Well, That was... Exciting?

 Let's just hope the crazy gets toned down once the presidents switch out, huh?

Meanwhile: a cool architecture project, "super adobe" domes in Hormuz by ZAV Architects  HERE.

What have I been up to?  Starting (finally! because I find armed insurrection distracting, don't you?) to revise the 3D model for an in-the-future show I'm working on.  Since the design has changed, I think it's okay to publish the old version here.

Other than this, there's no theater on my board... except a sketch for reorganizing a theater's closet.  Seriously.  But I am deep into Masterclass videos, currently watching David Mamet and most recently finishing writers Malcom Gladwell, Margaret Atwood, and David Sedaris as well as artist Jeff Koons.  I am learning A LOT.  

A little reading too: I'm half way through Michelle Obama's Becoming which is as interesting as I kept hearing people say.  And I finished Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, who wrote the great Station Eleven.  Love that book!  The new one is very good... but doesn't, somehow, resonate with me as much as her earlier dystopian pandemic novel.  I'm also going, day by day, through Lin-Manuel Miranda's book (illustrated by Jonny Sun) of tweets, Gmorning, Gnight.  Which, as I hoped and planned, are helping raise my mood.

Mood.  

That's my biggest challenge lately.  The cumulative effect of the past year has rather dampened my usual cheery optimism and (sporadically) bustling work ethic.  A little cabin-fevered.  Kinda depressed.  Actually.  

But Spring cometh.

Meanwhile, I'm building a mood-protecto buttress of good books and films (and bi-weekly virtual/distanced Movie Night hurrah!) and, you know, making myself take walks and wash dishes and Do Work and stuff.  I hope you all are being careful and cheerful-as-possible too.

Movie Night films so far?  Desperately Seeking Susan, Office Space, Big Trouble in Little China, Kung Fu Hustle, and up-coming, Love and Death.

Siege - Days 69-74

I love the typo-title of my last post!  It was not, however, actually Day 64068... it just felt like it.

Since then?

Well, my companion in coronavirus-safety is now back at the official office.  Although doing as much as personally possible to stay safe, some of his clients - first responders! - are requiring in-person meetings and not social distancing or wearing masks or taking this health threat at all seriously.  One Head of Response to Epidemics says that since it's mostly those folks catching it and he's a healthy not-old white guy he's not worried.

So that's good.

(Insert horrified face emoji here... maybe that face from The Scream?  Or this innocent below - This is How I feel All the Forking Time lately.  The world has gone mad.)

public domain image of me, being shocked, all the time

If Texas survives this plague I swear it will only be because of the heat of our weather saved us in spite of ourselves.

Meanwhile the Texas sun is ripening my tomatoes.  We've eaten, so far: 3 lovely ripe cherry tomatoes and 1 big tomato! (Okay, slightly bigger than ping pong ball sized.  Delicious.)

I've been continuing with writing and finishing up that colored birthday map and listening to Masterclasses... right now I'm listening to director Ron Howard.  

Every theater director should listen to Ron Howard's segments on collaboration.  Especially toward the beginning of "Collaboration Part I" where he explains the proper relationship between the director-as-decider and the creative team - which in film includes the director of photography (who does lighting too) and the production designer and composer etc.  I'm paraphrasing here, but it amounts to the director knowing the effect they want, then freeing the design team to make suggestions that get really listened to.  A collaborative director multiplies their imagination and problem solving abilities.  And - my favorite part! - the director should strongly retain their roll of ultimate chooser and decider... because that frees the designers to spitball and make crazy suggestions, knowing that these will be evaluated sensibly.  YES!  That freedom is worth gold.  THAT is the attitude that I, as a designer, hope for in a director.

So the Ron Howard class is great so far.  Steve Martin's was also very good - focused on standup comedy mainly, but with a lot of insight into writing too.  His comments on films like Roxanne were enlightening.  Honestly, I haven't hit a dud class yet.

