Confusing story leaves ‘Eye’ sightless
By Samuel McKewon
Senioreditor
Obsession is not an easy thing to put
on film. Alfred Hitchcock knew how to
do it; his films had an obsession rising
out of normality. These made the best
films, and his main actor was the every
man James Stewart.
But obsession is not supposed to be
confusing - we can’t be left wondering
who was obsessed and, more important
ly, why.
So watching the new movie “Eye of
the Beholder” was an alienating experi
ence, in which the viewer is entirely sep
arated from the events onscreen. It was
the kind of separation that gives you a
headache.
The movie is based on a 1980 novel
by Marc Behm with an interesting
premise: a surveillance photographer
for the British Embassy (Ewan
McGregor) strays from the rules when
he gets too close to a cold-blooded seri
al killer (Ashley Judd) for reasons we
can only try to grasp.
The most logical explanation is thal
McGregor’s character (who has no
name, just “The Eye”) views his prey,
Joanna Eris, as a lot like his daughter.
He is no longer is able to see his daugh
ter because his ex-wife walked out or
him. The Eye envisions his young
daughter everywhere he goes, until, in a
strange scene, he leaves her to follow the
killer.
As for Judd, her character essential
ly stalks rich men, kills them, then steals
their wad of cash - or whatever they
might have on them.
Judd makes a good vamp - sun
glasses and wigs look about as good on
her as anyone - but her role is woefully
underwritten. There is only a slight hint
of Judd’s motivation as to why she is
who she is - but even that doesn’t stick.
It would have been better if there hadn’t
been any motivation at all.
So Judd travels from big city to big
city (San Francisco, Chicago and New
York to name a few) and the Eye fol
lows, taking pictures along the way and
becoming her guardian angel of sorts.
For a while, the movie works. But
there’s too much strangeness, both in the
script and production, for the movie to
work.
Director Stephan Elliot pours on the
style needlessly; the film moves out of
the noir genre and into some kind of
psychological thriller. It steals from
Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” and
“Vertigo,” but leaves behind
Hitchcocks’s ability to establish a scene.
And the performances are off.
McGregor is plays a character who was
much older in tire novel; his acting suf
fers for it. We strain to figure what his
character really wants from Joanna -
lust, love or just the chance to watch
another murder.
Judd’s character has no drive, but
she manages to make it work, for a
while. Anything is better than her junk
role in “Double Jeopardy.”
The supporting cast is small; k.d.
lang is The Eye’s single connection to
the outside world, Patrick Bergin is a
possible suitor to Joanna and Jason
Preistley weighs in with a small but fair
ly memorable part as a bleach-blond
road hustler.
The role of Joanna’s mentor is filled
by veteran Genevieve Bujold, who does
her best with a severely underwritten
role.
“Eye of the Beholder” isn’t a bad
Eye of the
Beholder
STARS: Ewan McGregor,
Ashley Judd
DIRECTOR: Stephan Elliot
RATING: R (language, lots
'o serial murders) '
GRADE: C
FIVE WORDS: "Eye" goes
off the rails.
film as much it is one that doesn’t know
where to go. It seems confused with
itself, and after a while the director,
Elliot, simply stops giving answers for
The Eye’s motivation. It’s at that point
that the movie goes off the rails. It never
chooses to get back on.
Alley art gallery leaves vendors perplexed
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Strings ol
bare light bulbs crisscross the alley
Further down dangles a banner com
plaining of police harassment.
And then the pictures: raggec
young men on bikes, using one hanc
to steady oversized trays on theii
heads piled with bread, the other tc
steer through Cairo’s vehicular pan
demonium.
The photographs and the banners
on display this week in a downtown
alleyway are part of an unusual exhi
bition celebrating the working man in
his medium - the street.
The reaction of the shop owners
along the alley has added another ele
ment, underscoring how the debate
over freedom of expression works its
way even onto Egypt’s streets.
At first, there was suspicion. Why
this subject? Are you making fun ol
them? Are you for or against the gov
ernment? What are you trying to say
by hanging the pictures outside?
