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t 4The Daily Tar HeelMonday, January' 16, 1984 Streisand triumphs with 'Yentl, ' a comic romance with finesse By SIIERYL THOMAS Slaff Wriler When a film receives a lot of publicity, people usually get so tired of hearing about it they decide not to see the film it couldn V be as good as everyone says it is. Such is the case with Barbra Streisand's new film, Yentl. But Yentrs publicity is correct. It is amazing to think that Strei sand stars in the film, sings in it, directed it, co-wrote the screenplay and produced it. That is the film's uniqueness. Review Based on a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Yentl is about a Jewish girl who disguises herself as a boy to study the Talmud. Anticipating her late 20th century audience, Streisand focused on the humorous mix-ups that Yentrs new identity engenders. The strong feminist statement Yentrs rebellion makes against the Jewish law which barred women from studying its holy book is explored, but only as a lesser issue. Yentl does not exhibit any technolo gical wonders, which in many ways is a relief. Streisand's direction has produced a film that is simple and clean, easy to understand and appreciate. The attention to detail, for example, is remarkable. Streisand has spared nothing in re-creating early 20th-century eastern r . Campus Calendar The Carolina Student FundDTH Campus Calendar will appear every Monday and Thursday. Announce ments to be run on Monday must be placed in the box outside the Carolina Student Fund office on the third floor of South Building by 5 p.m. the Friday before they are to run. Announce ments to be run on Thursday must be placed in the box by 5 p.m. of the pre ceding Tuesday. Only announcements from University recognized and cam pus organizations will be printed. Today 7 p.m Meeting of.the UNC Audience for Jazz in the Union. 7:30 p.m. Meeting of the UNC Outing Club in the Union. The film "Whitewater Primer" will be shown. Dialectic and Philaithropic (Di Phi) speech society will meet in 300 New West. "v" aivy' rit"'v With a Special Guest Opening Act NEWWAVE! Thursday, January 19 Great Hall 9-12 P.M. Refreshments provided. Proof of age required, A UNION SOCIAL COMMITTEE PRESENTATION row $20 :;:::;::;::;::;:::::c;rj5;: -tr., "'" !- --.urn '.! """I-., III. I 3 ii , DATE: Thursday, Jan., 19 1984 PLACE: STlldENT STORES TIME: 9:0-2:00 nnnnppjonns Z?fJ Dlvition ol Carnation Company fcurope, from the lace-curtained windows of the homes to the sexist prejudices of the times. As always, Streisand's acting is top notch. Streisand does well in the first dramatic role she has played in a long time. But she really shines in the comic scenes. Her reckless abandon in telling her study mate, Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), that it is impossible for her to marry Avigdor's fiancee in his place recalls the comic acting for which Strei sand is so well-known. Patinkin works well with Streisand. Patinkin not only matches Streisand's energy but also complements her when she is reserved and acts as a foil for her when she is more excited. Amy Irving's performance as Hadaas, Avigdor's beautiful and attentive fiancee, is particularly interesting. In this role, Irv ing does an about-face from her usual parts as energetic competitors. Irving is demure as the jye-batting, dutiful wife-to-be. Yet she and Streisand shine most in scenes where they have to pretend that they are in love. Michel Legrand has written a beautiful musical score for Yentl. Nearly every song begins as a prayer, and Legrand nicely accompanies this style with hymn like motives that develop with the lyrics into secular themes. Fans who enjoy Streisand's distinctive voice will enjoy her occasional bursts of song. Those who dread hearing Strei- Tuesday 5:30 p.m. Graduate and Professional Stu dent Federation Senate meeting in the Union. 