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Friday, March 31, 1978
University Daily Kansan
Good movies, acting make for special Oscar night
By MARY MITCHELL
Staff Writer
Just as spring fever is beginning its annual surge, Oscar fever is reaching its own peak.
Oscar celebrates his 50th birthday Monday night in what is one of the most competitive Academy Award races in recent years. The past year has produced a bumper crop of good movies and fine acting. The televised ceremonies, especially, although Oscar nights of the past usually have been bland and overly long.
movie producer Allan Carr, who is bringing out the movie version of "Greaser" later this year, is the consultant for this year's show. The Oscars will open with a song written especially for the occasion by Marvin Hamlisch. Started in 1982, it has won the awards, including Fred Astaire, Davis Janet Gaynor, Greer Garson, Steve McQueen and Hinkler Winkler.
WHAT FILM WILL receive the best picture award is anyone's guess. The nominees are "Star Wars," "Julia," "The Turning Point," "Annie Hall" and "The Goodbye Girl." It seems likely that either "Julia" or "The Turning Point" will walk away a winner because both are artistically contorted and have a distinct direction. However, the financial success and the superb special effects of "Star Wars" might bring it into the spotlight.
The race for best actress is undoubtedly the closest race. All the nominees per year have to be sung out as the best. They are Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft for "The Turning Point," Diane Keaton for "Jessica Jones" and Miraha Mascon for "The Goobye Girl."
For the first time in many years, women's roles are strong and well-developed—a fact that makes the race even more exciting. Bancroft, Fonda and MacLaine seem to be
the front-runners. MacLaine, who has been nominated three times in the past, may stand a better chance than Fonda, who won an award for "Klute" in 1971, and Bancroft, who won one for "The Miracle Worker" in 1962.
THE CONTEST FOR best actor does not involve such close competition. The nominations of Woody Allen for "Annie Hall," John Travolta for "Saturday Night Fever" and Ralph Cassidy can be discarded. Alen's finest talents are in writing and direction, not acting. He will have a shot at both of these categories, too, and is the first nominee to be considered for three Oscars since Orson Welles was ultimately acknowledged for "Citizen Kane" in 1941.
Travolta made an electrifying ljim debut, but his sexual magnetism and his dancing talents were much more apparent than his acting abilities. Mastroianni probably has lost a lot of votes because of a false rumor that his voice was dubbed.
Richard Dreyfus is the local choice for his hilarious role in "The Goodbye Girl." But the Academy is not always logical. The fifth nominee is Richard Burton, for his role as a psychiatrist in "Equus," a psychology show that should never have been made into a movie.
BUT THE ACADEMY sometimes becomes overly sentimental. It's not easy to forget the 1960 best actress race when the Academy gave the best actress award to Elizabeth Taylor, who had almost died of pneumonia the year before.
Taylor said that she thought the role and the movie were bad. Even worse were the movies which were won a highly questionable award for best actor. Each of the other nominated actors were certainly better than Wayne, but the Academy decided to give the Duela a shot in the eyes of audiences.
Burtun, who has recently been hitting the talk-show circuit espousing his recovery
THE SUPPORTING ROLE categories do not seem as hotly contested. Mikhail Baryshkov is nominated for "The Turning Point," Peter Fitzherri for "Equus," Alec Guinness for "Honor of War" and Maximilian Schell for "Jalaa." The obvious choice is Firth, who repeats his performance as the mentally disturbed, horse-walker in *The Curse*. Schell ballets dancer, not an actor, although he shows possibilities. Guinness was upstaged by the robots and special effects. Schell and Robards did not have well-defined pars and robotic elements, but the acting of Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave.
Redgrave should be a shoe-in for best supporting actress as the heroine of "Jula," but her political leanings may hurt her chances. Her support of the Palestine Liberation Organization has angered the Jewish Defense League. Though politics should play no part in the selection of the Academy sometimes loses its objectivity.
REDGRAVE'S ONLY REAL competition is newcomer Melinda Dillon, who portrayed the distressed mother in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and Quinn Cummings for "The Goodbye Girl." Tuesday Wedd for "Looking for Miss Glow!" and Leslie Brown for "The Tournament."