Scouting Locations

I've only designed for one film so far - Ciao, an award-winning indie by Yen Tan - but the experience was memorable.  I remember converting two identical condo bedrooms into two different sets, right down to carefully double-stick-taping faux window mullions in one room, to help differentiate.  Cleaning, prepping, and set dressing the kitchen for shooting (which the film crew needed to use for real lunches), having that shoot rescheduled, then cleaning up lunch mess and doing it all again, several times.  Literally waiting on paint to dry for the shot - all of us, the whole production with lights and camera and me with a hair drier hurrying things.  Serious phone conversations from the depths of Home Depot on how to artfully place an on-set towel, "...a little wrinkled, not perfect, 'cause it was used in the last scene, right?..."  And, funniest for the bystanders, us scouting locations...

We drove around Dallas in a little teeny car and, when we arrived at a potential location, piled out:  the driver and AD, a big burly guy with "Rosebud" tattooed on his shoulder; the co-writer/director, a tall, lanky Malaysian guy; the producer, a short, determined, firecracker of a guy who looked about twelve; and me, the production designer, short, plump, gray, looking like their Den Mom.  Kinda like watching a clown car unload.

What brings this to my mind?

This interesting little vid about film locations HERE.

10 Movies That Stole Their Sets From Other Films

This may be the biggest difference between film and stage work, finding real world locations instead of building all scenery from scratch.

Mind you, there's always a lot more modification to that real world location than the audience realizes.

Your Own Awards

Here in the Dallas Fort Worth area one actor noticed that his friends in the civic theaters and smaller professional theaters were never winning any awards no matter how brilliant their work - because all the awards were going to actors and designers working in bigger, better-funded theaters.

So he started his own awards.

The Column Awards have become a staple of the DFW theater season... even outliving the more "established" awards from the now defunct Dallas Theatre League.  I've always admired the spirit of just up and creating your own award.

But I'm even more impressed with director Philip Lord of The Lego Movie who, not able to compete against the bigger, more blockbuster, more "prestigious,"more non-toy! films for an Oscar, has literally created his own award... from Legos!  His tweet HERE:

LEGO (TM) Oscar  (TM) by Philip Lord

for The Lego Movie

Love it!

Film Catch-Up

Still in a cheer-myself-up mode, here are a few movies I've enjoyed watching just lately:

Guardians of the Galaxy - huge fun!  Rocket and Groot are my new favorite film duo.  I like the bantering dialogue and the sense of humor - especially the hero / villain confrontation at the climax.  I'm already looking forward to the sequel.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - perhaps a little grandiose at the end, but enjoyable, with a nicely even-handed portrayal of both apes and humans.

Begin Again - feel-good music-centric story with not the romance you expect.  I probably need to own this one.

A Hard Days Night - the classic Beatles flick.  Music, obviously, and a kind of Marx Brothers vibe.  I'd never seen the movie, but I'm glad Netflix delivered it.

Thinking of watching movies at the cinema versus at home...

Am I the only one who hates having to buy movie tickets way ahead and pre-select seats in order to be sure you can even get in?  Here in Dallas at the art-house Magnolia Theater, at the Alamo Drafthouse, and often at Studio Movie Grill it's almost impossible to just spontaneously go to the movies and get a decent seat or get in at all... and not just for the just-released "hot" film either.

Photo courtesy of everystockphoto.com HERE

Catch-Up

A lot of things going on simultaneously here.

In Fort Worth, construction on the set for Circle Theatre's production of Exit, Pursued by a Bear is finishing up.  I'm kinda on-call to go help on building trees.  And I still have a bit of set dressing to do, though the bulk was done last week for picture call.

Yesterday I had the first big director/designer meeting on Hank Williams: the Lost Highway.  This went very well - we came up with what I think are some good ideas and (what's even better) we seem to be on the same page.  The director and the designer understanding each other and having complimentary goals is a wonderful thing!  Because the schedule's a bit tight on this one, we're meeting again tomorrow to discuss the solutions I will magically Presto! pull out of my hat today.  (If only it was as easy as setting a hat on my board.)

Tonight is the first production meeting for Kitchen Dog's production of Detroit.  I have a basic idea on that one, but need to ask more questions tonight, then fine tune the design, then whip out fast construction drawings this week.

What else?  I've been working on a writing project and making preparations for a trip...  And, since it's as hot as the hinges of Hell here right now, there's a certain amount of swimming and lawn watering going on.  Plus icy-cool movie theater sittin'.  I recently saw Red 2, which was fun (all those distinguished actors obviously having a blast) and Pacific Rim (a well done, popcorny fun, robot-versus-Godzilla-y rockem sockem film).  And in the less popcorny, pay-more-attention-to-details film category, I rewatched Cloud Atlas on Netflix...  I really do like that film.  The book too.  An excellent writer!   (Earlier post on it HERE.)

