VOLUME 19 - NUMBER 06 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1983

Shepard as Chuck Yeager in The Right Sruff. by David Thomson someone more fearsome than the own peril, even if he is passing through movies' thrilled lies about wickedness. in a beat-up Chevy with the Who blast- You see him in action and you notice it's a ing away the freeway blitz. double action with two opposites happen- But somehow, nevertheless, he can- ing simultaneously. You notice the jace just not give pictures up. His sternness Shepard's grinding dislike of the being ajace and nothing more or less than wants to be tested against their deca- movies is too fundamental and cruel to ajace andjor that reason it becomes more dence. When his latest play, Fool jor spare itself. It is a curse, but he is starv- oja jace but don't worry. Love, was delayed in its opening at San ing for it. He may have his house in Francisco's Magic Theatre, there were Marin County, and prefer to act in films -Sam Shepard, \"The Escapes of some theater people, hostile to movies, made away from Hollywood and beyond Buster Keaton\"· who watched Shepard's prolonged serv- the dumbest industrial conventions. But ice on Phil Kaufman's The Right Stuffand he is by now almost as regular an actor- You know when you look at him-or, regretted an important playwright in Days oj Heaven, Resurrection, Rag- after a while, in his ungiving and daunt- squandering his ability and his time. gedy Man, Frances-as he is hidden, ing presence-that if ever Sam Shepard Why was Shepard so intent on acting in numb and tense, a stark screen pres- gets to be a movie star it will require pictures, when he snarled so often at ence, attractively dangerous to many American pictures to commit an outrage their flimsy pretense? How could he let women, but denying himself facility or on themselves. For the moment then, himself be photographed for hours on charm. His restraint struggles to recon- he is an empty face and a buried threat in end, all sweat and makeup , out in the cile a simultaneous contempt and need his films. But still a threat. He has such Mojave Desert, and endure the hotel for movies. The uneasiness hovers be- an aversion to being liked ; it is an insult life of film crews getting into the mil- tween passion and foolishness, between that might start a fight. He may not lions of budget, when he was the author the lack of skill and a monolith of intrac- encourage antagonism , but he will not of this most pitiless, acute, self-right- tability. permit the softness in amiability. His eous haiku about Los Angeles? harshness insists that kindness is a lie. This fall, Shepard comes to the He keeps his mouth shut, too mean with people here screen in his best film and his greatest smiles to show his imperfect teeth. So have become test: as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff. his head hangs, the lips hook on to one the people None of his earlier films has had as much another and eyes swivel toward you, like they're pretending to be\" use for him. At over 3 hours and $25 a bad horse sensing a coming rider. It is And wouldn' t that be more than bleak million, The Right Stuffgrew larger on its smartness if it could find a way, in ten own ambition and ingenuity-so large it paranoia searching for its grievance. It is wired words , to admit that its writer in- could determine the future of the Ladd habits Los Angeles , too , in his imagina- Company. Moreover, though its chief a frightening face , ready to stare a cam- tion? Still , it does say \"here\" and not subject is the astronauts, Yeager is the era down and put a crack in its violet \" there;\" it has half an intuition of his apple of Kaufman's heroic eye. He has blooming. Sam Shepard could play 49

Shepard breaks the smile barrier in Days of Heaven. started getting strange reactions from the other kids. They would look straight built the no-nonsense test pilot of the 'eventual astronauts were lesser men, at my teeth and a fear would creep into late Forties, the man who broke the creatures of pluck and publicity. their eyes. I'd forgotten how bad my sound barrier as if getting an aloof girl Whereas Yeager had been all the more teeth were. How one of the front ones into bed, into a bridging figure for Amer- admirable for being a stranger to Amer- was dead and brown and overlapped the ican tradition: the Cowboy in the X-I. ica at the time of his exploits. The Right broken one right next to it. I'd actually Just as the \"right stuff' is advertising Stuff is not simple-minded support for come to believe I was in possession of a humbug, so real heroes live out of the the space program. It is a rueful, comic full head of perfect pearly Burt Lancas- light, unsung and unsold, y~t succumb- vision of a TV land where heroics have ter-type of teeth. I didn't want to scare ing from their distance and their neglect become media spectaculars. Shepard's anyone so I stopped grinning after that. I to the fraud of celebrity. Like True West. Yeager is the last unknown hero. He is only did it in private. Pretty soon even The Right Stuff is an ironic title, as sour as lean with integrity in the cockpit, a man that faded. I returned to my empty your taste buds qre to take it. They are tattered and torn by fire, blast, and the face. ,,** both studies in how the American media big G-an archetype so devoid of acting smother a noble strangeness in hype. that he is proof of virtue. • Kaufman determined to build up Yet this is a major movie, and there is a In nearly every respect, The Right Stuff Yeager's role, to make him the old mas- crazy incongruity in Shepard's fly-boy is fair with history. Most newspapers and ter of flight, and to cast Shepard because being so much less bouncy and endorse- magazines have played the two-card he knew and admired Sam the difficult, ment-conscious than the real Yeager. trick of side-by-side faces ofJohn Glenn independent maker of plays, apparent When Shepard smiles with a shaky and Ed Harris. The movie has true enemy of publicity, rodeo rider and wild warmth such as he has never before NASA and newsreel footage cut into its spirit, a hero for the director to believe dared on screen, that courage cakes us in. When William Goldman wrote the back to the mirror-games of his youth: own recreations and the Jordan Belson first screenplay for The Right Stuff, he views of space from an excited point of dropped Yeager. Kaufman reinstated \"I remember trying to imitate Burt passage. The actors cast as Ike and LBJ him, returning to Tom Wolfe's scheme, Lancaster's smile after I saw him and are as faithful as cartoon court drawings and he so enlarged Shepard's part that Gary Cooper in Vera Cruz. For days I on the evening news. Some of the movie there was an idea at one point to release practiced in the back yard. Weaving was shot at Edwards Air Force Ba.se, the the picture in two parts: the Yeager story, through the tomato plants. Sneering. place where Yeager broke the sound bar- and that of the first seven astronauts. Grinning that grin. Sliding my upper lip rier and test pilots made ready to be up over my teeth. After a few days of astronauts. Everyone watching The If Shepard is a forbidding hawk on practice I tried it out on the girls at Right Stuff shares in its panorama of screen, less subtle than rocky, then he is school. They didn't seem to notice. I America between 1947 and 1962, satiric material for Kaufman's feeling that the broadened my interpretation until I but proud, mocking and romantic, a gonzo Bayeux tapestry, as fast, crammed and nostalgic as the \"News on the March\" that did its orbit on C. F. Kane, but the right gen all the same. It departs from its own duty to fact in one central way, the element of the movie most precious to Phil Kaufman: its boosting of Chuck Yeager with Sam Shepard's impassive self. The one is as long and gaunt as Gary Cooper; the other was what \"Chuck\" sounds like, a bundle of energy to fit inside an aircraft, and a man now nearly as available for TV commercials as John Madden or John Houseman. Shepard's Yeager would be better nicknamed \"Spike,\" \"Hoss,\" or \"Crow.\" Like the two latter, characters from Shepard's 1972 play The Tooth of Crime, he fixes on something more ob- scure and less jolly than Life magazine, a tickertape parade, and tea with the Ken- nedys. He wants the secret assurance of power; he is the paranoid who wants to draw his own warped sensibility over the crooked world like a used sheet of Saran WrapTM. He is taller than the others, and more apart. When we first see Yeager at a sunset silhouetted funeral, he is away from the clutch of mourners, a straight 50

shape next to the spreadeagle of a t\\veen Gary Coope r and John Ga rfie ld coaxi ng fro m under the tree , and dragging Joshua tree cactus. He does ride a horse; (by The Court Martial ofBilly Mitchell out his brother toward the darkness of their his aircraft are upercharged extension ofAir Force), a Forties kind of a guy, in a mother; in Rebel Without a Cause , an of that old prairie locomotion , hoss- leather fl yi ng jacket, seeking to prove edgy mastermind in the planetarium , power. And he is as stone-faced as we the non-existence of the \" barrie r\" in re- appare ntl y try in g to save Plato, but act- would expect \"Crow\" to be. There are turn for a steak dinne r, $283 a month , ing like hi s nemesi ; in Giant slamming names like warnings, so sta rtling that no and the warm-eyed promise of his Rock Hudson in the stomach. tremor of music is needed-like th e \"G la m o ro us Glennis\" (Ba rb a ra mention of \"Comanch\" and \"Sca r\" in Hershey). I think Kaufman picked Maybe Shepard che ri shed the Dean The Searchers , a film in which Shepard's Shepard for the way he repre e nts the who wa nted love and understanding; grimness could easily supplant Wayne, movie sta r as real man and existentialist, maybe. But it's th e in stinct for authority surely killing Natalie Wood, and at the a dramati st whose plays have not been and the violent turmoil in Dean that end being not so much a windswept sold to Hollywood and who was for yea rs speak ou t in She pard's plays . Phil Kauf- curve of fine solitariness as a jagged wary of Broadway production. A rebel man, th ough, had cas t Shepa rd a littl e in Joshua , sca rred by lightning, but not with a cause. the way one puts a poster on one's wall , quite dead yet. for \" His inte nse dedication to the manly • life, rejectin g New York, the taste for The real Chuck Yeager was a special cowboys and rodeos- and all with the adviser on The Right Stuff, and he is ev- One night after shooting, the directo r look of a man in a leather jacket on a erywhere the retired brigadier-general and the actor went together to see a horse meeting a jet plane in the d esert. \" making whatever killing he can on his revival of James Dean in Giant. Shepard belated fame . He's not so different from is far taller, far less tenderi zed than That is an arresting image, and Shep- today's John Glenn and Tom Wolfe's Dean . But that's another great influ- ard is all th at Kaufman wanted in The portrait of seven pilots in a kind of aerial ence, I would guess, especially in Right Stuff-a c rea tion of my th , as game show, hoping to make a deal with Dean 's darker moments: in East ofEden , quaint, private and authentic as the abo- destiny. But Kaufman's Yeager never en- ters this public competition. It is enough James Dean on the set ofGiant. for him to be best in the clear sky above a vacant desert. His only witnesses are the Furies and the rattlesnakes. He is al- most a silent movie hero , lured out of his taciturn watchfulness by an occasional \"Sure thing, honey\" to his wife, and the ritual, \" Ridley, you got any Beemans?\" to hi s best supporting mechanic before he goes against danger. Phil Kaufman has been candid about the salutary influence he wanted from his Yeager, and of how the real Sam Shepard embodied that ideal. All the film 's attention on the selling of strapped-in, urine-bag heroism required an altruistic forerunner whose Leather- stocking directness would loom over the film , like a bronze statue eroded by weather in a group of G .!. Joe dolls . This Yeager says, \"You ' re already payin' me , aincha?\" to the men from Bell Air- craft who come with packets of money to coax some pilot into the ring with the sound barrier. We know that Yeager is the name trembling on the lips of Gordo Cooper (Dennis Quaid) when he's asked who is and was the greatest pilot. And we know Gordo reckons that Yeager is too fine to mention in the rat-pack of reporters. Real heroi s m goes unde- tected ; it never owns up . Such modesty is an offense to the media , and-though the movie never quite grasps it-it de- fies the art of show-and-tell. The largest irony to the picture is that it has to broad- cast the ineffable. The icon is as enigmatic as possible. But he cannot help being a cross be- 51

With Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection. the end of desire. I am supposing that The Searchers is rigines crouched beneath John Glenn's Searchers. I say ruinous, but it is also a first orbits. Shepard's narrow face and spinal preoccupation, the chief force in of special significance to Shepard. Why? hunter eyes, shut up in his helmet, his work, and the pressure that lets us Because he was twelve when the picture make an unnerving ponrait of fight or feel something upright but crooked in was released. Because Natalie Wood flight. He is a figure worthy of Stephen his face and figure. When the uncle in had just come from Rebel Without a Crane, scorched and bloody, staggering The Searchers as last comes upon his Cause and was never more potent for across the desert after his crash. He is as grown niece, there is a tension greater young men in love with a Dean dead yet austere and as naive as Gary Cooper's than anything John Ford ever at- as urgent as Scar. Because Shepard Alvin York: the winning public presenta- tempted. It is as if the director famous quoted from Alan LeMay'S original tion of terminal shyness. And Shepard for his knowingness was not quite sure novel The Searchers in the program for has never been more appealing or sexy what to do next. Fool for Love. Because its sense of un- on screen, even if in one important bearable family load is so like the atmo- scene with Barbara Hershey he is still Ethan could kill the girl in the rose- sphere of Shepard's plays. And because reluctant to give of himself. She makes a red dress, shoot her, or dash her head Ethan's cross-purposes serve as a meta- great deal out of a sketch of a part. And against a boulder. He could rape her: he phor for Shepard's tangled feelings Shepard watches over her pained decla- holds her high up in the air as if some- about the movies. For if a young man ration-about the difficulty of being his thing in him wanted to pull her loins searches for the movies, he may hate wife-like someone dreaming of some- down on his head and let her defiled them enough to kill or abuse them, and thing else, only listening to now's emo- (but still Bud Westmore-ized) looks feel his scorn is all the greater because he tion out of wintry politeness. his sharpness. Rape obliterates rape, for knows he wants to sleep with them; and even within the conventions of Warner yet he realizes there is no declining the Good as The Right Stuff is, it doesn't Bros. in the mid-Fifties, we know that challenge-once seen, the movies must address the darkness in Shepard's head. Scar has put his sexual brand on Natalie be pursued-otherwise the man must That is worth saying just because of Wood. Ethan is also angry and desperate go away to die. Kaufman's wish to employ the true She- because his own purpose is exhausted. pard, which surely involves the world of What will the searcher do when the So Shepard is an ex-movie kid , Buried Child, True West, and Fool for desert is empty, except linger on the haunted and horrified by the desires that Love . threshhold, turn away and pray that the pictures established in him. He cannot eclipsing, closing door will shoot him in help being caught between Burt Lan- • the back? If incest or murder cannot be caster's varnished grin and his own managed, then the man mustgo away to empty face. He responds to the en- As I interpret it, Shepard's attitude to die. Ethan Edwards is the victim of his chantment of the movies, but he de- movies (and to acting) is as complicated, own mythological quest. Satisfaction is spises them for being a cheat. In particu- as contradictory, and as ruinous as Ethan lar, he falls on acting as being the Edwards' regard for his niece in The greatest impediment to unflawed integ- rity. How is it that the most sublime experience in and of movies, theater, or stardom is a matter of pretense? Like actors, we are empty and null if we don't have some intense search, or play, to be committed to. Now we're acting the partners in love Now we' re acting the estrangement Now we're acting the reconciliation Now we're acting that the reconcilia- tion was a success Now we're acting that our love has been deepened by the crisis Now we're acting that we're both in endless harmony Now we're acting that one of us has been injured But we're not saying which one Now one of us is acting the pain of premonition Now we are acting the leaving Now I see you in anguish Now I watch you leaving Now I feel nothing·\" or: Even though you see it's a hoax 52

We continue as though it isn' t no matter Shepard's fondness for the that he wou ld not have to talk to the real West, for wild ho rses, ranching and a press. Is he afraid of having to defend or Even though we're duped cowboy hat, he app rec iates that the explain his \"provoki ng such stupid illu- We agree to continue.\"· West is a stucco set for epics in which sions\" in public? Or is his own estimate heartfelt song easily picks up a bogus of life so misanthropic th at he can let Those cool diagnoses of solipsism are echo. True West is a title from ga llow him self off as a numb idiot who does th e offset by the \"Now . .. Now ... Now,\" humor, about a West re-made by charla- ridi culous, se lf-des tru ctive things- a that present-tension of movies, the ec- tans, just as likely to yield itself to the fool for life ? stasy in being carried along on the crest drunken novice Lee as to the experi- of time, aglow in its adrenalin. It's the enced, \"sincere\" sc reenwriter, Austin. Within the poem just quoted, there is ex-movie kid who wants that rush and so Like The King of Marvin Gardens, True su rely a nod towards the \" tragedy\" of acts in one picture after another, despite West suspects that the most characteris- Frances Farmer, another girl from the his agreement with himself never to be tic American artist may be the confi- Seattle area. Is it worse to be real but a actorly, neve r to smile as a way to be dence man , not the dedicated author. stand-in , marooned in the rainy North- liked . It's the kid who remembers King They both lie, after all, but the author is west, suicidal and untouched by star- Solomon 's Mines : \"The Rialto Theater more di shonest because he knows his dom, or to be a famous crazy who went was dark and mu sky in the middle of the every falsehood. The confidence man is away from home and caused such a stir day and I entered the world of the movie still passionate and innocent. Innate that \"they\" cut out part of her head ? so completely that the theatre became a wisdom for Shepard is always anti-intel- Does it make much difference? Shepard part of its landscape. \" That's the adult lectual. has time and again returned to this who can still sing or roar at iII-pro- wicked choice-be a star or be yourself, grammed desert drive-ins: True West is a warning to anyone going be known or unknowable-and he may Hollywood : Let your no-good brother suppose that he is exploring it himself in I keep pray ing go instead . But just as the brothers are making more films while refusing to for a double bill locked together, parts of one person , so own up to them. But it is a prison with- of Shepard has been deaf to his own advice out escape. In the context of the plays, it BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK and to all the bullets he has kept in the is a measure of the eternal indecision and dead-eye gun that shoots up the HOL- over crying out or staying mute, being of VERACRUZ·\" LYWOOD sign. the famil y or going into exile. In his play This is a man-kid who carried movie- Angel City, the character Miss Scoons lore into his life. On a train once, in the In Motel Chronicles, there's a poem spells out a loathing of the way movies diner, aged nineteen , he saw, \"A Tues- (from Seattle in 1981 , of an adventure on expose the inadequacy of life. It's as if day Weld-type-of-blonde girl, maybe Frances) about meeting the \"Star's their illusion of reality was precisely the fifteen , in bare feet ... reading a thick stand-in\" in a 4-A.M. hotel elevator. The trick that had made selfhood impossi- green book and dawdling with a salad.\" lady was stoned on valium and white ble: He had already got a crush on Tuesday wine, for this was the last day ofshooting from a 1V talk-show where she came on and she had reckoned to fuck someone \" I look at the screen and I am the in bare feet: \" I thought she was the on the crew, screen .... I look at the movie and I am Marlon Brando of women.\" In this the movie. I am the star. ... For days I dream , images are verified by other im- since this was her home town am the star and I'm not me. I'm me ages. He talks to her. Her book is a and she'd be staying right here being the star. I look at my life when I History of American Suicide. They while we'd be moving on come down . ... and I hate my life when make love in her stateroom and she and the agony of being just a local I come down. I hate my life not being a jumps off at Salt Lake City, her bare feet movie. I hate my life not being a star. I hitting the gravel. Shepard dreams of sta nd-in hate being myselfin my life which isn't a her father, with \"a Sterling Hayden left behind movie and never will be. I hate having to face\" coming after him and leaving him in a town she ached to be out of eat. Having to work. Having to sleep. in the desert mutilated: was bearing down on her now Having to go to the bathroom. Having to \" I' LL BE MUTILATED LIKE OSIRIS with real force get from one place to another with no AND THIS BLONDE LITTLE ISIS WILL and it made me suddenly re-ashamed potential. Having to live in this body COME SEARCHI NG FOR MY PARTS. of being an actor in a movie which isn't a star's body and all the time PIECI 'G ME BACK TOGETHER. IT at all knowing that stars exist. \" WILL TAKE HER YEARS TO FI 0 ALL and provoking such stupid illusions MY MEMBERS AND STILL MY MOST so I took her to my room The constructive, humane hope PRIVATE ORGANS WILL HAVE ES- with no designs on her body might be to have this spiral broken-for CAPED HER, FLOATI G DOWN THE at all Miss Scoons to walk out on her neurosis COLORADO RI VE R DEEP INTO MEX- and she was desperately disap- in the way that Nora slams the door on ICO. SHE'LL FOLLOW THE RI VE R. MOURN I G MY FRACTURED CO RPSE. pointed the doll 's house. But Shepard's sensibil- HOLDI NG MY SEVE RED HEAD P TO tried to throw herself out my window ity is grimmer. He does not subscribe to THE MOON AND f\\IOANI G AS SHE I said look it's not worth it health or redemption. As a playwright, FLOATS. THE SOU 0 OF HER LA· it's just a dumb movie he has been trapped by the end game of MENT WILL FILL THE GRAND CAN- she said it's not as dumb as life·\" Waitingfor Godot in which the characters agree to leave, bu t do not actually move. YO .\" '\" Ju st as Shepard has the knack of pick- In all his best plays, Shepard proves the ing up suicidal women, so they push hold of his drab domestic prisons. His It could be a Peckinpah film (Bring him closer to self-hatred. This was the people cannot dissolve their bonds of Me the Head of. .. ), and it suggests that only actor on The Right Stuff whose con- relationship and memory. It is only tract with Chartoff-Winkler specified 53

