November '11 Digital Week IV

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 28 November 2011 01:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week
The Big Country (Fox/MGM)
William Wyler’s widescreen soap opera combines a sappy love story with an old-fashioned Old West adventure. There are memorable shots galore, but not many memorable scenes, mainly because the cast (save Burl Ives as the heavy) can’t overcome the two-dimensional characters: Gregory Peck as the hero is especially ill at ease.

Blu-ray’s exceptional clarity shows off the stunning camerawork; the lone extra is a vintage featurette, Fun in the Country.

Carjacked (Anchor Bay)
This agonizingly routine thriller concerns a single mom whose car is hijacked with her son inside, and she manages to outwit the armed fugitive with blatantly obvious maneuvers that wouldn’t fool anyone.

Although Maria Bello brings her usual intensity to the heroine and Stephen Dorff makes a plausibly nasty criminal, the movie spins its wheels for 90 minutes without much originality or excitement. The Blu-ray image is decent; the lone extra is an on-set featurette.

The Family Tree (e one)
A family living in the town of Serenity (get it?) has a chance to change its dysfunctional ways when the mother gets amnesia after hitting her head (while having sex their next- door neighbor, natch).

Since no one in the family is enacted particularly interestingly by Dermot Mulroney (dad), Hope Davis (mom), Max Thierot (son) and Brittany Robertson (daughter), director Vivi Friedman and writer Mark Lisson’s manufactured tribulations don’t work; there’s at least amusing support by Gabrielle Anwar and Chi McBride. The movie has a solid hi-def transfer; extras include on-set footage and interviews.

Jungle Eagle, My Life as a Turkey, Radioactive Wolves (PBS)
This trio of PBS Nature documentaries explores the incredible animal world: the South American harpy eagle, a naturalist who raises 16 turkey chicks as their “mother,” and the amazing return of wolves and other animal and plant life to the desolate forbidden zone that came about due to Russia’s Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Each 52-minute program gives an illustrative if far from comprehensive overview, and the eye-popping hi-def imagery illuminates these fantastic but true stories that are more bizarre than any fiction.

Sarah’s Key (Anchor Bay/Weinstein Co)
Based on Tatiana de Rosnay’s sentimental but gripping novel, Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s drama is an occasionally affecting tragedy about France’s ambivalence toward French Jews killed by the Nazis. Kristin Scott-Thomas, elegant as always, outclasses the material as a journalist who uncovers the truth about a young girl who survived the German purge that destroyed her family.

Despite the subject matter’s inherent power and Scott-Thomas’ presence, the movie--which looks tremendous on Blu-ray--is curiously disjointed. A more interesting watch is the bonus feature, a one-hour documentary that includes interviews with Rosnay, Paquet-Brenner and Scott-Thomas.

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (Anchor Bay/Weinstein Co.)
Director Robert Rodriguez reboots his family-friendly franchise with this loony but funny adventure that stars a new spy kids family and the return of the original kids, now the grown-up Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara.

Although Rodriguez can’t sustain any momentum, with the help of game performers like Vega, Sabara and even Jessica Alba (who has rarely seemed so animated as the new kids‘ stepmother), his movie is a quick and painless 85 minutes. The often dazzling visuals have an extra vividness on Blu-ray; extras include deleted scenes, featurettes and a Rodriguez interview.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Fox/MGM)
Joseph Sargent’s taut 1974 thriller is a uniquely New York City cops-and-robbers drama that moves at a breakneck speed that never overwhelms the well-thought-out story.

As the bemused and amused detective who finds himself chasing three daring subway hijackers (Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo), Walter Matthau embodies the tough-as-nails atmosphere, especially in that memorable final freeze frame. The grungy mid-‘70s Manhattan locations are perfectly captured on Blu-ray.

These Amazing Shadows (PBS)
In 1988, the National Film Registry was formed to preserve “significant” American movies for the ages, and Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton’s documentary presents a straightforward account of the Registry’s workings and its 550+ choices over the past two of what constitute the most essential of American films.

