Not to be

• The Donmar Warehouse have just announced that Jennifer Ehle will NOT be appearing in this autumn's production of Ivanov. The role of Anna will instead be played by actress Gina McKee. The official press release, accessible via the above link says as follows:

[...] FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR IVANOV AS DONMAR WEST END SEASON IS LAUNCHED AT THE WYNDHAM’S THEATRE ...

Kenneth Branagh will be joined by John Atterbury, Lucy Briers, Linda Broughton, Lorcan Cranitch, Tom Hiddleston, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Gina McKee, Kevin R McNally, Andrea Riseborough, Malcolm Sinclair and James Tucker in Ivanov, the first production in the Donmar’s West End year-long residency at the Wyndham’s Theatre. The production opens on 17 September with previews from 12 September and runs until 29 November. As previously announced, the season will play on Tuesdays through to Sundays. [...]

A bit of a chocolate box

BEFORE THE RAINS

• Firstly, three more lovely readers have given their reviews of Before the Rains in the New York Times. In ascending order:

Reviewer 1 (3 out of 5 stars) concedes that Rains 'falls short of a great movie', but despite a few flaws would 'recommend it to friends', adding:

[...] The imagery is there, the actors are competent [and] the usage of nature in the movie is compelling. It casts a magical spell that takes hold of the viewer and lingers in her mind long after she has left the theatre. [...]

Reviewer 2 (4 stars) considers the movie 'beautiful' and describes it thus:

[...] This is a film for those who really appreciate the craft of films. I kept marveling at how expertly suspense was created by the slow revelation of fact after fact, each in a fully dramatized scene, until the audience just knew all hell was about to break loose. The script was great, the cinematography fabulous. I would have enjoyed a bit more passion from both main characters - more of her desperation at being caught in a loveless marriage, and more from him on why he'd do such a brainless thing. Still there was enough to keep me riveted to the screen. I enjoyed the symbology, too. Shows what a master filmmaker can do with a simple but powerful plot. [...]

In a similar vein, Reviewer 3 (5 stars) calls Rains 'a gift to art lovers':

[...] The sceneries are absolutely amazing. The lush green forests, mountains with clouds and stunning waterfall all are spectacular. Certainly, director/photographer Sivan did an outstanding job. Some of the details...are quite well done. The performances/cast by all the actors is superb - Linus Roache and Rahul Bose's acting "by expressions" gives a distinct touch to the story...where in many scenes there were so many things unsaid. I've no doubt this movie will do quite well in both worlds. [...]

From the professionals:

• George Lang of NewsOK left the film with happy thoughts:

[...] "Before the Rains” boasts beautiful, believable performances from Das and Bose ... [the film] works as a piece of high-class melodrama, and Sivan infuses his film with his country's exotic natural beauty. The film continues the Merchant/Ivory tradition of stylishly documenting the stodgy pageantry of the day and the decadence that took place under the mosquito netting at night. [...]

• Similarly, Bob Hoover of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette refers to the film as 'a stunningly photographed melodrama' deciding it constitutes 'great looking cinema':

[...] "Before the Rains" is a handsome potboiler, made with sensitivity for the culture and struggle of the Indian people against British colonialism. [...]

He is however a little critical of Sivan's work with Linus Roache and Jennifer Ehle.

• The less-than-enthused Al Hoff of the Pittsburgh City Paper provides the unpleasantly-filled truffle in the chocolate box.
• Interview wise, IndiaGlitz talk to Rahul Bose about Rains, rugby and arthroscopies, while Canadians might be interested to know that Toronto's Now magazine are running a competition (ending Sunday, 11pm) to win 'advance screening passes' for the film.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

• Going back in time, you may remember that ages ago PBS Masterpiece asked for questions to put to the lovely Pride and Prejudice screenwriter Andrew Davies. Responses to the top 10 are now up for your perusal. But firstly, about the responses they received, PBS said:

[...] When Masterpiece gave fans an opportunity to ask Davies anything, hundreds of questions poured in, from the matter-of-fact ("What do you think Jane Austen thought of card playing?") to the highly amusing ("Do you know if Jennifer Ehle has an e-mail address?") [...]

