Anonymous

　　
　　There are great moments in Anonymous, from its arresting opening scene (with Derek Jacobi​ rushing into a Broadway theater and striding directly onstage) to recreations of the first performances ever given of Henry V and Hamlet before a spellbound throng of groundlings. I, too, was captivated during those thrilling scenes, which is why it’s so frustrating that Anonymous nearly drowns itself in a sea of confusion.
Because no one wants to tell a story in chronological order any more, this saga hopscotches back and forth through three separate time periods (not counting the modern-day framing device with Jacobi). I know this because we see David Thewlis as Queen Elizabeth’s advisor William Cecil in three different makeups: as a middle-aged man, then older, then elderly. It’s easy to keep track of the Queen because she’s played in the two later stages of life by the magnificent—
—Vanessa Redgrave​, and as a young woman by Redgrave’s real-life daughter Joely Richardson​.

　　If only the rest of the film and its dramatis personae were that clear!
Rhys Ifans​ plays Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford, who arranges for his plays to be produced on stage, where they are credited to a somewhat screwloose actor named Will Shakespeare​, played with brio by Rafe Spall​. This is not the Earl’s doing, as his choice for “front man” is struggling playwright Ben Jonson​ (Sebastian Armesto), but that’s one of the film’s many twists.
The question of who may have actually written the Great Bard’s works would seem to offer enough fodder to fuel a compelling story, but John Orloff​ places his (apparently well-researched) material within a larger, more labyrinthine historical drama involving complex court intrigues, affairs of the heart, and the fate of illegitimate children so detailed—and ultimately, confounding—that the movie nearly sinks under its own weight. What a shame.
Director Roland Emmerich, who’s best known for such apocalyptic epics as Independence Day and 2012, has done an excellent job of recreating 17th century England and making us feel as if we’re there, whether we’re watching men carefully walk on planks to avoid the muddy streets or witnessing the first utterances of the immortal characters from Romeo and Juliet on an open-air stage. (Vast overhead shots of London, especially those showing the Globe Theater, are so realistic that I find them vexing—like watching a magician perform an “impossible” trick and concentrating on how he did it rather than enjoying the illusion.)
But vivid atmosphere and fine performances can’t salvage this long, ultimately ponderous production. If only the script had been simplified—perhaps I should say clarified—and shortened this could have been a smashing film. Instead, it’s a major disappointment.

Jessie’s a movie star at the age of 83!

　　
　　Jessie Baxter
A STRATHMIGLO pensioner has become a local movie star after selling more than 100 copies of a charity DVD offering villagers a trip down memory lane.
Jessie Baxter (83) produced a documentary film sharing her memories of Strathmiglo High Street in the 1930s.
The DVD proved a huge hit in the village, being snapped up by local people to send to friends and relatives all over the world.
It has raised over £500 for Cancer Research through the proceeds.
Jessie has now filmed a new DVD — the first of a two-part series — detailing her early life growing up on Westmill Farm.
She said: “My first effort at producing a DVD has proved more popular than I could ever have imagined and this has spurred me on to continue my reminiscence and pass on my life stories when growing up on the farm through the difficult years of the Second World War.
“There are so many stories to tell, some amusing, some informative, that I have had to split it into two DVDs, the first of which is available now and the second will be ready by Christmas.
“I’m so pleased that the blethers of a pensioner has so far raised over £500 for such a worthwhile cause as Cancer Research and hope that people enjoy this DVD as much as the first and continue to support a charity which is close to all our hearts.
“Many families like my own have been affected by cancer, which is why I support Cancer Research in any way I can.”
Jessie produced her first DVD with the help of daughter Shona Peebles.
It shows Jessie sitting in her own living room reminiscing about the way the High Street used to be.
She recalls the shops that have long since disappeared and shares tales of some of the families and characters who used to live there.
The DVDs are available for £5 each and can be bought directly from Jessie on 01337 868950.

A Hollywood legend

There aren’t many behind-the-scenes Hollywood figures worthy of a one-person show, but Edith Head wasn’t just anyone. She was synonymous with costume design for the movies, with eight Oscars, 35 nominations, and over a thousand films to her credit. She became a TV personality and author who was recognized by the public, famous for her work with everyone from Clara Bow to Grace Kelly. (She even inspired a character named Edna Mode in the Pixar animated film The Incredibles.) Now actress Susan Classen is bringing her to life onstage in a play called A Conversation with Edith Head, which opens at the Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles this Friday, October 28, and runs through November 13. Glancing at the actress in character it’s hard to believe it isn’t Edith Head herself.
Classen co-authored the play with Paddy Calistro, a former fashion journalist who interviewed Head for the—
—designer’s posthumously published autobiography, Edith Head’s Hollywood. She had thirteen hours of taped interviews to draw on for this play, which has been performed around the world and sold out its engagement at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the launchpad for many successful shows. In real life, Classen is Managing Artistic Director of The Invisible Theater in Tucson, Arizona, while Calistro operates Angel City Press, a savvy Los Angeles publishing house.

Head was a Character with a capital C, unafraid to blow her own horn yet scrupulous in protecting her public image. One of her more famous quotes: “I hate modesty, don’t you?” Because of Calistro’s wealth of interview material, much of the dialogue in this play consists of direct quotes from the designer.
I’m fond of Paddy and her Angel City Press, which is responsible for many wonderful books about Los Angeles and the movie world (the latest being Darrell A. Rooney and Mark Vieira’s beautiful Harlow in Hollywood), which is why I’m happy to promote this play. I wish it a long life here and hope it travels to other cities around the country. After all, Edith Head wasn’t just a Hollywood legend: she was a household name.

