Arts ^Entertainment
For “Forrest Gump, ” life is like a box of Oscars
LOS ANGELES(AP)—“Forrest Gump,”
the surprise blockbuster about a slow-witted
Southerner, won six Oscars Monday night,
including best picture. Its star, Tom Hanks,
became the second performer to win the best
actor award two years in a row.
“I feel as though I’m standing on magic
legs in a special effects process that is too
unbelievable to imagine and far too costly to
make a reality,” said an emotional Hanks,
who won last year for his role as a lawyer
dying of AIDS in “Philadelphia.”
Jessica Lange was named best actress for
her role as a frustrated Army wife in “Blue
Sky.” Dianne Wiest, a melodramatic stage
star in “Bullets Over Broadway,” and Martin
. — j • •
Landau, a washed-up, drug-addicted Bela
Lugosi in “Ed Wood,” won supporting
awards.
Robert Zemeckis won as best director for
“Gump,” which also took prizes for adapted
screenplay, film editing and visual effects.
“Gump,” the fourth most profitable movie
ever, had drawn a near-record 13 Academy
nominations. But it was unable to turn that
baker’s dozen into enough Oscars to come
close to challenging the most honored film,
“Ben Hur,” the 1959 release that won 11
Academy Awards.
Other winners were:
Original screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
and Roger Avary, “Pulp Fiction.”
Foreign film: Russia, “Burnt by the Sun.”
Art direction: Ken Adam and Carolyn
Scott, “The Madness of King George.”
Cinematography: John Toll, “Legends of
the Fall.”
Costume design: Lizzy Gardiner and Tim
Chappel,“The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen
of the Desert.”
Documentary feature: Freida Lee Mock
and Terry Sanders, “Maya Lin: A Strong
Clear Vision.”
Documentary short subject: Charles
Guggenheim, “A Time for Justice.”
Film editing: Arthur Schmidt, “Forrest
Gump.”
Makeup: Rick Baker, Ve Neill and
Yolanda Toussieng, “Ed Wood.”
Music original score: Hans Zimmer, “The
Lion King.”
Music original song: Elton John aid Tim
Rice, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,”
“The Lion King.”
Animated short film: Alison Snowden
and David Fine, “Bob’s Birthday.”
Live action short film (Tie): Peter Capaldi
and Ruth Kenley-Letts, “Franz Kafka’s It’s a
Wonderful Life,” and Peggy Raj ski and
Randy Stone, “Trevor.”
Visual effects: Ken Raison, George
Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum and Allen Hall,
“Forrest Gump.”
Bennaa Carlisle
“Summer Rain”
I from the album
i “The Runaway Horses”
MCA Records
| 1989
Rolling Stone magazine
| once hailed Belinda Carlisle as
j the “high priestess of sugar
I pop,” but I am convinced that
she is the Elizabeth Taylor of
pop music. Like Taylor,
Carlisle is memorable because
of her lush beauty rather than
her talent.
*»** The two stars are similar in
other ways, too. Both have had
yo-yoing weights and problems
with substance abuse. Both
have shrewish personalities and
try to compensate for them by
supporting political causes.
Watching Belinda in the
“Heaven is a Place on Earth”
video with' her fiery red hair
and sparkling blue eyes in her
solo spotlight is a visually re
warding experience. It’s simi
lar to watching Liz in “Cat on a
Hot Tin Roof’ with those leg
endary violet eyes and inhu
manly gorgeous complexion.
“Summer Rain,” the last of
Belinda’s songs to make
Billboard’s Top 40, hit the air
waves 11 veyears ago. w lin lyr
ics by Robbie Seidman and
Maria Vidal, “Summer Rain”
is a dramatic and difficult song
(reportedly taking 200 takes),
venting a woman ’ s memory of
her last night with her boy
friend before he leaves for war .
This sultry song is Belinda’s
“Suddenly, Last Summer,” the
film in which Liz plays a
woman driven mad from
watching her cousin’s canni
balistic death, a purging effort
that tears out the performer’s
guts and gives the audience a
thrilling catharsis.
