.. ' '-—--.:.’ 1.. ■
UHL art history professor
co-authors newest edition
of leading college textbook
BY MELANIE MENSCH
Learning usually comes after reading a
book, but for Chris tin Mamiya, the learn
ing came before the book was even writ
ten.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln art history
professor has co-authored the 11th edition of
“Gardner’s Art Through the Ages,” the leading col
lege textbook in art history.
Not only is the textbook used
7 was amazed at the hyaUsecuonsofAnmstoiy 101
, and 102 at UNL, but schools
[QCt that I leamea SO ranging from community col
much myself. It leges to Ivy league universities.
allowed me to get in duc"h^Jy'Zd^s
depth in larger areas used the 10th edition, and that
f " number is expected to increase
°l ar* nisl°ry- with the new edition’s arrival.
“This has a significant
Chriatta Mamiya impact on the field of art history
professor because so many students use
it," said Mamiya, who has taught
ai uinl since iaoi.
“I was amazed at the fact that I learned so much
myself. It allowed me to get in depth in larger areas
of art history.”
First published in 1926, the textbook was creat
ed with students in mind by Helen Gardner, a
teacher at The School of Art Institute of Chicago.
Gardner’s book gave students a global view of
art history. The textbook began chronologically
with cave paintings during the Ice Age through civ
ilizations of the Orient, the Americas and Europe to
contemporary artists of the time like Pablo Picasso,
Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe.
As these artists have become modem masters,
new artists such as Jeff Koons and Chuck Close take
Gardner's textbook into the next century.
"With such history and such tradition, this
book is revered by many,” said Mamiya, who
received her A. B. cum laude in art history from Yale
University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in art
history from the University of California, Los
Angeles. ”1 knew it was going to be an enormous
responsibility, but I’m very pleased with the result”
In 1995, the senior acquisitions editor at
Harcourt College Publishers visited various univer
sities, including UNL, to talk to faculty about possi
ble improvements on the 10th edition.
Mamiya then received a call from the editor in
1996 asking her to consider rewriting the next edi
tion. * ,
Mamiya began her work in 1997, researching
and rewriting text without the benefit of leave or
teaching assistants.
”1 would finish researching at 5:30 a.m., and
Please see MAMIYA on 9
Sharon Katet/DN
Dr.Christin
Mamiya, UNL Art
History profes
sor, holds a copy
of her recent
booic« Mamiya
co-authored the
recently pub
Rshed11*e4
tion of Gardner's
Art Though the
Ages.
'Croupier' gives viewers slick film noir
BY SAMUEL MCKEWQN
"What kind of people are
these?"
*Drug dealers. Mostly people
who work in the casino busi
ness.”
“And the girls?"
“They’re just girls."
“Croupier” is the kind of
movie that instinctively under
stands that kind of dialogue,
and, more importantly, what
kind of story ought to surround
it
It's British film noir, a slick,
coolly haunting portrait of the
gambling London under
ground. But the movie has a
decidedly international feel -
good film noir is good, national
origin regardless.
But “Croupier” is better than
that - an idealized version of the
genre that seduces while it
shocks. It plays itself as an easy
mark, much like its protagonist,
casino dealer Jack Manfred
(Clive Owen) sees his clients as
their grubby fingers plop chips
onto die table.
But as the tense closing
sequences, which play like the
last blackjack game before
bankruptcy, unfold, the mark
becomes pretty clear. It's pleas
urable to find disjointed frag
ments come together, as they
often do in David Mamet films.
But there's a deeper, more
rattling effect at work from
director Mike Hodges, who set
the standard for British gangster
flicks with “Get Carter" in 1971.
It opens with lack, played by
Owen with detached charm,
struggling to make the right
ends meet as a writer. A publish
er wants a soccer novel, com
plete with blood, sex and drugs.
Jack obliges but supple
ments his starving artist lifestyle
with a croupier job at the
London-based Gblden Lion
casino. Jack knows this game,
having excelled at it in South
Africa.
When he returns to the mir
ror-filled basement of the casi
no, his voice over narration wel
comes him back to “house of
addiction.” We come to learn
what he’s talking about.
