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PAGE 6—November 1,1973
RUDOLPH NUREYEV AND LUCETTE ALDOUS join the Australian
Ballet in Nureyev’s adaptation of the classic ballet of Petipa, DON
QUIXOTE, a Cinema 5 film release.
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Film Classifications
A. - Section I - Morally Unobjectionable for General Patronage
A - Section II — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Adolescents
A - Section HI - Morally Unobjectionable for Adults
A — Section IV — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Reservations
B - Morally Objectionable in Part for All
C — Condemned
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//''///////// 11 M
DON QUIXOTE, co-directed by Rudolph
Nureyev and Robert Helpmann, attempts
admirably to bridge the gap of appreciation
between specialized audiences and casual
moviegoers. In so doing the John Hargreaves
production exhibits a care and understanding
for both the medium of film and the medium
of dance.
DON QUIXOTE, affords an excellent
opportunity for serious followers of the ballet
to witness Nureyev excel as both planner and
executioner of the classically staged work first
popularized by Petipa nearly a century ago.
Historically speaking, dance films have always
posed the problem of preserving the integrity
of the performance while simultaneously
injecting that performance with a special kind
of excitement not ordinarily present in a mere
recording. Dance purists insist upon an
unencumbered recording of the event in full
shots. Casual moviegoers, on the other hand,
demand to become involved with performers
as well as performance. Nureyev’s
arrangement blends both styles but
undoubtedly emphasizes the importance of
execution and technique.
Lucette Aldous as Kitri, the romantic
interest, doubles as Dulcinea. Don Quixote is
danced by Robert Helpmann who is joined by
other members of the Australian Ballet in fine
supporting roles, notably Janet Vernon and
Gary Norman, the Leading Fandango Couple.
Nureyev dances the role of the young Basilio
who elicits the aid of the Don to win the hand
of his beloved Kitri. For those familiar with
the Cervantes work, the narrative will only
seem marginally similar to the original. They
will have to be patient with the leitmotif of
young love which has been moved to center
stage as a vehicle for the extraordinary talents
of Nureyev who also choreographed this
presentation.
Low-contrast lighting, the result as much,
one suspects, of a scanty budget as of the film
maker’s intent, softens the backgrounds into
pleasing pastels and eliminates much
distraction from view, emphasizing pure
movement against low-keyed interior
landscapes of forms and shapes. Nureyev’s
camera treatment will satisfy both those who
wish to see all the forces at work within the
space for which they were choreographed and
those who wish to get into the action.
Nureyev and Helpmann selected details of
texture and movement which are visually
interesting and technically important. It is in
many ways an elegant study piece for serious
students of the dance as well as aspiring
dancers.
This DON QUIXOTE is a thorough and
honest treatment of a unique performance,
accompanied by a richly orchestrated score
and punctuated by brilliant moments of
Nureyev’s virtuosity. (A-l)
WHAT? (Avco Embassy) Why? is the better
question, as onetime boy-wonder director
Roman Polanski seems here to be indulging in
a very private and for the casual movie-goer --
often quite offensive joke about life, fate, and
the movies. The film, shot in a lush Riviera
villa occupied by an assortment of psychos,
wierdos and garden-variety perverts, is a sort
of naughty Alice in Wonderland, with a bit of
risque cartooning thrown in for good
measure. Sydne Rome stars as a
much-violated young waif, ostensibly a
touring American, who wanders into the
madcap villa and tries to make sense out of its
chaos. The result is more chaos, and Ms.
Rome spends much of her time in progressive
stages of dishabille. For voyeurs and
movie-freaks only, and even they will be
mystified if not simply turned off. (C)
ARNOLD (Cinerama) At least half of this
creaky horror-comedy takes place in a
fog-bound graveyard, and all of it centers
around a well-heeled, well-preserved cadaver
(in the title role). The gimmick derives from a
condition in the deceased’s will that his bride
(Stella Stevens, who married him hastily just
after his demise) keep him near her for the
rest of her life. Naturally the man’s widow
(Shani Wallis) is a bit perturbed by all this,
but, then again, she is bumped off
mysteriously after the reading of the will.
