8
Thursday, March 28, 1974
University Dally Kansan
Altman Superb at Satire Heroes Refuse to Conform
By KENN LOUDEN
Kansan Reviewe
Robert Altman is one of the film industry's most innovative directors. He took the subject of war and made "M-A-S-H," a great, satire.
But he didn't stop with "M-A-S-H." He dared to violate the sacred American western and produced "McCabe and Mrs. Doyle," which was performed at 9:30 tonight in Woodruff Auditorium.
In "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," Altman improvises meanings and connections. Characters don't wear a nametag that says they will act in a certain way. They are real people who refuse to conform to conventional characterizations.
The movie's setting isn't a typical, dusty, western cow town but is a cold, wet clearing near the Canadian border. It takes place about 1800 after all the great western gold discoveries were made, and ventional romance, and Alhtman creates a new kind of motion picture naturalism.
THE MAIN CHARACTERS aren't the usual gunfighter and dance hall girl, Warren Beatty as McCabe is a garrulous importer who tries to pass for a vicious gunfighter. Julie Christie is Mrs. Miller, a tough, smart madam.
McCabe is a bungler who pretends he is important but who has the imagination and intelligence of a 90-year-old man who has lived his entire life in the same house. McCabe drunkenly stumbles around in his apartment until he is forced to face reality, and death.
the movie is a testimony to Beatty's skill. He makes an unpalatable character likable and plays McCabe's death with dignity. McCabe is interpreted as a foolish romantic poet who lacks the fortitude to great. One of his works is the tenderness for his unreserved love for Mrs. Miller.
JULIE CHRISTIE has a fantastic face in the tradition of Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich, but she is a better actress than her friends. She's skinny, unikent madam she is appealing.
Mrs. Miller is a victim of her own inability to feel. She is a hardheaded businesswoman but when she can't cope with life she turns to ovum.
Vilmos Zsigmond photography is beautiful. He brings freshness to the
slowpinnies of half-completed wooden buildings and junk piles. He also brings out the best in an indomitable trio—Altman, Christie and Christie. The movie is a masterpiece.
"The Leng Goodby," which will be shown at 8 p.m. Sunday in Woodbury, attacks the private eye genre of films in the same way "Ma-SH:" attacked the war genre.
THE FILM is a satire, Elliott Gould as Philip Morale doesn't have any of the things he does in the movie. He brings up Braga, Gould's Marlowe is a fool but he is an affectionate one. Heroes tend to mediate in other people's affairs, and it is often difficult for Gould. Gould as very likely.
Marlowe is an antifore but he does not fight against a corrupt establishment. He is the most powerful man in England.
reviews
attack on a motion picutre genre.
anyone who tries to be honest appears either foolish or overly sentimental. Marlow tries hard to be honest. He comes across as kind and sentimental but nonetheless admirable.
THE MOVIE is supplemented by some fine supporting performances. Sterling Hayden is superlative as a vile alcoholic writer who is slowly losing his talents, and as his wife, shows that something good did come out of the Clifford Irving affair—her.
Director Altman mocks Hollywood and stresses its Bohemian side with shots of punks, tough cops and hippies working and wandering in the California wasteland.
Altman and Gould make a great pair. Gould's acting provides the theme Altman wants—a disillusioned attack on a society that no longer has ideals or heroes. Even if one doesn't agree with Altman's philosophy, he and the film stimulating and entertaining.
People who have enjoyed Altman's previous films may find "Images" a shock, "Images," which will be shown at 2 p.m. Saturday in Wooldruff, is not a satire or an
"images" is a sensitive, personal film. Many people would classify it as artistic or even worse, art. These are vague definitions that can be understood but thought was outstanding.
In many ways "Images" is a work of art. The cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond is superior to his previous work in "McCabe and Mrs. Miller." The sound effects by Stoni Yomasita and the music of John Karpinski are intended to emphasize the beautiful photography.
"MAGES" is a film of beautiful images—mirrors, colors, water, fire and light. But the movie isn't just a series of pictures—the it is a fine psychological thriller.
Susannah York as Catheryn probes the feelings of a fascinating and perhaps unbalanced wife. Her portrayal challenges the women as to what is illusion and what is reality.
