Theatre still of the day: Vivien Leigh ....

... as Tatiana in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM in 1937, photograph by J B Debenham, (the image is advertising a current theatre exhibition at The British Library). This is one we would have liked to have seen, but before our time of course. I think Robert Helpmann played Oberon to her queen of the fairies. 

Vivien's THAT HAMILTON WOMAN (with Olivier) from 1941 and the 1945 CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA are both coming up this coming week on a cable channel here; not seen those, so will be factoring them in. The CLEOPATRA has a whole raft of British supporting players like Flora Robson and Stewart Granger, and one may spot newcomers like Kay Kendall and Roger Moore among the extras ...  More on Leigh at label. 

Summer re-reads: Pompeii by Robert Harris

An unputownable re-read is this 2005 novel by Robert Harris. I liked it even more this time around, apart from one strand of the narrative, which I will return to.

A sweltering week in late August. Where better to enjoy the last days of summer than on the beautiful Bay of Naples? But even as Rome's richest citizens relax in their villas around Pompeii and Herculaneum, there are ominous warnings that something is going wrong. Wells and springs are failing, a man has disappeared, and now the greatest aqueduct in the world - the mighty Aqua Augusta - has suddenly ceased to flow. Through the eyes of four characters - a young engineer, an adolescent girl, a corrupt millionaire and an elderly scientist - Robert Harris brilliantly recreates a luxurious world on the brink of destruction.

As addictive as a thriller, as satisfying as great history, says Simon Sebag Montefiore, while Boris Johnson is ‘lost in admiration at his energy and skill.

The amount of research Harris must have done for this is mnd-boggling but its all there bringing this ancient world to vivid life. I understand Roman Polanski was interested in filming it, but that never never happened. There are though so many other versions of the Pompeii story out there, from the 1959 Steve Reeves film, that 2007 German series, and the 2014 CGI version, which was not that bad actually - see Peplums/Epics labels. 

There is though a nasty streak of anti-gay comment if not homophobia here, as expressed by Pliny and the overseer Corax who seems to want to do things to our engineer hero .... but surely the ancient world was more accepting of same sex relations ....... this streak was also evident in Harris' first novel FATHERLAND (the gay young soldier who sees too much), and his ENIGMA (I couldn't be bothered reading it or seeing the film) about the Bletchley codebreakers seems to have sidelined Alan Turing in favour of fictional romances - at least THE IMITATION GAME rectified that!

More reviews state:

"a brilliantly orchestrated thriller-cum-historical recreation that plays outrageous tricks with the reader's expectations".

"As the famous catastrophe approaches, we are pleasurably immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of the Ancient World, each detail conjured with jaw-dropping verisimilitude."

Harris's protagonist is the engineer Marcus Attilius, placed in charge of the massive aqueduct that services the teeming masses living in and around the Bay of Naples. Despite the pride he takes in his job, Marcus has pressing concerns: his predecessor in the job has mysteriously vanished, and another task is handed to Marcus by the scholar Pliny: he is to undertake crucial repairs to the aqueduct near Pompeii, the city in the shadow of the restless Mount Vesuvius. Other characters like that millionaire ex-slave (who starts the narrative rolling by feeding a slave to his eels) and his daughter Corelia have other agendas ..... once you start reading it you can't stop. 

Romeo & Juliet at The Garrick

To London for the Kenneth Branagh production of ROMEO AND JULIET, co-directed by Branagh, a Shakespeare I am not that keen on and it has been done so many times (at least 6 films?), but the cast of this current production whetted the interest. 

The leads are Freddie Fox (whom I last saw on stage as Bosie to Rupert Everett's Oscar Wilde in THE JUDAS KISS a few years ago, and who has since done TV work like CUCUMBER and films like PRIDE); Freddie stepped in at 48 hours notice (due to the injury of Richard Madden); Juliet is the equally busy Lily James (DOWNTON ABBEY, WAR & PEACE, CINDERELLA), 

Meera Syal gets a lot of value of value out of the Nurse, and Derek Jacobi now in his 80s is a very lively if older Mercutio - he even dances around the stage and seems fully recovered from leg injuries. 

