The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 39

THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2000 C3 PREVIEW Female fisticuffs Girlfight will have viewers cheering for the heroine in the blue trunks DANCE REVIEW Naked nonchalance provokes discomfort FILM REVIEW 1 A. ni 'A GIRLFIGHT (3 stars) Opens today at the Paramount theatre. Parents' guide: coarse language, violence. he mere mention of a film called Girlfight tends to send minds plunging into the gutter. Some folks conjure im ages of a lascivious all-babe jail brawl or scantily clad female rasslers sliding around suggestively in a vat of Jell-O.

Well, sorry to bring some of you I jr "CT nl lit SUSI LOVELL Special to The Gazette A naked man lies splayed out on the stairs at the feet of people queuing to enter the theatre. It is instantly clear that the audience is to meet an alien culture operating according to quite different rules. Art meets anthropology Benoit Lachambre is well known for his mix of dance, visual and performance art and improvisation, and for his ability to fascinate and discomfit audiences. His new choreography. Con-fort et Complaisance, created with the members of his company Par B.

L. Eux, is no exception. A square womb of water lies under a spermatozoon hanging from the ceiling. A man in a furry phallus rising up over his head is talking at the top of fur-draped stairs. Another is lounging sprawled and relaxed, on an inflatable sofa.

A girl, emerging from a fur coat, arches backward over the water, tunefully gargling. All are naked. The images are isolated and chaotic. The individuals in this tribe pass from one idea to the next like children seizing new toys. A man squeezes a hot water bottle between the thighs of a woman, opens the stopper and water gushes out He puts his head under the stream.

A gnome, who turns out to be a girl down from your idle reverie, but there is nothing remotely lurid about this Girlfight Although the ring is but a symbol for one young woman's rise from despair, Girlfight happens to be one dandy boxing flick. The girl and BILL BROWNSTEIN COURTESY OF SCREEN GEMS Michelle Rodriguez and Jaime Tirelli in Girlfight, which has Rocky-like implications going for it. take her on. Sure enough, Diana learns the ropes in no time. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of female fighters with whom Diana can box.

So after the powers-that-be have been petitioned, Diana is permitted to take part in a "gender-blind" fight The fact that her opponent Adrian (Santiago Douglas) is also the love of her life is yet another obstacle she must overcome. Cornball though it might sound, viewers will end up cheering for the girlfighter in the blue trunks. has few friends and a non-existent social life. In short, she is fast on her way to becoming another ghetto casualty But, by chance one day, she happens upon her brother training in a Brooklyn gym. Turns out that their father wants him to become a boxer, mostly in order to take care of himself.

Alas, he is reluctant, wishing instead to become a "geek" artist. Diana, however, is fascinated. She figures it would be prudent to channel all her aggression and angst in the ring instead of the street She then convinces her brother's street-smart coach (Jaime Tirelli) to Contort peels back the skin, not of an alien culture, but of the human condition. boy fighters show moves that are every bit as deft as those of their elders in the best boxing films. Girlfight was the surprise winner of the Best Directing award and co-winner of the Grand Jury prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival, generally considered to be the ultimate showcase for indie offerings.

Surprise? Yes, because it marked writerdirector Karyn Kusama's feature debut and because the film's young star, Michelle Rodriguez, had never acted or boxed prior to showing up for a massive open casting call. This longshot film has Rocky-like implications going for it on either side of the camera. Safe to say, now, that Kusama is taking lunch with every heavy in Hollywood, and that Rodriguez could well be the next break-out star in the biz. The camera simply loves her, and Rodriguez, in turn, simply smoulders on screen, convincingly evoking the rage and power and sensuality of a girl from the Brooklyn projects who will stop at nothing to attain success in the ring and, in the process, a whack of self-esteem. As is the case with Remember the Titans and, indeed, almost all sports films, viewers get pummeled with a flurry of cliches here it's almost impossible to avoid them in the boxing genre.

