By Ray Bennett
No visit to Edinburgh is complete without stopping in at the Halfway House pub on Fleshmarket Close in Old Town between Cockburn Street and Market Street.
It is one of the best real ale pubs in Britain and the food is great too. Yesterday, it was a plate of beef and venison casserole followed by a rhubarb fool. A pint or two of An teallach ale and all is right with the world.
Here’s the pub’s website.
By Ray Bennett
I saw George Carlin, who died today aged 71, perform live in Detroit and Los Angeles and he always put me on the floor.
One of his most observant and funniest routines was simply about “stuff”: my stuff, your stuff, the stuff we collect and all the stuff we put up with but all of his routines identified things in our lives that struck him as odd.
The New York Times has his obituary and links to several stories, and comic Jerry Seinfeld also has written a piece. Here’s how it starts:
“The honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about. I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes.
“We were talking about Tim Russert and Bo Diddley and George said: “I feel safe for a while. There will probably be a break before they come after the next one. I always like to fly on an airline right after they’ve had a crash. It improves your odds.’”
Read Jerry Seinfeld’s full article and more about Carlin in The New York Times
By Ray Bennett
EDINBURGH – French filmmaker Olivier Assayas’s film “Summer Hours” was commissioned to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. Its depth of character, therefore, comes as something of a surprise.
He has chosen to weave the museum’s goal of preserving the best of French art into the transition of one family’s home and heirlooms from one generation to the next, and both his screenplay and direction make the most of the notion.
It’s not hugely dramatic but it does feel real and with beautiful settings and an ensemble cast of big French names topped by Oscar-winner Juliette Binoche, the film will find a warm reception from art-house audiences.
Binoche, Charles Berling and Jeremie Renier play siblings celebrating the 75th birthday of their mother Helene (Edith Scob) at her lovely family home in the country. The place is filled with memories and impressive artifacts collected by their great uncle, who was a renowned artist.
Aware of her responsibility as the caretaker of some precious works, Helene impresses the reluctant but dutiful Frederic (Berling) of the need to make the necessary arrangements for their safe disposal upon her death. When that comes unexpectedly soon, Frederic finds himself bearing the weight of responsibility with Adrienne (Binoche) now living in New York and Jeremie (Renier) in Shanghai.
Assayas draws finely measured performances from his cast as they discuss what to do, and he encourages cinematographer Eric Gautier to observe their small moments of familial intimacy. He gives one of his characters an intriguing romantic mystery while capturing the nostalgia of the family home and lingering on its nooks, crannies and hideaways.
Assayas makes the point that objects of fascination and affection to one generation may be far less so to the next and he observes the role that people-friendly museums can play in keeping a nation’s treasures safe with pleasing subtlety.
Venue: Edinburgh International Film Festival; Cast: Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jeremie Renier, Edith Scob, Dominique Raymond, Valerie Bonneton, Isabelle Sadoyan, Kyle Eastwood, Alice de Lencquesaing, Emile Berling, Jean-Baptiste Malartre; Director: Oliver Assayas; Screenwriter: Oliver Assayas; Director of photography: Eric Gautier; Production designer: Francois-Renaud Labarthe; Costume designers: Anais Romand, Jurgen Doering; Editor: Luc Barnier; Producers: Charles Gilbert, Marin Karmitz, Nathanael Karmitz. Production: MK2 Productions, Canal Plus, Region Ile-de-France; Sales: IFC Films; No MPAA rating, running time 103 mins.
This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.
By Ray Bennett
EDINBURGH – The “Stone of Destiny” in Charles Martin Smith’s pedestrian new film is the macguffin that a group of Scottish nationalists plan to repatriate from the heart of England in order to encourage the movement for Scotland’s independence.
Shrouded in myth and also known as the Coronation Stone, it’s a slab of rock taken from Scotland by an English king 1000 years ago and kept for ages at Westminster Abbey. The film is based on a true incident in 1950 when some students from Glasgow broke into the Abbey and stole it.
