Arts Movie Reviews

The beauty of Pryor's stand-up is that he seems to share seriously revealing aspects of his personal life for the sake of comedy and entertainment. The moment when he is talking about the junkies are an example of that. The routine changes from stand-up to captivating theatre when he talks about the junkie "Motif". Pryor gets into character and when he begins to roll his sleeve up indicating he is about to 'shoot up' it goes from comedy to commentary. You clearly see the sad reality painted by him yet he doesn't go too far out of the comedic light to still make you laugh. He walks that fine line between funny and seriousness. That is part of the reason why Pryor is considered a comedy genius and I haven't seen another comedian do that better.

The DVD is a two-sided disc with widescreen on one side and full screen on the other. The audio is digital mono with english and french subtitles (at least on the disc I own).

People say that this isn't his best stand up routine but that doesn't mean it is bad stand up. Pryor has stand up routines that are tough to measure up to so it really isn't fair to belittle this film by comparing it to his other shows even though in HERE & NOW he is very much open , spontaneous , and connected with the audience. To me HERE & NOW is very funny enlightening , and revealing.

Then there are the tensions amongst the people putting the production together. Again, these are casually brought up, but there's no follow-through.

Instead of following any of these potentially fascinating threads, the makers of the documentary instead show us footage of people walking through China, an opera singer complaining to someone we've never seen before that the hat she's supposed to wear looks stupid, etc. The whole documentary seems to lack any kind of focus.

Several weeks ago, I saw "Moon Over Broadway" which is a documentary about the making of a musical (starring Carol Burnett). While the staging of an opera in Beijing is much more potentially interesting to me than a musical with Carol Burnett, "Moon Over Broadway" was a far more successful documentary than "Turandot Project" because it actually managed to get behind the scenes and to develop some of its ideas. There was an actual story taking place and we got to know several of the people involved in the production and we were able to experience their frustrations and conflicts. By the end of "Turandot Project," by way of contrast, I felt like I had nothing invested in any of the people involved and had no real sense of who they were or why they were there or why this was important.

"Turandot Project" isn't really worth your time unless you're a huge opera fan and willing to sit through a lot of pointless footage that's been slapped together at random.

While the production itself is spectacular (300 extras, 50 ballet dancers, a contortionist from the Beijing Opera, and 300 soldiers from the local Chinese Army garrison), the documentary of what was involved in making the production actually happen is fascinating. I counted at least four languages (English, Italian, and Mandarin for most, but let's not forget the Viennese sound director with his own Mandarin/German translator) and a nearly unlimited number of egos.

At the end of the documentary, while we hear Puccini's gorgeous music, the film cuts between the the actual production and the earlier shots of the various problems and rehearsals. I swear, watching that, I got actual goosebumps.

In all, the production is the culmination of an astonishing effort dedicated towards one goal: the production of Puccini's masterpiece in its perfect setting, the Forbidden City. The production is a triumph of human dedication and cooperation and makes you think that maybe, in the end, there's hope for us all.

The Italian choirmembers stop singing when the clock strikes 5 (union rules). The Chinese director is worried that the Chinese stagehands (who have had no exposure to western opera) will make a mistake in moving the complicated set and make China look bad in the eyes of the world.

The costumes are fantastic, the singing and acting great (The suicide scene of Christina Gallardo as Liu was brilliant.)

But most interesting of all are the transcultural communication issues. Recommended viewing for project managers, in whatever branch.

Ravel's Valse Nobles are set to consistently incongruous choreography ..... 19th century dance steps (preparation and all, à la Petipa) to 20th century music which epitomizes chic ..... More than any other part of this film, it shows the aesthetic isolation of Soviet ballet, even in 1967. There is a serious disconnect between music and dance that is never resolved. For a good example of masterfully apt choreography to this music see Balanchine's La Valse which incorporates the Vales Nobles et Sentimentales in its first part (I believe it was choreographed in the 1940's).

Paganini is an absurd contraption with long haired male dancers fiddling away on imaginary violins. At least one can close one's eyes and listen to Rachmaninoff.

Ravel's Bolero is another atrocity. Imitation bad pseudo-Spanish smoothed-out flamenco dancing with long walking steps and tourist-book hand movements, no .... this is meant to be descriptive, not valuational. I wish it would at least have been funny. The only interesting choreography of this music I have ever seen was by Bejart, ironically with the great Maya Plisetskaya dancing up a storm on a stage-within-a-stage round table surrounded by an ever-more-excited male corps. When Jorge Don took over the Plisetskaya role it created a dynamic the '67 Bolshoi would have rather died than portray .....

The star turns by the likes of Ekaterina Maximova are fleeting "visits" to the classroom performing a variation (less than a minute or so...) of classical ballet..... Laurentia, Giselle, etc..... but so short that if you look away for a minute they are gone. One does get a whif of the greatness of the Bolshoi, which adds to the irritation over the travesties being offered.

