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FILM:June 2014
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It's the beginning of a summer of big blockbusters
and films don't come much bigger than X MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE
PAST cert.12A 2hrs. 11 mins.) In 3D.
Although one needs to know far more about the X Men franchise than
I do, it is possible to sort of follow the story and enjoy the overall
spectacular. Director, Bryan Singer returns to the franchise he
helped to start. He knows the story-line well and with this film
develops his themes to bring characters from the past together with
those who have played the parts recently. So we have two Professor
Xs (James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart) and two Magnetos (Michael
Fassbender and Ian McKellen) as well as Raven, now called Mystique,
(Jennifer Lawrence) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in substantial
roles.
The Mutants of the future are under threat of extinction by Sentinels
by a nasty little Professor (Peter Dinklage). It is decided to send
Wolverine back to the '70s to prevent Mystique committing an assassination
and, by stopping her, save the mutants from annihilation at the
hands of the Sentinels. For this to happen, Logan must convince
Professor X to reunite with Magneto to prevent a rogue Mystique
(Jennifer Lawrence) from shaping their future.
Co-written by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Simon Kinberg, the
team behind 2011 reboot X-Men: First Class, this should appeal to
fans as it gives them the chance to see both sets of actors. Although
events sometimes become confusing, there are some amusing moments
and lots of visual excitement. Hugh Jackman is well-buffed and James
McAvoy's long hair is mesmerising. Michael Fassbender reminds us
how attractive he is too and Nicholas Hoult - once a child star
- plays Hank McCoy/Beast, who he played in First Class.
The 3D is used to good effect here to provide all round excitement
especially in the flying scenes.
FADING GIGOLO (cert.15 1 hr. 30 mins.), although
directed by the actor John Turturro, is really Woody Allen's film. |
Woody Allen plays Murray, a book store owner, who talks his friend
Fioravante (John Turturro) into becoming a gigolo in order to earn
extra cash. His first customer is a dermatologist, Dr Parker (Sharon
Stone) so Fioravante doesn't find his task too difficult. Progressing
to Dr Parker's equally attractive friend Selima (Sofia Vergara)
Fioravante is more than happy he agreed to Murray's suggestion. |
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A different kind of client comes to Murray's attention:
Avigal (Vanessa Paradis), also lovely looking, but the widow of
a Jewish Hassidic Rabbi. She lives a cloistered life and is finally
aroused by Fioravante's touch on her back. She is watched over by
the jealous Dovi (Live Schreiber). Suddenly Murray is confronted
by complications in his work as a pimp.
It's great to be able to enjoy Allen as an actor after seeing so
many of the recent films that he has directed where another actor
does a somewhat poor Woody impression. Here we get Woody himself
speaking lines that seem to have been written by him but are in
fact Turturro's. Very funny, Allen puts in a superb performance
and Turturro is a good foil. The only really unbelievable part -
well, the whole film is an older male's fantasy - is that the women
are too beautiful to ever need to pay for sex!
Also recommended:
BEYOND THE EDGE 3D (cert. PG 1 hr. 40 mins.),
the story in documentary form of the journey and ascent to the top
of Mt Everest by the quiet beekeeper from New Zealand, Edmund Hillary,
and the experienced Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay. Much of the
journey has had to be re-created and there is the most astonishing
photography which, as it is in 3D, takes you over crevices and up
sharp rocks with breath-taking realism. The summit was reached on
29 May 1953, 60 years' ago, the news reaching the world on the very
day that Elizabeth 11 was crowned queen.
Another documentary that is equally as compelling is NOW:
IN THE WINGS ON A WORLD STAGE (cert. 15 1 hr. 33 mins.),
a stupendously good film about Kevin Spacey, Sam Mendes and their
Bridge Project Company as they prepare for, then rehearse and perform
in England at the Old Vic and finally travel to many places around
the world performing Shakespeare's Richard III. |
Directed by Jeremy Whelehan, it is really for those who are knowledgeable
or very keen on the theatre. Giving its audience the nearest to
a theatrical experience that cinema can provide, there are interviews
with the director, Sam Mendes, his co-founder and Richard, Kevin
Spacey and a number of British and American actors who form the
company which provides a bridge across the continent to bring together
this troupe of British and American actors. Wonderful! |
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Ken Loach has announced that JIMMY'S HALL
(cert. 12A 1 hr. 46 mins.), will be his last fictional film and
that he will henceforth concentrate on making documentaries. It's
an engrossing endeavour - much softer than his other films with
a touch of romance and less overtly political, although of course
in depicting the lives of those suffering financial hardship it
is political in the non-Party political sense.
