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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 1980)
1 page 8 daily nebraskan thurcday, april 10, tD30 A a n A. Academy Awards break away toward apocalypse By Peg Sheklrick Spring, and a young actor's fancy turns to thoughts of envelopes and statuettes. . . Come Monday night, some lucky movie will be break ing away' in a race in which Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Norma Rae and one might see an apocalypse now amid all the excitement and all that jazz, because Monday night at -8:00 pjn. the Academy Awards ceremonies get under way. Whether you regard them as motion picture-dom's highest honor or the most pretentious-popularity contest in the world, if you watch movies at all you're bound to have some interest in, and predictions about, the out come. You might even have a little money riding on it. But predicting the Oscars is like forecasting the weather in Nebraska -a chancy business at best. There are any number of systems for picking the winners. TV Guide, for example, Jias taken a statistical approach and come up with Dustin Hoffman, Sally Field, and Kramer vs. Kramer as the three nominees most likely to be called to the stage to struggle through an acceptance speech. Box office picks On the other hand, you can base your predictions on box office receipts . . . which could lead to the unsettling situation of 10 being named Best Picture of the Year if that were the Academy's only criterion. Fortunately it is not. For most of us, the favored system is to choose the film you'd like to see win and root for'it like crazy. If it wins, you congratulate yourself on your acute judgment Photo courtesy of Consolidated Poster Service Angela Winkler stars as the victim of a police raid in The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, showing Sunday and Monday at Sheldon Fflm Theater. Film to portray 'victim of chauvinism' The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, directed by Volker Schlondorff and Margarethe von Trotta, is the UPC Foreign Film Series offering this weekend at Sheldon Film Theater. This 1975 West German film stars Angela Winkler in the title role as a shy young woman who becomes the victim of a police raid. She is subjected to humiliat ing grilling by the police; the sensationalist aspects of the media pick up on her story and humiliate her further, and she begins to receive obscene mail. The L.A. Times said: "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum carries on the (directors') concern for women's liberation, for in a very real sense Katharina is as much a victim of rampant, dirty -minded male chauvinism as anything else. "As in all good films, the actors become the people so totally they don't seem to be acting. Angela Winkler's Katharina is terribly brave yet vulnerable and very naive. Visually stunning and superbly crafted in all aspects, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum is a politi cal thriller with much the excitement of a Z." Screenings will be Sunday and Monday at 7 and 9:15 pjm.with a Sunday matinee at 3 pjn. and praise the Academy's astute discernment. If it loses, you shake your fist heavenward and curse the clodpates in 1 Tolly wood who wouldn't know a good movie if it wound itself around their necks and strangled them, which it would if there were any justice in the universe. For Best Supporting Actor, the choices this year are Justin Henry (Kramer), Melvyn Douglas Being There), Robert DuvaU (Apocalypse Now), Frederick Forrest (The Rose), and Mickey Rooncy (Jhe Black Stallion). If senti ment counts for anything, Rooney might take it, since he has had a long career without Academy recognition. Justice in universe For Best Supporting Actress, the competition is among Meryl Streep (Kramer), Jane Alexander (Kramer), Candice Bergen (Starting Over), Mariel Hemingway tylanhattan), and Barbara Barrie (Breaking Away). If there is indeed justice in the universe, Candice Bergen will not get it-life has been entirely too kind to her already. For Best Actress, select your favorite from among Jill Clayburgh (Starting Over), Sally Field (Norma Rae), Jane Fonda (The China Syndrome), Marsha Mason (Chapter Two), and Bette Midler (The Rose). Some would com plain because that list does not include that popular plum of porcine pulchritude. Miss Piggy. But the Academy tries to limit its kudos to one species at a time. For Best Actor, the nominees are Dustin Hoffman (Kramer), Roy Schieder (All That Jazz), Jack Lemmon (The China Syndrome), Al Pacino (And Justice for All), and Peter Sellers (Being There). Sellers has obviously come a long way from The Revenge of the Pink Panther. The Best Picture of the Year, in the Academy's esti mation, must be one of the following: Breaking Away, All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now, Kramer vs. Kramer, or Norma Rae. Youll notice that W isn't on the list. One way or another the choices will be announced Monday evening to an anxious audience of stars and s ar gazers. No award will be made, however, for some of the t p acting of the the year, which will come when the em lopes are opened and we witness the Best Performance 1 y an Actor Who Expected to Win But Didn't. Workshop to explain steps of grant-seeking The 1980 Proposal Writers Institute, sponsored by UNL, will be June 5-6 at the Nebraska Center for Con tinuing Education in Lincoln. The institute is designed for agencies, organizations and individuals seeking outside funding for projects and programs. The two-day workshop presents a complete picture of the grant seek ng cycle and focuses on those steps which individuals can take to increase their likelihood of success. Sessions int ude identifying funding sources, under sta iding grant egulations, reviewing the basic steps of a proposal, practicing effective proposal writing techniques and managing a i roject once it is approved. For more information and registration material contact Chuck Havlicek, Division of Continuing Studies' 205 Nebraska Center, telephone 402472-2844 Play's director promises lively Greek tragedy By Debra L. Miller Phedre, a verse drama by the classic French dramatist Jean Racine, opens to night in the UNL Theater Department's Studio 12 in Kozer Hall. According to the director, Theater De partment Chairman Rex McGtw Phedre is one of three or four plays in all theater his tory that are considered to be outstand ingas the greatest plays ever written." The play, written in 1677, is based up on figures drawn from Greek drama and mythology. Hie story concerns Phedre, wife of the long-absent king Theseus, who falls in love with her stepson, who's secretly in love with a captive enemy princess. The plot outline sounas something like a Greek soap opefa, but out of this compli cated tangle of relationships Racine forged a tragic drama of passion in conflict with the will. "People shouldn't be afraid of the play as a dull Greek tragedy," McGraw said 'There are elements in the play that are timeless in their fascination-love, sex, honor, incest, violence, the lust for power. You won't be bored." Originally in French, the play was written in an intricate verse, form called alexandrines. English translations in blank verse attempt to capture the subtle nuances of sound and meaning possible in the French form. Associate Professor Kate Burke, who has the title role of Phedre, is sensitive to the problems of translation. . The voice and diction instructor, who majored in French as well as theater, has spent a year of study in France and could probably perform the role in either langu age ' " . - -As the play is considered one of the three of four "greats," the role of Phedre is also considered one of the supreme roles for women, a favorite in the past of - actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt. But the other women's and men's roles are also unusually strong and well -drawn, a major reason for choosing the play, McGraw said. It also gives students a rare opportunity in college theater to do this style of play, he added. To aid the students in mastering the style, the cast members are all part of an advanced acting class in classical tragic acting. Taught by McGraw, with Burke hand ling thj vocal coaching, the cast has learned to handle the language and "heightened realism" of the play in class as well as in rehearsal. We're trying not to be Greek-y," Burke said, The style is more lyrical, almost ex pressionistic. "It's a matter of finding the courage to do things largely, but still not be attitudin al, pose-y, or dead-serious. There's a sense of grandeur, of being larger-than-life about these characters, almost epic in scope," she said. "But we don't forget that they are human beings." Phedre opens tonight at g and will show nightly through Tuesday at Studio 12,329 N.I 2th St.