Media Things: Drama

The Fever

2005-01-07T01:16:59-08:00

This little play, Wallace Shawn's monologue of 112 pages, rocked me when I first encountered it at the Vancouver Fringe Festival sometime in the mid '90s. Perhaps I'll add some commentary later, but for now, try these links: A reading by the author, Wallace Shawn Analysis/Review Review: performance at the fritz theatre, san diego, CA, 19 April 99 which provides the most erudite observation of the meaning underlying this play: "Shawn's theater is not of didacticism, but of dialectic, of disturbing questions posited to provoke us rather than simple answers to soothe." Keep that in mind when reading the reviews by Library Journal and Publisher's Weekly on Amazon.com, which are in stark contrast to those by readers.

Wallace Shawn

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

2004-05-31T12:19:14-08:00

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Milan Kundera this film features Daniel Day Lewis, Juliet Binoche and Lena Olin, the two women in their breakout performances. This was not a simple adaptation by any means. Kundera's text uses breaks in the narrative to further illuminate both his characters and his themes, at one point discussing how and why the author made explicit choices in developing the central character of Tomas (Daniel Day Lewis' role in the film). Fortunately, the filmmakers chose to ignore this brave narrative reflexivity which works so well in the novel and concentrate instead on the characters, story and themes in more cinematic terms. Set initially in the Prague Spring, in the heady days of free speech and political possibility and closing after the crushing Soviety invasion, this is on the surface a lusty story of lust and love, politics and passion. However, as the title implies, what Kundera was really after was meaning, and the filmmakers were wise to follow his lead. Yes, we can excape an oppressive country, live free and accumulate both success and wealth, but if there is no personal meaning in such a carefree existence are we not, in fact, lost? If we sacrifice our sense of place, belonging, commitment and passion, what remains? The unbearable lightness of being. Kundera and the filmmakers conclude that being happy is dependent on the passion one has for life and for people, and on the acknowledgement of one's connnections to being, both culturally and socially. Without these an easy existence is an empty one.

Philip Kaufman

Casablanca

2004-05-29T13:32:40-08:00

For me, the quintessential dramatic film. It's hard to believe the makers were writing the script as they shot it, making the result a likely triumph of editing. Crisp, meaningful dialog, every line of which moves the story forward. Laughs, love, song, tension, death and tragedy along with an outstanding ensemble cast building to perhaps the most well known resolution in storytelling. Here's lookin' at you kid.

Bogart and Bergman

Dogville

2004-04-21T13:35:17-08:00

The Vancouver International Film Festival annually commissions several promotional short films which are broadcast on television and shown before every festival screening. In 2003, the theme was "what if the characters in the film were actually living in the film?" One of them featured flat lighting, a shaky camera and a couple of physically destabilised businessmen on their way to an important presentation. They quickly recognise that their pale complexions and growing motion sickness are due not to an unsettling car ride, but rather the shaky camera and non-existent lighting endemic to the Dogma '95 film they're in. As one businessman leans over and retches behind a newspaper box, the other raises his fist to the sky and shouts, CURSE YOU LARS VON TRIER!!! vonTrier is an iconoclast of the first order, and plenty of film-goers will find elements in Dogville worth shaking their fists at. The camera swoops, jitters and shakes undoubtedly causing the focus-puller numerous anxious moments, many of which end up in the final cut. Edits jump, crash and tumble, scantily maintaining the axis. Perhaps most disturbing is that all the action takes place in a minimalist, cramped soundstage with only the barest suggestion of a set. The film opens with a God's-eye view of Dogville, or rather an architectural floor plan of the town painted on the soundstage's black floor with thick white lines. Block-stencilled letters label the buildings and streets of the town, as well as "The Old Lady's Bench" and the "Gooseberry Bushes" and other objects of note. The barest of set dressing is applied to this floor plan. A writer's desk, a doctor's medicine cabinet and an easy chair are all the pieces used to describe the home of Tom and his father, bunk beds, a cradle and a chalk-board represent the home of a family of seven. There is a portion of a wall here, a window there, a flatbed truck, some wooden arches give the feel of a mine shaft (labelled "Dictum ag Factum," latin for, I believe, "Speak the Truth".) Cramped into this space are the 15 inhabitants and one dog of Dogville who are today to recieve a mysterious visitor, a fugitive, who the town agrees to take in and protect. I won't say anything about the story itself other than to observe that the conflict which drives these characters is between hopeful innocence and human nature. It is not an uncommon tale, but von Trier's film portrays it with growing ruthlessness, and the stripped-down set, which at first is a distraction, (knocking on an imaginary door is one thing, but opening and closing it is a task none of the actors pulls off with any aplomb) in time works to the director's advantage. In the end, there are only the characters, the conflict and its disturbing resolution. About that resolution I will say only this: the makers of the film The Punisher have nothing over von Trier. Curse him or hail him, you will not forget seeing this film.

Lars von Trier

The Snow Walker

2004-03-10T00:34:28-08:00

A fairly simple but beautifully shot and effective clash of cultures film. A bush pilot and his ailing Inuit passenger crash land in the high Arctic. Of course it is the Inuit girl's traditional living skills which save him from the elements. A better film would have left the story there, in the Arctic. Instead, we are periodically dragged back to Yellow Knife (or, rather, flatly lit studio set intended to be a bar and hangar in Yellow Knife) to follow the efforts and anguish of the pilot's colleagues, friends and lover, who eventually call off the search. I am always anxious to get back to the real drama, as the pilot develops respect, then warmth, for the young Inuit woman, even as the winter snows gather, and her condition worsens.

Farley Mowat

The Company

2004-02-27T22:59:03-08:00

The latest from Robert Altman, of whom I am a reserved fan. Altman, when he's on, hits them out of the park, as he did with The Player but when he's off, as he was with Pret a Porter, he's disturbingly unwatchable. The Company is not so narratively driven as The Player though neither does it devolve into Pret a Porter's endless driveling, non-sequitur dialog. There is a loose story here, as Altman's interest in his subject matter meanders through the life of Ryan, the dancer portrayed by Neve Cambel. However, the best moments occur when the film loses itself cinematagraphically in the art of dance itself. The film here is lovingly intimate and ever so much more interesting than the daily lives of the dancers themselves, at least the razor thin representation of character we get to know. I believe the more interesting choice here would have been entitled, The Dance. In the end, those are the moments I remember, the moments I am sorry to see interrupted by closing credits.

Robert Altman