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Home , Alamo Bay, Andre Gregory, A Very Private Affair, Declan Quinn, Elevator to the Gallows, George Gaynes

April 8, 2014 (Series 28: 10) ND , VANYA ON 42 STREET 1994, 119 minutes)

Directed by Louis Malle Written by (play “Dyadya Vanya”), (adaptation) and () Cinematography by Declan Quinn

Phoebe Brand ... Nanny Lynn Cohen ... Maman ... Serybryakov Jerry Mayer ... Waffles ... Yelena ... Dr. Astrov Brooke Smith ... Sonya ... Vanya Andre Gregory ... Himself

LOUIS MALLE (director) (b. October 30, 1932 in Thumeries, Nord, —d. 23, 1995 (age 63) in Beverly Hills, , ) directed 33 films and television shows, including 1994 Vanya on , 1992 Damage, 1990 May and 1954 Station 307 (Short)—and was the cinematographer for Fools, 1987 , 1986 “God's Country” (TV 5: 1986 “God's Country” (TV Movie documentary), 1986 “And Movie documentary), 1986 “And the Pursuit of Happiness” (TV the Pursuit of Happiness” (TV Movie documentary), 1962 Vive Movie documentary), 1985 , 1984 Crackers, 1981 My le tour (Documentary short), 1956 Dinner with Andre, 1980 Atlantic City, 1978 Pretty Baby, 1975 (Documentary), and 1954 Station 307 (Short). Black Moon, 1974 A Human Condition (Documentary), 1974

Lacombe, Lucien, 1971 , 1969 Calcutta ANTON CHEKHOV (writer—play “Dyadya Vanya”) (b. Anton (Documentary), 1967 The Thief of , 1965 Viva Maria!, 1963 Pavlovich Chekhov, January 29, 1860 in Taganrog, Russian , 1962 , 1960 Zazie dans le Empire [now Rostov Oblast, Russia]—d. July 15, 1904 (age 44) metro, 1958 The Lovers, 1958 , and 1953 in Badenweiler, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) Crazeologie (Short). He also wrote 17 films and TV shows— was a Russian physician, dramaturge, and author who is 2010 Shikeidai no erebêtâ, 1990 , 1987 Au Revoir Les considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in Enfants, 1978 Pretty Baby, 1975 Black Moon, 1974 Lacombe, history. His career as a dramatist produced four classic plays, and Lucien, 1971 Murmur of the Heart, 1969 Calcutta his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and (Documentary), 1968 , 1967 The Thief of critics. Over 370 films have been based on his stories, Paris, 1965 Viva Maria!, 1963 The Fire Within, 1962 Vive le particularly . tour (Documentary short), 1962 A Very Private Affair, 1960

