"...and all the finches of the grove"

[nineweaving]

Last night I got to screen the insanely glorious 1982 production of The Critic for new friends.   What a joy!

I adore theatre about theatre, and films about theatre:  above all, about theatrical fiasco.  I so love The Critic (1982), which culimnates in a dementedly bad production of the tatters of a tissue of twaddle.  Unlike the producers in The

Comments

[poliphilo]

Les Enfants du Paradis. The film Balzac would have made if he'd been born a century later. Contains wonderful recreations of 19th century theatre- plus lots of back stage carry-on. Jean-Louis Barrault! Arletty! Maria Casares! Pierre Brasseur!

[nineweaving]

I've been meaning to see that forever. Perhaps I should do a Twelve Days Festival, with as many of these DVDs as I can find?

Nine

[nineweaving]

I have heard good things about State and Main. I shall seek it out.

Oh, as I envision that ending--shipwreck, brave new world--Viola becomes a Prospero. I hope she finds an Ariel. That's in my head, anyway.

In the Bleak Midwinter is delicious.

Nine

[steepholm]

I wondered whether anyone had made a film of Noises Off, which (after The Critic) is my favourite play of this kind. They have, but it seems not to have been a huge success. Perhaps theatre comedy works best in the theatre?

[kalimac]

I have a theory about Noises Off. Assuming basic competence in the production, it's funniest the first time you see it. If you saw it on stage, that's funnier. If you saw the movie first, that's funnier.

[nineweaving]

I saw the reviews of that movie and thought I'd best wait for Noises Off to come round again on stage.

Nine

[kalimac]

I wouldn't call the movie brilliant. But as a substitute while one's waiting for the stage show to come around again, I found it stratched that itch.

I know people who hadn't seen the stage show who thought the movie was side-splittingly hilarious, which is why I made the generalization that I did.

[kalimac]

I don't know of any that I'd consider better than Shakespeare in Love or In the Bleak Midwinter, but here's some other good ones, all involving Shakespeare:

Surely To Be Or Not To Be, the Jack Benny/Carole Lombard film, is a classic of the genre.

Olivier's Henry V is in part about the theatre.

Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl is a struggling actor who gets to be in a ridiculously bad production of Richard III.

Al Pacino's Looking for Richard is a great documentary about the theatre, basically an account of a workshop production of R3. Favorite moments: Pacino in the Lady Anne scene with Winona Ryder, simply dripping evil; the looks on Pacino's face as, clad with a backwards baseball cap, he goes out on the street with a cameraman to ask passersby their opinions of Shakespeare.

Not on Shakespeare, some people like All That Jazz or Me and Orson Welles. I'm glad I saw them, at least.

[nineweaving]

An excellent list! A great deal to catch up on. Thank you.

I am not a great fan of Olivier (apologies to his admirers), but I love the theatrical stuff in Henry V.

Nine

[kalimac]

Orson Welles. That reminds me. Cradle Will Rock. Tim Robbins' film about Welles' production of Marc Blitzstein's musical. And also about Diego Rivera and Nelson Rockefeller and the mural; the Dies committee and its toxic effects; and much more. Now that's a movie about the theatre that I'd call at least as good as any mentioned here. The dynamics and camaraderie of the performing company are of major importance.

[nineweaving]

I just ran across that last night while writing this post and was intrigued.

Nine

[kalimac]

It's a brilliant film, even cleverer than Sayles' Lone Star in its linking of separate threads together. The scene near the beginning where Blizstein gets his inspiration from protesters being attacked by police is particularly hallucinatorily good, and if you like that, the ending of the film will really grab.