Photo of clouds from Photos Public Domain

Film Festive - Despicable Me II

Needed cheering up so went to see Despicable Me II.

The correct prescription!  The credits are a the funniest thing I've seen on film in ages.  Okay, the story isn't quite as good as the first film's, but there's plenty to entertain and Gru, his daughters, and the Minions are in great form.  (And those credits!)

Summer Films

Well, half way through the summer almost and I'm burned out on Blockbusters already.

The Lone Ranger this weekend was, for me, the final proof that Hollywood has no idea.  Yet another tent-pole film that starts out okay, with interesting characters and situations etc. but then buries these under a crushing weight of pointless explosions, car (or train) chases, and general smash-'em-up that, frankly, no one can possibly care about.  I mean, that final train chase?  Except for the funny ladder bit, dumb.  And Superman: the Man of Steel disintegrated under a similar load of smashed buildings.  (Earlier post HERE.)  I'm struggling to even remember what the other couple flicks were... I dimly remember more smash-ups, but can't call to mind what the excuse, pardon me, the title of these films were.

Not exactly memorable cinema.

Oh yeah, one was Star Trek: Into Darkness.  This was a better movie, but again good characters were ultimately wasted on a smash-'em star-ship-chase conclusion that managed to completely contradict the pacifist point of the Star Trek universe.  Sigh.  And Iron Man III, which was okay.  (HERE.)

The other trend I've noticed lately comes from the coincidence of seeing in the theater Tom Cruise's Oblivion (a beautiful sci-fi world with silly plot holes HERE) and seeing his Jack Reacher soon after on Netflix.  The Star Vehicle.  Both films had their essential natures warped - sometimes fatally - by the pressures of being driven by The Star.  Another sort of car wreck.  Why did Jack Reacher, about a detective who doesn't even own a car, have a car chase in it?  Naturally Cruise drives like a pro.  Just as his sheer masculinity makes the utterly professional female attorney leave the trailer just to cool down after seeing him shirtless.  Poor girl.  (Whatever they paid the actress she earned every penny just for not giggling.)

Finding the vanity moments has gotten to be a game.  I may check out a few more from Cruise's late oeuvre  - throwing popcorn at the screen and hooting with laughter is fun!

Actual good movies this summer?

Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare (and Whedon) - review HERE

So far my favorites are Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing and The Kings of Summer.

Compared to big summer-smash movies these are quiet little low budget films in which not much happens.  I loved them both.

Much Ado About Nothing is a black and white modern-day version of Shakespeare's comedy set at a summer house party and filmed with many favorite actors from Whedon's television work.  Very nicely done.  I think I like it equally - though differently - as Kenneth Branagh's  gorgeous 1993 version.  The compare-and-contrast between the two films is fascinating.

The Kings of Summer is about three teenaged boys who build a secret hideout in the woods.  Lovely.  Worth seeing.  It captures a lot of truth about growing up and about summer...

They Blew Up One Too Many Things

I watch the new Superman - Man of Steel yesterday.

Superman - in the only public domain version, found HERE

Not completely successful.

It felt like two movies hammered together: a moody character-motivation origin story smashed into an explosive summer-blockbuster crash-fest.  Of those two, the thoughtful moody one was the better... but neither half really won me over.

There were some things I liked, but many more I'm unconvinced by.  For one thing, the film took huge liberties with the classic origin story of the comic books, made a HUGE shift in the Lois Lane / Clark Kent relationship, and an even huger change in Superman's relationship to Krypton.  I'm sure the purists are screaming.  I'm inclined to agree with them: a radical re-working of a myth (and Superman IS mythic) is fine, but only if it works.  I don't think this does.

But all that at least showed thought and willingness to experiment.

What was utterly banal and unthinking was the let's-smash-one-MORE-building boredom of the last half of the film.  Come on!  Smashing stuff is not, in itself, interesting.  This is Superman not the Hulk - smashing is not supposed to be the point.  It was repetitive, too long, and frankly boring.  As we were leaving I overheard a ten year old boy say, "It was kinda annoying."  He was right.  And when a film like this loses the ten year old boy vote, it's in trouble.

