The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 18

The Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday, August 27, 1987 Page 18 Witches ffMi onnlly JC 'viWv fv i 1 T-vv -5 -x What will Ivan make ofVFL? While many Soviets believe Australians are just ordinary, hospitable people, a Russian film crew has come to see for itself. LARRY SCHWARTZ reports. x. SSvf 3 xvXxn! vy jr -Vs 5WV. V-VXVjVs Vi v.

X-x X. TZXE WITCHES OF EASTWICK Directed by George Miller. by Michael Cristorer. Rated M. Village Cinema City and suburbs.

Reviews by PAUL BYRNES --x VNX Xv Melbourne were the EORGE MILLER directs 77ie XXV XV vxvv VV if x. v. xx xv -W J-v OxXxWV sc to Vituly llyash- Mi: crams 01 first big surpri enko alter his a HL trams of Witches of Eastwick with a arrival in Australia. sort of crazed bravado that feels almost drunken. It's the XN xx x-xx vv xX xvx xxvvvvx vx VtX.

XtWW4 lvVxX x- Jack Nicholson as Daryl he's never been more likable or lascivious at the same time. until they realise they have become witches. Having outgrown their husbands, they are now rid of them in Updike's characteristically icked way. One hangs on a hook in the cellar, drying out with the herbs, another shrank so much that he disintegrated into ash and had to be swept up, the third has been "permanised" he's now a placemat. The movie is more naturalistic.

Alexandra (Cher) is a widow, with a brood of children; Sukie (Michelle Pfeiffer). mother of six daughters, is divorced; and Jane (Susan Sarandon), mother of none, has just finalised her divorce after her husband walked out. They agree that men are hopeless, but they'd rather not be without them all the time. In the beginning, the women don't know they are witches. It's only when they notice that things happen when their thoughts coincide like the rainstorm over the school presentation day, which drowns out the boring, sexist headmaster.

When they agree one night, over a jug of martinis, that they would all like a new, exciting stranger in their lives, Daryl (Jack Nicholson) arrives in town in his big, black Mercedes, and moves into a grand, old mansion. The sorcery, both in the story and in George Miller's treatment of it, then begins. Witches is really a modern fable. If you reduce the diabolism to human dimensions, it's about the struggle between the sexes. Alexandra, Sukie and Jane are superwomen, and they want a superman.

(Why not one each? Are there so few around?) Daryl is such a man warm, witty, sexy, non-sexist, independent, generous, inventive, strong but he's no angel. He tends to invade them, and his hidden aim is procreation, as in Rosemary's Baby (why does the devil have to mate with a woman, which the witches aren't crazy about. I'm not sure that the movie is very flattering to women (these women still need a man to be fulfilled), but it's less flattering to men. The men are cither wimps or warlocks, and in human terms, they're incapable of dealing ith kind of movie you might get if Steven Spielberg and Ken Russell worked together with Spielberg's sense of wonder, but not his sentimentalism, "and Russell's eye for sex, symbolism and visual excitement, without his excess. Among Australian film-makers.

George Miller has-the most distinctive style because it's the most visceral. He doesn't display the subtlety of a Fred Schepisi. nor the lyricism of a Peter AVeir. but his movies have a sort of demonic energy and ferocity. Miller has an extraordinary understanding of.

and delight in. the power of the medium the sort of delight that Gomez Adams gets from smashing up his model trains and that's what makes The Witches of Eastwick so high-spirited. It's based on the novel by John Updike, but Michael Cristofer's script gets further from the original idea the longer it goes. The movie is about three 'modern women Alexandra, Sukie 'and Jane who have an eventful and bizarre relationship ith a new man in town. Darvl Van Home, who describes himself as "just your average horny little devil The town of Eastwick is picturesque "historical" New England, with well-swept streets, well-maintained 300-year-old houses, and a well-attended, white clapboard church.

The village reminds us of Salem, and the church sits in the background of many scenes like a puritan sentinel. These three women are all beautiful, talented and husbandless. In the book, Eastwick has made their powers grow. way they come up with new ideas to make us gasp a collective There are plenty of these moments in Nightmare III the talking severed head, the sexy nurse who gives a new meaning to tongue-lashing, the giant Freddy slug trying to devour one of the kids whole but the bits in between these emetic episodes are bland and lifeless, punctuated by truly dreadful dialogue. "The unquiet spirit must be laid to rest," warns the gaunt-faced soothsaying nun.

