OCR Text |
Show $ Wednesday, Bovember THE 13, 1974 PARK CITY cum material he is provided with would probably make Sir Laurenfilm is a general botch job, with too little of what the crowd really wants to see: Killy skiing. Besides, I have heard a rumor Meanwhile, at the U of U, The Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp is eating Salt Lake City. (Not a bad idea.) Mike Cassidy produced, directed, and created all the special effects for this science fiction extravaganza and, judging from the reviews of the film, did an excellent job of creating a monster from the tiny shrimp that live in the Salt Lake. Independent filmmakers take heart, some people will show your film. If you plan to go to Salt Lake on Friday night and sci fi is not your bag, you can still see a great film for free at the Salt Lake Public Library. November's films are all Hitchcock classics, and an excellent study of why some mystery thriller film can really spellbind and frighten the audience. Hitchcock, who feels' that his mystery films have no social commentary other than using the cinema to manipulate emotions, is the master of this genre, and the director who is the standard of comparison when thrillers are discussed. The films start at 2 and 7 PM and are free. Hopefully, the standard of projection will be higher than that of the Women in Film series that is held at 7 PM every Wednesday. That series is also free, and should have some excellent films as well, although the projection leaves a great deal to be desired. I will have more to say about "Women in Film when Im able to get more information on the series. Back from a slight tangent, I'd like to add that this week's Hitchcock film is a 1939 film starring Charles Laughton and Maureen OHara. Jamaica Inn concerns a young woman who learns that her uncle is the leader of a group of smugglers and shipwreckers. Because Hitchcock does not concern himself with anything except the cinematic problems of keeping an audience in suspense, the film should be just as thrilling today as it was in 1939. ce Olivier seem like an amateur. The As some of you might character of Juan, who is remember, last year a rather called The Old One. He may strange thing happened in the be an Indian, but L Amour, book market. Two very after having killed off so popular writers, namely John many, gently steers away D. MacDonald and Louis from the issue (AIM might go LAmour, had their new after him ). At any rate, Juan works published in hardcover is ancient, and before they were published in functions in the archetypally novel as the paperback. Several months wise old man. He is in ago. I wrote about Mac- tune with the spirits, and Donald's Turquoise Lament. you dont mess around with And now, I'll mosey back to Juan. Fortunately, Juan is a L Amour's old west. friend of the Mulkerins, and who has a secret place where Hardly anyone frequents bookstores is there is a bunch of gold ignorant of the name stashed away from the L Amour. His books have sold times of his people. The at least 50 million copies this dragon guarding that's an average of about a treasure is in the form of the million per title. Twenty-thre- e spirits. And the baddies dont of the novels have been fool around with the spirits. turned into films, and Louis Now the gold is the LAmour isnt too worried necessary dement, for it is about where his next meal is the only salvation for the rancoming from. ch. And Juan, bdng friendly, LAmour's fiction is what decides that the Mulkerins most critics refer to as pop should have it the gold (and western, or the formula the ranch). So he leads them western, which means that to it. But, as you might exevery one of his novels can be pect, the baddies get wind of categorized into the seven the whole plot and follow basic formula plots. The them. But, as you might exterm pop western, besides pect, they dont win. Juan and meaning that he sells novels his spirit friends do in the worst of the bad, and Sean by the carload, also suggests that popular, contemporary Mulkerin, the hero, takes cultural concerns tend to ap- care of the rest. And how pear within the plots. And in Sean, bless him, can stand The Californios, L Amours upright and fill two men with latest potboiler, all the stan- lead after bdng shot at least dard elements appear in three times, is a feat of true abundance. Irish strength. In spite of L' Amour's As the bard said, Alls passion for realistic detail, wdl that ends wdl, and the The Californios falls short of Malibu is saved from the evil his previous successes. The ones. Mixed into all this is a shortcoming is directly atpersonal vendetta Sean entributable to the inclusion of ds up with a lady who belongs the mystical, for in some to a wealthy Mexican, respects, The Californios is a through no fault of his but frontier version of The Exor- the Mexican war lord sudcist ir almost. denly realized that he The basic dot number 5 shouldnt be mad at old Sean. on the formula, chart is the His. girlfriend ran away defense of the ranch against because she didnt want to the baddies. LAmour