London, theatre, X-Men
Currently I'm definitely in Geek heaven. Arrived on Friday afternoon only to be greeted by London in sunshine, which is always nice though rarely the case, and proceeded to acquire mym coveted Much Ado ticket(s) for Saturday, about which later. I also went and watched Pygmalion on Friday evening, with Rupert Everett as Higgins, Kara Tointon as Eliza and Diana Rigg as Mrs. Higgins. It's always a pleasure to hear Shaw's words spoken out loud, and this was the first production I've seen which took him at his word in another sense, to wit. Now, the final scene of the play Pygmalion as written can be played ambigously and with the implication that Eliza despite her declaration will return to Higgins, which is of course also what the musical version, My Fair Lady does. But in the afterword (and in many letters during the original production to the actress who played the first Eliza in 1913, Stella Patrick Campbell), Shaw is crystal clear that she won't, that she'll stick to her declaration of independence, and that this is a good thing. As I said, this is the first on stage production which really takes him up on it and makes the Eliza-Higgins confrontation at the end as the heart of the piece, making it as a coming of age tale for Eliza rather than emphasizing the romance. Which is not to say that there is an absence of emotion. When Higgins says "I shall miss you, Eliza", there's no doubt he means it and that he does feel affection. But there is also no doubt that this is one jerk hero (tm) belonging to the school that eventually produced House and current Sherlock whom the heroine is far better without after having learned from him what he had to offer, because he won't chance, that that makes him stuck. Everett starts waspish (also it occured to me, not for the first time, that the first scene of Pygmalion where Higgins performs his naming everyone's place of origin by accent trick is Shaw taking a leaf from contemporary ACD's Sherlock Holmes and that in many ways, Higgins and Pickering are a reply to Holmes and Watson, with the difference that neither of them in the end are the heroes of their story) and ends very vulnerable and aware of his loss but also, finally, of the whys; Kara Tointon gives you a really strong sense of Eliza's personality and makes you actually believe her when she ways in the final confrontation that what she wanted from Higgins was never romance and that if they ended in bed together they'd hate each other five days later.
(A mother and her two daughters were next to and in front of me respectively, and the daughters hadn't realized until the play started that this was the version without the songs. And they were much insulted that "it didn't work out". Ah, teenagers. And also, Loewe & Lerner.)
Saturday started by me meeting
kangeiko for breakfast, proceeded to meeting
rozk for lunch, and then saw us spend a geekfest of an afternoon and evening by watching X-Men: First Class and Much Ado About Nothing. Reviews under the cut, thoroughly enjoying both.
It feels so good to be able to love an X-Men film again. [Unknown LJ tag] later said that it might be the best of the franchise and at any rate the best since X1. I'm inclined to say yes, but then I am biased because all my fannish wishes were being catered to. It was, as I hoped, a film that gave Mystique a good story arc of her own, and avoided all the traps it could have fallen into. It's definitely Charles 'n Erik: A Love Story. It uses its 62 setting really smartly instead of gratuitously indulging in nice fashion exercises and instead doing a story that could have been set at any point. Everyone comes across as three dimensional, both the characters we know from older versions and the new ones. And, always a fear with a comic book film that is not the first in its universe, it doesn't feel crowded despite the many mutants in it. Making Sebastian Shaw identical with the Mengele character in Erik's concentration camp backstory was inspired and gave Erik a believable reason to temporarily team-up with the CIA (something I've been wondering about after the trailers). More on the implications in a moment. Conversely, making Raven/Mystique and Charles Xavier childhood friends and basically siblings, emotionally speaking, does great things for both her and his characterisation. It showcases both virtues and flaws in young Charles - on the one hand, there is his utter delight in meeting another mutant (something he'll keep as he grows up), joy in mutant abilities and readiness to bond with people; on the other hand, as Raven is increasingly aware, because his own mutation doesn't make him physically different he doesn't really get the mixture of self-loathing and anger in her, plus she's great with the exasparated eyeroll about his cheesy lines when hitting on other undergraduates in Oxford. But they do love each other, and the film never makes the mistake of repeating the X3 insult of making Mystique's choices about whom she likes best (and who dumps her) as opposed to about which way of life she decides is best for her and the other mutants. Both Hank and Erik work in different ways as catalysts for her (as Mystique turns out quite literally as a catalyst for Hank), but her story is never about whom she'll choose as a love interest. Go, film.