Zazie dans le metro, 1958 Elevator to the Gallows (adaptation),

Malle— BABETTE’S FEAST—2

DAVID MAMET (writer—adaptation) (b. David Alan Mamet, shows, including 2014 “Line of Sight” (TV Movie), 2014 Hot November 30, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois) wrote 43 films and TV Tub Time Machine 2, 2013 Fear of Falling, 2012 The Reluctant shows, among them 2014 About Last Night (based on Sexual Fundamentalist, 2012 Being Flynn, 2011 Neil Young Journeys Perversity in Chicago), 2013 “Phil Spector” (TV Movie), 2010 (Documentary), 2009 Neil Young Trunk Show (Documentary), “The Unit” (TV Series—67 episodes), 2005 2008 , I Love You, 2008 Pride and Glory, 2007 Jimmy (play/screenplay), 2004 Spartan, 2001 Heist, 2001 Hannibal Carter Man from Plains (Documentary), 2004 Vanity Fair, 2003 (screenplay), 2000 , 1999 The Winslow Boy Cold Creek Manor, 2002 : The Best of 1990-2000 (Video (screenplay), 1999 “Lansky” (TV Movie), 1998 Ronin documentary), 2002 In America, 2001 , 2000 (screenplay), 1997 (screenplay), 1997 The Spanish 28 Days, 1998 One True Thing, 1997 One Night Stand, 1996 Prisoner, 1997 The Edge, 1996 Kama Sutra: , 1995 , 1994 (play/screenplay), 1994 (play/screenplay), 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, 1993 The Ballad of Little Jo, 1992 “The “Texan” (TV Short), 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street (play Heart of Justice” (TV Movie), 1991 “Lies of the Twins” (TV adaptation), 1992 Movie), 1991 Blood and Hoffa, 1992 Concrete, 1989 The Kill- Glengarry Glen Off, and 1984 U2: Ross Unforgettable Fire (play/screenplay), (Documentary short). 1992 “” (TV PHOEBE BRAND ... Nanny Movie—play), 1991 (b. November 27, 1907 in Homicide, 1991 Ilion, New York—d. July Performance (TV 3, 2004 (age 96) in New Series), 1989 We're York City, New York) No Angels, 1988 appeared in 1 film and 1 Things Change, TV show: 1994 Vanya on 1987 House of 42nd Street, and 1951 Games “Treasury Men in Action” (screenplay/story), (TV Series). 1987 The Untouchables, 1987 “” (TV Series), 1986 About LYNN COHEN ... Maman (b. Lynn Harriette Kay, August 10, Last Night... (play Sexual Perversity in Chicago), 1982 The 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri) appeared in 76 films and Verdict (screenplay), 1981 The Postman Always Rings Twice television shows, including 2014 Omphalos, 2014 Gabriel, 2014 (screenplay), and 1979 “A Life in the Theater” (TV Movie— They Came Together, 2013 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, play). He also directed 21 films, television shows, and video 2013 A Case of You, 2012 Where Is Joel Baum?, 2012 Not shorts, including 2013 “Phil Spector” (TV Movie), 2010 Two Waving But Drowning, 2012 The of Loneliness, 2010 Painters (Short), 2010 Our Valley (Short), 2010 The Marquee The Kindergarten Shuffle, 2010 Sex and the City 2, 2010 A Little (Short), 2010 Inside the Actor's Workshop (Video short), 2010 Help, 2003-2010 “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (TV Lost Masterpieces of Pornography (Video short), 2006-2008 Series), 2010 The Extra Man, 2008 Eagle Eye, 2008 Synecdoche, “The Unit” (TV Series), 2008 , 2004 “The Shield” (TV New York, 2008 Sex and the City, 2008 Deception, 2007 The Series), 2004 Spartan, 2001 Heist, 2000 Catastrophe (Short), Summoning of Everyman, 2006 Invincible, 1993-2006 “Law & 2000 State and Main, 1999 The Winslow Boy, 1997 The Spanish Order” (TV Series—12 episodes), 2005 Munich, 2005 The Last Prisoner, 1996 “ and His 52 Assistants” (TV Movie), Days of Leni Riefenstahl (Short), 2003 The Station Agent, 1999 1994 Oleanna, 1991 Homicide, 1988 Things Change, and 1987 Cradle Will Rock, 1997 My Divorce, 1997 Deconstructing . Harry, 1996 I Shot Andy Warhol, 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, 1993 Manhattan Murder Mystery, and 1983 Without a Trace. ANDRE GREGORY (writer—screenplay) (b. May 11, 1934 in Paris, France) wrote 2 films, 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, and GEORGE GAYNES ... Serybryakov (b. George Jongejans, May 1981 . In addition to writing, Gregory also 16, 1917 in , ) appeared in 85 films and TV appeared in 23 films and TV shows, including 2013 Fear of shows, including 2003 Just Married, 1997 Wag the Dog, 1996 Falling, 2003 Judge Koan, 1998 Celebrity, 1998 Goodbye Lover, , 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, 1992-1993 “Hearts 1995 Last Summer in the Hamptons, 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, Afire” (TV Series—23 episodes), 1989-1991 “The Days and 1994 The Shadow, 1993 Demolition Man, 1990 The Bonfire of Nights of Molly Dodd” (TV Series—17 episodes), 1989 Police the Vanities, 1988 Some Girls, 1988 The Last Temptation of Academy 6: City Under Siege, 1984-1988 “Punky Brewster” (TV Christ, 1987 Street Smart, 1986 The Mosquito Coast, 1983 Series—86 episodes), 1988 Police Academy 5: Assignment: “Great Performances” (TV Series), 1982 Author! Author!, and Miami Beach, 1987 Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, 1986 1981 My Dinner with Andre. Police Academy 3: Back in Training, 1985 Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, 1984 Police Academy, 1984 “Blue DECLAN QUINN (cinematographer) (b. 1957 in Chicago, Thunder” (TV Series), 1983 “” (TV Series), 1982 , Illinois) was the cinematographer on 53 films and television 1982 Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, 1979-1982 “Quincy M.E.” Malle—VANYA ON 42nd STREET BABETTE’S FEAST—3

(TV Series), 1980 , 1979 “WKRP in Cincinnati” Melinda, 2004 “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (TV Series), (TV Series), 1976-1977 “Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II” (TV 2004 The Clearing, 1999-2003 “Oz” (TV Series—8 episodes), Series), 1976 Nickelodeon, 1976 “Black Sheep Squadron” (TV 2001 , 2000 , 1999 A Series), 1976 Harry and Walter Go to New York, 1975 Stranger in the Kingdom, 1999 Let It Snow, 1997-1999 “All My “McCloud” (TV Series), 1974 “Cannon” (TV Series), 1974 “The Children” (TV Series—6 episodes), 1998 Celebrity, 1997 The Ice Six Million Dollar Man” (TV Series), 1971 “Hogan's Heroes” Storm, 1995 Dead Man Walking, 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, (TV Series), 1969 Marooned, 1968 “” (TV Series), 1962 1989 “The Justice Game” (TV Series), 1989 The Dream Team, “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” (TV Series), 1962 “The 1988 “Miami Vice” (TV Series), 1986 “Tales from the Darkside” Defenders” (TV Series), and 1955 “One Touch of Venus” (TV (TV Series), 1986 “As the World Turns” (TV Series), 1982 I, the Movie). Jury, 1968 “” (TV Series), and 1952 “Guiding JERRY MAYER ... Waffles (b. Light” (TV Series). May 12, 1941 in Waterloo, Iowa—d. February 3, 2003 BROOKE SMITH ... Sonya (b. (age 61) in , May 22, 1967 in New York City, New York) appeared in 17 New York) appeared in 48 films films and TV shows, and TV shows, including including 2001 “Ed” (TV 2013 “Ray Donovan” (TV Series), 2000 “Law & