People Before Profit blog

“Dormant Beauty:” a searing look at death and politics

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 11:10:00 +0000

Italian director Marco Bellocchio rocketed to fame in 1965 with Fists in the Pocket, a riveting look at epileptics, and 1967's China is Near, which daringly dealt with Maoism when this was a strictly taboo topic. Bellocchio's leftist bent was also evident in 2009's Vincere, about the son of Mussolini and his mistress. Bellocchio is still pushing the proverbial envelope: His latest offering, Dormant Beauty, shown at this year's Los Angeles Film Festival, combines the searing look at sickness and hard-hitting politics of his first two features with yet another forbidden subject.

The topical Dormant Beauty is about - depending on your point of view - the right to die, or rather, perhaps, the right to life. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Italy is torn apart by warring factions who oppose state-sanctioned and -administered deaths, in particular for people in comas. Bellocchio skillfully interweaves news footage about an actual 2008 court battle involving a woman who has been in a vegetative state for 17 years and is about to be removed from life support, with several private stories that are variations on the same theme, proving once again that the political is also personal.

Tony Servillo (2008's Il Divo, 2010's Gorbaciof) stars as an Italian senator who decides to go against party discipline and do that odd thing in bourgeois electoral politics: take a principled stand in favor of the right to die and deciding to end one's own life. In the process the senator ends his own political life. (At one point a protester mocks him for turning his back on socialism.)

Meanwhile, the senator's own wife is dying in the hospital, and his daughter, Maria (Alba Rohrwacher), joins the religious zealots who vociferously oppose the right to die. She has one of Dormant Beauty's two "cute meets," as she romances Roberto (Michele Riondino), whom she encounters through demonstrations regarding the fate of the comatose woman. Although they are on opposite sides of the issue, the couple provide the movie's nude scene. Roberto's brother Pipino (Fabrizio Falco) is a right to die fanatic as angry and disturbed as any of the characters in Fists in the Pocket.

The sensuous Italian/Iranian actress Maya Sansa plays a suicidal thief and addict who has the movie's other cute meet, with the compassionate Dr. Pallido (the director's son, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio). Playing true to type, the great French actress Isabelle Huppert portrays a thespian called Divina Madre, whose own daughter hovers between life and death in a coma.

It's an odd thing that (especially in this country) the so-called right to life movement fanatically opposes abortion and assisted suicides, but often the very same leaders and rank and file true believers are gung-ho when it comes to capital punishment and going to war. I guess matters of life and death are like comedy - it's all in the timing. Be that as it may, Marco Bellocchio remains in good form and renders a trenchant, poignant, thoughtful look at this controversial issue. After all these years he is still relevant and making compelling films. Watch for local release.

"Dormant Beauty" (Bella addormentata)

Directed by Marco Bellocchio

Italy/France, 2012, 115 min.

Photo: Official Facebook page

Tricky Dick rides again in “Our Nixon”

Wed, 26 Jun 2013 15:18:00 +0000

Our Nixon, shown at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival, is a compilation film by Penny Lane about the only U.S. president who resigned and left office in disgrace. The documentary is largely composed of and culled from 500 hours of never-publicly-seen-before Super 8 home movies shot by three Nixon aides that were seized by the FBI during the Watergate investigation, then filed away and forgotten, until the intrepid (and obstreperous) Lane unearthed and rescued this cinematic treasure trove for posterity. She has shaped out of the raw material of this footage an eye-opening insider's glimpse of President Richard Milhous Nixon and his benighted administration.

Lane painstakingly matches sound and wry musical choices to the silent chronicles and adds archival video from network news vaults. From a formal point of view this is a fascinating exercise in cinema vérité. The fly-on-the-wall Nixon remix includes celluloid shot by Nixon's advisor John Ehrlichman, Chief of Staff H. R. "Bob" Haldeman, and special assistant Dwight Chapin. The documentary reminds us how young this regime's hacks and hatchet men were: Ehrlichman was 43, Haldeman 34, and Chapin a mere 27. But boy, were they ever on the wrong side of the '60's/'70's generational divide!

Chapin, the youngest, went to college with dirty trickster Donald Segretti, whose Nixonian specialty was "ratf*cking" the Democrats (pardon my French, but the Nixon administration was known for its "expletives deleted"), such as: the phony "Canuck" letter to presidential candidate Sen. Edmund Muskie that supposedly caused him to cry and appear weak; tossing marbles on the ground at a Democratic rally, and other pranks gone berserk.

Our Nixon contains great behind-the-scenes footage of historic events, such as Tricky Dick's 1972 breakthrough Beijing trip, where the veteran anti-communist met with Mao and applauded a performance of the revolutionary ballet The Red Detachment of Women. The doc also has surprises, such as: Did you know that the right's idiot savant, William F. Buckley, was on Nixon's China trip? And Tricky Dick's comments on Henry Kissinger (the National Security Advisor's sex life is far more offensive to Nixon than his mass murdering), eavesdropping, approval ratings, etc., are eyebrow- and hair-raising.

The documentary's most jaw-dropping moment took place not behind closed doors in the Oval Office but in the White House's East Room on Jan. 28, 1972, when Nixon, presiding over a dinner marking the 50th anniversary of Reader's Digest, introduced the decidedly unhip Ray Conniff Singers by defiantly snarling: "And if the music is square, it's because I like it square." But then, one of the singers did something cool enough to give Nixon indigestion. Canadian alto Carole Feraci held up a banner saying, "Stop the Killing," and proclaimed to the astonished crowd (that included aviator Charles Lindbergh, astronaut Frank Borman, and Alice Roosevelt Longworth): "President Nixon, stop bombing human beings ... You go to church on Sundays and pray to Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ were here tonight, you would not dare to drop another bomb." As the bandleader tried to snatch Feraci's banner, the 30-year-old held onto it and added: "Bless the Berrigans and bless Daniel Ellsberg."

Penny Lane is the perfect name for someone who compiles documentaries out of archival footage: After all, the Beatles song entitled "Penny Lane" is all about a trip down, well, memory lane. After the Los Angeles Festival screening of the film, Penny Lane did a Q&A, and buttons declaring, "Hi. I'm an effete, impudent intellectual snob," were handed out to viewers. Our Nixon is a pointed reminder about the U.S. surveillance state run amok as America grapples with another presidential Big Brother snooping scandal today. Watch for local release.

"Our Nixon"
Directed by Penny Lane
2013, 84 min.

Richard Matheson dies, leaves behind legacy in literature

Tue, 25 Jun 2013 15:36:00 +0000

Celebrated author Richard Matheson died on June 23 at the age of 87, likely of natural causes. His novels, which ranged from fantasy and science fiction to horror and westerns, earned him great critical praise.

Born February 20, 1926 in Allendale, New Jersey, he grew up in Brooklyn, New York before joining the military, participating as an infantry soldier during World War II. Initially, he desired to pursue a career in music, but his appetite for fantasy stories was such that he decided to become a writer instead.

His excellent first story, Born of Man and Woman, was published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. A cross between science fiction and poignant drama, the short story detailed the unfortunate life of a child abused by his parents and chained in a basement, and his dreams to see "the outside world" and to meet his sister, who did not even know of his existence. As a twist at the end of the story, the child is revealed to be something other than human. In 1970, it was called one of the best science fiction stories ever published by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Perhaps his best-known works are those that have been adapted into successful films, namely I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come. The former became a 2007 post-apocalyptic movie starring Will Smith, but the book on which it is based was more profound; it involved a global pandemic caused by a disease carried by mosquitoes. The latter became a 1998 Academy Award-winning film starring Robin Williams. Equal parts fantasy, love story, and mild horror, it involved a man who went to Heaven and, upon discovering his wife was not there, descended into Hell to find her.

He also wrote the short story Button, Button, which became the 2009 horror film The Box. He wrote episodes of The Twilight Zone including the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Steel" (which became the 2011 film Real Steel). He wrote the Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within," and he authored other successful novels including The Shrinking Man, A Stir of Echoes, Passion Play, and 7 Steps to Midnight. He also wrote film adaptations for Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Raven.

Matheson received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984; the Bram Stoker Award for Life Achievement in 1991; and two World Fantasy Awards - one in 1975, one in 1989. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010, and he would have been presented with the Visionary Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films on June 26 this year. That award will now be presented posthumously and the entire ceremony will be dedicated to him.

The Academy said of him on their website, "Richard Matheson has been a singular voice in fiction, whose prolific written work has been as unforgettable as the television and filmed entertainment it has inspired for more than half a century."