The narrative presents both Magneto and Xavier as a mixture of right and wrong; Erik is right about the humans turning on them and being ready to kill them, but at the same time the tragedy of his life is - and the film doesn't shy away from this - that he in many ways becomes what he hates and what created him, making the origin of the homo superior and fighting for the survival of your kind by wiping out the others on the premise they will do it to you if they can rethoric quite clear. Down to identical visuals of Schmidt/Shaw and the eventual Magneto. At the same time, the film also gives us the ongoing difference between the two; Shaw is simply a megalomaniac and for all his mutant pride rethoric has no qualms killing other mutants when it's convenient or even just to make a point, whereas Erik still genuinenly cares, both for mutants in general and Charles in particular.
As for Charles, he's shown wrong (at least in this particular scenario) in his assumption that saving humanity will get mutantkind acceptance and respect, but right in the point he makes about escalating the killing scale not solvling anything, either. Because Magneto is such a charismatic character in the franchise in general, there is always the danger of writing off Xavier as either deluded and dully saintly or a hypocrite not standing by his own flaws, and either, to my mind, would ruin the story as they have to balance each other, so I was delighted in the way this film makes him a three dimensional character. He has his share of youthful hubris (just watch him in the CIA briefing, there is more than a touch of "God, you are so stupid, people" there), and yet a lot of that is based a very 60s idealism, that you really can change the world for the better, make a difference. Plus as mentioned he thinks mutant powers are really cool. :) (And groovy. LOL about the use of that word, especially in the context graduate!Charles does it.) It's also demonstrated in a show, not tell way that his ability to feel joy, to share and transmit enthusiasm, to accept people and give them confidence in themselves, to empathize make him a good teacher, so you're not left wondering why people follow him at all instead of all leaving with Magneto. Two things about the more ambiguos things Charles does that I hope will provide fodder for fanfiction and/or meta:
1) In the big climactic showdown between Erik and Sebastian Shaw, the turning point comes when Erik is able to get the helmet (yes, that one, and yes, it's a breach of continuity, but what the hell) that allows Shaw to shield himself from telepathic interference from him. Charles, who up to this point has been in telepathic contact with Erik, guiding him through the vessel to Shaw, freezes Shaw in the way we've seen Charles Xavier do since X2. Erik then puts the helmet on his own head and proceeds to kill Shaw in a manner that has to do with their original meeting. Now, while Charles loses contact with Erik the moment Erik puts that helmet on he still is in contact with Shaw and keeps holding him still while yelling at Erik to stop. It's one of those virtue = flaw things; it's the ultimate way to express faith and confidence (the very way he helped other mutants earlier), making it Erik's decision instead of just releasing Shaw, and it fails, and that also makes Charles complicit, because it's not like Erik has not been point blank announcing his intention to kill Shaw earlier (complete with asking "are you ready to let me do this").
2) Moira. The one non-mutant character with an important role (and no, the role isn't to distract from the slashiness between Charles and Erik). I now understand the switch of nationality, because making her a young and idealistic secret agent (fighting her own type of prejudice, as a woman in a nearly completely male working situation) really works within the film, and she's shown as clever and resourceful throughout. She's the one human ally who never betrays the mutants but is literally at their side when everyone turns against them. But Charles by the end is sadder and more ruthless than Charles at the start of the film, and while the scene is open to two interpretations - either she's faking for the benefit of her superiors (as she promised him not to tell anything), or he really did wipe her mind of the memories regarding how things went down during the Cuban Missile crisis and after - my own impression going by the sad tone of voice in which he said "no, you won't" was that he really did take her memories. Which shows better than anything else how Charles' optimism, too, has his limits, because while he uses telepathy in any number of self defense situations and to help others, it's an important point through the film that with friends he asks first (notably Erik) and if denied doesn't use it (it's one of the things between Charles and Raven - she made him promise not to use his power on her, and he doesn't). In thet case with Moira at the end, it might be acknowledgment of the reality - no matter what Moira promises, the nature of the organization she's in means there are a lot of ways for her superiors to get that information from her against her will - but it still is one of the most stark signifiers that Charles, too, emerges from the whole experience hardened.