Lady Capulet is that international star since the 1970s Marisa Berenson (DEATH IN VENICE, CABARET), whom I like watching as The Countess of Lyndon in re-runs of Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON (currently on release again after 40 years). She is just as mesmerising and ageless on stage here. 

The production (almost three hours long) does have its longeurs when reams of dialogue have to be delivered, but the essentials grip one and the staging is eye-popping, 

set in a 1950s Verona in the grip of the LA DOLCE VITA era: cue sharp suits, white shirts, sunglasses at night. The Capulet's masked ball is rather like that disco in THE GREAT BEAUTY and it certainly commands the attention. I liked it a lot more than the drab black costumes on a black stage setting of that RICHARD III also seen recently - see Shakespeare label. 

This R&J finishes this week and we then get Kenneth Branagh as John Osborne's THE ENTERTAINER, hardly revived since Olivier did it. 

Summer re-views: A Room With A View

Back to 1985 for this still charming treat, and perhaps the most popular Merchant-Ivory production till then, A ROOM WITH A VIEW from E.M. Forster, still delights now. Ok, its a perfect period costume drama, but its ideal for a warm Summer evening. The BFI in fact screened it in the open air, under the stars, projected on the wall of The British Museum in London a couple of summers ago (along with Hitch's BLACKMAIL, which actually used the Museum as a location for the climax back in 1929).

Here is what I said about ROOM a few years ago here:

A ROOM WITH A VIEW from 1985 - how we liked this at the time (one of my date movies in Brighton), one of their best films and the first of their E M Forster triple, followed by MAURICE (time for a re-view of that soon) in 1987 and then HOWARDS END - the definition of the much derided heritage cinema,
but they are all marvellous costume dramas with great performances, like their THE EUROPEANS (Lee Remick), THE BOSTONIANS (Vanessa Redgrave), HEAT AND DUST (Julie Christie, Greta Scacchi), QUARTET (as reviewed here, Maggie Smith label), as well as their earlier oddities like SHAKESPEARE WALLAH or SAVAGES. What a fascinating team they (director James Ivory & producer Ishmael Merchant, with scriptwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala ) were and the many stories of how they made those films and attracted all those casts, on meagre budgets ....

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

Maggie Smith and Judi Dench are perfection of course as the spinster aunt and the novelist Miss Lavish, Florence looks marvellous, the period detail looks perfect, there's wonderful Fabia Drake, Daniel Day Lewis as the prissy Cecil Vyse, Rosemary Leach, Denholm Elliot and that amusing scene where the Reverend Beebe (portly Simon Callow - I almost said Cowell !) joins George and Freddy (Julian Sands and Rupert Graves) for a naked swim as the ladies walk by .....  England and Italy both look great and the soundtrack and music and captions are ideal, as of course is Helena Bonham-Carter as Lucy Honeychurch. It all ends very satisfyingly with our couple back at their room with a view and the spinster aunt happy for them in her single bed. It all though makes one want to run off to Florence right now ...

There was another ROOM WITH A VIEW, a tv version in 2007 right, scripted by costume veteran Andrew Davies (also responsible for the great BBC 1995 PRIDE & PREJUDICE and the filleted new version of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, see Costume Drama label). There is no ambiguity about the Reverend Beebe (Mark Williams) in this one ("not the marrying kind" according to Forster), he chats up Italian youths and has a leer in his eye as joins the boys stripping off .... Cecil in this one is James Fox's son Laurence .... like the recent tv version of SENSE & SENSIBILITY it amuses but is not as good as the film. It did though tack on a meaningless coda showing Lucy back in Florence in the '20s, George having perished in WW1!

Summer re-views: Lee and pals at Roddy's in 1965 ....

We have not done a Lee Remick post for a while either. Let's return to Roddy McDowell's home movies, now available to all on YouTube. I like this particular one where Lee looks marvellous in several closeups. Also enjoying the lazy Sunday at Malibu are Hayley Mills, Tuesday Weld, Suzanne Pleshette, Ricardo Montalban and more. 

