STURDY on FILM

Richard Gere fans will love "Breathless". Basically, Gere is the same character that he has portrayed in all his films, the rebellious, individualistic loner with intense passion etched in his personality. Gere's Jesse Lujack is the kinkiest yet of his roles, though; Lujack's all-or-nothing philosophy reminds me of the 50's and its young rebels personified by Brando and James Dean. And so it should.

"Breathless" is an adaptation of Godard's 1959 film "A Bout de Souffle", which starred Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. That film reflected its times, not only from the standpoint of subject matter, but from a European filmmaker's milieu; the director as auteur, the author of the total product. "A Bout" was an auteurist look at troubled youth.

The Deans and Brandos, uncommunicative, misunderstood by parents and peers, confused by unfocussed passions, became anti-establishment role models. Gere's Lujack continues that tradition with the addendum that he is totally unlikeable.

Dean, in "Rebel Without a Cause" was more a victim than a victimizer, evoking viewer compassion. Lujack, on the other hand, is a victimizer. He pursues a child-woman with whom he has slept with once or twice as the love of his life; Monica (Valerie Kaprisky) wants nothing to do with him. He mutters, "God, I'm jinxed!" whenever his illegal activities trip him up. The guy is a chronic loser.

We first encounter Lujack hotwiring a Porsche in Las Vegas. He's headed to L.A. to pick up Monica, a UCLA student with whom he had a brief affair, and then on to Mexico, his idea of Mecca, a place free from the excessive pressures that are confining his activities as street drifter.

Before reaching the city, he murders a policeman, setting in

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motion forces that his street-wise logic cannot outwit. When he explodes into Monica's life, she resists his "Eden's Apple" of tragedy-shaded adventure. But he chips away steadily at her defenses.

He breaks into her apartment, pushes into her classrooms, relentlessly follows her every move, pleading, cajoling, teasing his way into her heart with devil-may-care charm. He moans that she leaves him breathless (his favorite Jerry Lee Lewis song), while it is he who suffocates her under his encroaching presence. She eventually gives in; the thrill of danger overcoming her weakened moral sensibilities.

"Breathless" is interesting, but not altogether successful. Director/ Screenwriter Jim McBride is obsessed with his tribute to Godard and a lost generation; the concept overwhelms him, and he layers the proceedings with a veneer of veneration. What European auteurs would subtly suggest, McBride heaves right between the eyes.

He badly abuses Godard's favorite device of using color for mood and to establish a dichotomy of protagonistic and antagonistic forces. When we first meet Monica, she wears a pink dress. Her apartment is pink, down to her robe, slippers, telephone, and accessories. When Jesse buys her two dresses, one is pink (which she prefers) and one is black (his choice). Can you see the two sides of her soul the choices she must face the pink of innocence, the black of danger?

Lujack woos her with a pink Triumph, but the Porsche he's using when he commits murder is you guessed it -black. He blows into town in a pink shirt but quickly changes it for a white shirt with heavy black trim; that is, once he establishes a foothold in Monica's life.

Another obvious incongruity of cutesy analogy in his obsession with the Marvel comic hero "The Silver Surfer". He bases his jaded, evil life on the heroics of that character. It's almost too twisted for a

psychotic.

Get past those bumps and the slow beginning of the film (the first twenty minutes match neither the intensity nor flavor of the rest) in which Kaprisky underacts and Gere overacts, and you'll find a movie of immense interest.

Yes, there's plenty of full frontal nudity of both stars, and a shower scene that will keep your libido working overtime for days. Gere is magnificently convincing as the unlikeable Jesse Lujack. Kaprisky, in her American debut, breathes a Bardot-like quality of sensuality into her role. Jack Nitzche's music (he composed last year's "Officer and a Gentleman") is excellently adapted to the storyline, but Richard Kline's cinematography is disappointing. I breathed hard, but I wasn't breathless. Rates ***.

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" was originally scheduled for a December 1982 release, but something went wrong. After gambling with "The Black Hole" and "Tron", the Disney company wasn't about to lose more big bucks, and the studio sent its stars on a national stump without prints of the movie yet. That's rather like throwing Christians to the lions. Pam Grier, who was assigned the East Coast, handled her duties with dignity and grace.

"Something Wicked" is a tidy horror story told from a child's point of view with a script by author Ray Bradbury. Who wouldn't want their deepest dreams and desires to come true? It seems a natural for Disney fantasy, and those moviegoers who enthralled by "Flashdance", "The Hunger", and other recent visual extravaganzas will want to see this film.

The central characters are Will Halloway (Vidal Peterson) and Jim Nightshade (Shawn Carson). They are best friends, blood brothers, but very much opposites. Will examines situations using reason and logic; Jim is a creature of emotions. One windy night, Dark's Pandemonium Carnival arrives unannounced. Jim

is entranced by the arrival; Will is is frightened and hesitant.

Will's father, Charles (Jason Robards) is the town librarian. He regrets his age, and his bad heart, and his inability to "enjoy" his son. Will almost drowned one summer because Charles could not swim, a weakness that preys on the old man. The carnival opens, beguiling the townspeople. Their lives are altered by the Fortune Teller (Pam Grier) who is also the Dust Witch and The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. She grants their deepest desires, but not without an inexorable price to be paid.

The boys discover the secret and become the subject of an intense hunt by the carnival people. Charles notes the disappearance of several townspeople and pieces together the puzzle. Can he save the boys, the town, even himself? The consequences are deadly.

There are a couple of nerve-shattering scenes in "Something Wicked". If you are an arachniphobe, beware! Spiders have never bothered me, yet. I was jumping around in my seat. One very scary spider bit will be "seen" through clenched and closed eyes by most viewers.

I wanted to like this film. The mood is right, the cinematography is beautiful, Jack Clayton's direction is well-paced, if uninspired, and who can mince words about Bradbury's fine screenplay? It's the acting that falls down.

Robards is particularly disappoiting. There's no sense of urgency when the boys are in the clutches of Mr. Dark (Jonathyn Price). The boys are adequate, but better choices could have been made. Only Pam Grier shows the expertise of a professional.

A key line from "Something Wicked This Way Comes" sums us the latest good, but flawed Disney effort. "When the end comes near, it's not what you've done that you regret. It's what you didn't do". Rates ***.

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