6:30 p.m. Delta Sigma Pi Business Frater nity meeting in T-l Carroll Hall. 7 p.m. Carolina Symposium meeting in the Union. North Carolina Student Legis lature meeting in Room 226 of the Union. Wednesday 5:30 p.m. UNC Women's Rugby Club meeting in the Union. 7 JO p.m. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity pre sents the Spring Formal Smoker in Room 224 of the Union. All men are welcome. mm. 9 ( , , t a - ! 1 , : t. . ; f i $30 mm i i M Barbra Streisand in male sand's powerful voice, however, need not shun Yentl just for that reason. Yentl is "a romantic drama with music," as the posters say, but there is more "romantic drama" than music. Yentrs biggest handicap is that it is not very inventive. Technical finesse does not draw the audiences that space-age spec tacle does. Also, while the story of Yentl is interesting, it is nothing new. Movies . , I Thursday 4 p.m. Meeting of the Campus Y Com . mittee on Undergraduate Education in the Campus Y Lounge. All are welcome. 5:45 p.m. Baptist Student Union Worship Service at the Baptist Student Center. 7 p.m. Meeting of the UNC Students for Rufus in the upstairs video lounge of the Union. ITEMS OF INTEREST t Professional Information Files Workshop on choosing and setting up a professional reprint filing system. Thursday, Feb. 2, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 201 Health Science library. Call 962-0700 to pre-register. The Baptist Student Union Winter Retreat at Camp Caraway will be Jan. 20 through Jan. 22. Sign up at the Baptist Student Center this week. Cost is $30. To pick up cash for books sold at the APO Book OOP, come to Room 212 of the Union Jan. 17 through 19 and to the basement of the Union Jan. 20 through Feb. 6, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Great Decisions books are now available at the Office of Internaiiorl Programs in 207 Caldwell. Murdoch Center for the Mentally Retarded a Campus Y Volunteer Program will have organizational meetings Jan. 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. in the Union. New volunteers are welcome. 4 t onnu i Real Pit J Bar B Q 15-501 Bypass at Elliott Road 933-9248 Dine In Take Out 33 Wednesday, Jan. 25 8:00 pm Memorial Hall Violinist Eugene Todor witli Gerhard t Zimmerman conducting Tickets are available at the Union Box Office and at the door. fete J!ao!c;er Creek uniVcRanv rSO"he Apartment People Avoid the lottery blues. Apply now! All apartments on the bus line to U.N.C. Call today for full Informa tion. 967-2231 or 967-2234. i cm U km " --1 1 n. tt t mi mt-rr A .Afeskifi,, J- J 2fe disguise in her film, Yentl. like Tootsie have sapped the hilarity of cross-dressing. They make Yentl seem rather predictable at times. . Yentl, then, is good because of Strei sand, the story and old-fashioned simplicity in the spirit of The Sound of Music. But it takes no risks and has nothing particular to itself except the multiple talents of Barbra Streisand. 1 Books to be moved The following materials will be moved Jan. 16-21 from Wilson Library to the new Davis Library. Dewey classification: 915-919.9 944-999 Library of Congress : Classification: G GN GR GT GV Folio & Folio2G-GV PA - FT Folio & Folio 2 PQ-PT For move information call: 962-1335 For more detailed information call: 962-5759 Arts writers needed The Daily Tar Heel has several openings for writers on the arts desk. - PLITT J THEATRES MI HUUKl I MI Nil CAROLINA CLASSICS LOLITA 2:15 5:05 THE BIG CHILL 7:459:45 TERMS OF ENDEARMENT 2:00 4:30 7:00 9:30 its asK. i- ELLIOT ROAD at E. FRANKLIN 967-4737 $2.00 TIL 6:00 PM EVERYDAY! 