Unsurprisingly, the latter was not chosen, but here are two P&P-related enquiries that made the final ten:

[...]

Question: "Is there anything, in any adaptation, that you wished you had done differently?"
Davies' answer: "The only one I can think of at the moment is Darcy's second and successful proposal in Pride and Prejudice. Too much walking, not enough tender looks, not enough passion."

Question: "In the adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the movie seems to follow the book pretty closely until the end, when the tension of Elizabeth telling her mother about her engagement and her beginning life at Pemberly [sic] was left out. Was this a conscious decision to leave out these parts?"
Davies' answer: "Absolutely. There is pleasure in reading a novel and seeing how all the little details get worked out, but in a drama, once the audience can sense the ending coming, I like to wrap it all up pretty quickly."

[...]

• ThisIsLondon meanwhile expand on Wednesday's insights into the real Mr Darcy. (Ladies, brace yourselves if you have yet to see the accompanying picture.)

TONY AWARDS

• Penultimately, we wish the best of luck to the many multi-talented ex-Utopians under the spotlight for tomorrow's Tonys.

IVANOV

• As you are probably aware, we are still awaiting news on this front, although yesterday's cast announcement regarding another of the Donmar's plays (also beginning September) suggests news, either way, is in the offing.

A Family Affair

It looks like Ivanov is going to be a bit of a Bennet family reunion. According to EDP24, Lucy Briers will also be appearing in the play this fall. (Thanks muchly for the tip, Janet R). Hopefully the Donmar will soon be announcing the entire cast so we can see if any other Bennets/Darcys/Wickhams/Lucases/Collinses will be joining them. The relevant quotage is as follows:

[...] She's bright, attractive, confident and well able to make her own way in the business. But she admits that being given a leading part in one of television's big successes gave her career a very useful lift-off.

She was Mary Bennett [sic] in Pride and Prejudice - playing opposite Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle - the one with the glasses and the dodgy singing and piano playing. In fact, Briers plays flute and piano rather well and has a good soprano voice.

I'd only been out of drama school a couple of years and it was one of my first jobs. To work with people like Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle - and learning so much from them - was fantastic.

Recently, she also figured in the BBC 1980s-style detective series, Ashes to Ashes, and shortly she's off to Broadway in her own one-woman show, Some Kind of Bliss. Then it's back to the London stage to appear with Kenneth Branagh in Chekhov's great work Ivanov. [...]

It also looks like Stanford University is the happening place for Utopia fans at the moment. The Stanford News Service reports that there will be a two-day celebration comparing the Broadway and Moscow productions of The Coast of Utopia later this week. Reasons you should attend if you are in the vicinity: 1) it is free 2) Tom Stoppard is going to be there 3) Jack O'Brien is going to be there 4) there will be video clips from both productions 5) the first four reasons are reason enough!

[...] Steven Lee, a dissertation fellow at the Humanities Center who is an "American-Russian comparativist," saw both the American and Russian productions of The Coast of Utopia. Under the aegis of the Humanities Center and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, he has scheduled two days of events this week celebrating and comparing the Broadway and Moscow productions, with staged readings, guest speakers, presentations and panel discussions. All events, which will take place at the Humanities Center, are free and open to the public.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, May 22, students from the Drama Department will produce and perform a staged reading of one scene from The Coast of Utopia. After the reading, Alexei Borodin and Tony Award-winner Jack O'Brien, the directors of Utopia in Moscow and New York, respectively, will compare several video clips—selected by Stoppard himself—from the two productions. Carey Perloff, artistic director of the American Conservatory Theater, will lead a comparative discussion of featured scenes.

On Friday, May 23, an all-day symposium at the Stanford Humanities Center will comprise four sessions. The first will introduce the trilogy through images and video of the productions, as well as overviews of public and critical responses. The second will put the Stoppard script in the context of Russian history post-socialism and the many other depictions of Herzen and his cohort. The third, featuring talks by the two directors, will examine the formal aspects of the play and its productions. The final session will juxtapose the New York and Moscow productions to consider visions of utopia and post-utopia today. [...]

See SiCa Stanford for the schedule of events.

