A New Hampshire Jaunt

Vermont has skiing, Maine has Acadia National Park, and Massachusetts has Boston, Cape Cod and the Berkshires. What’s worth seeing in New Hampshire? I recently found out after always managing to miss visiting that state on previous New England trips.

My wife and I, both Frank Lloyd Wright fans, were happy to see that Manchester, New Hampshire has not one but two Wright houses: and on the same street! The privately owned Kalil House is not open to the public, but the masterly Zimmerman House (above) is operated by the nearby Currier Museum of Art, which gives tours of the property.

The Currier Museum of Art (below) is a valuable museum that any small American city would love to have, with paintings by Picasso, Monet, Hopper, Wyeth, O’Keefe and Grandma Moses, and sculptures by Matisse, Calder and Remington. The Currier is compact enough to walk through before or after seeing Wright’s house, and the price of a house tour includes museum admission, so there’s no excuse for missing the Currier’s collection.

One of Wright’s most notable Usonian houses, the Zimmerman House is simply another brilliant piece of architecture from America’s greatest architect. The landscape and living quarters, in perfect balance, are still astonishing to visitors over half a century after the house’s creation. (Wright, who never visited the site, supervised its building in the early 1950s; he died at age 91 in 1959.)

Another American artistic genius, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, also has ties to New Hampshire, and the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site (comprising his home, Aspet, studios and surrounding property) is an easy drive 90 minutes northwest of Manchester, in the village of Cornish.
The historic site is a must-see for any lover of history and art. Aspet (above) looks much like it did when the sculptor lived there until his premature death in 1907 at age 59, and the spacious grounds feature his working studios and the surrounding gardens, which are not only beautifully landscaped but include examples of his greatest works: the imposing and intricate Shaw Memorial (below), commemorating the leader of the all-black Civil War regiment that inspired the Oscar-winning movie Glory; the haunting and unforgettably funereal Adams Memorial; the glorious Farragut Memorial, which anyone who walks through Madison Square Park in Manhattan can also see; and even his magnificently designed 1905 gold eagle coins that were minted for more than a quarter century after his death.
The Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site is a stirring example of our tax dollars at work. Another, a mere half-hour drive over the border in Woodstock, Vermont, is the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, the only national park site honoring conservation. Opened to the public in 1998, one of the National Park Service’s newest sites is well worth a visit if you decide to leave New Hampshire behind.

Zimmerman House
Currier Museum of Art
Manchester, NH
currier.org

Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site
Cornish, NH
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
Woodstock, Vt.nps.gov

July '11 Digital Week III

Blu-rays of the Week

Bloodrayne: the Third Reich (Phase 4)
Uwe Boll’s video game adaptation about a vampiress who battles the Nazis could have been down and dirty B-movie fun, but in Boll’s leaden hands, there’s little excitement, humor or competent pacing. It’s too bad, because this could have been good and campy fun. The Blu-ray image is appropriately grainy; extras include commentary by Boll and writer Michael C. Nachoff, a Nachoff interview and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

The Lincoln Lawyer (Lionsgate)
This slickly entertaining courtroom drama, which keeps viewers off-balance by piling on plot twists that actually make sense in context, follows an iconoclastic attorney defending an arrogant rich kid on troubling sexual assault charges. With a mostly terrific (and terrific-looking) cast led by Matthew McConaughey and Marisa Tomei, this enjoyable lark provides little more than popcorn entertainment. The glossy-looking movie keeps its sheen on Blu-ray; extras include making-of featurettes, interviews and deleted scenes.

Louie—The First Season (Fox)
Louis CK’s comic sensibility is not for everyone, and I must admit that his abrasiveness in this eponymously-titled series is off-putting, even if that is the point. There are uncomfortably funny moments throughout along with moments that are just uncomfortable, with no discernible comic insight. Still, it’s worth watching, especially if you find his humor is on your wavelength. The Blu-ray image is noticeably sharper than the DVD image on the flip side, not that it matters much; extras include CK’s goofy commentaries, deleted scenes and a behind-the-scene featurette.

