Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 271

Arts Page 12 Section 13 Chicago Tribune. Sunday, August 17. T966 mm- Vote for your favorite you could win dining certificate! 1 11 Here's your chance io play restaurant Vote now for your favorite restaurants using the ballot below. Return it so it is received by August 29, and you'll be eligible to win one of four $50 dining certificates. Top vote-getters will be featured in the Chicago Tribune Fall Dining Guide, coming Sunday, October 5, 1986.

To make the poll as accurate as possible, please use this official ballot only, and vote only once. No purchase necessary. To enter contest without voting, send your name, address and daytime phone number on a postcard to Dining Poll Contest, 435 N. Michigan Chicago, IL 60611. All ballots and entries must be received by midnight Friday, August 29, 1986.

The Chicago Tribune is not responsible tor entries tost or delayed in delivery and reserves the right to disqualify mutilated, altered or illegible entries or entries that don't comply with these rules. Dining certificate winners will be notified by mail. Winners agree to allow use of their -names and pictures by the Chicago Tribune for publicity purposes. This contest is subject to all federal, state and local laws and is void where prohibited by law. The Chicago Tribune or its representatives will determine the winners in a random drawing of all ballots entries received.

By entering this contest, an entrants agree that the Chicago Tribune has the sole right to decide aH matters of dispute arising from the contest and that the Chicago Tribune's determination of the winning entries shall be final and binding. No entries will be relumed; all become the property of the Chicago Tribune. In fairness to all, the Chicago Tribune cannot discuss their contest by mail, phone or in any other way with the contestants. Contest is open to all persons 18 years of age or older except employees of the Chicago Tribune, its affiliated companies, advertising agencies, and their families. if i I i' I pill) i Poll Press releases for the "Agnes of God" film left made no mention of John Peilmeier, who wrote the screenplay based on his play.

Writer-actor Sylvester Stallone, however, wielded more clout, cashing in on the success of "Rocky" by not only writing but directing its sequel. i Screenwriters get little credit, but the pendulum starts swinging their direction Mail to: Chicago Tribune Dining Out 435 N. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611 Your Name. Address City Day phone. Best overall restaurant-Address Tell us why: Best for romance Name Best service Name Best family-style Name Best diner Name Best for Brunch Name Best for business lunch Name Best all-you-can-eat Name -Zip- ntmtsjnjtrr.

and, of course, the producer who assembled all of those elements and set them running. Throughout the 90 years that movies have existed, one or another of the elements has often temporarily achieved ascendency. There was an era earmarked by great producers. David O. Selznick signed his films as surely as any author.

His was the guiding vision behind any Selznick film, although many gifted writers, directors and stars labored in his behalf. As the power of the producer waned in the early '50s, the star rose in the west: We entered an epoch of actor's ascendancy. Under the old studio system, stars were "developed," then "showcased." Films were chosen to present stars in their most appealing light. As the system broke down, more and more power went to the stars themselves. Without the studios calling the shots, stars began showcasing themselves chiefly to bad effect When film projects, present-, ed themselves, the stars, as actors, naturally focused very particularly on their own roles.

Left to their own devices, actors frequently chose for themselves, great parts in terrible films remember Barbra Streisand in "On a Gear Day You Can See They could not see the "holes" any better than they saw the "wholes," i.e. "whole script" It was in part as a reaction to the star syndrome that the next era arrived in the late '60s; the director as superstar. actor should consider imself blessed to work with By Julia Cameron The writer was always necessary 'says Marshall Bnck- man, screenwriter and, more recently, screenwriter-director. He rolls the word "weevil" off his tongue slowly "weee-viT to rhyme with "eee-vil" relishing die worm-in-my-salad sound of it. Brickman is a man who enjoys words and he's using some choice ones to describe the place of the screenwriter in the movie business.

For the last decade or so, that place has been on the bottom of the Hollywood pecking order. Lately, in what amounts to a palace rebellion, writer-directors such as Brick-man, John Hughes, John Saylcs, Lawrence Kasdan, Alan Rudolph and David Seltzer have starting seizing a bit of power, pulling themselves up the ladder. But these few are still the exception, not the rule. In today's Hollywood, the writer's lack of stature is made clear in any number of excruciating ways. Studio press releases have been noted to contain thumbnail biographies of everyone from the director to the set designer, and still fail to include a "bio" for the writer.

A notorious recent case in point was the press packet for last year's "Agnes of God." That movie, based on John Peilmeier's play of the same name and featuring a script by the playwright himself, included no material on him in the press kit I Screenwriters themselves tell a joke about the ambitious but dumb starlet who came to Hollywood determined to make it big in the movie business. Her big move? "She slept with the screenwriter." Even among feminist screenwriters, this joke meets with rueful guffaws. Sexual politics arc one thing, but studio politics are something else and something worse. As one feminist screenwriter succinctly phrased it, "In the world of studio politics, screenwriters as well as starlets are The lowly stature of writers may generate jokes among them, but it is no laughing matter even to comic writers such as Brickman. It's not without rancor that he tells another screenwriter joke.

"You know the story about the studio that made a mega-flop? Heads would have rolled, but in questioning what went wrong, they realized that they had made the wrong movie. A directive came down from the top: 'Okay, you worms. From now on, somebody has to read the script'" Once upon a time, people did read the script High-powered writers were lured to Hollywood because the studio heads and producers realized that good scripts made for good movies. Those were the days when filmmaking was rightly regarded as what it is a collaborative art form. Old-time Hollywood realized that there was a certain number of "elements" necessary to the; successful realization of any film writer, actor, cinematographer, editor Best cheap eats (under $10 per person) Name Address, Best special occasion Name All ballots must be received by midnight Friday, August 29.

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