a Slap - -~
A 5
(/
££
=
INDUSTRIAL
SHELVING UNIT
Sturdy steel construction.
4-shelf unit; “W" posts,
sway braces. Gray enam-
el finish. Easy assembly,
incl. hardware. 58x30x16
inches. 69A23
Quantities Limited
JHostellen
THoduare
Me.
93€. Main St., Mount Joy
Phone 653-1861
Ken
ca rth I Y-<.
GT del
& Wed. thru Sunday 1-6 pm.
fT ~ Prone £26205 st
GHERBS « SPICES» TEAS
~COFFEE~
February 20, 1989
John Raiz reviews American Gigolo
by John Raiz
John Calvin was a
landmark in the history of
religion. When he was a
youth of twenty-six he wrote
one of the most influential,
elequent, logical and, per-
haps, terrifying religious
documents ever written—
The Principles of the
Christian Religion. Calvin
zealously taught his follow-
ers to embrace the medieval
doctrine that life can only
offer a constant stream of
misery and tears. He
unwaveringly told his di-
sciples to accept the pagan
philosophy that expoused
the belief that the greatest
benefit anyone could hope
for was not to be born, and
barring that, the next best
thing that could happen
would be to die while
entering this world. In the
Institutes, where we can see
just how much a God-intoxi-
cated man Calvin really was,
he wrote, ‘‘If heaven is our
country, what is the earth
but a place of exile?—and if
the departure out of this
world is an entrance into
life, what is the world but a
sepulcher?”’ For anyone
who hasn’t fallen under the
spell of his preachings,
Calvin is unquestionably a
difficult man to love.
Nonetheless, even his none
«
o
hts
—
PTY %,
115 W.Market st. J
Marietta, Penna. -
Fortney,prop. 355
(52 issues per year) for:
2 Marietta, PA 17547.
Names seersssvossscossssre
St. & No. or R.D. NOwwssoisos
City or Town eeccessesscsee
State 9000000000000 OOCROIOIRRYS
Name escesesscsssscssene
St. & No. or R.D. No. secs
City or Town eesvvessccssoe
State 0000000000000 0000 000
Please send me the SUSQUEHANNA TIMES weekly
: Lancaster County——1 year—$6.00
g (outside Lancaster County)——1 year—$6.50
Mail to: SUSQUEHANNA TIMES, Box 75-A, R.D.#1,
2 If this is a gift subscription, bill to:
Name of person to receive subscription renewal notice,
sessssees Zip e000 00000
00000000 0COCOOIOOIOOIODOIOOOOOS
e000 0sc0000000OOOREDS
eeeescssseZiPescessesene
EARL
becoming
der’s
followers must readily admit
that his overall influence on
Christianity has been pro-
bably even greater than
Luther’s; of course, Calvin
had the major advantage of
following in Luther’s huge
footprints that had trampled
many previously unyielding
obstacles.
This long prologue about
Calvin is triggered by the
fact that Paul Schrader’s
parents were strict Calvin-
ists. In fact, according to
one film source, his parents
didn’t allow him to see a
single movie while he lived
at home (until the age of 18).
Immediately after leaving
home, he became interested
in movies and landed a job
as film critic for the Los
Angeles Free Press; later
editor of the
magazine Cinama. After-
ward he published a book
with the pretentious title
Transcendental Style: Ozu,
Bresson, Dreyer. Which,
finally, brings us to his
career of scriptwriter, and,
now, writer-director.
Several common treads
run through each of Schra-
scripts: the total
inability to dramatize either
the physical or psychological
aspects of a sexual relation-
ship; his consistently gauch
attempts at humor; his
complete lack of talent for
conveying anything that
touches upon being pleasur-
able. How much, if any, of
these shortcomings can be
traced to his strict upbring-
ing is impossible to answer.
One can merely speculate.
Schrader’s first effort was
Sydney Pollack’s The Ya-
Kuza (written in collabora-
tion with Robert Towne).
This script was a total mess.
It was a rambling, un-
focused work filled with
esoteric nonsense about
Japanese gangsters. His
initial popularity grew from
his next screenplay for
Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driv-
er (1976) and Brian De-
Palma’s Obsession (1976).
In 1978, Schrader began to
write and direct his own
films, starting with Blue
Collar—his ‘‘best’’ film to
date. In his latest effort,
American Gigolo, which like
his previous work Hardcore,
he once again takes an
unhealthy look at the seedy
underbelly of society—
where violence can erupt at
any time.
Julian is a swaggerly
confident high-priced stud.