Now, to close with the one worthwhile dancing in this film: an excerpt from Prokofiev's Stone Flower with the ever engaging Raïsa Strukhova.... who performed with the Bolshoi several times in America. Here one can truly discern the expressivity, energy, flashiness which marked Bolshoi dancing at its best. In the absence on DVD of such films as "Plissetskaya Dances" or the first Bolshoi compilation (which includes a butchered ... by the film-maker.... yet priceless second Act of Giselle with Galina Ulanova), it is worth seeing the Stone Flower segment alone to get a glimpse of what exciting Bolshoi dancing could be like during the Soviet era. For this segment only do I give the film two stars.

Several complete pieces are presented--"Ravel Waltzes," with Ekaterina Maximova, "Paganini," with Natalia Bessmertnova, and Ravel's "Bolero," with an ever-growing host of dancers stamping their way up and down stairs. For me, the best was the last: a Russian festival scene and gypsy dance from the ballet "The Stone Flower." The gypsy woman is performed by Natalia Kasatkina, one of the Bolshoi's best character dancers, the pas de deux features radiant ballerina Raisa Struchkova (who starred in the Bolshoi's filmed version of "Cinderella" in 1961), and there's plenty of Russian character dancing.

Compare this video with three documentaries about the Kirov, Russia's other famous ballet company: "Children of Theatre Street" (1978), "Backstage at the Kirov" (1984) and "The Leningrad Legend" (1989). There are also two full-length productions of "The Stone Flower," the Bolshoi version (1990) and the Kirov version (1991).

Les Sylphides is absolutely magical, the best performance of this ballet I've ever seen. Nureyev gives his usual intense, wonderful performance, and Fonteyn -- words cannot describe the beauty of her every exquisite movement. This ballet is, perfectly suited to her lyrical style. IMO, Fonteyn had the most incredibly expressive arms.... But before I start rambling (or have I already?)....

Le Corsaire is an absolutely brilliant performance from Nureyev, and Fonteyn dances beautifully as well (although her performance is perhaps a bit too subdued in comparison to Nureyev's mindblowing one).

La Valse was probably wonderful to see live, but the magic is kind of lost on film. I think it's one of those ballets you had to see in person.

Sleeping Beauty is a joy to see. Fonteyn is wonderful as usual, and David Blair makes a superb prince, very noble and suave. A young Antoinette Sibley gives an exquisite peerformance in the Blue Bird pas de deux.

A great buy!

It's beyond me why they kept those Douglas Fairbanks Jr. commentaries during the transfer to DVD. Ugh! Useless comments, laughing at his own (lack of) humour, etc.. Thankfully, they can be skipped.

My comments for the most part parallel the previous poster's. I feel the productions showcase the wrong set of people attempting something they really shouldn't have. There are a few (few being the operative word) decent performances. But for the most part, there's an annoying quality about each opera that leaves one feeling less than satisfied.

If the aim was to preserve these operas on film, why couldn't they film them either as a movie (like "Pirates" with Kevin Kline...though possibly not quite so elaborate) or as a stage production (like the grand operas are filmed)? These come off as a cheap rendition of the operas because they are something in between. "Outside" areas look very inside...because they are. At least if you know you'll be seeing a staging, your expectations are geared that way.

I wonder why an opera company with a decent budget couldn't restage these properly and re-film them starting now over a few years. This set is from 1982 and the quality of filming (including special effects [such as those in "Ruddigore"...not sure I liked those]) has improved greatly since then.

On the plus side, the operas are for the most part complete and it's nice to be able to watch the whole production.

Of the batch, "Pinafore" is definitely the worst! I'm not sure what would be the best.

Casting is odd. The producers apparently didn't trust the material, so they brought in a "name" performer or two to "star" in each production whether or not they could contribute anything but their names. Some of them are very good, others are disasters. Clive Revill gives excellent performances as John Wellington Wells ("Patience") and Ko-Ko ("Mikado"), and Joel Grey is a wonderful Jack Point ("Yeomen"). Peter Allen brings nothing special to the Pirate King, but he does not disgrace himself or spoil the production. William Conrad as the Mikado can't sing, and he delivers his lines in a strange, falsetto-like voice at odds with the character. Vincent Price can't really sing, either, but he manages to bring off Despard ("Ruddigore") with credit through canny professionalism. Frank Gorshin brings nothing but monotony to King Gama ("Princess Ida").

Peter Marshall and Frankie Howerd combine to utterly destroy "Pinafore." By his own account, Marshall decided to play Captain Corcoran as a song-and-dance man, which has no connection with the character created by Gilbert & Sullivan. Howerd included bits of his standard comic shtick, even though they are totally unrelated to the character of Sir Joseph. Gilbert would have keel-hauled both of them, along with staging director Michael Geliot for letting them get away with it.

"Princess Ida" is staged as a kind of charade or show at some posh estate. This conceit makes the piece mostly unintelligible.

