A little something for everyone

Just to let everyone know, Blogger seems to be having a bit of trouble with polls right now, so if you are unable to submit your vote in our poll (on the right sidebar), please use the Chatter box to give us your opinion.

Well, there is nothing news-worthy to speak of, but here are a couple of tidbits:

• In his "Memo to Colin Farrell," Richard Horgan is optimistic about the upcoming film, Pride and Glory. Here is the relevant bit:
  

  [...] Your New Line crime drama Pride and Glory is technically a studio film, but it’s written and directed by an American director with the same name as Irish actor Gavin O’Connor (can’t hurt), and would appear to return said filmmaker to his pre-Miracle, Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker Trophy days. It’s also the first time you’ve been paired with Ed Norton, a combo that somehow feels to me like it can only be dynamite. [...]

  There hasn't been a lot of buzz about Pride and Glory thus far, but the folks at the IMDB message board are speculating that a trailer for the movie will make an appearance in January '08.
  
• Most of Jennifer Ehle's films seem to be available for reduced prices at amazon.co.uk right now, including Alpha Male, Backbeat, Melissa, Possession, Pride and Prejudice, Sunshine, and The River King. There are some great bargains so now might be the time to beef up your collection.

For today's Jane Austen fix:

• In addition to offering some words of praise for the BBC Pride and Prejudice, Shuttsie recommends a literary quiz-book called "So You Think You Know Jane Austen?" Here is how it is described at amazon.com:
  

  [...] Designed to amuse and divert, the questions and answers take the reader on an imaginative journey into the world of Jane Austen, where hypothesis and speculation produce fascinating and unexpected insights. Whether you are an expert or enthusiast, So You Think You Know Jane Austen? guarantees you will know her much better after reading it.

• And, Carole Goldberg of the Hartford Courant provides a list of movies, websites, and books, all relating to our dear Miss Austen.

Our Coast of Utopia devotees might be interested to know that Martha Plimpton was recently interviewed by Leonard Lopate about her role in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare in the Park. Visit WNYC.org to listen to the interview. Very good stuff! (Note that you can also see a picture at WNYC's photo page.)

Lastly, you might find ShrineMathGuys's latest blog entry excessively diverting! (Of course this is not the Jennifer Ehle, but wouldn't it be hilarious if she taught a class on blogging?)

Special Agent Ehle

• The Leonard Lopate radio interview with Billy Crudup, Jennifer Ehle and Brian F. O'Byrne is now online. Here's the mp3 or listen to the streaming audio.
  
• Amy Irving's Downstage Centre interview can be listened to online as well.
• BroadwayWorld reports that Coast of Utopia casting director Daniel Swee will be in one of the American Theatre Wing's Working in the Theatre seminars. The first screening is this Sunday March 18th at 5pm.
• The LCT blog has been updated by Brendan Lemon. The topic is scene cuts and the departure of David Pittu.
• Martha Plimpton's blog has new posts with passing mention of Utopia and there's a Salvage slideshow.
• Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea were spotted at Shipwreck; the audience gave him a standing ovation. You might recall that they also went to Macbeth...
  
• Mention of Utopia in the Tastemakers column in Forbes.
• Variety's Liz Smith on the show:

  [...] Went again to catch some of Tom Stoppard's panoramic epic "The Coast of Utopia" and must say that Jack O'Brien has out-directed, out-witted, out-staggered us with his masterful presentation. The 44-person cast is brilliant. [...]

• New York Post's summary:

  "THE COAST OF UTOPIA": Four stars Tom Stoppard's thrilling trilogy of 19th-century Russian activists and thinkers, together with their lovers and friends, makes up one of the truly epic theater pieces of our time. Not to be missed.

• Jack O'Brien advises budding directors in the NY Sun.
• Indietheatre has a meh review of Salvage but singles out Ms Ehle's "terrific" performance as Malwida.
• At All That Chat there's a thread about the marathon where Scott Parkinson subbed for Billy Crudup as Belinsky. Most people think he did a fine job. Ms Ehle is also praised for all three roles. Another thread has Tony predictions (Featured Actress).
• BroadwayWorld forumers discuss their favourite play of the trilogy - Shipwreck is ahead at the moment.
  
