The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 39

The Citizen, Ottawa, Tuesday. May 17, 1977, Page 39 Thriller has its moments ENDS FIRST OTTAWA THURSDAY SHOWING HOUSEWIFE: 7.00 9.4S P.M. MATTRESS TANGO: 8.2S P.M. MOVIES 1 'Slillll'r LCI 1 -JSf Iff Ml XA it. CinsnKfihoivcQSG aren't that many 12- to 14-year-olds around who would adapt themselves so easily to sub-teenage prostitution (Taxi Driver and from there to the lead in a junior gangster musical Bugsy Malone) or, for that matter, to the homicidal child she turns out to be in this one.

Her only problem now is her disconcerting maturity. It's hard to think of Jodie Foster as a Little Girl not even the "very special" 13-year-old brought up by a doting, and now defunct, father to 1 NASTY HABITS GLENDA JACKSON MELINAMERCOUR1 GERALDINEPAGE SANDY DENNIS sound and fury little passion Foster stars Iz7e GiW mother by accident and stored her in the cellar too. But her maturity works against the horror of her situation. Instead of a coldly scheming child there's an efficient young adult picking her way through one of those implausible murder plots which used to be popular in the live theatre two or three decades ago. Since the onset of maturity has arrived so early for Jodie, it isn't too surprising to see her strip down and hop into bed with the local garage owner's crippled son (Scott Ja-coby).

The rest is as decorous as the circumstances permit, but Laird Koenig's screenplay is relentless about the fatal attractions that young Rynn holds for the opposite sex, especially the distasteful intruder (Martin Sheen) who stubs his cigarette out on her pet hamster and keeps tripping up the visiting cripple. Where Sheen is detestable, Scott Jacoby as another rather eccentric teenager committed to being the local musician instead of galumphing around the football field with his fellows, works very hard at being engaging. It's unfortunate though that he is required to be so sanguine when she tells all to him. A little hysteria, or at least some indignation, would have helped something at least to set off the nonchalance of his co-conspirator. The Little Girl is a modest thriller with conventionally scarey moments.

Director Nicholas Gessner builds his tension gently and is decently wary of sensationalism. IT LASTED 30 DAYS YOU WILL REMEMBER IT AS LONG AS YOU LIVE Capitol Square 2 live alone in a large New England house and to resist all attempts by Them to make her join the crowd. Rynn, is an obedient daughter, and a precocious one. Instead of going to school she stays home and learns Hebrew from the tape deck. When the nosey realtor (Alexis Smith) stumbles to her death on the cellar steps, she leaves her there and later buries the corpse round the corner of the house.

Earlier, we discover, she has poisoned her Fortunately by this stage in the program Shepp seemed to have found his "voice" and the set closed with an exchange with Persip that showed maturity and a structural sense missing earlier. Tonal quality was also richer in this work. If one can be forgiven a grammatically questionable observation, it was still full of "quotes that weren't quite," fragments that were snatched away before they had much chance to establish their meaning in context. If you can accept a performance that was interesting without being very satisfying, then you can absorb the experience of Archie Shepp. For all the fury and flashing barrage of sound, this was music with very little honest BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND THE NORRIS VINES SHOW a tribute to THE PLATTERS Carney's back and Tomlin's got him iHqb944 ei AT 1.30 3.25 bwiuSmmw i I Mrmmmk't 5.20 7.20 9.25 Capitol Square 3 11 MOTOR INN MONTY PYTHON'S Corners 828-2741 PICTURE FRAMING THE CONISART SYSTEM AN AMBASSADOR FILMS RELEASE twin OPEN NIGHTLY AT 6.30 P.M.

Kiace oc vine i Place de Ville 2 THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE. Directed by Nicholas Gessner, screenplay by Laird Koenig. Starring Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith, Mort Shuman and Scott Ja-coby. By Noel Taylor Audiences who have followed the career of Jodie Foster will not be surprised at anything this young actress gets up to in this leisurely Canadian-made thriller. Understandably, she is much in demand.