is marry him, and picked Sean almost too quick to point out out because of his friendly to the reader that the basic face. Wdl, you know how it story is based upon fact: goes. a Malibu ranch, There Im not trying to tell you etc. Pot f .ruth of the matter is iiiat L Amour just can't that The Californios isnt a readable book; it is. Very handle the old ghost routine.1 .Now, I am not much so. And just because I dont think its a very good (Titiciing t1 e supernatural; its merely that a writer book doesn't mean L Amour isn't going to sell a million of really lias to know how to them. I'd just like everyone handle it, and LAmour could to think about what Really use a couple of lessons from William Blatty. happens in The Californios. It's a good start at being a The supernatural elements more discerning reader. And popping into the plot of the as far as I'm concerned, Mulkerin's defense of their that's what its all about. big Malibu ranch occur in the -- IDULOIN With a relatively banal week at the Opera House, the filmgoing public might be forced to go to the Salt Lake Library to see a film that will be remembered for more than a few minutes. Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford, leads off the weekend at the Opera House. Although the film is bdng billed as a classic, it actually has little going for it as far as the citizens of Park City are concerned. Jeremiah Johnson is a weak role to prove acting talent. There are many times when he is asked to walk around in the deep snow of the Timpanogas mountains, but very little else is called far. The mountains are beautiful, but nothing one cant see by taking a 25 minute drive past Heber, In general, the film fails to capture the true mountaineering sprit, and the truly lonely existence that one lived in the mountains in die 1880s. If Sergio Leone's other films are any indication of his directing talent, My Name Is Nobody is probably too long a film. Although I havent seen this particular film, and fed that anything I say about it should be taken with a grain of garlic salt, Leones sense of timing in his past films was generally poor. I did enjoy his sense of humor, so I should say that cinematics aside (some people think that its just anyway), this comedy western could be enjoyed by a majority of the Park City audience. The last film on the schedule this week is Snow Job. Jean-ClauKilly is a far better skier than actor, although the de for a static longs hot. Who wouldnt rather watch a football game cm TV 19 dose THE than from PLAYPEN by P. Richman was night Thursday opening night for Neil Simons The Sunshine Boys at the University of Utahs Pioneer Memorial Theatre. I love a Neil Simon comedy, so I wait for the laughs. Its been so long since I've been to a PMT opening . . . things havent changed a bit. The Theatre Guild ladies still do their best to make it a formal occasion with punch and cookies afterward, and all the diamonds in die audience still glitter the rich way they do only under those PMT houselights. I sat in the loge, tauted by PMT veterans as the best seats in the house. There is a vast distance-unobstru- cted, but nevertheless vast between the loge and the main stage. I must have grown farsighted (or is it nearsighted? ) since my last visit to the PMT, for my eyes hurt from straining to catch the actors facial expressions and the details of the set. The set was elaborate and full of details (if only I could have seen the photographs on the wall; somebody had a fine time selecting them, no doubt). William Barber and his crew are to be commended for all their time and effort. The PMT production of The Sunshine Boys has a lot going for it: two fine professional actors in the leading roles, sound direction by one of the principals, a good set, and lots of community support. I felt, however, that Neil Simon let us all down. This is not his best comedy. The Sunshine Boys is about a pair of old Vaudeville comics who have split up to age apart, apof parently because one-hathe team pokes his finger in the other half's chest and spits in the other halfs face. (So what? With the right blocking, both problems could have been eliminated.) A CBS about special Vaudeville brings them back together for their famous doctor sketch. The Sunshine Boys seems to be a replay of The Odd Couple, only diluted (Oscar and Felix had some real problems that no amount of blocking could have solved). And I somehow felt that a team named Lewis & Clark is with more fraught possibilities than Simon allowed. (Once upon a hike I named my feet Lewis and ... lf PROSPECTOR TOP OF MAIN STREET IN THE ALPINE LODGE Come In and Rope a Sirloin or a Rack of Lamb and let our Outlaw Cooks Do the Rest PRIME Kli .h.95 6.95 NLVV YORK SIRLOIN TLRIYAKI RACK OE LAMB IIAI I BUT FRIED CHICKEN PRAWNS S1EAK-SHRIMCOMBO 5.25 5.50 5 50 4.50 4.25 5.95 6.95 P HOURS THURS - SUM 5-3- 0 -- 1030 pm BnaoooBoooooopoooooooooooomwioooBnonnon The Summit County Ford Dealer FOM-mi- ff COALVILLE, UTAH TRUCKS at 1974 PRICES George Crandall, Jr., - Owner 1 Coalville Phone 1975 CARS & 