• Elsewhere in blogland, there's love for Utopia at The Artist Formerly Known As Kay's LJ and Kushal's blog, accidental stagedoorage by Jolene, some motherly pride at Stacey's blog, another verbose variation on the snob hit theme at A War of Position and Movement, and a mostly positive review of The River King at Direct to Video Reviews.
• Say what?
  

  [...] Colin decides to modernise Hildegard of Bingen instead. Hildegard is played briefly by Jennifer Ehle. [...]
  Jennifer Ehle has a short but pivotal role as the pro-Parkerist anti-terrorist expert. [...]
  Jennifer Ehle has a small but fast paced role as a translater of Egyptian.

Anti-bacterial underwear recommended

• Michael Schulman of the New Yorker has a piece documenting the Feb 24th marathon (that explains this post's title).
• mandrakan also reports about a marathon, as does morigian.
• According to Playbill, Amy Irving's Downstage Center interview will be airing March 9 at 6 PM, March 10 at noon, March 11 at 7 PM and March 14 at midnight.
  
• Celia Wren of Commonweal reviews the Coast of Utopia trilogy.
• Michael Sommers of the Star-Ledger writes about curtain calls, with cool quotage from Martha Plimpton:

  [...] Even more striking is when the cycle is performed on a marathon day. No bows are taken after the first two plays. When the trilogy concludes, the original curtain call template is augmented by another downstage march in three rows. Then the company bends on one knee with heads lowered and a hand over their hearts.
  
  Plimpton notes several colleagues feared the gesture might seem "corny," but the results provoked "a massive emotional experience."
  
  "We could finally break the membrane between actors and audience and express our appreciation for going through this with us for nine hours," says Plimpton. "The roof came off the place. We wept." [...]

• NY Times' summary:

  Lincoln Center Theater’s brave, gorgeous, sprawling and ultimately exhilarating production of Tom Stoppard’s trilogy about intellectuals errant in 19th-century Russia. A testament to the seductive powers of narrative theater, directed with hot and cool canniness by Jack O’Brien and featuring a starry cast (Brian F. O’Byrne, Jennifer Ehle, Martha Plimpton, Josh Hamilton and Ethan Hawke, among others) in a tasty assortment of roles.

• Trivia: apparently a character from Lost is named for Bakunin. Neato.
• susabela of All That Chat saw Voyage and thought Ms Ehle's performance one of the standouts. Winnie So watched the same play and also dug it.
• David Pittu (the awesome singing servant) gets some love from Steve on Broadway. He's going to be in LoveMusik.
• The River King reviews in ingles and Spanish. The former is specifically unfavourable.
• Forgot to post this before. Ann, who attended both fanborees (December and February), kindly gave me permission to share her thoughts on Salvage:
  

  I saw all 3 parts of The Coast of Utopia last weekend. I loved it. While I think "Salvage" would be hard to see without seeing the first 2, when you see all three of them, you realize that you have just had an incredible theater experience. There was a standing ovation from a large part of the audience after "Salvage". It wasn't that it was the best, but it was a reaction to the entire production. I am really looking forward to seeing the marathon in April.
  
  Jennifer's role was much smaller in this one than her Shipwreck role, but she is there when it opens and for a good part of the first act. The fact that her character is so distinctly different from the ones she played before, demonstrates what a good actress she is.

• Spider-Man 3 preview on YouTube - there's a Rosemary Harris scene.
  

More as promised

• Chapter 3 of Brendan Lemon's essay about Alexander Herzen is up at the LCT site.
• Broadway.com has a Word of Mouth review of Salvage with video. At the same place, John Simon asks whether Utopia marks the return of epic theatre (verdict: nope).
  
• The second marathon is on today. Again, bon voyage/courage to all! Chowhound people discuss eating on marathon days - go for small meals, long walks and ditch alcohol in favour of caffeine, is the advice.
  