The stiffest race will be for the best achievement in visual effects. There are certain advantages to future failure to提到它们 are "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." "Star Wars" was great fun, but the special effects were much more complicated and outstanding.
Oscar night began modestly with a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel May 12, 1945. It was a starring role in
ducers and other members of the film community gathered to watch as 15 of the golden statuettes were given out for the year 1977-28.
"WINGS." A silent film about World War I, was the first winner of the best picture award. Janet Gaynor and Emil Jannings won the best actor and actress awards, although their Oscars were for several pictures rather than just one.
1ne gold-coated statue has become the supreme accolade, although there are several other awards for movies. Oscar was created by art director Cedric Gibbons and
The yearly awards program and the founding of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were creations of Louis B. Mayer. At the time, movies were making money, but the image of the film industry was somewhat shaky. Censorship and the further antagonism of church groups were threatening. The Oscar ceremony was conceived as a public relation play to point out outstanding achievements of filmmaking.
OSCAR HAD NO name until 1931.贝特 Davis says she gave him his name because the statute resembled the backside of her first husband, whose middle name was Oscar. However, Margaret Herrick, also the executive director of the Academy, also said that it looked like her Ursula Oscar in the presence of a reporter, who printed it in his paper. The name stuck, although this controversy has never been settled.
Members of the Academy have the opportunity to view the special screenings for the nominated films. Their ballots are sent to the Board of Directors, who account firm, for tabulation and verification. The names of the winners are placed in sealed envelopes, which are not opened until release.
When the secrecy is broken on Monday
flouts the very purpose for which it was founded and the Ocars become just another
No clues disclosed on Academy selections
★★
Who will win the Oscars? Why not go to members of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences and ask them how they voted?
"I can't tell you who I'll vote for," Irving Ladwig, indigently replied. "I'm surprised he'd be so quick."
Ludwig is president of Buena Vista Corp. The motion picture distribution arm of Walt Disney has asked the company to make
members who will vote for the Oscar choices this year, he has been a member for
The ballot, he said, did not have to submitted to the Academy until March 29, just five days prior to the awards ceremony. Members were not required to see all of the pictures involved in the balloting, he said, but he had made a personal effort to do so.
Ludwig gave the impression that he was a
bit peevet that someone should approach him about the sacred awards process of the college. He has asked his members tended to vote for their company rather than by their consciences as for example, 20th Century-Fox might, with a little more discretion, picture the heman, "shipped a Nun can't for Fox."
night, maybe the Academy will have considered talent and skill rather than politics.
Could he speak for himself? When he made his selections, were they used paper?
"It's more than a gut reaction," he insisted. He listed a variety of factors and values, including actors' capabilities and directorial touches, which dictated his choices. But he would not provide specific examples for the case, so might in some way reveal his final choice.
So, the Academy's integrity remains intact. Its secrets unwelcomed. We'll just have to wait for them to unfold.
Oscar-in-residence
one University of Kansas has its own Oscar, one presented to William Ingle, a 1935 KU graduate, for his original story and screenplay of "Splendor in the Grass" in 1961. When the University Theatre remade its experimental theater in honor of Ingle in 1974, the Oscar, a bronze bust of Ingle and other memorabilia were presented to the collection. The prize was a Fulbrider Prize certificate received for "Piccue" are displayed in cases adjacent to Ingle Theater and the rest of the collection is housed in Spencer Research Library.
Versatility necessary for gallery director
There's a lot more to gallery displays than at hating pictures. Attach a stash of Kuzuki cards to the bottom left of the frame.
Kuzmanovic is the director of the art gallery in the Kansas Union. She is primarily responsible for scheduling three shows although she can be involved to a minor degree in the remainder of the 11 exhibitions displayed in the gallery during the year.
"I've had to learn everything from catering to organizing a reception to moving lights to selecting the paper for the program given to driving nails," she said recently.
She said that when she was selected for the position by the SUA Fine Arts chairman, she did not know anything about organizing a gallery or setting up displays.
