Sholom aleichem!" said Shiva Shapiro in a heavy Yiddish accent to her visitors.As she deftly stuffed cabbage leaves with rice and stewed tomatoes, and displayed other dishes she has made on her 1900 Beauty Hub coal stove, Shapiro drew her guests into her life.
"This is 1919," she said."Last year was the end of the influenza epidemic and the end of the war to end all wars. We're a Jewish family and we're keeping kosher in our home. I don't read English, only Yiddish and Hebrew. My daughter Mollie learned about bananas at school. I think that bananas are mushy, but I take her to buy a hand of bananas for 25 cents."
Shapiro is actually Barbara Ann Paster, one of the actors here at the Strawbery Banke restoration, a living museum in which over 350 years of Portsmouth homes,stores, churches and history have been preserved. It is in Puddle Dock, which was a decrepit neighbourhood destined to be razed under urban renewal until a campaign in the 1950s and '60s led by the town librarian saved 42 houses on 10 acres to create the museum.
The area was first settled in 1695 by the English,who found a profusion of strawberries there. By the turn of the 20th century Italians, Irish, English, FrenchCanadians and East European Jews had come here to find work. Although most immigrants at that time settled in large cities, some settled directly in smaller towns like Portsmouth. By 1919, 152 Russian Jews made up about a quarter of the immigrant population of Puddle Dock and 18 of them were Shapiro relatives,according to the museum.
As Shapiro, the wife of a pawnbroker with a 9-yearold daughter, Paster cooks dishes that follow the rhythm of the seasons, and the Jewish calendar.
She may make strawberry jam for her strudel in June, or pickle cucumbers with dill from her garden,or put up Reliance peaches with brandy in August.
For Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, she excitedly pinched rolled-out strips of pasta dough into bowtie noodles to use with leftover kasha stuffing from her roast chicken, and made traditional honey and poppy seed cakes.
Paster,61, has been portraying Shapiro since the Shapiro house opened in 1997."My entire life was made for this job," Paster said with a laugh."I married an Orthodox man. I'm Jewish from Russia, so I know the rules of kashrut and family purity. I am also a storyteller."
The real Mrs Shapiro immigrated from Anapol,Ukraine, in 1904 with other family members to meet her future husband, Abraham, also from Anapol, in Portsmouth, where he went to work in a shoe factory and later became the president of Portsmouth's synagogue, Temple of Israel.
At Strawbery Banke, visitors encounter Shiva Shapiro as a 34-year-old woman whose time is spent in her kosher kitchen with its coal stove and icebox."I get 50 pounds [23kg] of ice for 25 cents [8 baht] every other day and I can keep kosher meat for up to three days,"she said."There is hardly a time when I would need to keep it so long as there are two kosher butchers with delivery: Jacob Segal in a horse and buggy and Harry Liberson, who came here from an advertisement looking for a butcher in The Jewish Messenger out of New York and has stayed for 65 years."
Holidays were at the centre of the Shapiro family's life, and the museum staff took great pains to ensure the historical accuracy of the foods prepared and the items the family had available.
"To authenticate the Shapiro house," said Michelle Moon, director of education for the museum,"the curatorial staff interviewed 30 people from the neighbourhood and took pollen and seed analyses to determine what grew and was eaten in their home."
Shapiro's grandson, Burt Wolf,75, recalls picking seed pods for poppy seed cake or filling for his grandmother's holiday strudel.
In 1919 it was still too early for standard East European ingredients like kasha, poppy seeds and kale to be in mainstream cookbooks like "Fanny Farmer", which Mollie translated for her mother. Even Florence Greenbaum's International Jewish Cookbook (1918)had only one recipe for mohn (poppy seed) roly polys and none for kale or kasha.
But immigrants brought seeds of their traditional foods, like yellow Ukrainian carrots, kale and parsnips.Shapiro bought harder-to-save seeds like beets in Jackson's hardware store.
"Mr Wolf and many older immigrants told us that they ate yellow Ukrainian tomatoes, which we know Mrs Shapiro was growing in her garden," said John Forti, curator of culinary historic landscape for the museum. The red tomatoes were canned.
Forti found a Reliance peach tree growing out of the compost pile in the Shapiro's garden. Seed catalogues from that time included climbing Russian cucumbers and Zubrinski yellow potatoes, which are planted there now.
Stoneware crock shards found in the yard were a clue for the staff."Mrs Shapiro was putting up the food in the old style as well as using canning jars," he said."We found kale seeds in the walls of another immigrant's house."
Jewish truck farmers in the neighbouring town of Greenland grew buckwheat for kasha, an East European staple, used at that time in America only for buckwheat pancakes.
Recipes were handed down orally, at least in the East European immigrant communities, and they also travelled between neighbours."Whenever Camilla Pento comes to the house she points to the mandelbrot and says 'biscotti'," Shapiro said."She came to my house one day to show me how to make her biscotti. Nothing wrong with her recipe but in order for my family to eat it, we need to make it here so it's kosher. I made my mandelbrot and poppy seed cake and she her biscotti and pizzelles with a brand new pizzelle iron."
The Sabbath and holidays were the center of Shapiro's world and they also meant a lot of work for the Shapiro matriarch. Visiting just before Rosh Hashana, the first in the Jewish High Holy Days, I spoke with Elaine Kraskar, Shapiro's great-niece,82, who was a prominent Democratic state legislator for 16 years. Kraskar remembers going with her grandparents to farms to get chickens for holidays and the Sabbath.
"We would put them in a burlap sack and bring them to be ritually slaughtered by Mr Liberson," she said."My grandmother would singe the feathers, pluck and clean out the chickens. Everything was used. The intestines were cleaned and stuffed. We roasted chicken stuffed with kasha. Rosh Hashana was a special time,a time for families to be together."
Although Kraskar gave the museum her grandfather's safe, a Victrola with Yiddish records, and a nightie her grandmother made for her, she couldn't give up her rolling pin or scrub board.
"I put the scrub board up on the wall in my laundry room," she said,"to remind me how hard life was for her and how much easier it is today."NYT NEWS SERVICE
CRISPY KALE Time:
Adapted from the Strawbery Banke Museum 20 minutes / Serves 6 to 8 as a finger food, snack or side dish Ingredients: Preparation:
1bunch of kale,(about 450g), cored, leaves rinsed and thoroughly dried 3 to 4 Tbsp olive or vegetable oil 3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced Kosher salt, to taste 1. Preheat oven 260กC. Meanwhile, flatten kale leaves and use the point of a knife to remove tough center ribs. Stack leaves and roll them together, then slice crosswise into chiffonade strips 1in. to 1in. wide.2. Place kale in a medium bowl. Toss with olive oil, garlic and salt, making sure leaves are well coated with oil. Spread evenly across a large baking sheet.3. Bake, tossing once or twice, until leaves are crispy but not burned, about 5 minutes.Serve as is as a finger food or snack, or top with poached eggs as a breakfast or lunch dish.
