Arts Movie Reviews

I saw this work many years ago and it has stayed with me all this time. It stands out as masterful acting by Miss Danner; her work is touching and delicate. The play is a work of genus. It is too bad that is it not known as well as some of Tennessee Williams other works.

This is a well written captivating play. I like it for several
reasons. The acting is superb. I have always been a huge
fan of Bythe Danner even though I come from her daughter's
generation. I also adore the incredibly handsome Frank
Langella--I am a huge fan of his:) Both these actors give
their characters many special emotions and by the play's
finale I felt like I knew them both or knew someone like
them:) Anyway it is so good that such theatre works are
preserved in DVD format so future generarions can appreciate the simpler and finer things of life.

Thank Heaven for Broadway Theatre Archive. For the past few years, the company has been releasing older television productions of great stage works, as well as a select number of theatrically staged videos (such as the Shakespeare-in-the-Park productions of "King Lear" with James Earl Jones and "The Pirates of Penzance" with Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt). Some of these television productions are truly legendary: Jason Robards in "The Iceman Cometh," and Robards and Colleen Dewhurst in the landmark production of "A Moon for the Misbegotten." The present DVD edition of Tennessee Williams' "Eccentricities of a Nightingale" deserves to join their ranks.

"Nightingale" is Williams' revision of 1948's "Summer and Smoke" (my favorite Williams play, incidentally). It tells essentially the same story of the spinsterish minister's daughter whose consuming love for her next-door neighbor remains unreciprocated. "Nightingale" is less allegorical than its predecessor and more tightly focused on the fascinating central character of Alma Winemiller, who Williams once claimed was his favorite character of all those that he had written.

All the roles in this production are in eminently capable hands, with particular pride of place among the supporting players going to Louise Latham as the mentally unbalanced Mrs. Winemiller, Tim O'Connor as Alma's well-intentioned but misguided father, and Neva Patterson as the two-faced Mrs. Buchanan, oozing both Southern charm and venom. As the object of Alma's affections, Frank Langella plays the most warm and romantic John Buchanan I have ever seen. Other Johns have seemed cocky or cold, but Langella seems to genuinely care about Alma rather than merely tolerating her. Played like this, it is quite easy to see how Alma could fall in love with him.

However, this is Alma's show, and in that role Blythe Danner is a raw, exposed nerve-ending, alternating between lyric melancholy and barely concealed hysteria. It is an exquisitely shaded performance, full of rich colors and nuance, and it is on a par with the sublime Geraldine Page's performance of the same role in the film version of "Summer and Smoke." Both actresses capture the character's need to burst forth from her own skin, of being strait-jacketed by the social mores of the period, and of being on the precipice of a dangerous emotional drop-off point. If Page owned the role of Alma in "Summer and Smoke," Danner clearly owns the Alma of "Eccentricities." She is simply stunning.

Don't expect stunning picture quality -- the production was filmed in 1976 on video, so it is roughly akin to watching a mid-1970's soap opera. However, the performances are what matter here, and they truly deliver. If you love Tennessee Williams, Blythe Danner, or if you simply enjoy great drama, don't let this one pass you by.

It's hard to describe Eddie Izzard to people who've never seen him before. I was flipping channels once and came across an English transvestite (excuse me, "executive transvestite") doing a comedy routine in Alcatraz prison. I stopped flipping channels, and, for the next two hours, almost died laughing. Izzard's humor is unique and it works on many levels. A lot of comedians target a particular demographic. Their humor can be too trite or too low-brow or too high-brow for some. Not Eddie. On the one hand, he's clearly intelligent and educated and his comedy contains much that will tickle even the most intellectual of viewers. But he combines this with good old-fashioned silliness and dead-on impressions that he will have the most slack-jawed luddite in stitches.

Even as I type this, I'm laughing to myself thinking about several of his routines ("Cake or death?") and will probably go home and watch it again. And that's the reason why I recommend the DVD. A lot of standup humor is funny the first time, but loses its edge. Eddie's improves. I laughed *more* the second time I saw it.

Buy it. You'll love it. I can't wait until his next performance.

