Scanning the Media for Shiny Pennies as a Metro-Bear | PIOTR GZOWSKI
Steaming films to the home screen may seem like a modern wonder, but it is only an illusion. The problem with streaming is that it is a media buffet with too much mediocrity laid out on the table. What to watch becomes a matter of elimination rather than choice, and one can easily waste the same amount of time previewing trailers rather than watching the films. It is very much like scanning the beach with a metal detector hoping to find loose change and ending up with only a few pennies and a pocket full of bottle caps. The gratification does not seem worth the effort, especially, during the winter, when instead of hibernating through the long nights like the wise bear, we adopt the roles of metro-bears sequestered within our electronic dens , mesmerized by the flat screens, all the while yearning for the arrival of longer days and warmer weather. Occasionally, however, during the metal scan of the beach bright shiny pennies do appear among the bottle caps.
The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Director) | Netflix
Maggie Gyllenhaal is primarily known as an actor. Since 1992, she has appeared in forty-seven films. Within the last two years, however, Gyllenhaal has branched out into writing and directing. The Lost Daughter starring Olivia Coleman, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Dakota Johnson, and Jessica Buckley, is her most recent product. Based on the novel by Elena Ferrante (who also collaborated on the screenplay) the film is about Leda (Coleman), a divorced middle-aged professor of Literature who vacations at a coastal town in Greece. After the first few relaxing days at the beach, things take a menacing turn when a child, the daughter of Leda’s newfound acquaintance Nina (Johnson), suddenly disappears. The incident ignites Leda’s own repressed memories. In a series of intermittent flashbacks (with Buckley as the younger Leda) mature Leda confronts her guilty feelings about the misgivings she felt as a young mother. Ironically, the guilt she feels is not the regret of abandoning of her children and husband, nor the extramarital affair with a colleague that spurred her to that decision, but rather the sense of liberation she savored when she left to pursue her own career.
The Lost Daughter is an admirable piece of work. It is a carefully plotted drama with an emotional intensity that, at times, evokes discomfort within the viewer . Nevertheless, the performances by the cast are compelling enough to capture the viewer’s attention. Gyllenhaal’s treatment of the material, however, does demand a certain amount of patience. The structure of the film is painstakingly deliberate. It resembles the type of film that one would find more commonly on European screen rather than the American. Women, however, will react to the story with great empathy, especially those who have mothered their own children, and who may, themselves, have experienced the self-doubts associated with motherhood. Consequently, The Lost Daughter may not enjoy the widespread patronage it deserves. Nevertheless, Maggie Gyllenhaal has created something worthy of notice. It will be interesting to see what she produces next as a writer/director.
The French Dispatch (of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun) (Wes Anderson, Director) | Amazon Prime
Wes Anderson has the knack for combining creative cinematography, original music, choreographed movement, animation, and a rich prosaic language, and then seasoning the whole “salad” with a precise amount of ironic humor. His films are tales about people who inhabit an absurd world yet cope with its ridiculousness as if it were commonplace. Like his former films – Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel - his most recent work - The French Dispatch (of the Liberty Kansas Evening Sun) amusingly joins the ranks of the Anderson universe.
Anderson modelled The French Dispatch out of his love for the New Yorker Magazine , a publication founded in 1925 by Aspen Colorado native Harold Ross and his wife Ida (Martin) . The magazine which is still in circulation features journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Since its conception it has enjoyed the reputation as one of the most highly respected publications about popular American culture and its eccentricities. It has hosted articles by the most celebrated writers in the twentieth and twenty first centuries - Truman Capote, John Updike. J.D Salinger, Dorothy Parker, and Steven King, James Baldwin, among others– all, at one time or another, contributed to the magazine.
In the film, the publisher-editor of The French Dispatch, Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (based on Harold Ross and portrayed by Bill Murray) redacts and assembles six articles from his correspondents in France for the upcoming issue. All the stories take place within the travelling radius of a small French town named Ennui-sure-Blasé (which translates to “Boredom on the Blasé [River]). As Howitzer reads the article, the writer of the text is heard narrating the contents of the article, which in turn is portrayed by Anderson’s company of actors (Tilda Swindon, Benicio del Toro, Ed Norton, Frances McDormand, to name a few) . The dialogue is rich, elegant, prosaic, and punctuated with deadpan delivery. The comedy is laced with skillfully placed animation (directed by Gwenn Germain who previously collaborated with Anderson on the Isle of Dogs) which amusingly enhance the absurd violence of the action sequences.
Wes Anderson’s has developed his own unique style of filmmaking. And although his recent films resemble each other stylistically, within that form he still delivers a wide breadth of variety. In that respect , The French Dispatch does not disappoint. On the media buffet it offers a respite from the doldrums of the ordinary. The final the result is a delightful sum of the tastiest 107 minutes of comedy, romance, and drama you will find.
Kolacja Na Cztery Rece (A Supper For Four Hands) - Polish TV Drama - available on YOU TUBE
Once in a great while foraging the media stream produces an unexpected treasure. Recently something was discovered in the sands of You Tube. In 1985, German playwright Paul Barz premiered a play in Berlin titled Possible Encounter. The premise of the three-character play is an imagined meeting between Frederic Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach which takes place at an intimate but extravagant supper arranged by Handel for Bach immediately following the latter’s concert in Leipzig. Since the 1985 debut Barz’ play has been translated into fourteen languages and presented in over one-hundred- twenty productions worldwide. It was also included in the repertoire of the both The Warsaw Theater and the Moscow Art Theater and performed regularly.
In 1990, Telewizja Polska (Polish Television) broadcasted a version Barz’ play translated into Polish by Jacek Buras and retitled Kolacja Na Cztery Rece (A Supper For Four Hands). The broadcast featured Janusz Gajos as Johann Sebastian Bach, Roman Wilhemi as George Frederic Handel and Jerzy Trela as Jan Krzysztof Schmidt, Handel’s valet, and the comic relief within the play. This production, directed for television by Kazimierz Kutz, is without doubt one of the best presentations of a stage play in an alternate medium. The performances rendered by Gajos, Wilhemi and Trela are stellar, the camera work is superb, and for 92 minutes the ride that this piece provides the viewer is magnificent experience. It rewards the effort of foraging the media for something worthy. The only mandatory requirement for enjoying this piece is that the viewer must understand Polish. Unfortunately, You Tube does not provide a subtitled version. However, this production may be an incentive to learn Polish. Being able to watch and understand Kolacja Na Cztery Rece is a payoff really worth the effort.
Of, course as always, dear reader, all the words set down here are the opinions of this Metro-Bear still sitting in his electronic den streaming the media, foraging for something worthwhile to watch. You may consider checking out the shiny pennies I have found and then judge for yourself.