monday, january 12, 1976
page 15
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Four moral fables by Renoir
destined to be a classic of
f i m
By Diane Wanek
The Foreign Film Society opens second semester with
a recent film destined to be a classic. Le Petit Theatre par
Jean Renoir will be screened at the Sheldon Film Theatre
on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7 and 9: 15 each
evening.
Le Petit Theatre is Renoir's last film, made for tele
vision in 1969 after what he said was "seven years of un
willing inactivity." The film is comprised of four tales,
which Renoir introduces and assesses the moral at the end
of each.
In his autobiography, My Life and My Films, Renoir
said, "In it I propounded my beliefs and my doubts,
passing in its four episodes from realism to artifice and
back again."
The first fable, Le Dernier Reveillon (The last New
Year's Eve), portrays the importance of the "dream life"
of two destitute vagrants. Having watched the spectacle
of a rich banquet from, outside the windows, the two
hobos inherit the left-overs and have their own final
celebration under the bridges.
La Cireuse Electrique (The Electric Polisher) is an
adaptation of an earlier Renoir project entitled C'est la
Revolution.
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Freddie King, ho learned the bluet in rural Texas
and the night clubs of Chicago's West Side, retains
some of his old style la his recent album, Greater
than Life, with an appeal to the rock audience as
well ts hard cure Hues listeners.
In Renoir's book, French film critic Michel Delahaye
describes the plot: "The idea is to show us first-hand the
rise of the spirit of rebellion through a series of situations
of the most concrete and trivial, and therefore the most
laughable, sort.
"The theater here is the conjugal stage throughout the
life of a woman who, obsessed with taking care of her
floor, subjugates her successive husbands to the tyranny
of the wax polisher.
"The last husband rebels, throwing the electric polisher
out of the window only to' see his wife leap out herself to
rejoin her machine."
The third sketch, Quandl 'Amour se meurt (When Love
Dies), features Jeanne Moreau as an actress and singer at
the turn of the century. The episode opens and closes
abruptly with Moreau's interpretation a la Dietrich of
Oscar Cremieux's song, "Quand 1' Amour se Meurt."
Le Roi dYvetot concludes the film. Delahaye said,
"This last story, of all of them the most moral, could have
been called A Tale of Good Manners.
"In it Renoir shows us how the customs of a society,
rather than being blindly denied or respected, can be com
promised, circumvented, flexed, and varied if we want the
rules of life to embrace the art of living.
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This accounts for the variations which Renoir contrives
on the theme of the eternal triangle.
"It deals with a betrayed husband who refuses to be
parted from his wife's lover, his penitent best friend,"
Renoir said. "The chief actor in this little drama is the
game of petanque (a French game played with a ball),
which I firmly believe to be an instrument of peace."
Surrealism colors Sheldon exhibit;
city's weaving, art displays 'unique'
By Charlie Krig
The works of Val Christensen and Robert Starck are on
display this month at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery.
(See the photo essay on Starck's work. p. 1 1 .)
Christensen's paintings, a series of surrealistic works,
have special depth and character resulting from her sub
ject choices, theme, and color.
A feeling of foreboding and suspense embraces many,
while others are influenced by an earthy view of women
and sex.
Two paintings that evoked the most response from
viewers are "Picasso was Clipped," a moody black and
white scene of a great artist seemingly caught in one of his
own works, and 'The Vampire of Norton School," an
interesting view of impending danger intensified by excel
lent use of blues, grays and black.
Sheldon will exhibit these works until the end of the
month from 10 ajn. to 10 pjn. on Tuesdays, 10 am. to 5
pjn. Wednesdays through Saturdays, and 2 pjn. to 5 pjn.
on Sundays.
Unique styles
Lincoln's Haymarket Art Gallery currently offers two
displays of Mary Jo Horning and Harry Orlyk. Both offer
unique styles of art.
Horning features a collection of weavings that range
from practical clothes to more humorous designs. Her
work includes children's toys, such as dolls and hobby
horses, decorative wall hangings and three-dimensional
objects like a stuffed sweater and pants.
Horning's weavings have been exhibited in local art
galleries and at the Smithsonian Institute's Renwick Gal
lery in Washington, D.C.
She currently is president of the Nebraska Crafts Coun
cil, (an organization that she helped found), is an artist-in-residence
in Lincoln's public schools and is married to
potter Jerry Horning.