The only "smashing" that had any interest or importance was when Clark Kent's farmhouse was damaged.  That mattered.  But even then, his Mom, picking through the wreckage voiced my thought: "It's only stuff."

All that wrecking of Metropolis?  It's only stuff.

When, when, when will blockbuster makers learn that It's The Story That Matters?  The new ease of creating special effects has allowed - pushed even - filmmakers into too many, too facile smashups.  We need to ration these guys: "You can only break ten (10) things - so make 'em count!"

Instead of this flick, go watch the old Christopher Reeve Superman - for the real-deal mythology - or the latest Avengers - for beautifully choreographed smashings and the Hulk.  (Spoiler: Hulk versus Loki illustrates breaking things that matter... in this case, Loki.  Hilarious!)

(BTW - on the film's production design...  Cool - but I kinda think the alien artifact designers stared too long at June bugs.)

Copyright Has Never Been This Cute

This morning on BoingBoing (a terrific site BTW) there was this lovely video: created by You Tube to explain copyright to video folks, it also pretty well explains the law as it applies to most visual arts and music.

Best of all, it is explained by puppets.

Wouldn't ALL law be more palatable if explained by puppets?

Maybe that explains those British wigs in court?  And maybe in the U.S. we should insist that all lawyers similarly dress up funny or use puppets or, preferably, mime?  (Having to act out, say, "intestate" would make lawyers simplify their arguments!)

Watch it HERE.

My earlier posts on copyright issues HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Up-Dating

Lots of stuff going on:

Se Llama Cristina is open at Kitchen Dog and starting to get good reviews.  (Go see it!)  I'm very happy with the way the set and  lighting and sound interact, especially when the walls I painted become screens for lights, projections, and shadows.

Miracle on South Division Street is a'building.  I delivered paint chips and answers to the carpenters last week; today I go back to Fort Worth to help find furniture and to attend a production meeting.  I hope to find fabric for kitchen curtains to bring along.  Oh!  and my one and only Polish folk art coffee mug.  I really like this script.

MOVIES:  Summer blockbusters are starting.  The latest Star Trek was both fun and disappointing: on the one hand, the actors and writers have the classic characters down and it was a real pleasure to watch 'em, on the other... the movie slid into generic chase-n-crash mode.  (Star ships, cars, transformers, whatever, it zooms till it booms, you've seen it before.)  Afterwards I read a good review that I can't find now which articulated my dissatisfaction - the film has the elements of Star Trek, but misses the point of Star Trek, the peaceful explorers and ambassadors philosophy.  Instead, every dilemma was solved by violence just like in every other space/western/Rambo/whatever summer shoot 'em up.  Someone needs to get a committed pacifist into the writers' room!

See the new Star Trek... but then go home and watch Galaxy Quest.

(Someone unexpected - David Mamet I think? - called Galaxy Quest a perfect movie.)

Oh!  BIG NEWS!
I've picked up a couple shows to design in San Francisco.  Isn't that cool?

Not a Review: Diana Krall and The Angels' Share

Lots of going out lately...

Diana Krall:
Singer Diana Krall's "Glad Rag Doll" tour came through DFW and I got to hear her Friday night: a very good concert.  Good music, a warm relaxed stage presence, and an entertaining staging.  I'm not musical enough to pretend to critique the music... I can only say I really enjoyed it.

The theme of the tour comes from music of the 1920s (although she included fan favorites too).  I thought the set design - reminiscent of theatrical drapes and cinema-sign lights - worked well as an environment for her music.  Period cartoons like Betty Boop were played pre-show, film clips were wonderfully integrated with songs, and the intro was a short film where Ms. Krall interacted with an on-screen Steve Buscemi.  Kinda trippy.  Wonderfully well done.

The Angels' Share:
Playing at the Dallas Angelika, this film started out a bit raw and developed into a really appealing, feel-good movie.  I really liked the sad-sack minor-criminal characters - with Glasgow accents so thick that their English was subtitled in English.  Quite funny.  This film will really appeal to anyone interested in fine liquor or wine-tasting (or general foody tasteyness), since the plot revolves around the discovery of a rare cask of Scotch whiskey.

