Arts
Wednesday, December 7,1994
Page 9
I
Love is the heart of the matter in ‘White’
Quik Facts
Movie: “White”
Rating: not rated
Stars: Zbigniew
Zamachowski, Julie Delpy
Director: Krzysztof
Kieslowski
By Jim Clhlar
Staff Reporter
“White” is a movie about the
degradations a man and a woman
go through for love.
The story is: Karol (Zbigniew
Zamachowski) loves his beauti
ful wife, Dominique (Julie
Delpy), but he cannot make love
to her because he is not sure she
returns his feelings.
The sequel to “Blue,” which
played last summer at the Mary
Riepma Ross Film Theater,
“White” follows the pattern of
the colors of the French flag and
its concepts of Liberty, Equality
and Fraternity.
Here, the equality may be in
the way Karol turns the situation
around* placing his wife in the
position he used to occupy. Also,
he gives up everything for love
but works his way back to eco
nomic success.
This description may make the
movie sound cold and calculat
ing. Actually, it is one of the
most romantic and thoughtful
movies you’re likely to see. It’s
all about love in all of its forms:
requited and unrequited, affec
tionate, worshipful, passionate,
sentimental and platonic.
One great line in the movie: “I
didn’t want to have to ask any
more.” The movie is almost worth
seeing for this line.
Leading up to it are a number
of cool scenes. For instance, dur
ing a bittersweet absurd scene
with Karol, he is at his lowest
point, making aliving by playing
Courtesy of Miramax Films
Julie Delpy stars as Dominique and Zbigniew Zamachowskl stars as her husband, Karol, In “White.”
a comb harmonica in the subway.
In another scene he has packed
himself into a suitcase as a stow
away to get to Warsaw. The audi
ence watches as the oversized
suitcase totters on the edge of a
speeding luggage cart and races
down a luggage carousel.
And in another great scene,
Karol’s wife has thrown him out.
He is alone in his room listening
to a Berlitz-style French tape.
He starts to space off, staring
at a statue of a beautiful, ideal
ized woman. The tape plays,
“Repeat: ‘Would that I could have
pleased her,”’ as Karol leans over
to kiss the statue.
“White” is preceded by a short,
“The Last Supper,” written, pro
duced and directed by Daryl
Hannah and co-produced by Lin
coin native Lana Opp Morgan.
In the forgotten blockbuster
of the ’80s “Legal Eagles,” there
is a stylin’ scene where Daryl
Hannah’s character, a Soho-style
artist, gives a performance piece,
setting fire to a birthday cake as
she recites poetry.
“The Last Supper” follows up
on the promise shown in that
scene. It is a funny mystery about
a child taking into her own hands
the situation of her mother’s abu
sive relationship.
“White” and “The Last Sup
per,” showing at the Mary Riepma
Ross Film Theater for the next
two weekends, are both high
quality films. This is, in effect, a
great double bill — two good
movies for the price of one.
Courtesy of Viking Publishers
“Insomnia”
Stephen King
Viking Publishing
Grade: A
The master of macabre prom
ises many sleepless nights with
his latest novel, “Insomnia.”
Branded a horror writer,
Stephen King has taken a stab at
almost every genre imaginable.
With this book, he returns to the
realm of fantasy.
Ralph Roberts watches his
wife suffer an agonizingly slow
death from a brain tumor and
simultaneously observes how
wrong things are becoming in
Derry, Maine.
He witnesses his friend and
normally tranquil neighbor Ed
Deepneau almost kill a truck
driver after a fender-bender.
Ralph intervenes and does not
give the episode any further
thought, until a year later when
Ed almost beats his wife to death.
Around the same time, about a
month and a half after his wife
passes away, Ralph begins to suf
fer from insomnia.
The lack of sleep lets him spo
radically slip into a type of hyper
reality that lets him see strange
auras around people and other
living things.
It also allows him to see three
weird little bald men, one of
whom has definite ill intentions
toward Ralph and people he
knows.
The book opens the pages on a
new dimension of reality, and
King ties into our own in his
unique way.
“And Ralph sensed that all he
was seeing and all he was feeling
was not all; that there was a whole
world still waiting just beyond
the current reach of his senses.
Enough, perhaps to make even
what he was seeing now seem
faint and faded. And if there was
more, how could he possibly bear
it without going mad?”
After about the first 300 pages
(it’s an 800-page novel — with
King you get your money’s
worth), the tale really picks up.
The book is a mixture of fan
tasy and reality, and the reader is
carried along the stream of King’s
dark and entertaining imagina
tion over a waterfall of adventure
and suspense.
King’s portrayal of Ralph, his
elderly protagonist, is unusual
for any author. His sensitive ap
proach to aging and its effects on
life enraptures the reader.
King also addresses many
prevalent social issues in this
work. The story pivots around
conflict in hyper-reality between
the forces of the Purpose and the
Random. These are paralleled in
our reality by altercations be
tween anti-abortion and abortion
rights factions.
The different sides of the abor
tion issue are explored both ana
lytically and emotionally as the
conservative town of Derry pre
pares for a rally with abortion
rights activist Susan Day.
The writing is some of the best
King has put out of late. Critics
recently have accused him of
burning out, but this work should
show them that he’s still sitting
high on the horror horse.
—Joel Strauch