Back to the Rains:

• First, check out these fantastic fan reviews of Before the Rains at the Chat extension and the Forum.
• There are also nine "Readers' Reviews" of the movie at the The New York Times. Here is a (somewhat selective) sampling of those:

  ~A visually beautiful, well written, acted and directed film. I saw the film at its TFF premiere. It's a great addition to the Merchant Ivory repertoire. Linus Roache always does great work with complex characters. Jennifer Ehle still does the best British accent (by an American). The Indian actors were really good as well. No stereotypes here. The symbolism in the story is not overwrought, the locales are breathtaking. Definitely worth seeing.- ilona81
  
  ~Before the Rains. As noted by others, this is a remarkably beautiful film, by a major cinematographer. Nandita Das was enormously compelling, beautiful, conveyed an uncommon realism in her portrayal of the servant.- offthemap0
  
  ~a visually dense film. i enjoyed it. not commercial in the american sense--the cinema was mostly empty. the actors were sterling. sometimes j. ehle;s accent would slip but it hardly mattered. the queerest thing about the film is that it is a sad story that doesn't leave you sad but hopeful. i am not sure the film is really about colonialism although the parallels between sexual exploitation and resource exploitation of india during the raj are there to be seen. this film is its own dreamworld--that's its attraction.- cinnie7

• The Hollywood Reporter crunches some numbers for us:

  The distributor's [Roadside Attractions] drama "Before the Rains" expanded to 28 locations from a previous eight and grossed $105,308, or an acceptable $3,761 per site, with a cume of $174,015.

• Read about the "enlightened" Linus Roache at The Washington Post, where he says:

  [...] [Before the Rains] is not just about his [Henry's] soul being dead. I represent the British Empire -- that arrogance and decline. . . . And the movie's got a lot of hope for the future, and it's a rich cultural tapestry of that time. It's very multilayered.

• Finally, visit Mumbai Mirror for news of Santosh Sivan and John Malkovich.

When it Rains, it pours!

So many exciting things to post about! First, it looks like Jennifer Ehle will be returning to Russia, figuratively speaking. She will be appearing alongside Kenneth Branagh in the Donmar West End production of Ivanov later this year! This is no ordinary Ivanov, but a new version of the Chekhov play written by none other than Tom Stoppard. Yes, this is the real thing: Jennifer Ehle in a Donmar production of a Stoppard play/adaptation! Mark your calendars for 12 September - 29 November 2008. Wunderbar, no?! Here is how the Donmar West End website describes the new Ivanov:

His marriage is in crisis, and his evenings are spent negotiating loans, avoiding love affairs and fighting to resist the small town jealousies and intrigues which threaten to engulf his life.

Kenneth Branagh plays the title role in Chekhov’s explosive portrait of a man plagued with self-doubt and despair which vividly captures the electrifying atmosphere of Russia on the brink of change.

There is a caveat, however. We can't find any "googlable" (Tez's word) confirmation that Jennifer Ehle has been cast in the play. But, the news came straight from the horse's mouth: listen to the Leonard Lopate interview at WNYC.org. Ms Ehle appeared on Lopate's radio show on Thursday in order to discuss Before the Rains. The interview is about 17 minutes long and can be downloaded in MP3 format - a very interesting listen! Flickr has kindly posted this photo if you would like an image to go along with the audio. Note - if you haven’t already done so, you can listen to last year’s Leonard Lopate interview with Jennifer Ehle and her fellow Coast of Utopia castmates at WNYC.org.

The other exciting news is that Before the Rains was released in New York and Los Angeles yesterday. The Rains naturally brought in a flood of reviews:

• Newsday concludes: "The film is well-acted, a broad colonial allegory, and again, visually gorgeous."


• The New York Times explains:
  

  Fatal culture clash, imperialist entitlement, forbidden passion between master and servant: the ingredients of the Indian director Santosh Sivan’s period piece “Before the Rains” may be awfully familiar, but the film lends them the force of tragedy. [...]

