Salt Lake Tribune | 2001-03-11 | Page 51

The Salt Lake Tribune ARTS Sunday, March 11, 2001 The Good, the Bad and th e Avenues: Checking Out Salt Lake City on Film-31¥ SEAN P. MEANS os Movies are a growing industry inUt The Utah Film Commission by Antakinga thony Hopkins and Mimi Rogers) hostage in their own house. starts and ends in SaltLake City and takes a hallucinatory trip through Goblin Valley in between. ster College and the stores at Ninth & Ninth were used as locations. from his “Heaven’s Gate” debacle, cranks things attoo fevered a pitch. (A scene set inan FBloffice geeky kid (Ben Diskin), embar- and funky look at young rebellion lace Shawn), persuadesamuscu- Temple. Locals always laugh at (Howard Hesseman), boasts ofthe millions spent here every year by Hollywood, and TV shows. The red rocks ofsouthern Utah have been immortalized by everyone from John Ford to Ridley Scott, and briefmoments ofsuch classics as Funny,strange and surprisingly touchii m “Just Like Dad” (1995) — MOVIES “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Planet ofthe Apes” and “Forrest Gump” mom (Marisa Tomei). The result isa solid drama enriched by Rowlands’ perfect-pitch performance. Trent Harris’ directorial debut, cat lover jic about an (Crispin Glover) and a desperate oo yy and the scene where the guys try to Michael Myers” (1995) — The sharp and sensitive movie boasts Tole with irony and insight. niece and her new baby, while take him to father-sonpicnic. One ofthose rare family films that don’tstoopto the audience, this ers searching the video-store shelves may not know what movies feature the familiar landmarks oftheir city. Here are mypicks for the best and worst movies filmed in Salt LakeCity. In making this highly subjectivelist, I ignored movies that had incidental scenes shot here (did you know the concert footage ofthe Monkees’ “Head” was taken at the old Valley Music — A young woman (Candace Hilligoss), after apparently survivinga drowning in the GreatSalt Lake, goes to a new town andis pursued by ghostly demons. This lowbudget thriller (shotin Salt Lake City and in Lawrence, Kan.) has becomea cult classic. Its moody black-and-white photography of the then-abandoned Saltair Pavilion creates a spooky atmosphere. @ “Rubin and Ed” (1991) — strong performances by Shawn (“Vanyaon 42nd Street”) and “ER’s” Laura Innes. @ “Unhookthe Stars” (1996) —Nick Cassavetes, son ofthe greatdirector John Cassavetes, returned to Salt Lake City to make his directorial debut, casting his mom, Gena Rowlands,as a widow whobabysits a neighbor boy (Jake Lloyd,pre-“Phantom Menace”) andbefriends his free-spirited “Carnival of Souls” (1962) By y Jack Jac Goodman UTAH VIEWS sink a stolen car in thetooshallow Great Salt Lake. Matthew Lillard (“Scream”) plays the lead leads to even more trouble. ‘Silly, and easily spotted, twists abound in this wannabe. annoyance of trying to co-exist jar hachelor (Nick Cassavetes) to, Halli centrated on movies primarily Shotin the Salt Lake area. The Best has become routine. ButSalt Lak- was shot in The Salt Lake Tribune’s newsroom,and veteran _staffersstill tell stories about the with film crew.) were shot in the state. in North SaltLake?), and con- “SLC Punk!” (1999)—Filmmaker James Merendino mines his Utah upbringing for this fast tor Michael Cimino, recovering in the shadowofthe Salt Lake rassed by his bookish dad (Wal- takeover a Salt LakeCity neighporhood, whetherforamovieora “Touched by an'Angel”episode, Seeing a film crew temporarily A neighborhood near Westmin: er, Mackenzie Astin, Todd Field and Natasha Gregson Wagner) try to cover up a murder,but the at- - [§ “Halloween: The Curse of sixth installmentofthe horror series (Nos. 4and 5 also were shot in _Salt Lake City) follows Michael’s Michael goes offto kill the folks whohad the misfortune ofbuying The Worst * his old house (in the Avenues). @ “Silent Night, Deadly Donald Pleasence shows up one Night” (1984) — slasherina last time (he died before thefilm’s Santa suit — how jolly! This gory release), but looks like he hated movieinspired pickets outside every minute of it. theaters and four (count’em) se@ “Stranger Than Fiction” quels. (1999) —I stumbled on thisoneon “Desperate Hours” (1990) Overheated remake ofa 1955Hum- HBO few weeks ago,and boy, whata stinker! Four twentysomephrey Bogart movie, with Mickey thing Salt Lake friends (Dina MeyRourke andhis criminal cohorts ! @ “The Way of the Gun” (2000) — Ifthere’s anything worse than a bad Tarantino wannabe, it's a bad Sam Peckinpah wan- nabe. This pointless shoot-em-up features Ryan Phillippe and Beni- cio Del Toro as Southwestern criminals who kidnap a surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis) before she —_gives birth to the baby ofanasty tycoon(Scott Wilson). For locals, seeing a shootoutat the Salt Lake Hardware building, a block from where bullets flew for real at the Triad Center,is a disquieting experience. Got a question about the movies? Send it to movie critic Sean P. Means: The Salt Lake Tribune, 143 S. Main, thirdfloor, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, or e-mail at [e-mail]. Stri Quarte String Team Up for Contemporary ‘Kisses’ hony. tah Symphon Arcata y, Arcata BY CATHERINE REESE NEWTON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE A FEAST FOR RAILROAD BUFFS You can nolongerride a passengertrain to Ogden, but, within memory of many Utahns, there was a streamliner ready to board at the handsome, mission-style building shown in today’s sketch. The Union Pacific took passengers to Chicago or Los Angeles; the Southern Pacific wentto Oakland, with connections to Seattle. The Butte Special carried riders outof the old Union Station to Montana’s coppercountry and, during therightseason, to Yellowstone National Park and Jackson Hole. Nowtheoldstation is the Utah State Railroad Museum.Inside,there is the UnionGrill Restaurant, plus a gift shop,art gallery and the intriguing Browning Firearms Museum and antique auto collection. One ofthe state’s most complete model railroar circles much of the downstairs, and model trains are forsale also. Outside there is a giant Union Pacific 4-8-4 steam passenger locomotive. The UP Centennial Freightdiesel, also outside, was the world’slargest whenit was built halfa century ago. The narrow gauge Rio Grandesteamerout- side once stood in the Salt Lake Historical Society’s museum.There are train cars from Pioneer Village, a Southern Pacific locomotive and other rolling stock.’ The Spanish-style structure replaced a multigabled,tall-towered structure first built in 1886 on the 23rd Streetlot to house the Ogden Union Railway and Depot Company.Theoriginal Victorian-style station was soontoo small and later burned. The building in the sketch was designed in 1924 by John and Donald Parkington.It has a CordovaSpanishtile roof andis built of pink buff brick, with two main entrances adorned by carved buffalo. As finished, the building had a waiting room, smoking room,ladies rest parlor and restaurant, emergency hospital, ticket offices andrailroadoffices. Later, the Union Pacific built an ice plant nearby anda laundry to handlelinens for the sleepers and diningcars. In its busiest days, the railroad station was connected to some main line tracks bya pair oftunnels, through which redcaps hustled baggage while passengers walked alongsafe, dry and shaded. Jack Goodman has been associated with The Salt Lake Tribune as a staffwriter orfree-lance writerfor 54 years. ‘The Utah Symphony and Arcata String Quartetwill presenta world premiere this week.Sort of. “Wecall itare-world premiere,” Arcata cellist Michael Carrera said of “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine,” a concerto for string quartet and chamberorchestra by Paul Seiko Chihara. Chihara explained that he wrote the concerto on commission for Seiji Ozawa and the Sequoia String Quartet in 1980. Ozawa and the Sequoia premiered the threemovementpiece, based on a 1951 song by Pete Seeger and the Weavers, with the New Japan Philharmonicin 1985. After the premiere, “Ozawa suggested it would be easier to program [the concerto]if it had a brilliant fourth movement,” Chihara said. “So I set about writing a large fourth movement. It took several years, and in the meantime the Sequoia String Quartet broke up. So it went unperformed for a while.” Then Chihara metthe Arcata — Carrera, violinists Marjorie Bag- ley and Christopher Takeda, and violist Brant Bayless — at the Chautauqua Music Festival in New York in 1998. The quartet, whichis in residence at Utah State University in Logan, had discussed a concerto commission with the Utah Symphony; a collaboration with Chihara soon was born. The original “Kisses” was scored for a large orchestra, and the Utah Symphony was interested in a chamber-orchestra version. So Chihara reorchestrated and revised the concerto, with which he @ Concerts in Salt Lake, Ogden, Provo The Utah Symphony Chamber Orchestra, music director Keith Lockhart and the Arcata String Quartet will premiere Paul Chihara’s “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” in three Utah concerts this week. Also on the program are David Diamond's music for “Romeo andJuliet,” Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll” and Schubert’s SymphonyNo.3. Concerts are Thursday in Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City (tickets, $15 to $31); Friday in Peery’s Egyptian Theater, 2415 Washington Blvd., Ogden (tickets, $15 and $19); and Saturday in Brigha’ 1 Young University’s de Jong Concert Hall, Provo(tickets,$15; $13 for students). had beentinkering overthe years. He considers the result “more practical and more intimate.” He expects it to clock in around 15. minutes. “The piece does not soundlike, say, Copland,” said Chihara — whose teachers included Coplani and his mentor, Nadia Boulanger. “Tt is not an attempt at Americana. It sounds very contemporary.” “The piece is very 20thcentury,” Carrera said. “It is accessibleifpeople listen in the right way. They have to walk in with a clear mind and not be expecting Brahms.” Heand Chihara said there are hints of the Weavers tune throughoutthepiece, especially in the third-movement harmonica solo. Chihara said the idea of a concerto for string quartet probably would not have occurred to him if not for the Ozawa commission. “It’s an unusual combination,” he said. Carrera said he knowsof 20 or 30 such concertos, eight of which are in the Arcata’srepertoire, but. they are notoften performed. “I did not want to write a concerto grosso,” Chihara said. “I wanted the string quartet to be the soloist.” The puzzle for him was almost as much philosophical as it was musical. Sometimes the quartet in “Kisses” plays as a unit; other times as a quartet. Theversatile Chihara has written music for more than 80 motion pictures andtelevision series, including several Disney features and the current A&E series “100 Centre Street.” He has worked on Broadway andteaches film music at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also has been commissioned by many top American orchestras and organizations such as the Guggenheim Foundation. and spent10 years as composer-inresidence for the San Francisco Ballet. “A lotoffilm composers are not respected by classical musicians,” Carrera said. “Paul is able to garnerrespect in both worlds.” OU CANT TAKE IT WITH YOU! by Moss Hart and GeorgeS. Kaufman fA Catch The Luck of The Irish! ee directed by RON FREDERICKSON ra a Wee Amar ear U8) SAVE 15 = 50% ON NEW SPRING MERCHANDISE — March 15TH, 16TH & 17TH — RICHELLE $ {LAND DE MARC 1C - 31, 2001 SLCC GRAND THEATRE 1575 S. State Street Phone [phone] Mon.- Sat. 7:30 p.m. Sat. Matinee 2:00 p.m.