Set in 1930s Ireland, it tells the true story (well, "inspired
by") of Communist activist James Gralton (Barry Ward) who has returned
home after 10 years forced exile in New York. He went away when
the dance hall he ran was closed down. Now the local youngsters
persuade him to re-open the Pearse-Connolly Hall. He finds people
to teach poetry, art, hold discussions and also puts on dances to
which adults and children can attend. Jimmy also resumes contact
with his childhood sweetheart Oonagh (Simone Kirby), but she is
now married to someone else so the relationship cannot really proceed
far.
Unfortunately he falls foul of both the Catholic Church and the
local landowners as they are afraid of Jimmy's influence which undermines
their own authority. They don't like his left-wing politics or the
American jazz he plays. As usual Loach has cast non-actors in many
roles. While they all look and sound exactly right, not all can
act well. The woman playing Jimmy's mother carries on making tea
and is as disturbed by the police coming to arrest and deport her
son as though she has mislaid an item of clothing.
Loach has cast his main characters well and Ward as Jimmy, Jim
Norton as the main priest and the other actors playing Jimmy's close
friends all portray their characters with vigour and honesty. As
in other films Loach has used the witty and abundantly knowledgeable
Paul Laverty as his writer. It will be a real loss if we are unable
to see another Loach film like this one.
T.S. SPIVET (cert. 12A 1 hr. 45 mins) in 3D, is
film that is suitable for all, so not a "family" film so much as
a film that has appeal to those of all ages - children, parents
and grandparents! Although it is set in Montana USA, the film was
actually shot in Canada. The scenery is lovely and the 3D enhances
this. The film tells of a 10-year-old boy who invents a perpetual
motion machine and then travels alone to collect his prize in Washington.
The boy, Kyle Catlett, is very good, however Helena Bonham Carter
as his mother gives another of her honest and moving characterisations.
She shows what an underrated artist she is. |
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THEATRE TIP
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Here is a round-up of what is new in the
theatre :
My summer officially starts when I can go to a theatre in the open
air. There are two such shows on currently:
The Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park has Arthur Miller's ALL
MY SONS (until 7 June. Box office 0844 826 4242).
It seems an unlikely play to put on in this setting, but I guess
the theatre saw how well To Kill A Mockingbird did last year (it
returns to the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park 28 August - 13 September)
so decided that another serious play would go down well. And this
is certainly serious enough. |
Beginning in 1947, Joe Keller (Tom Mannion) and his wife Kate
(Brid Brennan) still mourn their son Larry who was listed missing
in action. Everyone accepts that he is dead except Kate who insists
that he will come back. The youngest son Chris (Charles Aitken)
wants to marry his brother's fiancée, Ann (Amy Deever) but is afraid
to upset his mother. Matters are brought to a head when Ann visits
the Kellers. We learn that Joe Keller's partner is in prison for
supplying defective engines which were responsible for the deaths
of many young pilots. Did Joe know about this? |
Joe (Tom Mannion) and Kate
(Brid Brennan) isn All My Sons |
As the play takes place within one day, it comes
across as realistic. Miller's play is so well-written and builds
up each character - showing us how they are flawed - so vividly
that it would be difficult to spoil. It's a powerful play with themes
of guilt and retribution all pervasive. After a slow start to Timothy
Sheader's production, the night darkens as does the play and the
actors rise to Miller's words. Brid Brennan is particularly moving
as a mother who fears that her husband's actions could have caused
his death. The audience, who often seem to be somewhat flighty -
going in and out of the auditorium - sat quietly wrapped up in the
story on stage. The play and the Open Air theatre are well worth
a visit.
As is the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre which has ANTONY
AND CLEOPATRA (playing until 24 August. Box office 020
7401 9919) |
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This production has not got off to a good start. Clive Wood,
who plays Antony, had to miss a number of preview performances because
of illness and then James Hayes, who plays three parts, was injured
and on press night his parts were read from a script by Christopher
Saul but Clive Wood was present. Although it didn't rain, there
was a cold wind and at times it was hard to catch all that was being
said on stage. In spite of these mishaps, the play went ahead and
it is on the whole a worthy production. |
To portray Cleopatra, the most beautiful and captivating
woman of her time, we have Eve Best, who does a grand job showing
the Egyptian Queen's ambition. She has managed to seduce Mark Antony
one of the three rulers of the Roman Empire and their love threatens
the two nations. Best puts across Cleopatra's toughness and Clive
Wood is equally as good in his role as a fighter and admirer of
the Queen. What is lacking is any real passion of the one for the
other.
