Howl

Howl
Directed by Robert Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
USA, 2010
Cornerhouse, 27 February 2011

Still from Howl

It is probably best described as an assemblage of documentary materials, Robert Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s film.

Primarily, there is Allen Ginsberg’s poem and we get the poet (played by James Franco) reading it from a manuscript in what seems to have been set up to look like a San Francisco bar or a Greenwich Village coffeehouse.  The poem is also given an animated treatment, the sequence of images inventive and frenetic, if sometimes a little too literal.  Of course, Howl is an important poem and has some striking lines and rhapsodic moments, but Ginsberg was perhaps too enamoured of anaphora.  All that rhetorical repetition, all those redundant words: Whitman (and Churchill also) has a lot to answer for.

Another strand to the film is the reconstruction of the obscenity trial surrounding the poem, which dealt frankly with homosexual desire.  Queer desire was touched on briefly in Howl, but it got a fuller treatment in the erotic and powerful ‘Please Master’, a poem which clearly appeals to the reader’s prurient desire; and very likely appealed to the poet’s even as he was writing it.

A third strand sees Ginsberg talking about his life and poetry, responding to an unseen interviewer’s questions.  James Franco, again playing the poet, this time a couple of years after publication, depicts him as personable, happy and engaged.

After watching an animated rendering of the poem and learning the poet’s and others’ thoughts on it (pro and con), it would seem apt to actually seek it out and read it in full.  And that’s how one feels following a viewing of this fine film.

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

A Doll’s House
By Henrik Ibsen
Library Theatre Company
The Lowry, 25 February 2011

Emma Cunniffe (Nora Helmer) and Ken Bradshaw (Torvald Helmer). Photo by Gerry Murray

It is a bit of a slow-burner, actually, this one.

The first act sets out the central premise: a happy marriage put at risk by a wife’s act of deception, albeit one done out of compassion.  In later acts, and particularly the last, we are given due reward and payback for our patience: disclosure, revelation and truth come thick and fast.  We learn that the marriage was not so happy after all and the threat of exposure, when carried out, is liberating.

Doing what is right is a precarious, uncertain business – that is one feeling you take away after seeing this production.  Emma Cunniffe and Ken Bradshaw give fine performances as the Helmers, a couple weighed down by conventional codes of correct behaviour and fear of scandal.  Both have perilous journeys to undertake.  However, Daniel Brocklebank’s striking portrayal of Dr. Rank, a dying doctor infatuated by Nora Helmer, added strong spice to the mix.  Death’s contiguity undoubtedly concentrates Nora’s conscience.  There’s also a parallel love story, that between Krogstad (Paul Barnhill) and Mrs Linde (Sarah Ball), an older and more courageous couple, which enriches Ibsen’s great play.

Now here’s my advice: follow the first two acts closely but pay especial attention to the final act.  That’s when it all kicks off, fireworks and fighting and fending off scandal.  Do this and you’ll realise what the play’s all about: a woman caught in the cage of a stifling marriage, finally making a break for freedom.

Library Theatre’s excellent production of A Doll’s House, directed by Chris Honer, is at The Lowry until 12 March 2011.  Further details are here.  And here too.

¡Viva! 17th Spanish and Latin American Film Festival

¡Viva! will run at the Cornerhouse from 5-27 March 2011.

Now in its 17thyear, ¡Viva! is always a rewarding experience but it can be a tricky business planning what to see.  One thing I learned from seeing most of the films at last year’s festival is that there were many hidden gems and unheralded treasures, this among a very diverse line-up.  The film I loved best was a Peruvian film, Claudia Llosa’s The Milk of Sorrow, and this was wholly unexpected.

It will be clear, therefore, why I am a little reluctant to decide on a set of highlights or must-sees.  However, here, a week or so before the festival gets underway, are five films that I am especially looking forward to:

• Los Pecados de mi padre: In this documentary a son looks at his father, one Pablo Escobar, drug emperor.
• Gordos: Five people will do anything to lose weight…
• Under the Bridge: A documentary examining Mexican-American identity.
• Desierto adentro: There is a tale of betrayal, violence, guilt and redemption in Roberto Plá’s film, set at the time of the Mexican Revolution.
• Revolución: Continuing the Mexican Revolution theme, a collection of 10 short films, each made as a response to the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.

There is no doubt, mind, that the best policy is to see as many films as you possibly can.  Or all of them ideally, just to be on the safe side.

Details of all films and related events can be found on the ¡Viva! website.  Click here.

Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers

Blood Brothers
By Willy Russell
The Lowry, 21 February 2011

Niki Evans

There are some well-weird musicals out in theatre-land; Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers is one of them.

The story is like this: identical twins separated at birth become best friends nevertheless; one has a working class upbringing, the other’s family is middle class.