Ed Harris and Kathy Baker in Fool For Love. Jim Belushi and Gary Cole in True West. within the concept of family that we solved. Everything dissolved. \"'*'** tance by the medium so that it is beauti- cannot fuck those we desire, or rid our- ful as well as dreadful. selves of those we hate. Escape was a phantom, a projection in the windscreen. Vince is master of the It is a pinnacle of theater (the play In Fool for Love, though they are house now. When his grandfather dies, must now stop), but it has a clash of somewhere as transient as \"a motel he arranges the corpse and then lies reality and ritual that bespeaks Shep- room on the edge of the Mojave down in imitation of it. The voice of the ard's many hours watching movies. Like Desert,\" the half-brother and half-sister grandmother spills down the stairs, an a horror picture, it is a finale in which we cannot get away from their tirading bat- inane chant about the corn growing in cannot intervene. It is something that tles or their illicit love. The somber, the sun and the rain-a lyric on the can only be witnessed, and thus its trem- alcoholic figure of their father has been richness of the ground. And while the bling plausibility is sidestepped. It is the on the rim of the stage all the time, just litany creaks on, the lights dim and magic of the movies to realize the imag- out of the light, but conjuring their \"Tilden appears ... dripping with mud ined. A scene that is heavy on a stage frenzy. In Shepard's own screw-tighten- from the knees down. His arms and floats on the screen. A Shepard play un- ing direction of his play, the room was a hands are covered with mud. In his peels the suppressed disaster in family metal box that boomed like stage thun- hands he carries the corpse of a small life and lets the characters feel as der when the inmates beat on the walls. child at chest level, staring down at it. stricken and helpless as people watching Just as incest is the one love affair too The corpse mainly consists of bones a movie. Even in the theater, Shepard knotty to forget, so it is the one thought tries to transcend real space and time, siblings cannot breathe. A brother and wrapped in muddy, rotten cloth. \"'*'** and real emotion in the audience; he sister must cannibalize each other .in wants the play to resemble a dream and fearful evasion of the subject. This is not the easiest conclusion to us to feel like sleepwalkers. handle. The sound of too much ordure- In Buried Child, the house becomes a like mud dropping on the stage can be In True West, Austin wants to get away mausoleum and the family is reassessed disconcertingly humorous; there is an from the house. He says he'll untie Lee as a night of the living dead. Father edge of melodrama in Shepard's plays if only the dangerous brother will give Dewis and Shelly, the two outsiders, that can embarrass the reality of a the- him a start. He loosens the ropes he's leave. Vince, the heir, tried to escape. ater. Nor is it obvious what Tilden is used to tie Lee; he drops the end of the He drove as far as Iowa, but he saw his carrying. The stage directions know rope that could still be tightened; he face in the rain-washed windscreen, and something that many in the audience whispers his brother's name; no answer. in that dissolvy image he recognized his cannot see. Give Tilden a lifelike father, his grandfather: \"And it went on corpse, complete with styrofoam de- \"Austin considers, looks toward exit, like that. Changing. Clear on back to cayed flesh, and the spectator feels the back to Lee, then makes a small move- faces I'd never seen before but still rec- trick as well as the horror. He becomes a ment as if to leave. Instantly Lee is or. ognized. Still recognized the bones un- kind of stage manager, estimating how his feet and moves toward exit, blocking derneath. The eyes. The breath. The to muddy the actor up in the wings with- Austin's escape. They square off to each mouth. I followed my family clear into out noise and how to furnish a corpse for other, keeping a distance betweeen Iowa. Every last one. Straight into the a long run. This closing tableau would them. Pause, a single coyote heard in Corn Belt and further. Straight back as work best on the screen where one distance, lights fade slowly into moon- far as they'd take me. Then it all dis- quick close-up would satisfy grisliness light, the figures of the brothers now and where the display is held at a dis- appear to be caught in a vast desert-like S4

landsca pe, they are very still but watch- Sam Shepard keeps coming back ro the alight, roaring, vib rati ng, and with out ful for the next move, lights go slowly ro house: interva l) was as close to the force of black a the after-image of the brothers He is beautiful in profile, and fright- movie a theater ca n come; pulses in the dark , coyote fades.\" ening full-face, and he knows it; Ed Harris and Kathy Baker in that • The picture business calls for a lot of production were so much more intense I have tried ro wonder about Sam impermanence : hotel s, motel s a nd than anything they do in The Right Sruff Shepard like this, tried ro connect his trailers ; -so Shepard knows he has a fastball ro elusive film prese nce and the after-im- There are Tuesday Weld s and Jess ica com mand the majors; age of his plays, because he is valuable Langes in and around film; He is obsessed with glamour, sex, for the movies. For five yea rs or so, he Movies offer a kind of money that can violence, power, and the su ltriness of has been prowling around the hou se of let a writer think he has bought future appearance that does not need ro ex- cinema, coming in a little way, armored time for harder work, even if he never plai n itself (in short, tras hiness); with disdain , slipping out, but coming quite gets to use it; He is asked . back, as if it intrigued and tempted his Movie is one of his gods, in the way But more than all of these, film is a large talent. And movies need him , for that a very old Noble laureate for poetry hou se with a mirror where th e empty his talent and because of the change that or gene-slicing might still want to pitch face can see the child buried in itself. • would be necessary in them for him ro in the majors ; be a sta r or a writer. .. or a direcror. But Film is the source of the legend which SAM SHEPARD: as with all prowlers, there remains a most perplexes and beckons him, the B. Fort Sheridan, Illinois, 1943 , No- doubt as to whether this roaming , West; vember 5, 2.47 a. m. \" I plunged into the wolfen , mongrellurcher wants to live in It is a medium that regularly confronts world head first and, although covered the house or tear it to pieces with his celebrity and the unknowable , and with blood , m y attitude was ve ry jaws and then howl at the desert moon , which has its own elite corps of famous friendly. I was not a mean person then .\" queen of dead worlds. mysteries, not least Howard Hughes, Parents separated: \"My Dad lives The prowler see ms to know that hi s the model for Henry Hackenbush in alone on the dese rt. He says he doesn' t own unspeakable child is buried some- Shepard's Seduced; fit with people. \" where in the hou se-or kept there, a Film is a light that pulses in the dark; Lived in Guam, Duarte, California long-run corpse with its grooved bed , its impact is that of the after-image (\"it's dry, flat, cracked and stripped like Mrs. Bates in Psycho (a tale that Shepard has so often sought on stage; down\"), Wyoming, New York, England, unfolds in prime Shepard terri ro ry, the In Foolfor Love, he himself directed a Marin. highway-motel strip between Phoenix production in which the stage (alive, \" Before establishing him self as a play- and L.A.). Shepard's plays are like film noir: their inscape of violence, crime, and disorder has never heard of law or the police. The protagonists are alone with one another and with what they have done. The gods in Shepard 's wasteland have been cars and highways, the desert and its bitter, hardened crea- tures, sex, booze, Rock and its mon- sters , the movies and their ghosts. De- spite his first debt to avant-garde theater in New York, to open and living theater, Shepard has increasingly identified him- self with the phantoms ofthe West-the way that buttes in Monument Valley must be structures in the land , infinite symbols and sticks of hash . Like any helpless schizoid, Shepard has been drawn into a distracted double life, im- pressing Phil Kaufman as a rodeo rider, but tormenting himself as a fake: \"The cowboy dressed in fringe with buckskin gloves, silk bandana, pale clown white make up , lipstick , eyes thickly made up and a ten gallon hat, holds the reins of his horse decked out in silver studs. The cowboy squints under hot spotlights. The gaffers all giggle. The cowboy sweats but there's nowhere for the sweat to go. He sinks to his knees and screams: 'Forgive me Utah! Forgive me! '\" • \"You're already payin' me, aincha?\" I can think of all these reasons why 55

(al5ney up (I()se allasl. wright he worked as a stable hand, a waiter, a rock musician, and an actor.\" Written with James Cagney's full cooperation, this warm, 1971: \"I don't want to be a play- thoroughly enjoyable biog- wright, I want to be a rock and roll star. raphy recounts his life and . . . I got into writing plays because I had career (\"Just a job\") more nothing else to do. So I started writing to fully and more candidly than keep from going off the deep end. \" any other book including his own autobiography and First produced in New York in 1964. features many never-before- Author of Cowboys; AngeL City; published photographs from Killer's Head; Black Bog Beast Bait; BLue Cagney's personal collec- Bitch; Action; Geography of a Horse tion, \"This Is the real Jim. Dreamer and others; of La Turista; The It's all true. It's all accu- Tooth of Crime; Curse of the Starving rate. And It's all wonder- CLass; Buried ChiLd; Savage/Love; ful!'-Ralph Bellamy Tongues; True West; FooL for Love. Illustrated with 60 photos Collaborated on screenplay of Anto- A Movie/Entertainment Book nioni'sZabriskie Point, 1969. Club Selection Did additional dialogue on and $14 ,95 played \"Rodeo\" in Bob Dylan's RenaLdo & CLara, 1977. How that man made us laugh. Played \"Farmer\" in Terrence Ma- lick's Days ofHeaven, 1978. The creator of Trouble in Paradise, Ninotchka, Played \"Cal Carpenter\" in Daniel Pe- Heaven Can Wait and other Hollywood classics emerges trie's Resurrection, 1980. in William Paul's analysis as a paradoxical genius: a Played \"Bailey, the 'Raggedy Man'\" director who sought and won enormous creative freedom , in Jack Fisk's Raggedy Man, 1981. yet carefully built his films around the social and Played \"Harry York\" in Graeme Clif- cinematic conventions of the day. . ford's Frances, 1982. \"This is film scholarship at its best.\"-from the Foreword Played '''Chuck' Yeager\" in Phil by Andrew Sarris Kaufman's The Right Stuff, 1983. \"Perhaps the best study of a single director that any Forthcoming, in William Witliff's American has ever done .\"~Stuart Byron, Village Voice Country, with Jessica Lange. In production, wrote the screenplay ERNST LUBITSCH'S forWim Wenders' Paris, Texas. AMERICAN COMEDY Shepard's real name: Steve Rogers. William Paul • \"Keith and Mick. Like brothers. Like evil sisters in disguise. The left and right hand. A two-headed beast. The music and the words. The background and the foreground. The opposite of Paul and John. The dark and the light. I've always been pulled toward dark- ness. Toward black. Toward death. To- ward the South. Good. Now I'm head- ing the right direction. Away from the quaint North. Away from lobsters and white churches and Civil War graveyards and cracker barrel bazaars. Towards the swamps, the Bayou, the Cajuns, the cot- ton mouth , the Mardi Gras, the croco- dile.\" -Sam Shepard, \"The Curse of the Ra- ven's Black Feather\"· ~ Generously illustrated, $24.95 NOTES At better bookstores ·Sam Shepard, Hawk Moon (New York: or direct from + Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1981) COLUMBIA\\iii? u ___, Motel Chronicles (San' Francisco: City Lights Books, 1982) UNIVERSITY .u___, Seven PLays (New York: Bantam, PRESS 1981) 136 South Broadway Irvington, New York 10533 56

I Remember Film School by Allan Arkush In winter of 1969 I was a junior at Professor Scorsese (center) at Moviola with Arkush (right). N. Y. U. film school. I was a very, very making\" taught by the head of the ble cast-iron cameras that had to be serious film student. The cinema was school, Haig Manoogian. I finally got wound up with a door knob because all my hands on a camera. At that time, the the keys had disappeared years ago . not fun, it was art. If it was entertaining, highly respected \"N.Y.U. Film School\" consisted of four small rooms on the Each Monday morning, the \"Funda- it was frivolous and my days of frivolou s eighth floor of a building a block and a mentals\" class met and Haig would movie-going were behind me. The cin- half from Washington Square Park. We hand out the cameras and the assign- ema had to have subtitles and my pan- had four moviolas that ate student films ments. We had three hours to shoot our theon consisted of Bergman, Antonioni, at an alarming rate and only one camera assignment film . The assignments were Resnais, Kurosawa and, most of all, Go- capable of sound. The Eclair's main on the order of: Make a film illustrating dard. All my student films were hom- drawback was that it stripped the emul- how a mechanical object works, or make ages to Godard. You can't imagine how sion from color film. The best and larg- a chase film demonstrating the cross- insufferably insular a homage to a hom- est rooms on our floor were allotted to cut. We all took turns at being director, age can be until you see a little short I the Serbo-Croatian library and study cameraman, editor, or actor. The editor made about a film student obsessed with center. Haig Manoogian coped as best stayed behind to edit last week's film . Belmondo in BreathLess. This piece, he could but all he could offer was en- As far as I know , no one ever filmed any called Truth 24 Times A Second, will re- thusiasm and a Bell & Howell Filmo. of Haig's assignments. We were much main locked in my closet forever. Little The Filmos were virtually indestructi- more concerned with our own artistic did I know that before the end of my vision. This produced an exciting crea- junior year the cinema would become 'movies and I would be dressing my roommates up as cowboys and making a western in the woods behind myoid high school in Fort Lee, New Jersey. I would return to the movies I had en- joyed as a kid-American movies-and I would like them all over again, but for very different reasons. I entered N. Y. U. as a transfer sopho- more in September of 1967. My first year had little to do with film. I had to take several compulsory courses like French, Art History, Music Theory and two truly bizarre \"science\" courses called \"Physics for Poets,\" and \"Math for Poets.\" (This is true, you can look it up.) Each \"Physics for Poets\" class would begin with an experiment. The professor would start a magnesium fire or a hydrogen explosion. This would buy him enough time to explain what happened before the film students walked out. We were only interested in how he did the pyrotechnics, not why. \"Math for Poets\" was the new math without numbers. It was a concept too abstract for me, so I used the time to balance my checkbook. On the other hand, several of my classmates took to it right away and went on to the account- ing departments of several major stu- dios. The real action began with my junior year. I got to take five film courses and French. I took \"Fundamentals of Film- 57

