Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (2008)

There is more to humanity than the people around you. There are people who are wise but dead, yet alive in books and films. There are those who are wise but distant, yet approachable in their art. There are amicable strangers. In order to feel alive, one must not neglect any of these people.

Life distributes enough hardship; this hardship should not be amplified by self-punishment. One way to try to focus on one's long-term goals is to focus on trying to make other people---those whose goals are aligned with one's own goals---happier. It is convenient, though not necessary, that these other people exist.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

This Frank Capra's picture illustrates the view of the world according to which (i) one should act in accord with one's desires and in spite of the prevailing social norms, and (ii) if studied carefully, one's ultimate desires---those that grant most satisfaction---will consist in being attentive and kind to others.

Was George Bailey's happiness derived from the sacrifice of his youth's aspirations in order to promote the well-being of his neighbours? No. Had George Bailey travelled the world, he would have come back to Bedford Falls. Otherwise he would not have stayed there in the first place. Hence, the movie does not promote self-sacrifice. The movie advocates doing whatever one thinks is right for himself, and this is what George Bailey did. And what happens to be right for oneself, is typically also generous with respect to others.

The movie underscores that in choosing a spouse (or a friend, or a companion) one acknowledges the direction in which one would like to go, and one acquires an inspiration and a stimulus to persevere moving in that direction. Yet it is better to travel without a compass than with a faulty compass. George Bailey was fortunate. Mary shares George's integrity and is beautiful. They do not make them like this anymore.

Destry Rides Again (1939)

This is a B-movie that could have been an A-movie if made eight years earlier, pre-code, with Marlene Dietrich's acting in earnest a little more complex and a little less jaded part. The grotesqueness of the characters in the perceived Wild West deprives the movie of its subtlety and hence power. Even though James Stewart is doing a good job, he is given too little work to excell.

As for subtlety, therein lies the great challenge of art. On the one hand, the work should be sufficiently stylised in order to highlight the problem that it addresses. On the other hand, the work must have enough fine detail in order for the problem thus defined to be non-trivial and the insight emerging from the work to be non-negligible.

Nutcracker

(Rochester City Ballet, 28 November 2008)

The beginning of the end of Hollywood musicals (and a glorious beginning of the end at that) was in the 1950s. Musical productions about staging musical productions with thrice the number of musical numbers of a 1930s movie were all the vogue. The audiences coveted musical extravaganza, and it was delivered, sometimes at a cost in terms of the richness of the plot---broadly construed. The Nutcracker displays the symptoms of a deceased genre. It is a variety show in the second act and much grimacing in the first act.

Excellent dancing, in principle, will compensate for and possibly even obliterate the shortcomings of a dead genre. Ballet dancing is difficult and careers are short. Everyone can tell if dancing is good or bad. And some of it was indeed good this evening. Yet one cannot help but to wish for the excellent, even though this means to wish for the nearly impossible.

Grey Gardens

(The Studio Theatre, 26 November 2008)

"One can only keep by letting go" may be the message of this musical play. Or maybe the message should be that for most people having a routine imposed by a day job is a healthy experience, which rules out living off bequests or relying on a rich spouse to support oneself. This is not necessarily the way it must be for all, but for many the acquaintances, the discipline, and the break from the stifling family air, which come with having a job, are essential. All characters, but probably the mother and the daughter in the second act, are portrayed quite sketchily. The actors do their best and do it well, but a greater input from the playwright and the director would have been appreciated.

8 1/2 (1963)

Several male actors make a movie about rivalry and honour. Remove all beautiful male actors but one and the movie is about loneliness. Add a beautiful actress and the picture is about the lack of understanding between sexes. Add some more beautiful actresses and the picture is about difficult choices and still the lack of understanding. Remove all beautiful actors and actresses altogether and the picture is a flop. In contrast, if a character played by a beautiful (broadly construed) male actor stays with the character played by the most beautiful actress, then the movie typically succeeds. In this sense, 8 1/2 has got at least this right, whereas other merits of the picture are debatable, which is not to say absent.

