; Monday, August 25, 1986
Daily Nebraskan
Page 17
MertaamimeM
I
r v
Airwave pilot Taraneh Tanavoli spins the sounds of France
every Thursday on KZUM's "French Radio Show."
Despite flaws, 'Hail Mary truthful,
important look at Christian beliefs
By Chris McCubbin
Senior Reporter
And so "Hail Mary" came, and so it
went. In its wake a few were left
uplifted, more were left indignant,
many were left bewildered and most
remained indifferent.
Movie Review
Reams have been written, in these
pages and others, about the controversy
surrounding the movie, about the peo
ple involved in the controversy sur
rounding the movie, about the rights of
the people involved in the controversy
surrounding the movie and about the
proper conduct of the people involved
in the controversy surrounding the
movie. But what about the movie?
"Hail Mary" is, of course, a contem
porary retelling of the birth of Christ. It
is also a deep and personal look at the
spiritual consciousness of the film
maker, Jean-Luc Godard.
It is not an easy film to appreciate,
and this is quite deliberate. Godard
makes films like James Joyce wrote
books, or like Alexander Pope wrote
poems, piling symbol upon symbol,
image upon image, sound upon sound,
until the film itself becomes a a screen
ing process, excluding all but the most
attentive viewers from any apprecia
tion of itself.
The film is the story of a conversion
Godard's. Godard is known as one of
the chief iconoclasts of our time, a
merciless destroyer of sacred cows and
petty taboos. In "Hail Mary" he is fac
ing the fact that there may be some
thing real behind the idols and icons
he has assaulted for. so long.
Godard perceives something behind
the universe. He is not sure what It is,
but he believes It is real. It seems
rather like the Christian God, but
Godard is not yet willing to pin It down.
It may be something else, perhaps a
pagan elemental force, or even a higher
order of intelligence from another world.
Whatever It is, Godard perceives It and
wishes to meet It.
This is not a reverent film. Rever
ence is one of the last traits the convert
acquires, coming only after full accep
tance of the worshipped. Godard is not
nearly that far down the road to faith.
His position is more like the man in the
nightmare: running wildly away from
the inevitable as it closes in from all
sides.
Not reverence, but respect. Godard
1
If
))
Paul VonderlageDaily Nebraskan
does not yet love the One he sees, but
he does not hate It, and he wants to
learn more about It. He must, as the
scriptures say, "work out his own salva
tion, with fear and trembling."
The film centers on three charac
ters: Mary, Joseph and Gabriel.
We see Mary become a goddess. She
begins the film as an ordinary girl, play
ing basketball and helping her father
at his gas station. By the end of the film
she is the Queen of Heavern, the great
feminine archetype, who walks clothed
in mystery and majesty among lesser
spirits.
Joseph undergoes no great meta
morphosis; he is merely a man with a
difficult decision to make. Should he become
involved with a normal, fulfilling rela
tionship with an ordinary girl? Or
should he devote his life to loving the
chosen one of God? In the end he
chooses the higher, harder path.
Gabriel, the divine messenger, is a
magnificent character. Harried and
impatient, violent and implacable,
Gabriel reminds us that divine love is
the most potent force in the universe.
God will love us, regardless of whether
we wish to be loved. The lovely young
girl who accompanies Gabriel reminds
us that God's love can be beautiful and
soothing but, when need be, it is harsh.
Divine love is not always comforting
and is never comfortable.
The film's much-discussed nude
scenes are necessary and should offend
no one. Since the whole story is founded
on what is being done to Mary's body, to
have never shown us her body would
have been both absurd and false. Mary
is, both clothed and nude, lovely, eVen
erotic, but never, never a sex object.
The film's detractors, in their pro
tests, distributed an article from a
Catholic publication listing two scenes
which were considered particularly
offensive. Because these scenes illus
trate both what's best and what's worst
in the film, they merit a closer look.
In one scene when Mary is alone in
her bed, she says God "is a coward and
a creep, who is interested in me only
because of my a-- h- and my c." This
scene is Mary's dark night of the soul,
her Gethsemane, if you will. She is
afraid, she has doubts and she voices
them powerfully and explicitly. But
then, in a marvelously written scene,
we see her move in a matter of minutes
from doubt to acceptance, and beyond
acceptance to a positive exaltation in
her fate and in her mission. This is,
when viewed objectively, the film's
most uplifting, most Christian scene.