tive tension between our high aesthetic have each student make a couple of this hour. On the other hand, his apart- standards and our inability to read a light three-minute films, he had the class ment was very unusual. Each wall was meter. pool its film stock together and with his painted a different color-purple, yel- help, they shot a porno film. Using the low, green, etc.-and there were film The \"Fundamental\" films of the pe- school's facilities, the film cost next to cans stacked everywhere, all unlabeled. riod fall into four different genres. The nothing. He planned to find a distribu- We had to open each can to see what it most important and certainly the defini- tor and divide the profits. Everything was. Inside the oven, we found a print of tive genre was \"Walking thru worked until the department heads de- Stagecoach which he handed to me. Washington Square Park to Rock Mu- cided to review all films to determine \"Everyone loves Stagecoach but you sic.\" The Park was our Monument Val- our progress. Although they all agreed need something really weird to go with ley. We never seemed to tire of its vistas, that it was an accomplished piece of it.\" He opened the refrigerator which you didn't need a permit, afld .it was a work, the teacher was promptly sacked. was stocked with more films, orange wonderful place to find actors. A camera He fled to Florida with the negative juice, and mescaline. \"Aha, the perfect on a tripod always brought a casting call. where he distributed the film himself. film for the occasion. I guarantee it. I The definitive work featured Tarzan These Raging Loins is available in VHS or wish I could watch it with you, but I've fighting off muggers with a three-foot Beta. got to start on a term paper that's due in Hebrew-National salami. about twelve hours.\" By the end of the fall semester, the The second most popular genre was equipment was in horrible shape. Sev- Soon we screened the mystery movie. \"Gender Identity\" or \"What's My Sex- eral of the \"Trip films\" featured P.O.v. It was Little Shop of Horrors, and the ual Line.\" Students explored their own shots of people falling down flights of mad movie-collector was right. It was a sexual doubts with a candor that never stairs and out of windows. This took a perfect blend of movie, time, and place. failed to embarrass the rest of the class. terrible toll on our meager supply of Roger Corman and Chuck Griffith's The films usually featured the director Filmos. School atteiJ.9ance was growing. weird little gem had struck a chord. dressed as the opposite sex acting out Unless we got some new equipment, Once I started laughing, I couldn't stop. Jim Morrison's monologue from \"The things would be pretty grim for the (I should have known that, in terms of End;\" \"Father.\" \"Yes, son.\" \"I want to spring semester. my life, it was an augur of things to kill you. Mother, I want to aah-arghaa- come.) After Stagecoach, Marty led us in ahAAAAH.\" One very popular film • a march to the dean's office, where we showed a real hooker giving an off- stood in the courtyard and sang, \"Shall screen blowjob and then climbing into Our film history courses were also a We Gather at the River\" and \"Hail, bed with the director, her boyfriend, disgrace, because they weren't even our Hail, Freedonia.\" This convinced the and two dozen lemons. own. We had to share \"them with the rest dean to bow to our demands: new of the school who took them as a minor equipment, banishment of the Serbo- A very topical genre was \"The Trip elective, a \"gut\" course. Thus, these Croatians, and exclusive .film courses. Diary.\" There were basically two types: courses were hopelessly diluted. As The first would would be Marty's \"My Last Trip\" and \"My Present Trip.\" much as I loved Citizen Kane, I did not course, \"American Movies.\" Those The Monday morning class specialized want to see it for the 25th time and hear Tuesday afternoon classes changed my in \"My Last Trip,\" upside-down shots yet another lecture on deep focus. Kane view of movies forever. I went to work was screened in a course called \"The for Roger Corman, because the films of fire escapes, apartments, and screened in Marty's class helped me see Washington Square Park, cut to \"White Modern Cinema in Japan, India, and the kind of movies I wanted to make. Rabbit.\" The Friday afternoon class America.\" This became our \"course ce- specialized in \"My Present Trip,\" out- lebre.\" We wanted a course strictly de- Scorsese's student films were re- of-focus shots of album covers, and voted to contemporary American movies quired viewing for every incoming Washington Square Park cut to \"White to be taught by a young professor named freshman. He was Haig Monoogian's fa- Rabbit\" played backwards. It was not a Martin Scorsese. vorite, and Haig was our inspirational distinguished genre. leader, the man to whom Raging Bull Faced with this sorry state of affairs, would be dedicated. Haig was a patient Last, but not least, was \"The Hom- we did what any good radical student of and constructive film production mage.\" My The Tr1,lth 24 Times a Second the late Sixties would do: we went on teacher; Marty was just the opposite. I featured my roommate posing in front of strike and staged a sit-in. We liberated once saw him machine-gun a hopeful a Belmondo poster and trying to break the eighth floor from the iron fist of the director with this bit of criticism: \"What into parked cars. The best shot was a Serbo-Croatians. Instead of closing the do want me to say? It's a student film. It built-in fade to black that occurred when floor at 9:00 P.M., the entire student stinks!\" But when it came to teaching we blew all the fuses in my apartment. body showed up for an all-night session film history, I have never seen his equal. This film is not available for rental. of movies and whatever college kids did Before every film, he'd pace in front of at all-night sessions in the Psychedelic the class with Andrew Sarris' \"The When your film was done, you Era. We saw Rosemary's Baby, Help! and American Cinema\" 'in one hand. He'd showed it to the class and handed out an My Darling Clementine. Around 2:00 read off paragraphs or lists of pictures by essay that explained what it was you A.M., we ran out of movies and things a director. Then he'd act out scenes or were trying to express. Haig Monoogian began to look desperate. shots from a movie and connect all the and the rest of the class would offer their director's movies with an analysis of criticisms. You would go home de- Scorsese took charge. He made some theme and style. It was unlike any other phone calls, and soon I was running film history course I'd ever taken, be- pressed and try again next week. i wish across town to a sixth floor walk-up on cause it was being taught by a film- St. Mark's Place. The apartment door things were so simple today. was opened by a guy with crooked Haig did not teach all the \"Funda- glasses. He didn't think it was unusual for someone to be picking up films at mentals\" classes. The enterprising teacher of another class made a novel suggestion to his students. Rather than 58

maker, not a literature profe sor. Marty David Carradine takes a shot in Mean Streets. made me understand why as a child I had loved Rio Bravo and The Horse Sol- meant laughing till we hurt. The last \"This movie is called The Searchers and diers and taught me how to love them all place I expected toseea \" Levitch\" wasat you will never see a better western.\" overagain.Butbest, he was entertaining. N.Y.U. film school. I thought Jerry was The projector started. The black screen for kids . opened into a doorway to Monument Marty's favorite parts to act out were Valley, and a chill went up and down my John Garfield's. He would dress a little Marty thought differently: \"Don't ya spine. When this shot is repeated in re- like Garfield in topcoat, suit, tie and hat, see, don't ya see. Buddy Love is Dean verse at the end of the picture and the which set him apart from us in our hippie Martin. Professor Kelp is Jerry Lewis. door closes on the solitary figure of the garb. We sat there, spellbound, as Marty The movie is the resultofJerry's years in Duke riding away, I was crying. The acted Out entire monologues and camera psychoanalysis. He wants to be Dean class applauded loud and long. Marty movements simultaneously. We saw Martin and Jerry Lewis at the same beamed with pride and fired several him do Thomas Gomez's death scene time. This is the greatest multiple per- shots into the air. He had us hooked and from Force of Evil so many times that sonality movie ever made.\" Most of the he knew it. when Marty finally showed the picture, class thought Marty had gone too far; I we preferred his to Gomez's. thought he was right. From then on, I Marty went on to teach a summer began to take comedy seriously. I redis- filmmaking workshop and senior pro- The first film of the semester was covered Frank Tashlin and have spent duction course. Over the course of the Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor. It was a more than a few hours defending Jerry next year, N. Y. U. was in a constant state blunt, brutal, and very forceful introduc- Lewis from his detractors. I've incurred of agitation: Cambodia, a general strike, tion to American movies for the arcsy- the wrath of Jerry haters everywhere, and a National Guard takeover (the day fartsy crowd. The thunderstorm in the but I've also seen The King of Comedy before I was supposed to mix my senior corridor of Fuller's mental hospital prac- three times. project). I'm going to save these stories, tically knocked me out of my chair. including the one about how all the Marty rewound the reel and we re- The best class was yet to come. One school's cameras and Nagras disap- screened the fight scene in the kitchen day, Marty announced that next week's peared, and use them the next time I'm between the journalist and the mur- movie was Rear Window. This caused invited to speak at a film school. derous guard. Marty jumped up and quite a stir. No one had seen Rear Win- They're so much more interesting than down with excitement as he talked dow in years. Hitchcock refused to allow answering the question \"How do I get about the camera movement that any public screenings. How was Marty an agent?\" tracked the guard as he is dragged the going to pull it off? That Tuesday, the length of the food-laden kitchen class was packed. People were sitting on • counters, knocking all the food to the the floor, in the aisles, and on the radia- floor. Years later, in Mean Streets, David tors when Marty entered the room wear- P.S. Eight yea rs later, in the midst of a is dragged along the men's club bar, ing a cowboy hat and firing a cap gun particularly depressing batch of exploi- knocking glasses and bottles to the floor. into the air. ow that he had our atten- tation movies, the entire ew World ed- tion , he had a confession to make. He iting staff decided to have a student film Looking back, one of the most inter- had lied to us. We were not going to see festi va l. We all ran our student films , no esting aspects of the class was the con- Rear Window until next week. Groan. matter how embarrassing they were, for nection between the movies Marty Instead we were going to see a John a wonderful evening. The truthful na- screened and the movies he made. The Wayne western in which the Duke plays ivete of our films stood in startling con- scene he reran in The Big Heat showed a racist bastard. \" If you leave the room, trast to the calculated cheap thrills of the up in Mean Streets on a TV set. In The you fail the course,\" Marty said. Big movies we were working on. I highly Bandwagon we reran \"The Girl Hunt groan. The Green Berets was in release, recommend it for those days when you Ballet\" and marveled at Cyd Charisse's and only Richard Nixon was less popular wonder why you're in this crazy busi- grace as she slides across the subway than John Wayne. Is this what we had ness. Student films show you how far station to Fred Astaire as the lights from gone to the barricades for ? Marty you've come and where you must go to a passing train flicker across them. In guarded the only exit with his cap gun. get back and why you started. You just New York , New York, Robert De iro pauses to watch a couple dance beneath wanted to express yourself. ® the EI. Their silent ballet is illuminated by the light from a passing train. This is not to say that Marty's movies are slavish reduplications of the past. Every direc- tor I knows pays homage to the movies they love, both consciously and uncon- sciously. Our most controversial class was the one in which we saw The Nutty Professor -definitely the first screening ever of a Jerry Lewis movie at N.Y.U., and quite a few students were hoping it would be the last. Not me. My grandfather and I had spent many happy Saturday after- noons watching Lewis' antics. \"Allan, let's go see a Levitch picture,\" and this S9

The 21st NewYork The Age ofCalligraphy Forbidden . Isabelle Huppert and Miou-Miou in Diane Kurys' Entre Nous. Isa Miranda in Max Ophuls' by Stephen Harvey If New York's festival truly reflects the r currents in world cinema during the year It's dispiriting to remember way back that preceded it, then 1982-83 will go by Elliott Stein to August, when the announced lineup down as the movie Age of Calligraphy. for this year's New York Film Festival The fortnight confirmed that Andrei Since there is no wholly satisfactory prompted everyone to expect that this Tarkovsky daubs his John Hancock in way to order the array of films I saw would be the most stimulating array in water colors, and Marco Ferreri dots his during this better-than-usual festival, recent memory. Since auteurs are the \"i\"s with nipples. Such feature-length I've chosen to work my way from top to real stars of this event, the Festival cer- autographs writ on film stock celebrated bottom. So: four stars to masterpieces tainly had what Variety refers to as \"mar- the aesthetic of I-am-a-parade. It re- (or films in the vicinity thereof); three quee lure\" aplenty. Robert Bresson, mained for Hitchcock's Rear Window stars to superb and satisfying films; two Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Fran- and Ophuls' La Signora d ' Tutti to pro- stars to films of positive interest; one star cis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, and vide an eloquent reproach to all this, as to films all of which contain elements Andrzej Wajda in the leads, featuring two of film history's most determined that might justify a detour; and, finally, a special cameo appearances by Margue- stylists submitted to the discipline of the blob to films for which antipathy was rite Duras and Jean-Marie Straub, and genre rules that they then triumphantly unmitigated. the extraordinary participation of Max transcended. The contrast was enough Ophuls and Alfred Hitchcock, in their to make a reactionary philistine out of ****The number of screen love affairs is triumphant return to the screen. anyone. legion, but really convincing films about Then again, with the stellar attrac- This year's Lot in Sodpm prize-for passion are few and far between. Zsolt tions it sported, A Bridge Too Far was overwrought mise en scene ladled over Kezdi-Kovacs' Forbidden Relations supposed to be the movie epic of the nothing much in particular-goes to the (Visszaesok) is one of them. Seventies, too. And inadvertantly, many characteristically self-effacing Coppola of the filmmakers answering the casting for Rumble Fish (e). A miscegenated After her husband's suicide, a woman call of the Film Society of Lincoln Cen- compendium of every optical tic from returns to her native village. A tWice-di- ter fulfilled the same function the Con- G. W. Pabst to Koyaanisqatsi, this movie vorced tailor retums to his. They meet nerys, Ullmanns, and Redfords did should have been called That's Black' n' on the way-and fall in love. They when summoned by Joseph E. Levine. White! Coppola's overweening visuals make love. What they do not as yet Their presence, plus a glimmer of their can be easily parsed into two categories: know is that they have the same mother. patented cute personalities, was what those that convey absolutely nothing When they find out, it makes no differ- counted; any exertion to deepen their (hoods viewed from whoops-a-daisy di- ence to Juli and Gyorgy. They live to- art wasn't part of the deal. agonals, smoochers shot from the point gether and are denounced to the police by their mother. With Juli pregnant, (continued on page 65) they are put on trial, sentenced, go to 60

Film Festival Cowboys & Communists La Signora di Tutti Sonny Davis and Lou Perry in Eagle Pennell's Last Night at the Alamo. prison, and on release start up again- by Harlan Jacobson where there's still some kind of male loving, makjng babies. (The Hungarian magic in the ritual chug-a-Iug, but no mat- title means The Recidivists.) \"/ am of those who like to stay late at the ter who wins this time it won't stop the cafe,\" the older waiter said. \"With all those night from revolving. Relations is thoroughly engrossing and who do !WI want to go to bed. With all those flawlessly directed. Mikl6s B. Szekely is who need a lightfor the night.\" The surface of Alamo wants to be, and an excellent Gyorgy; Mari Torocsik (the is, taken for a lament for lost America. mother) and Lili Monori (Juli) give two -\"A Clean,Well Lighted Place\" Pennell almost wants to mine the same of the finest performances I have seen in buddy-buddy ground of Butch Cassidy, years. Monori is attractive, but with few It would be easy to miss the beauty be- but the crushing center of that film- signs of conventional beauty; her glow- hind the clatter in Eagle Pennell's Last \"Who are those guys, anyway?\"-in Al- ing face often expresses pages of unwrit- Night at the Alamo. God knows Pennell amo just diffuses into the little-boy ten dialogue. is into true grit: gritty little men, who look profanities of the characters who know like they pass around the same razor, in a even their game-preserve days are about I had never thought that the problem gritty little Houston bar about to pass out to end. of Hungarian incest would be of much of the telephone book, in a gritty mood- concern to me. Visszaesok makes no and in gritty black and white. Both Pennell and scripter Kim Henkel overt stabs at universality, but its integ- (who wrote Texas Chainsaw Massacre) rity is such that it seems to concern any The cast looks like something Jim may feel for the down-home people lovers, anywhere, whose passion impels Henson might dream up-the Texas they've stranded at the Alamo, but their them to go beyond the rules. Muppets-but they don' t talk much like resistance to progress-even in values- Muppets, at least onstage Muppets. fails as an emotional hook for this film. • They talk in streams of swear words stud- There is an air of calculation about the ded with exclamation points, so that you whole confection, and so there is less here When an interviewer remarked on the half think the Alamo is doomed because than meets the eye. No need to blow this pessimism of his latest film , Robert the people inside blew it down. film into a grand metaphor; in fact, the Bresson retorted: \"The word pessimism people who inhabit the Alamo are less in- bothers me because it is often used in- Pennell has given the Alamo-the teresting than the place. Filming it in stead of the word lucidity. \" His com- main set in what is essentially a one-act black and white may have been a function ment recalls a statement by another star play that lacks a pop-the smell of pro- of budget, or a calculated stab at rendering of the festival, William Burroughs: \"Par- cessing local beer into sweat; every time a grainy reality, but it does graphically cir- anoia is having all the facts. \" the door opens to introduce another long- cumscribe changing times: Pennell has hom maniac or saucer-eyed doll, you can created the same longing for a clean, well- In a sense, the star of L'Argent is a feel the wall of hot, wet, rancid air boiling lighted place that Hemingway so well ar- counterfeit SOO-franc note , and the out into the night air. The Alamo is a place heavy steals the show. There is large (continued next page) supporting cast of windows, doors, (continued on page 68) 61

JACOBSON (continuedjrompage 61) Helga Goetze in Rosa von Praunheim's Red Love. ticulated; it is only a measure of our loss of faith that Cowboy (Sonny Davis) can't the howls, in 1983. cut by a flaky demeanor. Unfortunately, bear to pan with a filthy, deathly-lighted And moon, she does. Goetze is some- von Praunheim's other narrative line place. taken from Kollontai is poorly con- thing of a celebrity wacko in West Ger- structed and peopled by a pair of punk Pennell has given a very imperfect many today; according to the informa- cretins, so that all feminist counterpoint movie with a kind of truth residing in the tion that tumbles out of her mouth she is lost. After a bit, whenever Goetz was iconography-everything all black into regularly gets herselfon domestic televi- offscreen and the punkers were on, the which shafts of white light and human sion. She isn't demure: She pulls up her mind would wander and encounter all characters break and criss-cross. Forget sweater to show her pudgy pancake manner of organs aviating in the ozone. the failings of the characters inside the Al- breasts she calls \"pudding\" and cele- amo, forget even that nothing much hap- brates her advancing age with the apho- • pens inside the bar or the theater; outside, rism, \"Young cunt smells young. Old the bulldozers always win. cunt ... ah-ha-ha! ... dot's like vine und William S. Burroughs remembers his cheese ... fully ripened.\" father's dying words: \"Stay out of • churches. Don't let a priest near ya \"All I want to do is fuck. I tried grow- when yer dying ... and don't ever be- Some-time ago I knew a young writer ing vegetables-organically-even be- come a cop.\" It doesn't much matter struggling to finish a novel in which the fore it was in,\" Goetz tells the camera. whether the words were ever uttered or central metaphor was a flying uterus. \"I've ruined seven children emotionally not; they belong to the mid-century Times being what they were, I nodded for this society,\" she adds, over a thirty canon of writers in shiny suits. Nelson in amazement at her ingenuity and si- year slog that epitomizes the repressive Algren has his version of the Quote-To- lently pictured the thing zipping around character of marriage-by-habit. Die-By: \"Don't play cards with anyone a sun parlor in a good home in a quainter named Doc, don't eat at anyplace called era, cavorting with an airborne scrotum This is all in service to her wish, more Mom's, and don't sleep with a woman and bemoaning the flying diaphragm than a plan, to redo sexual politics begin- crazier than you are.\" that came between them. ning with der kiddies, who should be let loose from school to have at each other All very American, all stemming from The only reason this all whizzes into for a year \"to work out their aggres- H.L. Mencken (\"You'll never lose a mind is the dramatic reappearance of the sions.\" Another facet is to erect a temple buck underestimating the brains of the very same flying uterus in a painting of prostitution in which she is head cour- American people\"), all just rewrites of done by one Helga Goetze, the subject tesan presiding over a holy place where the Declaration of Independence. The one can \"forget Mama and Papa\" and trick, of course, is to recognize the icon- of Rosa von Praunheim's Red Love. dote instead on \"long, blonde cunts and oclastic impulse to pee on God's grave twelve-inch cocks\" (God help my and turn that impulse on its head. What This plucky uterus now holds a little notes). makes Burroughs think he shits vanilla? man soldier in it and is one in a series of four-color oils done by Goetze, a 55- Goetze is mentally fleet, deeply So it's time to lionize the man, as year-old German ex-hausfrau with teeth thought out and observant, but under- Howard Brookner has done in Bur- yellow to the roots and a recently un- chained libido anything but yellow to the roots. Von Praunheim, who took his first name in homage to Rosa Luxembourg, seeks a connection in Red Love between sexual values at the close of the Russian Revolution and those of the contempo- rary and comfy good burghers of today. The director (whose previous titles in- clude among them It Is Not the Homo- sexual Who Is Perverse, Rather the Situa- tion in Which He Liyes ang Our Bodies Are Still Alive) here intercuts his mid- shot interview with the-lusty isn't the word for it, crazed is more like it- Goetze with a fictional storyline taken from a novella by one Alexandra Kollon- tai, Lenin's Minister of Culture and mistress. The idea, and I am only guessing, is that by glancing Kollonrg.i's storyline of a post-Revolutionary marriage based on deceit off the mad-genius rantings of Frau Goetze, the suddenly switchedJon ex-wife of a German bank officer, a cen- tral truth would emerge: Had the Co- mintern resolved the questions of sexual inequality then, Frau Goetze wouldn't be howling at the moon, or mooning at 62