KASHA-STUFFED ROAST CHICKEN Adapted from Elaine Kraskar Time:2 hours / Serves 6 to 8Ingredients: Preparation: 4 Tbsp chicken fat or vegetable oil, plus additional for greasing pan 3onions,1 diced and 2 coarsely chopped 1large egg 1cup dry kasha 2cups chicken broth or water 12cup diced celery 1cup sliced mushrooms, optional 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley 1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh sage 1roasting chicken,1.8kg to 2kg 3cloves garlic, minced 450g whole, unpeeled,small potatoes 3tart apples, quartered and cored 4carrots, peeled and cut into 3- to 4in.chunks 4parsnips, peeled and cut into 3- to 4in.chunks 1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1. Preheat oven to 190กC. Grease a roasting pan and set aside. In a skillet over medium heat, heat 2 tablespoons of chicken fat or oil,and saute diced onion until golden. Remove from heat and set aside.2. In a small mixing bowl, beat egg lightly and stir in kasha. Mix well to coat all grains.Place a dry heavy skillet over high heat.When it is hot, add egg-coated kasha and stir with a wooden spoon to flatten it and break up any lumps. Continue to stir until egg has dried and kernels are browned and mostly separated. Add broth or water, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil.Add cooked onions, celery, mushrooms (if using), parsley and sage. Simmer, covered,stirring occasionally, until kasha is tender,about 15 minutes.3. Rub exterior of chicken with 1 tablespoon of remaining chicken fat or oil and garlic.Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stuff both cavities of chicken with kasha mixture.(Excess kasha may be baked in an ovenproof dish, during last 30 minutes of roasting time.)4. In bottom of roasting pan, combine potatoes,apples, carrots, parsnips and chopped onions.Add remaining 1 tablespoon chicken fat or oil, and rosemary, and toss well to coat.Gently place chicken on top of vegetables and bake until golden and cooked through,about 11
2hours. To serve, carve chicken as desired and serve each portion with some of vegetables and apples.
POPPY SEED CAKE Adapted from Strawbery Banke Museum
Time:90 minutes / Serves 12 Ingredients: Preparation:
1cup poppy seeds 1cup milk or soy milk 1cup (225g) unsalted butter or pareve margarine, plus more for greasing pan 2cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting pan 2cups sugar 3large eggs, separated 2 Tsp vanilla extract 12tsp salt 21
2tsp baking powder Confectioners sugar, for dusting 1. In a small saucepan, combine the poppy seeds and milk. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, and allow to rest until cool, about 20 minutes.2. Preheat oven to 176กC and prepare a large loaf or tube pan by greasing it with margarine and lightly flouring the inside of the pan.3. In bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together butter or margarine and sugar. Add egg yolks, vanilla, and poppy seed-milk mixture, and beat until smooth. Gradually add 2 cups flour, salt and baking powder. Mix well; remove bowl from mixer and set aside.4. Place a clean bowl in mixer, with a whisk attachment, and whisk egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gently fold into batter. Scrape into pan, and bake until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool on a rack. When cool, dust cake with confectioners sugar.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Period films easier to get past censors
Chinese film-makers are addressing modern social woes by setting their movies in the past to avoid censorship,Wheat director He Ping said at the Toronto film festival.
For decades the Chinese have sought to get around censorship by using old poems or literature as allegories for modern situations.
An international audience is now being acquainted with this tradition, carried on in film. He Ping's satirical film,screened here for the first time outside of his homeland, is set in the Warring States era from 476 BC to the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC.
It depicts the struggles of women left behind when men go off to war and the way they remain happy - by believing in the lie that their loved ones will return to them once the conflict ends.
The film could easily have been set in modern times, he said."But if you tell a critical story in a contemporary Chinese setting, it can be a much more sensitive issue. The reality for Chinese film-makers is that if you set a film that blasts current goings-on in a contemporary setting, it may not pass the censors," he said.
Tian Zhuang Zhuang's film The Warrior and the Wolf , adapted from a short story by Japanese author Yasushi Inoue,is also set in the period of Warring States.
And director Lu Chuan travelled back almost 80 years for his film City of Life and Death , about the infamous massacre in Nanjing during the 1937 fall of the then-capital to the Japanese army.
He Ping is careful to point out that his film targets Chinese society and not China's Communist regime.
"China has made a lot of progress of late, but there is still a lot of truth being covered up," he said."Chinese people are living a much happier life than at any point in their history, but they are still living a lie."
He points out that a series of deadly coal mine accidents and a recent contaminated milk scandal only became known when "tragedy struck",adding that he fears much worse remains hidden.
Lu Chuan's movie deals in gruesome detail with the killing of what China says were 300,000 defenseless civilians and prisoners of war by Japanese invaders. But it also portrays the Japanese soldiers as ordinary people caught up in the tragedy of war, rather than the bloodthirsty monsters that they are often
depicted as in China.
This is unforgivable in the eyes of some ultranationalists and Lu has already received at least one death threat.
Lu says he was driven to "adopt the point of view of a Japanese soldier" to show the truth, and to counterbalance the "excessive" way the massacre has been dealt with in China in the past.
For decades the Chinese have sought to get around censorship by using old poems or literature as allegories for modern situations.
An international audience is now being acquainted with this tradition, carried on in film. He Ping's satirical film,screened here for the first time outside of his homeland, is set in the Warring States era from 476 BC to the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC.
It depicts the struggles of women left behind when men go off to war and the way they remain happy - by believing in the lie that their loved ones will return to them once the conflict ends.
The film could easily have been set in modern times, he said."But if you tell a critical story in a contemporary Chinese setting, it can be a much more sensitive issue. The reality for Chinese film-makers is that if you set a film that blasts current goings-on in a contemporary setting, it may not pass the censors," he said.
Tian Zhuang Zhuang's film The Warrior and the Wolf , adapted from a short story by Japanese author Yasushi Inoue,is also set in the period of Warring States.
And director Lu Chuan travelled back almost 80 years for his film City of Life and Death , about the infamous massacre in Nanjing during the 1937 fall of the then-capital to the Japanese army.
He Ping is careful to point out that his film targets Chinese society and not China's Communist regime.
"China has made a lot of progress of late, but there is still a lot of truth being covered up," he said."Chinese people are living a much happier life than at any point in their history, but they are still living a lie."
He points out that a series of deadly coal mine accidents and a recent contaminated milk scandal only became known when "tragedy struck",adding that he fears much worse remains hidden.
Lu Chuan's movie deals in gruesome detail with the killing of what China says were 300,000 defenseless civilians and prisoners of war by Japanese invaders. But it also portrays the Japanese soldiers as ordinary people caught up in the tragedy of war, rather than the bloodthirsty monsters that they are often
depicted as in China.
This is unforgivable in the eyes of some ultranationalists and Lu has already received at least one death threat.
Lu says he was driven to "adopt the point of view of a Japanese soldier" to show the truth, and to counterbalance the "excessive" way the massacre has been dealt with in China in the past.
Watching a nation fall apart, entertainingly
"A merica unravelling in different ways."That's how Thom Powers, the documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival,put it. It was Tuesday night, six days into the 34th edition of this annual cinematic convocation, and Powers had just bluntly identified a trend that had become apparent from my sampling of more than two dozen fiction and nonfiction movies laden with doomsday predictions, conspiracy theories (and facts), grim statistics, alarming charts,dire projections and shrieking, whimpering and failing men and women.
During its 10 days, this sprawling,homey event takes over Toronto,attracting locals as well as journalists and industry insiders from around the world. This is where professional festivalgoers catch up on films they missed at Cannes and Venice and preview scores of other new titles.
It's where George Clooney (here with Up in the Air and Men Who Stare at Goats ) and Oprah Winfrey (fronting for the Sundance hit Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire ) sell the celebrity goods, giving journalists 10 minutes of face time and sidelined fans high-wattage smiles. It's also where Werner Herzog unveiled one of the best movies of his career (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans ) and one of the worst (My Son,My Son, What Have Ye Done?).Trying to locate an overarching theme in a festival as large as Toronto - this year, there are 335 movies from 65 countries - is usually either an exercise in futility or a critical contrivance. Even so, Powers had acknowledged something that was difficult to avoid and not just among the documentaries: Along with the rest of the world, film-makers are casting a hard, sober, often alarmed eye at the US.