Marple and Poirot (Acorn Media)
These Masterpiece Mystery series dramatize Agatha Christie whodunits starring two of her most famous and intrepid detectives: Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. Julia Mackenzie plays Marple delightfully in this quartet of stories about her discovering killers and other criminals, while David Suchet is almost unrecognizably Belgian as Poirot in the trio of stories featured in that box set. The stories are still serviceably twisty, and the sumptuous productions help keep the atmosphere of dread popping. The atmospheric mysteries gain immeasurably from their hi-def transfers; there are no Poirot extras, but Marple includes an earlier adaptation of The Pale Horse, a 66-minute documentary, Agatha Christie’s Garden, and behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Miral (Anchor Bay)
You can’t say Julian Schnabel rests on his laurels. After making the brilliant biopic The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, he turns to a pro-Palestinian drama by writer Rula Jebreal. Although the movie deserves plaudits for tackling another side of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the characterizations and politics are too one-dimensional to make an impact. As Miral, the excellent Freida Pinto (who looks like Jebreal’s twin) can’t overcome the superficiality. Schnabel’s pungent visuals glisten on Blu; extras include a Schnabel/ producer commentary; Schnabel interview; deleted scenes; and a making-of featurette.

Naked (Criterion)
Mike Leigh’s least effective film, this blunt and brutal attack against Thatcher-era consumerism in England shows some ugly people doing ugly things to one another; the problem is there’s no insight or poetry, just crass indictment. The actors, led by David Thewlis and the late Katrin Cartlidge, are exemplary, and Leigh’s directing is very fine, but there’s little incisiveness in his scattershot script. The film’s relentless darkness is well-served on Blu-ray, with extraordinary film grain; extras include a Leigh, Thewlis and Cartlidge commentary, Neil LaBute interview, vintage Leigh interview and Leigh’s hilarious 1987 short, The Short and Curlies.

The Sacrifice (Kino)
Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky died after finishing his 1986 psychological drama that ranks as his most direct assaults on human frailty. Ravaged by war and disease, the protagonist hopes for a peaceful death surrounded by family, but human nature intervenes. Sven Nykvist’s expressive cinematography perfectly mirrors Tarkovsky’s interiorized character study; Erland Josephson is sublime as the fatally flawed hero. The softness of Tarkovsky’s stunning images and Nykvist’s remarkable photography is seen to great advantage on Blu-ray. A bonus DVD includes Michal Leszczylowski’s documentary Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, shot during the making of The Sacrifice.

DVDs of the Week
Damages—The Complete 3rd Season (Sony)
ER—The Complete Final Season (Warners)
These releases showcase one drama at its peak and another petering out. The third season of Damages is the most riveting yet, with excellent acting by Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, Lily Tomlin, Campbell Scott, Ted Danson and even Martin Short. The final season of ER is, by contrast, disappointingly routine, with the 22 episodes going through the motions trying to recreate what once made it the pinnacle of all medical dramas. Damages extras include commentaries, deleted scenes, gag reel, episode introductions and behind-the-scenes featurettes; ER’s special features include deleted scenes and interview panel.

Illegal (Film Movement)
In this tense psychological thriller, Russian émigré Tania protects her teenage son Ivan so much that she sacrifices herself when Belgian police discover she has no identification papers—Ivan escapes while she’s thrown into a detention center. This harrowing journey is director Olivier Masset-Depasse’s heartfelt and articulate plea for justice that, despite dramatic missteps, is helped by Anne Coesens’ devastating central performance. Paced with crackling urgency and packed with authentic acting down to the tiniest parts, Illegal ends with a reunion that, after so much physical and emotional debasement, is less a happy ending than a needed catharsis. The lone extra is a 20-minute Italian short, Rita.

Orgasm, Inc. (First Run)
Liz Canner’s documentary zeroes in on the female sexual dysfunction “problem” (supposedly 43% of American women have sexual problems, a number the movie debunks) that has convinced women to take pills and undergo genital corrective surgery. Canner’s informative, breezily entertaining film does paint expert Laura Berman as being on the take by the big companies and a font of misinformation. The film also touches on how our government has allowed the big pharmaceutical companies to tout unnecessary drugs that doctors are writing out piles of prescriptions for. Extras include bonus footage.

CD of the Week
Rautavaara—Summer Thoughts (Ondine)
Einojuhani Rautavaara is best known for operas and orchestral works, so when a chamber music disc comes along, it’s imperative to hear a more intimate side of this legendary Finnish composer. Although the title track is an evocative 1972 piece reworked three years ago (same with the equally haunting April Lines, now bearing the dates 1970/2006), it’s the autobiographical Lost Landscapes (from 2005) that stands out: violinist Pekka Kuusisto and pianist Paavali Jumppanen beautifully perform Rautavaara’s musical memoir. Jumppanen also excels with the 1952 piano suite The Fiddlers, marred only by Kuusisto playing actual folk tunes Rautavaara used before each movement, interrupting the musical flow and making it tough for listeners to hear it as written.