Nature s beauty , force
Orlyk's exhibit, Sequence Around Me, is based on
strong colors. One set of paintings, a series of country
landscapes, emphasizes nature's force and beauty through
heavy storm clouds and eerie darkness.
His second group, sophisticated approach to the use of
black and white, achieves varying impressions of life and
death.
Orlyk came to UNL from New York and received his
M.A. from UNL. He currently is a fellow at Centennial
College.
The Haymarket, open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 pjn.,
Monday through Saturday and from 1 pjn. to 4 pjn. on
Sunday, will display these exhibits until Jan. 26.
hot
licks 11
ing still blues master
Freddie King: Larger than Life, RSO Records
One of the undisputed masters of the electric blues
guitar, Freddie King's career has followed a classic pat
tern: born in Gilmer, a tiny Texas town close to the
Louisiana border, King moved north at 16 to Chicago,
where his blues-playing technique was perfected in the
competitive atmosphere of the West Side clubs.
Again following a familiar pattern, his audience widen
ed from almost exclusively black, through the days of
rhythm and blues to the present, where he is acclaimed in
his own right by both blues and rock audiences.
The turning point in his career came when he was sign
ed by Leon Russell to Shelter Records. King's tour with
Russell brought him into contact wiih mass lock audi
ences and his music adjusted to his new popularity.
In 1974, King signed with RSO records, producing
Burglar, which was recorded mostly in England with
British musicians. Eric Clapton and his band appear on
one cut.
Larger than Life, King's second album for RSO, is
taken both from live recordings and from studio sessions.
The result is his most commercial album to date, but there
is still a lot of good-old King style in it, making it worth
the price.
King ventures into the very vogue disco music on this
album, and, while it isn't exactly what one wants to hear
from Freddie King, it's not bad. "Have You Ever Loved a
Woman?" is one of the better cuts on the album, King
trading licks with saxist "Fathead" Newman and slide
guitarist Mike O'Neill, -Diane Wanek
Stravinsky: Divertimento; Suite Italienne; Duo Concertant
Itzhak Perlman (violin), Bruno Canino (piano). Angel
Records.
The late Igor Stravinsky lavished enthusiastic praise on
Itzhak Perlman for performances of his "Violin Con
certo," of which the composer said the young Israeli
virtuoso was the ideal interpreter. Now Perlman has re
turned the homage by recording for the first time on one
disc all of Stravinsky's violin-piano chamber music.
The Duo Concertant is a serious, concentrated work, in
Stravinsky's mature between-the-wars neoclassical style,
while the other two are lighter.
The "Divertimento" is based on dances from the ballet
"The Fairy's Kiss," partly constructed on themes of
Tchaikovsky. The "Suite Italienne" derives from "Pul
cinella," a humorous ballet with a score freely transcribed
from the rococo music of Pergoliesi.
All three are rewarding showpieces for the violinist,
and Perlman's naturally radiant tone illuminates the
humanity of some of Stravinsky's most imaginative and ,
intimate creations.-Diane Wanek
Mozart: Mass in C Minor, K. 427
John Aldis Choir and New rhilharmonia Orchestra,
Raymond Leppard, cond. Melodiya Records.
Mozart's uncompleted "great" Mass hi C miner is, like
the Requiem in D minor, a work of the mature composer,
blending tragedy with an inner vision of beauty and joy. It
is a large-scaled conception, anticipating the grandeur of
Beethoven's masses, and a formidable challenge especially
in the two prominent solo soprano roles.
Raymond Leppard, whose performing editions of
neglected preclassical works like Monteverdi's "Corona
tion of Poppea" and Rameau's "Fetes d'Hebe" have
brought them to a newly enlarged public, here has had to
resolve certain problems of missing orchestration details
and performance style. As usual, the results are historical
ly authoritative and compellingry musical.
With four fine soloists and the staggeringly versatile
John Alldis Choir, Leppard has achieved a near-definitive
interpretation of this spiritual masterpiece. Diane Wanek
Fine arts waiting
with entertainment
A faculty art exhibition at Sheldon Memorial Art
Gallery begins Tuesday and runs until Feb. 8.
Friday, Secolo Barocco visits Sheldon Gallery Audi
torium at 8 pjn. This Baroque music ensemble from
France will present works by Locllet, De Vienna, J.C. Bach,
Rameua, Josef Haydn and Vivaldi.