Margin Call

Margin Call manages to put a human face on the current economic crisis—but I wish it was as good as its trailer, which is forceful, well-edited, and dramatically scored. The film itself has many good qualities, and an exceedingly strong cast, but it’s a bit dry.
The setting is a major investment bank in Manhattan, where the story is set in motion by a series of peremptory firings. As risk-management specialist Stanley Tucci is escorted out of the office he gives some information to his protégé, Zachary Quinto (and, curiously, the security guard doesn’t stop him), urging him—
—to follow up on it, but warning him to be careful. What Quinto gleans from this data could implode the entire company, a revelation that leads to a series of all-night meetings and showdowns.

Among the key players: thirty-seven year veteran Kevin Spacey, high-living Paul Bettany, self-absorbed Simon Baker, straight-talking Demi Moore, and finally, head honcho Jeremy Irons, who’s willing to do whatever is necessary to save the firm.
You couldn’t ask for a better cast; Spacey and Irons are particular standouts. But when the movie was over I didn’t feel satisfied: there’s something missing, even though the screenplay (by first-time feature director J.C. Chandor) is completely credible. There is a missing ingredient; perhaps it’s an urgent music score, as we hear in the trailer. Maybe it’s just that the film is as insular as the people it portrays.

Elmo and the Electric Car

Sesame Street, which debuted on PBS in 1969, has introduced many memorable Muppets to pop culture: Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Kermit the Frog, Cookie Monster, Bert & Ernie, and my personal favorite, the Count. However, the little red monster Elmo has made a bigger impact over the last 15 years or so than any of the others. With his high-pitched voice and unconditionally loving attitude, Elmo became a media sensation, sparked a "Tickle Me" toy craze and, most importantly, continues to touch the lives of children around the world.
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, which opens this weekend in New York and November 4 in Los Angeles before expanding nationally, is a totally enjoyable documentary as sweet-natured as Elmo himself. It primarily explores the life of Elmo's operator and spokesman, Kevin Clash, but also features the Muppets' late creator Jim Henson as well as commentators Frank Oz and Rosie O'Donnell, plus Whoopi Goldberg as narrator.
Inspired by Henson, Clash began making his own puppets while still a boy growing up in Baltimore. He was teased by his siblings and schoolmates for his eccentric hobby, but Clash had the last laugh when he was hired right out of high school to perform on a local TV series. This led to gigs on Captain Kangaroo and The Great Space Coaster. Clash worked with Muppets designer Kermit Love on Coaster, and Love eventually introduced Clash to Henson.

Clash recounts how thrilled he was when Henson subsequently offered him a job on his and Oz's revolutionary big-screen epic The Dark Crystal, as well as how conflicted he felt when Clash couldn't take the cut in pay he would have if he left his two popular TV shows to work on the film. By 1985, though, Clash's series had both been cancelled and he was all too happy to accept Henson's invitation to work on Labyrinth.
Destiny united Clash with Elmo once another Muppet performer, Richard L. Hunt, couldn't figure out what to do with their workshop's latest creation. Following Oz's advice to "find one special hook" for each character, Clash decided Elmo should personify love. Elmo's voice and propensity to hug and kiss whomever he meets quickly emerged. The rest is history.
Clash and Being Elmo are absolutely inspiring. The film becomes unexpectedly moving when Clash fulfills a terminally-ill child's wish to meet Elmo, and also when Clash speaks about his struggle to be a good father to his daughter given the demands of Elmo's success. Previously unseen footage included from Jim Henson's private memorial service likewise doesn't fail to touch viewers.

I was riveted by Chris Paine's expose Who Killed the Electric Car? while watching it at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Using a murder-investigation approach, Paine revealed that the nearly 5,000 initial models of an environmentally-safe, exceptionally fuel-efficient electric car were recalled by their manufacturers. Most of them were destroyed, while others were left to rust in a remote area outside a Phoenix suburb. A perceived loss of profits, not safety concerns, was the motivation behind the publicly well received cars' demise.
Five years later, sales of more recent models of electric cars are surging and Paine is back with a new documentary: Revenge of the Electric Car, opening today in LA and NYC. Though not as engrossing as the first film, Revenge pulls back the cover on the major car manufacturers' more recent efforts to create and sell electric cars without hurting their financial bottom line. These include Tesla Motors, Nissan and GM, and their CEOs (Elon Musk, Carlos Ghosn and Bob Lutz, respectively) are observed and interviewed in depth about both their past missteps and current strategies.
As Paine states in his latest film's press notes, "Sometimes change, like a train in the old West, gets stopped dead in its tracks... so it's a rare privilege to be able to tell the story of how sometimes change has too much momentum to be stopped." His documentaries have certainly made me a believer in the electric car. Now if they'll just get a little more affordable for us middle-class folks, that will be real progress.
Reverend's Ratings:
Being Elmo: B+
Revenge of the Electric Car: B