There Shepp's signifies By Lois Moody Archie Shepp plays folk music. No, that's not a derogatory slogan painted on a fence, but it certainly is a controversial way to describe the music of the tenor saxophonist who is regarded as one of the high priests of free jazz. Having been informed that the man dislikes the term avant garde, we were asked to accept his offering as folk music. The easy answer that rolls off the tongues of those who hero worship musicians and claim particular creative gifts for today's black musicians, would be that this music comes from a people and their struggle against oppression. If we don't understand the message, then it is supposedly we who are lacking since the message is true and timeless.

Shepp's music is just the kind that feeds such extravagant claims and reactions, both for and against. Technically, the man is probably one of the most facile in today's music, regardless of how you care to refine the definition further. He has sufficient mastery of his instrument to say what he has to say with confidence bordering on force. Whether or not all this technique is put to the best use is quite a different matter. Having been so favorably impressed with his most recent recordings done live at the Montreux festival, it was disappointing to sit through an opening work that took over half an hour to go nowhere.

There was little if any development of the thematic material or generation of emotional response. A fragmented minor-key phrase recurred at unpredictable moments, only to be beaten back by the next furious attack of rapidly-run scale patterns. Drummer Charlie Per-sip, embroidering the story in his own design, laid down a chatter of tightly-ridden cymbals and rim crashes, moving toward some undefinable end in an equally furious and end Eve RFmMMENMTION FOR MERCY (ft) IT TAKES A RARE AND 'a' to each week attract larger audiences than in each preceding week. DU "Mountain" is such a if anl everywhere it is playing. fn i When you see it.we think you'll agree i If jj: with every wonderful word t1 rVr 1 I you've heard about it.

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2ND HIT DRIVE-IN ONLY! "LUCKY LADY" Drive mi ft NOW SHOWING "YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN" "LUCKY LADY'' i BRITANNIA 2 I i fey asy MUSIC powerful, but somehow more convincing manner. There was no convincing evidence of empathy at this stage of the performance. Totally different was Shepp's solo reworking of Ellington's In A Sentimental Mood, a harmonically rich composition that really demands too much of a single instrumental voice, no matter how inventive. What Shepp did succeed in doing was retaining a surprising degree of tender melancholy from the original. Short breathy statements in the lower register brought fleeting but only fleeting memories of Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster.

It was a test of one's concentration not to be distracted by Persip repairing his drums through much of this number. Even though it was the most readily accessible material of the entire performance, it left an unsatisfied feeling. TODAY 7.30 9.45 TOUTE UNE VIE (AND NOW MY LOVE) ENG. SUB-TITLES mm 2nd WEEK! 'I a- NIOHTLV: 7.00,400 SAT.b SUN. 1.00 3.00,5.00,7.00, 9.00 FREE PARKINS 1 A (MWM 777-I629 ADULT Rtudent 1 MEMBERS IAUUL I MEMBERS 2-50 Museum Mounting, Needle point arv rraming.

Mounting and Lamination. Standard Sized Frames, Complete Do-it-Yourself supplies. I fJIIM Airport Drive in "ANNIE I I Jonight at the KTuSXS WOOD DIANE 'BRING ME CHURCHILL OUT OF ENGLAND" THEATRE BRANCH, ONTARIO. ALLEN KEAT0N ADOLF HITLER SEPT. 16, 1943 Ciyill I AT yip" INTIITAINMINT 2 S3 0 30 IS 0 0 1 V' i For the it's 7-' 1 NIGHTLY SHOWINGS I AT PAHRDALE 2333 7.00 9.20 I ROCKY Little Elgin AT: 2:15 best dancing in town still the Beachcomber 1 ADULT DONALD SUTHERLAND ROBERT DUVALL AWIT INTIRIAtNMINlH Un SOMERSET AT BANK 236-9528 (VI MONTREAL RO OUEENSWAV 74S 715 gfrrs I 11 jm i I I WELLINGTON 728 OPENS Vt yiZm mmmammm JLc'-l.

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