And so, in their turn, are the dead man’s
worthless-playboy brother (Roddy
McDowall), his longtime friend and attorney
(Patric Knowles), and a couple of others who
get in the way of the unseen killer and the
family fortune. The surprise twist involves Ms.
Stevens and the cadaver’s potty old sister
(Elsa Lanchester), who’s not all that potty --
or is she? The story is so preposterous, the
production values so marginal, that ARNOLD
had no choice but to play it for laughs, and
these do come at reasonably close intervals.
There is enough emphasis, however, on Ms.
Stevens’ ample cleavage, etc., to warrant an
adult audience. (A-lll)
I ESCAPED FROM DEVIL’S ISLAND
(United Artists) The action is tough and
sweaty as Jim Brown and Christopher George,
held prisoner in the forbidding French penal
colony circa 1918, endure 40 minutes of
brutality and sadism via their prison guards,
followed by another 40 minutes of assorted
horror and hardships fleeing through the
shark-infested waters and the teeming jungle,
and into a bustling outpost town. The
remaining ten minutes are given over to a
shadowy but fully nude love interlude Brown
shares with the recently widowed wife of a
jungle tribesman. Shot in the familiar style of
producers Roger and Gene Corman, this harsh
adventure will come as a mild shock to those
who have followed the competent, harmless
Republic serials of director William Witney.
Equally surprising is the fact that Jim Brown,
so often dead of eye and barren of expression,
actually turns in some memorably acted
scenes - which are definitely uncalled for in
this otherwise slap-dash action-market
product. (B)
BEN-GURION REMEMBERS (Lawrence
Fried ricks Enterprises) This Israeli
documentary pays tribute, on the 25th
anniversary of the embattled state of Israel, to
the unique role played by David Ben-Gurion
in its founding. In the twilight of his years,
retired at last from the stormy controversy
that marked so much of his incredibly active
career, Ben-Gurion can look back with
satisfaction on what was accomplished and
with a confidence that others will meet the
challenges of the future. This is a warm,
personal portrait of a man, not usually known
for his congeniality, intermingling
documentary footage and reminiscences with
friends who today comprise the leadership of
Israel. The film’s great value is in showing the
spirit which built the nation and is dedicated
to its endurance as a state. As a biography of
a great leader and his turbulent times,
however, Simon Hesera’s film is pedestrian
and far from definitive. The subject deserves
much more than an uncritical encomium.
(A-l)
LE RETOUR D’AFRIQUE (New Yorker) -
Alain Tanner is the Swiss director whose first
two films were critically acclaimed here last
year: CHARLES-DEAD OR ALIVE and LA
SALAMANDRE. His current production,
however, seems les'. spontaneous and slightly
more pretentious than the earlier ones. A
young couple decide to go to Africa to help
fashion a better world. With the
encouragement of a friend who is already
there, they quit their jobs, strip their
apartment, and have a final farewell party.
The next day a telegram from their friend
advises them not to come until he sends a
further explanation. They stay in their empty
flat, awaiting the letter, too embarrassed to
resume a life they have already renounced.
Instead they begin to confront themselves.
This experience helps develop their
consciousness (especially that of the woman)
and the film ends as the two come to a greater
awareness of their part in society. Tanner’s
message--that real change comes only from
within-is praiseworthy, but the plot seems a
little too pat in developing this idea, and the
actors appear a little too conscious of
following a script. This is especially true of
the cameo by Anna Wiazemsky which
interrupts rather than furthers the process of
change. Tanner has been exploring various
aspects of coping with life in our
post-industrial age. Here it happens to be
Toynbee’s idea of withdrawal and return, and
even if the picture is a little over-drawn,
Tanner has restated a significant theme for
the contemporary audience. (A-lll)
BOOK REVIEWS
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: A
CRISIS IN DEMOCRACY, by Melvin H.
