What is Thor?

So Kenneth Branagh's going to direct some comic book film, something about a hero named Thor, and people think it will work because it's a very costume-heavy period-film-like comic. OK. Sure. I am a little surprised that he's taking on this new kind of challenge, just because he seemed very uninterested in large-scale Hollywood films a few years ago when he was in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (and just a delight in that as a ridiculously vain professor, by the way). There was a lot of speculation at that time as to whether he would like to direct one of the HP films, and he expressed disinterest in the special effects, etc. Of course, a stand-alone is different from a huge franchise like HP, so I wish him luck with it. And I await what I always think of as his trademark shot, the camera on a round track circling a small group of characters. Occasionally makes me dizzy.

See to believe

I just read Anton Chekhov's play Ivanov, more than partly because Kenneth Branagh will be playing the title role at the Donmar Warehouse this fall (and then directing Jude Law as Hamlet later in the season; I can hear the critics sharpening their knives now, though they mostly respect Branagh's theatrical skills). I... couldn't get into it. Or out of it. A very odd play about a rather despicable central character with an ailing Jewish wife and failing estate he ignores, and an over-earnest doctor and other characters of varying degrees of virtue, trying to make him wake up again. At the end, after his wife dies and a year passes between acts 3 and 4, it's his wedding day as he is going to marry the neighbor's beautiful young daughter. And he apparently can't bring himself to wreck her life when his is so obviously a wreck already, so he shoots himself. Curtain.

I was driven to read the preface of the edition I was reading, and the author suggests the obvious, that Ivanov, for all his awfulness, is the hero, and the doctor, Lvov, the one whose steps to hell are paved with good intentions. Such an anti-hero is perfect for Branagh, who seems drawn to those lately; he had quite a triumph onstage a few years ago as Edmond in David Mamet's play of the same name. Rumor was that he was working up to Macbeth, but financing has fallen through (and given the level of success of As You Like It, I'm not surprised).

Chekhov is one of those 'great' playwrights who I just can't get into on the very talky page. I really need to see something of his staged sometime, or at least rent a video. Never had this problem with Shakespeare, but it does happen sometimes with plays. Pinter's not that easy to read. Some of Stoppard just looks insane--and it's not that it doesn't also sound insane when you see it, but that the staging can draw it together in interesting ways.

The thin line between love and hate

There are a few movies I'm looking forward to in 2008, but I've already started debating one of them in particular.

Should I go see Valkyrie?

If you don't remember, Valkyrie is the Tom Cruise flick about the German officer who tried to assassinate Hitler, and there was some reported flack about it being filmed in Germany because of Cruise's advocacy of Scientology. Germany does not acknowledge Scientology as a religion; they view it as a money-making cult. The flack was about the script, or Cruise, or... I don't even know. According to Branagh, it was nothing in particular.

Ah. You see, therein lies the dilemma. Kenneth Branagh is in this film, in what word has it is a particularly meaty supporting role. Do I love him enough to outweigh my vague distaste for Tom Cruise? (I could care less about Katie Holmes, but it's a combo of viewer fatigue and never having enjoyed any of his films all that much.) The array of accents is going to be annoying, too, though nothing tops the awfulness of DiCaprio, Malkovich, Depardieu, and Irons in Man in the Iron Mask.

You can take a look at the trailer and weigh in on this sometime in the next nine months.

Celebrity

Over the weekend, I watched my second Woody Allen film ever, and I only watched it because I was renewing my Branagh kick. Yup, Celebrity, the black-and-white film about a New York writer who observes, craves, and wrecks all chance at celebrity. It was chiefly mentioned for Leonardo DiCaprio's appearance as a spoiled brat of a hotel-wrecking supermegamoviestar. But I also remember reading reviews of Branagh's performance that all featured the word 'frightening.' It is indeed completely terrifying, because he's so Allen-like that it's positively uncanny -- a stammering, bumbling, fumbling, pathetic wreck of a man. From the hyperarticulate Gilderoy Lockhart or Henry V to this character, you can never fault Branagh for his technical skill. Not even in Wild, Wild West.

