AUGUST 20, 1993 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 17

ENTERTAINMENT

Transitional possession of translucent porcelain

Utz

A film by George Sluizer The Centrum on Coventry Opens August 20

Reviewed by Joseph Morris

The story: Kaspar Utz, a privileged child in Czechoslovakia, is mesmerized by the beauty of antique Meissen porcelain figurines. He sets out to become a porcelain expert and collects pieces with an almost ruthless obsession. Along the way he also acquires an overly protective female companion. The Czechoslovakian communist regime discovers his treasures and determine they will become state property when he dies.

Now an older man, Utz's routine includes playing with thousands of figurines worth millions of dollars in a drab Prague apartment, traveling abroad to purchase more of them at auctions, having a weekly lunch with a quirky doctor friend, plus an occasional run-in with overbearing divas. An American antiques dealer gets caught up in the lives of Utz and the doctor, and salivates at the sight of the porcelain collection. He tries to buy it after Utz suffers a stroke and later dies... but all the figurines have disappeared.

This is not, at first glance, a riveting film plot. But, Utz, the film based on the Bruce Chatwin novella, is an engaging, beautifully lensed example of intrigue, subtle irony, absorbing acting and motion picture technique that moves you through an enchanted kingdom.

There is constant mystery to hold your attention. The film engages heavily in flashbacks and for the first 15 minutes or so I was thrown off balance, wondering where I was in the story's timeline. But it works. As each scene ends, another piece in the jigsaw puzzle that was Utz's life has fallen into place. And the audience ultimately learns more than any of the film's characters.

Dutch director George Sluizer (The Vanishing) and writer Hugh Whitemore adapted Chatwin's last published work, replacing the first-person narrator with a new character: a New York antiques dealer, Marius Fischer.

The casting is superb, each of the principal actors is absorbing as an understated complex character. Armin Mueller-Stahl (Music Box, Avalon, Kafka, and The Power of One), who plays the title role of softspoken Baron Kaspar von Utz, started as an

In a Prague cemetery, Utz explains his passion for Meissen porcelain to his New York collector friend.

East German actor and in the 1980s became a major European actor in Hollywood. Brenda Fricker, who won Best Supporting Actress for My Left Foot, is the mysterious and overly protective Marta, Utz's "domestic." Fischer is played by Peter Riegert (Animal House, Crossing Delancey, A Shock to the System, Oscar). And veteran British actor Paul Scofield (1967 Oscar for A Man For All Seasons), rounds out the cast as Utz's longtime friend, Dr. Orlik.

The story's enchantment is enhanced by its settings. Much of the action takes place in Prague, a slightly mysterious ancient city with breathtakingly beautiful Old World architecture, furnishings and opulence. The irony of these scenes in the late twentieth century cannot be ignored: the classic beauty incongruously juxtaposed with communist

A gay in the life. by John Sieruta

I'm never dating again! I mean it! I don't care if I'm alone the rest of my life!

.Um, excuse me... drink? can I buy you a

©1993

But I won't be!! From now on friends come first! I'm gonna put all that energy into the greatest friends a guy ever had!! The friends

that lended up ignoring 'cause of some guy!!

Sorry Bob,

this time it's for real.

soldiers, dirty offices, dour workers, and religious services only before 8:30 am.

The other aspect of the film that captivated me was the photography. Frequently Sluizer would open a scene with a wide shot where you could clearly hear the actors but not immediately see them. In the few seconds needed to focus in on the action you had to look at the full panorama, subtly enforcing the grandeur of the moment. One memorable visual-and there are many oth-

ers-is a classically pastoral sequence with the young Marta and her pet gander.

Yet all of this is incidental to the main story of the coveted figurines. The Baron has turned one room of his working class flat into a shrine for the thousand-plus porcelain creations (actual antiques borrowed for the film from the Meissen factory vaults in Dresden). When individually examined, each is a marvelous work of art; each is part of some larger grouping; and all shimmer in radiance and translucence on the mirrored shelves, surrounded by bright light.

Utz slowly reveals itself as a morality play about possessiveness. This room of enchantment is Utz's refuge, yet it is also his jail. He can't take the treasures out of the country, and the authorities, ever watchful over those who try to possess too much, have a quiet arrangement where he can go abroad to acquire additional pieces but they will confiscate the collection for the state museum upon his death.

As Fischer grows to know his collector friend, they stroll in a Jewish cemetery where Utz tries to explain his passion for clay which can be fired to metamorphose into coveted objects. God took clay and formed Adam, who was perhaps the first idol. Utz, a Christian, refers to his Jewish lineage: "Jews are the best collectors," he confides, "because it is forbidden" for them to collect idols.

Fischer and Marta also play their roles of possessiveness. Fischer, despite the friendship, never forgets his business. At various times leading up to Utz's death, he drops hints to both the collector and the doctor about how much he can sell the pieces for. But in the end the collection eludes him. Meanwhile, Marta seeks to possess Utz, jealously monitoring the activities of her master and feverishly thwarting other women from seeing him. She succeeds only upon his death

Utz is a comfortable and at times amusing film, filled with varied scenes that round out the story and the characters. It's a world of intrigue, fragility and stunning beauty that mirror the romantic dances swirling in Utz's mind.

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