It is an update of The Prince and the Pauper, an embellishment of Rousseau’s statement that ‘man is born free but everywhere he is in chains’, a critique of the English class system, which singles out some for a factory job or a life on the dole while others get to swan off to university and in due course a cushy professional job.

Niki Evans gives the outstanding performance as Mrs. Johnstone, the mother of the twins Mickey (Sean Jones) and Eddie (Paul Davies).  The two boys whizz about, showing lots of energy. 

In this show adults took the roles of children, which might seem creepy or uncanny to some people.  I didn’t mind it myself, quite enjoyed the frisson in fact.  Also, we got a definite feel for Liverpool and for the treasures that a Catholic, working-class childhood contains. 

Fate is shoes placed upon a table.

Blood Brothers is at The Lowry until 26 February and then tours throughout the UK until about the end of July 2011.  Tour dates are here.

Inside Job by Charles Ferguson

Inside Job
Directed by Charles Ferguson
USA, 2010
Cornerhouse, 23 February 2011

Still from Inside Job

The best attempt bar only one (the one in question being John Lanchester’s Whoops!) to make sense of the financial crisis that has led to our current economic malaise.

Charles Ferguson’s film (he wrote as well as directed it) presents a solid forensic analysis of the causes and consequences of the collapse, among them deregulation, greed, lax oversight, risk taking which was rewarded when it was successful but not punished when it fell flat.  He also speaks directly to many of the significant players, though the really big cheeses chickened out of being interviewed.

It was good to see a few of these guys squeal, mind, among them an academic who, when the shit really hit the fan, felt an urgent need to revise a textbook.  Unbelievable.  You couldn’t make it up, well maybe Joseph Heller could.

There’s an object lesson for other documentary makers here, too.  A sound, super-competent journalist, Ferguson repeatedly shows the advantage of challenging falsehoods with facts rather than polemic.  It seems to work very effectively.  Can you learn the lesson, Michael Moore? 

Unshowy (unless you count Matt Damon’s crisp narrative; I don’t), without gimmicks of any kind, this is nonetheless a devastatingly effective analysis of the banking industry.

The Tales of Belkin by Alexander Pushkin

The Tales of Belkin
By Alexander Pushkin
Translated by Hugh Aplin
Foreword by Adam Thirlwell
Hesperus Press, September 2009
ISBN-13: 978-1843911852

For this volume, Pushkin invented an author (a certain Ivan Petrovich Belkin) who has apparently written the five stories herein.

It is not the case that Belkin is an alter ego or heteronym of Pushkin, as say a reader or student of Fernando Pessoa would understand the matter.  At least, that is not my take on it.

Belkin is simply a persona that allows Pushkin to parody and wryly explore the conventions of storytelling.  He is playing something of the same game that Italo Calvino played in If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, and there is also a kinship to Daniil Kharms’ absurdist prose works.

Originally published in 1831, these ludic (yet insidiously compelling) yarns touch on honour, vengeance, love, duels, elopement; and in one story myriad macabre happenings that turn out in the end to be a dream…  Fairy-tale tropes are in evidence and so too is the storyteller’s familiar, Coincidence.

Another of Belkin’s efforts, a history of a village, is included along with the stories.  In this important work, the great writer as well gives an account of his literary development from epic poet to middling local historian.

‘A Fragment’ ends the book.  This very short piece (and for once ‘piece’ does not mean ‘work’, that is to say ‘whole’) describes a fictional poet, a literary figure of Pushkin’s imagination, a brother of Belkin perhaps.

One crucial thing this volume achieves is to make you realise how close Kharms is to Pushkin; a proper son of Pushkin was he.  There are some clues as to this relationship.  Kharms wrote an amusing riff called ‘Anegdotes from the Life of Pushkin’, as well as a weird little play where Pushkin and Gogol take turns falling over each other.

Both of these are well worth a read, but after you’ve read this excellent book, of course.  It has been excellently translated by Hugh Aplin and Adam Thirlwell’s foreword is chockful of insights about the writing of fiction – and about the author of the author of these tales.

David McAlmont @ The Lowry

David McAlmont
The Lowry, 17 February 2011

On a previous visit to Manchester, David McAlmont performed a bunch of Harold Arlen songs.  In this terrific concert, he delivered a set of songs taken from his own extraordinary career.

We got ‘Yes’, ‘Lose My Faith’, a fair few other hits and a couple of numbers associated with Shirley Bassey; there were also some less well-known and new songs here.

David’s banter between songs revealed un homme tout rond: a man humorous, proud, self-accepting and a smidgeon divaesque.  Clearly, he is in a happy and good place at the minute.

And his voice is in good shape too, as fine as it’s ever been on this hearing.