These days even a documentary about bees and beekeeping skews apocalyptic:Witness Colony , an examination of what's been labelled colony collapse disorder,the mysterious phenomenon that has,over the past few frightening years, wiped out about a third of the US honeybee population.
Backed with Irish money (we liked it,a producer explained),Colony was jointly directed by Carter Gunn (the Irishman who edited it) and Ross McDonnell (the US man who shot its pretty digital images). Working under the obvious influence of Errol Morris - notable in their attention to beauty, interview style and even pacing - they shift seamlessly from macro-images of the swarming bees to close-ups of their fretting keepers who are struggling with the devastation,including one large California family that is unwisely compared to a hive. Although they could have dug deeper and incorporated more of a global perspective (colony collapse disorder reaches to Europe), their movie constitutes a satisfying addition to the blooming, buzzing field of social issue documentary.
Rather less happy is Michael Moore's latest,Capitalism: A Love Story , a soft look at our hard times that opens on Wednesday in the US. Off screen, at least, Moore was in fine form at his premiere last week, fielding questions from the volubly adoring audience and joking about the less welcome critical reception he expects back home. He also introduced some striking steelworkers and reminded Powers to tell us that Capitalism is eligible for an award from Cadillac, a festival sponsor.(Cadillac, of course, is owned by General Motors,whose former chief executive Roger Smith was the subject of Moore's Roger & Me .)I kept wondering how the award fits in with GM's restructuring plan.
More bad news was delivered in the far more elegantly structured if not unproblematic documentary Collapse ,from Chris Smith. A US film-maker who occasionally delves into fiction (The Pool and so forth), Smith trains his intelligent, focused attention on just one man in this compelling curiosity: Michael C. Ruppert, who discourses or, more precisely, disgorges, on everything from the intrigues of Dick Cheney to the dangers of corn.
In a different age Ruppert, a chain smoker with the crumpled face and wary gaze of the cop he once was, might have alarmed and entertained from the Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London,famed for prophets and fools. Now he spreads the gloom via (of course) his blog fromthewilderness.com.
For much of Collapse Ruppert sits in a wooden chair in an anonymous brickface room and talks and talks and talks,very much a man cinematically and existentially alone.
He derives much of his information from news reports, which he combs through to uncover what he believes to be the truth. Although some of what he says sounds reasonable (his harangue about declining petroleum reserves, for one), I wish Smith, who never appears on screen but whose presence is felt in all his film-making choices, had approached his subject more aggressively.
As in any large festival, the fiction titles ranged far and wide across genres and themes, with a familiar smattering of downer dramas and melancholic melodramas.
(I'm dysfunctional, you're dysfunctional, we're all dysfunctional!) In Love and Other Impossible Pursuits Don Roos attempts, with mixed results, to show what a real family looks like, much as he did in the more successful Happy Endings . Although he tries hard to create a sense of actual if cosseted Manhattan life - gustily insisting for instance that his star Natalie Portman, as a grieving mother, remain unlikable - Roos overworks his material into a sudsy pulp.Most of the characters might be in need of therapy, but Roos' screenplay has already been therapeuticised, with every angle, emotion, feeling spelled out.
It's not immediately clear what ails Ryan Bingham ( Clooney) in Up in the Air , about a lone wolf who tirelessly crisscrosses the country firing employees for cowardly or indifferent bosses. Based on the Walter Kirn novel of the same title and smoothly directed by Jason Reitman (Juno and Thank You for Smoking ),Up in the Air starts as a comedy only to metamorphose into tragedy as this one-dimensional corporate assassin makes a mid-life run for happiness with another high flier (Vera Farmiga, a charmed match for Clooney).
Over a meet-and-greet dinner Reitman explained that one of his inspirations was Shampoo , Robert Towne and Hal Ashby's 1975 masterpiece about a Beverly Hills hairdresser that ends on a similarly ambiguous image of terminal aloneness.
Reitman doesn't reach the sublime heights of Shampoo or tap into the haunted US soul as deeply as About Schmidt , which limned comparable terrain. But he's taken significant steps forward with Up in the Air and without the self-conscious cutesy dialogue of Diablo Cody, who wrote Juno . Ms Cody,meanwhile, fizzled early at the festival with Jennifer's Body , a horror throwaway starring Megan Fox as a cannibalistic hottie.
Like the pitiful stick figures who inhabit Life During Wartime , Todd Solondz's hateful, would-be comedy, the middleclass characters in Jennifer's Body are nothing more than fodder for the filmmakers, which wouldn't be such a problem if all the bile and cheap laughs in both movies were accompanied by ideas,politics, a little heart, anything.
Among the worthier titles that will or should be coming to a cinema or cable channel near you are films such as City of Life and Death , a fictional re-creation of the Japanese conquest of Nanking in 1937. Directed by Lu Chuan (Mountain Patrol: Kekexili ), one of the most talented Chinese film-makers to emerge in recent years, and shot in widescreen black and white,City of Life and Death opens just as the Japanese overrun Nanking.
What follows is a phantasmagoric vision in which decapitated heads swing from ropes like pendulums in front of mountains of rubble and billowing smoke. Lu smartly toggles between the prisoners and their captors, a strategy that helps humanise the invaders, giving a face to evil.
My favourite discovery at Toronto,however, is the deliriously unhinged Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans ,which was met with laughter and audible gasps during its initial press screening.Although it bears some resemblance to the original Bad Lieutenant , Abel Ferrara's 1992 grungy classic about a drug-addled cop, Herzog's redo is its own beast.Nicolas Cage, delivering his loosest,twitchiest, most furiously engaged performance since Vampire's Kiss (1988),in which he swallowed a cockroach for his art, plays the title character, a detective who's badder and madder than most.
Written by William Finkelstein, a veteran television writer (L.A. Law ), the plot hinges on familiar dirty business (a multiple murder, drug deals) that becomes increasingly irrelevant as the mood and film-making heat up.
In this brightly lighted nightmare, a post-Katrina New Orleans that might have been conceived by Hieronymus Bosch but could come to the screen only through the feverish imaginings of Herzog, a dead man's soul dances near his body and googly-eyed iguanas trade seemingly knowing looks with the popeyed lieutenant.
To watch Cage melt with pleasure as he lights up his "lucky crack pipe" or seize up with spasmodic giggles, is to understand that Herzog has again found a performer as committed to representing unspeakable human will as Klaus Kinski,the star of Herzog masterworks like Aguirre, the Wrath of God . Here Cage and Herzog take you into a hell that leads straight to movie heaven.
During its 10 days, this sprawling,homey event takes over Toronto,attracting locals as well as journalists and industry insiders from around the world. This is where professional festivalgoers catch up on films they missed at Cannes and Venice and preview scores of other new titles.
It's where George Clooney (here with Up in the Air and Men Who Stare at Goats ) and Oprah Winfrey (fronting for the Sundance hit Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire ) sell the celebrity goods, giving journalists 10 minutes of face time and sidelined fans high-wattage smiles. It's also where Werner Herzog unveiled one of the best movies of his career (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans ) and one of the worst (My Son,My Son, What Have Ye Done?).Trying to locate an overarching theme in a festival as large as Toronto - this year, there are 335 movies from 65 countries - is usually either an exercise in futility or a critical contrivance. Even so, Powers had acknowledged something that was difficult to avoid and not just among the documentaries: Along with the rest of the world, film-makers are casting a hard, sober, often alarmed eye at the US.
These days even a documentary about bees and beekeeping skews apocalyptic:Witness Colony , an examination of what's been labelled colony collapse disorder,the mysterious phenomenon that has,over the past few frightening years, wiped out about a third of the US honeybee population.
