4 Friday, December 5, 1975 University Daily Kansan ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Luis Bunuel By CHUCK SACK Remember the restaurant scenes in the old studio movies? The ones that contrasted the real life with the feuding lovers who were seated at different tables in the same cafe? In those days the tranporter room one of them sold to the dwarf who was handed in on a smooth camera movement. To make this bridge seem natural, the camera would simply focus on a wafer who happened to pass the first table, and follow him until he arrived at the Liberte.11 Luis Ubueu's latest film, looks like a convention of "the movie waiters." For example, the movie begins in 1808 in Spain, during Napoleon's occupation. But this tale is interrupted to reveal that it was just a story being read in modern France by a young girl's nurse. The nurse is droplets in favor of her charge, but Napoleon replaced by her parents as the main subject. And so it goes. The narrative thread is simple to understand, even if its style is a bit bewildering. Once you give in and flow with the dream, part of the fun is guessing who will lead it next. The true leader is, of course; Benuel. THE 74-YEAR-OLD realist has fashioned a savagely funny tour of a topsy-turvy society. Outwardly identical to our own world, the social customs in 'Le Fantome' have been implymphased. They say the patriots who are about to be executed by Napoleon's troops cry, "Down with freedom!" A young woman driver is stopped by a tank whose commander asks if she has seen any of the foxes they are hunting. Spiders are considered beautiful, policemen act like school children and postcards of L'Arc de Triomphe are considered obscene. Ironically, as the film progresses the events become so outrageous that they begin to approach reality. "Le Fantome de la Liberté" is bunnel's first film since "The Discreet Charm of the Quarryman." It was an Oscar for the Best Foreseen Film of 1972. It is a worthy follow-up. "LE FANTOME" is so deft humorous that it elicits belly laughs from an audience, even though it is devoid of any slapstick or stock comedy. It sounds like a tongue tongue so firmly in cheek that no speech pathologist in the world could disdage it. The actors are wonderfully sober, even in the sequence where the conventions surrounding eating and body eliminations are reversed. Couples entertain in massive rest rooms where everyone has his own toilet, and the guests excuse themselves to go into a small, private kitchen and eat porkchops. Bunnel seems to take an anarchist's positive delight in exploring forbidden subjects. He has a keen interest of his personal themes, and his fondness for juxtaposing religion and sex gained Bunnel his early notoriety. He once met a friend of his own who is like an egg without salt." "in 'Le Fantome' a group of four priests visits a young girl's room to pray for her absent son. A game of poker where virgins are worth 10 and medals 5. Necrophilia, mass murder, narcissism, mannion and incest also make their way into the body of the film. DESPITE THIS catalogue of offensive topics, *La Fortune de la Liberite* is never vulgar. None of these matters is ever treated directly. Instead, the narrator describes attitudes towards these acts, rather than concentrating on the acts themselves. Although this is unmistakably Bunnel's film, no small credit must go to the "waiters," the actors themselves. Michele Piccoli, Jean Claude Nolte and their biggest names in the picture, but they are really limited to camo roles. Suffice it to say that there are many other internationally renowned characters, they are uniformly terrific. THROUGH THE LAST quarter of the movie, when familiar faces begin to reapear and the film races towards the end, the characters feels like joining in the toast proposed earlier in the film. The poker-playing priests, a nightgrown girl, an incestuous nephew, a masochistic host and his whip-wielding wife are gathered in the couple's hotel room. Lawrence cable TV threadbare "Let us," says the husband, "celebrate the chance that brings us together." Let's toast the chance that brings the high humor and bating satire of "Le Fantome de la Liberte" to Lawrence. Waiter, more wine. By WARD HARKAVY ConfrikuKna Writer The possibilities existing in cable television development are exciting. If and when the whole country is hooked up by data banks, information from libraries and data banks could be easily transferred into a person's home. If fact, embryonic cable systems in this country could push a task immediately. Movie companies are now selling the rights to their movies to companies that turn them into cassettes for home viewing. Whether these companies will rent, loan, or sell these cassettes to television owners, they have to outlive them out through existing cable television systems is pure speculation for the moment. SOME CITIES ALREADY have a system of pay television that uses computerized selection and billing devices hooked up to ordinary television sets. One cable system that is, at the moment, offering ineptitude is a local company called Sunflower Cablevision. The All of these potential uses of cable television are fascinating to card players. We have to suffer through the growing pains of cable people who run Sunflower Cablevision are, almost without exception, hardworking. But those qualities don't compensate for the annoying, and sometimes laughable, shodiness of their neighbors. Sunflower Cablevision, which is owned by the World Co., owners of the Journal-World, isn't all bad. Excellent television station is a commercial television station is its strongest selling point. UNFORTUNATELY, Sunflower Cablevision also provides its own