The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 20

20 The Sydney Morning Herald ARTS Thursday, July 7, 1994 Graham with a Oscar winner's new character gun Billy Paul Byrnes makes a welcome return to the Herald today as chief film critic. After five years of reviewing for the Arts section he left in 1989 to become director of the Sydney Film Festival. He will continue in this role. Also returning soon as a film critic is Anna-Maria Dell'oso. I 1 'im FILM I rr PAUL BYRNES Sandrine Blancke as Alexandrine in Shadow of a Doubt grave, intelligent and secretive.

By BARRY KOLTNOW TOM Hanks leans back in his chair and thinks hard. He wants to get this right. A person doesn't get to describe an event like this every day. a few people get to describe it at aU. "Imagine it's your first day of school," the actor said after a long pause.

"You've just moved to town and everybody else in the class has been there for seven-and-a-half months. You're the only kid wearing sandals and your hair is parted down the middle. The rest of the kids have never seen sandals or hair parted down the middle. "In front of this group of 32 strangers, the teacher tells you to stand up, introduce yourself and read out loud the entire A Tale of Two Cities. That's what it's like when they call your name on Oscar night" Hanks is one of the few actors who get to experience that rush of excitement, exhilaration and downright embarrassment from winning an Academy Award.

The embarrassment is worth it "It's everything it's cracked up to be," said Hanks, who is following his Oscar-winning performance in Philadelphia with another tour-de-force performance as a simple-minded Southerner in Forrest Gump. "It's like your head fills up with a river of plasma. Your heart suddenly pumps at such a horrible rate that you think it's going to burst out of your chest Then you are absolutely convinced that your body is going to float up to the stage." Hanks, 37, had already decided on Forrest Gump before he won the Oscar, so he doesn't think people should compare the performances or speculate whether he picked the new role because of the award. But he knows they will. "There is going to be that attitude and those comparisons, but I can't do anything about that," he said.

"Even if I hadn't made the decision to do Gump, I would never have made a decision based solely on whether it would be a good follow-up to an Oscar-winning performance. "And if there are producers out there who think I'm some kind of exclusively dramatic actor now that I've won an Oscar, I can tell them I'm not I've never had a desire to do all dramatic stuff, just as I have never had a desire to do all comedic stuff. I like a mix; I like a bit of everything." In Forrest Gump Hanks gets to do a bit of everything. Most of the film is told in flashback as Gump tells his life story to a series of strangers waiting for a bus on a street corner in Savannah, Georgia. Although saddled with an IQ that doesn't quite reach the norm, Gump is a master storyteller who has some extraordinary tales.

WYATTEARP Directed by Lawrence Kasdan Rated 15 Village Cinema City and suburbs WYATT Earp died in 1929 in Los Angeles which must be convenient for the studios, because they keep digging him up. Lawrence Kasdan's version of this story, with Kevin Costner as Earp, is the second in six months. The first this year was Tombstone, with Kurt Russell as the legendary lawman. What is it about Wyatt Earp's story that justifies not one, but two new versions of his life? And why now? Does it have anything to do with Rodney King, I wonder? Westerns went out of fashion throughout the 1950s, when Joe McCarthy was hunting commies in Hollywood. Authoritarian genres like the western, in which law and order vied with anarchy, did not seem so benign any more.

The war, the bomb and rock 'n roll left the young of America with a taste for rebellion, rather than righteousness (High Noon notwithstanding). The '90s are different Law and order are major issues, again in the United States, nowhere more than in Los Angeles, where the riots after the King verdict left everyone traumatised. Lawrence Kasdan's film is explicit about this question. His Wyatt Earp is about the violent suppression of street anarchy, about meeting guns with guns, and the toll for those who live by the Colt 45. Casting Kevin Costner underscores this idea.