Matheson and his works had received praise from Roger Ebert and filmmaker George A. Romero (who credits him for inspiring the upsurge in popularity of the zombie genre with I Am Legend). His writings also inspired authors Stephen King, Ira Levin, and Anne Rice, as well as X-Files creator Chris Carter.

Ali, Matheson's daughter, said, "My father passed away at home surrounded by the people and things he loved. He was funny, brilliant, loving, generous, kind, and creative, and the most wonderful father ever."

Stephen Spielberg said in a statement, "Richard Matheson is in the same category as Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov. His ironic and iconic imagination created seminal science fiction stories and gave me my first break when he wrote the short story and screenplay for Duel."

In his writing, Matheson always attempted to view even the fantastical and supernatural through a lens of scientific and materialist thought, and that is perhaps why even his vampire novel came across as having elements of science fiction. In a 2007 interview with CinemaSpy, he remarked, "I think we're yearning for something beyond the everyday. And I will tell you I don't believe in the supernatural, I believe in the supernormal. To me there is nothing that goes against nature. If it seems incomprehensible, it's only because we haven't been able to understand it yet."

Matheson is survived by his wife and four children, and by the legacy he leaves behind for new generations through his writing.

Photo: Richard Matheson and one of his novels, I Am Legend. Latin Times (CC)

Big Road in Chelsea joins in with Make Music New York

Tue, 25 Jun 2013 13:00:00 +0000

On June 21, musicians from around New York provided an opportunity to stop, relax and enjoy music on a beautiful day during the city's Make Music New York celebration.

Make Music New York is a series of live, free musical events that takes place on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.

The celebration is based on France's "Fête de la Musique," a national musical holiday that began in 1982.

This year, Big Road Chelsea, a folk blues band, assembled a multi-cultural mix of performers across from the historic Chelsea Hotel. Band leaders Ricky Eisenberg and Alan Podber brought together the Highland Divas, Pork Chop Willie, Melissa Tong, and Los Hijos de la Gran Puna.

Los Hijos de la Gran Puna, who performed folk music from the Andes, were real crowd pleasers with their lively music and dance using their traditional wind (pan flute) and drum instruments.

Niall O'Leary and his Irish dance and music ensemble were another highlight, receiving hearty applause and appreciation.

Other musicians that participated in the day's events included: Big Road Blues Band with Ken Ficara, a New Age, singer-songwriter; Alan Gilbert and the Free Beer Brass Quintet; and Fuzzy Island a guitar picker in the style of Mississippi John Hurt.

Sasha Papernik, a Russian-American classical pianist, singer, and songwriter, was accompanied by an accordionist and Niall O'Leary. Papernik sang traditional Russian folk songs and her own compositions in English. The musician has presented her Russian-American interactive concert, "I Speak Music," at Lincoln Center's Meet the Artist series. She has also toured the country as a singer for Touchtunes Interactive Networks with recent engagements in Phoenix, Austin, and Las Vegas.

Make Music New York has become an international phenomenon, and takes place simultaneously in more than 514 cities around the world with over 1,000 concerts on streets, sidewalks, and parks across the five boroughs, a global celebration of music making. Funds for the event are raised from contributions and musicians are not paid.

Eisenberg and Podber run a multicultural coffee house at the Winston Unity Hall, 235 W. 23 St.,, on a semi monthly basis. Musicians are paid based on audience contributions.

For more information on the Coffee House events contact: podfour@aol.com or call:

802-829-8174

Photo: Los Hijos de la Gran Puna

“Yes, Prime Minister:” Wry, sly, Brit wit

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 16:06:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - This play is in the tradition of the British drawing room comedy, which is characterized by witty repartee among usually upper class characters and largely set in the room of a house where guests are entertained. However, this work has one major difference: its drawing room is located in Chequers, the official countryside retreat of the British PM. That's "PM" as in Yes, Prime Minister, the West End and BBC hit by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, which is now having its U.S. debut at the Geffen Playhouse here.

As such, Yes, Prime Minister's bristling dialogue is decidedly political and full of humorous social commentary about the British power elite, plus the expediency and opportunism that characterizes affairs (figuratively and literally) of state. The barbs about the BBC, celebrity activism, and what may be the first drone strike joke launched from the stage of a major play fly fast and furious in English accents. There's something rotten in the estate at Buckinghamshire, where the PM, his advisers and the Kumranistani ambassador have gathered at Chequers to try to navigate a path more circuitous than a slalom run in order to clinch a deal with a (fictional) oil rich Central Asian nation that could pull the UK and the European Union out of the grips of recession.

Needless to add, the careers - and collective asses - of the Prime Minister and his flunkies are also on the proverbial line. As members of the political class, survival of their positions - and pensions - are first and foremost in their thoughts, with the well-being of the British people a sometimes distant second.

The New York-born Michael McKean, who has been a guest star in numerous Christopher Guest spoofs and mockumentaries, including 2000's Best in Show, 2003's A Mighty Wind, and 2006's For Your Consideration, and plays a Brit on Family Tree, the comedy series currently airing on HBO, plays the title character. McKean more than holds his own, but as Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, Dakin Matthews almost steals the show. Appleby is the consummate career civil servant who speaks in the bureaucratese jargon that George Orwell denounced in 1984 and in his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language," wherein Orwell criticized politicians' "inflated style ... A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outlines and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity ... politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia."

But keep your eyes on Sir Humphrey - behind his funky functionary lingo he is the ultimate survivor, and he's not about to be voted off the sceptered island. Jonathan Lynn adroitly directs his cast, composed, surprisingly, mostly of Yanks, although Rogue Machine company member Ron Bottitta, who plays a cameraman and is the understudy for other roles, was born in London.

The other cast members from the colonies include Jefferson Mays (a veteran of Broadway, off-Broadway and the big and little screens) as Bernard Woolley, the unctuous, eager to please goody-two-shoes Principal Private Secretary to the PM. Tara Summers (who co-starred on the tart Boston Legal TV series) excels as the younger, hipper, scheming, less scrupulous Special Advisor to the PM Claire Sutton. As the Kumranistani Ambassador, Jerusalem-born Brian George (a veteran of TV sitcoms and dramas) saunters in and out of the Chequers drawing room in his slippers and robe. In a brief appearance as the BBC's Director-General, Tim Winters scores points about the relationship between the fourth estate and the state - especially when the latter holds - and pulls - the purse strings. This is all the more delicious when one considers that a TV sitcom version of Yes, Prime Minister has aired on the BBC, biting the hand that feeds it.

The single set by scenic designer Simon Higlett, a West End stalwart, seemed to this untutored eye to perfectly capture the architectural ambiance of Chequers, that rural residence that goes at least as far back as the 16th century. Sound designers Andrea Cox and John Leonard's sound effects almost literally had me jumping out of my seat a couple of times.

If, as Marx noted, the first time is tragedy, this American debut proves that the second time around is most definitely farce. Yes, Prime Minister is not a play for a nitwit - but for those who like their wit to be Brit, sly and wry, this reviewer resoundingly votes in the affirmative. Harrumph!

Yes, Prime Minister is being performed Tuesdays through Fridays at 8:00 p.m.; Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., until, appropriately, Bastille Day, July 14, at The Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood Village, CA 90024. For tickets: (310) 208-5454; for more info: www.GeffenPlayhouse.com.

Photo: Michael Lamont/GeffenPlayhouse

Legendary Hollywood activists mark Rosenberg executions’ 60th anniversary

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 14:25:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - June 19th was the 60th anniversary of the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, seen by many as a grave injustice in our nation's history. In 1953, the Rosenbergs were sent to the electric chair at the height of the McCarthy era in an atmosphere of hysterical anti-communism with undertones of anti-Semitism.

Longstanding progressive activist actor Ed Asner and fellow actor and anti-death penalty activist Mike Farrell marked the occasion by co-sponsoring a screening of the 1983 Sidney Lumet film "Daniel" at the Los Angeles Workers' Center. HollywoodProgressive.com, LAProgressive.com, and the Communist Party USA co-presented the event.

"Daniel," starring Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, and Lindsay Crouse, is a fictionalized account of the Rosenberg case, focusing on the traumatic experiences of the children of persecuted Communist activists. The Rosenbergs were charged with "conspiracy to commit espionage" under the Espionage Act of 1917 (as was Bradley Manning). Prosecutors painted the Rosenbergs as traitors, responsible for providing the Soviet Union with "the secret of the atomic bomb."

