with the middle. c redenti als for adjudi cation. This is fund ame ntal. As a New York Times The Sixti es fascination with di scov- reviewer once re marked whe n asked to erin g and ce le brating a pop art form has li st qu alifications, \" I got the job\" is changed with the times. As a new ge n- pnm ary. e ration of Ame rican filmm ake rs got the art bu g and unprecede nte d tec hnical E go, backed by a sense of purpose facility, talking seriously about mov ies (a n ass umed soc ial mand ate), acc re dits los t the snob appea l of di scuss ing Be rg- one. If neede d , a badge of qu alification man and Fe llini and the pre te nsions of could do as much to in still a future film infl ating H awks and Hitchcock. reviewe r's confid e nce as it did the Cow- As the acade mic study of film took The profession is hold , th e ge ne ral-inte res t approac h merely embarrassed by re be lled and won- not onl y by force of ad quotes like \"Marlee its 'argume nt' (the star or thumbs sys- Matlin explodes across te ms) but by sheer numbe rs. The hun - ge r to read about mov ies could be fe d the screen,\" but it is without matricul ation. Edi tors und e r- debased by the stood th at a popular ente rtainme nt form was comple me nte d by a populist reduction or extraction approac h, so sports de partme nts, food ofaesthetic and by Armond White political inquiry. F ilm critics of the next decade ardly Lion. Bes towin g the badges will , will come from the first ge ne ra- preferably, be the res ponsibility of the tion to pe rceive that profess ion same fede ral pane l th at decid es which as a TV staple. This will give the m an bl ack-and-white film s have colori za- ad vantage ove r the ir pre decesso rs- tion-exempt \"cl ass ic status.\" tod ay's reviewe rs- of whom a pitiful few still dream they are a part of a F ilm c riti cism-once ce nte red on philosophi ca l, lite rary, tradition. The semin al texts like The American future refinement of mov ie rev iew in g Cinema , Agee on Film , The Imm ediate will shed any scholarly indul ge nces, Exp erience, I Lost It at the Movies, leaving the essenti al, practica l acti vity From Caligari to Hitler, Bazin on Film , of judgin g a film 's conte nt by the de mo- Theory of Film Practice, Signs and graphi cs of the audi e nce (ca lle d spea k- Meaning in the Cinema, To the Distant ing for the people) and the n pl ay in g to Observer, The Imaginary S ignifier, A the N ielsens. With precision a goal, the World in a Frame, and Questions of reviewers of the future will never mi s- Cinema-will become an archaic study, lead but will always justify the preju- like L atin , of inte res t only to pea r- di ce s of the cauti ous consume r, shaped acade mi cs. L ea rning to be a reaffirmin g what they wa nt to know. film critic will appea r as a minor craze Uh-huh , in the future eve ryone will be th at attrac te d Ame ri ca n college stu- film critics. dents some time be twee n the Nouve lle Va gue and nouvelle cui sine, with the T here's already at leas t one in every bri ef, happy fl owerin g of the Seventies home and job site. They compri se a third of every mov ie que ue, and dozens wa nd e r around , lost among the she lves of vid eo rental outle ts, volunteerin g advice to those even more los t. As opin- io n m a kers in c rease a nd th ea t e rs decrease, the only way to keep up with the product suppl y-ca talogin g pl ot,

tion of aesthetic and political inquiry. Competing with the constant bar- rage of ad like copy, popular film dis- course has fallen to the level of lay opinion typified by the off-the-cuff glibness ofTY anchor-desk reviewers or the various sets of dueling assholes. , Helping to seal the small gap between criticism and advertising, the movie industry and journalism , is the success of film magazines that avoid discussing ideas in favor of hyping the latest pre- miere of an American film. Popular movie journalism disdains aesthetic ideals as self-righteously as a street- walker who knows that opinion hinders trade. Not since the heyday of fan mag- azines and gossip columns has the press so conspired to sell the public on Holl y- wood product. This is as lamentable as the TY critic's disdain for film aes- thetics; it negates critical thinking altogether. I By denying that movies have any meaning besides their entertainment quotient, editors erase the need for critics with a knowledge of, or interest in , the social function of the form, its historical or artistic development , its rel ationship to the other arts, its reflec- tion of current politics. Each yea r this deca de has see n a calamitous display of cultural idiocy led by movie reviewers' opinions and the films they promote. columns, even