The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 18

10 THr CATHIE. MONTRFAL, MONDAY. DfCfMPf 17. 1W Makers of infantile Look Who's Talking sequel should throw in the diaper BILL BROWNITIIN Dorval, Laval and Versailles theatres. Who's the hottest hero on Montreal movie screens? It's not Rocky, nor his buddy the Predator.

Nope, it's take a deep breath, preferably through your nose Cyrano, the 1 7th-century French swordsman and wordsmith with the humongous hooter. Cyrano is the longest-running movie still being shown in Montreal, having played 28 weeks and still going strong in its original French version. I he only movie that comes close to Cyrano is Uhost, the cloying Patrick Swayzc comedy that is now into its 23rd week on a Montreal screen and that has baffled all the experts in the process. And next week, Cyrano will eclipse Pretty It oman 's record for the longest movie run of the year in Montreal. Those who haven't seen Cyrano in its original French can now catch the man with the protruding proboscis in an English-subtitled version at the Loews.

Swashbuckling heroics In the 92 years since Edmond Rostand first committed Cyrano exploits to text, the play has spawned countless stage productions and at least six movies most of them rather wretched. What separates those earlier films from French director Jean-Paul Rappcncau's bittersweet treatment is Cyrano alter ego Gerard Depardieu, who brings to his task the sort of swashbuckling heroics reminiscent of the matinee idols of yore. He was bom for the role. For those unfamiliar with the saga, the self-conscious Cyrano hankers for the ravishing Roxanne (Anne rochet), but fears the damsel won't be able to see beyond his beak. Instead, Cyrano sets up the less eloquent Christian (Vincent Perez) to become Roxannc's suitor and supplies him with prize-win- impossible to prevail upon a movie company not to make a sequel to a roovw that grossed more than $MO million U.S.

Hence the innocuous Look Who's Talking, a mon-wcr hit last year, has given birth to the embarrassingly dreadful Isvk lino's Talking Too. Who's talking? That's easy. Money and it shrieks here. But Look ho's Talking Tot) is one project that should have been aborted before conception. The novelty of having a smart-ass adult like Bruce Willis supply the pipes for a tiny toddler wore thin halfway through the first film.

And it doesn't stand a chance in a sequel that has all the imagination and subtlety of soiled diapers. Willis his larynx, anyway is back for the follow-up. So are Kirstie Alley as his mom, the compulsive accountant, and John Travolta as his dad, the rto'cr-do-wcll taxi driver. Shrill, sappy and shameless Mrid 'joining this fun-loving nuclear family that oifly a word-processor and a couple of over-zealous agents could have created is the bombastic Ro scanhc Barr, as the voice for their bouncing new baby. 3 lard as it may be to believe, the grating Barr is the least of this movie's problems.

The flick is shrill and saftpy and even shameless as it tries to make comedy out of a breached birth. 3nd, even by Hollywood standards, it's infantile. wit: the toddler with Willis's voice doesn't want to be toilet-trained because "Mr. Toilet Man might cat nty pee-pec." is the good Dr. Spock when we need him? what passes for plot, Alley and Travolta have a tiff, after the arrival of baby Barr.

HJe is frustrated and broods, because he wants to be 4 jet pilot and not in a video arcade, either. She is Look Who's Talking TOO John Travolta with. Lome Sussman (whose voice-over is done by Bruce Willis) and Megan Milner (Roseanne Barr frustrated and broods, because she wants to be a big-time accountant. They split but not nearly long enough. Alley, who was insufferable in the recent Sibling Rivalry and Madhouse, just about surpasses hcrseif on the insuffcrability scale here.

And Travolta, whose career rose from the ashes after Look ho's Talking, looks like he's rcadv to take another nosedive. He's picked up on some or his bad habits again, too: he pouts plenty and does the disco duck routine a la SaturJav Sight Fever. Since everyone else in the cast is doing impressions, why should Montrealcr Elias Kotcas be any different? He docs his homage to Robert De Niro as Alley's brother, a cross between an accountant and Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle and it's not very pretty. But the movie is not completely bereft of thrills: comedian Gilbert Gottfried foams at the mouth as a manic day-care worker. Unfortunately, he appears for less than 30 seconds.