Daly Does Callas

Boggess and Daly in Master Class (photo by Joan Marcus)

Master Class
Written by Terrence McNally
Directed by Stephen Wadsworth
Starring Tyne Daly, Sierra Boggess, Clinton Brandhagen, Jeremy Cohen, Alexandra Silber, Garrett Sorenson

Opened July 7; closes September 4, 2011
Friedman Theater, 252 West 47th Street
mtc-nyc.com

I was prepared to be disappointed by Tyne Daly’s Maria Callas in Master Class because in 1995 Terrence McNally’s play premiered on Broadway with Zoe Caldwell, followed by Patti Lupone, two legendary actresses giving unforgettable performances.

But as indelible as Caldwell and Lupone were, Tyne’s best stage appearance yet proves there’s room for other interpretations of the irascible, callous Callas. Her Mama Rose in Gypsy and the mother in Rabbit Hole didn’t prepare us for the wit, smarts and humor she brings to a true acting diva’s most diva-ish role.

Although the play is pretty flimsy, its clever construction and reliance on a powerhouse actress make for a diverting couple of hours. Callas, hosting a master class, puts three young singers through their paces and speaks to the nervous piano accompanist and a non-plussed union stagehand. But most of the play is taken up by Callas’ monologues, either talking directly to the audience or losing herself in reminiscences about her spotty track record, onstage and backstage, with the opera directors and other men in her life.

These monologues train a spotlight on the diva, and Daly runs with them, superbly aping Callas’ movement, aspect, accent and bearing, showcasing an irrepressible diva who’s past her peak. Along with director Stephen Wadsworth, an old pro at staging opera, Daly transforms McNally’s choppy flashbacks of Callas at La Scala or being berated by Ari Onassis into true showstoppers.

Although Daly dominates from the get-go, the other performers also shine. Sierra Boggess (the only one to survive the debacle that was The Little Mermaid), shows off a crystalline voice as Callas’ final singing “victim.” Clinton Brandhagen makes the tenor student a worthy adversary, Jeremy Cohen is sympathetic as the pianist and Alexandra Silber reins in the temptation to overplay the comic aspects of Callas’ first student. Rounding out the cast is Garrett Sorenson, who dryly caricatures a disinterested Teamster.

But Master Class is definitely Maria Callas’ story, and Daly memorably presents her as larger-than-life, warts (or calluses) and all.

July '11 Digital Week II

Blu-rays of the Week

Das Boot: Extended Director’s Cut
(Sony)
German director Wolfgang Petersen’s exploration of a World War II U-boat crew achieved “classic” status after its 1982 release, but was also shown as a six-hour TV mini-series in Europe. Petersen re-edited footage from both cuts to come up with his 3-½ hour “director’s cut” that’s his preferred version. Both intimate and epically-scaled, it’s a perfect balance of claustrophobia and expansive battle sequences to satisfy fans of action movies and more modest dramas. The original 2-½ hour feature is also included, and both versions look spectacular on Blu-ray. Extras include a Petersen commentary and several featurettes on the making of the film, its historical background and Petersen’s final cut.

Camille 2000 (Cult Epics) and
The Image (Synapse)
These adult films by Radley Metzger are nicely-photographed trifles that have their felicities (especially The Image’s lovely Paris locations), but are hampered by poor dubbing, less-than-adequate acting and a paucity of erotic moments. (A few explicit instances of fellatio in The Image don’t help.) Metzger is one of the more celebrated directors from porn’s golden age, but the movies haven’t aged well and drag on to no apparent effect. Both movies have been restored, giving them a sheen they haven’t had since their making in 1969 and 1975. Extras are on-set featurettes and restoration clips.

Dialogues des Carmelites (BelAir Classiques)
and Les Troyens (Unitel Classica)
Two classic French operas from the 19th and 20th century are seen in unfortunate 2010 stagings. Francois Poulenc’s 1957 masterpiece Dialogues loses much of its tragic power thanks to Dmitri Tcherniakov’s misguided Munich production, while Hector Berlioz’s mythical epic Les Troyens (composed in the mid 1850s) has been turned into a silly Star Wars-like space opera by Spanish director Carlus Padrissa. Happily, the music of both operas comes through loudly and clearly thanks to superb DTS-HD audio, and there are excellent transfers; no extras on Dialogues, but Troyens includes a making-of featurette.

