The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 14, 1997 Page: 12 of 20
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This Weekend
'TWO ROOMS'
In Lee Blessing's serious
drama, the lives of Michael
and Lainie, an American
couple in Beirut, are com-
pletely tranformed when
Michael is taken hostage by
Shi'ite terrorists.
Lainie's attempts to free her
husband are met with little
help by the State Department,
but she refuses to give up.
Feb. 13-15 & 2022 at 8p.m.
Jones Colleg$Commons
(713)630-8351
Tickets $4
Sunday
quest lecture
In his lecture "On Living With-
out Twwtqetictence," Van A.
Harvey, professor emeritus at
Stanford University, will speak
on the value of living "lucidly"
in a world full of absurdity.
Sunday, 7 p.m.
Hamman Hall
$10, free to Rice students
Sunday
'W.E.B. DUBOIS'
As the winner of the MacArthur
"genius award," WEB. DuBois:
A Biography in Four Voices
takes a fresh took at the Jong
life of thenjivil rights pioneer.
A panel discussion moderated
by Rice Professor Linda Reed
will follow the screening,
Sunday. 6 p.m.
Rice Media Center
(713) 527-9548
$5, or $4 with Rice ID
Next Friday
'The Vengeance'
Back by popular request, The
Vengeance will be performed
at Rice as part of this week's
Southwest Slavic Association
meeting. The Vengeance, a
four-act comedy, was well-
received at Rice last May.
Feb. 21 at.8 p.m.
Baker College
Commons
Jessica Peterson
Stuff Writer
Small foreign films that achieve
worldwide critical or commercial
success must have universal ele-
ments that can touch an audience
anywhere. For a film to slip through
that narrow window of opportunity
in the exclusive American market, it
must have enough raw emotion and
technical skill to impress prejudiced
audiences, who shy away from sub-
titles and expect spectacular Holly-
wood production values.
1^^ KotYJ
KOiYA
Rating: i/t
(out ofrve)
Currently in theaters.
Kolya, from Czech director Jan
Sverak, deserves to become one of
those successes in the United Stales.
With luck, its recent Golden Globe
award for Best Foreign Film will
attract an audience all over the coun-
try and Kolya will join the ranks of
foreign hitsNuch as 1993's Like Wa-
ter for Chocolate.
Kolya is the joint project of direc-
tor Sverak and his father, writer and
star Zdenek Sverak. The pair have
already garnered an Academy Award
nomination for their previous col-
laboration. Elementary School, and
will enter both "the Oscar race and
the Sundance Film Festival in 1997
with Kolya.
The elder Sverak stars as
Frantisek Louka, a middle-aged but
ardent bachelor whose illustrious
career as a cellist has tu mbled down-
hill from the Czech Philharmonic
Orchestra to playing funerals at a
Prague crematorium. The handsome,
graying l^ouka spends his time be-
tween odd jobs leering at anything
in a skirt and maintaining a harem of
married ladies. He seduces Klara
(Libuse Safrankova), the vocalist in
I he crematorium ensemble, but what
happens next to Ixjuka alienates her
until *all -misunderstandings are re-
solved at the end of the story.
Strapped for cash and frustrated
by his mother's worship of his
brother, who successfully emigrated
to the United States, Louka accepts
a substantial sum to marry a distant
Russian relative who needs Czech
citizenship.To fool the Communist
government, the newly weds must
attempt the semblance of marriage
even though they need an interpreter
to have a conversation. Within a short
time.Nadezhda takes off for Munich,
where Louka hears that she has
found a new life and a new husband.
Kolya is beautifully
photographed and
intricately composed.
Louka's improved lifestyle, com-
plete with a new car, suits him per-
fectly until the authorities turn up
with his 6-year-old stepson. Little
Kolya had been staying with his
Russian grandmother until she fell
ill, and now Louka finds himself the
unexpected father to a little boy
whose countrymen are the enemy
occupants of Prague just before the
1989 Velvet Revolution.
The two unlikely relatives find a
common language and form a deep
bond over the course of the movie,
and soon Louka finds
himself righting fate
and the government to
keep the little boy.
The,,young actor'
(Andrej Chalimon)
who plays Kolya sur-
passes all previous
heartbreaking perfor- .
mances by a child in a
movieffhe abandoned
little boy is so genu-
inely winning that
i
€
Frantisek Louka (Zdenek Sverak) take-s his newfound stepson Kolya (Andrej Chalimon) for a walk
1-otika's gradual attachment to him
seems inevitable. Sverak's transfor-
mation from a selfish bachelor to
caring father avoids being sappy.
His real love for the boy is simple
and touching when he calls up old
lovers to read Kolya a Russian bed-
time story or helps care for the boy
when he has a fever.
Faced with the social services'
threat of taking Kolya away from
him, *touka abandons his life in
Prague and escapes with him into
the countryside. While caring for
his "son," Louka renews his rela-
tionship with Klara, who misread
his marriage as a betrayal rather
than a business deal.
A thousand little
touches link one jtart
of the movie to
another, creating a
tapestry of humor
and emotion that
balances and
completes the story.
When Kolya's mother finally re-
turns for her son after thecollapse of
Communism in Eastern Europe,
Klara is there to help Louka begin
his life again by starting a family. At
the end of the film, the audience's
heart will ache at the pain of the
separation and the deep impression
that Kolya has made on his tempo-
rary stepfather.
Kolya is beautifully photographed
and intricately composed, with vi-
sual motifs like sunlight, coffins and
a wooden top that spins through
Kolya's feverish dreams. Prague's
gorgeous scenery and a beautiful
Dvorak-dominated score contribute
to the artistry of the film.
The story is often hilarious, com-
pensating for the tear-jerking finale.
A thousand little touches link one
part of the movie to another, creat-
ing a tapestry of humor and emotion
that balances and completes the
story. Examples include Kolya's view
of the Clouds from a plane window at
the beginning and end, his drawings
of coffins and crosses, and varia-
tion s on the scene where 1 xwka plays
cello in the crematorium.
It is a film that's impossible not
t© like: every entertaining, wonder-
ful minute meets the tough require-
ments for beguiling audiences of all
nations. UJ^^«#cceeds further in
this year's gauntlet of film competi-
tion)*, its recognition will be tally
Well-deserved
"mwwi .
tip
*
ening-sweet
fop a script
offereall this
• ■
•MM.
Glass Menagerie
Rating: ★★★
(our or Five)
Theater
For ticket information,
:calH7i3)529-6606.
i
tfaar'
tween youth and agir%
i t-emorse.' -
_BtnftiKpr8iQMtre
ot Houston works with a small
stageandcan seat an audience of
few more than 0, the acting is
exceptional enough to makeone
forget the mustyodor of-old dust
i of Amanda, vi^ch permeates the theater/*!te
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with desperation. at inopportune momenta — un
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her own style and grace to a role fiedasadrama 10w#Mifw
played in the past by such greats liams' pieces this play contains
as Katherine Hepburn, Jessica humor Within Wallsttwacfiewtth
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cast works amazingly wejtto-,
gether. The cynical comedic epi-
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Jennifer Hamilton performed ing at times but later fought to
die difficult role 6i the painfully keep the tearsfrom rolling down
fuy" cheeks. All the
school and are lost in a limbo between!!**
andIUL PUP ... „ ,
secretarial school dropout with elegant affluent of a past of
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Beard, Marty & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 14, 1997, newspaper, February 14, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246560/m1/12/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.