rough s, a docum e ntary pe rfect fo r novels, vi its his fa th e r, and dies of a the punk mome nt, all re fl ections in the fa il ed li ver afte r t he fi lm is do ne; the jagge d me rc ury e d ges of a b roke n funhouse mi rro r. Brookne r gives us co n- sec retary-love r, James G rauerholz, who tours and be nt-out-of-whack hapes and pieces of information, but not much in- wanted and got associate producer credit sight on what it cost to be William S. Burroughs. But that's fin e , it's roo hard on thi fi lm , who te lls Bu rroughs' so n to to read by the sw inging naked light bulb that lit up the cell of his skull , anyway. look fo r a job in th e greasy spoon dow n From the outside , Burroughs is the the street, and who virtually confesses to Film Music Is pe rfect outside r (read : psychopath ) be- Our Forte cause he looks as if he fi ts . D ead-on, he the came ra that he i th e perfect so n to looks like the farme r in American Gothic; Exclusive Soundtrack Selections the n he begins to talk and the stuff Burro ug hs-co m pe te nt (w he re th e And Umited Editionsl slides out the ide of hi s mouth , and it's all black. T he best part of Brookne r's othe r was not) and , p resumab ly, fucka- Over 1.000,000 LP'S available: came ra, which trailed Burro ughs around In-Print and Out-of-Print, an array of in hi s St. Louis fa mily home , and his ble . imports. highly-desired reissues. and airless , refas hioned YMCA locke r- room in original casts (on and off Broadway). Ma nhattan's East Village , is the tic it If fo r no reason othe r than e nte rtain- picks up : his mouth twitches as though We offer the finest service the fl es h is shining his fro nt teeth , or me nt, Burroughs e nac ting the D r. Be n- available - monthly auctions by mail maybe hi s de ntures , by re mote co ntrol. (rare. unique titles). the only monthly way ope ration scene in a hosp ital roile t Fllmusic Newsletter \"Music Gazette\" T he re's noth ing PBS about this por- trait, as Brookne r keeps climbing facets opposite hi s transvestite nurse (Jackie For YOUR copy of our extensive of this pale rock, probing for angles that catalog. a sample of \"Music Gazette\" will yie ld a passageway inside. O ld pal C urtis) is worth the p rice of admiss ion ($2 value). and monthly auction. Lucie n Carr and Burroughs are on a Please Remit $1.00 TODAY TO: New York roofto p: that you will p ro bably never get to pay. RTS , Dept. 20F CARR : So what are yo u doing now? \"Ma ke an incision , D r. L impf,\" he B U RROUGHS: ... umm . . . giVin g P.O . Box 1829 lectures at punk-rock clubs. growls and grabs a plunger. ''I' m going Novato. California 94948 C A RR: Ye h, th at's the p ro pe r side - what about the oth e r side? to massage the hea rt\" -and p roceed s to 415/883/2179. Tues 12-4 pm B U RR OUG H S: U mm . . . [p a use , shrugs ] just goin ' [twitches ] umm . . . to send shots of catsup out like rocke ts. my me thadone cl inic. More dead e nds: the St. Louis suburb \" My whole life has bee n res istance to of his youth and his b rothe r Mortime r. \" I trie d reading Naked Lunch . .. read the Ugly Spirit,\" he re lates. And else- about half. .. It just sorta disgusted me,\" Mortime r says. Brookne r's came ra find s whe re, \"A wise old black faggo t said to Burroughs loo king around , the n straight up , tryin g to find a place in the sky to put me years ago, 'Some people are just his eyes. Earli e r, Burroughs e me rges from the shits, darling.' \" Well , in the spirit of front door of 4664 Pe rshing Ave, .whe re he grew up , to de monstrate hi s first ob- those who leave you wi th Quotes-To- session: \" . .. urn . .. lost art, calling the toads.\" H e twitches his lips. No toads Die-By, I leave you with my own: You come thi s time, but back the n it was the sta rt of a world view. can' t trust fa t me n in rum pled suits, but T he re's so much information he re, it's unfa ir to unwrap all the presents-it's all you can tru st skinny me n in shiny ones just boxes of coal, anyway. The re are people (Ca rr, All e n G in sbe rg, T e rry even less. • South e rn , Pa tti Smith , and H e rbe rt Huneke, who gave Burro ughs his first With res pect to Heart Like A shot of horse). The re's the wife he mur- d e red playing Wi lliam Tell in Mexico in Wheel , director Jonathan Kaplan's story c1Re dilm Jlna/!lsis &eries '5 1 (G insbe rg: \"She e nticed him into it, of the real-li fe stru ggle Shirley M uldow- presents a series of guides for I think , to he lp he r leave the earth \"); the screen writing study. pained son, Will ia m , Jr. , who writes two ney waged ro beco me the first profes- Each book analyzes a film in sio nal fe male drag-strip race r, we've detail, including the sequence st ructure , the plots and subplots , bee n had. Heart fi ts into the genre of act climaxes, scene structure, and the elements of theme, little film s about little peopl e that the characterization , and ...III!IP.!!'!! oaf-di stribu tor hates but the critics find , motivatio_n1. III!IfIf love, and sell to the unsuspecting. In this instance, the new management team at 20th Century-Fox revived the film after it sat half a year on the shelf, because they like this game more when the previous re- gime has to take the oaf rap. Guides are ava ilable for the following movies, as well If Heart were a film about a man want- as others: ing to break into pro-d rag racing, there would be no picture: normally intell igent · E. T- The Extra-Terrestrial human beings would say \"H ow adoles- · Gandhi cent\" and recog1)ize this hoku m as Rocky · Tootsie XlI , wi th one diffe re nce-the progta- · Raiders of the Lost Ark gonist lacks the support of the mouse-at- ' . Chariots of Fire home-spouse who loves he r and believes • Star Wars ,...-S-1-1.9--5-e-a-c-h...., she ca n d o w hat th e wo rld forbid s. • Chinatown · Citizen Kane (shipping But because its central characte r is a woman, the film is about discrimination • Casablanca included) - it's The Jackie Robinson Story again- Send check to: The Film Analysis Series and the only observation about discrimi- 5515 Jackson Drive , Suite 246 nation that seems to persist over time is La Mesa . CA 92041 that whoever is on the outside and wants For catalog , send $1 .00 .which will be refunded on first purchase. in, te nds ro make everyone feel very sexu- ally insecure. O therwise, feeding this pablum to the natives only serves to point 63

the finger at their own failure, even as it ble in The Big Chill and separately threads left dangling. around many tables in Seeing Red, shak- While Seeing Red does bring up the congratulates them for thinking the right ing their heads over where it all went and why in an eyeblink. fatal seduction of the American Com- way. munist party by the Stalinists, it doesn't This disserves both films a bit, for press the issue much beyond the level of This is no reason to sit through a film they are both about good issues and bet- grousing. As one ex-party member re- ter people. If anything, judging be- called, \"Democratic centralism: there about anyone striving to roar five hundred tween the concerns and outcomes of the was a lot of centralism, but not much Communists of the Thirties, Forties, democracy.\" Most of the film's subjects miles an hour down a quaner-mile patch and Fifties evidenced in Seeing Red and say they were consumed by the disillu- those of Kasdan's Sixties survivors in The sionment that followed Khrushchev's of asphalt in front of ten thousand loonies Big Chill, the Great Geriatric Conclusion 1956 denunciation and revelation ofSta- comes into play: .the only thing wrong linist horrors and reacted as Howard missing their front teeth and rooting for with this country that a good five-cent \"Stretch\" Johnson, the Cotton Club cigar (and a cab with a non-asthmatic prof, says \"Well, I became a Communist Death. Bonnie Bedelia breathes life into driver) couldn't cure is the irreversible with a small 'c'.\" decline in standards. the pan, but since Kaplan and screen- But why shrink from the tough ques- The film does put a human face on tions that pre-dated the shoe banger? writer Ken Friedman have pumped her American Communism as it asks of its faded champions to explain who they True, Reichert was a guest in other role into a metaphor for the American were, what they wanted, and why they people's homes, and getting anyone in drowned or were buried by the Fifties. this country to talk about their Commu- Dream, Bedelia's winning performance The Revolution having taken a powder, nist past or present tense is riskier than Seeing Red is a movie about faces you running as Head Rat on a bubonic only helps hide the thinness of the con- want over to dinner. They were and are plague platform for president. Yet Seeing nice people, their hearts are in the right Red never asks about the Moscow Trials, cept and the lateness of the news. You can place, and they put their lives on the line the Hitler-Stalin pact, the annexation of -unlike the Sixties commune-ists who Finland, Hungary, or the Gulag revela- do it-but who'd want to? made a show of putting their perquisites tions. Could none of those events es- of ~Iass temporarily in the cooler even as cape being perceived under the rubric of And since what we're talking about they utilized them to best advantage. red-baiting? The question not asked- how was it possible that you never con- here is seeking dubious distinctions, I en- That's even the subtextual complaint sidered Stalin as different from Hitler? of Seeing Red: Reichert and Klein seem -is obvious, and should have been joyed the same plotline the first time I saw almost angry that the Left they bought asked. The answer, of course, is that into in the Sixties (called the Move- hindsight does wonders for one's vision, it in lisa: She-Wolf of the S.S .. Drag-strip ment, I believe) was chimerical. The but the cost, after all, was linkage to one valid, if incompletely realized, as- Soviet behavior and the destruction and racers with the Right Stuff, you see, must pect of Sidney Lumet's workup of E. L. sacrifice of the goals of American Com- Doctorow's Daniel is its depiction of the munism, probably forever. not only possess a hean like a wheel, he or Communist Party as social function. How American it must've seemed to go Seeing Reds revision of the American she needs a brain like a brake. on a picnic, or thirty years later, a pass- Left has an odd distinction: Its strength the-reefer peace march. Having soured is exactly its weakness. Reichert's and • on the Big Disappearing Act that fol- Klein's depiction of American Commu- lowed the peace marches, Reichert and nists as a bunch of well-meaning, lov- Jackie Ochs' The Secret Agent is one Klein have directed their perhaps too able pussycats is something of a left- respectful inquiry to those who stayed handed compliment. Sure, it magnifies more example of the Vietnam boomerang, on after the picnics were over. the ugliness and stupidity of their vic- timization at the hands ofJoe McCarthy, evidenced in a fine, tight documentary of It is to Reichert's and Klein's credit as if that needed being said. One does that they have sought out the last Ameri- the devastating after-effects that Agent can Communists who looked at class wonder what went wrong: Can Commu- privileges through working-class eyes: a nists be these sweet faces with sad eyes Orange has had on the lives of postwar seaman, a longshoreman, a college pro- that saw a population of sharecroppers fessor and ex-Cotton Club hoofer, two shivering alongside a Missouri highway soldiers. In overwhelming numbers, the leftist newsmen, Howard Fast, Pete because they wanted a union? Are these Seeger in his lumbe~ack clothes in his pussycats the rats Nixon in a film clip Viet vets suffer spinal deformities, impo- handmade house with a stove painted here wants shot, or Humphrey wanted red, and several female clerical and as- to lock up in detention camps? Seeing tence, neurological damage, paraplegia, sembly-line workers, the salt of the Red turns American Communists into a earth all of them. Seeing Red lets us see kind of ASPCA luncheon club holding a digestive tract problems, cancer, skin their plain, kempt faces and hear their raffle to save fleas from flea markets. noble reasons in the honest timbre of Gone is the Marxian promise of a world eruptions, and on, and on, and on into the their voices. That would have been al- in flames that would burn away the in- most enough, but there are loose red justice of class. Guess who's coming to next generation. There's evidence dinner? A communist with a small \"c.\" ~ aplenty that Dow Chemical knew the stuff was a problem in 1964, then told the government in 1969; the latter never owned up, is now facing a class action suit by 20,000 vets, and worse, the Veterans Administration refuses to qualify the dev- astation as war related. Ochs keeps her focus limited and suc- ceeds splendidly. The only question not answered, perhaps, is the one that can't be. At what point does a company or gov- emment which knows it's been caught dead in the water decide to hang tough, and why? • It wouldn't surprise me if the most avid audience for Julia Reichen's and Jim Klein's Seeing Red is at least frac- tionally the same people who've lined up to see Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill. Reichert's and Klein's film is a sort of oral-history-cum-documentary that gropes for meaning in the life, times, and demise of American Com- munism as seen through the remem- brances of a now-graying pride of present and former party members. But the mainspring is similar: the old lions of the Left sitting together around one ta- 64

HARVEY (continuedfrom page 60) Christian Patey and Caroline Lang in Robert Bresson's L'Argent of view of a chandelier), and those that tell us far too much (Mickey Rourke and Tarkovsky's film ostentatiously mourns. Alain Tanner's In the White City Matt Dillon leaning against an enor- Had it been shown unaltered but with mous clock without hands-they don't its name changed to Neuralghia, this (*'12) reprises some muted leitmotifs of got no future, get it?). More smudge movie would have been acclaimed as a pots and dry-ice machines were ex- masterpiece of satire. paralysis from both Tarkovsky and Go- hausted on this one picture than RKO's dard. As in Nostalghia, a quiet crazo New York Street in 15 years ofJilm noir. Jean-Luc Godard 's Passion (*'h ) is from abroad flops down on his bed in a also about the bankruptcy of the creative musty furnished room , while the cam- The film's good actors, such as impulse as experienced by an apolitical eraman apparently dies with the camera Rourke and Diane Lane (in the Luana emigre-in this case, a displaced Polish left running; as in Passion, the protago- Patten Home from the Hill part), are cineaste bent on shooting tableaux morts nist's haunted inertia becomes indistin- pretty much lost in the haze. Not so inspired by Goya, Delacroix, and the guishable from the director's own. Tan- Diana Scarwid, who provides unin- ill-humored theoretician at Passion's ner confirms here that, as in Light Years tended comic relief as Rumble Fish's hu- cold center. This figure likewise spits Away, he's a master at turning bustling man pin-cushion: after Christina Craw- vitriol at those grubby financiers with cityscapes into frescoes of alienation. ford and now this, Scarwid bids fair to their insistence on plots plots plots, and Poised against these bleached-white fa- become the screen's reigning masochist. the doleful odalisques cluttering up his ~ades and knife-edged shadows in the And nothing, it appears, can obscure the sets are reclining step-sisters to the put- alleys of Lisbon, Bruno Ganz is a space inchoate narcissism of Matt Dillon, upon sprites who exist to be misused in cadet surrounded by Portuguese extra- who, however lovely his armpits, is rap- every Godard movie. terrestrials. Ganz never quite figures out idly becoming a sort of Vera Hruba Ral- just what compels him to play lost-and- ston to Coppola's HerbertJ. Yates. Cop- Godard goes beyond his patented found with the self in this forbidding pola's whomping grandiosity never pessimism; Isabelle Huppert's mono- town. Somebody should have told him logues on capitalist oppression and Jerzy that this is what people trapped in chic camouflages the fact that S. E. Hinton's Radziwilowicz's aphorisms on aesthetics movies about the death of the soul in are rendered like litanies for the dead. this post-atomic age have been pro- fra te mal-bond ing-i n-a-world- not-of- What they're saying mayor may not grammed to do for the last two decades. their-own-making bit is getting to be a have some link to truth , but Godard is teary drag the third time around; she's past caring in either case. Perhaps self- • become the most overexposed pop nov- awareness is an overrated virtue. If you elist since the days of Fannie Hurst. lack a compelling reason to create a film , The Festival tried to balance all this Rumble Fish's sole achievement is in the instead of making a movie about it you promiscuous angst with a double dose of law of physics: Coppola proves that a might be well advised JUSt to hang up over-cerebrated whimsy: Alain Resnais' vacuum can too weigh a ton. your light-meter for a while. La Vie Est un Roman (*' Iz ) and Not that Andrei Tarkovsky's Nos- talghia (*)doesn't give it some pretty Chantal Akerman's Les Annees 80. Two- fierce competition in that department. thirds of Resnais' triptych-the primor- Water is to Tarkovsky what fire is to Coppola. His definition of an actor is someone who willingly wades crotch- deep in the well-clogged springs of our waning culture, as the camera slowly, inexorably tracks alongside to record ev- ery shiver of anomie. It's a strange thing about Tarkovsky. Ask any serious film enthusiast to comment on his work and the answer is always the same: Solaris (or Stalker or The Mirror) is utterly fasci- nating, of course I dozed off for about a third of it, but it was really my fault, I had a glass of wine before dinner and only eight hours' sleep the night before. Some call this \"oneiric,\" a term I take to mean the power to induce a REM state in a heretofore alert spectator. Nostalghia indisputedly contains im- ages like nothing I've seen in any other movie (unlike Rumble Fish, which re- minds you of absolutely everything). But none of this really compensates for Tarkovsky's stuperous obsession with the notion of madman as artiste's dop- pelganger, which is no less banal for be- ing thus attenated. Nostalghia exempli- fies the death of creative inspiration 65

dial kiddie pageant, and the Paul-Poiret- subversives or something. anticipation at all her prisoners crouched goes-to-Esalen stuff-is merely Lost Illusions (**), on the other in a minefield, waiting their turn to be disposable, but the contemporary-the- blown straight to Marxist-Leninist Hell. hand, confirms the axiom that you can Boat PeopLe isn't very big on emotional med centerpiece is unforgettably pecu- say anything you want about the corrupt nuance or visual texture, but it certainly liar. Imagine Robert Altman in his has nerve and immediacy. A number of HeaLth-Wedding mode at the helm of a bureaucracy at home as long as the story people at the press conference were dis- modern re-interpretation of The Teruler takes place before the Prague summer. turbed that it didn't play fair with the Trap, with Vittorio Gassman as Frank This cynical lampoon of cultural games- victorious Viet Congo I think they were Sinatra and the intensely demure Sabine manship may be Magyarized Balzac, but disoriented by the fact that in most of Azema in the Debbie Reynolds role, its weasely hero bears a close kinship to the movies of this stripe we get to see, shot on a shrunken replica of the Epcot those decadent Yankee arrivistes, both domestic and imported, the rightist Center's tribute to Yurrup, with the ac- Sammy Glick and Eve Harrington; you regimes are the ones who usually do the companiment of a sheaf of recitatives by may even root for the randy, ink-stained dirty work, captured by the appalled Michel Legrand, and you get the gen- Laszlo to prevail, .since his collective lens of a filmmaker with a vaunted con- eral drift. I think it's really about Re- quarry is even grubbier than he is. Di- sCIence. snais' brain being too highly evolved to rector Gyula Gazdag's film rhythms are a believe in innocence and romance and bit laggard and literal-minded, but Lost • stuff, glad though the director is that ILLusion's bitchery is tonic all the same. dumber mortals than he still succumb to Robert Altman's Streamers (*llz), such beguilements. I hope Gazdag gets a chance to catch like the David Rabe play which it re- Seeing Red (*) some time; this fanciful prises, is supposed to be an excoriating Les Annees 80 (*) is likewise goof- movie about the halcyon days of har- peek at the traumatic legacy left by our ily hypersophisticated. The film has mony and idealism in the American late involvement in Vietnam. This, as been described as a deconstruction of Communist Party ought to hand him a far as I'm concerned, is rather like de- the old-fashioned MGM-ish musical; laugh. Here is one documentary that scribing The Boys in the Band as a filmed but it really functions, if at all, as its resolutely knows Left from wrong, and play about how not to throw a birthday antithesis. The real article was about isn't afraid to say so-even if it does party. I never saw Streamers on stage, gifted people working at the illusion of have to fudge a few historical truths in but had heard much about the searing seamless fun for the visual and aural order to prove it. Julia Reichert and universality of its anti-war theme. pleasure of the audience. The Akerman James Klein, who made the film, have Hence I was startled to discover that features languid klutzes kidding around replaced the old stereotype of the Red as fully two-thirds of the talk betwen the with deliberately jejune ditties and pat- Bogeyman with a fresh one; their retired boys in the barracks is on the order of ter, while we do all the slogging work. Communists (16 culled from interviews Are-you-a-faggot-no-you' re-a-faggot-no- Most of the film's 80 minutes are de- with thousands) are all enchanting old maybe-he's-really-a-faggot. At the press voted to muddy video blowups of audi- yarn-spinners, sensitive, droll and irrev- conference, the producer, the author, tions and rehearsals (either mock or au- erent. Also a little stubborn, since most and the audience were delighted to dis- thentic, it hardly matters) for a musical of them stuck it out in the Party until cuss the renewed timeliness of this ma- whose realized fragments are the piece 1956 and beyond; but it wouldn't be terial in light of EI Salvador and Leba- de resistance, asweat with retro precious- polite to delve much into that. non and all; but everyone, Rabe in ness. This is a structuralist joke made for particular, came over a little queer when those who think that texts are just plain Seeing Reefs view on the currents of someone (well, me) brought up its h-m- vulgar. domestic and foreign history is about as s-x--I \"subtext.\" In his book, The CeLLu- reliable as a 1939 volume ofNew Masses Loid CLoset, Vito Russo cannily pointed Every New York festival has a niche on the Hitler-Stalin pact. The narration out that people who make films about for one of these-the anti-linear riff on a informs us that the rise offascism in Italy homosexuality or the fear thereof always pop-culture theme, which the wrong coincides with the American Depression claim they're really about something people hate for all the right reasons. Just (which it preceeded by nearly a decade); e1se-\"human loneliness\" is a favorite as de rigueur is the annual duet of know- it implies further that the C.P. and only -for fear of said work being relegated to ing films from Hungary, which invari- the C.P. dreamed up those social re- that vault reserved for perverse esoter- ably startle us with their candor about forms and economic safeguards we now sex and cultural self-criticism. Last year, take for granted (take that, Norman lca. the candor-about-sex one was about Thomas); the directors' assemblage of Which is likely to be Streamers' fate in Lesbianism; this year's entry, Forbid- Cold War newsreel footage persuades us den Relations (*llz) is concerned with that all our domestic anti-Communists any case. It appears that Altman has incest between half-siblings. The were either knaves or fools (so there, transcribed the text onto the screen in- movie's all for it, by the way, as long as Irving Howe and Diana Trilling). Which tact with a few cosmetic trims, and the they really love each other. In fact, di- leads me to ask two things: Are Klein result is an inert film which fatally ex- rector Zsolt Kezdi-Kovacs is so in tune and Reichert themselves disingenuous poses the artifice of the play. Hermeti- with his stellar couple's self-centered or just plain dumb? And which is worse? cally enclosed as Altman's film is, you're amou,r fou that the picture turns rather always aware of how schematic Rabe's wacky, in an utterly straight-faced way. Whereas Seeing Red assumes a school- script is-it's When Archetypes Collide, Anything that gets in the way of their mistress tone of setting the record with the overcultivated faun rubbing up love is either irrelevant or prompted by straight, Ann Hui's Boat People (**) against the ghetto psycho, an assimi- malice. I mean, all those busybody is far less coy about it. Hui knows how to lated black and the nice provincial Joe mamas and judges and jailers, treating milk scenes of grisly tension with an crunched in the middle. Altman, the them as though they were anti-Socialist instinct that would gladden the vitals of past master of ambient sound and multi- Roger Corman. For much of the film's track palaver, seems over-awed by the second half, she makes us flinch with 66

e loq ue nce of Rabe's flossy arias . Altma n place give this story a pecia l re onance. A FILM B Y RICK SCHMIDT With out eve r te lli ng u so out loud, ofte n cu ts away to a reactio n shot of one Ku rys ma kes us fee l th at the constraints EMERALD and attach me nts th at bind th e e young or anothe r bys tande r d uring these pro- matro n ca. 1952 have everything to do CITIES with what they e nd ured d uring the dec- tracted monologues; he inte nds to un- ade befo re. H uppe rt's petu lantprillcesse Ri ck Schm idt' s fi lm sty le is blend in g t he juive and M iou-Miou 's wistfu l aesthete mad·cap hu mor o f t he Marx Brot hers, a de r core th e horror of what th ey' re hear- ge ne rate a n a uth e ntic a nd pa lpab le head y version of American surrealis m, and che mist ry-w he th e r it' lite rally carna l ico noclast ic ins pirati on , perhaps, o f Jean· ing, but what th ey really ee m to be or no t is de liberate ly amb iguous, fina lly Lu c Godard . uni mporta nt. think ing i \" When i he going to shut - Vic Skolnick F inally, and d e li ghtfully, Enrre Nous is New Community Cinema up ?\" My e nti me nts exactly. a movie about Ku rys as a c hild , wa tching he r mom my put on li psti ck in the bath - EMERALD CITIES is an exhilarati ng pop • room mirro r, and neve r getting ove r it. cultural explos ion . O ne of the mo t plea urable function H e r three film s so fa r have all been m ore o r less a u to bi ograph ica l. Le t o th e rs - Michael Silverblatt of the New York Festi va l is to un ea rth wo rry whethe r she' ll ever manage to L.A. Weekly make a movie about some experi ence th o e pu nge nt ecce n t ri c iti es w hi c h outside he r imm ed iate o rbit. She ca n EMERALD CITIES al so attac ks, in it s way, film pages ripped out of he r be dsid e contemporary li fe ... by sat irizi ng obvious erve as a kind of p romissory note fo r diary, so long as the result is as good as murksprings of the American Way . Enrre Nous. mo re accom plished film s to come. T hi s - Calvin Ahlgren • S.F. Chronical yea r's pri me example was Ru y G ue rra's In a Festi val saturated w ith so much FILM FESTIVALS 1983 Erendira (**'Iz), a lush, funny bad gra tui to us directo ri al kve tc hery, th e ROTTERDAM hypnotic, implosive gloo m of Bresso n's SYDNEY dream fea turin g a ca pari so ned Ire ne FLORENCE L'Argent (****) struck a note of P a pas as a kind of lasc ivio us M iss unsettling authe nticity. Pe rfection, es- H av isham , lurchin g around a movable pecially the bleak variety of one suc h as Bresso n, is awfull y hard to d escribe. desert borde llo constructed of orie ntal H e re it takes shape in a rare fusion of text and movie gramma r, and the direc- ta pes tries and pape r fl owe rs. G ue rra's to r's speechless horro r at the world he's co njured. T he story, based on a Tolstoy ve lve ty trac kin g s ho ts a re co unte r- obscuri ty, is a mesh of random e ncoun- te rs and co incide nce which accre te a pointed by the deadpan camp of Ga brie l weight of inesca pabl e co nsequ e nce; Bresson's te rse, metallic images clink to- Ga rcia Ma rq uez's script. Papas' grand- gethe r with a paralle l fo rce. T he internal harmony of L'Argent is so powerful that mama-as-pimp isn' t just de liriously self- fl aws which might loom large in any o th e r m ov ie -th e d ise m b o d ie d absorbed , she's also as hard to kill as soundtrack, occasional anach ronism s in the script-scarce ly break the mome n- Ras putin-as E re ndira and he r swa in , a tum in its protago nist's plumme t fro m bysta nd e r to victim to kille r. certain Ulysses, find out whe n they ply O ne small point. Bresso n pro bably in- he r with rat po ison and wire he r piano, teded L'Argent to stand as so me sort of unive rsal indictme nt of avarice and dis- with D ona Ire ne in the hot seat. Papas is honesty in the world at large. H e does n' t trave l very much, however, and p roba- un fazed by all these calamities: \"A piano bly does n' t know that only in Pari s exist shopkeepe rs like thi s, whose eyes co n- doesn' t blow up just like thad \". Eren- geal with conte mpt at the approach of a clie nt. In Simenon-Iand alone can you dira is a mite precious, and more than a find these tight-lipped p rovincials, co- habiting for decades, bound togeth e r by little p ro tracted , but pre tty de lish none- silent, recip rocal loathin g. I think the real message of L'Argent is: Get me out theless. of France- even Spain has gOt to be bette r than th is. ~ • It's also exciting whe n the F estival manages to pres ide at th at mome nt whe n a he retofore co mpe te nt director reveals the unexpected resources of a first-rank filmm ake r. It happe ned this The f ilm ju xtaposes the Santa Claus myth , nuclear war, punk rock, hypnotic self- yea r to Di ane Ku rys, w hose Entre (****)Nous analysis , psychedelic drugs and video is the subtles t, most manipulation - you know , all that stuff we tough-minded mainstream mov ie of the usually think about . Featuring FLIPPER and THE MUTANTS, this is one of the best in- yea r. In the most supe rficial sense, it dependent films we 've seen all year - it pe rtai ns to on e of th e sogg ie r film puts SMITHEREENS to shame . ge nres, the Fre nc h paea n to fe male - Bruce D. Rhodewalt, Marci Marks, Craig Lee fri e nd s hip (Lumiere; On e Sings, the L.A. DEE DA Other Doesn' t; Voyage en Douce). Ye t while Ku rys is as e nchanted with he r As with Schmidt ' s earlier 1988-THE REMAKE, EMERALD CITIES displays heroines as they are de lighted with each editorial wizardry which mi xes moods and media in a dizzy ing pace wh ich at f irst may othe r, she doesn' t le t the m off easy. seem haphazard , but which at a second glance takes on an order wh ich its material W he n G uy Marchand huffily te lls his would seem incapable of producing . wife (the ubiquitous Isabe lle Huppe rt) - Jon Jost to stay away from he r new chum M iou- M iou, fo r fea r she seeks to break up the ir marriage, his tirade isn' t me rely 90 minutes, color, 16mm, 1983 male paranoia at wo rk . Ku rys is amaz- For bookings and information please ingly apt at charting the shiftin g lane of telephone : ., j power at work in all re lationships, and coo lly astute in observi ng that whe n any (201) 891-8240 Or write : individual decides to realign priorities, 1r~ lp··.! ~f . ·~·~:.:,l someone el se is bound to get bruised. i J I ;\" );·'-11/ Entre Nous' assured se nse of time and 67

STEIN (continued from paRe 61) Grigori Kozintsev's and Leonid Trauberg's The New Babylon empty subway corridors, blue Valiums, photo frames, metal grills, feet, backs, see his boss to try and keep his job. This fico When a dialogue scene was about to hands, keys. For best supporting per- be shot, his assistants on the studio roof formance it would be difficult to choose is Paris, but there are no voluble Latins waved red flags, and for the length of the between a fork in a potato patch and a in Bresson's Quarter-we are on the far take all the streetcars in the neighbor- street banking machine. There are hu- side of some morose moral moon. How- hood were brought to a halt. mans who speak, but with less convic- ever desperate the situation, no urgency tion. The miracle-a miracle of which is ever apparent. The film is like its Signora opens with a spiral wipe re- Robert Bresson has the secret-is that characters: it doesn't try to make any vealing a recording playing the title the interaction of the objects and the deals. A lot of it was not shot ateye level. song, sung by the heroine, film star affectless blank humans results in an ex- Indeed, it never really looks out at the Gaby Doriot (Isa Miranda), who, after a tremely powerful work. audience, and it seems not to care or suicide attempt, relives her past while notice that an audience is looking at it. being given anaesthesia. The story is The plot is a bare mechanism, a snare admirably told but, as usual in Ophuls' in which to trap an \"innocent.\" In sum- It was booed at Cannes. L'Argent did best films, the main course is the sauce. mary, it is banal. A young man from a not make any in France; it .was not a The intoxicating tracking shots, the long \"good\" family, refused extra pocket popular success. The Lincoln Center takes, the heavily charged decor, the money, accepts a counterfeit note from a audiences, at the showings I attended, evocative use of music, and the musical friend and passes it on in a shop whose were hushed, intent. No pins were quality of the editing-characteristics of proprietor knowingly passes it along dropped-I would have heard them. the director's later, better-known films with other phony bills to a heating oil No one walked. Bully for our side. -are already here in force. Games Ma- deliveryman. The innocent workman is son once wrote a lovely poem about arrested, released, and fired from his • Ophuls, which includes the remark that job; can't get another one; gets involved Max, \"Who, separated from his dolly, Is in a holdup, is jailed; loses wife and child The two retrospective films this year wrapped in deepest melancholy ... \") ... An honest man becomes a mass mur- were well-chosen and reflected a certain derer. It's an existential version of The The one long flashback that consti- Farmer in the Dell: \"The boy takes a cinematic cosmopolitanism: La Si- tutes nearly all of the film has an extraor- false bank note ... the man takes an axe gnora di Tutti, made in Rome in 1934, dinary fluidity. Three scenes are partic- . . . the man stands alone. \" ularly fine: the ball sequence, in one is the only Italian film of Max Ophuls; long unbroken take, one of the great As Bresson films go, it's a splatter Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid passages in Ophuls' work; an exterior movie, complete with bank robbery and Trauberg's The New Babylon (1929) scene which cuts back and forth from car crash. The axe gets rather bloody. It takes place in Paris during the Franco- Gaby in a rowboat to Leonardo, the may be the best-looking film the direc- Prussian War and the Commune; it is banker, following her in an automobile tor has made since he started working in one of the rare Soviet films of its period along the riverbank (they are not yet color; if memory serves, the Valiums are to be set outside Russia. (After Ophuls lovers and the car somehow seems to be color-coordinated with the uniforms of left Germany, he was offered a two year seducing the rowboat); and the fero- les dames who censor the prison mail. contract by the Soviet Union. He re- ciously melodramatic passage (shot like plied that he would accept only if he a horror movie scene) during which the L'Argent seemed merely a perfectly liked the country. He went to Russia banker's wife tumbles down the stairs made film the first time I saw it. The and did not like it.) in her wheelchair. second time, familiar with the \"mecha- nism\" of the glumly deterministic The film was shot at the Cine-Atelier The role of Gaby's cigar-chewing im- events, I found the supporting objects Studio, which was not yet fully sound- assuming more resonance, and the proofed. Rizzoli had connections at the blank actors like unexposed film on Rome transit company, which granted which some magic affect from the ob- Ophuls permission to hold up street traf- jects \"bled.\" I was involved and inter- ested in ways I had not anticipated. Several scenes are set in the photo shop, and on each return to this place the street seen outside-the very build- ings opposite the shop-seem different. This setting is the venue of original sin in the film. Is Bresson saying: not a shop, but Everyshop? And was the most Marxist movie in the festival not The New Babylon, but the work of a conser- vative old clean Catholic gentleman? The characters never deign to sit down and talk anything out; no one makes any deals. The father will not discuss his son's need for extra pocket money; the deliveryman, when unjustly fired, will not even consider going in to 68

presario who di covers her body is small scoring Kozintsev's adaptation of Go- but important, and to a certain extent, gol's Petersburg Days when the director ANew Release the film i implicitly about the exp loita- died in 1973. from the tion of women by men in how business. In his memoirs Shostakovich de- James Agee Film Project (In this, and in some of its structure, the scribes the pain he felt when his first \"THE ELECTRIC movie prefigures Lola Montes .) Yet there film was denounced as counterrevolu- VALLEY\" is a soupfon of a Loulou in her-as can tionary by the young people's division of \"A journal of the be glimpsed during the brief moment the Comintern. or wa his mu ic well- American political soul . .. the story of after the wheelchair accident, when she received. Kozintsev reca ll ed: \"The day the largest social experiment ever under- laughs queerly and smashes the radio to of the premiere, in all the cinemas, all taken in the United States: bit. (It had been playing the waltz first the comp laint books carried the same the TVA\" heard at her first ball.) protest: 'The conductor of the orchestra A film by Ross Spears The moment Ophuls aw Isa was quite drunk tonight.' What had hap- From the people Miranda, he chose her over 2,000 other pened was that Shostakovich had used who brought you _ _ _ __ applicants. In this debut performance instrumental combinations so unusual The only film biography of a major American she is luminous and convincing both as that even the philharmonic orchestras writer to be nominated innocent adolescent chori ter and later only assimilated them with difficulty. for an Academy Award a a driven woman in love. The new star aturally this unheard-of music baffled EVER! made film after film in Eu rope during the cinema audiences; who blamed the James Agee Film Project Library the years immediately following Si- inebriety of the cond uctor.\" P.o. Box 315 Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 gnora, the most notable being that great Grigori Mikhai lovitch Kozintsev was Phone: (201) 891-8240 elephantine monument of Fascist cin- born in Kiev in 1905. He studied art with ema, Scipione I'Africano. In 1942 she Alexander Exter and was directing agit- made one of her best films, Mario plays at 15. At 16, with Leonid Trauberg Soldati 's nocturnal Gothic fantasy Ma- (who was then 19) in Leningrad, he lombra. Her last film was Alberto Lat- founded the FEKS, the Factory of the tuada's Le Faro do Padre (1974), shown Eccentric Actor, a company that staged here a Bambino. She died in 1982. experimental productions imbued with Signora was edited by Ferd inando the founders' passion for the ci rcus, the Maria Poggioli, who went on to a brief work of Picasso and Mayakovsky, Dada but significant directorial career. In the and Constructivism, French c rim e early Forties he directed three memora- novels and American movie comedies. ble films (Addio Giovinezza!, Sisignora, (Shostakovich was also a great lover of and Sorelle Materasse) and then, in the American films. In 1924 he had a bread- full bloom of his ca ree r, was accidentally and-butter job playing piano in a smelly killed by a gas leak. He learned a few neighborhood movie house in Lenin- lessons from Ophuls, especially about grad to help support his destitute family. decor; his influence can be felt in the He was fired after customers com- work of Mauro Bolognini and Luchino plained that he was constantly interrupt- Viscont i. • ing the music to laugh his head off at American comedies.) The screening of The New Babylon K. and T. teamed up to make their at Radio City Music Hall, accompanied first film in 1924. Their greatest sound by a live orchestra performance of the film was The Youth of Maxim (1935). Dmitri Shostakovich score, was one of Against all odds, at a time when most the great events in the history of the Soviet films were corseted in the cliches New York Film Festival. The sco re is an of Sta lini st Socia li s t Realism, they integral part of the film, but although made, with Maxim, th e most humanist Novyi Vavilon was released here in 1929 and likable of all revolutionary films. and has had some museum showings, it The New Babylon is set in Paris in had never before been seen and heard in 1870-71, and is made up, not of conven- this cou ntry as intended by its creators, tional scenes, but of a long series of short with the thrilling music. The 1983 festi- tableaux, a steaming hotpot of images, val showing was thus the American pre- most of which are startling and beauti- miere of the original work. The music ful. The on ly two characters who have had been believed missing for seve ral any real existence in the narrative are decades until, in 1975, sho rtl y after Louise (Ye le na Kuzmina), a depart- Shostakovich's death, Pravda an- ment-Store sa lesgi rl , and Jean (Pyotr So- nounced the discovery of a copy of the bolevsky). Louise links the two classes score in Moscow's Lenin State Library. depicted in the film: the rich for whom It was composed when he was 21, and she works, the poor with whom she was the first of his 35 film scores. Several li ves. Jean is a peasant soldier, whose of the later ones were for films by Baby- main thought is to return to his vi llage. lon's co-directors; Shostakovich was They meet, but never get a chance to 69

