tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28018865056100863132024-03-25T22:27:53.387-07:00Boycotting Trends.Film, Theatre & Music Musings.Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.comBlogger938125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-3214602027858106762024-03-11T09:01:00.016-07:002024-03-15T02:05:47.594-07:00Theatre Review: Player Kings (Wimbledon; Manchester Opera House; Noel Coward Theatre, West End)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQkOhhvnZKgOIWaeoO4Ka1xTnBxQPshQ3YpUYAluu44Cy6VJiZgdKa6nsz-mnNSXWjJMRpci1Lega3hFfEUNXQ6xPmj76ZlcDmDq7nBHLciy8GY65u-dELkWf4ncm-0k5TEDrFJx6EDRLkj__KbKf3yBzz_FvY8crXt8GJull63JVUsEuhzhOtSCmsS14/s1920/PK-Website-Mobile.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQkOhhvnZKgOIWaeoO4Ka1xTnBxQPshQ3YpUYAluu44Cy6VJiZgdKa6nsz-mnNSXWjJMRpci1Lega3hFfEUNXQ6xPmj76ZlcDmDq7nBHLciy8GY65u-dELkWf4ncm-0k5TEDrFJx6EDRLkj__KbKf3yBzz_FvY8crXt8GJull63JVUsEuhzhOtSCmsS14/s320/PK-Website-Mobile.png" width="180" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Though widely praised for iconoclastic boldness and intellectual rigour, the productions of Robert Icke have often seemed reliant on slightly half-baked appropriations of tropes associated with "European theatre-making" (sic): mics and pop songs, CCTV screens. Applied to classic plays from Aeschylus to Ibsen, these undergrad-level impositions have sometimes come complete with textual misreadings that the majority of critics have seemed willing to overlook. But even those of us who haven't bought into the forced eccentricities of Icke's approaches could find ourselves wishing for a few such quirks across the near-four hour running time of his latest piece of work. (The production might well be shorter by the time it reaches London; let's hope so.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Player Kings</i>, which opened last week at New Wimbledon Theatre and now heads up to Manchester before settling in to the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End, is a mash-up of the <i>Henry IV</i> plays - with the report-of-Falstaff's-death scene from <i>Henry V </i>tacked on at the end (to sadly little effect). And apart from a blast of techno announcing the first Tavern scene - and repeated during the Gad's Hill robbery sequence - it's a surprisingly straight-laced affair. Hildegard Bechtler's design is minimal and unfussy, with rather bland contemporary costumes, and scene changes and location-shifts nicely accomplished by a swift swish of a curtain. (We also get place-setting titles, and a bit of historical context about the Battle of Shrewsbury that feels equal parts patronising and random.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Possibilities for bigger, more attention-grabbing effects aren't taken - the production would surely benefit from a smaller space. Musical choices - "I Vow to Thee My Country," "Jerusalem" - are obvious. And some scenes (especially in the much-gutted yet still sluggish take on Part 2) are so under-directed that it feels like Icke simply abandoned them. Even with the great Robin Soans as one half of the pairing, I don't think I've ever seen a duller take on the Shallow/Silence scenes than the one offered here. You can feel a collective slump in the audience. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Engagement is much stronger in the more compelling first half - especially, of course, whenever Ian McKellen as Falstaff takes to the stage. The goodwill is palpable, and McKellen is certainly more of an asset in this role than he was three years ago as Hamlet - particularly when delivering Falstaff's exaggerations about his field-of-battle prowess or sparring with Mistress Quickly (Clare Perkins, using her inimitable squawk to up the energy level). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It feels like there's still a lot more to mine in Falstaff's relationship with Toheeb Jimoh's Prince Hal, though, and while Jimoh is very good - delivering Hal's portent of his rejection of Falstaff with chilling casualness, as an inevitability - there's more going on emotionally between him and Joseph Mydell's Lord Chief Justice, with a clear arc charted from hostility to a replacement father / son dynamic. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Richard Coyle contributes a few fine, regretful moments as the ailing king Henry, and a final tableau brings the proceedings full circle in a satisfying way. Still, though well-acted, this much-anticipated production lacks epic sweep, richness of texture or an overarching concept, and ends up more solid than essential.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p><b><i>Player Kings</i> is at Manchester Opera House between 14 March -23 March, and at Noel Coward Theatre between 1 April -22 June.</b></p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-56135574912731975052024-03-11T02:27:00.005-07:002024-03-11T03:14:10.935-07:00Preview: Danny is Fantastic (Arch 21, Valentia Place, Brixton)<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZg5xSUq2gMMJ3EQXmokBOBd0PbPMa7FBKSsBEOl3aH1jplOpd2uyKidHHF0WDVaZ8H7zM0ArE-iTUHQQ6YtjT_xcV78cggDsoPFtlnndcXQH6pgRT7sW5L9qZ9C_sY-eAhOaUinPbtgiL8lS2TklVRT61Y3a9n51hG7GXcidWP9X2Bq33sXRBrG-b4w4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="1400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZg5xSUq2gMMJ3EQXmokBOBd0PbPMa7FBKSsBEOl3aH1jplOpd2uyKidHHF0WDVaZ8H7zM0ArE-iTUHQQ6YtjT_xcV78cggDsoPFtlnndcXQH6pgRT7sW5L9qZ9C_sY-eAhOaUinPbtgiL8lS2TklVRT61Y3a9n51hG7GXcidWP9X2Bq33sXRBrG-b4w4" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's lovely news that Daniel Cerqueira's very special solo show <i>Danny is Fantastic </i>is back at Arch 21, Valentia Place, Brixton for performances on 20 March, 21 March, 22 March. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Danny is Fantastic</i> was <a href="https://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2023/12/best-theatre-and-live-perfomances-seen.html?m=1">one of the best shows I saw last year</a>, and I wrote about it <a href="https://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2023/02/theatre-reflection-danny-is-fantastic.html?m=1">here</a>. The thing about the show, though, is that it's never the same night after night: it's "so live", in Cerqueira's wry words, and so influenced by the audience's presence, that it's a unique event each time. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkMPs2HnX1Feer89vb6uqe9yojy32uXbFgqw-eMU8od_wDN2zjZzxYMb_FNl2VIKBTclJiNXU9_FO3hhVhoZXM1gYWQSjSO8Bz-d9Si0_UXSvL73uy_By7SyQ-iguI8xS7G3uBOaGUQ_1U7UkCeVTzxfcY_nHIGAMGTDn0w9gP3TCL2HZc__yL7AYjhV4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkMPs2HnX1Feer89vb6uqe9yojy32uXbFgqw-eMU8od_wDN2zjZzxYMb_FNl2VIKBTclJiNXU9_FO3hhVhoZXM1gYWQSjSO8Bz-d9Si0_UXSvL73uy_By7SyQ-iguI8xS7G3uBOaGUQ_1U7UkCeVTzxfcY_nHIGAMGTDn0w9gP3TCL2HZc__yL7AYjhV4" width="180" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>It's theatre as a present tense, in-the-moment, intimate experience: the opposite of the internet, the opposite of constant distraction. <span style="text-align: justify;">Cerqueira quietly creates such a warm and inclusive atmosphere that y</span>ou come out feeling connected and inspired.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixTsvGsqZcNl8SbiBpPAbVessMq-bX2MAycNPU9HNwk8fax5m7gGAOfvbl2Pelakmc1GudCqKGLC5RnBd44eBxWnOXGvfjoo8VUHkVlUlBRvFmo0yLizePK6IonZrNEjqbImVk9j0EcA9q-kVkVbycylrUPL2N91iGrFZeamN7QUUmBthTdFqaLY8j74g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="750" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixTsvGsqZcNl8SbiBpPAbVessMq-bX2MAycNPU9HNwk8fax5m7gGAOfvbl2Pelakmc1GudCqKGLC5RnBd44eBxWnOXGvfjoo8VUHkVlUlBRvFmo0yLizePK6IonZrNEjqbImVk9j0EcA9q-kVkVbycylrUPL2N91iGrFZeamN7QUUmBthTdFqaLY8j74g" width="180" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Go with some friends or go alone and maybe make some new ones. You can expect songs and stories and poems and fairy lights and readings and reminiscences, and you can leave a "remnant" of yourself behind afterwards. It's a gorgeous evening. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhV2t3NoE5Cd3XjW5Q24m706G31Ul67xeLcp9eZItlaUnn65E163P8kcDCZnJd0F_mQnx8qpPpjNmnOY_MMcs2nGPdGf5fUU17kgFkGrOAAHCJ9huGS8zNW3rG35dzVJrEi6HDpLnxxOzj_dJX-IIpSaQtvwNsklpkK4vJssPHseHuxhWJFOtYGChZicn0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhV2t3NoE5Cd3XjW5Q24m706G31Ul67xeLcp9eZItlaUnn65E163P8kcDCZnJd0F_mQnx8qpPpjNmnOY_MMcs2nGPdGf5fUU17kgFkGrOAAHCJ9huGS8zNW3rG35dzVJrEi6HDpLnxxOzj_dJX-IIpSaQtvwNsklpkK4vJssPHseHuxhWJFOtYGChZicn0" width="180" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>For more info, go <a href="https://www.dannyisfantastic.com/">here</a>.</p><p><br /></p><br />Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-75495030850341838752024-03-08T04:10:00.005-07:002024-03-08T04:10:59.295-07:00Programme article for The Human Body (Donmar Warehouse)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9iTlQ_o-LPHQN13ztokW0IgR5g1_ehY-pPXQrIVADdfm63D-YbqvNnhVClZxB-6-gmQaXvbmdXW1j4ysgE6VwRaMWhyphenhyphenxQS1J-jv0Rrlz8VwBOMlQ-kOfZO5YajqCgGmeCTTUBRBHmAk1yBhDK2XFkC-1XFXatSyJxLCDpgLYyyBCMWAJdX691rW-b9Cw/s1080/GF1rrrXXoAAm5wq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9iTlQ_o-LPHQN13ztokW0IgR5g1_ehY-pPXQrIVADdfm63D-YbqvNnhVClZxB-6-gmQaXvbmdXW1j4ysgE6VwRaMWhyphenhyphenxQS1J-jv0Rrlz8VwBOMlQ-kOfZO5YajqCgGmeCTTUBRBHmAk1yBhDK2XFkC-1XFXatSyJxLCDpgLYyyBCMWAJdX691rW-b9Cw/s320/GF1rrrXXoAAm5wq.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Donmar Warehouse is incredibly special to me as it's the place where I first really discovered theatre 24 years ago. So I was especially pleased to write an article on 1940s cinema for the programme for the Donmar's current show: Michael Longhurst and Ann Yee's production of Lucy Kirkwood's <i>The Human Body. </i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The show is booking until 13 April. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQCm5Vlw7y5wzNHnoxEJ7vYULRXsM1Gnm2iufrw8z1Ly9FrILJXq7IepaQ0klF5D_vB4ZkMRufXiwGsIT8lwvjIdcMDZuY3GKQdnTGciseZaR3cyorap4XSnAxnhZyJO_J9QAHO4jhKG2vZHC54iJrRVUkUvxp9Z0EVW9T_6xf8lIrxeXxCP8ofNV5CE/s3264/IMG_20240229_135928_822.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQCm5Vlw7y5wzNHnoxEJ7vYULRXsM1Gnm2iufrw8z1Ly9FrILJXq7IepaQ0klF5D_vB4ZkMRufXiwGsIT8lwvjIdcMDZuY3GKQdnTGciseZaR3cyorap4XSnAxnhZyJO_J9QAHO4jhKG2vZHC54iJrRVUkUvxp9Z0EVW9T_6xf8lIrxeXxCP8ofNV5CE/s320/IMG_20240229_135928_822.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p><br /></p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-20538828720930612222024-03-06T13:37:00.002-07:002024-03-06T13:37:38.015-07:00Preview: What to Watch at Kinoteka 2024<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGoc-Tuox8Yt81SYHFzV8y6s02xScTe1Cgcu2pww6HgtjheHQK4ybG3sHVFN_bGu2hqOBgbI3DiVlEsEKI3_pAhX03bDG-2If0TzQ1W1U1n2wCW_QY6bjuhLSK5ZdTUkqIPaFW2sXgtoYUbb_br38y_-0Ods-6i3ND-adgLncPj5pK_l72bBq9NbMp5PU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="953" data-original-width="645" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGoc-Tuox8Yt81SYHFzV8y6s02xScTe1Cgcu2pww6HgtjheHQK4ybG3sHVFN_bGu2hqOBgbI3DiVlEsEKI3_pAhX03bDG-2If0TzQ1W1U1n2wCW_QY6bjuhLSK5ZdTUkqIPaFW2sXgtoYUbb_br38y_-0Ods-6i3ND-adgLncPj5pK_l72bBq9NbMp5PU" width="162" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The 22nd edition of the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival starts today in London, with the UK premiere of Agnieszka Holland's <i>Green Border</i>. I wrote a preview of some of the highlights of the festival, which you can read <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/what-watch-kinoteka-polish-film-festival-2024">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-54730492704388647752024-02-22T10:30:00.004-07:002024-02-22T10:30:53.575-07:00Film Review: Memory (dir. Michel Franco, 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRIMXotcijxFZQ9puSB9i27YQUJJWqRwI-ogtN27bfys539M8A8iXx4wqe2DpcDok-Y-LwHFUkVe5F4SezrH51u1aU63clSM_73r2PjCnGEomaiwKFwq13nMlZjBXrXWX12bt2Mke6fVmMasDePr6KJCSwbMDxt0mjTLtb5tbbhD6hSAQHtKMmlDXd80c" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="220" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRIMXotcijxFZQ9puSB9i27YQUJJWqRwI-ogtN27bfys539M8A8iXx4wqe2DpcDok-Y-LwHFUkVe5F4SezrH51u1aU63clSM_73r2PjCnGEomaiwKFwq13nMlZjBXrXWX12bt2Mke6fVmMasDePr6KJCSwbMDxt0mjTLtb5tbbhD6hSAQHtKMmlDXd80c" width="161" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">My review of Michel Franco's new film, <i>Memory</i>, which is out in the UK tomorrow, is up at the <i>Sight and Sound </i>website. You can read it <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/memory-early-onset-dementia-past-traumas-complicate-new-relationship-michel-francos-warmest-film-date?fbclid=IwAR1RyMZjm8nkwJTa4CpVw03BzkubHby7SylWAWzMVxODoKmmBBvVOAaZBhE">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-21050831690868131492024-02-10T00:31:00.004-07:002024-02-11T13:23:41.270-07:00Film Review: American Fiction (dir. Jefferson, 2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXChZJZeFmVuu3OmVWqsJaLWkQZOCQSJyYBgoTNX8B1KIok0KUnVEq4TMpWQBSh7bcnR8IQoyYXGSTkmNUCi_vhE4oPpubdmTK5aNibB9XayQbLijvBC3jVrdFgagCiAN5WWLUyLFysNON0RSjO6WrikHIPuyG2YM6h8Fzf4ueii_rwDmIvNx4MAsCoeg/s755/american_fiction_510x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXChZJZeFmVuu3OmVWqsJaLWkQZOCQSJyYBgoTNX8B1KIok0KUnVEq4TMpWQBSh7bcnR8IQoyYXGSTkmNUCi_vhE4oPpubdmTK5aNibB9XayQbLijvBC3jVrdFgagCiAN5WWLUyLFysNON0RSjO6WrikHIPuyG2YM6h8Fzf4ueii_rwDmIvNx4MAsCoeg/s320/american_fiction_510x.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">My review of Cord Jefferson's <i>American</i> <i>Fiction</i> is up at the <i>Sight and Sound</i> website. You can read it <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/american-fiction-jeffrey-wright-shines-this-smart-racial-satire-american-publishing-industry">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-21307938666431454842024-02-10T00:24:00.003-07:002024-02-10T00:24:44.857-07:0010 Great British Films of 1974 (BFI online) <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEisyRIANJp56yRlQJEmv9lS0_Nvw86ounJVj-TYZzpRGOHSbGcBoVlQa6Q2N9g8BShtj3UeA073mYsFtdTGvhPf2FJ9FzFE9bxNt1RFNBqtbz4IJW1ji3iTNPEF2-HkJOh5w9GyYWFChCFvll20UxIDi_eR3s28DrtFp8OoDIfLouG_2oDbgH0RBxgvnjU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="1193" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEisyRIANJp56yRlQJEmv9lS0_Nvw86ounJVj-TYZzpRGOHSbGcBoVlQa6Q2N9g8BShtj3UeA073mYsFtdTGvhPf2FJ9FzFE9bxNt1RFNBqtbz4IJW1ji3iTNPEF2-HkJOh5w9GyYWFChCFvll20UxIDi_eR3s28DrtFp8OoDIfLouG_2oDbgH0RBxgvnjU" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">For BFI, I wrote about 10 British films released 50 years ago this year. You can read the piece <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-british-films-1974">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-72942833736619611052024-02-10T00:20:00.000-07:002024-02-10T00:20:06.603-07:00March 2024 issue of Sight and Sound<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix5d5MRZKuaQBdwNVfXQhILg_4Q9-DKk9XWZrVODGtbSMo9_t6MKTF2-67H4HHY6BURxmrp01YBliQMWiq_dzRbYx7R2Ktv4EBHzZgQoAf0j-UyIyWbno3p7CNCm5kbH-kryepmDnWG6t49u-VMSeHzRXKY5Ch3_raxxfpkjFa9T5MmDV-bdfXLChnxFs/s600/s_s_cover_asset_image_1190x1535_march24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="465" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix5d5MRZKuaQBdwNVfXQhILg_4Q9-DKk9XWZrVODGtbSMo9_t6MKTF2-67H4HHY6BURxmrp01YBliQMWiq_dzRbYx7R2Ktv4EBHzZgQoAf0j-UyIyWbno3p7CNCm5kbH-kryepmDnWG6t49u-VMSeHzRXKY5Ch3_raxxfpkjFa9T5MmDV-bdfXLChnxFs/s320/s_s_cover_asset_image_1190x1535_march24.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The March 2024 <i>Sight and Sound</i> is out now. I interviewed John Akomfrah about his new film <i>Arcadia</i> for this issue, and also reviewed Cord Jefferson's <i>American Fiction</i>. More details on the issue <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/news/sight-sound-march-2024-issue">here</a>. </div><p></p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-15534040785783060412024-01-31T03:55:00.020-07:002024-03-12T13:42:43.418-07:00Theatre Review: Till the Stars Come Down (National Theatre, Dorfman)<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgafjQvs_BAceA51L17lbDK38WWzm5hXZWK5voxfqRFjlAHrf-mmjuv1eHmI3u9_pow1CjNYeEUBykpvfYKZOz8xnwLFBnE_ax3xJP_jEfPIKiYnenKNGHwtzPgLBivZ7-spQBlchP5nU1G1WHFZSQLAKXBmaACzKfuBd7WFEbKIoJE9XkRh7UTFVMvKUg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="1024" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgafjQvs_BAceA51L17lbDK38WWzm5hXZWK5voxfqRFjlAHrf-mmjuv1eHmI3u9_pow1CjNYeEUBykpvfYKZOz8xnwLFBnE_ax3xJP_jEfPIKiYnenKNGHwtzPgLBivZ7-spQBlchP5nU1G1WHFZSQLAKXBmaACzKfuBd7WFEbKIoJE9XkRh7UTFVMvKUg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">An Anglo/Polish wedding taking place on a sweltering summer day last year is the focus of the new play by Beth Steel, which gets its world premiere in a vibrant, sometimes exhilarating production by Bijan Sheibani at the NT's Dorfman. Often described (in meant-to-be-praising yet slightly patronising-sounding terms) as a foremost contemporary dramatist of "working-class lives," Steel follows up <i><a href="https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/the-house-of-shades/">The House of Shades</a></i> with another intergenerational Nottinghamshire family drama, albeit one in which events are telescoped into a day rather than unfolding over decades.