Intended as a rousing feel-good tale of rebellion, the film suffers from slack direction and bland performances with very little tension and no surprises. Box office prospects are slim beyond what can be drummed up from the worldwide Scottish community but it’s not going to cause many to spill their whisky.
Based on a book by central character Ian Hamilton (Charles Cox), “Stone of Destiny” relates in some awe what is obviously meant to be the daredevil escapade of an idealistic young man who relishes the opportunity of making a name for himself.
Although his best mate (Billy Boyd) decides not to put his education and future employment at risk, Ian recruits two other young men (Stephen McCole and Ciaron Kelly) and a pretty young woman named Kay (Kate Mara, pictured with Cox)) with no arm-twisting at all.
With financial backing from a prominent educator and politician (Robert Carlyle), they set off to London to scout the layout of Westminster Abbey and plan their raid. Curiously, the presence of four young Scottish people in London arouses a great deal of suspicion as if everyone knows what they’re up to. It stretches credibility and so do the foursome’s contrived antics during the raid, which involve missed signals, dropped keys and lots of running about in the rain.
Veterans Carlyle, Mullan and Flicker have cameos but the film rests on the youngsters, especially Cox and Mara, who do their best but cannot enliven the dull script. By sticking reasonably close to the actual events, the film has to reach for its heroes’ small victories but they’re not enough to make the picture memorable.
Venue: Edinburgh Inrternational Film Festival; Cast: Charlie Cox, Kate Mara, Stephen McCole, Ciaron Kelly, Billy Boyd, Robert Carlyle, Peter Mullan, Brenda Flicker; Director: Charles Martin Smith; Screenwriter: Charles Martin Smith; Director of photography: Glen Winter; Production designer: Tom Sayer; Music: Mychael Danna; Costume designer: Trisha Biggar; Editor: Fredrik Thorsen; Producers: Andrew Boswell, Rob Merilees; Executive producers: Terrence Yason, Michael S. Murphy, Charles Martin Smith, William Vince, Carole Sheridan, Victor Loewy; Production: Infinity Features Entertainment and the Mob Film Company; Rated PG, running time, 96 mins.
This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.
By Ray Bennett
EDINBURGH – Lyrical and haunting, Gideon Koppel’s documentary feature “Sleep Furiously” is a love letter to a way of life in rural Wales that is fast disappearing.
It is filled with images of the faces and hands of folk who see that small-scale agriculture is giving way to the modern world but who still enjoy the intimacy of their connection to the harsh but beautiful landscape that provides them with a hard-won living.
Shot on film so that the rich textures of physiognomy and geology register fully, the picture will thrive on the festival circuit and will delight art house audiences. It should have a long life not only as an historical record but also for Koppel’s patient and artistic filmmaking.
He spent months filming the locals of the hill-farming community of Trefeurig in mid-Wales, some 50 miles north of where Dylan Thomas set his fictional village in “Under Milk Wood.” The director says it is a film “for” Thomas if not a contemporary translation.
Teachers lead their pupils in a choir and a percussion band; farmers make hay; a calf is born, and then piglets; sheep are sheared. A poet in Wellington Boots laments the replacement of a sturdy wooden signpost with a cheap metal one that swings in the wind. A woman walks the hills with her dog and places a stone by a gravestone. Summer blows away and winter comes to linger. Koppel’s camera catches it all from sunshine on leafy trees to the mist rolling across the heath.
Starting with a town crier ringing his bell on a deserted hill road and covering the closure of the local school; many local traditions including sheep trials, cookery contests and gardening competitions; and what feels like the last harvest, Koppel views the place with a smile and a tear in his eye.
Venue: Edinburgh International Film Festival;
Director: Gideon Koppel; Director of Photography: Gideon Koppel; Music: Aphex Twin; Editor: Mario Battistel; Producers: Gideon Koppel, Margaret Matheson. Executive producers: Mike Figgis, Serge Lalou; Production: Film Agency Wales in association with Bard Entertainments and Van Film; No MPAA rating, running time, 94 mins.
