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NosfJRArt', Marring Klaus Kinski. Isalx-llt*
Adjani, Bruno Canz. written and directed by
Werner Hrrzog.
l.aughter that director Werner Herzog
never wanted gut gird from segments of
the Sosferntu audience the night I saw the
him. lo some. Klaus Kinski's tormented,
spindle-fingered, alabaster-domed ( .mint
Drat ula was sillier camp than old Bela
l.ugosi, not to lie given the respett drawn
hv sophisticated, brilliantined Frank
l.angella in the recent, poorly-directed
remake of Ihocula.
But Met /og. In-sides making a him full
of \ isttal glory — steeped in somber, grainy
browns, blacks and creams — has done
something unique and worthwhile with
the frequently-revived tale of Transyl
vania's star attraction. Nosferatu, like Her
zog’s nol-to-he-missed Axunre, the Wroth of
Ood, provokes meditation as muih as hor
ror. No great amount of time is given over
to lut king, to the springing of inevitable
blood ambusbes; more is given to action-
linked characterizations, detailing how
love, anguish, sexuality, horror, compul
sion and death work on and within the
human heart. The laughter of people with
fast-food brains aside, this is a profound
film. Herzog aims to get soul-deep, and
there's precision to his plans; hardly a mo
tion or an expression or a lands* ape is re
corded that doesn't resonate with the at
mosphere and intention of the movie.
Isabelle Adjani, so l>eauiiful she seems
not of Earth, is the central character as
Lucy Harker. Women exist in most vam
pire tales to Ik- seduced, but though Ad jani
does trigger Drat ula's bizarre longing and
willfulness, she also fully understands
his menace, before anyone else, and by
herself destroy s the seemingly omnipotent
monster. Incredible visions anchor the
movie* in memory — townspeople carrying
processions of fresh, unpainted coffins in
lines tli.it look from overhead like outsi/cd
tapeworms passing through the city's
broad streets; mummified human remains
(filmed in (*uanajuato, Mexico) that ap
pear still desirous of life; slow shots of
single bats, swimming through air like
shaiks through salt water. Laughter is
certainly a great commodity, but those who
take Nosferatu straight will see an eloquent,
soulful mastetwork.
Byron Laursan
Ql VDROPIIENIA. starring Phil Daniels
Leslie Ash; written by Dave Humphnr*.
Mai on Strllmant^ Fraiu Koddam; directed by
Knddain.
I he story goes that just before the late
Keith Moon sold his California home to
Alice (Ujoper, he fitst drove his Rolls Kovre
into the swimming pool. From smashing
guitars on stage lo smashing conventions
within their own industry, the Who have
always emphasized basic emotions. Even
after a decade of successes they’re still the
tough kids on the block called rock itf roll.
Quadrophrnia, based on the Who’s
two-album set of the same name, is rock's
own version of West Side Story, but instead of
Sharks vs. Jets, it’s mods vs. rockers; in
stead of New York, London. But Quod
lophrma is a tougher film than its Fifties
counterpart. It concentrates a great deal
everyone-for-hunself attitude.
I he film focuses on Jimmy Cooper
(plaved convincingly by Phil Daniels), a
messenger fxrv by day and a mod by night.
He hangs out with his gang of pill-
(Nipping, lower-class teenageis and makes
war on rockers. I he latter are leather-
jac keted James Dean types who prefer the
music of Cent* Vincent and the Konettes to
the harder stuff the mods favor —the
Who, for example.
Stephanie (Leslie Ash) is the girl Jimmy
wants. But this isn't Wr\t Side Story and
Stephanie is no Maria. She dumps Jimmy
alter securing his emotional loss of inno
cence and launching his heart-rending
search for identity. The final affec ting
scenes, witfi virtually no dialogue, tell of
Jimmy’s break from the mod gang and the
discovery of his individuality. A line spo
ken earlier reverberates as he overlooks
the spectacular white cliffs of England, “I
don’t want to lx.* the same as everybody!"