Hobo with a Shotgun
(Magnet)
Blood and guts literally spurt everywhere in this gleefully inane send-up of sleazy B-movies that follows the title bum as he cleans up the streets of a town surprisingly inundated with violent thugs. Rutger Hauer’s craggy, leathery face is the perfect visual of this over-the-top explosion of mayhem that features inventive ways of offing people, even one stolen from Caligula, of all things. Molly Dunsworth makes a perky sidekick to Hauer’s dour hero, although good acting isn’t the point. The movie is given a satisfying hi-def transfer; extras include commentaries, making-of featurettes, deleted scenes, alternate ending and interviews.

Of Gods and Men
(Sony)
Xavier Beauvois’ forceful drama is based on the true story of French monks in a remote Algerian village who were kidnapped and killed by terrorists in 1996. This meditative character study shows men living austerely while helping the poor and sick and giving hope to the destitute. When terrorist threats become real, the men must choose to abandon their calling as God’s helpers or return to safety in France. Smartly refraining from soundtrack music or cross-cutting to heighten suspense or anxiety, Beauvois trusts his material and his audience; the result, while depressing, is spiritually exhilarating. The extraordinary imagery looks glorious on Blu-ray, especially the dazzlingly understated final shots. Extras include a featurette on the real monks and a discussion by two experts.

People on Sunday
(Criterion)
A rare Criterion foray into silent film unearths this 1930 German cross between fiction and documentary, a gem about city slickers who plan a weekend outing in pre-Nazi era Berlin. The behind-the-camera crew, filled with future masters like directors Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, writer Billy Wilder and assistant cinematographer Fred Zinnemann, shows the strength of Germany’s film industry before Hitler. Criterion’s superlatively restored Blu-ray transfer has nary a scratch or mark; extras include two musical scores, a 2000 documentary about the film, Weekend am Wannsee, and a 35-minute short by the film’s cinematographer Eugen Schufftan, Ins Blaue hinein.

13 Assassins
(Magnet)
Takashi Miike’s remake of Eiichi Kudo’s elegant 1963 black and white film has the requisite amounts of blood (beginning with the opening scene’s hara-kiri), but two-plus hours of unrelieved, vividly colorful bloodletting and samurai battles palls on the viewer; by its end, we’re left with pretty (and pretty violent) imagery, and little else. The stylish scenes of killing are presented with appropriate clarity on Blu-ray . Extras include a Miike interview and 18 minutes of deleted scenes.

Wake Wood
(Dark Sky)
This short, unsubtle chiller takes its cue from The Wicker Man and Audrey Rose as a grieving couple brings its daughter back thanks to the pagan ritual practiced in the small village they move to after her death. Although the thrills are borrowed from earlier and better sources, the accomplished cast and director David Keating’s unerring eye (this is one of the best-looking Blu-ray transfers I’ve yet seen) smooth over what’s redundant or routine, including the risible final stare at the camera. Deleted scenes are the lone extra.

DVDs of the Week
Lulu (Arthaus Musik) and
Parsifal (Unitel Classica)
These classic productions of two great operas are finally released on DVD. The 2003 Zurich staging of Alban Berg’s horrifying Lulu might be the incomplete version, but soprano Laura Aikin makes a riveting anti-heroine, even handling the not so gratuitous nudity with aplomb. Wolfgang Wagner’s 1999 staging of his grandfather’s final opera, Parsifal, at the Wagner shrine in Bayreuth is dramatically deficient but visually stunning; terrific singers like Paol Elming, Linda Watson and Falk Struckmann are accompanied by glorious musicmaking by the orchestra and conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli.

One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
(Icarus Films)
Chris Marker’s lovely eulogy for his good friend, Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died in 1986 of cancer, is one of three remarkable Russian-themed documentaries on this disc. Also included are Three Songs About Motherland, Marina Goldovskaya’s intimate chronicle of modern Russia still dealing with its tortured past, and In the Dark, director Sergey Dvortsevoy’s moving film about a blind old man, living with his cat in a tiny Moscow apartment, who weaves baskets to hand out to complete strangers on the street.

