The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 21, 2005, Page 5, Image 5
I_I 1 J % 11 I "You have to show a movie at ^party.
Monday, February 21,2005 I I I A , . T I I .a
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Together with the Columbia Film Society, movie fans selected
their favorite flicks to celebrate Nickelodeon Theatre's 25 years
By JENNIFER FREEMAN
THE MIX EDITOR
The Nickelpdeon Theatre will celebrate its
25th anniversary starting Tuesday by playing
host to the Nick Favorite Filins Marathon.
Run by the Columbia Film Society, the Nickelodeon
happens upon a murder plot along the way. Faye
Dunaway and John Huston also star. This crime-drama
classic was voted the fourth greatest film of all time by
Entertainment Weekly magazine.
“Casablanca” beat out other classic films such as “2001:
A Space Odyssey,” “Citizen Kane,” “Lawrence of Arabia,”
“Psycho” and “Wizard of Oz.” Obviously a tough decision
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profit movie theater for independent
and international films.
Columbia movie fans^ had the
chance to log on to the Nickelodeon
Web site, www.nickelodeon.org, and
vote for their favorite films out of five
categories: romantic comedy, musical
performance, thriller/mystery, classic
film and favorite horror/sci-fi.
Out of a field including “Annie
Hall,” “The Graduate,” “Some Like
it Hot” and “Young Frankenstein,”
the Michael Radford film, “II
Postino” took the prize for favorite
romantic comedy. This 1994 film
tells the story of an Italian postman
who earns the love of a local girl by
learning how to write poetry from a
famous poet. When first released in
New York, it stayed in theaters for
almost two years, even after the
video release and premium cable
run, according to www.imdb.com.
In the favorite musical
performance category, “Singin’ in the
Rain” beat out Bob Fosse and Franco
Zeffirelli favorites “All That Jazz,”
“Cabaret” and “La Traviata.” Musical
NICKELODEON’S
FAVORITE FILMS
MARATHON
Favorite Romantic Comedy
“II Postino”
Tuesday, 7 and 9:15 p.m.
Favorite Musical Performance
“Singin’ In the Rain”
Wednesday, 3,7 and 9 p.m.
Favorite Thriller Mystery
“Chinatown”
Thursday, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
Favorite Classic Film
“Casablanca”
Friday, 7 and 9 p.m.
Favorite Horror/Sci Fi
“Clockwork Orange”
Saturday, 3, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
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classic category, Humphrey Bogart
and Ingrid Bergman star in this
World War II film set in
Casablanca, Morocco. The famous
line, “Here’s looking at you, kid,”
was actually improvised by Bogan,
but it worked so well that it was
kept in the final version, according
to www.imdb.com. “Casablanca"
was voted the third greatest film of
all time by Entertainment Weekly
and number two by the American
Film Institute.
In the favorite horror/sci-fi
film category, “A Clockwork
Orange” came out ahead of “The
Birds,” “Blade Runner,” “The
Bride of Frankenstein,” the 3-D
version of “Creature from the
Black Lagoon,” “King Kong,"
“The Shining” and the silent
“Metropolis.” This film, based
on a book by Anthony Burgess,
was one of only two X-rated
movies to be nominated for Best
Picture at the Academy Awards.
When re-released in 1999, “A
Clockwork Orange” received an
darling Gene Kelly starred in and co-directed the him
with director Stanley Donen. Donald O’Connor, Debbie
Reynolds and Jean Hagen also star in this musical about a
musical.
The Roman Polanski-directed classic “Chinatown”
will show as the favorite thriller/mystery, beating out
“Deliverance” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window.”
Jack Nicholson stars in this 1974 him as a private
detective who is investigating a murder case, but
NC-17 rating. This him could be very confusing to
audiences, as director Stanley Kubrick made continuity
errors on purpose. Kubrick was attempting to have a
slight disorienting effect, according to www.imdb.com.
The Nick Favorites Film Marathon will continue
through Saturday. All screening will take place at the
Nickelodeon Theatre at 937 Main St.
Comments on this story? E-mail gnmecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edu
Being the adventures
of a young man
whose principal
interests are rape*
ultra-violence
and Beethoven.
The Nickelodeon Theatre
will show films voted on by
members of the Columbia
Film Society and movie
fans who logged on to the
theater’s Web site. The
Nick's anniversary
celebration will begin
Tuesday.
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PHOTOS SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
BOOK REVIEW
‘NorreW revives Regency, fantasy
“Jonathan Strange and Mr.
Norrell"
Susanna Clarke
★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆
By KATIE THOMPSON
THE GAMECOCK
Mannerist fantasy has been
described as a mix of Jane Austen
and J.R.R. Tolkien: It presents a
Regency-era England where magic
is just as real as King George's
madness, Napoleon s armies or the
rules of polite society. Susanna
Clarke’s first novel Jonathan
Strange and Mr. Norrell is
original and enjoyable.
The story begins with a meeting
of the Learned Society of York
Magicians. The purpose of this
society is to research and discuss
the work of the great magicians of
England’s history, as no magic has
been performed in England for
several hundred years, and the
word “magician” has come to mean
scholar rather than practitioner. A
, newcomer to the Society poses a
question that annoys most of the
magicians present (but not without
intriguing others): Why exactly is it
that no one performs magic these
days?
