St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 87

Jan. 18, 1987 STLOUIS POST-DISPATCH 15G Paul Simon ReviewsFilm whether they would lend support to this album," he said, "and they let me go ahead." Simon did some recording in Johannesburg and eventually brought several groups Tao Ea Matsekha, General M.D. Shirinda and Ladysmith Black Mambazo back to the United States to From page three or run anymore, he lifts weights at home. "I don't work out every day, but I try to do it three or four times a-week." Simon's quirks are reflected in his oblique, self-referential songwriting, but he objects to characterizations of his work as dark or depressive. "It's not my self-image, but it's said so often that I'm aware of it.

A lot of my hits are happy. 'Kodachrome is a happy song. '50 Ways to Leave Your 'Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard," even 'Mother and Child Reunion, they're all happy songs." At the height of his solo success, after winning the album of the year Grammy award for "Still Crazy After All These Years" in 1975, Simon decided to try movies. "I'd just assumed I'd be able to do that," he said, laughing at his naivete. "After 'Still Crazy.

psychologically I felt that I'd proven it wasn't just Simon and Garfunkel. I proved to myself that it was the writing that was really important." Simon had written everything for Simon and Garfunkel, but Garfunkel was often erroneously thought of as a co-writer. "I began to try to expand myself. It ended up taking me a little more than four years to finish the 'One Trick Pony film." The film was criti cal and box-office flrp, but an important step in Simon's development as a writer. Simon thinks that "Graceland" is the result of writing experiments he began on the "One Trick Pony" project.

"Each of the albums is a progression," he said. "There isn't really a breakthrough. At a certain point, a piece of work seems to hold the accumulation of all the little pieces of information that you learned in the last two or three. "By the time I got to the that I had started to experiment with in 'One Trick Pony' and had further developed in 'Hearts and Bones' was at a state where I could control it. Those elements coupled with the intensity of the rhythm tracks is what makes 'Graceland' so much more accomplished." In 1984, Simon had begun listening to a tape of an instrumental album given to him by a musician friend.

The tape is called "Accordion Jive Hits," an anthology of street music from Soweto, the blacks-only township near. Johannesburg, South Africa. "I listened to it the whole summer, and began making up melodies around the basic grooves. Eventually I was able to trace down its point of origin and found out it was South African." Simon went to South Africa to find out more about its music and decided he wanted to record with a number of local black groups. "The black musical leaders took a vote about Steve Guttenberg and Elizabeth McGovem in "The Bedroom Window." Europa record "Graceland." His trip to South Africa, however, was in technical violation of the cultural boycott, in which artists from many disciplines have agreed not to make professional visits to South Africa.

Simon has been blasted by a number of critics for making "Graceland," but has no doubts that his actions were justified. "I expected some criticism," he said. "The album has been out now three months. There hasn't been anything bad coming from it. It's all worked, to the benefit of the people there.

It hasn't broken' any solidarity; there's no flood of (entertainment) people going there, the cultural boycott hasn't been torn asunder by this, and there's much more awareness now." The critics "can come down hard all they want, but they are not the sole possessors of a sense of morality," he said. "There were people on my side who encouraged me. I played it for (producer-composer) Quincy Jones. "I was absolutely motivated by a love of the music." He also points out that the cultural boycott was not intended to keep the outside world from hearing the music of black South Africans. "It's (South African singer) Miriam Makeba's opinion, and the opinion of the people who are down there, that the cultural boycott overlooked the possibility that they were going to affect their own artists.

"The cultural boycott was set up to cut off the (South African) white community from the nourishment of culture from the rest of the world," not keep South African artists from coming out, he said. At 45, Paul Simon is still looking for ways to make pop music an appropriate medium to convey his thoughts to and about the world. Rock has grown up with Simon, and he's determined to keep it relevant to his age group. "People seem to think that pop songs can only be about adolescent and post-adolescent concerns," Simon complained. "In fact it shouldn't be.

The reason that it should be about more is that my generation, which is the first generation to listen to rock 'n' roll, (is) that's the basic language that we learned. So if you're going to talk about life in musical terms, that's the language you're going to use. "There's a whole generation or two whose music is rock 'n' roll, and if they're only going to be left with listening to the music of their adolescence and post-adolescence, than what's to become of those artists who came from those days who have things to say? Won't those people be deprived of hearing from their generation? "Why should rock 'n' roll be different from literature? I intend to keep writing as long as I have something to say." Simon says that as he gets older, it becomes harder to make his writing do all the things he wants it to do. "It's hard to keep it interesting and relevant, it's hard not to be cynical. You try and make a contribution.

