daily nebraskan
friday, march 10, 1978
arts and
page 8
Cadavers provide suspense, chills in Coma9 thriller
By J. Marc Mush kin
Coma is Michael Crichton's movie about
hospitals, doctors and power over life and
death. Crichton himself is a doctor, and his
familiarity with the subject gives Coma
its authenticity. While this casualness
takes something away from the potential
of the terror, the viewer is struck with
Chrichton's expertise in recreating the
aura of a modern hospital.
movie.
Coma is a thriller in the traditional
sense -it depends on mystery and suspense
in the plot rather than Exorcist-tike shock
effects. In developing this plot, Crichton
generally is successful in weaving his star,
Genevieve Bujold, in and out of the
increasingly dangerous situations she finds
herself in.
Bujold plays Dr. Wheeler, whose best
friend enters the hospital for a thera
peutic abortion but never comes out of
anaesthesia. This sends Bujold on a risky
search into the hospital's politics for an
explanation.
Bujold is quite an actress. Her vast
expressive range draws you into her deep
ening paranoia and fear. Playing opposite
her, as her career-conscious lover, is
Michael Douglas.
Douglas took the very unusual step of
returning to acting after having produced
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in
1975. It was a good move, because he
complements Bujold beautifully. His con
cerned, but frustrated and confused lover
is a carefully restrained performance that
keeps the spotlight on Bujold.
Richard Widmark and Elizabeth Ashley
also help Bujold keep the screen mainly
because of the lifeless characters Crichton
has written for them.
Perhaps the real stars of the picture,
though, are the technicians who assembled
the elaborate surgery scenes and the
impressive Jefferson Center sets where
coma victims are suspended by wires from
the ceiling. Actors and actresses actually
had to support themselves on those wires
during the shooting. Crichton was only
able to suspend them for a maximum of
six minutes at a time because of the
severe strain on their backs.
The operation scenes are visually
exciting and fascinating because they are
so stunningly authentic. The verbal action
also is interesting; most of the extras are
doctors and their ease with the medical
vocabulary avoids the hokiness a less
professional treatment might have pro
duced. My principal criticism of the film
concerns Crichton's actual handling of the
operating and other blood and guts scenes.
Doctors abounded in the cast and produc
tion of the movie. The almost casual
attitude toward corpses and cutting these
professionals have, comes across on the
screen as a regrettable waste of a great
thriller device.
So much could have been done with
these scenes! The one scene that is an
effective exception to this is Bujold 's
final confrontation with the hit man
assigned to kill her- (Lance LeGault).
While trapped in a cadaver storage
cooler she literally buries him under racks
of falling bodies.
Upcoming Renoir masterpiece
combines compassion, surprise
The Sheldon Film Theater is present
ing Jean Renoir's 1931 masterpiece, La
Chienne (The Bitch), as part of its Foreign
Classics Series Sunday and Monday,
March 12 and 13.
La Chienne is Renoir's contemplative
and ironic story of Maurice (Michel
Simon), a rather comic figure of a book
keeper, who meets a vulgar prostitute
named Lulu (Janie Mareze). He falls in
love with her and sets her up in an apart
ment where she lives with her pimp.
Vincent Canby of The New York Times
wrote, "La Chienne is the tale of Maurice's
degradation, his victimization and his
ultimate liberation, first through love,
followed by violence, then by that curious,
benign second sight that Renoir bestows
upon characters who have the' courage to
survive."
This was Renoir's first full-length sound
film. Many film critics and historians
consider Renoir among the giants of
cinema history.
Canby also wrote, "Maybe it's not an
absolutely real-life Paris. The city we see
is familiar in all its physical characteris
tics, but it is lighted by the unique combi
nation of compassion, wit, amusement,
and surprise that this greatest of all French
directors has brought to virtually every
film he's ever made."
La Chienne will be shown at 7 and 9
p.m. Admission is $2.00.
. , l
m Photo coomsy of Sheldon F ilm T heater
Maurice (Michel Simon) sneaks a peek at streetwalker Lulu's (Janie Mareze) gams in
Jwn Renoir's 1931 classic "La Chienne."