• The Village Voice mentions the "wonderfully headstrong Jennifer Ehle" and claims:
  

  [...] Director Santosh Sivan imparts a vastness and a sense of wonder to the film, qualities reminiscent of a Thomas Cole painting: They remind you why the Brits thought conquering India was a good idea in the first place.

• There is more praise at New York Magazine:
  

  [...] But the screenplay, by Cathy Rabin and Dan Verete, builds nicely, and the cinematographer turned director, Santosh Sivan, likes to break up the verdant images with bits of encroaching nature: a frog, some bees, the flies on a cow’s eye. Before the Rains is more engrossing as the focus shifts from Henry, who’s not a bad man, just a spineless one, to Sajani, who thinks her English lover will give her a freedom she has never had—and finally to T.K., who gets stuck cleaning up his sahib’s mess. Rahul Bose has a winning presence—eager with a touch of wariness or wary with a touch of eagerness, and never entirely at home. He keeps the movie from seeming too comfy—a good thing.

• MaryAnn Johanson at Flick Filosopher is completely taken with the film:
  

  [...] We don’t know who seduced whom: we’re the ones who get seduced by Before the Rains from the get-go. Renowned Indian director and cinematographer Santosh Sivan (Bride & Prejudice), in his first English-language movie, introduces us to Henry and Sajani as lovers in a scene that may be one of the most erotic things I’ve ever seen on film. There’s absolutely no nudity, it’s not graphic in the least, but it is smokin’ hot. Ouch. [...] This is a movie made up of shivery delicious moments, beautiful little artistic ahas! that make you remember why you fell in love with movies in the first place. [...]

• There are some interesting comments at TV Guide:
  

  [...] A resolutely old fashioned story of personal tribulations played out against a backdrop of political turmoil, Sivan's film is well acted, beautifully photographed and oddly reassuring. It comes perilously close to suggesting that the injustices of colonial rule were the product of morally weak and misguided individuals rather than a system that empowered and enriched foreign interests at the expense of locals. Though based on an original screenplay by Cathy Rabin, it feels like a handsomely mounted literary adaptation [...]

• Hollywood.com is chock full of positive quotage:
  

  Before the Rains fascinates, enveloping you in its gripping story and lush locations. One of the most ravishing and breathtakingly beautiful films to come around in a long time.

  On the acting:
  

  Law and Order star Linus Roache returns to his comfort zone in English art-house cinema in past movies like Priest, capturing just the right balance between an ambitious man looking for upward mobility professionally and satisfaction personally against a turbulent backdrop of emerging nationalism in India. Love scenes with the gorgeous Nandita Das are sensual and believable--the stuff of classically tragic movie romance. Das is a real find. Not only does the camera love her, she acts with great poignancy as a woman trapped in traditions her heart will not let her follow. The other big female role goes to Jennifer Ehle, a fine actress stuck with a rather thankless role as “the wife.” Along with Das, the other standout in the cast is Indian superstar Rahul Bose, who makes his “right hand man” conflicted and convincing as a man smack in the middle of two worlds with only one way out, caught up in events drifting out of his control.

  On the direction:
  

  Often foreign directors taking on their first English language projects flounder as something gets lost in the translation and they stray too far from roots they are comfortable with. For Indian director Santosh Sivan, the choice of this fascinating, if somewhat soapy story, is perfect. Based on an Israeli short film Red Roofs, the setting, characters and time period have been changed but its universal truths remain, with Sivan working in a new language while shooting in his native land. He successfully walks the fine line between a starkly realistic approach and melodrama, landing somewhere in the middle. Perhaps key to his triumph over the language barriers is the international feel of the whole enterprise and the choice of Indian actors who are able to make the leap themselves. But without question the key ingredient to Sivan’s vision is his own stunning, jaw-droppingly gorgeous cinematography. When director and cameraman are the same, the results, at least in this case, are really something to watch.

• There are also a handful of not-so-good reviews, including those at The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Time Out New York. Pfft. To each his own.

In other Rains news, the film was shown at the Asian American Film Festival yesterday, and it will continue to make its way around the world by appearing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival at the end of June. This photo is from the Q&A session at Tribeca, courtesy of Flickr.

P.S. Here is more evidence that Jack O'Brien is made of awesome, in case you needed any.