Vanya on 42nd Street

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This stirring 1994 work by Louis Malle brought the legendary French filmmaker into another collaboration with actors-writers-directors Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, scribes and stars of the great My Dinner with Andre. The situation here is that Shawn and Gregory were participants in a years-long, informal project remounting a production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya every few months for select friends and the general worthiness of the idea. Wearing street clothes and strolling to a crumbling New Amsterdam theater on Broadway, actors Shawn, Julianne Moore, George Gaynes, Brooke Smith, Larry Pine, Phoebe Brand, Lynn Cohen, and others would do a full run of the text (as sharply translated by David Mamet) while a beaming Gregory (the play's director) looked on. Malle--who died following this film--spent a few days transforming the theatrical experiment into a viable film that maintained the company's unusual purpose and spirit. The result is something between a narrative feature and a documentary about an acting workshop, and is both highly entertaining and cinematically enthralling. A terrific final note in Malle's distinguished career, this is a must-see for anyone who cared about his work or who has a passion for Chekhov. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Vanya on 42nd Street.......2007-07-18

Pared down, offbeat approach to rendering of Chekhov may inflame purists, but actually makes the playwright's dark, depressing work more accessible. We get the full treatment, with no flubbed lines or distractions to break the dramatic tension of the piece. And though Shawn and Moore may not be ideal casting, they turn in holding performances which transport us to that bleak, far-away time in rural Russia. A daring and intelligent piece of work from the late Malle, which takes us behind the velvet curtain to view at close quarters the practice and discipline of acting.

a beautiful film that showcases ensemble work on the stage.............2007-06-20

VANYA ON 42ND STREET was my introduction to director Louis Malle's body of work. This 1994 film was the last film Malle completed before he passed away, and it is a great tribute to his talent for storytelling, as well as a great vehicle for his very talented cast. Basically, the film takes place on a stage, where the cast (including Julianne Moore and George Gaynes) is doing a read thru of Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA. Together, they capture the dismal reality that Chekhov's characters live in, and its very engrossing. The actors are very engaging. This is another one of those films that doesn't rely on excessiveness. Minimalism is a great, underutilized quality in films, in this day and age. I really think that the understated direction and wonderful collective atmosphere sustained throughout the duration of the piece is beautiful. Definitely give this one a go!

How can a fruitless life be regarded pure? .......2007-04-02

This statement belongs to a clever dialogue between the doctor and Vanya's niece in the middle of the night. Few directors along the history of the cinema have been able this brilliant and enviable opportunity to express with major solemnity, supreme conviction and admirable honesty, his last creative Op. like Louis Malle, a very prominent director who adapted the powerful, incisive and even neo existential play of Chejov around a crumbling and abandoned theater in Manhattan, where Malle accents and carves in relief not only his profound love for the actuality of this work; he makes a true tour de force around the lives and times of these personages where every one has something to hide, miss and love. Nobody is happy because there is not any innocent happiness. There `s a lot of issues to be considered, analyzed and scrutinized that you will have to watch several times to taste, delight and enjoy it due its single grandness. Filmed with outstanding realism, wondrous angle shots, suggestive illumination and supported by a formidable cast in which nothing is out of control. Marvelously made and one of my twenty top films of the Nineties.

In case you just have only heard about it, get close and convince by yourself. This is a masterpiece, under any possible angle.

A must-see for the students of acting and formidable evidence the theater may be conveyed to the cinematic stage, with pristine elegance.

Chekhov, Naked.......2007-03-07

Louis Malle's VANYA is a fascinating film, a rare opportunity for outsiders and nonprofessionals to experience one of the world's greatest plays as theater people experience it. The first read-through and the first run-through of a play--minus sets, costumes, props, etc.--really give the cast a good sense of what they're doing, because they focus entirely on the words and ideas of the playwright. Not all plays live up to such scrutiny, but the best ones do. Malle and Co. present us with Chekhov's play in its purest form, unadorned and unencumbered, and I now have a new, clear understanding of the people in the story--who they are and what they want. If you love Chekhov, or if you simply love theater, VANYA ON 42nd STREET is a rare privilege.

sorry, fail to sit thru the whole 9 yards.......2006-03-01

the casts are all good but i couldn't stand the endless blah,blah,blah. maybe it's good but i simply fail to find this bore-to-death movie the least interesting. if i were in the theatre, i might have to apologize to the other audience when i bailed out of the aisle in the middle of the big nowhere.

Charlie Rose with Kent Conrad; William Maxwell; Wallace Shawn & Andre Gregory (March 1, 1995)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Kent Conrad; William Maxwell; Wallace Shawn & Andre Gregory (March 1, 1995)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

First, Senator Kent Conrad talks about the balanced budget amendment. Then, William Maxwell talks about his 40 years as editor at The New Yorker magazine and the writers whose work he edited, including J.D. Salinger and Eudora Welty. Finally, actor Wallace Shawn and director Andre Gregory discuss their new film, Vanya on 42nd Street.

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