RAY BENNETT | movies • stage • TV • music

THEATRE REVIEW: Ronald Harwood’s ‘Taking Sides’, ‘Collaboration’

Posted on July 1, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – British playwright Ronald Harwood’s 1995 play “Taking Sides” and his latest, “Collaboration,” presented in tandem at the Duchess Theatre in London’s West End, each deal with people trapped in the quagmire of Nazi Germany and challenge viewers to wonder, “What would you have done?”

Both productions are directed with great skill by Philip Franks and star the same accomplished players as Michael Pennington and David Horovitch portray excellently very different antagonists from one play to the next.

The plays can be viewed separately but seeing the productions as a double bill reinforces Harwood’s trenchant examination of one the tragedies of that time and the predicament into which artists in particular were thrust.

“Taking Sides” takes place during the post-World War II de-Nazification when German citizens were investigated regarding their compromises and affiliations during Hitler’s regime. An abrasive U.S. officer, Major Arnold (Horovitch) is grilling famous conductor Dr. Wilhelm Furtwangler (Pennington) about his time as leader of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Third Reich.

Pennington conveys the conductor’s anguish and crumpled dignity while Horovitch helps Harwood heighten the dilemma by making the interrogator vulgar and unlikable.

“Collaboration” deals with composer Richard Strauss (Pennington) and his reaction to being told by Hitler’s thugs that he can no longer work with his great librettist, Stefan Zweig (Horovitch) because he is Jewish.

The two leading actors almost change shape as well as character and the play is enriched by fine contributions from Isla Blair as Strauss’ formidable wife and Martin Hutson as a Nazi officer.

Harwood, who won the Academy Award for writing “The Piano” in 2002 and the BAFTA for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” in 2007, blends his gift for imagery with fine stagecraft.

“Taking Sides” and “Collaboration” offer no solutions to the moral dilemmas examined, they do impart considerable wisdom.

Venue: Duchess Theatre, runs through Aug. 29; Cast: Michael Pennington, David Horovitch, Sophie Roberts, Martin Hutson, Pip Donaghy, Isla Blair, Melanie Jessop; Playwright: Ronald Harwood; Director: Philip Franks; Set designer: Simon Higlett; Lighting designer: Mark Jonathan; Sound designer: John Leonard.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Collaboration', 'Taking Sides', David Horovitch, Duchess Theatre, Michael Pennington, Philip Franks, Ronald Harwood | Comments Off

Magic and mischief in Ron Base’s novel, ‘The Strange’

Posted on June 18, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Few writers know Hollywood better than my Canadian friend Ron Base. As a reporter, film critic, magazine writer, screenwriter and novelist, he has explored the magic of the movies in many ways.

But Toronto-based Base knows his history too and his new novel, “The Strange”, published by West End Books, combines the mystery and marvel of grand cinematic adventures with a taste for the glamour and mystique of 19th century Vienna, London and most especially Paris.

Like the best storytellers, Base in “The Strange” leads you to somewhere you thought you knew, in this case Paris, and reveals it to be even more magical and enchanting than you could possibly have imagined.

It’s a tale of cunning and deception with intrigue, high adventure and vivid characters including a future King of England and the man who built the Eiffel Tower with a plot as tasty and satisfying as dinner at the Ritz.

His tale is of a 14-year-old Parisian orphan named Ned who has the strange gift of kinetic powers. Lost and alone, he becomes ensnared in the machinations of a fascinating woman named Mrs. Nevermore, who has mysterious powers of her own along with a penchant for larceny on a big scale.

Base takes time to draw a colourful ensemble of weird and wonderful characters as he slowly reveals a gambit by Mrs. Nevermore that involves an attempt to sell the Eiffel Tower to England’s Prince of Wales. There is much mischief and mayhem along the way leading to an explosive and highly entertaining climax.

As he showed in his splendid Hollywood novel “Magic Man,” Base has the considerable gift of writing about magical things with a childlike sense of wonder. It’s a great relief from the forced hardboiled approach of many popular authors and makes “The Strange,” as intelligent and eldritch as it is, an appealing read for all ages.

There are two book launches at which Base will sign copies of his novel, first tonight at P. J. O’Brien’s Irish Pub in downtown Toronto and on Sunday at 133 Mill Street in Milton, Ontario.

