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Daily Nebraskan
Thursday, September 1, 1933
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'Lianna': An honest look at a difficult choice
By Eric Peterson
The first4 film of the new Sheldon season is an
honest and heartening look at how a woman's life
opens out "Lianna," directed by John Sayles, will
show tonight through Sunday niht at the Sheldon
Film Theatre at 7 and 9 p.m, with Saturday and
Sunday matinees at 3 p.m.
For the title character, played by Linda Griffiths,
becoming a lesbian is much more than a sexual
g Film Review
decision; the implications, sometimes unforeseen
and unanticipated, run in every direction.
At the start, Lianna is married to a film teacher
named Dick, which seems somehow fitting. He
sleeps with precocious students and has Lianna do
his research; Dick regards her as a kind of
childraising and sex machine, despite the university
liberal world in which the couple lives.
Leaving him for a woman is thus a kind of
personal decision which has political consequences.
When Lianna tells him she has had an affair with her
child psychology professor, Dick laughs and laughs
at her lesbian nature. He promptly kicks her out:
"YouVe given me a perfect escape route, honey, I'm
taking it"
The arms of her new lover Liz, beautifully played
by Jane Hallaren, are not exactly open in all senses.
There are her professional peers to think about, and
there is a lingering commitment to another woman.
Lianna finds that she has to form her new life alone
Wonderful scenes
Some of the scenes showing Iianna's emerging
sexuality are wonderful. Her first time with Liz is
slow and softly lit with muffled whispers, some of
them in French, weaving in and out for a hypnotic
sensual effect Both the conversation leading up to
Liz's approach, when Lianna tells of her sexual
awakening at summer camp, and the subsequent
whisper-dream are an achievement of great beauty.
All will not be the same serene exploration for
them, however. We see Iianna's realization of the
world of women around her in a lighthearted jaunt
to Liz's place; everywhere she looks there is a
beautiful woman buying tomatoes, passing on the
street Lianna simply revels in a suddenly
discovered joy. She is so caught up in the
exhilaration of it that she greets Liz affectionately
and publicly, with her arm around her, and is
brought up short by Liz's embarrassment and cold
ness. For the most part Uz is a supportive and warming
lover. She takes a very scared Lianna to the Ely Vay
bar; and we feel with Lianna the excitement and
trepidation. The bar is not an overly glamorous,
"Saturday Night Fever" creation; it is a very ordinary
and realistic, even mediocre place. Yet there seems
to be a somewhat clumsy attempt to duplicate the
glitzy effects of a disco picture. The camera shots are
quick, in sync with the music and one woman's
boldly staring eyes are shown in an apparent
attempt to convey sensuality and menace.
When Lianna speaks about what has happened to
other people, she is careful to stress that she left
Dick because she had to, and not only because she
fell in love with a woman. "We should have done it
long ago."
She views her sexuality partly as an expression of
her feminism, a response to her husband's
obnoxious friend who comes on to fcer as icen sa he
Section highlights
weekend attractions
You may have noticed some extra bulk to
today's Arts and Entertainment section. It's
not your imagination. From now on, Thurs
day's Entertainment section will be expanded
to allow maximum coverage of the weekend's
entertainment events, including concerts,
movies and art exhibits.
Too often, Lincoln is dismissed as being a
dull little town, with nothing to do but attend
' classes. Within this section, however, you will
find news about movies, restaurants and a
complete listing of the weekend's happenings.
We hope you save today's Arts and Enter
tainment section for future reference. If you
have any comments, complaints or questions,
please feel free to write Arts and Entertain
ment Editor, Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska
Union, or call 472-1756.
Have a great weekend!
learns she is living apart "I'm from California and
that kind of stuff doesnt faze me," cocly responds
the guy, played by Sayles himself when he learns
one of the reasons he was turned down.