Film Fest - Finally - Oblivion and The Hobbit

There's been a dearth of film crit here lately... mostly because there have been few movies I wanted to see.  But here are the recent viewings:

Oblivion - An absolutely gorgeous film!  The visuals - production design, costumes, photography - are reason enough to see it.

The story?  Well, without Spoiling, there is one enormous logic hole: why do these invading aliens... No.  That would spoil it.  Rephrase: why is Tom Cruise alive?  An explanation is given in the film, but after a minute's consideration the viewer has to conclude, "Bunk."  Nonsense.  Okay, second hole.  Why (assuming Tom Cruise lives), why does his maintenance-man character get such deluxe digs? That gorgeous pool?

Every maintenance man lives like this.  Oblivion.

But the real flaw to the film, for me, the real Invasion, is not by scripted evil aliens, but by Hollywood Star Power.  Used for evil.

The Tom-Cruise-is-a-Star thing invades every aspect of what could have been an effective sci-fi film.  Cruise (barely his character) is built up in every possible way: he gets not one but two adoring and beautiful women who hang from his arm and his every word, lips trembling, tears glistening; before the end you see Cruise getting the obligatory adoring child too.  Of course he earns the respect of the doubting Rambo-style second-in-command cliche' and even of Morgan Freeman (who once played God, remember?).  Freeman's rebel leader calls Cruise "our best," our referring to the entire Earth, naturally.  The plan to save Earth that Freeman's character begins can, of course, only be completed by Our Hero Cruise through heroic self-sacrifice.  He's the Star.  Also, he's Such A Darn Hero that he actually performs a coupla miracles along the way: one, a small miracle of handymanhood with a stick of gum ('cause he's our all-American Joe at heart), the other in showing up for end credits.

And did I mention the women?  The attraction of Cruise's aw-shucks heroic sheer manliness is such that, in the most tasteful way, both women throw themselves at him.  The pool comes in handy.  Plus there is an I-kid-you-not actual crotch-shot of Cruise with a sleeping woman in the background.  I haven't seen such a HINT OF SEX since Captain Kirk put his boots back on.  So shameless and corny I had to choke on my popcorn in the theater.

But I'll watch Oblivion again on DVD for the gorgeous world created.  Plus, at home I can point and laugh.

Phew!  After that the story-telling and ensemble of The Hobbit make a refreshing change.  Loved watching this in the theater, loved  rewatching it on DVD.  I'll buy the expanded version that's due out in the fall.  But even if you're not a rabid Lord of the Rings fan, as I am, the film is old-fashioned in the right way - it builds a beautiful fictional world in which to tell a good story in an entertaining way.  Unencumbered by Star Power.

My earlier post on The Hobbit HERE.

Kickstarter is Kickin'!

I've written about Kickstarter before, when a friend used this crowd-finance site to fund his short film Perfectly Normal.

Yesterday Kickstarter made big news - and big numbers of fans very very happy - when the campaign to film a Veronica Mars movie reached its two (2) million (2,000,000!) dollar goal in eleven (11) hours.  (I myself kicked in enough to get a film T-shirt.)

In case you missed it on TV or DVD, Veronica Mars is a witty, noire, teen-detective show that was canceled about five (5) years ago... but remains loved.  Now revived from the dead by pure fan-love.

Crowd-funding.  What a great idea!

HERE's the Veronica Mars campaign - with a fun video plea.  And HERE is the page for my buddy's much smaller budget short film - also worth investing in.

ADDENDUM:  And HERE's an interesting LA Times article about the Veronica Mars film funding "...the economics of love."

Films and Books

It's been holiday film-n-book season here, so I have a few to catch you up on:

FILM

Le Miserables, the Movie:  I'm in the possibly unique position of not having seen the stage version of this famous musical first.  (Sad, but true.)  And it's been a hundred years since I read the book.

So I was able to watch and listen without preconceived ideas.

I was impressed with Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean and with Anne Hathaway as Fantine.  I liked the portrayals of Cosette and Marius... waffled a bit about Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert.  Now, I am no musician, so please take my comments with whole wheelbarrow loads of salt, but it seemed obvious that Crowe is just not the singer the others are.  I did, however, warm up to his Javert as the movie went on.  I really enjoyed Jackman, though I did feel - notably in the song where he prays for Marius to survive the barricade to return to Cosette - that some songs made his voice sound kinda thin and strained - no idea if that's the fault of voice or music.  Fantine's big song, however, just devastated me.

