Theatre news

The New York theatre season is buzzing, just as much as the London one. The Arthur Miller estate is ticking over nicely too. That recent London A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE has just finished in NY, with Mark Strong and the addition of a blonde Russell Tovey; and now that interesting new production of THE CRUCIBLE with Ben Whishaw Sophie Okonedo and BROOKLYN's Saoirse Ronan as Abigail. Here's Ben talking about it and more ....

Arthur Miller did a book signing (PLAIN GIRL) in London in his final years and one had to go along and get a copy signed by the great man. We were not allowed to speak to him, but just to be there in his presence was enough.

Soon: Four 'S's: SENSO, SANDRA, SISSI, MRS STONE; another list: 12 Other British '60s Movies; Cyd Charisse's skirt; those 50s/60s Italian compendium films (GOLD OF NAPLES, THE DOLLS, THE QUEENS, BOCCACCIO 70 etc); the trio of Audrey, Capucine & William Holden plus THE 7TH DAWN and THE LION,,

Eilis goes to Brooklyn

BROOKLYN would seem to have stolen a march on CAROL, that other literary adaptation about shopgirls in Fifties New York, by getting into cinemas first. We still have to wait two weeks more for Todd Haynes' long-awaited CAROL (it was only filmed last year). John Crowley's film, as scripted by Nick Hornby from Colm Toibin's marvellous and successful novel will leave you in a happy daze, with smiles and a few tears as one leaves the cinema. It is going to be very popular too. The early screening today was practically full. Perhaps Toibin's recent novel "Nora Webster" would also be a good movie?

BROOKLYN is an old fashioned period piece that offers fine acting, beautiful cinematography, charming writing grounded in reality, and thought provoking direction. As I said about the book here in 2010: It is set in the Ireland of the '50s when smart local girl Eilis works in a shop but gets an opportunity to move to Brooklyn and study and improve herself. Small town life of the time is nicely captured and Eilis finds life in Brooklyn much the same among the Irish community there, but before too long she finds her feet - and an Italian boyfriend, also seeking to improve his lot. Then a death calls her back to Ireland where she has to make some hard choices about what to do next.

The Fifties background looks quite right for once, and not trowelled on, the colour schemes are soothing and the production design perfect. As this is 1952 passing mention is made of THE QUIET MAN and SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, a nice touch.The casting is marvellous too, even to the smallest parts - the people we see in the streets or at the store where Eilis works, or the faces of the men at the homeless shelter, and the girls at the Brooklyn boarding house. Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters are as sterling as ever, Brid Brennan is marvellously nasty, and Fiona Glascott is touching as Eilish's sister Rose. 

At the centre though are two stunning performances that hold the attention and enthrall us. Saoirse Ronan, mesmerising as Eilis, she matures before our eyes, and Emory Cohen as Tony, the Italian plumber she falls for in New York. 
He is a marvellous presence and they have great chemistry together, and some very touching scenes. I simply loved every minute of it. Saoirse will be an Oscar contender along with Cate, Rooney, Kate Winslet and Maggie Smith .... going to be an interesting award season. BROOKLYN will be a Best Picture contender too - CAROL will have a lot to live up to. Now for THE LADY IN THE VAN and Winslet's THE DRESSMAKER looks a lot of fun too.

Ireland looks good here too, though Enniscorthy looks rather drab. Emigration from Ireland to America was common in the fifties. I remember a schoolfriend's family moving to San Diego which seemed impossibly exotic to us (his father was a bank manager) and a girl who worked for my mother also going to America - we saw her off from Shannon Airport and the photos she sent looked exactly like Coney Island here.

My new favourite film: The Grand Budapest Hotel

GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune -- all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.

This simply has to be my new favourite movie, I absolutely loved every mad minute of it. It is beautiful, funny, smart, silly, sad, and full of fantastic lines delivered by that incredible cast. Even the long end credits are a joy with that zingly balalaika music. It all looks incredible - I don't care whether its a real hotel or CGI every shot of it amazes. 