A good narrative requires certain detachment or at least a semblance of detachment. Therefore, it is hard for an artist to create a work of art about the plight of an artist. This does not stop artists from trying or indeed succeeding in doing so. Federico Fellini in 8 1/2 largely succeeds.

La Saraghina is one of the most powerful scenes in the film. It captures the essence of the movie: to live is to question.

The film is a collection of images---often Dali-like images---and musical fragments that can be taken in the order presented, or after being permuted, or absorbed only selectively. In this sense, the movie is closer to a painting rather than a novel. It is left up to the viewer if to scan the picture from left to right, from top to bottom or the other way around, from a distance or close up, with glasses on or while squinting.

Harvey (1950)

This is a movie about how being "oh-so-pleasant" trumps being "oh-so-clever" if one must choose between the two. This is a movie about how living with an imaginary friend is better than living with no friend at all, as long as the imaginary friend does not have a religious agenda.

The Turn of the Screw

(Eastman Opera Theatre, 7 November 2008)

Remarkably for an opera, the singers take the trouble to act---and they do so well. Furthermore, it appears that as much effort has been put into directing the actors as in conducting the orchestra and rehearsing the arias. The singers stay in character throughout the performance and between the scenes. The orchestra and the actors are co-ordinated impeccably. The leading lady (Meghan Attridge, who plays the governance) is beautiful and is of the same age as her character, which, again, is doubly unusual for an opera.

Acting in this opera comes closest to a musical piece. The acting is intense and concrete, and, yet, it invites the observer to infuse it with a meaning of his choice. The plot is bursting with developments and at the same time is hollow and begs to be filled by the viewer's imagination.

The actors' task is made easier by the subject matter of the performance. Sexual tension is easy to identify with for a viewer (and the actor); so, any half-hearted hint at it will fire the viewer's imagination, and acting imperfections may go unnoticed. If there were any acting imperfections, they did go unnoticed, indeed. One exception, perhaps, is the narration from the protagonist's point of view at the beginning of the opera. The narration is done with an accent---New Jersey TOEFL---markedly different from the protagonist's accent in the remainder of the play.

There is a sparkle of madness in each character. This is the kind of madness that stems from hunger rather than satiation. Most instances of madness, perhaps, stem from hunger. Thus--- more precisely---the characters' madness stems from their intellectual poverty, their plainness.

Holiday (1938)

Money gives freedom and power. Being an offspring of a rich parent runs the risk of being dominated by the parent's power. Family riches can also deny the offspring freedom that stems from exercising the skills acquired in trying to find one's own way in life. Katharine Hupburn's character, Linda, is a casualty of such a family. Cary Grant's character, Johnny, is about to marry into such a family.

Linda is intense, earnest, and naive. Her zest and maturity seem incongruous at times; one anticipates her going mad unless her situation changes in a way that would allow her to put to test the ideas about life brooding in her mind at ever more frequent moments of solitude. But she never does go mad, and therein lies her strength.

Linda's father, Edward Seton, remarks that it is unAmerican not to aspire to maximize personal wealth. Linda stands for a different idea of America; it is unAmerican not to be critical, not to be curious, not to be adventurous, not to be free. The film is not an argument against a career in business. The film is an argument for making informed decisions and not being unnecessarily conformist.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: The New Musical

(Rochester's Eastman Theatre, 21 October 2008)

The Orchestra, the Jane Austen, and her characters mingle on the stage as they re-create a story of romantic misunderstanding with a happy ending. A touch of honesty and confidence is added to the production by the actors who carry and peep into black folders containing the dialogue. The characters need little introduction and there is not much of it in the play---or at any rate not much compared to the steady development of the characters in the book.

The forte of the production is not dramatic acting but rather the musical numbers. The numbers get better as the play progresses, but there is no tune and no refrain that linger in one's memory after the curtain drops. (In this respect, the score resembles a typical opera.) The portrayal of the main characters (but not the musical score) is visibly inspired by the film Pride and Prejudice (2005).

