Posts Tagged ‘Film’

Orson Welles, 1937

    In 1937, a mad  genius stood poised, ready to unleash his vision on the world. The Crazy Genius was Orson Welles — and his production of  Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’  at his newly created Mercury Theatre in New York City would bring him infamy and opportunity.  Filmmaker Richard Linklater brings the period — and the genius  to life in his new film ‘‘Me and Orson Welles.’
    Based on the coming -of -age novel by Robert Kaplow,  Linklater  shows us all the fun, craziness, treachery and heartbreak that came under the rubric: A Life in the Theatre  — especially if it involved the Boy Wonder who was Orson Welles in 1937.
      We get the backstage intrigue, the romances and Welles as a kind of sometimes benign, sometimes cruel dictator/director. He wanted results and adoration — didn’t hesitate to cut anyone who didn’t give him enough of either.  British actor Christian McCay, who stars as Welles, nails the director’s brilliance — as well as his ability to manipulate and seduce.
       Zac Efron is touchingly vulnerable as Richard Samuels,  the high school kid who stumbles on a rehearsal at the Mercury and gets a small part in the production.  At the end, after Samuels has tasted some success, some betrayal, and some joy, he tells his friend, Gretta, who has dreams of being a writer: “It feels like we have everything before us…..” The camera pulls back in a gesture of joy and acknowledgement.   That everything would eventually come to mean World War  II — and for Welles — more masterpieces, fame, financial ruin — and a haunting memory of a sled called Rosebud.  But in that moment, for those characters — the world was alive  — with possibility and with hope. 

           “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!”      It’s been 70 years since those immortal words were spoken – and to commemorate that anniversary Warners Brothers  released a new, enhanced Blu-Ray version on Sept. 29.
        Growing up in the sixties, watching the ‘Wizard of Oz’ was always a hotly anticipated ritual in our home.  We were late getting a color television,  so we had a routine.  Watch the first half at home while eating a Sunday kind of dinner.  Then  –  a quick dash to a neighbor who had the big old fashioned wooden console color television to watch the second half  – when Dorothy steps out of her wrecked house into a land where Munchkins and Good Witches and Bad Witches live — and a Yellow Brick Road beckoned to a world of magic.
      The new Blu-Ray digitalized version released by Warner Bros. to commemorate the anniversary and shown on a big screen in Central Park Tuesday night after the concert is gloriously vivid and clear.
    And with all the clarity, you see how crafty and resourceful that crazy dog Toto was after all.  The Wicked Witch is still scary, Glinda still glitters and the Scarecrow is still the Smartest One of Them All.
    Seeing it once more – up there in all its Blu-Ray radiance, You fall in love, all over again.
    Netflix  is offering free streaming of the film on Oct. 3.

     The anguish and ecstasy of romantic love are embodied by  “In-I”, a theatre-dance piece currently on view at Brooklyn Academy of Music.
     French actress Juliette Binoche and British choreographer Akram Khan create a searing portrait of two lovers struggling with sexual and emotional intimacy.
      ”La Binoche,” as she is often referred to in the French press is all over New York this month and next.  A collection of her paintings is at the French Consulate.   And there is a book, “Portraits in-Eyes,”  which has poems and pictures based on characters she’s played and directors she  has worked with.   Her new film, “Paris,” opened this Friday.     

  Finding Magic

        Binoche, who has had a spectacular career, working with directors as varied as Kieslowski, Godard,  never thought about being a dancer. But at age 43, after answering her masseuse’s question: Do you Want to Dance? — she embarked on this project.
      But stretching boundaries is what she is all about.
      In an interview with writer  Faith Salie for  Double X,  she said she tries to stay away from labels. “I  try not to call myself [anything], because otherwise you get stuck into ideas.  Getting into other fields, worlds—it gives me certain freedom, and at the same time it shows me my limits, my pain.
       ”We have a tendency because of fear or of a lack of imagination to be out of tune with the truthful, magical side [of our bodies,” she told Salie.  And I have to say that if I didn’t get through that experience, I wouldn’t have discovered my energy—what the Chinese people call qi, you know the tai chi, the qi gong. I would say it is a sign of what the body has, which is the energy that you can’t see but you can feel.”
Finding Dreams
       Fearless  would be one word that would describe her.
       She posed naked for Playboy at the age of 43 and  while she doesn’t think she will keep dancing, she told Double X, she hs been transformed by having had the experience.  ” Dancing taught me to go for my dreams. And not to judge my dreams from outside, just to do it.”
    “In-I” will run through Sept. 26 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is paired with a retrospective of her films at BAMCinematek: “Rendez-Vous With Juliette Binoche” through Sept. 30. Her paintings will be on display at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy at 972 5th Avenue through Oct. 9.

   Don’t believe the critics who panned it. ‘Whatever Works,’ works. Sure it’s a trip down familiar territory. But that’ s not such a terrible thing. There’s the usual cast of characters: the neurotic, misanthropic schlemiel, the kooky women, the young beautiful girl and all their eccentric friends, all accompanied by a delicious soundtrack that includes Mozart and the Marx Brothers. 
     And at the film’s heart, despite the misanthropy and the whining of its main character played by Larry David, is a generous vision. It says, Embrace in life, “Whatever Works.” Go for the Gusto, as Long as We Can.  There are worse ways to spend a hot summer day.
      And while we’re on the subject of movies, go see ‘The Beaches of Agnes,’ now playing at the Film Forum. It’s all about her Life  — and her Life in Film. The French director was married to Jacques Demy, who directed ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.”  
       I promise. You won’t regret it.