Too right, Sister. A day in the life of a brothel Directed by Lizzie Borden. Written by Borden and Sandra Kay. Rated R. Academy Twin, Paddinglon.

a strong woman, let alone three, on equal terms. The script is structured as a romance, from first bloom to disillusionment to open warfare, and George Miller does some beautiful things with each phase. The scene with Daryl and the three witches dancing with their kids in a ballroom full of pink balloons is magical, funny and transfixing. When they all float above the pool, like angels, the sense of wonder is infectious. The settings are gorgeous and the cinematography, by Vilmos Zsigmond (who shot Close Encounters is gleaming.

The actors are full of gusto, but none more than Nicholson, who charms us as he cusses, cavorts and blithely copulates with whichever witch. He's never been more likable and lascivious at the same time. His devil is very human. Witches is probably the funniest and most thematically substantial script that George Miller has yet worked on, and he benefits from both challenges. The movie has grace, wit and only a little moderation, and there seems to have been joy, rather than trouble, in the toil.

Emetic epic of Elm Street MGIXTMARE ON ELM STREET 3 DREAM WARRIORS Directed by Chuck Russell. Written by Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner. Rated M. Hoyts and suburbs. ET COMES as something of a shock to find that I'm no longer scared of Freddy Krueger, the killer ghost who stalks children in their dreams.

After the first Nightmare on Elm Street, I had difficulty going out alone in the middle of the day, let alone the night. Wes Craven had created a classic, new horror villain in Freddy, with his razor fingers, his fire-scarred face and his horrible, gurgling voice. The movie was deeply frightening, without using the standard horror techniques of sudden shocks and stormy nights. It also had a clever sub-text, with Freudian overtones. Freddy exploits every teenage neurosis, from fear of sex to father-fixations to general distrust of adults.

The second Nightmare, which Craven had nothing to do with, was a mite scary but nothing like as clever or classy. The third, in which Craven collaborated on the script only, is better than the sequel, but it's still not up to the original, despite a lot of flashy (and fleshy) special effects. The few hairs remaining on the back of my neck only sat up and took notice once or twice, always a good test. Maybe I've grown used to Freddy, the child murderer who came back as the undead after he was torched by the vigilante Elm Street parents. It's easier now to predict his actions because "It's strange.

I never imagined you had them." said the greying. 55-year-old Soviet television personality, watching the bustle of a lunch-hour crowd from the corner of Dourke and Spring Streets. Even though he had heard of trams in San Eruncisco, he associated them with "the flavour of a previous not the modern city he took Melbourne to Ilyashenko. who was clued up enough to ask about a rumoured inter-city rivalry with Sydney, was here briefly earlier this year to report on the visit by the Soviet oreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnade. for his country's broadcasting organisation.

Ciostel. A political commentator, Ilyashenko flew out of a rainy Moscow to film the first ever Soviet-made documentary on the Australiytchi, Russian for the Australian people. Ilyashenko and three colleagues will spend a month here filming footage for the documentary which is expected to be seen by up to 20 million Soviet iewers during Australia's Bicentenary. With him are cameraman Dmitry Screbryakov, engineer Uri Terek hov, and Soviet foreign relations official Zinaida Ycvgrafova. Partly funded and organised by ilm Australia, the production division of the Australian film ommission, the Soviet documentary has been in the pipeline for at least 10 years.

It is part of a reciprocal venture which has been delaved by factors including former Prime Minister Malcolm Eraser's ban on cultural interchange in response to Soviet activities in Afghanistan. In 1977, film Australia made a documentary, called The Russians, on a similar co-operative basis. Ilyashenko and his crew will only have time to film in southern and eastern Australia, and will use Australian footage of the interior, north and west. The film crew visited the MCG to see Melbourne play the West Coast Eagles on Friday, interviewed a HHP manager and worker at Wollongong, and made a trip to an Aboriginal farm project at Lake Tyers in Victoria. The crew has spoken to Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

Opposition Leader John Howard, the anti-nuclear activist and rock singer Peter Garrett, and entrepreneur Michael Edgley. Last Thursday the Russians visited the National Gallery of Victoria to see works by artists including Albert Tucker, and they will also conduct a rare interview with the Nobel Prie-winning author. Patrick White, whose work has been translated into Russian. They will also visit Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane. Zinaida Ycvgrafova said the documentary would help increase the understanding of Australia and the way degrees, and she's pretty in an ordinary sort of way.