You might not agree with all of the picks (I certainly don’t: How the West Was Won and A Woman Under the Influence?), but historical and/or artistic importance of most films cannot be denied. The movie comprises mostly talking heads and old clips, so the visual quality is variable, but the Blu-ray looks acceptably good. Extras include additional scenes and interviews.

12 Angry Men (Criterion)
Sidney Lumet’s 1957 adaptation of Reginald Rose’s play stays in the jury room for 95 minutes as the dozen men fight through their prejudices to decide whether to convict the defendant for murder, but it contains so many good performances (Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb and Jack Klugman are standouts) that it triumphs over essential staginess.

The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray has excessive grain which only accentuates Boris Kaufman’s gritty B&W cinematography; extras include interviews, featurettes and the 1955 television version of the play.

DVDs of the Week
The Adventures of Tintin: Season One (Shout Factory)
The classic Belgian comic-strip character works best when he is animated (in both senses), and the 13 half-hour episodes on these two discs are a great introduction to one of the most beloved fictional characters ever--even if most Americans have never heard of him.

That's at least until Steven Spielberg’s upcoming stop-motion adaptation, whose plot is actually taken from two of the stories in this set: The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure. The lack of extras is irritating because providing pre-Spielberg context would seem to be mandatory.

The Green (Film Buff)
After a gay couple moves from New York City to a small town, teacher Michael is accused of inappropriate behavior with a student, compromising his relationship with his partner, caterer Michael. Instead of allowing their story to arise organically out of their characterizations, director Steven Williford and writer Paul Marcarelli impose strident melodramatics on it, resulting in a sadly missed opportunity.

Still, excellent acting by Jason Butler Harner and Cheyenne Jackson as the couple, Julia Ormond as the lawyer they hire and Ileana Douglas as a close friend allows The Green to overcome these obstacles and emerge as a relatively mature tale.

Making the Boys (First Run)
The Boys in the Band, the first unashamedly gay play, was a huge hit off Broadway in the late ‘60s and was made into a film by William Friedkin in 1970. Crayton Robey’s lovingly-made documentary explores playwright Mart Crowley’s background alongside the era’s unique dilemma for gay playwrights, in the process showing the play’s widespread influence on two generations of gay artists.

Some of the interviewees include Edward Albee, surviving cast members like Laurence Luckenbill, and Crowley and Friedkin, all honestly recounting their reaction to (and in some cases against) a now-classic play.

Robotech: The Complete Series (New Video)
This inventive Japanese anime series was a big hit when it first was shown in America in 1985 to 1987, and this jammed boxed set brings together all three seasons, otherwise known as the “Robotech Wars”--13 discs’ worth of 85 remastered episodes.

In addition, there are another four discs that include a further 10 hours of bonus material, which ranges from a full-length making-of documentary and music videos to promotional reels, an hour of deleted scenes and an extended version of the series’ original pilot episode.

CDs of the Week
Andrea Bocelli: Concerto--A Night in Central Park (Decca)
The beloved Italian tenor’s September performance was, despite subpar weather, obviously a labor of love for the singer and his loyal fans. Accompanied by Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, Bocelli sings alone and in duets with Celine Dion, Tony Bennett and Bryn Terfel; guest musicians include the scintillating violinist Nicola Benedetti.

The CD captures it all for posterity, and the bonus DVD features video of the entire concert for those who want to relive it or who weren’t there. (It’s also on PBS in December.)

The Christmas Story (Harmonia Mundi)
Based on the traditional English holiday service, Nine Lessons and Carols, Paul Hillier has programmed a superb compendium of Christmas music that features two excellent ensembles, the a cappella vocal groups Theatre of Voices and Ars Nova Copenhagen, both led by Hillier.

The well-chosen music tells the story of the Nativity through works by Renaissance era composers William Byrd and Johann Eccard, and familiar carols like “We Three Kings,” “The Holly and the Ivy” and, as the joyful finale, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

Music Interview: Composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Saturday, 26 November 2011 15:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Quintet (New York premiere)
November 29, 2011
Zankel hall, 57th Street & 7th Avenue
http://carnegiehall.org

Among America’s foremost composers, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich has one of the most enviable track records of anyone in classical music today: she won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1983 for her First Symphony, has her works recorded regularly (most recently, Naxos released a CD containing three of her compositions: Millennium Fantasy for piano and orchestra, Images for two pianos and orchestra and “Peanuts” Gallery for piano and orchestra) and regularly composes works commissioned by eager musicians and ensembles.

