Kevin's May '11 Digital Week IV

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 29 May 2011 15:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week
Farewell (Neoclassics)
Christian Carion’s cold war drama, based on a true story set in 1981, has two worthy adversaries:  French actor Guillaume Canet and Serbian director Emir Kusturica play an engineer and KGB colonel who helped the West bring down the Iron Curtain. Drenched in an authentic period atmosphere (with amusing references to Freddie Mercury and Queen), Farewell is a taut thriller with a splendid cast, including Fred Ward as Ronald Reagan, of all people. The movie has a superior Blu-ray transfer; there are no extras.

Freedom Riders (PBS)
This enlightening documentary recounts the heroism of several brave American patriots in 1961 who rode buses into the segregated South, where several were arrested and beaten. Still, they helped turn the tide against Jim Crow, which ended with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Insightful interviews with participants, others who witnessed the events and historians who provided needed context are featured, along with archival footage that gives immediacy to a long, painful struggle. The movie’s visuals have added sharpness on Blu-ray; there are no extras.

Grand Prix (Warners)
and
The Manchurian Candidate (MGM)
These films show director John Frankenheimer in his prime. 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate is a true nail-biting classic of the paranoid thriller genre, with hard-bitten portrayals by Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey complementing a brilliantly created B&W world; 1966’s Grand Prix, however, is three hours of wooden dramatics and explosive car racing throughout Europe, with an attractive international cast (Yves Montand, James Garner, Jessica Harper, Brian Bedford) doing little. Both films have been transferred to Blu-ray with superb results, particularly Grand Prix’s 65mm widescreen panoramas. Extras include featurettes on both releases, with added interviews and a commentary on Candidate.

I Saw the Devil (Magnet)
and
Vanishing on 7th Street (Magnet)
These horror films approach their stories from opposite angles. Kim Ji Woon’s I Saw the Devil jumps into gory violence from the beginning, as a terrorizing serial killer gets his eventual (and bloody) comeuppance, while Brad Anderson’s Vanishing uses suggestiveness rather than gore to extract suspense from a blackout that causes people to disappear mysteriously. Both movies work on their own terms, although Devil’s bludgeoning wearies and Vanishing’s reticence induces dullness; both also look terrific on Blu-ray. Extras on Devil include behind-the-scenes featurette and deleted scenes; extras on Vanishing include featurettes, interviews and alternate endings.

The Misfits (MGM)
and
Some Like It Hot (MGM)
Two of Marilyn Monroe’s seminal roles (one dramatic, the other comedic) arrive on hi-def: John Huston’s The Misfits (1961), from Arthur Miller’s treacly script, stars Monroe and Clark Gable in their final onscreen appearances; Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959), one of Hollywood’s all-time classics, finds Monroe keeping up with the breakneck pace of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis‘s comic chops. Both black and white films look better than on DVD but are not visual knockouts. There are no extras on Misfits; Hot’s DVD extras (commentary and featurettes) are included on the Blu-ray.

The Other Woman (IFC)
Natalie Portman won the Oscar for her tour de force in the ridiculous Black Swan, but that recognition buried any praise for her equally superb work in this tragic character study of a young woman who loses her newborn child and tries to come to terms with how the baby’s death affects her relationship with her husband and stepson and his ex-wife. Portman’s sympathetic portrayal, as in Black Swan, allows us to care about an unlikable woman, even if writer-director Don Roos eventually leaves her (and us) hanging. The film is given a solid Blu-ray transfer; there are no extras.

Pale Flower (Criterion)
Masahiro Shinoda’s Japanese New Wave classic is a strange but compelling drama about a yakuza who, just released from jail, falls in with a compulisve and irresistible gambler. Shinoda’s unerring camera eye, coupled with Toru Takemitsu’s unerring ear (in which natural sounds and silence are as important as his music), make this a powerful experience, even for those already familiar with Shinoda’s better known films like Double Suicide. Criterion’s first-rate transfer, in which the moody B&W photography positively shimmers, does Shinoda proud. Extras include a new Shinoda interview and commentary by Takemitsu expert Peter Grilli.

