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Jungle Fever ***'% (Universal) Rated & (at the Park & Tilford,
Roya! Cerire, Park and Station Square cinemas)

NCE AGAIN Spike Lee does the right thing in a

brutal and funny film about an irresistible curiosity

to explore racial sexual myths. Or to crib a couplet
from Stevie Wonder’s title song, ‘‘she’s gone black boy
crazy, he’s gone white girl hazy.”

This ‘‘jungle fever’’ hits Flipper
Purify (Wesley Snipes), a happily
married middle-class architect and
his new Italian American secre-
tary, Angela Tucci (Annabella
Sciorra).

You may think how much flak,
let alone interest, could an inter-
racial affair cause in the ‘90s?
Well, put it this way — guess who
isn’t coming to dinner?

Cyrus (Spike Lee) prophetically
likens his best friend’s infatuation FILM REVIEW
to a holocaust. Sure enough, Flip- Skin shade problems look down-
per loses his wife, daughter, right puny next to the horrifying
parents and job in rapid succes- crackhouse littered with addicts
sion. Angela is ostracised in her and despair.

Bensenhurst neighborhood, curs- As usual in Spike's films, the
ed and beaten by her outraged fa- performances are brilliant,
ther, ; especially John Torturo. His Pauli

Companions in banishment, the _ is an intelligent smoke shop owner
two try to forge a life together, but = whose enlightened outlook makes
the biggest hurdle they face is him positively alien in his own
convincing each other that their store.
love is more than skin deep. When Angela dumps him fer

Spike Lee has dedicated his ca- Flipper, he reacts with sorrow, not
reer to tackling racism in America, rage. His crush on a black cus-
but here he expands his scope tomer has nothing to do with her
with a subplot involving Flipper’s color, but with her kindness.
tragic junkie brother (Samuel L. (Clearly, this is a major one-eighty

Jackson) wrenching a family apart. —_ from his angry young racist in

Tim Bell

North Shore art appreciation growing

Gecrgia O'Keefe did.

“if | could do it all over again,
the home on Nelson Avenue the only thing I'd do differently is
Bagshaw shares with her husband _ that | would have gotten a full,

From page 24

Peter. Guests — Bagshaw’s mail- formal training at a place like the

ing list now exceeds 300 — have Emily Carr College of Art and

an opportunity to view, and pur- Design. Who knows what might

chase, the two womens’ latest have come out of this?’

works. Bagshaw praises the many ‘‘art
“Sometimes people wonder if appreciators’’ on the North Shore

i'm sorry to sell my paintings, but and says their number is growing.
no, I’m so flattered when some- ,
body actually wants to pay for one
of these. tt makes me very happy.
Last year was my best year.””

Now 57, Bagshaw does all her
painting in a studio in the top floor
of her home. The roorn gives her a
sweeping view of the seascape she
loves: the West Vancouver
beachfront, the ships tugging at
anchor in English Bay, and Point
Grey beyond.

“don’t actually paint aut-
doors, because the sunlight and
the wind are too distracting.’’ she
says, but adds that she likes to
walk around area parks and use
her zoom lens to catch kids play-
ing and to capture the whimsical
reflections of colors on water.

“Then, in the studio, } can get
far more original.’’ She adds that
her goal is to produce one paint-
ing a week but that her ather
commitments -— she recently took
up golf — stili limit her to about
25 per year.

“| paint the things | love,’ she
laughs, sipping tea as she relaxes
on her couch, dressed in bright
and meticulously co-ordinated
leisure togs.

“like to be lighthearted and
spontaneous. | paint children,
houses, boats, swimmers, beach
baloons and West Coast water
scenes. My paintings are about
happiness and innoceace.”

Her advice to beginning artists?
“Practice. Do it. Work hard, and
don’t expect monetary returns.
Some people have a commercial
bent, but some don’t. You have to
do it for the love of it.

“Hf you want to really make
money at this, you have to live a
very selfish life, ike Eraily Cart and

tq The Wedgewood Hotel
845 Hornby St.
TEL: 689-7777

Breaking hearts ane
ior barrier

BAR G RISTORANTE

Dine With Fhe Arts

Our Pre-Theatre Dinner Menu
3 Course Italian Gourmet Dinner

$23.00 Per Person

Complimertary Valet Parking
Walking Distance to Theatres

Wednesday, June 26, 1991 —- North Shore News - 29

Spike’s earlier Oo the Right Thing.)
The above may sound all doom
and gloom, but there is a good bit
of humer amidst al} the broken
hearts. However, most of it’s just
too raw for newsprint. i
jungle Fever is Spike not just do- ]
ing the right thing, but his best rc
1
I

et table, mox 6
MONDAY-THURSDAY pesos
© Expires: July 31, 1997

5% off Dinner Coupon

© Beverages not included

1! Sotutot Ristorante Italiano - 922-6282 |

boy who became tire greatest : L 1747 Marine Drive, West Vancouver

thing.
Citizen Kane **** (RKO/
Paramount) Rated G (at the
Vancouver Centre)

And speaking of newsprint,
here’s the original :.tassic about a

ee

newspaper tycoon as a substitute
for love.

Now | know you've all heard
that Citizen Kane is good for you,
the best film ever made, and the
lynchpin of university film appre-
ciation courses. But trust me, it’s
not stuffy, it’s funny, tragic and
wildly exuberant. Most of all, it's
a 25-year-old Orson Welles having
a ball with “the greatest electric
train set a boy could have,”’ a
movie studio.

NORTH SHORE VIEWS

Park Royal: Thelma & Louise,
Robin Hood, Home Aione. Park
& Tilford: Backdraft, Dances With
Wolves, Jungle Fever, Only the
Lonely, City Slickers, Dying
Young. Esplanade 6: Soapdish,
Thelrna & Louise, Robin Hood,
What About Bob, Rocketeer.
Showtime Hotlines: Famous
Players 681-4255, Cineplex Odeon
687-1515.

ALL YOU CAN EAT

Returns to Vina West Van., 95
Evenings, July 15, 16, 17 & 18

+ GST
per couple

For $39.95 per couple, all
items on our dinner
menu, from appetizers to
entrees, rack of lamb to
drunken prawns, are for
you and your companion
to savor. What a
wonderful opportunity to
sample fine Vietnamese
cuisine at its best. (Eat in
only. Not valid with other
promotional programs}

She also commends the communi-
ty arts councils for “doing more
now than they ever have before.”
She especially praises Anne Mac-
donald in North Vancouver and
Cathy Matheson in West Van-
couver.

“There’s so much more cul-
tural life now than there was when
} was a little girl, but we still have a
long way to go.’

Vina Vietnamese Cuisine
2508 Marine Dr., West Vancouver

Fitars & saturdays D26-GOOT susie nighy

GuNDAY, AUGUST 4 @
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TICKETS AVAILABLE AT ALL FRanp=aariwar OUTLETS OR CHARGE By PHONE 2EO-ALRA

A PLANTS COPE PACEUCTION

———_____}

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