Bloom, Thomas Y. Crowell Co. (New
York), 349 pp., $10.00. Reviewed by
Russell Shaw
(NC News Service)
A cynic might say that political
public relations is to democracy as the
apple was to Eve: a temptation leading
with a kind of awful inevitability to the
corruption of what ought in theory to
be an excellent system for ordering
human affairs.
This or something like it appears to
be Melvyn Bloom’s thesis, and he makes
a highly persuasive case for it in “Public
Relations and Presidential Campaigns.”
Yet it is a thesis which cannot be
accepted without qualification.
Perhaps the major qualification is
that to be offered by public relations
practitioners, who will insist that there
is nothing inherently dishonest or
manipulative or sinister about their
work-that, on the contrary, they are
simply engaged in trying to help
individuals or groups (sometimes even
ideas) put their best foot forward. In
doing so, they will add, they can at
times perform a rather significant public
service; for presumably it is in
everyone’s best interest that a
presidential candidate, say, adopt and
articulate positive, constructive policies
rather than negative, destructive ones.
The point apparently is one that
Bloom (himself a practicing PR man)
would readily admit, without at all
conceding that it undermines his thesis.
For he deals here not only with the
corruption of politics by public
relations but also with the corruption of
public relations by politics. He sketches
a disturbing picture of an unhealthy
symbiotic relationship in which PR and
presidential campaigning have somehow
brought out the worst in each other.
Why? Bloom does not quite say, but
it is possible at least to guess at an
answer. Both politics and public
relations have their less attractive
aspects, and perhaps the least attractive
of all is the “victory at any price”
syndrome. “Winning”--whether
measured by soaring sales of product or
by occupancy of the White House --
becomes an absolute good in its own
right. Any means that holds promise of
bringing victory a bit closer is perceived
as good. The only restraint is imposed
by the possibility that one will be
caught in what one is doing and lose
points as a result.
Bloom details with appropriate
distate and alarm what this has come
increasingly to mean in presidential
politics: candidates who not only
neglect to tell the voters what they
really think about issues-and what they
propose to do if elected-but do so as a
matter of calculated policy, on the
grounds that intelligent grappling with-
issues can only cost a man votes.
Stepping smoothly into the vacuum of
ideas thus created come such shoddy
substitutes as personality, image and
charisma.
As “Public Relations and Presidential
Campaigns” makes clear, this approach
also lends itself readily to concentration
by candidates and PR men, not on
expressing their own views but on
attacking the positions attributed (often
unfairly) to the opposition. And this
concentration on attacking the
opposition in turn lends itself to the
kind of political “dirty tricks” with
which the nation has become
depressingly familiar in the aftermath of
Watergate.
Bloom is of the opinion that
presidential campaigning reached some
kind of nadir-on both sides-in 1972,
and it would be difficult to dispute this.
Nevertheless his book does document
the fact that the excesses of 1972 had
their roots in previous campaigns. Here,
for example, is his account of the role
of a White House special counsel and a
group called the “Five O’Clock Club”
during Lyndon Johnson’s 1964
campaign against Barry Gold water:
“(The) group inevitably managed to
get hold of Goldwater’s advance
schedules, and somehow they had texts
of the senator’s speeches several hours
before the rest of the world. Before
Goldwater arrived at the point of
delivery, material for the refutation or
contradiction was usually in the hands
of local Democratic officials .. .The
Five O’Clock Club was also to be
credited with many of the slogans,
counter-demonstrations, and hostile
placards greeting the senator wherever
he went and doing such wonders for his
morale.”
Sound familiar? Ask Segretti & Co.
A book like this obviously raises a
fundamental question: What is to be
done? In the wake of Watergate,
Congress is moving ponderously toward
the anactment of new campaign reform
legislation. Many of the steps proposed
to date would be welcome-are indeed
essential. But do they measure up to the
magnitude of the problem?
Taking public relations out of
presidential politics is not the solution.
