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Off Broadway, Sweet and Sad is the second
play about a family in Rhinebeck, New York, which
takes place on September 11. 2011. Six fine actors
eat lunch, drink wine and chat about themselves and
events of the day from 2pm to 4pm. The plays lasts
that long without an intermission.
Kithless in Paradise is
about three wealthy couples at a dinner party in San
Francisco. They consume too much wine, and secrets
are revealed, good behavior goes out of control and
the moral is dinner and wine in excess do not mix.
Unfortunately, there is nothing original or
imaginative in this play.
Lake Water is a play
about two high school students in a small town, who
meet together following a friend's suicide. They
talk, reminisce about their past and fight. Both
Samantha Soule and Troy Deutsch, who is
also the playwright, capture the confusion of
unhappy young people, who don't know where they
belong.
It was a fun celebration at
Copacabana for Michael Musto's book Fork
on the Left, Knife in the Back. 88-year-old
Larry Storch attended party.
There was a reception for
Akanksha Foundation, an Education Non-profit
Pioneering Charter School Movement in India which
has been invited to participate in the Clinton
Global Initiative Conference in NYC at Soigne K
lady's boutique on Madison Ave. CEO Vandana Goyal
spoke and I met the owner of the boutique.
Burma Ball was a fundraiser
for Burmese refugee boys at the New Blood Migrant
School in Mae Sot, Thailand, at the Friars Club and
Elisabeth Tryon sang and pianist Rosa
Antonelli performed before the buffet dinner. It
was an enjoyable evening.
I attended a reception for the
art exhibition of Red Grooms at the
Marlborough gallery. His work is modern, srtange and
was quite interesting.
Press screenings for the Film
Society at Lincoln Center's New York Film Festival
2011 have begun at the Walter Reade Theater. I
recommend The Loneliest Planet, by Julia
Loktev, 2011, USA/Germany, about a young engaged
couple on a backpacking trip in the Caucasus
mountains with a Georgian guide. The film is
breathtakingly beautiful, and when a violent
incident takes place, we see the effect on their
relationship. It is a fascinating film and Gael
Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg are
splendid as the couple. An oddity is You Are Not
I, by Sara Driver, USA, 1981. The film
disappeared and suddenly a print was discovered. It
is a short film about a patient, who escapes from a
metal hospital and returns to her sister's home. We
hear the thoughts of a distubed mind and it
concludes with an unexpected ending.
Le Havre, by Aki Kaurismaki,
Finland/France/Germany, 2011 is a sweet and
sentimental film that takes place in the port city
in the north of France.A wonderful Andre Wilms
shines shoes to make a living, and finds himself
helping a young illegal African trying to reach
London to join his mother.
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The variety of characters are
a joy to watch and the director captures the flavor
of Franch life, A memorable film. Corpo Celeste,
by Alice Rohrwacher, Italy/France 2011,
features an astonishing performance by a young
Yle Vianello, returning to Reggio Calabria from
Switzerland, where she is preparing for her
confirmation. The readjustment to life in Italy, the
influence of the Catholic church on the inhabitants
of the town, and the change to adolescence in this
young girl is brilliantly portrayed in this
remarkable film. It is one of the highlights of this
splendid festival of marvelous films. You Can't
Go Home Again, by Ncholas Ray, is a
reconstruction of his final film, when he taught at
a college in upstate New York. As an historical
footnote to the work of the legendary filmmaker is
has certain interest, but I found it too fragmented,
loud and annoying, and his students were immature
and irritating.
George Harrison:Living in the Material World, by
Martin Scorsese, 2011, USA, is an overlong
documentary about the late Beatle. Friends, family
and members of the surviving Beatles reminisce about
him, and there is a section devoted to his visits to
India, where he tries to find the meaning of life.
Beatle fans will enjoy this film, which features
much of his music. Music According to Tom Jobin,
by Nelson Pereira Dos Santos, 2011, Brazil,
are film clips, consisting of various performers
from around the world singing the songs of the
famous Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos "Tom"
Jobin. Fans of bossa nova will enjoy seeing
artists like Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald
and all the top Brazilian singers perform his work.
Melancholia, by
Lars von Trier, 2011,
Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany/Italy, is a beautiful
film in two parts. The first is about Justine,
played by Kirsten Dunst at her magnificent
wedding party in the home of her sister. Her
performance won her the Best Actress in the Cannes
Film Festival, and it is well deserved. The second
part focuses on her sister, played by Charlotte
Gainsbourg, and shows the disaster when a planet
Melancholia strikes the Earth. It is definitely one
of the highlights of the festival, and it is highly
recommended. Patience (After Sebald), by
Grant Gee, 2011, UK, is a wonderful documentary,
one of the best I have seen, about tracing a walk
taken by the author W. G Sebald in Suffolk as
described in his book The Rings of Saturn. We
learn a lot about this gentle, intellectual
professor of European Literature, who was born in
Germany and lived and taught most of his life in
England. The film is intelligent, enlightening and,
I as a native born Englishman, feel I have become
thoroughly acquainted with a part of England I never
knew. It is a extraordinary achievement.
Dreileben, 2011,
Germany, are three separate films directed by three
different directors Christian Petzold, Dominik
Graf and Christoph Hochhausler about an
escaped murderer, who is mentally deranged and may
kill again. We see the films from different points
of view, the victim, a psychologist and the
murderer. The films are well made, especially Part
One by Petzold. The other two parts are also good,
but have a few unexplained loose ends, that make
them less than satisfying.
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