He is like Henry Fonda with his pants off a mixture of Okie innocence, true grit and '90s sexuality. He's at home with old-fashioned moralising too, and the big speeches that Hollywood scriptwriters now seem to favour (remember "I have become what I beheld and I am content that I have done right" Costner in The Untouchables). This is what killed the movie for me, in fact. Who wants to spend 190 minutes with a gun-slinging version of Billy Graham? After the death of his first wife from typhoid, Wyatt becomes a drunken drifter (which is at least human of him). Saved by his upright father (Gene Hackman, in a lesser cameo), Wyatt cleans up and becomes a lawman in Dodge City, "A little of everything" Tom Hanks.

Amazing things seem to happen to him as he blissfully drifts through life in the second half of the 20th century. He savours every precious moment, from his meetings with world leaders and his conquests in sports to his intense feelings of love for those close to him. Director Robert Zemeckis, who also directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Back to the Future, said the success of the film rested on Hanks's ability to turn Gump into a believable character and, perhaps more important, a real human being. "I know it's been said before, but he really is the Jimmy Stewart of the '90s." Shakespeare-trained Hanks got his first break as a cross-dresser in a TV sitcom, Bosom Buddies, which ran on American TV from 1980 to '82. He reluctantly acknowledges the distinction of being the first actor to go from sitcom to Oscar acceptance speech, but then jokingly muses about a rumour that Jeremy Irons was a regular on McHale's Navy.

After Bosom Buddies was cancelled after its second season, Hanks took off his dress and turned to films, which were his first love. In his third film, Hanks made his big Splash (1984). Ron Howard's mermaid tale launched Hanks's career and four years later he was nominated for an Oscar for Big. One drawback of stardom is that people are quick to criticise. The last Oscars telecast is a prime example.

Hanks's acceptance speech, in which he thanked a gay teacher and a gay friend who died of AIDS, was roundly applauded. But at the same time, i was derided in some circles. "It really doesn't bother me at all; I swear it doesn't," the actor said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Listen, as many people criticised Geena Davis's dress as they did my speech." KRT one point, explaining that she had a dream in which she was expelled from "the land of the Her father's shock at the accusation is extreme and very convincing. He cannot believe it, nor can his wife (Mireille Perrier).

Confronted at the police station, Alexandrine recants, saying she lied. Isserman gives us few clues about whom to believe, so the film takes on an intense dramatic tension that keeps building. Jean (Alain Bashung) does not act like a guilty man. He is less angry than his wife. He thinks Alex must be very unhappy to invent something so serious.

As the family begins to fall apart, we become like the social workers, the cops and the children's court judges. We can only believe her or not We see no evidence of the abuse and yet there is too much gravity in this girl's face to ignore. We have to choose. A Shadow of Doubt is as strong as anything I've seen on the subject of sexual abuse within a family, precisely because of its ambiguity. Having no certainty brings us closer to the pain, somehow.

If we don't know who the demon is, we must look harder, and Isserman gives us multiple viewpoints. Her camera placement is superb at suggesting the power relationships between characters. When personal proximity between accused and accuser is such an issue, point of view becomes even more powerful, but Isserman's technique never feels manipulative. The lighting is also extraordinary, full of dark shapes in the corners of the frame that unsettle us indirectly. A film this intimate requires a very minimal style of acting, and the three central performances are beautifully judged, with no false moments.

The film has a seamless intensity and integrity. is much the better of the two movies. Where Wyatt Earp is pompous and dramatically dull, a sow's ear trying to look like Shakespeare, Tombstone is a good B-movie, an honest shoot-'em-up with no pretensions and somewhat more dramatic resonance. Ambiguous brilliance A SHADOW OF DOUBT Directed by: Aline Isserman Rated 1 5 Academy Twin CINEMASCOPE used to be thought of as unkind to faces, especially in close-up, but Aline Isserman's film shows just how intimate and powerful the close-up can be in wide-screen. Isserman treats the faces in A Shadow of Doubt like landscapes.

She makes the film more personal and more confronting by bringing us closer to the faces. We are allowed no objective distance and yet we're still not sure who is telling the truth in this remarkable French drama. Alexandrine (Sandrine Blancke) is about 1 2 years old, living with her parents in the south-west of France. She is no longer a child, but we sense her panic at having to leave childhood. Playing with her little brother, Pierre, she says she'd like to go down a hole in a tree, like Alice.