The Rite (Warners)
On the Blu-ray cover, Anthony Hopkins looks like a demented Hannibal Lecter, which gives the false impression that this somber, unexciting drama is about the unorthodox priest that he plays; rather, it’s about a seminary student learning about exorcism. Either way, it’s basically one long tease: it’s neither intensely scary nor psychologically probing, which makes it vastly inferior to The Exorcist, if you were wondering. The clinical visuals are for the most part rendered acceptably on Blu-ray; extras include deleted scenes, alternate ending, and interview with the priest whose story is told in the film.

DVDs of the Week
British Royal Weddings of the 20th Century (Strike Force)
The Royal Wedding: William & Catherine (BBC)
William & Kate: Planning a Royal Wedding (PBS)
There’s been an unsurprising run of releases related to the recent Royal Wedding, as most Americans can’t get enough of all things William and Kate (mostly Kate, and her sister Pippa too). British Royal Weddings of the 20th Century is smartly done, with vintage archival footage of royal weddings from Patricia and Alexander in 1919 to Edward and Sophie in 1999. In all, 17 weddings are featured in three hours. The PBS special Planning a Royal Wedding is a decent 45-minute overview that includes interviews with “experts” about what to expect on the big day. The BBC disc The Royal Wedding is the real thing, however: two hours of BBC’s own wedding coverage in HD, and with a satisfying bonus: a 50-minute special, William & Kate: A Royal Engagement, an informative and entertaining look at the couple’s history together.

CD of the Week
Nino Rota: Symphony No. 3, Etc. (Chandos)
Best known for his Fellini film scores and Godfather music, Nino Rota was also an accomplished composer of concert music, ballets and operas. This disc features three orchestral works, each a wonderful example of Rota’s instantly recognizable style. The Concerto soiree for piano and orchestra is rhythmically lively and just plain catchy, the Divertimento Concertante (for the unlikely combo of double-bass and orchestra) is both light on its feet and seriously thoughtful, and the Symphony No. 3, with less weightiness than its predecessors, nevertheless is another beautifully structured work. The Turin Philharmonic, led by conductor Gianandrea Noseda, makes it all sound effortless and flavorful, the highest compliment to Rota and his music.

Theater Review: Shaw's "Candida" as Chamber Music

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Saturday, 28 May 2011 05:00

Written by Lucy Komisar

A Minister’s Wife
Based on the 1898 version of Candida by George Bernard Shaw
Adapted by Austin Pendleton
Conceived & directed by Michael Halberstam
Lyrics by Jan Levy Tranen
Music by Joshua Schmidt
Starring Kate Fry, Marc Kudisch, Bobby Steggert, Liz Baltes, Drew Gehling

Michael Halberstam’s chamber music version of Shaw’s Candida is a charming and exhilarating production about male-female relations in earlier days of the battle for women’s sexual freedom.

The story is adapted by Austin Pendleton from Shaw’s 1898 version of the play, which he revised in 1930, the post-flapper era when so much in society had changed. At the turn of the century, women were even more psychologically and materially dependent on their husbands.

Halberstam and Pendleton show us a woman who takes charge of her own emotional life. Candida Morrell (Kate Fry) is a smart woman married to what might appear to be a progressive man.

Rev. James Morrell (Marc Kudisch) is a Christian Socialist minister who preaches to a broad audience. When his secretary tells him the Hoxton Freedom Group wants him to address them, he declares, "Just like Anarchists not to know they can’t have a parson on Sunday morning."

He is desperate to see Candida, who has been out of town: "My Candida’s coming home today!" he sings. And when she arrives, she vocalizes, "Oh the enchantment, the joys of home, the joys of wife and motherhood."

A perfect marriage, right? But Morrell is still a man who thinks his importance trumps the desires and yearnings of those around him. He is oblivious, for example, that his secretary Miss Proserpine Garnett (Liz Baltes) has a crush on him and is jealous of his wife.

The privileged Candida seems just a bit bored. Perhaps that is why she doesn’t immediately squash the verbal advances of the infatuated young poet Eugene Marchbanks (Bobby Steggert), who Morrell had found sleeping on an embankment and who, in his early 20s, is 15 years her junior.

Steggert seems a bit younger than I’m used to seeing as the Marchbanks in Shaw’s play, too young to be considered seriously as a rival to Morrell. There’s never a moment when you take such a liaison seriously.