• Terry Teachout excerpts part of his Washing Post rave review of Salvage on his blog About Last Night.
• Ricky Patterson found Ms Ehle's performance riveting, not so the rest of Utopia.
  
• This Yale guy's photoblog documents his ordeal getting to Shipwreck, which he was confused by. (I don't think the "JE" he refers to is same as ours...)
• The calendar featuring the dozen actresses of Utopia is now available online or in the lobby.
• Jaime of surplus doesn't like Salvage as much as the other two parts, finding that the story gets lost in the ideas.
• Even the WSJ Law Blog manages to name-drop Utopia.
• Wrote to the LCT on Feb 17 asking when the transcript from the Platform Series Q&A with Tom Stoppard would be online, they said within two weeks, ie. now. It's not up yet, but watch this space.
  
• The River King came out in Spain on Friday March 2nd. Cineando gives it 2 stars (en español, por supuesto). Cap below is from there.
  

Mother Courage photo

Josie is a legend! Click to see the large version of the Mother Courage premiere pic posted earlier.



In her latest post, Martha Plimpton says that Coast of Utopia rehearsals started today. And a reminder, tickets to the show go on sale this Sunday, September 10, though AmEx cardholders can beat the rush and buy tix now.

At last some news about Road to the Sky. Akhila Krishnamurthy's subscription-only article in India Today says that post-prod for the film has been completed.

Sivan shot to fame nationally with Ratnam's Roja. He has recently wrapped up the post-production work for his English film, Road to the Sky, which brings to light the dilemma of people who straddle two worlds. Like the cameraman. "I worked in Bride and Prejudice and Mistress of Spices to understand the filmmaking process of Hollywood," explains Sivan. "The objective was to put in elements from both worlds," he says.

On IMDB, the Dutch release date for Pride and Glory is said to be September 20, 2007.

The UK Film Council site has box office stats on Alpha Male. It opened at 26th on the ladder and is currently 58th, grossing £19,781 after three weeks. Rotten Tomatoes has rental stats for The River King - it peaked at 22nd. There are some new reviews of the film at Amazon, some rather complimentary to Ms Ehle:

"This film has the saving grace of Jennifer Ehle, whose beauty and grace shine far beyond her role. There is something magical about this actress and the film is worth seeing if only to watch her. Another of her films, "Possession," is similarly lit by her performance."

"This movie has a lot going for it: good actors (Jennifer Ehle is fantastic), good cinematography, and good music."

"In "The River King," Ed Burns conveys an understated intensity and passion, as does Jennifer Ehle, which requires few words. The silences between them express far more than any words they do exchange. "

Odds and ends

The Pittsburg Post-Gazette says that The River King will be showing on "SHO" at 7.15pm Wednesday.

Youtube music videos of Pride and Prejudice to "Nothing else matters" (Apocalyptica strings version), "She" (ta, E) and "Sacrifice".

An astrological profile- apparently she's got the same personality and character as Harry Potter.

Coast of Utopia member tix are available from 10am on Monday.

In the print edition of Total Film magazine out today there should be an Alpha Male review. The Barbican has a snippet of the 4-star review, already posted before.

A brief review of Alpha Male in the Sunday Mail:

This rather dull domestic tale follows the moody lives of a pair of spoiled little rich kids resenting their mother (Jennifer Ehle) for remarrying quickly after father Danny Huston dies. It's told in flashbacks from a 21st birthday party but the childhood sequences are cleverly done and get the mood of the bitter kids just right.

And an even briefer preview in the Guardian.

An interesting essay on The Coast of Utopia in the Oxonian Review by Brad Henderson. There's some quotage from the plays.

Blogosphere chatter

Bipolar, Hilary Clinton, Cole Porter ingenue, Grace Kelly and now country club trophy wife. Most intriguing, the range of reponses to Jennifer Ehle's Lady Macbeth. The latest is from Lynn's LJ.

