DVD/150: THE WIRE: SEASON 1 (various, 2002, tv)

THE WIRE's gripping storytelling makes it unforgettable.  Between 2002 - 2008, five HBO seasons delivered a forensic view of Baltimore: police, criminals, dock workers, politicians, teachers and newspaper reporters all intersect but discover "the system" always wins.

Homicide detective Jimmy McNulty triggers an investigation when drug dealer D'Angelo Barksdale's murder trial collapses due to witness intimidation. McNulty knows D'Angelo is nephew to drug overlord Avon Barksdale who has proved untouchable.

McNulty is loathed by his superiors, but they allow Lt. Cedric Daniels a surveillance team to run a basic investigation.

But the unit - including narcotics officer Kima Greggs and the analytical Lester Freamon - realize that Barksdale's complex operations demand deeper surveillance. Kima's junkie informant, Bubbles is also enlisted.

Avon with his deputy Stringer demote D'Angelo to running young pushers but he now is conflicted about "The Game"...

Everything changes when Barksdale's operations are targeted by maverick hood drug thief Omar Little.

Shelf or charity shop?  SHELF!!  Writers David Simon and Ed Burns - one an ex-newspaper police correspondant, the other a former policeman/teacher - based THE WIRE on the Baltimore institiutions they knew and created an astonishing television experience, using a pool of script writers and directors.  Over 13 hours their characters come alive, illustrating the internicine power struggles within both the police and criminal worlds.  The scripts are masterpieces of long-form narrative which drew complaints from US audiences about the complex story. Dominic West leapt to stardom as McNulty and he was well teamed with Wendell Pierce as Homicide colleague Bunk Moreland - the scene where they investigate a crime scene using every permutation of the work 'fuck' is tv gold.  The always excellent Clarke Peters shines as Lestor Freamon, languishing in police admin hell until given a second chance through the case, as is Sonja Sohn as the empathetic narcotics officer Kima.  Idris Elba was launched to fame as Stringer Bell, the cool but dangerous deputy of the Barksdale crew, well-cast opposite the intense Wood Harris as Avon Barksdale.  Lawrence Gilliard Jr. is unforgettable as D'Angelo, the loyal Barksdale foot-soldier who realizes the devastating impact of "The Game" and there is a memorable performance from Michael B Jordan as the tragic Wallace.  Dependant on both sides is Andre Royo as the police informant junkie Bubbles and lurking in the shadows is the unforgettable Omar Little played to charismatic perfection by Michael K Williams.

DVD/150: PRIDE (Matthew Warchus, 2014)

You know the film genre: individual / group take a stand against their fate, there are setbacks but triumph vindicates them: BILLY ELLIOTT, THE FULL MONTY, KINKY BOOTS, MADE IN DAGENHAM...

...and there's PRIDE, Matthew Warchus' marvellous film which tells the true story of how gay activists set up the support group 'Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners' during the 1984-85 miner's strike.

Stephen Beresford's excellent script mixes fact and fiction to tell how Mark Ashton and Mike Jackson started the group when they realized that the miners and their families were facing the same forces of oppression that they had experienced: the Government, the police and the press.

Brimming with wit and emotion, the film boasts memorable performances from Ben Schnetzer, Joe Gilgun, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Jessica Gunning, Faye Marsay, Paddy Considine, Dominic West, Andrew Scott, George MacKay, Menna Trussler and Lisa Palfrey

PRIDE is an instant classic...

Shelf or charity shop?  PRIDE never fails to make me blub: a testament to the times I lived through and to the remarkable Mark Ashton who died aged only 26 in 1987 from an AIDS-related illness.  Standing proud on the shelf.
 

LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES at the Donmar: Love and Death...

It had to come... my last theatre visit of 2015.  But what a way to end it with the chance to see one of my favourite plays for the first time since 1990, Christopher Hampton's dazzlingly decadent LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos.

In 1987, four years after falling under the spell of Christopher Hampton's writing with Peter Gill's wonderful production of TALES FROM HOLLYWOOD at the National Theatre, I managed to see his latest hit LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES at the Ambassadors Theatre where it had transferred from The Pit Theatre at the Barbican.  I had missed the original cast of Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan but saw Jonathan Hyde and Eleanor David, the latter giving a performance that was glitteringly lethal.