The other scene has Mary allowing
the boy Jesus to crawl under her night
Sexy-voiced
and variety
By Scott Harrah
Arts and Entertainment Editor
"Be cultural, cosmopolitan and con
tinental with 'The French Radio Show'
. . .the only place where you can be hot,
exotic and glamorous at once," Taraneh
Tanavoli says on the promo of her
KZUM show, as her voice oozes superla
tives and sensuality. Tanavoli, a UNL
French major, recently replaced
Jacques DuPont as the host of "The
French Radio Show." DuPont, a teach
ing assistant in the UNL French
department, moved back to Paris in
July.
The show features French music and
conversation. Tanavoli spins French
new-wave and pop, classical and soul
music. And she introduces it with a
sultry, intriguing accent that her lis
teners love, she said.
"People call me all the time and tell
me I have the sexiest voice they've ever
heard," she said.
The most remarkable thing about
her voice is that she sounds like she
gown and examine her naked body. She
tells him her vagina is "a hedge," her
breasts are "lamps" and her buttocks
are "loaves." In addition to showing us
the closeness between mother and
child, this scene is intended to show us
that Mary has come to identify herself
with all things feminine, to see herself
as a universal symbol for womanhood.
I found this scene rather offensive. I
was not offended to think that the
Christ-child might have displayed a
normal, healthy, non-prurient interest
in the bodies of the opposite sex. I am
not offended to think that Mary might
have understood this curiosity and
used her body to teach her son. I am
offended that Godard would take the
theme of Mary as archetype, which he
had developed subtly and thoroughly
throughout the movie and, at the very
end, pound it into our heads one last
time in such an obvious, ungraceful
fashion.
This is far from a perfect film. It's
flaws are many and glaring. Among
them are metaphorical overload, pre
tentiousness, deliberate obtuseness and
a headache-inducing soundtrack which
is simply annoying. But this is a worthy
film. Its virtues are many, and they
shine.
After seeing "Hail Mary," whatever
sympathy I may have once had for the
film's opponents vanished. These peo
ple say they want reverence, but what
they want is reverent lies. They want to
take the characters of one of the most
profound myths of the human race and
turn them into plastic dashboard icons.
They want a Mary without breasts or
genitals and, worse, without thought
a serenely smiling receptacle for
divine semen. They want an emascu
lated Joseph who exudes dog-like
devotion to his ever-virgin sweetheart.
They want Gabriel, the celestial war
rior and messenger of the Lord, to be a
sweet-voiced , androgynous, harp-playing
cartoon character. They want to
take possibly the most significant event
in human history and set it in some
biblical never-never land with all the
charm and innocence and artistic force
of a Sunday-school pageant.
Instead, Godard gives them truth.
Not The Truth, perhaps, in a cosmic
sense, but his truth. His beliefs and
convictions. His fully developed theor
ies and speculations. His fears and
doubts.
And before one man's truth, the
cherished lies are threatened. They
tremble and totter and those whom
they master strike out blindly, viciously,
like cowards.
DJ spins French music
on KZUM radio show
just stepped off a Concorde from Paris,
but she's actually from Tehran, Iran.
"The French language is very popu
lar in Iran," she said. "People are more
interested in learning French than
English (in Iran), so I was exposed to
all aspects of French culture at a young
age."
In Iran, Tanavoli attended Jandarc, a
renowned private French school that
taught her everything she knows about
the land of wine, art and style.
She used to sit with her friend
DuPont when he did the show, so she
learned a great deal about its premise
and purpose. When it came time for
DuPont to return to Europe, he asked
her to take over the show. In just a little
over a month, she has managed to boost
the show's popularity to a new pinnacle.
"Some people tell me that they
actually like the show better now that
I'm doing it," she said. "And that keeps
me going because I'm new on the show
and I still feel somewhat insecure."
