Advise and condense .sx by W. J. Weatherby .sx AT a recent Washington party a garrulous American egghead tried to explain the difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives to confused foreign visitors .sx But the more he tried the more confused his audience looked- and at last , too deep into references to populations , finance , and presidential recommendations , he began to sound confused himself .sx It was like a symbolical explanation of why so many outsiders fail to understand American politics and why- to them- the presidential leadership sometimes looks less decisive than it really is .sx One of the best popular accounts of the complex system of checks and balances in operation in Washington is Allen Drury's recent best seller , " Advise and Consent , " and even that was too involved and tortuous for some foreign readers .sx The decision then to make a massive Hollywood production of Mr Drury's novel is like a challenge to succeed where so many others have failed , for to be a success- artistically as well as financially- the film will have to be true to the reality of Washington and yet be simple enough for international audiences to understand .sx As the director , Otto Preminger , began to film recently in Washington , our old friends Reality and Illusion were busy providing some choice examples of their relationship in film terms .sx They met head-on at one party when an actor playing a senator learnt that the stranger he was chatting with was a real senator .sx The Hollywood " senator " had a noble looking image- as public relations prose sometimes puts it- and the gracious manners of an old plantation patriarch , whereas the real senator had the kind of untypical and unsaleable personality that might belong to a shopkeeper or a millionaire and would not get heroic film billing anywhere outside a home movie .sx The " senator " looked too right , almost as the outsider might have expected him to look , whereas the real one had an unexpectedness about him , as if he could not possibly be cast as anyone but himself .sx Much of the gap between Illusion and Reality is caused by the problem of time .sx Mr Drury's President and senators who reveal themselves gradually through 760 pages ( at least in the American paperback edition ) have had to be transformed into Mr Preminger's Franchot Tone , Don Murray , Lew Ayres , and the rest of an experienced team who can make the most of their split-second timing to create their characters in a matter of minutes .sx The real test of the film in the end will be how much has had to be oversimplified or glossed over to keep up with the clock .sx Mr Drury chose a comparatively melodramatic incident- the selection of a controversial Secretary of State and the conflict between the White House and much of the Senate over it- and threw in a few skeletons in the senatorial cupboards to show off when the reader got too bogged down in the political manoeuvres .sx Mr Drury , a former political reporter in Washington for the " New York Times , " is a great believer in the moderates' way in politics , and his book in one way is a tribute to his belief , in that it was moderate enough in tone to be fair even to extremists like the arch conservative from the South , Seab Cooley .sx Charles Laughton , who still has a Yorkshire ring to his voice , described his preparation for playing Cooley as " an Eliza Doolittle job .sx " He studied the right accent with a phonetics expert and did some extra homework in conversation with some real senators from the South .sx In the only scene I saw him play , he made his point with lightning professional speed and also managed a suggestion of an iceberg of character waiting to be revealed under the surface .sx This was clearly how to make the most of the time and how best to try to bridge the old Reality-Illusion gap .sx Whether or not Mr Drury's moderate tone will be preserved in the speed-up will depend very much on Mr Preminger , and if he loses it , the ill-informed abroad may simply become the misinformed , with Washington seeming a melodramatic circus rather than the complex meeting-place of all the States , the focus of a nation's myriad viewpoints .sx Mr Preminger's deep Austrian roots may help him there for although now an American citizen , he may see Washington with both an experienced eye and an objective one , which will enable him to find its essence without getting lost in detail or disastrously overglossing .sx His record suggests he is a believer in best-sellers as a basis for a film , and a man who knows him suggests this is because he usually becomes excited about one of the characters .sx This is probably the former actor coming out in him , and certainly on the set he often gives the impression of a caged actor on the wrong side of the camera yearning to give a performance himself .sx This may explain why sometimes his films let personality do the work of imagination and perhaps why they are generally so well cast .sx In " Advise and Consent , " for example , he has chosen a group of mature film actors- men like Ayres , Tone , Fonda , Pidgeon , not to mention Laughton- who could act most of the younger stars today off the screen .sx The Preminger name seemed to be unlocking most doors in Washington .sx How refreshing then it was for Reality to assert itself in the person of a little tailor .sx One of Mr Preminger's assistants went along to his shop to hire some tuxedos for the big banquet scene and assumed he- or rather Mr Preminger- would naturally be given credit .sx The Preminger name worked no miracles with the little man ( he was only little physically ) and he threw in for good measure that he would need cash even if the President of the United States came in to hire a tuxedo .sx His image wasn't smooth or glossy or predictable , but , oh , my goodness , he was alive .sx If only all those foreign outsiders could grasp he is more typical of Americans than any of the politicians ( even President Kennedy ) or any of the film stars ( even " President " Tone ) , perhaps Reality would win after all .sx FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI .sx by Gareth Lloyd Evans .sx FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI , whose explosive production of " Romeo and Juliet " shook the Old Vic out of its Shakespearean sloth , is now at Stratford on Avon setting the fuses for " Othello , " which opens next week .sx Yet , in spite of what we saw at the Old Vic , our expectations for " Othello , " and his very name ( like a hissing firework ) he only occasionally fulfils prognostications of a mercurial Italian .sx Without his long leather black jacket ( redolent of Florentine back-street conspiracy ) he could be mistaken for a tired young English director uniformed in the easy darkness of black slacks , black sneakers , and dull pullover .sx His accent is slight , his voice even-toned , his gestures spare .sx The eyes are restless , but sometimes pause on you with disconcerting acuteness .sx He slips into first acquaintance easily , and smokes Salems like a furnace .sx From his " Romeo and Juliet " one might expect a vivid staccato modern with the customary irreverence for tradition , but the great surprise is his imaginative , eloquent " feel " for historical process , and his sense of Western civilisation as an entity .sx He seems to feel his own presence in England now as a reflection of an historical logic which made sixteenth-century England the natural heir of the Florentine renaissance- this is not conceit , but an implied affirmation of the staying power of cultural unity .sx Florence was the starting-point of Western culture , and for him personally .sx He studied architecture there and began his theatre work directing opera in Siena .sx He mentions other Italian cities " The Romans were the whores of Western " ) but Florence penetrates his conversation .sx IT is easy , say , for a Florentine to accept foreigners , but they do not usually see the reality behind the fac@6ade of Tuscan easy-going optimism .sx It hides a preoccupation with death , a questioning of what life means , and a practical attitude towards art .sx For Zeffirelli , the genius of the Florentine renaissance lies in its workmanship- " The Tuscans do not believe in fairy tales .sx " Shakespeare , he knows , could never have been in Italy , or he would have realised all this .sx " Romeo and Juliet " is very un-Italian- " There are many English girls like Juliet .sx An Italian girl would never dare to do what she did- they are too practical .sx " But " As You Like It " is very Florentine , and full of a workmanlike questioning .sx As he said this he gouged a geometrical pattern on the posh tablecloth of the theatre restaurant .sx He believes himself to be a typical Florentine .sx A limited stake in the Bard might be inferred from the fact that he has directed , in England , two of Shakespeare's " Mediterranean " plays .sx He firmly repudiates this .sx He will probably direct " Hamlet " soon .sx This should be an event worth waiting for .sx His approach to a play is to discover " one simple idea , the creative idea , like a poet .sx " The idea for " Romeo and Juliet " was the irresponsibility of young love pushed into tragedy by Shakespeare .sx " Othello " is the " sentimental " tragedy of a cultivated , brave man who comes to love too late , and does not know what to do with it .sx " It is a tragedy not to know what to do with love .sx " Zeffirelli does not mention the colour of Othello's skin , but his knife traced another geometrical pattern .sx He gets an idea , and must stick to it .sx In the face of this , I tempted disaster by raising the bogy of cutting Shakespeare , and scholarly interpretation .sx The former he shrugged away , and I assumed that , for him , the " idea " justifies the means .sx With the latter he toyed for an instant , then , his smile tightening into patience , he gave the benefice of the preservation of a tradition to the scholar .sx IN spite of his apparently complete immersion in theatre , there is a paradox in his character .sx He seems unhappy inside the core of his response to all that art means in terms of beauty , vitality , and work .sx He complained that he is always surrounded by theatre people , but one suspects that he would wither away if taken away for too long .sx It may be that his ubiquitous talent ( he supervises costume down to the last buttonhole ) exhausts him .sx It may be that he is typically Florentine , fighting death along the theatre's shore-line of make-believe .sx One's guess is that the war ( he was a partisan ) left him immeasurably fearful of what man can do to man .sx He spoke bitterly of Germany .sx The only Brecht play he would consider directing is " Mother Courage .sx " " Alienation " is contrary to all his beliefs about art and men , but there is more to it than this .sx " Brecht is the Wagner of modern Germany .sx Germany has done terrible things to the soul of man .sx " Perhaps it is sympathetic fear which prompts his friendliness to other people .sx He is at home with scene-shifters , ASMs , and strangers who stop to ask about his high-powered sports car .sx He thinks of a theatre in terms of a family .sx In so far as he can be content , he is so in the British Theatre .sx " You have the best theatre in the world , the best actors , the best audiences .sx " Under pressure he admits some Stratford audiences seemed dead , but " English audiences are the best .sx . English people live in a pattern , and theatre-going is part of that pattern .sx " He admires English actors for their discipline , " but they have weaknesses .sx " What they were he did not say , except obscurely to declare that you cannot separate the artistic and personal life .sx When the conversation turned away from Shakespeare , from the unequivocally great in the art or the intensely human , Zeffirelli's mind seemed to drop several degrees in temperature .sx Yes , he knew about Wesker and Delaney ; yes , they seemed powerful , but all report .sx The trouble was that they were too late , old-fashioned .sx All this naturalism , he says , has been done such a long time ago in France and elsewhere .sx But , implying and mitigating their weakness in one breath , he added that perhaps at the beginning of any movement you had to have " roughness , where things have to be hacked out , until everything runs smoothly .sx "