Ralph Fiennes is our lead - he has been quite quirky of late, with his British Prime Minister in PAGE EIGHT, the bishop in BBC tv series REV, and films like IN BRUGES, he excells himself here as  Gustave H, as we follow the zany antics at the hotel and how he and pals escape from prison. Tilda Swinton is unrecognisable as the aged Countess, and we also get Adrien Brody as her son, Jude Law as the young writer, Harvey Kietel, Willem Dafoe as the unstoppable killer, Saoirse Ronan as Agatha the resourceful girl Zero loves, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and so many more. I barely noticed Owen Wilson or Jeff Goldblum. This is my first Wes Anderson fim - he also scripted, from stories by the great Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN and I have his biograhy of Marie Antoinette), so I shall be on the lookout for Anderson's other features. 

The colour and sets are all intoxicating, not only the Hotel but also Mendl's confectionery shop, and that very bleak prison. We follow the adventures of the new lobby boy Zero (Tony Revolori) who becomes best friends with the mercurial Gustave - F. Murray Abraham as the owner of the hotel recounts the tale to young writer Jude Law and we are off on a whirlwind ride. I shall be checking in to the Hotel again before too long.  

Hanna / Let The Right One In

I love a good thriller and HANNA is nothing like a good thriller! Is it too much to expect some kind of logic in a thriller but I should have known not to expect any from a Joe Wright film. I was so outraged by what he did to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE that I threw the disk in the garbage bin, and I didn’t bother with ATONEMENT until it turned up on television and I was not impressed with that either, but HANNA somehow seemed like the kind of thriller I would like.

Is it logical to imagine that the very fit Eric Bana would spend 15 years bringing up Hanna to be a highly trained assassin without any other human contact, without electricity or computers or any modern technology with nobody knowing where they are, as they hunt and train and live off the land somewhere in remote Finland. How then is Hanna able to use an internet café later on? Her release into the world sets in motion a man hunt by a CIA agent (Cate Blanchett) with her own agenda.


As Hanna travels across Europe how on earth do the assassins track her down to that particular café in Morocco? What happens to Olivia Williams (a thankless role for her after her terrific turn in Polanski’s THE GHOST) and her kids? Seeing how the assassins treat the man who helps Hanna in Morocco, they will hardly allow the family to resume their travels.

The laugh of the year though is the sight of little Tom Hollander as the camp killer with the colourful tracksuits taking on Eric Bana! One brilliant sequence is where Bana outwits the gang after him and the score by The Chemical Brothers pounds along nicely. The climax seems very botched too – does Blanchett trip or stumble before she falls or does Hanna cause her to take a tumble – the editing does not make clear. I suppose I could go back and watch it again to tie up any loose ends, but frankly I have too many other things to do and see. The narrative seems disjointed and the editing muddled which does not aid concentration.

Saoirse Ronan is again very watchable but the waif looks far too under-developed to be a trained fighter who can outwit those chasing her. Blanchett just seems to be on autopilot here. There seems to be some play on fairy tales, with Hanna hiding in the gingerbread house in the playground and she looks at illustrations of Snow White in an old book, but again, what point is being made? Why does the grandmother get shot? She's been ignored for the last 16 years! Still, it makes a good sequence. Why is Hanna so astonished by an electric kettle or any other appliance, but she can speak several languages! HANNA is nothing like the BOURNE films or LEON which it probably aspires to. For those who want a more rational explanation there are 224 reviews of it on IMDB. I think though I will be giving Wright’s films a wide berth from now on.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. As mesmerising as I had been led to believe this 2008 film by Tomas Alfredson (who has since directed the highly-anticipated TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY) slowly draws one in to this snow-covered world. Set in Sweden in the early 80s it is both horrifying and tender as it features Oskar, a bullied 12-year old, who lives with his mother in a dreary suburb, and who dreams of revenge on those who bully him. He slowly gets to know Eli, a peculiar girl who moves next door to him with her guardian. She can't stand the sun or food and to come into a room she needs to be invited. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realizes that Eli needs to drink other people's blood to live he's faced with a dilemma.

It is like no other vampire movie. So slow and dreamlike – the sudden spurts of violence as Eli drops from a tree onto a victim, or at the start with the man being strung up to have his blood drained. Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a dreamy early teen – how safe will he be with Eli? Their relationship and co-dependance is nicely played out and the bullies certainly get their comeuppance. Oskar will grow up but Eli presumably will always be 12 years old, but it looks like Oskar is replacing Hakan as Eli’s protector … will he too end up killing others to feed her? This one has 420 reviews on IMDB and has already been re-made. It is also a truly great addition to the vampire cannon, a thing that can be said of very few variations on Bram Stoker'
s brilliant original.