DVD/150: SHIP OF FOOLS (Stanley Kramer, 1965)

Although Stanley Kramer's films were popular and 'liberal', they now feel heavy-handed and humourless, the attempts at profundity land with a thump.

SHIP OF FOOLS is GRAND HOTEL afloat: a cross-section of people reflecting their society and as we are on a boat from Mexico to Germany in 1933, the rise of Nazism permeates the air.

SHIP OF FOOLS is important as it was Vivien Leigh's last film as the lonely divorcée Mary Treadwell.

Apart from Vivien, the best performances are from Oskar Werner as the exhausted ship's doctor and Simone Signoret as La Contessa, a Cuban politician's former mistress en route to prison in Tenerife.  While curing her opium addiction, they fall in love for the brief time they have.

Nominated for eight Academy Awards, Europeans Werner and Signoret were recognised as was Michael Dunn as the film's dwarf 'narrator' - it won for Cinematography and Art Direction.

Shelf or charity shop?  For Vivien and Simone it's a keeper.  Kramer had known about Vivien Leigh's precarious mental health when he hired her but a recent downturn into manic paranoia caused problems with other cast members but despite flare-ups with Kramer, Signoret and Lee Marvin - who shared most of his scenes with her - they all sympathised and showed understanding. This febrile quality to Vivien's performance really stands out in the film - in particular her sudden frantic Charleston in an empty ship's corridor and the following scene where, staring in her mirror, she gives way to her fears of ageing alone, at one point, she brightens up and flashes a coquettish smile and the years fall away and you can see her as Scarlett O'Hara again, charming her suitors on the Tara veranda.  She died two years later of tuberculosis.

DVD/150: KAZE NO NAKA NO MENDORI (A HEN IN THE WIND) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1948)

Made while Japan was under American occupation, this has been dismissed and even Ozu disliked it.  A somber film missing his usual gentle humour and - unusually for him - there are two scenes of violence.

Dressmaker Tokiko struggles to survive in post-war Tokyo; living in a single room with her young son Hiroshi, she longs for her husband Shuichi's return from the army.

Hiroshi is suddenly hospitalized for ten days and faced with the large hospital bill, Tokiko has no other option but to prostitute herself for one night.

Shuichi returns but any happiness ends when Tokiko decides to tell him what happened.  His anger matches her shame and he refuses to forgive her.

Shuichi visits the brothel Tokiko had used and meets Fusako, a young prostitiute. Through her he realises what the post-war conditions are forcing women to choose.

But is there any chance he will forgive Tokiko?

Shelf or charity shop?  This is on the same DVD as a far superior Ozu film so I will keep it on the shelf.  It is not one of my personal favourites but I can appreciate the performances of Shuji Sano as the conflicted Shuichi although Kinuyo Tanaka's Tokiko is a bit one-note in her despair.  There are fine performances from Chieko Murata as Tokiko's disapproving friend Akiko and Chiyoko Fumiya as the young prostitute Fusako.  It is a joy as always to find Ozu-san's favourite actor Chishu Ryu in the supporting role of Shuichi's understanding boss Satake - it was only six years earlier Ryu and Sano had played father and son in Ozu's CHICHI ARIKI (THERE WAS A FATHER).

 

DVD/150: EL ORFANATO (THE ORPHANAGE) (JA Bayona, 2007)

I haven't seen EL ORFANATO in a while and I'm happy to report this daytime ghost story still chills...

Bayona and Guillermo del Toro had been friends since 1993 so Bayona turned to him when Sergio Sanchez's script couldn't find backing; del Toro agreed to produce it - unsurprising as it shares many del Toro themes.

Laura has bought the orphanage where she briefly lived as a child and wants to turn it into a special needs school as well as a home for her, husband Carlos and son Simón.

Simón soon says he has new imaginary friends who are now in the house.

Playing a game devised by the 'friends', Simón discovers that he was adopted and is HIV Positive which leaves him angry and confused.

On the school's opening day, Laura and Simón argue; soon after Simón vanishes...

Laura later discovers that only she can resolve the house's ghosts..

Shelf or charity shop?  EL ORFANATO can happily haunt my plastic DVD storage box. EL ORFANATO received a ten minute standing ovation at Cannes, was a huge box office hit and won seven Goya Awards.  An American remake has been on the cards for the past 15 years, let's hope it never happens.  Bayona made his feature debut with EL ORFANATO and he directs with a delicacy and taste that only adds to the darkness lurking at the films centre; only at the end does he allow the film to slip into a tweeness that would soak a US remake one suspects.  Atmospheric and claustrophobic, the film benefits from unshowy performances from Belén Rueda as Laura, Fernando Cayo as Carlos and an impressive performance from 9 year-old Roger Princep as Simón.  There is also a wonderful cameo from Geraldine Chaplin as Aurora a medium who senses the heartbreak within the house, in only a few scenes she delivers magnificently.  There are certain moments in EL ORFANATO that resonate - none more so than when Laura summons the ghostly orphans by playing a statue game which as it's caught with a handheld camera and in silence is genuinely scary.

THE CORN IS GREEN at Lyttelton, National Theatre - The Play's Not The Thing....

