Roman Polanski's CARNAGE at the NY Film Festival

God of Carnage, Yasmina Reza's international smash hit play has been brought to the screen by director Roman Polanski, featuring an all-star cast headed by Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly. It has been selected as the opening night selection for this year's New York Film Festival, and it will be shown this Friday.

In it's move to the screen the title has been shortened to Carnage, but the punch of the original stage work has not diminished, and much of the original dialogue remains intact. The story is a deceivingly simple one. Two couples meet in order to hash out the reasons why the child of one couple attacked the child of the other. This meeting, which starts with all the cordiality and good manners of a house warming visit soon turns into an ugly battleground where resentfulness and pent up anger lead to an afternoon of drunkenness and revelations that leaves all the participants with their nerves exposed and raw. It's the "Walpurgisnacht" of Mike Nichol's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, coupled with a dose of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, and a dash of Luis Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel. The result is the kind of exhilarating filmmaking that allows great acting to shine.

Carnage retains it's theatrical setting, never departing from that apartment set except for a prologue that shows us the public park incident between the two 11 year-olds that sparks the conflict, and an epilogue that should set out minds thinking about the events we have witnessed.

Unable to come legally to the United States, Roman Polanski shot the film in Paris, although the Brooklyn setting of the story is maintained. As the two couples, Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly play Penelope and Michael, and Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz play Nancy and Alan. All the performances are first rate, and the script allows each actor more than one moment to shine in the spotlight. Ms. Foster, as the righteous, art-loving Penelope gives a performance of theatrical dimensions, at times verging on over the top histrionics. Kate Winslet, her American accent perfect as always, goes from sophisticated elegance to bitter drunkenness with convincing results. Christoph Waltz, playing her lawyer husband, a man more in tune with his Blackberry than with his own wife or son, has an air of detached ennui that fits the character perfectly. But perhaps the most satisfying of the quartet is Mr. Reilly, who slips into his role so effortlessly and convincingly that the performance is totally worthy of a well-deserved Academy Award.

Mr. Polanski is no stranger to filming in enclosed spaces. Repulsion (1965) showed us what he can do inside of a claustrophobic London flat as a schizophrenic Catherine Deneuve descends into madness. Two years later Rosemary's Baby (1968) explores how a dream Manhattan apartment can turn into a prison -- complete with next door witches and warlocks -- for Mia Farrow. Likewise, in this film, the Brooklyn apartment where all the action takes place, is not big enough to contain the emotions that erupt within it.

Once again, Roman Polanski gives us a film filled with ironies and unanswered questions, and in the process, puts us in the middle of a ride that will take us a long time to forget. At the heart of his latest work are four performances that will remain with us long after the last frame flickers on the screen.

NY Film Festival: Tahrir: Liberation Square

At the press screening of Tahrir: Liberation Square the new documentary that chronicles the Egyptian revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime, NY Film Festival's program director Richard Peña assured director Stefano Savona, via a Skype press conference, (see picture above) that his film was chosen over some of the other Tahrir Square films that were submitted to the festival due in large part to the uncanny film's ability to put the audience right in the middle of the events that happened there beginning on January of this year. Peña went on to declare that all the other films he saw about the event tried to explain the popular uprising. Savona's film, on the other hand, with it's cinema vérité style, marches right into the heart of the action and succeeds in capturing the days and nights of the struggle for freedom, and putting you right in the center of it all.

I couldn't agree more: it's not so much that Savona's camera invades the space, the feeling one gets is that the revolution somehow manages to come to him. His camera is both a curious observer and an active participant. But it is not a foreign hungry lens capturing earth shattering events of a foreign nation, but rather a homegrown magnet where the various episodes just seem to naturally gravitate towards him in wave after wave of memorable images that become indelible in our minds.

The documentary has neither narration nor music. Only the natural sounds of people speaking, arguing, and dreaming of a new day in Egypt. The staccato rhythms of the people chanting political slogans reveal a soundtrack more powerful than any music background could provide. It is guerrilla filmmaking at it's best. Just a lone wolf armed with a Cannon digital camera, while the rocks fly around him and us, and the unforgettable images of the walking wounded and the dead remind us that these events cost many lives during those tumultuous days back at the start of the year.