Yesspeak
(MVD)
This documentary about one of the most accomplished progressive rock bands was made during the 2003 reunion tour that brought together singer Jon Anderson, guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire, keyboardist Rick Wakeman and drummer Alan White for the band’s 35th anniversary. Roger Daltrey narrates an interesting three-hour history with a short detour for each of the five members. (Tony Kaye, Bill Bruford and Trevor Rabin, who masterminded the band’s biggest hit years, are out of luck.) Although the concert’s musical numbers are only excerpted, a bonus is the entire concert in Dolby 5.1 audio, so fans can hear full versions of “I’ve Seen All Good People,” “The South Side of the Sky” and “Roundabout.”

CD of the Week
Strauss: Don Juan/Metamorphosen/Songs
(Avie)
As this new disc demonstrates, Richard Strauss (who died in 1949 at age 85) was composing works in his old age as substantial as those he wrote as the new enfant terrible in late 19th century Vienna. Paired are his boisterous early tone poem, 1889’s Don Juan and Metamorphosen, his reflective post-war meditation from 1945, both played by the solid Strasbourg Philharmonic (the string section on the latter) under conductor Jan Latham-Koenig. In between, nine typically luscious songs from early in his career are sung with richness by soprano Joan Rogers accompanied by Latham-Koenig on piano.

14th Annual Long Island Film Expo

Natasa Petrovic in As if I Am Not There

14th Annual Long Island International Film Expo
Bellmore Movies, 222 Petit Avenue
Bellmore, NY
July 7-14, 2011
liifilmexpo.org

Now in its 14th season, the Long Island International Film Expo showcases independent films from around the world. With 2011 declared the “year of the documentary,” it’s no surprise that so many non-fiction features and shorts are part of this year’s slate.

The opening night feature (not a documentary) is a trenchant exploration of the Bosnian war’s atrocities. As If I Am Not There is based on Bosnian author Slavenka Drakulic’s shattering novel known as S.--A Story about the Balkans in America, itself based on stories of women who were raped and abused by Serbian captors. Juanita Wilson’s film follows the novel closely, except placing events in chronological order, so what one knows at the beginning of the book about Samira--a young teacher from Sarajevo who is subjected to the most inhumane treatment until she is finally freed when the war ends--is shown in the film only at the end.

Samira, who is played by an amazing Macedonian actress Natasa Petrovic, whose silence and sad eyes speak volumes, looks in a mirror on a few occasions and sees that she has remained as physically attractive and seemingly undisturbed as before the war. She wonders why there aren’t any outward signs of the brutality she has suffered. Writer-director Wilson softens the merciless bluntness of Drakulic’s writing, but the power and humanity of Samira’s and countless other women’s stories rings true.

Other intriguing features on the Expo’s schedule include Come Hell or High Water, which follows three local area trauma survivors who journey to New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina; Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football, about a predominantly Muslim high school football team in Michigan; John Muir: In the New World, a study of the spiritual father of our National Park system; and Long Island Uncovered, which chronicles several of the island‘s best-known rock tribute/cover bands.

July '11 Digital Week I

Blu-rays of the Week

Black Moon and
Zazie dans le metro
(Criterion)
Two of Louis Malle’s more experimental films are given typically excellent Criterion releases. 1975’s Black Moon, a surrealist take on Alice in Wonderland, is enlivened by Sven Nykvist’s usual sumptuous photography, while Zazie dans le metro, a 1960 adaptation of Raymond Queneau’s supposedly unfilmable novel, has a free-form style that fit in well with the then-emerging New Wave. Malle, whose eclectic career was cut short by cancer at age 63, took on any project and made it his own. Both movies have a sumptuous “sparkle” on Blu-ray; extras include vintage Malle interviews on both releases and additional interviews and a video piece on Zazie.

Ceremony (Magnolia)
Writer-director Max Winkler’s young protagonist, still in love with his older ex, decides to crash her upcoming wedding to see if there‘s anything still there between them. Although the attractive, talented cast (Michael Angarano, Uma Thurman, Lee Pace, Reece Thompson) make the characters believably confused, Winkler is unable to make Ceremony more than intermittently clever and charming. The movie looks good on Blu-ray; extras include deleted scenes, outtakes, extended scene, making-of featurettes and behind-the-scenes footage.

