Category: Film

Carolina Capers: Eclipse et al

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WATCHING THE ECLIPSE

Sky watchers

The highlight of this past week was certainly the eclipse on Monday afternoon.  We were not in an area for a total eclipse but were expected to get 80-84% coverage.  It was a lovely sunny day with lots of blue sky.  The Chief Penguin and I walked to the downtown park, partly for better viewing, but mostly to be with other people.  We arrived just before 2:00 pm and quickly snapped up two of the electric green Adirondack chairs near the fountain.  

Several options for viewing

Not much happened for quite a while; then wearing our approved cardboard eclipse glasses, we gazed up and saw the sun being nibbled at by the black moon.  As time went on, more kids and families and couples gathered and found places to sit.  The blackness kept encroaching until around 3:10, we had just a fingernail sliver of golden sun left.  Quite something to see. 

Snoozing or studying the sky?

It never got dark here, but the sun did get dim and the air cooled a bit.  The weather was so salubrious, we stayed on awhile longer, checking every little bit to see the process slowly reverse as more of the sun emerged again.  An amazing experience!  The next one isn’t for another 20 years—odds are we might not see it!

INTERLUDE—MUSIC & FILM

Cary Town Band

One of the perks of living where we do is a wide assortment of free musical events and movies.  This week it was a concert by the Cary Town Band.  In existence since 1987, the band is made up of all woodwind instruments and boasts 50 plus players, all volunteers.  It’s led by a former member who brings enthusiasm, knowledge, and a bit of fun (think the occasional theme costume) to her conducting.  

This program featured music from composers like Sousa and Verdi to Elton John and John Williams all under the umbrella of people’s jobs.  Pieces included selections from the Lion King, Superman, Phantom of the Opera, and Die Meistersinger among others.  Cary Town Band presents four or five concerts a year including one for the Fourth of July.  This was a fun evening!  

Beyond Silence

The previous week we enjoyed a showing of the German film, Beyond Silence, released in 1996.  It centers on Lara, a young girl interested in music and particularly the clarinet.  She hears, but both her parents are deaf.  They three communicate by signing, and Lara’s parents rely on her for translating in interviews with her schoolteachers or when watching TV.  She aspires to study the clarinet in Berlin, and there is tension and then a rift with her parents.  It’s a sensitive portrait of coming of age and learning to navigate boundaries and limits. 

If the premise of this film sounds familiar to you, it may be that you’ve seen or heard of the 2021 American film, CODA (Children of Deaf Adults), which has some similarities, but the girl in it has a talent for singing.  Interestingly, CODA is actually considered to be a remake of the French-Belgian film from 2014, La Famille Belier, where the girl is also a gifted singer.  For those who are intrigued, it’s possible to buy or rent any of these films from Amazon or other sources. 

VIEWING NOTES

Nolly (PBS Masterpiece)

I watched one episode of Nolly, a series about an early British TV sitcom star who was suddenly let go from her show.  Much as I like and admire Helena Bonham Carter as an actress, I didn’t really get engaged with this production.  Nolly wasn’t very likable, too much of a prima donna, and the other characters seemed stale and dated to me.  Maybe the humor is too British or maybe it gets better in future episodes, but I had enough.  

Call the Midwife (Season 13, PBS)

Trixie, Nurse Crane, & Maureen (townandcountrymag.com)

Perhaps you think you’ve witnessed enough breech births and had too much sweetness and light to continue with this series.  The Chief Penguin occasionally has felt this way—but he continues to watch Call the Midwife with me.  So far, after three episodes, I think that Season 13 is a winner.  

Midwife often deals with serious medical issues of the 1960’s; in previous seasons it included Thalidomide babies and lung-infecting black mold.  This season when stalwart Fred becomes seriously ill, everyone is reminded of the importance of an up-to-date tetanus vaccine.  

After all these years, I’m fond of many of these characters from Sister Julienne to Trixie and Nurse Crane, and even Miss Higgins, who has loosened up somewhat.  They make for a winning cast of characters and continue to delight viewers like me!  Recommended!

