Quote:
Originally Posted by bwdowiak
.......The next one I'll check out is either The Fire Within or Vanya on 42nd Street. Since oildude said that he liked it after not expecting to, maybe it'll have the same effect on me... it does *sound* like it'd be pretty dull. will have to see.
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It helps to be a fan of stage plays and high quality acting and writing. I stayed away from
Vanya on 42nd Street for a long time. I do think it will be dull if you are not in the right mood for it. I have to be in the mood to rewatch it, but when I am, it is a joy to behold.
Vanya on 42nd Street is as spare as a play gets, a stripped-down-to-the-essentials small ensemble captured on film. In fact, it is not quite even that, since it is a rehearsal of a play. Even if you are not a fan of live theater, this movie just might make you one if you approach it with the right frame of mind.
I wrote a user review for it many months ago, which I will repost here if anyone is interested in reading more about it. This film fascinates me to no end because it is one of the biggest surprises for me in the
Criterion Collection and one that finally sealed Louis Malle in my opinion as one of the greats. He certainly has many more films that I like better than
Vanya on 42nd Street, films that I will revisit much more often, but I can't think of anyone else who has expanded my comfort zone quite the same way as Malle. In his body of work are films with subjects, plots, and structure that I would not ordinarily have any desire to view, yet I inevitably give them a chance and walk away richer for the experience every time.
Watching
Vanya on 42nd Street is like being invited to a private viewing of a stage play rehearsal by a group of actors in a run down NYC theater. The style and subject of Vanya may not be for everyone; it is a "small" film in a very intimate setting. We as the audience have great seats to watch a well-tuned rehearsal of a David Mamet adaptation of Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya. As such, it is a low-key and dialogue driven movie. In fact, there is nothing but dialogue. Anyone who enjoys live theater and who appreciates great acting will be richly rewarded. The dialogue is exceptionally well done and the wonderful actors who bring it to life capture all the human interactions and brilliance of Chekhov's play with a passion seldom seen on the screen. The film may be structured as a stage rehearsal with all the actors in their street clothes, but in my mind's eye I was seeing a 19th Century Russian country estate peopled with real and identifiable characters.
The film opens to the sounds of a jazz score by the Joshua Redman Quartet as we see the actors arriving individually at the New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street in NYC. Among them are also a few specially invited guests who will be the audience for the rehearsal; the audience members are not actors but real people being themselves, including noted Indian cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey. Through conversations among the guests and the crew, we are introduced to the theater where the rehearsal is being filmed. The New Amsterdam Theater was originally built in 1903 and once was home to the famous Ziegfeld Follies, before being turned into a movie palace prior to WWII. At the time of the filming of
Vanya on 42nd Street, the New Amsterdam Theater had been abandoned and in a state of severe disrepair for about ten years. We see all this faded glory as the cast and crew set up the props and furniture on a recently installed temporary stage. When everything is ready, the guest settle into their seats, the actors take their positions on or off the stage, and the play begins.
I should point out that my repeatedly referring to the movie as a filmed rehearsal does not do it justice. There are no stops or do-overs or a director saying "I think you should stand here and say it like this". The flow is smooth and uninterrupted except at the end of an act, when the play's director tells the actors well done and let's take a short break before the next act. The rehearsal is not in preparation for an actual general audience opening (to my knowledge, this was never the intent of the ensemble and never happened). Rather, it is a continuation of a series of workshops held by famed experimental stage director Andre Gregory, who appears in the film as himself, where a group of actors participating in the workshops came together to perfect their craft and engage in a four-year project of stage rehearsals of Mamet plays. The film
Vanya on 42nd Street is the end result of their efforts, presented not as a full blown stage adaptation but instead as an intimate portrait for a small audience. Among the actors participating in the workshop are Wallace Shawn (
The Princess Bride,
My Dinner with Andre) who portrays Uncle Vanya, and Julianne Moore (
Boogie Nights,
Safe).
I really enjoy
Vanya on 42nd Street and am so glad I gave it a chance. Ordinarily I might have passed on it based on what I read online about how the film is structured; it just didn't generate any excitement. However, it being a Louis Malle film, and his last, made me take the plunge. I was pleasantly entertained by an extraordinary production, where the dialogue and acting are so good we are transported beyond the confinement of the stage with its simple props to a wider experience of a wonderfully human tale set in an upper middle class country estate in 19th Century Tsarist Russia.
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