Most recently, her mesmerizing Fifth Symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2008 and her Septet for Piano Trio and String Quartet has had a dozen performances since its 2009 premiere. Her latest commission has its New York premiere on November 29 at Zankel Hall: a Quintet written expressly for the musicians who will perform it: the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson (KLR) Trio, violist Michael Tree and double bass player Harold Robinson.

The new Quintet--which has the same instrumentation as Schubert’s great ‘Trout’ Quintet--was among many topics the 72-years-young composer discussed in a recent telephone interview, along with other new works, her feelings on the so-called ‘death’ of classical music and music’s place in a technology-obsessed 21st century.
 
Q: Can you describe composing works for musicians like the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio?
A: The trio and I go back quite a long ways, and it has been the most wonderful personal and musical relationship for me. I just love to write for them. You can’t do better than composing for these artists. It's inspiring for me. What it means for me to be writing for them is not that things are tailored specifically in the piece, but it just makes me very turned on to think of them on the stage waiting for the new music that I've composed to be put on the stand so they can perform it.

Q: How did the instrumentation for your new Quintet come about?
A: If you program Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet, there’s almost nothing else you can put on with it, since it uses a double bass. So the trio was looking for a companion to the 'Trout' and I loved that idea. And I just couldn’t resist taking a little bitty snippet of the 'Moody Trout' section from Schubert and incorporating that into my piece. Happily, modern performers are capable of doing any style you ask of them.

For instance, in my Septet (from 2009), there was a movement where the strings and piano replicated a kind of baroque style of performance. There are all these wonderful players that specialize in this kind of playing. There’s a certain concept of the 'Moody Trout'--the notion that the personality of the trout has its good and bad moods--so I suggested a sort of a blues kind of thing in that section.

Q: What other works are coming up?
A: I just got back from New Orleans where the Louisiana Philharmonic, pianist Jeffrey Biegel and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto premiered a new piece called Shadows for piano and orchestra. I also have a brand new piece that will be done in May for violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and her chamber orchestra in San Francisco. 

Q: What do you think of the continued predictions of the demise of classical music?
A: When they invented the player piano, then when they invented recordings, that was also supposed to be the end of music. Everything new only opens the field more broadly, and it’s the same with the digital revolution. Music’s a hard thing to kill off when you come right down to it. I don’t think it’s a good prediction at all. I think it’s a really interesting time as far as musical outreach and what’s available to people worldwide. Although we’ve dropped the ball completely on music education in schools, there is now--if anybody looks for it--the availability of any kind of music you could want. The worldwide availability is amazing to me.

Q: Do you take exception to compartmentalizing different kinds of music?
A: I actually played jazz when I was younger, so if those sounds come out of me it’s because it’s already there, not because I’m "crossing over," which I think is a very misleading term. There’s been so much talk, especially in the late 20th century, about elements of music that have to do with mathematics or whatever. But to me the wonderful thing about music and why I’m still excited to do this is that it incorporates everything about us: our personal experiences, our heads, our hearts, what we’re attracted to. It's one huge ball of wax: everything in my music is native to me, including the European classical tradition like the 'Trout' and blues and jazz.

Theater Roundup: Rickman On Broadway, Friel Off

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Friday, 25 November 2011 10:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Seminar
Written by Theresa Rebeck
Directed by Sam Gold
Starring Hamish Linklater, Jerry O’Connell, Hettienne Park, Lily Rabe, Alan Rickman

Dancing at Lughnasa
Written by Brian Friel
Directed by Charlotte Moore
Starring Orlagh Cassidy, Kevin Collins, Michael Countryman, Annabel Hagg, Jo Kinsella, Aedin Moloney, Ciaran O’Reilly, Rachel Pickup

The difference between a great playwright and a merely decent one is demonstrated by two current New York productions: the off-Broadway Irish Rep’s revival of Brian Friel’s 1990 masterpiece Dancing at Lughnasa, and the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s new Broadway play, Seminar, starring everyone’s favorite die-hard villain -- and accomplished stage actor -- Alan Rickman.