One feature of the show is weekly
guests. Tanavoli invites anyone who
Devoted Howard the Duck
reader enjoys movie, but
bored by special effects
By Charles Lieurance
Diversions Editor
Aside from his other heroic
duties, Howard the Duck managed
to get me through junior high
school. I mean the adventures of a
duck ripped from his time and place
on Duck World by some cosmic
accident, who talked like Humph
rey Bogart in "The Big Heat," and
who was forced quite reluctantly to
deal with the hopelessly inferior
morons of earth, is every adolescent,
gawky schoolboy's dream. It was
like Holden Caulfield or Billy Pil
grim with a bill, an ugly duckling
who refused to be cute, who took
pesky earthlings by their hairless
throats and shook them til they
wised up. . .
Movie Review
Steve Gerber's Marvel comic book
was . . . well, a marvel. Howard was a
wise-ass like Daffy Duck but he
never really lost. He was as attrac
tive as Donald Duck but without the
silly vocal noises. Howard was the
supreme duck, a duck that men
really could look up to.
Somehow this cult duck made it
to the big screen. I mean, there
hasn't even been a Spiderman movie
yet, or a Shadow movie. But here's
Howard, a rather obscure off-kilter
comic book that has gone through
about as much abridgement, format
changes and crises of commerce as
the comic book world has to offer, as
a major summer release. And, over
all, the movie's a gem.
Okay, Willard Huyk's Howard is a
little too endearing, less the Bogart
and more, say, Montgomery Cliff or a
watered-down Cary Grant. His re
sponses to the world are a bit too
heavy on really awful puns and the
last hour of the movie replaces the
first hour's fun with a special effects
extravaganza that, for an old How
ard fan, is unnecessary. After all,
Howard never really battled any
thing as terrible and ominous as the
crab troll demon thing that he's
faced with at the end of the movie.
Howard battled nerdy sleepwalkers
and giant space turnips.
But, not every issue of a comic
book is quintessential. If you love
wants to be on the show to come down
and chat in French or English just for
the fun of it.
"We've talked about everything from
music to politics to local happenings
like the NBC bank incident," she said.
"People like the talks because they
make the show seem more relaxed and
informal."
She also plays requests and puts
phone callers on the air, she said.
But what really draws the listeners
in? Culture? Music? Conversation?
Informality? Tanavoli said people tune
in to experience the glamour that peo
ple see in the French.
"People associate anything French
with fashion, style, sex, romance and
class," she said. "I think that really
draws people to the language and my
show." She hesitated a moment, then
smiled and said, "And also because
c'est super!"
Tanavoli hosts "The French Radio
Show" Thursday evenings from 9:30 to
11 p.m. on KZUM, 99.3 or 89.5 FM.
the character enough you forgive
crabtrolldemon things and cher
ish the overall effect. Huyk's How
ard and his cartoonish entourage
are priceless.
Jeffrey Jones as the compassion
ate doctor responsible for sucking
Howard out of his living room on
Duck World and through the cosmos
to earth, is as hilarious a cartoon
character as you're likely to meet in
a live action flick. Once he gets
possessed by the crabtrolldemon
creature and demolishes a Cajun
sushi joint with telekinesis, he be
comes the funniest thing I've seen
in a movie all summer, a parody of
all the demon-possession movies of
the 70s.
Tim Robbins as the museum jani
tor studying to be a scientist is
straight out of Gerber's comic book,
with oversized glasses and baggy
clothes. He's the prototypical hu
man moron in Howard's hostile
perceptions.
Huyk populates the whole affair
with Gerberesque caricatures from
all walks of life: musicians, wai
tresses, truck drivers, cowboys and
policemen. For a Howard fan this
first hour is duck heaven.
WTiat Huyk and more filmmakers
than I can name here forget is that
special effects are toys and toys are
mostly fun to those who get to play
with them. I'm sure the battle with
the crab thing is as miraculous as a
moon landing to special effects
whiz kids who recreate the surfaces
of other worlds and the chimeras
that populate those worlds on a
daily basis, but to the viewer they
are mostly as they appear on the
screen, a crab creature blowing
things to smithereens. The "wow,
cool" reaction only lasts a few min
utes and then the hundreds of green
slimy appendages and blown up
laboratory equipment all look the
same.
If you can say "wow, cool" a lot
more than your average duck then
even this hour of crashing police
cars and abominable crab creatures
will send you into fits of glee.
Since I'm one of those people
who can't stand movies that sell
themselves on the "for the kid in all
of us" slogan, I prefer the Gerberian
satire of part one.
All things considered, fowl is fair
and fair is . . .
Sorry. .