love. He gets to dig her grave. while members of the middle class are This beautiful and ascetic film begins During the first reel a sale is in waiting at Versailles for the Commu- at the fort of Gwalior, whose king nards to surrender: the bourgeois sing brought Dhrupad singers together and progress in the New Babylon depart- the Marseillaise, the orchestra starts out compiled a book on the subject. The ment store. It is made clear that in the with the anthem, which gradually gets images of feudal architecture suggest bourgeois world, everything is up for mixed with sardonic Offenbach operetta correspondences to the music; they do sale-not only fans and haberdashery, tunes which cacophonously undermine not illustrate it directly. The two princi- but the army, human beings, lives. The the anthem. This audacious exciting pal performers are the Dagar brothers, in store owner is a popeyed gnome. score was conducted with great panache whose family Dhrupad has been a tradi- (Vsevolod Pudovkin appears in a few at Radio City by Omri. Hadari. tion for generations, though they are shots, as a monocled salesman with a Muslims and this is Hindu music. curly wig.) The sale is followed by a ball K. and T. traveled to Paris to examine scene. A journalist attempts to tell the at first hand the Parisian department The music performed at Jaipur, \"the reveling rich that the French army has store which is the source of their epony- pink city\" of Rajasthan, in one of the been crushed. No one listens. A woman mous grand magasin. This was the Bon film's later sections, corresponds to the wolfs down a steak while a man fondles Marche, the store called Au Bonheur outset of the modern period of enlight- her back. As the cabaret pursues its des Dames in Emile Zola's novel of that enment. Here, in the 18th century, the course, 400 Horsemen of the Apoca- name. The Bon Marche still stands on Maharajah Sawai Jai Singh built a fantas- lypse are seen riding toward Paris. The Rue de Babylone. Its interior was largely tic observatory, used for astrology as well common people fraternize with the gutted during the Twenties in order to as for astronomy. Its astrolabes, cosmo- French soliders and then , when the gov- refurbish it an opulent Art Deco style. labes, and giant zodiacal gnomons (stair- ernment surrenders to the Germans, The store remains the Gimbels of Paris; ways to heaven)-all of them pure pol- take up arms. The people of Paris set up its building shell is intact, but in 1975 ished forms-give the place the their own government: the Commune. disastrous modernization resulted in the semblance of some futuristic sculpture Barricades are erected in the streets. removal of most of the decorative ele- garden. The morning and evening ragas The Communards fight heroically for 49 ments. Some of these were bought by a heard seem to suspend the listener in days, are defeated , executed. Dutchman and now adorn Amsterdam's time; the instruments seem to distend Deco Sauna Health Club. New Yorkers space. Kaul's film slowly traces the con- The film's lustrous cinematography is who saw the film and who might be figuration of a rarefied trance. by Andrei Moskvin, who worked on all interested in owning a piece of the real- of the K.-T. films and who lit Sergei life New Babylon will be able to find ** Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible. Some cab- railings and marble facings from the Bon aret scenes recall Manet; there are soft Marche on sale in a SoHo gallery at suit- The preoccupations of Mira Nair in focus shots which have the look of early ably outrageous prices. There is a logic So Far From India could not be more Steichen. The cobblestones of Paris are in the geometry of all this. different from those of Mani Kaul. Nair a key element of the film's imagery: dry is no formalist; she obviously cares about and clear, hard-edged, or covered with *** documenting a human situation in the the distorted shadows of people and most direct ways possible. So Far is the passing wagon wheels, wet, shimmering Hans Sachs and Hedda Rinneberg's story of the marriage of Ashok from Ah- in the rain , torn up and used for barri- Camilla Horn Watching Herself medabad, who left his wife (by arranged cades and weapons. How rich , how col- Play Gretchen in Murnau's Silent marriage) a few days after the wedding orful is black-and-white here! Film \"Faust\", a 17-minute short, was to make his way to the United States. one of the festival's pleasant surprises. He sells newspapers in a New York sub- The performances are a good mix of The title tells almost everything there is way station. Nair and crew accompanied caricatural parody and human warmth. to know about the film-except how him back to India to visit the son who Kuzmina is splendid, with straggly hair well it's done, how good it looks, and was born after his departure. Much of and a long Griffithian face; she looks like how lively it is. The 80-year-old actress the film is concerned with his wife and a Carol Dempster with guts. Although it is mostly seen seated watching the film family's ideas and illusions about Amer- is a constant feast for the eye, the film in which she made her screen debut, 57 ica and the wife's concern that she will sags at times in the middle and final years ago. Murnau's film is reflected in a be left behind forever. The immigrant sections, largely because the simplistic mirror placed above her head , permit- experience is examined unsentimen- consciousness-raising of Jean and ting us to see scenes from Faust and its tally, but with compassion. Louise and the scenes of proletarian star's reactions to them in the same martyrdom are simply more conven- viewing. Horn had been a dancer, was • tional than the early, wickedly observed discovered by Murnau, 'and became a shots of bourgeois decadence. star in his celebrated 1926 film. She con- Alain Resnais' Life is a Bed of Roses tinued acting until the late Sixties. Two (La Vie est un roman) became an instant The score is a delight. The first reel is of her best films are her first and proba- guilty pleasure. I found it a fairly point- accompanied by a giant can-can whose ble last: Faust and Camilla Horn Watch- less movie, a philosophic-musical-comic tongue-in-cheek wrong-note wit is remi- ing ... etc. souffle that never rises. I would not run niscent of the French composers of the out to see it again, but I liked it. Six group. The second movement • brings in a disjointed waltz with trom- Roman/Roses would seem to be about bone glissandos and a skillful Offenbach Mani Kaul's Ohrupad is a meditation the futility of creating a Utopian society. collage. Russian and French elements on music, in particular a school of music The film is cut up in three sections are later combined in a quote from consolidated in the 15th century. Dhru- which blitherly bump each other off the Tchaikovsky's Old French Song. A great pad effected the first desanskritization screen from time to time. One is domi- moment of musical commentary occurs ofIndian classical song. nated by a wealthy dilletante named Forbek (Ruggero Raimondi) who, 70

shortly before World War I is seen plan- prophet whom he follows into a cycle of He has rurned the play in ide out. Hi ning a radiant city in a forest. (Resnais rituals. The prophet immolates him self Robespierre i a pri sy, tight-a sed, anal - and scriptwriter Jean Gruault have obvi- after telling the Russian that th e wo rld retentive Stalinist monster; hi Danton, ously derived Forbek from William may be saved if Gortchakov ca n keep a a good- natured, Breughelian, romantic Beckford , author of Vathek, one of the candle burning while wading through a slob whose on ly peccadillo seems to be a oddest of 18th-ce ntury novels, who Tuscan thermal bath. He wades. And weakness for la grande boufJe, and who spent 18 yea rs building a magnifice nt that's that. becomes a Christian martyr. In Przyby - villa.) A group offriends is summoned to zewska's play, Danton is seen a a cor- Forbek's foll y, a Temple of Happiness Since Solaris (1972 ), Tarkovsky's rupt scoundrel and a proto-revisionist. where they are supposed to revert to film s have become increasin gly self-in- states of infantile innocence and love. dulgent, shot through with beautiful im- T here are some good things in Dan- Another slice of narrative is contempo- ages, but bogged down in so ul states ton, but on the who le I found it flawed rary: Forbek's folly has now become an which have only intermittently been ci nem a and faulty hi story. Anthony institute where a seminar on the educa- vivified onscreen. His unorthodoxy has Mann's 1949 Reign of Terror (known on tion of the imagination is is progress. beclouded into an orthodoxy. Nostalghia TV as The Black Book), with Arle ne Dahl Part Three i a medieval pageant about is two hours long; it often seems two and Robert C ummings, is not much bet- the struggles of a noble warrior to restore days . Remembered later, individu al ter in terms of hi storical accu racy-oth- order and justice; it recounts his battle scenes stick in the mind as gorgeous erwise, it's a supe rior movie on nearly with a cruel king. This bit is a figment of frozen icons; during the film , the beauty every count. the imagination of three of the children of many of them seems cast in lead . Is from the eminar section. the wait worth the weight? I say that it is, My appreciation of Wajda's film ex- because Nostalghia's last shot, a slowly tend s mostl y to two actors. Patrice Che- Though thi s elaborate sc heme of revealed vision of Gortchakov's country reau gives a lovely perform ance as things does not work for one moment, house in Ru ssia, walled within the ruins Camille Desmoulins. Gerard Depardieu the film is itself a sympathetic foll y, of- of an Italian abbey, as snow falls , is one is superb as-I hesitate to say Danton ten visually stunning. Its designer is Jac- of the most extraordinary things I have because I did not recognize D anton in ques Saulnier, who did the sets for Ma- seen In years. the film (or Robespierre , for that matter) ri e nbad , Muriel, and Stavisky. I -let's say as Wajda's Danton. It is lust- particularly liked the medieval scenes * ily convincing bravura acting with mos t which imitate tinted Melies fantasy of the stops pulled out, especially in the films. I could have done with more of When Stanislawa Przybyszewska fin- trial scene in which Danton loses hi s them and a lot less of Utopia. ished her play, The Danton Affair, she vo ice. (The veracity of the scene itself wrote to her aunt: \"I am more in love cannot be debated since, to my knowl- • with Robespierre than I was five years edge, Danton's defense before the Rev- ago. I have been faithful to him more olutionary Tribunal has not been Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia is the than to any other being. Thanks to Ro- handed down to history.) director's first film made outside Russia. bespierre, I discovered morality and the Its protagonist, Gortchakov, is a Russian highest spiritual conception of man. \" A The people don' t count for much in poet who has come to Italy to research a viewer of Danton would be hard put to this film; crowd scenes are cramped and book on an expatriate 18th century Rus- recognize in the writer of the above lines unconvincing. One of them rings dis- sian composer. Memories of the past in the author of the play which Andrzej tinctly false: When Danton is acclaimed Russia mingle with the Italian present. Wajda is credited with having filmed. by the crowd on his return to Paris, the The poet encounters a local doomsday scene is placed at a time when most of MOVIE STAR NEWS .' . COME IN PERSON· MON· FRI 11 ·5 SAT 12·5 (Mail Order) Pin· Ups • Portraits • Posters • Physique Poses • Pressbooks • Western • Horror • Science Fiction • Musicals • Color Photos • 80 Years of Scenes From Motion Pictures Rush $1.00 FOR OUR ILLUSTRATED BROCHURE 134 West 18th Street, NYC, New York 10011 Illustrated . The Greatest Selection of Things to Show. Videocassettes and VideoDiscs, slides, super 8 & 16mm films . All guaranteed to be 100% satisfactory. Our 57th year. Blackhawk Films Dept. 404 1235 W. 5th St., Davenport, IA 52802 71

his followers had already turned against kid inadvertently sets the house on fire . dictatorship lurks! \"You' ll pay for this,\" she is told, and she I'm not faulting the film on political him because of his profiteering. I almost does. The Nasty Old One sets her up as the centerpiece of an ambulant bordello grounds. I've never been to Vietnam- lost my lunch when, later in the film , in and Missie's ass is peddled up and down neither has Miss Hui. The film is based the face of the land. The girl meets a on stories told by boat-people refugees the course of Danton's transportation to young Dutchman named Ulysses who in Hong Kong. I've no reason to believe becomes her lover and attempts to set the stories untrue. The film doesn't ring the guillotine, a slight detour was taken her free from the chains which bind her true. to Granny by means of large doses of rat so that Depardieu could be silhouetted poison in a cream cake. That's part of it; Hui's denial ofanything politcal in the it should be enough. film registers as naivete, self-delusion, against the angels, saints, and martyrs on or downright prevarication. It would be The film looks good, has moments simplistic, even foolish, to fault the film the fa<;:ade of Notre Dame. which recall El Topo, but would not be as anti-Communist. It was shot in main- worth talking about at all, were it not for land China (mostly on Hainan, a \"main- Nearly everyone has seen Wajda's Miss Papas. She's better here than in land\" island about 200 miles east ofHa- any of her hammed-up \"classic\" movie noi at the mouth of the Tonkin Gulf) Danton as Lech Walesa and his Robes- roles (Iphigenia, The Trojan Women , Elec- with the full cooperation of the Commu- tra). I've only appreciated Miss Papas in nist Chinese army. The roles of the Viet- pierre as General Jaruzelski. The direc- three films, and they are quite a varied namese soldiers and police were played trio: Eboli, Erendira , and Theodora , by Chinese soldiers. The cooperation tor has understandably kept mum on Slave Empress. In Guerra's film she re- was feasible because of the current minded me of Divine. This is meant as strained relations between the two this , at least publicly, and has stuck his high praise. Communist countries. neck out no further than to remark that: What does this movie mean? Your Boat People is rotten, not because its guess could be as good as Mr. Guerra's, facts are cockeyed (though it should be \" Danton is the West, Robespierre is the if I can judge by his remarks at the press realized that showing events, however conference. According to him, Erendira true, with no indication of the history East.\" Robespierre is the North and is about the exploitation of Brazil by the which brought them about, is, in a United States and the International sense, lying) but because it's a nagging, Danton is the South would make as Monetary Fund. bullying, crude little melodrama, a polit- ical cartoon which never achieves any much sense, or as little. • dramatic authenticity or human veri- similitude. Not controversial, merely Though in France acclaim for the film Ann Hui maintains that her Boat bad. It reminded me of the anti-Nazi People is not a political film . \" It is an exploitation films I saw as a kid , of the has been mostly confined to the extreme entertainment film made for Hong Hitler-Beast of Berlin ilk. That they Kong audiences.\" She knows little were crummy movies didn't make me right, Danton has , on the whole, been about her producers; she could only say any less the anti-Nazi. That what they that they were \"private rich people.\" were saying was true, in the abstract, did well received in this country and ac- not make them better films. This tale of poverty, corruption, tor- cepted both as a stirring depiction of the ture, and hopelessness in post-revolu- Akutagawa is the audience surrogate. tionary Vietnam did entertain Hong We learn the bitter truth about the re- French Revolution and a lucid commen- Kong audiences. Some of its success was gime through his eyes. I resented being due to the casting (as a Japanese) of surrogated by such a fool-he's written tary on the current situation in Poland . singer-comedian Lam Chi-Cheung, a and played as an unprofessional wimp. top Hong Kong box-office star. His photos would be unusable; in shot In his highly favorable review in The after shot he walks in pouring rain with- The film begins in 1975, during the out once protecting his camera. New York Times , Vincent Canby wrote: \"liberation\" of Da Nang, where first we see Mr. Akutagawa, a Japanese photo- The film is not in Vietnamese. It was \"That the Robespierrists , all of whom journalist, sympathetic to the revolu- made with actors speaking Mandarin tion. When he returns three years later and Cantonese, then fully dubbed in are seen as fanatics . .. should be played he is taken around by official govern- both languages. The Mandarin version ment guides, shown happy singing chil- is destined for China, the Cantonese has by Polish actors, while the earthy, dren and led to believe that the country played Hong Kong. At first, Hui was has been made over into a social para- dubious about shooting in Communist hearty, mostly honest Dantonists are dise. He requests permission to visit the China, since this might result in the loss town alone. Doing so, he witnesses the of theTaiwanese market for her film. played by French actors, is just one of execution of \" reactionary elements,\" That would cost her backers an esti- and befriends a girl whose family is in mated $300,000 in rentals. Not to worry: the possible reasons why the Polish dire straits: mother is a prostitute; junior Boat People has turned out to be the fifth hangs around a \"chicken farm, \" a place largest-grossing film in Hong Kong his- Government has not yet seen fit to re- where children pick the pockets of exe- tory. cuted political prisoners. Land mines lease the film at home.\" If we can't fact- blow up in faces . Akutagawa awakens: • Behind the benign facade, a barbaric check what was said by Danton at his I've rarely been such a house divided trial 189 years ago, we can see fit to print straight what happened a few months ago: Early this year, Danton was released in Poland . • Isabelle Huppert is very good indeed in Entre Nous (Coup de foudre) . Miou-Miou gives the best performance of her career in every film in which she appears. I would not shake hands with anyone who did not have the coup de foudre for her. But, Entre Nous, I had no such coup for the film directed by Diane Kurys . It is the story of the friendship or love affair (one is not sure which, and that is one of the movie's countless prob- lems) between two women who both dump their boring husbands. It begins in 1942 and chugs along, cluttered with trivia but impelled by little dramatic pro- •gression until 1954. Guerra's Erendira, written by Ga- briel Garcia Marquez, stars Irene Papas as a harridan who lives with her nubile granddaughter and a pet ostrich in a house filled with bric-a-brac in some un- named Latin American country. The 72