An unforgettable scene features an older man passionately talking straight into Savona's camera explaining that this revolution was started by young people, and that even though he is in his sixties he wants everyone to know that he feels like a young man who is ready to die for his country. Savona at times allows his images to go momentarily out of focus, thus giving the documentary a news report immediacy that creates the illusion of putting us right inside the front ranks of the revolutionaries. At the same time, we also know that this is a carefully crafted film, its 91 minutes having being boiled down from more than thirty hours of raw footage.

Egypt is currently a work in progress, and Savona's documentary feels unfinished in a good way. He didn't start filming at the beginning of the revolution simply because he was not in the country to capture the opening salvos. His "in medias res" results reminds us that the politics of Egypt currently are in a state of transition. This he captures beautifully in the last shots of the film where a woman rants and raves to a crowd of onlookers yelling at them that once the revolutionaries leave Tahrir Square the old regime could come back. It is a chilling reminder of the uncertainty of the political tides after a revolution, and it addresses the current problems that the country is going through today.

If you want to know the details of the Tahrir Square Revolution and its aftermath keep following the world's newspapers or buy any of the books that have recently been appearing about the events. If you want to be there, watch Stefano Savona's unforgettable documentary.

The Main Slate for the NY Film Festival is Set

The Main Slate for the 49th New York Film Festival is set. Twenty-seven films are in the main section of the festival, including Roman Polanski's Carnage, Simon Curtis' My Week With Marilyn, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In. The festival will close with Alexander Payne's The Descendants, starring George Clooney.

Here are the rest of the films of the 49th New York Film Festival:

4:44: Last Day On Earth, directed by Abel Ferrara (USA)
A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
Corpo Celeste, directed by Alice Rohrwacher (Italy/Switzerland/France)
Footnote, directed by Joseph Cedar (Israel)
George Harrison: Living In The Material World, directed by Martin Scorsese (USA)
Goodbye First Love, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve (France/Germany)
Le Havre, directed by Aki Kaurismäki (Finland/France/Germany)
Martha Marcy May Marlene, directed by Sean Durkin (USA)
Melancholia, directed by Lars von Trier (Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany/Italy)
Miss Bala, directed by Gerardo Naranjo (Mexico)
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)
Pina, directed by Wim Wenders (Germany/France/UK)
Play, directed by Ruben Östlund (Sweden/France/Denmark)
Policeman, directed by Nadav Lapid (Israel/France)
Shame, directed by Steve McQueen (UK)
Sleeping Sickness, directed by Ulrich Köhler (Germany/France/Netherlands)
The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius (France)
The Loneliest Planet, directed by Julia Loktev (USA/Germany)
The Kid With A Bike, directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium/France)
The Student, directed by Santiago Mitre (Argentina)
The Turin Horse, directed by Béla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky (Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland/USA)
This Is Not A Film, directed by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (Iran)

This year's festival promises to be an exciting one with the return of Abel Ferrara, Steve McQueen, Aki Kaurismäki, Martin Scorsese, and Wim Wenders. It has been a long while since Mr. Wenders has been represented at the festival, and any new film he makes is always eagerly awaited. Lars von Trier's Melancholia will certainly be one of the hot tickets in lieu of the fact that the director scandalized the Cannes Film Festival this year by confessing to the press that he was a Nazi. If he makes an appearance here to present his film, both the Q&A and the audience's reception promises to be very interesting.

Roman Polanski Film to Open New York Film Festival

I just received the following Press Release from the New York Film Festival:

New York, NY, July 29, 2011 - The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Roman Polanski’s CARNAGE will make its North American Premiere as the Opening Night film for the upcoming 49th New York Film Festival (September 30 – October 16).

"From KNIFE IN THE WATER (which screened at the first edition of NYFF in 1963) to REPULSION to THE TENANT, Roman Polanski has shown himself to be an absolute master at making the most restricted spaces come to dramatic life. In CARNAGE, aided by four remarkable performances, he has reached a new pinnacle in his already extraordinary career," says Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Based on Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage”, the 2009 Tony Award-winner for Best Play, CARNAGE follows the events of an evening when two Brooklyn couples are brought together after their children are involved in a playground fight. Produced by Said Ben Said, the Sony Pictures Classics release stars Academy Award winners Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz and Academy Award nominee John C. Reilly.

Biogas at Bayreuth: The new Tannhäuser production

A pregnant Venus, a Wartburg transformed into a biogas plant breaking down organic matter, a Venusberg filled with caged subhumans right out of the original Planet of the Apes, and Wolfram von Eschenbach singing the well-known "Song to the Evening Star" while taking a dump sitting on a toilet. What does this have to do with Richard Wagner's romantic opera Tannhäuser? Nothing! As expected, the audience shook the very foundations of the Festspielhaus with their booing after the performance. The verdict? This new production by Sebastian Baumgarten scored another Bayreuth opening night triumph!