Macbeth was fantastic. There are no bad seats in that theater. The performance was amazing. Liev Schreiber has my everlasting respect as an actor. Jennifer Ehle played Lady Macbeth very close to the chest, which I appreciate. She was like the most conniving, blonde country-club wife. Not the ham-fisted dripping-with-evil interpretation. Just an overly ambitious trophy wife playing with forces she doesn't understand. I'd never seen it performed before, so this was a treat. The weather was fantastic, and considering it's really just a ghost story, the weather was really conspiratorial. There were times when a breeze picked up that were uncanny considering the dialog on stage. And there were bats, of course, drawn by the lights. Also appropriate.

But the highlight for today is the first in-depth thematic review of Macbeth, by Mr Moreno-Uribe of El Espectador Venezolano. As you might've guessed, it's in Spanish. For once the Babelfish translation is somewhat comprehensible; below is a loose cleaned-up excerpt. The complete review puts great emphasis on the contemporary war theme and is really worth a read, especially for Hispanophones. This photo accompanies the review, click to enlarge it.

Everything demonstrates the great professional quality of those participating in this singular "artistic war" against war. There is no time to become bored or to escape that beautiful theatrical space in the middle of the forest, although we recommend that the interval be cut, because the public can thus have more time to go to therapeutic cafes and bars to converse about the sight [?] and to praise the good performances in general, but particularly those of Liev Schreiber and Jennifer Ehle, who incarnate the monstrous Macbeth couple, models of those who pursue both power and pomp, without realizing that everything must have a end, and who paid with their lives and their eternal condemnation if a punishing God truly exists.

Catholic and lefty, how confusing!

To wrap up the Macbeth stuff for today, Magpie finds parallels between Harry Potter and Macbeth...! There's also a note by Dave - a different one - who says that Gwynneth Paltrow's mum attended the show (and his wife argued with her about a picture of Ms Paltrow in the program!). [edit: apparently, not everything on the net is true. Who'da thunk!]

Moving on to The Coast of Utopia - Douglas Henshall fan Dianne speculates that Ms Ehle might be doing the roles that Eve Best played, which appears highly plausible. Those characters are Liubov Bakunin, Malwida von Meysenbug and Natalie Herzen. Incidentally Mr Henshall was in This Year's Love with Ms Ehle as well as some of the RSC plays. He performed in the 2002 production of Utopia.

Finally Missyisms (who did the Pride and Prejudice roundup before) reviews The River King.

Win 3 River King DVDs

A Dutch site is giving away three River King DVDs. All you need to do is answer a very simple question to go in the draw: what's the name of Ed Burns' character? The competition closes June 16th.

The DVD was released on May 25th.

*cough* Abel Grey

PS. Check out the "hey you" bit on the sidebar. We're giving away goodies for anyone who sends in Macbeth reports and photos etc. Or, hell, anything bloggable.

Pick of the blogs

Chez Chintz Cottage, a River King review.

I spent the evening watching The River King, a slow-paced mystery starring Edward Burns and Jennifer Ehle. I liked it so much I may watch it again before I send it back to Netflix. Both Edward Burns and Jennifer Ehle are compelling actors. Based on a novel by Alice Hoffman, the writing is v. good, and there’s a lovely series of epiphanies at the end.

And a non-partisan review of both versions of Pride and Prejudice from barbiedoll73's LJ.

It was with much trepidation that I set about watching the film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. I absolutely love the novel and feared a dry and long retelling with the 1997 Mini-series, and was even more suspicious of the most recent film. Hollywood has a such a penchant for ruining good stories, but after my father informed me that Pride and Prejudice was the best film he had seen this year, I added them both to my Netflix queue.

Pride and Prejudice Mini-Series 1997
This is not something that can be watched in an evening, unless you are capable of not moving for long periods of time, but it is definitely worth devoting a couple of nights to it.
The story follows the book almost perfectly, but it is not a dry, page by page retelling. The actors are cast perfectly, and they all bring such life and believability to their characters. Jane Austen's wonderful and clever dialog is so fresh and delivered so well that it is hard to believe the book was first published in 1813 (almost 200 years ago!). From his safe, Austen-free study, B kept asking me what was going on, because I literally kept laughing out loud. Some of the best lines are Mr. Bennet's:

"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least."