In fact, because it would be impossible
to accomplish, concentration on such a
non-solution would merely be a
distraction from the real challenge. It
seems to come down to this. Radical
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4 — 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) - VALDEZ IS COMING (1971) -- Burt
Lancaster is again cast as the long-suffering
martyr in the cause for justice. Unfortunately
he is made a disgraceful fool for the first half
of the film and a superman in the last half,
surrounded throughout the entire running
time with blood and excessive violence, and
smatterings of sex and near-nudity to spice
the stew. All this is bundled together by an
incredible and ultimately boring narrative set
in the Old West. Lancaster plays s simple but
hardheaded Mexican American deputy trying
to rectify a nasty situation. A Negro is
mistakenly shot as a murderer, and Lancaster
would like to give his widow, an Indian with a
child, some money. The narrative concerns
itself with his dogged attempts to get the
money from those actually responsible for the
incident. Even discrediting the frequently
tasteless dialogue, the film, directed by Edwin
Sherin, still sinks beneath the heavy-handed
plot development and tedious progression of
events. (A-lll)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5 — 9:00 p.m.
(NBC) - YOURS, MINE, AND OURS (1968)
- Director Melville Shavelson tells the
fact-founded story of a Navy officer widower
(Henry Fonda) and a Navy widow (Lucille
Ball), who meet, fall in love, and get married.
The hitch? He already has ten children, she
has eight. The comedy that results
(predictable but genuinely funny
complications such as interrupted
honeymoon, identity crises, bathroom
lineups, troop-movement planning and
buying) keeps in touch with human reality.
Underneath it all is a gently moving story of
love the way it is. Admittedly directed toward
popular appeal, it is humorous enough for
sophisticated tastes as well. Truly a family
picture. (A-l)
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 — 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) -- THE GIRL MOST LIKELY TO ... -
Made-for-television feature concerns an ugly
duckling of a gal who undergoes radical
plastic surgery following an auto accident,
and is transformed (as only Hollywood
writers can do it!) into a gorgeous babe. Alas,
her warped personality is unchanged, and she
launches a deadly game of vengeance on all
those who had ridiculed her when she was
improvement in the quality of
presidential campaigns will only come
about when voters make it
overwhelmingly clear that they are no
longer willing to be guiled and
hoodwinked-that they demand honest,
issue-oriented politics and political PR.
If a groundswell of this sort should
develop on the basis of the Watergate
disclosures, it is possible-just barely
so - that the nation’s present anguish
will not have been in vain.
(Russell Shaw is associate secretary
for communication, United States
Catholic Conference.)
homely. Stockard Charming plays the girl, and
Ed Asner plays a detective who investigates
the sudden rash of wierd deaths. The tele-play
was written by comedienne Joan Rivers.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, — 8:30
p.m. (ABC) - MY DARLING DAUGHTER’S
ANNIVERSARY -- Another
made-for-the-tube feature. Program details
were not available at press time, but the title
implies one of those creepy little domestic
horror chillers.
THRUSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 9:00 p.m.
(CBS) - THE GRADUATE (1967) - Mike
Nichol’s second film, a tale of an innocent in
a corrupt world, is brought off with deadpan
sincerity and likeableness by Dustin Hoffman
in the title role and with equal mixture of
voraciousness and poignancy by Anne
Bancroft as the affluent suburban housewife
who seduces him. Katharine Ross is attractive
as her college-age daughter with whom
Hoffman falls in love and seeks to snatch
from a life of loveless conformity. Though
frequently a very funny film, held together by
the stunning photography of Robert Surtees,
THE GRADUATE is not a great social satire.
The film’s moral statement is evident, but its
impact is diminished by a romantic but
psychologically unbelievable ending as the
daughter runs away with her mother’s
erstwhile paramour. Strong language will also
be a problem for some viewers. (A-IV)
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9 — 9:00 p.m.
(CBS) -• SUNSHINE - Okay, all you
mello-drammer fans here’s the week’s
super-sudser! “Suggested” by a true-life love
story, this rose-tinted story tells of the
beautiful tragedy of a young woman whose
idyllic life (lovely mountain cabin, beautiful
baby, strong and handsome lover) is shattered
by the discovery of cancer in her leg.
