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N.C. ESSAY - PAGE 3 Features, etc Slaughterhouse-Five By David Marshall Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children’s Crusade. Billy Pilgrim’s oddysey Oirough toe Second World War, time, and space. Is Billy insane, when one looks at the world around him? Vonnegut’s erratic prose carries him through the bombing of Dresden, various adventures on the planet Tralfamadore, and proper post-war married life. Billy is the eternal loser who always wins; his adventures are far too complicated to describe here, but suffice it to say that, as is usual with Vonne^t, they are hilarious, upsetting, and fascinating. Slaughterhouse-Five seems in many ways a tribute to the picaresque style, although Billy is more Don Quixote than he is Tom Jones. Vonnegut’s in tentions are much less clear than in his earlier books, and this seems an advantage: his style, wWch has matured into what one might call confused clarity, has never better served him. The obvious comparison is to John Barth (who lias also paid tribute to the picaresque tradition) but in many ways Vonnegut goes him one better. Barth has begun to write forays into astounding techniques for their own sake, as in Lost in the Funhouse, but Vonnegut has not lost the ideas, or rather idea for he has only one, which prompts him to write in the first place. Billy is one of the great modem characters, and his entrance into Dresden in silver combat boots and shawl is un forgettable. The madness of most of his adventures is his own, but it sums up the madness of the war and of much of contemporary life. There is little to be said about Slaughterhouse-Five except “Read It!” Vonnegut is as unexplainable as ever, but he reaffirms his place as one of the best American writers of our time. Harsanyi To Join Faculty WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA-Janice Harsanyi, artist-in-residence at the In- terlochen (Mich.) Arts Academy, has been named associate in voice on the faculty of the School of Music of the North Carolina School of the Arts. Mrs. Har sanyi, a concert artist who has appeared with major American orchestras, is the wife of Nicholas Harsanyi, whose appointment as dean of the School of Music was announced in January. Although Mrs. Harsanyi ap peared regularly as a soprano soloist from the age of 16, her main musical interest was focused on the violin and com position in her early years. Since her debut with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in October, 1958, however, Mrs. Harsanyi has performed ex tensively as a soloist in recital and oratorio and on radio and television. In addition to some 25 per formances with the Philidelphia Orchesfra, Mrs. Harsanyi has simg with the Symphony of the Air conducted by Leopold Stokowski, the National Sym phony, the Little Orchestra of New York, the Tercentenary Orchestra of New Jersey, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Festival Opera of New York, Qeveland Or chestra and the Houston Sym phony. A member of the voice faculty of Westminster Choir College for 14 years, she served as chairman of the voice department from 1963 to 1965. During this period she was also a lecturer at Princeton Theological Seminary. In ad dition to her position at the In- terlochen Arts Academy, she has been a member of the voice faculty for the past five summers at the University of Michigan National Music Camp. NCSA Students Win N. C. Auditions Two NCSA students, one in the Instrumental Division and the other in the Vocal Division, were winners at the North Carolina Symphony Auditions held on May 8 at Lenoir Rhyne College in Hickory. Robert Sherman, a high school junior and student of Clifton Matthews, won the Instrumental Division. A piano student for eight years, he played a Major Concerto by Litz at toe auditions. As toe recipient of toe award, Sherman will have the op portunity to perform wito toe Norto Carolina Symphony during their 1971-72 tour of North Carolina. In toe Senior Vocal Division,^ Lunda Austin, a college sophomore, was toe winner. s£e "Li'l Big AAan" The whole collection of in cidents is roped down under toe heading of “Flashback,” as toe 121 year old Crabbe sits in a rest home, taping his life story for an “interested party” doing research on toe old west. Fade out, Fade in; Crabbe is now 10 years old and the “movie narrative” is off and running. There is an epic in every scene, including toe epic Flaws. There are “dead men” toat breato and arrows toat change direction