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It was like a United Nations event at the
birthday celebration for my dear friend Edward
Slavenburg (photo below) at the elegant Gabriel
Kreuther restaurant, 41 West 42nd Street. His father Harald was
born in Holland, his mother Pia (photo
below) in Hungary, my wife Xiuli in
China, me in England, his friend Carlos in
Mexico, his girlfriend Ruth in
Brooklyn, and Ruth's mother Gina in
Haiti. Edward's charming parents flew in from Geneva,
Switzerland, where they live, and where Edward was born.
We sang Happy Birthday, and had a splendid
time. It was a wonderful party with delicious food and
superb Alsatian white wine.
The 53rd Street Library presented A
Streetcar Named Desire, by Elia
Kazan, USA, 1951, based on the play of the same name
by Tennessee Williams.
The film featured four magnificent film stars, Vivian
Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl
Malden, all three winning Oscars for their
performances, and made a star of Marlon
Brando. Their acting is brilliant, in a film that is
quite grim and depressing, without a trace of humor. An
older neurotic sister (Leigh) visits her younger married
sister (Hunter) in New Orleans. A friend (Malden) is
single and interested in her. When the uneducated,
and at times, brutal husband (Brando) discovers the lies
she has been telling them about her life as a school
teacher in a Mississippi town, tragedy ensues. Her
misbehavior caused her to lose her job. The friend now
is no longer enamored with her, and she loses her mind.
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The film changed many of the scenes from the original
play due to censorship. However, the four stars are so
wonderful, that it makes the film a rewarding cinematic
experience. It ranks as one of the finest Hollywood
films.
The 53rd Street Library also presented Brazil, by Terry
Gilliam, U.K. 1985, starring a wonderful actor Jonathan
Pryce. Unfortunately, this film is not so wonderful.
It is an overlong look at the future, where people have
boring jobs, in a totalitarian state. It tells the story
of one bureaucrat (Pryce), who has a multitude of
ridiculous adventures pursuing a young girl that he
loves, with explosions galore, silly car crashes,
strange police in fantastic costumes, weird characters
(some of England's finest actors appear in this film,
obviously needing the money) and repetitious scenes. If
one has read 1984, or seen the current Broadway
version of George
Orwell's book, one does not need to waste over two
hours of precious time watching this nonsensical film.
MoMA presented 3-D Funhouse: Recent
Restorations from the 3-D Film Archive, Sept 1-10. I
saw Those Redheads from Seattle, by Lewis
R. Foster, USA, 1953, about a mother (Agnes
Moorhead), who takes her four daughters to the
Klondike to join her husband, who she did not know had
been killed. She becomes friends with the owner of a
gambling club (Gene
Barry), who falls in love with one of her daughters
(Rhonda Fleming),
and hires another daughter (Teresa
Brewer) as a singer/dancer in the club. The plot is
silly, but the songs, especially the ones sung by
Brewer, and the dancing by lovely chorus girls, are fun
to hear and watch, and the colorful film is
entertaining. It was the first 3-D feature film. |