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Placing the audience on four sides of a set (by Samal Blak) that variously suggests pitch, sparring area and dance floor (and, as lit by the great Paule Constable, also gives off more cosmic vibes at times), the play's slightly <i>Steel Magnolias</i>-evoking opening scene plunges us without preamble into the dynamics of the family on the morning of the big day of Sylvia (<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">Sinéad</span></span> Matthews), as she, her two sisters, nieces, Dad, Aunt and assorted other relatives prepare for the ceremony.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The man Sylvia's marrying is Marek (Marc Wootton), a Polish immigrant who, having arrived in England on a Megabus with little money to his name, has since successfully set up his own business. Nonetheless, it's a union that certain family members - especially Sylvia's older sister Hazel (Lucy Black) - view with scepticism that's pretty close to outright hostility. And as the booze flows freely during the wedding reception, those xenophobic feelings are exposed, along with sundry other family rifts and secrets - including an illicit attraction that turns out to be a little case of history repeating.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At its big, messy heart, <i>Till the Stars Come Down</i> is yet another three sisters story. Sheibani's production works hard to get a Chekhovian flow of life and activity across, bringing characters of diverse ages into dialogue that's by turns wildly funny, perceptive and touching. (And there's surely a nod or two to the classic Polish wedding play, <span style="color: #666666;">Wyspiański's 1901 <i>Wesele, </i>in there<i> </i>as well<i>.</i>) </span>Steel's play also has something of the rude English humour and cusp-of-caricature vim of April De Angelis' <i><a href="https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/kerry-jackson/">Kerry Jackson</a></i>, staged by Indhu Rubasingham in the same auditorium last year - especially in the way it puts un-PC remarks seldom heard onstage (yet heard in Britain itself every day of the week) into the mouths of working-class characters who it refuses to demonise - even if the spectre of "punch up at a wedding" <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">cliché</span></span> hovers (and is finally fulfilled) at times. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Overall, the writing here feels fuller, though, and ultimately more adept at interweaving personal and social concerns. Despite the large presence of Polish migrants in Britain since Poland entered the EU in 2004, dramatists have seemed reluctant to explore their experiences or the resulting tensions in UK communities. Sensitive to the context of a post-industrial community, Steel confronts both directly: while Marek expresses pride in the achievements of Poles who've moved to the area, Hazel resents the overburdened services that she blames for her mother's death, and feels threatened by a perceived shift in power. The play's inclusion of only one Polish character could be critiqued, but it works dramatically on several levels, as latent suspicion turns to scapegoating, and pits the family group against the outsider. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As the bride caught in between, and gradually finding her voice in order to confront a family of more dominant personalities, <span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Sinéad</span> Matthews, always an asset to a production, captivates here. Among her many gifts, Matthews is great at conveying a character's contradictory, unspoken emotions: just watch the mix of embarrassment, pride, sadness and pleasure that crosses her face as Sylvia listens to her dad and then her new husband give their speeches. And there'll probably be few more joyous moments on a stage this year than the one in which Sylvia gleefully shakes off her anxieties to leap up on the table to dance. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lisa McGrillis and Lucy Black match Matthews brilliantly as the sisters, the former bringing some beautiful plaintive notes to her characterisation of a once-confident, now-cautious divorcee who's moved from the area for reasons that gradually become clear; the latter treading a difficult but believable line between sharp humour and bitterness as her fears about her own marriage come to the fore. (Black is especially devastating in a scene in which Hazel witheringly maps out her husband's likely future if he leaves her; this is Steel's writing at its best.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As the rambunctious Aunty Carol, Lorraine Ashbourne relishes the lion's share of the quips, whether lamenting that she's being asked to leave before doing the Macarena, getting down to "Toxic," or revealing a few rather toxic views of her own as the night wears on. And Marc Wootton is perfect as the personable spouse - astute, hearty, curious, adorable when horny, but increasingly disinclined to put up with Hazel's passive aggression, and frustrated at his wife's reluctance to challenge it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The production gives the pleasure of a true ensemble, and the cast work together wonderfully well to convey a sense of complicated family life, with further texture provided by Ruby Stokes as Hazel's disillusioned teenage daughter and Alan Williams as the deadpan Dad at odds with his brother (Philip Whitchurch), feeling stuck since his wife's death, and giving a longer view of Polish presence in the town. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some elements, such as a "stopped time" conceit, are underdone, and the play's final tonal shift is extreme, with an ending that feels truncated. But Steel's refusal to shy away from big emotions or contrive cosy resolutions is admirable in itself. Essentially, <i>Till the Stars Come Down </i>is about a family reckoning in contrasting ways with change and transition. Expressing the theme, the staging cleverly keeps things in motion, adding a revolve to the central dinner scene, and getting the cast to physically "orbit" each other as Max Richter's recomposed Vivaldi plays. Steel has written an insightful, caustic but large-hearted play full of recognisable characters; both literally and figuratively, Sheibani's highly entertaining production ensures that we see them in the round.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Till the Stars Come Down</i> is booking at the Dorfman until</b> <b>16 March 2024</b>. <b>Further information <a href="https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/till-the-stars-come-down/">here</a>. </b></div></div>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-74927207919864536532024-01-26T07:30:00.015-07:002024-02-02T21:39:15.361-07:00Film Review: All of Us Strangers (dir. Andrew Haigh, 2023)<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjP63sgnaM9EplQic6R4YrFuo4Ypcp4Nfh6dtNlPKWm6wRWlRsQgzvTl0msyVWYYnjjRkF3seKtvEwT6Uxsi2P5VQJ5Llv5ilT2RtUmL7h_SDWZZbUo0lbxq9uwj5xJdhFdj8m6wthvoNbEfc0qlkOvMUSk3fIAqq6a3UnyIpvqFkH-zUs3eMLHazrDy5g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="667" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjP63sgnaM9EplQic6R4YrFuo4Ypcp4Nfh6dtNlPKWm6wRWlRsQgzvTl0msyVWYYnjjRkF3seKtvEwT6Uxsi2P5VQJ5Llv5ilT2RtUmL7h_SDWZZbUo0lbxq9uwj5xJdhFdj8m6wthvoNbEfc0qlkOvMUSk3fIAqq6a3UnyIpvqFkH-zUs3eMLHazrDy5g" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Going back home is always an interesting thing," said Andrew Haigh in <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L4sCd6cQkRE&t=1332s&pp=ygUTTG9va2luZyBncm9mZiBwYW5lbA%3D%3D">a panel discussion on <i>Looking</i></a>, the HBO TV series of contemporary gay San Francisco life he co-devised. Haigh's radiant latest film, <i>All of Us Strangers</i>, represents a homecoming in several senses. Not only does the film, freely adapted from Taichi Yamada's engaging <span style="font-family: inherit;">1987 novel <span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><i>Strangers</i>, boast</span> an</span> uncanny conceit in which a fortysomething protagonist, returning to his childhood house, finds his deceased parents still living there just as he remembers them - but Haigh also shot the film in his own childhood home in Croydon, adding another psychological layer or two to a work that often suggests a long-delayed therapy session. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgI8iBYfY36hOIm4u9mxtV8UuJ1FDyW3ZrhbbSgh6DLEf_FfTkK3YXfCX92HmPs4HFZ-B2cWTAI5woqdiJtghljMp1pGJXe7FUBd4TFdG98FqHCL2gjMMfdF7ayC_mZOXKB4rM6-5HgqaKMiGZcupCfVGIYhiIINnQAIZCH_2gC63sibtNQWSwYvbzk7g8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="980" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgI8iBYfY36hOIm4u9mxtV8UuJ1FDyW3ZrhbbSgh6DLEf_FfTkK3YXfCX92HmPs4HFZ-B2cWTAI5woqdiJtghljMp1pGJXe7FUBd4TFdG98FqHCL2gjMMfdF7ayC_mZOXKB4rM6-5HgqaKMiGZcupCfVGIYhiIINnQAIZCH_2gC63sibtNQWSwYvbzk7g8" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Queering Yamada's entirely straight Japanese novel into an English context, <i>All of Us Strangers</i> is also a return to British gay cinema for Haigh, where he began his career with the odd documentary <i>Greek Pete</i> (2008) and his great feature debut <a href="https://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2011/11/film-review-weekend-haigh-2011.html"><i>Weekend</i></a> (2011). Following the rather indifferent reaction to his two previous projects, the tough but tender boy-and-horse US road movie <i>Lean on Pete</i> (2017) and the salty sea-bound TV series <i>The North Water</i> (2021), the enthusiastic response to the new film indicates that Haigh has returned to the kind of filmmaking that most critics expect of him (a response which reveals its own uncomfortable truths about media pigeonholing of gay filmmakers).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCCJrCBk98T8If1kv3fsFjh5qDvBEMNgn1lxrbfKCfBCupt3OQFPFuKWqgH-tvsNnLfY-AU4MVAApVhKWfrO8AtHX_Fc7ugulqcyYSTESYrIJFk14hfOkLN3OZYNkfwinj7VAjTG4iW5xX-y9MMs2Eqg2HGRkv_1TDlJ0F--bye4TvN6FEXirw26aCWSs" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCCJrCBk98T8If1kv3fsFjh5qDvBEMNgn1lxrbfKCfBCupt3OQFPFuKWqgH-tvsNnLfY-AU4MVAApVhKWfrO8AtHX_Fc7ugulqcyYSTESYrIJFk14hfOkLN3OZYNkfwinj7VAjTG4iW5xX-y9MMs2Eqg2HGRkv_1TDlJ0F--bye4TvN6FEXirw26aCWSs" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It can't hurt, either, that in casting the film's central duo he's chosen two of the most popular actors on the planet at present. As the lonely pair who meet and connect in the weirdly empty London tower block they both live in, Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal bring all the feeling, magnetism and chemistry that you'd hope to their characters' developing romance. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhoNe9SsA4yVAeWN-L1uvmS0-MuI7fThZwFw4Hii66Av1gV5GoBoMPS4HtNikIoTxaAPxu59xda8f1lVLex_J7AxF4QrQk4vlYWC6I3wuhk_7B5ARdHdeTQPteRo4oUVJdwYvN9b5PbTO1dw5ctCKOyCENE4syLTUhPPq1xISC-Zbby1rKWq12D4rsSogg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhoNe9SsA4yVAeWN-L1uvmS0-MuI7fThZwFw4Hii66Av1gV5GoBoMPS4HtNikIoTxaAPxu59xda8f1lVLex_J7AxF4QrQk4vlYWC6I3wuhk_7B5ARdHdeTQPteRo4oUVJdwYvN9b5PbTO1dw5ctCKOyCENE4syLTUhPPq1xISC-Zbby1rKWq12D4rsSogg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Still, the new film doesn't feel like a regressive step: Haigh continues to push himself in new directions with <i>All of Us Strangers</i> while retaining the special sensitivity and intimacy that have always distinguished his work as a filmmaker. Among the fresh elements is the film's dreamy, sensuous texture - equal parts unsettling and comforting - and the otherworldly quality that Jamie D. Ramsay's photography and Sarah Finlay's production design bring to "ordinary" urban and suburban locations. (Here's to the Whitgift Centre!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For all the changes made to the novel, Haigh's adaptation also brilliantly conveys its sense of interior first-person experience, using expressionistic means to keep us in the headspace of Scott's Adam; the film might be best defined as magical social realism. And Haigh rivals <span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">François Ozon in his ability to convey a watchful sense of solitude and set-apartness on screen.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHTBFgDFocRegJ1qGlrV2yCCiC66HNNIQoeT8stW5p9fkdOeTOiJjld3V0eHn5V1iWENgIl7kblmHw2xOQBX_fIAJkLI0W5hlgaJRy2ImSRpBYaxgOTe9B8_erlhubny2Qb7-oDZceK5ylUDu07yKkCqxjzfPpVbF-Am_bj6ONTtWeyjDxE5aIsyfYadM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1440" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHTBFgDFocRegJ1qGlrV2yCCiC66HNNIQoeT8stW5p9fkdOeTOiJjld3V0eHn5V1iWENgIl7kblmHw2xOQBX_fIAJkLI0W5hlgaJRy2ImSRpBYaxgOTe9B8_erlhubny2Qb7-oDZceK5ylUDu07yKkCqxjzfPpVbF-Am_bj6ONTtWeyjDxE5aIsyfYadM" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Scott has sometimes seemed overrated: I found his Hamlet impossibly affected and awful. But it's hard to see how he could be bettered here, with every subtle glance and gesture conveying the sadness, confusion and gradual opening up of a protagonist who's shut himself off from an early age due to loss and grief. His attraction to Mescal's younger, more extrovert but mercurial Harry feels fully believable; the actors' performances achieve a beautiful equilibrium throughout. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEirEw0n5LOq4imYjKG1noOjVdBNxLpOURDiybB_EtD0nP56cwm7ZayNDPvx4dsUdo9hjrtiTFN1xOZ4Qs29qsMoSXIQU_g_kFtuWNr08LMS5cVP_fiSIGWKltS9nGhsbelkQ4iONazkocY0lVpLl5cy1gw5YNfW7jb5ChSCstA1QmdNgiVFevMaxvqT5gQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="615" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEirEw0n5LOq4imYjKG1noOjVdBNxLpOURDiybB_EtD0nP56cwm7ZayNDPvx4dsUdo9hjrtiTFN1xOZ4Qs29qsMoSXIQU_g_kFtuWNr08LMS5cVP_fiSIGWKltS9nGhsbelkQ4iONazkocY0lVpLl5cy1gw5YNfW7jb5ChSCstA1QmdNgiVFevMaxvqT5gQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Attentive to generational shifts in gay male experience - there's a great little moment in which the pair address their different views of the terms "gay" and "queer," which both have experienced as slurs - the film touches the rawest of nerves for gay viewers of a certain age, especially in its even-handed portrait of how even loving parents may inculcate shame and fear in gay offspring by an unthinking adherence to homophobic societal norms.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzIL1vaKq4M7eGjfB1HbXVj4pmxwN05AxkxRj0bkIAHGNcNG2cZvmsS9W00iCDER7xOpi4nNJ9KHetq4ri_3qDScy4Nq20fIYmLS297LpkeYt1jzsxpPUDuWiBfGchwu0hSmntylZY0LptIzM988_hWRCXGFdqDQMfrbSRH9XXh4TT7u9bO244_2UhKJk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="681" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzIL1vaKq4M7eGjfB1HbXVj4pmxwN05AxkxRj0bkIAHGNcNG2cZvmsS9W00iCDER7xOpi4nNJ9KHetq4ri_3qDScy4Nq20fIYmLS297LpkeYt1jzsxpPUDuWiBfGchwu0hSmntylZY0LptIzM988_hWRCXGFdqDQMfrbSRH9XXh4TT7u9bO244_2UhKJk" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's here that the film's "therapeutic" elements are most evident, as, after initial concern and confusion regarding his coming out, Adam's parents bestow beyond-the-grave love and acceptance, strongly recalling the scene in <i>Weekend</i> in which Tom Cullen's Russell comes out to Chris New's Glen as the latter "plays" his father. The film's attention to the ways in which parents and children might at once fail and support each other, its concern to heal and redeem what's been lost or unspoken, gives it a deep, primal resonance. (There's also a meta element, though thankfully unstressed - Adam, a screenwriter, is trying to write about his parents, suggesting a practical dimension to his "conjuring" of them at the family home.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8hlOrU5L1vF7LiDKzgYqXKnXjIm-nRgDcrWoq0dUjLVsLpsyTpDTf5qIyqONZd7wCg5XNyeKfYsqQoeIP8fXidWQmyvkzI9saZs1-05Mr5HV_fEWxsxqfkS6Gbw0GHa1EQUJDB1Af9UbVBeKB0GZkn2vdpQBz5xJPem5iUgkl6pMh3SxhxGz6q26xYyE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8hlOrU5L1vF7LiDKzgYqXKnXjIm-nRgDcrWoq0dUjLVsLpsyTpDTf5qIyqONZd7wCg5XNyeKfYsqQoeIP8fXidWQmyvkzI9saZs1-05Mr5HV_fEWxsxqfkS6Gbw0GHa1EQUJDB1Af9UbVBeKB0GZkn2vdpQBz5xJPem5iUgkl6pMh3SxhxGz6q26xYyE" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It helps that, as the very recognisable Mum and Dad, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell inhabit their roles with an amazing straightforwardness and no hints of spectral spookiness. A Christmas tree-decorating sequence in which Foy's quiet singalong to Pet Shop Boys' version of "Always on My Mind" becomes an understated expression of maternal love, is a particular heart-wrencher. It's one of several moments in which the soundtrack serves to enrich our understanding of character and relationships - as well as celebrating the queer culture hiding in plain sight in the British '80s mainstream. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXqQXSkEtpmbo3zd9uYo7a-7QbsT4PuVQf2mcIDOL0-Y1apQo410Jer-rtyrMqYYIJMEJzDJe2zt-kJrH86z6sIHEbt3Lq2qKjDVpj5Ofvo4rOCs3XL710g484XMVq9kXx8ugIdvzCO-7GA3QNYh-Qo3R-Hy3vE6btmuMKPn4F1U1JFnvS_nAI2fHBQes" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="700" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXqQXSkEtpmbo3zd9uYo7a-7QbsT4PuVQf2mcIDOL0-Y1apQo410Jer-rtyrMqYYIJMEJzDJe2zt-kJrH86z6sIHEbt3Lq2qKjDVpj5Ofvo4rOCs3XL710g484XMVq9kXx8ugIdvzCO-7GA3QNYh-Qo3R-Hy3vE6btmuMKPn4F1U1JFnvS_nAI2fHBQes" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>All of Us Strangers</i> is overall a triumph: a deeply emotional, wryly funny and absorbing examination of traumatic loss, love, loneliness, and parent/child bonds. An intimate family drama, a tender and sexy love story, and an immersive psychological portrait that risks a surprise revelation and a cosmic climax in its final, Frankie-scored frames, Haigh's beautiful film ushers all of its viewers into a shimmering space between pain and consolation. </div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><i>All of Us Strangers</i> is released in the UK on 26 January and in Poland on 9 February. </b></div>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-42690286559489845432023-12-31T10:26:00.023-07:002024-01-07T22:31:53.268-07:00Best Theatre and Live Perfomances Seen in 2023 <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOOUkWTtVLyxGRe0Xiwb2mzrR3KRm-rY2oj2-yXup-myMHCjD54NhoQWHJGhYqwI4nO5UjvwmLawHptIKnEByy4w_u2pVSe2ycsJordrjNNSWgT6xDofL04a53K6_C709L6CWc1EB_NGnaQqcqccky_d_-nTRxjaPBgcBThrMZF8qxgy91DLmv9sT90Po/s710/img_1_1699625920909.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="473" data-original-width="710" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOOUkWTtVLyxGRe0Xiwb2mzrR3KRm-rY2oj2-yXup-myMHCjD54NhoQWHJGhYqwI4nO5UjvwmLawHptIKnEByy4w_u2pVSe2ycsJordrjNNSWgT6xDofL04a53K6_C709L6CWc1EB_NGnaQqcqccky_d_-nTRxjaPBgcBThrMZF8qxgy91DLmv9sT90Po/s320/img_1_1699625920909.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: left;">Marek Pospieszalski at Fabryka Sztuki<br />(Photo: Marta Zając-Krysiak fotografia)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">I decided to do things a bit differently than usual, and combine theatre and concerts on this list this year. In some ways, the line between the two grows ever blurrier: the most popular concerts right now tend to be highly produced theatrical spectacles - carefully choreographed down to the last gesture. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">There's little space for spontaneity in these huge arena scenarios, and the shows I've gravitated towards this year tended to foster closer audience/performer connections, whether it was Daniel Cerqueira combining song, serenade, silliness, memoir and memorial under fairy lights in a tiny Brixton art studio in the beautiful <i><a href="http://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2023/02/theatre-reflection-danny-is-fantastic.html">Danny is Fantastic</a></i> or Marek Pospieszalski making a saxophone do things you didn't know saxophones could do in his captivating solo show at Fabryka Sztuki. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9xwGNaedd3b1SskNvVxm-_s8ddDx7FcbA0kF8LXagVHZ5onHcFeCFTBVwYk03EcguFfuctRyT-vIOAzNKwPfqmtEXRyOMC0uIQw9bgRi0Xgxz4METxGyD7difGrXaKrMCYHSvkaaguxhknfbmnjyNibU8zxX8ENVlnfcH5OupsZzUIRy7pyWz6a3AZKk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="1400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9xwGNaedd3b1SskNvVxm-_s8ddDx7FcbA0kF8LXagVHZ5onHcFeCFTBVwYk03EcguFfuctRyT-vIOAzNKwPfqmtEXRyOMC0uIQw9bgRi0Xgxz4METxGyD7difGrXaKrMCYHSvkaaguxhknfbmnjyNibU8zxX8ENVlnfcH5OupsZzUIRy7pyWz6a3AZKk" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Performing in Poland for the first time since 2014 accompanied by long-time bassist Jon Evans plus drummer Ash Soan, Tori Amos' <i>Ocean to Ocean</i> show in Katowice retained every bit of the intimacy of her two previous solo tours as she operated her arsenal of keyboards and welcomed the Katowice crowd with a casual "Hey Poland, what's up?" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCYv5pA6OnrYF75yYtI9WrIsiTrZvubPdaGxWPMr-3NkjmIU0s_GTcOWMkArgqsspTvf8alVgHn2XA-K2NbIdHLKo31rfh6fm6fXATFV_-e2i9asCiZv5YHhblmx9K-9SdiEAtyUstwAplEQkJwqup7ijCab0muAjcT7aQZ4Vy9Xg4QxM4iYgu4HcJ150/s1600/Tori_Amos_15_jr.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCYv5pA6OnrYF75yYtI9WrIsiTrZvubPdaGxWPMr-3NkjmIU0s_GTcOWMkArgqsspTvf8alVgHn2XA-K2NbIdHLKo31rfh6fm6fXATFV_-e2i9asCiZv5YHhblmx9K-9SdiEAtyUstwAplEQkJwqup7ijCab0muAjcT7aQZ4Vy9Xg4QxM4iYgu4HcJ150/s320/Tori_Amos_15_jr.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #75757a; font-size: 12px; text-align: start; white-space: nowrap;">Tori Amos at Spodek in Katowice<br />(Photo: Jacek Raciborski )</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Part blistering rock show, part revival meeting, the trio stretched the songs into supple, jazzy jams across a set list tailored to the place and moment. Surprises were many but the single moment I loved most was the ferocity with which Amos pulled out a gem of a line from "Smokey Joe": "One's past is not a destination".</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOoXMjfwzT6uo4sGysCHtvRJ0rw5KBgA2N5nSX8uH997Rof0NV6vE_SlFRA2tcA0lWJoU-2DBhnlTQvWQ5_iNdXAaLcQJunxHPuJKOA8vbjQkxH_0UP-OGggeVLHWzD4k5-NxSAU0gz1EvbEChjdyrtGK8HZMO0zTT0Dwq8I2wksF-AcRAlSlIsFokHak" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="213" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOoXMjfwzT6uo4sGysCHtvRJ0rw5KBgA2N5nSX8uH997Rof0NV6vE_SlFRA2tcA0lWJoU-2DBhnlTQvWQ5_iNdXAaLcQJunxHPuJKOA8vbjQkxH_0UP-OGggeVLHWzD4k5-NxSAU0gz1EvbEChjdyrtGK8HZMO0zTT0Dwq8I2wksF-AcRAlSlIsFokHak" width="160" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">Morze ∞ możliwości</i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"> <br /> (</span>Photo: Agnieszka Cytacka fotografia)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">From the bewitching gentle puppetry of Fundacja Gra/nice's <i>Morze ∞ możliwości</i> (<i>Sea of ∞ Possibilities</i>) to the exhilarating wild rides of <i>BUD</i> and </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;"><i>Re</i></span><i style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;">js </i><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;">(</span><i style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;">Cruise</i><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;">), this </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;">summer's <a href="https://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2023/08/generations-said-report-on-12th.html?m=0">Retroperspektywy Festival in Łódź </a>provided several of the year's theatrical highlights; the absolute standout was the closing <i>Livet</i>. <i>Suite for the Earth</i> concert, which brought together singers and musicians from several countries in an extraordinary performance. </span></div><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLM-3RrYtlPEAKPgy4GBrEcvXBqvw-_HvdFD-GAX0_KWjf44TT0Vysh9Q_y633I3_NdxxgzE27XmkHAizrb--Em7SXwPVCgswmhC3NySBVpNiehpbHKgE0AO0_JCNDaPX8TWtno216nuRAjWnUkMyKYIyJ0fmefSnmQ4HsEYnbmIpP8kVvMkwU4yU-mbU" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="320" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLM-3RrYtlPEAKPgy4GBrEcvXBqvw-_HvdFD-GAX0_KWjf44TT0Vysh9Q_y633I3_NdxxgzE27XmkHAizrb--Em7SXwPVCgswmhC3NySBVpNiehpbHKgE0AO0_JCNDaPX8TWtno216nuRAjWnUkMyKYIyJ0fmefSnmQ4HsEYnbmIpP8kVvMkwU4yU-mbU" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Livet <br /></i>(Photo: Agnieszka Cytacka fotografia)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Otherwise, a tendency toward Łódź-specific stories with a wider resonance characterised some of the best theatre presented in the city, especially at Teatr Nowy, whether <span style="background-color: white; color: #75757a; text-wrap: nowrap;"><i>Dobrze ułożony młodzieniec's </i></span>innovative dramatization of the interwar life of transman Eugeniusz Steinbart or the immersive evocation of the city's rave culture in <span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Mój pierwszy rave.</i></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjutuy2mtov4lTgjPNDkfzEUw0WpWvIvKq49KmS9M9llGtIYEzusvbsGqWrHUTrBqMTaBP_ZIPAUvlJXTtq8LyEfmoOollBoG45iB2l-tczJ7XJCK_atP-EemYOhhKeYDmWvmPJo1GzjXnpYc1NbE3Ajhz_HEOSXtfBIRpRehR6ZtiMgwT3S9Y8GGiY0Zs" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjutuy2mtov4lTgjPNDkfzEUw0WpWvIvKq49KmS9M9llGtIYEzusvbsGqWrHUTrBqMTaBP_ZIPAUvlJXTtq8LyEfmoOollBoG45iB2l-tczJ7XJCK_atP-EemYOhhKeYDmWvmPJo1GzjXnpYc1NbE3Ajhz_HEOSXtfBIRpRehR6ZtiMgwT3S9Y8GGiY0Zs" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #75757a; text-align: justify; text-wrap: nowrap;"><i>Dobrze ułożony młodzieniec</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: start;">Spectacularly subversive takes on <i><a href="https://www.fabrykasztuki.org/Hamlet_w_ruchu__spektakl,11,482">Hamlet</a></i> and <i><a href="https://nowy.pl/spektakle/carmen/">Carmen</a></i> were also highlights, and I predict a bright future for<span style="color: #4d5156;"><span face="Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.fabrykasztuki.org/GRZYBKI__premiera_spektaklu,11,524"><i>Grzybki </i>(<i>Mushrooms</i>)</a></span></span><span style="color: #767676;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>, </i></span></span>a sharp, playful and song-filled exploration of motherhood, written by Aleksandra Skraba, who co-starred alongside <span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Elżbieta </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Zajko</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px;">.</span></p><p style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #71777d; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: start;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SR6yzv0chWrsdUon9A7SUQnSzg96Lo6wjqbDNNx_NsaA5qt_0QXiDwj8bxgWaD82xKBeLJbDXR_nol-VpuGWVR8Rq53yFINKWFPb1Ot_tAfQ2PWbO9ZLJrt-FIhmB2SfJHTZHbmhXIBtSzjMrY8xiZFF3Y8wD5ctIIiuKwfYBlFYb1VKcy57-wsegEQ/s710/img_1_1702677187063.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="473" data-original-width="710" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SR6yzv0chWrsdUon9A7SUQnSzg96Lo6wjqbDNNx_NsaA5qt_0QXiDwj8bxgWaD82xKBeLJbDXR_nol-VpuGWVR8Rq53yFINKWFPb1Ot_tAfQ2PWbO9ZLJrt-FIhmB2SfJHTZHbmhXIBtSzjMrY8xiZFF3Y8wD5ctIIiuKwfYBlFYb1VKcy57-wsegEQ/s320/img_1_1702677187063.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4d5156; text-align: start;"><i>Grzybki</i><br />(Photo: Mr. and Mrs. Oh!)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; color: #71777d; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #71777d;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">I saw less theatre in the UK this year, which still seems too in thrall to new plays based on real-life figures, confusing celebrity status with dramatic interest.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjIQf0K_O6LKYE8QdbGM0hfeicgVi39X9k6JeT7WMoj_BOA7l1onYHBdX0eqilQQr_x8jglSIUKziz88zf9Ipenk4Y4qzrGpWfyJwAW4bm5iSutDIoDnszWuwK3R8sqAr7YGvDkfpQL6nGtscJQi4IxL67Othr1BYhVVsQX9XvX9gjHqn9Si68hdmQnX5Y" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjIQf0K_O6LKYE8QdbGM0hfeicgVi39X9k6JeT7WMoj_BOA7l1onYHBdX0eqilQQr_x8jglSIUKziz88zf9Ipenk4Y4qzrGpWfyJwAW4bm5iSutDIoDnszWuwK3R8sqAr7YGvDkfpQL6nGtscJQi4IxL67Othr1BYhVVsQX9XvX9gjHqn9Si68hdmQnX5Y" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj10TnMwmZbtg8Il8BU5qvEf9HynlKd_7RXr_Xgkvjo3WZrGFZX-xx30LL-c0motLfNkcaAhrpioaXfY90nvjSh99GB9ZN9g1WV_eeCF4vWd3ONGbjd_PxRFZtvk4kNZl93dVsZF4TM68EgIUNIg2D4QgHneLUgY1mFwj79GA1qHdg6owaQyiO5fFQuYtw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6YATUdMezccMNQJR_XltzfR7i3ZxPJjfnjhcwQ-3Wq4eNbkt2CsL-mns4xqX8vMvnF6np1qJHe27jdVRRGyxrJ96vXwyzGhG3nAZpwpEFPpDuVCKNglXrMoKxnAFKnpc8i1YaVSzGhiZjdLpWequO68lHkaJrxdDN1Yn7Cxit5OQaowORS_y6iKz1hVM" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6YATUdMezccMNQJR_XltzfR7i3ZxPJjfnjhcwQ-3Wq4eNbkt2CsL-mns4xqX8vMvnF6np1qJHe27jdVRRGyxrJ96vXwyzGhG3nAZpwpEFPpDuVCKNglXrMoKxnAFKnpc8i1YaVSzGhiZjdLpWequO68lHkaJrxdDN1Yn7Cxit5OQaowORS_y6iKz1hVM" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Meetings</i> <br />(Photo: Marc Brenner)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj10TnMwmZbtg8Il8BU5qvEf9HynlKd_7RXr_Xgkvjo3WZrGFZX-xx30LL-c0motLfNkcaAhrpioaXfY90nvjSh99GB9ZN9g1WV_eeCF4vWd3ONGbjd_PxRFZtvk4kNZl93dVsZF4TM68EgIUNIg2D4QgHneLUgY1mFwj79GA1qHdg6owaQyiO5fFQuYtw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tom Littler began his Orange Tree Artistic Directorship with two smart and crowd-pleasing productions: of <i><a href="https://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2023/05/theatre-review-circle-orange-tree.html?m=1">The Circle</a></i> and <i><a href="https://orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/she-stoops-to-conquer/">She Stoops to Conquer</a>.</i> Still, the best production I saw at the OT this year<span style="font-family: inherit;"> was <span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; text-align: start;">Kalungi Ssebandeke’s rich and haunting revival</span> of Mustapha Matura's <i><a href="https://orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/meetings/">Meetings</a></i>, in which a postcolonial conflict between tradition and modernity plays out in the kitchen of an upwardly mobile Trinidadian couple. With a great trio of performances from Kevin N Golding, <span style="background-color: #fefdfa;"><span>Bethan Mary-James and, especially, an absolutely stunning Martina Laird, <i>Meetings</i> wasn't the hit it deserved to be, but <span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; text-align: start;">Ssebandeke’s production won't </span>be forgotten by those who were lucky enough to catch it<span style="color: #333333;">. </span></span></span></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsUp6WzZBe-doGcaoIUVfydTlDXfGkJ-7GzyO0ZNd2WVqazW-Uag6oyqg5z6IWU_mLEjwPB_7CrQBwIw9z-7fLmwN5b8T86Qe_5jqqHZF9HS_yYU5nzSiVxqF6sv1__9Co-Po9SJ3oSZ_nbFym9CWjjX7RD5KPVzMietwqQTgWOwOQn9KLO18OTb-AyUE" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsUp6WzZBe-doGcaoIUVfydTlDXfGkJ-7GzyO0ZNd2WVqazW-Uag6oyqg5z6IWU_mLEjwPB_7CrQBwIw9z-7fLmwN5b8T86Qe_5jqqHZF9HS_yYU5nzSiVxqF6sv1__9Co-Po9SJ3oSZ_nbFym9CWjjX7RD5KPVzMietwqQTgWOwOQn9KLO18OTb-AyUE" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Trouble in Butetown</i> <br />(Photo: Manuel Harlan)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; text-align: start;">Also brilliantly locating a big story in a domestic space (and with another role vividly played by Bethan <span style="text-align: justify;">Mary-James)</span> was Diana Nneka Atuona's latest play <i>Trouble in Butetown </i>at the Donmar, an absorbing WWII drama, set in a racially mixed household in multicultural Tiger Bay. </span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; text-align: start;">Tinuke Craig's production had a beautiful tenderness and warmth but also gave the drama the drive of a thriller. And also</span><span style="text-align: left;"> at the Donmar, Michael Longhurst directed a not very popular but pleasingly tough-minded </span><i style="text-align: left;">Private</i><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><i style="text-align: left;">Lives</i><span style="text-align: left;"> that dispensed with any sentiment in conveying the play's vision of love as a battlefield.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, beginning the year on a high note was the glorious touring production of <i>Fisherman's Friends: The Musical, </i>and ending it on one that captured all the joy, craziness and sadness of the season was Barb Jungr and Dillie Keane's wonderful Christmas show, <i>Two Turtle Doves</i>. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Here's to 2024! </div></div>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-8089166229127282742023-12-12T23:47:00.000-07:002023-12-12T23:47:06.867-07:00Best Films of 2023<p style="text-align: justify;">The full set of ballots for this year's Sight and Sound Best Films of 2023 list are now up; you can read them <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/best-films-2023-all-votes">here</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">These are the films I voted for: </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiICMLATVOot0TxkqO-rTsuQKNasqMKhlVSgtd90qxAhjYiJ6zw6ADA9chNeSU4NsUnJY4I4plzuF6ZWIxjxTzwkwL9Nasyk_lcq2nKGUAQmanAVjNk7WXrrjY91zvP4eGbc4Xni5eAAO0jvo1i0SC3MUk6xFJEwSMhmVS0LuKLL4VOtTJvg4ZbP9QAXp8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1433" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiICMLATVOot0TxkqO-rTsuQKNasqMKhlVSgtd90qxAhjYiJ6zw6ADA9chNeSU4NsUnJY4I4plzuF6ZWIxjxTzwkwL9Nasyk_lcq2nKGUAQmanAVjNk7WXrrjY91zvP4eGbc4Xni5eAAO0jvo1i0SC3MUk6xFJEwSMhmVS0LuKLL4VOtTJvg4ZbP9QAXp8" width="168" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgN26_k91tR9P3uoisFNvssHcJo2udX1hB8G93uqb3zJv-u0iKjD0zxZCJTYdCpguxgXrIyTny4kMWG2FCEBxIpQNdWQYE5aqrCoeMtQrGnsnxJ4hxlY6KwewI6xFvzTe47A8KcPVmzSJKxvU2MCBXAGUjf-lKB3C5cDHiPxVDREA4l7OqIwew6laVOAPI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="250" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgN26_k91tR9P3uoisFNvssHcJo2udX1hB8G93uqb3zJv-u0iKjD0zxZCJTYdCpguxgXrIyTny4kMWG2FCEBxIpQNdWQYE5aqrCoeMtQrGnsnxJ4hxlY6KwewI6xFvzTe47A8KcPVmzSJKxvU2MCBXAGUjf-lKB3C5cDHiPxVDREA4l7OqIwew6laVOAPI" width="162" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg6kC_onMoLlYiQaeqSpQ8dcOhoyAXXwbTKmEYrXzoG6l4k6vaPpNbRrsakQLuli5fues2PbPT9GHjqnChp2G5RQC7PYCvqdFBzYTAHZ5HFzzkGjQlimXM9-k5tqQiuZUhs5aRP6v1kemYueES1qtTMI9pboNFBVp-DP05bS5GYSf10DTDmcwK37J8aBeA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg6kC_onMoLlYiQaeqSpQ8dcOhoyAXXwbTKmEYrXzoG6l4k6vaPpNbRrsakQLuli5fues2PbPT9GHjqnChp2G5RQC7PYCvqdFBzYTAHZ5HFzzkGjQlimXM9-k5tqQiuZUhs5aRP6v1kemYueES1qtTMI9pboNFBVp-DP05bS5GYSf10DTDmcwK37J8aBeA" width="168" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKnyIlS4aJ0CymKvmPPKk6OTwZGQNhwZ0hIdcmctlyiNrhefyEz6zYh2tEOOx_puAIKrLu7kOHDTw7BwYgFWQnDHH6iZfhO4p38DOMrchMP7Axziuj7wWRiC6k_FbFPZIpQO6bwhzdr3Erk6SVe0Olwa0duF_UhlWD8-Lf4n1LXJXrE7gwWkwNRxLvnxE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="500" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKnyIlS4aJ0CymKvmPPKk6OTwZGQNhwZ0hIdcmctlyiNrhefyEz6zYh2tEOOx_puAIKrLu7kOHDTw7BwYgFWQnDHH6iZfhO4p38DOMrchMP7Axziuj7wWRiC6k_FbFPZIpQO6bwhzdr3Erk6SVe0Olwa0duF_UhlWD8-Lf4n1LXJXrE7gwWkwNRxLvnxE" width="180" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj225Dmj5726Gh6qaxYd1a04HQFv9ScXcgmLat9zOxJ0VsppVAvw2ckh04mhHVfmy9xIFS_JBtdsGYhyuq-yE0z3PWvBE3oVfC0P5la53-8ZYFiqysHfjcEB7sCw2J7x3XinorcdaLuO5E4PPD0PyBp7u548buLDUCrk-jUUiQ8ZDAlIRAXKXthAT4EwWU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1499" data-original-width="1000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj225Dmj5726Gh6qaxYd1a04HQFv9ScXcgmLat9zOxJ0VsppVAvw2ckh04mhHVfmy9xIFS_JBtdsGYhyuq-yE0z3PWvBE3oVfC0P5la53-8ZYFiqysHfjcEB7sCw2J7x3XinorcdaLuO5E4PPD0PyBp7u548buLDUCrk-jUUiQ8ZDAlIRAXKXthAT4EwWU" width="160" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjp8nk_s74n7xhuyrLmAdteCgDJiilPlAcAo0xMAHpbM4xyaL1bVR4rXEVBo07mWzY0eF6qsQgC9vyIqunpNBpVDc1SBaT-arR14Q1joHff-FST8dvTr42xZ4Vj5Dz9dsxEADvrkwUralD46BR12rm8OX9Y_8IGRF2E8Y1gavgWD_M_gZvdjlxdnCYEJw0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1461" data-original-width="974" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjp8nk_s74n7xhuyrLmAdteCgDJiilPlAcAo0xMAHpbM4xyaL1bVR4rXEVBo07mWzY0eF6qsQgC9vyIqunpNBpVDc1SBaT-arR14Q1joHff-FST8dvTr42xZ4Vj5Dz9dsxEADvrkwUralD46BR12rm8OX9Y_8IGRF2E8Y1gavgWD_M_gZvdjlxdnCYEJw0" width="160" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdRtnCBCfXhNeG67XykVHS8EOcfpT7RvFdEYIPV_fEsbdyCzeipC1VhmDLz8NvGmuSn7xophLFWxWKwkr2GQVoZm-T7Apd-Ouvu4unus4t2Y98C2SFmFORtL_JdpCtHr5AJXnVT8Kc-pfbFTEnHQtoEm-XEwViK62xgfpZDiyHJ4vuEx5lLRSu-AQc42I" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="259" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdRtnCBCfXhNeG67XykVHS8EOcfpT7RvFdEYIPV_fEsbdyCzeipC1VhmDLz8NvGmuSn7xophLFWxWKwkr2GQVoZm-T7Apd-Ouvu4unus4t2Y98C2SFmFORtL_JdpCtHr5AJXnVT8Kc-pfbFTEnHQtoEm-XEwViK62xgfpZDiyHJ4vuEx5lLRSu-AQc42I" width="161" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcuPav4DpLYqVpG9OEejOc6vYDodMtGeY0ozwjBs9YLM96xLeW3btHi_KeSprOwAQY37f0kHU6G_do_3i0obQent2Y2SNxSg2sr_PATArZWX0FatwjDTCFASjw0ZYWgvS_m9qRhwPdGFSICMN7FLjJlJWBsl7oGc__bSb1H4PZHAWZCs0wxXMNECpYYdU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcuPav4DpLYqVpG9OEejOc6vYDodMtGeY0ozwjBs9YLM96xLeW3btHi_KeSprOwAQY37f0kHU6G_do_3i0obQent2Y2SNxSg2sr_PATArZWX0FatwjDTCFASjw0ZYWgvS_m9qRhwPdGFSICMN7FLjJlJWBsl7oGc__bSb1H4PZHAWZCs0wxXMNECpYYdU" width="160" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlAFRFkKip5HwP411XiiyRL9IFwa5vdR-YsrWP6K5-0_L6_k-Yc5weexJc6JkoddszWVCbXr9CDA0snAuxVnGTpo286DLHoyfgLkL6MeEPpYdOHCSrvEshh-2HWD2HTaLLscZ2_MHrPUykypYDUIp0VzCjpL-FWOil0MdUgTWirI0YKTcja7iSfSa0DQA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1382" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlAFRFkKip5HwP411XiiyRL9IFwa5vdR-YsrWP6K5-0_L6_k-Yc5weexJc6JkoddszWVCbXr9CDA0snAuxVnGTpo286DLHoyfgLkL6MeEPpYdOHCSrvEshh-2HWD2HTaLLscZ2_MHrPUykypYDUIp0VzCjpL-FWOil0MdUgTWirI0YKTcja7iSfSa0DQA" width="162" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFUxbGrcLXkUxH-pEZB6Cybbhs7HsKH_8TiyzWM5ngkjC5pSkW3WyrHDM7J63KmzMcpqi96YVRAuAk8QnFo5j_hEmWHOkG6LFIh_-9jpqNhsMacOLWK9qsNznWIjpE7YUHXTnz2gqy_oya5aAknXMZHtN3lrrIC75ENjNIb6y2H6AnERXnu52QCnY9r_g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1714" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFUxbGrcLXkUxH-pEZB6Cybbhs7HsKH_8TiyzWM5ngkjC5pSkW3WyrHDM7J63KmzMcpqi96YVRAuAk8QnFo5j_hEmWHOkG6LFIh_-9jpqNhsMacOLWK9qsNznWIjpE7YUHXTnz2gqy_oya5aAknXMZHtN3lrrIC75ENjNIb6y2H6AnERXnu52QCnY9r_g" width="168" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-3862608606907540622023-12-12T23:29:00.003-07:002023-12-12T23:32:43.653-07:00Sight and Sound (Winter 2023/24)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFjlMPdvHXMVdZ19S-Fvoc6uagv-h0GkKA9sOfqqGIFyObQ03e5hSwFcAt3TVRjeSdtAt-xjbzXABBdGNvqYzAodHGc5_-0NJTnCS1Jx8_Z55dIwMOqmrRyUSpmkzdbVdMzh7OlKGfVDpVrpIsHQwZioKlAHMVYpr8wjXT2Ss5w826ae4P_trB52YFksA/s1080/S&S_Instagram_1080x1080_Dec_23%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFjlMPdvHXMVdZ19S-Fvoc6uagv-h0GkKA9sOfqqGIFyObQ03e5hSwFcAt3TVRjeSdtAt-xjbzXABBdGNvqYzAodHGc5_-0NJTnCS1Jx8_Z55dIwMOqmrRyUSpmkzdbVdMzh7OlKGfVDpVrpIsHQwZioKlAHMVYpr8wjXT2Ss5w826ae4P_trB52YFksA/s320/S&S_Instagram_1080x1080_Dec_23%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Sight and Sound Winter issue is out now, including the Best Films of 2033 feature. I wrote about Harry Belafonte for the "In Memoriam" feature of this issue. More details <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/news/sight-sound-winter-202324-issue">here</a>.</p><br /><p></p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-85289238416755449342023-11-30T23:38:00.003-07:002023-11-30T23:38:16.297-07:00Harry Belafonte: 10 Essential Performances (BFI online)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdsAc7JYNQFH-GfVJLmG3ZKByt-PE0raD0F8-0fAnA79ma882P7ONVYGDwZMB7_xeBqibr5e-t6vhoqfHUZDj_Qm7eJJbcASyaJkSvAksXGrAZSlQkvyePcvVhNz1I7wUcpyVlm2qiH5bPK50HbsjBVLmV3e3RcR4jtwMFL0xk7D7YecCXDoj13KGyvM/s2500/230425-harry-belafonte-jm-1055-a5c453.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1701" data-original-width="2500" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdsAc7JYNQFH-GfVJLmG3ZKByt-PE0raD0F8-0fAnA79ma882P7ONVYGDwZMB7_xeBqibr5e-t6vhoqfHUZDj_Qm7eJJbcASyaJkSvAksXGrAZSlQkvyePcvVhNz1I7wUcpyVlm2qiH5bPK50HbsjBVLmV3e3RcR4jtwMFL0xk7D7YecCXDoj13KGyvM/s320/230425-harry-belafonte-jm-1055-a5c453.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the Harry Belafonte season gets underway at BFI Southbank, I wrote about some of his best screen performances <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/harry-belafonte-10-essential-performances">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-62135612891908985282023-11-05T01:43:00.000-07:002023-11-05T01:43:07.658-07:00Sight and Sound (December 2023) <p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrk9s0lc5Gp6TnOLCwUecA7qkA5m1-hlNLmrbac37zuksPzsrbtnRUQJ1p_9rWEb8pPFXbx-60Sd6t8tJgSxa8WphT6XRJlmmq4QX9YfOXNm9mcaitVh5nJJph6jJNtbxEZ2xwvNUqfXCuE1aIS1RnRXikOUVK1R_D_ojHlz41KC38ohHXg0xzoX-AmkQ/s1080/S&S_Instagram_1080x1080_Dec_23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrk9s0lc5Gp6TnOLCwUecA7qkA5m1-hlNLmrbac37zuksPzsrbtnRUQJ1p_9rWEb8pPFXbx-60Sd6t8tJgSxa8WphT6XRJlmmq4QX9YfOXNm9mcaitVh5nJJph6jJNtbxEZ2xwvNUqfXCuE1aIS1RnRXikOUVK1R_D_ojHlz41KC38ohHXg0xzoX-AmkQ/s320/S&S_Instagram_1080x1080_Dec_23.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">December's <i>Sight and Sound</i> is out now. I wrote about James Harvey's new book on John Akomfrah for this issue. More details <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/news/sight-sound-december-2023-issue">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-36060953589799837672023-10-30T22:29:00.006-07:002023-10-30T22:29:57.872-07:00Where to Begin with Horace Ové (BFI online)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj50C_8joos9ickHJaPQQKPden_vehyW-ifV_bWBBcK037eXRp1x2fUVi3cLctDMHz-lqDlFeDfnLUJewxWhm5vS_I0TiU-qAZEoOnzCbqyS5tVqhPdcqAQMqGQPuBEmE4sc6yEH1HMJo5tAeExxUU2EcIgriz2ZkWXRA0TTowz4YwsqNzurq-lddTiZvM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj50C_8joos9ickHJaPQQKPden_vehyW-ifV_bWBBcK037eXRp1x2fUVi3cLctDMHz-lqDlFeDfnLUJewxWhm5vS_I0TiU-qAZEoOnzCbqyS5tVqhPdcqAQMqGQPuBEmE4sc6yEH1HMJo5tAeExxUU2EcIgriz2ZkWXRA0TTowz4YwsqNzurq-lddTiZvM" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the "Power to the People: Horace Ové's Radical Vision" retrospective continues at BFI Southbank, and <i>Pressure</i> is re-released in cinemas, I wrote a guide to some of Ové's screen work. You can read it <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-horace-ove">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-11535752129088766722023-10-09T02:34:00.002-07:002023-10-09T02:34:23.561-07:00November 2023 issue of Sight and Sound<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPSHsK72ek-HAnPHH97FzIkyl3Q_-Exhba07MqtCLuG1_1mm63FFi83yzMLVX5tZQk6tKbXO6PY2M33fUZLj-r2FMkIHNkZ1OuCk4CxwLzuIbsL384WWPGgdkpsLt5OJdo6uuqz8kPSV99HWXJwXzOJL7c-POKCLOPDo9-E7ZQ6uDbtp1PHti38S7zqiE/s960/S&S_Instagram_1080x1080_Nov_23~2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="749" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPSHsK72ek-HAnPHH97FzIkyl3Q_-Exhba07MqtCLuG1_1mm63FFi83yzMLVX5tZQk6tKbXO6PY2M33fUZLj-r2FMkIHNkZ1OuCk4CxwLzuIbsL384WWPGgdkpsLt5OJdo6uuqz8kPSV99HWXJwXzOJL7c-POKCLOPDo9-E7ZQ6uDbtp1PHti38S7zqiE/s320/S&S_Instagram_1080x1080_Nov_23~2.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">November's <i>Sight and Sound</i> is just out out now, including Ashley Clark's beautiful <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Horace Ové</span> </span>obituary. </div><p style="text-align: justify;">I had fun revisiting Ken Russell's <i>Gothic</i> (just out on Blu-ray) for the "Rediscovery" column, and found the film - made more poignant by time and the premature deaths of Natasha Richardson and Julian Sands - a surprisingly moving experience today, as well.</p><p>More details on the issue <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/news/sight-sound-november-2023-issue">here</a>. </p><div><br /></div>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-10962664777441899562023-09-28T01:22:00.002-07:002023-09-28T07:34:32.157-07:00Theatre Review: Infamous (Jermyn Street Theatre)<p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvVPw8deNrs_IgXiu21c3QhgCa_UsVLpcLgI-2LU3IHEHRDxhKQvwoYnGqeKEJg0NyR2KkODV_QcwZ4XifM3rC92wK9fFSCiLVeUfFtsP4Mq8PCYcYq7B5Iy_1DGVLfu6_T_QhveY5DabAO7RBQjpek9iFeeaxlJzOEciHnbGkaHi48iFLASICDjaoW5k" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="189" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvVPw8deNrs_IgXiu21c3QhgCa_UsVLpcLgI-2LU3IHEHRDxhKQvwoYnGqeKEJg0NyR2KkODV_QcwZ4XifM3rC92wK9fFSCiLVeUfFtsP4Mq8PCYcYq7B5Iy_1DGVLfu6_T_QhveY5DabAO7RBQjpek9iFeeaxlJzOEciHnbGkaHi48iFLASICDjaoW5k" width="170" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Always among the most accessible and least pretentious of contemporary British playwrights, April De Angelis has also demonstrated a stealth subversiveness and wide range in her work. As Dominic Dromgoole writes in <i>The Full Room</i>: "Her imagination can encompass and reproduce worlds very distant from her own, and she has an ease with non-naturalistic dialogue that carries the audience with her... There is a central coarseness, a vitality, a rudeness that keeps it fresh and alive." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">De Angelis brings those qualities to her latest historical play, <i>Infamous</i>, which focuses on Emma Hamilton. The scandalous life story of "that Hamilton woman," wife of Sir William and lover of Lord Nelson, has, of course, often been dramatised - including in Susan Sontag's great <i>The Volcano Lover </i>(1992)<i> </i>which filtered the events mostly through Sir William's perspective. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO28zgnVunJWYTTx7xLgz-zzcgXgyh51Id5Jp7l7sdNP024xW6suI6SpfgIOB5kbyEaIC6cRJiH0GQOiJcaRVY13JhkYwALQ90RgJp9PsO484TVJykEm1bwhYy4nhne8YKmvAR3dghNBWO-VrvSI_xMachXgDv7le234eETe7ZzvFXjkyFlz6kp8RzzLU/s2048/I88CLx8w.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO28zgnVunJWYTTx7xLgz-zzcgXgyh51Id5Jp7l7sdNP024xW6suI6SpfgIOB5kbyEaIC6cRJiH0GQOiJcaRVY13JhkYwALQ90RgJp9PsO484TVJykEm1bwhYy4nhne8YKmvAR3dghNBWO-VrvSI_xMachXgDv7le234eETe7ZzvFXjkyFlz6kp8RzzLU/s320/I88CLx8w.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But where Sontag's novel constantly expanded outwards through rich allusions and digressions, De Angelis play is distilled, intimate and interior - particularly so in Michael Oakley's production on the tiny Jermyn Street stage. Pointedly, William and Nelson are nowhere to be seen here: the only male characters are an Italian servant and a French Mayor's son, both played with gusto by Riad Richie. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Instead, De Angelis makes <i>Infamous</i> a mother/daughter story, and one that's much enhanced in Oakley's production by the casting of real-life mother and daughter Caroline and Rose Quentin. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The play opens in 1798 in Naples, with Rose as the young Emma, married to William, the English Ambassador, but already plotting the seduction of Nelson fresh off the boat. She receives her mother, who's been visiting the daughter that Emma's abandoned in England, and who has a secret of her own to share.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyJpIZgx4WznNoRjL8q5KxCzwR9Q3AgWeSMJGOjqJo7u2z1DINJxDHVdNHXUgOGfSQkNmzIqCeiUhD3Hx4Lpp7LSsfE24G5EgOy5jp3sl6tjrIAnMBvEmt70m3pj8JAx1sAAAeO9LMK6opoanPF7xU8tHwtsWKcUd1sqOC6-VaUvcFBg1NbJn53Tp0CAE/s2048/h-bDHsfw.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyJpIZgx4WznNoRjL8q5KxCzwR9Q3AgWeSMJGOjqJo7u2z1DINJxDHVdNHXUgOGfSQkNmzIqCeiUhD3Hx4Lpp7LSsfE24G5EgOy5jp3sl6tjrIAnMBvEmt70m3pj8JAx1sAAAeO9LMK6opoanPF7xU8tHwtsWKcUd1sqOC6-VaUvcFBg1NbJn53Tp0CAE/s320/h-bDHsfw.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">In the second half, the scene shifts to Calais in 1815. Nelson is dead and the ageing, drink-dependant Emma (now played by Caroline) is living in decidedly straitened circumstances with Nelson's daughter Horatia, dwelling on memories of her illustrious past. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As in her last play - last year's unfairly critically-mauled (but audience-pleasing) <i>Kerry Jackson</i> - De Angelis deceptively packs quite a lot into a small, unassuming space in Infamous. Exceptionally clear, the historical context is lightly sketched but felt - weaving a sense of Emma's history into the sometimes sparky, sometimes painful exchanges between her and her mother, and then between her and Horatia. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Oakley's no-frills production places the emphasis firmly on the dialogue and the actors, who capture all the contours of the characters' dynamics in both time periods. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">From <i>Jumpy</i> to the hilariously excruciating memorial service mashup in <i>Kerry</i>, De Angelis loves to integrate a moment of full-on female performance into her plays, and here Caroline Quentin gets to deliver Emma's "Attitudes", the set of historical and mythological poses she persists in viewing as an artistic triumph. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Equally good in their other role, the Quentins give marvellously complementary performances as Emma, the pertness, casual cruelty and self-regard of Rose's turn in the first half given its distorted mirror image in Caroline's very physical portrayal of the character's decline in the second. Neither demonising nor romanticising its heroine, yet subtly casting her in a fresh light, De Angelis' funny, touching play finally places the emphasis on female fortitude. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p><i>Infamous</i> is at the Jermyn Street Theatre until 7 October. </p><p><br /></p><p>Production photos by Steve Gregson. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-16383251191189721602023-09-26T03:31:00.018-07:002023-10-14T13:15:00.673-07:00A Change of Energy? on 48th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia (18-23 September 2023)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1EpqnE4XSBPPqslhPZPobg2OSnNgBBvemFC9DRiL63Ea1AItswi-1ootGgC79eUj3lVa_tjinQMiroUlVGgqolwFQCWAdqbTX3e5VFDIkMqkqrR6KTmVATTH0npElc09yc9zksKdpAIVB0x1gDYOBVlua5XPVlQs8_pO2HCstBcaLMXho1yOa8dhmRnY/s940/Projekt-bez-nazwy.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="940" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1EpqnE4XSBPPqslhPZPobg2OSnNgBBvemFC9DRiL63Ea1AItswi-1ootGgC79eUj3lVa_tjinQMiroUlVGgqolwFQCWAdqbTX3e5VFDIkMqkqrR6KTmVATTH0npElc09yc9zksKdpAIVB0x1gDYOBVlua5XPVlQs8_pO2HCstBcaLMXho1yOa8dhmRnY/s320/Projekt-bez-nazwy.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2023 at Polish Film Festival in Gdynia (FPFF) sees the arrival of a new Artistic Director, following the departure of Tomasz Kolankiewicz after three turbulent but generally stellar years. (I think back with special fondness on <a href="https://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2021/09/powrot-do-gdyni-on-46th-polish-film.html">the festival's "post-pandemic" edition of 2021</a>.) A veteran of New Horizons (2002-2016) and Transatlantyk (2016-2020) festivals, Joanna Łapińska now makes history as the first female to hold the role. While acknowledging the "symbolic significance" of her appointment, Łapińska also noted the strong presence of many "wonderful, experienced women" in the festival team for years, influencing and "creating the character of this event."