Which isn't to say this is a cynical movie. The whole Xavier-Magneto-Mystique goodbye scene is absolutely heartrendering because the love between them remains unbroken, it doesn't turn sour, there is no stomping away or banishing on anyone's part, and yet everyone makes the choices you know they have to, and there is a real confident sense the affection will endure. Guh.
Trivia:
- Charles and Erik playing chess on any number of sets during the film was probably my favourite visual link to the earlier X-films, other than Mystique briefly turning into her older self.
- the way the film uses Hank's original appearance and the story of his secondary mututation and combines it with Mystique's growing awareness of what she doesn't want from her life was really inspired
- on a note of: they're not even pretending anymore, are they? The "Charles 'n Erik use tracking down other mutants to share beds in nightclubs" scene
- which in terms of "there was a kiss there in the extended edition, right?" factor is surpassed by the scene with Charles cradled in Erik's arms at the grand climax of the movie, and earlier than that, the scene when Charles accesses Erik's
memories which ends in them both crying
- January Jones, sad to say, is a bit wooden as Emma Frost, but the script does right by Emma, so it doesn't matter so much
- everyone's German proved they had a good coach. You can still tell most of the actors aren't native speakers by the very careful way they pronounce each word, but they do pronounce it right. Special kudos to Kevin Bacon for winning the struggle to get the ch out right
- I do love that there is no crazy non-mutant around, and Americans and Russians are presented both scared of drifting closer to World War III and trying to prevent it while also contributing to the Mexican standoff situation. Very Cold War dynamics, and even the fact they eventually team up against the mutants isn't presented as crazy and coming out of nowhere; immediately after Shaw's display of almost inciting nuclear holocaut, it's a conclusion they'd arrive at. The various soldiers and especially the Russian captain despite not much more screentime are humanized and individualized in a way the faceless thugs Stryker commands in X2 were not, so when Charles tells Erik these are people he's about to kill there's an emotional resonance there. Though Erik's reply about people following orders and what they did before is as understandable.
After a break at the rooftop of my hotel, we then went on to watch Tate 'n Tennant tackle Much Ado. It's modern dress production going in the Italian farce direction (or Mamma Mia the film - that kind of atmosphere), but glorious fun. Based on other people's reviews I was a bit afraid they'd play Beatrice's "Kill Claudio" moment for laughs, too, but they didn't. Justly so, this is the moment when things get serious in so many ways between them, and the contrast to the relieved giggles just before when they finally admitted they loved each other is all the more efficient. There is no farce there in that moment and no doubt Beatrice means it, and on Benedick's part DT plays it with complete awareness of the enormity as well; ditto in the subsequent scene where Benedick delivers his challenge.
There is a lot of slapstick in the scenes where first Benedick and then Beatrice are tricked by their friends, but then I haven't seen a production where there isn't, including the Branagh film; it just begs for it. Something I hadn't seen before and which our T & T duo carried off with aplomb was that the masked dance scene, CT is dressed as a man in suit (looks good on her!) and DT as a woman in a miniskirt. (He has great legs.) It's not just a visual gag, it also emphasizes the fluid gender dynamics between them, as opposed to the conventional couple of Hero and Claudio. I was amused that Leonato's brother Antonio is made into his wife in this production and renamed, no, not Antonia, but, wait for it, Imogen. As a reminder of how later Shakespeare would deal with this whole jealousy, fake death and restoration plot, it was neat.