Sandrine Blancke's face is grave, intelligent and secretive, like many teenagers. We don't know how much fantasy life she is experiencing, but there are plenty of hints that it is considerable. When she says her father has been molesting her, it's possible to believe she has invented or imagined it "The badder you are, the more you grow," she has told Pierre at Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp when he opens his mouth, he preaches. with his brothers Virgil (Michael Madsen), James (David Andrews) and Morgan (Linden Ashby) as deputies. Blood, as in kin, is everything to Wyatt All the rest are strangers, his daddy tells him, adding that it is best to hit first if you have to fight.

This he does, but it's usually with a gun butt rather than the barrel. Wyatt abhors killing (indeed it is 93 minutes into the film before he does kill a man), and when he moves the whole clan to Tombstone, Arizona, it's to make money off the silver rather than the badge. By now, Wyatt js a bore. He doesn't drink or chase women members snigger when Gene Hackman speechifies at dinner), James Newton Howard's strident Big Valley-type score stomps all over the irony. Strangely, the film is full of loose ends.

At three hours and 10 minutes, why do we see so little of Isabella Rossellini as Doc Holli-day's mistress, Big Nose Kate? The film's one major joy is Dennis Quaid's romp as the hard-drinking, hard-gambling, consumptive Georgia dentist, Doc Holliday. Thin, pale and rakish, Quaid steals the film, as is traditional in Wyatt Earp movies (Val Kilmer does the same in Tombstone). At half the length, Tombstone (Mare Winningham plays his unhappy, laudanum-soaked common-law wife); he doesn't even swear. No wonder the Clantons and McLaury's wanted to kill him he's so insufferably superior. Costner and Kasdan try to make him engaging, but the hard ball of ruthlessness in Wyatt's gut just makes him seem ugly.

He doesn't trust anyone but his brothers, especially not women, and when he opens his mouth, he preaches. Kasdan's direction seems hopelessly lost with this material. The film is shot in Cinemascope, with one western cliche after another, but no sense of irony. When a hint of it creeps in early on (the family Sydney Opera House Enquiries 250 7111 Booking! 250 7777 site3 SYDNEY YOUTH MUSICAL THEATRE PRESENTS ENSEMBLE THEATRE 78 McDougall St. Milsons Point Principal Sponsor TRANSFIELD Hearing help available Until July 15 Playworks in co-production with ABC Radio National presents CAKES, COPS CALLING THE SHOTS Voices of 10 contemporary austral ian women playwrights 1 1 JULY 8pm ONLY 1 SESSION Stable Theatre.

Book 361 3817 Guys and Dolls Pennant Hills Community Centre July 8 23. 2pm 8pm 0 Bookings 639 7373 $21 PREVIEWS MIXED EMOTIONS Hugo Weaving Linda Cropper TILBURY HOTEL Cnr. Forbes Nicholson, W'loo. NEVER SAY CAN'T with Valerie Bader, Gillian Hyde Penny Biggins. Mon-Sat.

KERRIE BIDDELL with Michael Bartolomei. Sun Mat LYNN ROGERS with Erris Venske. Sun nights. ALL BOOKINGS: 358 1295 Ph for Show prices. Meals extra MUSICA VIVA presents TAKACS QUARTET Hungary's incomparable string quartet returns to Australia for its third triumphant tour.