Lee is in some of the other home movies as well, along with Lauren Bacall, Paul Newman, Julie Andrews (with naked toddler), Simone Signoret, James Fox (both filming in Hollywood then) and others. Can you imagine a group of actors in a situation like this today - they would all be tweeting and posting pictures of themselves with their celebrity friends - but back then it was a group of friends and co-workers enjoying a quiet sunday afternoon away from the studios, at Roddy's Malibu beach house. . See Remick label for more on these. 

Sadly, most of these are long departed now .....   Remick is with her then husband Bill Colleran who seems to be pestering her and being a nuisance, they later divorced before her re-marriage and move to London, and yes Martin, I will repeat that I had a nice meeting with her in 1970, as detailed at labels, and I also saw her on stage in London in BUS STOP in 1976.

We might now have to re-watch ANATOMY OF A MURDER, WILD RIVER, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES or NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY ...

Rio 2016

We are enjoying the Rio olympics as much as the London ones in 2012.. Lots of other associated programmes on here too, like that enjoyable trawl through "The Girl From Ipanema" story with lots of Jobim footage - I have had to dig out the CDs, and of course THAT MAN FROM RIO and OSS 117 LOST IN RIO.

The oiled up Tonga athlete Pita Taufatofua was the star of the opening ceremony, and the synchronised diving was as jaw-dropping as ever. Good to see Tom and Dan making the bronze - the Chinese of course will continue to be unstoppable, but we have Tom's solo diving coming up next week, and the fascinating Triathlon too, with those amazing Brownlee brothers. They swim, cycle and then run, run, run ..... Adam Peaty, Chris Mears & Jack Laugher (below) and more amazed and struck gold too. Max Whitlock getting two golds in two hours. Bravo!

We are in awe too of the Brownlee brothers Alistair, 28 and Jonny 26 - first and second again in the Triathlon, in that brutal gruelling Rio heat - just as they were in London 4 years ago (when Jonny got bronze, now its silver). How do they do it? - of course they train and train but still ... Thebrothers shared a touching moment at the end of the race as they collapsed and hugged on the finishing line, after that swim in the choppy Atlantic and then that long cycle race over the hills of Rio.

Dirk's books

We have not done a Dirk Bogarde post for a while - he is one of our Patron Saints here after all, as per all the other posts on him. After my recent house move I was unpacking all those books of his ... who knew when I met him back in November 1970, when he was promoting DEATH IN VENICE and doing a lecture/Q&A at the BFI in London, when he was just starting on that decade in France, that he would go on to write 9 best-selling books of autobiography and 6 novels. There are several other books on him too ...

A POSTILLION STRUCK BY LIGHTENING in 1977 was his first book, a delightful and popular best-seller on his idyllic childhood on the Sussex downs. This was followed by SNAKES AND LADDERS in '78, still a terrific re-read on his early career and being the "Idol of The Odeons" and goes up to that move to France. AN ORDINARY MAN and BACKCLOTH continue the saga of life in Provence and his 1970s films, while the fascinating A SHORT WALK FROM HARRODS in 1993 covers the end of the French life, with illness and death and that return to Chelsea in London, and then his own stroke and recovery. GREAT MEADOW is another childhood memoir, and CLEARED FOR TAKE-OFF in 1995 is more tales of his career and some of the people he knew (like Ingrid Bergman and Capucine and the young Bardot). They are all here in these books, as Dirk certainly knew everyone including all those fascinating ladies like Kay Kendall, Garland, Ava, and all the new talent of the Fifties and Sixties he worked with.  

A PARTICULAR FRIENDSHIP is a charming memoir too of his pen-friend ship with an American woman who owned one of his houses - she did not know who Bogarde was but saw some pictures of the house in a magazine at the hairdressers and just had to write to him about it, leading to a long friendship until her death. FOR THE TIME BEING in 1998 (a year before he died) is a very interesting collection of his book reviews and columns for "The Times" from when he was back in London and doing regular reviews. 