2:15 4:45 7:it 9:45 William Hurt Area Exclusive! Gorky Park r) 3:20 5:20 7:20 9:20 David Naughton Hot Dog the Movie r 3:00 only - Al Pacino Scarface R) 7:10 9:30 - Clint Eastwood Sudden Impact w ThNea A Starts Fri. 120 f X UflRSlTY U2jwyJ:F V t N.ii-.tvu.:V EXCLUSIVE X From the director ol BREAKER MORANT BEST ACTOR -L.A. FILM CRITICS K Robert Duvall Tender VfERCIESa IV JL 3:00 5:05 7:10 9:15 , AN ODYSSEY IN IMAGE AND MUSIC 3 30 5.30 7.30 9.30 PRESENTED IN KINTEK STEREO I A WONDERFUL FILM.., RICH IN IDEAS AND OVERPOWERING BEAUTY. I WAS AMAZED AND MOVED BYJTT "A SPECTACULAR FUSION OF IMAGE AND SOUND." "YOU WONT FIND A MORE DIZZYING, DAZZLING AND DIVERTING EXPERIENCE ON THE SCREEN TODAY "A TRIP-FILM FOR THE '0'$."IZI- ONLY STANLEY KUBRICK'S '200V CARRIESX THE SAME SUPER-SENSORY IMPACT' i - - '"Tr""" - 2 i f iii I in I r QL ? 4 : i DePalma mangles 'Scar face' r ' By STEVE CARR Staff Writer There is usually one of two things wrong with remaking a film it's either too much like the original or not enough like it. Scarf ace is flawed on both counts. A lot of remakes result from someone's overzealous admiration. The original Scarf ace is a great film. Director Brian DePalma's version is evidently a tribute to the 1932 original, right up to its dedi cation to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht (original director and scriptwriter, re spectively). By putting this sort of pandering on celluloid, perhaps DePalma is saying that he can do just as good a job maybe even better. But DePalma is no Hawks. 9 Being a remake, though, is the least of Scarface's problems. The big drawback here centers on star Al Pacino. DePalma is correct in his assessment of Pacino as an electric actor. His presence dominates both the screen and the movie itself. He is in almost every scene, and the energy he generates is almost more than an au dience can bear. More, that is, until they start to realize that this is not a perfor mance but a showcase. Pacino is not Scarface, he is Pacino with a Cuban ac cent and the title make-up job. Review There is nothing wrong with an actor creating a singular persona. John Wayne did it. So did Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Much to the delight of critics and audiences, their personas matured along with their physical appearances. Gradually they learned how to harness their emotions and play and underplay them the best they could. That, however, is the crux of the prob lem. Pacino is out of control. When he is angry, he is all energy. When he is happy he is all energy. When he is sad and de pressed he is still all energy. He doesn't even let himself play Pacino. The next problem the film has is its sense of time. Scarface, or Tony Manero, is a Cuban refugee. He and his friends start to deal in cocaine until Tony has made a mockery of the American Dream by becoming a multi-millionaire. Students with interests in film, theatre, dance, art and music are needed to write reviews and features. Writers are especially needed in . the area of current popular music. Experience in covering the arts is i i i i i wmf Prcocpt thio Coapon When Ordering 1 M M H a sesp Qsmii THE Daily Crossword by ACROSS 1 Ellington 5 Sound of discovery 8 Gauchogear 13 Yet again 14 Quaker colonist 16 Taken (surprised) 17 Come-on 18 Cartoonist Peter 19 Savalas 20 Song of 1930 23 The Lion 24 Trail all the way 25 Port of Iraq 29 Dog's bane 31 Schmo 35 Way in 37 Star, pref . 39 Whopper 40 Song of 1930 43 Take to court 44 Hole punchers 45 Made money 46 Uncloses, poetically 48 Sawy phrase 50 Links figure 51 Word of frustration 53 Cambridge school letters yesterday's Puzzle Solved: IFl I IJI I riOlRAITEMABBEl A 6 0 N LiN I M E S K A I D Y 0. U. D. ITT S U R P R1S.E.0J S T R E AM E R IT" E V ETh" Y cfENnno p 0 siaTt e ImJc I A 0 ?iL6 E B 0 FTZIH A F T S 1 (T N A putTTTnonthier I TZ ASilliliS Q E R I E L E 0 .1110 L C A B AJLJS" iIIZji u. l nu a m e rj eTlTm e r ""Tr E V 0 l v e r YOUREJpJSTIWL jV E EilInA.lYlL.1IkiA IslAklTLJSlElplTlSUTiEjLiU 11414 pi 12 3 4 " IS 6 1 7 I 8 9 10 11 12 T? Tf""-" "ft 1- - - 22"" "" " 23 " 25prfTzf" 13" MT " 31 3233 IST" 36 " 37" 38 " " 39" 73 ' 41 2 73 7T" " " ' 45 7T" " 47" "U" 49" """"" 50 lu" 52 " "" """"" 53 IT" irrir' " if " "" lOiMnjii 1l ! 