Word: betas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Nowhere was such zero-hour caution more conspicuous than in the Phi Beta Kappa Hall at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Va. Before the debate, a White House aide told the President, "The name of the game is not blowing it." Both Ford and Carter did their best to avoid a gaffe, but the result was something less than inspiring. "It was another case of Mr. Ready v. Mr. Steady," said California's Republican vice chairman Mike Montgomery. "I score it a negative draw-zero to zero...
...pleasant here, but rather Claude Chabrol's story of two unwed partners who play around on the side, driving the male in this hip arrangement to show his true chauvanist, possessive, jealous and increasingly inhuman colors. We cautioned you about the cruel commentary on the new morality in Alpha-Beta last week, but at least the outcome of that romantic fiasco stayed pretty much up in the air. The wind-up here is far less ambiguous: this Mr. Machismo stomps his liberated and true love's face in with his bootheel. Subtle, Chabrol, subtle...
Albert Finney goes through these changes in Alpha-Beta (originally a play, adapted with minimal cinematographic flourishes for the screen). Instead of the flippant, mostly harmless satire of a foray into the "Now Generation" that, say, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas turned into, this simple film, focusing entirely on Finney's Frank Elliot and his wife, Nora, played by Rachel Roberts, jolts us with an unrelentingly realistic, though extreme, view of the psychological crisis of a not old, but not young couple who choke on all the subtle lies needed to sustain the new 'honesty...
...ALPHA BETA...
...Alpha Beta covers a decade in the Elliots' marriage, starting in the early 1960s on the day of Frank's 29th birthday and ending after their separation, with Nora first threatening, then retreating from suicide. Alpha Beta was originally a successful play by Scenarist Whitehead, and its three episodes still seem very much like short, jagged acts. The whole feeling of this small, stormy movie is enclosed, constricted. No effort has been made to enlarge the action of the play, but the theatrical qualities of the writing are not emphasized either. Director Anthony Page stages most...