The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 19

ARTS Friday, December 17, 1993 1 9 The Sydney Morning Herald Gunfigh GATT at corral i I' ff itf fc A Christmas passion By JUDY ROBINSON "TT "XT HEN I was a kid, one of the most I devastatingly boring experiences in my life was having to sit through the Messiah." It's a common complaint from unmusical people who remember being dragged, kicking and screaming, to Handel's celebrated oratorio by enthusiastic parents, but it is a startling confession from a man who, for the past 20 years, has spent every Monday night between October and December conducting rehearsals for the same event Conductor and composer Clive Pascoe is passionate about the Messiah. The professor in music at Southern Cross University (formerly the University of New England, Northern Rivers) flies down to Sydney from Ballina on the Far North Coast each Monday morning to rehearse with a 650-voice amateur choir, then gets up at 5 am the next day to fly home in time for classes. As a bored child spectator, he promised himself that if he ever had charge of a Messiah performance, the audience would never be bored as he had been. And with jokes, rhythmic variety, meticulous attention to detail and sheer force of will, he primes his choir and soloists each year to ensure that the promise is kept. The choir is a mixed group of everyone from schoolchildren to "little old ladies about three foot six Some hear about it through church or social groups, others by word of mouth, and the singing prowess ranges from trained voice to rank beginner.

And he can't get enough of it. "I love it," he said. "It is a very special part of my life now, and I get a real thrill out of seeing so many people who don't claim to have any particular music ability bring off, by the end of eight weeks, a very exciting performance. "I guess it comes from my deep belief that making music is for everybody. It's something that we all should be able to take part in, therefore I'm philosophically opposed to the idea that there is an elite group in music I kind of resent that there has to be.

"It's critical in Australia today, for the future of music, that we do have more and more of the professionals mixing with and working with amateurs. It doesn't happen enough." And the choir obviously agrees with him. Wildly applauded at the first rehearsal of every year, he is also showered with thank-you cards and gifts from grateful choristers before performances. BUT Pascoe, 52, freely admits he does not always get things right. During one performance a few years back, he was so enthralled by the music he forgot about the interval.

"I turned the page and gave the downbeat for the next piece, and the organist shook his head at me, the choir was looking blank and the orchestra just sat there," he recalled with a laugh. "I gave the downbeat again thinking, 'How dare you refuse to play for meT Everybody was looking at me thinking, 'You dork, get off, when suddenly I realised what had happened and slunk offstage." He and the singers are not paid for the work the performances are for charity. But he finds it addictive and has no plans to hand in his baton after this year's 54th anniversary performances. "Next year IH be flying back from a sabbatical because I don't want to miss it," he said. "It was a huge journey into the unknown when I started, but each year it seems to me to get shorter and shorter.

I'm going to keep doing it for as long as I can." Limited seats are available at the door for tonight's performance in the Town Hall, starting at 8pm. the Year, screened in Australia this year, has only just gained release in London, and is struggling at the box office. British director Ken Loach had similar difficulties when he won Europe's premier film award the year before with Riff-Raff. The European Film Academy has attempted to give its version of the Oscars a competitive edge by requiring that entrants be among the top six box office attractions in their country of origin. While understandable as a commercial measure, such restrictions would probably have ruled out some of Europe's most memorable films, notably the last three from FellinL Audiences for films in Europe have been increasing, particularly in the UK, where more than 100 million tickets have been sold this year, and this is in part due to the popularity of Hollywood blockbusters.

Britain only makes about 30 films a year (the number in France where State subsidies are more generous is more than 100) but, with notable exceptions, they do not do as well commercially as do American films. Some point to distribution differences to explain the discrepancy. Ken Loach's Raining Stones and Mike Leigh's Naked, both awarded prizes at Cannes, had fewer than 50 prints for British screening, while the US blockbuster Jurassic Park had more than 400. THE irony is that the European market is now almost as big as the US and some European films are able to defy Hollywood stereotyping and still do well. Remains of the Day, made in the UK with a British cast led by Anthony Hopkins, is reported to be taking more money in each of its US outlets than any other film; and yet it is showing in just four cinemas in Britain.