Note: Unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Medley of Viewing Options

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SERIES ON TELEVISION

MEDICOS IN THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK

RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service (Prime Video)

Pete & Eliza (RottenTomatoes.com)

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If you like medical shows and unusual cases in remote locations, then you might enjoy this Australian series.  The main base is in Broken Hill in southeastern New South Wales.  Much of the area is desert. In a medical emergency, the most efficient way to reach patients is usually by plane.  The Royal Flying Doctor Service is a real organization still in existence today.  

This fictional series focuses on the pilots, doctors, and nurses who work in this challenging environment.  Chief among them are Dr. Wayne Yates, nurses Pete and Matty, new arrival Dr. Eliza Harrod, and pilots Mira and Graham.  Eliza has come from London (her marriage is breaking up) with her teenage son Henry.  Wayne and Mira are pretty much of a couple; Pete is single and likes attractive women; Graham is a bit crusty, but caring; Matty embarks on a drag career in his spare time; and ops manager Leonie is super effective.  Add in devastating crashes, conflicts and romance, and the result is an engaging, sometimes heart pounding series.  There are two seasons of eight episodes each and possibly a third one in the works. Recommended!

HAUTE COUTURE UNDER THE NAZIS

The New Look (Apple TV+)

Dior & Chanel (preview.ph)

This dramatic series set in 1940’s Paris focuses on the high fashion industry while France is under Nazi occupation.  Designers must decide if they will make dresses for the Nazi wives or if they will quit working and possibly not survive.  Coco Chanel closed her studio, but she played both sides in this war and both fraternized with various Nazis and worked to get her nephew Andre released from captivity.  She then became a person of interest.  

Christian Dior was just coming into his own and designed under the aegis of Lucien Lelong along with others. They did what they did to make a living.  Dior is the principal figure in this saga of danger, dresses, and determination.  Dior’s sister Catherine was a member of the Resistance and worrying about her fate consumes Dior.  At the same time, fashion is changing and a new group of designers, Dior, Balmain, and Cardin challenge Chanel’s precedence.  

Juliette Binoche is superb as the fidgety, demanding, yet caring Coco, and Ben Mendelsohn as Christian is hauntingly broody.   There will be ten episodes in all, and they are being released weekly on Wednesdays. Highly recommended! 

MOVIES:  TEACHER & STUDENT

The Holdovers (Prime Video, etc.)

Tully & Mr. Hunham (IMDb)

The role of the very strict, no nonsense history teacher, Paul Hunham, is perfectly captured by Paul Giamatti.  Left at school during the Christmas holidays as the lone chaperone for prep schoolboys not going home with their parents, Paul is challenged, harassed, and berated by the students.  One by one, even the stragglers leave, and Paul is left with just Tully, a smart troublemaker.  Tully, Paul, and Mary, the school cook who’s mourning the death of her soldier son in Vietnam, make a for an unlikely set of compatriots.  

This is a film that is both funny at points and poignant.  The Chief Penguin enjoyed it very much.  I thought it was good and did appreciate Giamatti’s performance.  

LIVE THEATER: CORSETS AND CLASS IN NYC

Intimate Apparel (Asolo)

Mr. Marks & Esther

Lynn Nottage’s play, Intimate Apparel, encompasses a full spectrum of friendship, romance, prejudice, anger, and forgiveness.  In Lower East Side Manhattan in 1905, Black seamstress Esther has made her own way and supported herself making fine underwear for ladies of all types for eighteen years.  Strong of character, she has always lived in Mrs. Van Buren’s boarding house and yet wishes for a man of her own, a husband.  But Esther is particular and won’t settle for just anyone, so when a laborer in Panama starts writing her letters, she has hopes that become high hopes.  

Although she doesn’t really approve of her friend Mayme’s business, the two help each other out.  Esther is even an available ear for Mrs. Dickson, her married white upper-class client.  What is more challenging is the relationship between Esther and Mr. Marks, the Jewish man from whom she purchases her fabrics.  How much can be said with just a silent glance or the barest touch.  