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Even if it had nothing else to offer, Martha Marcy May Marlene would be worth seeing to witness the debut of an extraordinary young actress, Elizabeth Olsen. But writer-director Sean Durkin’s feature, which earned him a Best Director prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has a lot going for it aside from this striking performance.
It’s not an easy film to watch: it’s intense, discomforting, and slowly-paced. What’s more, Durkin has chosen to leave some things unsaid, forcing us to—
—ponder the whys and wherefores of his characters at different junctures in their lives. He pulls us in right from the start, as we witness Olsen’s desperate escape from a communal farm somewhere in upstate New York. She doesn’t know where she is, but she telephones her sister (played by Sarah Paulson), the only family she has. Her sibling takes her in, despite the fact that she hasn’t known her whereabouts for the past two years.
From this point on, the film deftly skips back and forth in time, allowing us to share Martha’s life in the past and present—just as she attempts to leave her experience under the influence of the commune leader behind and re-enter “normal” society. The problem is that she’s forgotten what normal is. Fresh-faced Olsen is a natural in front of the camera, and conveys her character’s breakdown, confusion, and wall of denial without ever resorting to histrionics.
Using intimate camerawork, evocative locations, and well-chosen actors, Durkin weaves a compelling emotional tapestry. His screenplay is canny in the way it introduces us to the farm and its father-figure, played by the great John Hawkes. This is no stereotypical cult leader: he is at turns friendly, commanding, and cruel. He knows how to be persuasive when the situation demands, and sharp when he feels he has no recourse. That’s what makes him so real, and ultimately so frightening: he has a silver tongue and can justify anything he does, leading to extreme acts of sex and violence. Hearing his younger converts parrot some of his “teachings” is especially chilling.
Martha Marcy May Marlene doesn’t provide the answers, or resolution, a conventional Hollywood movie would. What’s more, it dares to take its time. But it covers fresh territory and draws us into its characters’ lives with an intimacy (and credibility) that make it a standout among this year’s indie releases.

Norman Corwin

　　Norman Corwin was one of my heroes; I never dreamed that one day I would also be able to call him a friend. When you’ve accomplished as much as he did, still have all your marbles as you turn 100 and live to be 101, it’s difficult to complain…but I’m still saddened by his death yesterday. Norman had a healthy ego and told Cris, his wonderful caregiver, that he hoped he would die on an unimportant day so people would take notice. I think he would be pleased by the news coverage of his passing. I expressed my feelings about Norman in a centenary piece that ran last spring; in case you missed it, I’m reprinting it today as my epitaph for a great man.

I asked Norman to pose with this 78rpm album of his most famous radio broadcast and he graciously obliged; this was nine years ago when he was just 92.
HAPPY 100th, NORMAN CORWIN
Norman Corwin is widely referred to as “the poet laureate of radio.” That won’t have much meaning to people who didn’t grow up in the 1940s or haven’t sought out his brilliant audio dramas. But if you love great writing…if you have a curiosity about the world around you… if you wonder why Americans were so galvanized by World War Two…or if you’d like to learn why performers from Charles Laughton to Groucho Marx were eager to work with one brilliant writer-director above all others, you really ought to check out Corwin’s work.
For an overview, you might start with Mary Beth Kirschner’s loving and informative tribute that aired—
—this past Monday, on NPR’s All Things Considered. The occasion: Corwin’s 100th birthday. When you hear such devotees as Ray Bradbury, Philip Roth, the late Studs Terkel, Charles Kuralt, and Robert Altman speak their piece, you begin to appreciate what a wide net this man cast on an entire generation.

Norman with William Shatner, who loved him and participated in many recent broadcasts and readings of his work. This was taken at Peggy Webber’s production of the Ray Bradbury piece “Leviathan 99,” which coincided with Norman’s 99th birthday in 2009.
While most of America was tuning in to Jack Benny and Fibber McGee and Molly, and mainstream drama often consisted of adaptations of popular Hollywood movies (as on Lux Radio Theater), Corwin conceived a series of original radio plays. You never knew what you were going to hear, from week to week: his work could be whimsical, somber, poetic, pointed, or provocative. He had no commercial sponsors to please; CBS was required to fill air time, and gave him carte blanche, knowing he would always deliver something interesting—and just possibly, something great.
He composed many patriotic programs during the 1940s, none more famous than the hour-long show he was commissioned to write for VE Day in 1945—the moment of victory in Europe after four long years. That night, some sixty million listeners tuned in, on all four radio networks, to hear a unique and thrilling program that not only rejoiced in our victory but asked Americans to stop for a moment and ponder what we had fought for, what we sacrificed, and what we learned that might help rebuild a world of peace. There has never been anything like it since. It is called On a Note of Triumph, and it was issued as a record album and a book. Martin Gabel’s sonorous voice narrates the text, set to music by Bernard Herrmann. Five years ago, Eric Simonson directed a documentary about Corwin and called it, with good reason, A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin. It won the Academy Award as Best documentary Short Subject.
Although radio gave him his greatest platform, he has never stopped writing, teaching, or thinking. He is incapable of uttering an inelegant phrase, and at least one volume of his letters have been collected in book form. (Most recently, Continuum published One World Flight: The Lost Journal of Radio’s Greatest Writer.)