Chemistry and comic timing: as excellent as ever. As with Hamlet a couple of years ago I was surprised of how much younger DT looks in person. As opposed to the other Shakespeare I saw him in, here he uses his Scottish accent, which works for Benedick. CT seems to have lost a bit of weight but still proudly owns her curves. The only times when I could not quite suspend my role disbelief was when she said "nooooo" because that drawn out "no" is a Donna mannerism (she didn't do it when I saw her in Under the Blue Sky).
Hero is in many ways a thankless role but I thought Sarah Macrae made the most of it, especially strong in scene after Claudio and Don Pedro have stomped off and her father attacks her. (One thing I always liked about Benedick in any production and during reading is that he's the only man at the aborted wedding who reacts rationally. Even her father is ready to believe the worst of Hero.) She's not tearful in her denials but quietly strong as she assures her father that she's innocent, and my attention at that moment was on her and not on B & B, which deserved kudos.
Finally: the funky disco rendering of Sigh No More at the end just about summed up the brash vitality of this production.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/683396.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
(A mother and her two daughters were next to and in front of me respectively, and the daughters hadn't realized until the play started that this was the version without the songs. And they were much insulted that "it didn't work out". Ah, teenagers. And also, Loewe & Lerner.)
Saturday started by me meeting
kangeiko for breakfast, proceeded to meeting
rozk for lunch, and then saw us spend a geekfest of an afternoon and evening by watching X-Men: First Class and Much Ado About Nothing. Reviews under the cut, thoroughly enjoying both.
It feels so good to be able to love an X-Men film again. [Unknown LJ tag] later said that it might be the best of the franchise and at any rate the best since X1. I'm inclined to say yes, but then I am biased because all my fannish wishes were being catered to. It was, as I hoped, a film that gave Mystique a good story arc of her own, and avoided all the traps it could have fallen into. It's definitely Charles 'n Erik: A Love Story. It uses its 62 setting really smartly instead of gratuitously indulging in nice fashion exercises and instead doing a story that could have been set at any point. Everyone comes across as three dimensional, both the characters we know from older versions and the new ones. And, always a fear with a comic book film that is not the first in its universe, it doesn't feel crowded despite the many mutants in it. Making Sebastian Shaw identical with the Mengele character in Erik's concentration camp backstory was inspired and gave Erik a believable reason to temporarily team-up with the CIA (something I've been wondering about after the trailers). More on the implications in a moment. Conversely, making Raven/Mystique and Charles Xavier childhood friends and basically siblings, emotionally speaking, does great things for both her and his characterisation. It showcases both virtues and flaws in young Charles - on the one hand, there is his utter delight in meeting another mutant (something he'll keep as he grows up), joy in mutant abilities and readiness to bond with people; on the other hand, as Raven is increasingly aware, because his own mutation doesn't make him physically different he doesn't really get the mixture of self-loathing and anger in her, plus she's great with the exasparated eyeroll about his cheesy lines when hitting on other undergraduates in Oxford. But they do love each other, and the film never makes the mistake of repeating the X3 insult of making Mystique's choices about whom she likes best (and who dumps her) as opposed to about which way of life she decides is best for her and the other mutants. Both Hank and Erik work in different ways as catalysts for her (as Mystique turns out quite literally as a catalyst for Hank), but her story is never about whom she'll choose as a love interest. Go, film.
The narrative presents both Magneto and Xavier as a mixture of right and wrong; Erik is right about the humans turning on them and being ready to kill them, but at the same time the tragedy of his life is - and the film doesn't shy away from this - that he in many ways becomes what he hates and what created him, making the origin of the homo superior and fighting for the survival of your kind by wiping out the others on the premise they will do it to you if they can rethoric quite clear. Down to identical visuals of Schmidt/Shaw and the eventual Magneto. At the same time, the film also gives us the ongoing difference between the two; Shaw is simply a megalomaniac and for all his mutant pride rethoric has no qualms killing other mutants when it's convenient or even just to make a point, whereas Erik still genuinenly cares, both for mutants in general and Charles in particular.