It turns out the Rosenbergs probably never had access to atomic secrets, and although Julius had passed industrial secrets to the Russians during World War II (when the Soviets were U.S. allies) Ethel didn't engage in espionage and was charged with a capital crime in order to pressure Julius into confessing. Despite propagandistic myths of American technical prowess, atomic scientists such as Robert Oppenheimer disputed the existence of a so-called "secret of the bomb," and held that the Soviets could have developed the bomb independently. The lives of the Rosenbergs were offered up as a sacrifice not in the interest of national security, but for political purposes.

Event organizer Rossana Cambron began the evening by reading a letter written by Julius and Ethel's son, Robert Meeropol, for the occasion. In it he described how his parents' case mirrors the current "War on Terror" in that "human rights and civil liberties take a back seat to national security." Meeropol went on to say that the government insists that the terrorist threat "is so dangerous that it justifies massive surveillance, expanding secrecy, indefinite detention, and even torture. The Rosenberg case resonates from the inmates at Guantanamo to Private Bradley Manning to the Oval Office of the White House."

Folk singer Ross Altman followed the reading with his moving song, "Ethel and Julius," written in 1993 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their execution.

In a short talk reviewing anti-Semitism in the McCarthy/J. Edgar Hoover era, Eric Gordon said, "The Rosenberg case has to be seen in its historical - and hysterical - context. ... America needed a show trial, and what better case than this one to prove Communist sympathies among Jews?" He also reminded the audience that in New York, a city with a 30 percent Jewish population, the prosecution made sure that not one Jew sat on the Rosenberg jury.

Farrell (best known for his portrayal of Captain B.J. Hunnicutt in the classic anti-war TV show "M*A*S*H"), spoke about his work as president of Death Penalty Focus, an organization dedicated to ending capital punishment. He noted that the close vote on Proposition 34 (to abolish California's death penalty) last November debunked the conventional wisdom that an overwhelming majority supports capital punishment. The initiative failed to pass, but still garnered 48 percent of the vote. Farrell went on to describe capital punishment as a "political tool" used against black people, hispanic people, and other oppressed groups; it reflects the interests not of the people, but of "a government controlled by corporate interests." He said not only is the death penalty discriminatory in its use and ineffective for deterring crime, but its continued practice is "destroying our nation's moral standing."

Asner (who played the defense attorney in "Daniel") spoke of the anti-Semitic character of the Rosenberg trial, drawing parallels with the show trials arising from Stalin's "Doctor's Plot" in the Soviet Union around the same time. He noted his own outspoken opposition, as president of the Screen Actors' Guild, to the Reagan administration's brutal anti-communist policies in Central America in the 1980s.

Asner, who is perhaps most famous for his Emmy-award-winning role as Mary Tyler Moore's boss in the long-running "Mary Tyler Moore Show," recalled how "Daniel" wasn't received well in the mainstream press. The Rosenberg case was still controversial, despite 30 years having passed. The 1983 New York Times review regarded the film's redemptive portrayal of political activism disdainfully, reflecting the neo-Cold War mentality of Reagan's America.

Asner lamented the ongoing "antipathy in this country for people of differing opinions," and offered this advice: "Be the opposition."

Eric Gordon also contributed to this story.

Photo: Actors Ed Asner, left, and Mike Farrell, at the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the execution of the Rosenbergs, June 19, in Los Angeles. Eric Gordon/PW

“One Night in Miami...” before he became Muhammad Ali

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 14:16:00 +0000

Along with The Scottsboro Boys, Rogue Machine's world premiere of One Night in Miami... is simply among the best plays I've seen in years. Both productions are based on real events involving world-historical African-Americans.

One Night in Miami... has a deliciously enticing "what if?" notion based on limited documentation regarding what really happened behind closed doors after Cassius Clay (the appropriately irrepressible Matt Jones) whipped Sonny Liston. After the bout, the new world champ spent time at the Hampton House Motel and Villas with three other fellas you just might have heard of: Singer Sam Cooke (Ty Jones), pro-footballer Jim Brown (Kevin Daniels), and rabble-rouser Malcolm X (Jason Delane). Little is known about what actually occurred there on February 25, 1964. Playwright Kemp Powers' imagination plausibly fills in the spine-tingling blanks.

Now that Cassius has won the heavyweight championship, the exuberant 22-year-old is poised to announce - with Malcolm by his side - that he is joining the Nation of Islam, led by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Known as the "Black Muslims," in the early '60s NOI had a reputation for militancy, in contrast to the nonviolent civil rights movement steered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

But as Cassius embarks on his audacious odyssey of standing up to the "man," there's a fly in the ointment. Malcolm is currently on the outs with the Nation, supposedly because of "intemperate" remarks he made following the JFK assassination about "the chickens coming home to roost." Behind the scenes, Elijah and the NOI leadership are threatened by the meteoric rise of Malcolm, who, with his keen intellect and sheer bravado, has galvanized a new generation of Blacks who just ain't gonna take it no more, and "by any means necessary."

Malcolm's stinging, sonorous speeches becomes the scourge of white supremacists everywhere. From appearing on Mike Wallace's 1959 TV documentary The Hate That Hate Produced to debating at the UK's Oxford Union, the strident Malcolm becomes the face of Black resistance - not Elijah. Which is why Malcolm has to be rubbed out. The Fruit of Islam "protecting" the Honorable Minister at the Hampton House are really there to spy on Malcolm and keep him in line.

One might think this is Clay's night; but Delane's subtle Malcolm steals the show. With forebodings of doom, Delane is aptly edgy as a firebrand who knows his days are numbered. Malcolm may indeed have been brilliant, but in terms of formal education, the ex-jailbird was untutored. Beneath the adopted persona of scholar and intellectual, Malcolm is a seething soul in the process of transcending the narrow NOI ideology and embracing a Pan-African, pro-Third World, secular nationalism.

Each character has his moment: Ty Jones shines in his show-stopping rendition of Sam Cooke's lyrical love song, "You Send Me." And, as Malcolm harangues Sam to use his artistry for higher purposes, the singer/composer forges his civil rights anthem, "A Change is Gonna Come." Kevin Daniels' Jim Brown, who does on the football field what Cassius does on the canvas, reveals his character to be not only a star athlete but an educated man who views "Black capitalism" as a means towards empowerment. And Jones' Cassius/Ali is infectiously fetching and exhilarating, a champ who knows it, and is anything but a chump.

The high octane quartet, along with their NOI "minders," are deftly directed by Carl Cofield. The set by Stephanie Kerley Schwartz skillfully evokes the sole Miami motel that welcomed African Americans during the ignominious days of American apartheid, which all four of our heroes, in their own ways, aim to abolish.

Within about a year, "the chickens would come home to roost" for both Sam and Malcolm; Brown's alleged domestic run-ins would dim his luster, and Malcolm would be gunned down. Clay, now Muhammad Ali, would go on to fight his greatest bout outside of the ring against the draft and the war in Vietnam, unforgettably asserting: "Ain't no Vietcong ever called me n****r." But health problems, perhaps brought on by his boxing, would bedevil him.

But oh, what a night that must have been at the Hampton House, when four black princes at the apex of their powers bestrode the world like mighty colossuses!

One Night in Miami... plays at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. on Sundays through July 28 (dark July 6) at Rogue Machine, 5041 Pico Blvd., L.A., CA 90019. For info: (855)585-5185; www.roguemachinetheatre.com.

Photo: Rogue Machine Theatre (see link above).

Actor James Gandolfini, 51, dies of cardiac arrest

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 13:11:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP) - James Gandolfini's lumbering, brutish mob boss with the tortured psyche will endure as one of TV's indelible characters. But his portrayal of criminal Tony Soprano in HBO's landmark drama series "The Sopranos" was just one facet of an actor who created a rich legacy of film and stage work in a life cut short.

Gandolfini, 51, who died Wednesday while vacationing in Rome, refused to be bound by his star-making role in the HBO series that brought him three Emmy Awards during its six-season run.

"He was a genius," said "Sopranos" creator David Chase. "Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes."

Dr. Claudio Modini, head of the emergency room at the Policlinic Umberto I hospital in Rome, said Gandolfini suffered a cardiac arrest. He arrived at the hospital at 10:40 p.m. (2040 GMT, 4:40 p.m. EDT) Wednesday and was pronounced dead at 11 p.m. after resuscitation efforts in the ambulance and hospital failed, Modini said.

