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- CRITICS' VOICES, Page 18
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- TELEVISION
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- 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.
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- 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.)
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- 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.
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- MOVIES
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- BOOKS
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- THEATER
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- MUSIC
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- ETCETERA
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- 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
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- 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: (203) 327-7111.)
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- By TIME's REVIEWERS. Compiled by Linda Williams.
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