The word “all-star cast” surely applies to this gathering, assembled one week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 to perform Norman’s script about The Bill of Rights called “We Hold These Truths.” Top row: Orson Welles, Rudy Vallee, unknown, composer Bernard Herrmann, Edward G. Robinson, Bob Burns, James Stewart, Corwin, Walter Brennan, Edward Arnold. Front row, seated: Lionel Barrymore, Marjorie Main, Walter Huston. Norman never quite forgave Welles, who narrated the show, because he reached such a fever pitch during dress rehearsal—and was so roundly complimented for his work—that he started the broadcast at that level of intensity and had nowhere to go from there!
Getting to know this astonishing man has been one of the joys of my life, and last Saturday I was honored to host a tribute to Norman, organized by the indomitable Peggy Webber, founder of CART (California Artists Radio Theatre) and one of Norman’s most devoted followers. The Writers Guild of America theater was nearly full for the matinee program, which consisted of two full-length Corwin pieces—one lighthearted, one serious—and a series of tributes spoken by such friends and admirers as Carl Reiner, who remembers performing Corwin scripts under the auspices of the WPA; Hal Kanter, the unfailingly funny comedy writer-director-producer who’s been mistaken for Norman over the past sixty years; Phil Proctor, who as a cofounder of Firesign Theater continued the tradition of creating entertainment for “the theater of the mind,” and his wife Melinda Peterson; and Norman Lloyd, who in his 90s continues to deliver forceful performances in CART productions—including those by Corwin.
For someone who’s best remembered for his “serious” work, Norman wrote some very funny pieces as well, including the one Peggy decided to highlight, Mary and the Fairy, which originally aired in 1941 with Elsa Lanchester in the leading role. An amusing jibe at the lofty promises of advertising to free ordinary people of their everyday problems, it’s just as relevant as ever. Joanne Worley and Marvin Kaplan did a beautiful job as the naïve heroine and her wish-granting fairy. This was followed by an excerpt from the first play of Norman’s to be broadcast by CBS, in 1938, The Plot to Overthrow Christmas, and a slice of Soliloquy to Balance the Budget, a puckish, blatantly bare-bones entry in his “26 by Corwin” series performed by Shelley Berman.

Norman Corwin, as I will remember him.
But the piece de resistance was Our Lady of the Freedoms and Some of Her Friends, a latter-day radio drama commissioned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1997 and not nearly as well known as it ought to be. Norman has always been an independent thinker, but he is patriotic in the fullest sense of that word, and his paeans to all things American are among his finest works. Ed Asner took the role of narrator in this eye-opening (and well-researched) saga of how the Statue of Liberty came to be. The ensemble included Samantha Eggar, Ian Abercrombie, Shelley Long, Phil Proctor, Tom Williams, Richard Herd, Paul Keith, Shelley Berman, Marvin Kaplan, Simon Templeman, and John Harlan. (As always, Tony Palermo provided live sound effects and Kenneth Stange composed and arranged the music cues.) But it was Asner—who started out in New York radio as a young man, back in the 1950s—who grabbed hold of Corwin’s soaring prose and brought it to an emotional crescendo at the end of the performance. The audience cheered its approval along with its praise for the playwright, who beamed in appreciation. (In the course of time, audio recordings of this event will be available through CART. In the meantime, you can check out their other offerings HERE.
Norman Corwin’s greatness as a writer-director for radio never quite translated to other media, although he did work in television and penned some screenplays including The Blue Veil, The Story of Ruth, and most notably, Lust for Life, the Vincent Van Gogh biography (directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Kirk Douglas) which earned him an Academy Award nomination. But he never completed one project for which he seemed uniquely suited, the adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men. In all my discussions with Norman I had never discussed this aborted project, so at a recent lunch I asked why he left the production. His answer was immediate and candid: “I struck out on that,” he said. “I failed so miserably [that] I did not contest for a minute Bob Rossen’s decision to drop my screenplay. I have no defense; sometimes we just screw up and I screwed up.” Robert Rossen fashioned his own screenplay and directed the celebrated film. I told Norman that if it was any consolation, one of the smartest screenwriters of our time, Steven Zaillian, struck out just as miserably with his 2006 adaptation of the novel starring Sean Penn and Jude Law.
Radio Spirits has just released a new boxed set of CDs that includes many Corwin classics, including his Bill of Rights special We Hold These Truths, which aired just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, with a cast headed by Orson Welles, James Stewart, and Lionel Barrymore, and his masterpiece, On a Note of Triumph. Corwin’s use of heightened language and blank verse may not be fashionable today, but it still retains its enormous power. You can learn more about it or make a purchase HERE.
A private birthday party—and a special citation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which he served for many years—wrapped up three days of celebration. Norman’s reaction was simple: if he’d known how pleasurable these events would be, he would have reached 100 even sooner!

My Weekend Visit

Andrew Haigh is enjoying the kind of buzz over his film Weekend that most Hollywood directors would kill to receive. The low-key romance about two guys who hook up and then turn it into something more has captured the imaginations of gay and straight filmgoers alike. No one is more pleased than out British writer/director Haigh. “I’ve been completely surprised. I mean, you make something and you have no idea if anyone is going to see it, apart from my mum. The fact that it’s got a good reception and people are talking about it and the press seems interested is amazing... it’s incredible,” Haigh explained via phone.
Weekend tells the subtle love story of Russell (swarthy Tom Cullen), a fairly closeted man, and Glen (sexy Chris New), and an out-and-proud provocateur. They meet in a bar, spend the night together and then decide to spend the better part of the weekend together before Glen takes off for school in Portland, Oregon. Neither man is who they seem to each other at first, and the beauty of Weekend is the often wordless ways Haigh shows the guys dropping their guards and falling in love. Cullen is marvelous, sweet yet masculine, while the out New has more of a gym-toned appeal.
Haigh, who worked from 2000 to 2008 as an assistant editor on films like Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Mona Lisa Smile for directors like Ridley Scott and Mike Newell, strived to be honest in his portrayal of the two men and to be honest in their depictions, flaws and all. The men do a bit of drugs together, and at first, Glen, who goads the sweet Russell into telling about himself into a recorder, is rather condescending about the seemingly closeted man he assumes Russell is. It takes a while for the men to realize how much they mean to each other, framed by the sadness that Glen is leaving soon.

