TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/111891/1118490.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 6KB | 136 lines

                                                                                CRITICS' VOICES, Page 18


    TELEVISION

    BACKFIELD IN MOTION (ABC, Nov. 13, 9 p.m. EST). Roseanne
and Tom Arnold, TV's terror couple, make a surprisingly
appealing pair in this movie about a single mother who tackles
male chauvinism in surburbia by organizing a mother-son football
game.

    BLACK OR WHITE (Fox, Nov. 14, 8:30 p.m. EST). Michael
Jackson's new video -- the first from his latest album,
Dangerous -- has its broadcast-TV premiere following an episode
of The Simpsons. Bart himself co-stars in the 11-minute film,
directed by John Landis (Thriller.)

    G-MEN -- THE RISE OF J. EDGAR HOOVER (PBS, Nov. 18, 9 p.m.
on most stations). The controversial former FBI chief gets a
grilling in this American Experience documentary.

    MOVIES

    THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE. Krzysztof Kieslowski's mood
piece about two young women -- one Polish, the other Parisian --
is both emotionally opaque and theatrically radiant, for it
showcases a beautiful star in the making, Irene Jacob. She won
Cannes's Best Actress prize this year; may she illuminate movie
screens for decades to come.

    CAPE FEAR. Martin Scorsese, the world's top picturemaker,
revamps the 1962 Robert Mitchum sicko thriller. This time Robert
De Niro (never more cruddily galvanizing) is the ex-con with a
death wish for the man who put him behind bars (Nick Nolte) and
his family. Chills, laughs and a climax that hits like a
hurricane of hysteria.

    OVERSEAS. Three Frenchwomen in postwar North Africa wait
for their hearts to tumble and the colonial empire to crumble.
This essay in sisterhood marks an assured debut from
actress-director Brigitte Rouan. But the big news is Marianne
Basler, a stunner, as the most restless of the sisters.

    BOOKS

    WARRIOR STATESMAN: THE LIFE OF MOSHE DAYAN by Robert
Slater (St. Martin's Press; $27.95). Dayan, Israel's most
controversial political and military figure, successfully led
his country in the 1967 Six-Day War. In the first full-length
biography of Dayan, Slater, who is a reporter for TIME's
Jerusalem bureau, contends that Dayan's decision to keep Israel
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip led to the hard-line, right-wing
policies of the Shamir government.

    AMAZONIA by Loren McIntyre (Sierra Club Books; $40). This
large-format portfolio captures the riches of the vast Amazon
Basin, from the white-water region of the western Andes to the
black waters of the Rio Negro system, on to the blue of the
south, and finally to the brown Amazon mainstream. A dazzling
record of an ecological treasure that is fast being destroyed.

    THEATER

    PARK YOUR CAR IN HARVARD YARD. Israel Horovitz's Broadway
play is sentimental, meandering and too full of coincidence,
but Jason Robards and Judith Ivey make the most of encounters
between a dying high school teacher and one of countless
students he flunked instead of inspiring to do better.

    BEGGARS IN THE HOUSE OF PLENTY. The family is as
quarrelsome as in Moonstruck, but this time John Patrick Shanley
views the combat unforgivingly. His own off-Broadway staging is
stylized and energetic. The role based on him is convincingly
played by Loren Dean, star of the current film Billy Bathgate.

    MUSIC

    NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE: WELD (Reprise). A woolly,
rambunctious and altogether dynamic two-CD concert set by this
manic troubadour and his nail-spitting band. Young standards
like Cortez the Killer and the great Powderfinger sound reborn.
Also available with a third CD, Arc, which is mostly wild guitar
mangling guaranteed to make your back fillings drop out.

    THE SMITHEREENS: BLOW UP (Capitol). If you thought goatees
and guitar-anchored bar rock were passe, you're wrong. This
Boston quartet keeps its arrangements straight up and simple,
wrapping gravelly power chords around tasty little pop hooks.

    SHOSTAKOVITCH: THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS, SIX VOLUMES
(ESS.A.Y Recordings). The first of these extraordinary quartets
was composed in 1938, the 15th in 1974, shortly before the
composer's death. Their moods vary widely, ranging from caustic
to ambivalent, charming to introspective, philosophical to
elegiac. The Manhattan String Quartet blends understanding,
cohesion and sharpness to convey the breadth and brilliance of
these involving works.

    ETCETERA

    SARAH VAUGHAN JAZZ FESTIVAL AT NEWARK. Ten days of hot and
cool sounds dedicated to the memory of the Newark girl who
became one of the world's greatest jazz vocalists. Artists
include Sammy Price, Sir Roland Hanna, Joe Williams, Ron Carter,
Carrie Smith, Abbey Lincoln, the Harper Brothers and Roy
Hargrove. Through Nov. 17.

    ATOMIC SWING

    THE COMPLETE ROULETTE LIVE RECORDINGS OF COUNT BASIE AND
HIS ORCHESTRA (1959-1962) (Mosaic). Talk about positive
fallout. The Basie band, which had lit up the '20s and '30s,
spent the next two decades in swinging respectability before
bursting out from under the long shadow of bebop in the late
'50s. It was Big Bands' last big blast. The Basie boys were
reinvigorated by fresh arrangements from the likes of Neal Hefti
and Quincy Jones, dazzling solo work from the horn sections, and
a new keyboard nimbleness from the Count himself. "The Atomic
Band," they were called, and this magisterial eight-CD (or
12-LP) set packs a multimegaton payload: 133 prime live cuts,
108 of them never before released. There's no nostalgia in
numbers like Li'l Darlin' or the Count's touchstone April in
Paris, not a hint of the antique. This is jazz that burns on
energy, spirit and inspiration, and swings on forever.
(Available only by mail order from Mosaic Records, 35 Melrose
Place, Stamford, Conn., 06902; phone: [phone].)


By TIME's REVIEWERS. Compiled by Linda Williams.