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FILM _ RE VIE W Gala art auction set for Friday PAGE " - WATERLOO CHRONICLE, “NEDAY, ”“050! H, m! For that reason, The head: Deane-airs Woman is likely to disappoint, and even frustrate, a lot of movie-goers. The long-awaited screen adapta- tion of John Fowles‘ enigmatic 1969 novel is, for the moat part, a stimulating intellectual experience. but its romantic story-telling lacks Teal emotimal impact. By Victor Stanton Most people would prefer to see movies which involve them emu tionally rather than intellectually. Right at the start, it is made clear that we are watching two movies, both with the title The French This, it seems to me, is entirely intentional, and the picture's achieveman therefore all the more extraordinary. Lieutenant's Woman. This film- within-a-film technique is an at- tempt by script writer Harold Pinter and director Karel Reisz to parallel the novel‘s own complex approach to story telling, and is somewhat reminiscent of another recent movie, The Stunt Man. But, whereas The Stunt Man showed you the actual behind-the- scenes processes of a movie being made, after the initial shot of a clapper board carrying the title, the movie in The French Lieutenant’s Woman is shown in fully edited and sequential scenes. Interrupting these "movie" scenes periodically are scenes of the modem-day "actors" who portray the 19th-century characters. Of course, these actors are themselves also characters being portrayed by the same screen performers. Meryl Streep thus, plays both the title character, Sarah, and the actress, Anna, who portrays her, while Jeremy Irons assumes the dual role of Charles, Sarah's infa- mated lover, and Mike, Anna's equally infatuated actor lover. If there is a "reality" to involve theaudience here. surely ithastobe in the relationship between the modern-day characters. However, since much more screen time is devoted to the 19th-century story, audiences are understandably de- luded into looking there for a "reality" which, of course, does not exist. That is what happens, in fact, to the characters of Anna and Mike. They are deluded by the roles they play into a similar off-screen rela- tionship that cannot exist in their An audience expecting another Tess certainly is going to be disillu- sinned very quickly. tremely etteciive in making distinc- Mental Health Assad} “on. will - its Ninth Gala Art Auction this Friday ”can at the Transylvania Club. It Andrew St., Kitchener. Mental Health/Wa- terloo Region. I Ingm- Original Canadian and interlinked an waterGGrGnd my hares. presented try Beaux Arts Interna- A rewarding experiment dlans such as A.Y. Jackson. William tit-ale of Toronto. The auction will our Robert human. gait ha. than and My Cane“. International grunt M bellies Picasso, Miro. Blo- pclle. mm. Home. anly and Dali. The "etieet. which was attt pm. with a Beautifully photographed by vet- eran British cinematographer Fred. die Francis (an Academy Award- winner for lm’s Sons and Lover§). The French Lieutenant's Woman might well be considered experi- mental, and viewed in that vein it stand as a very exciting and rewarding experiment. tive their two eharaeters, and por tray each with considerable belie veability. A fine supporting cast, most of whom are primarily involved In the "movie" scenes. complements the piltture's first-class production val- There are no surprises in Halloween 11, just a continuation of the same gory tricks that turned the original low-budgeted Halloween into a box- office treat four years ago. The return of the psychopathic killer-referred to in the mo.vie cred- its simply "The Shape"-as the same night as his previous murders is ludicrous to begin with, since he was shot, stabbed and hurled off a roof at the conclusion of the previous picture. Since. lacking any kind of belie- veability. it cannot generate any genuine suspense, the sequal movie merely carries on with a series of meaningless murders, usually de- picted in gruesome detail for shock effect. Most of the “action" takes place in a hospital where the character Curtis plays is taken after her earlier confrontation with The Shape. Consequently, most of the picture's new characters-the major- ity of whom are. predictably. short- lived-are hospital employees. John Carpenter. who co-wrote and directed the original Halloween, has co-wrote and produced this one. leaving the direction to one Rick Rosenthal, who could be a Carpen- ter clone for all the inventiveness he displays here. Some technical superiority over the original merely seems to retleet a larger budget, not a greater talent. Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence reprise their roles as the killer's intended victim and a my chiatrist respectively, but their screen time is actually rather min- imal. For movie goers with my Lute or discrimination. however, this pic- ture is totally without any distinc- tion or quality, all tricks and no will mid some kind of chub thrills in Halloween 11 and consider the they pay to see it well preview at 6:30. is 8 per penon. Tickets are available at the door or from the mental haalth otBee located at IN King St.s.. Waterloo. major tang-rung: amnion in Item Gina. and all proceeds tion, call lentil Health/Waterloo re- warm-m. go towards (hit glue. DUO face struggle launching company by Victor Stanton A husband and wife who hope to launch the area's first professional resident theatre company will stage their initial production next week at the Cambridge Central Library. Alex Moir and Katherine Beaumont, who live in Kitchener, are at present the only members of their Beaumont-Mair Theatre Company, both having written and performing in Variations On A Theme, in three-act play which Mair is directing. The company, says Moir, would like to put on a different production every two months, but "that will depend on two factors." "The first is availability of a suitable space on a regular basis. We haven't come up with such a place in Kitchener or Waterloo. "The second factor involves a shortage of people. There doesn't seem to be too many people in this area who are prepared to work on a regular basis. At least, we haven't discovered them yet." Mair and Beaumont both have had theatri- cal, film and television experience in their native England and together ran a profession- al theatre company in Bridgewater. N.S. for the last year. "Bridgewater was a town of 6,900 people, of which some too would come to the show each month. That was a high percentage. of course. but in this area. there's a total population of what. over ”.00? If even Ml! per cent of those come to see a show. that 351,500 people. And it seemed to us that you couldn‘t tell to get 1.5” people. unless there was something extraordinary about the area." Meir adds that he and his wife "searched from London to Ottawa" heiore deciding to launch their company in this area. The choice to come to Ontario was made, Mair says. because the Bridgewater theatre "was not, in terms of audience, growing quickly enough to support the operation." "it seemed to us that here was a large -utittet that, to the beat of our knowledge. -wdimtttteingservieedbyttresidmttrtro%s- ' theatre company." "So long as we were prepared Just to talk about it, there was a fair amount of interest. Then, when we said we would put a play on, people started telling us we were wasting our time and they've quoted examples of it taking IO years to build up an audience of 500 Peo- ple." Funds hr the company "are coming out of whatever remains of what we had In Nova Seoul. and whatever we are presently able to put together have.“ Originally. says Muir, the University of Waterloo expressed interest in working with them toward this goal, but "after talking a little bit further it came to nothing." In fact, adds Muir, "we've been getting a tremendous amount of negative response in the last few weeks." “The intent of the play is very serious, but the approach to that intent is largely through comedy." The first performance of Variations On A Theme will be next Thursday night (Nov, Mr), beginning at tt pm. The play will be presented at the aame time next Friday and Saturday evenings (Nov. an and 2t) as well. If ihat's the case. he acknowledges that he and his wife aren't prepared to invest that amount of time. ple." - The decision to write their own play came about because “what scripts were available to us didn't madly excite us." From inception to production. Variations On A Theme will have taken six weeks to pre- "Today, I'm being rather cautious, perhaps, but I think it probably would take more like five years." "However, we made a decision that since we were here we should put on a play. If, as a result of limited advertising funds, or the apathy of the population - if for either of those reasons, or a combination of both, we whould fail, then we'll get the hell out. It's that sim- 7 Molt describes the play as " light-hearted look at the ups and downs of male-female rela- tionships."