OUT BY THE END of October, she was ready to open her first show on schedule. That show, the "Perceptual Assay" by Ann Nunley and Teresa Raising, was her least successful show, Kuzmanovic said, because there wasn't enough variety in the display.
"You have to try to make it interesting," said, "because most students who come in bad shape."
Only art majors could appreciate the subtle differences in the several items on display, she said, so those not as familiar with techniques did not enjoy the show as much.
She said the most popular shows were those that used three-dimensional techniques, such as the "Native American Costume Art" show in February.
Reaction to the gallery shows is mixed. "I didn't realize that such a variety of people came in and the variety of reactions they have," Kuzmanovic said.
KUZMANOVIC WORKS with a gallery committee to select her three gallery shows and to schedule all of the displays for the year. The design department and the art department schedule three shows each, and two shows are left open for outside exhibitions.
The gallery committee also helps choose the exhibit that will be shown from among
the artists who wish to display their work in the Union.
"The committee is picky about aesthetics," Kumazovic said, but it tries to select a variety of art forms through the year.
The current photography display by Mickey Pfleger has been planned since September. Kuzmanovic said that Pfleger mailed about 38 prints to her, and she and Gary Mason, assistant professor of journalism, mounted the photos on black poster board and covered them with glass. Thirty-photo images were selected for the gallery show.
The Pfleger display opened Monday and will run through April 7. It will be replaced by the "Juried Exhibition of Art," the first juried photography contest at University of Kansas Photography Contest.
The Pfiger photography display was scheduled immediately before the photography content display to increase interest in that medium, she said. Pfiger will also be one of the judges for the photography contest.
Staff Photo by TIM ASHNER
Natasha Kuzmanovic, Lawrence senior, takes a break after arranging the photographs for the Mickey Pflager display now in the Natural History Museum.
Against the Wall
the subject but how it has been installed that made a successful gallery showing. The Pilger collection will be on display through
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Arts & Leisure
Play rides magic carpet to elusive truth
By LYNN KIRKMAN
Reviewer
True, at best, is an elusive commodity. It's a matter of individual perceptions that may vary widely. Once in a while, when all perceptions concur, we call it truth or coincidence—but it's really a miracle.
"The Comedy of Errors," which opened last night at the University Theatre, breathes new life into Shakespeare's tale of mistaken identities. The story was old in Shakespeare's time, the Bard of Avon having borrowed heavily from the Roman playwright Plautus. But William Keeler's direction brings a new twist to the tale and gives a fresh look to the production.
Dives make the difference. In the ancient Zoroatian religion, a divis is an aide to an evil deity. Dives are fond of creating human in his way, and that was the reason he left the world.
THE WORLD OF the divs is a dream world where fate is altered by a wave of the hand. The divs, who are never seen by the familiar Shakespearean characters, control the action for their own amusement—and to the delight of the audience.
The story is centered on Egeon, a merchant from Syracuse, who has come to Ephesus in search of his son, Antiphorus, who, with his servant Dromio, left home several years earlier to search for his brother Dionysus, and his brother's servant Dromio, twin to Dromio of Syracuse.
Eggeon's wandering son and servant have just arrived in the city, which happens to be the home of the other Antiphilus and Dromio. He is the new master of the garden.
AS THE BROTHERS Antipholus, Duel Waxman and Mark A. Robertson are mystified and outraged at the events that befall them during the game's eventful afternoon. Carl Packard plays the Duke right the plain mixture of generosity and pomposity for a man of his station.
As Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, Deedre M. Dierman is enjoyable as she shrives to maintain some degree of logic in illogical circumstances. The scenes between Dierman and her sister Janice in *The Tale of a Woman* are insight into the 18th century concept of male-rename relationships.
But the show belongs to Steve Mokofsky. Portraying the two Dromios, Mokofsky is beset with problems from every side—and rise to overcome his difficulties. He is beaten and bented but he is survived by confusions the dives create for him. He is a survivor of the first order.
THE SETTING FOR the play is a magic carpet. Conceived by Keeler and executed by Debert Urenh, the carpet is formed by the divs into a court, a marketplace, interiors and exturities of various places; it is a scene, and essential to the production which is, itself, a magic carousel ride.