“To me, that was my most important goal,” Haigh explained. “To make it feel really authentic, and you believed that these two people were into each other and were falling in love with each other, basically. And that they were seen as well-rounded, flawed characters. The characters that interest me are the ones who are flawed and have those sorts of struggles.”
“When I was writing the story, I didn’t want to ever shy away from the fact that they were gay,” he explained, but he feels that straight audiences are embracing the film because of the honest way he depicts the characters. “There’s more to these boys’ lives than just their sexuality. I’m more than just a gay person. There are lots of things in my life that define who I am, and that’s what I tried to get across.”
Haigh decided from the beginning that he would shoot the film in sequence, to capture the men’s relationship realistically, and he had nothing but praise for his two leads. “They were so committed to that way we were going to make the film, and I always tried to keep it like it was a relationship between the three of us.” The three men became close, and it helped the actors develop their characters and develop their chemistry together. “They sort of fell in love with their own characters, which I think is so important.”

Regarding the film’s frank sex scenes, Haigh explained, “I knew that I wanted it to feel real, as if you’re there watching these two guys, almost like you’re spying on them. But I knew that I didn’t want it to be really explicit. We need to feel that these two people are into each other. It’s bizarre, it was actually some of the easiest stuff we shot.”
“I don’t think Russell fits in to the gay world or the straight world, and I think that Glen’s kind of the same. They’re both just trying to find their place. That’s like a lot of us. We’re just trying to work out where we fit in and how we fit in. Russell’s problem isn’t that he’s facing discrimination every day. It’s that he’s fearful of a world that he thinks still doesn’t accept him. That’s what’s interesting to me, that you carry around homophobia with you, even if it’s perceived rather than real. I think that’s quite a pressure on a gay person’s shoulders.”
Haigh’s first film was the documentary-styled film Greek Pete, about the year in the life of a handsome London escort. The subject fascinated Haigh because it was a world he didn’t even knew existed. “What was interesting was that working in that documentary format sort of inspired a lot of things that are in Weekend. It taught me that you’ve got to have faith in the ability just to watch and listen to people.”

Footloose

Does the world really need a remake of Footloose? I would answer no, but I must also admit that the new movie is innocuous and pleasant-enough to watch. Writer-director Craig Brewer, who made the disarming Hustle & Flow, has taken Dean Pitchford’s 1984 screenplay and layered onto it some backstory ingredients that help it make more sense than the original. (There’s now a reason why the small town has banned dancing, and a purposefulness to the new kid’s outlook on life.)
I especially enjoyed watching newcomer Kenny Wormald, who—

—steps into Kevin Bacon’s shoes with charisma to burn; he’s also a talented dancer. The costarring roles are well-cast, and Miles Teller, another up-and-comer (who made a strong impression in last year’s Rabbit Hole) is quite good as Wormald’s geeky friend who’s featured in “Let’s Hear it for the Boy.”
This is a situation where audiences will go into the theater humming the featured songs, and while the movie they see offers no surprises, it does something relatively few fall releases can claim: it delivers exactly what it promises.

Bebe, It’s You!

Bebe Neuwirth won television audiences hearts as the stiff and repressed but always lovable Lilith Sternin on Cheers, but she had been dancing ballet and acting on Broadway for years before that. Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts has enlisted the versatile singer/actress/dancer to open their terrific 2011/2012 Season. I had the pleasure of speaking to Ms. Neuwirth the day after 9/11; we talked about her career, and where she wants to take it in the future.
Neuwirth was honored to be one of a huge group of Broadway stars who gathered on Times Square to sing “New York, New York” as part of “Broadway Remembers 9/11”, which was a recreation of a performance done right after the attacks to help Broadway and New Yorkers gain some comfort and be able to return to normalcy. At the time, Neuwirth remembered, “I had just started rehearsing a play for Lincoln Center and when it happened, I thought, “I can’t go back to the play, I mean, what’s the point? I should be down there on the piles helping the guys and feeding people. Then, I realized through the wisdom of the people at Lincoln Center who were saying, “No this is exactly what you should be doing.” It was really (a) pretty awful (time).”

Stories With Piano is the name of the show that Neuwirth is bringing to Scottsdale with pianist Scott Cady, which she hesitates to call a cabaret performance. “It’s sort of hard to describe, because some of the songs are from Broadway shows, but some of them are from Tom Waits and there’s a Beatles song in there and there’s an Edith Piaf song in there. It’s such a broad range that I don’t really know what category it falls into. They are a group of songs that either tell a story in a narrative way or they are a moment in a person’s life that is so compelling or so emotional or so deep that you know there’s a big story behind it,” she explained.
“It’s an interesting thing to stand on stage as yourself and not be a character like Jenny in Threepenny Opera or (Chicago’s) Velma or Morticia (from The Addams Family), I’m just me. I don’t want to stand onstage and tell you all about myself because I just think that’s far too narcissistic and boring an exercise for me. There are some people I want to go and hear exactly who they are. I want to hear Elaine Stritch’s show, I want to hear those stories, but it’s not for me to do. I do think that there’s a reason that I choose the songs that I choose. There’s something about them that I can relate to, so there is something that you might know about me (after the show)… maybe,” she said, laughing.