References to feminism recur in the film because
they are part of what she uses to put her life
together. She reads Radclyffe Hall's "Well of
Loneliness," an early lesbian noveL When she has
settled into her new place, Lianna whimsically say3,
"I always wanted a room of my own," referring to
Virginia Woolfs great feminist essay and putting
herself in a tradition of female independence. And
when Lianna goes to meet Liz at the start of things,
she hesitates and decides not to wear a bra. Sleeping
with a woman is part of recognizing herself as a
woman. '
Difficult decision
The difficulties of her decision are very great
indeed. Moving out at first turns Iianna's little
daughter against her, and Dick docs try to prejudice
both her children. Iianna's old friend Sandy turns
cold and strange lianna has been deprived of
most of her eld friends and her community. Worse
yet, her own love life is not a cure for all problems,
nor secure in itself. "I thought when I found scme-
, body everything would be all right," she wistfuUy
What Lianna has to get through is her own well of
loneliness. We see her watching the TV alone and
eating alone, evening after evening. There is the
aching embarrassment of going out again to the
women's bar, alone this time. There is a wonderful
segment in which she runs upstairs to seek
companionship from some people she doesnt know
that well, finds them gone and runs back down with
the camera lingering on the closed door.
Two of the last scenes end the film beautifully.
Lianna finds Sandy, her estranged friend, in the
park and goes to talk to her. We see them tentatively
return to their old friendship, which both have'
sorely missed; lianna is comforted as she blurts out
how she feels after Liz has left "So awful . . . I Just
feel so awf uL"
Lianna's loneliness is underscored and
generalized by the final scene in which she watches
two dancers performing to Otis Bedding's Tve Been
Loving You Too Long." Her tears show her own
agony and link it with that of anyone who has felt a
similar loss.
Zepplin 's Plant branches out, thrives as solo
The Principle of Momenta
Robert Plant -Atlantic
When a major band breaks up, it's only natural for
the members to go their separate ways as solo
performers. It's not quite as natural, however, for
those same performers to find success without the
other band members there to back them up.
It seems that the formula for gold records, hit
songs and No. 1 albums just cant be found in a new
environment
Once in awhile, however, a performer can pull off
the double play as both the member of a successful
group and as a solo performer. Robert Plant is a case
in point
As the front man for Led Zepplin throughout the
1970s, Plant belonged to one of the most popular
British hard-rock bands of all time. With his second
release, The Principle of IJ&ments, Plant also is
destined to become one of the most popular solo
acts of the 1930s.
Plant's strength is his voice. He takes the listener
on a roller coaster ride with a range not often found
among today's vocalists. While most of the time is
spent in a somewhat higher octave, Plant can dip a
couple of ranges to stun the audience with heart-felt
emotion.
Centred ca 11
'Everybody 's Rockin ' recreates '50s sound
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Neil Young
Everybody's EocMnV
Warner Brothers
Once in a great while a truly superb album is
released one that a lot of different kinds of people
will like. And if anyone is capable of this, Ned Young
is. In Everybody's Rockin Young returns to the
roots of rock fn' rolL In fact, if this album has been
released in 1953, no one would have known the
difference.
One of the best songs on the album, "Rainin' in My
Heart," creates a vivid visual image of a high school
gym during a dance, with girls in poodle skirts and
boys with greased back hair swaying to the mucic
Young plays a jazzy harmonica in this cut with a
sound that resembles Stevie Wonder in the early
days of his career.
"Mystery Train" i3 a great contrast from "Rainin in
My Heart" There's a hint of Johnny Cash, but not too
much. The touch of Nashville sound does much for
this cut .
"Wonderin'," is the first single to be released from
the album. Its beat moves the song along at a slow,
steady pace. Another song which flows well is "Cry.
Cry, Cry."
"Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes" is a nice,
upbeat dancing song which also serves weO as a
sing-along. Thi3 is the very basic rock that Young
excellsat
The other songs on Everybody 'sEockin 'are of the
same ilk. Young has made an album that is both f un
to dance to and easy to listen to.
Of the 10 songs on the album, Young wrote or
co-wrote six of them. He should be commended for
his excellent ability to reconstruct the sound of the
C03. : 7
All of the son-,3 on thi3 album are shcrt,sT7cct and
to the point The alburn is appropriately named.
This is good, old-fashioned rock V roll and a must
for every lover of '03 rock, as well as Nell Your"
fans.
- Everybody's EocUn' proves that Young v,n be'
around for a long time.
Nell Young
... .
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