I saw him again in 1992 at the National Theatre, reading from and discussing one of his memoirs then. 

His first novel A GENTLE OCCUPATION in 1980, remains his best for me, its very re-readable too and a fascinating story with great characters in that Far Eastern wartime setting; VOICES IN THE GARDEN amuses, the others are WEST OF SUNSET, JERICHO, PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT and his final one CLOSING RANKS in 1997 which I have not read, but a copy is on its way to me. 

Books on Dirk are the 1974 THE FILMS OF DIRK BOGARDE by Margaret Hinxman and Susan D'Arcy; comprehensive up to THE NIGHT PORTER; Shreridan Morley's career and life overview in DIRK BOGARDE RANK OUTSIDER, and Robert Tanitch's DIRK BOGARDE: THE COMPLETE CAREER ILLUSTRATED, in 1988 all with great detail and photographs. He was certainly the most prolific and most-written about of the British stars of his era, as shown by the huge (600+ pages) authorised biography by John Coldstream (who commissioned Dirk to write for "The Times") followed by EVER, DIRK, a collection of his letters (500+ pages), edited by Coldstream. 

Two other delicious items I must mention are that 1958 Fan's Star Library little book on him - I collected them all and first had that when I was 12 ( still have the Sophia Loren one too), and one I acquired much later as a car boot sale: Dirk's Life Story in Pictures which is a priceless delight with all those illustrations. It explains Dirk's bachelorhood to the fans (this was 1958) with the relevation that he was really in love with Jean Simmons (his co-star in SO LONG AT THE FAIR in 1950) all along but she broke his heart by choosing Stewart Granger, leaving Dirk alone at his country estate ...... it also has a delicious take on Rock Hudson and his sham marriage - as covered before here, see Dirk comic strip label, for more. 

Interesting chapters on Dirk too in the biographies of actors like James Fox, Michael Craig, John Fraser and Michael York, on working and socialising with Dirk and of course Tony Forwood. 

4 British classics ....

As mentioned we moved house back in May, downsizing to an apartment 10 floors up, with great views. So we have been re-sorting and getting settled ok. A box of dvds though seems to have gone astray, maybe thrown out by mistake ..... I have had to re-buy several I had to have, but at least they are very cheap now. 

There were 4 essential British classics I had to have back:

THE BLUE LAMP - the 1949 thriller with a young Dirk Bogarde in his break-out role as the spiv with a gun in grim postwar London - its still terrific now, with great location filming. This is the one where PC Dixon of Dock Green (Jack Warner) gets shot by Dirk, but was later resurrected for that long-running TV series, which I remember seeing when new in London in the '60s.

POOL OF LONDON - a museum piece from 1951 showing the busy docks of London around London Bridge and surrounding bombsites after the war - its all different now of course with the new City Hall by London Bridge, ships can't moor there any more. A sterling British cast of the time headed by Bonar Colleano and Earl Cameron  as sailors on leave getting involved with crime and robbery, and there's that early inter-racial romance ....

SAPPHIRE - a fascinating re-view now from 1959, with the murder of that girl whose body is found on Hampstead Heath, as we follow detectives Nigel Patrick and Michael Craig as they discover that the girl, Sapphire, was passing for white - we follow the investigation through the London night clubs and to that ordindary suburban family. Yvonne Mitchell is marvellous as ever here. Those gals passing for white just can't resist those bongo drums, as detective Michael Craig realises in that seedy Notting Hill clip-joint ....

VICTIM - London in 1961 with those homosexuals being blackmailed, as we see all sections of society from titled toffs to grubby bedsits, taking in the famous Salisbury (gay then) pub, and the bookshops around Charing Cross Road, as barrister Melville Farr (Bogarde again) determines to find the blackmailers who have caused the death of the young man (Peter McEnery) he had been seeing, to the consteration of his wife Sylvia Syms, who does not understand ....

It was only after ordering them I realised all four are of course directed by Basil Dearden (killed in a car crash in 1971 aged 60) - one of the great directors of British films, but not as lauded as the Schlesingers, Loseys or Richardsons were. 

