RAY BENNETT | movies • stage • TV • music

CANNES FILM REVIEW BRIEF: documentary ‘Modern Life’

Posted on May 19, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett

CANNES – Veteran French photographer Raymond Depardon’s documentary “Modern Life”, in Un Certain Regard at the Festival de Cannes, is an elegy to ageing farmers and their fading way of life in remote but spectacular regions of France.

It’s a love-letter, really, made up of virtual still-life portraits of the grizzled and taciturn men and women who cling to their harsh profession.

There are some younger folk involved too, often reluctantly and out of obligation, but the prevailing mood is autumnal with winter coming on. The third in a trilogy by Depardon about peasant life, it’s a warm and affectionate film that will tap into nostalgia in its home territory but may not travel far beyond French borders.

Depardon has been photographing the hardy small-holders of French agriculture for a very long time and his admiration for these rugged characters and the wild terrain in which they live and farm shines through every image.

He visits several farmers in different seasons and captures their gruff charm, absence of pretense and stalwart determination. The younger ones tend to complain about the hard work while their elders are accepting and implacable.

Depardon’s camera gets much more out of these folk than his microphone does. They don’t say much, and sometimes you feel they wish he would just go away, but his lasting skill is in framing images that convey fully what the term salt of the earth really means.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Festival de Cannes, Film, Reviews | Tagged 'Modern Life', Festival de Cannes, Raymond Depardon, Un Certain Regard | Comments Off

CANNES FILM REVIEW: James Toback’s ‘Tyson’

Posted on May 18, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett

CANNES – When he’s not pounding very large men to the ground, ex-fighter Mike Tyson speaks directly to the camera in James Toback’s film “Tyson” and it’s hard not to flinch.

More a testimony for the defense than a documentary, it’s a sympathetic portrait of a complex man driven by an anger that still bubbles beneath the surface.

The former world champion’s eyes, which were as devastating as his piston-fast fists in the boxing ring, reveal little but his self-serving words tell everything. His candor appears sometimes unwitting but the result is a powerful film that will appeal to sports fans and those who respond to the visceral clamor of the fight world.

Toback uses split screens, over-dubs and a mixture of interior close-ups and exterior long-shots, and he allows the boxer to portray himself as a gentle soul born on mean streets where constant bullying forced him to employ his brute strength to survive. A broken home, crime, correction facilities and finally the boxing ring, it’s a familiar tale.

Not so familiar were the fighter’s extraordinary dedication, steeped in the lessons of the great champions, and his unflinching impulse to drive toward and destroy his opponent. Toback shows nearly all of Tyson’s knockouts and tracks his rise to the big titles, big money and world fame, and then the falls from grace including failed marriages, a spell in prison on a rape conviction, and ultimately the loss of his titles and most of his money.

In every circumstance in his life, Tyson believes himself to be the innocent party. He became a ferocious fighter to avoid being humiliated. His marriage broke down because they were both kids. His rape charge was “false” and the victim was “a wretched swine of a woman.” A big-time boxing promoter was “a slimy reptilian motherfucker.” He bit opponent Evander Holyfield’s ear off because the man kept head-butting him and made him insane in the ring.

But Tyson says he made sure his six kids got some of all that money; he found Islam in prison; and he’s been through rehabilitation. Now, he says, his anger is directed only toward himself. “I’m not an animal anymore,” he says in his high-pitched lisp staring at the camera through a dramatic Maori facial tattoo.

For some reason, Toback never mentions Tyson’s voice, not that you can blame him.

Venue: Festival de Cannes, Un Certain Regard; Cast: Mike Tyson. Director: James Toback. Director of photography: Larry McConkey. Music: Salaam Remi. Editor: Aaron Yanes. Pproducers: James Toback, Damon Bingham. Executive producers: Mike Tyson, Harlan Werner, Nicholas Jarecki, Henry Jarecki, Bob Yari. Sales: Wild Bunch; No MPAA rating, running time, 90 mins.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Festival de Cannes, Film, Reviews | Tagged 'Tyson', Festival de Cannes, James Toback, Mike Tyson, Un Certain Regard | Comments Off

CANNES FILM REVIEW: ‘The Seven Days’

Posted on May 18, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett

CANNES – The rule imposed on the family spending a week in mourning in Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz’s “The Seven Days” requires a demonstration of pious grief lest people talk. But there is so much talk in the Israeli siblings’ sophomore outing as writers and directors that it’s hard to see how breaking the rules could make things worse.

Observed intensely, choreographed smartly and acted very well by a large ensemble cast, the film, which opened the Critics’ Week sidebar at the Festival de Cannes, will attract attention at festivals and in art houses but its lack of humor might test audiences’ patience.