It gets more difficult after you've had your first successes and your second successes, and people know you for different times in your life. "But so what? The failures don't really matter. Everbody fails. Only the trying matters." 'THE BEDROOM WINDOW By Harper Barnes Of the Post-Dispatch Staff THE BEDROOM WINDOW" requires a pretty hefty suspension of disbelief, but then delivers enough of the goods to make it a moderately entertaining thriller that is very consciously in the Hitchcock mode. Steve Guttenberg probably advances his already promising career by playing the kind of role that used to go to Cary Grant and more recently has led producers to think of Tom Hanks.

He is the man who knows too much, the slightly comic romantic lead who gets himself in a fix that no one, including the police, can get him out of. Or at least that is what he thinks. Guttenberg is having an affair with the boss' wife (Isabelle Huppert). She is in his apartment when she sees a man attack Elizabeth McGovem. McGovern escapes, but a girl down the street is killed, and the lovers are caught in a familiar dilemma.

They clumsily attempt to solve it by having Guttenberg go to the police and pretend he was alone the night of the attack and he was the one who saw the killer. Guttenberg learns the identity of the likely suspect, and begins following him. Then the plot thickens considerably and not always with complete believability, as when Guttenberg refuses, for no good reason, to tell police that he saw the prime suspect watching another young woman who was later killed. And a line of dialogue by Guttenberg about the police blaming him for a second attack on McGovern interrupts the climax ludicrously. Director Curtis Hanson could easily have elminated it.

Hanson also could have sped up the pace of the second half of the film. But, in the end, there are very few competent romantic thrillers being made these days. Thirst for this kind of fare partly explains the long run of "Legal Eagles," an entertaining film despite its flaws. "The Bedroom Window" is the same kind of movie on a much lower budget, and should be successful. (Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Rating: nudity. At the Cinema IV, Clarkson, Crestwood Plaza, Galleria, Halls Ferry, Northwest Square.) 'CRITICAL CONDITION' CRITICAL CONDITION" is proof yet again that moviemaking is a team effort and that even the most talented actors and directors need a decent script. Richard Pryor, as a real-estate hustler who ends up running a hospital in an emergency, heads an interesting, offbeat cast. It includes singer-film maker Ruben Blades as an orderly who realizes Pryor is the only chance the hospital has to muddle through during a hurricane and blackout; former boxer Ran-dell "Tex" Cobb as a tough but friendly nut; and former Warhol 15-minute star Joe Dallesandro as an escaped killer. The director is Michael Apted Miner's Daughter," "28 Unfortunately, the three men responsible for the story and script seem, as a group, confused as to whether they are writing a serious treatise about physicians' fear of malpractice suits, a heavy comedy like "St.

Elsewhere" or a light, vaguely romantic vehicle for Pry-or's comedy routines. "Critical Condition" has its moments both of charm and of wit, but mostly it is a dull wheel-spinner. (Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes. Rating: language. At the Chesterfield, Des Peres, Kenrick, Halls Ferry, Northwest Square, Rengency, Ronnie's.) Harper Barnes From page one place after the one-time German Line flagship on which his father had emigrated to this country.

"Since I was planning on a lot of imported beers," he added, "I was thinking of calling it 'The but then someone pointed out that was the name of the Russian national anthem." A few months later, he branched out, going into business in Gaslight Square -as a partner in the original O'Connells, on Boyle Avenue, with Jack Seltzer and Ray Godfrey. "I had a third of it," he said, "and I helped open it, but I guess I felt more strongly about this place here, and after a few, months I sold my interest to Dick Draper and came back here on a permanent basis." For eight years, there also was a Europa West, on Manchester Road near the Manchester ballpark. Tony Mormino, Frank's brother, was in charge. "He's the nice guy," said Frank. Mormino's politics have always been toward the right; some have said that Attila the Hun was more liberal.

In the last decade or so, he has moved slightly to the left, or else has become more diplomatic. "Maybe I'm still Victorian," was his response, "but I sometimes think everyone has become too permissive. "It all began in the '60s. Everybody catered to the kids and told them they were right. That allowed them to unbalance everything." He paused, thought a moment, grinned again and continued, "But at the same time, you have to remember that there's nothing worse than the American Hoosier." Mormino and the Europa were happy in the early days, with what he calls "the smarty, arty, tweedy set," and especially the film makers who had office space upstairs Shelby Storck, Art Fillmore, Pierre Vacho, Tee Iglehart, Bob Pierce and others who banded together to make commercials and documentaries.