All were questions fielded by
photographer Halla El-Qousy as she
put up her work in preparation for the
show’s opening Jan. 20. The show,
part of a festival publicizing the
downtown art sd3*4n Cairo, closes
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Friday.
Such public art displays are rare
in Cairo, and depictions of poverty
often raise hackles among Egyptians
And there’s always wariness ovei
even a hint of criticism of the govern
ment.
To Mohammed Warda, ar
employee at a flower shop at the enc
of the alley, the display was nonsense
“If they want to say something, they
should come right out and say it
instead of taking pictures,” he says.
El-Qousy and fellow photograph
er Graham Waite say their intention
was not to make political statements
or criticize the government. Rather,
says Waite, who is British, it’s about
“21st century heroes.”
Their photos draw attention to a
sight the people of Cairo see so often
it may no longer register: the wiry
young workers known as breadmen
who deliver bread to homes and
shops across the city. They make an
average of $3.50 to $4.50 per day.
“They’re heroes because they gel
up every day and do it again, and
again and again,” Waite says.
As unlicensed businessmen in a
bureaucratic country, they also are
“If they want to say something, they
should come right out and say it
instead of taking pictures!’
Mohammed Warda
flower shop employee
breaking the law. Aside from the dan
gers of traffic, the breadmen face the
often more daunting prospect of
arrest. The arrests are usually not an
effort to enforce law, but more often a
shakedown by the police.
A banner next to one photo
quotes Seif, a 19-year-old breadman
interviewed by El-Qousy and Waite:
“I’ve been dragged to the police and
had to pay 15 pounds (about $4) to
get out.”
One employee of a shop under the
banner was shocked, saying it was a
topic best not discussed publicly,
even if the breadmen are persecuted. -
Egypt’s constitution guarantees
freedom of expression, but in prac
tice most people avoid saying any
thing they fear might anger the gov
ernment. Egyptian human rights
activists have been jailed and accused
of harming the nation’s reputation by
pointing out police abuses.
The alley was chosen as a venue
by the owner of a nearby gallery. El
Qousy says some shop owners were
concerned about who would be held
responsible if the authorities came
around asking questions about the
photos. But others gradually began to
put aside old fears.
Mohammed Abdullah, an
employee at an electronics shop in the
alley, says the exhibit encouraged
him to visit an art gallery for the first
time.
The alley exhibit “raises the
image of these breadmen in people’s
eyes and forces you to respect them
for what they do and go through,”
Abdullah says. “It’s very chic.”
| Sundance honor split for two films
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) - The grit
ty boxing saga “Girlfight” and the ten
der sibling-reunion tale “You Can
Count on Me” shared top honors at the
Sundance Film Festival, the nation’s top
showcase for independent movies.
The two movies split the grand jury
prize Saturday for best dramatic film.
“Girlfight” also won the dramatic
directing award for Karyn Kusama, and
“You Can Count on Me” won the
Waldo Salt screenwriting award for
Kenneth Lonetgan, who also directed
die film.
“Girlfight” stars Michelle
Rodriguez as a young woman who
channels her fierce temper to become a
champion boxer. “You Can CounfSh
Me” features Laura Linney and Mark
Ruffalo as a sister and brother strug
gling to maintain a sense of family
years after their parents are killed in a
car crash.
Matthew Broderick co-stars in the
movie.
The grand jury prize for documen
tary went to “Long Night’s Journey Into
Day,” which examines four cases that
came before South Africa’s Truth and
_ Reconciliation Commission in the
aftermath of apartheid.
The documentary directing award
went to Rob Epstein and Jeffrey
Friedman for “Paragraph 175,” an
exploration of Nazi atrocities against
homosexuals.
The audience award for dramatic
film, chosen by public balloting, went
to “Two Family House,” a 1950s por
trait of an Italian-American loser who
bucks tradition Mien he takes up with a
young Irish woman and her baby of
mixed race.
“Dark Days,” which examines a
group of New York’s homeless who
built their own shantytown community
in an underground tunnel, won the
audience award for documentary.
“Saving Grace,” starring Brenda
Blethyn as a destitute, marijuana-grow
ing British widow, won the audience
award for world cinema.