An imagined conversation:

Mr Norris: Great news!  We have TV Land's own Nicola Walker coming back to the National.

Mr Cooke: Coolio!  What to do?

Mr Norris: So... it's got to be a Strong Independant Woman, out there on her own, facing down prejudice and division.  So maybe something which is "heritage"?  THE CORN IS GREEN has been mooted...

Mr Cooke: But that's a warhorse fit only for Chichester all-star revivals... it's hardly National Theatre is it?  Maybe once upon a time but not now...

Mr Norris: I know... so let's do the two Rs... Radical Reimagining!

Mr Cooke: Leave it to me boss!

THE CORN IS GREEN... but not as we know it.  For 84 years. Emlyn Williams' semi-autobiographical play of a dedicated teacher in a Welsh coal-mining village focussing on a young lad with a gift for writing to get him a scholarship to Oxford, has been delivering it's remit as a Well-Written Play with a beginning a middle and an end and a stonking female lead role.  But no.  That is not enough for the National Theatre... it has to be Radically Reinterpreted to make it Relevant.

The trouble is that all Dominic Cooke's meta trappings do is make a long play longer and appear tacky, lazy and shallow framing such a well-constructed piece, standing in the audience's way shouting LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME for no good reason at all.

Cooke has taken a look at the play, snapped his fingers and said "Of course, it's a memory play" so has staged it as one - no matter that it detracts from the material.  So Emlyn Williams is now an onstage character, first seen walking out of a 1920s dance party to struggle through composing his play.  Although by the time he wrote THE CORN IS GREEN, Williams was already a successful playwright and had just had a huge success with his thriller NIGHT MUST FALL.

So we sit through an interminable set-up with Williams being serenaded by a Welsh pit choir as he envisions on an empty set his setting, the makeshift classroom for the soon-to-arrive Miss Moffat.  Oh yes the set... a totally empty stage until the interval, after which the curtain rises on a rudimentary stage set which by the final scene is fully 'realistic' and has it's own cutsey proscenium border.  Again this does absolutely nothing for the audience's understanding of the play, having run the first half's gamut of radio-style special effects to signify doors opening and closing, footsteps going upstairs etc.

Oh yes the singing... Dominic Cooke has scattered throughout the action, passages of singing from a group of Welsh miners - if he was so desperate to make his production a musical one wonders why he didnt just have a go at the 1970s US flop musical MISS MOFFAT in which Bette Davis attempted to revisit the role she had filmed in 1945, rewritten for the deep south instead of Wales, thankfully it died on the road.

The Emlyn Williams character reads out stage directions and the set design, occasionally changing lines as the characters say them and seemingly re-inventing the last act as it's being acted out.  As I said it all smacks of a director who doesnt trust his material - THE CORN IS GREEN is several things but what it isn't is THE GLASS MENAGERIE or OUR TOWN.

The emphasis on the Emlyn Williams / Morgan Evans character also tends to shift the focus from Nicola Walker as the centre of attention which should never be the case, it's her star role to play.  Miss Moffat was originally played by Sybil Thorndike in London and Ethel Barrymore on Broadway, Bette Davis made the afore-mentioned film while Katharine Hepburn made a TV movie in Wales in 1979 directed by George Cukor.  I had seen it before at the Old Vic in 1985 with a matronly Deborah Kerr as Miss Moffat and an Olivier-winning performance from Imelda Staunton as the teenage troublemaker Bessy Watty.

Nicola Walker certainly has a presence onstage, her Miss Moffat was determined and driven but it made the character hard to actually admire as she really showed no light or shade, hardly any emotion at all.  Iwan Davies had moments of fire but otherwise his Morgan Evans was hardly a match for Miss Moffat.  By far the best performance was from Saffron Coomber as Bessy, she actually made the best counter-point to Miss Moffat - as determined to better herself as the teacher wants for her pupil, but with inate knowledge of how to get what she wants now. not later.  Jo McInnes was fine as her cockney mother, former petty thief now a Salvation Army officer - a bit of a stretch there Emlyn - but the remaining cast hid behind their stock characters - spinster teacher, nice-but-dim squire, straight-laced teacher - without bringing them to life at all.

Again at the end of the play Cooke robs his leading lady of the final moment of quiet triumph; he has his production end with his Emlyn Williams character do a foxtrot to a 1930s tune with his fictional younger self.  What on earth was he thinking??

I won't be going back before it's last performance on 11th June.

THREE ASHTON BALLETS: SCÉNES DE BALLET / A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY / SYMPHONY: Ashton's Enduring Legacy

Sir Frederick Ashton had a life as packed with incident as one of his ballets.  Born in Ecuador to British parents, he did not move to England until he was 15 to a public school to learn a trade.  He was miserable there as he had already seen what he wanted to be his future: he had seen Anna Pavlova dance and was desperate to be a dancer but his family refused to contemplate it.  His father commited suicide when Fred was 20 and, despite his mother and sister joining him in London, he followed his dream and was accepted as a pupil by two former Ballets Russes stars Leonide Massine and later by Marie Rambert.  As well as all these influences, he had also seen the iconic Isadora Duncan dance.