programming, the quality of which is generally poor, both in content and technical production. Target networks include "network" set up by Kansas City's KBAM, Channel 41, is a source for much of Sunflower Cablevision's programming. TNT's offerings include such inspired productions as Jack LaLanne, Gene Osborn's Sports Scrapbook, Pro Wrestling, The Raw Club and the Infinity Club, an international religious talk show. However had TNT might be, it can't compare with Sunflower Gabriella's locally produced programs, seemingly always working in the same way, or severe adenoidal problems. One suspect that this announcer learned the broadcasting trade at the Billy Bob Jones School of Truck Driving, Divinity and Radio Broadcasting. Even the KU sports programs, which seem impossible to bungle, are often disastrous. The whole operation reeks of cheapness, rather than stupidity. POSSIBLY THE WORST of Sunflower Cablevision's output is its movie series, "Bob Tube Bijon." A few of the movies are surprisingly good, even though they are selected from the dregs of filmland. Once again, the problem is one of money. Darrel Peterson, Sunflower Cablevision's program director, is handicapped by having to compete with cheapest sources. With all this, he manages to bring some entaining movies to his studio. But it isn't the movies that one complains about; it's the skipshot way in which they are shot. The images are often out of focus, the screen often goes blank without reason, the sound isn't synchronized and the whole film is inadequately advertised. People have called Sunflower Cablevision with complaints about a whole night of eyestrained frustration at the "Boob Tube Bijou," but nothing has been done about it. Sunflower Cablevision's presentation of movies makes Commewall and SAU efforts seem flawless by comparison. EVENTUALLY, the local cable television system will probably become a means for educating and entertaining the people of Lawrence. Meanwhile, the subscriber to San Diego would need to contend with what is essentially a cheap operation. The city of Lawrence granted the cable franchise to the World Co. Maybe it can persuade that to do a better job. SPY STORY, by Len Deighton. Pocket, $1.95-A recent novel by the author of several best-sellers. It's Harry Palmer again, bespectacled after the "The Ipcrease File," who gets himself involved in a conspiracy of East and West and finds someone who looks exactly like him apparently taking his place. Good fun, living like Deighton's others. Spy tale cloaked in confusion but fun BILLIE JEAN, by Billie Jean King. Pocket, $1.95—An autobiography of the woman who just swept the Wimbledon. She tells the story from her first tennis match, to 10, to the big victory over Bobby Riggs. An amateur, and an interesting story. ODDS AGAINST, by Dick Francis. Pocket, $12.5—A detective after he is shot and the body of the gunman is found in the woods. Francis has won the ODDP Poe award for mystery writing. THE MASTERS OF BOW STREET, by John Creasey. How Scotland Yard got to be the way. The book begins in the Hogarthian era of old London and ends in the age of Queen Victoria. An embossing story. AMAZING BUT TRUE STORIES ABOUT THE PRESIDENTS, by Doug Storer. Pocket, $1.50—Pop history, doubtless linked to contemporary interest in the past, with inside dope on the people who occupied the White House, who were long known to historians of the presidency. SHADOW OF EVIL, by Frank G. Slaughter. Pricing $1.75-Wherein a journalist follows a lead about a medical cure into the deep South and becomes involved with a community leader who just happens to be a big slot in the Klu Klax Klan. I AM NOT A CROOK, by Art Buchwald. $1.25 Buchwald about the Watergate days. Laugh while you cry. AMERICAN GOTHIC, by Robert Bloch Crest, $15.—One by the author of "Psycho," about a series of bizarre events that took place in Chicago during the great fair of 1893. 1974 Nebula anthology lacks star quality By TOM BILLAM Bibliophile NEBULA STORIES TEN. Edited by James Gunn. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. $7.95. Science fiction. Tell someone you read science fiction and you're lucky if the only response you get is raised eyebrows. For a long time, science fiction has been viewed as having stereotyped characters: "inventive, sometimes muscular young men pitting their ingenuities . . against the universe or rescue the Earth from destruction or a mule maden from a bug-eyed monster," according to the introduction by James Gunn, professor of English. If such accusations were ever true, they are no longer. There is not one nubile maiden or an infertile young man in this book. JEST, IRONY, SATIRE and DEEPER SIGNIFICENCE—A translation of a 19th century German play about a demon whose life was illuminated by madhouse antics and outrageous situations. THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS Theater Concerts (Tonight and Saturday night at 8 in Inge Memorial Theatre.) VESPERS-The School of Fine Arts annual gift to the museum is the presentation of the familiar and beautiful seasonal music. (3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Hoch.) MAKIN' AME—Children and adults are invited to participate MADRIGAL DINNER-Reservations only for a Renaissance least brightened by 18th century sungals in唱 Voci di Camera. (3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10, in Museum of Art.) COLLEGIUM MUSICUM More Renaissance music, this time accompanied by period instruments. Selections include instrumental and vocal pieces from Eastern Europe and Italy. (Tonight and Sunday night at 7 in the Kansas Union.) Published at the University of Kansas weekly journal, *The Journal of History*, on a quarterly period. Second-class