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Film and the Arts

March '14 Digital Week IV

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Tuesday, 25 March 2014 21:10; Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week

The Americanization of Emily

(Warner Archive)

Arthur Hiller’s uneven 1964 satire—from Paddy Chayefsky’s hit-or-miss script—shows how idiotic war is as a skeptical navy man goes ashore on D-Day since his superiors want one of their own to be first to die heroically on Omaha Beach.

Acted with gleeful urgency by James Garner, James Coburn, Julie Andrews and Melvyn Douglas, Emily scatters its shots far too widely, which Hiller and Chayefsky would repeat in The Hospital seven years later. The Blu-ray image is good; extras comprise Hiller’s commentary and on-set featurette.

Atlantis

(BBC)

The lost continent has been found in this entertaining retelling of Greek myths and legends, as a group of ancient-world “three musketeers” named Hercules, Pythagoras and Jason deals with the likes of the Medusa, the Minotaur and Pandora’s Box.

Although it’s done lightheartedly, the actors look a little embarrassed to be spouting banal dialogue masquerading as wit; but at least there’s the wonderful Juliet Stevenson as the Oracle. The locations—the series is shot in Morocco and Wales—look stupendous on Blu-ray.

Carlos Kleiber—I Am Lost to the World

(C Major)

One of the most renowned 20^th century conductors, German-born Carlos Kleiber was also a major recluse, according to Georg Wubbolt’s first-rate documentary.

His Beethoven and Wagner conducting was sublime, as clips of his work show, and his attentiveness to detail was second to none—as attested to by his many colleagues and friends who are interviewed—but he rarely performed, and if this this doc doesn’t get to the heart of his troubles, it’s still a riveting portrait of a talented artist. The hi-def transfer is decent.

Faust

Werther

(Decca)

German tenor Jonas Kauffmann, the hottest voice in opera today, dominates these 19^th century French opera stagings. He’s a powerhouse in the title role of Charles Gounod’s Faust, dueling with Rene Pape’s equally mighty Mephistopheles, in Des MacAnuff’s entertaining 2011 Met Opera production.

Kauffmann is also formidable vocally and dramatically in the title role in Werther, Jules Massenet’s lyrical romantic tragedy based on Goethe’s novel, with fantastic support from soprano Sophie Koch as the woman he can never have. The hi-def video looks fine, while the music sounds strong throughout; Faust extras include brief cast and director interviews.

The Hidden Fortress

Persona

(Criterion)

Fanboys know it—if at all—as the inspiration for George Lucas’ Star Wars (which he readily admits in an included interview), but Akira Kurosawa’s spectacularly entertaining 1958 adventure The Hidden Fortress is a singular B&W widescreen epic seen mainly through the eyes of two nobodies who inadvertently rescue a princess. It works as both a Kurosawa classic and a popcorn movie for anyone to devour; rarely has the Japanese master been so beguilingly light-hearted.

Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 masterpiece Persona, one of the most profound studies of human behavior ever captured on film, comprises a character study of immense psychological depth and penetrating acting by two Bergman muses, Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann.

The films’ hi-def transfers are luminous; extras include commentaries and interviews (on both discs), an episode of It’s Wonderful to Create (on Fortress), and on-set footage and documentary Liv & Ingmar (on Persona).

Mysterious Skin

(Strand)

Gregg Araki’s best-known film, which helped launch Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s career in 2004, is an ambitious adaptation of Scott Heim’s book about two friends who deal with sexual abuse at the hands of their little league coach differently.

There’s persuasive acting by Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet as the boys and Elisabeth Shue as Gordon-Levitt’s mom, which gives Araki the chance to explore this subject matter with more assurance than in his other films. The Blu-ray transfer is excellent; extras include an Araki intro and commentary, new Gordon-Levitt, Corbet and Heim interviews and deleted scenes.

The Past

(Sony Classics)

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who won the 2011 Best Foreign Film Oscar for A Separation, returns with another look at the effects of a crumbling marriage—this time, on an Iranian husband, his French wife, her children and her Arab fiancée.