Other British classics of that post-war era, which I like a lot, and are reviewed here, at British/London  labels include IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, HOLIDAY CAMP (both 1947), and  DANCE HALL from 1950. The early '50s also provided those enjoyable entertainments like TURN THE KEY SOFTLY, THE WEAK AND THE WICKED, THE GOOD DIE YOUNG, IT STARTED IN PARADISE (with Kay Kendall in a small role before hits like SIMON AND LAURA). Then there's those enjoyable Rank romps like AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY, THE SPANISH GARDENER, CAMPBELL'S KINGDOM, DANGEROUS EXILE, PASSPORT TO SHAME and more, keeping the likes of Dirk Bogarde, Glynis Johns, Joan Collns, Yvonne Mitchell, Stanley Baker Michael Craig, Laurence Harvey, Diana Dors, Belinda Lee busy ...
So British cinema in the 1950s was very productive too, the Forties may have been the golden era of David Lean, Michael Powell, Carol Reed, Anthony Asquith, and the Sixties to early Seventies saw the new crowd of Tony Richardson, John Schlesinger, Joseph Losey, Richard Lester, Clive Donner etc. before the Trash merchants took over. 
The Fifties also saw that British War Era as they re-fought World War II keeping Dirk in uniform, along with Richard Todd, Kenneth More, John Mills, Jack Hawkins, Peter Finch, Stanley Baker, Michael Redgrave etc: THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM, THE CRUEL SEA, SEA OF SAND, DUNKIRK, THE DAM BUSTERS, REACH FOR THE SKY, THE MALTA STORY, APPOINTMENT IN LONDON, THEY WHO DARE, ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE, YANGSTE INCIDENT etc. 

Jackie Trent "Where are you now my love" ....

Black and white mid-Sixties London. The song is Jackie Trent's "Where Are You Now My Love". The girl is Ann Lynn (England's Monica Vitti), with Brian Phelan - in a clip from FOUR IN THE MORNING, a downbeat 1965 British movie by Anthony Simmons, which also featured a young Judi Dench. We reviewed it before here at British/London/Dench labels. 

Jackie (1940-2015) was a great singer and song-writer with lots of hits, both singly and with husband composter Tony Hatch. 

Young Toscanini, 1988

I never imagined in my wildest dreams I would enjoy seeing Elizabeth Taylor in blackface as an opera diva singing (or miming to) an aria from AIDA, but that is just one of the treats in Franco Zeffirelli's 1988 YOUNG TOSCANINI, so thanks Jerry for that. 

Of course Zeffirelli (now 93) knows how to stage an opera and how to showcase a diva, we get both in spades here. His later films (this one never even played in London) may be inconsequential but are marvellously staged, costumed and cast. TEA WITH MUSSOLINI was fun with that cast, and Fanny Ardant is terrific as Maria Callas (whom Zeffi knew well) in CALLAS FOREVER in 2002. His huge hits in the 1960s were of course THE TAMING OF THE SHREW with the Burtons, and ROMEO AND JULIET in 1968. I particularly like his hippie St Francis film BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON in 1973, where again he creates spell-binding moments. His long apprenticeship with Visconti certainly paid dividend. 

YOUNG TOSCANINI is an oddity. The blurb says:

In Rio de Janeiro in 1886, eighteen-year-old conductor Arturo Toscanini, in Brazil on an orchestra tour, is torn between an aging soprano attempting a comeback and a mistress his own age. Opera diva Nadina Bulichoff has interrupted her stage career for Dom Pedro II the emperor of Brazil. When Toscanini begins to coach his childhood idol for a return to the stage in "Aida," Nadina has fallen into deep depression. The conductor is instrumental in her transformation as her performance proves an ultimate triumph and she is back the top of her art.

Taylor is terrific here as Nadina, its a leading role and maybe her last significant cinema one. She certainly looks and emotes better than she did in that terrible A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC a decade earlier. I did not know C. Thomas Howell's work, but he has certainly been busy and still working now. Cast also includes Sophie Ward, Franco Nero, Philippe Noiret. Certainly worth seeing if one can catch it. 