along sight and sound lines as I am about ORIGINAL AMERICAN & EUROPEAN / Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish. Much of what I saw I liked: startling MOVIE POSTERS L black-and-white cinematography with scudding clouds in time lapse sky- LOBBY CARDS AND PRESSBOOKSl J scapes, surreal clocks all over the place, an oneiric beautifully designed and lit .~ ,-t- urban jungle. My ingrai ned affection for si lent cinema-especially German ci n- i fll~ ~()I~/ ()I(I\\I~()AI-1 l-t- ema of the Twenties, and one of its mai n offshoots, American film noi r of the For- :1 -- ties-made me an easy prey to the vis- ual rewards in Coppola's film. ~~ ,- - I- r- Its pressbook informs that the direc- It ()~~A~/()()()A~()/ IA~t; tor, together with production designe r, l- e- Dean Tavoularis and the director of pho- I: tography, Stephen H . Burum , watched I- r- films every night during production , and \" I -r- that some of these were: The Cabinet of Dr. CaLigari, Siegfried, The GoLem, Sun- , I- e- rise, The Last Laugh, and Decision Before Dawn. Watching their film , I was con- I 1-111(1-1()(I\\/fASSI3I~()11? 1- r- stantly reminded of the dream sequence -., 1- r- in Boris Ingster's 1940 RKO B-movie, f(jIII~/ro~()/I~(jffA(j1 The Stranger on the Third FLoor, whose I, -- visual style is probably derived from the work of the great woodcut artist, Lynd q~! ... MAN}:: MORE -- Ward. Wa rd crea ted novels w ith out - r- words. The look of Rumble Fish leads / ._,--- .... me to believe that Tavoularis knows his Ward. l-I- HEAVILY ILLUSTRATED CATALOG FILLED WITH INFO l - e- For the Advanced Collector & Novice. $5 . Walter Reuben/Box RumbLe Fish without words would be a vast improvement. Nearly everything I 26 6, IDe?t. 1/Aystir ' jX 87 8 .1 1 .1 1 J I 1.1 1 I- r- heard appalled me. The triteness of the / r j 1/ teenage gang story is amplified by the II pretentiousness of the dialogue and the yelpy performance of what seemed a ANOTHER BROOKS GRAD WHO MADE IT TO THE TOP. gaggle of ninnies. The credits do not list a sound engineer, but a \"Sound De- As Director of Photography for M.A.S.H., one of history's most highly-regarded signer.\" It was designed to drive me up the wall. As Rusty-James, the moral TV shows, Dominick Palmer has paved the way for a new generation of creative cente r of this chronicle, Matt Dillon primps, as if before a mirror, and at one cinematographers . Where did Dominick learn his craft? Brooks Institute in Santa point levitates. Is this Coppola's Mary Poppins? Barbara. California. I' m fully prepared to steel myself and At Brooks , we provide the type of comprehensive education that's designed to have a second look at Rumble Fish. It wi ll be with a pair of stoppers plugged into bring the best out of our students. You'll learn al/ aspects of film making , including: my ears. o Stage & location lighting 0 Directing 0 Stage & • o Film & video camera technique 0 Editing location sound On the whole, The Big Chill left me cold. I didn' t hate it the first time I o Screenwriting 0 Production techniques saw it; it contains a few lovely perform- ances. I did find much less in it than met If you 're considering a career in film making , first consider how important your the eyes of some colleagues whose opi n- ions I esteem. I retumed to the movie, education can be to your career. That's why Dominick Palmer chose Brooks. found it more glib and less palatable, and could not stay to the end. And maybe that's why he 's where he is today. I was receptive to Mary Kay Place, BROOKS INSTITUTE Tom Berenger, and Kevin Kline. I warmed to them. I'd have them over any For information, write to Brooks Institute, Dept. FC1-1183 time-but they'd have to promise not to pretend to be ex-Sixties radicals. Glenn 2190 Alston Road , Santa Barbara, CA 93108 Attn : Director of Admissions Close, so fine in Garp , is too Streepy by 73

half in a sticky role. This is a Columbia relationship more intensity and more anti-militarist statement, then he was film , which may account for the inordi- ambiguity. Billy was more clearly a seriously misguided in using Major Jim nate lengths to which poor Berenger is \"closet case\" attracted by Richie, yet Brackenridge's graceful and talented obliged to push a shopping cart full of repelled by his own natural feelings and Sam Houston Rifle Club from Dallas Coca-Cola sixpacks in a supermarket what in Richie he sensed as potential in during the credit sequence at the start scene. Was Jeff Goldblum signed be- himself. And at one point in the play, and then again at the end of the film. cause he was in EL Grande de Coca-CoLa? Roger asks Richie if he is gay. Richie Their drill routine is impeccably choreo- replies: \"Yes! \" This exchange has been graphed, beautifully photographed and I've not a clue as to where the raves \"thinned out; \" it was a mistake. provides Streamers with a visual excite- for the script and direction of this shal- ment sadly lacking in all of the rest of the low talk fest are coming from. E veryone The real problem may have to do with film. It would make a good army-recruit- at the pajama party seemed an imposter. Altman's attitude to the play-indeed, ing spot. There was no feLt common past in any- his reasons for filming it. During the thing anyone had to say-just lots of press conference, at which were present Mr. Rabe, questioned by a critic mots, most of them not so bons. Kasdan producer Nick Mileti, David Rabe, and about \" the fear and loathing of homo- is a coarse director; he knows his way several members of the cast, Altman sexuality apparent in the play\" took the around a scene, but when the film was fielded some questions by phone from Fifth . over, I remembered it as an anthology of an Arizona location. The director re- little sitcom scenes loosely punctuated vealed: \"The play had been in my mind • by gratuitous crane shots. Since the since I'd read it. All the attention to the scenes had never built beyond Tinker- hot spots around the world-Mrica and Last Night at the Alamo was di- toy one-liners, the crane shots seemed Central America-led me to think that rected by Eagle Pennell , whose 1979 like exclamation points which had not now was the time to do it. \" The WhoLe Shootin' Match was pleasant been preceded by sentences. It oc- and promising. ALamo was written by curred to me that I'd been eavesdrop- Kezdi-Kovacs' Forbidden Relations Kim Henkel, who worked on the script ping on a gathering of bumper stickers. of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a clas- It seemed to me that Africa and the sic of sorts. Their collaboration did not • \"hot spots\" were from out of left field as turn out to be a marriage made in far as Streamers was concerned , when , heaven. Last year, Robert Altman took an un- from the stage, Mr. Mileti added his satisfactory play with an all-female cast, own views on the matter and gave vent Nearly all of the film takes place in a Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy to a lengthy self-congratula'rory speech tacky Houston bar, the night before its Dean, Jimmy Dean and made of it a curi- on his own anti-war views, and how he demolition. The soiree has occasioned ously good movie. He has now taken would not permit his son to be sent off to the assemblage of a mini-congress of David Rabe's Streamers, which foreign climes. Now, who is kidding foul-mouthed bores; the movie seems to seemed an effective play when I saw it whom? The kids in the movie are wait- think it's taking an affectionate glance at in 1976, and turned it into a curiously ing to be shipped out to 'Nam, but un- them. When I wasn't yawning I was unsatisfying movie. less l'm totally misreading Streamers, smelling condescension. One jackshit the heart of the play is in the sexual and asshole of a movie. The cause of the failure is not easy to racist collisions which occur in a hot analyze. The fault certainly does not lie house environment when a disparate • in the actors who played the four iII-as- human group is boxed. It could take sorted young men thrown together in an place on a naval vessel during peace- \"So this is Budapest. This is the place army barracks, waiting to be shipped out time, or in a Club Med tent. I must conquer, \" says Laszlo, the hero to Vietnam. (The scene is a transit bar- ofGyula Gazdag's Lost Illusions which racks in Virginia; the year is 1965.) H Altman has made Streamers as an tears out a hunk of Balzac's novel of the David Alan Grier as Roger; Matthew same name and drops it with a thud on Modine as Billy, the nice kid from Wis- the defenseless Hungary of 1968. Laszlo consin who wanted to be a priest; Mitch- discovers that nearly everyone in Buda- ell Lichtenstein as Richie, the intellec- pest is awful. Well, he's awful-and, as tual (he is reading a book on Ingmar portrayed by Gabor Mate, dull, unat- Bergman) Ivy League homosexual; and tractive, and unsympathetic, which is Michael Wright as Carlyle, the raWand not what the protagonist of this story raunchy street black who acts as catalyst should be no matter where it has landed. for the underlying tensions and un- Cinematographer Miklos Jansco, Jr. leashes the violent climax-all four are should go visit his father-and his beyoqd reproach and do well together mother-more often. The movie looks and separately. The play does not, how- as dull as dust. ever, jell into any kind of a proper film. • Altman's Streamers is theatrical with- out every really becoming dramatic; it is Hanna Schygulla is a free spmt In often monotonous. Some clue may be Marco Ferreri's The Story of Piera. found in the 20 minutes of the play The program calls her a \"trailblazing which were shot and then \" thinned sexual adventuress.\" To me, she looked out\" ; in the editing room. On stage, like the madwoman of Chaillot with Streamers seemed more violent and lice. Ferreri has not made a movie of more poignant. As I remember it, the much interest since his Bunuelian 1960 stage production lent to the Richie-Billy EL Cochecito (The WheeLchair). That's a long time. An exhibitionist with so little to exhibit should know when to close his raincoat. ® 74

Tubing with TFT ducer Kevin McCormick i more pe- cifi c: \" You want to have omething ex- by Richard Gehr they usually become producers, and Mi- cerptable, like the fi ve mu ical piece chael Nesmith is no exception . I' ve al- taken from Elephant Parts. \" Face it: Without Ernie Kovac there ways held a soft spot in my heart for the would have been no Firesign Theatre; former Monkee, mainly beca use of Bob The Case 0/ the Missing Yolk begin and without The Firesign Theatre there Rafelso n's Head , in which the group would have been no CTV; and without starred. If the best of any mass medium inau piciousl y enough with a serie of SCTV there would be no Firesign The- i aware of its own corruption, even the bad vi ual puns , but the framing device atre video album. The ancestry struck 14-year-old I was in 1968 could tell that is oon put aside for a typica lly convo- me during a tribute to Kovacs during the this is what the Sixties really came down luted TIT plot that leaves plenty of American Film Institute's National to. Nesmith approached TFT to make room for television parodie (like \"La- Video festival in Los Angeles. The day the video cassette for his company, Pa- wyers' Hospital\"), the above-m en- before I had seen Nick Danger in the tioned commercia l sendups, and genre Case o/the Missing Yolk, TFT's first video ~. deformati on (science-fiction and detec- cassette. While it certainly wasn't unen- tive pulps see the worst of it). If nothing joyable , something else was definitely I. else, TFT has always sought to make missing besides the Yolk-perhaps the comedy that transcends the two-play rest of the egg. }'-f syndrome (once for yourse lf, once for a gullible friend), and the overdubbed Both Ernie Kovacs and SCTV had to <- sound track contains an adequate num- ways ofthrowing television's idiocy back ber of asides and inter-references to ap- in its face. TIT, however, never had the The Firesign Theater pease the comedy sophisticate. It's all opportunity to reve l in network hell , so one big shaggy-dog story in the end, and once again find themselves operating on cific Arts Video Records, having seen the dog doesn't bite. the margins of a medium. Phil Austin, some success with his own video Ele- Peter Bergman , and Philip Proctor phant Parts. TIT had plenty of footage Missing Yolk promotes itself in its liner (along with David Ossman) emerged in left over from an aborted interactive vi- notes as an interactive experience (\"like the late Sixties in response to the odd deodisc to be done for Visual High-Den- video games\") but it's not. With record s desire many people had at that time: to sity Programs (now defunct), and Ele- one can always hop around to the best hear unusual things while they were on phant Parts director William Dear was bits and replay them for captive ac- drugs. Since then, they've knocked off brought in to finish the job. The result: quaintances ad nauseum , but the same some 20 records (including the unforget- 60 nearl y-successful minutes of cult mobility simply isn't afforded by a video table Don' t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me comedy. disc. As a full-length exposition, then, the Pliers and Everything You Know Is Missing Yolk comes off just a little too Wrong), four film s, a radio play, six radio At a moment in video history when slow and a little less ripe for the kind of series, three books, and innumerable Flashdance is anticipated to easily out- mental image-engineering afforded by live performances. se ll all competing videos (more even, records. Personally, I don't reall y care to than Jane Fonda's Workout), TFT bliss- In many ways they are the American fully, confidently counts on its mini-le- know what Nick Danger and Rocky Ro- Monty Python; but the Brits haven ' t gion of devotees to purchase up to 5,000 coco look like on a budget somewhere sustained a conceptual continuity as has units of Missing Yolk in cassette and disc under $300,000 (although for what she TFT. Missing Yolk continues characters, formats during the six-month \"window\" had to work with, production designer gags, and existential dilemmas first in- of sale prior to offering it to the cable Kathy Poster pulled off an economic troduced 14 years ago on an aural Be-In networks. \"We're relying on sight of success). of an album entitled How Can You Be in eye rather than on word of mouth ,\" said Two Places at Once When You're Not Any- either Austin, Bergman, or Proctor (the For all of TFT's monkeying around where at All? Rather than simply tying ear being decidedly unreliable during a with, you know, reality, the feeling per- together everal sketches, TIT has wo- four-party telephone interview). Pro- sists that they' re playing it safe, close to ven together a separate reality our of the vest, and above the table. They' re shards of information. It all fits together certainly in a tradition that celebrates into a private jigsaw puzzle , and its cohe- comedic challenge; they grew up on sion can be disconcerting, i.e. : Paranoia Kovacs , Bob and Ray, Laurel and -the notion that somehow everything Hardy, Stan Frieberg, Spike Milligan, affected everything else-was one of Robert Benchle y, and the Marx the quainter Sixties ideas. Brothers. One thing they do have to be given credit for: Try as I might, I didn't When Sixties rock stars don't die, find a single drug joke. At present the Firesign Theatre is taking apart and putting back together old Republic serial footage for a foray into yet another comedic form. But as they burrow deeper into their private mythology, a new era of video technol- ogy is thinking up original methods of corruption. AliI know is , The Case o/the Missing Yolk may mark out new terrain for these renaissance jesters, but Head it ain't.~ 75

To Market, to Market by MarshaJ. Lebby You know about the five blind men David Villalpando and Zaide Silvia Gutierrez in EI None. asked to identify an elephant by touch- ing one part of it. Each ended up de- the lookout for the next Secaucus 7. By the Cinema 3 ranged from political doc- scribing a different animal. Now imag- providing a comfortable, efficient envi- umentaries to fiction narratives; from ine the same men left in a room with a ronment for seekers of software, the consciously-crafted \"art\" films to craftily mouse; they might not be able even to Market has become both a contributor conscious social dramas. Common to all find the creature, let alone identify it. So and an index of the emergence of Amer- was what one European TV buyer de- it is with the American independent fea- ican independent features. scribed as \"another vision of America ture film. Definitions vary. Most are than the one we know from Holly- agreed that the animal exists. But pre- What are these feature films? And wood.\" America's movie capitol invari- cisely what is this animal? And, more what is their newly perceived perch in ably shoulders its way into any discus- important, how can money and careers the marketplace? Here we're back sion of the more personally-styled cin- be made from it? At the moment the among the blind men. Films on view at producers and potential distributors of the independent feature are staring at MOTION PICTURE AUTHORS WANTED BY each other like wallflowers on opposite NEW YORK PUBLISHER sides of the high-school gym. Here is SCRIPTS WANTED. product in need of marketing; there is Leading subsidy book publisher seeks manuscripts marketing in search of a product. Human and capital resources development of all types: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, scholarly corporation searching for NEW theatrical mo- and juvenile works, etc. New authors welcomed. Evidence of growing industry recog- tion picture scripts. We offer comprehensive Send for free, illustrated 40-page brochure H- 83 nition of American independent fea- critiques and sales research for marketable Vantage Press, 516 W. 34 St., New York, N.Y. 10001 tures could be found at the American material. Inquire Grasshopper Productions, Independent Feature Film Market held Box 67, Manchaca, TX 78652 in October at New York's Cinema 3 Theatre. There, in the basement of the Plaza Hotel, buyers from the U.S. and a dozen foreign countries watched more than 50 finished features and 30 films in various stages of completion. There, too, deals were made, television rights secured, distribution territories carved up. Now in its fifth year, the Market has secured its place as a showcase for a wide range of independent production, and as a meeting-ground for producers, distrib- utors,and television acquisitions people. This year's brightest star was the low- budget \"personal\" film-independent cinema's ' equivalent of the TV movie. No surprise here: Television-domes- tic , cable, and European-has become an important source for production fi- nance; and the burgeoning \"classics\" di- visions of the major studios are ever on MotIon PIcture and TeIeYIsion 'M1Iing Consu\"onts Detailed. professional evaluation of your script for a fee by ex·studio development executives. (Zoetrope Studios and United Artists) . Qualifying screenplays will be forwarded to bono fide liter· ary agents with our recommendation. For free in· formation . Motion Picture and Television Writing Consultants.1523 N. La Brea. # 210. Hollywood CA. 90028 (213) 876·9415 . ext 210 76

ema of independents, and orne clas ify evision and theatrical film. A C lassics, Original their genre as \" the off-Hollywood film. \" for example, look like ly to partner with ABC Video Enrerpri e to produce and posters Ye t compa ri son with Hollywood can- market low-budget feature film s. A mar- available : not wholly explain the growth of the riage like this make a lot of se n e. TV independent feature film movement as till needs the theatrica l release , to hook AU Through , hi' NIgh! a bu ines phenomenon . While Euro- an audience for features; and the ancil- The Black Swan peans tend to view American indepen- lary television market is eco nomica lly Dracula's Daughlel de nt feature in genre terms (Britain's essential to any film for which audience Gilda Channel 4 programs them a they would appeal falls somewhere short of Never The Searchels program a serie on New German Cin- Say Never Again. ema), many American bu yers and dis- SUSPICIon tributors are sea rchin g for the \"cross- • Tower 01 Londo n over film,\" which has just the ri ght mix of per onal integrity (read: indepen- Seeds of these changes were evident Wa l crloo BrIdge dent) , high production va lues (read: on the Cinema 3 screen. The hit of the Hollywood), and accessible story ele- Market was EI None , a dramatic feature Original posters, ments (read: both ). produced by Gregory Nava and Anna rare lobby cards Thomas. This story of brother and sister Right now two related trends seem to refugees from Guatemala, who make CI~~M@~()~ be influ e ncing the shape of the Ameri- their perilous way north toward an un- can independent. Both involve the ris- fulfilling promised land , is being touted Collections Rought, Sold,Traded ing profile of television as producer of by distributors as this yea r's cross-over and market for feature film s; but each film. With no stars, a dream-realistic Prompt Mail Orders works in ometimes opposing ways to style, and much ofthe dialogue in Span- affect the filmic form. The first is the ish, Nava and Thomas spent two-and-a- Specific inquiries welcomed , $3.50 catalog increasing financial commitment of Eu- half yea rs trying to raise production (415) 776-9988 ropean television to American produc- funds. Finally Lindsay Law at PBS' tion. At this year's Market, nearly one- American Playhouse put up roughly half 1488 Va llejo St.. San Franciscu,Ca.. 94109 fourth of a ll completed films had the money for production . The rest fol- European money in them . The Euro- lowed. EI None is and is not a Holly- 2,641 FILMS -1,200 PHOTOS pean T pre-sale is rapidly becoming the wood-style film. Given its subject, it surest ource of funding for American could have been made as a documen- Every feature film ever made or independent as government grantS dry tary; it wasn't. Given the jaundice of its released by Universal Studios is up . Pre-sales provide ready cash for pro- view, it could have been gritty; it isn' t. included in this complete history. duction , can function as a springboard Instead El None is a melodrama of two 10 full-color spreads. 400 pages. for investment from other sources, and people caught in a hazardous political Size 9%\" x 12 V2\" . only commit air rights within a specific country. Not bound by the same strict situation; the result is a film as American THE commercial considerations as the three as Ellis Island . So high were its produc- tion values, so compelling its story line, UNIVERSAL .S. networks, foreign television is so engaging were the performances that STORY more willing to invest in the political El Norte became the subject of a bidding documentary or the highly personal art- war among Orion Classics, UA Classics, ---------by CUVE HIRSCHHORN film . and Cinecom, the latter emerging with theatrical distribution rights. -... Harry Prins, an executive for Dutch television , says that American indepen- Most participants at the Market be- $35.00, now at your bookstore, or send check or dent documentary filmmakers should lieved that there is a growing economic money order to Crown Publishers, Inc.. One consider Europe as the primary outlet potential for the American independent Park Ave., N.Y. , N.Y. 10016. Please add $1 .70 for the socially-conscious work and ad- feature-that the work itself is matur- postage and handling charge. N.Y. and N.J. resi- just the form to meet time-slot restric- ing. Carol Greene of UA Classics looks dents, add sales tax . tions. Independents should deal with to the Market as a valuable source of those in Europe who have \"an affection talent for low-budget, quality films. And P BLISH ERSJliJ_ .... for the product.\" West Germany's ZDF, she is not alone; other classics moguls which can spend up to $40,000 on any appreciate the independents' knack for American production looks specifically making fine lace out of shoe string. The for those projects others might shun. filmmakers are still so reluctant to be The resultant film s can be curious hy- associated with low budgets that many, brids of European art aesthetics and like Nava and Thomas, absolutely American iconograph y as in George refuse to reveal their production costs. Alexandre's Hero , a German-eye (a nd But, the taint of independence may be highly arty-fied) view of the American fading. Some talented filmmakers are We t, complete with a Checker cab tool- eager to strut their stuff. Buyers and ing through the desert. Hero is definitely distributors are out there with their dol- not a crossover film. lars , pounds, and deutschemarks. And even the five blind men might be able to Then there are the noises made by those strange yet ardent bedfellows, tel- find this mouse once it starts to roar. ® 77