Friel’s play comprises flesh and blood characters and a poignant sense of life as it’s really lived, in its joys and heartbreaks, hopes and disappointments.

Rebeck, in contrast, has written an immensely clever and polished comedy populated by caricatures whose relationships are so sketchily drawn that even plentiful -- and often funny -- one-liners can’t mask the entertaining work’s essential hollowness.

Dancing at Lughnasa is a luminous memory play narrated by Michael, who thinks back to an Irish summer in the fictional town of Ballybeg of 1936 and the five Mundy sisters, all spinsters ranging in age from 26 to 40, one of whom -- Christine, the youngest -- is Michael’s unwed mother.

The women, resigned to their lot in life, look forward to the annual Lughnasa harvest festival. This becomes clear as they listen to their new wireless radio and start dancing in their small kitchen. Such unbridled ecstasy is one of the most joyous scenes I’ve ever seen in any play.

Friel’s wistful yet unsentimental drama has a hard-edged poetry not only in its beautifully carved musical dialogue, but also in the very souls of its lovingly rendered characters, whom we end up caring about deeply.

What was a moving, humane drama in its 1991 Broadway incarnation doesn’t quite strike the same touching note in Charlotte Moore’s small-scale staging, although the cast (except the usually reliable Michael Countryman, whose lack of Irish authenticity as the sisters’ sickly older brother Father Jake is a serious misstep) is solid. Rachel Pickup is much more than that: her radiant portrayal of middle sister Agnes would have fit in snugly with the original exemplary cast.

Seminar introduces Leonard, a bitter, burnt-out writer reduced to giving private, exclusive lessons to a select few students looking for tips to get published, who is teaching a motley quartet of dull Douglas, sexy Izzy, geeky Martin and thin-skinned Kate, whose family‘s gorgeous rent-controlled Upper West Side apartment is the setting for these weekly meetings.

There’s a lot here that’s simply unbelievable: that three students (Kate excepted) could afford the $5000 class fee; that the two women enter into sexual liaisons with Leonard (both of them) and Martin (Izzy only), seemingly for mere purposes of dramatic -- or, more precisely, comedic -- irony when they are found out; and that Leonard would be jetting around the world to visit places like Somalia in his current state. He’s currently a journeyman editor and, apparently, out of favor in the business because of long-ago plagiarism (which Martin gleefully brings up after Leonard once too often destroys one of their writing efforts).

But if Rebeck is dishonest with her quintet, she can always rely on her zippy dialogue. If these characters are too smart and clever, in the way of so many TV shows, movies and plays nowadays, at least Rebeck keeps the talk lively and pointed.

It’s also too bad that Seminar doesn’t end after Leonard’s big monologue in which he admits to creative and moral bankruptcy. By tacking on a final scene to provide a happy ending of sorts, Rebeck has closure, however unearned, and at the expense of a certain plausible messiness in her characters’ lives before the tidy wrap-up.

Sam Gold adroitly stages Seminar on David Zinn’s terrifically detailed set, and the five actors blend into a true cohesive ensemble.

Rickman sputters with drippingly nasty corrosive sarcasm, even if Leonard remains a cipher. Lily Rabe (Kate), Hamish Linklater (Martin), Hetienne Park (Izzy) and Jerry O’Connell (Charles) manage to keep up with Rickman, making Seminar amusingly endurable but, at bottom, unmemorable.

Seminar
Golden Theatre
252 W. 45th Street
New York, NY
http://seminaronbroadway.com

Previews began October 27, 2011; opened November 20 (open run)

Dancing at Lughnasa
Irish Repertory Theatre
132 W. 22nd Street
New York, NY
http://irishrep.org

Opened October 30; closes January 15, 2012