music, theater, and soci- unusual new works has backfired as the T he feminist backlash began with ety columns were raided to provide marketing departments, with unholy Ordinary People , the triumph of in stant-replay analyses of movies-the cunning, have turned the reviewer's affluence and chemical dependency in business that was everybody's second writing and personal commitment into Arthur, the romance of militarism in An business. ad copy to be used for any formula Officer and a Gentleman. In 1983 criti- movie . Distinguishing differences have cal distaste for Latin immigration led to A new tradition was set: Democratic been lost in the excitement of seeing the dismissal of Brian De Palma and Philistinism. Opinion about film out- real movie reviewing come above Olive r Stone's perceptive Scarface weighed knowledge, sense, or articu- ground into the light of the dailies' ad (which found an audience anyway). lated taste. The Democratic Philistine pages. L anguage that conveys enthusi- Next, critical respon se to Out ofAfrica, era so opened up the potential for airing asm and snappy, upbeat wordplay have Prizzi's Honor, and The Color Purple anyone's vo ice that film reviewing , become popular, and trend-spotting illustrated the confluence of ethnic unlike art or literary .criticism (but has replaced in sight. Here is the future: shame , political insecurity, and aes- much like rock criticism), became a reviews that read like ads. thetic ignorance in film circles. Hannah widely envied, easily assumed profes- and Her Sisters legitimated the film sion. Expertise could be conferred on Even small-town reviewers have lost critic's elitism. \"This is a film about our any person who chose to specialize in the tone of note-taking amateurs and so kind of people, the things we like to movie trivia, who could make a vig- spout hot-and-cold running opinion. do ,\" one reviewer candidly admitted in orous, urge nt subject of what used to be Democratic Philistinism holds that one print. In 1987 the gay pointedness of called idiot sava ntry. Soon a new totem opinion is as good as another. Editors Pedro Almodovar's Law of Desire put replaced the oxymoronic 'film book' as reinforce this with an implicit under- off reviewers , who instead responded a sign of cultural distinction: the full- standing that in a capitalist society gullibly to the fraudulent sexual ideol- page reprint of a critic's essay. This there is something 'great' for everyone. ogy and cheap manipulations of the hoopla gave the profession its first taste Not to mention great for circulation. hetero-horror show Fatal Attraction. of stardom; film criticism would never Currently, Alan Parker's obscene, facti- be a detached , independent practice Criticism as a consumer guide is just tious, and rac ist Mississippi Burning again. another phase for criticism as advertis- has won insa ne acclaim. ing. The profession is merely embar- A film reviewer's legitimate interest ras sed b y ad quotes like \"Ma rlee From these instances it is plain that in championing difficult or Matlin explodes across the screen,\" bu t the film-crit establishment colludes it is debased by the reduction or extrac- 38

with the film industry's shamelessness. than a couple of Griffith film s, or can ' t AVAILABLE It misinforms to facilitate Hollywood's tolerate Godard , let alone having heard ON VIDEO pandering, and the public follows suit. of Lev Kuleshov. Film critics aren't This Entertainment-Critical Complex expected to display any 'esoteric' 87 min . helps maintain status-quo ideology. knowledge-which denies the possi- B&W Today there are more people than ever bility of an aesthetic continuity in film before whose needs are not addressed or in mass taste. We pay for their on- COLOR by films or film reviews. the-job training. Rick Schmidt is the Marley's Ghost of modern As movies address a global, ever- Professionalism has slackened . stra.tified audience , the need for dispas- Reviewers don ' t keep up with the movie makers. -Lowell Darling sionate, disinterested , eclectic criti- works of favorite filmmakers or of oppo- cism in the Nineties increases. Yet the sitional filmmakers , let alone exper- As with Rick Schmidt's earlier low-budget features (A profession's arrested development con- MAN, A WOMAN, AND A KILLER, 1988-THE RE- tinues to regard films monolithically, as imenters . So audiences and critics no MAKE, EMERALD CITIES) ,his fourth film , MORGAN'S a unilateral expression made to a uni- longer discover films like Dogs in CAKE, also engages the viewer by capturing real fied public. Reviewers still accept Hol- Space , Love is a Dog from Hell , The moments of human emotion , reality as it intersects with lywood 's outdated notion of a \" typical\" Kitchen Toto , or Doc's Kingdom , and the illusion of moviemaking. The film begins with viewer-meaning an unexceptional successful small films like Dirty Danc- Morgan (played by Morgan Schmidt-Feng) explaining viewer and a standard , uniform ing require huge hype. that his mom named him after the famous British black response to film regardless of educa- comedy MORGAN, and muses that he wishes life was tion , race , sex, politics. Anyone can do film criticism when more like that movie, just \"unserious and funny.