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PAGE 10 — The Georgia Bulletin, February 15, 1990
"Stanley & Iris''Is Winning
BY HENRY HERX
NEW YORK (CNS) — “Stanley & Iris”
(MGM) tells the story of two middle-aged
people who help each other, fall in love and
presumably live happily ever after. It’s a
tale of ordinary people and their problems
that’s told so heartwarmingly that some
viewers will dismiss it as old-fashioned
melodrama — the same reason others will
like it.
Iris (Jane Fonda) first meets Stanley
(Robert De Niro) when her purse is
snatched and he comes to her aid. Though
they’ve never met before, they discover
that they work in the same pastry factory
— she on the assembly line and he serving
food in the cafeteria.
Recently widowed Iris has her hands full
trying to raise a teen-age daughter and a
grade-school son on her factory earnings.
She still hasn’t gotten over the death of her
husband and, though she keeps bumping
into Stanley, romance is the last thing on
her mind.
Stanley is illiterate. When his boss finds
out that he can’t read the food labels, he’s
fired as a potential health hazard. Unable
to continue supporting his aged father
(Feodor Chaliapin), he puts the old man in
a nursing home, where he soon dies.
After a lifetime of hiding the fact that he
can’t read, Stanley screws up his courage
and asks Iris to help him learn. It isn’t
easy and, for a time, Stanley angrily gives
up. But they persevere and he finally
achieves literacy.
Directed by Martin Ritt and written by
Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch —
the same team who made "Norma Rae,"
the 1979 Oscar-winner about a labor
organizer in a textile mill — the movie is a
work of social consciousness, accurately
depicting the financial constraints and
limited horizons of its working-class
characters.
This consciousness, however, serves
only as background to the narrative’s con
centration on the down-to-earth but in
triguing characters at its center.
The script carefully constructs these two
opposite yet parallel personalities whose
common bond is their good, sincere,
honest nature.
Director Ritt resolutely disdains resort
ing to razzle-dazzle effects or sensa
tionalism to hype the movie’s box-office
draw. Instead, he has crafted a loving,
heartfelt work about plain, ordinary peo
ple whose resolute blue-collar values earn
them a traditional Hollywood happy end
ing.
Because of its scant but meaningful
treatment of an illegitimate birth and a
few instances of incidental profanity, the
U.S. Catholic Conference classification is
A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion
Picture Association of America rating is
PG-13 — parents are strongly cautioned
that some material may be inappropriate
for children under 13.
ENEMIES, A LOVE STORY’
“Enemies, A Love Story” (20th Century
Fox) is a brilliant film adaptation of Isaac
Bashevis Singer’s 1972 novel about a
Holocaust survivor torn among three
women. This vivid portrait of a Jew as
much a victim of his own tragic flaws as he
is tormented by his Nazi nightmares will
prove troubling for some due to its frank
sexuality, the protagonist’s consuming
religious skepticism and his inherent in
ability to take his marital vows seriously.
Herman Broder (Ron Silver) lives with
his second wife Yadwiga (Margaret
Sophie Stein) in the shadow of the Coney
Island Wonder Wheel circa 1949. Beset
with nightmares about the Nazi occupation
of his Eastern European homeland, he
married Yadwiga, a former family ser
vant and a Catholic, because she saved his
life. She adores Herman and prepares to
convert to Judaism to have his child. He
offhandedly accepts her devotion and duti
ful subservience, but is obsessed with his
mistress, Masha (Lena Olin), a passionate
concentration camp survivor now living
with her cranky mother (Judith Malina) in
the Bronx.
As emotionally volatile, demanding and
beautiful as Yadwiga is self-effacing and
plain, Masha shares Herman’s disillusion
ment with God and disregard for conven
tion in general. Both are consumed with
fear and confusion about why their lives
were miraculously spared. Bound by their
common survival, and their obvious love
and sexual hunger for each other, Herman
and Masha share a powerful and painful
bond. When Masha demands marriage in
the Jewish synagogue, he gives in despite
his marriage to Yadwiga, which he and
Masha rationalize was not recognized by
their faith.
As he shuttles between wives, Herman’s
lie-filled life is once more upturned with
the arrival of his first wife Tamara (An-
jelica Huston), who was thought to have
died in a concentration camp.
Dirctor Paul Mazursky (“An Unmarried
Woman,” “Down and Out in Beverly
Hills”) captures the feel of postwar New
York and its Jewish emigres so perfectly
that one often forgets that this is a piece of
fiction.
Although we may denounce Herman’s
tragic flaws, both self- and destiny-
inflicted, we are drawn into his struggle to
come to grips with his indecision, his God,
his women and his lie-filled, chaotic life in
general. He may have outwitted the Nazis,
but he can’t outwit the demons that re
main, nor can Masha. Both characters are
stirringly played in Oscar-caliber perfor
mances by Silver and Miss Olin (“The
Unbearable Lightness of Being”).
