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.

Editing

Part of the interest, for me, in one of my present shows has been to watch this director at work...

This production, more than most, has been about process, feeling a way toward  the script; this director, more than most, has been willing to cut deadwood. Understand that it's common - especially with classic material - to approach the story with a slant, with that "vision" directors are famous for. This is needed.  As it was once explained to me, "someone has to drive the bus." Nice when the driver has a direction, y'know?

But there's danger that an early idea can drive the production too far or in the wrong direction - a no-exit toll road. An original thought may be vital as a starting motor, but later stall progress. There is, of course, a strong ego-incentive to NOT change; flexibility can feel like failure, not just a necessary stage of development.  (Bystanders don't usually get it, for instance.)  Ego can curse a creative project.  You have to be able to step away to evaluate what the project (not your ego) needs.

I learned this myself on Sweeny Todd, when the image in my head of St. Paul's in the Blitz helped me start, but needed to be cut finally because it confused other people.  My set for As You Like It is somewhat that way - I needed to take a (almost literal) machete and cut "deadwood' that just didn't work on stage.  I was embarrassed - I hate to waste people's time - but the set is unquestionably better.  Now I feel better too.

Fascinating - encouraging! - to see a director be equally ruthless in pruning his own work, cutting a first idea to stay in touch with the show.  To create simplicity.

Editing can be the most powerful design tool.  Design with an eraser.

Hunt and Seek

Fabric warehouses are fun!  Some beautiful things.  And, after 5 visits, I managed to track down a great fabric in the right colors to use as "wallpaper" for Five Women Wearing the Same Dress... unfashionable colors and pattern and all.

Collaboration

I had a really productive, collaborative meeting with a director the other day... working out the design for Circle Theatre's production of Becky's New Car.  Rare.  Really rare.  Here's a link to an earlier post on what (I think) is needed to achieve it.

This fun meeting was held at my house, because my ride refused to start.  Again!  (Link to that saga, for those interested.)  But boy did my Firestone dealer - which installed the faulty starter - respond well!  I was very impressed.  I mean, I had three guys from the shop on my driveway almost instantly and a fixed-for-free car back on my drive same day.  Amazing.

This vehicular hitch delayed me visiting Tech on As You Like It until the next day: the production is going to be beautiful I think (acting and design "beautiful").

It also delayed my shopping for fabrics for Five Woman Wearing the Same Dress.  For that we email-ordered an actual Laura Ashley bedspread.  Now that that's arrived I'm trying to find a coordinating striped fabric for "wallpaper"... but these late '80s early '90s colors are out of style, so I'm having a hard time.  Today's blues are tinged with green, while this is a pretty pure blue-blue.  And the director and producers prefer a buttery yellow to an egg-yolk-y one, also an unfashionable choice.  The two colors together?   Aaaargh!

I've worked through all my favorite fabric shops - more fabric shopping today.

Film Festing

A funny assortment of film and TV today:

I made my first visit to Austin's famed Alamo drafthouse last weekend (the S. Lamar venue) to re-watch the latest Pirates movie.  I liked it better the second time: I wasn't distracted by waiting for things I hoped would be in the movie, thus free to enjoy what actually was but, most importantly, the goofy pre-show pirate theme film clips (of the Disney Pirates ride, a You Tube-ish ad for home-made pirate capes with a charmingly bored kid modeling them, a baaaad pirate music video, a cardboard boat captained by a real cat in a pirate hat etc.) and the silly 3D glasses put me in the proper mood for this romp.  Plus my burger was very good.

I watched a weird alien-attack film called Skyline that, up to the end, was a not that memorable B or even C movie with remarkably silly alien biology that required human brains... but the ending!  (See end of post for Spoiler, if you like.)

Still working my way through Battlestar Galactica - and the writers still keep their mastery of The Cliffhanger, curse them.  My fingernails are getting sore with all this nail-biting and cliff-hanging!  Also working through Veronica Mars, a show I'm enjoying more and more.

And the latest Woody Allen is out!  Midnight in Paris.  And sounds good!!  Must See!!!

BIG SPOILER for SKYLINE: All that silly brain removal?  The film actually ends with the good guys getting sucked up into the alien ship and the Hero's brain removed and "his" alien (the one with his brain) recognizing the Girl and...  mind-blowing.  Almost enough to make 2 hours of lame dialogue and action worth the kick at the end.  Weird!

Staggering Onwards

Nonetheless...

Today is a busy one: a meeting with the director on the next Circle Theatre production, Becky's New Car (don't forget to see the one onstage now - Marvin's Room - very good); fabric shopping at the outlet stores on Harry Hines for Five Women Wearing the Same Dress at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, which is a'building; and a visit to Fort Worth to take a peek at the cue-to-cue Tech of As You Like It.

Even when I'm bummed, a day in theater is a good day.

Cut-N-Slash

A re-design-y sort of day yesterday.  Bummed today.

Green Building

Yesterday I walked around the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, southwest of Austin, Texas.  This is one of my all-time favorite places in the world, a beautiful melding of site, purpose, and building.

photo courtesy of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Built of local limestone with the galvanized metal roofs traditional for Texas ranch buildings, the Wildflower Center shows what kindly neighbors architecture and nature can be.  Buildings take advantage of the irregularly sloping site, existing trees and views, passive solar shading, and were some of the first public buildings to collect rainwater.  The collection system is pragmatic (green, back when green was just a color) but also playful - a rain-sculpture I've always wanted to see during a real gully-washer!  Climbing the cistern/tower is one of the joys of the design.  So is the beehive-dome room half way up; the masons get a plaque with their names and that plaque is deserved.

Between and around the buildings - which form an couple irregular plazas - are lovely gardens of native plants.  Great water-features!  In the central patio of limestone pavers (that remind me of San Antonio's La Villita) is a pool like a natural spring... one of the loveliest I've seen.  Tantalizing on a hot summer afternoon.

The center is a great source for information on native species (planted or wild), on xeriscaping (low-water gardening), and green-gardening.  Visit!