</div><div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihsrSAQC0PTMW4mT_w2Pu8WmUFmEjhqabUrrWWSrtXzxlaMikUzRFHMZN9-aGZBj_Grah5yed4-PDbWqJWHuqBPuNSWe6_MyodI1LasPWTvSCvyywgM41xxmSxM6OpwKtQi38OlceS8zV2EFfRXTYc52i_kVTlBaAx4N2IhxcyJJUaJeca-cECDqGy9to" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="300" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihsrSAQC0PTMW4mT_w2Pu8WmUFmEjhqabUrrWWSrtXzxlaMikUzRFHMZN9-aGZBj_Grah5yed4-PDbWqJWHuqBPuNSWe6_MyodI1LasPWTvSCvyywgM41xxmSxM6OpwKtQi38OlceS8zV2EFfRXTYc52i_kVTlBaAx4N2IhxcyJJUaJeca-cECDqGy9to" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; text-align: left;">Leszek Kopeć</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; text-align: left;"> </span></span>and Joanna Łapińska<br />(Fot. Sylvia Olszewska)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to this generous assessment, Łapińska is realistic in her appraisal of the particular challenges that FPFF poses for an Artistic Director, ones that Kolankiewicz has been vocal about in a recent interview. "Many elements of the Festival are dictated by rules and regulations," Łapińska admitted. "When it comes to the whole programme, I prepare it, propose it, but in the end I need the Organising Committee’s acceptance... This is an environment in which we must demonstrate great diplomacy, but also the ability to compromise."</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsImKDyBhfXVfTDQK3NxZ_A5RV4P-dD1Lt9DANOZWDAEWLW97JCcnUZlsO1gF65N0qv0Jspbhm73d2ZDcpvjyGkmbIRytbSjLUPWvMK1iR39ecIJpniXXr0tQhrxpdoggWSuECCcIKq1KBICZs56YrNrxD5_PfoNRWMWQPW-MTeRoZkZ-gDbPHAG_uqI/s285/8088450.6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="200" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsImKDyBhfXVfTDQK3NxZ_A5RV4P-dD1Lt9DANOZWDAEWLW97JCcnUZlsO1gF65N0qv0Jspbhm73d2ZDcpvjyGkmbIRytbSjLUPWvMK1iR39ecIJpniXXr0tQhrxpdoggWSuECCcIKq1KBICZs56YrNrxD5_PfoNRWMWQPW-MTeRoZkZ-gDbPHAG_uqI/s1600/8088450.6.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The notable absence in the Main Competition of at least two of the year's major Polish releases - Agnieszka Holland's government-derided, Venice-premiered migrant drama <i>The Green Border</i> (<i>Zielona Granica</i>), which opened in Polish cinemas on the very weekend that the Festival closed, and Małgorzata Szumowska's <i>Woman Of...</i>, which also debuted at Venice - clearly speaks to those challenges and compromises. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Łapińska, though appointed late, has nonetheless succeeded in creating a very solid programme for her first FPFF, one that retained the same structure as the last years' editions - a Main Competition, a Microbudget Competition, a Short Film Competition, and other established strands - while incorporating a few fresh touches, such as "The Big Five," a section inviting iconic figures of Polish cinema to screen a favourite Polish film and discuss it with the Festival audience. The 15 new films I saw during my stay - 13 from the Main Competition and 2 from the Microbudget one - naturally varied in quality but included enough diversity, highlights and surprises to make for a memorable, satisfying 48th edition of Poland's Cannes. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdq1ina3io2NuxwJgn6aEaygNlVET-1eGFuPAPwxMEsLsnEY_FJybHgTN89vadL6N56T5uUtsJzQNis60V0K1vAD5HhqkO1WCeYhDCWQwUcd2i5PVl0G2_Nme00FbVB5FOWM8_OTQi2BzJqjk_HO-AIZKYHqTWWGd4IMDs9ZmpgvDVDKmCPA79gTz0vpk" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdq1ina3io2NuxwJgn6aEaygNlVET-1eGFuPAPwxMEsLsnEY_FJybHgTN89vadL6N56T5uUtsJzQNis60V0K1vAD5HhqkO1WCeYhDCWQwUcd2i5PVl0G2_Nme00FbVB5FOWM8_OTQi2BzJqjk_HO-AIZKYHqTWWGd4IMDs9ZmpgvDVDKmCPA79gTz0vpk" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;">Doppelgänger. Sobowtór </i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Doppelgänger. Sobowtór </i>(<i>Doppelgänger</i>. <i>The Double</i>) was this year's opening film, and proved a belter. Jan Holoubek, director of <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">25 </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">lat niewinności. Sprawa Tomka Komendy</span><i> </i>(<i>25 </i></span><i>Years of Innocence. The Case of Tomek Komenda</i>) (2020) and the <i>Wielka Woda</i> TV series (2022) and screenwriter Andrzej Gołda fashion a tense, absorbing spy drama, inspired by various real life cases, which parallels the experiences of two protagonists, played by Jakub Gierszał and Tomasz Schuchardt, on either side of the Iron Curtain, unknown to each other yet intimately linked. Essentially a story of identity theft and its political/personal consequences in a Cold War context, <i>Doppelgänger</i> is technically accomplished, with terrific production design by Marek Warszewski evoking place and period in a tactile way, and superb cinematography by Bartłomiej Kaczmarek that subtly ramps up the tension with some delicious slow zooms. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though Schuchardt's role feels underdeveloped compared to Gierszał's, the transitions between the two locations are elegantly managed, and the protagonists' eventual encounter both understated and oddly touching. A rather rushed conclusion brings a slight sense of a let-down, but the stylish <i>Doppelgänger</i> still takes its place alongside superior latter-day spy dramas like Billy Ray's <i>Breach </i>(2007) and Christian Carion's <i>Farewell </i>(2009), a well-judged James Bond allusion highlighting its difference in terms of intimacy and moral unease.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEha_0kYWdnGZ5B3yn5bc9RV2giNXnS6WFohzANnzzg1URTREfKiskuFvz3beUpn2tFrEyYT1TOPG4cnrAsf0s8gFHS3VHUyBfEqOWXURrBIKnEIiVk8Ae0GuLFtIiC2xeavXqnTTKOv7KsUg8wbI9EAYKk46HFbZiwQOFBizAgZOsRbopHPvkVWjOQHw_k" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="1024" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEha_0kYWdnGZ5B3yn5bc9RV2giNXnS6WFohzANnzzg1URTREfKiskuFvz3beUpn2tFrEyYT1TOPG4cnrAsf0s8gFHS3VHUyBfEqOWXURrBIKnEIiVk8Ae0GuLFtIiC2xeavXqnTTKOv7KsUg8wbI9EAYKk46HFbZiwQOFBizAgZOsRbopHPvkVWjOQHw_k" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ultima Thule</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an entirely different mode, Gierszał also gave a fine performance in <i>Ultima Thule</i> - a deserved winner of the Microbudget Competition. Klaudiusz Chrostowski's lovely, quietly restorative, low-key drama is about a young man seeking escape and solitude on Shetland and gradually making a new kind of life there. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indeed, films focusing on adrift, highly strung or under-pressure males - or what one might more generously call themes of "masculinity in crisis" - made up a substantial part of the Festival programme this year. A fresh addition to Polish cinema in 2012 when Leszek David burst onto the scene with <span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesteś Bogiem</span></i></span>, about hip hop group Paktofonika, the Polish rap film has since become cliche-ridden and irresistibly susceptible to parody, inevitably featuring appearances by real-life artists and plots that find baseball cap-sporting protagonists swaggering around the streets, getting involved in crime or drugs, and endlessly greeting each other as "mordo" or "stary."</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2pnS_7tCGZYWs0l4ar_dGxr36j7I658--ktQQxtfHmxsYayN5xUMU4fHlzv0B7i_DawkYCDcUOtqjAm_yXgeyM_WqzB-huZ9FYZoFlvVqbphzwdYBRkjepSMdVuckOGMKW6zXU4Zx_Y-34hPucq1lX28XqOX-aE65Dzg2DKDY7awNVIUgGPs_FQtESbc" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2pnS_7tCGZYWs0l4ar_dGxr36j7I658--ktQQxtfHmxsYayN5xUMU4fHlzv0B7i_DawkYCDcUOtqjAm_yXgeyM_WqzB-huZ9FYZoFlvVqbphzwdYBRkjepSMdVuckOGMKW6zXU4Zx_Y-34hPucq1lX28XqOX-aE65Dzg2DKDY7awNVIUgGPs_FQtESbc" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;">Życie w błocie się złoci</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">While last year's <i>Zadra </i>brought some new energy to the genre by focusing on a female rapper, this year's Festival offered up two such examples. <i>Życie w błocie się złoci </i>(<i>Life in the Mud is Golden</i>), directed by Piotr Kujawiński, centred on the travails of an aspiring hip hop star contending with an alcoholic father, the care of his young sister, and a drugs-related arrest. Narratively shaky, the film is notable for a couple of vibrant music sequences and the last screen appearance by veteran Jan Nowicki. </div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIcYS5CaaaO2_a56kDOQPlUx0AH41er019CHpKKayD0aeYgsZkKXInBKth5mCTIH7g3v1X1AtVkVJ1ho042wec3cp-kvKStwimIBygjuHN5BMdyKs8jqyJE5rMOnPWTwKJE8-0FWte18srYC7CpxELgIABq-iOKeYspD8OnppYzC1EZoAPniIBKTB_tOI" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIcYS5CaaaO2_a56kDOQPlUx0AH41er019CHpKKayD0aeYgsZkKXInBKth5mCTIH7g3v1X1AtVkVJ1ho042wec3cp-kvKStwimIBygjuHN5BMdyKs8jqyJE5rMOnPWTwKJE8-0FWte18srYC7CpxELgIABq-iOKeYspD8OnppYzC1EZoAPniIBKTB_tOI" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Freestyle</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">At once slicker and sillier, Maciek Bochniak's <i>Freestyle </i>(in the Main Competition) ends up somewhere between <i>Uncut Gems</i> (2019) and a Guy Ritchie caper in its focus on a young rapper (<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-wrap: nowrap;">Maciej Musiałowski</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #767676; text-wrap: nowrap;">, </span></span>forever kicking something in frustration) trying to outsmart adversaries that include gangsters, drug dealers, loan sharks, and his lover's boyfriend. I started out taking <i>Freestyle</i> quite seriously but gradually found myself giggling helplessly as ever-more-unlikely plot twists piled up. Already available on Netflix, Bochniak's film is terrible trash but great fun - best experienced with some pals and plenty of booze on hand.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-4UMGhLraqICoClu0XLuXNjFNl8r0Z3xU74y2ihyxxXmugNOfKmpmtiSza7SubLXXoJmwpRvgnkOysgPEMxW_-HNwdFJm2H6qK5qDbFGae_ay-oA6Y8zrPiJKdIpgdQemBGfbK4D4HiDbgcIaasW5sdfgdVpxOqpxIo3MT-gD5Fo6zLyI5K9bAppreH8" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-4UMGhLraqICoClu0XLuXNjFNl8r0Z3xU74y2ihyxxXmugNOfKmpmtiSza7SubLXXoJmwpRvgnkOysgPEMxW_-HNwdFJm2H6qK5qDbFGae_ay-oA6Y8zrPiJKdIpgdQemBGfbK4D4HiDbgcIaasW5sdfgdVpxOqpxIo3MT-gD5Fo6zLyI5K9bAppreH8" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Horror Story</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Anxieties of urban and country experience received contrasting treatments in two fine debut features. A stylised Gothic comedy of Gen Z job-seeking and cohabitation woes, Adrian Apanel's enjoyable <i>Horror Story</i> throws away several promising ideas but still lands some big laughs as it relishes putting its young protagonist (superb <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jakub Zając</span></span>), an initially eager, increasingly beleaguered graduate in "business and finance," through a series of Coenesque humiliations. </div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgortZLjfgalBJ6XfFL_x1k4dU_Y0tYClNsOyxv8bg-gCiLehq4KWGFH4ESRSKtMpd-OFetI3SdRwfsirGMU0UswUc7D2Tajd3IXuuA7DNBE9WRoL01-cM0BoGpjkBhGAVktPss-H5nvxXryTRMFyM2wiDkbXLgavYQIxTAC2EUzhdOwPWtRrLpIgXhGtY" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="290" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgortZLjfgalBJ6XfFL_x1k4dU_Y0tYClNsOyxv8bg-gCiLehq4KWGFH4ESRSKtMpd-OFetI3SdRwfsirGMU0UswUc7D2Tajd3IXuuA7DNBE9WRoL01-cM0BoGpjkBhGAVktPss-H5nvxXryTRMFyM2wiDkbXLgavYQIxTAC2EUzhdOwPWtRrLpIgXhGtY" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; text-align: left;"><i>Tyle co nic</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The most overtly political film that I saw at the Festival, Grzegorz Dębowski's <i>Tyle co Nic </i>(<i>Next to Nothing</i>) uses familiar but still potent means of realist social cinema to highlight the difficulties of a group of farmers, screwed over by a local MP, one of whom ends up dead. Despite some heavy-handed symbolism, Dębowski creates an involving drama, and a worthy addition to the growing canon of flawed but interesting contemporary Polish provincial films, including <span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Wszystkie nasze strachy </i>(<i>Fears</i>) </span></span>and <i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">Po miłość/</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">Pour l'amour</span></span></i> (both 2021). The film particularly shows its intelligence in a well-written late scene between the MP and the hero (Artur Paczesny). Paczesny was the winner of the Festival's lead male acting prize, and the film itself took the Visions Apart "Golden Claw" award. </div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCRHqJhYEYgm4_zz5Wt-AQSakZuVVXDVDBdPxz74m0W9_ow3Ra93o1JedIFkazC2IoV_ThDdylZh1mrktc29F8SiHPVrInf8LPHt7fOK89ko33cOwYlSZ5fKWI9ZwDgeubw87Ct33CjpcS91xF3xDjCuTGJvpaI-XpdX-B8Q_pmzvfDukSpbutJ0J32Rw" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="1024" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCRHqJhYEYgm4_zz5Wt-AQSakZuVVXDVDBdPxz74m0W9_ow3Ra93o1JedIFkazC2IoV_ThDdylZh1mrktc29F8SiHPVrInf8LPHt7fOK89ko33cOwYlSZ5fKWI9ZwDgeubw87Ct33CjpcS91xF3xDjCuTGJvpaI-XpdX-B8Q_pmzvfDukSpbutJ0J32Rw" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Chłopi</i></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Two highly anticipated Main Competition films sought to add something fresh to Polish historical drama, with mixed results. Arriving on a wave of acclaim from TIFF, and about to screen at LFF, <i style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">Chłopi</i> (<i>The Peasants</i>) finds DK and Hugh Welchman applying the same process of hand-drawn animation to live action footage that proved attention-grabbing in their <i>Loving Vincent</i> (2017) to an adaptation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Reymont" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Władysław Reymont"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Władysław Reymont</span></a><span style="font-size: 14px;">'s </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">four-volume</span></span> epic. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Notwithstanding a couple of standout dancing sequences - enhanced by the film's rousing score - it's hard to see what the painstaking animation process contributes this time around. Zoning in on the text's themes of female transgression and victimhood (the final scenes are practically Lars von Trier-worthy), the adaptation undoubtedly has a modish quality - "a stark portrait of old-school misogyny," noted Nick Schager, approvingly, in <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-peasants-the-animated-film-youre-going-to-need-to-see">his rave review</a> - that will probably make it an international hit. (It's already announced as Poland's Oscar candidate.) But if you don't respond to the visuals then <i style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">Chłopi</i> simply feels neither fish nor fowl, suspended in a limbo between live action and animation that finally diminishes the expressive power of both.</div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhzyD2f8-dsp5TMGLTwfYuZd_3qiFI6xHvo4-d9_OVuljurFIwtIE57xceIF4U1yUX7mLcEeVDqG7flRXBSiD6eQK6gav1Ff4iXpuqkPTKCFxBypaJlF5aCwU5xGk9GTQDWwLXyu6aiKKI6LEWpaPkYzXMciEjaMzPBve9cAa9MSLNPsBkpM4nFIdu9is4" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhzyD2f8-dsp5TMGLTwfYuZd_3qiFI6xHvo4-d9_OVuljurFIwtIE57xceIF4U1yUX7mLcEeVDqG7flRXBSiD6eQK6gav1Ff4iXpuqkPTKCFxBypaJlF5aCwU5xGk9GTQDWwLXyu6aiKKI6LEWpaPkYzXMciEjaMzPBve9cAa9MSLNPsBkpM4nFIdu9is4" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Kos</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Having delivered one of the splashiest debut films in recent Polish cinema with 2017's <i>Atak Paniki </i>- a part-<i>Wild Tales</i>, part<i>-11 Minutes </i>multi-stranded dark comedy of contemporary anxieties - <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Paweł Maślona</span></span> returns with <i>Kos</i> (unfortunate English title: <i>Scarborn</i>) which won the Festival's top Golden Lions prize. <i>Kos </i>centres on another return: that of General <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tadeusz Kościuszko</span></span> </span>from the American War of Independence to Poland where, with the freed African American slave Domingo, he's intent on mobilising the Polish peasantry and gentry against their Russian invaders.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Part pageant, part pantomime, influences from Shakespeare to Tarantino are discernible in <i>Kos</i> but I'd expected a weirder, wilder ride from this film. In fact, it feels straitjacketed - a semi-postmodern historical drama that becomes weirdly static in its second half, confined to chat in interior locations, before a final bloodbath.