This question sets off a chain of
Events that very shortly reveals a
startling truth — there is a
practicing magician in England,
and the Learned Society of York
Magicians serves as the perfect
avenue for him to advance his
position.
Before long, Mr. Norrell has
gained the respect and interest of
both the British government and
polite society. But what are the
consequences of such a sudden
return to the practice of magic?
They range from innovative (and
entertaining) new methods of
fighting the French, to the
insidious enchantment of both a
lady of high rank and the chief
servant in her home, from an
increasingly venomous war over
the ideas and attitudes proper for
the study and practice of magic, to
repercussions on the family and
personal life of Jonathan Strange,
the man who begins his magical
career as Mr. Norrell’s pupil and
becomes much more.
“Jonathan Strange and Mr.
Norrell” is an impressive novel. It
incorporates many elements of
traditional fairy tales and folklore
while retaining a fresh, original air.
While the first half of the novel
seems a bit slow, it keeps the
reader’s interest and does an
excellent job of introducing the
characters and setting the scene,
and the second half is more
exciting and tightly plotted.
Clarke’s prose is elegant and
subtly funny, perfectly suited to her
richly painted setting. The many
footnotes at first seemed rather
pretentious, but I grew accustomed
to and then appreciative of them.
They impart information that adds
much to the atmosphere of the
novel, but which would have been
cumbersome to include in the
actual text.
Perhaps the best-drawn
character is Mr. Norreli, who
embodies the emotional range
and personal inconsistencies of a
true human being. Some of the
other characters, such as Lady
Pole, seem a bit flat in
comparison. There might be a few
too many subplots, some of which
are mostly wrapped up while
others are abruptly left hanging
and seem to add nothing of any
real value.
Despite these shortcomings,
however, “Jonathan Strange and
Mr. Norreli” is highly
recommended to fantasy lovers,
fans of Jane Austen and anyone
who enjoys an imaginative, well
written novel.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockfeatiires@gwm.sc.edu
Prescription: Chocolate?
By RICK ASA
KRT CAMPUS
As guilty pleasures go, chocolate
has to be at the top of the list. But
would it still be as pleasing if the
guilt went away?
Food scientists are compiling
strong evidence that chocolate, or
more accurately its cocoa foundation,
contains plant chemicals called
flavanols that offer cardiovascular
protection in several ways.
But before you gleefully start
planning dinners around big
chocolate Easter rabbits, keep in
mind that the studies on chocolate
and humans, like those involving
other phytochemical-laden foods,
remain an inexact science. Research
has yet to determine, for example,
whether the observed benefits will
translate to the population at large
and how much is enough. Another
obstacle is taste; generally speaking,
the less processed chocolate is, the
higher the flavanol levels and the
higher the bitterness and astringency.
Even before chocolate studies
picked up steam in the past five
years, scientists suspected that
connection, having observed that
indigenous populations that
consume a high level of cocoa have a
reduced risk of heart disease, said
Carl Keen, chairman of the
nutrition department at the
University of California, Davis.
The Kuna Indians of the San Bias
Islands off Panama, for example,
historically have had extremely low
blood pressure. They also drink a lot
of locally grown, minimally
processed cocoa high in flavanols.
Most chocolate we eat today is
made from cocoa beans that have
been stripped of the flavanols
during a heating and chemical
process that removes bitterness and
prepares them for the mass market.
The relatively bitter Kuna drink, on
the other hand, would be an
acquired taste that has little in
common with our hot cocoa.
According to a study at the
University of Glasgow, in Scotland,
we would have to eat twice as much
milk chocolate to obtain the same
amount of flavanols as in
bittersweet dark chocolate.
Keen was among the first
researchers to show that gently
processed, high-flavanol cocoa
indeed has a biological effect. He
and other researchers have since
shown that flavanols can:
♦ Help the blood protect against
oxidation damage
♦ Reduce the risk of blood clots,
an aspirinlike effect
♦ “Turn on” the production of
nitric oxide, a key molecule in blood
that helps protect blood vessels,
lower blood pressure and increase
cifculation in the extremities
♦ Help reduce cytokines,
compounds that increase damage to
cardiovascular tissue
NOT SO FAST WITH
HEALTH CLAIMS
The inevitable backlash - we’re
talking about chocolate and a
deeply engrained public perception
here - has already begun.
When a St. Louis artisanal
confectioner hired a university
based dietitian to lend credibility to
its claims that its chocolates contain
ingredients “linked to improved
cardiovascular health,” the activist
Center for Science in the Public
Interest quickly swooped in, saying
the claims are putting the marketing
cart in front of the science horse.
“Chocolate isn’t broccoli,” said
Bonnie Liebman, director of
nutrition at CSPL “Antioxidant
claims (for all foods) have been
around for some time and in general
have lost favor because of
disappointing results on studies for
vitamins E and C.
“The evidence could get
stronger,” Liebman allowed, but to
date “no studies show that people
who eat chocolate are healthier.”
Oddly enough, Mars Inc., one of
the biggest chocolate producers in
the world, agrees. Its head of
♦ Please see CHOCOLATE, page 6