Archives for 2017

“Film noir is the conjunction of violence and irony, and we Americans don’t do irony very well. We are a straightforward and self-righteous people, so we are rather good at viciousness and humor but lacking in irony.”

David Mamet, Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business

In today’s Wall Street Journal I review a pair of newish plays in which two screen stars make their Broadway debuts, Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman (with Uma Thurman) and Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower (with Amy Schumer). Both are mediocre. Here’s an excerpt.

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When not hinting about what she’d like to do to Harvey Weinstein, Uma Thurman has been rehearsing for her Broadway debut. To be sure, Ms. Thurman hasn’t set foot on a stage since her ill-received performance in Classic Stage Company’s 1999 production of “The Misanthrope,” but that’s not stopping the producers of the Broadway premiere of Beau Willimon’s “The Parisian Woman” from charging $260 a pop for the privilege of seeing her in the flesh.

Mr. Willimon is also a Broadway debutant with a high-profile resumé (he created the Netflix version of “House of Cards”). Not at all surprisingly, his new play, like that series, is a weightlessly slick piece of politics-flavored confectionery set in Washington in which Ms. Thurman plays the sexy spouse of an ambitious tax lawyer who longs to be appointed to a judgeship by President You-Know-Who….

If that’s your game, then “The Parisian Woman” will be your huckleberry, but it bored me to the point of squirming in my seat, packed as it is with boo-hiss-cheer lines so predictable that I caught myself mouthing some of the comebacks a half-beat ahead of the actors. As for Ms. Thurman, her performance is technically competent but devoid of the red-hot star quality that suffuses her screen performances. Whatever it is that made her famous is evidently visible through a lens or not at all….

It hardly seems worth bothering to review “Meteor Shower”: Steve Martin wrote it, Amy Schumer is starring in it, their fans are already standing on each other’s shoulders to buy tickets, and nothing I could possibly say or do will dissuade any of them from ponying up premium prices to participate in a collective act of celebrity worship.

Be that as it may, a job’s a job, so here goes nothing: Mr. Martin isn’t a bad playwright, but he isn’t a good one, either, and “Meteor Shower,” a pseudo-surrealistic four-hander about two married couples who get together to watch a meteor shower and spend the evening at one another’s throats, is no more than very mildly amusing….

Ms. Schumer plays herself well and has no trouble projecting her lines without amplification—neither of which can be taken for granted when TV stars decide to get their Broadway cards punched….

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To read my review of The Parisian Woman, go here.

To read my review of Meteor Shower, go here.

Carlos Kleiber and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester perform Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture on TV in 1996:

(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

“Movies possess unlimited power to entertain. They have, however, no power whatever to teach. The audience lends its attention only for the purpose of entertainment and will deny (consciously or unconsciously) its attention to any other purpose.”

David Mamet, Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:
• The Band’s Visit (musical, PG-13, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Dear Evan Hansen (musical, PG-13, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:
• Pride and Prejudice (comedy, G, remounting of Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival production, extended through Jan. 6, original production reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• The Home Place (drama, PG-13, extended through Dec. 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:
• The Portuguese Kid (comedy, PG-13, closes Dec. 10, reviewed here)

“These men, and their performances, are characterized by the absence of the desire to please. On screen, they don’t have anything to prove, and so we are extraordinarily drawn to them.”

David Mamet, Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business

In today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I write about A Life in Movies and Million-Dollar Movie, the two-volume autobiography of Michael Powell, one of the greatest filmmakers of the twentieth century. Here’s an excerpt.

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Anyone can write an autobiography, and it sometimes seems that most people do. But the ability to write an autobiography with bonafide literary merit—one that can be read for aesthetic pleasure alone—is usually limited to professional writers.

Miracles do happen, though, and anyone who’s had the pleasure of reading (to cite two of my favorite examples) Ulysses S. Grant’s “Personal Memoirs” and Alec Guinness’ “Blessings in Disguise” knows that you needn’t be a pro to write stylishly. “A Life in Movies” (1986) and “Million-Dollar Movie” (1992), Michael Powell’s reminiscences of his young years and later life as a British film director, prove the same point. Almost entirely unknown in this country, these two books were recently drawn to my attention by a film critic. (While both are out of print, used copies are easy to obtain.) Taken together, they constitute what just might be the best autobiography ever published by a working artist of significance who wasn’t a wordsmith by trade….

Don’t be embarrassed if Powell’s name is unfamiliar to you. “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943), “I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945), “Black Narcissus” (1947) and “The Red Shoes” (1948), the films for which he is best known, didn’t attract wide attention when they were originally released in the U.S., and for many years they were unavailable for screening. It was only when the Criterion Collection brought them out on home video that Powell and his professional partner, the screenwriter Emeric Pressburger, came to be widely regarded as filmmakers of the first rank, a judgment shared in high places. (“Colonel Blimp,” for instance, is David Mamet’s favorite movie.) Even now, they are not nearly so well known as their Hollywood-based contemporaries, in particular Alfred Hitchcock, who did not become a household name until he immigrated to the U.S. in 1940. Powell, by contrast, never wanted to work in Hollywood, for he saw himself as a wholly English artist and coveted his creative independence. “My art was a proud art, and I still believe in the art of the impossible,” he wrote in “Million-Dollar Movie.” So he steered clear of Hollywood, ran out of money, and made no feature films between 1969 and his death in 1990.

It is, to be sure, a sad story, but there is nothing remotely sad about “A Life in Movies” and “Million-Dollar Movie,” in which Powell recounts his tales of triumph and disaster in the manner of a man who embraced the whole of life, good and bad alike, with unquenchable enthusiasm….

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Read the whole thing here.

From 1986, an episode of The South Bank Show devoted entirely to the life and work of Michael Powell. It was rebroadcast by ITV after his death in 1990:

A scene from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, directed by Michael Powell, written by Emeric Pressburger, and starring Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook, and Deborah Kerr:

Bookmark: Kingsley Amis, a 1991 BBC documentary about the novelist occasioned by the publication of his Memoirs:

(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)