Other roles...  Sacha Baron Cohen was fine, but will someone please take Helena Bonham Carter's fright wig away?  She's played that tousle-haired harridan once too often.

The story of Le Miserables is affecting.  Seen at the end of a gray winter day, my companion found it all too depressing, but I enjoyed the experience.

The Silver Linings Playbook:  This film, which has been out for a while now, played to a packed audience.  Word of mouth is wonderful.  This isn't especially my kind of movie (I was afraid it would turn into a mental-health-issue-of-the-week TV special), but I warmed to the characters and, by the end, really liked the movie.   Parts were funny and all was true to life.  Performances were lovely.

Cover illustration from Wikipedia

BOOKS

I took author Lois McMaster Bujold's recommendation for a good book... and am I ever glad I did!

The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (retitled Midnight Riot in the U.S. for no reason) is a terrific urban-fantasy novel.  It starts as a young London police officer interrogates a ghost... and grows into a great set-piece at the Covent Garden opera.  The author creates a wonderfully quirky mythology for the ancient city that reminds me a little of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.  (I have no higher praise).  But where Gaiman's novel is darkly humorous, Aaronovitch's is humorous and sometimes dark.  The book's hero himself is aware of the J.K. Rowlingness and Terry Pratchettness of his material and - with the reader - has fun with that.

I ran out (well, virtually ran, I actually urgently e-purchased, downloaded, and e-gobbled) both this book's sequel Moon Over Soho and its sequel Whispers Underground.  Both novels are individual (i.e. not copy-cattish of the first), both satisfying.  Highly recommended.

Film Fest - The Hobbit

This is a film I've been waiting for...

Really, really enjoyed it!

But the reviews I've seen (the other reviews, you know, the professional reviews) are kind of strange. Most of them talk about how much money the film is making (tons, but who cares?) or about its new filming technology (more frames per minute, do I care?) or about its length (three hours or just-long-enough), but few are talking about the actual, you know, storytelling.

I approach this film as a loooong-time fan of J.R. R. Tolkien's work, as someone who read the Lord of the Rings every year at about this time of year for many years and read The Hobbit many times; heck!  I've read LotR out-loud twice.  I've watched the films oooooh... a couple times maybe.  (Cough, cough.)  Anyway, it's difficult for me to imagine meeting Middle Earth for the very first time by way of this Hobbit film.  Best guess?  I expect that for first-timers Peter Jackson's The Hobbit would be a fair intro: "fair" in that it has a beautifully rendered Middle Earth atmosphere and characters - casting and performances are great - and the story is well told, enriched by judicious borrowings from the appendixes of LotR which gives it a more adult tone than the book and helps to yoke it to the established film-world of its sequel.  I cannot imagine how anyone could do a better job of a Hobbit movie.  And Martin Freeman is perfect as Bilbo.

I still think having The Hobbit read aloud to you as a little kid has to be the very best introduction.  After that, I'd suggest, in due time, reading The Lord of the Rings silently to yourself.  Then see the films in order.

This may be the film that separates the sheep from the goats as far as the film audience goes.

Those who merely liked the Lord of the Rings films, or who loved them only for an appealing actor or for the cinematography or the battle scenes or something, but did not fall in love with Middle Earth itself... well, this Hobbit (while having charming actors) doesn't have the rising-star power of the first installment of LotR.  And The Hobbit, like the book it comes from, has a more episodic structure which - plus filling in of the background for the later Lord of the Rings films - makes this film slower paced.

Middle Earth fans will love this.  Casual movie-goers maybe not so much.

Personally?  I loved this movie and can't wait to see the next installments.  Or to see it again.

This great map of Middle Earth is public domain - courtesy of one wiki to rule them all

Favorite parts for me (Spoiler free) were seeing Hobbiton again; meeting Radigast the Brown; the dwarves' dinner party at Bag End; Bilbo's riddle game with Gollum; seeing Rivendell and Galadrial again; the ending...  Revisiting Middle Earth!

A highly detailed review HERE.

