The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 132

1 EN i I 1111 I I A lif- I 1 i Cos Angeles runes Friday November 18 1983 Television Listings Part VI FILM CLIPS 'SILKWOOD' STILL STIRRING MOVIE REVIEW STREISAND'S TENTL' HAS SOLID TOUCH ABC Pictures and Kerr-McGee are poised for a battle over facts surrounding the life and death of Karen Silkwood yol :101 5 i i nr 40 By MICHAEL LONDON 7 1 toi I 'tlor -1 111:::::: oL a' WEEKEND GUIDE Karen Si lkwood above is portrayed by Meryl Streep below in the coming film "Silicwood" Kerr-McGee executives have not seen the film and are not availible for comment spokesperson Ann Adams said in a phone interview from the firm's headquarters in Oklahoma City "We just hope that the movie is factual" she said "We have 10000 employees and they want their company to be depicted accurately" Asked if Kerr-McGee is considering any legal action Adams said that the company's lawyers were "following the situation closely" but that it was too early to know what they "might or might not do" ABC meanwhile has hired a New York-based public relations firm specializing in controversial movies to defuse attacks from Kerr-McGee andor the nuclear-energy industry "We're prepared to demonstrate very explicitly that every frame in the movie is accurate" said John Scanlon of Scanlon and Menken He added the firm has assembled a "massive" array of data and testimony from the many public and private investigations into Silk wood's contamination and death Kerr-McGee requested a copy of the "Silk wood" script during production but was turned down according to ABC Kerr-McGee later sent ABC a letter outlining what it regarded as the facts in the case "I don't think we violated any of their concerns" said Nora Ephron who co-wrote the script with Alice Arlen after extensive research "This isn't a documentary Please see S1LKWOOD' Page 14 the years ago this week Karen Silk- wood died in a car crash in Oklahoma while reportedly on her way to deliver evidence of safety hazards at the Kerr-McGee Corp nuclear plant where she worked With her celebrated saga finally reaching movie screens next month in "Silkwood" ABC Motion Pictures and Kerr-McGee are poised for a battle over the facts surrounding her life and death Meryl Streep plays the 28-year-old Silk-wood whose contamination from plutonium in the months before she died led to a $10-million judgment against Kerr-McGee for negligence The US Supreme Court is slated to review the case before the end of the year Kerr-McGee is clearly (and repeatedly) identified as the corporate villain in the film While Silkwood comes off as no obstinate obsessive even self Streep offers a powerful portrait of an unheroic woman driven to heroism The film provides no support for KerrMcGee's public allegations that Silkwood deliberately contaminated herself to discredit the company The movie also suggests that a second vehicle was responsible for her fatal car accident which officials of the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union have blamed on Kerr-McGee Police ruled that the accident was a single-car crash) Art: Adding to the Slate An already varied slate of offerings in Southland galleries has become more so with this week's addition of exhibitions featuring contemporary art by Joyce Treiman Joel Shapiro and Arman Treiman a veteran Angeleno known for her psychologically charged themes and fine draftsmanship shows a new body of paintings and drawings at Tortue Gallery 2917 Santa Monica Blvd Santa Monica AsherFaure Gallery 612 Almont Drive has a show of new sculpture and drawings by Shapiro a New Yorker Arman a celebrated French artist who has fashioned sculpture of everything from wrenches and saws to violins exhibits recent works in bronze at the Herbert Palmer Gallery 802 La Cienega Blvd All three galleries are open from 11 am to 5 pm today and Saturday and closed Sunday P' I liot) S'A By SHEILA BENSON Times Film Critic A8 director co-writer co-producer and star Bar- bra Streisand has been audaciously successful with so much of "Yentl" (at the Village in Westwood and Cinerama Dome) that she almost overwhelms its weak points She has drawn a fascinating and loving portrait of a distant period and a culture She has gotten lovely performances from all her cast especially Mandy Patinkin as the ebullient lovesick focus for two women Her film is beautiful to look at (and as a scholarly beardless boy so is she) And she has made the noisy argumentative traditional Hebrew method of pursuing wisdom seem nothing less than passionately exciting She has accomplished this with taste sureness and a sly sense of fun On the other hand there is that score: Michel Legrand's music lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman It begins liturgically which is fine and fitting moves into a lugubrious middle period in which everything begins to sound the same and ends in a "Funny Girl" flourish So you can't have everything