Treatment would mean amputation of the
infected leg, but since she cannot bear giving
up her walks in the sun-kissed and
dew-dappled mountains and meadows, she
decides to give up her whole life instead. Oh,
the pain of it all! For comic releif, there’s
even some singing-around-the campfire.
Christina Raines is the leading lady, Cliff
DeYoung is her gallant swain, Meg Foster is a
helpful neighbor.
TV Movies
A
A * LIFE
IN MUSIC
BY THE DAMEANS
I Got a Name
Like the pine trees lining a winding road
I’ve got a name
I’ve got a name.
Like a singing bird and a croaking toad
I’ve got a name
I’ve got a name.
And I carry it with me like my daddy did
But I’m living the dream
That he can’t give.
Moving me down the highway
Moving me down the highway
Moving ahead so life won’t pass me by.
Like a north wind whistlin’ down the sky
I’ve got a song
I’ve got a song.
Like a whippoorwill and the phoebe’s cry
I’ve got a song
I’ve got a song.
And I carry it with me and I sing it loud.
If it gets me nowhere
I’ll go there proud.
Moving me down the highway
Moving me down the highway
Moving ahead so life won’t pass me by.
And I’m gonna go there free
Like a fool I am and I’ll always be
I’ve got a dream
I’ve got a dream
They can change their minds but they can’t change me
I’ve got a dream
I’ve got a dream
Oh I know I could share it if you want me to
If you’re going my way
I’ll go with you.
Moving me down the highway
Moving me down the highway
Moving ahead so life won’t pass me by.
-By N. Gimbel/C. Fox
(c) 1973, ABC Records, Inc. (BMI)
The full-page ad in the September 22 issue of Billboard magazine read:
“Assuredly another No. 1 single for Jim Croce. ‘I Got a Name,’ main title song
from 20th Century Fox Motion Picture, ‘Last American Hero’.”
The UPI newspaper release that came from Natchitoches, La., Thursday
evening of that same week announced the death of Jim Croce, age 30, killed in a
small plane accident following a concert at Northwestern Louisiana University.
An hour before his death Croce was performing in Prather Coliseum with the
down-to-earth ease that has characterized him since he rose on the pop scene a
year ago. The faded blue work shirt and jeans, the off-beat sound of earlier hits,
“Operator” and “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” all projected an honest, sincere,
unspoiled personality.
Notable in that final concert was also a new release, the song announced in
Billboard’s ad. And the reception of the song that night bears out that the ad is
probably right. “I Got a Name” stands to be Croce’s biggest release.
“I Got a Name” is the song of a free man sung to an age and a culture that
values freedom and individuality highly. It is the creed of a man proud of his
name, of his song, and of his dream.
“I Got a Name” is a song about a man who is peaceful because he is
comfortable with who he is. “I’ve got a name and I carry it with me like my
daddy did. I’ve got a song and I carry it with me and I sing it loud. If it gets me
nowhere I’ll go there proud.”
Croce’s song is also comfortable with life’s challenge to keep moving. “Moving
ahead so life won’t pass me by. And I’m gonna go there free. Like a fool I am
and I’ll always be. They can change their minds but they can’t change me. I’ve
got a dream.”
As you listen to the song you become conscious of how few people you know
who are really free enough to accept themselves as they are. They spend their
time enslaved by having to make excuses to others and to themselves. Or they
are not free enough to accept life and its call.
The song would do well just on its own merits because its theme is timely and
the melody is solid. But it will do especially well because it is the parting word
from a man who very much resembled the song’s figure. Jim Croce leaves his
mark as an individual on those of us who listened to him. And because of Jim,
maybe we all have learned a little better how to sing “And I’m gonna go there
free.”
(All correspondence should be addressed to: The Dameans, St. Joseph Church, 216
Patton St., P.O. Box 5188, Shreveport, LA. 71105)