Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 22

C2 THE HAITFORD COURANT: Saturday, Jum 9, 19S4 Professor Blends Love of Sports With Torts THT" I 1 21 1 Orion Pictures Bobby Roe The Hartford Courant Lewis Kurlantzick, a UConn law professor and admitted sports fanatic, teaches a seminar, "Sports and the Law." Garry Cadenant stars as Jose in "Sugar Cane Alley." 'Sugar Cane Alley': Vivid Tale of Racism PEOPLE "I can hardly imagine more impact on a fan than the Dodg-" ers' move from Brooklyn," he. says. That baseball team's relocation to Los Angeles in 1958 was accomplished with the help! of a 1922 Supreme Court deci- sion, which gave antitrust im-" munity to baseball (the only'. irofessional sport so privi- eged). Talking of sports for sports'' sake slam-dunking a basketball, home court the clock Kurlantzick is boyishly enthusiastic' But as he shifts his attention to the legal aspects of professional athletic teams, he becomes brainy to the point of being abstract.

"The Raiders' move is fascinating," he says. "It raises sig-; nificant issues that far transcend that area." The National Football League opposed the move by-one of its member teams. The. Raiders filed a civil any trust suit against the NFL. A federal court jury, holding thjt the NFL', had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, decided in the team's favor.

"This was a challenge by somebody inside the league, challenging the structure by which they've been operating," -Kurlantzick says. "The Raiders and their move sums up atten-" tion for the legal mind." Kurlantzick's legal mind thinking out loud, traces the Raiders case through the courts, raising questions, offering answers and entertaining his listener "The sports world," Kurlant zick says with a dreamy smile, By JOHN LACY Courant Staff Writer Lewis Kurlantzick admits to "a sports nut forever." Otherwise, he appears normal. He is a 39-year-old professor of law. His wife, Roberta, is an elementary school principal. They live with their two children in West Hartford.

Kurlantzick confesses to having followed intently his beloved New York Knicks as they competed in the National Basketball Association playoffs on television. But now, the playoffs are finished for the Knicks, who were defeated by the Boston Celtics. And after a proper period of mourning, Kurlantzick is willing to discuss another of his favorite subjects "the increasing significance of legal developments in sports." He's referring to contract disputes, salary arbitration, antitrust violations all the things that erupted from the recognition of pro sports as business in recent years. In addition to teaching copyright law. Kurlantzick has led a seminar, "Sports and the Law." for three years at the University of Connecticut School of Law in West Hartford.

The seminar discusses current legal events in the sports world, such as the attempt by the city of Oakland to use eminent domain to move the Raiders football team from Los Angeles; the salary structure in the NBA and its effect on the signing and drafting of free agents, and the option clause in baseball contracts. In his third floor office, he has kicked off his shoes and opened his collar for an informal conversation about blending his addiction for sports with his teach- FILM REVIEW kind of spilled over naturally into the sports area. "When I do copyright and entertainment stuff, I'm reading cases about Groucho Marx, Superman, the Beatles that's who I spent my time with those people. There's the fun of it." Now Kurlantzick is seeing former students entering legal jobs related to sports. One graduate set up a sports management business in New York to represent athletes.

Another joined a firm that guides pro players in merchandising and publicity. "The attraction in this area is the glamour, of course," Kurlantzick says. "Put aside its glamour and you've got whole hosts of developed legal subject matter, like contract law, labor law, antitrust law. I intellectu-alize about it." Kurlantzick understands how fans become sick and tired of finding lawsuits crowding sports news. SUGAR CANE ALLEY, Directed and written by Euzhan Palcy- based the novel "La Rue Cases Negres" by Joseph Zobel.

director ot photography. Dominique Chapuis; music by Groupe Malavoi, Roland Louis. Vander- son, Brunoy Tocnay. Max Cilia. Slap Cat.

editing. Marie-Joseph voyotte; executive producer, Jean-Luc Ormieres; producers. Michel Loulergue. Allx Regis- Produced by SumataOrca' N.E.F. Diffusion, distributed by Orion Classics and opening today at Cinema City, Harttocd Running time- 103 minutes.