She lives with another woman, and she doesn't look like a hooker. Molly chooses to rent her body, rather than do a less lucrative job. She has a fair amount of control over the men, and she doesn't do anything she doesn't want to, at least in terms of sex. The oppression she feels is industrial. The brothel is run by an awful woman called Lucy (Ellen McElduff), a painted doll whose acquisitiveness knows no bounds, and who fights the girls for every dollar.

Lucy is the real villain of the movie, not the customers, most of whom are pathetic, harmless, and charmless. Lucy is the capitalist, exploiting her workers. The big dramatic deficiency of Working Girls is that there are no real characters. Molly comes close to being flesh and blood, but the rest are simply bearers of attitudes, the film-maker's puppets. For most of the time, we just listen to them sitting around talking, but the talk is very stilted, full of well-formed phrases that are meant to inform the viewer, but which sound like the sort of thing prostitutes wouldn't need to say to each other.

When they're chatting about how many guys ask to see them outside work, Gina (Marusia Zach, who co-wrote the script as "Sandra says: "Don't they understand that when I walk out of here, I'm not the same person?" Well, we do now. The second big problem is that Borden presents contradictory messages. As she's trying to show how prostitution is not so bad for some women, she's also trying not to look as though she's justifying it. Towards the end, as Molly is forced into a double shift, Borden drifts toward a more conventional depiction of a social ev il, in which women are forced to degrade themselves. Is it as bad as all that, after all? What about those women who can't freely choose to chuck it all in, those who work down lower in the market? Ultimately, the film has little force (unlike say, Marleen Gorris's Broken Mirrors even less technique, and not much that is novel.

we know him and his sick sense of humour and predictability is the last thing you want in a horror movie. Credibility (at least in the ordinary details) is the first thing, and this story has little of it. In the beginning, we are introduced to a couple of kids who all appear to have suicidal tendencies, coupled with sleeping disorders. They're all in the same psychiatric institution, but no-one believes in the common link that they all dream about Freddy. No-one has noticed that they're all from Elm Street either, or that that's where countless numbers of children have met horrible deaths before them (I don't know how many, but it must be close to 20 by now).

The only one who does know what's going on is Nancy (Heather Langen-kamp), the young heroine of the original movie, who has just arrived at the clinic as a trainee shrink. Naturally, given her past, she wants to specialise in sleeping disorders, and these kids give her plenty to study. Freddy kills by exploiting fears or weaknesses, and he has a mean sense of humour. One of the kids wants to go to Hollywood and get on television, so Freddy kills her by shoving her head into the tube. "This is it, Jennifer," he cries, his head sticking out of the box, your big break in Another of the kids is in a wheelchair, but he can walk in his dreams, so Freddy attacks him with a mechanised wheelchair covered in sharp blades.

Another is a junkie, so Freddy turns his razor fingers into syringes. The trick to staying alive is to overcome one's own fears, and that's the movie's message, such as it is. It remains a mystery why Heather Langenkamp was brought back for another try at Nancy. She looks like a toothy Barbie doll, and she's no more expressive. Indeed, all the performances are pretty terrible.

Chuck Russell, formerly a producer and writer, makes his debut as a director here, and while he copes well with the action sequences, he knows little about working with actors. Part of the fun of the Elm Street series is in their inventive grossness, the about middle-class prostitu- am T-X tl xxIsxx'X xxx XaX ScXs. xfc x- tion in New York. It unglam-orous, unsexy, unmoralistic, and unabashed, all of which makes it somewhat unusual. It's also fairly uninspired as filmmaking.