Posted in Books, Reviews | Tagged 'Magic Man', 'The Strange', Ron Base, West End Books | Comments Off

TV REVIEW: James Nesbitt in BBC Iraq drama, ‘Occupation’

Posted on June 16, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – James Nesbitt has come a long way since he first attracted notice in ITV’s “Cold Feet” in 1987 and he shows that he’s become a fine actor in “Occupation”, a three-part drama about British soldiers in Iraq that runs on three consecutive nights on BBC1 starting tonight at 9 o’clock.

Produced by Kudos (“Spooks,” “Life On Mars”), written by Peter Bowker (“Blackbool”) and directed by Nick Murphy (“Heroes and Villains,” “Primeval”), it’s the tale of three men whose terrible experience in an incident in Basra in 2003 marks them each in separate ways.

Stephen Graham (“Snatch” and soon to appear as Baby Face Nelson with Johnny Depp as Dillinger in Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies”), Warren Brown (“Grownups”) and Nesbitt (“Jekyll,” “Murphy’s Law”) play the soldiers.

The first episode was screened at BAFTA a week or so ago and it was both atmospheric and involving. It’s a change of pace for Nesbitt but he plays the role of a seasoned military man with great assurance.

Nesbitt says, “This is the first soldier I’ve played since I was starting out as a young extra aged 16 or 17, and it was quite daunting. I said to the director early on: ‘I am worried about being believable’. I just couldn’t picture myself. I kept telling him to keep an eye on my military bearing and my authority.”

Nesbitt marched against the UK’s decision to join in the invasion of Iraq and he says he hasn’t changed his mind about that although his attitude towards the men and women who served has been altered by his experience making “Occupation.”

He says, “What has been extraordinary to me and all those involved in ‘Occupation,’ irrespective of our own political persuasions or ideologies, is that we have come away from it with an enormous amount of respect for what they do. The discipline and the commitment of these men doing this job are quite extraordinary and quite moving.”

Screenwriter Bowker did research with an organisation called Combat Stress, which helps veterans deal with the psychological damage of seeing action. Many have serious difficulty settling back into society, suffer mental and psychological problems and turn to drugs.

Booker says, “The thing that I was always reaching for was the emotional and psychological effect of warfare on young men who under any other circumstances might be written off by society and wouldn’t go near admitting they have a mental illness or psychological damage.”

Posted in Reviews, Television | Tagged 'Occupation', BBC1, James Nesbitt, Kudos Films, Nick Morgan, Peter Bowker, Stephen Graham, Warren Brown | Comments Off

FILM REVIEW: ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’

Posted on June 16, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON — Designed to give devoted fans of the 2007 “Transformers,” which grossed more than $700 million worldwide, more of the same, Michael Bay’s sequel “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a nonstop whirl of flying, battling and crashing machinery.

Characters and comedy are in short supply in a plot that’s basically an Indiana Jones-style search for a buried treasure, in this case a 1,000-year-old matrix that will give life back to Optimus Prime, one of the alien robots who is on the side of humans in their fight against the evil Decepticons who are out to destroy them.

With Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox (picture below) back as the leads and massive battles involving ships, planes, tanks, rockets and industrial level shape-changing machines, the film will make another huge dent in the global boxoffice.

With its intelligence at the level of the simple-minded, however, the film is not likely to attract moviegoers who seek something more than a screen filled with kaleidoscopes of colored metal. Fan boys will no doubt love it, but for the uninitiated it’s loud, tedious and, at 147 minutes, way too long.

LaBeouf’s nerdy character Sam is off to college in this one. He barely has time to meet his new roommates before the war games begin. Fox’s hot-chick car mechanic Mikaela has come to visit, and the two are soon off on the international hunt for the missing matrix.

Sam’s nitwit parents (Kevin Dunn, Julie White) are on holiday in Europe. They also get involved along with college fellow Leo (Ramon Rodriguez) and eventually Simmons (John Turturro), a former agent who now works at his mother’s butcher shop. Rainn Wilson is wasted in one scene as a snarky professor.

Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel return as stalwart soldiers, and there’s the expected army of cars, trucks, assorted vehicles and mechanical implements that can become nasty metallic beasts in a flash. The long climax takes place in the Egyptian desert with ancient secrets to be found inside the pyramids with explosions going off all around.