Several distinguished opera singers make substantial contributions in the roles they play. Derek Hammond-Stroud is a superb Bunthorne ("Patience"), but his Lord Chancellor ("Iolanthe") is vitiated by David Pountney's staging, which puts most of the action in the House of Lords, contrary to the libretto; the recognition scene with Iolanthe goes for nothing, when it should be touching. Anne Collins gives enjoyable performances as Jane ("Patience"), the Queen of the Fairies ("Iolanthe"; also compromised by the staging), Lady Blanche ("Princess Ida"), Katisha ("Mikado"), and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro ("Gondoliers"). Elizabeth Bainbridge is a solid Dame Carruthers ("Yeomen"). Stafford Dean is a decent Pooh-Bah ("Mikado"). Richard Van Allan sings Private Willis ("Iolanthe") strongly, but his impact is diminished by Pountney's staging.

One puzzle of the casting is why only two D'Oyly Carte veterans were used. Donald Adams shows his clear mastery of the style in "The Sorcerer" (Sir Marmaduke), "Patience" (Col. Calverly), and "Ruddigore" (Sir Roderic), as does Gillian Knight (Ruth) in "The Pirates of Penzance." Both have exemplary diction and project the characters they are playing while they sing and move. They would have been welcome in many more roles, along with other members of the company.

Each act of each opera is introduced by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., in stilted, uncomfortable fashion; your DVD player will let you skip him. The booklets with each set have cast lists (including a few errors and omissions) and texts of the musical numbers. Some familiarity with the librettos is certainly useful. In this connection, the ideal companion would be Ian Bradley's "Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan" (Oxford University Press).

In spite of the problems and disappointments, we're not apt to have any alternative to these productions if we want the G & S canon for our home screens. Acquisition of this set should certainly be supplemented by the 1939 film of "The Mikado." It has some peculiarities as a production, but it also has the matchless Ko-Ko of Martyn Green and the first-class Pooh-Bah of Sydney Granville, plus a surprisingly winning Nanki-Poo from Kenny Baker.

Over the years aficionados have argued the videos' production values which seem to vary somewhat from opera to opera. However, the use of close-ups and conventional television effects make for good television, and these are definitely not videos of live stage performances and should not be judged as such.

-True, it's not D'Oyly Carte.
-True, each opera has had some trimming - lines of dialog here and there, a dropped verse or even a song now and then, but they still flow nicely over all.
-True, the choice of comic and romantic lead singers seem strange at times (William Conrad as "The Mikado"!).
-True, these DVDs do have the annoying introduction and intermission lectures by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. which no one I know has ever thought necessary.
-True, optional subtitles might have been nice to have, especially for the some of the rapidunintelligiblepatter songs.

BUT - This is probably the best we're going to get of (almost) everything under one roof.

The downsides can be summed up as uneven animation and uneven musicianship, basically. I wish Geoff Dunbar had stuck with the concept of either a moving cartoon or a moving work of art; instead it's a mishmash of the two. Clearly this is a cartoon drawn over some fairly nice-looking paintings as a static background, and it doesn't always work. At times it seems kind of lifeless, other times overly simplistic, sometimes marred by a stuttering frame rate. It certainly pales in comparison with something like Fantasia which is never less than completely, and lushly animated. Occasionally there is a flicker of real beauty, though, and those moments should be prized.

There is a bigger problem with the animation, though: Dunbar fails to draw on the possibilities of the translation of an opera to this medium. Warner Bros. did it better with What's Opera, Doc (Wagner's Tannhauser, of course); Dunbar must have missed that one somehow. In particular, where the right touch could heighten the bright colors inherent in this, one of the most gorgeous scores I've ever had the pleasure of coming into contact with, instead it rather dampens my enthusiasm. It lacks vigor where it could use it most.

Equally unfortunately, the musical performances are mediocre. Most of the vocalists seem to be constrained by the need to make sure the audience can understand everything without subtitles, but the orchestral bits sound quite bland, too. It totally lacks the vivacity of the wonderful Mackerras recording, still has the power to move me to tears. The depth of this great piece is also lost in rather heavy cuts; the story is still highly coherent and the key points are all there, but a half-hour's worth of musical material cannot disappear without removing something crucial.

Enough carping. After all that, this remains a faithful adaptation and it does the emotional and philosophical content of the opera ample justice. Dunbar's approach tends to favor the darker regions of the story, but then, I never appreciated this element of the Vixen, hidden among the brilliance of the more lushly flowered stretches, so as far as I'm concerned, all the better. I'm also happy to report that the story isn't watered down, at all. I was concerned because it isn't exactly child's play. Actually, in one spot I think it's even a bit ruder than the original, and the adult themes of love, death, poaching, animal abuse, and even socialist politics are present, and treated admirably. I would put the cutoff age for viewing at about 10; it's a bit too intense for the younger audience.

Finally, as lackluster as this may be as an adaptation of Cunning Little Vixen, it cannot be denied that on the grand scale, this is truly high-quality entertainment. You won't find anything like the maturity and craft of this storyline on CBS, and greater musical sophistication is hard to come by anywhere. Any effort to bring true masterworks closer to the masses is to be lauded, and compared with most efforts, this one bears practically no compromise in artistic integrity. As a diehard Vixen aficionado, who prizes this work as his own favorite opera, I give this effort my blessing.