The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page 67

THE SUN SECTION Hz Smith Movies Comics Television 2G 3G 5G 6G WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1992 Did movie industry squash 'Bugsy' for being too earnest? mm lira mm laj McDermott transforms details of life in her books By Tim Warren Book Editor Bethesda By Robert B. Welkos Los Angeles Times Hollywood It was as if the legendary mobster himself had rolled the dice and come up snake eyes. "Bugsy" the TrIStar film directed by Barry Levlnson that pulled In a leading 10 Academy Award nominations won only two Oscars Monday night. And those were for art direction and costume design. occurred despite some high-powered promotion and after the film's normally publicity-shy star and co-producer Warren Beatty conducted numerous inter-Views on behalf of the movie, the story of mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who the film credits with dreaming up the idea of a gambling capital in Las Vegas, Nev.

TrIStar chairman Mike Medavoy said yesterday that even though "The Silence of the Lambs" captured Oscars for best picture, best actor, best actress, best director and best adapted screenplay at the 64th annual Academy Awards ceremony, he was still "very proud of "Having got 10 nominations certainly tells you this is a picture the academy in general considered to be excellent in all its regards," Mr. Medavoy said. "And probably when it came down to the choice, it would probably be either one or the other picture. What might have happened. It might have swung by one vote." The film's 10 nominations included best picture, best actor (Mr.

Beatty). best supporting actors (Harvey Keitel and Ben Klngsley), best director (Mr. Levlnson), best original screenplay, cinematography and original score In addition to the two It won. But on the morning after the awards, some Industry experts said that the intense hype for "Bugsy" may have backfired with academy members. "For a movie that had such Incredible momentum, this certainly is not a win (for TrIStar," said one studio executive, who asked not to be identified.

7 "People In the academy felt 'Bugsy' was See OSCARS, 3G, Col. 2 A lice McDermott Is 38 and her three novels have earned her an enviable literary reputation, but family members back In New York still think that fiction writing is a pretty strange profession to have chosen. The truth is. she's inclined to agree. There was, for Instance, that day last fall when she drove from her Bethesda home to the Sudbrook Park area of Baltimore County to watch the filming of "That Night," which was based on her second novel.

She was fascinated seeing how Adana Road had been re-created Into an archetypal Long Island suburban street of the early 1960s. "I got the strangest emotion going to the sound stage and seeing the homes reconstructed." says Ms. McDermott. whose third novel, "At Weddings and Wakes" has just been published. "The detail of the time was phenomenal.

They had a kitchen, and If you opened up the cabinet they would have cereal boxes and salt shakers exactly like those of the early '60s. "One of the people on the set was showing me the 10-year-old girl room, and was proudly showing me the dolls In it and telling me they tried to make them exactly like I had In the book." she says, her mouth curving Into a slight smile. "And I was so struck by that: When you write a novel, you take the details from real life but then transform them they're not the same. I had wrested these things from real life and put them Into the novel as something else, and now they've come along and ripped them out and put them back into real life. "Really, that's why 1 got out of journalism," she continues In her easy-going, straightforward man-See WRITER, 2G.Col.3 i' I i A A JED KIRSCHBAUM Alice McDermott's third novel, "At Weddings and Wakes," has Just been published and a movie based on her second novel, "That Night," Is due out this spring.

'Daughters': An exquisite use of film Bruce vs. Leppard: New albums send sales zooming ASSOCIATED PRESS No Oscar for Warren Beatty. 75 By Stephen Hunter Film Critic The Baltimore Film Forum couldn't have chosen a better movie to open Its 23d annual Internatlorikl Film Festival than Julie Dash's brilliant and shimmering "Daughters of the Dust." The film will be shown tonight at 8:30 at the Senator Theatre Just the screen on which to enjoy such a visual feast. "Daughters of the Dust" Is a re-creation of a lost culture and a lost time, yet done with such love and passion that what has vanished forever now seems timeless. It's a story of the Gullah people of the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina.

