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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1984)
Friday, May 4, 1934 Daily Nebraskan Pago 9 Wcvie's oirMficcd plo i never comes to life Ey Eric Petersen Like -Diva, the last picture Jean- Jaquea Bcineix made, WieMoon in the Cutter has an extremely exeunt and in the Gutter shows tonight and Sat urday night at 7 p.m. and 0:15 p.m., with a Saturday matinee at 3 p.m. at the Sheldon Film Theater. Beineix's film is based on a novel by David Goodb and uses the conven tions of the detective thriller to get and keep the viewer's eye. The opening sequence is a tribute to Alfred Hitch cock's Strangers on a Train: the camera runs low over a gutter, looks up from ItfttmHisifrplv Knoofli urn man txr&!V- sophisticated visual style. The film has ing next to it. The camera stays level ir lllti Review quickens until she is running, and the ca! Gerard b something like Jay Gatsby camera looks away into the pale moon. his yearning after a deceptively ele- Her shoe Is seen in an alley, and the gant rich woman is supposed to be a camera glides left to her body, the quest for nobility which will lift him blood gleaming on it and a razor in her out of the gutter he was born in. hand. The rape and suicide b sop- Loretta is clearly slumming in her posed to be made so stylized anq impromptu marriage with Gerard immaterial that the Pluto watch she she wants the sexual virility she asso- a dreamlike feci to it. and threatens. like a dream, to float away. The Moon with her legs and shows only the shoes of a man walking behind her. The pace wears and the clouding of the moons reflection in the gutter by the blood flowing from her body attract as much notice as the horror of the crime. For those who exDect a detective ciates witn men or tne woriang class and which her washed out and washed up brother lacks. "Why do you call it dirt it's magnificent!" she says of the dock3 as they drive' past and the Television When the movie ver sion of The Wiz was first released in 1978, Michael Jackson was nothing more than the youngest mem- elsewhere on this page. Beginning Sunday, and run ning through May 22, Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies will have an en core screening. Screen- ber of a floundering pop- ings are at 7 and 9 p.m., soul grqup. However, six with a 3 p.m. matinee years later, Jackson is an Sunday. Robert Duvall international superstar, won an Academy Award and CBS's airing of The for his restrained portray Wiz (7:30 p.m., Saturday, al of country music sin channels 6 and 10) is s'ure ger Mack Sledge, to garner high ratings. The film stars Jackson (complete with old nose), . Diana Ross, Nipsy Russell, Lena Home and Richard Pryor. Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy will be shown Sat- uraay at w.isv p.m. on Around Town The R.V.'s, local rhythm and blues band, will play at a benefit dance at the Lincoln Indian Cen ter, 1100 Military Road. The dance is tonight, from n mm Channel 7. Thestory, writ- 9Pmt0 1 a.m. Donations ton Kv Anfhnnv PKf go toward the music of Sleuth fzi? is about a therapy program there. man who is falsely accused of murdering his wife. The . 1972 film stars Jon Finch, Barry Foster and Barbara Leigh-Hunt. New Dimension de buts Saturday at 10 a.m. on KZUM (89.5 and 99.3 FM). The program looks at current issues in today's society, with political, psychological and socio logical perspectives. The guest on this week's pro gram is Timothy Leary. Beginning this Sun day KUCV (90.9 FM) is broadcasting a 10-part series which captures the rich social history of America's women immi grants from the 1840s to the present. The Golden Cradle: Immigrant Women in the United States weaves music, drama and narrative with vivid mem ories to reveal this coun try's unique legacy.lt airs at 6 p.m. Sunday. On Stage- Three productions will be presented this weekend. On campus at the Howell Theatre, Sum mer and Smoke, written by Tennessee Williams, has its final two perfor mances tonight and Sat urday night, beginning at 8 p.m. At the Lincoln Com munity Playhouse,lnrai the local production of the smash Broadway mu s ical, will be presented at 8 tonight and Saturday, as well as over the next several weekends. And, at the Nebraska Directors Theatre, 42 1 S. Ninth street, Suite 112, Charles Maro witz's adaptation of Sha kespeare's Measure for Measure is being staged tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. A review of the play appears on page 8. At the Sheldon Moon in the Gutter, will continue through Sat urday at the Film Thea tre. For more details on that film, see the review This is the last week end for many to enjoy Lincoln's wide array of live music. Acts taking to the stage this weekend include Iowa City's Boys With Toys at the Drum stick, 547 N. 48th Stn Rap City at the Mountains, 311 S. 11th St., Charlie Bur ton and the CutOdt3 at the Zoo, 136 N. 14th St., Wondersea at Chesterfieldj Bottomsley and Potts, 345 N. 13th St., The Fretz at Bill's Saloon, 1020 P St., The Blue Notes at the Green Frog, 1010 P St., and Karmann Goldwynn Band and Vicious Rum our at the Bo's-Judgcs com plex, 2630 Cornhusker Highway. Enjoy while you can. movie, The Moon in theGutter does not dockyard reallv is madcial at nkht deliver. The blood dries on the pave- and under Beineix's eye. The ship lights ment but does not go away, nor b the glow from air and water, and as the rapist discovered thb lack of resolu- couple drive the arcs of light open and tion becomes a tormenting confusion close. for the passive main character,- played However, her aggressive condescen- by Gerard Depardieu. sion and manipulative bent are revealed Near the start of the film. Depardieu vhen she drives to the docks during tells another character (in French, the day, snaps pictures of her new naturally), "I am Gerard...Gerard hunk, purses her lips in delight at the Dalmas." The shock of hearing a star fight which breaks out over her,' and say hb own name in a picture like asks hopefully if Gerard has lost hb job Meryl Streep calling herself Meryl in a so she can get it back for him because film helps show how the film and she knows the ship owner, director play with the audience. And Gerard knows that life in the jet set the moon, beautiful and troubled as it would fit him as badly as hb suit and looks, may still be made of paper. tic, but cannot reconcile himself to Certainly the plot b it never what he considers life in the gutter, comes to life. Part of thb artificiality b Both Gerard and Loretta seem drawn surely intentional, as when Nastassia to a lover from another class out of Kinski, aka Miss Loretta Channing, shame rather than that search for a makes her first entrance in a flood of complementary partner so dear to the romantic orchestrated music which hearts of novelbts and directors, drowns anything but a satiric response. Beineix has taken Gerard a little too Again, when she rolls up at her dock- much to heart for the good of the film, worker's house in a red sports car, When Gerard despairingly holds Lor- stopping under a soft blue billboard etta and looks longingly at the world of which tells Gerard to "Try Another frilly dresses shut off from him by the World," and traces the steering wheel steel gate dropped over the storefront, and the car door with her hand, all thb both the social sensitivity of a film easy glamor provokes laughter rather which partially accepts hb class-based than awe. self-hate and the effectiveness of the However, the social class basis of the film's glittering and dbtanced surface plot b not so simply and clearly satiri- are in doubt. r Ma I J ''J'jy j "-"." HBrrtr, Wx I i i n O ft V 4 t. f I i r . .! i 71 1 1 nil xx j j- Vx t . 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