York plays a difficult role with manic energy. She is a modern, perceptive, intelligent woman seeking peace in the present, yet battling her past.
Her problem could be too easily diagnosed as schizophrenia, but Altman's insight and York's sensitivity force the audience to examine all the available evidence before coming to a conclusion about Catherine.
ALTMAN'S FILM is deeply personal. It examines self-image and personality and questions each character's view of himself. Alta Manis makes the audience by questioning who is who.
The names of the characters are confused; York plays Cateryn; Cateryn her mother; Bene Auberjonois plays Cateryn's husband Hugh; Hugh Mullis plays Cateryn's present lover Marcel; and Marcel suffiffs plays Cateryn's former lover.
"Images" is not for everyone. It is only for people who want to see a deep, thought-provoking film. Many people will dismiss it as "too heavy" or some other barbarism, but the movie is excellent. It deserves a good reception.
Any one of these films could be regarded as a fine piece of work. When viewed together, however, they point to one common theme — Robert Altman — who can describe Robert Altman — genius.
“THE EFFECT OF GAMMA RAYS ON MAN-IN-THE-MOON MARIGOLDS”*
Joanne Woodward stars as the mother of two daughters in a ghetto, 7 and 9:30 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday, 2 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Woolduff Auditorium.
"PEPE!"-Children's film about Pepe, a cowboy who embarks on an adventure through his devotion to his horse. 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Woodruff Auditorium.
"THE LIGHT OF EXPERIENCE"
Kenneth Clark's "Civilisation" film about the 17th century dawn painters Rembrandt and Géricault, 8 p.m., Sunday in Woodruff Auditorium.
"COME BACK, AFRIKA" 1960 movie about a Zulu family in search of a home in their own land. That is where caught between a world and a tribe. 7:30 p.m. Monday in Wooldruff Auditorium.
"MR. AND MRS. SMITH"—Alfred Hitchcock's only comedy starring the "screwball comedie," Carol Lombard and Robert Duvall at 30 p.m. Wednesday in Woolfstaff Auditorium.
"THE STING" - Paul Newman and Robert Redford star as two superb con men who take a crime lord for $50,000 because he can kill them. It takes 4 hours and 9:45 am, at the Granda Theatre.
"TALES OF TERROR" and "MASK OF THE RED DEATH"—Two horror movies, the first consisting of three short works by Poe and the second the story of the tyrant Dr. Wolf, which the devil in a lavish masked ball. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Woodruff Auditorium.
"THE LAST DETAIL"—Jack Nicholson stars as a sailor who takes the sailer is escorting to prison on a final spree. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at the Varsity Theatre.
"OKLAHOMA CRUDE" - George C. Scott stars in this movie about pumping oil in Alabama. 8 p.m., at the Sunset Drive-In Theatre.
"CINDERELLA LIBERTY"—James Caan stars as a sailor who falls in love with a whore in this happily-ever-after show. 7:35 and 9:50 tonight at the Hillcrest I. 7:35 and 9:50 p.m. starting tomorrow at the Hillcrest III.
Double Album 'Todd' Is a Zany Electroblitz
By TIM BRADLEY Kansan Reviewer
Todd Rundgren is a master musician and technician who plays many instruments and uses the studio as yet another. As producer, he's played a crucial role in the careers of Winston Hinckley, Winchester, Paul Butterfield, Fanny, Grand Funk, even the New York Dolls.
next and give the whole work a vague
nether-worldly quality.
Rundgen's own albums, through the magic of multitrack recording, not to mention a pair of pieces of wired wit, whimsy and wizardry. He is handy on enough electrical gizmos to make every noise from the sound of one drum, to the sound of a million mush-mouthed mice.
"Todd," a double album, opens with a bit of studio chicacomy called "How About A Little Fanfare" and unravels into the world of theatrical spotlights Rundgren's soaring, seraphic vocal. Beginning here, the whole album is peppered with tiny ear-tickling sounds that make for an audacious and wind chimes on a warm summer evening. After establishing a continuum from one song to the next.
The tracks proceed like a berserk cartoon through various serenades and sarabandes, a Gilbert and Sullivan show tune, a few songs from the band's original Mephiistophelean Moog and mellonron melodies. "Spark of Life" comes on like a truckload of turkeys, but still manages to convey a sense of vast celestial grandeur and majesty. The skullcap-down right dermotic skullcap complete with one of Rundgren's frantic, screeching scaled-mond guitar solos. "Sons of 1984" features a live singalong by crowds separately in New York and San Francisco.