He’s the son of a gambler,
who seemingly hasn’t made the
right ends meet once in life. Jack
won’t gamble, can’t gamble - it’s
against the croupier rules.
There's other rules, all of which
Jack commits himself. And then,
one by one, he breaks them.
Screenwriter Paul
Mayersburg surrounds the
scene with the typical noirish
fare - a faithful girlfriend (Gina
McKee), a troublemaker (Kate
Hardie), a mystery woman (Alex
Kingston).
Jack begins to write an alter
nate novel about the business,
about a croupier he names Jake.
And those two personas begin to
blur as the movie runs longer.
“Croupier” makes much of
the two ends of gambling addic
tion - indeed, in Jake's mind, the
only two personalities in life -
that of the gambler and the
croupier. Gamblers have hope.
Croupiers have odds. Gamblers
have superstitions. Croupiers
have rules. Gamblers lie. And
under most circumstances,
croupiers, good ones anyway,
certainly do not.
Just how that figures into the
central sequence of the film,
how morality can honestly fit
into a immoral situation, is best
discovered in the theater. But
the repercussions of that scene
are stark. And then a final twist,
a big javelin right into the heart
of the plot, puts the pieces in
place. Better yet, it reveals all the
pieces that didn’t seem to exist.
My favorite movies are these
- the kind that wants it both
ways and gets what it wants.
Owen gives a fine performance -
some have hailed him as a fine
candidate for James Bond
movies - but his best work is to
stay solid and move within the
plot, rather than overshadow it.
McKee is appropriately put
upon as the girlfriend, while
Hardie, who plays a dealer
named Bella, gamely plays the
fringe character who “used to be
in the game.”
The real difference maker is
I I
Croupier )
—(Director: Mike Hodges
—( Stars: Clive Owen,
Gine McKee,
Kate Hardie
-(Rating: R, (language,
violence)
of4 stars
Hodges, who understands noir
is best Aimed without snappy
editing tactics and inhabiting a
world where nearly everyone
smokes their own brand of ciga
rette. His camera plays fine
tricks with the casino mirrors
and drab, dead-looking flats.
It’s that little Aim of sleaze
that hangs over every scene that
completes the portrait.
Characters speak lines like
they’ve spoken them before,
playing the same game with new
faces that turn out to be the
same characters. I could spend
all day with these characters,
right through the moment they
robbed me blind.
Title: “Croupier”
Stars: Clive Owen, Gine
McKee, Kate Hardie
Theatre department
offers new media
BY EMILY PVEATT
Students and film aficionados
can now start creating their own
films and computer animation
through the Theatre Arts
Department
The addition of film classes,
history, theory, screen writing and
now filmmaking with new media
have intensified the maturing film
program at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
Last year, a film studies major
was finally accepted, allowing stu
dents to pursue a Bachelor of Arts
with a historical and theoretical
approach to cinema.
The Department of Theatre
Arts has now created a Film and
New Media program that gives
students hands-on experience in
the filmmaking process.
Richard Endacott, a professor
of filmmaking and screen writing,
said the program simply offers
classes that students have
expressed considerable interest in
taking over the years.
Although the program offers
courses with an emphasis in film,
there is not a major or minor
accompanying the new program.
The program combines two
separate areas of study by inte
grating the classic production of
film with digital and technical
styles considered new media.
“We’re lucky,” Endacott said.
“This program isn’t strictly film or
strictly technical. Since we are so
new, we have the luxury of fine
tithing this program to what stu
dents want to take.”
With the new program in
place, students can now take both
digital and traditional 16 mm
filmmaking courses.
The new media now offered
includes CD-ROM authoring,
multimedia, computer anima
tion, special effects, web design
and computer editing.
The computer aided theater
design classes and technology
from previous years have expand
ed to indude die production and
new media courses in th$ film
program.
“Our program has high poten
tial," said Sharon Teo, assistant
professor of film production and
1998 American Cinema Editors
(ACE) Eddie Award winner for
best student editing.
“We are not trying to be NYU
or UCLA, but we are trying to
build a film program that doesn’t
exist by combining film with tech
nology.”