</div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxFG508pcJOIoWOZydjCuIalDjqk92LEM8OgTfzL433bNyE-f79mRtNv9oQCoArg6k1oK9Hvdbzqsmi9pyW6jfiEftsIq_upKk-Es6V89wGfyIB9hcJlxPMjucaylYGPT-KIwpS9W6qYMb0o7exHS2CEaJdu1095qFePV0637Re-Tn3Z33_An3gIWJh6k" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="1275" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxFG508pcJOIoWOZydjCuIalDjqk92LEM8OgTfzL433bNyE-f79mRtNv9oQCoArg6k1oK9Hvdbzqsmi9pyW6jfiEftsIq_upKk-Es6V89wGfyIB9hcJlxPMjucaylYGPT-KIwpS9W6qYMb0o7exHS2CEaJdu1095qFePV0637Re-Tn3Z33_An3gIWJh6k" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Kos</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The film is quite bold in drawing parallels between the experiences of African slaves and Polish peasants - yes, there's a scene of scars comparison - and the presence of Jason Mitchell as Domingo is welcome, though the development of the character rather less so. Too self-consciously, <span style="background-color: white;">Maślona</span> makes Domingo a transplant from contemporary American cinema rather than a freshly imagined character - he's a fish-out-of-water comic sidekick constantly cussing and cracking wise. (Notably, he's the first to burst through the stately historical ambience of the film's opening with an f-bomb.) </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Having remarked on non-white representation in the Festival's programme over the last years - from <i>Kler </i>(2018)'s moment of racist caricaturing through the Senegalese scammer portrayed in <i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">Po miłość/</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">Pour l'amour</span></span></i> to the undeveloped migrant characters in <i>Silent Land</i> (2021) and <i>Bread and Salt </i>(2022) - it would be tempting to see <i>Kos </i>as an advance. It is - but only in part, since, through Domingo's contemporary colloquialisms, the film appears to imply that a Black character can only exist in a period context as an anachronism. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Luckily, the charismatic Mitchell succeeds in bringing a touch of grit to the limited characterisation. In contrast, Jacek Braciak as Kos himself seems muted, an afterthought; one might charitably consider this a deliberate choice made to undercut national myth-making but it still leaves a gaping hole at the centre of the film. <span style="text-align: left;">Ultimately, the greatest pleasures in </span><i style="text-align: left;">Kos</i><span style="text-align: left;"> come from the juicy work of the supporting cast: Robert </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Więckiewicz</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"> as the Russian cavalry captain, forever reminding everyone just how much Poland needs "Mother Russia"; Agnieszka Grochowska's sharp-witted widow; and a barnstorming Piotr Pacek, gleefully building on his repertoire of sadistic siblings after </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Król </i><span style="color: #111111;">(2020)</span></span></span><span style="text-align: left;">. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaigIGm_KI7_Bx7PqX5lu2aMg-e_vH3lfvyuD2QPRE0gfeijgYReHd-G6tE4Sqq8novuHSszIeu3WxtGWl-2gWGA_ZwPW08sXV1Lywm7B6VilHaMwhtlgLl1vEQfH2a9HAISVFJ15521sKxZmNvEYYyh4390tWsdPJbRSyjw8fnWOPyYamA6i4LonJEPI" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="450" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaigIGm_KI7_Bx7PqX5lu2aMg-e_vH3lfvyuD2QPRE0gfeijgYReHd-G6tE4Sqq8novuHSszIeu3WxtGWl-2gWGA_ZwPW08sXV1Lywm7B6VilHaMwhtlgLl1vEQfH2a9HAISVFJ15521sKxZmNvEYYyh4390tWsdPJbRSyjw8fnWOPyYamA6i4LonJEPI" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Święto</i> <i>ognia</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">A film by Kinga Dębska is always a welcome, friendly prospect; I count myself a fan of the writer-director's brand of warm but tart comedy-drama since the Gdynia screening of <span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Moje córki krowy</span></i></span> back in 2015. In <i style="text-align: center;">Święto</i><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><i style="text-align: center;">ognia </i><span style="text-align: center;">(<i>Feast of Fire</i>)</span><i style="text-align: center;"> </i>Dębska adapts Jakub Małecki's novel in a way that fits perfectly with her own sensibilities, focusing on two teenage sisters dealing with body issues: the first pursuing her career as a ballet dancer, the second (the film's narrator) born with cerebral palsy and dedicated to observing the world from her balcony. The film was a worthy winner of two acting prizes, with Paulina Pytlak honoured as best newcomer and the venerable Kinga Preis as supporting actress for her glowing performance as the sisters' neighbour. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjI78hBbIuRdjtkwTnUNroTXMvCo_5RGJIkjom8S44ex1LAIt-ynK78qEyCFaMi1chG-E-S6UR8lUj9h8NIcqMr9enhZbr5PdOxFln6tMk8s_8V1tLtauajJ5UBHq8WfAF5Kk4sqRE_9JlOIQ0lEgwvunAyztOZx_Tt8tswj7jixxkSwCLfsPBfaWIt7hU" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="904" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjI78hBbIuRdjtkwTnUNroTXMvCo_5RGJIkjom8S44ex1LAIt-ynK78qEyCFaMi1chG-E-S6UR8lUj9h8NIcqMr9enhZbr5PdOxFln6tMk8s_8V1tLtauajJ5UBHq8WfAF5Kk4sqRE_9JlOIQ0lEgwvunAyztOZx_Tt8tswj7jixxkSwCLfsPBfaWIt7hU" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">Lęk</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">A tougher proposition as a sibling drama, also much centred around the body, is Sławomir Fabicki's </span><i style="background-color: white;">Lęk </i><span style="background-color: white;"><i>(Anxiety)</i></span><span style="text-align: justify;">, which reunites Magdalena Cielecka and Marta Nieradkiewicz from Tomasz Wasilewski's </span><i style="text-align: justify;">United States of Love </i><span style="text-align: justify;">(2016)</span><span style="text-align: justify;">, again cast as sisters here. This time the pair are on the road, driving Cielecka's terminally ill Małgorzata to a Swiss clinic to end her life. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">Nieradkiewicz's Lucja </span><span style="text-align: justify;">still has serious doubts about her sister's decision, though, viewing it as a definitive example of the control freakery with which Małgorzata has always set about managing her own and others' experiences. </span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As well as the two actresses, Fabicki brings something of Wasilewski's "transgressive" spirit to these proceedings, especially in a humiliating scene of an aborted tryst over a car bonnet, and a distinctly icky moment of sisterly sexual healing. But, working from Monika Sobień-Górska's screenplay, he also modulates the tone more effectively, keeping the proceedings fluid with some mordant humour and unexpected developments. <i style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">Lęk</i> is at its best when least straining, avoiding pathos or polemic in its most well-observed intimate scenes. The actresses both deliver, achieving a Bergman-worthy intensity of feeling at times. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFGaMhTo3E5YuxgbQqGm7m9589YftIUjEi6hOH-NP0RF639Z8CroXKek-t3ICs-tQj15B3KzZ5eYFD0brIs4H9-NsW9OH63nWrAWVk3MEqIeLoovxsmkdVNv2qPQheM7Ki4eKT5suVwcYSbDxtoXvE7cr1zEjoU3NXfaRr8phivE7F23kQVmZVRZ8JgVs" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="1024" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFGaMhTo3E5YuxgbQqGm7m9589YftIUjEi6hOH-NP0RF639Z8CroXKek-t3ICs-tQj15B3KzZ5eYFD0brIs4H9-NsW9OH63nWrAWVk3MEqIeLoovxsmkdVNv2qPQheM7Ki4eKT5suVwcYSbDxtoXvE7cr1zEjoU3NXfaRr8phivE7F23kQVmZVRZ8JgVs" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #767676; text-align: left;">Sny</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #71777d; text-align: left;"> pełne </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #767676; text-align: left;">dymu</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Apart from <span><span style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #202122; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Piotr Dumała's typically </span></span></span>eccentric (if far from fully realised) <i>Fin del Mundo?</i>, the most daring films I saw at this year's Festival both came from female filmmakers. Dorota Kędzierzawska surprised with<i> Sny pełne dymu</i> (<i>Dreams Full of Smoke</i>), an intimate two-hander for Krzysztof Globisz and Żaneta Łabudzka-Grzesiuk. (A fond nod to Kędzierzawska's regular, now late, collaborator <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; text-align: left;">Danuta Szaflarska is also included.)</span></span> By turns lyrical, smutty, soulful and hilarious, the dialogue-rich film prompted more walkouts than any other I saw at the Festival but proved a hypnotic experience for those on its wavelength: a true film poem, given wings by its actors' perfectly calibrated duet. (When Łabudzka-Grzesiuk tells Globisz "N<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202124; text-align: left; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ikt nie mówi „kurwa” piękniej niż Ty" - </span>"No-one says 'fuck' more beautifully than you" - we can only agree.)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHzlU2XAV0jJkhlc8Yhbx--MEjKZPCsuUGvHymxBTDu4Ed1Zn1HQADE2n1imhoDOcwYldso5nipj-B4Ebmzi69xvCn3JAf54X8rAwLDNgijIt8KHRPQT8ZN2jH4Ksz3qXIcCw8ZfgBegye3XaZjOcMCG1sUbVC0f8si8xWy3Fw87wqKEpx5LKKLRzUmbA" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="846" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHzlU2XAV0jJkhlc8Yhbx--MEjKZPCsuUGvHymxBTDu4Ed1Zn1HQADE2n1imhoDOcwYldso5nipj-B4Ebmzi69xvCn3JAf54X8rAwLDNgijIt8KHRPQT8ZN2jH4Ksz3qXIcCw8ZfgBegye3XaZjOcMCG1sUbVC0f8si8xWy3Fw87wqKEpx5LKKLRzUmbA" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Imago</i></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My favourite film of this year's Festival, however, was Olga Chajdas's <i>Imago</i> - winner of the Silver Lions and leading actress prizes. A deeply personal project for its fearless co-writer/star Lena <span style="background-color: white;">Góra</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span>(known for her role as the transgressive daughter in </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #111111; text-align: left;">Król</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, and as the star and writer of <a href="http://filmint.nu/michal-chmielewski-roving-woman-review-alex-ramon/">last year's great <i>Roving Woman</i></a>), <i>Imago </i>finds the actress playing her own mother, Ela (Malwina) <span style="background-color: white;">Góra</span>, a singer in several '80s alternative bands. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj9b5uol9MCmrkcSEcIfBEj_eZwOAx4zb6T0fKv8THBmITeE_3mLvqgsEAt8205RGQa2hgEdP7Rr9dMe38S7cby2sP1MSJUKC6X3ZRgMx0KuKEADBYmxbM_2_RZrNfuEfNKlHMunbvAHaPOez7gy1NIdgPy9cgBTdInygn-rpEEywJXJac7Cp3B80U383o" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj9b5uol9MCmrkcSEcIfBEj_eZwOAx4zb6T0fKv8THBmITeE_3mLvqgsEAt8205RGQa2hgEdP7Rr9dMe38S7cby2sP1MSJUKC6X3ZRgMx0KuKEADBYmxbM_2_RZrNfuEfNKlHMunbvAHaPOez7gy1NIdgPy9cgBTdInygn-rpEEywJXJac7Cp3B80U383o" width="168" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The film's perfect, psychologically-savvy title and poster design suggest Bergman. But <i>Imago </i>is very much its own unruly, lurching, restless and beautiful beast. At once an expressionistic portrait of the emotional ups-and-downs of its heroine and a vibrant evocation of the post-punk Tri-City artistic scene - you've never seen an '80s Poland quite like this on screen before - the film moves to its own innovative, jagged rhythms, with great, edgy editing and cinematography (by <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Pavel Hrdlička and</span></span> Tomasz Naumiak, respectively) and a fantastic soundtrack. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of Ela's tics involves moving her single earring from one ear to the other - resulting in what she describes as "a change of energy." <i>Imago </i>itself boasts multiple "changes of energy"; the film is a rich and immersive ride with a gorgeous ending. Despite such exciting wildcards in its Main Competition, FPFF 2023 itself tended more towards continuity than change, overall. But all positive indications are that Łapińska is the right Artistic Director to balance both elements, as the Festival heads towards its 50th anniversary in two years' time. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTFsf7EJlHsZMB16If0-D6NWzOTBFWkTfiswA2nnD3gYCNKs3plXKIG0FXcAsnkLA3QNNiMAngwq7jRYdsdwU7Qh3u9l9cxZux_UVbMgfCbYqCyrsXU6hDRnMNJeByikOhTC6mEN69wQUkN_5AuyjLuJoW9XEDkgyQgSHGdKxeOPuOWZoNVPPRlg94kTI/s1024/383356481_858781198949872_3211002233184182460_n-1-1024x683.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTFsf7EJlHsZMB16If0-D6NWzOTBFWkTfiswA2nnD3gYCNKs3plXKIG0FXcAsnkLA3QNNiMAngwq7jRYdsdwU7Qh3u9l9cxZux_UVbMgfCbYqCyrsXU6hDRnMNJeByikOhTC6mEN69wQUkN_5AuyjLuJoW9XEDkgyQgSHGdKxeOPuOWZoNVPPRlg94kTI/s320/383356481_858781198949872_3211002233184182460_n-1-1024x683.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The 48th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia took place from 18-23 September. Full programme details <a href="https://festiwalgdynia.pl/">here</a>.</b> </div>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-64034672056485178402023-09-14T09:24:00.002-07:002023-09-14T21:21:15.580-07:0010 Great Films about Novelists piece (BFI online) <p><br /></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjpcCmq144HPBQ-ibTDel88nkrf3uXyHrgJOqOYCcQgKF2yf6mZedkozZIVXkrRRpwIFpGDeKZ7TX90B74uNIgd-YidzF0CbDuXYcf436akRZZn9LfSjMU8YHI45hRY9NKaj5OtME-BW3CVVmyuBW4aXs06xHCZzBle8y3iQxhAeVs9kW3oKZRmVmCVJE/s1310/Screenshot_20230914-180527_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1310" data-original-width="665" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjpcCmq144HPBQ-ibTDel88nkrf3uXyHrgJOqOYCcQgKF2yf6mZedkozZIVXkrRRpwIFpGDeKZ7TX90B74uNIgd-YidzF0CbDuXYcf436akRZZn9LfSjMU8YHI45hRY9NKaj5OtME-BW3CVVmyuBW4aXs06xHCZzBle8y3iQxhAeVs9kW3oKZRmVmCVJE/s320/Screenshot_20230914-180527_1.jpg" width="162" /></a></div><p>I wrote a piece on 10 Great Films about Novelists for BFI. You can read it <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-films-about-novelists?fbclid=IwAR0A9IJZUC8MKX8o-SHJGAeDmjcixaracoAT3Ow22T5q_lxNdUFhHKKPhAw">here</a>.</p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-23038251045123236672023-08-30T09:55:00.012-07:002023-09-07T12:07:18.826-07:00'Generations' Said...: A Report on the 12th Retroperspektywy International Theatre Festival, Łódź, 18-27 August 2023<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhStG-F_eyIEG4wo1urL6U3oHums0-lj_P6Qstu4heDVcHMOPCX3vXYCws5p2j5k0MgpYd6aS4uvwB7Wfv-glqwdf9KTmYHtxw7UDRmw7GPYRQvSelZny6Yc-gDtSYlG5RZIG87ltGRIK1A7-SlTYCP9qezAcjYi8pXWBxLt44jQICRiYeuEJq7IlGbDK8/s3240/RPS_2023_post_IG_3240-x-1080.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="3240" height="107" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhStG-F_eyIEG4wo1urL6U3oHums0-lj_P6Qstu4heDVcHMOPCX3vXYCws5p2j5k0MgpYd6aS4uvwB7Wfv-glqwdf9KTmYHtxw7UDRmw7GPYRQvSelZny6Yc-gDtSYlG5RZIG87ltGRIK1A7-SlTYCP9qezAcjYi8pXWBxLt44jQICRiYeuEJq7IlGbDK8/s320/RPS_2023_post_IG_3240-x-1080.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Among the most joyous screenings at this year's <a href="https://www.nowehoryzonty.pl/menu.do?id=3">New Horizons Film Festival</a> last month was that of Agnieszka Zwiefka's <a href="https://www.nowehoryzonty.pl/vod-film.s?lang=pl&id=12950" style="font-style: italic;">Vika!</a> (2023), a documentary dedicated to the life and work of the Warsaw-based octogenarian Wirginia Szmyt, a former teacher and correctional facility director turned Poland's (and, let's face it, probably the world's) oldest DJ. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Combining stylised music video-inspired sequences with footage of Vika on the decks at Pride marches and parties in Poland and abroad, plus intimate reflections on her complicated family relations, lockdown isolation (and bonus appearances from her hilariously troublesome cat), Zwiefka's film celebrated Vika as a figure whose energy and zest for life not only challenge ageist stereotyping but who also unites diverse demographics - groups that many (not least the mainstream media) prefer to present as irredeemably polarised right now. </span></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk_86P7KAP9n6UTD61KHogZ1OCoM3yppIVznvEzxJqAvmpVO9P2b0F23mZp_L3MHHoaT5GxtzeWPg2UnUtPeVVzMYo8_vUPaUqbM0bLmIWfgAmoP4Lc16ssj-vn83EQ9K9sLqo5Au_SVUj5dEV8jRirjShhXs4NrtoIBK9OnYfipmYj_vtIWVd_oA8mMo" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1200" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk_86P7KAP9n6UTD61KHogZ1OCoM3yppIVznvEzxJqAvmpVO9P2b0F23mZp_L3MHHoaT5GxtzeWPg2UnUtPeVVzMYo8_vUPaUqbM0bLmIWfgAmoP4Lc16ssj-vn83EQ9K9sLqo5Au_SVUj5dEV8jRirjShhXs4NrtoIBK9OnYfipmYj_vtIWVd_oA8mMo" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Vika!