Born in the country outside Princeton, New Jersey, Neuwirth developed a love of ballet at an early age. “I’ve been in ballet classes since I was five and been on stage since I was seven (in ballet), so it’s really when I’m dancing that I feel most comfortable and most at home. I enjoy television and film a lot and I enjoy being in a play or singing in these concerts that I do immensely, but there’s something a little bit different when I am dancing onstage. It’s been the one constant in my life. It’s the one thing that I’ve always done, and I mean always!”
Her first Broadway role was quite a coup, playing Sheila in A Chorus Line at age nineteen in 1978. The show was a phenomenon in the pre-Phantom of the Opera days. “The show was only three years old at the time. Picture a Broadway without helicopters landing onstage or chandeliers rising up or people dressed up as cats so much that you don’t even see the person anymore. It was a different time, maybe a more human time on Broadway. It was just thrilling beyond words. I got to work with (creator) Michael Bennett a lot.” Neuwirth started in the tour, then graduated to the Broadway production, where she got to work with more experienced dancers who had done shows with legendary choreographers like Gower Champion and Bob Fosse. “They had amazing stories and if I paid attention to what they were doing and how they worked, I could learn a lot. It was a gift. It was a real blessing in my life.”

Neuwirth went on to work with Fosse, winning Tony Awards for revivals of Sweet Charity and Chicago. With two Emmys for Cheers and a new album called Porcelain coming out in October, can a Grammy be far behind? The title refers not to Neuwirth’s ivory complexion, but rather to porcelain’s strength and fragility. “It has an interesting duality,” she concluded, referring to both the ceramic and her CD.
Her biggest Broadway triumph was the result of a concert version of Kander & Ebb’s 1975 Chicago at Encores! At City Center. No one thought it would go further, but the audience response “blew the roof off of the theater. It was like seeing an old friend that you just love so much when we gave the audiences Chicago again.” Ten years after blowing audiences away as merry murderess Velma Kelly in the sleek Chicago revival that followed and after hip replacement surgery in 2006, Neuwirth returned to Chicago playing the other killer, foxy Roxie Hart. It was a great experience, both because she got to see the show from a different angle, but also because it set aside any worries that she wouldn’t dance again.

“There were two things going on,” she explained. “One was the absolute exalting feeling of being able to dance again after excruciating pain and going through an operation and all the physical therapy and being able to dance on Broadway again. I can’t come up with words to tell you how happy that made me. And the other thing was being able to experience the show from a different perspective made me appreciate it all the more.”
“I’m so grateful and humbled by that,” Neuwirth responded when reminded of her iconic status in the GLBT community, from playing so many strong and empowering women. “That’s inspiring to me.” She is very happy about New York approving marriage equality. “Sometimes, when (same sex) couples come and tell me that they just got married and that they wanted to come see me in a show, I find that extremely moving, because marriage for anyone is a big deal. To be included in the celebration of that means a lot to me.”
One of Neuwirth’s favorite causes is animal rights. “I love animals and they can’t speak for themselves, they can’t do anything for themselves. It’s like children, you have to stand up for people and creatures who can’t speak for themselves. There are people who do so much more greater work than I do, but I help out when I can.” Before coming to Scottsdale, she will be doing a benefit for Equine Advocates and the Henry Street Settlement. “They have an equine sanctuary in upstate New York and they bring kids and women (who’ve been abused) up to the farm to visit with the horses. Horses are mystical creatures and if you’re in the presence of a horse, something happens to you. Some of these city folks are a little scared at first by this big animal and then something just opens up inside of them and there is this healing that takes place. They learn the stories of these horses that had suffered abuse in their past but were rescued and brought to this farm. It’s a really interesting link between the two groups and they’re helping each other right now.” She also praised Bernadette Peters and Mary Tyler Moore for a huge pet adoption event called Broadway Barks. “They’re a couple of heroes, and I help them out when I can.”
When asked what she’d tell aspiring GLBT youth who want to follow in her footsteps. “When kids want to be what they want to be, it might feel unattainable,” she responded. “I got bullied by a girl in school also, not to compare myself to anyone, and everyone has their own story to tell. Bullying is lousy no matter the degree, but there was a girl who made my life hell in the fifth grade, really horrible, and you know, I hate her to this day. I think to myself, if I ever saw her on the street at the age of fifty-two, what would I say to her? Here’s what I think, and I don’t know that I have any qualification to give out any advice on this because I understand that the bullying that you’re talking about is really profound and ultimately sometimes tragic. I would say, be yourself and believe in yourself. You are a gift to the world and acknowledge that because that is the truth. It used to be upsetting to me that I wasn’t like ‘that person’ or ‘that person’ and maybe I should change. It took me a while to realize, “No, exactly who I am is exactly who I should be. That’s the best I can do.”
Bebe Neuwirth: Stories With Piano will be performed at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts this Saturday, October 15. Click here for more information and tickets.