Farhadi’s script has much to offer, but ultimately—as in the earlier film—there’s less than meets the eye, as the accumulation of details starts to overwhelm his focus. Still, it’s superbly acted, especially by Berenice Bejo, who showed her comedic side in the frivolous The Artist (did that really win Best Picture?) and demonstrates her raw dramatic chops. The Blu-ray looks sharp; extras include Farhadi’s commentary and Q&A and a making-of.

DVDs of the Week

The Big House

(Warner Archive)

George Hill’s 1930 jailhouse drama—which won Oscars for writing and sound—is dated by muted violence and a squeaky-clean look at hard prison life, but some tough-mindedness remains, thanks to the accomplished cast which works within the narrow strictures of the era.

For added historic interest, both the French and Spanish language versions of the film are included, shot with different casts by different directors on the same locales and with the same (translated) script.

Camille Claudel 1915

(Kino Lorber)

Even though he’s using a movie star for the first time—the usually luminous Juliette Binoche has been scrubbed down to resemble the famed French sculptress during her lengthy stay in an asylum—director Bruno Dumont has made another typically rigorous and disturbing exploration of extreme behavior.

As usual, Binoche holds the screen—and Dumont’s many close-ups—with intelligence, assurance and anything but star-turn theatrics, but Dumont’s method of casting real non-actors to populate the asylum is questionable at best, mitigating the film’s unblinking look at such a sadly illuminating case of an artist whose life took a tragic turn.

Contracted

(MPI)

When Samantha screws a shady guy from a party, she becomes victim to a most insidious STD that turns her by degrees into a zombie in writer-director Eric England’s initially intriguing but ultimately risible horror movie.

Despite Najarra Townsend’s charged performance—she makes Samantha’s physical and mental deterioration plausibly frightening—England’s movie relies far too much on shock effects. Extras are two commentaries, a making-of and Townsend’s audition.

Let the Fire Burn

(Zeitgeist)

This devastating documentary recounts the incendiary standoff between Philadelphia police and radical black group MOVE in 1985, which ended with dozens of people dead (including several children) and the destruction of the group’s headquarters and dozens of houses in a conflagration set—and pointedly not controlled—by authorities.

Director Jason Osder, who cannily utilizes archival footage from the era, unravels one of the most egregious misuses of power against civilians in our history. As a sad postscript, sole child survivor Michael Ward—shown being interviewed afterwards—mystifyingly died last year in a cruise ship pool at age 40. Extras are a 2002 Ward interview and an insightful Q&A with Osder.

Stradella

(Dynamic)

Belgian Cesar Franck composed this tragic opera when merely 20 in 1842 and it was never performed in his lifetime: receiving its 2012 world premiere in Leige, Belgium, it shows an accomplished, mature musical hand.

Film director Jaco van Dormael shows a real affinity for opera with smart pacing and striking visuals, leads Isabelle Kabatu and Marc Laho are strong singers and performers, and Paolo Arrivabeni conducts the opera house’s orchestra and chorus, which sings the extended—and vocally ravishing—finale.

Film Review: "Nymphomaniac: Part 1"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Tuesday, 25 March 2014 21:03; Written by Matt Oakes

"Nymphomaniac: Part 1"
Directed by Lars von Trier
Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stacy Martin, Stellan Skarsgard, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Sophie Kennedy Clark
Drama
118 Mins
NR

Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Joe, a woman looking back on her life with deep-seated scorn, hounding for condemnation, beaten and broken. We meet her lying on the knotted facade of a cobblestone street corner, caked with dark, unexplained bruises, limp and abandoned like a dove craddling a broken wing. To the head banging tune of Rammstein's thumping German heavy metal, Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard) spots Joe crumpled under a gentle but deadly snowfall. After attempts to contact the authorities are met with threats of her fleeing the scene, he takes her home for some bed rest and a steamy cup of Earl Grey.

"After Midnight" Thrills in a Journey Back in Time

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 21 March 2014 04:34; Written by Derrel "Jazz" Johnson

Previews for After Midnight began Oct 18; Opened November 3, 2013 and is currently running at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 West 47 street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue). Conceived by Jack Viertel directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle starring Dulé Hill, Fantasia Barrino, Adriane Lenox, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Rosena M. Hill Jackson, Bryonha Marie Parham, Karine Plantadit, Virgil "Lil' O" Gadson and The Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars.