Happythankyoumoreplease (Anchor Bay)
Stop me if you’ve seen it before: twenty-somethings are negotiating their relationships, finding themselves no closer to an epiphany at the end than the beginning. The essential problem with Josh Radnor’s sketchy glimpse at several interchangeable New Yorkers is that it doesn’t have much more depth than a typical TV sitcom. Happily, there are enjoyable performances by Kate Mara and Malin Akerman; too bad Pablo Schreiber, Zoe Kazan and Radnor himself are not up to snuff. There’s a decent Blu-ray transfer; extras include Radnor commentary, music featurette and deleted scenes.

Lebanon, Pa. (Monarch)
Ben Hickernell’s restrained character study chronicles a man returning from the big city to the small town where his father died, only to get involved with a teenage neighbor’s problems and have an affair with a local married woman. Hickernell’s excellent dialogue and believable characters are given great support by Josh Hopkins, Rachel Kitson (amazing as the pregnant teen) and Samantha Mathis, who is so natural and unaffected as the married woman that it’s a shame she isn’t seen more. There’s a fine Blu-ray transfer; extras include an alternate opening, deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy Extended Edition (Warners)
Peter Jackson’s masterly trilogy, based on Tolkien’s classic fantasy novels, is now on Blu-ray in the Jackson’s own extended versions adding more than an hour’s worth of material to each film, which may be too much for most viewers but will be just right for real Rings aficionados. As in the previous Blu-ray release of the theatrical versions, the images are spectacular in high definition, and there are several discs’ worth of massive extras that comprise 26 hours’ worth of special features, from documentaries to commentaries.

Mega Python vs. Gatoroid and Wild Cherry (Image)
If cheesecake is your thing, then you could do worse than these two B flicks. Former teeny-bopping pop singers Debbie Gibson and Tiffany square off in the ridiculously silly monster movie Mega Python, while Lost’s Tania Raymonde makes a teen’s attempt to lose her virginity appealing in Wild Cherry. Although these are not the kind of movies you watch for their (non-female) visual appeal, but both have sharp Blu-ray transfers. Mega Python includes a making-of featurette; there are no Wild Cherry extras.

Nature: Bears of the Last Frontier (PBS)
Naturalist Chris Morgan’s enthralling journey through Alaska explores the remaining habitats of all of North America’s bear species (black, brown and polar). In these three hour-long Nature episodes, Morgan lives among the bears for a year in Alaska’s five vitally distinct ecosystems, providing astonishing insights into their behavior and unique adaptability. I first watched this series on PBS in HD, but the more visually magnificent Blu-ray version is the way it should be seen.

Season of the Witch and The Warrior’s Way (Fox)
Swords feature prominently on the covers of both of these films, the Middle Ages-set thriller Season of the Witch and the high-flying martial arts adventure The Warrior's Way. Nicolas Cage finally finds a role to suit his crazed look, even if Season ultimately fails to make witches, werewolves and other supernatural beats classier than usual; Warrior, similarly, is too familiar in its plot and its stunt-filled action sequences. Both films have a trendy dark “look” that transfers nicely to Blu-ray; Season’s extras are deleted scenes, an alternate ending and making-of featurettes; Warrior’s extras are deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes montage.

DVDs of the Week
Another Man, Another Chance and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (MGM)
More MGM vault releases: French director Claude Lelouch’s 1977 romantic western with James Caan and Genevieve Bujold and Sir Peter Hall’s 1971 adaptation of Shakespeare’s sparkling comedy. Lelouch’s Another Man Another Chance centers on Bujold’s wonderful portrayal of a French widow who finds love with fellow widower Caan. Alternately sentimental and tough-minded, the movie is typically schizophrenic Lelouch. Hall’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream stars a bevy of British beauties (Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren, Judi Dench) who steal the show from their uninspired male cohorts, except for Ian Holm’s puckish Puck. Though neither film has been restored, both look decent.

Eclipse 27: Raffaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas (Criterion)
Criterion’s Eclipse line was made for releases like this: an unfamiliar director given an introduction through several films. Italian Raffaello Matarazzo plied his trade when the neo-realist movement was taking hold: unlike Rossellini and de Sica, however, Matarazzo made hits that audiences flocked to. Why? Popular stars (Amedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson are in all four films) and engrossing soap-opera plots made audiences shed copious tears. Stories and characterizations are often risible, but these four films, Chains, Tormento, Nobody’s Children and The White Angel, made between 1949-55, open a window into the kind of cinema gripping Italian audiences for years after World War II.