as toey pass through men’s bodies. (Artour couldn’t have done toat; it must have been toe second unit director). In contrast, toere are some marvelous visual effects, particularly in a few of toe battle scenes. (The editor deserves a medal). Artour Penn’s latest leap into a screen epic has produced a slightly marred, longer-toan - feature-lengto fairy tale about toe American West. It is toe questionable life story of Jack &abbe, who claims to have been (get this) an Indian brave, a drunkard, a hermit, a gunfighter, an army scout, etc., etc., etc. As strange as it may seem, this whole potpourri of adventures was worked together in a coherent, damn near acceptable story line. Not only toat, it is highly enjoyable. Super-duper- star Dustin Hoffman fills toe screen almost all toe time as toe many faceted Mr. Crabbe. Altoough he gets a tiny boost from Faye Dunaway and Martin Balsam, among otoers, this is Dustie’s movie. performed “Oh Had I Jubal’s Lyre,” by Handel and “Adele’s Audition Song,” from Flader- mause by Strauss. Her com petition included two otoer NCSA students, Leslie Spotz and Anna Wells. Cynthia Meechum, Johnny Williams, Marsha Pobanz and Nicholas Smito are past winners from NCSA. by Jon Thompson On toe whole, toe film plays like an inside joke, with characters popping up, dropping out of sight, toen popping up again (more or less intact). Martin Balsam as a shyster who can’t seem to get a hold of himself; Faye Dunaway as a preacher’s wife who can’t seem to get a hold of Dustie; a guest appearance by Wild Bill Hickock; and a weird caricature of George Custer. “Little Big Man” is strickly heavy comedy, toat becomes obvious quickly. But toere is also a large part of toe film toat hurts ... bad. The blood is splashed in toe viewer’s face. It balances toe humor, yes, but it still hurts. I guess that’s part of an epic, too. Don’t miss seeing “Little Big Man.” Mrs. Harsanyi made a tour of Europe in toe Spring of 1965 wito toe Philadelphia String Quartet and gave a recital in London. Her performances have included concerts at Lincoln Center in celete'ation of toe New York World’s Fair and special concerts sponsored by toe Governments of Germany and Israel, also held in New York. She also appeared as soloist in a concert at toe \^te House under toe sponsorship of Mrs. Lyndon Johnson. Mrs. Harsanyi is a featured soloist in such recordings as Orff’s “Carmina Burana” wito Ormandy and toe Philadelphia Orchestra, toe Quartet No. 2 of Rochberg wito toe Philadelphia String Quartet, Alan Stout’s “Prologue”, Op. 75, No. 1 which was recorded by toe National Metoodist Student Movement, and “Les Illuminations” by Benjamin Britten with the Princeton Chamber Orchestra under Nicholas Harsanyi. Part of a fantastic creation in Mr. Dreyer’s Drama studio by Denny Lanldord (lower left) and friends. Photo by Barcelona Review Tarantula by Bob Dylan. Macmillan Books. 137 pp. $3.95 Tarantula was written in 1966, back before Dylan’s famous motorcycle accident, before his sudden switch from rock^Met to country singer, just as he was achieving international super stardom. In toat sense, toe book resembles a period piece, for it provides a glimpse inside toe head of toe original Dada King of Rock, and toat person - and what he wrote about - no longer exists. But it is still a devastating chronicle of those wildy psychedelic halycon days and not surprisingly, it holds up mar velously well today. The book is not a novel, it has no “story”, but ratoer is a collection of hallucinations, “letters”, and bizarre situations toat occurred somewhere in toe distant cosmos of Dylan’s sometimes tortured, sometimes ecstatic vision. It is a desperately sad book and a gloriously humorous one. It is really im possible to describe or even toink about while reading; but its lyrical power and force are un deniable. At times, reading Tarantula seems to be an insanely perverse endeavor. One surrealistic toought-dream follows anotoer, bearing no tangible relations, but simply dazzling in execution. That is toe beauty of toe book. It is a series of words put togetoer wito inescapable originality. The situations and characters seem to linger in some kind of slip stream and just when you toink you’re lost forever, Dylan comes torough wito a jolting line of wisdom, of absolute clarity, or of unabashed cosmic humor toat leaves you choking on your own laughter. TTiis is from a piece called “I Found The Piano Player Very Cross-Eyed But Extremely Solid”: ‘look yourself-you ever heard of woody guthrie? he was a