With a great cast of actors, singers, dancers, and musicians, After Midnight brings you back to places like the Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club not just through the singing, but through the dancing and period costumes as well.

Actor Dulé Hill -- best known from such TV series NBC's The West Wing and USA Network's Psych -- is the featured actor who pulls the entire show together. Singer Fantasia Barrino, from American Idol fame, is the premiere special guest star. And, thanks to costume designer Isabel Toledo and Warren Carlyle’s tremendous choreography, the show provides an incredible simulation of a bygone but great era.

Featuring classics from such greats as Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, the music comes with high expectations. But as delivered by The Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars under the leadership of artistic director Wynton Marsalis, the performances are absolutely flawless.

While the entire show is phenomenal, some of the highlights include versions of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" -- performed by Carmen Ruby Floyd, Rosena M. Hill Jackson, and Bryonha Marie Parham -- and the extremely seductive "Creole Love Call," also performed by Floyd. Singer Adriane Lenox gives a spectacular performances of "Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night" and "Women Be Wise" -- written by Sippie Wallace. Her performance seemed so authentic and in character that one wondered whether she was performing or just being herself.

All the dance pieces are performed by a remarkable ensemble, but two dancersdeserved special note. Tony nominee Karine Plantadit (for her work in Come Fly Away) shines in "Black and Tan Fantasy" and numerous ensemble pieces including the show's opening. Virgil "Lil' O" Gadson -- who’s been seen on such reality shows as So You Think You Can Dance and America's Best Dance Crew -- brings elements of hip-hop to his movements which are awe-inspiring. His skills are highlighted in "East St. Louis Toodle-oo" (where he joins Plantadit), and in “Hottentot.”

Fantasia shows off her incredibly powerful voice in this production -- which explains why she won American Idol and has remained so active in today's popular music scene. She sings leads effortlessly on four songs in the musical including "Stormy Weather," taking audiences back in time with the rest of the cast.

An accomplished dancer himself who made his Broadway debut in The Tap Dance Kid, Hill demonstrates his triple-threat talents, showcasing his ability to sing, dance, and act, something he certainly hasn’t had the opportunity to present on television.

The musicians play one last tune after the cast takes its curtain call (which received a standing ovation at the performance reviewed here) and 90% of the crowd stuck around for it.

After Midnight stirs the desire to grab an outfit and jump on stage with the performers. This fast-paced show is so enjoyable that I immediately wanted more when it concluded. Put After Midnight at the top of your list of must-see musicals.

(Singers Babyface and Toni Braxton will be featured cast members from March 18 until March 30 and Vanessa Williams will return to Broadway in the show from April 1 through May 11)

After Midnight
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
(256 West 47 street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue)

Theater Reviews: "The Bridges of Madison County" On Broadway; "Stage Kiss" Off-Broadway

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 20 March 2014 21:39; Written by Kevin Filipski

The Bridges of Madison County

Book by Marsha Norman; music & lyrics by Jason Robert Brown; directed by Bartlett Sher

Previews began January 17, 2014; opened March 20

Stage Kiss

Written by Sarah Ruhl; directed by Rebecca Taichman

Performances through April 6, 2014

Pasquale and O'Hara in The Bridges of Madison County (photo: Joan Marcus)

The Bridges of Madison County has the most thrilling musical curtain raiser in recent memory, for one reason: Kelli O’Hara, who has already cemented her position onstage among a crowded current field of talented singing actresses. Indeed, with such magical voices and personalities as Sutton Foster, Audra McDonald, Sierra Boggess and the two Lauras, Benanti and Osnes, alongside O’Hara, this is truly a new golden age on and off Broadway.

When she walks onstage for the first of composer Jason Robert Brown’s wannabe operatic songs, O’Hara brings a joyful sense of real drama to this melodically and lyrically clichéd introduction to Bridges’world of the flatlands of Iowa’s farms, where Francesca—Italian-born wife and mother who has spent the last two decades dutifully raising her family far away from Naples, where she met her GI husband Bud during World War II—spills her soul.