About 20 members of the family, including six brothers and two sisters, are confined to the home of a widowed sister-in-law and nearly all of them fall out with one another in the claustrophobic and stultifying atmosphere. It becomes so relentless that you wish somebody would just slap someone, and then somebody does. It’s one of the few moments of comic relief in the picture.

Ronit Elkabetz (pictured) and Simon Abkarian play spouses Vivianne and Eliyau from the Elkabetz’s first film, “To Take a Wife,” although now they are fighting and on the verge of divorce. Vivianne is being pursued by the very eligible Ben (Gil Frank) and is inclined to respond.

They dance around their attraction while the rest of the family, cloistered unpleasantly day and night according to the rules of mourning, engage in a series of encounters having to do with money, envy and resentment.

The roundelay is well written and managed by the directors but the situation, which takes place in an Israel threatened by the first Gulf War, while profoundly serious, cries out for some satirical touches.

The depiction of familial devotion that puts up with religiously inspired regulations requiring that no one may bathe and everyone must sleep on the floor in one room for a week is fiercely conservative. Those of a more secular bent might be reminded of Sartre’s observation that hell is other people.

Venue: Festival de Cannes, Critics’ Week; Cast: Ronit Elkabetz, Simon Abkarian, Gil Frank, Keren Mor, Hanna Azoulay Hasfari. Directors, screenwriters: Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz. Producers: Jean-Philippe Reza, Eilon Ratzkovsky, Yochanan Kredo, Yossi Uzard, Guy Jacoel, Eric Cohen, Elie Meirovitz. Director of photography: Yaron Scharf. Production designer: Benny Arbitman. Music: Michael Korb, Sergio Leonardi. Costume designer: Laura Sheim. Editor: Joelle Alexis; Sales: Daniela Elstner, Lise Zipci, Agathe Valentin; No MPAA rating, running time, 115 mins.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Festival de Cannes, Film, Reviews | Tagged 'The Seven Days', Festival de Cannes, Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz, Simon Abkarian | Comments Off

CANNES: Woody goes Spanish for ‘Barcelona’ soundtrack

Posted on May 18, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett

CANNES – As usual, Woody Allen has scored his new movie, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (which stars Penelope Cruz, left) with synch tracks but instead of the American standards that accompany his Manhattan movies, this time he’s gone Spanish and it worked out just fine.

The title track, “Barcelona,” is by Giulia y Los Tellarini, Maik Alemany, Alejandro Mazzoni and Jens Neumaier and performed by Tellarini with Pablo Diaz-Reixas, Xavier Tort and Jordi Llobet. Allen says in the film’s production notes that the song came along out of the blue:

“People send me music all the time but I rarely get a chance to listen to anything. One morning, as I was running out to go to the set, I grabbed it without even opening it and listened to it in the car on the way to the location. And I said, ‘Hey, this is great! This is exactly what I want for the movie.’ And it worked out well for everyone. They were grateful we were using their music and my producer was happy that we weren’t using something that would cost a lot of money like a George Gerswin song!“

Tellarini performs another of his group’s songs, “La rey Del Retiro,” in the picture, which also features a couple of tracks by the Biel Ballester Trio with Leo Hipaucha & Graci Pedro, “When I Was a Boy” and “Your Shining Eyes.”

Other music includes “Gorrion” and “Entre Las Olas,” written and played by Juan Serrano; “Asturias,” written by Isaac Albeniz and played by Juan Quesada; “Entre Dos Aguas,” performed by Paco de Lucia and written by the artist and Jose Torregrosa; “El Noi de la Mare,” a traditional Catalonian folk song arranged for classical guitar by Miguel Llobet and Andres Segovia and performed by Muriel Anderson; “Big Brother,” written by Stephane Wrembel and performed by his trio with special guest David Grisman; and almost inevitably “Granada,” composed by Isaac Albeniz and performed by Emilio de Benito.

The film screened at the Festival de Cannes and is due for release in the fall.

Posted in Festival de Cannes, Film, Music, Notes, Places | Tagged Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen | 2 Comments

CANNES FILM REVIEW BRIEF: ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’

Posted on May 18, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett

CANNES – Woody Allen and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (“The Sea Inside,” “The Others”) make the most of the scenery in the comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, which screened Out of Competition at the Festival de Cannes, but the best news is that Allen is back on form as a very funny filmmaker.

English actress Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson are fine as the best friends looking for fun and adventure in Spain. But it’s Spanish stars Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz who really deliver the comic goods.

One flaw is the narration, which would probably work if Allen delivered it but the filmmaker has chosen a bland young American voice to set the scene and fill in the blanks. The film may not need a narration at all, but while the words are amusing now and then, and clearly Allen’s, it would have been so much better to hear the director’s voice.