"Exuberant energetic the ideal performances" Musical America SEYMOUR CENTRE Monday 11 July 8.15pm Haydn, Bart ok Smetana Bookings: 364 9400 or Ticketek SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE Tuesday 12 July 8.1 5pm Haydn, Bartok Brahms Bookings: 250 7777 or Ticketek "Real warmth excellent performances great musical diversity." SMH Margret RoadKnight AND FRIENDS '94 Sat 9 July 8pm Wesley Theatre 220 Pitt St $21 6.50 Book 686 4273 Sydney Theatre Company's TWO WEEKS WITH THE QUEEN adapted by MARY MORRIS novel by MORRIS GLEITZMAN MUST CLOSE 9 JULY Special Family prices Pre-show dining available BOOK NOW 975 1455 GLEN ST THEATRE THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Now booking to October Door sales today from 9am GROUPS 202 2234 THEATRE ROYAL Ph. 202 2200 by Richard Baer (Writer of such TV series as Bewitched, Leave it to Beaver. The Munsters, Barney Miller, That Girl) Directed by SANDRA BATES Designed by COUN MITCHELL with Lorraine Bayly TeoGebert Michael Ross Brian Young "Funny and refreshing" Variety (USA) "tender, funny and it deserves to run forever" WJJD Radio (USA) BOOKINGS: 929 0644 COMEDY STORE This week's feature VINCESORRENTI HOTTEST NEW ACTS JULIA MORRIS Thurs TOMMY DEAN Fri 8th Sat 9th PATMcGROIN Dinner Show avail BOOKINGS ON 564 3900 450 Parramatta Rd Leichhardt (cnr Crystal St) HAROLD PARX HOTEL 1 1 5 Wigram Rd Glebe 692 0564 Comics In The Park Every Mon 8.30pm $6.99 SYDNEY'S BEST COMEDY EVERY MONDAY NIGHT Don't miss our fabulous 'Night of Nights' Heat 2 on Mon 25th July Bonds Have More Fun Fri 8.30pm $15 007 Improvised! EAT AT HAROLD'S CAFE Infoline 0055 26970 (25cper21.4sec) Bookings 552 2999 BELVOIR ST. THEATRE 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills Bookings 699 3444 or TICKETEK 266 4800 HEARING HELP available 'GLORIOUS HAMLET SMH "Go and see it immediately. stuff, radical, richly talented, thrilling storytelling, deep and subtle" Tele Mirror HAMLET by William Shakespeare Featuring Ralph COTTERILL, Max CULLEN, Gillian JONES, Jacek KOMAN, Jacqueline Mckenzie, Keith robinson, Richard ROXBURGH, Geoffrey RUSH, Kevin SMiTH, Steven VIDLER, George WASHING-MACHINE David WENHAM.

Director Neil ARMFIELD, Set Designer Dan Potra, Costume Designers Anna Borghesi Tess Schofiekj, Composer John Rodgers, Lighting Rory Dempster Assist Director Greg McLean. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm, Sun 5pm $1 7 tix Thursdays $1 0 Student Rush TueWed 7.30 Commencing July 6 BONDI BY BUS Written by DAVE WARNER Directed by PENNY COOK Co-written and performed by SHANE McNAMARA Preview WED JULY 6 8.1 5pm $10 Prev THURS JULY 7 SOLD OUT OPENING FRI JULY 8 SOLD OUT Sat 8.1 5 Sun 5.1 5 All tix $1 4.50 GAME, SET MATCH THEATRESPORTS MIXED DOUBLES SHOW! The COMEDY-DOUBLES SYNERGY, presents CHAPPLE PRODUCTIONS presents holiday panto OLD KING COLE June28-July9 Tues-Sat 1.30pm Mats 1 0.30 Tues Thurs Fri Coleman Theatre, Bondi Jet Plaza All seats $8. Bkg: 399 5577 An Australian play The Chapel Perilous by Dorothy Hewett Directed by Rosane McNamara Fri, Sat 8.1 Sun 5.30 3403 NEW THEATRE 542 KING ST, NEWTOWN "A Riot" Bob Evans "Terrific" Frank Gauntlett "Outstanding" Ian Phipps ROSENCRANTZAND GUILDENSTERNARE DEAD by Tom STOPPARD PILGRIM THEATRE, 262 Pitt St TUES-SAT 8pm. 5 cone.