Modini told The Associated Press that an autopsy would be performed starting 24 hours after the death, as required by law.

Michael Kobold, a family friend, told reporters in Rome that a family member discovered Gandolfini in his hotel room, but he declined to say whom. NBC quoted Antonio D'Amore, manager of Rome's Boscolo Exedra hotel, as saying it was Gandolfini's 13-year-old son, Michael.

Organizers of the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily were scrambling to put together a tribute to Gandolfini, who had been expected to attend the festival's closing ceremony this weekend and receive an award. They said Gandolfini will instead be honored with a tribute "remembering his career and talent."

Mario Sesti and Tiziana Rocca said they had spoken to Gandolfini hours before his death "and he was very happy to receive this prize and be able to travel to Italy."

Edie Falco, who played Tony Soprano's wife Carmela on "The Sopranos," remembered him as a "man of tremendous depth and sensitivity."

"I am shocked and devastated by Jim's passing," she said in a statement. "I consider myself very lucky to have spent 10 years as his close colleague. My heart goes out to his family. As those of us in his pretend one hold on to the memories of our intense and beautiful time together. The love between Tony and Carmela was one of the greatest I've ever known."

Joe Gannascoli, who played Vito Spatafore on the drama series, said he was shocked and heartbroken.

"Fifty-one and leaves a kid - he was newly married. His son is fatherless now. ... It's way too young," Gannascoli said.

Gandolfini and his wife, Deborah, who were married in 2008, have a daughter, Liliana, born last year, HBO said. Michael is the son of the actor and his former wife, Marcy.

Gandolfini's performance in "The Sopranos" was his ticket to fame, but he evaded being stereotyped as a mobster after the drama's breathtaking blackout ending in 2007. In a December 2012 interview with The Associated Press, he was upbeat about the work he was getting post-Tony Soprano.

"I'm much more comfortable doing smaller things," Gandolfini said then. "I like them. I like the way they're shot; they're shot quickly. It's all about the scripts - that's what it is - and I'm getting some interesting little scripts."

He played then-CIA director Leon Panetta in Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden hunt docudrama "Zero Dark Thirty." He worked with Chase for the '60s period drama "Not Fade Away," in which he played the old-school father of a wannabe rocker. And in Andrew Dominick's crime flick "Killing Them Softly," he played an aged, washed-up hit man.

On Broadway, he garnered a best-actor Tony Award nomination for 2009's "God of Carnage."

Deploying his unsought clout as a star, Gandolfini produced a pair of documentaries for HBO focused on a cause he held dear: veterans affairs.

He was mourned online in a flood of celebrity comments. "The great James Gandolfini passed away today. Only 51. I can't believe it," Bette Midler posted on her Twitter account.

"An extraordinary actor. R.I.P., Mr. Gandolfini," Robin Williams tweeted.

His "Sopranos" co-star Michael Imperioli said that "Jimmy treated us like family with a generosity, loyalty, and compassion that is rare in this world."

His final projects included the film "Animal Rescue," directed by Michael R. Roskam and written by Dennis Lehane, which has been shot and is expected to be released next year. He also had agreed to star in a seven-part limited series for HBO, "Criminal Justice," based on a BBC show. He had shot a pilot for an early iteration of the project.

While Tony Soprano was a larger-than-life figure, Gandolfini was exceptionally modest and obsessive; he described himself as "a 260-pound Woody Allen."

In past interviews, his castmates had far more glowing descriptions to offer.

"I had the greatest sparring partner in the world, I had Muhammad Ali," said Lorraine Bracco, who, as Tony's psychiatrist Dr. Melfi, went one-on-one with Gandolfini in their penetrating therapy scenes. "He cares about what he does, and does it extremely well."

Gandolfini grew up in Park Ridge in New Jersey, the son of a building maintenance chief at a Catholic school and a high school lunch lady.

After earning a degree in communications from Rutgers University, Gandolfini moved to New York, where he worked as a bartender, bouncer and nightclub manager. When he was 25, he joined a friend of a friend in an acting class.

Gandolfini's first big break was a Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" where he played Steve, one of Stanley Kowalski's poker buddies. His film debut was in Sidney Lumet's "A Stranger Among Us" (1992).

Director Tony Scott had praised Gandolfini's talent for fusing violence with charisma - which he would perfect in Tony Soprano.

Gandolfini played a tough guy in Scott's 1993 film "True Romance," who beat Patricia Arquette's character to a pulp while offering such jarring, flirtatious banter as, "You got a lot of heart, kid."

Scott called Gandolfini "a unique combination of charming and dangerous."

In his early career, Gandolfini had supporting roles in "Crimson Tide" (1995), "Get Shorty" (1995), "The Juror" (1996), Lumet's "Night Falls on Manhattan" (1997), "She's So Lovely" (1997), "Fallen" (1998) and "A Civil Action" (1998). But it was "True Romance" that piqued the interest of Chase.

In his 2012 AP interview, Gandolfini said he gravitated to acting as a release, a way to get rid of anger. "I don't know what exactly I was angry about," he said.

"I try to avoid certain things and certain kinds of violence at this point," he said last year. "I'm getting older, too. I don't want to be beating people up as much. I don't want to be beating women up and those kinds of things that much anymore."

The U.S. Embassy in Rome, which said it had learned about the death from the media, said it would be available to provide a death certificate and help prepare Gandolfini's body for return to the United States. The Embassy said it can often take between four and seven days to arrange shipment outside of Italy.

It isn't yet known yet what caused his heart to stop beating. Sudden cardiac arrest can be due to a heart attack, a heart rhythm problem, or as a result of trauma. The chance of cardiac arrest increases as people get older; men over age 45 have a greater risk. Men in general are up to three times more likely to have a sudden cardiac arrest than women.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers David Bauder, John Carucci, Jake Coyle and Frazier Moore in New York; Nicole Winfield in Rome; Maria Cheng in London; and Shaya Tayefe Mohajer and Sandy Cohen in Los Angeles.

Photo: Flickr (CC)

Costa-Gavras thrills fans with “Capital”

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:21:00 +0000

Costa-Gavras, arguably the greatest living progressive filmmaker still shooting political pictures, is back with a new thriller about the banking industry, Capital. This behind-the-scenes exposé of the banksters and their nefarious high finance manipulations and machinations is a fictional, highly entertaining counterpart to Charles Ferguson's Oscar winning 2010 documentary Inside Job, about Wall Street's massive defrauding of the people - at taxpayer expense.

Capital is in French with some English, with Gabriel Byrne co-starring as an American-style banker seeking to impose U.S. policies on a European-based bank headed by Moroccan-born actor Gad Elmaleh, who has a penchant for quoting, of all people, Chairman Mao. "Let 1,000 flowers bloom," and all that. Ethiopian supermodel Liya Kebede plays an elusive runway beauty-the stuff that capitalist fantasies are made of.

In 1969, Costa-Gavras's classic Z - about the assassination of Greece's peace candidate and the overthrow of the government by the Greek colonels-was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and won the Oscars for Best Foreign Film and Best Editing. Costa-Gavras went on to make many leftist films, such as 1972's State of Siege, about South American urban guerrillas, and 1982's Missing, with Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, about the aftermath of the U.S.-backed coup against Chile's democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende.

In any case, the stylish, briskly paced Capital shows that at age 80, Costa-Gavras remains a master of political cinema and is at the top of his game. Take my word for it, PW readers will love Das-uh, I mean Le Capital.

"Capital"

Directed by Costa-Gavras

2012, R, 114 min.

Photo: Scene from "Capital."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defends indefensible

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:38:00 +0000

[Note: the R-word slur is only in direct quotations, so my personal choice not to use the word continues.]

The racist slur that adorns the Washington, D.C. football team continues to be an embarrassment for all sports fans, and resistance to the name is growing. But despite a lawsuit filed by Native Americans that challenges the trademark, and Congress's introduction of a bill to cancel federal registration for all trademarks using the slur, owner Dan Snyder has doubled down, saying "We'll never change the name. It's that simple. NEVER. You can put that in capital letters." In fact, the Republican strategist Frank Luntz has been brought on to find a way to put a positive spin on it.

In mid-May, ten members of the United States Congress, including leaders of the Native American Caucus, wrote a letter addressed to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and all NFL team owners asking that the D.C. team cease using the offensive name.