When Festspielchief Katharina Wagner staged her revisionist, controversial production of Die Meistersinger in 2007 she opened the Regietheater floodgates at the Green Hill, assuring the world, as she inherited the helm of the festival from her father Wolfgang Wagner, that Bayreuth would remain a place of outrageous experimentation in the staging of her great-grandfather's works. Four years earlier avant-garde artist Christoph Schlingensief had already set down the template for what was to come with his notorious production of Parsifal that set the action in Africa and featured film footage of a decomposing rabbit. When Katharina's turn came up to stage Meistersinger critics and puzzled audiences questioned what a shower of sneakers and masturbating statues of famous Germans had to do with Wagner's only comedy. But the die was already cast. It became clear that the principal aim of these productions was to provoke. As music critic Alex Ross wrote in his insightful review of the Schlingensief Parsifal "The trouble with this sort of provocation is that if you criticize it ... you end up playing a role that the instigator has written for you." In other words, they want you to hate it, they want you to boo, and if you do, then they have a triumph on their hands.

This opening night saw Thomas Hengelbrock conduct the Dresden version of Tannhäuser with a professional swift hand. The orchestra and especially the chorus received the biggest hand of the evening, and they deserved it. The chorus was particularly focused, achieving a smooth, pure sound that suddenly reminded everyone that the Bayreuth sound is quite special when things are done correctly. Unfortunately, Lars Cleveman, in the title role received only a lukewarm reception from the audience, and Stephanie Friede, as Venus, was booed. Camilla Nylund as Elisabeth sang with an assured tone. Both Günther Groissböck (Landgraf Herrmann) and Michael Nagy (Wolfram von Eschenbach) received the biggest applause of the evening. Needless to say, Sebastian Baumgarten and the rest of the production team were booed very loudly.

Hopefully, this production will remain at the Festspielhaus for only a few years. No doubt it will be replaced, in the near future, with another more indignant exercise in provocation. This is what Bayreuth is all about these days.

First video of Sebastian Baumgarten's Tannhäuser

Here is a news report, in German, about Sebastian Baumgarten's new controversial production of Tannhäuser, with actual video clips from the production. The report also includes short comments by Camilla Nylund who plays Elisabeth, as well as scenic designer Joep van Lieshout, and Baumgarten himself. This short video report gives you a hint of the production that premiered today at the Festspielhaus.

Israeli Musicians to play at the Bayreuth Festival

The following article appears through the courtesy of AFP News Agency:

Germany's 100th Richard Wagner opera festival kicked off here Monday in an edition that will include a taboo-busting performance by an Israeli orchestra.

The annual tribute to the works of the 19th-century composer, a fervent anti-Semite who later inspired Nazi leaders, will include for the first time a concert by musicians from Israel, which maintains an unwritten Wagner ban.

On Monday afternoon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet led a parade of political and business elites mounting Bayreuth's famed Green Hill to the concert hall built in 1876.

Audiences were keenly awaiting the opening performance of Tannhäuser, a romantic opera considered the seminal work of Wagner's younger years, but the Israel Chamber Orchestra's concert Tuesday was the hottest ticket in town.

The musicians are scheduled to perform Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll" during a concert otherwise dominated by works by Jewish composers including Gustav Mahler and Felix Mendelssohn.

Performances of Wagner's work are almost unheard of in Israel.

When Israeli-Argentine conductor Daniel Barenboim led the Berlin Staatskapelle in a performance of an excerpt from Tristan und Isolde in Jerusalem in 2001, dozens of audience members stormed out.

Israel Chamber Orchestra first clarinettist, 27-year-old Dan Erdmann, said he had attended that concert with his father.

"He (Barenboim) indicated to those who wanted to leave to do so but at the same time, the orchestra was ready to play for those who chose to stay," he told AFP.

"Thirty or forty people left, some of them shouting and cursing and slamming the doors. The rest stayed and gave a standing ovation at the end."

Ten years on, the Israeli concert is not part of the official Bayreuth Festival program but it has nonetheless set some tempers flaring.

