Word: zieff
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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HEARTS OF THE WEST Directed by HOWARD ZIEFF Screenplay by ROB THOMPSON...
Directed by HOWARD ZIEFF Screenplay by W.D. RICHTER...
...Director Zieff does not make the fantasy of the script quite abstract enough, nor his odd, self-consciously cute characters quite believable enough. Whimsy and reality, neither fully realized, cancel each other out. Caan, a perennially baffled ex-con, basically plays straight man to Boyle as a bunko artist-bandleader and Lasser as the band leader's addled spouse, both of whom are amiably funny throughout. Keller man, a souped-up Bonnie Parker, pushes much too hard, perhaps in reaction to ZiefFs almost laboriously studied direction, which favors lingering takes and long pauses...
...Zieff was formerly a prominent director of TV ads (Slither is his first feature), and he has cast most of the small parts with the sort of eccentric types who are generally seen on TV urgently requiring an Alka-Seltzer. This may be the reason why every candy bar, every can of beer or other easily identifiable product is conscientiously wrapped in brown paper or covered with a phoney label. Zieff must have worried that any time one of the sup porting cast picked up a prop, Slither might look like a commercial...
Free Power. Not all scientists are willing to accept the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as embryonic oceans. But Ta-zieff's evidence is highly persuasive. For one thing, much of the rock that his expeditions gathered in the area is younger and heavier than typical land rocks, and bears other similarities to specimens found on the ocean floor. For another, the desert regions of the Afar triangle are covered with a thick layer of evap-orites, the salty debris left behind after seawater evaporates. Tazieff and his colleagues also found distinct traces of coral in the area...