\" What the only reason assigned to it is con- follows is such an unending series of problems confron- The logic of everyone becoming film sumerism. That's a great leveler; the ting Morgan that the full impact rings of comic absurdity. critics stems from the necessity of right to purchase makes every opinion , His problems include a love affair, his divorced parents, answering these imperatives, ofcourse, every desire, every purpose equal: draft registration , car payments, economics which force but it's also a nihilistic extension of the Kitsch is art , and Wood y Allen is him to share a small office where his father must sleep poor critical standards already set. Edi- Ingmar Bergman. Once standards of on top of a desk. While not a remake of MORGAN, tors rarel y have, and don ' t ask for, taste and intelligence have been deval- MORGAN'S CAKE pays acertain homage to the earlier expertise in the field . Unlike reviewing ued , there's no need for critics . Each film with its ribald humor, most notably in atour-de-force in the other arts, where a familiarity filmgoer must decide for him/herself. performance by Willie Boy Walker as Morgan's dad, who with the forms' history and significant Call it intellectual anarchy. Maybe describes in outrageous detail how he got out of the draft works is assumed prerequisite, there when criticism-the organized, articu- by acting like a crazy man. Like many kids in America, are film critics who' ve never seen more lated thinking about films-improves , Morgan is basically cut adrift from any real and lasting the movies will , too . ~ support system , and must quickly learn to fend for him- self. MORGAN'S CAKE, while a film about teenagers, is not at all like its \"Breakfast Club\" Hollywood counter- parts. This film deals with the mysteries of growing up as told by the real teenagers themselves. MORGAN 'S CAKE is now available for 16mm screen- ings with director Rick Schmidt in person . Video copies may be rented/purchased at the following stores: •• • • ••• FRONT ROW VIDEO (Berkeley) ••••••• •••••••• PALMER'S VIDEO (Berkeley) •••••••• •• ••••••••• VIDEOPHILE (Seattle) ••••••••••• • • •• • • • • •• VIDIOTS (Santa Monica) •••••••••• ••••••••••• CAPTAIN VIDEO (S.F.) ••••••••••• Or purchase your VHS/BETA cassettes (please specify) for $49.95 plus $3 per copy for shipping/ handling. Please send LIGHT VIDEO money order FD. Box 342 payable to PT. Richmond, (415) 235-7466 CA. 94801 39



0539 0513 0083 0836 NEILSLMON 0455 2642 0562 0315 ~,.. TH, • 0281 0190 0331 AC TOR. .... .. . , ...... AND H I S 0547 T EXT \" .. .. , •• ~ .. ' HI'\" ~~E.~t.~~ 0711 I,0596 0729 0588 0240 0257 0448 ,I , • I SAIPMLAOY BNYI IGRAY 0604 0778 0786 0075 0133 0174 0141 4119 0232 HERE'S HOW MEMBERSHIP WORKS ... YOUR WAY! YOU CHOOSE ANY 4 BOOKS FOR S1, plus shipping and handling. Send no money now. You will he billed when your application is accepted. We reserve the righ t to reject any application . YOU GET OUR NO-RISK GUARANTEE: If you 're not 100 % satisfied, return the oj books within 10 days at our expense. Your membership will be canceled and you will owe not hing . Please accept my application for membership in The Fireside Theatre and send me the 4 books indicated, plus my FREE Tote Bag. Bill me just $1 (plus shipping YOU KEEP THE TOTE BAG just for trying memhership. and handling) for the books. 1need take only 4 more books at regular low Club prices during the next 2 years and may resign anytime thereafter. 1agree to the YOU RECEIVE THE FREE CLUB BULLETIN Curtain Time 14 times a year. Each issue Club Plan described in this ad. NO-RISK GUARANnE: If not satisfied, I may return the books within 10 days contains a wide selection of top plays, anthologies, refer(!nces and other theatre-related at Club expense . Membership will be canceled and 1will owe nothing. The FREE Tote Bag is mine to keep no matter what 1decide. books of interest. In addition, up to 2 times a year, you may DS783 receive offers of special Selections at low Cl ub prices. Mr.lMrs.lMiss/Ms. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ YOU SAVE UP TO 40% off puhlishers' hardcover prices on Address _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Apt. _ _ _ __ full-length, hardbou nd Club edi tions, sometimes altered in Cily _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Slale _ _ _ Zip _ _ _ __ size to fit our special presses. L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _If under 18, parent must sign. =_,.--:--=::--.\"....,-:-~;__~_::___,.-- YOU SAY \"NO\" TO ANY BOOKS YOU DON 'T WANT hI' Members accepled in U.S.A. and Canada only. Offer sllghlly differenlin Canada. ~~~ simply telling us on your Member Reply Form and returning it to us by the specified date. Or RELAX and do nothing to automatically get the Featured Selection(s). Ashipping and handling charge is added to each order. YOU ALWAYS HAVE 10 DAYS TO CHOOSE. If you get an un wanted book because the magazine came late, return it at our expense. YOU HAVE CANCELLATION RIGHTS. Your only ohligation is to purchase 4 more books (at regular low Club prices) during the next 2 years, after which you may cancel mem- bership or remain a memher for as long as you wish wi th FREE TOTE no further ohligation . with membership THE FIRESIDE THEATRE® A GREAT THEATRE TRADITION FOR ALMOST 40 YEARS!

EndoftheIndies Death ofthe Sayles Men Plain Talk and Common Sense (Uncommon Senses) by Jon Jost. by Jon Jost Indie was In, with the art. As we near 1990, we might wonder bottom line matching where Indie concerns might lie along I t has been almost a decade since the Eighties ethos: This the continuum from dollars and cents to the Independent Feature Project stuffmakes money! film sense. proclaimed the existence of a \" new American cinema,\" a tag affixed to a cally anointed \"independent\" Looking back, the current situation crop of off-Hollywood features then umbrella. might have been easily predicted: being released : Robert M. Young's Most films touted by IFP flagwavers Alambristaf , Victor Nunez's Gal Young Ten years later, gathered beneath the and supporters were, from the outset, 'Un Rob Nillson's Northern Lights, and Indie banner, one is more likely to find solid films of modest budget, liberal John Sayles' Return of the Secaucus a list of studio execs, lawyers , distribu- leanings , and minimal artistic wing- Seven. Since then , a long list of titles- tors, and TV spin-off experts than an stretching. They accrued-some of ranging from the successful offbeats actual filmmaker, while discussions them-modest boxoffice, liberal kudos Wayne Wang's Chan is Missing and Jim revolve around variants of Hollywood's and critical back pats proportionate to Jarmusch 's Stranger Than Paradise to favorite power-nosh topic-creative their artistic daring: just tepidl y won - the more mainline efforts of Paul Bartel financing-rather than around the once- derful. Left to these films, the Ameri- (Eating Raoul) or Young-have jostled important aesthetics, or-God forbid- can Indie would have gone, as quickly along with an even longer list of and mercilessly, the way of the Native straight-out Hollywood product (albeit American. \"off-studio\") to gather under the magi- Instead , a series of quirks occurred, disrupting this stew of PBS-flavored mush and rendering the Indie scene as 42

bizarre as subatomic particle ph ys ics: 1988---The Remake, direc ted by Rick Schmidt. and Wang's projects nose-di ved at the In the space of a few yea rs a handful of boxoffice. Skewered by c riti cs and films , each with its own charmed story, Little ofthe American abandoned by audiences th at now emerged to gather not only critical Indie wave staked out expected more for the money, the acclaim, but-most importa ntl y in anything that could Indies wo bbled. Wary distributors Reagan 's America-also obtained backed off. \" Independence,\" wa rped decent distribution and boxoffice claim any kind of and twi sted by industry Newspea k , clean-up. independence from the had become , in reality (and Hollywood Hollywood model, its jargon), \"High Concept.\" Bloated with John Sayles' $75,000 Secau cus Seven generality and vagueness, its meaning (1980) was among ~he starters that suc- motives, or the devolved into little more than the ji ve cessfu lIy ta'pped Sixties nostalgia and preponderance of and shuck of the con artist. made the boxoffice buzz. Moguls took lawyers, dealmakers, note; Sayles sailed. Wayne Wang's Chan and moneytalk. From the outset, with its artificia l is Missing , a $25,000 ethnic comedy, baptism under the aegis of the IFP lucked into a slot in New York's ew Budgets bloomed , and in equal pro- (which, in the best tradition of ad-hack, Directors series and received a rave portion , likewise the promotional quite explicitly acknowledged the PR from the doye n of critics, Vincent huzzahs. One could hardly turn a utility of a name tag), it became