I saw it with my late friend Martin Taylor and indeed, the more cutting of the Marquise de Merteuil's lines soon found their way into our shared badinage and, sitting in the Donmar betwixt Christmas and the New Year that will mark the 20th anniversary of Martin's death, those lines made me smile all over again.  Sometimes being overly-familiar with a play can be a bad thing but it was a deep pleasure to see the play where it belongs, on an intimate stage.

Laclos' epistolary novel - his one, lasting success - was written seven years before the French Revolution and can be viewed as a devastating critique of the hedonistic society that was to lose it's collective head a few years hence but we will never know for certain.  Laclos' was a military man and you can see his knowledge of strategies and warfare in his tale of two scheming aristocrats who delight in plotting revenge on ex-lovers.

The novel has been adapted for stage and screen in various guises and Hampton's play was the basis of the most well-known film DANGEROUS LIAISONS for which he won an Academy Award for his adapted script.  However the play exerts a particular power onstage and one sits entranced as the conspirators Valmont and Mertueil circle their prey and ultimately each other.  For me it is the perfect play, well-constructed with it's own inner engine, dizzying wordplay and moments of genuine suspense and pathos.

Hampton's delicious trick is to make the audience side with Valmont and Merteuil in their plots - Merteuil wants Valmont to seduce the teenage soon-to-be bride of an ex-lover while Valmont wishes to seduce a married woman famous for her fidelity and piety.  Although reluctant to act on Merteuil's plan, when Valmont learns that the young girl's mother has been bad-mouthing him to his married prey he takes agrees to Merteuil's challenge.

Of course Valmont triumphs in both cases but he leaves himself exposed when Merteuil realises that in the process of seducing Madame de Tourvel he has committed the cardinal sin of falling in love.  Above all else, this means she is no longer the sole object of his desire.  Inch by inch, Hampton pulls the carpet from under the audience's feet as we realise our hero and heroine do real damage to those they prey on and morally the audience is left hanging.

Tom Scutt's design of a grand salon going to the bad - plaster peeling, gilt tarnished, large paintings left unhung - was an interesting metaphor for the society the conspirators embody, and it was warmly lit by Michael Henderson's lighting.  Josie Rourke's production fitted the Donmar space perfectly, if I have a quibble about her direction it is that she has Janet McTeer play Merteuil from the get-go almost like a panto Wicked Queen - all snaking fingers and glaring eyes - oh for Eleanor David's cool, mocking demeanor - but she pulls it back so by the time she turns the tables on Valmont she truly is a fearsome opponent who will win whatever the price.

Dominic West certainly has the right devil-may-care approach to Valmont and, like McTeer, he too rose to the fire and anger of the final scenes well, meeting the knowledge that Merteuil had tricked him into losing everything with a knowing inevitability.  It's just a shame he stumbled over the odd line once too often for it not to be noticeable.

A late replacement for Michelle Dockery, Elaine Cassidy succeeded in the tricky task of making Madame de Tourvel sympathetic and the supporting cast excelled with fine performances from Morfydd Clark as the teenage victim Cécile, Una Stubbs as Valmont's loving aunt, Jennifer Saayeng as the saucy courtesan Émilie and Edward Holcroft was a suitably gauche Chevalier Danceny.

With no news of a West End transfer yet, it is good that this excellent production will be broadcast as part of the NT Live project to selected cinemas on 28th January - click the ad to see if there is a screening at a cinema near you.

There Is Power In A Union

Every so often a film is made in the UK which takes you so unawares, so by surprise, that it refreshes your interest not just in British film but in the medium itself.

I booked to see a preview screening at the National Film Theatre of the new British film PRIDE directed by Matthew Warchus, I thought I would have a punt on it as it starred a number of actors that I like but as I took my seat I also suspected that it would probably be the sort of film whose poster would boast "This Year's Full Monty" and that it was "heartwarming".  In short I expected something that would easily fit all that is required of the average Sunday evening television series: lovable working class scallywags, strong but silent wives, comic character parts, brass bands playing every 5 seconds and a happy ending guaranteed.

The remarkable thing is that all those elements are there but when the film reaches it's emotional climax it is genuinely moving as it has been reached in such an honest and restrained way by director Warchus, writer Stephen Beresford and a remarkable cast.