"The decision of the Israel Chamber Orchestra sadly represents an act of moral failure and a disgraceful abandonment of solidarity with those who suffered unspeakable horrors by the purveyors of Wagner's banner," said Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.

"Nobody suggests that Wagner's music not be played. But the public Jewish refusal to do so was a powerful message of indignation to the world that exposed Wagner's odious anti-Semitic ideas and those who championed them."

The city of Bayreuth and the Wagner family, which notoriously courted Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, are meanwhile trying to break with the past.

Bayreuth plans to start a Jewish cultural centre while Katharina Wagner, the 32-year-old great-granddaughter of the composer and co-director of the festival, has pledged to open the family archives revealing the extent of her ancestors' entanglement with the Nazis.

Felix Gothart, a leader of the Bayreuth Jewish community, which now has about 500 members, twice the number in 1933 when Hitler came to power, was also critical of the decision to invite the Israeli musicians to play this year.

"As soon as a single person was offended by the fact that Wagner is being played by Jews in Germany it would have been better to keep a lower profile," he told AFP.

However the president of Israel's fledgling Wagner society said he was delighted that an Israeli orchestra would be performing in Bayreuth, saying it could represent a new beginning.

"I hope that the concert will mark a new step towards the lifting of the taboo in Israel against Wagner, one of the principal composers of the 19th century, and that he will soon by performed freely in our country," Jonathan Livni said.
The Bayreuth Festival runs to August 28.

The Bayreuth Festival Begins

The 2011 Bayreuth Festival opens this Monday with a performance of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser, in a new production by avant-garde director Sebastian Baumgarten. As usual, this opening night performance, as well as the first nights of the rest of the operas being performed this year, will be broadcast via the Internet over a variety of online stations. For clarity of sound, together with uninterrupted broadcasts, I recommend listening to it over Bavarian Radio (Bayerische Rundfunk), but if you click here you can examine this year's schedule, and the various radio networks that will be broadcasting the performances.

In addition, on August 14th there will be a live video broadcast of Lohengrin, directed by Hans Neuensfels. This production premiered last summer to great critical acclaim. This year the leading roles will be sung by Klaus Florian Vogt, Annette Dasch, and Georg Zeppenfeld. For information about how you can watch this transmission click here.

In addition, to prepare yourself for the video transmission you can listen to "Of Rats and Men and Lohengrin" my podcast of last year's opening night by clicking here.

The Bayreuth Festival is always an important cultural event, and this year's live video performance of Lohengrin will allow fans all over the world the chance to experience Mr. Neuensfels controversial vision of Wagner's opera (see picture above). If anything, it promises to be a puzzling but fun staging, and I am sure it will be greeted, as it was last year, with the usual mix of bravos and boos. Make sure you tune in.

Alexander McQueen - Savage Beauty

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is enjoying more than a palpable hit this summer. The show Alexander McQueen - Savage Beauty has become one of the best attended exhibitions in the history of this institution. The retrospective of the meteoric career of the British fashion designer traces a decade that changed the world of fashion and earned McQueen international fame. It starts with his 1992 "Jack the Ripper Stalks his Victims" graduation fashion show from London's Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design, when his family and friends knew him as Lee McQueen, (influential British fashionista Isabella Blow suggested he use Alexander, his middle name, after she bought his entire first collection) and ends with McQueen's last complete show before his untimely suicide in 2010.

The exhibition, curated by Andrew Bolton, hits all the right points in establishing McQueen as more than just a fashion designer, but a visionary in tune with historical artistic movements and British socio-political concerns. Gallery after gallery we meet the many sides of a very complex artist not afraid to change styles even further than those dictated by the ever-changing whims of the fashion world. There's the Gothic McQueen, the primitive McQueen, as well as the exotic, naturalist, and nationalistic McQueen. But throughout all the different phases of the man, there are two constants that never waiver: an intense grounding in Romanticism as a point of departure for all his ideas, and solid craftsmanship skills learned while an apprentice at Anderson and Shephard, Gieves & Hawkes and other bespoke tailoring houses on Savile Row. The meeting point of a fervid imagination and spectacular couture is at the very heart of this exhibition, and the MET has done a terrific job not just collecting all the dresses together, but providing the appropriate lighting, ambiance and music (George Frideric Handel's Sarabande used in Stanley Kubrick's film Barry Lyndon and a haunting composition called "Disco Bloodbath" by Mekon are unforgettable) that makes us seem as if we are attending an actual McQueen runway show.

