Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • 123

Richmond Timet-Dizpeteh San March 6 1983 J-3 puts sugarcoating on ethics' Movie Columnist' an VJX- Carole Kass Vincent Canby film critic for the New York Times called sweetly wacky romantic that with such good-humored and consistent intelligence it almost seems to be a new form of lime magazine said the film was knowing satire at CBS-TV: has heart wit intelligence It is the best therapy And Gene Shalit: winning witty and and wonderful romantic On the other hand Frances Lear Norman wife sees it differently And so do some professional psychiatrists stars Dudley Moore as a psychiatrist with a varied assortment of patients ranging from a bank teller who spends his 50 minutes in silence to a narcissistic suburban matron seeking her identity When one of his colleagues dies Moore as Dr Saul Benjamin inherits a patient She is a beautiful young playwright and the doctor fells for her He fantasizes Dr Sigmund disapproval of this He discusses it with the doctor who trained him Both warn him against demonstrating his feelings But our hero is unable to constrain himself He declares himself seduces her and then breaks off the relationship Mrs Lear wrote a letter about what she calls nasty little In it she says: is there a hint that sex between patient and analyst is as responsible physicians attest as devastating an emotional experience as incest She goes on to say the analytic process is to work a patient must become emotionally dependent upon her analyst He assumes the role of her her sole chance for survival her hoped-for release from psychic pain Should the analyst act out Ms sexual feelings she has no recourse but to acquiesce Then once involved sexually with her therapist the patient experiences the same feelings of guilt and worthlessness that she would fed if she had sex with her actual father with the feelings of self-hatred which are no different from those she would have if die walked the streets for Her letter goes on its appalling dishonesty suggests to viewers that romance with the therapist is psychiatrist that prostitution might very well be a result or even frigidity would damage a female identity as -a woman It could have very painful stigmatizing effects on 7' There are recent cases where such behavior has occurred In 1979 the license of a Harrisonburg psychiatrist was revoked and unprofessional conduct and after he allegedly had sexual relationships with four women pa? 1 tients That same year a 16-yeatold girl was awarded daml'1-ages after she was raped and then given drugs by a Fairfei' psychiatrist in return for sexual favors In a local case it1-psychiatrist was accused of sexual offenses against several7 Juvenile females between the ages of 14 and 18 under his care: Last year at a meeting of the 300-member Neuropsychiatrist1' Society of Virginia members heard that 36 percent of 270 valiff compbrints about ethical violations involved'" sexual activities with na tients 1 f- But viewing without knowledge of the damage inherent in its basic premise one is more inclined to agree with Canby On a surface level the film is a sweet and kooky romance between adorably attractive people Never mind thal the psychiatrist is married: His wife is having an affair And he is redeemed when after starting the relationship witfiiV his patient he develops a whole new streak of honesty: Telling the suburban woman she need him any more setting uj5 a practice among street people charging 25 cents for a 5017' minute-hour to those who can afford to pay At the same time the young woman played by Elizabeth McGovern is Buffering anxiety attacks afraid she will die if she see him if beg stay with her And to top off manipulation of the feelings when Dr Benjamin is called to account by a group of his peers they-'' appear to be self-serving and prudish their disapproval': mocked f- With the powerful clout of motion pictures with the potential for propaganda inherent in film it is especially important producers do not distort a dangerous and destructive reality into a pleasant fantasy Jk 4n a likely eventuality Some therapists not already indulging in sex with their patients aright take heart after seeing the film and try it Women patients who have had sex with their analysts might fed wrongly that their deep upset is Her letter ends the mind-eet of motion picture executives so irresponsible as to knowingly produce a film which distorts and approves a social problem? I tremble at the In a telephone conrniation Ms Lear a feminist and the mother of two daughters ages 14 and 25 said she feared that critics who praised the film were unaware of its dangers that their praise might be due to ignorance rather than a lack of concern and that they were pohaps unaware of the irreversible psychic damage such a patient-therapist relationship could evoke Mrs Lear is not alone in her condemnation of the comedy approach Dr Johanna Hoffman director of ambulatory psychiatric care and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Medical College of Virginia agrees She explained that the term merely refers to emotional reactions to a patient attraction is only one kind But acting on sexual attraction is not only unethical and exploitative it is execrable There is a general agreement that it is never acceptable to have sex with a patient It is never permissible It is a betrayal of the trusting relationship on