4 jose Garry Cadenat M'Man Tine Darling Legitimus Medouie Douta Seek Monsieur Saint-Louis Joby Barnabe Le Gereur Francisco Charles Madame Saint-Louis Marie-Ange Farot Monsieur Roc Henri Melon Douie Orteils Eugene Mona Carmen Joel Palcy ing of the law. He grew up in northern New Jersey, where he played high school basketball and tennis. His undergraduate diploma came from Wesleyan University and his law degree from Harvard. He has taught at UConn since 1968. "This seminar, 'Sports and the is a combination of my own personal association with sports and an interest in athletics by a significant number of students," Kurlantzick says.

"There's been a. burgeoning inferest in sports in the American Bar Association' in its membership." The ABA recently formed a committee on entertainment and sports industries. "I've taught a number of years in- copyright law," Kurlantzick says, "and my interest in the entertainment industries "has practices very different' from other industry." By MALCOLM L. JOHNSON Courant Film Critic "Sugar Cane Alley," Euzhan Palcy's sepia-hued account of a poor, but brilliant boy's coming of age in Martinique in 1931, begins as a West Indian variation on Truffaut's "Small Change." But the early sweetness of its scenes of children at play soon gives way to a tempered, but deep bitterness over the treatment of blacks at the hands of the white bosses. Palcy herself a native of Martinique based her first major film on a book by Joseph Zobel called "La Rue Cases Negres," which translates not as the upbeat-sounding "Sugar Cane Alley," but as "The Black Shack Street," whose rhyme rings a little silly in English.

The "street" is really a small village of impro-, vised wooden shanties in the cane fields, where the 11-year-old orphan Jose, lives with his grandmother, M'Man Tine. Like all the other adults in the shanty town, the old woman slaves in the hot fields, cutting stalks of cane. But she is determined that her grandson will not suffer the same empty, killing life. And with a push from M'Man Tine and a different sort of inspi-. ration from an old, mystical story-teller and riddle-maker named Medouse, Jose learns two impor- tant lessons: the importance of education and a primitive form of "black pride." There are many other lessons along the way in Palcy's deliber- ate, small-sqale but always vivid film.

Many of these have to dd with the exploitation of blacks by whites and with racism and injus- tice. But at least one white, Jose's teacher at a scholarship school in Fort-de-France, proves a big and just enough man to admit a false accusation against the boy, and to help him continue his education at the same time that Jose be- gins to understand how some blacks deprecate the race or be-' come cheapened toys for whites. All of this unfolds in a film that seems to be telling its rambling story through the eyes of Jose. The boy's way of watching the Seafood, ChickenBeef, Sausage, Bacon, Eggs, 10 Hot Dishes, Vegetables, Relishes, Salads, Breads and much more. VIENNESE Dessert Table named Garry Cadenat, who is somewhat reminiscent of the young Sidney Poitier.

Most of the colors Jose sees and remembers seem browned or bleached by the tropical sun. The carfe fields and wooden shacks are all monochromatic tones of brown, reflecting both the skin colors and somber lives of the shanty dwellers. All of the precious things, on the other hand, are sparkling white: M'Man Tine's precious bowl and another black woman's, Jose's school clothing, and of course the sporty roadsters and shining mansions of the whites. The stylized colors are more than symbolic. They also giv6 "Sugar Cane Alley" a feeling of memories of things past, such as the sepia-toned postcards used in the opening credits.