And then there are the accessories. The majority of the mannequins in the show are presented wearing appropriate headgear or masks fashioned by influential British hairstylist Guido Palau. These are essential to every single creation, and I would not dream of imagining this show without them. Unfortunately, the exhibition catalog, which does a very good job of capturing in photographs this show, fails to include any of them. Thankfully, the catalog does picture the amazing "butterfly hat" created by Philip Treacy for the "La Dame Bleue" Spring/Summer 2008 show as well as many other accessories that were key to the McQueen experience.

Whatever your interest or knowledge in the fashion world you are going to be impressed by how well this exhibition has been put together. What's more, you are going to come out with a greater appreciation for the world of haute couture. No doubt you will emerge from the show with some definite favorites in mind. You might be carried away by the incredible flower dress (pictured above) that McQueen created for the Spring/Summer 2007 show which he called "Sarabande." Or you might be totally fascinated by the dress made entirely of pheasant feathers for his "Widows of Culloden" collection a year earlier. Two impressive creations filled with a pervading sense of finality. From his Jack the Ripper collection to the very end, McQueen was not afraid to court Death throughout his career.

On my second visit to the exhibition I was fascinated by the hologram that concluded the "Widows of Culloden" show. Model Kate Moss appears out of the void, floating in space, wearing an incredible billowing dress of ivory silk and organza while the music of the film Schindler's List plays in the background. So brave and noble of McQueen to conclude his show in a celebration of Kate Moss as a fashion icon only months after the model had been involved in a drug scandal.

Here is the incredible finale to "The Widows of Culloden."

Mark Rylance Does it Again!

Mark Rylance won the Tony in the Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play category for his monumental performance in the play Jerusalem. Back in 2008 Rylance won the Tony for his Broadway debut in the play Boeing-Boeing. As you may remember, his acceptance speech a few years ago confused many. It consisted of reciting from memory the poem "The Back Country" by poet Louis Jenkins. Tonight, Mr. Rylance went back to Mr. Jenkins's poetry for his second Tony acceptance speech. Here it is.

"Walking through a Wall" by Louis Jenkins

"Unlike flying or astral projection, walking through walls is a totally earth-related craft, but a lot more interesting than pot making or driftwood lamps. I got started at a picnic up in Bowstring in the northern part of the state. A fellow walked through a brick wall right there in the park. I said, "Say, I want to try that." Stone walls are best, then brick and wood. Wooden walls with fiberglass insulation and steel doors aren't so good. They won't hurt you. If your wall walking is done properly, both you and the wall are left intact. It is just that they aren't pleasant somehow. The worst things are wire fences, maybe it's the molecular structure of the alloy or just the amount of give in a fence, I don't know, but I've torn my jacket and lost my hat in a lot of fences. The best approach to a wall is, first, two hands placed flat against the surface; it's a matter of concentration and just the right pressure. You will feel the dry, cool inner wall with your fingers, then there is a moment of total darkness before you step through on the other side."

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life, the fifth film in the nearly four decade career of director Terrence Malick, gives back to cinema, and in particular to American cinema, what it has lost after years of commercialism: a return to an "auteur" sense of artistry that brings us back to the abstract notion best summed up by Italian film director Federico Fellini about a certain type of film catapulting audiences out of the darkness of the theater and into the light of understanding. For Malick, the urge of wanting to share that precious discovery with his audiences is very much alive in this epic film. It is a work that will puzzle many and entertain few. But honestly, this should not surprise anyone, accustomed as we are at this time of the year to paying our overpriced admission tickets only to be plunged into a world of summer explosions and endless sequels. Here's a summer movie (I'm actually surprised that Fox Searchlight Pictures released it this early in the year) that will not allow you to do that for one second. Hitch along for this singular ride and you will find yourself in the middle of one extraordinary journey seldom experienced in film these days.

The Tree of Life reaches beyond the bounds of traditional storytelling at every turn. Not content with telling the story of a dysfunctional family in Waco, Texas in the 1950s, the film reaches back to the beginnings of time. Why? For the same reason that Stanley Kubrick's 2001, A Space Odyssey begins at the dawn of prehistory to tell the story of Mankind's quest in space. We are, all of us, each a part of the whole, and to forget this is to misunderstand our very existence. Malick shows us the birth of the universe, anchors us with a domestic American story of love and loss, and shows us in an unforgettable scene that takes place by the seaside the souls of the departed, content in the afterlife, finally achieving the kind of redemption that we all seek while we are alive. By the end of the film we have experienced the very depths and the very heights of the human condition -- the mirror has been held up to nature: we have seen ourselves.