As for Charles, he's shown wrong (at least in this particular scenario) in his assumption that saving humanity will get mutantkind acceptance and respect, but right in the point he makes about escalating the killing scale not solvling anything, either. Because Magneto is such a charismatic character in the franchise in general, there is always the danger of writing off Xavier as either deluded and dully saintly or a hypocrite not standing by his own flaws, and either, to my mind, would ruin the story as they have to balance each other, so I was delighted in the way this film makes him a three dimensional character. He has his share of youthful hubris (just watch him in the CIA briefing, there is more than a touch of "God, you are so stupid, people" there), and yet a lot of that is based a very 60s idealism, that you really can change the world for the better, make a difference. Plus as mentioned he thinks mutant powers are really cool. :) (And groovy. LOL about the use of that word, especially in the context graduate!Charles does it.) It's also demonstrated in a show, not tell way that his ability to feel joy, to share and transmit enthusiasm, to accept people and give them confidence in themselves, to empathize make him a good teacher, so you're not left wondering why people follow him at all instead of all leaving with Magneto. Two things about the more ambiguos things Charles does that I hope will provide fodder for fanfiction and/or meta:
1) In the big climactic showdown between Erik and Sebastian Shaw, the turning point comes when Erik is able to get the helmet (yes, that one, and yes, it's a breach of continuity, but what the hell) that allows Shaw to shield himself from telepathic interference from him. Charles, who up to this point has been in telepathic contact with Erik, guiding him through the vessel to Shaw, freezes Shaw in the way we've seen Charles Xavier do since X2. Erik then puts the helmet on his own head and proceeds to kill Shaw in a manner that has to do with their original meeting. Now, while Charles loses contact with Erik the moment Erik puts that helmet on he still is in contact with Shaw and keeps holding him still while yelling at Erik to stop. It's one of those virtue = flaw things; it's the ultimate way to express faith and confidence (the very way he helped other mutants earlier), making it Erik's decision instead of just releasing Shaw, and it fails, and that also makes Charles complicit, because it's not like Erik has not been point blank announcing his intention to kill Shaw earlier (complete with asking "are you ready to let me do this").
2) Moira. The one non-mutant character with an important role (and no, the role isn't to distract from the slashiness between Charles and Erik). I now understand the switch of nationality, because making her a young and idealistic secret agent (fighting her own type of prejudice, as a woman in a nearly completely male working situation) really works within the film, and she's shown as clever and resourceful throughout. She's the one human ally who never betrays the mutants but is literally at their side when everyone turns against them. But Charles by the end is sadder and more ruthless than Charles at the start of the film, and while the scene is open to two interpretations - either she's faking for the benefit of her superiors (as she promised him not to tell anything), or he really did wipe her mind of the memories regarding how things went down during the Cuban Missile crisis and after - my own impression going by the sad tone of voice in which he said "no, you won't" was that he really did take her memories. Which shows better than anything else how Charles' optimism, too, has his limits, because while he uses telepathy in any number of self defense situations and to help others, it's an important point through the film that with friends he asks first (notably Erik) and if denied doesn't use it (it's one of the things between Charles and Raven - she made him promise not to use his power on her, and he doesn't). In thet case with Moira at the end, it might be acknowledgment of the reality - no matter what Moira promises, the nature of the organization she's in means there are a lot of ways for her superiors to get that information from her against her will - but it still is one of the most stark signifiers that Charles, too, emerges from the whole experience hardened.
Which isn't to say this is a cynical movie. The whole Xavier-Magneto-Mystique goodbye scene is absolutely heartrendering because the love between them remains unbroken, it doesn't turn sour, there is no stomping away or banishing on anyone's part, and yet everyone makes the choices you know they have to, and there is a real confident sense the affection will endure. Guh.
Trivia:
- Charles and Erik playing chess on any number of sets during the film was probably my favourite visual link to the earlier X-films, other than Mystique briefly turning into her older self.
