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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1987)
porting Actor, this film filled in a lot of pieces for me. Watching those young men describing the things they would do to each other with their government issue firearms — well, it makes you wonder where the intelligence quotient goes to at times like that. And it finally dawned on me that “ fragging“ is a derivative of “ fragment" and all the nasty ramifications thereby tendered. Corpses lost one layer into the leaf litter Corpses modified to leave a message to the enemy. Just which skills are our young men proud to claim here? Sad and lonely, confused and plaintive, this film is a must see film. Everybody, please, go see this film. Platoon Yes, Virginia , there was a Vietnam Writer/Director Oliver Stone Starring: Charlie Sheen. Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger Playing at: Lloyd Cinemas B ody hags; old corpses, any side of many sides; who was who; who are you; I'm high. too. The biblical “ lust of the eve,“ that culminates in such ! ghastly spectacles. Whispering through the rain, mist and moon of night jungle, at first it ’s the palest Waiting for the Moon Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas take us on a picnic white noise, silk scarves in the wind; grown up (but not very) hide and seek; a full menu of horrors in a war whose ulti mate function was the manufacture of ex pensive corpses. How much dishonor can you handle? By many thousands, our numbers were diminished, some by each other. By many thousands, the plucky enemy (who were they to me?) picked off the remainders. By many more thousands our population swelled by soldiers returning with personal traumas, dreamers of bad dreams, those with drug addiction, those with death addiction. Winner of many academy awards, in cluding Best Director, Best Film, with two well-deserved nominations for Best Sup I Directed by: Jill Godmilow Screenplay by: Mark Magill Starring: Linda Hunt as Alice B. Toklas, Linda Bassett as Gertrude Stein Coming to Portland soon P erplexing. What, actually, has transpired here? Could this be the parallel universe Dr. Who talks about? We know Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas lived together in Paris and if we're really into it, we know they cohabited part o f the time in Bilignin, France, and that they spent a long time together. We know that they knew most o f their contempo raries in the arts — Picasso, Hemingway, UA witty; restrained portrait. The relationship of the two women is subtle and engrossing/7 -Jami Bernard7 New York Post Apollinaire — three who are represented in this film. Nearly everyone knows the famous line, “ Rose is a rose is a r o se ,' (even people who have never heard of Gertrude Stein know that famous line). Based on a story by Mark Magill and Jill Godmilow. the plot is constructed of inci dents, nearly all complete fabrications, that amount to a sort of invisible reweav ing of their lives. I've never attended a film about famous people where so many “ facts" were rear ranged. bulked up, or made up entirely. Left out or glossed over, maybe, but this . . . The transpiration of scenes moves softly — much o f the “ action" involves proofreading. — Aha! something they actually did do together. Other incidents include a picnic with Femande Olivier (Picasso's mistress, who had left him years before the time depicted in the film, circa 1936), and Guillaume Apollinaire; Fer- nande and Alice rehearsing a play (written in the style o f Gertrude Stein), and a pretty country girl, Pauline, giving Alice and Gertrude her baby, whom she cannot keep, now that the father, Apollinaire has died of poison mushrooms. (There was no baby we know of, and Apollinaire died o f war w ounds.) The baby begins and ends the film, and seems, upon reflection, to repre sent the sharing of lifework by Stein and Toklas. Toklas did type Stein’s manu scripts, and they did proofread them together. From the individuals, as represented here, and from what we can most likely safely assume. Toklas did in sinuate her way into Stein s writing — possibly helping pursue and capture those elusive adjectives. Another fictitious situation, Gertrude has been told by her doctor she is ill and might die. also begins and ends the movie, and threads its wav through the film, with Alice finding out the news (by reading Gertrude's mail), and becoming surly be cause Gertrude won't discuss the situation with her; pretty poor communication. Most o f the film centers around the rela tionship o f the two women. Although it is about possibly the two most famous les bians in history, it is rated PG and the relationship we are shown is the one in which the two women finagle for attention and caring from each other in little ways most o f us do with our loved ones. There is no sex depicted, and only a hug or two to show the caring. And there is a lot of bickering. Somehow, though, I got the feeling that this really was what it was like. The caring and sharing modified by the emotional pushing and shoving, are there. The bread-and-butter o f existence and growing older are there. The passiveness o f each woman is shown; Stein sleeps until noon and doesn't like to get up for any thing (she was overweight), and Toklas fetches everything but complains about it from time to time — it must really have transpired much this way. Winner o f the Grand Prize at the United States Film Festival this January, (an award shared with Gary Walkow’s The Trouble with Dick), Waiting fo r the Moon is not history, not a traditional romance, not a biography, not a comedy. It is, how ever, an interesting film. The acting is good. Academy Award winner (for The Year o f Living Dangerously, as Billy Kwan) Linda Hunt does well with puzz ling material, and Linda Bassett, a stage actress making her debut here, really seems to personify Gertrude Stein, the puckish, thinking, writing woman. • BROADWAY CAB • • • • • • 24-hour radio dispatch VISA and MasterCard Reasonable rates Comfort and personal service Luxury passenger van tours Individual private taxi tours 50 years of dependable, courteous service PORTLAND. OR VANCOUVER. WA 227-1234 696-3800 T h ey set a new standard for com passion7 a rtistry and love. 1M K HUNT »ad LINEA BASSETT WAITING tVDCN ANDREW MCCARTHY *d BRUCEMcGDLL Just O u t 2 2 . A p n I. |9H7 OPENS APRIL 17TH JOIN US ON SUNDAY, APRIL 12TH, 7 P.M. AT THE 5TH AVENUE FOR A SPECIAL ADVANCE PREVIEW BENEFITTING THE PORTLAND POETRY FESTIVAL. TICKETS $5.00 AT THE DOOR. □ 5th 4VFNUF • SEVEN GABLES T H E A TR E S!