This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.
By Ray Bennett
EDINBURGH – Leo Tolstoy’s story of compulsive jealousy set to the disturbing chords of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s “The Kreutzer Sonata” is given a lurid screen treatment by British director Bernard Rose.
Danny Huston plays a wealthy and cultured man whose love for his beautiful pianist wife (Elisabeth Rohm) is undone by his ungrounded fear that she is being unfaithful with a hunky young violinist (Matthew Yang King).
Told in flashbacks, the film has a steady undercurrent of dread since what has just happened as the film begins is revealed only at the end in a very gory and not entirely unexpected climax. Huston’s narration holds the attention and his sexual antics with Rohm (from TV’s “Law and Order”) are quite heated but the film doesn’t really illuminate what drives sexual jealousy. Sure to be admired at festivals, the film’s box office prospects remain iffy.
Huston plays Edgar Hudson, a rich man who runs a well-funded charitable foundation but while he later reveals he was once married there is little information about him beyond what he relates in the voice-over. He meets pianist Abigail at a party and they immediately commence rutting like it was going out of style.
They marry but life changes when two infants arrive and it’s not long before Abigail is longing for some independence. Edgar takes that as her wishing to be with other men and when a handsome violinist is hired to play at a charity event his imagination starts to run wild.
The musical selection they are to play is Beethoven’s Opus 47 No. 9, known as “The Kreutzer Sonata,” a piece of music that Edgar has read feels to its performers as if they are making love. Rose cuts back and forth to the complicated and sometimes furious music as events, real and imagined, transpire and Edgar begins to froth at the mouth and eye the kitchen carving knives.
Anjelica Huston shows up for a quiet scene toward the end as Edgar’s concerned sister, who senses that all is not well. The film veers from that restraint to all-out passion although Danny Huston does a good job of conveying the growing madness behind Edgar’s cultivated demeanor while Rohm gives herself selflessly to her performance, baring all physically and emotionally.
Rose has done Tolstoy before (“Anna Karenina” and “Ivan XTC,” both with Huston) and explored the madness in Beethoven’s music (“Immortal Beloved”), but he also makes horror films such as “Candyman.” Mixing all three elements, only the composer was ever likely to make it out in one piece.
Venue: Edinburgh International Film Festival; Cast: Danny Huston, Elisabeth Rohm, Matthew Yang King, Anjelica Huston; Director: Bernard Rose; Screenwriters: Lisa Enos, Bernard Rose, based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy; Director of photography: Bernard Rose; Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven; Editor: Bernard Rose; Producers: Naomi Despres, Lisa Enos; Executive producers: Lisa Henson; Production companies: Animandala, Giant Door Productions; Sales: Independent; No MPAA rating, running time, 100 mins.
This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.
By Ray Bennett
EDINBURGH – Gillian Armstrong’s “Death Defying Acts” is a tale of illusion and self-delusion in which the great magician Harry Houdini becomes in thrall to a beautiful woman who is the spitting image of his late mother.
Set in Edinburgh in the 1920s, the film has a good cast topped by Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones (pictured), a decent love story, and lots of atmosphere. What it lacks is a villain, and magic without danger is simply a parlor trick, which is what the film becomes. Devoted fans of the stars will likely be the only ones clamoring to see it but although picked up for distribution in the United States by the Weinstein Co., it’ll probably be on DVD when they do.
Pearce became remarkably fit to play the athletic illusionist and he brings his typically resourceful acting to bear on the role of the famous showman. Mourning his mother and angry at not being by her side when she died, Houdini advertises for people who claim they can speak to the departed and humiliates them savagely when they prove inevitably to be fakes.