It would have made the film sound like one of Allen’sshort stories and perhaps to use the voice of Patricia Clarkson, whose character in the film knows most of what takes place, also would also work. Still, audiences are going to like this picture and especially the knowing Spanish flare of Cruz and Bardem.

Posted in Comment, Festival de Cannes, Film | Tagged 'Vicky Christina Barcelona', Festival de Cannes, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Woody Allen | Comments Off

CANNES FILM REVIEW: Steve McQueen’s ‘Hunger’

Posted on May 17, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett

CANNES – Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen brings the key tenets required to win Britain’s top honor for modern art to directing his first film, “Hunger,” and so it is trite, grim and feebly provocative.

It tells of the last days of Bobby Sands, a Northern Irishman who died in 1981 in Belfast’s hellish Maze Prison following a 66-day hunger strike. The film, which opened the Festival de Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar, combines scenes more suited to an art installation with static theatrical encounters and clichéd flights of artistic fancy.

Violent, bleak and depressing, “Hunger” depicts lifelong Irish Republican Army fighter Sands (Michael Fassbender) as a martyr and may prosper where audiences are already inclined to that view with prospects slim elsewhere.

No context is provided beyond the steely but patronising words of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and there is no mention of the nature of the violent crimes perpetrated by Sands and his fellow inmates. Convicted on charges involving armed attacks and arson, Sands demanded the rights of a prisoner of war, which included wearing civilian clothes and the receipt of gift parcels.

Lacking any new insights on the fateful paradox that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter or that the imposition of punitive measures demeans all parties, the film adds nothing to the debate over broader issues involving places such as Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graib.

McQueen and co-scripter Enda Walsh break the film into four uneven parts with first the introduction of a brutal prison guard (Stuart Graham) and his suburban home life, which is prosaic save for the constant threat of being bombed or shot.

A new prisoner (Brian Milligan) enters the cell of an entrenched convict (Liam McMahon) who teaches him the ways of IRA rebellion, which included smearing the walls with blood and feces, smuggling notes and small items using bodily orifices, and bracing for the malevolent treatment of the prison guards.

Attention then moves to Sands with a 22-minute scene in which he relates his ideals and plans to a weary priest (Liam Cunningham). The remainder of the film, in which Fassbender demonstrates a commitment to the demands of the role beyond the call of duty, shows in great detail the gruesome effect on a man’s body of completely rejecting nourishment. It’s not a pretty sight.

Venue: Festival de Cannes, Un Certain Regard; Cast: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Brian Milligan, Liam McMahon. Director: Steve McQueen. Screenwriters: Enda Walsh, Steve McQueen. Producers: Laura Hastings-Smith, Robin Glitch; Director of photography: Sean Bobbitt. Production designer: Tom McCullagh. Music: David Holmes, Leo Abrahams. Costume designer: Anushia Nieradzik. Editor: Joe Walker. Executive producers: Jan Younghusband, Peter Carlton, Linda James, Edmund Coulthard, Iain Canning. Sales: Icon Entertainment International; No MPAA rating, running time 100 mins.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Festival de Cannes, Film, Reviews | Tagged 'Hunger', Bobby Sands, Festival de Cannes, Michael Fassbender, Steve McQueen | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: Polly Stenham’s ‘That Face’

Posted on May 16, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett

Polly Stenham wrote “That Face,” a play about the disintegration of a well-off family, when she was 19 but you wouldn’t know it until the shrieking of two siblings and their estranged parents goes from strident to adolescent.

Staged last year by the Royal Court and now transferred to the Duke of York’s Theatre in London’s West End under the direction of Jeremy Herrin, the play has won plaudits for the young playwright, and there’s little doubt that Stenham will go far.

Classy stage veteran Lindsay Duncan (pictured with Matt Smith) does a great deal to give more depth than is on the page to the portrayal of Martha, a once-beautiful woman now ravaged by alcoholism. There’s no real accounting of her descent into a sort of refined squalor, her callous dismissal of teenaged daughter Mia (Hannah Murray) and adoring but selfish domination of artistic son Henry (Smith).

The absence of rich ex-husband Hugh (Julian Wadham), who’s remarried and lives in luxury in Hong Kong, has much to do with it, but though he returns to deal with his squabbling family, not much more is revealed.

Stenham begins the play with a scene of torture in a private school that causes Mia to be threatened with expulsion and then cuts to an unkempt bedroom where Martha is lolling about in the sheets with Henry.

The incest is implied more than acted upon, and when Henry reveals that he has taken a lover, mumsy at first assumes it must be another boy and is quite pleased. When she discovers that his partner is female, she erupts with a nasty act of jealousy.