Lizzie Borden, the director and co-writer, has well-developed ideas about the politics and sociology of prostitution, but she can't dramatise them. Working Girls is like an educational film, made cheaply by enthusiastic amateurs. Borden wants people to accept that some women choose freely to work as prostitutes, and that they're not necessarily drug-taking no-hopers, or victims. Her point is that the usual attacks on prostitutes, from feminists to moral conservatives, end up by degrading these women, intentionally or not. The film is structured as a day in the life of a middle-class brothel.

The house is a tasteful apartment in a security building, and most of the clients are regulars, whose tastes don't range beyond the acceptably eccentric. Molly (Louise Smith) works there part-time. She went to Yale, has two XT? XX It XX xx xsN.x x. xxxXXxXxXxxvNV xv xX XV -v. XV-S XXX xv Xv x- SSB xvvvvvjvvvvvx JSV vvx --s HvXXvvvxxx.NN.N.

xv xvNXx KSV VXVV xVV XVV.VV,VXVVS xv XXX-XXXX jv "vX vvsVs xv vv xv XV x. Xxx V-vxvXv -XVVv XX VV, The Freddy slug attempts to devour Kristen (Patricia Arquette). OPENINGS of life here in the Soviet Union, whose ELDERS TRUSTEE people know "definitely not too much about the nowadays Australians are seen as "just ordinary people who live in a beautiful country and are very RAISING ARIZONA: Hilarious comedy about some real nice folks who kidnap a baby. Don't miss. Academy Twin, Hoyts Centre and suburbs.

MY LIFE AS A DOG: Wonderful, whimsical story of a Swedish boy growing up in 1959, with humour, pain and pathos. Must see. Dendy. RADIO DAYS: Woody Allen is in top form with this funny and affectionate tribute to the golden days of radio. Pitt Centre and Village Double Bay.

TRAVELLING NORTH Leo McKern gives a fine performance as the cranky old Frank in film of David Williamson's play. The Roma. WORKING GIRLS: Stilted day-in-the-lifc of middle-class prostitutes in New York. Ungla-morised, unsexy, unmoralistic but uninspired. Academy Twin, Paddingion.

WORTH SEEING DIM SUM Warm, witty and wise movie about a Chinese-American family in San Francisco, directed by acclaimed newcomer Wayne Wang. The Roma. HIGH TIDE: Gillian Armstrong directs Judy Davis again in this moving drama about motherhood, set on the South Coast. Hoyts Centre and Bondi. hospitable." HELL CAMP: Unpreviewed.

Torture and brutality masquerades as training in a jungle military camp. Village Cinema City. NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3 -DREAM WARRIORS: Mildly scary romp with Freddy Krueger and the gang, but not up to the standard of the original. Hoyts and suburbs. THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK: George Miller has done fine things with John Updike's story of three witches and a horny little devil, played by Jack Nicholson.

It's high-spirited, funny, and visually stunning. Village Cinema City and suburbs. And the difference in lifestyle? Ilyashenko, dismissing questions about the KGB with a wave of the hand, was adamant that he was as free walking the streetsof his home city as Melbourne. "You come to Moscow and you will see for yourself," he said. Bowie snared in Dainty's webb David Bowie tour of Austra-a was confirmed yesterday State Rail I afternoon by promoter Paul arose over the dropping of a couple of band members, but Beck was not one of them." Pink Floyd, having resolved a bitter court case, will also tour for Dainty early next year minus self-styled leader and main songwriter Roger Waters.

Last November Waters made a High Court application to dissolve the group, citing "musical, philosophical, political and personal differences" with the other band members. PETER COCHRANE tainly I can't see myself doing anything this complex again," he said. "It's a mammoth operation to cart around the world, and just the preparation alone took six months out of my life." Paul Dainty reaffirmed yesterday that Mick Jagger would tour Australia "in the first quarter of Press reports at the weekend suggested that plans for his first solo tour had been shelved because of a backstage bust-up with his guitarist Jeff Beck. Dainty denied this: "The confusion probably The Sir Ross Sir Keith Smith Fund Tbe Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smitb Fund was established toperpetuate the JL memory of two cUstingaisfjed South Australian pioneer aviators Sir Ross Smith AjBLE, M.C, and bis brother Sir Keith Smith KB. In 1986 Lady (Anita) Smith, widow of Sir Keith Smith, bequeathed bcrcntbv estate for this purpose and directed that the income of the Fund be applied in perpetuity for "advancement in the State of South Australia of the Science of Aeronautics and of education It was her intention that the Fund should advance scientific and technological knowledgein "each andet ery aspect of all means of human conveyance or transportation through the air and inner and outer Elders Trustee is Trustee of the Fund A specialist Adi isory Committee provides continuing guidance to the Trustee to ensure that the objectives of the Fund are being achieved The fiurfxise of the Futui is to encourage scientific study, research and development in disciplines related to aeronautics and aerospace technology.