Book 664 1 767 or Ticketek 266 4800 or at the door Student rush 1 0 Tues All seats $15 Weds MUST CLOSE SAT A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams July 23 -August 6 Zenith Theatre Chatswood Book 686 4273 School Specials "A wonderful load of nonsense lots of laughs" ON MONDAY NEXT by Philip King Directed by Joyce Birch Thu, Fri, Sat 8pm, Sun 4.30pm $161412. Bookings: 529 5333 Kent St Theatre 420 Kent St, City Bell Shakespeare Company THE TAMING OF THE SHREW "enormously MACBETH "powerful totally engaging" Footbridge Theatre NOW PLAYING Tues-Sat 7.30pm, Sun 5pm Wed Sat 1.30pm Ticketek 266 4800 by Tom Stoppard "An exquisite game of theatrical hide and seek. A play of enormous wit, intelligence and heart" Sydney Morning Herald "This is great theatre. You must see it!" Telegraph Mirror "Fascinating, thrilling, sharp, astonishing and utterly enthralling." Sun Herald HYPERPRISM Synergy plus 24 fine musicians perform rare works by daring contemporary composers EDGARD VARESE and MICHAEL TORKE. One concert only.

10 July 2.30pm Sydney Town Hall $26, $20 student rush $15 -BOOK NOW 266 4800 OPERA con AMORE The Conspirators CREAM OF DINOSAUR SOUP A pantomime at the Australian Museum. 28th June -1 0th July on Tuesday to Sunday at 1 2.30 2pm. Free (after Museum entry) SYCEY THEATRE COMPANY DRAMA THEATRE ARCADIA by Tom Stoppard nMu4i ff.i. Schubert opera premiere Ueder and ensembles Thurs 7. Fri 8.

Sat 9 at 8pm Sun 1 0 2pm. KILLARNEY LODGE Thurs 1 4, Fri 1 5 8pm Zenith Theatre, Chatswood Book: 451 3324 THE SEYMOUR GROUP Sun Jury 10 5.30pm CHELATE COMPOUND 6.30pm THE SEYMOUR GROUP ENSEMBLE perform works by Andrew Schultz Dead Songs. Silk Canons, RespiroSimple Ground Eugene Goossens Hall ABC Centre 700 Harris St Ultimo Book: 364 9474 (bh) "Entrancingly KENJA ENTERTAINMENT CLUB presents Kenja's Greatest Hits Songs that will last in our hearts forever. A musical extravaganza. Written and Directed by Jan Hamilton Applying the work of Ken Dyers Music by Amanda Hamilton Fri.

1.8.15 July, 8pm Sat. 2.9.1 6 July. 2 pm. 5pm, 8pm Tom Mann Theatre 1 36 Chalmers Street. Surry Hills Cost 2, $7 children Bookings 281 7181 an intellectually exhilarating Plays until Aug 13 14 Bookings 250 1 777, 250 7777 MARIAN STREETERS Children's Theatre 2 Marian St, Killara MAGIC ISLAND Saturdays 1.00pm Weekdays 4th -8th July 1 0.30am and 1 Bookings 498 3166 performance days or 452 2 1 39.

Tickets at door. play of ideas. tournament starring 8 of Australia's best players! THIS SUNDAY at 9.00 pm fa The Australian IiOxetekZ66 4B00 WHARF THEATRE KAFKA DANCES by Timothy Daly Directed by Ros Horin Plays until Jury 30 Bookings 250 1 777 Ticketek 2664800 NIDA presents a lecture by JOANUTTLEWOOD BIG BOYS AND GIRLS new work by Helen Herbert son DANCEWORXS JULY 6 JULY 1 6 ONLY! Tues-Sat 8.30pm Sats 5pm THE PERFORMANCE SPACE July 6 -July 16 ONLY! BOOXINGS: 319 5091 Death Defying Theatre presents EYE OF THE LAW Fairfield School of Arts 7-10 July Bookings 749 4020 ANDREW McKINNON and SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC proudly present LESLIE HOWARD in his only Australian perf of "LISZT AT THE OPERA Liszt's glorious fantasies and transcriptions of great operas performed by one of the finest interpreters of the piano music of Franz Liszt. Direct from London! Syd Conservatorium of Music Saturday 6 August 8pm Bookings: Ticketek 266 4800 Tues 1 2 July 7.30pm NIDA 21 5 Anzac Parade Kensington Entry by 1 0 Donation to the NIDA scholarship fund Enquiries Kathryn Elliott 697 761 0 I -----n 6C MOORLIAKDTHE LEPRECHAUN by Jack Davis Directed by John Saunders DATES: Jun 24- July 9 TIMES: Wed-Fri 1 1 am, 2pm Sat 2pm, 6.30pm TICKETS: $12, $8, $30 (family) THEATRE PENRITH Bookings: 047 21 5735 OPENS THIS WEEK Christopher Cummings presents The Australian Classic THEOKEDAY OF THE YEAR by Alan Seymour Directed by Charlie Little Design by Robert Davis Lighting by Matt Flood Music by Rob Walsh With Peter Carmody. Lyme Porteous, Harry Lawrence.