On June 5, Commissioner Goodell responded with a spectacular failure of a letter. He wrote: "In our view, a fair and thorough discussion of the issue must begin with an understanding of the roots of the Washington franchise and the Redskins name in particular ... the name was changed ... to honor the team's then-head coach, William 'Lone Star' Dietz. Neither in intent nor use was the name ever meant to denigrate Native Americans or offend any group."

Goodell's analysis is a woefully inaccurate portrayal of the team's history and omits many key facts. First, William Dietz was very likely not Native American and the idea of naming the team for his believed Native ancestry is a perfect example of a backhanded 'compliment.' Also of note was the total omission of the role of George Preston Marshall, the team's first owner who chose the name. Marshall was an open segregationist and racist who didn't draft a Black player until the team was threatened with being barred from its federally funded stadium. His will contained instructions that his money not go to "any purpose which supports or employs the principle of racial integration in any form."

The commissioner's letter goes on to defend the refusal to change the name, claiming that public opinion supports its use, and that it "stands for strength, courage, pride and respect." It is the height of arrogance to tell an oppressed community how they should feel about a term applied to them, and what should or should not be acceptable. If that community declares that a name or a term is offensive - and Native American organizations have done so, repeatedly -- it should not be used. Congresswoman Betty McCollum of Minnesota called out the ridiculousness of Goodell's argument, saying "Would Roger Goodell and Dan Snyder actually travel to a Native American community and greet [someone with], 'Hey, what's up, redskin?' I think not."

If the National Football League wants to "take seriously its responsibility to exemplify the values of diversity and inclusion that make our nation great," it could get a fantastic start by recognizing the racist history of the D.C. franchise's name and ceasing to defend the indefensible. It should change the name and pledge to begin a real educational effort to explain why the change was the right decision for the team, the league and the country.

Photo: Mike Licht/notionscapital.com/CC

Patent Office cancels Washington's disparaging trademark: The U.S. Patent Office ruled June 18, 2014, that the Washington Redskins nickname is "disparaging of Native Americans" and that the team's federal trademarks for the name must be canceled.

"Man of Steel" is the definitive Superman

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:48:00 +0000

Growing up, I was never a huge Superman fan. Maybe I simply didn't understand the values that the comics offered. Certainly, the ideals and messages behind Superman are often lost in translation when it comes to my generation, which seems much more attuned to the swagger of Iron Man or the darkness of Batman. But on June 14, I saw "Man of Steel." And now, finally, I understand.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Watchmen, 300), this wildly impressive film is a complete reboot of the series, erasing the history of the Christopher Reeve stories and starting anew. From its fantastical beginning on dying planet Krypton (at once both reminiscent of Avatar and the surrealist art of H.R. Giger), to the grounded struggles of Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) under the guidance of his surrogate parents (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane), right up to the smash-bang super-fight at the end, this film redefines the Superman legend without ever sacrificing the elements that made it so powerful in the first place.

Story

The serious, dramatic, character-centric creative force that drives the movie can be felt both in the Krypton and Earth scenes (between which the transition is admittedly a bit jarring). Beneath this, Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception), who stays on as producer, ensures that the story is presented in a modern context, without becoming pretentious or crumbling into a pile of overreaching self-parody.

The creative sci-fi components (terraforming, cryogenic exile by black hole) and social/ethical quandaries the story includes are innumerable, and presented in the subtlest fashion, to boot. Indeed, subtlety and nuance are the unsung gems hidden in this film. It utilizes such touches to deliver atypical - but nonetheless profound - social commentary.

Meanwhile, there's some religious symbolism present. In one scene, Clark is juxtaposed beside Jesus while speaking with a priest. Yeah, we get it: Superman is a selfless do-gooder. Such scenes are few and far between, but they're unneeded, and the only parts of the film that feel forced.

Fortunately, "Man of Steel" brings Superman back down to earth through his actions. Too often in these stories, these super-powered heroes (with their laundry lists of personality disorders) get so caught up in their petty vendettas and firefights that the people they supposedly care about are reduced to a faceless mass, far away from the front-and-center battlefield. Not so with this movie. Superman is truly a man of the people here; he helps fishermen, saves a bus full of children, and works with the military. Remember when comic book heroes used to be humble and align themselves with the everyday citizen? I do, and apparently Zack Snyder does too.

On the other hand, many critics claimed that, in the end, the profound drama unraveled into a messy, skyscraper-destroying CGI extravaganza that became overlong and monotonous. I failed to see that. In fact, it feels like "Man of Steel" goes above and beyond to make even the climactic battle unconventional: Superman has to stop a "world engine" from modifying the Earth to make it fit for genetically-engineered Kryptonians to inhabit.

Characters

Superman himself does not quite represent the tired vigilantism of other recent superheroes (and for that I'm grateful). Instead, newcomer Henry Cavill portrays a clever mixture of emotional depth and, at times, contemplative withdrawal from a world he does not yet fully understand (perhaps outlining the need for his Fortress of Solitude; future plot setup?). Cavill's fantastic performance outlines the difference between a man in red-and-blue spandex and Superman; Cavill is the latter. I will forever associate the role specifically with this actor.

Michael Shannon plays the tyrannical General Zod, who gets dangerously close to becoming the hackneyed arch nemesis. But his quasi-fascistic talk of preserving bloodlines and his anarchistic disregard for Kryptonian bureaucracy make him more interesting than that. It's just a shame we aren't provided with more backstory for his character. Also, there's little iconic about Zod, if anything. He's neither a Joker nor a Darth Vader. But he's serviceable, even enjoyable.

Russell Crowe plays Superman's father Jor-El, and gets a surprising amount of screen time, which is cool. Despite being given some rather predictable dialogue, Crowe makes the best of it. He gives a memorable performance, though it's trumped by Kevin Costner, who, in terms of the acting-screen time ratio, does much more with less.

Amy Adams rounds out the main cast with a decent portrayal of Lois Lane. Adams' chemistry with Cavill could use some work, though in all fairness, romance is ultimately not a major thing the filmmakers chose to highlight. That may disappoint some, but in my eyes it's a nice departure from the original movies.

In closing

Going in, I had every reason to worry that this incarnation of Superman would fall victim to one or ten of the endless possible flaws. I mean, how do you make a super-powered, cape-wearing alien work in the eyes of a cynical, seen-it-all-before 2013 audience? "Man of Steel" gave me my answer in every facet of its form, content, and presentation. It is a brilliant contribution to the Superman legacy.

It's been criticized for having the "Nolan touch," and being a "Dark Knight knockoff," but "Man of Steel" is not dark and nihilistic. In fact, it seems to depict the end of nihilism and the beginning of renewed optimism. And that's fitting. Superman is an icon of American optimism. Even more appropriately, the film ends on an enduring note of hope.

Before the film began, one of the people in the theater declared, "This is the Superman I've been waiting my whole life to see." And so it was for me, as well. I just didn't know it yet.

"Man of Steel"

Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne

2013, PG-13, 143 mins.

Photo: Man of Steel official site

"Far Out Isn't Far Enough": unique art of Tomi Ungerer

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:55:00 +0000

Contrast, courage, and challenge ... these are the words one may think of when viewing "Far Out Isn't Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story," written, produced, and directed by Brad Bernstein. Some may be familiar with Ungerer's award winning children's books, but perhaps less so his subsequent and controversial antiwar posters and adult erotica. The themes of contrast, courage and challenge are prevalent throughout the 98-minute film and the artist himself touches upon them numerous times. The documentary, which gives Ungerer carte blanche to express his ideas, premieres on screens this summer.

Tomi Ungerer was born November 28, 1931, in Strasbourg, France, of German heritage. In the film, he reflects back to the outbreak of World War II. His family attempted to keep their French identity, but the French language was forbidden during the Nazi occupation of Alsace. Fear was prevalent, and the young boy experienced much of it. Life never returned to normal for the youngster after the war, as his heavy German accent (which is still very pronounced as he speaks in this film) created some prejudice against him. He arrived in New York City in 1956, and began writing and illustrating children's books. It was in his work he confronted the concepts of fear and courage, stemming from his memories of fascist occupation.

Tomi Ungerer's artistic design went far beyond children's books. He drew illustrations for such publications as the Village Voice, which led to more ambitious adult/erotic collections. A trip to the American South in the early 1960s shocked him as he experienced his first taste of racism through segregation. His outrage led to the creation of the 1964 anti-racist book, "Underground Sketchbook." He followed up in 1966 with "The Party," a parody of elitist society he observed in Manhattan. By this time, the Vietnam War was full force. The atrocities from that war brought back memories of his youth under German occupation. This led to his designing extreme and poignant anti-Vietnam-War posters. Viewers of this film who are unfamiliar with Ungerer's posters will be startled at the strong and harsh imagery that is shown. They really pack a punch, as reiterated by the artist during his commentary.