Myths & Nightmares

During my time in a Roman Catholic seminary twenty years ago, the late philosopher-professor Joseph Campbell was revered for having situated Christianity within what he termed the "monomyth," a millennia-spanning heroic adventure found in every human culture. Today, Campbell -- who was raised Catholic -- would likely be condemned as an apostate given the Church's current, conservative climate.
For the uninitiated, the new documentary Finding Joe (opening today in Los Angeles and soon to rollout nationally) serves as a crash course in Campbell's life work involving myths, slaying and/or befriending figurative dragons, and the ultimate encouragement, drawn from Hindu tradition, to "follow one's bliss." Utilizing interviews with such diverse personalities as Deepak Chopra, Mick Fleetwood and Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) as well as a number of clips from movie classics including the Star Wars saga, The Lord of the Rings and The Wizard of Oz, Finding Joe provides considerable insight into Campbell's writings if not necessarily the man. (To learn more about Campbell himself, check out Bill Moyers' late 1980's PBS series, The Power of Myth.)

The film -- written, produced and directed by Patrick Takaya Solomon -- is nicely shot and edited but generally employs a standard "talking heads" approach and lectures more than it engages. It is strongest whenever it quotes Campbell directly, with such reflections as "Many of us are metaphorically-impaired" (referring to the equation of mythology with metaphor) and "I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive" among the stand outs. There are also some charming vignettes sprinkled throughout in which children dramatize chapters from Campbell's seminal work, A Hero with a Thousand Faces.
There is also wisdom to be found in Campbell's conclusion that true power results when each of us learns to "love and accept yourself as you are." Finding Joe may not be the most accomplished piece of cinema, especially when compared to some of the Campbell-inspired films it spotlights, but its subject remains undeniably inspiring.

What might ultimately emerge as one of the best movies of 2011 also opens today in LA and New York City: Jeff Nichols' excellent suspense-drama Take Shelter. Frightening, moving and thought-provoking by turns, it stars Michael Shannon (an Academy Award nominee for 2008's Revolution Road and soon to be seen as the villainous General Zod in the Superman epic, Man of Steel) as Curtis LaForche, an unassuming Ohio sand miner with a loving wife (Jessica Chastain, current belle of the cineplex ball in the wake her eye-opening turns in The Tree of Life, The Help and The Debt) and deaf daughter.
Curtis is well respected at work and in their community. However, just when the LaForches are prepping their daughter for a cochlear implant that will, if successful, enable her to hear, Curtis begins to have apocalyptic visions and nightmares involving a devastating storm, flocks of angry crows and a pack of seemingly-escaped mental patients out to get his little girl. He subsequently becomes obsessed with expanding and fortifying the family's storm cellar, much to his friends' and neighbors' consternation. Are Curtis's dreams prophetic, or is he succumbing to the same paranoid schizophrenia that struck his mother (a cameo by the always welcome Kathy Baker, of Picket Fences and Edward Scissorhands fame) when she was the same age as Curtis is now?
I think master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock would have approved of Take Shelter, especially with its visual allusions to The Birds and its beautifully ironic finale (which will likely polarize audiences). Shannon deftly balances the stoic and the terrified, and Chastain gives another, now seemingly expected great performance. Also fine are the movie's eerie storm effects and other effective scares dished up by Nichols along with visual effects supervisor Chris Wells (Avatar, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and editor Parke Gregg.
In the end, Take Shelter powerfully illustrates that the only real safety to be found when disaster looms -- whether real or imagined -- is with the one(s) we love.
Reverend's Ratings:
Finding Joe: B
Take Shelter: A-

The Ides Of March

The world of politics provides all the drama—and satiric fodder—any filmmaker could ask for. And even though the public has shown indifference to such movies in recent years, Hollywood keeps making them. The Ides of March has star-power on its side, with George Clooney and Ryan Gosling in the leads, but even if people are attracted to theaters by their presence they’re not likely to leave feeling satisfied. The Ides of March has nothing new to offer in its portrait of the campaign trail, and doesn’t seem quite sure what—
—story it really wants to tell.
Clooney plays a popular governor who’s facing an opponent in the Democratic primary, the final stepping-stone on the way to a presidential run. Philip Seymour Hoffman is his campaign manager, but Ryan Gosling is his number two, a media specialist and political junkie who actually believes in his candidate. The story deals mainly with his education and disillusionment at the hands of smarter, more ruthless professionals—and one character who’s a relative innocent.
I can’t write off a film that offers juicy roles to Clooney, Gosling, and Hoffman, as well as Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, and Evan Rachel Wood. But there are few surprises (let alone shocks) in this back-room tale, although the filmmakers seem to think they’re dealing with dramatic dynamite.
I heard good things about Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North but never got to see it, so I can’t compare this adaptation, which I’m told expands on the play considerably. Willimon is credited with the screenplay along with Clooney (who directed the picture) and his longtime producing partner Grant Heslov.
It’s a shame to see so much talent expended on a film that, while slickly made, is so routine and unmemorable. There have been great political movies over the years, like State of the Union, The Best Man, Primary Colors and Bulworth. The Ides of March simply isn’t in their class.

