On Broadway, a revival of Eugene's
O'Neill's Hughie,
starring Forest
Whitaker, directed by Michael
Grandage, at the Booth Theatre, is
basically a one man monologue, although there is
a second cast member as a night clerk (Frank
Wood), who listens to small time gambler
(Whitaker) recounting his miserable, unlucky
life. This takes place in a rundown hotel lobby.
The play lasts under one hour. Whitaker is a
fine Oscar winning film actor, and is making his
debut on Broadway. The play is slight. The star
should have chosen a better play.
Off-Broadway, a revival of Old
Hats, created and performed by Bill
Irwin and David
Shiner, featuring music and lyrics by Shaina
Taub, directed by Tina
Landau, at the SignatureTheatre at the
Pershing Square Signature Center, is an
entertaining clown show, featuring a new singer.
Families will enjoy the fun.
Dot, by Colman
Domingo, at the Vineyard Theatre, is a
family drama, in which three children gather in
their mother's home in Philadelphia to celebrate
Christmas. The major problem is their mother (a
superb Marjorie Johnson)
is showing signs of dementia. The seven member
cast is directed by Susan
Stroman.
Smokefall, by Noah
Haidle, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, is
an unusual family drama, which, at times, is
quite imaginative and inventive. It features a
scene where twins (Zachary
Quinto and
Brian Hutchison)
await their birth. It also, in two acts, shows
five generations of a strange family living in
Michigan. The five member cast is well directed
by Anne
Kauffman. The opening night lively party
took place at Sushi Samba with guests Keith Nobbs,
Afton Williamson, Geneva Carr, Jonathan Groff and
the cast and creative team.
Eclipsed held
its first preview on Broadway at the Golden
Theatre with invited celebrities, who were
photographed on arrival, and then after the
curtain call, where they congratulated the cast.
There was a reception for the cast and guests at
Sardi's afterwards. Among the guests were Kathleen
Turner, Deborah Cox, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Carmen
de Lavallade.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center presented the
press screenings of the 21st
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, March 3-13. Valley
of Love, by Guillaume
Nicloux,
France/Belgium, 2015, has two of the most famous
film stars of France, Gerard
Depardieu and Isabelle
Huppert, playing
a repulsive divorced couple. They received a
letter from their son, after his suicide,
requesting that they go to Death Valley,
California, because he will appear to them. It
is a ridiculous story. Depardieu spends half the
film in his shorts. This is a gross mistake as
he is obese, with an enormous stomach. The two
have not appeared together in a film since 1980.
So it is obviously a silly gimmick. However,
there is one benefit to the audience. After
seeing how Depardieu looks, they will definitely
lose weight. Fatima,
by Philippe
Faucon, France, 2015, is a warm hearted
film about an immigrant single mother (a superb Soria
Zeroual), who works cleaning jobs and
does not speak the French language. She wants
her two teenage daughters to succeed in school
and assimilate in their new country. The
prejudice and the difficulties they face in a
different culture is revealed, but their
determination to persevere is beautifully shown.
It is a lovely film. Three
Sisters/Les Trois soeurs,
byValerie Bruni
Tedeschi, France, 2015, is based on the
famous play by Anton
Chekhov, about three sisters living an
unhappy, boring life in a provincial Russian
town, and dream of escaping to Moscow. The first
scene takes place in the bathroom, where one
sister is brushing her teeth and then urinates
in the bidet. Another is cutting her nails and
is totally nude. The third is soaking in the
bathtub with a man's hat on her head. Chekhov
must be turning in his grave. Sometimes a
classic play should be left alone. The
Great Game/Le Grand jeu, by Nicholas
Pariser, France, 2015, is a wonderful
film with an excellent cast. A novelist (Melvil
Poupard) is hired by a mysterious
government official (Andre
Dussollier) to write a book anonymously
to bring down another important member of the
government. The twists and turns of the plot are
thrilling. It is a perfectly absorbing tale. Bang
Gang (A Modern Love Story), by Eva
Husson, France, 2016, is a sex filled
film about a group of high school teenagers, who
are obsessed with sexual activity and engage in
orgies at a home of one of the boys, whose
parent is conveniently absent. The young girls
are attractive. Most of the boys are not. There
is graphic nudity and simulated sex throughout
the film. Voyeurs will enjoy the film. However
the film leaves a powerful message. If teenagers
engage in unprotected sex, the result may be
dangerous. Sexually transmitted diseases are not
only unpleasant, but may result in many future
problems.