"THREE MUSKETEERS"-Recent version of the Dumas story of three musketeers who are caught in the politics of the church and state conflict in 7:35
"Todd" is a complete, abelian zany, musical experience. Rundgen again proves he is one of the few people who can impose the struments without ending up with a cacophony of miscellaneous pings and whoshoes. It's too bad that double disks replace the dollars, but if keyboards and crazies are my musical mantra, this one's worth it.
MOVIES
Pointers, Robert Altman Headline Weekend Music, Film Diversions
Paperbacks
"VOICES OF 1778" by Richard Wheeler (Crest, $150) is one of the best paperback buys of the year. This is a collection of the original words of various people, big and small, involved in the American Revolution. Wheeler provides an excellent narrative.
Entertainment
"DREW PEARSON; AN UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY Plot (1974) written by the best of the best writers
of a journalist in years. Pearson was a towering figure among columnists from the early thirties until his recent death. He was an intimate of the mighty, a possessor of hundreds of gossipy items, an ideological new dealer, a somewhat humiliated artist and the mentor of Jack Anderson, today's best practitioner of the Pearson school.
ZERCHER PHOTO "one only" SALE
Twin Lens Cameras
One Only Yashica D —reg. $120— now $91
One Only Yashica Mat—reg. $180—now $140⁵⁰
Slide Projectors
Slide Projectors
One Only Honeywell Slide Projector
—reg. $189^{50}-now $142
One Only Bell & Howell—reg. $119^{95}-now $90
One Only Kodak M-70—reg. $149^{95}$ —now $112
One Only Bell & Howell 45G
—reg. $124^{95}$ —now $93^{75}$
Super 8 Projectors
Movie Cameras
One Only Kodak M-28—reg. $8450 —now $5850
One Only Bell & Howell 442
—reg. $15995 —now $100
Strobes
Four Only Prinz Pucket X Light reg. $ 19^{95}$ now $ 12^{95}$ for Kodak Pocket 20, 30 & 40 Cameras
and 9:50 p.m. at the Hillcrest I.
ZERCHER
MUSIC
1107 Mass. PHOTO
THEATER
"PAPER CHASE" -Timothy Bottoms starts as a Harvard law student who goes through the usual grind and a conflict with a teacher. She graduates 7:25 and 9:25 am, at the Hillress II.
“THREE SISTERS”—Chekhov play about three women and the problems which prevent them from going to Moscow. 8 through April 6 in the Experimental Theatre.
CHAMBER CHOIR—KU faculty members and Lawrence Chamber Players will perform "Ave Regina Coelumr" by Dufay, "Missa Brevis in F" by Mozart and "Les Noces" by Stravinsky. 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the University Theatre.
ROMEROS-KU Couc concert series featuring
the ROMEROS-KU concert series featuring
Spain, 8. Spain, in Bock, Auchentroff.
FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
FESTA BRAZIL—Brazilian troupe will perform songs and dances from its country.
8 tonight in Hoch Auditorium.
THE POINTER SISTERS - Flash music of the four sisters ranges from 1940s jazz to soul music. 8 p.m. Saturday in Hoch Auditorium.
ROBERT ALTMAN -Film director of "I.A.S.H. Mckade and Mrs. Miller." "I.A.S.H. Goody Goody," Altman will talk and present the Kansas premier of "Theives Like Us."
"A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM"*
*A porterian version of Titus Marcus Plautus*
*Plautus, Aeneid*, *book* 200 B.C. 8 p.m. inorrow in Rome.
Make Pinto Pinto Wagon Maverick Mustang Torino Galaxie Pickup LTD PU Wagon
Daily $8.00 plus 8c mile $9.00 plus 9c mile $10.00 plus 10c mile $11.00 plus 11c mile
Weekly $45.00 plus 8c miles $55.00 plus 9c miles $60.00 plus 10c miles $65.00 plus 11c mile
Week-end $5.33 plus 8c miles $6.00 plus 9c miles $7.00 plus 10c miles $8.00 plus 11c mile
839 MASSACHUSETTS