Bay’s team of four editors stitch together smashing but meaningless images, though it’s as difficult to make out which machine is which as it is to tell what anyone is saying. The noise level -– not helped by Steve Jablonsky’s relentless score – is super-intense and everyone yells lines at high speed. Because nothing they’re saying makes any sense, it’s hardly important.

LaBeouf gets little chance to show what charm he might have. Meanwhile, Fox has little to do except look great in a tank top and tight jeans while running in slow motion through flying sand.

Opens: UK: June 19 / US: June 24 (Paramount); Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Rainn Wilson, Jon Voight; Director: Michael Bay; Screenwriters: Alex Kurtzman, Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci; Director of photography: Ben Seresin; Production designer: Nigel Phelps; Music: Steve Jablonsky; Costume designer: Deborah L. Scott; Editor: Roger Barton; Producers: Tom De Santo, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy, Ian Bryce; Executive Producers: Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, Brian Goldner, Mark Vahradian; Presented by DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Pictures in association with Hasbro, Di Bonaventura Pictures. Rated PG13; running time, 150 minutes.

Posted in Film, Reviews | Tagged 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen', Megan Fox, Michael Bay, Shia LeBeouf, The Hollywood Reporter | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: Helen Mirren in ‘Phaedre’

Posted on June 15, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – The National Theatre’s production of Jean Racine’s tragedy “Phaedre,” in a version by British poet Ted Hughes, is so full of “woe is me” lamentations that when John Shrapnel as Theramene begins his round-the-houses description of heroic Hippolytus’ death at sea, you want to ask, “Is this a long story?”

Sadly, it is. Shrapnel does a good job – he roars and he pants – but Hughes crams so much information into the speech with deadening phrases empty of poetry that the torrent of words loses meaning and sounds more like waves crashing on the shore.

But you don’t want to know about that. You want to hear about Helen Mirren, who stars as Phedre and is making her first stage appearance in six years, during which time she won an Oscar for “The Queen.” Unfortunately, she is ill-served by the text and Nicholas Hytner’s direction, and she doesn’t come to grips with the subtler elements of her obsession with stepson Hippolytus, played handsomely by Dominic Cooper (“The History Boys”).

On Bob Crowley’s simmering set, a rocky terrace that looks out to sun and sand, it’s a classic Greek tragedy in which Phedre’s warrior husband, Theseus, the King of Athens, is reported dead, and the queen’s grief gives way to lust for her uninterested stepson.

The problem is that the lust and the flights of fancy that usually result from it are never conveyed. Phedre makes her entrance wrapped in a widow’s shroud with her guilt already on high beam. There’s little to suggest an older woman feeling young and flirty as a result of her passion. When she reveals her longing to the young man, it’s as off-putting as it would be watching a gruesome older man groping a teenager. No wonder Hippolytus is repulsed.

Of course, he’s already smitten with the lithe and spirited Aricia (Ruth Negga), so it’s a no go anyway. But whereas the deluded Phedre might take that as betrayal, here she’s just mildly annoyed until her unctuous servant Oenone (Margaret Tyzack) proposes a sinister solution.

Machinations ensue over who shall inherit the crown, but there are further complications when Theseus (Stanley Townsend) turns out not to be dead and returns to find his palace in an uproar. The rest of the cast does its best, but the drama plays out monotonously lacking sexual tension or much sense of real danger and significance.

Venue: National Theatre, runs through Aug. 27; Cast: Helen Mirren, Dominic Cooper, Margaret Tyzack, John Shrapnel, Ruth Negga, Stanley Townsend; Playwright: Jean Racine, in a version by Ted Hughes; Director: Nicholas Hytner; Set designer: Bob Crowley; Lighting designer: Paule Constable; Music: Adam Cork.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. Photo: Catherine Ashmore

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Phaedre', 'The Queen', Dominic Cooper, Helen Mirren, Jean Racine, National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner, Ted Hughes | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: ‘The Cherry Orchard’ and ‘The Winter’s Tale’

Posted on June 10, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Simon Russell Beale leads a splendid British and American cast in William Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” and Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” as the Bridge Project – which began at the Brooklyn Academy of Music – arrives at the Old Vic.

The two plays, which audiences may see in one afternoon and evening on certain Wednesdays and Saturdays, make up nearly six hours of theater at its best, though ‘Winter’s Tale” is more satisfying and probably best seen second.

Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, who was artistic director at London’s Donmar Warehouse for a decade before turning to films, has assembled a top-rate cast that includes Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton, Tobias Segal and Dakin Matthews from the U.S.; Richard Easton from Canada; Rebecca Hall (pictured with Beale in “The Winter’s Tale” below), Paul Jesson and Morven Christie from the U.K.; and Sinead Cusack (pictured with Beale in “The Winter’s Tale” above) from Ireland.

In “Tale,” Mendes casts the North Americans as the Bohemians, leaving the Sicilians to those from the British Isles, which means the difference in accents is worked to advantage. But it’s not distracting either in the more sober “Cherry Orchard,” most notably in Hawke’s restrained performance as perpetual student Trofimov compared to his flamboyant troubadour thief Autolycus in the former production.

Both plays deal with aspects of change and loss, particularly of children, and Mendes illuminates those themes, drawing fine performances while employing only props and Paul Pyant’s clever lighting to stage many striking images.

Beale reinforces his claim to being the finest stage actor in Britain with a wrenching performance as the mistakenly and vindictively jealous king, Leontes, in “Tale.” The statuesque and graceful Hall gives his faithful but condemned wife Hermione grit and determination to match her radiance, and the pair’s tragedy is immensely moving.

The play changes mood abruptly just before the intermission, and the second act moves from the sad and bitter Sicilian court to 16 years later in Bohemia. Mendes takes a risk in going for a sort of “Hee-Haw” approach to Bohemian life, and apart from a bawdy balloon dance it works. Hawke (pictured above left) gives a standout performance with a nod to Nicholson and Dylan and helps considerably to make these scenes successful.

“Orchard” boasts a witty adaptation by Tom Stoppard based on a literal translation by Helen Rappaport, but the play suffers from the simple fact that the family of fading aristocrats who are about to lose their neglected property fail to win much sympathy.

Cusack, who makes the stepmother in “Tale” strong and sympathetic, plays the colorful but self-indulgent Ranevskaya with great flair and insight. But the fate of her ignored daughter, Vanya, played delicately by Hall, and the conflicted ambitions of serf-turned-entrepreneur Lopakhin, played wonderfully by Beale, is far more significant than what happens to a bunch of inconsiderate and self-pitying wastrels.

Venue: The Old Vic, runs through Aug. 15; Cast: Simon Russell Beale, Sinead Cusack, Ethan Hawke, Rebecca Hall; Playwrights: William Shakespeare; Anton Chekhov, in a new version by Tom Stoppard; Director: Sam Mendes; Set designer: Anthony Ward; Costume designer: Catherine Zuber; Lighting designer: Paul Plyant; Sound designer: Paul Arditti; Music: Mark Bennett; Producers: The Old Vic, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Neal Street Prods.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'The Cherry Orchard', 'The Winter's Tale', Anton Chekhov, Brookly Academy of Music, Ethan Hawke, Rebecca Hall, Sam Mendes, Simon Russell Beale, Sinead Cusack, The Bridge Project, The Old Vic, Tom Stoppard, William Shakespeare | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: Tom Stoppard’s ‘Arcadia’

Posted on June 9, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – There are many terrific productions on currently in London’s West End but none is better than the revival of “Arcadia” at the Duke of York’s theatre, which is revealed as probably Tom Stoppard’s finest play.

Given that the Czech-born British playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter’s output includes such gems as “Tapestries”, “Jumpers” and “Rock-and-Roll”, that is to really say something.

In “Arcadia,” Stoppard achieves the perfect blend of ideas and great comedy so that his intellectual flights are accessible and the laughs are many. Besides a challenge to the brain, it also warms the heart.

The setting is an English country house in Derbyshire where events some time early in the 19th century are being investigated in modern times. Thus there are two time frames. The initial situation involves a supremely bright teenaged girl named Thomasina (Jessie Cave) whose wit and insight constantly surprise her tutor, a lesser poet but a sharp character named Septimus Hodge (Dan Stevens, pictured above with Cave).

Thomasina is inquisitive beyond her years and ready to tackle the scientific theories of Newton and mathematical theories of Fermat. Hodge encourages her brilliance while he dallies with the older women of the household.

Cut to the present day where an opportunistic scholar named Nightingale (Neil Pearson) is drawn to the house by literary clues that suggest the place was the setting for a duel over Lady Caroline Lamb that involved Lord Byron. Current occupants Hannah Jarvis (Samantha Bond) and Valentine Coverly (Ed Stoppard, the playwright’s talented son) meanwhile address the key elements of the second law of aerodynamics.