Mercifully, Travolta or someone else connected with this project will have a vasectomy before they even think of bringing another movie offspring into the world. Look Who's Talking Too is playing at the Palace, ning poetry to woo her. As fate would have it, Roxanne is more smitten with Christian's elegant lyrics than his smashing good looks but marries him anyway, dealing Cyrano a double whammy. Apart from the heart-warming romance factor, the movie's battle sequences are exquisite and its food sequences are sumptuous. And the Cyrano snout, created by Montrealcr Michclc Burke, ain't bad cither.

Cyrano is playing in French with English subtitles at the lsews. The French version is playing at the Fa-" ton Centre. TONIGHTS TELEVISION LISTINGS CF VD: Chtno cf c.w nd videos. jcfVID 7:00 I 7:30 I 8:00 I 8:30 I 9:00 I 9:30 I 10:00 I 10:30 I 11:00 I 11:30 I 12:00 I 12:30 I 1:00 I 1:30 Qj04 04 Count Europe As Un Signe de feu Dalln LeTtlfournal Lt Point L'HcurrG La Travailleurt li mtr Off Air CD03 03 CBS Nem (joldtnGirlt Evening Shade Major Dad MurphyBrown Designing Women Trials of Rosit O'Neill Newt ArenioHall Magnum. PI.

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The Andante was the emotional centre of the Mozart, with delicate quietness growing to eloquent intensity. The minuet had a welcome robustness, but the last bars of the finale were so stirring that it my spine tingle. Yes, under a conductor like Norrington, authenticity works! It must be a refreshing experience for MSO musicians; with a new spirit. His tempo of the opening Allegro molto sounded unusually rapid, yet appropriate. Most of the time he gives just one beat per bar (sometimes the movement of one finger indicates a second beat), but much effort goes into dynamic shaping and the creation of dramatic contrasts.

Conducting without podium, but with score, he stands amid his musicians and di- tions rise or fall with the solo cello. Yesterday's lacklustre reading was straight-line music and downright boring. The lean orchestral accompaniment did not help soloist Guy Fouquet, whom we know as a competent musician. His playing was too reserved and could not fill the music with life. Norrington infused Mozart's wonderful Symphony in minor Montreal Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Roger Norrington, with soloist Guy Fouquet, cello, at Salle Wilfrid Pellelier on Sunday atternoon.

Haydn: Symphony No. 49 (La Passione), Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations, op. 33, Mozart: Symphony No. 40, K.550 would do well to remember. A new orchestral balance derived from the extra prominence of the winds.

Tchaikovsky's Rococo Varia-' "The Future of Sight and Sound" persuasive, humorous and rea-sfxible this is how Roger Norrington came across at the open forum he chaired last Friday at rylcCJiirs Music Faculty. I His passion for performing music iff accordance with the practice of the composer's era (he calls himself "most radical and might lead one to expect a musical dicta-tpr'with a high sense of self. This is not so. t- teaming through asking seems that authentic performances are a co-operative effort. Norrington is a knowledgeable researcher of period sources on performance practice, but his London Classical Players have considerable input into the shaping of a work.

I By asking questions and evolving answers, the ensemble learns on the job. Norrington sees each effort as jpst one interpretive attempt. Tot an orchestra without period uistruments like the MSO, musical authenticity dictates orchestral size aid sectional seating, but most depends on choice of tempo, highly specific note attacks and phrasing. According to Norrington, modern orchestras find this difficult or even (possible, but the MSO adapted within a half-hour. Lacklustre reading After last week's Beethoven, yesterday was 18th-century time.

In Haydn's La Passione, Norrington's methods produced an elegantly musical account. Although not heart-rendingly passionate, it had marvellous clarity of texture. Seated on opposite sides, the first and second Violins played with a delicate precision and warmth, which they prfj3ITift, 110 Watts Continuous AVG Power Full Function Remote Digital Tuner C. D. Player Double Cassette 3-Way Speakers Stand Included ft! If' 1 1 I 1 MT AUUOVUE TICKETS MAKE A SENSATIONAL GIFT The Montreal production begins January 17, 1991 with performances in French and in English TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THEATRE BOX OFFICE, ALL TICKETRON -OUTLETS OR CALL TELETR0N (514) 288-2525 2 070 OAIII OT I AIIDCMT 4h Place SI BUUU 3 I UMUni.11 1, 861-8050 1 Groups of 20 or more call (514) 527-3644 MONTREAL CSE3 A contribution to The Gazette Christmas Fund is one of ihe ways you can share the joy of this holiday season..