Arts & Entertainment
Conversation film successful look at life
“Grand Canyon”
By Anne Steyer
Senior Reporter
Lawrence Kasdan has a flair for brilliant,
realistic dialogue.
His storytelling skills do not disappoint in
his new film “Grand Canyon,” opening today
at The Lincoln Theatre, 1145 P St.
“Grand Canyon” introduces the audience to
six Los Angeles residents, each one coping and
coming to terms with the realities of life. Al
though it sounds like another yuppie realiza
tion film, it truly is not.
This movie is more complicated, with each
character serving as an important aspect of the
film. Each has his or her own story line. These
story lines resemble an artist’s portfolio, where
each work is separate, but each shares the feel
or theme of the others. Their lives overlap and
intermingle, as do the scenes.
Kasdan has set the film up so that each scene
visually flows into the next.
Kevin Kline is the center of the film as
Mack. He is an immigration attorney who
becomes increasingly frustrated with the world
around him.
Mary McDonnell (“Dances With Wolves”)
See GRAND CANYON on 10
■ ——mmr „»
Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
Steve Martin is Davis and Kevin Kline is Mack in “Grand Canyon,” Lawrence Kasdan’s serious comedy about big-city
dwellers grappling with the harsh realities of contemporary urban life.
Action-packed
Norwegian flick
to kick off new
UPC film series
By Mark Nemeth
Staff Reporter
This semester’s UPC foreign film series
opens Sunday at the Mary Riepma Ross Thea
ter with “Pathfinder,” an excellent action-ad
venture set in arctic-north Norway.
The action in “Pathfinder” is with bows and
arrows, on foot and skis.
The film, the first from Norway's actor
director Nils Gaup, is based on a 1,000-year
old legend passed from generation to genera
tion in northern Norway. Gaup first heard the
story from his grandfather.
The film centers on a Lapp boy named
Aigan, and his ingenious revenge on the mys
terious, evil, black-clad Tchude warriors who
kill his family and then search for him.
Aigan, played by Mikkel Gaup, narrowly
escapes his family’s camp, and watches as the
Tchudes dump his sister into a hole in the ice.
When Aigan seeks shelter at a nearby Lapp
village, he causes a rift within the village.
Some wish to fight the Tchudes and some wish
to escape to the coast. Aigan eventually finds
himself leading the Tchudes directly to the
Lapps who befriended him.
Gaup uses a virtually unknown cast, mosUy
from Norway, whose natural acting abilities
rival schooled performers. But his refusal to
use established actors made it difficult to re
ceive funding.
“Pathfinder” is the first major film release
using the Lapp language. All Lapp speaking
parts were cast with actors from Kautokeino, a
small town far above the Arctic Circle in north
ern Norway.
All Tchudes, except Iceland’s Heljgi Skulason,
are played by professional actors from south
ern Norway. Because no one knows the lan
guage the Tchudes spoke, linguists created one
for the film, based on hard sounds and the
grammatical constructions of Russian and
Finnish.
Gaup hired Martin Grace, chief stunt coor
dinator from “A View to A Kill,” to handle the
action sequences, which were challenging
because of the arctic climate and terrain.
See PATHFINDER on 10
Minor technical difficulties overwhelm
writer in “Voice of the Plains” debut
By Mark Baldridge
Staff Reporter
I’ve always wanted to be a famous movie
star like Laurence Olivier or Madonna. I
have to admit a deep-seated yen to dance
around on stage like Bono and have The
Edge be my best friend. Beneath my meek
and mild exterior is a raving Gilbert Godfrey
straining at his leash. And sometimes I’ve
practiced sweating and weeping in the mir
ror just like Jimmy Swaggart. Hasn’t every
one? Well, in these pages every week we’ll
all gel a little dose of vicarious experience
as L and a team of experts, go around the
world — OK, well, around Lincoln — in
search of Entertaining People.
* * *
One Tuesday not long ago I had my first
brush with stardom.
I found myself in the studios of KZUM,
Nebraska’s only community radio station. I
was there to fill in for one of their program
mers, Eli Rhodes, on her “Jazz Fusion”
show from 10 a.m. to noon.
I knew Eli would be there to help me. In
fact, I figured she’d do most of the compli
cated stuff. I’d just lean back in my head
phones and be the “Voice of the Plains,” a
mysterious and sexy disembodied charac
ter. I figured I’d get fan mail.
But tragedy was to strike down my dreams
of instant and easy local stardom. Destiny
appeared in the form of computer problems.
Eli, KZUM’s technical “whiz kid,” had to
run off and fix things before whatever hap
pens when computers go on the fritz hap
pened.
“You’re on your own, kid. Can you handle
it?” she asked as she headed out of the
studio.
“Uh, sure,” I replied. “Wait, Eli...,” but
she was gone.
Up to this point I’d only had instruction
in How to Handle the Records, without
touching them. Stuff like that, i’d never
been on the air before, really. And now I was
captain of this ship, sailing in unknown
waters.
The mixing board of a radio station is
kind of like the helm in “Star Trek”: It’s
complicated and looks futuristic.
I stared at the bewildering controls and at
the counter on the CD player that told me
how long the current song would last. When
that song ended 1 had to go “ON AIR,”
which was suddenly what I least wanted to
do.
Fifteen seconds, ten, five, ZERO.
I flipped a switch, leaned into the mike
and said, “You’re listening to KZUM. Lin
coln.” Nothing. No sound came out of the
overhead speakers.
Now, I’ve read about breaking out in
“cold sweats” before, but I always thought it
was a made-up thing, a literary device, like
“weak in the knees” or “blood rushing to the
head.”
When the monitor speakers went dead l
kept right on talking, but I broke out in a
cold sweat.
See PEOPLE on 10
Robert Borzekofski/DN