The scene changes from the present to the past with great ease as Stoppard raises questions of how what is bequeathed by literary and scientific greats serves often only to mystify and mislead future scholars. The playwright’s great gift is to write on such a high level of intelligence and wit and take the audience along with him all the way

The sequences in the 19th century also involve the exquisite Lady Croom (Nancy Carroll), who combines serene hauteur with a taste for fun and games in the gazebo. Carroll’s performance is delicious and well matched by Cave, Stevens, Bond and Stoppard in particular although the entire cast is in top form.

Director David Leveaux is helped greatly by Hildegard Bechtler’s evocative set design and Paul Anderson’s lighting.

Venue: Duke of York’s Theatre, runs through Sept. 12, 2009; Cast: Samantha Bond, Dan Stevens, Nancy Carroll, Neil Pearson, Jessie Cave, Ed Stoppard; Playwright: Tom Stoppard; Director: David Leveaux; Set designer: Hildegard Bechtler; Costume designer: Amy Roberts; Lighting designer: Paul Anderson; Sound designer: Simon Baker for Autograph; Music: Corin Buckeridge.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. Photos by Catherine Ashmore

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Arcadia', Dan Stevens, Dan Stevensm Neil Pearson, David Leveaux, Duke of York's Theatre, Ed Stoppard, Jessie Cave, Nancy Carroll, Samantha Bond, Tom Stoppard | Comments Off

George Fenton Q&A to kick off LSO concert at Barbican

Posted on June 6, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Director Stephen Frears will join composer George Fenton for a conversation with film music expert Tommy Pearson ahead of the London Symphony Orchestra concert of Fenton’s movie scores at the Barbican on Sunday.

The Q&A begins in the Fountain Room, Barbican Level 0, at 6:15 p.m. with the concert starting at 7:30. The concert will feature Fenton conducting his great music for the hit BBC natural history series “Planet Earth” and “The Blue Planet” and films such as Frears’ “Dangerous Liaisons” and “Mrs. Henderson Presents”, and Richard Attenborough’s beautiful “Shadowlands”.

In 2002, Fenton put on shows in London and Los Angeles that combined images from the “Blue Planet” documentary with an orchestra playing his music. I wrote about one that took place in Hyde Park, where I took the photo above. See my review here

Posted in Film, Music, Notes | Tagged 'Planet Earth', 'The Blue Planet', Barbican, George Fenton, Stephen Frears, Tommy Pearson | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: Jude Law in ‘Hamlet’

Posted on June 4, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Anyone who expects a fey and fragile prince from Jude Law in the Donmar’s new West End production of “Hamlet” is in for a surprise as he renders the troubled Dane as rugged and fit, and filled with anger.

It is sometimes overlooked that at the end of the play the crown prince of Norway reckons Hamlet would “like to have proved most royal” and Law shows why with a robust delivery in which his vulnerability is manifested in foul temper.

Delivered while Hamlet sits in falling snow, the “to be or not to be” soliloquy expresses less a querulous contemplation of death than outrage at mankind’s fate in general – “What should such creatures as I do, crawling between heaven and earth?”

His fury over the death of his father, the king, at the hands of his uncle, Claudius (Kevin R. McNally) consumes him. But his dismay that his beloved widowed mother, Gertrude (Penelope Wilton, pictured with Law below)) has so soon married her brother-in-law complicates matters to leave him in a torment of inaction until the climactic duel with Laertes (Alex Waldmann).

Director Michael Grandage defies Shakespeare and acknowledges Law’s star power by opening the curtain on Hamlet sitting silent and pensive in twin spotlights. But if it’s a movie star that is drawing the huge crowds to the last show in the year-long Donmar season at Wyndham’s Theatre, then at least they will see one who is a genuine stage actor in a production that is clear, passionate and involving.

Wilton is an exceptional Gertrude, demonstrating her shift from gullibility to knowing regret and Gugu Mbatha-Raw is a beguiling Ophelia, sliding sweetly into madness. The moment she begins to sing her addled laments is mesmerizing and chilling.

McNally’s Claudius is a bit too matter-of-fact and John McMillan and Gwilym Lee as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are under served by the direction. Ron Cook wins laughs as Polonius, Matt Ryan makes a stalwart Horatio and Peter Eyre, with his droll delivery, has great fun as the Player King.