336-230- jOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Clark but that's another review.) The best scene in the play is the rehearsal of the doctor sketch when Lewis & Clark (the two Vaudeville conics) set up for the sketch in Clarks apartment. A good gimmick gets pulled off well. It's a joy to watch Harold Gary and Mike Kellin perform, and I have always loved Kellin 's face. I've been spoiled, however; Ive seen it on the screen up close. Which brings me to what the PMT production of The Sunshine Boys does not have going for it ... and that, alas, is the PMT main stage itself. It's just too damn big. This is All the the age of world's a global village, e. eyeball-to-eyebal- l. nobody can And sit still very long the stands? Honestly, now? I suppose thats why the person sitting next to me fell asleep in the second act. Of course, its easy enough far me to say all this; I dont have to put on plays in the PMT and make them work. To those who do, I can only say this: Forget the main stage (or leave it to the' musicals) and take the plays downstairs to the smaller, more intimate Babcock Theatre. Of course, you will not be able to pack as many people in; you many not be able to afford such elaborate sets and costumes; play there at the same time (as opposed to 1,000 at the PMT main stage). The Human Ensemble, I am told, just barely manages to pay the rent. There is not enough money to pay actors, directors, technicians, or local playwrights. They do it, I am told, Not for ambition or bread or the strut and tread of charmsOn the ivory but for the lovers, stages, their armsRound the griefs of the ages who pay no praise nor wages nor heed my craft or art. Dylan Thomas said that, local playwright Kenneth Jenks passed it on to me, and I accept it as a reasonable explanation of why the Human Ensemble don what it does. I Never Sang for my Father is a play about a young mans inability to love his father. I wish Id written it. For the person sitting next to me, it was too close to home. For others in the audience, whose faces I could see as we surrounded the tiny stage cm three sides like lovers with our arms around griefs, it was theatre doing what theatre does best. Anyone who ever had a father (and thats all of us since the discovery of paternity) will respond to something in this play. I know something of what's in the play went on between my father and my brother and between my father and his father. I suspect it goes on between every father and son, and, in a broader sense, between every generation and the next. At least, as far as I could tell, nobody in Friday night's audience fell asleep. ... There were no outstanding performances because every performance reached the same level; nobody looked bad; everybody looked good. And that's probably a tribute to the director, Juda Youngs trim. Mike Leuders achieved just the right amount of emotional tenor as the son, Gene Garrison, and knew when to pull back. Shelley Osterloh knew how to be sweet and touching as the mother without becoming cloying or saccharine. And ful, scrumptious, cup sugar lb. butter 2 cup evaporated milk I1 tsp vanilla 4 easy, However, the one word that really stuck in my mind was unusual. Thats not to say the cake isnt moist, rich, flavorful, etc. I suspect the reason 1 want to label it unusual is the lady who gave me the recipe called it The Unusual Cake. So here it is. Combine flour, sugar, soda, salt, and eggs. Drain the fruit cocktail, reserving the juice from one can. Mix fruit cocktail and juice into flour mixture. Pour into a d 9 X 12 pan. Sprinkle generously with brown sugar and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Combine sugar, butter, and well-grease- THE UNUSUAL CAKE 2 cups 1 flour, sifted ' cups sugar baking soda tsp. salt 2 eggs, lightly beaten 2 cans fruit cocktail (303 size) fruit cocktail juice brown sugar I cup or mare broken walnuts 2 tsp. 4 milk in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes. Add vanilla and drizzle over hot cake. Allow to cool. evaporated ' its place in the scheme of things? Perhaps each is important due to the contradictory nature of the other. A utopian society would exclude an activity called Defense. Realistically, we dont live in utopia. Realistically, we have to contend with things such as defense. Perhaps, the enjoyment of art is a world we go to for relief, for refreshment, a brown study so to speak, from the realities of the world we live in. On the other hand, contemporary art at least, much of it is a reflection of the world we live in, a reflection expressed in aesthetic terms, a reflection that touches our senses and to which our senses react. It, more than traditional art, allows us to contemplate and contend with the real world on a different plane. but maybe you could extend the run; or maybe you should just accept the fact that theatre has been surpassed as mass entertainment by television, and let theatre do what theatre does best. Which brings me to the second play that opened last weekend Robert Andersons I Never Sang for my Father at the Glass Factory in Arrow Press