What made the film so special is that finally here is a film that makes me think "Yes that's my history, that's the 1980s that I lived through".  The film has conjured up that time of covert Government pressure on anyone who didn't fit with their world - now doesn't that sound familiar?  Here is a film that could not be more timely. 

The film is worth it's weight in gold for many reasons but primarily for shining a spotlight on Mark Ashton who spearheaded the LGSM group.  When we staggered out of the screening, Owen wondered aloud how so little is known about Ashton, a genuine gay hero.  I guessed that it's a case of history is written by the victors - not only were the Miners beaten but ultimately so was the gay activism that Mark Ashton and his comrades stood for.  As he is pointedly told at the Gay Pride march that ends the film, "It's all about celebration now".

So Gay Pride becomes a glorified excuse for crap pop acts to peddle their product to the pink pound and activism can be ended as we now have taken over Old Compton Street.  Hurrah, we have created our own ghetto.

Stephen Beresford's excellent script introduces us into Ashton's world through a fictional character.  1984: Joe is a closeted gay student who escapes his suburban prison to come to London for the Gay Pride march where he meets the Out-and-Proud friends Mark, Mike, Gethin, Jonathan, Steph and Jeff.  He stays with them into the night at the Gay's The Word bookshop where Mark proposes that they form a new action group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners.

At first incredulous, the group is formed when Mark points out that the miners have the same enemies that they face: the government, the police and the media.  Soon they are raising large amounts of money but with nowhere to distribute it as their overtures are met with a refusal to accept their help.  A Welsh mining town is randomly picked and eventually they meet with Dai, a leader of the Strike committee in the Dulais valley who comes to London and accepts their passion to help.

A visit to Dai's village shows the group the depth of the struggle and both the activists and the miners find they have more than the perceived enemies to fight.  Behind all of this, the gay friends are having to deal with the growing shadow of AIDS.

Of course we all know the outcome of the strike but the coda to it was wonderful and as end titles told stories of the characters beyond the film's timeline it is impossible not to be uplifted, saddened and empowered.

Matthew Warchus guides the film with the touch of a master - only once, just before the end, does the pace seem unsteady - but otherwise he keeps a wonderful balance between the comedy and the drama while also finding small telling moments within the bigger picture - there is a wonderful cameo from Russell Tovey which is all the more telling for what is left unsaid.  Also memorable is a quiet scene between Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy where an absolutely killer punchline is not allowed to puncture the feeling of friendship, sadness, dependence and community.

Stephen Beresford's script also deserves kudos for giving the quite large group of characters little moments to shine and for giving them all the dignity they deserve - even the villains of the piece.

Warchus and Beresford are also gifted with a cast that give the feeling of a real ensemble with no one pulling focus despite the opportunities to do so.

Ben Schnetzer - unknown to me before this - has a naturalness on camera and is charismatic as Mark Ashton, driven to support the miners against all the trepidations of his comrades.  I loved Joseph Gilgun as Mike, Mark's close friend who is equally as driven to help but is more steady than his excitable friend.

Warchus seems to allow all his actors to find their own rhythms which pays dividends with Dominic West as Jonathan, the older member of the group, which starts off as the cynical seen-it-all participant but which through the course of the film, slowly becomes a rounded and multi-layered performance.  Andrew Scott as Gethin also gives a performance of subtlety and gentle strength.  His tiny scene of Gethin visiting his mother while he is in Wales is all the more emotional for being so restrained.

George MacKay has a gauche charm as Joe (aka Bromley by his new family) and I really liked the delightful performances of Faye Marsay as spiky Stephe as well as Karina Fernandez as Stella, itching to start her own breakaway group of Lesbians Against Pit Closures.

Wonderful performances by Imelda Staunton, Bill Nighy and Paddy Considine give the film a solid foundation.  As the members of the Dulais Strike Committee who are most welcoming to the LGSM they each give impassioned performances representing aspects of a quiet, hardworking community victimised by the powers that be.

Paddy Considine gives a performance of subtlety and warmth as Dai, the head of the Strike Committee, who can see beyond prejudice to accept the help the gay community are offering.  Imelda Staunton is delightful as Hefina, the rigid moral backbone of the community who welcomes the activists into the village and, in possibly the film's best performance, Bill Nighy is excellent as the committee treasurer Cliff.  A taciturn man made anonymous by his own secrets, it's a joy to watch him be re-born through his association with the gays from London.  All Nighy's usual shtick is swept away as he gives a performance of lonely grace.