The movie is too episodic in the beginning, but stay with it and it really gets going in the second half as Branagh wrecks his life and ex-wife Judy Davis builds up hers. If you ever find yourself reading a few too many tabloids or celebrity blogs, just watch this movie, which will cure you of all longing for celebrity in two hours. For that alone, it's probably worth the rental!

Los amigos de Peter

My kingdom for an all-region DVD player! I've encountered this problem quite a bit recently, a couple of times for fun and once for work, but all British. My Branagh kick extended to an early quirky comedy, Peter's Friends, that he directed and acted in with an all-star cast: Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton, Alphonsia Emmanuel. It's been described as a British Big Chill, but never having seen BC I can't pronounce. Six grown-up friends, whose lives have gone all haywire since college (or uni, excuse me). I thought it was odd that Netflix didn't carry it, so I checked amazon. When the DVD came up as Los amigos de Peter, I knew I was in trouble. Luckily, the Northwestern library has a copy, and let me tell you, it is a cute early '90s time-capsule gem. If your video store has a VHS, rent it. Now.

I also wanted to show my students the BBC special of Hanif Kureishi's Buddha of Suburbia, starring a much-younger Naveen Andrews. Just came out, only Region 2.

Hm, one of my profs is right. I do use too many parentheses.

On another Branagh note, I think In the Bleak Midwinter is not on DVD at all, or maybe also only Region 2. Either way, for now I've had to settle for reading the screenplay. Another adorable gem, but this one probably more oriented towards theatre connoisseurs; lots of in-jokes about actors and Hamlet.

As You Like It

You may barely have heard about Kenneth Branagh's new Shakespeare film, since HBO Films decided to skip theatrical release, debuted it a couple of times on TV in August, and sent it straight to DVD. Herewith follows my disappointed little Amazon review:

'Beautiful' seems to be the word of praise most used for this movie, and visually gorgeous it certainly is. It is probably worth watching for that alone. But this comedy, usually hailed as the most witty and sparkling of Shakespeare's comedies, turns into a sort of fest of overblown emotions without the wit to leaven them. It's not helped by its leading lady, Bryce Dallas Howard, who is a gorgeous and well-spoken Rosalind without a lot of range or irony. Only in the epilogue does she really show much spark. Simply speaking, you wish that the characters were taking themselves a little less seriously.

Branagh is, as always, a superb director, but it's the adaptation that's lacking slightly here. The much-debated Japanese setting is not terribly illuminating in any way, unlike his Hamlet transposition which skilfully used the 1848 pan-European setting to provoke reflection on the political and philosophical volatility of the time period and of the text -- a true feat. Here, a few title cards are thrown up with some vague historical background which is then forgotten; the film could just as well have taken place in a quasi-Japanese fairytale world (the equivalent of, oh, let's see, the English Forest of Arden!) without any feeble explanation. It's just pretty. [To elaborate here, it would have been a hell of a lot less unsavory to have a bunch of white people romping around quasi-Japan than Japan. I can think of ways it could have worked really interestingly, so that the Europeans living in their little enclave learned from venturing outside it, etc., but... it did not.]

Romola Garai is a hilarious Celia, so much so that I found myself wishing she had played Rosalind. The other standout was Adrian Lester, who managed to convey a believably villainous but then instantly sympathetic Oliver. Branagh fans were hoping wildly for him to play Jaques or Touchstone; you'll be wishing that afterwards, too, as Kevin Kline was a good but rather monochromatic Jaques (if Branagh had cut the monologue before 'All the world's a stage,' it might have helped), and Molina's Touchstone was not often funny. (Really, that's what I keep coming back to--I ought to have been laughing my head off, and barely ever cracked a smile.)

The DVD is set at low volume, so be prepared to jack it up. Sadly, no director commentary, as I would have loved to hear Branagh talk about his creative shot choices and movement in detail. Instead, there's a crap 5-minute featurette that tells you nothing much about his creative process, but at least provides some behind-the-scenes shots of the genius at work to keep his fans satisfied.

The bottom line: a must-see, of course, for Shakespeare and Branagh fans, who will enjoy critiquing it and/or adoring it. Will probably do well for period-film-lovers based on its visual beauty.

I should warn you all that regardless of my disappointment with this film, I have been on a big Branagh kick lately, so expect more of him.