The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 41

IKTD SmkT -a3 3- nrx nn IT Liu til MONTREAL, TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1988 rod ffir Bethiuiin NJ woes i 1 Xf-- pi 4 of Bethune. He says he understands him better and so he wants another script." Bethune, based on the life story of Montreal doctor Norman Bethune, is one of the most ambitious Canadian film projects ever. The film and TV miniseries based on Allan's script completed principal photography in China last summer. But the project's producer, Montreal-based Filmline International, requires an additional $2 million to complete shooting in Montreal and Spain. Filmline has asked Telefilm Canada to make up the $2-million deficit.

But Telefilm, which has already invested $3.5 million in the project, has delayed a decision until an updated budget is approved. A decision is expected this week. Allan, who is the co-author of the of the Bethune biography, The Scal pel, The Sword, has been working for 12 years to get his script Bethune: The Making of a Hero made into a film. Allan was also a close friend of Bethune. Film-industry insiders say Sutherland and Bethune director Phillip Borsos are unhappy with the Allan script.

Borsos has been working with another screenwriter, John Hunter, on a revised script, allegedly because of Sutherland's objections to the Allan screenplay. Allan says Sutherland has challenged his description of Bethune's wife, Frances whom he married and divorced twice in the screenplay. "He (Sutherland) seeks to trivialize their relationship and by so doing, he trivializes Canada's greatest hero. I will fight Sutherland to the day I die to prevent him from doing that "The producer, Pieter Kroonen-burg, has fought courageously for my script, while the film's investors and Telefilm Canada couldn't care less what script is used as long as the film is finished," Allan said. "I will fight to the best of my legal rights that Bethune will not be sanctified or sanitized.

He is the greatest Canadian in Canadian history and deserves a film worthy of him and not some egomaniacal actor." Telefilm Canada official Linda Beath said yesterday the government agency could make no comment "until there is a resolution of the situation." She would not elaborate. Sutherland and Borsos could not be reached for comment. Shooting on Bethune was scheduled to resume March 28. By BILL BROWNSTEIN of The Gazette Ted Allan, the biographer of Norman Bethune, has accused actor Donald Sutherland of delaying production on Bethune: The Making of a Hero, the $16-million Canadian movie and TV miniseries that is now on hold because of financial problems. Allan, who wrote the Bethune script, has blasted Sutherland, the film's star, for being "egomaniacal" and says he will "fight to the day I die" to keep Sutherland from "trivializing" Bethune.

"He (Sutherland) wants to act in another film and in the meantime he wants to get another Bethune script written," Allan said yesterday in a phone interview from Los Angeles. "But essentially he (Sutherland) does not agree with my conception i Aw I 4 DONALD SUTHERLAND Plays surgeon in film Soap-opera shrink gives out autographs not advice at malls if i i i. saw Li it if AP The Rat Pack is back sent-mindedly on stage holding a cigarette glass of bourbon at the start of the first concert in Oakland, Calif. Dean Martin (left), Sammy Davis, Jr. (centre) and Frank Sinatra, charter members of Hollywood's Rat Pack, have kicked off a 29-city, 40-show tour.

"How long have I been on?" deadpanned Martin, the infamous tippler, after walking ab Recital shows why Feftsman is one of top young pianists TED ALLAN Close friend of Bethune Thomas Schnurmacher States. He now lives in France, where he is all the rage. Alpha's first album, Jah Glory, sold more than 1 million copies. An 1985 album called Jerusalem, which he recorded with the Wailers at Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, has also sold several hundred thousand copies, while his latest album, Revolution, went gold in France barely four weeks after it was released. Tickets for the Alpha Blondy concert are $15.50 in advance and $17.50 at the door.

Tickets may be picked up at Poodles, Club Balattou and Dutchy's all three on the Main or at the Paladium itself on Berri St. The 1988 Genie Awards, which honor excellence in Canadian cinema, will be televised live by the CBC one week from tonight. Hosts for the show are Gordon Pinsent and Megan Follows, and celebs expected to show up include Jeremy Irons, Alan Thicke, Donald Sutherland, Genevieve Bujold, Catherine O'Hara, Kim Cattrall, Kenneth Welsh, Kerrie Keane, Craig Russell, Vanity and Jean Le-clerc. Singer Tom Paxton, once described by John Denver as "the greatest songwriter in the world," will be performing April 9 at 9:30 p.m. and April 10 at 4 and 8:30 p.m.

at the Golem Concert Room on Stanley St. Paxton, that is. Not John Denver. The 51-year-old Paxton, who has recorded 28 albums, has written songs for everyone from Joan Baez to the Kingston Trio. He is also a man with a flair for song titles.

He called a 1986 album One Million Lawyers and Other Disasters. Paxton has also recorded a tune called Sold a Hammer to the Pentagon, but his favorite composition is The Last Thing on My Mind. Despite his status as one of the grandpappies of protest, Paxton did, on one occasion at least, stoop to capitalism when he sold his song, My Dog Is Bigger Than Your Dog, to the company that makes Ken-L-Ration dog food. GENEVIEVE BUJOLD Will attend ceremonies A 0 rv If you're going to be at Cavendish Mall tomorrow afternoon at about 2 p.m. or at the Dorval Gardens shopping centre Thursday at 1 p.m., you could very well bump into Rod Arrants.

If you do, try not to ask the man too many questions about any psychological problems you may have. He's not a doctor, although he plays one on TV. Arrants, who will be appearing tomorrow morning on McKenty Live on CFCF television, plays the part of psychiatrist Dr. Steven Lassiter on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. To bring you up to date on the plotline, the good doctor is happily married to the beautiful Ashley, a former patient he nursed back to health, but another one of his former patients, a woman called Leanna, has mysteriously turned up in Genoa City.