Here Crichton makes the most of the
material a medical setting provides. The
plastic encased bodies take on an eerie
new life in their rolling-it is a gripping
and horrifying scene.
The horror holds up the other less
successful scenes. The fear that most
viewers have of hospitals and surgery
proves enough to support even a less-than-
perfect job of direction.
But Crichton is getting better as a
doctordirector. His first effort, Westworld,
was very successful but lacked the punch
of Coma. This is a flawed, but carefully
composed and executed, thriller that
takes good advantage of the fear of hospi
tals Crichton is so familiar with.
Coma is showing at the Douglas 2.
Photo courtesy of MGM
Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) seeks clues to a conspiracy among coma
patients at an experimental lab in Coma.
Movie schedule
Cinema 1 : The Boys in Company C;
7:30, 9:45 pjn.;R
Cinema 2 : The Other Side of the Moun
tain Part 2, , 7 :1 5, 9 :10 p.m. ;PG
Cinema X: Qll 474-9810 for tides; 24
hours; X
CooperLincoln: dose Encounters of
the Third Kind; 7 :15, 9:15 p.m.;PG
Douglas 1: The Goodbye Girl; 5:10,
7:15,9:20 p.m.; PG
Douglas 2: Coma; 5:35, 7.40, 9 45
p.m.; PG
Douglas 3: 77ie One and Only; 5:30,
7:30,9:30 p.m.;PG
Embassy: Call 435-6042 for titles; Con
tinuous from 11 a.m.; X
Joyo : Oh God!; 7 : 20 p .m . ; PG
Plaza 1: The Turning Point; 5:30, 7:45,
10p.m.;PG
Plaza 2: The Betsy; 5:15, 7:30, 9:45
p.m.;R
Plaza 3 : Ute Great Planet Earth; 5 :30,
7:30,9:30 p.m.;PG
Plaza 4: Saturday Night Fever; 5:15,
7:30, 9:45 p.m.;R
Roxy : The Maltese Falcon ,5:30,7:30,
9:30 p.m. ;G
Spinout; 12 a.m.;G
State : Candleshoe; 7:15,9:10p.m.;G
Stuart: High Anxiety; 5:30, 7:30, 9:30
p.m.; PG
The Dancers ballet company
appears next week at Kimball
With the help of actress Joanne Wood
ward, a new dance company was born.
The company adopted an austere name,
Dancers, to match it's demanding art
form, ballet.
The Dancers company will appear
next week in Kimball Recital Hall. The
two performances (on Monday and Wed
nesday at 8 p.m.) will feature the talents
of 14 dancers under the direction of the
company's founder, Dennis Wayne.
Wayne and other lead dancers broke
away from the American Ballet Theater to
form Dancers. The idea behind the creation
was to form a com ny where the dancer's
needs are placed first so that dance can be
a personal experience. With financial and
moral support from Woodward the com
pany survived.
In addition to the Kimball appear
ances, Dancers will present a free lecture
demonstration at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The workshop is open to the public and
will be in Kimball Hall. The dancers will
perform parts of the evening concerts
with background and explanation about
the works.
Tickets for the concerts are S3 for
UNL students and S5 general admission.
Reservations and information are avail
able at the Kimball box office. 113 West
brook Music Building. 472-3375.
Chamber orchestra visits Sheldon
Chamber music will grace the Sheldon
Art Gallery auditorium during a perfor
mance Saturday by the Nebraska Chamber
Orchestra Players. The concert, sponsored
by the Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music,
will start at 8 p.m.
Raymond Haggh. director of tf e I'M.
School of Music, said the program includes
three works The History of a Soldier by
Icor Stravinsky. Quintet in B flat by fun
Dani and Comrmno by ,eos Janacek
The president of the I mcoln f riends of
Chamber Music. Nelson Potter, said the
Stravinsky composition tells the story of
a soldier Different instruments mark the
events in his life The soldier is character
ized by a solo vioiin. he said.
Series and individual tickets will be
available at the auditorium prior to the
concert, .molding to Potter. Prices are
SJ5 regular and S2 student for the one
performance or Sl4 tor the three remain
concerts Tin other events will be the
Beaux Arts Inn (April I and The Cleve
land Quartet (canceled from a January 21
performance due to the weather and
rescheduled tor May 20th