"You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party."

"You forced me into visiting him last year, and promised if I went to see him, he should marry one of my daughters. But it ended in nothing, and I will not be sent on a fool's errand again."

My only complaint was with the casting of Mr. Wickham and Mr. Collins. The actors played the parts well, but I really pictured Mr. Wickham as being much more handsome. Especially for Elizabeth Bennet to favor him over Mr. Darcy (his personality isn't that great, all he has is some sob story about how Mr. Darcy slighted him, I suppose I just pictured him being at least as good looking as Mr. Darcy, otherwise, what else does he have to offer?). I just kept telling myself that, at that time, in England maybe he was considered better looking... Mr. Collins was just over the top horrible. His long speeches and endless talk of Rosings and Lady Catherine were spot on, and certainly enough to make him completely disagreeable. He was just so greasy and unattractive - who wouldn't turn down his marriage proposal? All though I was amused by the giggles and exasperation he produced in the Bennet girls:
"Lord yes, he's threatened to dance with us all."

Jennifer Ehle is perfectly cast as Elizabeth Bennet. Her face is so expressive - you know exactly what she is thinking without her saying a word. And Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy... I suppose I need not say anything, except that I have developed quite a crush...

Best for last...Zoomeister. Too bad she's already spoken for.

Coming soon, my hilarious campaign to get Jennifer Ehle to marry me. Put more simply, a load of letters i'm going to make up for a big laugh. I shall be putting on my best writing hat, so jimmy me lord!

Hungarian River King DVD release

On April 11th, according to IMDB. Plus CinEmpire has some film stills.

And more reviews from Amazon.

More on Melissa and River King DVDs

Here's the latest from Graham of Play.com. Nice chap.

Hi again Tina,

I'd just like to apologise for not getting you a reply regarding River King. However, it looks as though the July release date could be fairly realistic from the information at my disposal...

As for Melissa: that would be Channel 4, distributed by Lace. The DVD release was only announced on the 16/03/06, so that would explain the apparent contradiction on Channel 4's part.

Cheers,

Graham.

p.s. I didn't actually know who she was until I checked out your link, last time you contacted me (putting faces to names and all that). She's a very talented and beautiful actress. Keep up the good work!

River King on French TV again

Here are the other dates for The River King on Canal+ as promised:

Canal+ Cinema: April 5th at 11:20, April 6th at 16:45, April 8th at 13:35.

Canal+ Sport: April 4th at 15:30, April 7th at 12:10.

US Camomile Lawn DVD already available?

There's a Region 1 DVD of The Camomile Lawn for sale on eBay expiring March 30th.

It also appears that you can buy the Region 1 Camomile Lawn DVD directly from Acorn, the distributor. It's a fair bit more expensive than the eBay version though.

[edit: Frenchies, set your VCRs! The River King is on Canal Plus Décalé at 20:50 tonight, which is in like three hours. It'll be rebroadcast - dates later]

About time

At last, Australia's going to get The River King on DVD. It was rated M by the Office of Film and Literature Classification for "moderate coarse language, suicide theme, moderate violence" on January 20th 2006. Network Video has the release date as April 12th. They review it thusly:

Ed Burns (no relation to C. Montgomery) shows flashes of why he was so highly regarded following The Brothers McMullen, and he really should be acting in higher profile movies than this; in fact the same could be said for Jennifer Ehle as well. Fundamentally there’s nothing wrong with The River King, but it just lacks that spark that’ll really draw viewers in. For thriller fans however, this is a movie that most will enjoy, even if it won’t be truly memorable.

The film's also out in Belgium. The British release date seems to have been moved from June 26th to July 17th according to Play.com. It's still not listed at the BBFC though.