But likely owing to the no-budget spareness and the earnest, unpretentious nature of the film, director Kusama gets away with dropping such truisms as "boxing is brain over brawn" or "champions are made, not born" throughout Similarly, the extreme, non-shaded relationship between the girl fighter and her ne'er-do-well dad could derail most films, but somehow manages not to detract here. The story line is about as subtle as a crushing left hook to the head. Diana Guzman (Rodriguez) is having a hell of a time adjusting to life. She forever gets into scraps at school and mixes it up at home with her shiftless pop (Paul Calderon), whom she blames for driving her mother to suicide. Apart from her younger brother Tiny (Ray Santiago) whom she must protect Diana vytu' i'i U' Jl' "M' X'l l'i X' 33! tsmmr with her arms and legs stuffed into the sleeves of a coat, is dragged across the floor.

As fur coats are piled on top of someone burbling odd fragments of text, his voice slurs and deepens like an old gramophone record running down. Breasts, buttocks, genitals and pubic hair are a natural part of the movement. The uninhibited gamboling of entangled bodies makes me feel I am watching animals at the zoo. They behave in this way because they do not understand social conventions. The bodies are naked rather than nude.

ESS 3 WWW.CINIMASCUZZ0.COM CROUP fr PARTY RESERVATIONS; 150-W-WS i i ALMOST FAMOUS (G) 7.05-9.35 Sat-Sun 155 3LATEMM 3 FRIDAY I 3 SATURDAY 'H, iJt ill (i 'M 111 BAIT (13) 9:30 Sat-Sun BEAUTIFUL (G) Sal-Sun BRING IT ON (G Sat-Sun HOLLOW MAN (13 9:25 Sal-Sun NURSE BETTY (13) 7:15 Sat-Sun MOVIE 2000 (Gj Sat-Sun 110-3. '10-5. 10 REMEMBER THE TITANS (G) Sat-Sun 11:55 THE ART OF WAR (13) 7.05-9:35 Sat-Sun THE CELL f1ii THE WATCHER (13) Sat-Sun THE WAY OF THE GUN (16) 7:00 Sat-Sun URBAN LEGENDS 2: THE FINAL CUT (13) Sal-Sun WHAT LIES BENEATH (13) 7:15 Sat Sun X-MEN (Gj 9:40 Sal-Sun 9 TUESDAY 3 $5 FOR My own social conditioning kicks in as I worry about safety. Would the performer wrapped in plastic suffocate? Would someone get hit by the hammer that is being wielded erratically and aimlessly, or be impaled by those vicious stiletto heels? The lack of relationships and motivation is disconcerting. Oh yes, they laugh and splash in the water, they grope and couple.

But it is all casual, they do not really care. A man is forgotten, left trussed up on the floor. In this context, sexual gestures lose their erotic connotations. Joints buckle, arms and legs flail, heads loll. Heavy and floppy, bodies lurch and stagger, creating some wonderful, distorted lines through the spine.

These people exist in a mesmerizing trance. At one point they come together as an ensemble working to a communal rhythm in choreographed designs. There is a momentary sense of a grand plan of progress. But everything returns to its random state. Confort peels back the skin, not of an alien culture, but of the human condition, for an ironic and engrossing examination of its substructure of bone and sinew.

Confort et Complaisance will be performedat UsirteC, 1345 Lalonde Ave. tonight and tomorrow at 8p.m. Tickets Call (514) 521-4493. Kathleen Turner Minnie Hallie Kate Joey Lauren Driver Eisenberg Adams pfWEDNESOAt I I 5 FOR EVERYONE Sally Field film AUTUMNIN BAIT (13; Sat-Sun COYOTE UGLY (G) 9.35 Sat-Sun GLADIATOR (1319 25 P0KEM0N: THE MOVIE 2000 (G)Sat-Sun REMEMBER THE TITANS (G) Sat-Sun SPACE COWBOYS (G) 7:20 Sat-Sun THE CELL (16) 9:20 Sat-Sun THE NUTTY PROFESSOR IG) 7.30 Sat-Sun 1 THE WATCHER (131 Sat-Sun 1. THE WAV OF THE GUN (16) 9:40 Sat-Sun URBAN LEGENDS 2: THE FINAL CUT (13; WHAT LIES BENEATH (131 7.

