24 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE OCTOBER 1, 1993

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Gay Ski Week

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Jan 15-22, 1994

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Gay Games IV & Stonewall

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ENTERTAINMENT

Opulent view of the Gilded Age lacks fulfillment

The Age of Innocence Directed by Martin Scorsese

Reviewed by Charlton Harper

Here's a game anyone can play at home. Think of a favorite classic novel. Make sure it's set in an exotic locale, or maybe a distant time, or perhaps one that's filled with a zillion characters. Wait six months and, hey, it's a movie!

The current public taste for large scale, epic visual feasts is whetted with another winner, Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. Winner, that is, if a movie's aim is to establish a moody picture postcard. But anyone looking for deeper fulfillment should look elsewhere.

The plot follows a typical road. Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), member of one of New York's oldest families, is set to marry May Welland (Winona Ryder), when her cousin, Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), returns from Europe in partial disgrace over her failed marriage. The obvious attraction, very cat and mouse, ensues between Olenska and Archer. So much for plot.

Where Scorsese scores is the light his cameras shed on the New York of the 1870's. The gilded age comes vividly to life in all its opulence and excess. Every scene contributes to a satisfying visual symphony.

But the world around these people fails to come to life. America in the throes of the Industrial Age was anything but boring. The privileged lives that Wharton so expertly chronicled come up flat and lifeless in Scorsese's hands. Where is the moving and shaking of these movers and shakers? The endless balls and evenings at the opera that we witness are only part of the story of these people's lives. Where are the business deals that made America a capitalist giant? Where is the fascination with invention and

innovation that was so prevalent to an America just beginning to test its will on a global scale? Where is the subtle nuance of private life? Scorsese settles instead for another camera pan around an art glutted room, or a look at Winona in another pretty gown.

The characters themselves fail to exert much will in a world that seems created for them rather than by them. For a time in which men had control over their lives and women had no hope of that, Archer's struggle to overcome class and destiny is weak at best. Ellen Olenska is the only participant who is willing to risk the little given her in order to establish identity. And May Welland is nothing more than cardboard, admittedly the response expected from her. To a 20th century eye, the challenges these people face may seem trivial and easy to overcome. But surely their inner struggles are greater than the limited look Scorsese allows.

The acting is variable, with Pfeiffer actually coming up better than the expected mega-dollar blockbuster response. Winona Ryder seems forever destined to childlike simplicity in the roles she plays, and this movie is no exception. For mooning looks and wistful sighs, this cast can't be beat. Most annoying of all though is the tiresome voice-over narration by Joanne Woodward, almost a begrudging acknowledgment of the power of Wharton's lines. It's a bad sign when the omniscient narrator has all the best lines. And, unwittingly, the movie underscores a lesson learned by television's classic Upstairs, Downstairs series: the servants are probably where the real story lies.

Catch it on the big screen at a matinee or the inevitable second theater run rather than waiting for the video release. It's worth a look, and bigger is definitely better. But less would have been more.

17

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Seventh Annual

Monotones Fall Hayride

Saturday, October 30, 1993 7:00pm 11:30pm

Boyert's Farm

Paradise Road, Medina

Tickets: $13 in advance only

(Price includes free Hot Dog and Snack)

Free Coffee, Cider and Doughnuts

Shop at Boyert's Gift Shop Free Pumpkinl

B. Y. O. B.

Available at: Gifts of Athens, 5 cent Decision, and Mix Drinkery by mail: P.O. Box 771102, Lakewood 44107 or call: 734-7980

Music by

D. D. Fox

Dancing by the Cleveland City-Country Dancers

An event for the entire community sponsored by the Monotones. The Monotones Cleveland's Couples Together.

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