Quadiophrma is a difficult film to relate
strongly to. The mods vs. rockers schism
never infiltrated America. Rock ctf roll was
rooted in the F.nglish lower classes,
whereas America accepted it into its mid
dle class. While the film's full two hours are
masterfully plotted and photographed,
the viewer is left with little at the end lx*-
yond a meager understanding of aggres
sion and the pleasure of hearing the Who
on the soundtrack. Quod rophrrno needed
to present a four-dimensional character, as
the album did. and not just the raw, tough
side.
Sal Manna
A Man, A Woman and A Bank, starring
Donald Sutheiland. Brooke Adams and Paul
Mazursky; written by Kavnold (adeem. Bruce
Evans and Siuari Margolin; dirccled bv Noel
Black.
There are films that are like onions.. .and,
there are films that are like tennis balls.
File onions mav not look that great on the
surface, but they have layers and depths
which become apparent on closer inspec
tion. The tennis lulls are pretty Imhiiicv at
first glance, but a good hard look reveals
them lo be hopelessly empty. A Mon, a
Wo moo and o Hook is a tennis lull, no doubt
about it.
At first flush, the film is seemingly en
tertaining. It reunites the team of Donald
Sutherland and Brooke Adams f rom In
vasion of thr Hody Snotrhrrs and adds the
wild card of Paul Mazursky, a brilliant di-
rector (An Unmarried Woman) and former
actor of general renown. The underlying
precept of the film — that machines can lx*
used lo undermine other machines and
thereby roll burglarptoof banks — is solid,
and the pac ing of A Mon, o Woman and a
Honk is so swift that it isn’t until the him is
over, and you're searc hing for your car,
that you realize you’ve been tossed a
marshmallow. The old wool has lx*en pul
led over your eyes. You've been dealt a
lunn\ deck. VcxTvc* lx*en had.
What’s missing here is: I) Tension —
we're never really made lo wonder
whether Sutherland and Mazursky will
pull oil their robbery. We always assume
they will. They’re too nice to go to jail; 2)
Empathy — Mazursky and Sutherland
Kinski as thr Vampyrr.
aren't really sc hleppy enough to feel sorry
for, and aren't slick enough to act as be
havioral models. They just kind of are,
stranded somewhere between cartoon
c harac ters and non-entities; 3) The Big
Device — Sutherland and Mazursky find
the plans to the computer system by just
walking into the construction site. At
night, they just walk in to check it out.
When they’re robbing the bank. Suther
land just walks past a guard with 250
pounds of money on his back. And lie’s
almost caught w hen a policeman slops him
for having a defective stop light.
A Man, a Woman and a Honk, in the end,
is so contrived that even its contrivances
aren't interesting. If you’re going to tell
me lies, at least tell me lies I might want
to believe.
Merrill Shindler
S EAR riNCi Over, with Burl Reynolds, Jill
Clayburgh and Candice Bergen; written by
James I . Biooks; directed bv Alan J. Pakula
Well, well, well, another mid-life crisis
movie. This time Bergen throws away
hubby Reynolds (if anyone can imagine
tin owing Reynolds away...) in order to
“find herself” in her new songwriting
career. Rcvnolds returns to Boston lo
build a new life for himself . We should lx*
grateful this wasn't titled An Unmarried
Mon.
Jill (day burgh is excellent as a wary
schoolteacher who wants nothing to do
with a separated man (she c hanges her
mind, no surprise*). Rey nolds is Rey nolds;
he's not a wooden Indian any more, Ixit In
still reacts to every situation with a cute, in
credulous stare, as if he's amazed to lx* part
of such silliness. Bet gen is the revelation:
she plays a woman so self-ahsorlx-d she
doesn't realize she's a buffoon —at least
when she's singing, and sing Bergen dcx*s.
loudlv, with panache, and a terrible voice.