Bernardo Bertolucci said any young, talented European director would be more likely to "suck the tits of Hollywood" than battle for a foothold at home. That is a cynical view. Robert Altman put his finger on the real problem when he said the world is tending to see the same things on TV and the cinema and those things are "American and mostly How seriously is the cultural identity of Europe threatened by GATT? PETER ELLINGSEN in London reports on what has been at stake during the negotiations. NE London paper parodied it as a "transatlantic luv-vies but as anyone who checked the fig ures knows, this week's battle over European access for Hollywood films has as much to do with business as artistic sensitivity. True, the Europeans, particularly the French, are worried about United States cultural colonisation, but more important for the negotiators who gathered in Brussels to frame rules for world trade is money and nothing is set to generate more of that than movies and audio tapes.

According to the German director Wim Wenders, who has lobbied furiously for the protection of European films, the audiovisual sector will become the world's biggest industry by the end of the decade. It is already worth more than $US4 billion billion) a year to the US, a figure that makes it second only to computers in producing export income. So when the seven-year-old economic soapie known as GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade bogged down earlier this week over opening up European markets to US films, more than national images were at stake. (The issue of audio-visual trade was set aside to allow the rest of the trade negotiations to be finalised.) Wenders, chairman of Europe's version of the group that hands out the Oscars, the European Film Academy, had economic as well as cultural power in i 'I'm philosophically opposed to the idea that there is an elite eroup in music Clive Messiah at the Town Hall. ON THE AIR The flights of flute fantasy Aboard the Oblivion Express THE apparently inexhaustible repertoire of 20th-century flute music shows clearly how contemporary composition has jumped into its jet and taken off in all directions, so much so that the very word contemporary has become almost too imprecise to be of use.

That point was made in a brilliantly performed recital by Kathleen Gallager the latest addition to a local flute elite which includes Geoffrey Collins, Laura Chislett and Christine Draeger and the extraordinarily vivid pianist, Simon Docking, on Wednesday. The most remarkable work, and a classic of its kind, was the Sonatina (1946) by Boulez abrasive, even violent music MUSIC KATHLEEN GALLAGER (Flutes) AND SIMON DOCKING (Piano) Music by 20th century composers St Laurence Arts Centre. December 15. FRED BLANKS which is as easy to love as it is to pet a porcupine. Much more pettable was a piece by Vivier, of Canada, and Fili, by Donatoni, which cannot quite submerge Italian melody in its dissonance, and ends with an exuberant fanfare.

Angularity had a more conventional edge in Les Yeux Clos II (1988) for solo piano by Takemitsu. Anthony Hopkins in the UK film Remains of the Day. mind when he predicted that without protection for its films, Europe would become a third world continent. "There's a war going on." he warned, "The most powerful tools are images and sounds." Wenders led a delegation of 20 directors and producers to Brussels, while Hollywood, appropriately enough, had Jack Valenti, the tanned 72-year-old president of America's Motion Picture Association. In purely economic terms, Mr Valenti had the wind behind him, pointing out that free trade meant that Hollywood should not be limited to 60 per cent of the market, as it is under existing regulations in France.

But the moral weight was with Mr Wenders, whose demand for distinctive rather than sausage-machine films won the backing of not only European film-makers but leading US directors, including Robert Altman, Stephen Spielberg, and Sydney Pollack, all of whom have acknowledged their debt to European auteurs. The problem is, of course, that Europe can't compete with the Hollywood juggernaut. Already 95 per cent of Britain's commercial, non-arthouse screens show only American films, and the same generally applies to Germany and Italy. Even an outstanding film, like Amelio's Tlie Stolen Children, the European Film of mand of Lee Marvin (still facing court martial), to foil (that's right, to foil) a plot to kill der Fuehrer. Rated NRA: Not Recommended For Anyone.

Neighbours, 6.30 pm, 10: Episode 2070 ends the year 1993 with typical suspense. A swarm of man-eating lobsters emerges from Cody's cellular phone and attacks Annalise about the scuppers. Screaming Father O'Rourke, the Belfast Banshee and retired human pincushion, staggers into Ramsay Street to molest Gaby. After 48 hours of marriage, Brad and Beth decide connubial bliss isn't all it's cracked up to be. Lou sticks his leg in a blender to impress Cheryl and Luke is rushed to hospital where an x-ray of his head reveals nothing.

Pointless, automated daydreams with aimless mannequins drifting EZ 6.00 Aerobics Oz Style Fitness. 6.30 Agro's Cartoon Connection. 9.00 Lamb Chops Play-Along! 9.30 At Home (PG). Topical. 9.30 (W, N) Sing Me A Rainbow.