evident Canby. Snapped up by New Yorker, printed page without finding a glowing that the American Independent Fea- Wang was on his way. account of still another \" independent\" ture has been little more than a bastard in the works. Even the stodgy columns child of Hollywood, standing at the In 1982, Susan Seidelman's down- of The Wall Street Journal took up the gates, yea rning for legitimacy. While its beat SoHo sitcom Smithereens hit pay cause. Robert Redford, using his high- embryonic forms have been but runt dirt , and in the surge of interest that profile star status, swung the spotlight apings of the studios, the most success- attended this apparent New Wave, sev- onto his Sundance Institute, which ful birthin gs have been quickly eral new distributors coalesced into offered the technical wizardry and pro- snapped up by the mogul fathers. All being. In 1985 , Jim Jarmusch, with fessionalism of Holl ywood to the Indie too quickly did Seidelman, Wang, critical and financial support from initiate (as well as a shot at hobnobbing Lee, Amos Poe, the Coen brothers, et Europe, weighed in with Stranger with moneymen). al opt for the glow of Sunset Strip, Than Paradise, a formall y refined par- giving away the game: The rubric of boiled comedy of New York Eighties Ironically, at the sa me moment the this manufactured tag was but another hip posturing. Again Canby raved, whole notion of \" independent\" was ad campaign of the inflated artifice of wheels and deals came, and Paradise mutating toward a total embrace of all the Reagan legacy, a sham on the cul- grossed $1.25 million , never mind things Hollywood, the chickens began tural credit card. Except in the most ancillary off-shore and video . This for a to come home to roost. Even corporate ve nal of senses, little of the American film that a few yea rs earlier would have money was not enough to compensate Indie wave staked out anything th at languished in the shriveling university for weak script and Lee , Seidelman, could legitimately claim any kind of and museum ghetto reserved for \"off- independence from the Hollywood aes- beaters,\" as Variety invariably tagged thetic model, its motives, or the pre- them . Indie was In , with the bottom pondera nce of lawye rs, dealmakers , line matching the Eighties ethos: This and money talk , which fills those semi- stuff makes money! At the jangle of nars dotting the filmworld landscape. serious cash, the eyes and ears of the biz swiveled to the Indie sector. I n high-Eighties fashion the real topic is money: how to raise it, bor- N aturall y, the premise of the row it, spend it, make it. Left far phrase \"independent film \" took behind in the rush of this discou rse is on new meaning, the kind that any concern for the kind of film , aes- attracted not only trend-hungry media thetics , or content. At best , a trembling scribblers, but also the deep pockets of murmur from IFP tongues mentions the industry. Suddenly Seidelman \"humanism,\" that catchall vacu-word shifted from self-proclaimed \"guerrilla for sentiments that dare not speak their filmmaking\" to 40-foot trailers with name: wishy-washy left liberalism . Lit- Desperately Seeking Susan. Jarmusch's tle wonder, then, that the films emanat- ante was upped from Paradise 's ing from this confluence are virtually $125,000 to Down By Law's nearly one inseparable from their Hollywood and a half million. Wang leapt from the counterparts. The \"independent\" modest proportions of Dim Sum to the wrapping is but a subterfuge, a PR slick Hollywood gloss of Slam Dance . angle for the dim wizards of the press, And with them , new names , each care- asserting a difference that is not there. full y swathed in the Indie banner, Except, perhaps, in greenbacks. The elbowed into the limelight: Spike Lee claim of independence will buy from and Robert Townsend , Alex Cox and Siskel and Ebert a nod, which MGM Oliver Stone. From Hollywood to the pays for with freebies. Lower East Side, from the Bayou to Puget Sound, film spilled forth. And what, then, beyond the hoopla 43