The script would have benefited from a more-than-sketchy development of Jane Austen's character. Ideally, the play would have three stories running in parallel. In one story, Jane Austen contemplates rewriting the novel as she re-evaluates it in the light of her life's experiences. Thus, the second story line is the plot in Pride and Prejudice. The third story line is Jane Austen's memories of her own encounters with men that have shaped views on romantic love and the writing of the Pride and Prejudice. Does Jane Austen identify herself more with Elizabeth Bennet or Jane Bennett? Was Mr Darcy's character a man in her life or was he the man who never was? Or, perhaps, Darcy's character corresponds most closely to Jane Austen's self?

This appears to be solid if raw production; it can make it to the Broadway.

Elegy (2008)

The story follows a familiar pattern discernible in recent cinema. A woman with an "inner life," and a man, who is quite superficial, makes mistakes, often does not realise that he makes them, and when he does realise he does not have the courage to fix them.

The message of the film is not to shy from experimenting as life is complicated so it is hard to get it right the first time around. Furthermore, if an experiment fails, it can often be fixed. And listen.

With the exception of the Penelope Cruz's character, other characters appear misplaced. In particular, they are not good enough to earn the lives that they lead. Ben Kingsley's character, a professor of literature, is not brilliant enough for a university professor. His conversations do not betray the sophistication that the story ascribes to him. Ditto his friend, the poet. Ditto his long-term lover, perhaps. Such sketchiness is acceptable in Woody Allen's work, where it is a part of the fable. In this film, in contrast, it is a flaw.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Whereas saying it is all about sex would be to unnecessarily narrow the statement, acknowledging that it is all about love is perhaps an accurate description of the essence of art. Love is also the essence of good life as good life is a form of art in that good life transcends derivative and common, and accentuates innovative and universal traits of an individual's character. Being the ultimate project in life, it is important to get love right. It is unlikely that it comes out right from the first attempt and one should treasure all the signals about what is right for one and what is wrong, whichever form these signals take. Generating these signals involves taking risks and being creative, which are the subjects of this Woody Allen's picture.

Mr Allen's pictures are better when he engages European actors, who are typically better trained than American ones; this training is an asset given the minimal direction that Mr Allen gives. The film is well done. It is not polished; but its roughness cannot be mistaken for sloppiness.

Roman Holiday (1953)

The picture is better than one may have expected. Gregory Peck's minimalist manner is derivative of Cary Grant's manner. Nonetheless, Mr Peck's version is executed well. Audrey Hepburn is charming, but not debilitatingly so as in the Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Her performance is more mature, less grotesque here than in some of her later pictures. Miss Hepburn's performance in the first scene after she returns home is impeccable.

What's Up, Doc? (1972)

Like a musical, a screwball comedy---whenever it comes out well---is inspirational. It emphasises the artificiality of a boundary between a dream and reality. "What's Up, Doc?" has come out well enough.

Women Impressionists: Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Bracquemond

(Legion of Honor, 21 June 2008--21 September 2008)

The lack of the sexual appeal of the paintings' subjects leaves a void in the subjects' character. There is something in the look and the poise of women when painted by men that suggests mystery, strength, youth---that sexually charges the women in the paintings. Not so in the paintings by the women impressionists. Instead, the look is blank, the back is slouched. The women in the paintings are exposed, void of the idealisation typically conferred upon them by the hand of a male painter. What is left?

Sometimes the woman's look is blank; sometimes it betrays an emotion: motherly affection (almost a duty), boredom, or longing for the unknown. Does this reflect the limited range of a late ninetieth century woman deprived of education, a woman whose main occupation is a "visitor", a "mother", or a virgin in waiting for a husband? Or is the flatness of women's characters due to the shallow perceptions and abilities of the artists? Probably a little of both can be held responsible.

The femininity of male painters' female subjects does not subtract from the character of the subjects. The femininity accentuates this character. A man is liable to idealise a woman, if only for evolutionary reasons. This idealisation is not limited to the physical. Instead, the physical idealisation often present in paintings serves to accentuate the emotional and intellectual idealisation---if it fails to do so, it becomes pornography.