The play moves through a series of scenes, much like tableaus, with headings over top echoing the article of clothing key to that scene. The beginning seems long, but the early scenes are essential to developing the characters and providing context for the events to come.  It gathers depth and richness as it works to its climax.  And I’m still reflecting on it 24 hours later.  Highly recommended!  It runs through April 18. 

Tidy Tidbits: Theater & Movies

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WONDERFUL THEATER!

Born with Teeth (Asolo Repertory Theatre)

Will and Kit (Sarasota Herald Tribune)

Born with Teeth is a recent play (2022) by Liz Duffy Adams.  It debuted at the Alley Theatre in Houston and is now being presented around the country.  It’s a historical play with just one setting and two actors in three scenes set in a London tavern in 1592 and 1593.  The characters are the popular successful Christopher (Kit) Marlowe and the then less well-known Will Shakespeare.  Here, they are collaborating on an historical play.  

There is some evidence that the two did collaborate and Duffy Adams has taken that likely fact and woven a drama around it.  Kit baits and taunts the more cautious, overtly timid Will in the opening scene.  Later they spar and trade barbs over the political climate, discuss the dangers lurking around them in this repressive age, and they tease and flirt.   The climax in the last scene comes with a twist.

It is not necessary to know the details of the times, other than to be aware it was a contentious time with factions railing against Queen Elizabeth and several of her courtiers, Raleigh, Cecil, and Essex warring and plotting with or against each other.  Some even believed Marlowe was a spy.

I found the first fifteen minutes a bit slow; perhaps it was getting my head wrapped around the language, but then the play took off and the next hour plus flew by.  Born with Teeth runs through March 29.  It’s yet another example of the Asolo at its finest! (~JWFarrington)

RECENT MOVIES

Black Life: Real vs. Imagined: American Fiction (Amazon Prime)

Monk flanked by his siblings (npr.com)

Another nominee for Best Picture, American Fiction is fun, witty, and satisfying.  A satirical look at fiction that sells, it features a Black writing professor and author of several books.  But Monk hasn’t published anything recently.  Somewhat incensed by all the attention given to a stereotypical, racist depiction of Blacks by another Black author, he takes a pseudonym and writes his own novel of what he thinks white folks want to read about Black people.  The results upset him but gain him far more attention than he ever bargained for.  

One of the great things about this film is its depiction of a successful upper middle class Black family.  Monk, the star is a professor, his sister is a doctor, and his brother, albeit with his own personal issues, is a plastic surgeon.  There is much to like about this film, some food for thought, and an ending with a couple of surprises.  Highly recommended!

Female Friendship & Romance: The Book Club: The Next Chapter (Amazon Prime)

Dynamic foursome (pluggedin.com)

Several years ago, I not quite dragged the Chief Penguin to the cinema in Manhattan to see The Book Club.  It was fun and a nice change of pace, but not much more.  It was redeemed largely by the marvelous cast of Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton, and Mary Steenburgen.  These four talented women, now in their 70’s and 80’s (Fonda is 86!), are together again.  

This time, they’ve convinced their friend Vivian (Fonda), recently engaged, that the women only should go to Italy for her bachelorette party.  Carol and Diane have husbands or partners, and Sharon, a retired judge, is single. 

What follows is silly, partly predictable, and just plain fun.  There’s also a message in there, “carpe diem,” but not exactly expressed that way.  This is a chic flick for sure, but some special guys might enjoy it also.   Call it a delayed Valentine!

SERIES VIEWING: DON’T BOTHER

Expats (Apple TV+)

I read the novel of the same title on which Expats is based and was looking forward to the TV series.  I think I lasted about 20 minutes into the first episode.  Weird, disjointed, and nothing like the book.  I felt somewhat justified when a friend felt similarly.

Good Apprentice (Amazon Prime)

This Italian series about a young woman interested in forensic medicine is one of Walter Presents many offerings.  I watched the first episode and part of the second one.  It’s okay, but seems light, and her frequent clumsiness is overdone.  I’m not going back to it.

Note: Header photo, Pelicans at Robinson Preserve, ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Mixed Bag Viewing

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This blog brings a round-up of two recent films (Oscar contenders), the latest season of a French crime series, and an outstanding production of a theater classic.