The Man Who Envied Women, directed by Yvonne Rainer. landscape Suicide by James Benning. of the media circus of an American 16mm will collapse as a viable medium. or extolling the latest Hollywood call- cinema (even if circumscribed by the Simultaneously, there have been ing card as true creative genius. criterion \"feature\"), that can make any reasonable claim to \" independence?\" changes in the exhibition circuit and to The money-minded ness that domi- For those who choose not to succumb to nates film production has well-afflicted the lure of big bucks and its concomi- One could hardly turn the Pooh-Bahs of the press who pre- tant market economy of aesthetics and a page withoutfinding sume to stand guard at the gates of ethics, the picture has-wi th an omi- a glowing account of culture. A $30 million turkey from Hol- nous sense of \"natural\" ease-darkened lywood will command columns of eX'pli- considerably. Where the 1970's saw the still another cation in the pages of The Village Voice, emergence of a small body of works \"independent' in the The New York Times or American Film , built on both American experimental- works. Even the stodgy while a $20,000 masterpiece will pass ism and the European \"art film ,\" and columns ofThe Wall utterly without notice. And the picture which staked out space far from Holly- Street Journal took up stands only to worsen: The National wood (Yvonne Rainer, Jim Benning, Endowment for the Arts, for examI,Jle, Rick Schmidt, Mark Rappaport, the cause. in line with Reaganite policy, recentl y myse lf... shortly followed by Bette Gor- announced a new $25,000 grant don , Charles Burnett, Andrew Horn, ill effect. The list of museums , univer- restricted to track-proven producers, Lizzie Borden, Jim Jarmusch , and Sara sities, and film societies that had been intended only to help pull together a Driver, among others), the Eighties open to such work has been cut at least package for the production of a film for have witnessed their decline . in half. And with the shrinking of even theatrical-read \"commercial\"- this marginal market, the few distribu- release! A real independent could make While this may in part be attribut- tors and co-ops have ei ther closed down a whole film for that. able to the natural ebb and flow of or been reduced to a symbolic pres- creative surges , there are also more ence. Likewise, those cultural mecha- And so the wind blows. As labs phase definable factors. On the most pedes- nisms that formerl y nurtured such out 16mm or at best reduce it to a for- trian level , the drastic change in the work-if only by the encouragement of masochists-only format, the choice 16mm film industry, in which bread print-have shifted their attentions. becomes 35mm, with its increases in and butter jobs of TV news, industrial , Thus James Benning released Land- costs and pressures to \"go commer- and educational films have been shifted scape Suicide (perhaps his best film) , cial,\" or, for better and worse, to work to video, has resulted in the curtailing and Yvonne Rainer debuted The Man in consumer-level video where techno- of available film materials and services. Who Envied Women to scarcely a breath logical advances now offer virtually pro- In addition, prices have risen , and the of critical comment outside the pages of fessional-level technical standards at quality of service has plummeted, all the most esoteric of specialist maga- down-home prices. Barring a sudden leaving the independent with far less zines. Previously supportive critics change in the country's cultural cli- room to maneu ve r, bOth aesthetically busy themselves with twisting cliches mate , it seems safe to predict that the and fiscally. (For example, effects that around the latest dross from Hollywood small niche previously occupied by the are easily and inexpensively accom- trul y independent filmmaker will plished in reversal stocks-such as reduce to an untenable toehold, with superimposing titles over images-are production dropping off to the occa- made much more complex and COStl~T in sional European-financed film-like negative originals.) And it even appears Jarmusch 's Down by Law-Or the odd likely that within the next few years all-American item done against all reason. 44

I t is likely fair, then, to write the obit SCHOOL OF THE ARTS of the American independent on the wall in any form distinguishable from Film Is the Art Form Hollywood-if not today, then tomor- row. The energies that found expression That Defines Our Time there will e ither have to bow to the demands of \"the market\" or, more At Tisch, we believe the study of film likely, move into other forms more develops analytic skills, hones crit- amenable to the artist-outsider. My ical thinking, and broadens own bet wou ld be on a combination of perspectives. video/computer synthesis, done on home-level equipment such as the Film Is a liberal Art Super VHS, Beta ED, or video 8 formats interfaced with Amiga or Atari or the Because film is truly an inter- new generation Macintosh computers disciplinary art form, our program for graphics and music. These tools , includes the study of related sub- utilized with the same iconoclastic jects such as art, history, and psy- mind-set that distinguishes the real chology as well as·film production. independent, offer the same aesthetic As a result, our students