</i> (2023)</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">As usual taking place at Fabryka Sztuki and other venues in Łódź across 10 days in August, Teatr CHOREA's Retroperspektywy International Theatre Festival (RPS) this year took as its theme <a href="https://www.retroperspektywy.com/">the subject of "Generations,"</a> exploring conflicts, correspondences, and, in the words of Artistic Director Tomasz Rodowicz, "attempts to find oneself in intergenerational relationships." (Evidently the topic is of particular concern to Polish creatives and curators at present, since this year's <a href="http://www.hommageakieslowski.pl/en/2023/08/hommage-a-kieslowski-2023-honouring-the-generations-art-and-work-of-the-great-director">Hommage a Kieślowski</a> festival, which happened in <span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sokołowsko</span></span> concurrently with RPS, also chose "Generations" as its theme.) Given the festival's focus, the appearance of DJ Vika at the RPS final Friday party was perfect; the DJ brought the youngest and oldest attendees to the dance floor with a fun, eclectic set that spanned styles and decades. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I've attended Retroperspektywy for the past 5 years, always finding it among the most multifaceted, inclusive and carefully curated of festivals. If anything, those qualities seemed enhanced this year - perhaps appropriately, given the festival's theme. This 12th edition was one of the strongest yet, as the programme encompassed plays, puppetry, concerts, dance, an exhibition of work by young artists from Jola Królicka's studio at the MSK Art Centre, a series of intergenerational ecological workshops, and meetings with creatives after each event. (Sadly, one much anticipated performance, <span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Łukasz</span></span> Kos's new take on An-ski's <i>Dybuk</i>, had to be cancelled due to an accident.)</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxsekXILiu25QeVKRbKbfJ5gRwu8nXJszpCHV82G5XDj1USh4VgYzGYOfOf2UK7mN45jLmsWS_BZV1gMF40JoDThG_LdoVifoZj2f9Xd9NA9RtwXDuk49xYdovPpWKgkC099kXoWmF5hXHaiRKBQvnPxkC87zC37olIP__4aOy_jZFNxqeYaEEBTk9M0/s715/img_6_1693296098421.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmxsekXILiu25QeVKRbKbfJ5gRwu8nXJszpCHV82G5XDj1USh4VgYzGYOfOf2UK7mN45jLmsWS_BZV1gMF40JoDThG_LdoVifoZj2f9Xd9NA9RtwXDuk49xYdovPpWKgkC099kXoWmF5hXHaiRKBQvnPxkC87zC37olIP__4aOy_jZFNxqeYaEEBTk9M0/s320/img_6_1693296098421.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;">Księgi niepokoju. <br />Stanisław / Antoni / Fernando</i><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">The opening premiere, <i>Księgi niepokoju. Stanisław / Antoni / Fernando</i> (<i>Books of Disquiet. Stanislaw / Antoni / Fernando</i>), directed by and starring Rodowicz alongside two charismatic young performers, Antoni Wójcik-Urbaniak and Stanisław Ginalski, perfectly established the Festival theme, using a sustained chess metaphor to dramatise intergenerational tensions and moments of complicity. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xTMuzODnis8_XdicNyYLog2CkAdxXWOSqdA5c3ka96sc6kPnb89kxzRleKCIWIxaDLYHiEpenoAR1ONpERmsTIbaVLkTE0w5Dt0syS46TpX6i0XkDVTKfh-qO3B2sYA7eY7UKssx-eqAtEnW8FxXDBu98XtfzOlO8GP6ALUOeTZrY9fEEofZNorOAQo/s715/img_7_1693296150035.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xTMuzODnis8_XdicNyYLog2CkAdxXWOSqdA5c3ka96sc6kPnb89kxzRleKCIWIxaDLYHiEpenoAR1ONpERmsTIbaVLkTE0w5Dt0syS46TpX6i0XkDVTKfh-qO3B2sYA7eY7UKssx-eqAtEnW8FxXDBu98XtfzOlO8GP6ALUOeTZrY9fEEofZNorOAQo/s320/img_7_1693296150035.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;">Księgi niepokoju. <br />Stanisław / Antoni / Fernando</i><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Lower-keyed and more distilled than some CHOREA opening shows, the piece nonetheless proved stimulating, incorporating translated text by Fernando Pessoa, clever set and costume design by Królicka, and - perhaps inevitably - a <i>Seventh Seal</i> homage, as well as benefiting hugely from Rodowicz, Wójcik-Urbaniak and Ginalski's evident rapport. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_aej46bJAgnEJNneQw3hW5533IM87vTcFpBCyYoVeGezB6tHnD9Zv8y2bW1aExnNkhm4WNOkVCGsuNfb8A9aEgcSssi2dGlpwg62WTN3J1MALNQqp7nCO8usFylCXiFcFyOq92OPCMv38QLhkA3uPgVmNOpvD3YdeMFge1NUAYG3gDS19FxEH1a4c0g/s715/img_3_1693295858157.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_aej46bJAgnEJNneQw3hW5533IM87vTcFpBCyYoVeGezB6tHnD9Zv8y2bW1aExnNkhm4WNOkVCGsuNfb8A9aEgcSssi2dGlpwg62WTN3J1MALNQqp7nCO8usFylCXiFcFyOq92OPCMv38QLhkA3uPgVmNOpvD3YdeMFge1NUAYG3gDS19FxEH1a4c0g/s320/img_3_1693295858157.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>I am OK</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Like last year's edition, the Festival again boasted a significant Ukrainian presence, presenting two shows by Kharkiv State Academic Puppet Theatre. These productions were both directed by Oksana Dmitrieva, and each was finely attuned to the very different demands of the material.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>I am OK</i> was raw, direct and immediate in its focus on the diverging fates of four teenage friends (played by Liliia Osieichuk, Serhii Smerechuk, Oleksandra Kolesnichenko, and Yakiv Ozerovin) in Bucha from the first days of the Russian invasion; it wasn't surprising to see some audience members openly weeping by the show's climax.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGj44HfVS94RUgtFURzD6-MB-9zsAp2EtOApQ9udI3P3eR7GF7lZ5Q-_DTY0eTE_XdtBmRB8M1PFfXDs5oYrlSFGAtmYTNzi4mG-EvpfKykLYpVjV9UakpwW37YdFq5WUal5kYfVUIxToUcv34CV3cRuuFdjM4h7ZB9rL70VUYX_mLkfW1OcTFWmOjwlw/s1400/2-v2__ScaleWidthWzE0MDBd.2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="953" data-original-width="1400" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGj44HfVS94RUgtFURzD6-MB-9zsAp2EtOApQ9udI3P3eR7GF7lZ5Q-_DTY0eTE_XdtBmRB8M1PFfXDs5oYrlSFGAtmYTNzi4mG-EvpfKykLYpVjV9UakpwW37YdFq5WUal5kYfVUIxToUcv34CV3cRuuFdjM4h7ZB9rL70VUYX_mLkfW1OcTFWmOjwlw/s320/2-v2__ScaleWidthWzE0MDBd.2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>Vertep</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Vertep</i>, by contrast, tapped into a deep well of ritual and tradition. Named in reference to the Ukrainian portable puppet theatre which presents the nativity story and mystery plays, and which was suppressed by the Soviet state, the performance was full of rich symbolism, soulful singing and creative design. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuCXQE-nzpy2nmTrOClL3C6TkhckRRCy_5Tvp8lScgQ637yt005pO5g1VCb0Wgy4fOIecV6WqHnKnIHip-7k_5UPp2kIb31z3HG5RF1OO9f1eQ63fYOHKGm05Icrj9CEZ0uaXRii2j32z2v3vpA1V14P-hJM4C0OfseGPVz1Ehkp1hjxn_TlE3r12bLlI/s1400/coincidentia__ScaleWidthWzE0MDBd.sciana.z.widokiem.fot.Marcin.Idzkowski-2.na.zdjeciu.Pawel.Chomczyk.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="933" data-original-width="1400" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuCXQE-nzpy2nmTrOClL3C6TkhckRRCy_5Tvp8lScgQ637yt005pO5g1VCb0Wgy4fOIecV6WqHnKnIHip-7k_5UPp2kIb31z3HG5RF1OO9f1eQ63fYOHKGm05Icrj9CEZ0uaXRii2j32z2v3vpA1V14P-hJM4C0OfseGPVz1Ehkp1hjxn_TlE3r12bLlI/s320/coincidentia__ScaleWidthWzE0MDBd.sciana.z.widokiem.fot.Marcin.Idzkowski-2.na.zdjeciu.Pawel.Chomczyk.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>Ściana z widokiem</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Teenage experience in a contemporary context was also explored in Grupa Coincidentia's <i>Ściana z widokiem</i> (<i>Wall with a View</i>), an idiosyncratic, wild but tender portrait of teenage lockdown loneliness. The prize-winner of the Artistic Event for Children and Youth Project, the show was undertaken in collaboration with Children's Art Centre in Poznań under the auspices of the 23rd Biennale of the Art for Children, but doesn't shy away from darker emotions. Still, the show placed emphasis on the saving possibilities of creativity and imagination.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Staged in traverse, with well-incorporated multimedia elements, and director and designer Konrad Dworakowski on stage to add musical accompaniment alongside composer Robert Jurčo, the performance boasted a great central "duet" by the briskly multi-roling Dagmara Sowa and by Paweł Chomczyk as the troubled teen. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3_lYWgaM_sfJx5syyUIHvOAiOPPRF1CCycXTCVa-mEooMSqnVyeAPjfmI-esFzR1LeHKCCxK-qsUYqqcdGHpuw9olyafksoxdlQx-9awDr1E0DTwWZWWFoHOHmGRLzH246zvR3Vqx7KZcxtBd58_MJzEZMQLCwXCqHFoYgcKuY9uuhSNih_R6FgAGjFU/s715/img_8_1693296374854.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3_lYWgaM_sfJx5syyUIHvOAiOPPRF1CCycXTCVa-mEooMSqnVyeAPjfmI-esFzR1LeHKCCxK-qsUYqqcdGHpuw9olyafksoxdlQx-9awDr1E0DTwWZWWFoHOHmGRLzH246zvR3Vqx7KZcxtBd58_MJzEZMQLCwXCqHFoYgcKuY9uuhSNih_R6FgAGjFU/s320/img_8_1693296374854.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>IV RP </i></span><i>Snów</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Several ambitious pieces in the programme used dance to express and meditate on existential anxieties. I wasn't convinced by Stowarzyszenie Sztuka Nowa's <i>IV RP </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Snów</span></i></span> (<i>4th Republic of Dreams</i>), directed by Dawid Żakowski and choreographed by Wojciech Grudziński. Despite the clear commitment of its supple trio of performers (Ewelina Sobieraj, Borys Jaźnicki, Michał Tokarski), the production teetered between arresting and risible, and succumbed to the latter in a key section scored to Diana Krall's uniquely painful rendition of "Cry Me a River." </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqm54aZWJt6dVUb0nbL5ECS1BVIi417nYt9sNNU3FEPCNMHvhDADUatk6bB7wccH8mwaYjJ_e46L-XHW64sbyeeHk7c2vQNtTg9mYFyFMRZd-aT7TtuvGP4QABmS3rL8c89qGht-s3xXolvl0ciPEA3CHN_K_OAg4Av_j7tGaQ5prLwTd38jMbH_Rttd0/s1400/CB_BUD_2022_Haara_187A5179__ScaleWidthWzE0MDBd.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="934" data-original-width="1400" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqm54aZWJt6dVUb0nbL5ECS1BVIi417nYt9sNNU3FEPCNMHvhDADUatk6bB7wccH8mwaYjJ_e46L-XHW64sbyeeHk7c2vQNtTg9mYFyFMRZd-aT7TtuvGP4QABmS3rL8c89qGht-s3xXolvl0ciPEA3CHN_K_OAg4Av_j7tGaQ5prLwTd38jMbH_Rttd0/s320/CB_BUD_2022_Haara_187A5179__ScaleWidthWzE0MDBd.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>BUD<br /></i>(Photo: Øystein Haara)*</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, <i>BUD</i>, presented on the large stage at Teatr Pinokio by the Bergen-based Carte Blanche - Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance as part of the ongoing ACT IN_OUT collaborative project, was explosively effective. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Directed and choreographed by Roza Moshtagi, the gripping piece combined elements of dance and installation art to explore the condition of waiting and suspended time - its performers (Irene Vesterhus Theisen, Ole Martin Meland, Aslak Aune Nygård, Anne Lise Rønne, Trine Lise Moe) variously sitting, laying, convulsing, or racing in the space. Enhanced by a soundscape that veered from otherworldly chants to pounding industrial noise (music is by Lykorgous Porfyris), <i>BUD</i> is a major, original piece of work that deserves wide international attention. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTyk5b_L_r5-jJMovb9FovKqu7qV7_mhzHxxqP03v0s4iLmLQKgitpZXh8modIBY2YrWMwO8urbPQHfU3FVUEkrUXisoW30FqKEoRjmmTLWtLH8Rt9Ujwceml7B6IzXpRlfNUwmprAEUk1swx_4wm1WuNGJ_p8opcr7Hd2vPYfIVKEdjq-GIFpyoo5dvo/s715/img_9_1693296420492.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTyk5b_L_r5-jJMovb9FovKqu7qV7_mhzHxxqP03v0s4iLmLQKgitpZXh8modIBY2YrWMwO8urbPQHfU3FVUEkrUXisoW30FqKEoRjmmTLWtLH8Rt9Ujwceml7B6IzXpRlfNUwmprAEUk1swx_4wm1WuNGJ_p8opcr7Hd2vPYfIVKEdjq-GIFpyoo5dvo/s320/img_9_1693296420492.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>Full Measures</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Also highly distinctive was <i>Full Measures</i> by Finland's Livsmedlet director/ choreographer/puppeteer/performer duo Sandrina Lindgren and Ishmael Falke, which examined the human compulsion to quantify and measure sundry aspects of life experience as a form of control. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Initially I was reminded a bit of the great central section of Martin Crimp's unloved play <i><a href="https://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2012/12/theatre-review-in-republic-of-happiness.html">In the Republic of Happiness</a></i>, as Lindgren and Falke communicated through a volley of exchanged averages, stats and percentages, delivered in an amusingly deadpan fashion that gestured at social critique. But the piece evolves into something quite other in its frenzied, frantic later section. Throughout, a multitude of measuring sticks are employed as versatile and expressive aids and props, finally forming a forest that might, perhaps, be a space for our beleaguered protagonists to begin anew. </p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQPPSz3qHxhiTD95hZ-wqSHRhKsvCiZ-fH2it1OY003wC8AiviMd3KsntLejIoebnqBkLkE1xo0IVSZjxRaiH0TWAEF60xAie535Dz5kxNrFcGyGaVs78QPrv0ce5O9NU8ydazUSaaYuJZuf97tPQ74fW2NmO5SQCh18IP4kCXWjhHSlpvXHuNA2SonE/s1074/img_1_1693295800124.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1074" data-original-width="715" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQPPSz3qHxhiTD95hZ-wqSHRhKsvCiZ-fH2it1OY003wC8AiviMd3KsntLejIoebnqBkLkE1xo0IVSZjxRaiH0TWAEF60xAie535Dz5kxNrFcGyGaVs78QPrv0ce5O9NU8ydazUSaaYuJZuf97tPQ74fW2NmO5SQCh18IP4kCXWjhHSlpvXHuNA2SonE/s320/img_1_1693295800124.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>Morze ∞ możliwości</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><span style="text-align: justify;">Generally exploring darker themes, puppetry has indeed often been a vital component of the festival over the years, testifying to Poland's exceptional creativity in this field. But this year's standout puppet performance, Fundacja Gra/nice's <i>Morze ∞ możliwości</i> (<i>Sea of ∞ Possibilities</i>), proved a bewitchingly gentle affair.</span></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihsTPPxwI0y-OPu7Y5PriDWTOKMjftEiWisL-fehBodnf9MkbAui1aXuFSVPqdI4UtprUGxeYJuz82TLXIpKfp5XSxyljyECkDz_9X5gXQbQ608cPT9cYV9dIzCSz2Q7P-oXP3cu8U5g1LJuCjeyE2-2PHOM7PXlMbzkd0TS7yVLGvvFRblP6-nznORxw/s715/img_2_1693295815269.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihsTPPxwI0y-OPu7Y5PriDWTOKMjftEiWisL-fehBodnf9MkbAui1aXuFSVPqdI4UtprUGxeYJuz82TLXIpKfp5XSxyljyECkDz_9X5gXQbQ608cPT9cYV9dIzCSz2Q7P-oXP3cu8U5g1LJuCjeyE2-2PHOM7PXlMbzkd0TS7yVLGvvFRblP6-nznORxw/s320/img_2_1693295815269.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>Morze ∞ możliwości</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Freely adapted from Kobi Yamada's book <i>Maybe</i>, this was a calming, beautiful family show that offered pure Sunday lunchtime enchantment, following its enterprising, wide-eyed protagonist (designed by Justyna Bernadetta Banasiak) through various tasks and attempts, as they learn the value of trying again, and develop their potential. With a twinkling soundscape, and a simple video camera projecting elements of the set, the design conjures forest, ocean and mountainside up to to a final flight, and the show charmed audience members of all ages from beginning to end. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6qdvCBY-FGWXrO170wYen2J2MxS254uOuN7kZ-SA6dsWvWYp3fQHSvcJ4hLlrGV7V4JPZ49aZGjmf8Ukms3PEYuIJQlUhzX2ION6MmDInSR1YChrGwUTUoGHtyJ885hGJjuk7176Uqvj3Xxr_se4Y9zkPlBteYa97yYCNAn-wETLwez52R6RMhaz5gQY/s1074/img_4_1693295989948.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1074" data-original-width="715" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6qdvCBY-FGWXrO170wYen2J2MxS254uOuN7kZ-SA6dsWvWYp3fQHSvcJ4hLlrGV7V4JPZ49aZGjmf8Ukms3PEYuIJQlUhzX2ION6MmDInSR1YChrGwUTUoGHtyJ885hGJjuk7176Uqvj3Xxr_se4Y9zkPlBteYa97yYCNAn-wETLwez52R6RMhaz5gQY/s320/img_4_1693295989948.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rejs</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Two outstanding ensemble concerts book-ended this year's festival, both comprised of music composed and arranged by the esteemable Piotr Klimek - one of the undisputed heroes of this year's event. (Another hero would be the festival's tireless General Coordinator, Anna Maszewska.) Written, directed and conceived by Dworkowski, the first concert, <i>Rejs </i>(<i>Cruise</i>), brought together a diverse crew of performers as the MUR/BETON & Gadający Pies (CONCRETE/WALL & Talking Dog) collective to take the audience on a journey through the courtyards of Łódź history as a wider metaphor for human experience. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnnK6o9ZJrgJ55NUXQ7O3TjXTYz9xStnH0qRpPybpwOvCuk7Rb1eEJ-IbS4960HoPFiWNBPeTe58NbK45p47J5Kl9QBqSZx2wWMxTHv47_FTSsw8sr3u7kwxOPNvn-_h9Znypn_gRLx4v_fxZcFg7hBCPK8Tj0MTPLuIfok0tEA_OuqL6h5F2Hw_1GVwQ/s1074/img_5_1693296029277.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1074" data-original-width="715" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnnK6o9ZJrgJ55NUXQ7O3TjXTYz9xStnH0qRpPybpwOvCuk7Rb1eEJ-IbS4960HoPFiWNBPeTe58NbK45p47J5Kl9QBqSZx2wWMxTHv47_FTSsw8sr3u7kwxOPNvn-_h9Znypn_gRLx4v_fxZcFg7hBCPK8Tj0MTPLuIfok0tEA_OuqL6h5F2Hw_1GVwQ/s320/img_5_1693296029277.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rejs</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Unpredictable weather forced the concert from its intended outdoor location on to a smaller inside stage that made the set-up seem slightly cramped. But the exhilarating, ramshackle energy of the piece still steamed through, with brilliantly sung contributions from CHOREA regulars Joanna Chmielecka and Michał Jóźwik, among others. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCBgrJX0Vpy1pO8YCTVyC5VEu5QD6zr5VJCjuyFHqdJaZp_CPJaawABfU-tZb9imtgpgMJ-fBSuB5Tfi-x-fx7O7R6IjGz_pvx-_v2YHpvwTsEikqx6KKn6RnZCSLerQq3WbjymrDJf82CeCBNqJWzd0xwnD78GRUquC7WwbWaq7_HZB3hVENLVpokKE/s1074/img_2_1693369089735.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1074" data-original-width="715" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlCBgrJX0Vpy1pO8YCTVyC5VEu5QD6zr5VJCjuyFHqdJaZp_CPJaawABfU-tZb9imtgpgMJ-fBSuB5Tfi-x-fx7O7R6IjGz_pvx-_v2YHpvwTsEikqx6KKn6RnZCSLerQq3WbjymrDJf82CeCBNqJWzd0xwnD78GRUquC7WwbWaq7_HZB3hVENLVpokKE/s320/img_2_1693369089735.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Marja Mortenssen in<br /><i>Livet. Suita dla Ziemi </i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div>Chmielecka and Jóźwik were also among the exceptional company assembled for the premiere performance of <i>Livet. Suita dla Ziemi</i> (<i>Life. Suite for the Earth</i>), which was the Festival's soul-shakingly great culmination at the University of Music Concert Hall on Sunday night. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Also part of the ACT IN_OUT project, and produced by Ola Shaya, this concert united Polish, Norwegian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian artists in an evening of song, with narration and spoken word interludes by the great Norwegian actress <a href="https://dahr.no/juni-dahr-19/">Juni Dahr</a>, appearing throughout like a particularly graceful woodland spirit to delivery the poetry. (Alongside Erik Hillestad and Tomasz Rodowicz, Dahr was also co-director of the piece.)</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_HX1IF1jTRA280DWR_3kxJQL1-rEZHxZ6RTNq3CSt2oZ6goPDTWnnhNSQemdeXssJdYTsM1SUOsbcQ7o6H4F52fqX7y8jxv2WHA-Ql7n17YLWC1nCdjR80snwlLaAT-lYFEc_L2gQNjlxcFyMPZG5Kyh1QSgSSHE3r5wzlC-R7cxVWMtfnLPNT2UkWY/s715/img_2_1693330589901.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_HX1IF1jTRA280DWR_3kxJQL1-rEZHxZ6RTNq3CSt2oZ6goPDTWnnhNSQemdeXssJdYTsM1SUOsbcQ7o6H4F52fqX7y8jxv2WHA-Ql7n17YLWC1nCdjR80snwlLaAT-lYFEc_L2gQNjlxcFyMPZG5Kyh1QSgSSHE3r5wzlC-R7cxVWMtfnLPNT2UkWY/s320/img_2_1693330589901.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;">Livet. Suita dla Ziemi </i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Indeed, themes of human connection to nature were central, in a work dedicated to celebrating the uniqueness of the planet and all that lives on it. The evening opened with the elegantly black-clad, barefoot ensemble of singers sitting in a circle before rising to take their places alongside a band comprised of Tord Gustavsen (piano), Eivind Aarset (guitar), Tore Brunborg (tenor sax), Hubert Zemler (percussion) and Piotr Rodowicz (double bass). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjHu0ePBdhq-mNREa05A5KNMHGggzhO2DDEbJkBYL4ZYjWl7lj5BpYFrXrkdBmpxHvOs5FGPNyUpF4BsrncHYVCXqA-zvUCo3_eQv2rsCwniB6yj0X8vgzcCaG13q1LYectwZaD3LXsiZEik8k1OrEeCulp4nqXjT56loV3jMLU-9RLf8n-nqA9rlqLNCc" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="320" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjHu0ePBdhq-mNREa05A5KNMHGggzhO2DDEbJkBYL4ZYjWl7lj5BpYFrXrkdBmpxHvOs5FGPNyUpF4BsrncHYVCXqA-zvUCo3_eQv2rsCwniB6yj0X8vgzcCaG13q1LYectwZaD3LXsiZEik8k1OrEeCulp4nqXjT56loV3jMLU-9RLf8n-nqA9rlqLNCc" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Juni Dahr in<br /><i>Livet. Suita dla Ziemi </i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inspired by traditional music from all four countries, the show had a beautiful, seamless flow, placing tradition and modernity in dynamic dialogue through a fusion of folk, jazz and rock elements, supported by the amazing harmonies of the 13-strong choir.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0BlW40Ou_Dg2K1YjEWyq8mpQWxDa1H44ODZ5VaS8FTqZPuG-w2Cvvtw6OmygXi202NfTDDJ9c6Jai-3W0t6X63YvJfarjTuiIYF9IuLHaB26SR6BkzpF8nL5Fj6i9jMsH6wWltbze40cO3Ko4vIOMYAIlwWhtigiZg9GIEdelHA4czEuFhBkyznQ8kY4/s825/img_2_1693375341344.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="549" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0BlW40Ou_Dg2K1YjEWyq8mpQWxDa1H44ODZ5VaS8FTqZPuG-w2Cvvtw6OmygXi202NfTDDJ9c6Jai-3W0t6X63YvJfarjTuiIYF9IuLHaB26SR6BkzpF8nL5Fj6i9jMsH6wWltbze40cO3Ko4vIOMYAIlwWhtigiZg9GIEdelHA4czEuFhBkyznQ8kY4/s320/img_2_1693375341344.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Piotr Klimek in<br /><i>Livet. Suita dla Ziemi </i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The all-female soloists brought different yet complementary energies to the evening - from the extraordinary, ebullient Saami joiks of Marja Mortenssen, embodying aspects of the natural world, to the heart-piercing tone of Elina Toneva, specialist in Bulgarian folk-singing, and the theatrical, impassioned style of Zoriana Dybovska, reaching back with intensity and pride into Ukrainian roots. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5EnCgmKvGzaP3EnNUz1lWUvK6UL-tZLKF2fYKTP3fR6JdF8ZDTQ3mmXddYspd1jcdDtObWLJBvlUinq837Iqeb5ESpizyRxoDmv1iOJqdnPxfj9dBUSCf_lucdH7bpC7tmwEpX-Z_Y9hFVb-1pBT0CXfuie6mjwbr8wcVZjmsX46Oihd2KzbCkKWoEDw/s715/img_3_1693375372554.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5EnCgmKvGzaP3EnNUz1lWUvK6UL-tZLKF2fYKTP3fR6JdF8ZDTQ3mmXddYspd1jcdDtObWLJBvlUinq837Iqeb5ESpizyRxoDmv1iOJqdnPxfj9dBUSCf_lucdH7bpC7tmwEpX-Z_Y9hFVb-1pBT0CXfuie6mjwbr8wcVZjmsX46Oihd2KzbCkKWoEDw/s320/img_3_1693375372554.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Zoriana Dybovska in<br /><i>Livet. Suita dla Ziemi </i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">With voices soaring in lament or exaltation, complemented by some atmospheric lighting design, the effect was overwhelmingly powerful; the performers also radiated a mutual warmth, respect and love that was heart-warming to witness. As Dahr remarked in an interview: "We are in a very difficult moment in Europe. This is the right moment to join forces, create music, poetry, art together and thus give each other a little faith in the future."</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46-CbzTZFM1IjouhqYi18pGrz9vv38OIpXv4LqThfb7_4EfTnI1YcSJ_poySXaTn7jSdIDcNzFc1O-OXz46FEN8ttvj-3o2c5Iy_oMBVFQeYZ9pMzXUsA1nphL0kbjfxOidfz3eY1BaM7dtzfnwJaPAkpRPR62t3O6kA9cgy8wKoNC2l3R5PmNQTu8fY/s715/img_1_1693369071659.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46-CbzTZFM1IjouhqYi18pGrz9vv38OIpXv4LqThfb7_4EfTnI1YcSJ_poySXaTn7jSdIDcNzFc1O-OXz46FEN8ttvj-3o2c5Iy_oMBVFQeYZ9pMzXUsA1nphL0kbjfxOidfz3eY1BaM7dtzfnwJaPAkpRPR62t3O6kA9cgy8wKoNC2l3R5PmNQTu8fY/s320/img_1_1693369071659.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Elina Toneva in<br /><i>Livet. Suita dla Ziemi </i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div>A profound and transformative spiritual experience, <i>Livet</i> bestowed precisely that kind of faith. The concert represents art-making at the highest level, and deserves the widest possible international exposure. (October will see a second performance of the piece in Oslo, and an audio recording will be available soon.) It was an exquisite and unforgettable conclusion to a festival that creatively approached the theme of generations in all manner of resonant ways, adding up to an essential edition of Retroperspektywy that can best be described as one for the ages. </div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div></div></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxI_hTxBdzFYszqRkTnNVdnVqUzlIcpnBO-bwyZEoIEcwJcyHaIodcnQtdYGXGgkpzth3Kgdgwz8x4iXN_hG0CuiZd7RT5XSvrh2z3irpWVsLfs86nuVZlfOLOp-E-9yTyFVwscDGuR3V_4XtDfOc8KDJvhPmUbJYH9QfXt45VPju-9AR2VxvIOwW4sw/s715/img_6_1693375428273.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="715" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxI_hTxBdzFYszqRkTnNVdnVqUzlIcpnBO-bwyZEoIEcwJcyHaIodcnQtdYGXGgkpzth3Kgdgwz8x4iXN_hG0CuiZd7RT5XSvrh2z3irpWVsLfs86nuVZlfOLOp-E-9yTyFVwscDGuR3V_4XtDfOc8KDJvhPmUbJYH9QfXt45VPju-9AR2VxvIOwW4sw/s320/img_6_1693375428273.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;">Livet. Suita dla Ziemi </i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div><b>The 12th Retroperspektywy Festival took place between 18 - 27 </b><b>August 2023.</b></div><div><br style="text-align: left;" /></div></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><span><b><i>With the exception of the image of BUD by </i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Øystein Haara, all </i></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: inherit; text-align: start;"><b><i>p</i></b></span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>erformance</i></span><i> photos are by </i><a href="https://agnieszkacytacka.com/" style="font-style: italic;">AGNIESZKA CYTACKA FOTOGRAFIA</a></b></span></p><div><span><b><br /></b></span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p></div>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-7034237903729523662023-08-05T11:09:00.001-07:002023-08-05T11:09:25.730-07:00Blu-ray: Young Soul Rebels (dir. Isaac Julien, BFI)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7VzeXV5uQtFAlR-E9xqAgpypAofKvRbQqQnHh4-uCBcFFX_O_XRAZmTWcENXSmzwl79X2lJrVo0pX3PRIG_hwR5gjkKbm6OdGP_2PDnrmWshdpnFOv33k37sLR42scfdNWI2ITLS_5djS9ohD0Xr_Bcy6EgSUJBQ6-4wNyIFRdTr6hVCL0czhKfsgHYE/s3264/IMG_20230804_102946_447.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7VzeXV5uQtFAlR-E9xqAgpypAofKvRbQqQnHh4-uCBcFFX_O_XRAZmTWcENXSmzwl79X2lJrVo0pX3PRIG_hwR5gjkKbm6OdGP_2PDnrmWshdpnFOv33k37sLR42scfdNWI2ITLS_5djS9ohD0Xr_Bcy6EgSUJBQ6-4wNyIFRdTr6hVCL0czhKfsgHYE/s320/IMG_20230804_102946_447.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The new Blu-ray edition of Isaac Julien's <i>Young Soul Rebels</i> is out on Monday. I wrote an essay on the film for the booklet in the new release. It's available to order <a href="https://shop.bfi.org.uk/pre-order-young-soul-rebels.html">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-41108476970062744372023-07-03T20:37:00.001-07:002023-07-03T20:37:23.640-07:00"Where to Begin with Isaac Julien" at BFI online<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTbwY05PENLONpMzq20z1EdClhODDQUzIZdoukC9ATpyvcdmn9xZTH1UOa__I0EV5ai3NVlh4HmVdmqdZOj_DxBjvZNbM9rlVR1YCy3B0lPXavESbpK3X8fgEPvGFAVN1E1NczuSujJwUS40ysmGr3jpxjQ6qaaezaSUPyTsmxT10i1cb_En3-nZYIoJE/s732/Screenshot_20230704-041148_kindlephoto-11864905.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="597" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTbwY05PENLONpMzq20z1EdClhODDQUzIZdoukC9ATpyvcdmn9xZTH1UOa__I0EV5ai3NVlh4HmVdmqdZOj_DxBjvZNbM9rlVR1YCy3B0lPXavESbpK3X8fgEPvGFAVN1E1NczuSujJwUS40ysmGr3jpxjQ6qaaezaSUPyTsmxT10i1cb_En3-nZYIoJE/s320/Screenshot_20230704-041148_kindlephoto-11864905.png" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I wrote a "Where to Begin..." guide to Isaac Julien's work for BFI. You can read it <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-isaac-julien">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-30642792379261312722023-05-28T06:11:00.000-07:002023-05-28T06:11:14.114-07:00Review: A Crack in the Mountain<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOuoKGolH1yD3rTaFpqIeO0VlnMAO7NvpEWrREVvBG2DZvA_ooPSUhTNH9n2T-4PHKA6WBGBZVqQHoN0amNquloafc_BXwtPLdRrnkpPd_f4eVjc9CMHhsU6xh9SCmYoM7aDxmivz9AqWBwmxGOuTqtQd2es0O62oKhBpjgj7yK3q5p9sQ8fUc2E_-/s273/download%20(5).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="273" data-original-width="184" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOuoKGolH1yD3rTaFpqIeO0VlnMAO7NvpEWrREVvBG2DZvA_ooPSUhTNH9n2T-4PHKA6WBGBZVqQHoN0amNquloafc_BXwtPLdRrnkpPd_f4eVjc9CMHhsU6xh9SCmYoM7aDxmivz9AqWBwmxGOuTqtQd2es0O62oKhBpjgj7yK3q5p9sQ8fUc2E_-/s1600/download%20(5).jpeg" width="184" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">My review of Alastair Evans' documentary <i>A Crack in the Mountain</i> is in this month's issue of <i>Sight and Sound</i>, and up on the website. You can read it <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/crack-mountain-breathtaking-voyage-into-worlds-largest-cave">here</a>. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2801886505610086313.post-38355682352299278002023-05-11T03:17:00.003-07:002023-05-19T22:34:59.996-07:00Theatre Review: The Circle (Orange Tree)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGGrKv30qSh89kz-9RplyeGYxmQGJX_DmfgPXUOAWcVw6bz-Jg0n6CoajlzZdXU7UITxh4HF__6hR1HNDuGM_BHUhLJyQvBONH-NNxo5m5hwdiy-dlmvsijFnBfnakcphyY5ztOJ9vRtNE5TtA1-hCoTKItvSZJk57eD_nVZ8hsv2_wa_ffJICNY5e" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="672" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGGrKv30qSh89kz-9RplyeGYxmQGJX_DmfgPXUOAWcVw6bz-Jg0n6CoajlzZdXU7UITxh4HF__6hR1HNDuGM_BHUhLJyQvBONH-NNxo5m5hwdiy-dlmvsijFnBfnakcphyY5ztOJ9vRtNE5TtA1-hCoTKItvSZJk57eD_nVZ8hsv2_wa_ffJICNY5e" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Part of the pleasure of W. Somerset Maugham's work is the way in which a seemingly conventional surface gradually splits open to reveal subversive elements. Maugham's plays may look like polite drawing room dramas or comedies but the middle-class trappings conceal unorthodox thinking - whether that's an endorsement of euthanasia in <i><a href="https://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2012/09/theatre-review-sacred-flame-rose.html">The Sacred Flame</a></i>, a critique of war in <i>For Services Rendered</i>, a defence of a dissatisfied patriarch's decision to leave his family in <i>The Breadwinner</i>, or a general vision of ever-shifting relationships that can still feel surprising today.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Predating those plays (it was first performed in 1921) the challenge to the sanctity of marriage offered in <i>The Circle </i>looks highly unlikely to inspire the boos that it apparently elicited in its premiere - especially since the play's final act is, in truth, a bit of a mess. Tom Littler's production - his first as Artistic Director of the Orange Tree, taking over following Paul Miller's successful 9 years - doesn't manage to solve those weaknesses but it makes for a sharply funny and entertaining evening nonetheless. Littler delivered a strong, Chekhovian production of <a href="https://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2019/09/theatre-review-for-services-rendered.html"><i>For Services Rendered </i>at the Jermyn Street Theatre</a> in 2019 and clearly has a gift for presenting Maugham in small spaces, helped along here by a crack cast.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Like <a href="http://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/2013/04/theatre-review-breadwinner-orange-tree.html"><i>The Breadwinner</i>, staged at the OT exactly 10 years ago</a>, <i>The Circle</i> focuses on a parent's leaving of their family - but in this case it's the mother who the deserter, and the abandonment has happened some 30 years before the events of the play begin. Lady Kitty Champion-Cheney walked out on her husband Clive and young son Arnold to be with her lover Hughie. Decades on, Arnold's wife Elizabeth has organised a reunion: inviting Kitty and Hughie back to the Dorset family home, much to the chagrin of Arnold, who's now an MP. While she wants to reunite mother and son, Elizabeth's motives aren't entirely altruistic. Motherless herself, she's curious about Kitty whom she's come to admire for her bold stance in turning her back on convention to pursue her own desires. And with friend Teddie evidently interested in her, Elizabeth soon finds herself in a similar quandary that looks like it might result in a little case of history repeating.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The funniest parts of <i>The Circle</i> come in the second act, in which Elizabeth's romantic perception of Kitty is challenged by the reality of her appearance. Jane Asher delivers a glittering comic performance that digs into Kitty's vanity, superficiality and anxiety about her age - not to mention her palpable disillusionment at the way her decision to leave has panned out. There's some hilarious sniping between her and Nicholas Le Prevost grumping, querulous, dentally challenged Hughie, and Clive Francis proves their match in a hilariously wily turn as the deserted spouse who can't help but relish their arguments, and whose own life hasn't lacked in sexual adventures.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The younger cast members -Pete Ashmore as Arnold, Olivia Vinal as Elizabeth, and Chirag Benedict Lobo as Teddie - don't manage to match the older generation: the necessary chemistry between Vinal and Lobo isn't quite there, but Ashmore does bring a memorable ferocity to the proceedings as Arnold realises he might be facing his father's fate. Some elements of the production feel like missed opportunities: Robert Maskell's Butler constantly seems on the cusp of doing something funny without ever quite delivering and Louie Whitemore's design is minimal, apart from some eye-catching costumes for Asher which nicely reflect the character's trajectory as the silly Kitty belatedly reveals some sensitivity. The twists and turns of the climax don't manage to produce a satisfying conclusion but Maugham's tolerant writing distributes sympathy in unexpected places and there are enough comic highspots to make this pleasing revival worthwhile.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Circle</i> is booking until 17 June. </p>Alex Ramonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13563545792136227647noreply@blogger.com0