It is intended that the Fund will be directed towards establishing and maintaining a unique research capability within South Australia winch will have both local and worldwide significance. It will also seek opportunities to establish a special niche in a discipline that will be of particular benefit to South Australia. The Trustee believes tljere is a need to stimulate innovation in aerospace research and to develop a greater design capability within Australia To achieve this objective, the Fund may consider exclusive or joint futtdingofapprxjpriaieresearcbpmjectsuithinSouW tertiary institutions and will consider awarding scholarships or fellowships for approved research. Preference will be given to South Australians carrying out research in South Australia or elsewhere. However, persons from other States involved in research in South Australia may also be eligible for consideration.

Persons or organisations wishing to apply for assistance from the Fund should enquire in the first instance to Mr. IB. McArthur, Manager Trusts, Elders Trustee, Adelaide. Training and Development Manager (Senior Officer, Class 9). Salary: $51,682 $52,693 $570 p.a.

expense allowance, and an industrial allowance of $1,234 is applicable (under prescribed conditions) Location: Sydney. The appointee will be accountable to the Genera! Manager, Employee Relations for the general management of corporate training and develop- ment functions. The position also provides a consultative service to the Urban Transit Authority. QualificationsExperience: SHe must have a successful record of introducing organisation change and a capacity to implement EEO policies, particularly as they relate to the training and development function. It is expected that applicants will possess relevant tertiary qualifications, and proven ability in implementing modem human resource management practices.

Benefits incude: Free travel on Transport" Authorities Bus, Rail and Ferry services, four weeks Annual Leave; Long Service Leave after 10 years service. Superannuation, opportunities for professional advancement. Inquiries: Mr E. J. Baker.

290 4273. Pos 030071. Copy of duty statement is available. Applications setting out full details of qualifications and experience should be addressed to reach the Principal Staff Officer (Support Services), 6th Floor, Transport House, 11-31 York Street, a Sydney, NSW 2000. Dainty following lengthy negotiations over the importation of a 60-feet-high, 64-feet-wide translucent spider.

Bowie, 40, will perform a two-and-half-hour, 25-30 song concert in three cities omy: Brisbane on October 29; Sydney, November 2 and 3, and Melbourne, November 18. The Sydney concerts are at the Entertainment Centre his first indoor shows here. The gigantic spider is the centrepiece of a set that weighs 100 tons; it is flanked by two huge video screens and backed by a 50-foot web. "I've been negotiating since New Year," Dainty said from Melbourne. "Despite the prohibitive cost of bringing such a set to Australia, Bowie insisted that it was 'all or nothing'." Concerts in Adelaide and Perth were ruled out because of the expense of road transport.

In America, the lavishly staged spectacle requires three gargantuan stages 1 1 5- by 190-feet wide so that two can be set up in other cities while one is in use. There, 17 trucks are being used to transport each set from venue to venue; here, Dainty hopes to accommodate the equipment in 12 or 13 trucks. It will be brought to Australia in two sections, by sea and air. Before the tour began in Europe, Bowie promised that the Glass Spider performances would be more theatrical than anything he has attempted since the early 1970s. It has been suggested in the rock press that the 15-country tour could represent Bowie's performing swan song, but he was circumspect in a recent American interview.

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Box R279, ROYAL EXCHANGE 2000. Closing date: 10 September. 1987. ELDER'S TRUSTEE AND EXECUTOR COMPANY UMTTED (INCORPORATED IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA) 27-39 CIJRRIE STREET, ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA POSTAL ADDRESS: G.P.O. BOX 546, ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA 5001.

TELEPHONE: 2184911.