in life Streisand and co-screenwriter Jack Rosenthal have turned Isaac Bashevis Singer's spare folk tale somewhat on its side Singer's Yentl was a tomboy with a talent for teaming (a good thing too since all she accomplishes in the kitchen is disaster) who thwarts logic and Talmud by disguising herself as a boy and marrying her study partner's sweetheart His story is also a delicate mystical investigation of sexuality This Yentl is a budding 1904 feminist denied by the rigid laws of the time and her religion the right to fulfill her potential Her widower-father (Nehemiah Persoff extremely affecting in a small role) Please see STREISAND Page 16 EVEN GREEKS HAD EAR FOR VISUALS By PATRICK GOLDSTEIN Music: Electronic Marathon Cal Arts will host a multifaceted marathon of "electro- acoustic" music this weekend Reportedly more than just taped performances of beeps buzzes and boinks the three-day extravaganza promises panel discussions dance installations films video and even live music Proceedings begin tonight at 8 continue all day Saturday and conclude Sunday at 6 pm Most events are free Guitar buffs should relish this weekend Saturday at the Japan America Theatre Christopher Parkening generally considered this country's finest guitarist will make a rare local appearance Now a Montana rancher the Los Angeles-born musician will play music of Bach Albeniz and others plus excerpts from his recent sacred-music record with guitarist Ronald Ravenscroft On Sunday night Czech guitarist Vladimir Mikulka will play a recital at El Camino College His program includes rarely heard music by two Soviet-bloc composers: fellow Czech Stefan Rak and Russian Nikita Koshkin FITZGERALD WHITNEY I LAM Angeles Times 434 itSIP 1( 4101041111) Iv illor illi Cot 0 vi ii1 4012ftso 1 I we LI 471 r4 1 41 yl tit 1 4 (- 40t 1-- I' 11111p 't 11 41 1 064 1 4 II 1 1 4 II 7 i 1 10- I 1 1 ti 4 44 1 1 i 0 IN csid: 1 IN to'44' kl' ''k le- i :4 '1 11 I 1 3 A er OPERA REVIEW 'GIOCONDA' A TROUBLED PRODUCTION Everybody knows that Aristotle helped dream up metaphysics tragedy and theology But MTV? Long before the airwaves were packed with music videos full of clouds of smoke and wild women the Greek philosopher was apparently mulling over the potential of visual music "For an art form that's seemingly without a past visual music has a rich and decidedly intriguing history one that certainly stretches back to the Greeks" explained William Moritz an experimental film maker poet and composer who is best known in local video circles as a ground-breaking visual music historian A man who is obviously happiest rummaging through the strange annals of currently works as a researcher for ABC's "Ripley's Believe It or Not" TV was among speakers on Thursday's opening-day program for Billboard's fifth Video Music Conference The three-day video music gathering which features a host of panels exhibits and nightly screenings runs through Saturday in Pasadena Moritz's multimedia presentation which covers a video spectrum ranging from 15thCentury graphic harpsichords to Betty Boop cartoons and 1960s music-video prototypes is part of a continuing effort by LA's Visual Music Alliance VMA) to broaden the horizons of video enthusiasts "We're trying to serve as a focal point for Please see VISUAL Page 13 Visual music expert William Moritz in his office here discusses its history LARRY DAVIS I Los Angeles Times LASKY DAVIS I LOS Angeles Times A 'FIGHTING MAD' CRAFT vows TO PURSUE HER CASE A 'FIG vows Movies: Don't Look Down Second in this series of Hitchcock re-releases that we have been treated to recently is his obsessive intriguing "Vertigo" (at selected theaters) with James Stewart as a detective who makes Kim Novak over in the image of another love Long out of circulation it is a must in the Hitchcock lexicon for a new generation and a memory-stirrer for the rest of us Best in the County Museum of Art's salute to Sir Carol Reed is the 8 pm screening Saturday of "Our Man in Havana" with Graham Greene's screenplay Just how his "Trapeze" playing at 8 tonight with Burt Lancaster Gina Lollobrigida Tony Curtis) has held up is an interesting question and one worth pursuing (Information 857-6201 screenings at the Leo Bing Theater 5905 Wilshire Blvd) Pop: Under the Spell The Cramps will cast some voodoo rockabilly spells when they headline the Palace tonight and England's Soft Cell continues its LA debut engagement with shows Saturday and Sunday at the same hall LA's Gun Club plays the Music Machine Saturday its last show before leaving for a tour of England and Italy while the Replacements check in from their native Minneapolis with a Saturday appearance at the Lingerie they'll also be at the Music Machine Wednesday) Carrying the Torch "Torch Song Trilogy" Harvey Fierstein's rueful sometimes gamy comedy about a drag queen named Arnold and his valiant search for Mr Right opens Sunday night at the Hartford This is the national company