If you're at all familiar with the Gullahs, It's probably through "Soldier's Story." In that movie the nasty top sergeant referred to Southern blacks as "Geechees," a contemptuous and disparaging reference to the Gullahs, who, In geographical isolation, had clung to their African heritage in language, dress and custom, which he dismissed as primitive. But the Gullah culture that Dash visits is anything but primitive: it's a magical amalgamation of old and new, a profound celebration of the beauty of the land as founded on a deep religious faith. It seems, by any standards, as sophisticated and densely imagined as any world yet captured on film. Dash focuses on the Peazant family, three generations worth, from the matriarch Nana (Cora Lee Day), who recalls slavery and her ancient religious belief, to her granddaughter Eula (Alva Rodgers), pregnant by rape and. consequently, distanced from her husband Ell (Adlsa Ander- See FILM FORUM, 3G.

Col. 2 Peter and the Wolf highlight an evening 'of charming ballet ByJ. L. Conklin Contributing Writer Washington eter and the Wolf has long been a L-J delightful way to Introduce chil-JL dren to classical music. American Ballet Theatre's production of Michael Smuln's ballet of the same title that opened the company's weeklong engagement at the Kennedy Center Opera House last night cleverly brought the visual to musical exposition.

By J.D. Considine Pop Music Critic If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then fans of Bruce Springsteen and Def Leppard must be positively rapturous right now. Yesterday, both acts delivered their first new releases In almost five years, and according to area retailers, the fans were out In force. Some stores, including Record Tape Traders in Towson and Kemp Mill in Tlmonlum, opened at midnight to give over-eager fans an early crack at the new albums. "There were 60 people outside waiting when they opened." reported Amy Elton of Record Tape Traders.

"We sold 100 over all." Things weren't quite as hectic over at Kemp Mill, though, where store manager Tom Sadowskl said some 25 people were waiting for the late opening. "It wasn't like U2 we had more people for U2 but since we do most of our advertisement on WHFS. we were expecting that," Mr. Sadowskl explained. As for who sold better, the Boss or the Leps, that pretty much depended on where you happened to be.

In some parts of town, Springsteen's two new albums, "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town" were clearly born to move, while In others. It was Def Leppard's "Adrenal-ize" that caused the most hysteria. "Right now Bruce is a little ahead of Def Leppard," said Debbie Ko- ehler, assistant manager at the White Marsh branch of Record World, shortly after 5 yesterday af- ternoon. "Def Leppard Is not doing quite as well, but since school let out. It's doing better." Faron Hash, the head buyer at Record Theatre on Liberty Road.

agreed that Springsteen got off to a better start. "We've done about a box 30 to 35 of CDs on each of the Bruce today, and about 10 each on DANCE REVIEW In addition to tms llghthearted ballet, the program featured the area premiere of Ulysses Dove's "Serious Pleasures" and other dances by Jerome Rob- KINO INTERNATIONAL CORP. "Daughters of the Alva Rodgers, Barbara 0 and Cora Lee Day. bins. "Peter and the Wolf." narrated by humorist Art Buchwald, was a fanciful adaptation of the well-known Russian tale.

Librettist Larry Gelbart updated the story of Peter, his grandfather, the wolf, the cat, the bird and duck with great humor. Mr. Smuln's choreography provided a compact, linear and easy-to-follow ballet Peter, danced with all the enthusiasm and bounce of an 8-year-old by Gil Boggs, charmed the audience with his bounding jumps and spins. When he mimicked the dire warnings of his grandfather (Victor Barbee), his youthful enthusiasm deli-clously contrasted his elder's concern. A great deal of this ballet's charm was framed by the bright scenery designed by Tony Walton and the inventive costumes byWIllaKlm.

Although each of the characters had See QANCE, 4G, Col. 3 Leafing through art's evolution ByJohnDorsey Art Critic At the beginning of "Manuscript Illumination in Flanders" at the Walters Art Gallery is a painting of a crucifixion in a psalter of about 1300. Christ is shown on the cross between the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist, on a flat gold background with both the sun and the moon above. The event Is rendered In an almost abstract, symbolic way. with no attempt to create a setting from the real world for It.

Toward the end of the same show Is a depiction of the flight into Egypt from a book of hours of about 1510-1 520, probably from Bruges. See ART, 3G. Col. 1 Detail of "Raising of Lazarus" In the Book of Hours by William Vrelant or his workshop, circa 1454-1460. ffih' Y- See RECORD.

3G. Col. 1 COURTESY WALTERS ART 0ALLRY I.