Story of Judas/Histoire de Judas,
by Rabah
Ameur-Zaimeche, France, 2015, is a
biblical story of the last days of Jesus from
the viewpoint of Judas
Iscariot. The story is interesting, and
the photography is beautiful. The scene between
Jesus and the Roman, who will eventually condemn
him to death is probably the highlight of film
that may be of interest to believers. Disorder,
by Alice
Winocur, France/Belgium, 2015, is a
thriller that will keep the audience awake to
find out how it will end. A soldier (Matthias
Schoenaerts), who served in Afghanistan
with resultant trauma, is hired as a security
guard by a Lebanese businessman to protect his
wife (Diane
Kruger) and young son, when he leaves on
a business trip. The soldier is mentally
unstable, and one feels anything might happen in
the grand mansion, in which the family lives.
When mysterious masked men invade the home, the
tension rises. The story is absorbing, the
people are attractive, but the final scene is
weak. Standing
Tall/La Tete haute, by Emmanuelle
Bercot, France, 2015, follows the
troubled life of a juvenile delinquent Maloney (Rod
Paradot when
he is sixteen-years-old), who is helped by a
judge (Catherine
Deneuve) and a social worker (Benoit
Magimel). His mother (Sara
Forestier) is a mental case, and unable
to care for him and his younger brother. Maloney
has no self control, and has fits of violence,
throughout the film. It is a powerful, brutal
film, which aims to understand the problems of
the youthful criminals. It will leave the
audience thoughtful about a serious world
problem.
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The acting by the entire cast is
realistic. Two
Friends/Deux amis, by Louis
Garrel, France, 2015, is an unpleasant film,
with three irritating characters. The two friends
are Abel (Louis Garrel), a self centered individual,
who is a gas-station attendant and Vincent (Vincent
Macaigne), a neurotic, who works as a
movie-extra. Vincent falls head over heels in love
with a young girl (Golshifteh
Farahani), who is imprisoned for what we
never find out, but is allowed to work in a cafe in
a train station. Their adventures together are
repulsive, annoying and unrealistic. There is a
scene where all three work on a revolutionary scene
of a film being made. That was believable. The
New Kid/Le Nouveau, by Rudi Rosenberg,
France, 2015, is about 14-year-old Benoit (Rephael
Ghrenassia), who enter a new middle school
and has difficulty making friends. It is a sad story
of how children form gangs to bully and ostracize
others. It is, unfortunately, a believable story,
that is also, like juvenile delinquency, a world
wide problem. The children in the film act
naturally, and one sympathizes with their unhappy
school experiences. Winter
Song/Chant d'hiver, by Otar
losseliani, France, 2015, is a strange film,
and I have not the slightest idea what it is about.
It jumps from one scene to the next without rhyme
nor reason. It begins with a nobleman losing his
head during the French revolution. There is a battle
scene where soldiers steal from their victims and
treat the civilians brutally. Then, we are in Paris
with a lot of weird people. The filmmaker repeats
every scene. For example, two young girls on roller
skates whiz pass pedestrians and rip off their bags,
hats, wallets or whatever. The film also features
two elderly men, whose adventures do not contribute
much to understanding this film.