The increasing frenzy and unexplored background to events conspire to weaken the eventual confrontations, and an enigmatic ending doesn’t help. Duncan is in perfect control as the self-indulgent and provocative mother, and Wadham brings an air of befuddled impatience to the father.

The younger actors do not fare so well, with Murray not best cast as a steely and sometimes cruel young woman and Smith encouraged to demonstrate from the outset that this mother’s boy is seriously damaged goods.

Venue: Duke of York’s Theatre, London (Through July 5); Cast: Lindsay Duncan, Matt Smith, Hannah Murray, Catherine Steadman, Julian Wadham, Rebecca Eve. Playwright: Polly Stenham; Director: Jeremy Herrin; Designer: Mike Britton. Lighting: Natasha Chivers. Sound: Emma Laxton.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'That Face', Duke of York's Theatre, Lindsay Duncan, Matt Smith, Polly Stenham | Comments Off

‘I Served the King of England’ opens in the UK

Posted on May 9, 2008 by admin

Ivan Barnev is sublime as a resourceful waiter in Jiri Menzel’s Czech masterpiece

The best film I saw at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival was called “I Served the King of England” and today it is released finally in the U.K., first at London’s Barbican Centre and then to select cinemas nationally.

Smart, ironic and surreal, like Bohumil Hrabal’s novel on which it’s based, “I Served the King of England,” is often flat-out hilarious. It was third on my Top 10 for 2007 behind only “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford” and “The Band’s Visit.”

See my review of the film here: post

Posted in Film, Notes, Reviews | Tagged 'I Served the King of England', Barbican, Jiri Menzel | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: Tony Harrison’s ‘Fram’ at the National

Posted on May 9, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON — The title of British theatrical poet Tony Harrison’s new play, “Fram,” means “forward” in Norwegian, but a better name for it would be whatever in that language means “awkward.”

“Fram” was the name of the vessel that Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen (Jasper Britton) used to survey the North Pole in the late 19th century, and his epic journey forms part of Harrison’s play. It gives designer and co-director Bob Crowley the opportunity to have the boat arise impressively from the bowels of the National’s large Olivier stage.

The play is not only about Nansen, though. Related entirely in rhyming couplets, it’s a saga supposedly created by British writer Gilbert Murray (Jeff Rawle) who emerges from his tiny bit of Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey to mount a production at the National.

Murray brings along heralded British actress Sybil Thorndyke (Sian Thomas), who will later have a big scene in which she convinces various skeptics that a healthy thespian can make observers believe she is starving.

The awkwardness of Harrison’s self-indulgent construction causes confusion in the historical facts of Hansen’s polar exploration with crusty companion Hjalmar Johansen (Mark Addy) and his later campaigns on behalf of the starving people in Russia in the 1920s.

Harrison switches from Nansen’s speech-making tours of British cities to high society encounters with potential benefactors and allows several minutes for a solo performance by ballerina Viviana Durante to no clear effect.

There are references to many cultural and philosophical things in the lengthy scenes, but they serve no obvious purpose. The mask of tragedy is compared to Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream,” but its pertinence remains obscure. Video sequences showing scenes of the victims of the Russian famine, however, are affecting, and Thomas is utterly persuasive in her rendition of desperation.

Britton is quite jaunty as the dedicated explorer, and Addy has a few moments to shine as his suicidal shipmate. Harrison’s poetry, however, is awkward, with a dogged reliance on simple phrases and clumsy rhymes.

Venue: National Theatre, runs through May 22; Cast: Jeff Rawle, Sian Thomas, Jasper Britton, Mark Addy, Viviana Durante; Playwright: Tony Harrison; Directors: Tony Harrison, Bob Crowley; Set designer: Bob Crowley; Costume designer: Fotini Dimou; Lighting designer: Mark Henderson; Music: Richard Blackford.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Fram', Mark Addy, National Theatre, Tony Harrison | Comments Off

RAY BENNETT | movies • stage • TV • music

CANNES FILM REVIEW BRIEF: documentary ‘Modern Life’

CANNES FILM REVIEW: James Toback’s ‘Tyson’

CANNES FILM REVIEW: ‘The Seven Days’

CANNES: Woody goes Spanish for ‘Barcelona’ soundtrack

CANNES FILM REVIEW BRIEF: ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’

CANNES FILM REVIEW: Steve McQueen’s ‘Hunger’

THEATRE REVIEW: Polly Stenham’s ‘That Face’

‘I Served the King of England’ opens in the UK

THEATRE REVIEW: Tony Harrison’s ‘Fram’ at the National

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