In between times, they hung out at the Europa, swapping stories, arguing and accumulating tabs. "We'd get started talking Mormino recalled, "and I'd just get Shelby furious. He'd rave worse than I did. As a matter of fact, Pierre Vacho took me aside one day and warned me about Shelby's heart condition and told me to quit agitating him. 'You're driving him Pierre told me.

"Those were great days, and that was the first of the two great periods we had here." The first one, according to Mormino, came to an end in 1967-68 and was caused by the influx of hippies into the area. After they grew up and turned into yuppies, Mormino prospered again, but in the last few years, he thinks things are turning around once more, even though and perhaps because the Euclid-McPherson corner and a few strides to the north, south and east are home to six other drinking-and-dining establishments. "Too many places," he grumbled. "Would you believe there are 53 separate joints along Euclid Avenue." Besides, the call of baseball always has been strong. Mormino helped coach American Legion teams, semi-pro Softball teams and other groups of young people, and when he was able to join the St.

Louis University staff, as assistant to Ed Koff, he jumped at it. "And if you're writing an article," he said, "don't forget to put in that there's a Billiken baseball dinner on Feb. 10. Tell everybody to be there. "Oh, yes, one other thing.

"I think it's time to move on when people come in here and look at me as if I should be dead. And then they say, 'Oh, you're Frank Mormino. My dad told me about you." MtotefeeiitWTo Look At MaiBino The 3-View feSs What Happens When I Have A 7 Mammogram at Jewish Hospital Mammogram Understand this: Breast cancer is a curable disease. It can be treated. It can be con- trolled.

It can I be beat. The options open I to women with breast gg cancer, in I both treat-V ment and the age of 35. But not all mammograms are the same. Equipment used to perform a mammogram can vary from place to place, affecting resolution and radiation BREAST CANCER SEMINAR The Associates in Medicine (AIM) of Jewish Hospital, in conjunction with WHR, is sponsoring a seminar, "Breast Cancer: A Focus On Cosmetics and Quality of Life." This program will discuss the good news about early detection, proper treatment and follow-up options. The featured speaker will be Dr.

Alan P. Lyss, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine and Director of Clinical Oncology at Jewish Hospital. Joining Dr. Lyss will be medical experts in the fields of radiology, prosthesis, and plastic surgery. WEDNESDAY, JAN.

21, 1987 7:30 p.m. BROWN ROOM (GROUND FLOOR) JEWISH HOSPITAL lb make reservations call 454-8890. A complimentary wine and cheese buffet will be served. At Jewish Hospital, a female registered radiologic technologist will perform the 30-minute mammogram procedure and an experienced It's a difference that deserves another look. Many physicians consider Jewish Hospital's routine tjl reconstruc-t tion, are incredibly 1 optimistic.

But beating the disease means beat- ing it early. practice of providing a three-view mammogram a major advantage for their patients. dosage. Radiologists who read mammograms can differ in both technique and "school." These and other factors may affect the Mammograms The third view adds greater visualization of the tissue in the upper outer part of the have saved thousands of lives each year, and have minimized surgery for thousands more by detecting breast disease in its early stages. That's why mammograms are essential to the con- quality of your mammogram.

That's radiologist will read and interpret the findings. In most cases, the results of your tests will be forwarded to your physician within 24 hours. If you do not have a physician, you can be referred to one through Doctor's Choice, Jewish Hospital's highly regarded physician referral program, by calling 454-8180. Call For More Information Call Women's Health Resources today for more information on the subject of breast disease, risk factors, treatment options, and mammograms, at 454-8890. why so tinued good health of every woman over WOMEN'S HEALTH breast, where 50 percent of breast cancers occur.

It is this type of thorough examination, performed on high-resolution, low-dose film screen equipment, that provides the maximum in diagnostic accuracy. It is this commitment to excellence that makes Jewish Hospital a leader in the early detection and treatment of breast cancer. many I physicians rec- ommend mammograms performed at Jewish Hospital. RESOURCES' 454-8890 JEWISH HOSPITAL at Washington University Medical Center 1.