OCR Text |
Show Page C8 THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, Wednesday, January 1, 1932 irector makes the in ovie others didn t try - NEW YORK (AP) For more than 30 years, people dismissed William S. Burroughs' book "Naked Lunch"' as unfilmable. So David Cronenberg filmed it and he found it very liberating. I 'i mean: If it's unfilmable, then can do what I f St it takes you a long time to realize that that's only one possible version of reality, then, in fact, you can alter that. "I have my character doing that first with drugs but that is just leading him on into a more complex version of that, which is writing, J? want,' he said. The film he wanted, and created, has more roaches than a rundown tenement. Even typewriters through creativity, through his ability to create and invent a new reality for himself." The William Tell routine (and its reprise at the movie's end) reveal Lee as a man "who's trying to exterminate a lot of realities about himself." "He's a homosexual. He's an artist. He doesn't want to be either of those things. He's afraid of them; he's trying to suppress transmogrify into insects. And they talk, challenging and vexing William Lee, a junkie turned pest exterminator turned writer. But this is not a film about entomology. says Cronenberg, "Really," ' it s a movie about writing and it's about creativity and it's about talking to yourself." "We all see movies in which writers are sitting there with their coffee and their cigarette and there's a voiceover or somedirecthing," said the tor. "And I really wanted to kind of turn that experience inside out, and give some kind of feeling for what it feels like from the inside the creative discussion that goes on with yourself." Cronenberg's film, set in 1953, begins with Lee trying to sustain a stable, though grim, life in New York. But he's got problems. His wife Joan is hooked on the poison powder he uses for work. And because of his d him hoist headnarcs two to past, drug-riddle- quarters for interrogation; there, he's faced with a large, talking beetle who says he"s Lee's controller in a spy operation. them," he says. "So as he says to the cops, he's David Cronenberg straight now, got a good job, married, leading a normal life. But he really can't lead a normal life. And in fact, he shoots his wife for reasons that are difficult to discern, but one of the reasons he's doing that is to destroy his normal, middle-class life and to force him to go on the run, really in his imagina- Lee, played by Peter Weller, escapes the cop shop and, in searching for a way to satisfy his wife's habit, visits a Dr. Benway, who offers even stronger medicine Black Meat, the flesh of large, Brazilian centipedes. Once he gets home, Joan (Judy Davis) is having sex with one of his best buddies. Subsequently, Lee tells Joan they should play their "William Tell" game. He proves tion. "And so that's what forces him to write, because he has to explain himself to himself, he has to give meaning to things that seem to be meaningless and he has to bring some kind of order out of what seems to be chaos, which is what I think any writer does anyway. "And what I'm trying to suggest at the end of the movie when he finds another Joan and kills her is that it's a cyclical thing. In a sense, he will be killing Joan forever and to be less than a deadeye: He misses the glass she puts on her head and shoots her dead. If this all sounds a little surreal, well ... yes. The point, Cronenberg says, is that ' ' reality is quite variable . ' ' "You know we're all born into a culture that gives you an official version of reality," he says. '"And "Certainly, it's based on the fact that William Burroughs did in fact shoot his wife in 2952 and has said that eventually he had to come to the awful conclusion if it had not been for the death of his wife he would never become a writer. "And that was for me the key to plucging into the nature of creativity." So he made a movie as much about the writing of "Naked Lunch" using some biographical material about Burroughs as about the novel itself. Best known for directing Fly" and "Dead Ringers," Dqd ni i iii ijiMjnjM H n . ? . -- ; V'. b "The Cro- "I always thought of myself as a novelist. ... Film just potential kind of slid in sideways; before I knew it I was making films, almost to my own amazement. It was great because I was kind of free to invent my own cinema."' The vodka and tomato juice drink called Bloody Mary was named after the nickname of Mary I, the queen of England from 1553 to 1558, who gained notoriety for her persecution of Protestants- - By ?J -- Connoisseur e Bourdelle and a big painted bronze heart by Jim Emile-Antoin- For AP Special Features Sylvester Stallone, who paints Expressionist canvases that sell for up to $40,000, estimates he has spent $25 million on 19th and 20th century art since his motion picture 11 "Rocky, hit the Academy Award jackpot in 1976. He has acquired a reputation for paying too much for particular works, according to an article in Connoisseur, but one of his worst mistakes early in his collecting career was in the other direction. "I was shown a de around from a 1955. Kooning Stalreal classic big. huge," lone said. The pricetag was about $80.