The film presents much archival footage of a youthful Ungerer exploring the Manhattan of the 1950s and '60's. There are praises from contemporaries Jules Feiffer and Maurice Sendak, who says that inspiration for his classic, "Where The Wild Things Are," came from Ungerer's earlier works. Both fellow illustrators make it clear they had no aversions to Ungerer's "adult" art. Viewers also get some insight into his family life, with on-screen comments from his daughter, who says her father has always searched for an identity. From his heritage to his art, he defines contrast.

In 1969, the artist reached the zenith of his work in "adult" illustration with "Fornicon: The Erotic Art of Tomi Ungerer." He was still very active in writing children's books. Ungerer had no problem traversing both worlds of art, and managed to keep them separate. Unfortunately, libraries across America were not as understanding, and his popular works were removed from library shelves. This took a toll on the artist, and he retreated to a small town in Nova Scotia during the mid-1970s.

Reflecting on this period in his life, Ungerer explores the frustration of an artist paying the price for pushing the limits of his abilities. He describes how ideas kept snowballing into his mind without effort. He says every challenge should immediately be followed with another greater challenge, which leads to the title of the film: "Far Out Isn't Far Enough." Unsure of an afterlife, he welcomes the prospect of nothingness as the greatest challenge. Even in finality, the spirit of the artist shines through.

Nowadays, Ungerer splits his time between Ireland and Strasbourg. Images from his hometowns are interspersed with commentary and colorful animated sequences in his current work. It's an equal treat for mind and eye.

His children's books have steadily resurfaced through the decades, and are once again welcomed in American libraries. In 1998, he received the Hans Christian Andersen Award For Illustration. He seems genuinely happy to once again be acknowledged for that work, as witnessed by the emotion he shows on screen. Still an activist, he has worked hard to support the European Union, especially between France and Germany.

This film will keep audiences engaged throughout, and will be a unique inspiration to artists who often see their creative processes making extreme, sharp turns ... sometimes at a great cost to the individual.

See the movie website for screening locations and dates.

Movie information:

"Far Out Isn't Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story"
Written, produced and directed by Brad Bernstein
2012, 98 min.

“Taming of the Shrew” brings to life classic, troubling play

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:01:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - "Hark! What light breaks through yonder canyon?" Why, it's another repertory season of revels and revelations at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum, made glorious by these sons and daughters of Geer.

No summer in Los Angeles is complete without a sojourn to the Theatricum stage. There's nothing quite like seeing Shakespeare under the stars in that rustic amphitheatre nestled in Topanga Canyon. Never ones to shrink from controversy, the Theatricum has launched its 40th anniversary season with one of the Bard's most contentious plays, The Taming of the Shrew.

The mise-en-scène (which creatively makes use of the natural surroundings), the music, the Renaissance period costumes, and the acting are up this equity house's usual high standards. As Grumio, the sly cross-dressing Melora Marshall humorously plays yet another male character. Raven-haired Willow Geer, who has appeared in many a Bard play and is arguably one of L.A.'s finest theater actresses, is superb as the fiery, strong-willed (and sexy) Katharina. Willow can heave her bosom with the best of them, and coming up against this force of nature is another Theatricum veteran, Aaron Hendry, as Petruchio, who seeks to woo, wed, and domesticate this fireball.

The troupe's venerable artistic director, Ellen Geer, presides over the organized mayhem of this naughty comedy with her usual astute aplomb. A Shakespearean expert, Ms. Geer observes that there are "many points of view" about Shrew. One is that in this play about the eternal war between the sexes, Petruchio subdues and subjugates Katharina to his will. Backstage, after the show, Hendry told this critic that Petruchio could be considered a "misogynist."

Playing up the work's farcical aspects, the production uses a small orchestra, mainly a slide whistle, to provide sound effects intended to convey comical intent and soften the blows of a debatably patriarchal folio. To my ears these FX couldn't distract from what may have been the playwright's male chauvinist intent: Katharina's submission to Petruchio's grim whims.

But Katharina, the "shrew-ish" title character, is an acid-tongued, temperamental woman used to having and getting her way in Padua. So perhaps she is a proto-feminist, free-spirited and determined to live life on her own terms. However, she is coerced against her will to enter into an arranged marriage on very short notice. Petruchio is no gentleman from Verona, and after marrying Kate, literally uses Guantánamo-type "enhanced interrogation" methods to break her spirit, including sleep and food deprivation.

To be fair to the production, Hendry does convey the sense that Petruchio is genuinely smitten with Katharina. When they lip-lock, we can sense that both characters feel a libidinal thrill. (And for the record I did not feel that Hendry's petulant Petruchio suffered from misogyny.)

At one point Kate shrieks that she wants to be "free!!!" Consider these wonderful lines Shakespeare gave Katharina:

"My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,
Or else my heart concealing it will break,
And rather than it shall, I will be free
Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words."

And in terms that Susan B. Anthony, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, and Gloria Steinem might applaud, Katharina muses:

"I see a woman may be made a fool,
If she had not a spirit to resist."

Hear, hear the voice of women throughout the ages struggling for their rights, to be treated as equals, not chattel!

The subjugation of human beings is never a laughing matter to be taken lightly - although there are those who argue that Kate bests her loutish husband by using submissiveness as a ruse to (as ever) get her own way. Some of this tale of domination is frankly disturbing to my egalitarian, anarchistic sensibility. But the Theatricum production serves us well to evaluate this classic, troubling text.

The Taming of the Shrew is performed in repertory through Sept. 29 along with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's The Royal Family, Merlin by Ellen Geer, and Tone Clusters by Joyce Carol Oates, at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum: 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, California, 90290. For schedule and other information call: (310) 455-3723 or see: www.Theatricum.com.

Photo: Ian Flanders

New “Star Trek” boldly goes...where it's gone before

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:02:00 +0000

Star Trek Into Darkness is the sequel to 2009's Star Trek, which itself is a soft reboot of the 60's television series. This one sees the crew of the Enterprise facing off against rogue starfleet agent John Harrison, who was awakened by a corrupt admiral after 300 years in suspended animation, in order to start a war between mankind and the Klingon Empire. Harrison is soon revealed to be a [spoiler alert:] familiar genetically engineered tyrant: Khan.

Taken as a whole, this film is really a bit more of an action film than a science fiction story. And, let's face it, modern filmmakers seem to have trouble separating the two genres, while younger audiences apparently think that sci-fi means "alien invasions and lots of CGI." The new Star Trek is certainly CGI-laden, but that's fine, if not albeit obscured by director J.J. Abrams' pesky lens flare. One might wish, however, that in between all the explosions and suspend-your-disbelief acrobatics (Kirk and McCoy do a death-defying cliff jump at the film's beginning), there might be a little more story.

There's plenty of character development, at least for certain characters. The chemistry between Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) is even better than in the first film; the actors play off one another nicely, and the snappy dialogue is priceless. Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) is less like the original version of the character, and more Cumberbatch's creation - equal parts menace, intellect, and cunning. Lieutenant Uhura (Zoe Saldana) gets a nice bit of screen time, and even gets in on the action, which is great. But it's a real tragedy that the role of Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) is greatly reduced, especially considering how well Urban plays the character, whose few lines happen to be some of the best in the film. McCoy is too important a character to be benched. Characters Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) also suffer from this. This suggests that Abrams struggled to manage the large ensemble cast, something other directors (see The Avengers) have had problems with.

The narrative is, by and large, conventional, as are the messages behind it. Into Darkness draws rather obvious connections to modern-day terrorism, government corruption, and war-mongering. Those are important messages, but I don't believe Star Trek is the best vehicle for them. Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek was above that; it told us that capitalism, human warfare, and terrorism were relics of the past. It offered more profound philosophical and ethical dilemmas, with an eye toward the future and an emphasis on diplomacy, not corruption. Abrams seems to forget that here.

Moreover, Hollywood seems to think that if it shoves a movie that is two parts action and one part social commentary down our gullets, we won't notice that the creativity is lacking. Granted, what story Star Trek does have is creative enough to separate it from the herd and render it a cut above other recent sci-fi contenders. But at times, there are too many winks and throwbacks to the original Wrath of Khan and, for that matter, the original series.