The poetry comes through - one of the most beautifully written
of Shakespeare's works, although it is strange to hear Phil Daniels
as Enobarbus speaking the verse with a distinct cockney accent -
in Jonathan Munby's production and there are, as with all Globe
shows, a number of comic bits of business involving the audience.
We can only wish the Globe better luck in the rest of the season.
I'll grant you that although it might be 'my' summer, many days
are not suitable for outdoor viewing. So we are lucky that in London
there are two new smashing musicals to see. Go to one or both to
cheer yourself up on an inclement day.
Although cheery might not be the right word with which to approach
MISS SAIGON (Prince Edward Theatre, it has already
been extended until 25 April 2015. Box office 0844 482 5155)
Returning 25 years after its premiere at the Theatre Royal Drury
Lane in 1989, this musical has a story that is interesting, good
songs and music and a cast who can really sing and act. |
Based on Puccini's Madame Butterfly, the musical Miss Saigon
is transported to Vietnam during the war when the US army occupied
Saigon. We meet newly arrived Kim (Eva Noblezada) as she arrives
to work at Dreamland, a somewhat seedy nightclub owned by a man
always on the lookout to make money for himself and known as The
Engineer (Jon Jon Briones). Kim meets an American GI called Chris
(Alistair Brammer) and they fall in love. They are separated in
the chaos surrounding the fall of Saigon and Chris returns alone
to America. Some years later he returns to find Kim with his child.
Romance …yes, but tinged with a lot of sadness. |
Alistair Brammer as Chris
& Eva Noblezada as Kim |
I remember two things from seeing the original production:
when the helicopter takes off (very exciting) and the mesmerising
performance of Jonathan Pryce as The Engineer. Here there is a projected
image of a helicopter which hovers over the scene and then dissolves
to reveal the "real" thing landing in the embassy grounds. Jon Jon
Briones is a sleazier character than Pryce's Engineer. Briones has
a lot of vitality and puts across the comic business in an obvious
and energetic manner.
The performances are more than adequate with Brammer singing strongly
and coming across well without great acting. However, Noblezda,
who is new to the London stage, is magnificent. Vocally she is very
impressive and puts across the vulnerability of a young girl in
a big city with the strength of a mother who is sure that what she
is doing for her child is the right thing to do. Remember her name
when it comes to the next lot of theatrical awards.
Director Laurence Connor has a good feel for the music, by Claude-Michel
Schönberg and Alain Boublil, and the style of the show and he manages
to get a long musical moving along briskly. It is good to see that
the political elements are well to the fore such as the Vietnamese/American
children who are lost in limbo between two worlds and the Vietnamese
army dancing in a well-drilled formation in front of a huge bust
of Ho Chi Minh and the equally well-drilled chorus girls of The
American dream in front of The Statue Of Liberty. We can remember
such lovely songs as Sun and moon, The Engineer's The American dream
(here sung as the Engineer drools over a Cadillac car) and, of course,
the very sad I'd give my life for you.
The audience cheered at the end - quite rightly as it is an excellent
show with a wondrous debut by 18-year-old Eve Noblezada.
The exuberance and sheer professionalism of the dancing is what
makes THE PAJAMA GAME (Shaftesbury theatre, London
until 13 September 2014. Box office 020-7379 5399) into
a very special show.
When I saw The Pajama Game in 1954, it was the songs and sexy production
number, Steam Heat that were the stand-out features. Now Richard
Eyre brings the show to the Shaftesbury with a cast who sing well
and dance superbly. It's good, too, to have a musical that has something
to say about Unions and shop-floor politics, especially in a positive
manner which is not anti-Union. This is not to say that the piece
is heavy. It is certainly not - there is a romantic theme attached
to this tale of a confrontation between a new superintendent in
a pyjama factory in Ohio and the militant Union Representative of
the Complaints Committee. As Babe (Joanna Riding) fights for a 7
1/2 cents per hour rise in pay for the workers and Sid (Michael
Xavier), who has to put forward Management's position, tries to
impose his opposite view, the growing love between the two seems
doomed. |
Stephen Mear's choreography |
Joanna Riding has a strong, tuneful voice which she uses to great
effect as Babe. She is well-matched by Michael Xavier's Sid and
there is a real spark of chemistry between them. There is a comic
sub plot involving the shop floor time and motion man, Vernon (Peter
Polycarpou; the part will be taken by Gary Wilmot from 2 June),
who is extremely jealous of his girlfriend, Gladys (Alexis Owen-Hobbs).
He promises Sid's middle-aged secretary, (Claire Machin) that "I'll
never be jealous again" - a great song, performed with panache. |
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Whereas Elizaberth Seal was a real bombshell in the
original London production, Owen-Hobbs is not so sultry in the song
steam heat. She is better putting across the well-known Hernando's
hideaway.