Due to some very explicit sexual en
counters with flashes of nudity, some
violence, a climactic suicide and its focus
on a polygamous, sexually promiscuous
protagonist, the U.S. Catholic Conference
classification is A-IV — adults, with reser
vations. The Motion Picture Association of
America rating is R — restricted.
‘LOOSE CANNONS’
“Loose Cannons” (Tri-Star) is a witless
action comedy about two screwball cops
on the trail of some West German neo-
Nazis.
The movie is notable chiefly for the
miscasting of Gene Hackman as a tough
veteran detective painfully embarrassed
by his nutcase partner (Dan Aykroyd) — a
mismatched cop formula that adds up to
zero. Their investigvation of a bizarre
murder case leads to a sleazy porno king
(Dom DeLuise) linked to competing Ger
man and Israeli agents searching for a lost
pornographic movie secretly made by
Hitler.
Directed by Bob Clark, it’s a sophomoric
exercise in minimalist comedy, stringing
together a series of dumb gags, weak
spoofs of pop culture, sex jokes, special-
effects mayhem and some very offensive
language. In plumbing the depths of low
comedy, “Loose Cannons” is as funny as a
flat tire.
Because of its demeaning sexual humor,
violence and much rough language, the
U.S. Catholic Conference classification is
O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture
Association of America rating is R —
restricted.
ANTON FURST, the production designer who conceived the extraor
dinary look of the blockbuster film “Batman,” will appear at the High
Museum of Art as part of the Art World Speakers Series on Feb. 22, at 8
p.m. in the Rich Auditorium. Furst will lecture on the influence of the
visual arts on his work entitled “By Design: A Personal View.” Shown
here: A still from Gotham City.
Racism Teleconference On AIB
A program on racism
developed by the Black
Catholic Televangelization
Network will be aired on
cable channels in Atlanta,
North DeKalb and Roswell
in February.
The program will be
aired in two parts on Satur
day, Feb. 17 and Saturday,
Feb. 24 from 2:30 to 4:30
p.m. on Atlanta Interfaith
Broadcasters, which is
Prime Cable, Channel 8 in
Atlanta, North DeKalb
Cable, Channel 5 and
Roswell Cablevision, Chan
nel 17.
The primary goal of the
teleconference, which was
developed by Father
Clarence Williams, CPPS,
is to equip Catholics and
other concerned people
with insights to combat the
evil of racism. The second
goal is to enhance the ef
forts of organizations con
cerned with eradicating
racism.
Father Williams went to
seven cities, including
Atlanta, and surveyed
Father Williams
Asian, Native American,
Hispanic, black and white
Catholics on the issues they
wanted to see discussed in
a national teleconference
on racism. The telecon
ference was broadcast
Nov. 18, 1989 on BCTN, and
marked the 10th an
niversary of “Brothers and
Sisters To Us,” the U.S.
bishops’ pastoral on
racism, and the first an
niversary of a Vatican
document on the same
topic.
During the Atlanta
rebroadcast, local Cath
olics are encouraged to
watch and respond to the
presentation in writing.
Comments may be ad
dressed to:
“Racism and Renewal of
the Mind,” Office for Black
Catholic Ministry, 680 West
Peachtree St., N.W., Atlan
ta 30308.
Theatre Benefits Cafe 458
Cafe 458, the restaurant
for people on the street and
homeless, will be benefited
by a theatre performance
Wednesday, Feb. 21 in the
Little Five Points
neighborhood of Atlanta.
Horizon Theatre’s show
ing of “Beautiful City” by
George F. Walker, a com
edy that pits high-powered
developers against long
time residents of a boom
ing city, will benefit Cafe
458. Tickets are $10 and all
proceeds will go to the
restaurant, which provides
a place for people living on
( >
Mass Televised
SUNDAY, FEB. 18
THE CATHOLIC MASS — The Mass will be tele
vised at the following times:
8:30a.m. on WOR-TV (Channel 14 on Prime Cable).
9 a.m. on WGN-TV (Channel 15 on Prime Cable).
10 a.m. on WVEU-TV (Channel 69).
The Mass for the Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
will be celebrated by Father Mark Connolly, CP. The
program is produced by Passionist Communications.
To obtain a missalette for the Mass, write Passionist
Communications, Inc., The Sunday Mass, P. O. Box
440, Pelham, N.Y. 10803.
I -J
the street to come, be serv
ed at tables and choose
from a menu. Cafe 458 sup
plements the work of social
service providers by also
encouraging guests to iden
tify two or three achievable
goals for themselves. All of
its focus is to help rebuild
self-esteem and a sense of
control over one’s life for
those who are homeless.
“Beautiful City” is a
comedy that pits a zealous
real estate magnate and
his mother against an
unlikely opponent, a
bargain store cashier with
supernatural powers. In
the middle is a soul-
searching young architect.
Whose vision of the
“beautiful city” will win
out? For tickets or more in
formation, call the Cafe at
525-3276. The Cafe is part of
the work of the Community
of Hospitality.