of the Broadway hit with Donald Corren in the role originated by Fierstein (462-6666) Those interested in performance art want to catch George Coates' "The Way of How" a musical what-is-it from San Francisco: one performance only tonight at Wadsworth Theatre on the grounds of the Veterans Administration in Westwood (825-9261) And it's farewell to "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You" closing Sunday night after more than a year at the LA Stage Co (461-2755) Compiled by Calendar writers by Calendar writers By JUDITH MICHAELSON Times Staff Writer By MARTIN BERNHEIMER Times Music Critic SAN FRANCISCO Ponchielli's "La Gioconda" is a perfectly dreadful opera It abounds in gothic plot convolutions glorifies the banal tune ad infinitum if not ad nauseam offers six heavyweight virtuosos ample opportunity to indulge in highly competitive ultra-Italianate utterly illogical singing and tries with heroic sprawling romantic determination to elevate the lowly cliche to lofty art I love it "La Gioconda" doesn't work however unless it is an orgy for great artists with great voices If the opera vulgar absurdities and all isn't served with equal parts of grandeur finesse and passion by all concerned all is lost Well almost all Almost all certainly is lost in the current San Francisco Opera revival Lotfi Mansouri's conventional but vital staging created in 1979 with an eye on television is now entrusted to a young assistant Robin Thompson who has the hapless and hopeless task of playing traffic cop for an uneven ensemble of egocentric stars and somnolent routiniers Zack Brown's colorful gimmicky designs look even more like anti-theatrical window dressing now than before And to make silly matters even sillier the evil Barnaba must sing his baritonal apostrophe to an invisible "Monumento" and all the men wigless in what is supposed to be 17th-Century Venice sport nice 20th -Century San Francisco haircuts Vassili Sulich's "Dance of the Hours" emerges an unintentional hippety hop cartoon clumsily hippety- hopped Andrew Meltzer the relatively inexperienced conductor enforces little precision less suavity erratic tempos and only sporadic coordination between stage and pit Still this quaint concert in costume could have been saved by a few inspired superlarynxes But superlarynxes of any opposed to famous scarce at the War Memorial Opera House Please see' LA GIOCONDA: Page 10 oe 0 '411 i s- i '411111k 1 i '5 ittlii'''" rallialt kf- 4 INFei If SA vskf wool ib i vk 41p 4 4 '''L ri Wat- 0 It I ti 4T 4 4 Alr '1 4''' tk '4 C) kt 140 -1 Ada A "4 k''' 4 -s i A A t'l' ik 11 e''3 -btk If'r Q'ff 0- 4 -Ilt '-li l' 1' 31 'i'-16 40ere' 4- 11' -'13re'-'''N41 '1 1 ose 'cAt ty 1 tA4) or 1 7 A 14 Ir a tz4 iIP 7 A -04 A4 '94t ePA4 0 1 :11: re441" 4 $'s 7 41 1 1 kl 'IM''1 4 I 4 I 1 I i 1 4 i 1 i 4 v' All fil 0 'It) t7 Q5t12-en 4r ea4 1 gbd 11N11b 4 '4011 1 -3 0 01 or killillir4 gCar 1111k 0 11 1 :4 fP j't 4 :17 41 Is a Christine Craft is "fighting" mad The former Kansas City Mo TV co-anchor intends to take her overturned sex-discrimination case to the US Supreme Court if necessary she told a gathering at the Valley Hilton in Sherman Oaks Wednesday night Speaking before Women in Communications Inc Craft was among friends The embattled 38-year-old TV newswoman who won a $500000 sex-discrimination suit against Metromedia Inc in August that was overturned by a federal judge Oct 31 is now on the lecture circuit She said that she needs the lecture fees to help defray legal costs in her battle with Metromedia Inc former owner of KMBC-TV in Kansas City Craft claims that she was unfairly demoted by KMBC in 1981 because she was "too old too unattractive and not deferential enough to men" She told the communications group that the station had also dubbed her a "mutt" After they call you that she said what else is there? A slim frosty-blond wearing a silky Western-style dress Craft came as something of a surprise to some of the communications people who had never met her Her delivery was lively and humorous When she did an imitation of a Valley girljournalism school graduatehomecoming queen asking her how to become an anchor she could have been a comedienne on a late-night TV talk show Craft told some of her war stories to the more than 100 women and some men) gathered and pledged to "keep up the fight as long as I can" although she acknowledged "I can tell you it's no picnic "How many juries do I have to go to?" she asked "How much justice can I afford?" She is "no martyr no Joan of Arc" she said Instead she challenged call her "Joan of Irk" Please see CHRISTINE CRAFT Page 11 ICompiled INSIDE CALENDAR FILM: "Nate and Hayes" "A Christmas Story" "Purple Haze" and "Cumbres Borrascosas" reviewed by Kevin Thomas Pages 18 and 19 POP: Third World reviewed by Richard Cromelin Page 6 TV: New prime-time chart Page 20 New prime-time cable chart Page 21 Christine Craft at a press conference at the Valley Hilton.