union man & he fought to organize unions like yers & he dug people’s needs & do you know what he’d By Edwin Schloss There are very few films I would classify as brilliant but Claire’s Knee comes as close as any I’ve seen in recent years wito toe exception of The Shop on Mainstreet and The Damned. Eric Rohmer has directed his scenario as a kind of journalistic aestoeticism, dissecting human motivations from one day to toe next wito tender devotion for each characters’ behavior. Roh mer sees change not as a sudden transformation but as a slow, gradual process which unfolds wito casual awareness before our eyes. He has created a work of art from a picture gaUery of his own impressions as he leads us into toe daily journal of Aurora, played splenidly by Aurora Cornu, wito toe quick gentle l^ush strokes of a man of precision, who begins his story on Monday toe 29to of June and concludes it on Wednesday, toe 29to of July. This chronological order gives toe film its shape and permits us a day-by-day glimpse into toe colorful world of western France. To amuse Aurora and to give her something to write about while he is on vacation, Jerome becomes attracted to Laura, toe 16-year-old daughter of the family Aurora has been staying wito, after she tells him of toe girl’s affection for him. He decides to pursue Laura, but when she leaves for camp, Jerome replaces his affection for Laura to Laura’s older sister, Claire. The rest of toe film deals wito toe way in which he goes about touching her knee. Sometoing as unimportant as tois conquest becomes a measure of our hero’s achievements. Each day he gets closer and closer until in a moment of vulnerability, Jerome touches toat “magnet” of his desire. Roh mer’s technical skill at working up to tois moment of con- sununation is masterful. It is not a question of will he or won’t he but how he goes about touching it toat makes all toe difference. Rohmer has a way of developing toe simplest of ac tions with subtle details toat reveal characterization. The actions are carried out by actors who know toeir craft and work well together. They are all perfectly cast but my personal favorite is Beatrice Romand, who plays Laura wito an intuitive self- awareness witoout being too aware of how intuitive she really by mjf say if he knew toat a union man- an honest-to-God union man-was walking out on a poor hard traveling cat’s needs-do you know what he’d say d’yuh know what he’d toink?’ ‘all right i’m getting sick of you sprouting out names at me-i never hearda no boddy guppie & anyway . . . ’ ‘woody guthrie not boody gup pie!’ Or these lines from a poem which begins “here lies bob dylan”: bob dylan- killed by a discarded Oedipus who turned around to investigate a ghost & discovered toat toe ghost too was more toan one person I really hesitate to say tois because of all toe horrible con notations of toe word, but reading Trantula is indeed a trip, a journey along wito one of toe most frantic and obsessed im- maginations tois generation has produced. And what truly separates Dylan from his imitative contemporaries is his knowledge, his awareness of literature, his sense of history, and most of all his downright scary perception of what goes on around him. We have waited a long time for tois book. Many people toought toey would never see it. Now, Dylan has ok’d its release. Somehow, it seems proper toat at tois point he would issue a statement made five years ago. We needed tois book. It is, unequivocably, toe finest work turned out by any young con temporary writer-singer-seer, etc. You will read it many times over, not because it is a nostalgic look backwards, but because it is a major work by perhaps toe one artist of our time who was possessed wito true visionary genius. is, and she is beguiling. I am sure tois is not toe last we will hear from her. In the leading role of Jerome, Jean-Claude Brialy, turns in a winning performance against toe most spectacular scenery imaginable, but Rohmer has resisted the temptation ‘to make a show of it’ at the expense of toe performances; instead, he has balanced each scene with a careful eye for visual contrast and has caught the essence of ‘both worlds' without com promising eitoer one. Claire’s Knee is a fine job of film-making toat in time may be considered a classic study in intellectualized eroticism.
N.C. Essay (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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May 28, 1971, edition 1
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