Square. ( Ive been warned not to make comparisons but, gosh darn it, I cant help it.) The Glass Factory houses a small, intimate theatre cm its third floor. No more than about 100 people can watch a In frying to think of a way to describe this cake, I came up with: moist, rich, flavor- Americans accepted without murmur a price bomber sent of $10,000,000 for every death-dealin- g across Vietnam. Yet they cluck their tongues in disapproval when Australia pays $2,000,000 for a painting that the exIf you told the middle-clas- s of work of is art, it would stop ploration space a and boredom the bills. the complaining about are sure, every nuance in the us . . . that there is an absolute beauty culture tells if we could only glimpse it. The glimpse is what we pay for. We pay homage to art with money in the deluded hope that we can rise above money. The grosser our civilization becomes, the higher the price. Money is the reverse coin of art, just as the body is the reverse of the mind or soul. Money is the gross sign of spirit, black as the market and white as the sun. We know, we the above quotes are from an article, Toward the Billion-DollPainting by Douglas Davis, part of a special section, Art and Money in this months issue of Esquire . Money and art is a topic that is discussed and written about frequently today. How many times have we heard, The only safe investments are land and art. Particularly today, with our economy in such terrible shape. But people of affluence all over the world are buying. Furthermore, Mr. Davis feels the $2,000,000 paid by the Australians for Jackson Pollocks Blue Poles wasnt a high enough price. How do we put a money value (Hi an object, an object thats just canvas and paint? That $10,000,000 bomber Mr. Davis speaks about involved hundreds of people and thousands of parts to effect its completion. Obviously, when talking about the value of each a bomber or a piece of art we have to look toward its purpose for an answer, its accomplishments, and its effectiveness. Art is a big business today; so is defense. Which is most important? And is it possible or even necessary to compare the two? Doesnt each have All of ar Randy Milligan as the father is just as much reason to love and hate him as he gave his son. Mary Machalas performance as the sister confirmed my dissatisfaction and, I think, An- gave dersons PARK . , ng ! ; above-mention- continues each Thursday through Sunday from now til December 8th. The Sunshine Boys con- Monday through Saturday through November 22 with a matinee each ed mensurate with the prevailing fads, and your, pieces double or triple in value, consider yourself , doubly lucky. By the way . . surreal art is predicted by the exf perts to the the BIGGIE this year! ji a with the smug rationalizations of the victims of psychoanalysis. The lighting by Vicki Neslin helped us lovers know when to put our arms around the griefs and when not to. The bare set let our own imaginations fill in with personal details. I Never Sang ior my Father tinues scimiT But again, just how do we place a monetary value on an art object? Initially, a value is placed on a work of art because of several specific factors, as pointed out in Calvin Goodmans Marketing Art. 1. The aesthetic and technological merits of the work. 2. Factors related to recovering the costs associated with producing; and marketing the work. 3. Factors related to external issues such as artists reputation, the demand for or the scarcity of an artists work. Mr Goodman also points out that the initial value will appreciate economically only if the piece appreciates in value aesthetically; i.e., if its appreciative audience grows. Basically, the price reflects what the market will bear, the market being you and me and the audience. To speak of a piece costing $2,000,000 in the same paper carrying stories of famine and' hardship and horrible worldwide economical conditions seems, at first glance, to be ironic, vulgar, and archaically royal. But we mustnt lose sight of the fact that however poor we are, however much we ourselves are unable to afford much of what is being sold today, we can, as viewers, appreciate and enjoy these costly pieces wherever they are; on public display. Jackson Pollocks Blue Poles" is considered! by many experts to be one of the finest paintings produced in America in the creatively fertile1 50s. Many would not place a monetary value on it at all, considering it priceless. The contemplation and study of tins work can, for some, produce that ' Absolute Beauty spoken of earlier. How can! one translate that into economic terms? Its like trying to dace a monetary value on your child; ; Impossible! But, thankfully, we no longer sell; human beings in this country, but we do sell art. ; As a commodity it bears a price tag, and the price is determined by those factors;: One should never buy art solely for investment''; reasons. If your taste and your likes are com?; SKYLINE GARAGE Mountain Village GoffeeShop V CUSTOM STATIONARY and BUSINESS CARDS Our Specialty COALITION 1 419 MAIN STREET 649-959- 2 |