Jessica Gunning is excellent as Sian James, a young married housewife whose life is transformed by her experiences during the strike and through her relationship with the gay activists.  I also enjoyed Lisa Palfrey's performance of the bigoted Margaret who does all she can to wreck the association of the miners and the LGSM.

It would be easy enough to play the 'villain' but Palfrey keeps you intrigued in her character throughout. There is also excellent work from Monica Dolan as Joe's mother, as tightly controlled as her suburban decor.

Tat Radcliffe's cinematography and Simon Bowles' wonderful production design makes the 1980s real again and there is an invaluable contribution by Christopher Nightingale with a moving and eloquent score.  Nick Angel's music supervision also contributes to the excellent sonic recreation of 30 years ago.

We were lucky at the NFT for the film to be followed by a Q&A with producer David Livingstone as well as Schnetzer (and what a shock to discover he's American!), Marsay and Scott who were all insightful into working on the film and what they have gained personally from being involved in telling the story.

The following Sunday there was another preview screening at the Brixton Ritzy which we went to again as we were so excited by the film.  Far from being ready for all the film's power, again we were emotional wrecks at the end of it and I stayed for the length of the closing credits to recover - not that I succeeded as the credits roll over "To A Friend", The Communards' contemporary tribute to Mark Ashton.

I cannot urge you enough to rush to see PRIDE, it will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you think, it will make you proud.

Sorry about that delay in blogging... life, you know...

Our second exposure to the Bard showed the truth in the old phrase of the mountain coming to Mohammad.

Sometimes you just gotta get out of town... so a few Saturdays ago found Owen and I sitting on a train chuffing merrily out of St. Pancras International to ... wait for it.... Sheffield. Sheffield yet! So what could get me to up sticks and venture north? Well, it was the news that the thrilling partnership of Clarke Peters and Dominic West which proved so successful in the epic US tv series THE WIRE was to be made flesh at the Sheffield Crucible in OTHELLO. There was no mention of a London transfer so a day-trip to the home of The Human League was a must.
It was also good to finally see inside the famous Crucible auditorium so beloved of the World Snooker Championships and it makes you understand how, with the right match, the atmosphere must be tense.

The theatre itself isn't all that exciting - it's form seems to echo so many regional late 20th Century builds, all concrete and large windows overlooking either the main road or the car park! But the place seemed very buzzy and busy, no doubt down to the excellent reviews the production had garnered the week before.

The actor Daniel Evans has landed the Artistic Director role at the Crucible and he made his Shakespeare directorial debut with this production. Surprisingly he made an excellent job of it - while playing up the - ahem - black comedy of such a hissable villain as Iago, Evans also gave us a thorough, uncluttered reading of the play with a momentum which moved smoothly but relentlessly ever-onward, like a shark honing in on it's prey.Oddly enough, the play's final scene did dissipate this momentum but Shakespeare did rather prolong the end of his play - how many times *does* Desdemona have splutter to life after having been smothered? However by then Evans and his talented cast had done enough to deserve the ovation that they genuinely deserved.

Evans gave us a fairly traditional setting for his version of the play with doublets, jerkins and wide skirts a-plenty against Morgan Large's set comprising a large functional brick wall with central doors which with Lucy Carter's subtle lighting worked well in exterior and interior scenes.

I guess the best Shakespearean productions should seem to introduce the play to you afresh and this it certainly did. I can't remember laughing so much at the tale of the tragic Moor but I suspect a lot of that was down to the inspired central casting.
It's a shame that the exciting performances of Dominic West and Clarke Peters will not be seen by a wider audience but I feel very lucky to have done so. The chemistry revealed in THE WIRE was built on here and their scenes together fizzed and sparked as Iago teased and wheedled Othello from his benign married state into a jealous murderous husband.

Dominic West was the true star of the show, using a broad Yorkshire accent to suggest a hail-fellow-well-met character who secretly relishes the carnage his malicious lies provoke. No one is safe from him including his wife Emilia and here West was perfectly matched with Alexandra Gilbreath who brought an earthy wisdom to the role. As with the best performances, it was her a pleasure to watch her silent reactions to others as well as speaking her lines - her slow realization that she was an unknowing contributor to her husband's scheme was heartbreaking.Clarke Peters came in for some unfairly critical reviews in the press but he gave a fine performance, becoming more and more unravelled as his jealousy took hold until his mania was scary to see. Peters is an actor who you instinctively can trust on stage and this performance proved again his wide-ranging versatility and powerful presence.