Living in Emergency (First Run)
The extensive sacrifices made by the humane, brave members of the organization Doctors Without Borders are recounted in Mark Hopkins’ intelligent, sobering but ultimately life-affirming documentary. In worldwide trouble spots like Liberia and Congo, these doctors do what they can with the tools at their disposal, and daily choices and challenges often lead to bitter self-examination when patients are not saved. Hopkins shows the limits of idealism when confronted by extreme poverty, warfare or remote locations. Extras include an interview with Hopkins and a roundtable discussion led by Elizabeth Vargas.

CD of the Week
Knickerbocker Holiday (Ghostlight)
This recording of Kurt Weill’s infrequently-done1938 Broadway show (from last year’s concert at Manhattan’s Alice Tully Hall) has a starry cast, chorus and orchestra. Weill’s charming music, which includes the all-time classic “September Song,” coupled with Maxwell Anderson’s clever lyrics, masks the flimsiness of a silly book about 17th century Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam. Victor Garber, Kelli O’Hara and Ben Davis lead the capable cast, with O’Hara’s and Davis’ duets “It Never Was You” and “You Remember Me” as standouts. The Collegiate Chorale gets the chance to let it rip in “May and January” and “Dirge for a Soldier,” among other numbers, while the Chorale’s James Bagwell also leads the excellent American Symphony Orchestra.

Bed Tricks in Central Park

Cullum and Parisse in All's Well That Ends Well (photo by Joan Marcus)

All’s Well That Ends Well
With Kristen Connolly, John Cullum, Carson Elrod, Michael Hayden, Andre Holland, Dakin Matthews, Annie Parisse, Lorenzo Pisoni, Reg Rogers
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Opened June 25; closes July 27, 2011 Cullum and Parisse in Measure for Measure (photo by Joan Marcus)
Measure for Measure
With John Cullum, Carson Elrod, Danai Gurira, Michael Hayden, Andre Holland, Dakin Matthews, Annie Parisse, Lorenzo Pisoni, Reg Rogers
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by David Esbjornson
Opened June 30; closes July 30, 2011
Delacorte Theatre, Central Park
shakespeareinthepark.org

The “bed trick,” in which Shakespeare asked his audiences to suspend their disbelief even more than usual, is the obvious connection between the two plays in Central Park this summer. But whereas All’s Well That Ends Well is among the Bard’s bumpiest rides, Measure for Measure may be his most cynically brilliant dissection of relationships: both comedies end in forced marriages, but whereas the end couplings of All’s Well are nominally happy, those paraded onstage at the end of Measure are tenuous at best.

Typically for Central Park, these stagings are a grab-bag of good and less able actors fighting it out for Delacorte Theater supremacy, with each director contributing ready-made visual intrusions to give audiences what they pay for. Daniel Sullivan’s All’s Well has a stateliness that works in the scenes between the heroine Helena and her protector, the Countess of Rousillion, along with the ailing King of France, but less well with her beloved Bertram (who loathes her) and his cowardly sycophant Parolles (who gets his). David Esbjornson’s Measure, by contrast, begins with black-clad and horned extras wearing devil’s masks who are haunting Vincentio, Duke of Vienna, and apparently prompt him to leave his city, which is becoming morally corrupt.

The broad comedy subplot of All’s Well, which brings Parolles to his knees, is overdone by Sullivan, who allows Reg Rogers to mug shamelessly, as does Esbjornson, who lets Rogers play Measure’s Lucio as Parolles’ campy double. That Rogers gets big laughs in both roles is disheartening.

Sullivan’s mostly sensible directing of All’s Well is helped by Tom Kitt’s subtle chamber music, Jane Greenwood’s appropriate costumes and Peter Kaczorowski’s elegant lighting. Too bad this Measure never balances the inherent difficulties in one of Shakespeare’s most problematic plays: Esbjornson goes for dramatic shortcuts by repeatedly bringing his horned demons back, while John Gromada’s kitschy horror-movie score and Elizabeth Hope Clancy’s nondescript costumes are no match for Kaczorowski’s stark lighting.

Like last summer, performers are in both productions, except for Danai Gurira, who plays Measure’s heroine Isabella with little gracefulness or charm, and who (like Katharine Waterston in a recent Measure directed by Arin Arbus) speaks in a dully one-note manner. Carson Ellrod shows Reg Rogers that it’s possible to overdo comic parts correctly, as his Interpreter in All’s Well and Pompey in Measure happily reveal (the night I attended, Ellrod humorously engaged in mock-hero worship of audience member Bill Irwin).

