November 22, 1996

Ma Saison a Story of Everyday Calamity

"Ma Saison Preferee ranks with the best work not only of Techine but also of its formidable stars, Catherine Deneuve and Daniel Auteuil," writes Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times. "Deneuve and Auteuil are flawless in expressing the mercurial changes of emotion in Emilie and Antoine as they work out their destinies."

Ma Saison Preferee opens with an unusual image: an Old Master painting of a pair of Siamese twins. Elegant, disturbing, and exotic, that image holds through the opening credits. Then, with a sudden cut, a simple, matter-of-fact story begins. An elderly woman (Marthe Villalonga) closes her rural home for the last time, about to move in with her daughter's family. This striking dissonance in part references the earlier work of director Andre Techine. While the likes of Barwco and Les Sosurs Bronte have been heavily stylized, Ma Saison Preferee proves to be a straightforward, deeply realistic chronicle of the complex relationships in an ordinary family as its people lurch through a difficult year.

Ma Saison Preferee is showing Nov. 29 through Dec. 1 and Dec. 5 through Dec. 7. Screenings are at 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Thursday and Fridays; at 1, 3:15, 7, and 9:15 p.m. on Saturdays; and at 2:30, 4:45, 7, and 9:15 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5.50; $4.50 for students; and $3.50 for senior citizens, children, and members of the Friends of the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater.

Sheldon to Feature Collage and Sculpture by Irwin Kremen

Kremen's small-scale collages, which he has been exhibiting since 1978, are comprised of "experienced papers" as he calls the scraps of weathered and painterly poster papers he collects on his travels. "I hunt out unduplicable papers, experienced papers, papers that have been in sun, in rain, in dust, in snows, covered with the dirt of the city. Yet as I look at them . . . I realize their exquisite potential, and gather them in."

In the late seventies, Kremen began to focus on three-dimensional form by making sculptures from discarded steel. Although they are related structurally to his collages, they are much larger and more physically imposing, thus adding another dimension to a truly unique aesthetic vision that does not fit into the prescribed artworld scene. The title of the exhibition, "C#," or "see sharp," further underscores Kremen's originality. This exhibition was organized and circulated by Jennifer Moore, executive director of the Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art in Greensboro, N.C.

Funding for this exhibition was provided in part by the Nebraska Art Association, a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the advancement of the visual arts in Nebraska through educational and enrichment opportunities. Additional funding has been provided by the Nebraska Arts Council, a state agency, through a Basic Support Grant, which has supported all the year's programs of the Nebraska Art Association.

All in the Family

Evening of Music, Emily Dickinson Nov. 24

Introduced by Chancellor James Moeser and Joan Giesecke, dean of libraries, the gala concert will feature solo songs on texts by Dickinson and a premier work for soprano and chamber ensemble by UNL composer Randall Snyder entitled A Route of Evanescence. Snyder has set letters and poems by Dickinson as texts for this work. Finally, the gala concert will end with choral works for women's chorus on Dickinson texts. The UNL Chorale, under the direction of Carolee Curtright, will present these works.

The gala concert will be supplemented by the screening of Magic Prison, a short art film about Dickinson incorporating an original musical score by composer Ezra Laderman, at 6:45 p.m. in 119 Westbrook Music Building.

Following the film there will be an opportunity to view articles from the Lowenberg Collection in the Music Library, located in the basement of Westbrook. Additionally, five sets of sketches by UNL artist David Routon will be displayed in the basement of Kimball Recital Hall. These sketches are based upon existing photos of Emily Dickinson and her intimate circle of family and friends.

This event is jointly sponsored by the UNL School of Music and Friends of Love Library in commemoration of The Lowenberg Collection of Emily Dickinson Materials, which was donated to the UNL Libraries by Cliffs Charitable Foundation.

Dickinson Program to be `Webcast'

Assistant Professor of English David Hibler and a group of students in his Survey of Literature 180 class have put together a page on the event. Using the technology that Pinnacle Broadcasting uses for Huskerwebcast (which puts Husker football games live on the web), the evening of song and celebration will be available to anyone with web access. The address is .

Hibler said that to his knowledge, this is the first time the technology has been used to broadcast an academic concert although 80 universities webcast football in real time. The concert features a premiere performance of a work by music professor Randall Snyder. Hibler's students are doing things like interviewing David Routon, UNL professor of art, who did charcoal drawings of Dickinson; trying to get links to the library to showcase the Lowenberg collection of Dickinson items; putting up a 2-minute quick time movie from the dress rehearsal; and linking up biographies and pictures of the performers.

Hibler said this is a demonstration of what new media technology can do. "The number of participants is irrelevant becaue the fact that we can do it is important. We are pioneers." Hibler said UNL has secured all legal rights and licenses to webcast the event.

In keeping with the holiday tradition, the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden will present Wearable Art Contemporary Artists' Jewelry , an exhibition of more than 50 pieces of jewelry drawn from both local private collections and the Sheldon's own permanent collection from Nov. 26 to Feb. 9, 1997. The Sheldon's permanent holdings include a number of rare and unique examples of historical and artist-designed jewelry that is rarely seen by the public.

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