When he performed some of the more rhythmic, driving songs, one wondered what he’d have become if he’d have embraced Little Richard as a model rather than Shirley or Dionne Warwick, say.  Although that’s likely a pointless, ‘The Jolly Corner’, kind of question.  A Jagger–like stagecraft was present here, at any rate.

To paraphrase the strapline of a current ad. campaign, Even Angels Would Fall to possess a voice like David’s.  And they’d likely want to exchange their wings for his wonderful feather boa as well.

Into the Woods @ the RNCM

Into the Woods
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
RNCM Studio Theatre, 19 February 2011

Sondheim’s musical blends together several fairy tales to create a potent brew.

The moral of the work, apparently, is that in order to live life aright you must face your fears by going ‘into the woods’, alone.  There is also the lyric that goes something like ‘A thing is all it’s needed for / And others may need it more’; and so on.

This was a student production but that is a byword for quality as far as the RNCM is concerned.  One performer who caught the eye was Nicola Stone as Little Red Riding Hood, here played as a very cutesy and clever goody two-shoes.  Her sometime consort, The Wolf (Christopher Jones), howled for his supper with aplomb.  And the two princes who came a-courting (Rapunzel’s and Cinderella’s, played respectively by Sam Lea and Harry Meredith) were immensely amusing.  Sam Lea in particular showed an exquisite comedic timing and a kind of fey stillness after he delivered his song.  That’s how he got his laughs.

The central figure of Lewis Booth’s set, a tree/castle-tower/beanstalk, was a transformative device of great power and there was an inventive use of props: the watering-can hen being a surrealist object in itself… 

Perhaps the costume I liked best was a pink and white number that one of Cinderella’s sisters wore.  As in Charles Perrault’s source story, both sisters had bits of their foot hacked off in an effort to make it fit the slipper.  It is good to see an author’s original work respected; albeit was a little gruesome in this case.

After all had been told, an enchanting evening’s entertainment.

Moscow City Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty
Music by Tchaikovsky
Moscow City Ballet
Palace Theatre, 18 February 2011

 

Victor Smirnov-Golovanov’s ravishing production of The Sleeping Beauty is certain to leave you refreshed, relaxed and alert.  It shimmers like an exquisite dream.

Tchaikovsky’s splendid score seduces you, as it always does, whilst the gorgeous sets and Elisaveta Gurenko’s wonderful costumes simply enchant; as a fairy tale should.  The diverse colours on show – turquoise, pink, different shades of red and green – suggest exotic cocktails, boiled sweets and fancy desserts.

The dancers are possessed of both poetry and athletic prowess, and we were treated to generous helpings of their wonderful art.  In particular, the principals who took the roles of Princess Aurora (Guseva Valeriya) and Prince Florimund (Kozhabayev Talgat) exhibited glorious gifts.  They were exemplars of a certain sort of sturdy Russian classicism.

It is the sight of Prince Florimund in virtual flight, circling the stage and attacking pirouette upon pirouette with indomitable vigour, as though he were describing in dance the steadily decreasing orbit of a falling star, that remains uppermost in my mind as I write.

As I have written before, The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet that all can enjoy, even the very young, and it is ideal for introducing children to this form of dance.  And if you can inspire them early it is certain they’ll soon want more of it.

Thought and artistry is evident in every aspect of this magnificent Moscow City Ballet production.  You’d have to be in a coma to fail to be enlivened by it.

The Sleeping Beauty is at the Palace Theatre until 19 February and visits other UK venues later in the month.  Look at the tour dates here.

The Leopard by Luchino Visconti

The Leopard
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Italy, 1963
Cornerhouse, 23 January 2011

Still from The Leopard

Set during the Risorgimento, the movement for the unification of Italy, this film charts the way in which an aristocratic Sicilian family is able to adapt and prosper in a changing world, a treacherous political environment.

At the vanguard of the family are Don Fabrizio (Burt Lancaster), called The Leopard because of his powerful bearing and charisma, and his nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon), a courageous and intrepid young man whose opportunism and ambition are matched only by his sense of entitlement.

Visconti’s lush cinematography captures the movement from degeneracy and decline to renewal and reinvigoration, the shift of loyalties and alliances done so casually as to go barely noticed and unremarked.  Somehow it is so easy to change sides.

It is a film that could justly be described as full-blooded, being intelligent, vigorous and sensual; all of these at once.  Above all, there is a feeling for the importance of such intangible or difficult-to-define values as sophistication, elegance, worldliness and honour (though these last two seem often to contradict each other).  Certainly, there is the sense that there’s a right and a wrong way to do things and that those of aristocratic bearing and good breeding know what’s best.

This is one of Visconti’s greatest and most beautiful films, a masterpiece.