10.00 (W. N) People's Court -(Rpt). 10.30 How Do You Cope? 10.30 (W, N) Real Life Topical. 1 1 .00 Eleven AM Topical affairs. 1 2.00 Movie Silence Of The Heart (PG, 84, Rpt).

About the effects of a suicide on a family. Featuring Mariette Hartley. 2.00 Perry Mason (PG, Rpt). 2.00 (W, N) A Country Practice. 3.00 The Hogan Family (Rpt).

3.30 Family Ties -(Rpt). Comedy. 4.00 Disney Adventures -(Rpt). 4.30 Blockbusters -Quiz show. 5.00 Family Feud Game show.

5.30 Wheel Of Fortune -Quiz. 6.00 News, Sport And Weather. 6.00-7.00 (W, N) News. Weather. 6.30 Real Life Topical affair.

7.00 Jimmy Barnes: Flesh And Wood Songs from his new album. Guests include Deborah Conway. Archie Roach, The Badloves. (Simulcast with 2MMM-FM). 8.30 Movies (Rpts).

The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (M, 87). A team of military prisoners must rescue six scientists. Telly Savalas, Ernest Borgnine. 10.30 The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (PG, 88). The dozen must destroy a group of top-level Nazis.

Telly Savalas. 10.30 (W, N) Real Life Topical. 1 1.00 (W, N) Fanelli Boys (PG). 1 1 .30 (W, N) Herman's Head (PG). 12.30 NBC Today Show.

12.30 (W. N) Home Shopping Guide. 1.00 (W, N) NBC Today Show. 2.30 Movies Under The Boardwalk (M, 88). Featuring Keith Coo-gan.

4.20 Once Upon A Texas Train (PG, 88, Rpt). A Texas badman tries to be a railway bandit. With Willie Nelson. France celebrates a long legacy of image-makers Pascoe, conducting the 1 6.00 Neighbours -(S, Rpt). 6.00 (N) News And Weather.

6.30 Mighty Mouse And Friends. 7.00 Dungeons Dragons. 7.30 Incredible Hulk For children. 8.00 Totally Wild (Rpt). For kids.

8.30 Mulligrubs -(Rpt). For kids. 9.00 Good Morning Australia. 1 1.00 Sally Jessy Raphael Mickey Rooney (PG). An interview.

12.00 Santa Barbara (PG). Drama. 1.00 Bold And The Beautiful. 1.30 Donahue Employers Spying On Employees Working (PG). 2.30 The Oprah Winfrey Show -Can You Solve This Murder? 3.30 Live It Up (PG).

Lifestyle. 4.00 Zorro-(Rpt). Adventure. 4.30 Totally Wild Wildlife. 5.00 News, Sport And Weather.

5.00.(W) Neighbours (S). 5.30 (W) The Simpsons (Rpt). 6.00 The Simpsons (Rpt). 6.00-7.00 (W) News And Weather. 6.30 Neighbours (S).

Drama. 7.00 Who's The Boss? Romance is stirred between Tony and Angela. Comedy with Tony Danza and Judith Light. 7.30 Are You Being Served? -(Rpt). Preparations are made for a Royal visit.

Comedy. 8.30 Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford: Murder Being Once Done (PG). A chilling murder investigation begins when a girl's body is found hidden in a vault at a gloomy London graveyard. Mystery featuring George Baker. 10.40 News And Weather.

11.10 Sports Tonight Sports news. 1 1.40 The Making Of Airs Doubtfire. 1 2. 1 0 The Fugitive (PG. Rpt).

1. 10 (W) Close. 1. 10 The Professionals (M, Rpt). 2.10 (NRTV) Close.

2.10 Movies (Rpts). Test Pilot (PG, 38, bw). Drama featuring Myrna Loy. 4.20 Legions Of The Nile (60). Linda Cristal.

The flautist had to occupy several locations, including sticking her head and flute under the piano lid, for a rather ineffectual piece, Gesto, by Bruen, of Germany. And what made up the disparate episodes of a Phantasiestueck (1988) by the Argentine-born German resident Mauricio Kagel suggested the phantasmagoria of a disconnected dream. Taken together, all this called for every possible, and sometimes impossible, sound which can be conjured from various flutes and a piccolo. Kathleen Gallager was more than equal to the challenge. For both musicians, this was a distinguished display in a specialised field.

states, "the diffusion of the works in book, postcard and exhibition Having taught the world to "speak" photography, France appears determined that such statements will never be lost. i frvy'yyyv- i The Dirty Dozen III, (1985) at 8.30 pm on 7: The redemption-through-expenditure aspect of Nunally Johnson's original script made it cert for sequels. And to date there have been heaps, each worse than the previous one and the plot carbon wearing thinner than a flophouse blanket. Of the original crew, only Telly Savalas and Ernest Borgnine have managed to survive the lot a tribute to their desire to appear in as many trashy films as possible. Here, Telly somewhat recovered from his psychopathy heads a dozen, which includes a female (Heather Thomas), aboard the Orient Express for another suicidesalvation excursion behind Nazi lines.

Dirty Dozen IV The Fatal Mission (1988) follows with the misfits heading to the Middle East under the com CUE 1 6.00 Open Learning Aust Studies. 6.30 AusTV News (Rpt). Topical. 7.00 I st Edition News program. 7.30 Open Learning French.

(8.00) Aust Env Studies. 8.30 Sesame Street (Rpt). 9.25 Bananas In Pyjamas (Rpt). 9.30 Play School -(S. Rpt).

1 0.00 Puddle Lane (Rpt). For kids. 1 0. 1 5 Charlie Chalk (Rpt). For kids.

10.30 Count Duckula-(Rpt). 1 0.50 Captain Pugwash (Rpt). 1 1.00 Vidiot- (Rpt). Quiz program. II .30 Grange Hill (S).

Drama. 1 2.00 The World At Noon (Final). 12.30 In Co With Cruickshank. LOO Open Learning- (S). Religion.

2.00 Golf Day two of the 1993 Coolum Classic, from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. With commentary by Peter Gee and Peter Thompson. 5.00 The Afternoon Show With Michael Tunn (Final). With: (5.02) Widget (Rpt). (5.30) The Adventures Of Tintin.

6.00 Gardens Of The World. 6.30 Gardening Australia (S. Final). Peter Cundall. 7.00 News, Sport And Weather.

7.30 7.30 Report Summer Edition. 8.00 On The Up (S. Rpt). Tony onoff marriage to Ruth is going through another tricky patch. Dennis Waterman.

8.30 Movie -Bue Max (S. PG. 66). A young German officer, having just completed his aviation training, competes for the coveted Blue Max flying award. Featuring George Peppard.

1 1.00 News And Weather (S). 1 1. 10 Movie Kipps (41. bw). A young British shopkeeper inherits a fortune, but clashes with his lover over his excessive new lifestyle.

Michael Redgrave and Phyllis Calvert. 12.30 Australia Television International News -Topical. LOO Rage -All-night music show. though a Umbo created by the inventor of those politically correct weather clocks where the woman comes onto the balcony in fair weather and the man appears when it turns nasty. FOR THE WEEKEND The Cutting Edge, 7 pm Sat and 1.30 pm Sun, SBS: Response to Done Bali, which went to air on November 30, has been so overwhelming that SBS is rescreening it twice this weekend.

Countless Australian tourists are unaware of the trouble in paradise and not simply because so many of them go to Bali to drink themselves stupid. Kerry Negara's doco examines the brutal and corrupt past, plus negative effects the tourism juggernaut is having on the island's fragile ecosystem. Doug Anderson EI 6.00 Cosby's You Bet Your Life. 6.00 (N) Kenneth Copeland. 6.30 ITN World News-Topical.

6.55 Business Today -Finance. 7.00 Today-(1 993 Final). 9.00 Here's Humphrey For kids. 9.00 (N) This Morning (PG). 9.30 (N) Romper Room For kids.

9.30 Ernie And Denise- Topical. 10.00 (N) Here's Humphrey-(Rpt). 10.30 News And Weather. 10.30 (N) Laveme Shirley (Rpt). I LOO Designing Women -(PG).

1 1.30 Entertainment Tonight. 12.00 Movie Jack McCall, Desperado (53, Rpt). A Southerner sets out to capture the man who framed him as a spy. With George Montgomery. 1.30 Days Of Our Lives -(PG).

2.30 Young And The Restless. 3.30 Supermarket Sweep -Game. 4.00 Baby Talk -For kids. 4.30 Ship To Shore Drama series. 5.00 Bugs Bunny (Rpt).