which psychiatric treatment is She agreed that after a patient had been so violated by her and Dudley Moore continues Love My will end Elizabeth McGovern The musical comedy Music continues at Swift Creek Mill Playhouse Jeremy Caplin Lynn West and John Hagadorn are featured Saturday and next Sunday the Mill will hold auditions for the musical comedy Auditions fin1 children are 1 to 5 pm both days The musical calls for seven girls between the ages of 8 and 13 Adult auditions are next Sunday night from 7 to 10 Those auditioning should prepare a song of their chnnring and dress for dancing An accompanist will be provided also calls for a dog to play Sandy Anyone wishing to audition his or her dog which should be sandy in color and of medium size should call the Mill for an appointment at 748-5203 Comedy Club The headline performer at John Rolfe Players The John Rolfe Players will present Golden April 73 and 9 at 8:15 pm at the Chester Middle School The production stars Elton Beverly Myra Maughan Don Fisher Salie Davis-Wan-chism Steve Gregory and Mark Steil For information call 748-4382 Theater IV Theater IYs production of enters its final week at the Empty Space Theater 408 Robinson SL in Fan district Performances are at 230 pm today a 7 pm show at Kensington Gardens on Wednesday and 8:15 pm performances on Friday and Saturday For reservations call 359-0498 star's production of a The comedy mystery set in Edwardian England opens March 18 for 27 performances The last performance of Gin starring the husband-and-wife team of Patricia Falkenhain and Robert Gerringer is Saturday Call 257-0831 for reservations for either production Richmond Theater The Richmond Theater Company is continuing it tour of through April On Saturday at 1 pm the Haymarket Dinner Theater will serve as Mist few the production which includes Little Boy Who Cried and Tortoise and the For reservations call 355-3444 or the Haymarket Playbill Von Trapp Other members of the cast include Tye Heckman Lili Aming Allison Brin-er and Kathy Fields auditions for scheduled to start in mid-June are Tuesday at 5 pm at the theater Producing director Bev Appleton and musical director RL Rowsey are looking fin- girls ages 15 and under Those interested should come prepared to sing one song A show tune is preferred but not a song from Auditions for adults who should crane prepared to sing one song are 11:30 am on Saturday An accompanist will be provided For information call 746-4288 played at Cannes and established the reputation Beresford competes with With behind him be is in Israel scout run I Hv Eagan 270-7111 WEST TOWER KsraDiiivuoAo 1:45 4:00 7:009:20 CHESTERFIELD 8TiOIOT147 1:00 3:05 5:10 7:209 Morant 5 director has new effort ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS BEST PICTURE PAUL NEWMAN WESTHAMPTONI MIDLOTHIAN 5706 GROVE AVE 288-9007 7903 MIDLOTHIAN 272-9300 2:30 430 7:10 9:30 GNH 1 2K)0 4:30 7:209:45 ADULTS $2 130-2K THE VERDICT 9 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS sestpScturei gr' V8S Barksdale Washington Slept a comedy 'by eorge Kaufman and Moss Hart is playing Wednesdays through Saturdays at the Barksdale 'Theater The play which is about a city couple trying to restore a falling-down 18th century house stars David Kilgore Mary Graham Mallory Freeman Glenn Crone and other Barksdale regulars Student and senior citizen rates are offered every night except Saturday and reservations can be made for dinner and theater or theater only VMT Character actor Eric Christmas will play the bumbling English detective Snaith in the Virginia Museum The- ing locations for his next mov-ie about King David a $16 million project for Paramount that is scheduled to keep him occupied until September 272-9301 MIDLOTHIAN 1:003:15841149 52 to atop thmm 7MIMITNMME 1:00 3:00 5:00 7:00 9:00 situations provided by the audience The Improv group will perform every Tuesday night at 8:30 at the club in the lower level of British Pub 109 12th SL in Shockoe Slip Hay market Saturday is the final performance of Haymarket Dinner musical comedy Love My Also currently on stage at the theater is an all-black version of a Good Man Charlie Performances of the show based on the award-winning comic strip are scheduled every Sunday and Monday through April 4 The first performance Sound of is March 17 The story about the Trapp Family features Jeri Cutler as Maria and Joe Inscoe as Capt naive Australian abroad Though it was a Mg success in Australia and England he says it was a mistake for someone who had serious ambitions Beresford says he handled the problem very badly I then went ahead and made a Actually the film he was eager to make was Getting of based on a novel he had read at 14 and stored away as a future film about a teen-age girl from the outback in a snobbish Victorian school for young ladies sequel only further convinced everybody I was a kind of he said But fortunately a producer offered him the script of about an election-night party and he did it It was a critical and commercial success that won Beresford the best-director award in Australia in 1976 and enabled him to make the much-praised 1 of in 1977 As for Breaker Morant Beresford stumbled on a reference to him in a newspaper during a visit to his parents in Richmond New South Wales where Morant had written for the local newspaper Beresford realized that his story would make a movie but it seemed to him a movie