Desdemona is a sticky role but Lily James made a good fist of her inherent innocence and her scenes with Peters and Gilbreath gave her ample opportunity to show her versatile playing. In a small but impressive cast, special mention should go to Gwilym Lee as Cassio, Luciano Dodero as Montano and Leigh McDonald as the courtesan Bianca.

C'mon someone, film this production and give these fine actors the wider acclaim they deserve.
Oh and well done HMV Sheffield for stocking the dvd of Vanessa Redgrave in ISADORA which the HMV Piccadilly Circus haven't done!

Would you Adam and Eve it Constant Reader? I've only gone and seen another film!

On Friday I accompanied Andrew to BAFTA to see a screening of the new Neil Marshall film CENTURION.
This is my second 'Roman' film in as many weeks - AGORA was the other - and I am discerning a definite trend, mighty Empire unable to cope in occupied territories with either, religious fundamentalism or insurrection from indigenous population.

Ringing bells at all?
One definitely gets the whiff from CENTURION - a generic band-of-brothers-caught-between-enemy-lines actioner - that to film it in present day circumstances would be viewed as distasteful so the safety cloak of the Roman era is thrown on.

Goodness knows there is no real attempt to distance it from today, from the opening line of a Roman soldier looking out from a sentry post that "this country is the arsehole of the world" you know what you are going to be in for - thick-eared film-making at it's most unrelentingly grim. The audience mostly consisted of people flinching from the graphic axe-meeting-head, spear-meeting-gonads footage or people tittering at the absurd "oi-oi" script.

Poor the Dominic West having to growl as the legion's just-one-of-the-men General "When will people learn not to fuck with the 9th?" Please...Yes, the film covers the mystery of what happened to the Roman 9th Legion that allegedly vanished while stationed in England. There is a second film due out this year based on THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH by Rosemary Sutcliffe which uses this as it's jump-off point too - you wait years for a 9th Legion film to come along etc...

Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) is taken captive when his company of soldiers is wiped out when their fort is ambushed by Picts. The only reason he too is not killed is when he shouts out in the Picts language. He somehow manages to escape - don't ask why, it would get in the way of the plot - and makes it back to the 9th. Just in time to learn that they are setting out for the dreaded North to kick Pict arse once and for all. They are to be led by the statuesque and Amazonian tracker Etain (Olga Kurylenko), a Pict who has seemingly defected to the Roman side. Oh and she's mute so no tricky English dialogue for our Olga.

Needless to say leads our gallant lads into an ambush where they are all but wiped out, General Virilus (West) is captured and seven disparate soldiers are left to fend for themselves.An attempt to rescue Virilus fails but not before the Nasty Cowardly Soldier (J.J. Feld) kills the Pict leader's young son before the survivors flee the camp. When the son's body is found, Virilus is hacked up by Etain who sets out with the Picts to track down the seven soldiers.

So then we sit back and watch off as the Roman Seven are picked off, either by the avenging Picts - or by the Nasty Sneaky Soldier!
Fassbender makes a charismatic hero and by and large the performances of Liam Cunningham (gruff old soldier), David Morrissey (gor-blimey best mate), Noel Clarke (brave but too trusting squaddie) manage to rise above the relentlessly macho script.

Dominic West is dispatched far too soon as does the always reliable Lee Ross. Ukrainian ex-model Kurylenko unsurprisingly does most of her acting with her cheekbones while Ulrich Thomsen and Dave Legeno make you wish their characters were given more to do.
Noel Marshall certainly directs with a brutish heft but it is so relentlessly brutish that it's relatively short running time of 97 minutes becomes an endurance test. His script is also a slog with it's unoriginal plotline and imagery - there was an audible groan towards the end when he utilises the now-standard PLATOON rip-off shot of our hero sinking to his knees in slow-motion at the meaningless death of a buddy.

The colour palette is desaturated so most of the film is icy blues and dull grey. Marshall also overdoes the tired shtick of aerial tracking shots of the tiny band of survivors running across snow-covered mountain tops. Once or twice okay... but here it is used relentlessly - I guess the budget went on the hire of the helicopter!