X-MEN (G; 7:15 Sat-Sun irarai tinl) toot tehpom limited llo'my new tl i5 field im'e fti "Serfuf 3oe tawen ItifMm Bndge-He UWfeon kathKM TurnerHate We N'VMy3ohirV)(iaHiy anarch Vgm Jon tolftrtfl Jade tm tSCm tSCInlRtieeiiStlBcKrt hm SXMM WeDito tor toodoo Mtm Vteyaner firt Forres tobtym MJon 8eitoB.ARJc-JtJon PtcvKinrPKniK MONTREAtS ALMOST FAMOUS (G; 1:55 Man, Wed, Thu BAIT (13; Mon.Wed.Thu BEAUTIFUL (GJ Wed, Thu BRING IT ON (G; GLADIATOR (13; Man, Wod. Thu MVP (GJ Frl-Sun, Tue NURSE BETTY (13; Wed, ffw POKEMON: THE MOVIE 2000 (G)FrhSun, Tue 1.20-3.15-5:10 REMEMBER THE TITANS (G; 1.00-3.30-7:00-9.30-1 1.55 Mon, Wed, Thu THE ART OF WAR (131 Mon, Wed.lhu THE CELL (16; Mon.Wed.Thu THE NUTTY PROFESSOR 2 (G) Frl-Sun, Tue THE WATCHER (13 1 Mon, IVed.fhu 10 THE WAY OF THE GUN (16) URBAN LEGENDS 2: THE FINAL CUT (13; 1 1:00 Mon, Wed, Thu WHAT LIES BENEATH (13; WOMEN ON TOP IG) 1.25-3.25-5.25-7:25-9.25-11:25 Mon, Wed, Thu $450 million for Smith I CINEPLEXODEON I FAMOUS PLAYERS 1 I MEGA-PLEX'" QUZZO I i LES CINEMAS QU220 1 riQYPTIEN COLISEE KIRKUND ISPHERETECH 14 lACORDAIRE 11 FAMOUS PLAYERS CINEPLEX ODEON -I I CIN6PLEX ODEON CINEPLEX OOEON 1 pOINTE-CUIREfcANDISH(Mall)VLAVAL(G3 BROSSARD We STARTS TODAY! mulE WINNER WINNER WINNER SI3TSEMW3RL8 FILMFISTTm KWJi. Mil FILM FIM.U I NEW YORK S3 REST CANADIAN FI1H auftit i PRETZEL. EST ASTIST1C COFfTBESOTIM mmmIm MARIE-JOSfe CROZE JEAN-NICOLAS VERREAULT BRING ITON(G; COYOTE UGLY (G; Mon.Wed.Thu 7:30 NURSE BETTY (13; THE WATCHER131 td Mon, Wed, 7hu URBAN LEGENDS 2: THE FINAL CUT (13; WOMEN ON T0P(G; Mon, Wed, Thu a film by DENIS VILLENEUVE produced by ROGER FRAPPIER and LUC VANDAL CINEPLEX ODEON I FAUBOURG 1 ORKMNAi FRENCH VERSION WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES REMEMBER THE TITANS (G; Mon, Wed, Thu 13 also playing in original trench version CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR 8HOWT1MES CTviFiV cm HOUSTON Anna Nicole Smith headed back to a Texas probate court yesterday one day after a California bankruptcy judge awarded her nearly $450 million in her battle for her late husband's oil riches. Judge Samuel Bufford ruled Wednesday that Smith, a model and sometime actress, had been deprived of the inheritance due her when billionaire Texas oilman J.

Howard Marshall died in 1995 at age 90. The judge also ruled Smith is entitled to an unspecified amount of punitive damages. The otn-er side promised an appeal. "I'm very happy with what came out," Smith said as she walked into a Houston courthouse, where a jury is being selected in her probate fight over her late husband's estate. The California ruling came on a bankruptcy filing by Smith, who claimed fraudulent handling of her husband's estate had left her penniless.

The court fight involves Smith and the oilman's elder son, J. Howard Marshall, who are contesting his will. It left everything to his other son, E. Pierce Marshall ap I p3S tnimmftv BQYSs cinis NOW I'LAVINBI I DOL0Y. 8TEHEO I NOW PLAVINUI NOW PLAYINlil CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FORSHOWTIMES FORSHOWTIMES CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES DIGITAL FORSHOWTIMES mtnom.