By 1930 Ashton had been encouraged by Rambert to concentrate on choreography and he worked for her company Ballet Club which morphed into Ballet Rambert.  In 1935, after working with her on several production, Ashton joined another former Ballet Russes star Ninette de Valois as her company choreographer.  So Ashton was well placed when, after WWII, de Valois' company was invited to form the new ballet company at Covent Garden Opera House, the company that ten years later were granted the title The Royal Ballet.  Two years after moving to Covent Garden Ashton created SCÉNES DE BALLET (1948) to music by Igor Stravinsky.

Against a surreal background, the short piece still holds the attention with Ashton's pioneering geometric choreography, the dancers' sharp staccato movements and the arresting although slightly dated costume colours of yellow, black, purple and blue.  The lead performances by Yasmine Naghadi and Reece Clarke were fine.

De Valois stood down as director in 1963 and Ashton took over.  Although no fan of administration his tenure continued to build The Royal Ballet's fame but when the CEO David Webster stood down in 1970 he wanted a whole new creative team to take over so Ashton was forced to stand down too which was an upset to him.  Sir Fred still created the occasional ballet including his narrative masterpiece A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY (1976)

We had seen A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY in 2019 and it remains a remarkable adaptation of Turgenev's play.  Natalia Petrovna rules her country home with a charming grace, adored by her husband Ysiaev, son Kolia, her ward Vera and close friend Rakitin.  Her life is changed however when her son's new tutor arrives, handsome student Baliaev.  He returns Natalia's affections but when Vera discovers them together, she jealously alerts the whole family to their romance; Baliaev leaves and Natalia is left with her lovelorn feelings.

Peggy Ashcroft told Ashton that his version was better than the original play and at only 40 minutes it whips along. Ashton's clean, classic tone and economic story-telling shine and his choreography allows moments for the cast to stand out such as Liam Boswell's solo as Kolya.  It is a haunting cameo of a ballet, perfectly matched to a selected score by Chopin.  William Bracewell was a passionate Baliaev and Isabella Gasparini was fine as Vera.  But the heart of the ballet was the remarkable Natalia Osipova - her poise and elegance changed by sudden love ending up crushed, slowly walking towards an uncertain future.  

In 1980, Sir Fred aged 76 was invited to devise a short piece to celebrate The Queen Mother's 80th birthday and he produced RHAPSODY to music by Rachmaninoff.  As Mikhail Baryshnikov was a guest artist with The Royal Ballet, the male lead role is certanly more showier than the female partner, originally danced by Lesley Collier.  Ashton had used the music before in Vincente Minnelli's film STORY OF THREE LOVES but devised new choreography for this commission.  

Baryshnikov missed the start of rehearsals so Ashton perfected the female lead's solos and the ensemble of 6 male and 6 female dancers.  When he arrived Baryshnikov was disappointed that his movements were in the brash "Russian style" and not the more nuanced English style that Ashton had created but he threw himself into it.  Here it was a perfect fit for Steven McRae's bravura style although it was still an edge-of-seat performance as it is only 7 months since his return to the stage where he tore his tendon during a performance in MANON which took two years to heal.  Anna Rose O'Sullivan was a delightful partner but Steven's astonishing leaps and sheer panache made him the focus of attention throughout; it ended with a lovely "That's all" pose which won him cheers to the Faberge egg-style roof.

Sir Fred died eight years after RHAPSODY's creation, his place in the history of dance assured and his legacy of work lives on vibrantly in the company he helped form.

DVD/150: MANON (Ross McGibbon, 2018, tv)

Kenneth MacMillan's 1974 ballet of the notorious novel of lost innocence was greeted with critical disapproval but remains an audience favourite and was filmed during it's 2018 revival.

MacMillan wanted a new production to showcase both his stars and the Royal Ballet ensemble and the tragedy of Manon proved ideal.

Convent girl Manon meets student des Grieux at an inn and - obviously - fall in love immediately.  They flee to Paris as a rich man, Monsieur GM, approaches Manon's brother Lescaut offering money for her...

Despite her affection, Manon is enticed by Monsieur's riches.  This sets in motion a chain of events that lead to the high life but also transportation and death.

Any difficulty in emotionally engaging with the relentlessly shallow characters is offset by MacMillan's breathtaking choreograpy.

Sarah Lamb is sparkling but remote as Manon and Vadim Muntagirov matches her intensity in the couple's wonderful three pas de deux.

Shelf or charity shop?  Def shelf. Although the characters are never sympathetic, MANON is a wonderful tribute to the genius of MacMillan.  The supporting cast include classy performances from Itziar Mendizabel as Lescaut's salty mistress, Gary Avis exudes menace as Monsieur, and James Hay shines as the lead beggar in the opening scene.  Sadly Ryoichi Hirano is fairly one-note as the conniving Lescaut, his 'drunk' dancing in the brothel scene has been done better.  What is remarkable is that although Jules Massinet wrote an opera based on MANON, MacMillan chose to use a whole new score based around other music by the composer; it was done so skilfully by Leighton Lucas that you would never guess it was not a proper score.