The dramatic jury awarded two spe
cial acting honors. Janet McTeer, who
won a Golden Globe last week for
“Tumbleweeds,” and Aidan Quinn, Pat
Carroll, Jane Adams, Gregory Cook
and Iris DeMent received a special jury
prize for outstanding ensemble perfor
mance in “Songcateher.” McTeer stars
as a musicologist in 1907 who gathers
folk songs in the Appalachian back
woods.
Donal Logue won a special jury
prize for outstanding performance in,
“The Tao of Steve.” Logue plays an
overweight womanizer whose pickup
artistry is based on die cool aloofhessof
Steve McQueen. Logue’s character,
defending his underachieving lifestyle,
utters, “Doing stuff is overrated. I
mean, Hitler did a lot, but don'tAve all
wish he’d stayed home and gotten
stoned?”
Other awards presented Saturday,
the next-to-last day of the Sundance
festival are as follows: *
■ Cinematography award in dra
matic competition: Tom Krueger,
“Committed.”
■ Freedom of Expression Award,
documentary: “Dark Days.”
■ Cinematography award in docu
mentary competition: Andrew Young
for “Americanos: Latino Life in the
United States” and Marc Singer for
“Dark Days.”
■ Special jury prize for artistic
achievement, documentary: “The
Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack,” directed by
Aiyana Elliott.
■ Special jury prize for writing,
documentary: Daniel McCabe, Paul
Stekler and Steve Fayer, “George
Wallace: Settin’ the Woods on Fire.”
■ Jury prize in Latin American cin
ema: “Herod’s Law,” directed by Luis
Estrada, and “No One Writes to the
Colonel,” directed by Arturo Ripstein.
■ Jury prize in short filmmaking:
“Five Feet High and Rising,” directed
by Peter Sollett.
■ Honorable mention for short
filmmaking: “Titler,” “The Drowning
Room,” “This is for Betsy Hall,” “Ice
Fishing,” “Darling International,”
“Friday,” “ Hitch,” “The Bats.”
I shoponlim@mall.dailyneb.com |
Disney to film movie on
Pearl Harbor bombing
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii
(AP) - The Walt Disney Co. has
given the green light to a $135 mil
lion movie about the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, according to
a trade publication.
“Pearl Harbor” should begin
production in April for release
around Memorial Day 2001, Daily
Variety reported Thursday. The
story line will be about two fighter
pilots from Tennessee who fall in
love with the same nurse.
Actors considered for the film
include Charlize Theron, currently
on the big screen in “The Cider
House Rules,” Wes Bentley, who
starred in “American Beauty,” and
Jim Caviezel, who played a soldier
in “The Thin Red Line.”
The movie will be directed by
Michael Bay, whose credits include
“Armageddon” and “The Rock
Water scenes will be shot in the
same California facility built for
“Titanic.”
Almodovar movie wins Best
Film in Spanish festival
MADRID, Spain (AP) - Pedro
Almodovar won Best Director and
Best Film for “Todo Sobre Mi
Madre” (All About My Mother) in
the Spanish Goya Cinema Awards
“ presented Sunday.
The movie, Spain’s candidate
for a foreign-language Oscar, is the
story of a single woman who expe
riences the death of her son and
goes in search of the boy’s father.
Organized by the Spanish
Cinema Academy, the Goya film
awards take their name from the
18th century Spanish painter.
Ethridge, Shepard take stand
against Proposition 22
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP)
- Rock star Melissa Etheridge
joined the battle against a ballot
measure aimed at banning state
recognition of same-sex marriages,
saying on Friday that the proposal
was fbeled by hate and bigotry.
“There are hundreds and thou
sands of people that I represent that
are jiist like me that don’t happen to
have two Grammys that this affects.
And this affects me deeply,” said
Htheridge, who is gay.
Proposition 22, which appears
on the March 7 ballot, would pro
hibit California from granting legal
recognition to same-sex marriages
- that are legally performed in other
states.
TA»ninnr T7 thi A ctt* o natt/o
conference was Judy Shepard,
whose son, Matthew, wasbeaten,
tied to a fence and left to die outside
Laramie, Wyo., in October 1998.
“What it does is create a climate
where such actions are viewed as
acceptable,” she said.