Lolo, by Julie
Delpy, France, 2015, stars Delpy as a
sexually frustrated fashion designer, who has a
relationship with a naive computer expert (Dany
Boon). Her 20-year-old horrible son (Vincent
Lacoste) attempts to ruin the affair by
making the man buy ridiculous clothes, and then
making him behave badly at a party by slipping
tranquilizers in his champagne. He even puts
itching powder on his clothes. Delpy and Boon
are definitely mismatched, but his penis
satisfies her. The vulgar language she uses
throughout the film is immature and childish,
two adjectives that describe the film. Summertime,/La
Belle saison, by Catherine
Corsini, France/Belgium,
2015, is a lovely film, about two young ladies,
a teacher from Paris and a farm girl. The two
women fall in love in Paris, but when the girl
has to return to her farm, and her lover
follows, problems arise. The photography of the
countryside is beautiful. The graphic love
scenes between the two women are tastefully
executed. The dialogue is natural, and the
emotions expressed are real. It is a wonderful
film. The
Apaches/Des Apaches, by Nassim
Amaouche, France 2015, is a slow moving,
boring film about a French-Algerian young man,
who does not appear to work, and falls in love
with a lovely French single mother (Laetitia
Casta). Why she is attracted to this
lonely, dull man is the biggest mystery of this
story. The redeeming feature is the narrator's
voiceover telling us how a Kabyle community does
business in Paris, and how it originated in
Algeria, with picturesque scenes at the
beginning the movie. My
King/Mon roi, by Maiiwenn,
France, 2015, stars Emmanuelle Bercot in an
outstanding performance as a divorced wife, who
injures her leg skiing in the Alpes. As she
recovers in the hospital, we see flashbacks of
her life, especially the ten year marriage to an
unfaithful Georgio (Vincent
Cassell). It is a marriage that takes
place between heaven and hell. It is a terrific
film. Dark
Inclusion/Diamant noir, by Arthur
Harari, France/Belgium, 2016, is about
diamond dealing in Antwerp. Pier Ulmann (Neil
Schneider) believes he has been cheated
out of his inheritance by his relatives, for
whom he works cutting diamonds. He plans his
revenge with a well planned robbery of their
firm. It is an absorbing story with an
interesting plot.
Parisienne/Peur
de rien, by Danielle
Arbid, France,
2015, stars a wonderful Manal
Issa as
a young Lebanese immigrant enrolled in a
university in Paris. She is a brilliant film
actress and gives is an outstanding performance
as she pursues her life in France. She reveals a
tough exterior, which helps her overcome many
horrible incidents. She is forced to lie, steal,
and has many love affairs. When she returns to
Lebanon to see her dying father, we realize what
a miserable life she had there. The film is one
of the highlights of the series. I loved every
minute of it. Much
Loved, by Nabil
Ayouch, France/Morocco, 2015, is a
depressing view of young women, who work as
prostitutes in Marrakech. Their miserable lives
are shown graphically, and it is a wonder that
they keep their sanity, when exposed to
brutality from customers and the police. The sex
scenes are realistically portrayed and are
almost pornographic. Again, this is an
overwhelming world wide problem. 21
Nights with Pattie/21 Nuits
avec Pattie, by Jean-Marie & Arnaud
Larrieu, France, 2015, is a tale about a
woman (Isabelle
Carre) who arrives in a scenic village in
the Pyrenees to bury a mother she hardly knows.
She meets a sexually obsessed Pattie (Karin
Viard) who describes in vulgar words her
sexual desires. The mother's body disappears and
returns. There is much talk about necrophilia.
By the way, the mother's ghost appears. If you
can tolerate this nonsense, good luck to you.
A commercial film Embrace
of the Serpent,
by Ciro
Guerra,
Colombia, 2015, was filmed in the Amazonian
rainforest. It is based on a true story. A
shaman, the last survivor of his people, begins
in 1909 and again 40 years later, to form a
friendship with two different scientists, who
are searching for the psychedelic Yakruna plant.
The horrors they encounter, first as a young man
with one scientist and a guide, and then years
later as an old man with another scientist, are
realistically shown. It is wonderful to travel
the world by film. I would not like to have
ventured with these scientists in the jungle. It
is a fascinating film, exquisitely photographed.
Francisca, Portugal,1981,
is also based on a nineteenth century novel, about a
terrible marriage between a nobleman, who has a
mistress, and an innocent young girl, whom he
marries reluctantly. His brutal treatment of his
wife is repugnant. An actor plays the novelist Camilo
Castelo Branco as
a character in the film, and reflects cynically on
the behavior of the callous husband. Again, the film
is slow moving, and the characters are
unsympathetic. However, the filmmaker in the three
films, that take place in the nineteenth century,
captures the atmosphere of the period perfectly, and
the photography of all four films is a delight. One
feels that one has lived the nineteenth century
life, and one should be grateful for living in the
twenty-first century.
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