And to get us through this epic journey, Malick has chosen some of the most ravishing classical music ever assembled for one motion picture. Whatever you think of Malick's masterful film, I am certain that you will not be disappointed by its superb soundtrack featuring the music of Brahms, Berlioz, among many others. And neither will you be disappointed by the powerful performances of Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as a struggling 1950s couple, as well as by their three children portrayed by Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, and Tyre Sheridan. Sean Penn, playing one of the grownup children, gets inside of his cameo role revealing a profoundly deep sense of alienation. Without uttering a single word he is able to convey that he is one of the many lost souls trapped in our modern world of concrete, steel and glass. Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's memorable images are outstandingly beautiful whether capturing Eisenhower's America or the Jurassic prehistoric period.

When Herman Melville wrote and published the entertaining Omoo in 1847 it turned out to be a popular narrative of the South Seas aboard a whaling vessel, selling very well in the US and England. In 1851 Melville published the dark and brooding Moby Dick, another tale aboard a whaling ship, but this time a narrative filled with digressions referencing the Bible, philosophy and cetology. Needless to say, it was a critical and popular failure when it was published. Today Omoo is a nearly forgotten work, while Moby Dick has achieved the status of a classic. Allow me to predict the same fate for Terrence Malick's new film. The Tree of Life is destined for a place in the pantheon (if you allow me an auteur term) of great American films.

Is Lars von Trier a Nazi?

Lars von Trier has been declared "persona non grata" at this year's Cannes Film Festival. During a press conference to promote his new film Melancholia, the Danish director made a number of off-topic remarks that included various odd references to Jews, the state of Israel, and Adolf Hitler. Here is the transcript of what he actually said:

“The only thing I can tell you is that I thought I was a Jew for a long time and was very happy being a Jew, then later on came [Danish, and Jewish, director] Susanne Bier, and suddenly I wasn’t so happy about being a Jew. That was a joke. Sorry. But it turned out that I was not a Jew. If I’d been a Jew, then I would be a second-wave Jew, a kind of a new-wave Jew, but anyway, I really wanted to be a Jew and then I found out that I was really a Nazi, because my family was German. Which also gave me some pleasure.

“So, I, what can I say? I understand Hitler. I think he did some wrong things — yes, absolutely — but I can see him sitting in his bunker in the end. I’m just saying that I think I understand the man. He’s not what you could call a good guy, but yeah, I understand much about him and I sympathize with him a little bit, yes. But come on, I’m not for the Second World War! And I’m not against Jews. No, not even Susanne Bier. That was also a joke. I am, of course, very much for Jews. No, not too much, because Israel is a pain in the ass. But still, how can I get out of this sentence? I just want to say I’m very much for Speer. Albert Speer, I liked. He was also, maybe, one of God’s best children. He had some talent that was kind of possible for him to use during, um… Okay, I’m a Nazi.”

Is Lars von Trier a Nazi? I sincerely doubt it. He enjoys being a provocateur, and he likes to exercise this devil-of-an-impish streak whenever he can. Unfortunately, he neither seems to lack any common sense, nor does he know when it is best to quit and stay silent. To add to the problem, lately he seems to be going through some kind of mid-life crisis that has made him stop drinking but which inexplicably has catapulted him into the realm of psychobabble whenever he faces the press. And then there is his new tattoo -- letters on his knuckles that spell the word FUCK (See picture above). Either a homage to Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (where Robert Mitchum's character has the words LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles) or another of Mr. von Trier's desperate attempts to get a visceral reaction from his audience.

The Cannes Film Festival has banned Lars von Trier because it is illegal in France to say or write anything anti-Semitic. This action strikes me as too sudden, too harsh. It feels very much like the actions of Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, misguidedly following the letter of the law, inflexible and harsh.

