The Current Cinema by Michael Sragow.

Comment by Allan Nairn. One of our reporters writes that he was in Dili, East Timor on Nov. 12, when a large crowd of East Timorese gathered in a church. They were there to attend a memorial Mass for Sebastiao Gomes, a young man who had died outside the church 2 weeks before. He...

The Talk of the Town Jaded by David Owen. Talk story about Michael Geary who creates special effects His company is called New York Special Effects. To visit him writer drove west to the end of 23rd St. through a big door in an enormous building on Pier 62. Finally he came to an elevator & drove inside carefully...

The Talk of the Town Surrogate by Adam Gopnik. Talk story about Angie Dickinson, who greeted the press in connection with Frank Sinatra's Diamond Jubilee tour sponsored by Chivas Regal. Sinatra, who has spent the last year going around the world, decided soon after he started out that he wan't going to talk to the press. Chivas Regal not...

Fiction Attraction by David Long. In the small Western town of Sperry in the early 1960s, the working-class teenager Marly Wilcox is fascinated by Charlie "Chas" Bitterman, the handsome son of a local lawyer. Marly lives with her mother, Jeanette, in a tin-roofed house at McCafferty's Slough. Charlie breaks up with his high...

Report from Madrid by Milton Viorst. An Arab-Israeli peace conference began in Madrid on Wed. Oct. 30 & ended on Sunday. Both sides agreed to attend not because of any change of heart but because of major strategic shifts in the Middle East. The intifada, the revolutionary struggle waged by the Palestinians in the occupied...

The Sporting Scene NINETY FEET by Roger Angell. THE SPORTING SCENE about the World Series, won by the Minnesota Twins over the Atlanta Braves. Games and series have their own personalities, and these were lean and exigent above all. Five of the seven games were settled by the margin of one run, with three of the runs coming...

The Theatre MIRABILE DICTU by Mimi Kramer.

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Books Golden Boy by George Steiner.

The Film File Beauty and the Beast by Michael Sragow. It’s got storytelling vigor and clarity, bright, eclectic animation, and a frisky musical wit. In this Disney version of the fairy tale, Belle (the voice of Paige O’Hara) is a book-reading French provincial girl—a virtuous sort of Mademoiselle Bovary. She dreams of Prince Charmings but gets more of one than...

Poetry The Feelings by Sharon Olds. When the interne listened to the stopped heart...

Poetry Coventry by Alfred Corn. Even if not sent there, some would go...

Poetry An Ordinary Afternoon in Charlottesville by Charles Wright. Under the peach trees, the ideograms the leaves throw...