Backed with Irish money (we liked it,a producer explained),Colony was jointly directed by Carter Gunn (the Irishman who edited it) and Ross McDonnell (the US man who shot its pretty digital images). Working under the obvious influence of Errol Morris - notable in their attention to beauty, interview style and even pacing - they shift seamlessly from macro-images of the swarming bees to close-ups of their fretting keepers who are struggling with the devastation,including one large California family that is unwisely compared to a hive. Although they could have dug deeper and incorporated more of a global perspective (colony collapse disorder reaches to Europe), their movie constitutes a satisfying addition to the blooming, buzzing field of social issue documentary.
Rather less happy is Michael Moore's latest,Capitalism: A Love Story , a soft look at our hard times that opens on Wednesday in the US. Off screen, at least, Moore was in fine form at his premiere last week, fielding questions from the volubly adoring audience and joking about the less welcome critical reception he expects back home. He also introduced some striking steelworkers and reminded Powers to tell us that Capitalism is eligible for an award from Cadillac, a festival sponsor.(Cadillac, of course, is owned by General Motors,whose former chief executive Roger Smith was the subject of Moore's Roger & Me .)I kept wondering how the award fits in with GM's restructuring plan.
More bad news was delivered in the far more elegantly structured if not unproblematic documentary Collapse ,from Chris Smith. A US film-maker who occasionally delves into fiction (The Pool and so forth), Smith trains his intelligent, focused attention on just one man in this compelling curiosity: Michael C. Ruppert, who discourses or, more precisely, disgorges, on everything from the intrigues of Dick Cheney to the dangers of corn.
In a different age Ruppert, a chain smoker with the crumpled face and wary gaze of the cop he once was, might have alarmed and entertained from the Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London,famed for prophets and fools. Now he spreads the gloom via (of course) his blog fromthewilderness.com.
For much of Collapse Ruppert sits in a wooden chair in an anonymous brickface room and talks and talks and talks,very much a man cinematically and existentially alone.
He derives much of his information from news reports, which he combs through to uncover what he believes to be the truth. Although some of what he says sounds reasonable (his harangue about declining petroleum reserves, for one), I wish Smith, who never appears on screen but whose presence is felt in all his film-making choices, had approached his subject more aggressively.
As in any large festival, the fiction titles ranged far and wide across genres and themes, with a familiar smattering of downer dramas and melancholic melodramas.
(I'm dysfunctional, you're dysfunctional, we're all dysfunctional!) In Love and Other Impossible Pursuits Don Roos attempts, with mixed results, to show what a real family looks like, much as he did in the more successful Happy Endings . Although he tries hard to create a sense of actual if cosseted Manhattan life - gustily insisting for instance that his star Natalie Portman, as a grieving mother, remain unlikable - Roos overworks his material into a sudsy pulp.Most of the characters might be in need of therapy, but Roos' screenplay has already been therapeuticised, with every angle, emotion, feeling spelled out.
It's not immediately clear what ails Ryan Bingham ( Clooney) in Up in the Air , about a lone wolf who tirelessly crisscrosses the country firing employees for cowardly or indifferent bosses. Based on the Walter Kirn novel of the same title and smoothly directed by Jason Reitman (Juno and Thank You for Smoking ),Up in the Air starts as a comedy only to metamorphose into tragedy as this one-dimensional corporate assassin makes a mid-life run for happiness with another high flier (Vera Farmiga, a charmed match for Clooney).
Over a meet-and-greet dinner Reitman explained that one of his inspirations was Shampoo , Robert Towne and Hal Ashby's 1975 masterpiece about a Beverly Hills hairdresser that ends on a similarly ambiguous image of terminal aloneness.
Reitman doesn't reach the sublime heights of Shampoo or tap into the haunted US soul as deeply as About Schmidt , which limned comparable terrain. But he's taken significant steps forward with Up in the Air and without the self-conscious cutesy dialogue of Diablo Cody, who wrote Juno . Ms Cody,meanwhile, fizzled early at the festival with Jennifer's Body , a horror throwaway starring Megan Fox as a cannibalistic hottie.
Like the pitiful stick figures who inhabit Life During Wartime , Todd Solondz's hateful, would-be comedy, the middleclass characters in Jennifer's Body are nothing more than fodder for the filmmakers, which wouldn't be such a problem if all the bile and cheap laughs in both movies were accompanied by ideas,politics, a little heart, anything.
Among the worthier titles that will or should be coming to a cinema or cable channel near you are films such as City of Life and Death , a fictional re-creation of the Japanese conquest of Nanking in 1937. Directed by Lu Chuan (Mountain Patrol: Kekexili ), one of the most talented Chinese film-makers to emerge in recent years, and shot in widescreen black and white,City of Life and Death opens just as the Japanese overrun Nanking.
What follows is a phantasmagoric vision in which decapitated heads swing from ropes like pendulums in front of mountains of rubble and billowing smoke. Lu smartly toggles between the prisoners and their captors, a strategy that helps humanise the invaders, giving a face to evil.
My favourite discovery at Toronto,however, is the deliriously unhinged Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans ,which was met with laughter and audible gasps during its initial press screening.Although it bears some resemblance to the original Bad Lieutenant , Abel Ferrara's 1992 grungy classic about a drug-addled cop, Herzog's redo is its own beast.Nicolas Cage, delivering his loosest,twitchiest, most furiously engaged performance since Vampire's Kiss (1988),in which he swallowed a cockroach for his art, plays the title character, a detective who's badder and madder than most.
Written by William Finkelstein, a veteran television writer (L.A. Law ), the plot hinges on familiar dirty business (a multiple murder, drug deals) that becomes increasingly irrelevant as the mood and film-making heat up.
In this brightly lighted nightmare, a post-Katrina New Orleans that might have been conceived by Hieronymus Bosch but could come to the screen only through the feverish imaginings of Herzog, a dead man's soul dances near his body and googly-eyed iguanas trade seemingly knowing looks with the popeyed lieutenant.
To watch Cage melt with pleasure as he lights up his "lucky crack pipe" or seize up with spasmodic giggles, is to understand that Herzog has again found a performer as committed to representing unspeakable human will as Klaus Kinski,the star of Herzog masterworks like Aguirre, the Wrath of God . Here Cage and Herzog take you into a hell that leads straight to movie heaven.
Song and dance promo
As the autumn television season begins,and new and returning shows jostle one another to remind easily distracted viewers that they exist, there are many routes TV series can take to promote themselves. Some buy print ads and rent billboards; others use internet banners and viral videos. But probably only one is sending its cast on the road to perform a live musical.
For the past several days the stars of the irreverent FX comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia have been readying for a six-city tour. They will act, sing and karate kick their way through The Nightman Cometh , an original stage work taken from a recent episode of the show. Costumes and sets have been packed up, a tour bus has been prepared, and a few days ago some of the cast members even got together to rehearse for,like, four hours.
Asked recently if he had the musical theatre background to pull this off, Rob McElhenney,the show's creator and co-star, gave a long, nervous laugh."No," he said."No. No, I don't. I don't really have any comedy background. This show is the first comedy I've done.
"Now we're doing it in front of 4,000 people at a clip. It's going to be pretty interesting."
This ad hoc, see-what-happens strategy has defined Always Sunny since FX signed McElhenney and two equally untested friends, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton, to produce and star in a series about a group of mates who run an Irish pub in South Philadelphia.
Since its 2005 debut the show has developed a deliberately grimy, lowbrow comic sensibility consisting of naughty words, sexual innuendos and casual references to drug and alcohol abuse,as well as plots about get-rich-quick schemes,pranks gone wrong and internal rivalries.