postage at Lawrence station or $1 each in Dorchester County and $1 each in Lexington County. Subscription is $1.35 per subscription. $1.35 per subscription paid through the U.S. Post Office. THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN These stories, being the Nebula Award winners of 1974, are representative of the best done science fiction writers. Dennis Elliott Associate Campus Editor Debbie Bump Editor Associate Campus Editor Bettie Hageguel John Johnson, Emily Smith Chief Photographers Staff Photographers George Drewhan Don Pierce Staff Artist Sports Editor Associate Campus Editor Yael Abubahab Alien Quakebunner Sports Editor Editor Dennis Ellsworth But the rest of the authors aren't newcomers to the field. Neubel is one of the best Nebulas in 1974 for best novel and best short story, also won the Nebula for best novel in 1989 and left Hand of Darkness." Business Manager Nebula Award winners are selected by the active members of the Science Fiction Writers of America at the end of each year. The winning authors are therefore considered "authors" authors," and their stories are considered high standards. Assistant Business Manager Advertising Manager Advertising Manager Advertising Manager Advertising Manager Linda Beckham Advertising Manager Manager Administrative Classified Manager Administrative Classified Manager Administrative Classified National Advertising Manager Debt Service National Advertising Manager Mark Winters (Friday, Dec. 12, In Free State Opera House.) These stories are reminiscent of student fiction writing: the story is only partly on paper, the rest being in the head of the author; or the scene development outweighs the action in the story and therefore it is intended to write a much longer work but had tired hallway through and decided to end the story as quickly as possible. There are, however, a lonely widower who searches for his 'rekindled' wife, an old-mad schoolteacher, an elderly teacher in a special school English teacher and a grandfather in these stories. Perhaps we should have more "readers' authors." NORMAN BLAKE—Smooth bluegrass from an occasional local visitor. The only exception to these generalities is the last entry of the chapter on "Born With the Silverberg, "Born With the Dead," R. It has a unique idea Regardless of their experience, these authors failed to keep me spell-bound with these award-winners. And if one is not entertained by fiction, to what can one turn? That Silverberg is one of the more traditional, old writers might have something to do with that opinion. (Saturday night in Free State Opera House.) Exhibits carried through a complete narrative, and it flows rather well. MILLIONAIRE AT MID NIGHT—They call it a bizarre stage show of rock'n'roll sounds. OK? (3 p.m. Sunday in Lawrence Arts Center. Same time next week.) Roger Zelazny, whose short story, "The Engine at Heartspring's Center," was a runner-up last year, won two Nebulas in 1965, the first year he published anything. In a planned and improvisational musical program and film presentation. COLLECTOR'S CHOICE More than 130 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, decorative objects, etc., selected with an eye towards Christmas buying. Prices range from $10 to $40. (Through Dec. 11 in Kansas Union Gallery.) PRINTMAKERS SHOW— The fourth annual offering by a local gallery. The spotlight's on silkscreen, lithographs and intaglio, but a bonus is won by a Kansas City artist. NO MOUNTAINS IN THE WATER. Nine big ingles, and people in a collection photographed by James En- yawar, Larry Scharmand and Jane Warnock. Films (Through Jan. 7 in 7E7 Gallery.) (Through Dec. 23 in Museum of Art.) PEEPER--This sly spof of Chandier and the "40 detective genre stars Michael Caine as an English private eye adrift in The delight was absent from these stories. They were entertaining, but so is pick-up sticks if you're bored. This anthology, composed of Nebula winners and runners-up. AND NOW FOR SOME- THING COMPLETELY DIFERENT — Monly, Python, their first film, Stretches are slow, and it's more silly than zany, but skits like the one about the gang of aged ladies the countryside saw the total. EMMANUELLE — Heavy breathing dominates in this French movie that stars Sylvia Kristel and Alain Cuny. HARD TIMES—Charles Bronson and James Coburn provide most of the punch in this gritter saga about depressed teenagers who are predictable but delivered so well by screenwriter-turned-director Walter Hill that one hardly minds. Stratford Martin, Edward Walsh and Frank McCarthy give the fine support cast. What most people need in fiction, especially science fiction, are stories that are genuinely adult in their content and can satisfy the reader's basic need for wonder and delight. L. Written by W. D. Richter Peter Hyams ("Busting"), the plot is great but, real the play? Why Natale Wood for 'geat lad?' WELCOME TO MY NIGHT- WAY show makes this the first rodeo mentary in years to have a backdrop to your image. The guildon isn't grand, but with that many decibels behind him, Alice definitely has a talent. BABES IN TOYLAND -Vic- Babes herself Diana, Ray Bolehart Lee, Daniel Wynn, Annette Funicello, Jack Be-Nimble and Contrary Mary all have something to do with TOOT, WHISTLE, PLUNK film about musical instruments film about musical instruments Check ads for theatricals and times. How does that Grabbe you? Staff Photo by GEORGE MILLENER Steve Silver, Brooklyn, N.Y., graduate student, right, exerts his powers of percussion on Kipn DeKlots, Lincoln, NC, freshman. The play, translated from an early 19th century German work by Christian Griggs by Ruber Cadigan, director, plays through the lives of some of its characters.