My opinion is that Lars von Trier, as an artist, was trying to tell the press, in his awkward, rambling way, that he has an artistic admiration for the work of various accomplished artists that rose to prominence under the Third Reich. Albert Speer is arguably one of the most famous, as well as infamous of the architects of the first half of the 20th century. His grandiose designs spell out National Socialism like no other. His "cathedral of light" design is perhaps the most famous and lasting of his monumental ideas. It was achieved by pointing 130 anti-aircraft searchlights into the night sky and thus causing the effect of columns whose capitals disappear into the night. Every year on September 11, two massive searchlights aimed at the New York night sky give the feeling that the World Trade Center towers are still standing. It is an idea very close to what Albert Speer first devised in the 1930s for the Nazi rallies. The documentary work of Leni Riefenstahl, (where she captured on film Speer's work) for example, is stunning in its execution, although its subject matter propagandizes the evil machinery that helped to create it. One is not a Nazi if one is impressed by Riefenstahl's work. Both Triumph of the Will and Olympia are stunning documentaries of the 1930s, beautifully photographed, stunning in their scope, and masterfully edited. They serve as vivid records for the nightmare that was brewing in Germany at that time.

When it comes to the works of Richard Wagner (whose music has been featured in some of von Trier's films) the debate has been going on for more than half a century as to how we should think of him as a composer. What are we to think of Wagner, whose works highly influenced and inspired Hitler and the formation of National Socialism? I think the answer is very clear. Even though Wagner was a rabid anti-Semite, we must separate the man from his twisted ideology and his evil disciples, and concentrate on his true genius which lies in his sublime music. We must do the same for Speer and Riefenstahl -- separate the artists from the ideology that bred them. No, I don't think you are a Nazi if you like Wagner, the very idea is preposterous. And, no, I don't think that Lars von Trier is a Nazi either, even though his own ill-chosen, rambling words condemn him. He is just a confused artist unable to accurately verbalize what's on his mind. I personally don't think he should give press interviews. There is no point to it. Watch his controversial, maddening, but memorable films. That's ultimately how history will judge him.

Die Walküre at the MET -- Been There, Done That

The title of this review does not refer to me having made the trip to Richard Wagner's Valhalla and having successfully returned, but rather it is a personal commentary on the on-going unveiling of the new Ring production at the Metropolitan Opera by director Robert Lepage and his associates from his production company Ex Machina. Unfortunately, they only seem to be interested in turning Wagner's great work into a well-oiled machine. On Friday they unveiled their new production of Die Walküre with some mixed results.

Back in the fall, they opened the 2010-2011 season with Das Rheingold, and opening night introduced us to the 24 movable planks that make up the set for the four-evening work. Rheingold proved to be a mixture of imaginative staging and magnificent projections featuring characters who often seemed to defy all laws of gravity. Still, despite some amazing stage magic, there were some kinks left in the machine, and opening night did not see the gods parade into Valhalla via a rainbow bridge that never materialized. Instead, the gods had to exit stage left through the wings. The conclusion of Rheingold brought a mixture of applause and boos, the latter mostly directed, I'm convinced, at Lepage and company.

Now it is Die Walküre's turn to be "machined." No sooner did James Levine (looking thin and frail) give the orchestra the opening downbeat, the machine started to move, showing us a snowstorm, then turning itself into a forest and then into a rather sparse, almost modernistic Hunding's hut. During Siegmund's monologue, shadowy projections illustrated his tale of woe -- a nice cinematic touch, but the truth of the matter is that Wagner's music illustrates the action rather well without the need for a magic lantern show. When Spring bursts into the room and Siegmund (Jonas Kaufmann in marvelous voice) sang his "Winterstürme" the lights turned green, the machine moved a little more (not too quietly) , and that's it! Anyone who wanted the set to perform wonders during this act could not help but yawn.

Then came Act II. That's when the audience finds out that this set is really dangerous. Bryn Terfel as Wotan stepped out into the planks of the set, the slope of which would make any ordinary mortal slide down. He managed to stay up there during the night, don't ask me how. Unfortunately Deborah Voigt was not as nimble: she took a tumble as she tried to step up to the planks right before her "Hojotohos." Luckily she managed to laugh it off and she got through the difficult musical passage without a problem. I am sure, she was shaken, though, and you could hear the audience gasp as she went down. I really don't see the need to put singing actors through this. Stephanie Blythe had it the best. As Fricka, the "goddess who must be obeyed" she never had to step into the planks. She sat in her regal throne, holding on for dear life as the platform where she sat slid down into place. Of course, let's just hope that the wires that hold her securely never break, otherwise we could very well have another Wagnerian incident like the one that happened a few years ago when Tristan barreled down, head first, into the prompter's box.