CHILLING AMERICAN HISTORY

Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple TV, $ Prime Video & others)

Mollie, King, Ernest (apple.com)

This is a very long film, more than three hours, so we watched it over two nights.  It begins slowly as young Ernest Burkhart arrives in Osage County, Oklahoma to “work” for his uncle William Hale, known locally as King.  As a paid driver, Ernest squires around people like Mollie, a young attractive Osage woman, heir to oil rich land.  Encouraged by his uncle and his own interest in her, Ernest marries Mollie.  While King is outwardly benevolent toward the Osage community, he is slyly buying up and acquiring the rich oil headrights.  He doesn’t hesitate to hire hit men to murder business associates or natives or to pressure Ernest to handle the orders.

King is a smiling devil, smooth and suave while dim Ernest loves Mollie, but loves money more. Ernest isn’t smart enough to catch on to what he’s being asked, then ordered, to do.  Seemingly unaware of Ernest’s treachery, Mollie struggles to save her community.  Based on true events, the film reveals the horror of these white men’s actions toward the Osage slowly until finally the nascent FBI steps in to investigate more fully.  

The performances by Lily Gladstone as Mollie, Robert DeNiro as King, and Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest are all Oscar worthy.

IN THE PINK

Barbie ($ Prime Video et al)

Ken & Barbie (nyt.com)

As you might expect, everything in Barbie Land revolves around the color pink.  Bubble gum pink.  Doll Barbie is in control and her compatriots are everywhere. Each girl is empowered to be active and productive.  Ken is docile and along for the ride.  When Barbie and Ken leave Barbie Land for the real world of humans, they are both in for a shock.  Here, men run things, and women and girls are definitely lesser.  

I liked some of the spirit of the film and the theme of female empowerment, but I found it all a bit much, cluttered and too long, with a story line that was only okay.  Given its popularity at the box office, I thought I ought to see it. Verdict: colorful and sometimes cute, but not memorable.

FRIENDSHIP & CRIMES

Astrid Season 3 (Prime Video)

Raphaelle & Astrid (Plex)

High-functioning autistic Astrid Nielsen works for the Paris police in their archives.  With her razor-sharp observational skills and her encyclopedic knowledge of previous cases, she assists inspector Raphaelle Coste in solving complex and often exotic crimes.  While the premises of some crimes strain credulity, the real meat of this series is the burgeoning friendship between Astrid and Raphaelle and Astrid’s growing comfort in a platonic-verging-on-romantic relationship with Tetsuo.  

Along the way, Astrid works to become more socially comfortable and gains new knowledge about her late father’s last activities.  I’ve enjoyed every season of this series, but this one is even more wonderful.  Highly recommended!

TIMELY THEATER

Inherit the Wind (Asolo Repertory Theatre)

Rachel, Drummond, Judge, Brady, Rev. Brown (yourobserver.com)

Asolo Theatre has a new artistic director from Minneapolis, Peter Rothstein, and this is his first production in his new role.  It is superb, soaring high.  Written in 1955 and loosely based on the Scopes Trial of 1925, Inherit the Wind deals with the teaching of evolution in a small public school in the south.  Much of the action is set in and around the courtroom with the accused young teacher’s fate played out in a battle of wits between the attorneys.

Prosecuting attorney Brady is modeled on politician and presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, while Drummond, the defendant’s attorney is a Clarence Darrow clone.  Add in preaching from local fire and brimstone Reverend Brown and the ambivalence of his more nuanced daughter Rachel, friend of the accused, and you have other perspectives.  

While initially, the play looks like a contest between religion on one side and science on the other, it’s more complicated than that.  Both lawyers are extremely strong and present in their arguments, but underneath there is humanity and fellow feeling between them. Neither man is one-dimensional.

Staging and casting are excellent.  Given his fondness for musical theatre, Rothstein’s incorporation of several hymns sung by the community as punctuation points in the action is highly effective. Definitely worth seeing!   Inherit the Wind runs through February 24th.  

Note: Header photo is from Astrid, season 3, courtesy of World of Television.