But Palcy's film is neither nostalgic nor brooding. Even its tragedies have a feeling of release about them, and the film ends on an almost joyous note, with an up-tempo tune that sounds like a West Indian version of Django Reinhardt's drivingly ecstatic gypsy guitar. The two main influences in Jose's life, M'Man Tine and Me-douze, also communicate intensely positive feelings even in their moments of despair. And both Darling Legitimus, who plays the pipe-smoking old woman, and Douta Sack, who plays the almost messianic Medouze, endow their characters with deep-dyed credibility and humanity. Rated PG, this film contains TOM NAMNOUN'S PUMPERNICKEL PUB AND RESTAURANT Lunch Dinner Special 1 Va Lobster $7.95 Baked Potato Tossed Salad 633-3685 Fox Run Mai! Glastonbury 'Not Valid with any ether promotions 84 'Summer NOON 'TIL DUSK Sounds" world and remembering is finely some talk of sex and some rude ARLO GUTHRIE with Shenandoah SUN AND FUN IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS rendered by an appealing, expres-, talk, but is a fine film for older sive and handsome youngj actor children.

Pilobolus Never Out of Step Continued from Page CI of its ideas, sprung from the aca- Festival; and Pendleton is work- demic background and experi-ing on a new duet for Pilobolus. enc.es ts creators. Wolken All five directors are discussing whose father was a biophysicist, doing a piece for the British once researched the fungus Pilo- PLENTY OF BEER. WINE. FOOD bolus, Broadcasting Corp.

and are nego tiatinc to do choreoeraDhv for a SPECIAL GUEST RICK ROBERTS LEAD SINGER FROM FIREFALL BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND ROGER McGUINN OFTHEBYRDS Wolken's choice pf the name for what had been called the Vermont Natural Theatre had nothing to do with the behavior of the fungus, which often alters form in an ironic similarity to the direction Pilobolus has taken. "It had a certain onomatopoet-ic ring to it that appealed to us," he said. "Nobody knew what it was about, but people who were able to pronounce it had it stick in their heads. Also, the unusual im stt ts rile? 0w SUNDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 10TH MOHAWK MT. SKI AREA, Rt.

4, CORNWALL. CT. Tickets $10.50 Advance $12.00 Day of Show CHARGIT 1-800-223-0120 MCVISA Available at: Clavier Music Avon; Rivers Music Bristol, New Britain; Record Town Enfield; Capitol Broadway production of "Wind in the Willows." "Pilobolus is 'the kind of creature that has benefited from its loose structure and nature. We have always kept some of the collective impetus," Wolken said. "We still have meetings; we still sit down and argue among ourselves as to what the best way to do things is.

over the years, I think, you also grow slightly apart. You become more individual. Our tastes have solidified. You become old, more conservative in some ways, more crazy in oth-ers." w. Pilobolus' name, like so many agery seemed to fit with the un-.

Records Hartford; Crutch MacDonald -Litchfield; Record Express Middletown W. Hartford; Record Breaker Manchester; The Disc Storrs; Book Works Tornngton; Integrity 'N Music Wethersfield: Getting off Winsted; Extraza Clothing Waterbury usual name. Of the likeness, between fungus and dance company, Wolken now muses, "Isn't it strange the way life mimics nature?" GATES OPEN AT 10 a.m. MO ALCOHOL, BOTTLES PETS PERFORMANCE FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, COMPANY A Lunchtime Theatre Production Charles (Chic) Sale's JUNE 8 AND 9 8:00 P.M. ONE IMDlIBQOTB Bushnell Memorial TTrrn iTrrrrrrri IS PECIALIST Adapted for the Stage Directed by Stephen Rust with John McDonough mrnms.

tmw' tsosii mm tH June 11 to June 15 Each Weekday at 12:15 pm Tickets: 3.50 Next Week Mrs, Dally Ha a Lover by William Hartley Tickets: $7, $9 and $11. Available at Bushnell Box Office. Call 246-6807 to charge on MasterCardVisa'. Tickets also available at all Ticketron locations. Group Sales available, call 241-3800.

Concert sponsored by fl)tbtflfiib infant im AJi n3IDJit3iTJ3Sr4 EVENING PERFORMANCE SERIES Featuring three plays from the Lunchtime Series Dark Pony Mr. Happiness Mrs. Dally Has a Lover June IS Jus 16 Evening Performance at pm Tickets: 8.00 AD Performance at the Hartford Art Center Comer of Ann Allyn Hartford, CT Information: CalKa78-6347 or 658672.