Act III offered an imaginative use of the machine for the "Ride of the Valkyries", but the effect verged on the kitschy as proven by the lusty reaction of the audience. I predict that every time they mount this production this celebrated portion of the score will cause some kind of inappropriate reaction. The opera finished with the most impressive use of the machine: an aerial shot of Brünnhilde as she sleeps among the flames. A nice effect, although it never quite takes your breath away.

The most wondrous aspect of the evening was the orchestra. Under Levine's direction they were a noble extension of his musical concept of this work. There was faultless playing throughout the evening, and memorable sounds coming from the bass and horn sections. Onstage, all of the singers, with the exception of Eva-Maria Westbroek (Sieglinde), who had to be replaced after Act II, sounded vocally secure. Mr Kaufmann is proving that he can become one of the great heldentenors of our times. Last summer at Bayreuth he wowed audiences in the title role of Lohengrin, and now his Siegmund is igniting the first two acts. Stephanie Blythe was simply amazing, arguably the strongest and the most interesting voice of the evening. Bryn Terfel's Wotan is a force of nature, the Welsh bass-baritone continues to transform himself into one of our best commanding Wagnerians. His hefty tones may not have the majesty of singers of the past, like George London or Hans Hotter, but his musicianship and his perfectly clear diction add a layer of nobility to his performance. Deborah Voigt impressed me with her first Brünnhilde, although I will argue that this may not be the role for her. Still, she had a very good night, and hopefully her voice will hold as the Ring cycle continues into next year.

Overall, I found the production lacking imagination, especially after whetting our appetite with the worlds created in Das Rheingold. True, Walküre is a more earth-bound story, but if you have a high-tech multi-million dollar gadget in front of you, it better perform some amazing out of this world tricks. Wagner did it with his music, I can't see why Lepage and company can't match it.

FRANKENSTEIN at the National Theatre

Last week I went to see Danny Boyle's production of Nick Dear's sold-out new play, Frankenstein, from the National Theatre in London -- as a matter of fact I went twice in one week, and I didn't even have to cross the Atlantic. The National Theatre continues to present HD broadcasts of some of their most popular presentations. They did it a couple of years ago for the first time when they presented Helen Mirren in Phèdre by Jean Racine, and they are doing it again with this riveting adaptation of Mary Shelley's groundbreaking novel.

It's the kind of theatrical experience that has buzz written all over it. First there is director Danny Boyle, returning to the stage after spending the last two decades making a name for himself in the movies with Trainspotting, and winning Hollywood Oscar gold with Slumdog Millionaire, and winning critical acclaim with last year's 127 Hours. Then there is the cast, in particular the actors playing Doctor Frankenstein and his creature creation. In a bit of casting genius the two actors, Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller swap roles nightly. This is the kind of casting that makes theatergoers drool, and forces them to see the show more than once to savor how each actor approaches each character. This is what I did by attending two of the HD presentations, and I am convinced that this is the only way to fully appreciate this production.

Actor Benedict Cumbernatch, little known in America but a household name in the UK, is riding the wave of newly-found fame these days, and is clearly the chief drawing card for this production. He was the name on everybody's lips when the Doctor Who franchise went looking to replace the irreplaceable David Tennant as he finished his tenure as the Tenth Doctor. Cumberbatch's pale skin and chiseled David Bowie-like alien features would have made an ideal Eleventh Doctor. Instead, Cumberbatch remained near the Time Lord's orbit by being cast in the title role of Sherlock, a 21st century retelling of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle master sleuth by Steven Moffat, Doctor Who's current head writer.

Playwright Nick Dear turns Mary Shelley's gothic story into a Samuel Beckett-like existential confrontation between creator and creation. Danny Boyle's cinematic staging wonderfully supports this adaptation, which also includes idiosyncratic background music reminiscent of his latest films. The scene when the two characters meet at the summit of a mountain and the creature berates his maker and demands that he build him a mate is alone worth the price of admission.

If you manage to see this production twice I am sure that one of the evenings will stand out in your mind more than the other. Personally, I enjoyed the show a lot more when Johnny Lee Miller played the Creature and Benedict Cumberbatch played Frankenstein. Why? Well, I enjoyed Miller's child-like creation over Cumberbatch's stroke victim monster. On the other hand, I marveled at Cumberbatch's Byronic, elegant and mysterious Frankenstein. Frankly, I did not care for Miller's huff and puff Frankenstein. On the other hand, watching Cumberbatch bring to life the Creature at the moment of his birth is one of the highlights of this theater season.

The bottom line is this: see the play twice, and watch two great actors at work!