42 p—M. a a t T January 7 . 2 ÛQQ
FILMS
The t. Totters House Ministries
It’s the millenium . . .
Does God
have a plan for you?
HIBERNATION
Huddle 'round the
flickering screen
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Website: www.pottershouseministries.org
Continued from Page 41
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to really savor. (Even Roger Ebert wanted to
see more of Tomlin’s bracingly frank archeolo
gist and wondered in his review: “Why do
movie lesbians have to recite so much dialogue
that keys off their sexuality.7”) Indeed. Any
viewer who doesn’t recognize Tomlin for a dyke
isn’t paying attention.
Cher gets to dash about passionately, collect
avant-garde art, wear fabulous frocks and, well,
be Cher. But since that’s what the part seems
to call for, she is well cast.
Although the story is quite episodic, and
only one of the women is really changed in any
discernible way by the decade of adventure,
that also seems to be the point: their steadfast
determination to ride out the war in the glori
ous Tuscany they’ve all adopted, despite every
effort to remove them to safety. Though not
particularly heroic, the women are prepared to
give up their lives to save some priceless fres
coes.
At best, it’s a novelty to see a group of
female characters, all over 50, who bond
together for mutual good and display grand,
gutsy temperaments all along the way. Not
your ordinary WWII flick.
—OG
and criminal, and subsequently as a prisoner in
the peculiar World War 11-era French penal
system.
Poison tells three stories in interspersed,
overlapping episodes. Only one of them, which
follows a male prisoner’s tortuous, violent love
for another, is a literal interpretation of Genet.
Though the most beautifully filmed, it’s actual
ly the weakest link in this chain.
The other two are original stories, replete
with apt quotes from Genet’s novels. In one, a
faux documentary, the playmates, teachers and
mother of a 7-year-old boy recount the events
leading up to the day he shot his father. The
other, a clever AIDS parable, blatantly draws
on black-and-white noir films and cheesy ’50s
disaster flicks to tell the story of a scientist who
inadvertently becomes a tabloid-hounded
“leper sex killer.”
Poison’s careful, austere symbolism and dis
turbingly graphic material may put off some
viewers, but for fans of the avante-garde, Poison
is a fulfilling achievement.
—CM
M ON IC A HU G G E T T / ARTISTIC D I R E C T O R
ml
B o u n d
The dynamic Paul Goodwin returns
from London to direct the Portland
Baroque Orchestra and Chorus in
rare and wonderful ceremonial works
by George Frideric Handel.
A
‘‘L et G o d arise ”
Concerto Grosso Op. 3, N o. 2
Save 50%!
“I w ill m agnify T h e e ”
Concerto Grosso Op. 6, N o. 6
“A s pants the hart fo r cooling stream s”
Friday, Jan. 21, 8 p.m.
Trinity Cathedral
Saturday, Jan. 22, 8 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 23, 3 p.m.
SATURDAY EVENING
TICKET SPECIAL
Buy one Saturday evening ticket at
the regular price and get a second
ticket o f equal value at half price!
Kaul Auditorium, Reed College
of its Tiofe
Free lecture one hour prior to each concert:
“The Handelian Chorus: Ceremonial Voices,"
by Professor Gilbert Seeley, Lewis & Clark College.
TICKETS: (503) 222-6000
www.pbo.org
ll I’d ever heard about Bound was that it
had a lot of hot sex. However, the one
and only hot sex scene takes place within
the first 15 minutes, and then we’re left not
with an erotic relationship film, but with a
thriller. I thought this might be a bad thing,
but Bound is actually quite smart and tricky.
Jennifer Tilly plays Violet, a sex worker who
lives with Caesar, a member of the Chicago
mob. Gina Gershon plays Corky, a plumber-
carpenter ex-con who happens to live in the
apartment next door. Violet and Corky get
together and do it, then develop an elaborate
plot to screw Caesar out of nearly two million
dollars. The rest of the movie is a suspenseful
ride.
Though Tilly’s acting does get a little tire
some, her unconventional relationship with
Corky grows more believable as the movie
rushes on. Refreshingly, Bound is an intelligent
thriller that never lets us know where it’s head
ed.
—KD
Season Sponsor
PORTLAND BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
P oison
T
he 1991 film Poison, the first feature by
innovative directo 'TUJ' Haynes, is
informed and inspirt, ’ by the works of gay
literary legend Jean Genet, ^enet wrote auto
biographical, poetic novels about his abject yet
romanticized life experiences, first as an orphan
m C hristopher M c Q uain is a Portland-based
writer and tireless observer o f pop culture.