The office picnic is reminiscent of that in Carousel, and has the
lovely number once-a-year day. Stephen Mear's choreography is full
of life and every number is performed in a lively, excitingly original
manner. Highly recommended.
The RSC's new season at its Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon
has a feminine theme for the four plays on offer. That's fine as
is its choice of THE ROARING GIRL (until 30 September
Box office 0844 800 1110) for the first play. What I was
not keen on was the updating of Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton's
play of 1611 to Victorian England. It doesn't even keep to the 1890s
as Moll, the 'roaring girl' of the title, has tattoos and the music
played sounds modern. I would have liked to see director Jo Davies's
interpretation as a Jacobean play.
To have the story of Moll Cutpurse (Lisa Dillon) in its rightful
era would have shown how feminist ideas of independence from men
and equality were present in this early period. |
The play is performed in a very lively and energetic manner.
There are a number of overlapping story lines which all finally
come together. The two main ones are firstly that of Sebastian (Joe
Bannister) whose father (David Rintoul) is against his son marrying
Mary (Faye Castelow), a lowly seamstress. Sebastian pretends to
be courting Moll. The second of the main sub-plots concerns an apothecary's
wife, Mistress Gallipot (Lizzie Hopley), |
L. to R.. Joe Bannister, Lisa
Dillon, Faye Castelow |
who believes that one of the Gallants, Laxton (Keir
Charles) loves her so that she tricks her husband into parting with
money for him. Laxton also eyes Moll, believing (wrongly) her to
be an easy catch as she is so bold in dress and behaviour.
Lisa Dillon is always lively as Moll and sings and bounds around
the stage enthusiastically. It is a pity that the play is set in
an era that doesn't tie in with the language or behaviour of the
characters as it is very well performed, well dressed, with an attractive
set and is at times highly amusing.
Last Saturday I undertook a marathon; no, not the normal running
type, but watching the performances of four plays by Simon Gray
(who died in 2008). The first play began at 11 a.m. and the last
finished just before 10 p.m. with intervals and meal breaks. Under
the title, IN THE VALE OF HEALTH (Hampstead, London
theatre until 14 June. Box office 020 7722 9301) the plays JAPES,
MICHAEL, JAPES TOO, MISSING DATES are a remarkable achievement. |
L to R Jamie Ballard (Michael),
Laura Rees (Anita), Gethin Anthony (Japes) in Japes Too from In
the Vale of Health at Hampstead theatre |
Simon Gray saw his play, JAPES directed by Peter Hall in 2001
and thought that his characters could be developed further and that
there was also the possibility of different endings. So he followed
Japes with the other three plays - I understand that there are yet
another two, but Artistic Director Edward Hall and his colleagues
at Hampstead Theatre decided that four were enough!
The plays deal with the lives of three main characters, Jason (nicknamed
Japes), his brother Michael and Anita. Michael loves and marries
Anita, although she is also having a secret affair with Japes. |
Both brothers write, but for most of the time, Michael is the more successful. Alcohol plays a major part in all their lives.
The plays progress in time and the story-line alters in each one.
There are, however, many repetitions and one has to listen very
carefully to notice the minute changes. Some scenes are repeated
virtually in full, with just one or two words or sentences different
from the previous enactment of the same scene. It is rather like
Alan Ackbourn's trilogy NORMAN CONQUESTS in which
each play depicts the same six characters over the same weekend
in a different part of a house, although here there is one set only.
Our interest stays with the triangle of the two brothers and their
love of Anita. Two other characters are introduced: the daughter,
Wendy (Imogen Doel) who is as unsure as the other three about which
brother is her father, and Wendy's former drug addicted boyfriend
and later her husband, Dominic (Tom Mothersdale).
The acting by Gethin Anthony as Japes, Jamie Ballard as Michael and Laura Rees as Anita - with a good teenager in Doel's performance and a lively, amusing characterisation by Mothersdale, is fine and they should be doubly admired for having the energy and sustainability to perform all four plays, with so much repetition and just tiny changes, over a whole day and evening.
Simon Gray, using a lot of his personal life as source material, writes in a witty way, using everyday speech to convey a lot of hidden emotion and alternative meaning. Although the plays can be viewed separately, there is a lot to be got out of seeing them consecutively, on the same day if possible or over two days.
I passed the real Vale of Health NW3 the day after seeing the plays: there is a variety of Houses, some large ones divided into apartments as well as pretty individual cottages - a good setting for this marathon accomplishment at Hampstead Theatre. |
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Carlie Newman |
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