Vales ka Grartame. Heame St Clair 9th JULY to 6th AUGUST BOND! PAVILION THEATRE $12 previews 7, 8, 9 (mat) Juty BOOKINGS: 368 1119orTtek Sponsond by WHARF STUDIO SAXCTUARY by David Williamson Directed by Aubrey MeUor Previews Juty 21 Plays July 22-Aug 20 Bookings 250 1 777 Ticketek 2664800 MCE National Mutual To find out how to promote your next show effectively and easily please call 282 4128 or 2824144 Crossroads Productions presents Emily Bronte's WUTHERING HEIGHTS Adapted by Charles Vance With Paul Bertram, Amanda Bishop, David Davies, Alan Flower, Julian Gamer, Anthony Lawrence, Rebecca Rigg and Lia Scallon Directed by Martin Reefman Designed by Emma Aubin Lighting by Kate McKay Sound Design by Tim Farriss Opens Fri 8 July 8pm Tues-Sat 8pm, Wed 1 1 am Sun 5pm Tickets: Crossroads Theatre 159 Forbes St, Dartinghurst 332 3649 or Ticketek 266 4800 EUROPE BY MICHAEL GOW with Helen O'Connor Simon Baker-Denny Directed by Andrew Lewis Prev 5, 6. 7. July $10 Tues-Sat 8pm Sun 5pm Guess Whose Mum's Got A Willy? A one-man comedy on parenting by KEVIN HARRINGTON From 12 July Tue-Sat 10.30 pm Stables Theatre 10Nimrod St Kings Cross Bookings 361 3817 A BIG COMEDY HIT Featuring REBEKAH ELMALOGLOU, KATRINA FOSTER. JOHN HANNAN, JOANNA LOCKWOOD, JOHN ORCSIK and DOUG SCROOPE in CARAVAN Directed by Peter Williams OPENS JULY 14 BOOX NOW 250 7777 Ticketek 266 4800.

357 4433 THE PLAYHOUSE Sydney Opera House 4-D MANAGEMENT THE MCA proudly present a special evening of Russian elegance DUCXER RECITAL Featuring one of the world's finest violinists DMITRY SITKOVETSKY together with international concert pianist MIRAJETVIC Russian menu by Neil Perry, Rockpoot Black Tie Tickets $130 Friday 15 July 7.30pm (drinks and viewing of Czech Slovak Art Exhibition 6.00pm) Museum of Contemporary Art Bookings: 908 3900 The Bennelong Program presents TWIRLED AND TWISTED STRANDS by REM Theatre "Visually spellbinding" Courier Mail "The children looked and listened with rapt attention" SMH Surt4yrs 29 Jun until 9 Jul TICKETS ONLY $7 PH: (02) 250 7777 Sydney Opera House Parramatta Riverside Theatres MOUTH TO MOUTH STARRING CHRIS KIRBY A very funny tragedy about a man A his ddly. 4 Performances only FRI SAT UNTIL JULY 9. 8PM BOOKINGS 683 6166 1993 "ASSASSINS" SOLD OUT 1994 DONT MISS OUT 1 1 Sydney Shows only! GYPSY August 17-27 Seymour Centra 364 9400orTfcetek HEARING HELP AVAILABLE. i A.