- the way the film uses Hank's original appearance and the story of his secondary mututation and combines it with Mystique's growing awareness of what she doesn't want from her life was really inspired
- on a note of: they're not even pretending anymore, are they? The "Charles 'n Erik use tracking down other mutants to share beds in nightclubs" scene
- which in terms of "there was a kiss there in the extended edition, right?" factor is surpassed by the scene with Charles cradled in Erik's arms at the grand climax of the movie, and earlier than that, the scene when Charles accesses Erik's
memories which ends in them both crying
- January Jones, sad to say, is a bit wooden as Emma Frost, but the script does right by Emma, so it doesn't matter so much
- everyone's German proved they had a good coach. You can still tell most of the actors aren't native speakers by the very careful way they pronounce each word, but they do pronounce it right. Special kudos to Kevin Bacon for winning the struggle to get the ch out right
- I do love that there is no crazy non-mutant around, and Americans and Russians are presented both scared of drifting closer to World War III and trying to prevent it while also contributing to the Mexican standoff situation. Very Cold War dynamics, and even the fact they eventually team up against the mutants isn't presented as crazy and coming out of nowhere; immediately after Shaw's display of almost inciting nuclear holocaut, it's a conclusion they'd arrive at. The various soldiers and especially the Russian captain despite not much more screentime are humanized and individualized in a way the faceless thugs Stryker commands in X2 were not, so when Charles tells Erik these are people he's about to kill there's an emotional resonance there. Though Erik's reply about people following orders and what they did before is as understandable.
After a break at the rooftop of my hotel, we then went on to watch Tate 'n Tennant tackle Much Ado. It's modern dress production going in the Italian farce direction (or Mamma Mia the film - that kind of atmosphere), but glorious fun. Based on other people's reviews I was a bit afraid they'd play Beatrice's "Kill Claudio" moment for laughs, too, but they didn't. Justly so, this is the moment when things get serious in so many ways between them, and the contrast to the relieved giggles just before when they finally admitted they loved each other is all the more efficient. There is no farce there in that moment and no doubt Beatrice means it, and on Benedick's part DT plays it with complete awareness of the enormity as well; ditto in the subsequent scene where Benedick delivers his challenge.
There is a lot of slapstick in the scenes where first Benedick and then Beatrice are tricked by their friends, but then I haven't seen a production where there isn't, including the Branagh film; it just begs for it. Something I hadn't seen before and which our T & T duo carried off with aplomb was that the masked dance scene, CT is dressed as a man in suit (looks good on her!) and DT as a woman in a miniskirt. (He has great legs.) It's not just a visual gag, it also emphasizes the fluid gender dynamics between them, as opposed to the conventional couple of Hero and Claudio. I was amused that Leonato's brother Antonio is made into his wife in this production and renamed, no, not Antonia, but, wait for it, Imogen. As a reminder of how later Shakespeare would deal with this whole jealousy, fake death and restoration plot, it was neat.
Chemistry and comic timing: as excellent as ever. As with Hamlet a couple of years ago I was surprised of how much younger DT looks in person. As opposed to the other Shakespeare I saw him in, here he uses his Scottish accent, which works for Benedick. CT seems to have lost a bit of weight but still proudly owns her curves. The only times when I could not quite suspend my role disbelief was when she said "nooooo" because that drawn out "no" is a Donna mannerism (she didn't do it when I saw her in Under the Blue Sky).
Hero is in many ways a thankless role but I thought Sarah Macrae made the most of it, especially strong in scene after Claudio and Don Pedro have stomped off and her father attacks her. (One thing I always liked about Benedick in any production and during reading is that he's the only man at the aborted wedding who reacts rationally. Even her father is ready to believe the worst of Hero.) She's not tearful in her denials but quietly strong as she assures her father that she's innocent, and my attention at that moment was on her and not on B & B, which deserved kudos.
Finally: the funky disco rendering of Sigh No More at the end just about summed up the brash vitality of this production.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/683396.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.