also get a elasticity and toom for creative cost broadly based liberal arts education. cutting that formerly made 16mm film such an advantageous format. As this Indeed, the diversity and nature of shift occurs, doubtless pressures for our program has given Tisch its out- developing channels for distribution standing reputation in the world of the arts. The money-mindedness Moreover at Tisch, students study in that dominates film New York City-the most indepen- dent and aesthetically creative film production has well- center in the world. afflicted the Pooh-Bahs For more information on the Cinema Studies Program, call (212) 998-1600 of the press who or return the coupon below. presume to stand guard Tisch School of the Arts Please send me information on the Cinema Studies New York University Program. at the gates ofculture. 721 Broadway, 7th Floor New York, N.Y.lOOO3 o Graduate 0 Undergraduate and exhibition will give rise to elec- o Junior Year in New York 0 Summer Sessions tronic equivalents to the film co-ops of Attn.: Roberta Cooper the Sixties. And in the change to this Nme _______________________ different format , the nature of the rela- tionship between artist and viewer will Address _______________________ also shift, with the genuine artist find- ing avenues far removed from either the City _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ routine of network television or the flash State/Zip Code ___________________ OfMTY. Telephone _____________________ To think that such a development would happen autonomous ly from the New York University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution. FC Jan./Feb. 89 general drift of our culture would be naive: Art seldom materializes out of a vacuum. And while it may be pre- maturely optimistic, one senses a cer· tain dismay, an uneasiness with the cultural (not to mention social/political) offerings of the past years and present. As yet unfocused and unsure, this nev- ertheless promises a future eruption of pent-up energies and ideas. The action , when it comes, wi ll be some- where far from the cynical canyons of L.A. Or so one might hope. ~

Love in the Nineties Coming Attractions by Karen Jaehne Gone With the Wind . Part II) with, prenuptial agreements, workaholism, \"Frankly, my dear, the couple therapist and prophylactics . Looking for a tar- W hat will love look like in a just hasn ' t impacted to our mutual get, it all began with Kubrick replacing \" kinder, gentler nation\"? benefit. ... \" ? bombshells with the Bomb. More uxorious bonzos on their way to bed? Or updated jock-bozo Clinches in close-up see m almost We must remember this: A Kiss is a Dennis Quaid and boll weevil queen Cro-Magnon, as does the cheesecake now a Prince song. A sigh is , truly just a Jessica L ange honey-sucklin' their way allure that once promised romance and sigh, and fundamental things apply for through E verybody's ALL-American till love, if not marriage and time pay- first marriages, as time goes by. Lauren death did they part-but not soon ments. Casablanca , even if it were pro- Baca ll and her silky ilk used to lead enough for the audience? Or will the duced again , could never recapitulate with the hip ; today's stars advance New Sensitive Male version of Rhett itself, because love and other reasons of through a body Qouble darkly. Love is bid Scarlet ad ieu (in the forthcoming the heart have been jailed by liberation , spoken of as an investment with bal- sex and love placed in adjoining ce lls, ances and yields assessed in the \"what Preston Sturges replaced by Bob Guc- have you done for me lately?\" state- cione, and marriage subjected to Cos- ment. Why, Wall Street showed how mopolitan strategies of entrapment, love was just another option on the com- modities exchange. Die Hard , however, shows a die-hard hubby wasting terrorists just to get his wife to change her name back to his , which ought to tell us 'what men want. ' While Every body's All-American argues that the only true love is chaste love, th at's only as long as boys grow up to be 'old boys' and women wax wins- ome. One of the funnier boys-will-stay- boys angles on love was offered in Big, where charming Tom Hanks made a strong case for men's perpetual child- ishness. Even Sam Shepard, the pokiest of all cow pokes, makes hi s itch- ing dames in Far North ask, \"Where are aJl the men?\" Sam says they' re not



