AKrS&ENTERTAINMENT -agfe
Film lacks substance, but tempts taste buds
“Like Water For
Chocolate”
“Like Water For Chocolate” is a
movie about passion, cruelty and food.
Lots of food.
Food like they cat in heaven, the
food of dreams.
Surreal food, sexy food, food that’s
good for what ails you.
But the film, which opens at the
Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater this
Thursday, is just not very filling. It
doesn’t stick to your ribs the way it
should.
“Water” is the eagerly anticipated
film adaptation of the novel by the
same name, which included recipes
— smack, drool.
It tells the story of Tita, a woman at
war with social mores and the domi
nation of her cruel mother.
Tita is a cook of supernatural pow
ers. She communicates her inner
longings and passions to people
through food, like pieces of cake and
loaves of bread.
Lumi Cavazos plays the doomed
and beautiful Tita with wit and depth
of feeling—but she can’t quite carry
it off against the hamming of her co
star Marco Leonardi.
Leonardi, as Tita’s lover, Pedro, is
a beautiful young man, and he knows
it.
The love between Tita and Pedro is
supposed to be eternal, even death
defying.
- photo courtesy Miramax rums
Lumi Cavazos and Marco Leonard! in Alfonso Arau’s “Like Water For Chocolate.” The film begins Its run at the Mary
Rieoma Ross Film Theater on Thursday.
In order for that to be believable,
Pedro has to be something more than
the frightened, petulant boy he ap
pears to be here.
The fault is not entirely Leonard i’s.
The film is full of very strong women,
and it is in their relationships that the
film’s interest chiefly lies.
It’s just too bad Leonardi is given
so much importance in the film.
It would be a good bargain to add
20 more minutes with, say, the an
cient housekeeper, Nacha—and lose
20 with the pretty boy.
But the film is worth seeing, espe
cially for fans of the book — and of
magic realism in general.
And the food. Again the food. It’s
so frustrating not to have the food
right there in the theater. Thcv should
figure out some way to supply it—a
reception afterwards, maybe.
One dish just has to be mentioned,
it carried the weight that a whole
character might have in any other
film: Quail in rose petal sauce.
If that doesn’t fill you with strange
hungers, nothing will.
“Water” then, is a film for whet
ting unfamiliar appetites. It’s worth
seeing for that aspect alone.
—Mark Baldridge
Panoramic stage set
for ‘Twelfth Night’
theater
preview
By Anne Steyer
Senior Reporter
University Theatre Arts and
Dance opens its 1993-94 season
Thursday evening with William
Shakespeare’s romantic comedy
“Twelfth Night.”
The play will be staged Oct. 7
16 in the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln’s Howell Theatre, 12th and
R streets.
“Twelfth Night” represents the
final piece in Shakespeare’s comic
works. As the last romantic come
dy written prior to his move to
tragedy, it has often been said to
represent the best of both medi
ums.
The stage is set in the romantic
fairy-tale land of Illyria. As per the
Bard’susual storytelling,“Twelfth
Night” has multiple stoiylincs.
Among them: Duke Orsim/s (Eric
Thompson) lovesick pursuit of his
lady love Olivia, (Missy
Thibodeaux); the adventures of
Viola (Joan Kortc), a plucky young
woman who pretends she’s a man
after being shipwrecked; and the
misadventures of a public official
and his band of merry men.
Thompson recently received his
master of fine arts degree from
UNL. Thibodeaux and Kortc arc
both working toward their MFAs
and theirpcrformanccs in “Twelfth
Night” contribute to completion.
In addition to the lead charac
tcrs, “Twelfth Night” also has
Shakespeare’s requisite clowns and
buffoons, including Sir Andrew
Aguechcck (S.R. Bigelow), and Sir
Toby Belch (Patrick Tuttle).
Other cast members include Brad
Stewart as Viola’s twin Sebastian,
Amy Gaither-Hayes as Maria, Dean
Houser as Mai volio and Troy Mar
tin as Fcste, the clown.
Pat Overton, theatre manager
for UNL Theatre Arts and Dance,
sa id the pi ay was d ircc ted by Sh irley
Carr Mason, a UNL assistant pro
fessor of theatre and “a Shakespeare
specialist from England.”
The play has period costuming
by UNL associate professor of cos
tume design and makeup Janice
Stauffer, and it features original
music by Lincoln composer and
maestro of theatrical score, Vince
Learned.
Charles O’Connor, a recent ad
dition to UNL’s theatre faculty,
designed the set.
Overton said the set was “pan
oramic” and “brings the audience
up close, but still gives a distant
view.”
The unique design also allows
two separate courts to co-exist oh
one stage, Overton said.
The title refers to the the twelfth
night of Christmas, January 6, the
festival of Epiphany. In
Shakespeare’s time, the Christmas
period was a time for houses of
nobility to organize numerous fes
tive occasions, so the carnival at
mosphere is fitting.
Tickets arc $9, $6 for students
and arc available at the Theatre/
Dance Box OfTicc, Monday through
Friday, from noon to 5 p.m. and
from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the night
of performances.
I
Visual delights rill luxurious rum
Rich sets, cast
defy description
“The Age of
Innocence”
Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of
Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize win
ning novel “The Age of Innocence” is
quite nearly a masterpiece.
Scorsese, along with co-screen
writer Jay Cocks, adapted Wharton’s
novel. He also has assembled sumptu
ous, luxurious sets and a terrific cast
of actors, including the incomparable
Daniel Day-Lewis.
Day-Lewis isNewland Archer, the
hero, of sorts, and certainly the center
of the film. Archer is a proper — oh,
how that world does exemplify this
film — young lawyer in 1870s New
York. Engaged to young May (Winona
Ryder) he becomes enamored of her
independent cousin Ellen (Michelle
Pfeiffer), eventually is consumed by
his passion for her.
Ellen, who is running from an un
happy marriage in Europe, is a scan
dalous, juicy gossip commodity
among the New Yorkers. Archer be
friends her and allows her a way back
into society.
Their love is impossible, but it is
furthered by their separation.
Archer’s sense of familial and so
cietal duty and his feelings for May
hold him back from delving fully into
his passion for Ellen. But his desire
for free-spirited unconventionality
pulls him as well. His life becomes
one of silent torment.
This is a tremendous motion pic
photo courtesy Columbia
Michelle Pfeiffer as Countess Ellen Oleska and Daniel Day
Lewis as Newland Archer share a clandestine moment in
“The Age of Innocence," directed by Martin Scorsese.
lure — every moment of film is well
spent, every frame filled with visual
del ights. The scenes arc rich with lush
sets and exquisite costuming. The at
mosphere is completed with
Scorsese’s wonderful direction,
breathtaking camera work and daz
zling performances.
Pfeiffer is luminous, and Day
Lewis defies description. There is a
moment between them where he un
buttons her glove — possibly one of
the most passionate moments in film
history.
Ryder, however, is a bit out of her
league — she can’t quite capture the
feeling of 18th-century language.
However, she’s nowhere near as hor
rible as she was in “Bram Stoker’s
Dracula.”
Considering all the positives, “The
Age of Innocence” is a film that should
not be missed.
— Anne Steyer