Lynne Littman's 90-Minute Lifetime by Sheila Benson Testament, a quiet, determined pic- Roxanna Zal, Jane Alexander, arul Lukns Haas in Testament. ture full of love and anguish, seems to leave its audiences devastated. It may calls, \"wept and passed. But John's Littman had her first screening at the also be one of those rare films which makes an impact on the world at large. script was really wonderful. It was se- Writers' Guild in Los Angeles, and the But it might never have been made if Lynne Littman hadn't had her first ductive to backers, beautifully written, first inkling of the film's effect. It began baby, and found herself unemployed and feeling \"without an identity.\" and at that time the subject hadn't been that morning, when the head of CFI Until this point she had been known dealt with.\" Labs, a man who on blind faith had as a director of documentaries. Number Our Days, a work about elderly Jews in Through Littman's co-producer Jona- extended Testament credit, decided to Venice, California, had won her an Academy Award. Once a Daughter was a than Bernstein, Lawrence VangorofEn- see for himselfwhat had been occupying probing study of four mother-daughter relationships. tertainment Events Inc., an American so much of his lab's time. He watched it, So it was, with an infant son, that late company whose financing comes pri- canceled his appointments, and left one night Littman read Carol Amen's \"The Last Testament\" in Ms. magazine marily from Europe, saw the script. An work for the day. in August of 1981. A memorable piece of fiction in diary form, it recorded three Englishman who describes his company Littman was stunned, but the reac- months in the lives of a family after a nuclear attack. as \"active, not passive investors,\" tion was repeated that night: \"People Many people had been after Amen Vangor felt \"vehemently that this was wouldn't leave. They stood in the (self-described as \"an inspirational writer,\" whose story had originally ap- the kind of piece they were interested lobby, just stood there, stood in the peared in the magazine of the Francis- can Friars). None, apparently, had Lit- in.\" They provided $250,000, the re- street. In some way I don't think they tman's tenacity. Rights in hand, she set about after funding, trying for six maining third of the production's costs. wanted to leave what had happened to months to get it from anti-nuclear organ- izations. So, under American Playhouse auspices them in that room,\" she recalled. Enter Lindsay Law, of PBS' Ameri- and, in Littman's words, \"in a produc- There was a single screening in New can Playhouse, a man Littman calls \"re- sponsible for an entire new movement tion which retained American Playhouse York, for the Asia Society, and the same in American films.\" Law gave her $500,000 \"with no interference and with integrity,\" the film was made, on a 28- reaction. It was here thatCarolGreene of complete support. It was a dream situa- tion.\" John Sacret Young began the day shooting schedule, with a five- United Artists Classics saw the film and, screenplay adaptation; the expectation of all was that this would be a 60-minute month editing period. (The average tel- in her words, \"fell in love with it.\" She film for American Playhoiuse, and would have no other life. evision film is shot in 19 days, edited in cannot, under legal advice, comment on Then two things occurred: when three weeks.) the details of the arrangement that fol- Young's script came in it was for a 90- minute film; and Arco, a principal sup- Littman co-produced and directed. lowed, since in her words it is United porter of American Playhouse, dropped out as a second-season backer of the She says with pride that-by story- Artists Classics' position that \"We had a series. The final third of the $750,000 budget was needed before shooting boarding the entire film, and through deal, we still have a deal.\" could begin. The script was shown to prospective backers, who, Littman re- the stringent care that she and co-pro- On the West Coast, Charles Schreger ducer Bernstein exerted-the film was of Columbia's Triumph films was imme- brought in under budget. diately taken by the film, but since there Entertainment Events Inc. 's arrange- were no cable rights available, passed on ment with American Playhouse stipu- it. He did, however, call it to the atten- lated that if, within ninety days of re- tion of Telluride co-director Tom ceiving the finished film, EEl could get Luddy, who brought Bill Pence down to a theatrical release, the film would be look at it and the two took it imediately. allowed a \"window,\" a theatrical release Two weeks before Telluride, Littman preceeding its PBS television debut. showed it to two Paramount executives: 78

president, Michael Eisner and Jeff Kat- son competItiveness between Devane CONTRIBUTORS zenberg, head of production, \"to get and young Ross Harris; too much pas- work for myself.\" They were deeply im- sive aggressiveness on Alexander's part, Allan Arkush co-directed Hollywood pressed. to get back at her husband's slightly Boulevard (with Joe Dante) and di- snide behavior. rected Rock 'n' Roll High School, Hean- What happened next becomes deli- beeps, and Get Crazy. Sheila Benson is cate: In Telluride, Littman was telling But before this could become Kramer film critic for the Los Angeles Times. audiences that United Artists Classics vs . Kramer West, and with an unex- Marcia Froelke Coburn writes for would distribute her film. Vangor, off pectedness that caught you like a mug- the Chicago Reader. Marsha J. Lebby mountain climbing, was not present, ger on your own doorstep, the lives of all was assistant director of film at the New but says now that her announcement these decent, unremarkable people in York State Council on the Arts; she now was \"very premature and in advance of Testament's world changed. And with the writes about film and TV. Marcia there being a contract.\" The Hollywood sharp, electric pop on the six-year old's Pally is film editor of The New York Reponer of Wednesday, Sept. 14, 1983, constantly-playing television set, then Native and contributes frequently to basing its item on Littman's Telluride an announcement from the civil defense The Village Voice. Barry Rehfeld has remarks, reported that Testament would station that this wasn't a test, the audi- written for Esquire and the Sunday be distributed by United Artists Clas- ence shared the sickening knowledge Business section of The New York Times. sics. that this is exactly how it would happen: before you got around to stocking up on PHOTO CREDITS; R. Valentine Atkinson: After Telluride, but before a lengthy drinking water or batteries; before you p.54(1). Cannon Films: p.20 (2) ,21(2),23 ,24. piece discussing the film appeared in had prearranged a meeting place for sep- Cherry Lane Theater: p.54(2) . Cinecom: p.76. the Los Angeles Times' Sunday Calendar arated family members. Now. Disney Studios: pAl ,42(2). M.J. Elliott Photog- section, Paramount chairman and chief raphy: p.25(2),27. Gaumont: p.2 . Harlan Ken- executive officer Barry Diller also saw In the ninety minutes that Littman nedy: pA,6. Eastman Kodak: p.36. Ladd Co.: the film. On September 28, Variety car- takes to tell her story you are led from p.l(1 ),11 ,49,55. Eric Lawton Photography : ried the announcement that Paramount loss to a sort of pioneer inventiveness, to pAO. Lucasfilm: P.46. New Yorker Films: p.13. would distribute the film. desolation and finally to the devastation Paramount Pictures: p . I(1),16,17,18, of a parent who outlives his or her child. 28,29,31,43,50,78. Pacific Arts Video Records: Greene, describing herself as \"disap- And then beyond that, to a level of hu- p.75. Quartet Films, Inc.: p.14. Scorsese Ar- pointed and angry at the way the events man nobility. The picture's naturalism, chives: p.57. Simon & Schuster: p.5 I. 20th Cen- have evolved,\" would make only one John Sacret Young's quietly elegiac tury-Fox: p.12,47. United Artists: p.39. UA other comment: \"This is the first time a script, and the straight-ahead simplicity Classics: p.15 . Universal Pictures: p.35,52. classics division has come into competi- ofJane Alexander's performance are the Warner Bros.: p.59. tion with a major studio. As we start keys to the way this succeeds. developing more interest in what is a STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT classics-division art film, and what is a Not everyone at Telluride fell com- AND CIRCULATION (Act of August 12,1970: Sec- major release, I think we will see more pletely under its spell. Some felt it senti- tion 3685. TItle 39. United States Code) 1. title of and more such cases. There are advan- mental, some manipulative. Eastern publication Film Comment 2. date of filing October 1, tages to both kinds of distribution, and a Bloc filmmakers from Poland, Hungary, 1983 3. frequency of issue bimonthly. 4. location of producer must examine very, very care- and the U.S.S.R. roundly disliked the known office of publication 140 West 65th 5t. , New fully what the best path is for the proper film, apparently because the American York NY 10023 5. location of the headquarters or general exploitation of his film.\" anti-nuclear movement seems danger- business offices of the publishers 140 West 65th 5t. , ously naive to Eastern Europeans. West New York NY 10023 6. names and addresses of pub- So Testament may become a landmark Europeans found themselves in hotly lisher, editor, and business manager: publisher The Film film in more than one arena. debated arguments for the rest of the Society of Lincoln Center, 140 West 65th 5t., New weekend. Without doubt, Testament York NY 10023 editor Richard Corliss, 140 West 65th • was the cause celebre of Telluride. St., New York NY 10023 business manager Sayre Maxfield, 140 West 65th St., New York NY 10023 I was part of that first commercial au- No doubt one of Littman's remark- 7. owner The Film Society of Lincoln Center, 140 dience at Telluride Film Festival, last able abilities as a director is her intimate West 65th St., New York NY 10023 8. known bond- Labor Day weekend. It was the week- work with her actors, old and young, holders, mortgages, and other security holders owning or end of the Korean airliner tragedy and those in their first film or their hun- holding 1 percent or more of total amount ofbonds, mort- Testament may have had a heightened dredth (including, among others, Leon gages or other securities none 9. The purpose, /unction, impact on us up there, removed and Ames, Lurene Tuttle, Lilia Skala, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt remote in the San Juan Mountains in Mako). Her child actors, Ross Harris, status for Federal income tax purposes has not changed Colorado. There was a feeling of isola- young Lukas Haas, and Roxanna Zal are during the preceding 12 months. 10. extent and na- tion and safety there, mixed with wor- extraordinary. She has revealed a quality ture of circulation: ries about more distant families and the of simplicity, warmth, beauty, and a sinking thought that more than 267 lives kind of pioneer strength in Jane Alexan- actual number of copies of single depended upon Reagan's reaction in a der. And Devane's presence is so strong issue published nearest to filing date cnsls. that it fills the film by its very absence. average number of copies each issue Bill Pence's notes in the program Ask Littman about her strongest qual- were astringent: \"Testament was how ities as a director and there is a little during preceding 12 months one family living in a small Califomia pause. \"In the documentaries, my peo- town handles a crisis.\" From the first ple got to tell me things they didn't • homey section it was pretty clear what know they were going to. It seems to me A. lotal number copies printed (net press run) 34,132 that crisis was going to be. There were it's the same thing ... you just don't let 36,596 too many unrelieved tensions between B. paid circulation 1. sales through husband William Devane and wife Jane go until they tell you the truth.\" ® 10,620 Alexander; too much macho father-and- dealers and carriers, street vendors 20,100 30,720 and counter salts 9,006 500 2. mIlil subscriptions 20,706 31, 220 C. total paid circulation 29,712 1,930 3 , 446 O. free distribution by mIlil, carrier or 36,596 other means-samples, complimentary, and other free copies SOD E. total distribution (sum of Cand 0) 30,212 F. copies not distributed 1. office us<. left-Dver, unaccounted, spoiled after printing 635 2. returns from news agents 3,285 G. tolal (sum of E & F) should ,,/ual net press run shown in A) 34,132 79

The Princess Comes a-Cropper (Quiz #4) The room was tense and still as she en- Island, Hotel), this Princess Daisy is inter- film-historical irony in these charades. I ested only in money. To that end pro- remember when hot-stuff novels were tered, athrob with visions of romance. She ducer Lillian Gallo lit a thousand candles emasculated into timid movies. Today, in soft focus, jetted her cast to France and when movies are plenty raw, hidebound shrugged off her K-Mart youth fur and England, made merry on the lawns of the producers see that their Gothics are ef- Harold Lloyd Estate. Fair enough, on a feminated into timid mini-series. But is moved with knowing rhino strides toward $6-million budget. Even the lonesome 'IV that a reason for the actors (and sincere viewer deserves to see a Hermes scarf, a scriptwriters) to do their chores so rever- the object of her desire standing alert as a cellarful of old 'wines, a car, a van, titles ently? Stacy Keach plays Daisy's father, beyond the dreams of de Brett's. In front Prince Stash. Here's Krantz' Stash: anti- Boyar sentry near the bed. Bendingforward of these objets d' argent, however, director woman, obsessed with possession, con- demned to fear the redemption offered by deliciously, and with the flame-moth erotic his wife-mistress Annabel (played by ev- eryone's favorite Claudia, who at 44 still caprice of a lifetime's hot-blood mania, she can cantor with the Cardinale esprit). But Keach eschews bold strokes; every brute- brushed the tip of her index finger lightly force remark is met with a Dondi stare. against the inviting nipple . A sure cruise of Most of the women (like most of the men, like most of the children) are also current began to pulse in the creature's cosseted: Lindsay Wagner as Daisy's mama, Sada Thompson as her mammy, belly, and the words she hardly dared hope Masha. Merete Van Kamp (Daisy) looks like a cross between Grace Kelly and the to hear arose from its speaker. \"NBC comely Diane McBain (one of Wamers' Fifties contract artists), and models a Presents a World Premiere Mini-Series . .. broad range of mannequin fashions. But she lacks the animating spark that would Judith Krantz' Princess Daisy.\" Jane Doe bring Daisy, and Daisy, together. (Again, in The Osterm£ln Weekend, Van Kamp has snuggled down among olden, ponderous cli- the same problem. But there she's D.OA by the end of the opening credits.) ches and waitedfor her trashy daydreams to • come true. • For a bad-mannered, incest-ired creep Not even trash can guarantee the like Prince Ram, actor Ruppert Everett was an inspiration. Only he dares to wal- happy ending, and, alas, it happened to low giddily in Krantz' mud. Honey- skinned and angel-faced, mulling Ram's Jane Doe: Princess Daisy proved a small- wicked, wicked womanizing in the lower depths of a claret glass, Everett does this screen bust. In loose terms, Krantz' pot- venomous villain full justice. Sad to say, everyone else in Princess Daisy wants to boiler-a smart-aleck streamlining of tiptoe out of Krantz' cathedral of sleaze- which is where, for four 'IV hours ~nyway, popular Gothic novels with titles like I'd rather be. -RICHARD CORLISS Love's Flaming Torrent-was the encyclo- pedia of sex, upscale version. A 30-ish marquise seduces a 14-year-old Russian ....~ --/ .: \"j .- boy on his way to the front (page 46); a Camaby Street angel wakens to the rare- Waris Hussein's all-satellite cast stands fied delights of sapphic love (page 256); stranded, a gaggle of marooned tourists. young Princess Daisy is raped by her dan- The movie's idea of divine decadence is gerous half-brother Ram (page .164) and, to display couturier Ringo Starr in a bub- despite herself, responds with illicit pas- ble bath, with his wife and wonder, Bar- sion. Krantz' shopworn prose style had bara Bach, in a girlish rapture painting his more organs pulsating than a Wurlitzer toenails and plotting the overdressing of convention, and it paraded a wee, wicked the free world. The point seems to be wit when describing the spectacle of ty- that the camera should just sleepwalk coons and 'IV types trying to put a pur- down the corridors of power, when it chase on aristocracy's slimy hauteur. ought to be scampering into the fourpos- The 'IV movie, though, refused to ter beds of the rich and strange. throw us a single pelvic curve, to raise a True, network restraints mean that the single plucked eyebrow. Inert and juice- bodice straps of sexual melodrama are un- less, like an Aaron Spelling series (Fantasy likely to snap in prime time. There is QUIZ #4: More than 100 movie ners will be announced in the next is- the Stardust Diner without warning, sue. Happy hunting to all! titles are embedded in the review breaking up the tribes' desperate siege, above. Each title has at least three let- For QUIZ #3 you were asked to ters (no M or Q); some titles are hidden ambushing Zulu cannonball firepower in longer phrases; and on five titles we compose a 50-word paragraph contain- got sneaky. High score wins a free year ing the largest number of movie titles. and young scar-faced savages' dan- of FILM COMMENT. Address entries to The winner, with 82 titles, is Richard FILM COMMENT Quiz #4, 140 West Maskel of Green Bay, Wisc. His entry: gerous games. Fearing red sundown 65th Street, New York, N .Y. 10023, and \"Suddenly, last summertime, 17 lost get them to us by December 15. Win- commandos, trapped among the head- fury, the heroes, by love possessed, du- hunters, outrageously counter-attacked eled unchained heathens, busting the villains' Norman conquest.\" Congratu- lations to Mr. Maskel and thanks to all who entered. -R.C. 80

NEW RELEASES FROM NEW YORKER FILMS \"AN EXTREMELY GOOD FILM.\" - \",\"cent C.lnb\\.:'1 \\' Tlmc ~ \" ABSOLUTELY MAGICAL'.' - Judith Crist. 'ftl .I' A New Yorker Films Release Plus: Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin-Feminin, Werner Herzog's Huie's Sennon and God's Angry Man, Edgardo Cozarinsky's One Man's War, Ababacar Samb's Jom, Ousmane Sembene's Mandabi. *The Atomic Cafe is available for non-theatrical rental only. CALL OR WRITE FOR OUR 1983 SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS CATALOGUE. \"tMl:tn~a 16 West 61st Street, New York, NY 10023 (212) 247-6110