Admittedly, it was clever to [spoiler alert:] reverse the roles that Kirk and Spock had in The Wrath of Khan: Here, Kirk is gravely injured while Spock, enraged, is left to pursue and do battle with Khan. That bit of the film, by the way, is brimming with emotional resonance, and is an example of the main thing Into Darkness has going for it: the absolutely spectacular acting.

If Into Darkness is a letdown, it's only because it falls short of its full potential. We see the originality that it's capable of in the introductory scene, when Kirk and McCoy explore a vibrant, volcanic world with an interesting new race of beings. But from that point forward, just when everything seems so promising, we're dragged at warp speed back into all-too-familiar territory. It's still great fun, but when it's all over, what does Into Darkness actually have to call its own; to define itself and set itself apart with, in terms of the franchise as a whole?

We're given plenty of quick nods to the classic series; that's always enough to make the fans grin. But we were told this was supposed to be the Star Trek for a new generation. Might we expect some actual new material in the third installment? The actors can more than carry it. All lens flare jokes aside, the director can deliver it. If Star Trek 3 truly does boldly take us where we haven't gone before, I see no reason why it shouldn't be phenomenal. Until then, Star Trek Into Darkness is still a pleasant enough popcorn flick and a decent homage to the superior legacy that Roddenberry created.

"Star Trek Into Darkness"

Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Alice Eve, Simon Pegg, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, Leonard Nimoy

2013, PG-13, 133 mins.

Photo: Star Trek official film site

Inequality in U.S. today is similar to 1929 and Gilded Age

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:26:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Unionists and other activists "must not be afraid to be bold" to attack U.S. income inequity and "the plutocracy" that once again imposes its will on the country, a noted analyst of income inequity says.

Author Sam Pizzigati, a retired communications specialist for unions, and editor of Too Much, an online newsletter about inequity, added that the inequity and plutocracy are so bad that they make the U.S. now look historically like a combination of 1929 - before the Great Depression - and the Gilded Age, before the Progressive Era.

Pizzigati's critique was part of his discussion of economic history, positive and negative, outlined in his new book, at a June 3 talk at the AFL-CIO. The Rich Don't Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph Over Plutocracy That Created The American Middle Class, 1900-1970 shows how, especially in the 1930s and 1950s, inequality lessened, thanks to the New Deal and the strength of the labor movement.

It also details how those victories were won, plus the roles of the nation's leading corporate tax attorney - who openly advocated for high income tax rates on the top dollars the rich earned - and other corporate titans, who put the country's interests first.

In World War II, Pizzigati noted, that tax attorney, Randolph Paul, who is no relation to the present Republican Kentucky senator, helped FDR author tax legislation that would have taxed every penny (100 percent) of all income above $25,000, equal to $350,000 in today's dollars. FDR didn't get that, but he got a top tax rate above 90 percent.

In the 1950s, unions ensured prosperity through their bargaining strength, and income inequality lessened, Pizzigati said. "In 1950, Charlie Wilson, the president of General Motors, earned $586,000, the equivalent of $5 million today. He paid $428,000, or 73 percent in taxes.

"In the first half of the 20^th century, unions were significantly raising incomes of those at the bottom and helping to enact progressive taxes, which lowered incomes of those at the top," like Wilson, he added.

That high rate didn't start to fall until two Democratic presidents, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, proposed tax cuts in 1963-64, which the Democratic-run Congress enacted. Kennedy proposed a much lower rate for capital gains, while Johnson cut the top income tax rate from 91 percent to 65 percent. It skidded further under presidents of both parties, Pizzigati said. The top rate is now 39.6 percent.

"With a 91 percent rate, we didn't have high executive pay and high tax avoidance," Pizzigati added.

What the proponents of low taxes on the rich deliberately ignore, Pizzigati said, is that 1930s union organizing and 1950s union density built the broad U.S. middle class - and the broad prosperity most people enjoyed until the early 1970s.

And the wealthy elite agreed to the high taxes because they remembered what happened when taxes were slashed in the 1920s and plutocracy triumphed then, followed by the Great Depression, he said.

Randolph Paul and the corporate executives whom he advised "saw that intense concentration of wealth ushered in the Great Depression and the Great Depression ushered in World War II. They felt we couldn't risk more political instability like that, and that income inequality would make that inevitable."

But since the 1970s, the ruling elite has successfully campaigned to restore the income gulf between themselves and the rest of us, and has created a "plutocracy" that gets what it wants politically and virtually runs the country, Pizzigati added.

So activists must be bold in attacking that plutocracy and income inequality, Pizzigati declared. Some of ideas they could advocate include:

"Leveraging the power of the public purse" to level incomes. "Activists in the United Kingdom are doing that. Governments here spend billions on contracts, with few strings attached except for bans on discrimination by race and gender. Why should we subsidize corporations with great pay inequity? There should be no funds going to those where the CEO makes more than 25 times the average worker." The average U.S. top corporate CEO last year made 354 times the average worker, data show.
Fight back against right wing ideology that says "taxes can never work." Pizzigati noted that when marginal tax rates were at their height against the rich, the U.S. used the funds to build its infrastructure and lift up the poor into the middle class.
Campaign not only for higher income tax rates on the rich, but higher tax rates - and higher collections - from corporations. In the early 1950s, corporations paid a much larger percentage share of the costs of running government. Now they pay 10 percent or less.

"Progressives can't be afraid to be bold," Pizzigati said. "The United Auto Workers and the CIO pushed FDR to put that 100% tax rate idea on the table. But now the tax burden in the U.S., including all taxes, has turned the idea of progressive taxation on its head."

Pitzzigati's book, published by Seven Stories Press, is available in paperback and a Kindle edition.

"Upstream Color": A vibrant puzzle of a film

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:01:00 +0000

Somebody is stalking successful young urban professionals, force-feeding them mind-nullifying worms, and exploiting their suggestive state to rob them of their homes, money and sense of confidence.

To make things worse, another mysterious figure is producing complicated mix tapes of ambient noise and using them to lure these victims to a remote area, where he performs ghastly surgery to remove the worms and implant them into the pigs he raises on his farm.

Through contact with his pigs he maintains a sort of astrally projected voyeurism of the victim's vacant lives as they try to hold on and move forward. The pigs who die are thrown into a river where they decay and feed the growth of a vibrant flower that serve as host to ... the mind-parasite worms.

If this all sounds stranger than the strangest David Lynch film ever made, you'd be right. This phantasmagoria is the plot, if you will, of the recent film Upstream Color.

It is the second film of Shane Carruth, who directed Primer, another challenging film. A defiantly strange and difficult film, Upstream Color revels in its puzzling subject matter. Far removed from the sort of films that pass for works of imagination or horror these days, it is far from easy to categorize. Certainly it has elements of science fiction, horror, even romance, and it has an indie film feel as well. But it is far too unique to fit into any box.

In a manner of speaking, the film is similar to the early work of David Cronenberg, with its sense of body-based anxiety. But though the film starts with a shocking violation that can almost be interpreted as a form of rape, it continues on and travels many places, erecting shaky platforms of hope for its characters as well as its audience.

Its nearly impenetrable, meandering narrative may irritate more viewers than it will please. This is clearly not a film made for a mass audience. Quiet, slow and hypnotic, it relies heavily on the skill of its no-name cast to construct an emotional architecture for its audience to inhabit.

Carruth, who acts in addition to writing, directing, producing and scoring duties, shares screen time with Amy Seimetz. Carruth does well with his role - a former stockbroker getting by with whatever work he can get, living a life that the worms and their cohorts have hollowed out. He connects with Seimetz, another victim. We witness far more of what she's been through, and can understand how she goes from young executive to a furtive, frightened casualty. Seimetz has a dignified, natural beauty that doesn't interfere with her seeming raw and immediate. It's rather enthralling watching her keep vulnerability at bay.

It's likely you won't really understand what is happening watching this film unfold, but looking back I feel this helps draw us into the story itself - the characters suffer from massive confusion, and we share their plight. It invests us in their story and creates a weird intimacy.

Aside from a few uncomfortable sequences there's a sort of laconic beauty to Upstream Color. It reminds me of Terence Malick's Days Of Heaven in its constant reference to a lush agricultural subtext to human drama. There's a measured approach to everything: intense detail litters every corner of the film, and it seems tailor-made for repeat, obsessive viewing. It's as much a puzzle as any Kubrick film, and if you want a benchmark of how willfully it resists explaining itself, think of 2001: A Space Odyssey or Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad.