Real Steel

From the billboards you might think this is another Transformers movie—heaven help us—when in fact, Real Steel is a cross between Rocky and The Champ. It’s formulaic and unashamedly manipulative, but it’s played with sincerity…and it works.
This project has been in development for years, under Steven Spielberg’s watchful eye, and bears only superficial resemblance to the Richard Matheson story that inspired it. (You may remember its first adaptation, as a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone called “Steel,” with—
—Lee Marvin.) The screenplay is credited to John Gatins, with story credit to Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven.
The time is the near-future. Hugh Jackman plays an irresponsible, washed-up prizefighter who ekes out a living as manager for boxing robots. When his ex-wife dies, he’s forced to spend a summer looking after his 11-year-old son—a boy he’s never really known (played by newcomer Dakota Goyo) who just happens to be a savvy superfan of robot boxers. It’s the kid who has faith in a “junk pile” Jackman is ready to write off. With some t.l.c. and Jackman’s boxing experience, the discarded machine takes them to the Big Time, and helps cement the damaged relationship between father and son.

Under Shawn Levy’s direction, the story never misses a beat, with fully-committed performances by Jackman, Evangeline Lilly (as the woman who’s always believed in him), and fresh-faced young Goyo, who bears a strong resemblance to Ricky Schroder and has the same ability to win you over at emotional moments, even if you’re trying to resist.
Technically, the film is one of those modern marvels in which it’s impossible to tell where reality ends and CGI takes over. (In fact, the key robot characters were actually constructed as animatronic “puppets” standing eight feet tall. It’s only when they walk or box that they’re not real.) But this movie lives or dies with the human element, and if you’re a sucker for a story involving an underdog—and a father’s redemption in the eyes of his son—you’ll willingly surrender to Real Steel. If you’re looking for something gritty or only interested in high-tech combat between machines, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Treasures Of The West

Preserving rare old films is crucial, but the National Film Preservation Foundation believes it’s just as important to bring them to the widest possible audience. That’s why its Treasures from American Film Archives series is so valuable. Treasures 5: The West gathers an exceptionally wide range of films from 1898 to 1938, including early documentaries, promotional shorts, home movies, newsreels, cowboy yarns, and Hollywood feature films. Together they give us a compelling look at how the real West was depicted in the early 20th century, and how the mythicized West captured the public’s imagination.
The meticulous care that has gone into this release sets a standard for everyone in the archival community. Each film is thoroughly documented, onscreen and in an informative booklet written by Scott Simmon. You can even learn at precisely what speed the—

A scene from Life on the Circle Ranch in California—as staged for the camera.
—silent films were transferred, from original materials held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, George Eastman House, Library of Congress, Museum of Modern Art, National Archives, UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the New Zealand Film Archive. Every selection features a commentary track by an expert, including world-class film scholars and Western historians who provide often eye-opening counterpoint to the images we see.
For instance, I found Life on the Circle Ranch in California (1912) an absorbing look at ranch life in the early 20th century, until I listened to Donald W. Reeves, from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, who revealed that much of the film was plainly staged, demonstrating behavior that no real cowboy or rancher would tolerate. So much for “seeing is believing.” (There is still much of value here, including a living lexicon of cowboy terminology in the title cards.)

The misleading title sequence from We Can Take It.
In a similar vein, I’ve always been fascinated by the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, which is promoted in a 1935 silent short, We Can Take It. The film opens with a shot of enthusiastic CCC boys gathered in front of the camera—including some black faces in the crowd. I remarked to my wife that I never realized the CCC was integrated. Then I listened to Neil M. Maher, author of a book about the CCC, who debunked that shot and several others like it by explaining that the camps were definitely segregated. These scenes were filmed for propaganda purposes. Again, the information Maher provides doesn’t negate the significance of the short; it places it into historical context and separates truth from what we might call public relations.
The forty disparate films on this three-disc set offer an infinite number of discoveries—from social, historical, ethnographic, and cinematic points of view. Here is a rarely-seen 1914 feature film based on Bret Harte’s Salomy Jane featuring a Latina leading lady, Beatriz Michelena…an early color short extolling the glories of California fruit (and fruit pickers) called Sunshine Gatherers…a docudrama about hobo life, Deschutes Driftwood…Romance of Water, chronicling the story of bringing H20 to Los Angeles…a demonstration of How the Cowboy Makes His Lariat…the first dramatic film shot in Yosemite, The Sergeant, from 1910…and early examples of Western dramas starring Bronco Billy Anderson, Tom Mix, and real-life outlaw Al Jennings.

Clara Bow in the great outdoors in Mantrap.
There are two slick Hollywood features among these more primitive efforts, transferred from beautiful 35mm negatives. Mantrap (1926), directed by Victor Fleming, stars a radiant Clara Bow as a city girl who impetuously agrees to marry Ernest Torrence and live in his backwoods home. Womanhandled (1925) is a lightweight farce starring Richard Dix and Esther Ralston that plays on Easterners’ romantic vision of the West, as opposed to the reality of life on a modern ranch. The latter film is missing about ten minutes of footage, which doesn’t affect the simple story. (Only a non-profit endeavor such as this would release a partial feature for the value of its surviving content. What’s more, the NFPF was able to license both of these still-copyrighted features from Paramount, which is great news for silent film buffs—and Clara Bow fans.)

Silent-film comedienne Mabel Normand escapes from some angry Indians in the amusing 1912 Biograph short The Tourists, directed by Mack Sennett on location around the train depot in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
As the project has called on a variety of experts, it has also drawn on a number of sources for original music scores, curated by Martin Marks of MIT. Familiar and talented composer-pianists like Michael Mortilla and Stephen Horne are joined here by promising students who are newcomers to the world of silent-film accompaniment.