He’s so much in demand by
his rich cliental that he can
force his ‘‘agent’’ Anne to
accept a lower percentage of
the take. Julian views
himself as some sort of a
sexual counterpart to Nietz-
sche’s superman. When a
Black procurer cross-exam-
ines Julian about his work
he haughtily replies that
‘‘Some people are above the
’
law’’.
Julian’s second similarity
to a Nietzschean hero is his
need to live dangerously as
if he were literally attempt-
ing to follow the iconoclastic
philosopher’s advice to
“Erect your cities beside
Vesuvius. Send out your
ships to unexplored seas.
Live in a state of war.” At
one point, his agent
attempts to warn him that
someday he’s going to get
into trouble because of his
attitude and, more import-
antly, because his rich
benefactors will turn on him
at the first sign of trouble to
protect their own cosmetic
skin.
Which is exactly what
happens. Out of a clean blue
California sky (not L.A., of
course) Julian finds himself
the victim of a frame. Up to
this point, the film deals
with the usual Schrader
fare, a self-proclaimed out-
cast moving about the
morally infested societal
waters trying to keep his
chin about the miasma of his
trade. Now, American Gig-
olo turns into a poorly told
film and a well-worn love
story about a well-heeled
woman who has everything
but a loving husband who
throws everything over-
board and jumps into the
polluted water to save her
drowning lover.
Schrader’s direction and
editing are awful. In the two
films which he directed prior
to American Gigolo, there
wasn’t a trace of derivateve-
ness. Oh, how he make up
for it here! He borrows
heavily from Bresson’s pas-
safety and economy.
Now available at
Spangler Appliance
For just 8¢ an hour
you can heat
335 square feet!
Corona heaters burn clean and odor free in virtually any enclosed area. They are
engineered to burn without venting and are completely portable. Cost-conscious
people who want convenient comfort where
portable kerosene space heaters. Peo
world’s most popular heater because
Marietta
sion for riveting his cameras
on inanimate objects.
Schrader also fills his film
with an inordinate amount
of dolly-in shots. He uses
this technique of camera
movement so often it
becomes both boring and
predictable. In a number of
shots immediately following
a cut he mounts his camera
about three feet above the
ground. This is the same
level that the great Japan-
ese director Ozu used in his
first films. In Ozu’s films
(e.g., Tokyo Story and
Floating Weeds) this cam-
era placement had cultural
significance and relevance,
because his movies" dealt
with traditional Japanese
themes and this height
reflected the eye-level of an
average sitting adult. In
American Gigolo it has no
relevance except to com-
municate a crotch fetish on
the director’s part. In a
number of key scenes, he
has his editor (Richard
Halsey) cut away from the
action before the sequence’s
relevance and meaning have
been established. A specific
example: A wealthy South-
ern widow hires Julian as a
chauffeur and when she
begins to engage him in
personal conversation, the
director nervously cuts away
from the scene. Why? The
premature edit has left the
vignette utterly confusing
which, of course, provides
no additional insights into
Julian’s character.
Stay Warm and Save
Anywhere. Anytime.
With the CORONA Portable Kerosene
Space Heaters
+
AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE USE!
SPANGLER APPLIANCE
Phone 426-3122
they live and work choose Corona
ple on four continents have made Corona the
they know they can rely on Corona for quality,
Richard Gere, as Julian,
is too physically crude and
intellectually dense to be
believable in the role. Gere
doesn’t seem capable of
conquering English let alone
five other languages includ-
ing Swedish. His physical
properties are even weaker.
Gere possesses a solid,
muscular. body, but his
physical grace and rather
ordinary looks fail to spark
any pleasure. In his love
scenes, especially the ones
with Lauren Hutton, his
acting is bumbling and
neither his acting nor his
looks generate any sexual
electricity. On the other
hand, Schrader’s handling
of the love sequences does
little to help matters. His
camera placements, move-
ments, and editing are so
stylized that they cause the
scenes to look frozen and
overly structured.
Fernando Scarfrotti’s
(billed as the ‘‘visual
consultant’’) production de-
signs are engaging without
overly calling attention to
themselves; the costumer
should have his credit cards
revoked for his unappealing
selection of suits and ties
that Gere is called upon to
wear—several of the outfits
make him look uncharitably
heavy; Giorgio Moroder’s
soundtrack depends too
heavily on an amplified
electronic pulsing beat; and,
finally, John Bailey’s photo-
graphy is on target about as
often as it misses the mark.
American Gigolo can be
seen at the Eric Twin I
theater in Lancaster.
- TEARREE Tn ER