-00- 0 and Stallone, about to sign a check, felt unsure about his first big acquisition. Turning to a local security guard accompanying him. he asked, "'By the ot way, what do you think, Tony?" Tony said the Abstract Expressionist masterpiece was a mess that he wouldn't put in his doghouse. Stallone didn't buy. "To make a long story short,"" he said, "it was sold for about $4 million about five years later. I try to block it out of my memory. It was a bad 3 Stallone had amassed more than 200 paintings and pieces of sculpture. Barbara Guggenheim, his former art adviser, said: "His collection was shaping up to be quite good. He especially loved heroic and larger-than-lifigures and animals fighting animals. He's read the classics. That's where he gels j0 his material and inspiration, Surrounding his own canvases at home is an assortment of paintings and sculptures, including a pair of portraits of Stallone by Andy Warhol, another of Rocky by Le Roy a Diego Rivera work on paper, a huge rough bronze by l i Nei-ma- h 'wuiiiMugjtiiiWiMiii .1,. in Ife..-- ,, - -- . mL n. (p The Lamanite Generation, BYU's popular Native American, Latin American and Polynesian performing ensemble, will present a new show, "Living Legends-Peoof the Rainbow," Jan. 9 and 10. You Can Trust. Shoe and Commre! . ; 0 d o ill OFF "Every Davf! "Because Lowest Prices! ar jr-fcgs- Blue & Brown Nvion 1 rabnc 749 Velvet colors also available wmiUr to picture j Ief not apply lo appliance purchases. O"oii "Deserve "Better! Furniture &l Interiors 225-414- Shop: Moru-Fr- i. 1 1 09 Sat 10 Tickets for the show, at S3 for students, faculty and senior citizens and $4 for the general public, are available at the BYU Music Ticket Office, It begins at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center. The Lamanite Generation has taken its colorful "Living Legends;'" show around the world, entertaining audiences with its depictions of native cultures and customs. 378-744- 4. purchases. to 50 Guaranteed $ Sofa & Love Seat . w 30 es and a small, valuable collec- tion of 19th century bronzes by Antoine-Loui- s Barye. He also owns a few bronze sculptures by Robert Longo. There's a bronze of Stallone that gestures toward the depths of his larger-than-life-si- ze swimming pool. This work, by Marline Vaugel, was commis- sioned by Stallone in 1986 as a double portrait of himself and his then wife, Brigitte Nielsen. When the marriage hit the rocks, Nielsen was cut out of the piece. In his own work, Stallone is an Expressionist. "All my paintings are done out of angst, anger, happiness or something," he said, pointcanvas he ing to a graffiti-lik- e painted during his breakup with Nielsen, filled with tortured shapes and scrawled words. "It is pure, unadulterated rage." Stallone has been painting since the 1960s when, as a acting student-travelin- g man. he sold three paintings in Florida bus for $15 to $20 terminals. Of particular interest now are his "fallen idols" paintings with Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Errol Flynn posed beside clocks intended to represent stages in their lives. "We all have a clock, our peaks and valieys,'"' Stallone said, "and I try to show the professional peaks in the paint- ings." Hills, more than 30 Stallone paintings were sold, with price-tag- s from $ 0 .000 to $40,000. "It's one thing when someone slaps down $6 or $7 for a mcvie ticket," Stallone said. 1 "But when they lay down or $40,000, validation." it'"s an $30.-00- 0 amazing Lamanite group gets new show ple Oualin Name Brands Dine. Like many bodybuilders, Stallone likes statuary. He has Rodin's Eve, two Botero bronz- At a 1990 show in Beverly too." mm AP Laserphoto Sylvester Stallone, star of such movies as "Rocky" and "Rambo," has gained a reputation as an art collector as well as being a painter who has sold pieces for as much as $40,000. fe pcs..?799 J ami move." 0 1 m. jgtr jrx Vladimir Nabokov and Burroughs are his biggest influences, he says. 101 yi i "Naked Lunch" screenplay. Mjo3 WlWPlUWie... ..4 Stallone survives rocky world of art collecting sfl uMiniii n mni. York Film Critics award for his 4 st uii en felff COfetoOooD ODE? jj nenberg sees himself as a writer most of he's written or his films, and he won the New You're Invited To Our New Year's Party... $affinity jpw he will be writing about it forever. afifuf "flea tyccvi. 4- - i. 7 "People of the Rainbow" is an extension of the "Living Legends" concept, according to ms-ti- c director Janielle Christensen. In tonuast to the previous "variety show " format of the "Living Legends" show, the new production w ill explore each culture in greater depth, she said. "We want to take the audience, to the performers' world and lei them really experience that culture," she added. ; New drops and backgrounds have been prepared for the segments, ranging from Polynesian seascapes to Latin American lushi ness to Native American rugged : austerity. New costumes, props and choall prepared with an reography wiH emphasis on authenticity add to the concert's new look. ; "People of the Rainbow" was an apt title choice for the new segments, said Christensen, since rainbow lore js a significant part of all three cultures presented in the Lamanite Generation show. |