In the Scottish capital, however, there is a canny woman named Mary McGarvie (Zeta-Jones), a beautiful single mother who makes ends meet by performing as a psychic in music halls with daughter Benji (Saoirse Ronan) using trickery to learn about their audience. When the great Houdini comes to town offering $10,000 to anyone able demonstrate that it’s possible to communicate with the hereafter, Mary goes for it. Her likeness to Houdini’s mother causes him to choose her for the experiment although his manager, Mr. Sugarman (Timothy Spall) sees her as a gold-digger.
The screenplay by Tony Grisoni and Brian Ward makes use of Houdini’s stunts and obsessions and creates a credible mother and daughter relationship for Oscar-winner Zeta-Jones and nominee Ronan (“Atonement”). Pearce and Zeta-Jones look good and there’s nothing wrong with their performances that a little chemistry wouldn’t put right. That Mary resembles closely the man’s mother is glossed over once the romance begins but not convincingly enough.
Armstrong’s direction is more workmanlike than inspired and the film never catches fire as a tale of mystery and mischief really should.
Venue: Edinburgh International Film Festival; Cast: Guy Pearce, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Timothy Spall, Saoirse Ronan; Director: Gillian Armstrong; Writers: Tony Grisoni, Brian Ward; Director of photography: Haris Zambarloukos; Production designer: Gemma Jackson; Music: Cezary Skubiszewski; Costume designer: Susannah Buxton; Editor: Nicholas Beauman; Producers: Chris Curling, Marian MacGowan. Executive producers: Dan Lupovitz, David M. Thompson, Brian Ward; Production: Film Finance Corporation Australia Limited Limited, BBC Films, the UK Film Council, Myriad Pictures present a Macgowan Lupovitz Nasatir Films, Zephyr Films Houdini Limited production; Not rated; running time, 96 minutes.
This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.
By Ray Bennett
EDINBURGH — A poet, a warrior and their two lovers form a complicated quartet in John Maybury’s “The Edge of Love,” a story of wartime romance in which fidelity and trust are put to the strictest test.
The poet is the extraordinary Welshman Dylan Thomas, played with echoes of the young Richard Burton by Matthew Rhys, but the film’s literary appeal is made broader due to excellent playing by Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller as the main women in his life.
The film captures superbly the claustrophobic atmosphere of London in the Blitz during World War Two and measures the irreconcilable differences between love and war and between poetry and combat. It film succeeds as a deeply involving study of men and women caught up in a whirlwind beyond their control.
It will take careful marketing for the film to find its audience but the big names involved, the ongoing fascination with Thomas, and some excellent music supplied by veteran Angelo Badalamenti all serve it well.
Sharman Macdonald’s astute screenplay swiftly sets up the dynamic between the foursome. Thomas is a sweet and gifted man who can be a right bastard and as the film starts he is writing propaganda films as a conscientious objector. In a London pub, he runs into his childhood sweetheart Vera (Knightley), who is a talented singer reduced to performances in London Underground stations while the Nazi bombs fall.
To Vera’s dismay, Thomas has a cheerfully unfaithful wife, Caitlin (Miller), but the two fast become friends and turn into a threesome. That relationship is disturbed, however, when soldier William Killick (Cillian Murphy) falls in love with Vera and sets out to woo her. The film follows their story as Killick is sent off to battle and Vera becomes pregnant. When the warrior returns much changed, there is a seismic shift that affects all of them.
With excellent contributions from production designer Alan MacDonald and cinematographer Jonathan Freeman, Maybury draws terrific performances from his cast. Rhys (TV’s “Brothers and Sisters”) reads Thomas’s poetry wonderfully and plays the Welsh icon with warts and all. Murphy (“Sunshine”) also brings poetry to the role of the warrior.
In the end, the picture belongs to the women as Knightley goes from strength to strength (and shows she can sing!) while Miller proves once again that she has everything it takes to be a major movie star.
Venue: Edinburgh International Film Festival; Cast: Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy, Matthew Rhys; Director: John Maybury; Writer: Sharman Macdonald; Producers: Rebekah Gilbertson, Sarah Radcliffe; Director of photography: Jonathan Freeman; Production designer: Alan MacDonald; Music: Angelo Badalamenti; Costume Designer: April Ferry; Editor: Emma E. Hickox; Executive producers: David Bergstein, Paul Brett, Linda James, Hannah Leader, Nick Hill, Joe Oppenheimer, Tim Smith, David M. Thompson; Sales: Capitol; No MPAA rating, running time, 109 mins.