I will now finally be moving on to Zeffirelli's 1990 HAMLET this week - again, a stunnng cast, and should be an interesting take on the play. I will be also tackling his 1996 JANE EYRE which may arrive today; there are so many JANEs around, it will be interesting to see how Franco stages it, and again has a great British supporting cast (Joan Plowright, Billie Whitelaw, Sam West, Richard Warwick, with William Hurt and Charlotte Gainsburg in the leads).  . 

Orry, Ingrid, Tab documentaries .....

Documentaries on movies and movie-makers don't seem to turn up here in the UK. We first mentioned Australian director Gillian Armstrong's film on Australian gay costume designer Orry-Kelly, WOMEN HE'S UNDRESSED, here 6 months ago back in February, when that lush coffee table tome WOMEN I'VE UNDRESSED was published, based on his memoirs and costume designs for all those classic Hollywood movies of the Golden Age, from CASABLANCA to SOME LIKE IT HOT, with those dresses for Bette (as in JEZEBEL, see below), Marilyn, those LES GIRLS etc. See Books label for more on that.)

I now find the documentary opens in Los Angeles today, but I have also found and ordered an Australian dvd (Region 4 - my first, which should play ok on the multi-region blu-ray/dvd player) which should arrive in a week or so. More on that then, meanwhile here's the trailer:

Also mentioned last year was that documentary based on Ingrid Bergman's home movies, with narration by Alicia Vikander using Ingrid's text. This is now finally being issued here in English in September, and we have pre-ordered it.

But where is that Tab Hunter documentary, TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL, which Tab - now 86 - introduced here last year ago at the LGBT Film Festival at the BFI.

Bette as Jezebel, 1938

While movie fans were abuzz over who might play Scarlett O’Hara in the upcoming GONE WITH THE WIND, Bette Davis got another Southern belle role – and gave a fiery performance that won the 1938 Best Actress Academy Award. Davis plays Julie Marsden, a New Orleans beauty whose constant attempts to goad fiancé Pres Dillard (Henry Fonda) to jealousy backfire. Angry and disgraced, Pres breaks their engagement and leaves town. Julie endures a year of remorse until Pres comes home – married. Then her vengeance explodes.

JEZEBEL is also noted for its sumptuous sets and costumes, Fay Bainter’s Oscar-winning performance and William Wyler’s vivid direction, highlighted by a recreation of a yellow fever epidemic. But the film’s greatest strength is Davis. Whose titanic talent has never been better displayed than in JEZEBEL. So ran the dvd blurb. 

I saw some clips of it at the BFI in 1972 with Bette in attendance to discuss them, but had not actually seen it in full before. Its fascinating now, and surely Bette's most ferocious performance since her 1934 OF HUMAN BONDAGE. Her capricious Julie is certainly one of her greatest roles, Fay Bainter is marvellous too, but Henry Fonda seems a dull fellow here - what does Julie see in him and go to such lengths to look after him when the dreaded yellow fever strikes? Then there is George Brent, dull as ever; and of course all those happy slaves down on the plantation with all that hanging moss and antebellum gracious living ..... Bette has some powerful scenes during the first half, but the second half is rather turgid wth duels, plague and all that plot. Warners though were making films in colour that year (Erroll's ROBIN HOOD) so why wasn't this also in colour, to highlight that famous red dress ..... its a brilliant sequence though and Max Steiner contributes that great score and Orry-Kelly as usual costumed her. Davis of course had two more huge successes with Wyler with 1940's THE LETTER and THE LITTLE FOXES in '41. They may be her three greatest roles, apart from NOW VOYAGER and ALL ABOUT EVE. 

PSB ROH

Rave reviews for The Pets at The Royal Opera House, we did not get tickets in time though for their 4-night season - but at least they are doing a Tour next year, so may catch it then. We had already of course seen their great residency at The Savoy in 1997 - was that 19 years ago? scary .... and their 1999 tour (with that Zaha Hadid set) in Brighton; and their 2006 concert at The Tower Of London, plus a few of their Pride appearances.