River King review & Macbeth thread

A thoughtful comparison of the screen and novel versions of The River King at Better than Dead:

Ms. Ehle did the best she could with the script she was given—indeed probably put more into Betsy than was on the page—because they reduced her character to a impulsive, indecisive, shallow woman. The book version of Betsy was certainly indecisive and impulsive, but not shallow. She struggled against real concerns, motivated by real insecurities and past history, all of which were lost in the movie. And the character of Abel, although more substantive, lost all of the juicy grayness that made him so interesting.

The movie was beautifully filmed, absolutely gorgeous, and it did manage some of the wonder of the book. They stayed true to its spirit—I have to give them that. That isn't always the case in film adaptations. They didn't ruin the book.

And here's the BroadwayWorld forum thread about the announcement of Ms Ehle as Lady Macbeth. It's mainly lots of "yays" so far, but worth keeping an eye on.

Blog trawl, part #13849

Brief report from someone who attended Nothin' Like a Dame

Blogger's review of The River King

I just saw this little known but quite charming movie called The River King..... It's a mystery/crime movie based on Alice Hoffman's bestselling novel by the same name, starring Ed Burns (remember the assault-rifle wielding, handsome Ranger in Saving Private Ryan?) and Jennifer Ehle (who bears a good resemblance to the the exquisite, great Meryl Streep) plus an excellent supporting cast. What struck me most while I was watching this movie was Simon Boswell's refreshing mandolin score in the background.

There are some sounds, smells and sights that hit a spot somewhere deep inside you, awaken memories or strong feelings..... things you had buried so deep in your psyche.

Photo from Nothin' Like a Dame

Désolée!

Argh, Le Monde's TV guide says that The River King was shown on Canal+ at 8.50pm...three days ago (Tuesday 28th). Sorry about the late notice. Bad blogger. Must check Factiva more often. Did anyone tape it perchance? Anyway, if you missed it, there are heaps of DVDs on eBay. The Canadian version has French audio.

Though if you're reading this, you can probably understand English.

River King viewer reviews

There are a bundle on Amazon. The average rating is 4.5, not bad. Here's one that makes specific mention of Ms Ehle:

Based on the novel by Alice Hoffman, THE RIVER KING is a little known film that is quite haunting and involving. Edward Burns is wonderful as Abel Grey, a small town policeman investigating the apparent suicide of a young student at the local prep school. John Kapelos effectively plays his not so honest partner. As Burns investigates, evidence suggests that the victim did not kill himself, that he was perhaps murdered.

The movie is methodically paced and features beautiful Nova Scotia scenery; Burns becomes romantically involved with one of the teachers (a delightful Jennifer Ehle), who is engaged to another stuffy teacher. Rachelle Lefevre as Carla, the victim's best friend, is also very good. THE RIVER KING takes some subtle plot twists, one involving the suicide of his older brother when Abel was a child and this event plays a key part in Burns' investigation. Alternately moody and grim, the movie is nonetheless a very good one, and benefits largely from Burns' strong presence, and a lovely score by Simon Boswell.

And look at this IMDB thread where her performance in the film is discussed. Warning, the first poster isn't very nice, but the rest are.

Pride pic

Click the picture to buy it from eBay. Also from eBay:

FHM "100 sexiest women 1996" magazine

Design for Living stagebill

Vanity Fair 1996
There are heaps of River King DVDs for sale too, so get your copy and send us your thoughts! Here's a short review from a blog, Paradox Vertigo 2k5:

The River King - decent suspense thriller about a mysterious drowning death in a small town.Nothing really spectacular- but well told.With Edward Burns and Jennifer Ehle C

The River King box office stats

Odeon's The River King - the Halifax-shot thriller about a murder investigation - opened in Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax on Oct. 21, and brought in a first-week box office of about $5,000 in three theaters. Over the weekend of Oct. 28, the film continued in Toronto and Halifax, bringing in another $1,150, for a cumulative $7,250, according to Odeon.

By Dustin Dinoff of Playback, November 7th 2005. Hopefully DVD sales will be more successful. If you haven't already, now's the time to pre-order your River King DVD - it's being released on the 24th of this month in the US. The cheapest I've found is $17.24 at Video Universe though you might want to shop around.