Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 31

Q5Bf Oops! Mistakes happen, and a new round of happens tonight on Channel 2C TV bloopers 10. The week gets a photo finish 'KtJ SECTION following the seminars from 6:30 8:30 p.m. The offerings conclude Sunday a photographic trade show sale from 10 a m. to 4 p.m. at Holiday Inn Rochester South, Jefferson Road in Henrietta.

This is the ninth such event sponsored by the Rochester society, a group of 70 photography that formed in 1966. "Over the years, we've had people come from as far away as Australia," says Jack Bloemendaal Rochester, a retired Eastman Kodak Co. employee and a chairman of the event All events are open to the public. A $65 registration fee covers the cost of the entire week ROCHESTER, NEW YORK DcmOCHT 1 jfcft FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1994 ALtv' end except for the buffet dinner, which is $25. (The registration fee does cover a reception from 7 to 10 p.m.

tonight at the hotel.) Admission to the show only is $5. Tickets may be purchased at the door. For more information, call (716) 288-6359. her Columns Out About I I I Inside goes out Television 1 I 3C 2C REVIEWS nm wmmn we'i I By LISA GUTIERREZ STAFF WRITER Picture this; Ninety-eight tables overflowing with antique photographs, cameras and books about cameras. If that image gets your "fixer flowing, you'll want to join in this weekend's activities sponsored by The Photographic Historical Society of Rochester the oldest photographic collectors group in the United States.

Tomorrow, historians and collectors from around the world will lead symposiums from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the George Eastman House, 900 East Ave. The talks, all with a historical theme, will cover topics ranging from "Alfred Stieglitz: Passion and Personality," to "107 Years of the Single-Use Camera." Matthew Isenburg, a noted daguerreian historian and collector from Hadlyme, will give a speech at a buffet dinner won Weird! The true tale of the world's worst filmmaker is a monstrous success Take us to your litter Ed Wood re-creates a scene from Wood's appallingly awful sci-fi movie, Plan 9 From Outer Space. I ifU I' to with and the 1111 buffs of and 77 17 derful ju -v- Touchstone Pictures (right) plays Edward D.

Wood maker of the most inspired bad films. That's amore Marisa Tomei (right) heads to Italy to find love (Robert Downey Jr.) in Only You. 3C It came from Hollywood Johnny Depp secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. Can your hearts stand the shocking facts of the true story of Edward D. Wood However, Burton the frizzy-haired director of the two Batman films and Edward Scissorhands uses such melodramatic, over-the-top style with surprising sophistication.

He finds ways to make subtle points about ambition, innocence and the nature of Hollywood. Cinematographer Stefan Czapsky brings a fabulous visual sensibility to the project, creating rich black-and-white images for most of the film, but shifting gears to bland, poorly lighted photography for the duplications of the original Wood movies. The film is not only a hilarious satire of Wood and his low-budget antics, but also a loving paean to dreamers everywhere. Ed Wood is portrayed as the Andy Hardy of junk movies, an enthusiastic kid who never seemed to comprehend that he didn't have an ounce of talent. When Plan 9 from Outer Space finally hits the screen, he declares, This is the one Til be remembered for!" Director Burton and screenwriters Scott V.

wmwiwww uuxw A ft1 fl v. I vl 1 tew INTERVIEW Alexander and Larry Karaszewski assume a generous dose of creative license, presenting an Ed Wood who is an eager, resilient and tireless innocent. They wisely focus on the period when Wood first tried to break into the movie business, from his transvestite debut in Glen or Glenda to the release of his bad-movie classic, Plan 9. The film avoids Wood's later slide into booze and the writing and filming of porn movies. Thus, Burton's film is no reality-based docudrama.

It may more accurately be labeled a funny and affectionate fantasia on a bizarre life. For example, Wood didn't really meet 'WOOD', PAGE 8C By JACK GARNER STAFF FILM CRITIC Edward D. Wood Jr. never created the great film he always hoped to make during his brief foray through the Hollywood of the 1950s. In fact, he made some of the worst movies Hollywood has ever generated.

If you dont believe me, rent a copy of Plan 9 from Outer Space, the last movie in which Bela Lugosi appeared. As you watch in wonder, your mouth will drop open. Working on minuscule budgets, Wood made howlingly bad movies about vampires and clairvoyants, cross-dressers and mediums, flying saucers and zombies. But now he's the subject of a film that's more entertaining and wildly imaginative than anything he could have imagined. In Tim Burton's Ed Wood, Johnny Depp stars as the infamous transvestite filmmaker who often directed in drag.