When she maneuvers Rey nolds into a
motel loom leunion, her first move is not
to douse the lights and hit the sack: no, she
turns on hei hands cassette mac hint* and
sinus lo him, to his extreme discomfort.
Bergen never flinches, she gives her all,
and her all is definitely enough. After
many years of lx*ing primarily decorative,
Bergen seems to have finally dec ided to
act. Our gam.
But hi spite of all these terrific stars and
a few very funny scenes. Starting Over
never really gets started. It's slick, predict
able. it exploits the same old familiar situ
ations (we know it's hard to launc h a new
9
life after a divorce; we’ve heard this lie-
fore), and if it weren't for the high-priced
talent smiling away on screen, this would
lx* just another TV movie (not surprising,
considering writer/producer James L.
Brooks once wrote and produced I hr
Mary Tyler Moore Show). Even the music
sounds like TV; would someone please
break Marvin llamlisch’s piano...prefer
ably over bis bead?
Judith Sims
And J t s l l( I H>K Al.l., with AI Bcc ino and
Jack Walden; wriilen bv Valerie Curtin and
Barry Ixvinson; directed by Not man Jewison
Those who hate lawyers, think the legal
system is a c inc k and admire everything Al
Pa* ino does w ill profiahlv enjoy And Justirr
for All, but those of us who think movies
ought to do more than just pander to our
most juvenile anti-establishment impulses
will lx* left w ith a very sour af tertaste.
Not that And Justirr for All doesn’t have
its moments, espec ially in the Ix-ginning.
For a while, it’s so f unny and perceptive
about the labyrinth known as the Ameii-
can legal system, it's like watching the ulti
mate movie f or the Seventies. Then, just as
we’re certain the film is on solid ground, it
becomes nothing more than an ego-
stroking star-trip for both Pacino and di
rector Jewison.
The movie ultimately Ix-comes so calc u-
lated it's a cheat. By the end, when every
character we care ahcxit is destroyed, and
everyone save Pac ino has been exposed as
an immoral opportunist, we’re too
exhausted to care. What no one making
this movie seemed to realize is that farce
must be believable if it's to work. Black
comedy depends on keeping enough real
ity so that the insanity of the world makes
absurd sense. M.A.S.H. (the movie) and
Hospital did that for medic ine; Network did
that for the media; And Justirr for All does
not do that for the legal profession.
Jacoba Atlas
Promises in i id Dark, starring Marsha
Mason. Mic had Br.melon. Susan Clark, Nc-d
Beam and Kaihlern Bellrt; w ritten by lairing
Mandcl; directed by Jerome Heilman.
This is a straightforward film .iImiiii a 17-
year-old girl (Bellcr) who dies of cancer,
and how her illness a fleeis the* lives of hei
parents (('.lark and Beatty), friends and
doctor (Mason). It’s an earnest effort to
dc-glamorize death, which in movies and
television programs traditionally takes
place witfi perfect makeup, tears eves and
trembling chin.
The subplot of Mason's affaii with
radiologist Bi.melon never quite jells; it
seems to exist only to show how Belter's
courage has inspired Mason to live a lullet,
more compassionate life (theii atlaii pro
ceeds like all movie affairs — cutely.
There's no such thing as an unc tile
c inematic courtship any more). Bettci to
s|H*nd the time showing us tlie* dailv strain
of living w ith a terminal cancer patient, so
that we'd Ix-tter understand the rather odd
lx*havH»i of the (turcots. I've* lieen assured
that's exactly the wav people act m such
situations, hut die film should have made
that c learcr lo those of us fortunate
enough not to have lived through similar
tragedies.
The most affecting paused the film are
those moments when Bcllei spends lime
with hei iMiyfiiend and girlfriends; thev
are all high-spuilecl, intelligent, likeable
kids, except that she’s dying and thev
aren't. The unmentiniied contrast is more
|M)ignant than all the hand-wringing.
Judith Sima