Little else in this show about the brief but torrid affair between Francesca and Robert, a National Geographic photographer who happens by after her husband and two teenage children leave for the Indiana State Fair with their prize steer in tow, rises to that level of passion. It’s primarily due to Robert James Waller’s trashy source novel—Clint Eastwood’s 1995 film, starring Eastwood and Meryl Streep, made its protagonists older, providing a melancholic sense of a missed chance at last love—which Marsha Norman’s book cannot overcome.

Instead, Norman’s book wallows in a cutesy middle America, saddling Francesca—and us—with a busybody neighbor and her husband, about whom far too much is made as the affair runs its course. Then there are Brown’s routine lyrics and derivative music: the latter has pretentions to deeper emotions in romantic arias and duets for the adulterous lovers, but they only reach our hearts due to O’Hara and an equally superb Steven Pasquale.

O’Hara, a meltingly lovely actress who makes us fall deeply for this woman yanked from her world to begin a new life only to find an unlikely escape, and Pasquale, an intelligent actor whose powerhouse singing voice hasn’t been heard on Broadway until now, make a winning couple. Although it’s strange that O’Hara decided to sing with her accent (while speaking, she sounds at times like Arianna Huffington, whose Greek homeland is hundreds of miles from Naples), the pair’s passionate duets make Brown’s songs sound more tuneful than they really are.

Hunter Foster—Sutton’s brother—invests the stock character of Francesca’s husband Bud with a pathos unearned on the page, while Cass Morgan and Michael X. Martin are less irritating than they could have been as neighbors with too much stage time. Michel Yeargan’s set, comprising bits and pieces of kitchen furnishings and one of the fabled covered bridges of the title, is cleverly utilized by director Bartlett Sher, as the supporting cast brings the pieces on and off stage. That they sit at either side when not in on the action is a less felicitous directorial decision.

Despite many drawbacks, O’Hara and Pasquale make this lukewarm musical a white-hot, irresistible romance.

Fumusa and Hecht in Stage Kiss (photo: Joan Marcus)

Sarah Ruhl returns with another heavy-handed, shaky mix of comedy, parody, sentimentality and absurdism: Stage Kiss is a wooden and, finally, quite pointless bit of affected whimsy in which two performers, decades after an affair in their younger days, reunite for the revival of a bad play and discover that the sparks they try to produce onstage are being reproduced backstage and fall for each other again.

Though unoriginal, this isn’t bad material from which to extract a funny, even relevant comedy: real life vs. show biz might be an old-hat concept, but one might find small nuggets of truth and hilarity in the interactions of self-absorbed actors, playwrights and directors. Too bad Ruhl finds few of those nuggets in the story of He and She, who re-meet cutely at the first reading of an awful play that’s been unearthed after years of neglect.

We get far more scenes from this play, with intentional howlers in the dialogue and characters, than we should: maybe Ruhl wants her own play to look better by comparison. The trouble is, Stage Kiss isn’t much better than the two fictional plays it lampoons (yes, there’s another in the second act).

After an overlong first act with endless scenes of readings and rehearsals from the fictional play, the second act shows Ruhl briefly finding her footing, with amusingly lively banter among the characters crowded into He’s apartment: namely He’s girlfriend and She’s husband and daughter. However, after silly talk about souls breaks the brief spell, another lousy play that He and She decide to take on becomes the semi-focus of Ruhl’s unfocused play. Groaningly obvious jokes and one-liners abound, and when the play turns serious at the end, it’s a desperate move to find Meaning in what could have made a decent skit with a few chuckles.

Jessica Hecht gives a bizarre performance, with off-kilter line readings that better fit the characters in the plays-within-the-play than they do She, while Dominic Fumusa is a charismatic, winning He, who’s an actor that’s humorously bad at accents. A few seasons back, Ruhl’s Broadway play In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play was a wonderful surprise: after her increasingly less felicitous The Clean House, Eurydice, Dead Man’s Cell Phone and now Stage Kiss, it’s obvious that The Vibrator Play was the exception that proves the Ruhl.

The Bridges of Madison County

Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street, New York, NY

bridgesofmadisoncountymusical.com

Stage Kiss

Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, New York, NY

playwrightshorizons.org

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