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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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112089
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11208900.067
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1990-09-19
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CRITICS' VOICES, Page 22By Compiled by Andrea Sachs
HOME ENTERTAINMENT
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Can David Lean's 1962 epic possibly be
adapted for the tube? Yes! The videotape (RCA/Columbia) looks
smashing, and the laser disc (Criterion), with its superior sound
and visual resolution, even better. Both offer the fully restored
film that was successfully rereleased in February, and both
preserve its wide-screen format.
BATMAN. The summer's blockbuster comes to video stores this
week. Finally, the handful of people who still haven't seen Batman
will be able to explain its appeal to the even tinier (but
discerning) group who find the film slow, murky, uninvolving and
-- except for its visual grandeur, which may be lost on the small
screen -- witless.
MOVIES
HENRY V. Kenneth Branagh, 28, is the Olivier wanna-be of the
'80s. In this version, keenly faithful to the famous 1944 film,
the actor-director stakes his boldest claim yet to Lord Larry's
title. The elite cast -- a veritable Burke's Peerage of British
acting -- makes it a royal, enjoyable feast.
IMMEDIATE FAMILY. Glenn Close and James Woods desperately want
a child; Mary Stuart Masterson is about to have one. Director
Jonathan Kaplan's comedy-drama finds sympathetic laughter in
everyone's burdens and opportunities. The tears come later.
MUSIC
TRACY CHAPMAN: CROSSROADS (Elektra). The follow-up to her smash
debut album in 1988 is . . . well, just like the first. Chapman's
voice stays strong, her music soft, her message angry and often
oppressively earnest. Straightforward and worthy but generally
without excitement.
CHET BAKER: MY FAVOURITE SONGS (Enja). The haunting picture on
the cover says it all: a face ravaged by drugs but eyes still full
of dreams and yearning. This was the trumpeter's last concert,
taped just two weeks before he fell to his death from an Amsterdam
hotel window at age 58. But forget the quirky timing: Baker's
full-throated horn never sounded better, and his poignant vocal on
My Funny Valentine is an unforgettable paean to lost youth.
FESTIVALS
PASADENA DOO DAH PARADE. It all started as a spoof of the Rose
Parade, but this zany California happening has taken on a life of
its own. This year look for 125 offbeat groups, including the
Synchronized Briefcase Drill Team and Snotty Scotty and the
Hankies. Nov. 26; noon to 2 p.m.
ART
THE INTIMATE WORLD OF ALEXANDER CALDER, Cooper-Hewitt Museum,
New York City. A delightful demonstration that for family and
friends, the sculptor could make practically anything out of
anything. Through March 11.
FRANCIS BACON, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Washington. Haunting emblems of the Age of Anxiety in the eminent
British painter's distorted, isolated figures. Through Jan. 7.
BOOKS
THE STORYTELLER by Mario Vargas Llosa (Farrar, Straus & Giroux;
$17.95). A Peruvian narrator remembers a college classmate and
ponders the possibility that his old friend has become a bard to
an endangered Amazonian tribe. This ruminative novel about
storytelling and its place in society shows a world-class author
in splendid form.
THE READER'S CATALOG published by Jason Epstein (distributed
by Random House; $24.95). A mail-order catalog of 40,000
distinguished titles, organized in 208 categories, for readers who
hunger for the quality and variety unavailable in today's
mass-market bookstores. Hallelujah!
THEATER
THE SECRET RAPTURE. There's no tragic flaw in the central
character of David Hare's crisply phrased and staged Broadway drama
-- she's just a victim of Thatcher-era British greed, selfishness
and lack of principle. Thus there's no real tension or interest in
this diatribe, which judges everyone's morality by his or her
politics.
MYSTERY OF THE ROSE BOUQUET. Jane Alexander and Anne Bancroft
play a nurse and a patient in a taut psychological study by Manuel
Puig, author of The Kiss of the Spider Woman, at the Mark Taper
Forum in Los Angeles.
THE WIDOW'S BLIND DATE. Christine Estabrook sizzles in the
title role of Israel Horovitz's off-Broadway stunner about the
aftermath of a rape.
TELEVISION
A TALE OF TWO CITIES (PBS, debuting Nov. 19, 9 p.m. on most
stations). Masterpiece Theater puts a fresh coat of paint on the
Dickens classic about the French Revolution.
JUDITH KRANTZ'S TILL WE MEET AGAIN (CBS, Nov. 19, 21). CBS's
junk-food fix for the November sweeps chronicles the romantic
entanglements of three women during 40 years, spanning World Wars
I and II.