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Bulgarian Film 'not getting older, but better'
Having seen four or five (no, I think it was six. . .)
of his 93 films during my 47 years of Daily
Nebraskan film reviewing, I can state, unequivocally,
that the great Bulgarian director Ingfried von Le
Bertolinnioni has come up with his crowning
masterpiece.
At Long Last Menopause, now showing at the
Super-Cooper 25 Theaters, is a discomforting
horror-musical, a joyously sterile song-and-dance
celebration of a woman during "that time of life".
The film is bolstered by a sterling performance
from one of the cinema's premier grande dames,
Sandra Dee. She plays Xaviera Griselda, a
conscience-wracked nymphomaniac nun who feels
physically redeemed and has her life-long feelings of
guilt "dried up" when she goes through her change in
life.
Bozos abound
In addition to Ms. Dee and a brief guest
appearance by Debra Walley (as a reformed hooker
turned Mother Superior), the film also presents a
liberating break with tradition by offering a number
of meaningful men's roles for several male actors
whose long-neglected talents have finally been
recognized. As four of Griselde's former lovers, Clint
Walker, Tab Hunter, Larry Storch and Dean Jones are
exhilirating. Togethertheir talents give us such magical
screen moments as the already legendary scene in the
convent's men's room.
To pen the music for At Long Last Menopause,
LeBertolinnioni has opted for the current naustalgia
tendencies by digging up one of the long lost musical
giants of the '70s, Burt Bachamuzak. His maloderous
melodies perfectly complement the film's feeling of
frivolous frigidity in such captivating tunes as
gregor luceaux
key gripe
"Confession Room Blues," and of course, the film's
theme song, "No No, I Can't Get It Up For You!"
Gonzo delectabilities
In At Long Last Menopause, LeBertolinnioni once
again transfers his artistic eclecticism to the cinema by
paying homage to those great American directors of
the '70s like Peter Bogdanovich, George Roy Hill,
Ted Post and Woody Brooks. Largely put down in
their own era for their crass commercialism, these
rediscovered directors are being respectively
re-evaluated and recognized for their "bottom-line"
artistry, persistant lack of personal vision and
willingness to film anything, regardless of unjust
critical pressure.
In perspective, At Long Last Menopause is a
stunning accomplishment. I've never seen a movie
that left me so refreshingly empty in my life. I can
only laud the performances and creative integrity of
the film and join with my peers in opposing the
detestable decision by the National Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that disqualified
this film from Oscar possibilities
Ejaculatory timbre
Onre again the Academy has passed up
commercial success in favor of the other pseudo-art
films that dominate their nominations. They do not
recognize LeBertolinnioni as the master of the
metaphysical musical and that in this movie he has
metamorphasized his macabre, meticulous
mannerisms into a marvelously, masterful menagerie
of mutant malevolence. He has given us a soporific
memoir that festers our divergent, human
ramifications into mucalaginous loathing and, at the
same time, divests itself of all life's pretentions and
sanctimonious impalpabilities and emerges as an
excretionary icon of prostrative, ejaculatory timbre.
But this is mere chit chaL Let me pin it down even
further by saying that this is a zany madcap movie
that is chock full of many a titillating belly laugh but
at the same time, BAM!. . it strikes home with some
finely-honed food for thought. This delightful bit of
film fluff is a real fun goodie.
I j
Sheldon Art Gallery 12th & R
Presents a special screening
2 Academy Award Nominations
Best Actress-Gena Mands
Best Director-John Cassavetes
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April 6 at 7Pl1 Admission 2.
Tickets available beginning 6:50
Watch for the opening of this Film at
the Plaza Theatres on April 11th
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From At Long Last Menopause, the legendary scene from inside the convent's mensroom.
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FREE LECTIIE April 1, 7:30 ?U Union
(posted)
page 6
daily nebraskan
april 1, 1975
