Hamlet / The EIFF

Hamlet

• Yesterday evening was the opening night of Shakespeare in the Park's Hamlet. Ms Ehle (described by Brian Scott Lipton as 'lovely') attended as did former Utopian Ethan Hawke, while David Harbour was among the cast. The above photos constitute the majority from Getty Images. (See Wireimage and Theatermania for gorgeous variations on a theme.) For more about the production, visit the Public Theater's website.

Before the Rains at the EIFF

• Secondly, the 62nd Edinburgh International Film Festival kicked off today and will run through to the 29th. Before the Rains is one of 142 films appearing, and forms part of the 'Gala' section. It will be shown tomorrow (19th) and Friday 20th. There is no sign of any cast/crew attendance at present. Post-festival, the film will be released on July 25 in the UK, before making its way to Australia, New Zealand and Russia.

• Also, Mark Kilian's beautiful soundtrack for the movie, released by Lakeshore Records, is now available on iTunes. (A reminder that a snippet of the score can be accessed on the official Before the Rains website).

• In the press arena, the Herald's Alison Rowat briefly highlights the film as one of sixteen to look out for over the festival. IndieWire also mention that Rains drew 'huge crowds' at the recent Maui Film Festival in Hawaii.

• Blog-wise, it is a mixed verdict from viewer Creative Loafing but he does give some interesting thoughts - some important, some slightly less important:

On the visuals:

[...] Before the Rains is filled with stunning landscapes and handsome period costumes, with expert cinematography that makes even the most mundane objects sparkle like the artificial dirt at Disney's Animal Kingdom. [...]

On the character of Henry Moores:

[...] [Moores is] a British plantation owner who doesn't understand all the fuss over colonialism, since all he wants to do is build schools, hospitals and a road to transport spices across India. "Today tea, tomorrow cinnamon," crows this self-described "man of the future," a benevolent dictator who sincerely loves India, even as he snags, depletes and discards her resources. [...]

On feet:

[...] The film takes place in 1937 in the Kerala region of India, where the bottoms of the locals' feet are never dirty despite everyone walking around barefoot all day. [...]

• Lastly, the words of Edinburgh writer Matthew Turner are largely synoptic, but he does consider Ms Ehle 'as lovely as ever'. In summary, he says:

[...] The cast do their best (Bose and Das are particularly good, though Ehle's rather wasted as Laura) but the end result is rather underwhelming. ... Watchable enough, though and the scenery is fantastic. [...]

Ivanov

• As you may have guessed, 'to be or not to be' is still the question here, but we'll keep you posted!

(Photo from Wireimage)