Gossip Central

Wit’s Wit

A conceit, an ironic barb, wit can be searing and funny. In the case of Margaret Edson’s Wit, the Tony winning play now in a Manhattan Theatre Club revival at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre under the fine direction of Lynne Meadow, Wit follows the journey of Vivian Bearing, a name that loosely translates to “enduring life,” a college professor specializing in 17^th century metaphysical poetry, in the verse of John Donne to be specific, author of “Death Be Not Proud.” As performed by Sex & the City’s Cynthia Nixon, she is a brainy Everyman/woman, precious in what she knows and does, vital in knowledge, commitment, and contribution to life, devastating to lose. And lose her we do. Sorry for the spoiler: she dies at Wit’s end.

Oscar Nominations: The Artist for Ten

“Fame is fleeting,” said Harvey Weinstein introducing Coriolanus last week at the film’s Paris Theater premiere. Juxtaposing the all night Golden Globe parties with his turn on television with Uggie, the canine star of his movie The Artist, Weinstein noted, one minute I’m accepting awards (The Artist, My Week with Marilyn, The Iron Lady, were among Weinstein films honored with top prizes), the next I’m on the Today show with a dog. But what a dog!

Anticipating the Best Picture Oscar nod, Uggie’s P.R. people called for a photo op at the Empire State Building, on the 86^th floor deck. With his trainer and owner Omar von Muller, the Jack Russell terrier played dead and eh, manned a skateboard. Ever since Cannes, this “rescued” dog has been a secret darling of the film: at the New York Film Festival opening, The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius was asked how he worked with the dog. Sausages. The reply seems to have gone viral.

Titillation and Tantrums: Shaw’s Philanderer at the Pearl Theater

The Pearl Theatre Company revival of George Bernard Shaw’s The Philanderer had many in the audience wondering why this delightful and deliciously scandalous play is not produced more often. Of course the sex implied and on view between corseted women and waist-coated men is nothing to raise a contemporary eyebrow, but in its day, 1893, it was banned for fifteen years.

Richard III: The Winter of Discontent Full Blown at BAM

The picture on the Richard III poster shows the actor Kevin Spacey, mangled like a piece of John Chamberlain’s chrome sculptures, his left leg in a brace turned inward, his epaulets woefully off kilter, his dark glasses barely grazing his nose, his crown cocked like a smartass cartoon. At BAM where the Bridge Project’s stunning production of Shakespeare’s play is thus advertised, the image only begins to tell you what’s in his heart. Having just murdered Lady Anne’s father and husband, he woos her, Shakespeare’s language suggesting everything you can possibly do with a cane. Its noise announces Richard’s writhing gestures, producing dread and glee. You don’t know where he will thrust it, including a gratuitous jab at a severed head in a bloody box. Ooooh!

My Week with Shakespeare: Coriolanus

Freshly returned, triumphant at the Golden Globes, Harvey Weinstein exhibited no jet lag introducing a new film, Coriolanus at the Paris Theater: There are three great Shakespeare films, he exulted, Olivier’s Hamlet, Olivier’s Henry V, and this one. The film’s star and director Ralph Fiennes then introduced cast members Jessica Chastain and Vanessa Redgrave to a crowd that included Patti Smith, Judd Hirsch, Gina Gershon, Fisher Stevens, Dan Abrams, Michael Stuhlbarg, Liam Neeson, James Earl Jones, Paul Haggis, Terry George, Thomas Langmann, and hosts Bob Balaban and Susan Sarandon.                                                                                                                                                                   

Globe Watching

Running up to the Golden Globes weekend, a plateau in the awards season, one category I had my eye on was Best Actress in a Drama. The nominations left two formidable actresses vying for the honor, that is, Viola Davis in The Help and the winner Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady. Even as Streep left the stage she said, Viola, you’re my girl.

Awards Foreplay at the National Board of Review Gala

At the elegant National Board of Review’s Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street this week, fine films were respectfully feted, with Hugo winning Best Picture, its director Martin Scorsese honored. Christopher Plummer, Best Supporting Actor for Beginners, and Will Reiser for his 50/50 original screenplay were among those honored. But, those speeches! On this occasion coming up on the Golden Globes weekend, a subtext emerged. Were they thinking about Oscars?

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory on HBO, and Awarded by the National Board of Review and Cinema Eye Honors for Non-Fiction Filmmaking

Last October when the documentary Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory premiered at the New York Film Festival, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky celebrated an unanticipated event: the release from prison of the West Memphis 3. For documentary filmmakers, it doesn’t get better than this: having your work bring about change.

In 1993, a newspaper item about the murder of three 8-year olds in West Memphis and the three teenaged boys arrested for the crime piqued the interest of HBO’s Sheila Nevins. She called the filmmaking team of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, sending them south to document the case. The filmmakers thought they were going to tell a tale about guilty teens and Satanic rituals in the heartland. Finding the evidence overwhelming that the men were innocent, instead they made a movie that pointed toward a miscarriage of justice. Two earlier versions of the documentary, shown at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s New Directions/ New Films festival and HBO galvanized support for the convicted young men. After 18 years in prison, the men were released this past August.

The Awards Will Not Be Televised: Brad Pitt at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards

The crowds outside Crimson, the club where the New York Film Critics Circle held their awards, were six deep, calm in the cold behind velvet ropes, hoping to get a glimpse. Brad Pitt would receive a Best Actor award for his work in Moneyball and The Tree of Life, and, Angelina was by his side. He had been at hers a few weeks ago, a quiet presence at the In the Land of Blood and Honey premiere. Inside Crimson, critics and colleagues heard his story about first coming to New York at age 25, staying with a friend on Christopher Street, noting there were an awful lot of men, and they were all so nice. As to the New York critics, he was happy to meet this group led this year by John Anderson, surprised they weren’t taller, and even happier that the event would not be televised.

Albert Brooks Tribute at the Film Society of Lincoln Center

As the guy who doesn’t get the pretty girl, Albert Brooks does get the laughs. Which, as he indicated at a special tribute focused on his acting on Sunday night at the Walter Reade Theater, has made some directors hesitate to cast him in dramatic roles. In such American classics as Taxi Driver and Broadcast News, romance with Cybill Shepherd and Holly Hunter eludes him, while in Private Benjamin, sex with Goldie Hawn on their wedding night does him in. Filmmakers may be wary of his “funny,” but not Nicolas Winding Refn, the Danish director of Drive, a Ryan Gosling vehicle (ha!) in which Albert Brooks plays an articulate thug, a performance touted for major awards, such as Best Supporting Actor from the New York Film Critics Circle.

Before the Film Society’s tribute and a special screening of Drive, I had the opportunity to ask Albert Brooks about this role.