In the Press

A few interesting items from newspapers:

On a personal note, I am chuffed to discover that Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Uptown Players is a hit.  According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram:

 "It’s the best production of a play that Uptown Players has ever done, and it doesn’t hurt that the script is one that, like the great writer from which it takes its inspiration, is destined for classic status."  

Wohoo!  Read the rest of the review HERE.  I really do admire this script and cast.  Earlier post on the show HERE.

Les Demoiselles de Avignon, Pablo Picasso - public domain at Wikipedia

On a non-personal but still theatrical note...

There's an interesting op-ed in the New York Times written by actor James Franco about the recent plagiarism scandal around another actor's, Shia LeBeouf's, creative? endeavours...  It's an thoughtful and maybe even a plausible take on behavior that, in anyone not a famous actor, would be considered mere cheating and brattiness.  Read it HERE.  

I think Franco may have a point (I've seen a few actors let much less fame that LaBeouf's go straight to their egos), but it seems... inconsistent... for anyone to act out because they're treated "special" while counting on that "special"ness to shield them from the consequences.

More and more I come to think that we have to separate the work from the man (or woman).  

Picasso was a kinda nasty person who painted well.  Charles Dickens was more flawed than his own Scrooge. More recently, Woody Allen... sigh.  I deeply love many of Allen's movies, but I have no idea where the truth lies in the ugly 20 year old accusations against him that have resurfaced.   I can only be glad that I need never decide whether to let him babysit my kid and can, instead, just rewatch Manhattan.  Whatever Allen is or did I choose not to devalue his work, just as I'll always love the story of Scrooge's redemption and Picasso's blue guitarist.  

I think it's often true that the artist puts the best part of themselves into their work (leaving the worst for us to cope with in daily life), while The Work seems to go on to develop a  life independent of its creator.  

In which case... maybe LaBeouf's biggest sin isn't so much plagiarizing others as that, by casting doubt, by NOT putting his best self out there, he betrays his own body of work, past and future.

Comments?

Film Fest - Rome n' Spiders

Two recent movie viewings here: Woody Allen's latest To Rome with Love and The Amazing Spiderman.

About as different a pair of movies as you could imagine.  I enjoyed both.

To Rome is Woody Allen Lite.  It won't be one of his most beloved, but it's not one of his worst either: it has its pleasures, which include terrific actors and scenery.  Plus I think the singing in the shower gag is funny.

Damned with faint praise, I know, I know.  But here's my stand on late career Woody Allen: his work is erratic nowadays, but his worst films are watchable and his sweet-spot films are... uniquely wonderful.  For the viewer it's a box-of-chocolates problem: sometimes you bite into delicious hazelnut creme, sometimes that hard stuff that sticks to your teeth, but give up chocolates?  Never!

Likewise, one Vicky Cristina Barcelona or Matchpoint is worth a few Scoops.  Even the awful dregs of Melinda and Melinda (which I took as a personal betrayal) is redeemed by Midnight in Paris.  If Mr. Allen was my buddy Woody, I'd suggest he slow down, that maybe he needs more time to recharge between films.  Sadly, we're not speaking.  (I'm free for lunch any day, Mr. Allen!)  Then again, I'm not sure this dedicated filmmaker would know what to do if he wasn't making a film.  So... his fans watch some not as good films, waiting for the next really really good one.  


Time - that great editor - will sort 'em out for posterity.


What posterity will think of The Amazing Spiderman I don't know.  I remember the Toby Maguire versions well enough not to need a reboot yet, but I did like this new take on Peter Parker and Spidey by actor Andrew Garfield.  Great romance this time and a very good villain.  I am sure though that our day will be considered a Golden Age of Super Hero Movies.  


(As I write this post, outside my studio window, bright in a shaft of sunlight in the garden, there's the Biggest Spider Web Ever.  I'm feeling kinda nervous about spider bites right now.  Maybe I'll leave it, huh?)

Spider web - from Publicdomainimage.com

Book and Film Catch-Up

Don't you love the pile of Christmas books and DVDs?  I'm slowly making my way through some well-chosen gifts.

Among the books: Three Men in a Boat (and its companion piece Three Men on a Brummel) by Jerome K. Jerome.  This laugh-out-loud tale of three buddies on a boating trip was first published in the 1880s: some aspects now appear rather quaint - though funny - others are as timeless as the author's riff on the way you can so carefully and neatly coil a rope, only to find it, minutes later, in a maddening snarl.

Believed public domain image messed with

I've also been dipping into The Complete McAslan by George McDonald Fraser.  Best known for his Flashman books, Fraser's stories of life in a Scottish battalion just after WWII are long-time favorites of mine.    His memoir of the British campaign in Burma, Quartered Safe Out of Here, is one of the best from WWII.

Films?  I've just finish the new PBC documentary on Woody Allen - a must-see for a fan.  Also the first season of 30 Rock which is great.  How did I miss this on TV?  I'll keep my eye on Tina Fey from now on.

I hope you're having as much fun with your holiday stockpile!

Addendum to the Last Post

Woody Allen's website.  With a trailer for Midnight in Paris.  The "Projects" section has audio clips of Allen reading bits from his writing - worth listening to.

Film Fest Goes to Paris!

Run out and buy a ticket to Woody Allen's latest film, Midnight in Paris.

The auditorium at the Magnolia was filled with long-time Woody Allen fans (more gray hair than usual in West Village).  The gray-hairs were rewarded for their patience with Allen's hit-or-miss late career with this lovely, romantic, nostalgic, funny, surprising, and whimsical trip to the City of Lights.

A valentine to Paris.  A valentine to and a clear-eyed  analysis of the whole idea of an earlier, more golden age.  Those Good Old Days.  What is the appeal of the remembered or imagined past?  As one character remarks, "the present is a little unsatisfying, because life is a little unsatisfying."

The film is beautifully cast (Chock-Full-O'-Stars) and looks enchanting (Ahhh, Paris) and its tone is much more cheerful than in many recent Allen films.  Wilson's character takes midnight strolls that bring him to Paris of the twenties, where he hangs out with artists like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Dali.  The audience gets to tag along.

image courtesy of Sony Classics

My only quibbles are uneveness of tone when a (very funny) joke is dropped late into the film - maybe it needed another, balancing joke earlier?  And the role of Fiance is played too one-note, too obviously hostile too early...  I think it would work better if she started out more I'm-just-teasing-sweetheart then morphed into a Shakespearian scold.  But who cares?  This is a terrific movie.  Anyone up on their early-modern Western Culture will enjoy it - so much fun! to meet Luis Bunel, Dali (Adrien Brody enjoying himself), and especially Gertrude Stein (our own Kathy Bates).  But even if your cultural history is a bit rusty, it's a magic carpet ride.

I'm making room on my shelf for the DVD.