Film Fest - Anna Karenina

I saw the new version of Anna Karenina - screenplay written by noted playwright Tom Stoppard.  Perhaps this helps explain the decision to set this retelling on a stage...

An interesting way to handle the story.  It facilitates fast and stylish scene changes and gorgeous visuals, but I'm not sure that, ultimately, it adds to the storytelling.  Stylish though!  It reminded me of Moulin Rouge - where, I think, the theatricality was a much better fit.

That said, the acting and production values were very fine - costume design especially.  But did Anna really, really need to change clothes so often?  Gorgeous outfits.

I enjoyed the film, but wasn't completely convinced.  Partly, of course, this is because I never could quite finish the book: I always got to the famous race scene, read as Anna disgraces herself; threw the book against the wall; ranted, "Idiot!  Idiot!" for a few minutes; then, panting, picked up the book to skip ahead to make very sure (SPOILER!) that dopey Anna gets hit by the train; then quit reading in disgust.  I tried the novel several times, but I do hate wasting 300 pages on idiots.  Anna's heart-throb, Count Vronsky, is another idiot and a weakling too, not worth throwing her life away over.

So.

I'm happy to report that this film version is much easier to finish.  (I liked the visual ending).  Anna, however, remains an idiot and Vronsky still not worth her time.  Both good performances, plus Jude Law's as Anna's saintly husband.  (I feel for the husband - he gets a rough deal.)

So - classic story interestingly translated to the screen, where you don't have to endure idiocy so long.

As Dorothy Parker once said, "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly.  It should be thrown with great force."

First edition of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, from Word Virus

Re: this illustration of the first edition of Anna Karenina, see the blog Word Virus HERE for more photos of first editions of classic novels.  Fascinating!  There's a photo of The Hobbit which makes a nice teaser for the I-can't-wait!-for-it film.

Okay - to be fair - You may love the book.  It's a classic for a reason.  Me?  Not so much.

Film Fest - Lincoln

This new film about Abraham Lincoln will be most interesting to people with a little understanding of and interest in history, but anyone who's just survived the most recent American election process ought to find the back-room, bare-knuckle politikin' fascinating.  I loath politics... and found myself riveted.

Lincoln is a good film.

The amazing part is not so much the story or situation - which is pretty compelling, being the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which outlaws slavery - or the fascinating collection of characters, but the real amazement is your utter conviction that you're sitting there in the dark watching Lincoln - Lincoln himself - pacing the screen.  Mesmerizing.  Actor Daniel Day Lewis is... well, he doesn't seem to be there at all.

The movie feels talky (this IS politics) and there are no car chases or even the Civil War cavalry charge equivalent; it's closest in feeling to a courtroom drama, where the interest comes from what's said and what the final vote will be.  Not a film everyone will find fun - but history and/or acting buffs may want to own it on DVD as soon as they can.

There are many outstanding performances, including that of Tommy Lee Jones, and I'm just more and more impressed by Steven Spielberg's career...  I'd say the guy will need a monument eventually, except that he's creating it with every film.

Now I've got to get my hands on the book this film is based on!

Film Fest and Catch-Up

It's been busy here at Set Design Central...

But I took this weekend OFF.  (For the first time in six? eight? weeks.)

So - Film Fest!

I watched Argo and Cloud Atlas.  I can recommend both:

Argo is a very satisfying edge-of-your-seat will-they-make-it? flick.  Good characters, good acting, great based-on-truth story (though I understand our friends the Canadians deserve even more credit).  I have to admit that, at the time, I was head-down in architecture school and not following news as much as I should have been, but I do remember the dread and horrified sympathy I felt for the hostages.  A terrifying ordeal.  This story, of the six who escaped captivity, I missed entirely.  Worthwhile film version!

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, was a book that completely caught my imagination... one of those books you ponder long afterwards.  When I heard about this film version, I had to see it, though I didn't understand how anyone could possibly make a movie from it.  But it works!  My companion had not read the book, but was still able to follow the complicated, inter-locking, multiple plots.  In fact, I think the changes in sequence, using the same actors for multiple roles, and the cinematic/visual links of the film may actually tie the stories together even more.

Really good performances by a sterling cast that includes Tom Hanks.  Excellent... everything.

The story?  Hard to explain.  Impossible.  Go see the film and read the book please.

