KWSAN REVIEWS FILMS: A veritable feast
By MIKE SHEARER Arts & Reviews Editor
Some jiving and some straight talking, some anguish and some laughs, a little loving, and a little indecision, fear, music, dancing, death silence
They're all on the menu at "Alice's Restaurant."
Arlo Guthrie, who created "Alice's Restaurant" first in a folk song, has succeeded brilliantly in turning that popular legend, with his own life story woven in, into a movie that makes you want to understand life's complications more while enjoying life's treats more.
The technical side of the movie could have been better. It could have been cut advantageously in several places. Some of the characters could have been explored more.
But with all of its could-have-beens, "Alice's Restaurant" remains a glowing and moving story.
Alice and Ray (played by Pat Quinn and James Crawford) create a new type of church-going crowd, a crowd which is deeply religious in its own right but not above the confusion which exists among traditional pew fillers. Life is their celebration, and some of the revelations are soul-filling—others soul-drenching.
No church, no red mini-bus, no restaurant, no matter how liberated they may be, can always be filled with joy and beauty. At one point—after the death of a boy they both loved, Alice and Ray are sitting in the empty restaurant. On the door hangs a sign saying "Closed because of a lot of death." Something is wrong, and both Ray and Alice know it. And Ray says, "Maybe we haven't been so beautiful."
Realizing that human nature isn't always beautiful (a realization a lot of freaks haven't yet made), Arlo tells in his movie about life as it is, and he tells us a great deal about how one should go about living with such a society as would inflict army physicals on human beings, not to mention other unbeauties.
But don't think for a minute that Arlo doesn't love, and love intensely, "mother rapers, father stabbers, father rapers," the whole lot of us on Bench W or any other bench. He loves people, not facades.
The question for us, the audience—the congregation, is how does one become a lover of people? Arlo seems to be saying with every lengthy hair on his head, with every glance, with every note, that you can't learn love from Freud or even from D. H. Lawrence, but from experience, from human relationships such as occur at Alice and Ray's.
Arlo Guthrie has given us a cinematic ballad to use as we will. He forces nothing. He lets us learn. Amen.
Art exhibit acclaimed
(Continued from page 5)
(Continued from page 5) 14th and 15th centuries in France and the Netherlands are the last strain of the Middle Ages rather than the prelude to the Renaissance, that is "rather decadent than primitive."
The purpose of the exhibition is not only to illustrate Huizinga's thesis, but also to re-examine it. Objects have been selected to provoke thought which might shed new light on this fascinating epoch. Thus, the microscopic realism which epitomizes to Huizinga the Late Medieval is perfectly exemplified by the minute carving of a rosary bead, scarcely
6 KANSAN
Nov.14 1969
two inches in diameter, which depicts in great detail the Crucifixion and Resurrection. This "prayer nut" is a technical masterpiece of wood carving comparable in its minute detail to Jan van Eyck's paintings and fundamentally in opposition to the harmonious simplification of the Renaissance. On the other hand, however, the reunited Angel Roundel, with its tendency towards idealism and simplified drapery which reveals the forms of the body beneath, seems closer in spirit to Lucca della Robbia's "Singing Angels" than the choir of Jan van Eyck's "Ghent Altar-piece."
The "Waning Middle Ages" is especially rich in secular objects d'art.
She spoke in the Student Union Ballroom in accompaniment to three magnificent reels of clips from silent films. The program centered around the work of D.W. Griffith, Miss Gish's mentor, friend and America's greatest motion picture pioneer, but pieces were also shown from the movies
Her family nicknamed her "The Iron Horse" because of her inexhaustible drive and dedication to her art, but, despite her legendary toughness, Lillian Gish looked as fragile and beautiful last night as she did in "Way Down East" almost fifty years ago.
Tansy to present poetry readings
By RICHARD GEARY Kansan Reviewer
The weekly poetry reading at the Tansy Bookstore, above the Coach House, at 7 p.m. Sunday.
John Moritz, Lee Chapman and Ken Irving will read their poetry and everyone else may read too.
Movie queen's art is her passion
was probably one of the greatest periods of concentrated creativity and experimentation in the history of the world, and even the participants rarely knew what a bombshell they had in their hands. Half a century later, few people yet realize the importance of these early films.
We can thank Miss Gish for the love, the dedication, the vision to recognize the art form, of which she was an important part, and share it with the rest of the world.
...
With every sentence, Miss Gish announced her love for these old movies, and her desire for everyone to love them. "Film is the only art form developed in this country and in this century," she told the audience, and, although she is not quite right, one can feel the enthusiasm for the medium which prompted the statement and realize she is not all wrong either.
The actress's off-screen commentary was as fascinating as what was projected—a marvelous collection of behind-the-scene anecdotes; her friendship with Mary Pickford; the shooting of the rescue on the ice in "Way Down East" (A scene which drew a round of applause); filming a baby's death scene at three in the morning so that the infant would definitely be asleep; Griffith's staging of the battles in "Birth of a Nation" with a mere 300 people.
CATGIF
7:00 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 14
at the
Alpha Chi Omega
Sorority House
— Refreshments —
Campus Crusade
for Christ
The silent period in America
of Chaplin, Keaton, Fairbanks, Valentino and other great silent stars and directors.
Above is shown another entry in our campus beautification project. More of those swingin' looks which we're famous for and loaded with. New things are coming in every day. Stop in today and help us with our project.
at the back of the Town Shop
839 Mass. St
...
VL3-5755