Pearl: Spring, River Flower, Moon, Night,
inspired by the life of Pearl S. Buck,
directed and choreographed by Daniel
Ezralow, at the David H. Koch Theater,
is an imaginative, inventive dance-theater,
virtually wordless production. Five dancers
represent Buck at various stages of her
life. She was a remarkable lady, who spoke
Chinese before she spoke English. She lived
in China for many years, before returning to
the United States. She wrote the novel The
Good Earth, for which she was awarded
the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize. It
was also made into an award winning film.
She wrote about the life in China,
especially the peasant life. The production
was beautifully performed by a large cast of
thirty Chinese and American dancers, all of
whom moved gracefully. It told the story of
her love for China, her two marriages, her
achievements as a writer and activist,
especially for helping abandoned children,
and left an indelible impression on the
enthusiastic audience.
A commercial film Dheepan,
by Jacques
Audiard, France, 2015, is about a man, a
woman and a 9-year-old girl who pose as a
family from Sri Lanka to move to France.
They are unrelated, and lie as illegal
aliens. The man has a job as caretaker in a
housing project, infested with violent gangs
dealing with drugs. He also becomes
involved with a Sri Lankan wanting money to
buy arms to continue the fighting in his
country. When the woman tries to leave to go
to England, he beats her up brutally at the
railroad station. This is not a pleasant
film. It is a grim, depressing look at the
misery experienced by illegal aliens in a
foreign country, a world wide problem. An
unbelievable ending, which takes place in
England, closes an, otherwise, impressive
film.
A commercial film Drunk
Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of The
National Lampoon, by Douglas
Tirola, USA,
2015, is a documentary about the rise and
fall of the magazine. The magazine achieved
astonishing success with its irreverent
mockery of sex, religion, politics and
everything else they could cover in American
culture. It went on radio, record albums,
live stage shows, television and film,
before collapsing. One of its founders, Doug
Kenney, a drug addict, slipped off a
cliff in Hawaii at an early age, and the
co-founder, Henry
Beard, withdrew from the scene.
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When the film focuses on the actual pages of the
magazine with its outrageous stories, photos and
quotes, footage of the comics performing, and
scenes from the films, it is interesting.
Unfortunately, there are many interviews with
people associated with the magazine, sitting on
chairs, sofas and couches, who repeat over and
over again how brilliant everyone was. It
contributes little to the film.
Another commercial film Paul
Taylor: Creative Domain, by Kate
Geis, USA, 2013, is a documentary about one
of the Grand Old Men of Modern Dance. The
choreographer Paul
Taylor has
created 133 modern dance pieces. Now, in his
80s, he reveals to us his methods by creating Three
Dubious Memories for
his superb dance company. We watch its creation
in his studio, become acquainted with his
dancers, meet the composer, see the rehearsals,
and it culminates with the marvelous performance
of the work in a theatre in Texas. It is a
brilliant documentary about a genius of Modern
Dance.
Celebrating Frank Sinatra 100th Birthday,
the Columbus Branch Library, 742 Tenth Avenue,
held a screening of Pal
Joey, by George Sidney,
USA, 1957. It was a revised version of the
Broadway musical by Rodgers and Hart. Many of
the marvelous songs were retained, and the film
had an enormous success. Sinatra even
won a Golden Globe Award as best actor. With
glamorous co-stars, Rita
Hayworth and Kim
Novak, it is enjoyable entertainment, and an
adorable little dog steals every scene in which
he appears. Those involved in film making,
always think they can improve Broadway shows. In
this case they do not, and rarely does it
happen.
A personal note. My Manchester cousins, Michael and Alison
Reuben, visited New York for the first time
on Thursday. September 3. My niece, Susan
Moricca, and I met them for cocktails at the
Citizen Hotel on West 50th St, joined them for
dinner at the Thalia restaurant, 828 Eighth
Avenue, and
my wife, Xiuli, joined
us afterwards to stroll down Eighth Avenue to
show them the sights. Alison was a former
Bluebell dancer in Paris, a group of English
girls, who performed at the Lido, in a Folies
Bergere type show. We had a wonderful time
together. It was a trip down memory lan
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