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Hot Shandy's lyrics may have been inspired by bad kooi-aidbut the
audience didn't seem to care. The Passion Pit was packed last
Wednesday to hear Jim Magill and Rick Bouley.
The French Lieutenont s \AJomcmi Film in Q film
By Julie Seaman
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Directed by Karel Reisz;
Screenplay by Harold Pinter
Sarah Woodruff is enveloped in
the mist as she stands far out on
the breaker, gazing to sea along
the coast of Lyme Regis. The
time is 1867. The danger of her
position as well as her cloaked
and hooded image are
provocative enough to cause
Charles Smithson to run out to
persuade her to return to safer
ground. As she turns her head
we are riveted, expecting her to
look half-crazed and wild-eyed.
From the moment Sarah and
Charles exchange searing
glances, they are destined for an
Are the liberal arts a luxury?
By Martha C. Massie
Nine months at Guilford now
costs the average student $7,000.
Mr. Reagan has devastated the
educational budget. An in
creasing number of students
appear headed for pre
professional study or technical
schools.
Guilford is a college of the
liberal arts. Its humanistic
education seems a luxury. Many
students question their presence
here, citing financial difficulties,
lack of commitment, and desire
for adventure as justifications
for leaving school.
Pres. William Rogers hopes
that Guilford's education
provides more than information.
He says that from various
disciplines the student should
gain the ability to identify critical
impossible love affair, because
she is a fallen woman and he,
engaged to someone else.
Meryl Streep stars in this film
version of John Fowles' novel,
The French Lieutenant's Woman.
The scene changes to a harsher
lit, early morning setting; we see
a man and woman sleeping.
Consciousness comes slow and
confused as they wake, and
parallels the dawning awareness
of the audience...it is no longer
1867. A modern story is in
terpolated on top of the period
story. Mike and Anna, the actor
and actress, are as tangled up in
"real life" as the Victorian
characters (Charles and Sarah)
they are filming.
The juxtaposition of modern
story and Victorian story is the
issues, form hypotheses,
organize ideas, sort information,
and find unique methods of
resolving conflicts. Diversity of
experience should encourage
flexibility and judgement, two
assets in the working world. The
college community is designed to
serve as a model of living which
may help one survive the
struggle outside the academic
microcosm.
Some departments are more
job-oriented than others, but
Prof. Jerry Godard (Psych.)
hopes that all encourage the
student to wrestle with "matters
of ultimate concern," such as
personal values and the nature of
human existence. He thinks that
resolution of these questions
determines whether one truly
lives or merely survives. In his
Hot Shandy's quite dandy
By Gingi Farr
Alternatives to our hard-core
academic existence here seem to
be getting as thick as the
polyester in a car salesman's
closet! Hot Shandy, the band that
played in the Passion Pit last
Wednesday however was ac
tually educationally enhancing as
it served as both a zestful cultural
awakening and to restore a sense
of reality in those who had
temporarily misplaced theirs.
Hot Shandy, composed of Jim
Magill and Rick Bouley,
originated three years ago in
Chapel Hill as an Irish punk band
known as Future Trash. Finding
that endeavor rather reward
ing, they transformed them
selves into the Great Fruit
Heads. Rick revealed to the
audience that their lyrics were
the written results of multiple
batches of bad Kool-aid.
Following this unfruitful era of
device developed by director
Karel Reisz and screenwriter
Harold Pinter to allow the film to
comment upon itself. The use of
two parallel plots has been
delicately balanced to avoid
confusion. Each story is ab
sorbing in itself and at the same
time able to enrich the other one.
Thirteen times, the Victorian
Sarah and Charles vanish, and
the audience is rather jarringly
transferred to the more
sophisticated present. The lush
countryside of Lyme Regis
contrasts with the starkness of
the modern movie set, where
they are filming the Victorian
story, The French Lieutenant's
Woman. This is the film
within-the-film within the
ultimate film the audience is
words, 'You don't juggle ab
stractions for the sake of them.
You juggle abstractions for the
sake of living as meaningfully as
you can. The person who has
learned to think from a con
sidered base of values will live
more richly no matter what he is
doing."