Comedy. 5.00 (W) Troop Comedy. 5.30 Happy Days (Rpt). Comedy. 5.30 (W.

N) The Price Is Right. 6.00 News, Sport And Weather. 6.30 A Current Affair -Topical. 7.00 The Price Is Right. 7.00 (W, N) A Current Affair.

7.30 The Cosby Show (PG. Rpt). 8.30 Movie Little Shop Of Horrors (M. 86, Rpt). Black musical comedy about a nerdish man who discovers a weird-looking plant that lives on human blood.

Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene and Steve Martin. 8.30 (N) Movie Car Trouble (M, 85). With Ian Charleson. 10.30 Nightline News program. 1 1.00 Golf-World Championship.

1.00 Entertainment Tonight. 1 .30 Movies (Rpts). Another Country (M, 84). Drama oased on the Julian Mitchell play. Rupert Everett.

3.20 Miami Super Cops (PG, 80). Terence Hill. 5.10 Thunder-birds (Rpt). I A r- I HTET 6.30 WorldWatch Featuring: (6.30) Dateline (Rpt). (7.00) Le Journal (In French).

(7.30) The Journal (In English). (8.00) Chinese News. (8.30) Novosti (Russian). (9.00) Das Journal. 9.30 WeatherWatch And Music.

1 2.30 WorldWatch (Cont). 1 2.30) Business Report (US). (1.00) MacNeilLehrer Newshour. 2.00 WeatherWatch And Music. 4.30 TV Ed (Rpt).

Education. 5.00 English At Work (Rpt). 5.30 Den Of Wolves (Rpt). 5.50 FYI Education. In Arabic.

6.00 The Global Family (Rpt). Documentary about the life of a group of mountain gorillas. 6.30 World News And Weather. 7.00 Dateline Current affairs. 7.30 The Feast Of Christmas (Pt 3).

Documentary series looking at Christmas around the world. Tonight: A pagan sacrifice; A boarshead dinner at Oxford; A turkey farm. 8.00 Through Australian Eyes: Looking For Love (Final). A look at 90s matchmaking. 8.30 People: Cissy Houston Sweet Inspiration.

A tribute to the singer's contribution to gospel and rhythm and blues. (US). 9.30 Movie Twilight Of The Cockroaches (87). A truce is broken, and all-out war erupts between cockroaches and humans. Kaoru Kobayashi.

1 1.20 nomad summer specials. 12.20 Movies (Ms). Silent Night (91). A man contemplates spending another Christmas with his mother. Steven Ber-koff.

(UK). 12.50 To Eoch His Own (66. Rpt). Gian Maria Volonte. (Italy).

2.25 Close. Newcastle Wollongong Programs supplied by TV channels SUBJECT TO LATE ALTERATIONS Subtitles for the hearing impaired From page 20 remains the definitive portrait of an artist without the person actually being present. Everything in the photograph points towards the room's occupant and his pioneering, austere geometric vision. The selective observation of table, vase, stairway and hat composed with formal simplicity reveals as much of Kertesz's knowledge of his subject as his own disciplined style. Jaime La France also includes a substantial selection of works from Marcel Bovis and Rene Jacques, both distinguished by a love of Parisian nightlife and the rigorous craft and compositional skills required in documenting the demi-monde.

Denise Colomb's portraits of artists, unspectacular and bone honest, also add to the totality of the show. The last photographer represented, Daniel Boudinet 1 945-1 990), is at a glance the most curious. His essentially monochromatic colour images with finely tuned intrusions of primary colours appear out of step with the sense of societal observation so prevalent elsewhere in the exhibition. His moody images, on reflection, however, have much in common with Eugene Atget (1856-1927), whose contribution I have so far failed to mention. Atget's images of Versailles, especially, have always seemed redolent with atmosphere and the sense of great and terrible past events.

So, too, do Boudi-net's brooding pictures of theatres, palaces and facades with their apparently clinical surfaces. Closer contemplation reveals their sense of mystery. So far, the Patrimoine Photo-graphique has been highly selec- I. Paul Nadar's 1883 portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, Pierrot Assassin the thousand-yard stare. tive in gaining access to photographers bodies of work.

Once acquired, this work is preserved archivally, in perpetuity, with the artists heirs receiving half of the returns from, as Pierre Bonhomme,.