I find it easy to praise the film, not only for the satisfying experience it provides a viewer willing to supply the focus and patience required, but equally for its willingness to challenge. Films of every genre have suffered of late from a variety of commercial formulas. Even films that are taken seriously tend to seem more conventional than in past decades. Upstream Color represents an experience that is now more uncommon than ever: the film that gives your imagination room to roam around.

Movie information:

"Upstream Color"
Written and directed by Shane Carruth
2013, not rated, 96 min.

Photo: Upstream Color

“Checkpoints and Borders” sings of immigrant youth (with video)

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:18:00 +0000

(Texas Media Collective) - Undocumented immigrants aren't faceless. Contrary to right-wing myths, you'll find them not only harvesting American harvests, but also hard at work in our schools and colleges, serving in the military, bagging groceries, and creating computer software.

Nor are they voiceless. They have many concerns, but a common theme is love of country and a desire to remain in their adopted home.

Alvaro Che of Houston has created a song, "Checkpoints and Borders," about those who refuse to keep silent. He voices the fears of young people who are emotionally tied to the U.S., yet who are in danger of legal kidnapping by the government.

The Reverbnation page of his band, Liquid Casing, describes its sound as rock, eccentric free-style, and progressive.

Listen to Liquid Casing perform "Checkpoints and Borders" in this powerful video (see lyrics below the video):

Checkpoints and Borders

(lyrics provided by Alvaro Che)

Tired of Last Looks

and those fading memories

of everyone that I've left behind.

Tired of the shadow cast

by a mountain of tears.

crushing (down)

on those trapped beneath.

These Borders, they're everywhere.

There is more to this life than fear.

Checkpoints to see where we belong.

"Can't you see? I don't belong."

My skin said it all;

that border I just can't cross.

These Borders, they don't belong.

There is more to this life than fear.

I don't belong, to anyone, anymore.

These Borders. They don't belong.

Photo: Courtesy of Liquid Casing

“Crossfire Hurricane:” Rolling Stones at 50

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 10:59:00 +0000

Though there have been many films made about the Rolling Stones, they have all been either cinema verite snapshots of touring and recording, or live concert footage. These rank from the well regarded (such as Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy For The Devil and the Maysles Brothers' Gimme Shelter) to the rarely seen (such as Peter Whitehead's fascinating Charlie Is My Darling, only recently restored and released after decades of obscurity, and the notorious C***sucker Blues, which is still only available as a bootleg due to its controversial footage of sex and drugs). Crossfire Hurricane, the new documentary by Brett Morgen, makes good use of all these previous films as raw material and couples them with a brand new oral history provided by the off-screen surviving Stones to create a 50th anniversary appraisal.

As a fan of the Stones as well as an admirer of Morgen's previous The Kid Stays In The Picture and Chicago 10, I was looking forward to Crossfire Hurricane. Dealing with 50 years of a rock and roll institution in less than two hours is a challenge. The Beatles afforded their much shorter career far more room to sprawl in The Beatles Anthology, but this new film actually uses its limitations wisely - focusing on the most important years of the band. As the years catch up with the Stones as they are today (an institution and brand more than anything else) the film begins to fade out. What we are left with is what really matters: a look at when the band wrestled classic tunes out of difficult, exciting and dangerous times - essayed in a fast-moving tumble of narration and motion.

The Beatles certainly set up the game of pop music in the 1960s, but the Stones can be said to have left us with some of the more honest and compelling songs of the era. Under the guidance of their young manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, they positioned themselves as an anti-product.

No other band can claim the territory the Stones inhabited - the dangerous place closer to the violent epicenter of the era, and more unabashed about sex back when it was merely flirted with elsewhere. The footage in Crossfire Hurricane is compiled in such a manner as to make all of this quite clear and compelling. The film makes it easier to connect the frantic stage riots the Stones encountered (seen here in footage from their 1965 tour of Ireland) to the later bloody mess that was Altamont, where a young African American audience member lost his life at the hands of acid-and-beer-fueled Hell's Angels. There's a palpable violence that is apparent in the screams of the adolescent girls and later in antiwar demonstrations in Paris and elsewhere (commemorated in the Stones' Street Fighting Man) - both were seismic manifestations of young people breaking free from convention, whether it be sexual or political. The Stones alone among their pop peers acknowledged in their material that there was a dark side to all the upheaval. The Stones were provocative agents of change, and their flaunting of a disregard for propriety as it related at the time to class, sexuality and race made certain that they got both attention and also blame.

Some of the wear and tear involved in maintaining such a position is evident in the film. Certainly the obvious casualty was Brian Jones, the talented musician who started the group and was done in by fame and an inability to evolve from great player to star. As Mick Jagger and Keith Richard became songwriters and the band became more than musicians in terms of both position and notoriety, the pressure on Jones' limits and his fragile psyche became precarious. Dead within a short time after leaving the band, Jones wasn't the only victim.

The band changed direction in the early 1970s and never had quite as important relationship with its times, becoming instead something of a celebrity caricature of what it had started out as. The Stones now earn merit more from endurance than innovation, long becoming comfortable with the roles they've settled into. The damage done within the band after they became insulated tax evaders was more self-inflicted and less to do with challenging "petty morals" than with dealing with their own internal conflicts and maintaining their hard-won reputation. That's what makes any good, long look at the band in its more vital years all the more interesting.

The testimony is relatively candid, though the Stones themselves probably wouldn't be the ones to make sense of their legacy. The design, cinematography and editing of the film is probably the most articulate voice in this film.

Say what you will about the Rolling Stones, they may be sarcastic, misogynistic and more than a little Jurassic, but they have defined rock and roll for more than one generation. At their mid-century mark if you want something to remind you of what made them worthwhile, and make sense of the shambolic tangle of attitude and perseverance that built their legend, Crossfire Hurricane will fit the bill.

Movie information:
"Crossfire Hurricane"
Written and directed by Brett Morgen
2012, 111 minutes

Photo: Internet Movie Database

Lies, money, power, and the vile Donald Trump

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 13:43:00 +0000

Anthony Baxter's "You've Been Trumped" is a sad tale about how American billionaire Donald Trump used his money and power to destroy a fragile ecological zone on the Scottish coast and make the lives of local residents miserable.

When Trump arrives in Scotland and announces that he wants to convert an ecologically valuable, majestic windswept sand dune into a golf course for rich Americans, he causes an uproar. The area is referred to by scientists as the "Amazon rainforest of Scotland" because of the variety of plant and animal species that it contains.

Trump claims that the golf course project will not damage the dunes and that it has support from environmental groups, a claim refuted by University of Glasgow scientist Dr. Jim Hansom and the local Green Party representative. Trump also falsely argues that the project has local support.

In fact, local residents oppose the golf course and the local legislative council votes against it, but the Scottish government intervenes and overrules those objections. A professor from the London School of Economics refutes Trump's claim that the resort would create 600 local jobs

Adding insult to injury, Trump also speaks out against a proposed offshore wind farm because he "wants to see the ocean" instead of wind towers.

Trump then decides that residents living around the edges of the golf course will have to go because their homes and farms blemish the view. In a clip from his reality show, Trump says, "The houses have to go because l do not like them."

Local residents refuse to sell their properties to Trump, but the Scottish government takes his side again and threatens to buy the properties. At this point, the protest movement organized to save the dunes turns to defend these residents from forced expropriation.

To place pressure on people unwilling to sell, Trump's construction crews sever electrical and water lines and delay making repairs, and bulldozers are used to push dirt walls around the houses, blocking their views.

Police and private security throw up a security cordon around the project while it is under construction, preventing people from filming their activity, and protecting crews who intrude on the property of local residents. In one scene, a police officer, without provocation, throws Baxter against a car, handcuffs him behind his back and puts him in jail for four hours.

"You've been Trumped" very much reminds me of Michael Moore's "Roger and Me." A former BBC radio journalist, Baxter pursues Trump ruthlessly at every press conference and public event, trying to pin him down about the project's social and environmental costs. Trump refused to be interviewed for the documentary.

In the end, the golf course gets built, but local residents are able to save their homes and farms from expropriation.

"You've Been Trumped," a polished piece of work, exposes Trump as a nasty man, driven by self-interest, who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals.

DVD

"You've Been Trumped"

Directed by Anthony Baxter

docuramafilms, 2013, 100 minutes