Following a third season story in which the tried fruitlessly to start a rock band, a fourth season episode revived one of their songs for a musical performed by the full Always Sunny cast, including Kaitlin Olson (who plays Howerton's sister) and Danny DeVito (who plays the siblings' father).
In the context of the show this production is composed by Day's character, ostensibly telling the story of a boy who is transformed into a man by his love for a woman, and by the molestations of a bedroom invader called the Nightman.
In real life it was written by McElhenney, Day and Howerton, with some musical help from a friend, the actor and musician Cormac Bluestone.McElhenney described the musical as "profound in its own sort of innocent ridiculousness".
"We had never seen anything like that in a comedy before," he said,"possibly for good reason. But we decided to go for it anyway."
In April the cast was invited by another musician friend, Don McCloskey, to sing some of the Nightman Cometh songs as part of his show at the Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood.But when event listings mistakenly said that the actors would be performing the entire musical - and two shows quickly sold out, based on this premise - the Always Sunny team agreed to give its devotees what they expected.
Critics were sceptical that they could pull it off. Previewing the Troubadour shows for LA Weekly , Nicole Campos wrote that the cast of the "cranktastic" show "usually can't be bothered to take a spare breath when they aren't shouting put-downs at one another" and asked,"How would they stand still long enough to hit the high notes?"
The actors recall these performances as scary and a bit sloppy but ultimately successful."As soon as you start singing in front of an audience full of fans," Olson said,"they're singing and screaming with you, so you can't really hear yourself. That was terrifying." But the overall production, she said, was "so stupid to me that it's fun".
It also attracted the attention of the concert promoter Live Nation, which offered to take the show on a 22-city tour. This was not quite compatible with the schedule of the Always Sunny crew, which is still editing the final episodes of its coming season. But an abbreviated run was worked out, which began in Boston.
The musical backgrounds of the Always Sunny stars are wildly disparate. Day's parents both hold doctorates in musicology, and his sister has a doctorate in choral conducting. Howerton, a Juilliard-trained actor, performed musical theatre in high school and college, while DeVito once serenaded Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Twins .Still, the performers agree that the road show is not only a great excuse to travel in a tour bus and fulfil their rock star fantasies, but also a validation of their series' unexpected success.
"The whole thing is a total fluke," Howerton said."The first script I ever wrote in my life was an episode of the first season. Now all of a sudden we're writing a musical, and all because we talked some people into letting us do something that we didn't even totally know how to do."
When the tour is complete, the cast will get a one-month break. Then the team must figure out how to top this stunt in future episodes of Always Sunny , which FX has renewed for two more seasons.
For the past several days the stars of the irreverent FX comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia have been readying for a six-city tour. They will act, sing and karate kick their way through The Nightman Cometh , an original stage work taken from a recent episode of the show. Costumes and sets have been packed up, a tour bus has been prepared, and a few days ago some of the cast members even got together to rehearse for,like, four hours.
Asked recently if he had the musical theatre background to pull this off, Rob McElhenney,the show's creator and co-star, gave a long, nervous laugh."No," he said."No. No, I don't. I don't really have any comedy background. This show is the first comedy I've done.
"Now we're doing it in front of 4,000 people at a clip. It's going to be pretty interesting."
This ad hoc, see-what-happens strategy has defined Always Sunny since FX signed McElhenney and two equally untested friends, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton, to produce and star in a series about a group of mates who run an Irish pub in South Philadelphia.
Since its 2005 debut the show has developed a deliberately grimy, lowbrow comic sensibility consisting of naughty words, sexual innuendos and casual references to drug and alcohol abuse,as well as plots about get-rich-quick schemes,pranks gone wrong and internal rivalries.
Following a third season story in which the tried fruitlessly to start a rock band, a fourth season episode revived one of their songs for a musical performed by the full Always Sunny cast, including Kaitlin Olson (who plays Howerton's sister) and Danny DeVito (who plays the siblings' father).
In the context of the show this production is composed by Day's character, ostensibly telling the story of a boy who is transformed into a man by his love for a woman, and by the molestations of a bedroom invader called the Nightman.
In real life it was written by McElhenney, Day and Howerton, with some musical help from a friend, the actor and musician Cormac Bluestone.McElhenney described the musical as "profound in its own sort of innocent ridiculousness".
"We had never seen anything like that in a comedy before," he said,"possibly for good reason. But we decided to go for it anyway."
In April the cast was invited by another musician friend, Don McCloskey, to sing some of the Nightman Cometh songs as part of his show at the Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood.But when event listings mistakenly said that the actors would be performing the entire musical - and two shows quickly sold out, based on this premise - the Always Sunny team agreed to give its devotees what they expected.
Critics were sceptical that they could pull it off. Previewing the Troubadour shows for LA Weekly , Nicole Campos wrote that the cast of the "cranktastic" show "usually can't be bothered to take a spare breath when they aren't shouting put-downs at one another" and asked,"How would they stand still long enough to hit the high notes?"
The actors recall these performances as scary and a bit sloppy but ultimately successful."As soon as you start singing in front of an audience full of fans," Olson said,"they're singing and screaming with you, so you can't really hear yourself. That was terrifying." But the overall production, she said, was "so stupid to me that it's fun".
It also attracted the attention of the concert promoter Live Nation, which offered to take the show on a 22-city tour. This was not quite compatible with the schedule of the Always Sunny crew, which is still editing the final episodes of its coming season. But an abbreviated run was worked out, which began in Boston.
The musical backgrounds of the Always Sunny stars are wildly disparate. Day's parents both hold doctorates in musicology, and his sister has a doctorate in choral conducting. Howerton, a Juilliard-trained actor, performed musical theatre in high school and college, while DeVito once serenaded Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Twins .Still, the performers agree that the road show is not only a great excuse to travel in a tour bus and fulfil their rock star fantasies, but also a validation of their series' unexpected success.
"The whole thing is a total fluke," Howerton said."The first script I ever wrote in my life was an episode of the first season. Now all of a sudden we're writing a musical, and all because we talked some people into letting us do something that we didn't even totally know how to do."
When the tour is complete, the cast will get a one-month break. Then the team must figure out how to top this stunt in future episodes of Always Sunny , which FX has renewed for two more seasons.
"MAD MEN", "30 ROCK" RECLAIM EMMYS
Mad Men and 30 Rock led a pack of Emmy winners who successfully defended their titles at Sunday's, while Australian Toni Collette of Showtime's United States of Tara was honoured as best lead actress in a comedy series for her role as a mother with multiple personalities."Wow, this is insanely confronting," said a beaming Collette.She thanked series creator Diablo Cody, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno .AMC's glossy 1960s Madison Avenue saga Mad Men , which last year became the first basic cable show to win a top series award, won the best drama trophy for a second time.
"It is an amazing time to work in TV," said Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner."And, I know that everything is changing, but I'm not afraid of it because I feel like all these different media is just more choice and more entertainment. It's better for the viewers in the end and I'm glad to be a part of it."
NBC's 30 Rock , a satirical take on life inside a TV variety show, was honoured for the third time as best comedy series, while star Alec Baldwin won his second award as best comedy actor.
"We want to thank our friends at NBC for keeping us on the air ... even though we are so much more expensive than a talk show," said 30 Rock creator and star Tina Fey, referring to Jay Leno's new daily prime-time comedy show, which NBC likes to note is cheaper to produce than a scripted series.
Baldwin, accepting his acting trophy for 30 Rock from Brothers & Sisters star Rob Lowe, joked,"I'll be honest with you. I'd trade this to look like him."