Best of the males besides Law is Waldmann as Laertes, Ophelia’s grief-stricken brother who seeks revenge upon Hamlet. When the two of them draw blades for their fateful duel, the action is fierce and exciting.

Tall sliding doors opening on a bleak wall at the rear of the stage and billowing curtains at the front in Christopher Oram’s clever design, and skilful lighting design by Neil Austin contribute to the play’s clean and striking presentation.

Venue: Wyndham’s Theatre, runs through August 22; Cast: Jude Law, Penelope Wilton, Kevin R. McNally, Ron Cook, Alex Waldmann, Gugu MBatha-Raw, Peter Eyre, Matt Ryan; Playwright: William Shakespeare; Director: Michael Grandage; Set designer: Christopher Oram; Lighting designer: Neil Austin; Music, sound designer: Adam Cork; Presented by: Donmar Warehouse.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. Photos by Johan Persson.

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Hamlet', Donmar Warehouse, Donmar West End, Jude Law, Michael Grandage, Penelope Wilton, William Shakespeare, Wyndham's Theatre | Comments Off

Actor David Carradine dies aged 72

Posted on June 4, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Associated Press has reported out of Bangkok that actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series “Kung Fu” who had a wide-ranging career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital. A news report said he was found hanged in his hotel room and he is believed to have been murdered. Investigation is ongoing. He was 72.

Carradine was always a forthright individual and he gave me one of the best interviews I’ve ever done. I ran into him at the Festival de Cannes at the opening Marché Party in May 2000 and he agreed to meet for a beer and a chat at the Noga Hilton.

“The secret to Cannes,” he told me, “is: Don’t hustle. Let everyone else hustle. Then you can have fun.”

Carradine had been coming to the festival on and off for over 20 years. He had films in competition, he won a prize, and he usually responded when a producer asked him to help get attention for a picture.

He said, “Often I’ll come without portfolio, as it were. I hang out; do an interview here and there; take a couple of meetings; go to a party or two and get bored instantly. I make so many independent movies that there are always two or three in the marketplace I don’t even know about.”

He said he always enjoyed it. Not least because in Europe he was associated more with such films as “Bound for Glory” and “The Long Riders,” and having worked with Ingmar Bergman, than for his cult TV series, “Kung Fu.”

Carradine said, “I had no idea that show would change things and mean so much to people, but my life has been very arbitrary. I wish it weren’t. I wish I could direct my destiny. There are many things I wished I could do that I never did. Too old to play Hamlet now. Better hurry up and play Lear.”

Like many of the genre actors who worked outside the studio system, he said he made B pictures because he enjoyed the work. He had one called “Nightfall” at Cannes in 2000, and he left mid-festival to head for British Columbia to make a western titled “By Dawn’s Early Light” with Richard Crenna.

He said, “For me, I want to work, if there’s something at hand to do. But something about the project needs to jog me. Even at my age, I’m still trying to make a name for myself.”

He was in Cannes that year with his brother Robert Carradine, who was known for the “Revenge of the Nerds’ films: “We don’t get to see each other a lot because we’re always off on location somewhere, so that was nice. Usually at a party there’s a little meditating pool of quiet where I can talk, say, to Gene Hackman about cars and planes.”

He had no time for people who went home from Cannes complaining: “People in L.A. say Cannes is such a drag. I say, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ The place is beautiful, the food is beautiful, the women are beautiful. It’s because they were on the second floor of the Carlton sweating and praying, desperate. Fuck that.”

Posted in Festival de Cannes, Film, Interviews | Tagged David Carradine, Festival de Cannes | 1 Comment

RAY BENNETT | movies • stage • TV • music

THEATRE REVIEW: Ronald Harwood’s ‘Taking Sides’, ‘Collaboration’

Magic and mischief in Ron Base’s novel, ‘The Strange’

TV REVIEW: James Nesbitt in BBC Iraq drama, ‘Occupation’

FILM REVIEW: ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’

THEATRE REVIEW: Helen Mirren in ‘Phaedre’

THEATRE REVIEW: ‘The Cherry Orchard’ and ‘The Winter’s Tale’

THEATRE REVIEW: Tom Stoppard’s ‘Arcadia’

George Fenton Q&A to kick off LSO concert at Barbican

THEATRE REVIEW: Jude Law in ‘Hamlet’

Actor David Carradine dies aged 72

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