Vet John Cullum makes a regal King in All’s Well and a dignified Escalus in Measure, the accomplished Annie Parisse decently enacts All’s Well’s Helena and Measure’s Mariana, and reliable Dakin Matthews makes the most of his supporting roles. While Michael Hayden and Lorenzo Pisoni impress as the King’s sons in All’s Well and Hayden brings a welcome gravity to Measure’s villainous hypocrite Alberto, Pisoni fails to make that play’s Duke (in and out of disguise as a friar) believably complex. And too bad Andre Holland does little with pivotal parts: All’s Well’s Bertram and Measure’s Claudio.

While neither production takes the full measure of Shakespeare, for many in the audience, a beautiful summer night under the stars at the Delacorte is usually enough.

The True Cost of War

Hennie and Kittlsen in Max Manus: Man of War

Max Manus: Man of War
Directed by Espen Sandberg and Joachim Ronning
With Aksel Hennie, Ken Duken, Agnes Kittlesen
Released by Music Box Films

Unlike America, which hasn’t been occupied by a foreign invader since the war of 1812), such occupations have dominated the histories of most countries in Europe. Of course, Hitler overran most of the European continent during World War II, and several recent films like Flame and Citroen (Denmark), Black Book (Netherlands) and The Army of Crime (France) have dramatized the resistance fighting in those countries; we can now add the Norwegian epic Max Manus: Man of War to that list.

The film introduces Max, a real-life Norwegian hero who died in 1996 at age 81, while fighting the Soviets in Finland. After that battlefield debacle, he returns home to Norway to organize a resistance group against the Nazi war machine. After another unsuccessful resistance attempt, Max is arrested but manages to escape from a heavily guarded hospital, making it across the English channel to get some training in Scotland before returning to lead a group of fighters in the ongoing life-or-death battle with the Germans.

Directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Ronning signal at the beginning that Max Manus will be more than merely a feel-good action romp about how the good guys won. The opening sequence, with Max in horrible Finnish winter conditions fighting the Red Army, unflinchingly presents the brutality and arbitrariness of wartime killing. Max’s return to Norway to join the Resistance gives the filmmakers the chance to show how an initially rag-tag group becomes a formidable force against the all-powerful Nazis, but Sandberg and Ronning admirably refrain from making a “stand up and cheer” thriller.

Instead, the filmmakers again and again present war’s casual brutality, including a scene of a resistance fighter getting run over by a Nazi truck that looks remarkably realistic. Max several times questions the meaning of war, even with right on his side, especially after the death of a close friend in a botched attack.

Even though the group’s successful sabotage exploits (buildings, train lines, ships) are chronicled with enthusiasm, the extreme violence is never skimped on: there’s a startling sequence of Max and his men bombing a building, and the ear-shattering explosions and screaming innocent people pouring out of the building give it a documentary-like quality.

Max Manus doesn’t completely avoids melodramatic clichés. Max meets Tikken, fellow resistance fighter (who would, after the war, become his wife and outlive him by 14 years), too cutely, including his insulting her so much that she walks away. And the Norwegian Nazi leader, aptly named Siegfried, has the kind of matinee-idol looks that make his brutal villainy even more swinish.

Still, there’s much to admire in the film’s anti-heroic stance. When Max and Siegfried meet after Hitler kills himself and the Nazis surrender (Siegfried is in awe of the young man he could never catch), Max realizes they are both victims of the indiscriminate insanity of war. This final “showdown” between our hero and his nemesis is deliberately anticlimactic, with no explosive gunplay or hand-to-hand combat that a lesser movie would give an audience.

As Max, Aksel Hennie’s eternally boyish looks and intense acting create a warts-and-all hero who is appealingly human, while Ken Duken’s Siegfried is a far more complicated bad guy than his handsome if nasty face would suggest (if he looks familiar, it’s because Duken was in Quentin Tarantino’s silly Resistance farce Inglorious Basterds). In an excellent supporting cast, Agnes Kittlesen plays Tikken with a beguiling directness.

Despite some nail-biting derring-do, Max Manus is at heart an artful appreciation for the men and women who risked death by fighting insurmountable odds.