Glenn Close's performance as a ruthless trial attorney on Damages and Bryan Cranston's turn as a meth-making, cancer-stricken teacher on Breaking Bad were honoured with the top drama series acting Emmys, the second consecutive trophies for both.
Iranian Shohreh Aghdashloo won for her role in HBO's House of Saddam .Aghdashloo won best supporting actress in a TV movie or miniseries for playing Saddam's wife Sajidah Khairallah Tulfah.
The BBC's Dickens adaptation Little Dorrit , co-produced with PBS's Boston affiliate WGBH, won for best miniseries as well as awards for cinematography,art direction, casting and costumes.
Ireland was well represented as Irish actress Dearblha Walsh won for directing Little Dorrit and Irish actor Brendan Gleeson won for playing Winston Churchill in the HBO miniseries Into the Storm .Australian Hugh Jackman won for his opening musical performance for the Oscars awards show.
Collette's victory deprived Fey of 30 Rock of winning a second consecutive award in the category. But Fey took the stage a few moments later to acknowledge a guest actor award she received for her Sarah Palin impersonation on Saturday Night Live .Close called it a "huge privilege" to be part of entertainment community,then tweaked her show's writers.
Her role is "maybe the character of my lifetime, depending on what they do this season," Close said.
Michael Emerson, who plays the cruelly devious Ben on Lost , and Cherry Jones, the stalwart US president on 24 , were honoured as best supporting actors in drama series.
"Wowza," Jones said. Emerson accepted his award for what he called "the role of my lifetime".
Kristin Chenoweth of Pushing Daisies and Jon Cryer of Two and a Half Men won supporting acting Emmys for their comedies and proved that acceptance speeches can be entertaining.
"I'm not employed now so I'd like to be on Mad Men . I also like The Office and 24 ," said Chenoweth, alternating between tears and smiles as she accepted for her cancelled ABC series."Thank you so much to the academy for recognising a show that's no longer on the air."
Backstage, the Tony Award-winning Chenoweth noted that she is appearing on an upcoming episode of Fox's show Glee , has shot two movies and is doing a series of concerts.
Cryer, whose series is the most-watched comedy on TV, brought a wry tone to his speech.
"I used to think that awards were just shallow tokens of momentary popularity, but now I realise they are the only true measure of a person's worth as a human being," Cryer said.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart won the trophy for best variety, music or comedy series, its seventh in a row.
Grey Gardens , the story of a reclusive mother and daughter who were relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, won for best TV movie.
Neil Patrick Harris, the show's host as well as a nominee, lost to Cryer for his role on How I Met Your Mother but won on-stage accolades for his emcee work, including a heartfelt compliment from Jon Stewart.
Harris, who moved the show along with good-natured humour, started the evening on a lively note, performing Don't Touch That Remote , a custommade tune from Broadway composers Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman of Hairspray fame. Harris implored viewers to stay glued to the show and called attention to some of the stars in the house.
"I see legends galore, Lange, Barrymore," Harris sang to Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, later adding,"But like next season on Idol I'm not seeing Paula Abdul." Meanwhile, the camera panned to an empty seat at the Nokia Theatre.
Harris' winning turn as host also was lauded by Jeff Probst, honoured as best reality show host for CBS'Survivor . Probst was one of the five reality hosts who emceed the Emmys last year and received scathing reviews.
"Neil Patrick Harris, this is how you host the Emmys. Nice job," Probst said, pointing his Emmy toward him.
The Amazing Race won its seventh consecutive Emmy in the outstanding reality-competition category, once again turning top-rated American Idol into an also-ran.
An exception to the upbeat mood came in clips from
animated series Family Guy , which showed the dog character Brian beaten bloody, followed by a reality show snippet with barely concealed swearing.
In a bid to give viewers reasons to stick with the show,CBS put advisories on-screen of upcoming moments,including Justin Timberlake's appearance as a presenter.
The TV academy, meanwhile, hoped to avoid an unwanted rerun at the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards: paltry
viewership. The 2008 ceremony was the least-watched
ever with an audience of 12.3 million.
Acclaimed but low-rated series such as Mad Men are seen as one reason viewers bypassed the awards, so
major categories were expanded to increase the odds for
more popular fare. There were as many as seven nominees per category, compared with the traditional five.
Harris and Emmy executive producer Don Mischer promised to keep the scheduled three-hour ceremony snappy, but they had less room to manoeuver than planned. A TV academy proposal to pre-tape some acceptances and show them in a truncated version - gaining time for something
more entertaining than speeches - was quashed by industry
opposition.
Harris also was a supporting actor nominee for How I Met Your Mother .HBO went into the ceremony as the awards leader after last weekend's Creative Arts Primetime Emmys ceremony for technical
and other achievements. The channel earned 16 trophies, followed
by NBC with 11 and Fox and ABC with eight awards each. CBS,
PBS and Cartoon Network had six each.
After Sunday, HBO emerged with a leading 21, followed by NBC with 16, ABC with 11 and Fox with 10. CBS and PBS had nine each.
"It is an amazing time to work in TV," said Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner."And, I know that everything is changing, but I'm not afraid of it because I feel like all these different media is just more choice and more entertainment. It's better for the viewers in the end and I'm glad to be a part of it."
NBC's 30 Rock , a satirical take on life inside a TV variety show, was honoured for the third time as best comedy series, while star Alec Baldwin won his second award as best comedy actor.
"We want to thank our friends at NBC for keeping us on the air ... even though we are so much more expensive than a talk show," said 30 Rock creator and star Tina Fey, referring to Jay Leno's new daily prime-time comedy show, which NBC likes to note is cheaper to produce than a scripted series.
Baldwin, accepting his acting trophy for 30 Rock from Brothers & Sisters star Rob Lowe, joked,"I'll be honest with you. I'd trade this to look like him."
Glenn Close's performance as a ruthless trial attorney on Damages and Bryan Cranston's turn as a meth-making, cancer-stricken teacher on Breaking Bad were honoured with the top drama series acting Emmys, the second consecutive trophies for both.
Iranian Shohreh Aghdashloo won for her role in HBO's House of Saddam .Aghdashloo won best supporting actress in a TV movie or miniseries for playing Saddam's wife Sajidah Khairallah Tulfah.
The BBC's Dickens adaptation Little Dorrit , co-produced with PBS's Boston affiliate WGBH, won for best miniseries as well as awards for cinematography,art direction, casting and costumes.
Ireland was well represented as Irish actress Dearblha Walsh won for directing Little Dorrit and Irish actor Brendan Gleeson won for playing Winston Churchill in the HBO miniseries Into the Storm .Australian Hugh Jackman won for his opening musical performance for the Oscars awards show.
Collette's victory deprived Fey of 30 Rock of winning a second consecutive award in the category. But Fey took the stage a few moments later to acknowledge a guest actor award she received for her Sarah Palin impersonation on Saturday Night Live .Close called it a "huge privilege" to be part of entertainment community,then tweaked her show's writers.
Her role is "maybe the character of my lifetime, depending on what they do this season," Close said.
Michael Emerson, who plays the cruelly devious Ben on Lost , and Cherry Jones, the stalwart US president on 24 , were honoured as best supporting actors in drama series.
"Wowza," Jones said. Emerson accepted his award for what he called "the role of my lifetime".
Kristin Chenoweth of Pushing Daisies and Jon Cryer of Two and a Half Men won supporting acting Emmys for their comedies and proved that acceptance speeches can be entertaining.
"I'm not employed now so I'd like to be on Mad Men . I also like The Office and 24 ," said Chenoweth, alternating between tears and smiles as she accepted for her cancelled ABC series."Thank you so much to the academy for recognising a show that's no longer on the air."