True, Belinda does not go
to the same depths as the bland
Suzanne Vega. She lacks the
prestige ofpost-modem’s own
Yoko Ono, the charming
Courtney Love. However,
Carlisle’s giddy warbles and
angelic choruses are as effer
vescent as 7-Up and as refresh
ing as Wrigley’s Extra. Sure, it
ain’t Evian and granola, but
it’s fun.
— Philip Nielsen,
senior English major
Sendyour “D6j4 Vu” to the Daily
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Travis Heying/DN
Choreographer Bill T. Jones answers questions for a small audience after a demonstration at the Johnny Carson Theater
Monday night. His dance company will perform Tuesday night at the Lied Center.
Dance company probes life, death issues
Art’s real value examined I
sy Jen Randall
Statt Reporter
Bill T. Jones came to the Howell
Theatre Monday not only to answer
a few questions about his work, but
to ask a few of his own.
Jones, the artistic director of
Bill T. Jones/Amie Zane Dance
Company, examined the role and
function of art and the people who
create it. He was featured as part
of the Arts and Issues series con
ducted by the UNL College of
Fine and Performing Arts.
He challenged the audience to
give viable reasons for the exist
ence of art, offering a few sugges
tions of his own.
“Artists are only individuals
who are trying to figure some
thing out,” he said. “In the 20th
century, with cameras and other
new technology, weno longer have
to represent the world.
“Now we can turn to the inner
world.”
Searching for hidden messages
and motives behind every piece
of art is something that Jones said
can occasionally be futile.
“The truth is that art doesn’t
have to do anything,” he said. “It
is amoral and apolitical.
Dividing the commercial, or
“official,” art from the truly valu
able is becoming an increasingly
necessary task, Jones said.
He defined official art as the
art of the ruling class.
“Itteilsyouhowtobeaman.lt
tells you how to be a woman. And
it tells you what to ignore,” Jones
said. “It’s telling you what to be,
and you pay for it.”
Art that rejects the official con
straints should be maintained, he
said. But funding for this mainte
nance, Jones said, is threatened
by proposed cuts to the National
Endowment of the Arts.
If the NEA does lose its fund
ing, Jones said, people s^uld be
prepared to pay for new,. . even
if it doesn’t promise the sure-fire
entertainment of the latest Holly
wood production.
“Somewhere, some child has
an idea that will someday revolu
tionize the world of ait,” he said.
“But right now that idea wouldn ’t
sell one ticket. We have to decide
whether it’s our responsibility to
keep the idea alive.
“We have to decide if we’re
willing to pay for that.”
Work addresses mortality
uy jen Randall
Staff Reporter
Dance enthusiasts were able to
get a closer look at the work of one
of modem dance’s most revered
artists when the Bill T. Jones/Arnie
Zane Dance Company presented a
demonstration of Jones’ latest work,
“Still/Here,” at the Johnny Carson
Theater Monday night.
“Still/Here” explores the minds
of numerous people who face ter
minal illnesses. At the demonstra
tion, Jones and his dance company
performed and explained excerpts
from “Still/Here.”
Jones conducted interviews with
89 terminally ill people in cities
throughout the United States to
gather working material for the
dance piece. The interviews took
place at workshops in which people
put their feelings into words, pic
tures and, most importantly, move
ment.
“I wanted to see what we could
learn from those on the front lines
of mortality,” Jones said.
The dance “phrases” and music
that make up the piece were devel
oped after watching and listening
to hours of videotape of the work
shops, he said.
Jones has a definite connection
to this piece. He is HIV positive
and lost his partner, Amie Zane (for
whom the dance company is
named), to AIDS.
Dance, as an art form, Jones
said, is integrated into seemingly
non-artistic endeavors. He said it
was powerful because it could ex
pand on otherwise limited emotions
and actions.
“The reason people love to watch
Michael Jordan lies as much in his
form as it does in the fact that he
wins,” Jones said. “And I want to
take that to another level with
dance.”
Through his meetings with those
facing death and his own experi
ences, Jones said, he was able to
detect a common thread which ran
through every individual.
“You may think this would all
have been very stark and
gloomlike,” he said. “But hope was
a thing which everyone floated on
in these workshops. These people
were not ready to give up.”
The Bill T. Jones/Amie Zane
Dance Company will perform at
the Lied Center for Performing Arts
tonight.