lookin' to be branded. The soon-to-be crouched in its foxhole all through major motion, Steel Magnolias , will Someone to Watch Over Me, Broadcast show us why. In the War Between the News, and Punchline and resurfaced in Sexes, marriage is the new DMZ. ways thought obsolete after Norma Rae or The Way We Were . Anybody would be-everybody should be-worried about the future of Hardly a female worth her missing Y love. With Barbara's Bush replacing chromosome can resist writing about Nancy's Reagan , it all sounds a bit like this 'find-a-man-and-mate' phenome- Jaws II: just when you thought it was non , which seems to be a throwback of safe to get back into bed .. .. Are prep- the magnitude of June Allyson. Why is pies with names like Muffy and Scud- it so disturbing-Dther than for reasons die going to lead love into the 21st of social/economic/political delusions? century? Or will it be Tama's pajamas? Romance is bad because it's fun, and fun isn' t funn y. In Punchline, it denies It's an unwise seer who prophesies the attraction in the first instance and love in Beve rly Hills , so between here asserts collegiality, which is fine for and there we consulted psychics , palm- feminism, good for PG ratings and readers , astrologists , phrenologists, Dr. ancillary sales, and instant horror for Ruth, and fortune cookies before find- anybody who contemplates Sally Field ing the scary crystal ball of Sandra and John Goodman breeding. More Bernhard. Bernhard , who stars in the family business is coming in Bud film of her off-Broadway one-woman Yorkin's Love Hurts, as an ex-hubby show, Without You , I'm Nothing , gave us tracks down his ex-wife for a painful permission to don her pointy hat and family reunion of attractive opposites. Madame Sousatzka shawl only after It's not love that hurts, it's the family. summoning and sizing up the ghosts of Animal amour: Gorillas in the Mist... Love Past. In the need-we-say-more depart- ment, from She's Having a Baby to Sandra tells us of a strangely pres- Adrian \"Snort Another\" Lyne to the Unfaithfully Yours, from A Cry In the cient experience in her Confessions of a indestructible , batty famil y in Beetle- Dark to The Good Mother , love leads to Pretty Lady that could stand as a sce- juice , we trace the restoration of The babies , and good babies need good nario of love to come: \"O ne nigh t I got a Family. We even find Whoopi Goldberg mommies and daddies. Make that good ride home with a French guy who lecturing on it in Clara's Heart. Why, in daddies, as proved by Three Men and a turned out to be a parking attendant at the upcoming Batman , Robin was Baby. In this genre, love without the Rainbow. He started kissing me as rumored to be hi s wife-an absurdity babies is as heinous as babies without we pulled away from the party and dispelled by casting Jack Nicholson as love. The best face you can put on talked me into letting him come up. I The Joker, an update of sorts on his ax Hollywood's rediscovery that sex leads was sharing an apartment with a bisex- work in The Shining. Yet Marital Love inexorably to babies 'is the underlying ual guy I met in beauty school, who had prescription to the 25- to 40-year-olds built himself a tent in the living room to grow up. (Fortune-cookie Confucius with its green-and-blue shag carpet, say: \"Women afraid to grow out also and carried on with an assortment of afraid to grow up. \") creeps. The French guy slept next to me in the bedroom and the next morn- As the population is dragged kicking ing insisted we have sex. There's noth- and screaming over the 40-year-old ing worse than a dry fuck with a hump, love may look like reasonable consolation for the onscreen lack of sex, stranger. drugs, and rock ' n' rollers and the \"Two weeks went by, and I woke up exchange of panting for Pampers. Only director Bob Balaban has the meat- with what I believe was the first case of cleaver mind to see parenthood as a herpes in L.A. I had to pour water over metaphor for cannibalism. His Parents myse lf as I peed , it burned so bad. I are the sort of folks who, when they cried to the doctor, who reprimanded have someone over for dinner, make the me and told me I'd have to live with it. event all consuming. And I have, and have remained fright- eningly faithful to a Frenchman I have Where love still writhes, it's never seen agam. weirder than ever. Maybe it's just \"I have,\" she concludes, \"what I the flying leap of\"screenwriters at find- would describe as a plunging V-neck ing a 'hook,' but we've seen some mys- depression.\" Ditto, darling. terious mating latel y. Otherworldly beings looked hot when Sigourney T he ghostly specter of Marital Love ...orWe Think the World of You. Weaver first undulated under their is the salient feature on the land- energy in Ghostbusters-so good that scape of amour. From The Untouchables the whole cast is promised for the (the influence of David Mamet on wid- sequel, including the invisible hulk- owdresser Brian De Palma) to the boiled bunny of Fatal Attraction by 48