After 30 years (42 Top 30 singles since 1985) the Boys are still going strong, still doing great concerts (check the dvds for ther O2 and Glastonbury sets), the recent albums have been great again, they were in the 2012 London Olympics parade,  plus their musical CLOSER TO HEAVEN, their soundtrack for BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, their ballet and those inventive videos and singles with all those great remixes. THE POP KIDS are still SUPER. POP ART  indeed. 
As James Hall said in "The Telegraph": The show encompasses high culture, club culture, theatre, cinema, political satire and a mind-bending laser show. Oh, and dozens of dancers in fluorescent inflatable sumo suits throwing shapes as though their lives depended on it ... This is no Greatest Hits set, a third of the 23-song set is taken from this year's SUPER and 2013's ELECTRIC, both produced by Madonna producer Stuart Price and both up-tempo celebrations of dance culture ... The setting is extraordindary, from the stalls one could look up to see five tiers of people dancing among the lasers and the gilded balconies, the Opera House recast as a temple to hedonism. Below, the orchestra pit became a rave cave. Call it incongruous, call it bonkers, call it wonderfully eccentric - this show is all of these." 2017 here we come !  

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York ...

To the Almeida Theatre in London for their current production, The Bard's RICHARD III in a highly praised production by director Rupert Goold, with Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave.

Well, no, not to the theatre itself, but to my local multiplex where the live performance was being screened, as it was in cinemas around the world. This was actually the first of these popular live theatre screenings I had been to - and it was like having a seat in the stalls, well apart from the girl next to me with a tub of popcorn and bottle of cola - I hate the stench of popcorn! - and then two old dears arrived late after 15 minutes in, and yes, they had to sit next to me too, disturbing all of us as they got to their seat and settled themselves. But apart from that .... Lets see what the Almeida says:

The Almeida will broadcast Artistic Director Rupert Goold's production of RICHARD III, with Ralph Fiennes as Shakespeare's most notorious villain and Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Margaret, live to cinemas in the UK and around the world today 21 July.

Almeida Theatre Live will give worldwide audiences the opportunity to see plays from the stage at the Almeida's London home for the first time. The Almeida Theatre and distributor Picturehouse Entertainment are partnering to broadcast RICHARD III, produced by Illuminations.

The production will be filmed using multiple cameras around the stage and auditorium, with John Wyver as producer. 

Rupert Goold said: "The chance to take the work of the Almeida to international audiences via live cinema screening is a new and timely venture for us that I'm extremely excited about. Working with Picturehouse Entertainment and Illuminations on this broadcast I'm really looking forward to seeing how audiences around the world react to our Richard III on the big screen."

Vanessa had previously worked with Fiennes on CORIOLANUS and THE WHITE COUNTESS film with daughter Natasha and sister Lynn. Great to see her back on stage and in fine form at 79, after that heart attack last year - as per this illuminating interview with her from The Guardian newspaper: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jun/13/vanessa-redgrave-interview-simon-hattenstone

Fiennes of course is on a roll at the moment, he was also recently in THE MASTER BUILDER this year, and stunning in A BIGGER SPLASH, did a neat cameo in HAIL, CAESAR and of course we loved THE GREAT BUDAPEST HOTEL.

He is of course electrifying as Richard and makes the lines sing, as does Vanessa as Queen Elizabeth, its a sort of modern dress production, complete with cell phones, but why is she dressed in a boiler suit and carrying a plastic doll? 

Anthony Sher was also a terrific Richard, almost playing him like a giant spider, and we love the Olivier 1955 version - see review, Olivier label. The one recent Richard we had not seen was the 1995 Ian McKellen one, unavailable for a long time - we finally got a German dvd recently, but I found it practically unbearable with that 1930s Fascist background and far too tricky and full of special effects, with tanks, and Battersea Power Station as the Tower of London just did not work for me at all - great supporting cast though, including Maggie Smith as Queen Elizabeth.