Backstage, the Tony Award-winning Chenoweth noted that she is appearing on an upcoming episode of Fox's show Glee , has shot two movies and is doing a series of concerts.
Cryer, whose series is the most-watched comedy on TV, brought a wry tone to his speech.
"I used to think that awards were just shallow tokens of momentary popularity, but now I realise they are the only true measure of a person's worth as a human being," Cryer said.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart won the trophy for best variety, music or comedy series, its seventh in a row.
Grey Gardens , the story of a reclusive mother and daughter who were relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, won for best TV movie.
Neil Patrick Harris, the show's host as well as a nominee, lost to Cryer for his role on How I Met Your Mother but won on-stage accolades for his emcee work, including a heartfelt compliment from Jon Stewart.
Harris, who moved the show along with good-natured humour, started the evening on a lively note, performing Don't Touch That Remote , a custommade tune from Broadway composers Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman of Hairspray fame. Harris implored viewers to stay glued to the show and called attention to some of the stars in the house.
"I see legends galore, Lange, Barrymore," Harris sang to Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, later adding,"But like next season on Idol I'm not seeing Paula Abdul." Meanwhile, the camera panned to an empty seat at the Nokia Theatre.
Harris' winning turn as host also was lauded by Jeff Probst, honoured as best reality show host for CBS'Survivor . Probst was one of the five reality hosts who emceed the Emmys last year and received scathing reviews.
"Neil Patrick Harris, this is how you host the Emmys. Nice job," Probst said, pointing his Emmy toward him.
The Amazing Race won its seventh consecutive Emmy in the outstanding reality-competition category, once again turning top-rated American Idol into an also-ran.
An exception to the upbeat mood came in clips from
animated series Family Guy , which showed the dog character Brian beaten bloody, followed by a reality show snippet with barely concealed swearing.
In a bid to give viewers reasons to stick with the show,CBS put advisories on-screen of upcoming moments,including Justin Timberlake's appearance as a presenter.
The TV academy, meanwhile, hoped to avoid an unwanted rerun at the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards: paltry
viewership. The 2008 ceremony was the least-watched
ever with an audience of 12.3 million.
Acclaimed but low-rated series such as Mad Men are seen as one reason viewers bypassed the awards, so
major categories were expanded to increase the odds for
more popular fare. There were as many as seven nominees per category, compared with the traditional five.
Harris and Emmy executive producer Don Mischer promised to keep the scheduled three-hour ceremony snappy, but they had less room to manoeuver than planned. A TV academy proposal to pre-tape some acceptances and show them in a truncated version - gaining time for something
more entertaining than speeches - was quashed by industry
opposition.
Harris also was a supporting actor nominee for How I Met Your Mother .HBO went into the ceremony as the awards leader after last weekend's Creative Arts Primetime Emmys ceremony for technical
and other achievements. The channel earned 16 trophies, followed
by NBC with 11 and Fox and ABC with eight awards each. CBS,
PBS and Cartoon Network had six each.
After Sunday, HBO emerged with a leading 21, followed by NBC with 16, ABC with 11 and Fox with 10. CBS and PBS had nine each.
"TRAVIATA" TRIUMPHS
The massed talents of Ekaterinburg do much to lift the rainy gloom
Her Majesty the Queen's esteemed presence at "La Traviata", the opening show in the Bangkok International Festival of Dance and Music on September 7, boded well for an event now in its 11th year and still buoyant amid the economic and political gloom.
The festival's latest marketing strategy seems to have paid off in better advance ticket sales and, on opening night, the house was nearly full as the Ekaterinburg Opera Theatre returned to Bangkok after two years.
As Violetta, young soprano Natalia Starkova was the star of this memorable evening, blending her alluring voice with dextrous acting. It was a diva-esque performance effortlessly delivered by a non-diva, a rising star, something rarely seen in Bangkok.
She was well supported and matched by the young tenor Dmytry Kuzmin, as Alfredo Germont, and the seasoned Yuri Devin, with great command of the role of Giorgio Germont.
Additional delights resulted from the visual components, being the stage decor that, unlike many opera productions previously seen in the festival, smartly fit into the wide and tall frame of the threatre, and the costumes whose colours and designs were carefully honed.
Most viewers would agree that "La Traviata" was indeed a fitting curtain raiser. And this was perhaps notwithstanding the fact that the same opera, by the same company with some cast differences, was already presented here - the kind of programming choices that raises doubts in a country where fewer than 10 opera productions are staged each year.
Two evenings later, the same company's "Tosca" was, unfortunately, a slight letdown.
It was not until the second act that I started to empathise with Ekaterina Neyzhmak's portrayal of the title character and Mikhail Vishniak's of Mario Cavaradossi, and that's just in time for their tragic end.
Another odd artistic choice was Petr Tolstenko, as Baron Scapia, who was one of the stiffest villains I have witnessed on stage.
Besides that, the set design was not intended for this larger theatre. I was informed later that the orchestra pit had been raised from where it was for "La Traviata", and this might explain why singing voices were drowned out during some key moments, due in part to our Cultural Centre's not-so-perfect acoustics.
On Thursday it was rain - and the resulting traffic chaos - that prevented many people from arriving in time for the first part of the concert by Ekaterinburg Symphony Orchestra.
Those who made it were treated to a musically enchanting evening of Brahms' "Symphony No 4" and Rachmaninov's "Symphony No 2", thanks in part to the strongly commanding and highly animated guest conductor Fabio Mastrangelo.
As content as I was, I could not help comparing this experience to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's performance of Mahler's "Tragic Symphony" conducted by Bernard Haitink at the Hong Kong Arts Festival this past February.
After all these years, I think Bangkok audiences are ready for, and entitled to, such an extraordinary programme.
Now that the classical component from Eastern Europe is finished, the organiser - International Cultural Promotions - is set to take us into slightly more artistically challenging, aesthetically adventurous, and dramatically less predictable, routes.
Coming up are more contemporary works, as already evident in teh Kiev Modern Ballet Theatre's "Carmen TV" and "La Forza del Destino" last week.
COME RIDE A CLOUD
- The International Festival of Dance and Music cointinues until October 17 at the Thailand Cultural Centre.
- Tonight and tomorrow bring the Bangkok debut of Taiwan's renowned Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. Asia's most acclaimed choreographer, Lin Hwai-Min, will give a talk tomorrow afternoon.
- For more details, visit www.BangkokFestivals.com or call (02) 204 2394.
- Tickets are available at ThaiTicketMajor, and students can pick up free tickets one working day ahead of the shows at the Siam Cement Group Foundation.
Her Majesty the Queen's esteemed presence at "La Traviata", the opening show in the Bangkok International Festival of Dance and Music on September 7, boded well for an event now in its 11th year and still buoyant amid the economic and political gloom.
The festival's latest marketing strategy seems to have paid off in better advance ticket sales and, on opening night, the house was nearly full as the Ekaterinburg Opera Theatre returned to Bangkok after two years.
As Violetta, young soprano Natalia Starkova was the star of this memorable evening, blending her alluring voice with dextrous acting. It was a diva-esque performance effortlessly delivered by a non-diva, a rising star, something rarely seen in Bangkok.
She was well supported and matched by the young tenor Dmytry Kuzmin, as Alfredo Germont, and the seasoned Yuri Devin, with great command of the role of Giorgio Germont.
Additional delights resulted from the visual components, being the stage decor that, unlike many opera productions previously seen in the festival, smartly fit into the wide and tall frame of the threatre, and the costumes whose colours and designs were carefully honed.