The only point I'd make first is that, this is not a time-travel story, but a series of stories set at different times - with different characters - which interlock.  Themes twist and continue throughout, also a few characters, objects, or visuals repeat in new ways in the different periods.  I was fascinated by the book.  Its subtle, often inexplicable, linkages create a satisfying whole.

Cloud Atlas is one of those rare books that you finish, close, and just hold for a minute as it settles into you.

Other than movie-going, I've been reading a lot of history.  (These movies are history too, aren't they?)



Oh!  And there's an historic sale on at my printer's if you'd like to stock up on Alice Through the Proscenium (my how-to on set design)... Stocking Stuffers!

Find Lulu.com on Alice HERE or just more on Alice in general HERE.  As always, Alice is also available as an epub virtual all-digital electro-book HERE at Barnes and Noble.

And in stage news: I've read the first review (I've seen) for The Beauty Queen of Leenane - terrific!  Rightly pointing out the excellent acting, particularly in the lead role of the daughter.  

(But ignoring the set - typical.)

Film Fest?

Let's goof off at the movies!

I absolutely love that we live when films are on tap for viewing at will.  Because I grew up in the day when, if you didn't catch a movie at the theater, you might never see it.  Even if you did see a film on first run and loved it passionately, you might never see it again.  Or only at 2:00 a.m. one day, one year, years later.  VCR home taping technology was as big a breakthrough as printing books, as far as I'm concerned.  Revisit a much-loved film?  Wonderful.

Consequently, here's a series of my takes on various films - new, old - that I've watched lately, either in the theater, on Netflix, or otherwise on that big screen hogging my living room.  

Robot and Frank - A charming film about aging set in a  near-future that you barely notice happens to be science fiction.  Robots, right?  The retired guy - beautifully played by Frank Langella - reluctantly accepts a robot home-care assistant (he calls it "Robot"), while the town librarian - lovely Susan Sarandon - accepts robotic help at work more gracefully (she calls hers "Mr. Darcy").  Thoughtful, charming (did I mention charming?), well-acted, and often funny.  A few nice surprises.  And - Easter egg bonus! for s/f fans - the actress playing the daughter is Liv Tyler AKA Arwen.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - No nice surprises here.  Well, okay, faces you're glad to see.  Otherwise, the actors give their all, the sets, costumes, effects, etc. all well done... yet a deeply stupid movie that misses the point of Sherlock Holmes.  (So did the first film, but somehow that was more fun.)  SPOILER... I absolutely hated the way The Woman - Irene Adler - is swatted like a fly.

This sequel joins my personal list of sequels-that-shouldn't-have-been-made, right up there with Indiana Jones IV and Pirates of the Caribbean IV, both also filled with clever stuff in service of a bad idea.  Skip Sherlock Holmes the Action Hero and go watch episodes of the BBC's Sherlock instead.

Mirror, Mirror - Julia Roberts, Snow White...  A dud.  Why?  Besides the lame story?  But a definite dud.  However, seeing Nathan Lane in a cockroach costume made it worth my time.

Wrath of the Titans - Another mythically good story told with terrific actors and at great expense of time, trouble, talent, and cash... also somehow dead on arrival.  Hard to say why.  It's not lack of trying.

Why do movies fail?  Well, a film (or a stage production) is a big clanky walking-machine with about twenty legs, all full of rusty gears and shiny new ones, that barely mesh, which nevertheless tries to dance for your amusement.  Art is mysterious.  Some projects just magically click! and dance and leap!  Others just never do.  Some films turn out to be stumble-bums no matter how hard their mothers love them.  So have patience with bad movies, knowing that a good one needs magic and just flat luck to succeed.

Ruby Sparks - Charming and quirky.  It's the Pygmalion and Galetea story of an artist who falls in love with his creation.  Romantic... but not what you expect (whatever you expect, going in).  This film is also funny, sad, kind of disturbing, lonely, meta-fictional to the max, quirky, and hard to describe without spoilers.  Go see for yourself.  It reminded me of Stranger Than Fiction, another worth-while movie about a writer and her character.

There you go: a couple duds (though with moments of worth, because their makers loved them, whatever the luck was) and a couple little jewels that went click! and dance.

Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Leon Gerome, public domain image from Wikipedia