Candida says all the right feminist things. As the Reverend expresses concern about the personal developments, she recalls it was her father who "taught me to think for myself." And, "Don’t put your trust in my goodness."

Marchbanks also gets into the debate. And when Morell orders her to choose between him and the poet, she declares, "I am up for auction it seems. What do you bid, James?"

Since this is Shaw, there are of course other moral challenges. Candida’s father made money from sweatshops. But the plot, in fact, is a little silly.

What makes this production pulsate is the modern music by Joshua Schmidt (the brilliant composer of the music for The Adding Machine, based on the 1923 Edgar Rice play), the recitative by Jan Levy Tranen, and the voices of the ensemble, especially the excellent soprano Fry, the always fine baritone Kudisch, and the very strong Baltes.

In all, quite an elegant Lincoln Center event.

A Minister’s Wife
Lincoln Center
Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater
150 W. 65th Street
New York City
212-239-6200
Opened May 8, 2011; closes June 12, 2011.

For more by Lucy Komisar, visit thekomisarscoop.com.

Theater Review: Two Couples, One Baby in "Cradle and All"

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Thursday, 26 May 2011 10:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Cradle and All
Written by Daniel Goldfarb
Directed by Sam Buntrock
Starring Maria Dizzia, Greg Keller

Daniel Goldfarb’s The Retributionists might have reduced Nazi-era horrors to mere soap opera, but his paper-thin new comedy Cradle and All engagingly shows how having (or not having) a child affects two couples in the same Brooklyn Heights apartment building.

The first half, Infantry, introduces Claire, a 39-year-old (or is it 41?) former movie actress (Maria Dizzia) whose fertility clock is winding down. She tells reluctant boyfriend Luke (Greg Keller) that she wants a baby, triggering confessional soul-searching on her part (he’s pretty much reduced to a listener).

The second half, The Extinction Method, set in the apartment down the hall, has zombified parents Annie and Nate trying one last-ditch attempt to get their 11-month-old daughter to fall asleep without placating her, however long she cries. Needless to say, she carries on for hours, driving them to reexamine their very relationship.

Throughout Cradle and All, Goldfarb shows a knack for how adults deal with momentous events missing from The Retributionists: his clever dialogue catches all the attendant recriminations, insults and occasional reconciliations, even if much of what happens remains superficial.

Although The Extinction Method seems more successful because there are more laughs, I actually liked the more somber Infantry, and not merely because too many of Method’s jokes are repeated (how many times can we hear the baby’s screaming and the couple’s increasingly harried attempts to deal with it?). Infantry actually tries to bring a character to life, as  Claire gives a lengthy speech, punctuated by Luke’s interjections, that explains her motives for wanting a baby at this time in her life.

Maria Dizzia, giving a splendid and moving reading, actually makes us feel for Claire, personalizing her predicament in ways that Goldfarb only hints at in his writing. Dizzia is as convincingly frumpy as overtired mother Annie in Method as she is ravishingly desperate in Infantry.

Conversely, Greg Keller, who doesn’t make much of an impression in Infantry because Goldfarb isn’t as interested in Luke, works harder and more effectively as Nate in The Extinction Method.

Goldfarb’s ear for how these people talk is hampered by too much pop culture name-checking, as references to Mad Men, Keanu Reeves, Blue Man Group, Tyra Banks, James Lipton and The Daily Show abound.

The playwright does hit on trenchant lines, as how young girls engaging in oral sex in grade school are "part of the Clinton legacy," and the final dialogue between Annie and Nate while they prepare to have sex for the first time since her pregnancy has an appropriately acidic edge to its humor.

Sam Buntrock’s by-the-numbers direction of Infantry gives way to the livelier Method, likely due to the second half’s lighter touch. Both of Neil Patel’s apartment sets are so dead-on in their details that one wants to move right in -- but only if these couples and their baby problems are jettisoned.

Cradle and All
Manhattan Theatre Club
131 West 55th Street
New York, NY
www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com
Opens May 25, 2011; closes June 19, 2011

For more by Kevin Filipski, go to The Flip Side blog at http://flipsidereviews.blogspot.com