I caught "Dress To Kill" on HBO comedy a couple of months ago. At first I was put off by this guy wearing make-up and wearing a feminine pant suit. That didn't last long because I was too busy laughing, smiling or just being so interested in what this English guy was saying.

There are so many great moments in this comedy routine. Since the English language comes from England, we Americans cannot pretend to have any real authority on the language. Eddie talks about words we say differently. "You say erb. We say Herb, because there's a (expletive deleted) "H" in it."

Everything from how the British play bad guys in our movies because of the Revolutionary War, how he lost his virginity before he lost it, how you can tell members of the Church of England, Disney castles in Europe, and what is considered "old" in America are discussed.

You will just have to hear this for yourself to appreciate it. I don't find many stand-up comedians very interesting today, but Eddie Izzard is very original and hilarious in "Dress to Kill." Highly recommended.

Eddie Izzard is hilarious. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. As a historian i really appreciate how accurate he is history wise, and how funny he makes it. This is with out a doubt the best HBO special since Dana Carvey.

Ok, if you've seen Eddie Izzard onstage or in D2K and are addicted to his style of stand-up, you will definitely enjoy this. If you are looking that will make you fall on the floor laughing, go buy Dress to Kill or Glorious first. However Eddie Izzard's material is more than just for laughs; he's one of the few enterainers that offers more. This DVD offers just as many segments of him pointing out things that will make you double take your favorite movie, religion, history, etc.

True, it is not nearly as funny as his other material, at least not this performance. And the bonus documentary on the disc explains why. In addition to being shouted at mid-show, the clever editing masks the sound blowing out with Eddie having to shout "from ze diaphragm," trying a cord mic, and having to apologize and take an intermission to fix the tech, keeping his cool the whole time. It's still a brilliant and triumphant performance with gold material.

The documentary itself is also well worth it, including a drunk interview and the like.

So in the end, if you know Eddie Izzards style, get this. If not, introduce yourself to it with another of his shows, and pick this one up later.

In Circle, Eddie Izzard is still the madcap comedian we all know and love, but filming in front of a New York audience seems to have put a bit of a damper on his normally frenetic pace. Izzard always makes a point of assuming his audience's intelligence, but in this show it seems he is limited by his American audience - he takes the time to explain some Britsh phrases and expressions and a great bit about the Northern Ireland peace process ends with Izzard sighing, "Do you know there are other countries?" As a previous reviewer already noted, this DVD was pieced together from one show on one night recorded in one go and as a result feels a bit unpolished in its delievery. However, having seen his most recent show, Sexie, live in Minneapolis, I can say that Circle DVD seems to be a more realistic portrayal of his real live shows.

The Circle DVD is also much shorter than the marathon show we were blessed with on the Dress to Kill DVD. Circle, like most of his filmed shows prior to Dress to Kill, runs about 80 minutes (just enough time to fit onto the CD release) instead of the Dress to Kill DVD's 120 or thereabouts (Eddie mentions on his commentary track that much of the stuff that was cut from Circle was him playing with the audience). His liberal stance on politics is evident in bits about gun control and religious fanatics. Much of his material is also more structured - there is a definite sketch format to some of his routines, especially the Darth Vader bit at the end. Here, his delivery is slick and seems far more rehearsed than his normal scatterbrained approach. However, perhaps that is to expected since the show was filmed at the end of his four month world tour, after most of his material had been set and performed night after night with little room for improv. After this time, Eddie notes on the commentary track that, unfortunately, his delivery becomes less like a conversation with the audience and more like a "prayer."

