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.
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RECCHDS CI TAP2S
3 LOCATIONS
229 N. 10th DOWNTOWN
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Monday-Friday 10-8. 9:30-8 Downtown
Saturday 10-6 fTT
OPEN SUNDAYS 12-5 Uii
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