Although Leanna has managed to convince Dr. Lassiter that she's doing very well, thank you, she hasn't fooled the viewers of the show they're well aware that Leanna is nowhere near dealing with a full deck. They're also aware that Leanna poses a threat not only to Dr. Lassiter's marriage, but to his wife's very safety. In real life, Arrants, who used to play the part of Travis Sentell on Search for Tomorrow, is married to actress Patricia Es-trin, who played the part of the mother on the recent Dennis the Menace TV movie.

While Rod's at the shopping centres, his duties will include smiling, talking about the show, answering questions about his personal life and signing autographs. The popular soap star will also be signing copies of the official The Young and the Restless record album, which also features the vocal stylings of several of the show's cast members, including Michael Damiert, Patty Weaver, Tracey Breg-man, Beth Maitland and Colleen Casey. The album sells for $10, with proceeds going to the Children's Wish Foundation. West Indian reggae star Alpha Blondy, who has been known to sing in his native Mandinga and Dioula tongues, interspersed with a bit of Spanish and Hebrew, has been booked for an April 2 date at Montreal's Paladium. The 35-year-old musician was born at Dimbokra in the Ivory Coast and educated in the United ALAN THICKE At Genies next week MM.nm.

w. 1 i 4 Vladimir Feltsman. pianist, in a recital lor the American Express Series organized by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in Salle Wilfrid Pelletier last night. Sonata in A. opus 120 (D.664) Schubert Vmgts regards sur I Enfant Jesus (three extracts) Messiaen Symphonic Etudes, opus 13(1837)Schumann as we know them today, but he inserted the extra variations that were published after Schumann's death.

Not only does Feltzman identify convincingly with Schumann's youthful and romantic outpourings, but his carefully developed technique gives him the complete control of the instrument that prevents Schumann's cup from runneth-ing over. This same technical control was used to different purposes in the extracts from Olivier Messiaen's ecstatic work, Vingt Regards sur I Enfant Jesus. Here, the coloristic potential of the piano is exploited to the utmost, and the composer uses both the percussive and lyrical sides of the instrument. The quiet contemplative passage choice of billings as his international reputation grew. "I started my career hesitant about being Canadian," he said recently.

Quilico started in Toronto but he "didn't particularly feel Canadian" until last September, when he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. There he sang with his father a Met regular since 1972 in Manon. "I felt extremely proud. That's when I started to feel nationalistic and to complain. I started by saying, 'You're going to start to support and a sold-out By ERIC McLEAN Gazette Music Critic Emeritus It was last summer that Soviet pianist Vladimir Feltsman finally managed to divest himself of his Soviet citizenship and settle in the United States.

The program he offered last night was the same one he used for his much-publicized Carnegie Hall debut in August, and it was this same choice of music he used for his recent recording on the Columbia label. Front rank Finally, if you are not already aware of it, this performance represented Feltsman's Canadian debut: He was replacing the violinpiano team of Shlomo Mintz and Yefim Bronfman, who had to cancel their appearance because of the flu. Feltsman's right to a place in the front rank of today's young pianists (36 is still young) was demonstrated most convincingly in Schumann's rhapsodic Symphonic Etudes which occupied the second half of his program. He played not only the 12 etudes called The First Communion of the Virgin was especially memorable. Messiaen's Vingt Regards are not unknown to the Montreal public, but we have never heard this music played with a stronger sense of the character toward which the composer was striving.

Oddly enough, it was Feltsman's romantic leanings that subtracted from his performance of the opening work, Schubert's Sonata in A major. While Schubert is generally regarded as one of the pioneers of romanticism, it is on occasions like this that we realize his kind of poetry is best expressed within classical control. General excellence I felt there was a bit too much stretching and squeezing of the phrases, and the sound was set awash with the sustaining pedal in a way that would have caused Schubert to gape. We were more than compensated, however, by the general excellence of this fine musician. May he return soon.

With the orchestra, perhaps? As an encore, he offered a familiar Prelude by another Russian refugee, Sergei Rachmaninoff. me because I am going to represent this Quilico recently moved with his wife and two children to Montreal. "I was a little bitter because I wanted to sing in Canada and I wasn't asked (although) I would gladly do so." But now that problem has been overcome. He and his father are scheduled to appear together with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto in April with Gino singing the lead in Don Giovanni and his father playing his servant. LOUIS LORTIE Pianist wins rave Lort ie a hit with critics in London LONDON (CP) A trio of concerts by Montreal pianist Louis Lortie Sunday won lavish praise from some of London's tough critics.

"A breath-taking performance spine-tingling," critic Geoffrey Norris wrote in the Telegraph. He was describing Lortie's debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall. Lortie, 28, also drew raves from David Murray of the Financial Times, who reviewed the pianist's earlier concerts at Wignore Hall, where Lortie played to capacity crowds. "Lortie's clarity, accuracy and exultant drive were phenomenal," Murray wrote. The playing was "brilliant" and "often technically breathtaking," Murray said.

Singer Quilico chooses Canada qm (' LlJ. PARIS (CP) Opera singer Gino Quilico, who has an Italian background and has lived on both sides of the border, has finally decided to bill himself as a Canadian baritone. New York-born Quilico, son of Montreal opera star Louis Quilico, is firmly established in the ranks of the world's notable opera singers by virtue of his fine baritone voice and good looks. With his three-country background, and the fact he lived in Paris and London before moving with his family to Montreal, Quilico had a.