with the Boer War as a background would be prohibitively expensive But then he came across a play about the court martial which narrowed the action and used the play as the basis for a script The movie won 11 Australian film awards ahead of is key to successful programming That might mean reacting to special events or circumstances faster than a network affiliate can A recent case in point was WRLITs broadcast of the film three nights before the 2Vfc finale of the series on CBS Independents can also fill voids in the marketplace When CBS canceled Channel 35 became the only commercial station with programming in the morning the Richmond Comedy Club this week has been signed for a television series Mike Eagan will appear on Rock which recently went into production in Los Angeles and should be ready for syndication by fall Eagan will be joined by Paul Lyons the featured comedian The emcee is a local person Reservations are available at 323-1380 Showtimes are 8:30 pm Wednesday 8:30 and 11 pm Thursday and Friday and 7:30 pm 9:40 pm and midnight on Saturdays Recently formed under the auspices of the Richmond Comedy Club the Improv group is a theatrical troupe made up of actors actresses and comedians They inprovise as a cast to impromptu country and later became a salesman of wine think they thought it was a passing But at 13 he persuaded his father to buy him a movie camera and began nuking shorts He would gladly have studied filmmaking at the University of Sydney when he entered in 1959 but no such courses existed nor he adds lid an Australian film industry Neverthless there was a film society and Beresford joined it and continued to make films while studying philosophy day I graduated (BJL 1962) I caught the boat to he says Lacking union membership he found no film work Instead be did odd Jobs such as laying drains until he answered an advertisement for a film editor to work in Nigeria When civil war threatened Beresford returned to London and answering another advertisement for someone to make low-budget experimental films found himself working for the British Film Institute from 1966-1971 IBs return to Australia was prompted by news that the government was establishing a board to subsidize movies Beresford his wife Rhoisin Harrison an Irish-born graphics designer eight months pregnant hurried back turned up with a script and said give me the money and ni make The film made for 8250000 was Adventures of Barry McKenzie" a comedy about a says John Trinder executive vice president TVX has taken several important steps toward generating its own programming Its Norfolk station for example will offer live coverage of the Old Dominion University-University of Virginia baseball game April 26 Although individual TVX stations produce their own programming they have yet to create a pool of shared programming That will change with the on series ijbw in the works have to stay a step Continued From First Page Dec 23 start planning from the moment I get the says Beresford I do with each film that I make I storyboard the entire film before I begin I do a little drawing of every shot in the entire he says When filming begins Beresford brings his drawings on the set can show the cameraman what I want It gives me more time to work with the Nevertheless he maintains what makes a film work is not the dialogue and the acting: can have a most magnificently acted film and it work because the acting can be photographed from the wrong angle What a lot of people do is they just' photograph it they direct Beresford comes by his filmmaking methods by a route leading back to his boyhood in a rural town outside his native Sydney was crazy about he says He remembers seeing every movie that played the local theater one during the week and two on Saturdays was absolutely determined to make movies" he says As for his parents the former Lona Warr a housewife and his father Leslie Beresford a commercial traveler who first sold hand-pumped washing machines to farmers in the Australian bush NOW YOU CAN SEE FOR YOURSELF WHAT BEEN TALKING ABOUT hsssf 215-1517 RIDGE A 141 2-jfisjo mm QMII98MOOM Tharm only ona way TVX sees TV stations grow wiTHE MXN FROM1 SnOWsYIRIVE MICHAEL EDGLKY INTERNATIONAL CAMBRIDGE FILMS GEOFF BURROWES GEORGE MILLER KIRK DOUGLAS JACK THOMPSON nun THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER" TOM BUR1JNSON SIGRID THORNTON IX7RRAINE BAYLY STpm PATERSON JOHN DIXON FRED CULCUILKN khmim Piii MICHAEL EDGIEY SIMON WINCER BRUCE ROWLAND Mn GEOFF BURROWES nmvGKORGE MILLER Continued From First Page operate a station in the 100th market as the says McDonald Although ownership of independents is now limited to seven stations it is anticipated that this rule will disappear during the Federal Communications new era of deregulation The better known non-network broadcast groups such as Metromedia owners of Washington 'independent WTTG produce some of their ow programming move into it as you grow si A I MMMth I VMr Fm IbMilMP I 18 Wier I hawk I'lipiHMih BWMC NMTIM mMSSUM MOTH WIUKIm WUUM USTMMMN SMMS nm nsmBSTHHisviuiuiws-sBuiir himiKHMSMBIT WTASnSUM MMUKUV JOKNCMIHH mucous JowsEUMOSKitsurMiHairiTiigsikM W-2155 272-MI CAPITOL MIDLOTHIAN 205-1507 RIDGE CINEMA EAST RIDCE NEAR PAIIUUi 1:30 3:30 5:30 7:30 9:30 GOOD NEIGHBOR HOUR 271-ISOS CL0VERLEAF CINEMA 7201 MUttOTVlAN 1:00 100 5:00 7:00 9:00 PRICE FIGHTER SHOW 5:00 2121 VEST NNI 2:304:156:00 7:459:30 GNH.