The exhibition by women impressionists is a valuable study in the way women see women. Not surprisingly, however, the spectacle is surpassed by the way talented men see women and the way women would like to be seen.

Doubt---a parable

(Theatre Works, 19 July 2008)
The entire play is less than the sum of the scenes that it contains. The grotesque fallibility of characters prevents the play from raising moral dilemmas that linger after the curtain drops. To the credit of the actors, however, the grotesque characters are not accompanied by grotesque performances.

Sister James (Kristin Stokes) is prepared to compromise her knowledge of the truth in order to please others and especially be pleased by others. Sister Aloysius (Kimberly King) values the perceived safety of her pupils above their happiness; she also values her mental routines above her happiness. Infantile Father Brendan Flynn (Cassidy Brown) lacks confidence in himself and constantly seeks approval. By the end of the play, everyone, including the prosecutor Sister Aloysius and the plaintiff Father Flynn, are consumed by "doubt," which gives the rise to the title of the play.

Does the hierarchical authority of the church, the "certainties" of religion , and the unconditional approval of god disproportionately attract people who lack self-confidence? the kind of people who populate the play?

The play is at its best if perceived as a series of sketches. The scene with Mrs Muller (Tamiyka White) is a potent one. Not blinded by the black-and-white simplicity often sought for in religion, she is a consequentialist. She realises that most situations in life involve trade-offs. This conflict between consequentialist and deontological views could have constituted a core conflict in the play. Short of changing the subject of the play, removing the ending in which Sister Aloysius suffers from the pangs of doubt would have made the narrative less didactic and left some food for thought for the audience.

'Tis Pity She's a Whore

(A.C.T. 5 June–6 July 2008)
The men in this play behave in so many erroneous ways that, even if there is a subtle point to be communicated by the play, this point is lost among so many gross deficiencies of the mens' characters. The blatant violence depicted on stage was not foreign to the seventeenth century Europe. The motivation of a contemporary director, however, to make this violence the focus of his work is unclear. True, violence is prominent in contemporary motion pictures, but its attraction to modern audiences and directors is not clear either. (Schadenfreude?) Thus, in its depiction of violence, the work borders on pornographic, which distracts from the main point of the play---the point that I have failed to see.

Direction of the play suffers from poor timing. The narrative lacks pauses between the scenes; it lacks phrasing.

Furthermore, acting is unnecessarily grotesque and lacking nuance. Anthony Fusco (playing Vasques) is least guilty of the aforementioned misdemeanours.

The performance was followed by a discussion featuring two psychoanalysts---called "theatre on the couch." One of the premises was that the viewer must be shocked by or at least disapprove strongly of an incestuous relationship between siblings, and hence hold the two protagonists guilty and possibly even justly punished in the end. It is unclear, however, why incest is wrong. Interracial marriage used to be illegal, and gay love was considered repugnant---but no longer. The attitudes have evolved; enlightenment has prevailed. Removing the irrational stigma associated with incest would be welcome. (When childhood friends become lovers this is considered to be "cute"; when siblings become lovers it is not---why?)

With the moral ambiguity of incest removed, this is a play about bigots giving poor advice, weak characters following this advice, and weak people who lack other entertainment committing violence, as if to prove to themselves that they exist.

Dancin' with Gershwin

(Smuin Ballet, 1 June 2008)
A toast to youth, if not immortality; to youth with its imperfections, which are transient, with its physical attraction, which is transient, with its openness and discovery, which make it immortal. The first act lacked continuity in musical numbers or lacked pauses between the numbers. The absence of a live orchestra is probably responsible for these deficiencies. Phrasing of some dances was rushed. Dances in the second act were longer, more earnest, and transited from one into another more naturally than in the first act.

The Petrified Forest (1936)

A film about keeping going, listening to oneself, and being frank because encounters are brief. All this with the goal of gaining focus in life.

Lost in Translation (2003)

The film is a reasonably executed story about the empowering quality of loneliness.

Hors de Prix (2006)

A story about consistently impatient people learning to make the most of their lives in a tasteful manner. The implied message does not exceed the carrying capacity of the picture.