tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807469356676934317.post8008482858971214573..comments2024-03-25T10:50:11.187-07:00Comments on Gods and Foolish Grandeur: "Long [really long] Day's Journey..."Stephiliushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562830870365561419noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807469356676934317.post-74367907381530957572023-12-18T10:28:30.856-08:002023-12-18T10:28:30.856-08:00I feel your pain...! : (I feel your pain...! : (Stephiliushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08562830870365561419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807469356676934317.post-4128977819944430302023-12-18T01:57:26.754-08:002023-12-18T01:57:26.754-08:00saw a production at Harlequin in Olympia some year...saw a production at Harlequin in Olympia some years ago. good sweet christ you would think that the characters were still learning their lines so indolently were they speaking. one long play directed into a snooze-fest. yes, i fell asleep and was nudged awake as i was snoring. AND THE DAMN THING WAS STILL THERE! <br />it was as if a shakespear play ignored the pacing of iambs and was being spoken by the drama teacher instructing a class on the whole point of the rhythm of it but pacing it 1/4 speed so as to make a point and an introduction into the nature of dialog.<br />the play's redundancies made such a directorial decision odd enough to question the director's competency.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807469356676934317.post-85128299224441123342014-11-03T07:19:01.372-08:002014-11-03T07:19:01.372-08:00Ah, I am squirm inducing! Haha!
As per this conv...Ah, I am squirm inducing! Haha!<br /><br />As per this conversation...? Yesterday was the birthday of my great favorite, il gran maestro Luchino Visconti, so we - had - to watch something Visconti last night. We eventually chose Rocco e i suoi fratelli, a movie for which we both need to be in just the right mood, or we just can't bear to watch it. Because it's completely devastating, of course--but then it's so very worth it. Would I be willing to endure all the frustration and pain of that story if it were an American film? Would I find such great beauty in it? I do wonder....Stephiliushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08562830870365561419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807469356676934317.post-76471732550430296402014-11-02T18:31:17.606-08:002014-11-02T18:31:17.606-08:00Ah yes--different rules!
You are being candid abou...Ah yes--different rules!<br />You are being candid about things which very few cultured Americans would admit to---such as the wide berth given to European art vs plays, books, films, paintings of home grown (for want of a better term) artists. It's the sort of candor which caused me to squirm a bit, since I realize that I am prone to the same standard--is it a double standard? Hmmm….Toby Worthingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05887066048372484464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807469356676934317.post-57834273093366337972014-11-02T17:29:03.857-08:002014-11-02T17:29:03.857-08:00A wonderful review of a film I've only partly ...A wonderful review of a film I've only partly seen, so I can't know what I would have thought of it as a whole. (As I roll head-long into my dotage, there seem to be so many films I've only "partly seen"; can that be true? Or did I actually see the whole films, and now only remember parts of them, and therefore think that's all I ever saw?) What bits I DO remember were beautifully filmed and well-played. I really should see it fully--or again; Kael's review makes me want to.<br /><br />Interesting to re-read my little tirade of a review four and half years after the original post. I have little real memory of the performance at this remove--will I start imagining I only saw part of it?--but the basic "philosophy of art" I was scattering about, like so much recycled confetti, I'd say I still hold to: I don't choose to accept torture in the name of Art unless I get something in the end. Something. I don't expect much, just a little beauty or insight or emotion that might redeem the otherwise unpleasant experience. If the point of a work of art is to merely record that humans are dreary, dull and repetitive things, I'm sure I can find some more congenial way to spend my precious time.<br /><br />This also brought to mind the idea that I probably have different rules for American art versus "foreign" art. Besides our poor Eugene here, I've also had very unfavorable reactions to the novels of Steinbeck, Faulkner, and some other of the American "greats". And I believe, especially when we get back to the medium of film, that I'll usually give a European far more leeway when it comes to being wretched and tedious!Stephiliushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08562830870365561419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807469356676934317.post-15049544209636914262014-11-02T07:12:38.215-08:002014-11-02T07:12:38.215-08:00There's a film version of Long Day's Journ...There's a film version of Long Day's Journey which might provide an interesting comparison with the production you have written of here. Katharine Hepburn, whose screen performances ranged from devastating (Alice Adams) to hollow(The Lion in Winter) is quite extraordinary here. Pauline Kael describes it best:<br /><br />Long Day's Journey Into Night<br /><br />US (1962): Drama <br />136 min, No rating, Black & White, Available on videocassette<br />This portrait of the artist as an Irish-American has the worst American failings: it's obvious, sprawling, yet crabbed. But if you respond at all, you may go all the way to exaltation. Perhaps just because of its naked familiarity, its grinding, ludicrous wrestling with expressiveness, JOURNEY is, at last, an American family classic; the usual embarrassments are transcended, and the family theme is raised to mythic heights. This is the best film ever made from an Eugene O'Neill play (and it's O'Neill's greatest play). Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Jr., and Dean Stockwell are the quartet. Hepburn's transitions here-the way she can look 18 or 80 at will-seem iridescent. She surpasses herself: the most beautiful screen comedienne of the 30s and 40s becomes our greatest screen tragedienne. Sidney Lumet directed; Boris Kaufman did the cinematography. The complete film runs 170 minutes; frequently, a version 34 minutes shorter is shown, which seriously damages the structure and omits several of Robards' finest scenes. Produced by Ely A. Landau; released by Embassy Pictures.Toby Worthingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05887066048372484464noreply@blogger.com