That is not to say Circle is without its fair share of geniunely funny moments, and it would be a crime to give away any of them. Despite some of the limitations placed on him, you can still see his surreal self shining through. The DVD also includes the "Dress to Circle" cut of one of his Paris gigs in French which was also on the Dress to Kill DVD. With English subtitles, it is a throughly enlightening look into his comedic mind as filtered by another language. There is also a short behind-the-scenes feature that has some fascinating and amusing moments and also shows Izzard at his absolute improvisational best with footage from the attempted taping of the show the night before the one featured on the DVD, in which he carries on brilliantly through technical problems in the sound system. In short, Circle is unlikely to be the sensation that Dress to Kill was when it stormed the Emmies a few years back, but in the end, its still a rare opportunity to experience one of the strangest and funniest minds of our time.

i must admit i was a little disappointed the first time I watched this. was looking for the d2k rolling on the floor funny, but this is a very good dvd. I love the extras and Circle IS funny! plus it's EDDIE! the man is phenominal! I gave it five stars because it gets better with each viewing. I saw him in SEXIE in Boston and it was GREAT! Amazon, I'm ready to pre-order my SEXIE DVD now! I hope Eddie doesn't make us wait too long for that one!

I love this opera. Dvorak wrote exquisite music for this fairytale. I saw a production of it at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and thought it was wonderful: I had to have a video of it, but what a disapointment. There is no resemblance to what I think Dvorak had in mind and this awful version. I would wager that he is turning over in his grave. I can't imagine what was in the mind of the stager who so distorted this beautiful opera.

Let me start by saying that I have never seen any performances of Rusalka besides this one. Maybe if I had seen a normal performance before this one, I might enjoy it more. I doubt it though. There are many things that just are done poorly. As said before this is an interpretive production. The interpretation does nothing but confuse me. I never know where any of the scenes are taking place. The scenery is all pretty much the same, except for certain objects on stage that are supposed to create different settings for the different scenes. Most of the scenes have very little scenerey, making this production incredibly boring, seeing a huge stage with harly anything filling it up. The first scene appears to take place in a nursery, but there is a big hole in the floor with a pond underneath. Isn't the nursery supposed to represent the life under the lake? If so why is there a lake/pond in the middle of the floor? Aren't they already "underwater." Why does Rusalka sing "Song to the Moon" with her back to the moon? In the second act, there is a glass cube witha single bed in it. I guess this is a bedroom. Whose bedroom is it? How come when the prince is supposed to straddle Rusalka and choke her it looks like he is so weak that he would be incapable of choking a small animal? Why is the glass bedroom right in the middle of the ballroom during the dance scene? Why is there a backdrop of the sky during the ballroom scene? Those are just some questions that occur to me when I watch this performance. As said before, this is an English translation of the Czech libretto, and it is pretty obvious. The text just doesn't fit well with the music at all. There are also no subtitles to help with the parts that are difficult to hear, which are many. The sound is also very shaky. There is a constant flutter throughout the performance. It is most audible when one of the woodwinds holds out a long note. The acting performances are horrible. I blame the director, though. The acting is just extremely overexaggerated in the facial expressions and movements which is a common tendency for many actors which is usually remedied by a good or even mediocre director. I think the casting for the prince was a mistake too. He looks about twice the age of Rusalka, and should have been cast as one of the hunters that accompany the prince in the first act. His mullet and ugly moustache look anything but regal. Not the kind of guy you would give up your immortality and your voice to be with, as Rusalka does. The reason this gets two stars instead of one is that Dvorak's score is magical, and contains everything that I love about his music. Unfortunately this is the only performance available on VHS or DVD. After reading previous reviews, I decided to buy this DVD anyway just because I like Dvorak's music so much, and I wanted to see how he handled operatic music. Don't make the same mistake I did.

This opera video is well-done in every respect, but it's not what I expected, so let me share my experience with you. The director, David Pountney, interprets the traditional "Little Mermaid" fairy tale in a Freudian vein: Here, Rusalka is a young girl on the threshold of sexual maturity who longs to be an adult -- and longs for her Prince. In her imagination, her sisters become the water-nymphs, her Grandfather is the Spririt of the Waters, and so on. Not exactly the traditional production of this opera, but it's very well-done, and the singing is excellent (not outstanding, but excellent). If you're an opera buff, you'll probably enjoy it anyway. Please know, however, that this opera is sung in English rather than Czech; naturally, there are no subtitles. Why, oh why, did they spoil the libretto and the arias that are part of our canon? I guess I can appreciate the artistic setting, but I'm a purist when it comes to the composer's music, and in opera, that includes the human instrument.