Friday, September 13, 1985
Daily Nebraskan
Page 7
Entertainment
Arts
'A Sunday in The Country5
is sad, subtle, nice to look at
By Tom Mockler
Staff Reporter
"A Sunday in The Country," this
weekend's feature at the Sheldon Film
Theatre is slow, subtle, beautifcJ and
sad.
"A Sunday in The Country," a French
film directed by Bertrand Tavemier, is
a story of regret, love and aging. Every his wife (Genevieve Mnich) is a faithful
Sunday or so, Monsieur LadmiraU Louis son. It is not clear what he does for
r.ork, but he provides well for his
family.
From time to time Gonzague looks
back and wonders if he did the right
thing in giving up painting. It was zt
least partially out of his desire not to
compete against his father.
After lunch, just as everyone is fal
ling asleep, the prodigal daughter,
Movie Review
Ducreux), an old painter, has his son
Gonzague (Michel Aumont) and his
son's family visit his estate outside
Paris. Needless to say, they are fairly
well off, and in fitting with this, we are
given beautiful cinematography by
Bruno De Keyzer. The film is lovely to
look at.
At the same time, though, it is also
quite sad. Ladmiral, a man full of life, is
growing old. He complains that the
road to the train station has grown
weekly visits from his son's family. whelming significance. Even though
A painter in the French romantic Irene seems a bit rabid in relation to
tradition, he failed to follow the path of the rest of the characters, she is not
his contemporaries, the impressionists, unsympathetic,
and now in the early days of the 20th We see her calling Paris repeatedly
century he sits and paints things around to contact someone, and when she does
his estate. Indeed, the entire film is a get through, it is apparenty another
bit impressionistic. tragic love af fair. She knows many men.
Uio KAn HAnnAi... ..tl.jnj 1 1 .... " "
"ij Buii vjunue, cauea fcauara Dy Dut Mings never work out
Probably the most effective device
in the film is the voice over by the
narrator, reading prose apparently
straight from the original text by Pierre
Bost.
In one scene, Irene reads her niece's
palm and realizes that she is going to
die at an early age. The occassional
narration gives the story far more
power than it would have without it.
Because the narrafnr savs s.ha wmlri
Irene (Sabine Azema) shows up. Gon- die at an earlv ace. vmi helipvp it Thp
zague is a bit jealous of his sister, as same girl throws up whenever she trav
els.
0
Perhaps one should just read the
novel "Monsieur Ladmiral va bientot
mourir." Then again, the movie is so
nice to look at.
"A Sunday in The Country" is play-
she is a free spirit, and although (and
perhaps because) she rarely visits her
father, she monopolizes his attention
when she does arrive.
The entire tone of the film is rather
wistful. Everyone has unfulfilled desires
longer, and that the trains are coming and regrets, but the march of time goes ing at the Sheldon through Sunday,
earlier. He does not want to think he is on, and there is nothing to be done Screenings are 7 and 9 D.m. nichtlv
growing old, but he knows he is. His about it. That is the way of life. with a 3 p.m. Saturday matinee and a 3
wife had died, and now the only com- Flashbacks are used occassionally and 5 p.m. Sunday matinee. Admission
pany he has is his housekeeper and the in the film, but don't take on any over- is $3.75.
Weak humor, absurd drama put
Sarandon in compromising position
By Tom Mockler
Staff Reporter
Before seeing "Compromising Posi
tions" at the Douglas 3, a friend of mine
claimed that "Susan Sarandon would
not appear in a bad movie."
At the time I was certain he was
wrong, although I had trouble recalling
all of her films.
Now I can prove he's wrong.
Movie Review
"Compromising Positions," starring
Sarandon and Raul Julia, is one of
those films that makes you ask, "Why
did anyone bother?"
It is a bad movie. It is a movie dead
in the water from square one. The idea
for the movie was simply bad.
The first part of the movie and the
promos lead us to believe it will be a
comedy of sorts: A philandering dentist
is murdered, and, as it turns out, the
number of concerned parties is large.
Oh, how shocking it is, upsetting the
tranquility of Nassau County, Long
Island in New York.
The humor is extremely lame, to say
the least
are cheating on their husbands out of
sheer boredom and it's supposed to be
really funny.
The makeup is so thick and lives so
shallow, you wonder why they don't
crumble under the weight of it.
It seemed as if not a person in the
film wasn't having an affair with Bruce
Fleckstein, D.D.S This might be
believable if we hadn't been intro
duced to him at the beginning. The
man is a sleazebag. As Sarondon's
huband says in the film, "The guy got
what he deserved".
I agree. So who cares about him? I
certainly didn't.
However, somewhere along the way
the movie turns from lame comedy to
weak drama, which is actually an
improvement. Decent performances are
put in by Susan Sarandon as an investi
gating ex-journalist housewife, Raul
Julia as a Naussau County homicide
detective and Edward Herrman as
Sarandon's husband.
In fact, the acting is fine in the
movie. But the script is so poor that I'm
surprised a major studio was willing to
use it.
The domestic drama in the story is
absurd. Only the mediocre detective
saga in the latter half of the movie
films come across as gross in this one.
Enough said. The movie is not only
not worth paving money to see, it is not
worth seeing unless someone is paying
you to.
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ETC Courtesy E.T.C. Enterprises
Band returns to UNL
with 'raw, funky5 beat
L
E.T.C., the seven-member Omaha
band, with lead singers Roderick
Jones and Gary Williams, will perform
today in the Nebraska Union ballroom
from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
The group has a repertoire of
more than 50 songs, 12 of which are
originals, including their theme
song, "Et Cetera."
E.T.C., an abbreviation for En
tertainment with a Touch of Class,
calls itself the "King of Pork-and-Beans
Funk." Williams said: "E.T.C.'s
music is raw, it's funky, it's flavorful.
It feeds that party hunger."
The dance is sponsored by Univer
sity Program Council and Black
Entertainment and Travel. It is the
second UNL performance for the
group. Last winter, E.T.C. performed
at Walpurgisnact festival.
Tickets can be bought at the
information desk in Nebraska Union.
Advance price is $2.50 for students.
At the door, students pay $3, non
students $3.50.
ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT
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