The Real World is far removed
from Guilford College. Students
can ignore political crises, but
the realities of economic
recession cannot be avoided. -
Current hardships are forcing
many students to evaluate higher
education in terms of dollars and
cents. Humanistic learning may
soon take a back seat to the
immediate rewards of a
vocational education, as young
people try to cope with our
faltering economy.
their musical profession, Rick
and Jim opted for their current
Hot Shandy image.
Hot Shandy, in addition to
playing their own homegrown
songs, sang choice selections
from Mike Cross, John Prine and
other musicians that have in
spired and influenced them in
their own work. They played a
mandolin, guitars, kazoos and a
bozovki. The Guilford audience
heard about everything from
using the National Enquirer for
toilet paper; hearts aching,
breaking and quaking to fond
memories of High School days
when one endured the freaking
out of his or her body ; disputes
with parents, and the discovery
of penicillin for one ailment or
another. The effect was in
teresting.
Not only was the music of
enlivening qualitybutHot Shandy
proved to be superb entertainers
viewing. With the shift in the
time setting to the present,
restrained passion and explosive
emotion give way to cool ur
banities. Anna (She and Sarah
both are played by Meryl
Streep), the successful
professional, is a "serious"
actress; in one scene she is doing
research on Victorian England,
attempting to understand her
character more thoroughly. She
is dignified in the snatches of
conversation we see, and looks
intelligent even while lazing
around with her lover (and co
star) Mike on the beach or the
bed.
The time then changes back to
1867, and picks up where it left
off. Sarah is considered crazy as
well as wicked, and Charles is
intrigued because he senses she
is really neither. But he find's
that she revels in her pain ana'
outcast status. She tells him of
her seduction by the French
Lieutenant, and ends with her
expressing, gruff-voiced, "I am
the French Lieutenant's
...whore!" Her satisfaction in
her suffering is evident, and
Charles is both appalled and
pulled nearer to her. Charles
soon breaks off with his fiancee
and then-inexplicably, Sarah is
gone.
In the last scene of the period
story, three years have passed,
and they finally meet again.
Sarah is no longer inflicting
torture upon herself; in fact,
there is an unmistakable note of
pride in her demeanor. Her room
is neatly cluttered with large
sketches and drawings. She is a
governess, and of her employers
she says, "They allow me to do
my own work-in fact they en
courage it." She is triumphant,
and there is coolness in her tone.
She explains that she has allowed
Guilfordian. November 12, 1981
as the jokes they told were as
florid and indiscrete as a sack full
of hickeys. Everyone seemed to
have appreciated their creativity
and directness.
Hot Shandy released an album
a month ago christened
"Paradise Ain't Cheap", and
commented that the album
wasn't either. Many students
however, bought themselves a
copy of the album anyway during
intermission. Hot Shandy will be
traveling in the Keys and through
the Mid West areas this winter.
Although Hot Shandy did not
ease the minds of those diligent
scholars concerned with thorny
questions about the beginning
and end of time or reveal the
purpose of the moon and
morality, Hot Shandy gave us one
dandy of a performance and I
think that everyone who had an
opportunity to see and hear them,
enjoyed them!
herself to be found by Charles,
now that she has her own life, her
freedom. "Freedom!" Charles
explodes, and sputters at her:
"Of all human emotions, how
could you make a mockery out of
love!" She replies, "There was a
madness in me...a bitterness."
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At this point the lines between
the Victorian woman Sarah and
the modern actress Anna and
what we know of Meryl Streep
seem to merge and blur together.
All three of them are actresses,
and as artists, they want more
than anything to have their own
say and make their mark.
Even when Sarah was in the
throes of despair, she dramatized
herself as an outcast character.
She created her own role as an
outsider; as she indulged and
embellished it, it was clear she
was in control. Later, she was
able to express herself through
her sketches, and didn't need to
play the outcast any longer.
The parallel ending in the
modern story of Anna and Mike is
even more startling. As well as
providing a commentary on
sexual relationships, The French
Lieutenant's Woman is worth
seeing just to observe Meryl
Streep's skill in playing two
entirely different characters at
once.