10 The Tar Heel Thursday, July 27, 1978
H
orror: film or fans
By HANK BAKER
Staff Writer
Late show audiences have found a new way
to channel their energy. Tht Rocky Horror Picture
Show is the latest in the line of "cult items" that
either didn't or wouldn't make it as a regular '
feature. But the weekend late show audience
managed to "discover," or popularize a few
films that might otherwise have sat on the
shelf. Soon the word spreads around about
what a neat experience going to these films is,
and a group of regulars develop with the
hopeful purpose of getting others to join their
ranks as well as see the movie time after time.
The regulars are the cult for whom, evidently,
variety is not the spice of life. Usually the
bahavior of the audience is more intersting
than the film itself.
The other late show cult hits hardly got out
of New York City, because they had small
distributors; late show revenues don't amount
to much in the long run, 20th Century Fox,
however, has plenty of money, and when he
Ki'ily emir Pi, lure'. Show caught on as a late show
in the larger cities (it was hardly released as a
feature) the film got a wider release.
The behavior of some of the audience
some regulars, some hardy newcomers is
surprisingly boisterous. At the beginning of
the film, there is a wedding sequence, during
which members of the audience throw rice;
when someone in the film proposes a toast,
pieces of toast fly into the air. Most of the
people who do these things have obviously
seen the film several times, because everything
they do and say is exact ly timed. Assorted other
savings are chimed in here and there, and
adolescent as this behavior is, it's actually
funnier than the movie is. The Ro,ky Horror
Picture Show may replace Shit IVrirs as the vehic le
by which hlingocrs can have a second
childhood.
There's nothing harmful about this, but
when it becomes a weekly ritual, you begin to
wonder just why people keep going. Themovie
itself isn't even any good. What's worse, those
who keep going probably don't cart if it's bad
(they may say it's great, but I think they really
mean what they do during the film). Who'd
have thought that tribal rites would come back
this way?
That, however, is the point. The usual film
experience is one of singular passivity. You
may trade quips and jokes with friends, but it is,
finally, your own experience. But the audience
at The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with its chants,
dancing, and other paraphernalia, is something
of a collective, and those eager for a change join
in, no matter how silly it all is.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the perfect
mov,ii for this kind of response it asks
nothing of the audience. The movie is an
outlandishly campy rock-horror parody with a
gimmick the main character is a drag-queen
homosexual mad-doctor. Everyone else
residing in his castle is also freakish, and
though this could have had a little real humor
in it, the film is basically a brassy come-on. It
isn't funny, it's dumb. Some people laugh at
intervals, but I think they're laughing more at
the shenanigans going on in the audience than
what's on the screen. The transvestite doctor,
his oddball cohorts and the rock music are a
necessity to maintain any interest; horror film
parodies have been done so often, there's not
much you can do with them. Tim Curry plays
the transvestite with relish, but he's not
particularly funny, just showy. The
camerawork is amateurish and the lip-synch in
some of the musical numbers is way off.
When I asked some people what they
thought of it all, no one really said whether he
hi she thought the movie was good, just that
the audience was great." An active audience is
rare these days, but to turn the chaotic
i i umminess of 'if Roi ky I iorror Picture Show into
a turn-on is simply faddish behavior. But
rituahing it isn't just curious, it's ridiculous.
I.njoyment is too easy an excuse.
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Thi nar wpplcpnr! af flip Ampriran Danr p Festival, members of the Paul
Taylor Dance Company performed in "Esplanade," an exuberant, energetic
number choreographed to the music of J.S. Bach. Carolyn Adams, whoac
f iiwHjcing had-ught riw-twdience'e eye in earlier numbers, shined in
performing several dazzling leaps one backwards -r landing in the arms
of a dancer halfway across the stage. '
Hitchcock masters suspense
By PAMA MITCHELL
Tiir Heel Contributor
Alfred Hitchcock's distinctive style and
characteristic subject matter have made him
one of the few film directors whose name has
represented a box office drawing power
comparable to that of the top stars. His works,
talcs of dark intrigue and murder, have
delighted generations of movie audiences and
have earned high praise from both American
and European film critics.
Hitchcock leads his charac ters and the
audience through a labyrinth of false clues,
biarre twists of fate (or of plot), sinister
.refning people, objects that turn out to be
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harmless and, most disturbing of all, seemingly
harmless ones that unexpectedly assume
threatening, menancing proportions. He lulls
the audience into complacency by making it
seem that his characters have found a tem
porary safe haven, then abruptly disenchants
viewers of such notions.
As critic Andrew Sarris has noted,
Hitchcock's violence occurs not in darkened
alleys or eerie old houses, settings comfortably
distant from oui everyday lives, but in motel
room showers, crowded concert halls, or busy
noontime streets. By using common, ordinary
characters in equally ordinary settings, the
director makes a sham of our cozy delusions
about "safety in numbers" and thoroughly
shatters our belief that an ordered, middle
c lass existence will ward off or evade the forces
of evil.
Significantly, Hitchcock almost never
presents .in unrelievedly bleak, frightening
world. He spices his films generously with a
sardonic black humor that gives the viewer rest
and relief from menace and danger.
But this director's reputation rests finally
with his "thrillers." The rhythms, the pacing,
the headlong-rushing movement of his best
films make the viewer fee! excitement,
anticipation and a strong need to know what
comes next.
Hitchcock gains this emotional hold on
audiences through his supreme technical
prowess. His stylistic method subjective
camera shots, analytical or "psychological"
editing -involves the viewer as participant in a
film's actions.
The stories are told directly and economical
ly, with far less reliance on spoken dialogue
than on expressively intercut visual images.
The most memorable scenes and sequences in
Hitchcock's films have little or no dialogue and
represent purely visual storytelling.
The Master of Suspense in fact has mastered
the film medium, so that we experience rather
than simply watch a Hitchcock movie. As a
body, his films, always enjoyable and often
edifying in their astute observation of human
nature, represent a significant artistic achieve
ment that has few equals in the American
Thurs., Fri., & Sat.
July 27, 28, & 29
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Mon. Jcily 31
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on area's largest video screen
Tues. & Wed., Aug. 1& 2
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S67-9G53