Costumes by Eleanor Gilroy reflect the color of the Turkish setting and Charles Lown's lighting and Philip Vlack's sound create the atmosphere.
IT IS NOT by chance that the dives toss an apple among about themselves, playfully wailing it under the noses of their unsuspecting pawns, then munching it as the human characters work out an explanation for the escapes.
The divs—Michael Hinz, Gary Beline, Steve Lande and Melvin Tuhrō—fullfilled Keeler's intention that they perform as the guiding forces of the play. Their whims manipulate the misadventures of their protagonists from human gullibility. They are masters of their fates; and our own
The apple traditionally represents truth. And the divs alone can enjoy the truth. We make do with our perceptions. The divs again have
"The Comedy of Errors" continues at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow and at 2:30 p.m. m Sunday in the University Theatre in Murray Hall.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
This Week's
Highlights
Films
All films will be shown in Wooddum Auditorium
Level 5- Kansas Union, unless otherwise noted.
kong with the firms, the firms GROWING UP FEMALE and MEN'S LIVES, 700 in the Forum
Tongtai and Satunday, SILVER STREAK, with
Monsanto and Satunday, SILVER STREAK, with
MAIN BAW MASSAGE, with TEXAS
THE PINOBAO ANIMATION of Alexander Alexeiff and his wife Claire Parker will be shown on
THE OTHER FRANCISCO, by the Cuban Film Institute will be Shown on Tuesday.
study, with download links.
The submitted version of Eic Robhain's CLAIRE'S
Tutorial is available at:
Two times by San Francisco flirmer Bruce
Brantley on Thursday, QUICK BILLY &
ROSALYN ROMANCE
Concerts
The KANSAS CITY PHILHARMONIC will appear
LE KOTTIE will appear in concert at 8 tonight in Hoech Audienium.
CONCERT CHORALE will perform at 8 tonight in Swanwhatch Reception Hall.
at Hoo Auditorium
COLLEGUMIUM
COLLEGUMIUM
attended at 3.30 p.m.
sunday in Sunbury Rectangle Hall
JOURNEY AND MONTROSE will appear in concert tonight at Memorial Hall, Kansas City, Ky.
The KANAS BRASS QUINTET will perform at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Helen Forspen Spencer
The CONCERTO CONCERT will be performed at Tuesday night in the University Theatre
JIMME BUFFET will appear in concert Tuesday in memory of Memorial Kansas City Ks.
Lectures
O. B. HARDISON, JR., director of the **O.B. Shakespeare Library** and author of "The Ending Monument," will speak on "A Note on the Note in Big Room Kesaa Room." I am in today, in the Big Room Kesaa Room.
GAIL GODWIN, author of "The Old Woman and
B.A. 8 p.m. Monday in the Jaywalker room of the Kansas
University."
BORIS SCHWARZ, professor emeritus at Queens College, New York. Ill lecture on "AvantGarden Music in Soviet Russia Now and Then" the 1920s versus 1970s. 7 p. Monday. Swarthout Rectangle.
Exhibits
The photographs of Mukule Phinnie will be on display at the Museum of Art in Fort Worth. April 7 Ferguson will attend a reception in his studio at 150 W. 36th St.
The Hidden World of Mixedicorp, an exhibition of photographs of medieval wood carvings from French churches, will be on display through April 18. HELEIN FORSEN SPENCER MUSEUM OF ART.
The art of Joan Livingstone is on display through Wednesday in the VISUAL ARTS GALLERY.
The paintings of Roger Stimsonau and Neuman
Galerie were featured throughout Wednesday at the TEP
GALERIE
Art from the Lawrence public schools will be
the August April at the LAWRENCE
PUBLIC LIBRARY
Porcelain by Betty Leeseman, wood sculpture by
Eileen Hogan and glass sculpture be
featured throughout April at THE GALLERY,
750 Madison Ave., New York City.
Photography by Ruth Branham, jewelry and artistry by Grace Cannage and textile design by Sarah Ward. April 12th the LAWRENCE ARTS CENTER. The three artists will attend a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Lauren Cannage Gallery.