63 : 64 75 7 7T" ! 68 To ..mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmamWLmtm. 1984 Tribune Company Syndicate, Inc. All Rights Reserved DePalma's retelling of the story tends to overdo everything. Especially the violence. Scarface is not a teeny-bopper slash-'em-up movie. It does not show people's dismembered bodies or fountains of blood spurting from victims' temples. But it does seem to extract the same kind of joy in its violence. It is a visual striptease, a violent tit illation. The one scene that best sums up the movie comes in the first 20 minutes. Tony and his friends, still small-timers, are run ning a drug deal with some Colombians. Things don't go as planned, and Tony watches one of his friends being chopped up by a chainsaw, but not before the camera leaves the hotel room and travels out onto the street in one fluid take. If DePalma had been satisfied to end the scene there, the scene could have been great. Instead, the camera goes back up into the room, treats (ne audience to close-ups of the chainsaw just about to touch the skin and of Pacino's disgusted reaction (energetic, nonetheless). All this is really unnecessary and numbing to the au dience. DePalma made his point when he tracked outside. He never had to come back in, but probably did so because he thought: 1) Pacino has to be involved in almost every scene and 2) There is some sort of quota for violence that has to be met. The third problem is Oliver Stone's script. Stone can't decide whether he wants to do a scene-for-scene remake of the original or a completely new crime film. The relationship between Tony and his sister is never as thoroughly explored as it is in the original. The 1932 version is much more erotic in making the in cestuous implications work on both sides. In Stone's script, only Tony seems to have ambiguous feelings; his sister seems more innocent. Remaking a film is treading dangeious ground; only a few directors have suc ceeded. Paul Muni was the original Scar face, and it is more to his credit than Pacino's discredit that Pacino can't hold a candle to the role. While DePalma shows considerable talent for handling action and demon strating wit, he is too much under the shadow of the original Scarface and unable to duplicate its subtleties. . helpful but not required. Interested students should contact Jeff Grove as soon as possible at the DTH office, 962-0245, and be prepared to bring in sample reviews or features. : ciiTjEtKniD mmsxb William Lutwiniak 55 Famed ' tunesmith 62 Bird of northern seas 63 Prized 64 Staff person 65 Strange 66 Endorse 67 Lineage chart 68 Consecrated 69 Golf gadget 70 Director DOWN 1 Mrs. Roy Rogers 2 E pari bus 3 Soho street feature 4 Pitcher 5 Hustling 6 Concerning this 7 Alberghetti 8 Alan of movies 9 Toed the line 10 Fr. com poser 11 Rights org. 12 Send soaring 15 Roman of them ail" 21 State 22 Abominate 25 Opera voice 26 Misbehave 27 Rocky debris 28 Portuguese coin 30 Booboo 32 Charlie Chan por trayer 33 Creased 34 A Roosevelt 36 Dorcas' forte 38 Displays reflexes 41 Overcoats 42 Lingerie item 47 Crosses the plate 49 Come out 52 " we all?" 54 Papas or Dunne 55 Dupe 56 Pa. port 57 Gallop, for one 58 "What God wrought?" 59 Telegram 60 Patent basis 61 Indigence . 62 Fairy queen in litera ture 11614 MS- I I 'I
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Jan. 16, 1984, edition 1
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