Most viewers would agree that "La Traviata" was indeed a fitting curtain raiser. And this was perhaps notwithstanding the fact that the same opera, by the same company with some cast differences, was already presented here - the kind of programming choices that raises doubts in a country where fewer than 10 opera productions are staged each year.
Two evenings later, the same company's "Tosca" was, unfortunately, a slight letdown.
It was not until the second act that I started to empathise with Ekaterina Neyzhmak's portrayal of the title character and Mikhail Vishniak's of Mario Cavaradossi, and that's just in time for their tragic end.
Another odd artistic choice was Petr Tolstenko, as Baron Scapia, who was one of the stiffest villains I have witnessed on stage.
Besides that, the set design was not intended for this larger theatre. I was informed later that the orchestra pit had been raised from where it was for "La Traviata", and this might explain why singing voices were drowned out during some key moments, due in part to our Cultural Centre's not-so-perfect acoustics.
On Thursday it was rain - and the resulting traffic chaos - that prevented many people from arriving in time for the first part of the concert by Ekaterinburg Symphony Orchestra.
Those who made it were treated to a musically enchanting evening of Brahms' "Symphony No 4" and Rachmaninov's "Symphony No 2", thanks in part to the strongly commanding and highly animated guest conductor Fabio Mastrangelo.
As content as I was, I could not help comparing this experience to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's performance of Mahler's "Tragic Symphony" conducted by Bernard Haitink at the Hong Kong Arts Festival this past February.
After all these years, I think Bangkok audiences are ready for, and entitled to, such an extraordinary programme.
Now that the classical component from Eastern Europe is finished, the organiser - International Cultural Promotions - is set to take us into slightly more artistically challenging, aesthetically adventurous, and dramatically less predictable, routes.
Coming up are more contemporary works, as already evident in teh Kiev Modern Ballet Theatre's "Carmen TV" and "La Forza del Destino" last week.
COME RIDE A CLOUD
- The International Festival of Dance and Music cointinues until October 17 at the Thailand Cultural Centre.
- Tonight and tomorrow bring the Bangkok debut of Taiwan's renowned Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. Asia's most acclaimed choreographer, Lin Hwai-Min, will give a talk tomorrow afternoon.
- For more details, visit www.BangkokFestivals.com or call (02) 204 2394.
- Tickets are available at ThaiTicketMajor, and students can pick up free tickets one working day ahead of the shows at the Siam Cement Group Foundation.
Marvel rights issues give Disney headache
Walt Disney's proposed $4 billion acquisition of Marvel Entertainment may come with a headache: newly filed claims challenging Marvel's long-term rights to some of its superhero characters.
Heirs to the comic book artist Jack Kirby, a creator of characters and stories behind Marvel mainstays like "X-Men"and "Fantastic Four," last week sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel and Disney, as well as Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and other companies that have been using the characters.
The notices expressed an intent to regain copyrights to some of Kirby's creations as early as 2014, according to a statement disclosed Sunday by Toberoff & Associates, a law firm in Los Angeles that helped win a court ruling last year returning a share of the copyright in Superman to heirs of one of the charac-ter's creators, Jerome Siegel.
Reached by telephone on Sunday,Marc Toberoff, the firm's founding partner, declined to elaborate on his firm's statement. A spokeswoman for Marvel had no comment.
Disney said in a statement,"the notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition."
Fox, Sony, Paramount and Universal had no comment.
Marvel's management agreed to sell the company to Disney last month,though the deal still requires the approval of Marvel's shareholders.
Even before the Kirby family sent its notices, Disney was facing criticism from some Wall Street analysts who expressed concern that Marvel's complex web of copyright agreements might prevent Disney from capitalising on some Marvel assets.
Sony has the film rights to SpiderMan in perpetuity, for instance, while Fox has the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four. Paramount has a distribution agreement for a few movies that Marvel is producing on its own, including a second "Iron Man" film.
Hasbro has rights to produce certain toys, and Universal holds Florida theme park rights to Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, among other characters.
Kirby, who died in 1994, worked with the writer and editor Stan Lee to create many of the characters that in the last decade have become especially valuable to Hollywood.
Kirby was involved with the Incredible Hulk, the Mighty Thor, Iron Man and the Avengers, among other characters that have been adapted for the screen since his death.
The window for serving notice of termination on the oldest of the properties opened several years ago, and will remain open for some time under copyright law.
But Disney's pending purchase of Marvel has given anyone with possible Marvel claims more reason to pose a challenge.
Under copyright law, the author or his heirs can begin a process to regain copyrights for a period of time after the original grant.
If Kirby's four children were to gain the copyright to a character he helped create, they might become entitled to a share of profits from films or other properties using it.
They might also find themselves able to sell rights to certain characters without consent from Marvel, Disney or the various studios that have licensed the Marvel properties for their hit films.
In July, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that Warner Bros and its DC Comics unit had not violated rights of the Siegel heirs in handling internal transactions related to Superman. But an earlier ruling had granted the heirs a return of their share in the copyright.
Copyright matters have become increasingly tangled for Hollywood, as it continues to trade on characters and stories that were created decades ago but are now subject to deadlines and expiration dates under federal copyright law.
Heirs to the comic book artist Jack Kirby, a creator of characters and stories behind Marvel mainstays like "X-Men"and "Fantastic Four," last week sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel and Disney, as well as Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and other companies that have been using the characters.
The notices expressed an intent to regain copyrights to some of Kirby's creations as early as 2014, according to a statement disclosed Sunday by Toberoff & Associates, a law firm in Los Angeles that helped win a court ruling last year returning a share of the copyright in Superman to heirs of one of the charac-ter's creators, Jerome Siegel.
Reached by telephone on Sunday,Marc Toberoff, the firm's founding partner, declined to elaborate on his firm's statement. A spokeswoman for Marvel had no comment.
Disney said in a statement,"the notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition."
Fox, Sony, Paramount and Universal had no comment.
Marvel's management agreed to sell the company to Disney last month,though the deal still requires the approval of Marvel's shareholders.
Even before the Kirby family sent its notices, Disney was facing criticism from some Wall Street analysts who expressed concern that Marvel's complex web of copyright agreements might prevent Disney from capitalising on some Marvel assets.
Sony has the film rights to SpiderMan in perpetuity, for instance, while Fox has the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four. Paramount has a distribution agreement for a few movies that Marvel is producing on its own, including a second "Iron Man" film.
Hasbro has rights to produce certain toys, and Universal holds Florida theme park rights to Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, among other characters.
Kirby, who died in 1994, worked with the writer and editor Stan Lee to create many of the characters that in the last decade have become especially valuable to Hollywood.
Kirby was involved with the Incredible Hulk, the Mighty Thor, Iron Man and the Avengers, among other characters that have been adapted for the screen since his death.
The window for serving notice of termination on the oldest of the properties opened several years ago, and will remain open for some time under copyright law.
But Disney's pending purchase of Marvel has given anyone with possible Marvel claims more reason to pose a challenge.
Under copyright law, the author or his heirs can begin a process to regain copyrights for a period of time after the original grant.
If Kirby's four children were to gain the copyright to a character he helped create, they might become entitled to a share of profits from films or other properties using it.
They might also find themselves able to sell rights to certain characters without consent from Marvel, Disney or the various studios that have licensed the Marvel properties for their hit films.
In July, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that Warner Bros and its DC Comics unit had not violated rights of the Siegel heirs in handling internal transactions related to Superman. But an earlier ruling had granted the heirs a return of their share in the copyright.
Copyright matters have become increasingly tangled for Hollywood, as it continues to trade on characters and stories that were created decades ago but are now subject to deadlines and expiration dates under federal copyright law.
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