Ed Wood cleverly assumes the style and aura of an Ed Wood movie, from the black-and-white photography to the schlocky music. It even opens with the florid narration of a Wood film: "Greetings, my friends. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable that is why you are here. So now, for the first time, we are giving you all the evidence, based only on the They're led by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, and neither has ever been better. For the role of the book- and bird-lover, Darabont gave James Whitmore his first movie part in eight years, and the 73-year-old actor proves he's not ready for a pasture, even if it's fertilized with Miracle-Gro.

Darabont's other trick is to weave an immensely clever plot through what at first seems to be a character study. At first, the intricacies of the story are barely discernible. But by film's end, it packs an emotional wallop unlike any you've experienced at the movies this year. Though I won't tell you how, the good finally are rewarded, the bad are punished and a character we've come to love is, indeed, redeemed. All in all, The Shawshank Redemption is the best prison movie since Jimmy Cagney and Humphrey Bogart were behind bars.

That might explain why Darabont fought hard for the right to make his directorial debut with this screenplay. Darabont knew what he wanted and he appears to have gotten it. The film offers rich, dark images to match its vivid emotions. And every character is memorably delineated, from the Bible-thumping warden (Bob Guhton) to a Wonderful! All of those old prison-movie cliches are redeemed aT Lf It's another off-kilter role for deft Depp By JACK GARNER STAFF FILM CRITIC NEW YORK Johnny Depp was vaguely familiar with the story of schlock director Edward D. Wood the man whose life he re-creates in Tim Burton's new movie.

Wood became a legend of the 1950s by making such infamous films as the gender-confusion saga Glen or Glenda and the $1.95 sci-fi epic Plan 9 from Outer Space. However, when Burton asked Depp to play the irrepressible loser in Ed Wood, the 31-year-old actor looked elsewhere for inspiration. He looked at Ronald Reagan, the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz and disc jockey Casey Kasem Say what? "Even though Ed was a real person, it didn't seem like such a person could exist, in a way," Depp says. "He's so optimistic in the face of everything that's against him. He maintained that enthusiasm and optimism even when people were calling him the worst director of all time.

"It reminded me, in a way, of Ronald Reagan. Hundreds could be booing Reagan and bombs could be going off around him, and he'd never shake that smile, that optimism. "The Tin Man also came to mind. Also, the enthusiastic salesmanship of a radio DJ, like a Casey Kasem. That 'go-out-there-and-go-get-'em' attitude." Depp believes Wood's entire world revolved around movies.

"He'd do anything for what he considered his art. I don't mean he'd sell out or anything. It's just that he refused to see anything bad. 'Teople call him the worst director of all time, but I can't say that because he was true to his vision and he made the best of the situation. There are worse direc- DEPP, PAGE 8C Ed Wood Starring: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Bill Murray Directed by: Tim Burton Opens today at: The Little, Cine Greece, Pittsford Plaza 6, Webster Rated: with profanity, drug use Jack's rating: With 10 as a must-see, this film rates 9 The Shawshank Redemption Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, James Whitmore, Bob Gunton Directed by: Frank Darabont Opens today at: Pittsford Plaza 6 Rated: with profanity and violence Jack's rating: With 10 as a must-see, this film rates 10 TTT rife ni 1 Nv I 1 -'Sir) By JACK GARNER STAFF FILM CRITIC II you like prison movies, youll feel right at home when the cell door clangs shut in The Shawshank Redemption.

Youll be on familiar turf as writer-director Frank Darabont serves up the sadistic warden, the worldly-wise veteran prisoners, the frightened newcomers, the con-artist convict who runs a black market out of his cell, the ominous rapists waiting in the showers, the brutal guards. Prisons thrive on regimentation and so do prison movies. Heck, The Shawshank Redemption includes an aged lifer running the musty prison library, and he even takes care of a sickly bird! All they failed to do was cast Burt Lancaster in the role. But Darabont's daring scheme for The Shawshank Redemption is not to ignore the cliches. Instead, he embraces them, then moves well beyond them.

In adapting Stephen King's 1982 novella, Darabont enriched his characters with fine touches and colorful traits. He populated his story with fascinating people and then found some of the day's best actors to play them. Castle Rock Entertainment Jailbirds of a feather Inmates Red (Morgan Freeman, left) and Andy (Tim Robbins) develop a close bond amid the cruelties of Shawshank Prison. FREEMAN INTERVIEW 6C sideburned young punk who brings new life to the prison in the 1950s (Gil Bellows). The sprawling stone prison is itself a key character, and a forbidding out-of-use juvenile fortress in Ohio stands in wonderfully for the gothic Maine prison.

Robbins plays Andy Defresne, a young, up-and-coming Maine banker 'SHAWSHANK', PAGE 6C.