This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.
By Ray Bennett
Sometimes all you want at the theater is a good time, and that’s just what’s on offer with “Dickens Unplugged,” a witty and agreeable show from one of the founders of London’s long-running spoof “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.”
Born in New York, raised in California and based in London, Adam Long was one of the founders of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and as writer, director and star he applies the same clever and irreverent principles to the life, times and works of Charles Dickens.
With a troupe of energetic performers who play guitar, dress up in drag and generally make fun of every Dickens plotline and cliche, Long provides an evening guaranteed to please.
Gabriel Vick has a wickedly good time lampooning Dickens, while Joseph Attenborough, Matthew Hendrickson, Simon Jermond and Long play assorted characters from Dickens’ life and books.
Literary snobs had better stay home as the boys, in the form of “The best Charles Dickens tribute band in Santa Cruz, CA,” show little mercy for the writer’s sometimes heavy-handed and sentimental prose.
The adapters of his stories in film and the theater are not spared either, with the musical “Oliver!” and the filmed versions of “A Christmas Carol” especially hauled over the satirical coals.
“Would you like to come and live with a kind-hearted Jew with a thing for little boys?” an oversized Oliver is asked, while Nancy sings the anthem to her beloved thug Bill, “As Long as He Beats Me.”
Such stories as “Bleak House” and “The Old Curiosity Shop” are dispatched in a few withering bars of song, while “David Copperfield,” “Great Expectations” and “A Tale of Two Cities” are given longer but no less savage treatment.
Long has some lines in which some of the fictional characters complain to their creator about how miserable they are. When Mr. Micawber from “Copperfield” does that, Dickens chides him, “It could have been worse, you could have been Uriah Heep.”
The music is infectious and the players appear to be having just as much fun as the audience, which is sometimes a very good thing.
Venue: Comedy Theatre, runs through Sept. 21; Cast: Joseph Attenborough, Matthew Hendrickson, Simon Jermond, Adam Long, Gabriel Vick. Playwright-Director: Adam Long. Designer: Lez Brotherston. Lighting Designer: Jon Clark. Sound Designer: Gareth Owen for Orbital Sound.
This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Neil LaBute’s social comedy “Fat Pig” could easily be titled “Skinny Weasel” because it deals with a young man in love with a pretty but very large young woman and who lacks the self-confidence to ignore the derision of his workmates.
The provocative non-PC title along with performers well known in Britain from television are drawing theatergoers to see the production, but it is not as challenging or funny as it might be.
LaBute, who directs his own play, takes it as a given that the average yuppie is naturally slim and disdainful of anyone, especially a woman, who tips the scales beyond bikini weight.
When Tom (Robert Webb) meets Helen (Ella Smith, pictured with Webb) at a busy lunch table, their encounter is marked by his being ill at ease with a friendly female and her being on guard for the slightest reference to her poundage.
Still, they hit it off, and Tom soon finds himself relaxing in the beginnings of a comfortable relationship. But then slick co-worker Carter (Kris Marshall), who ribs Tom about anything sexual, sees the size of his new paramour and the mockery commences.
Things get worse when Jeannie (Joanna Page), a pretty, slim co-worker that Tom had been dating, takes umbrage over his preference for the embrace of a woman twice her size.
The play is reasonably entertaining with good performances, and it makes its challenging point well enough. Curiously, though, LaBute is not as salacious or cruel as you might expect him to be. Also, he is not helped by having his fine cast members speak in generic American accents.
There’s nothing about the play’s point that is unique to U.S. culture, and with such familiar British performers onstage, you can’t help thinking that left to themselves, and using their own voices, the humor would be far more biting and amusing.
This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.
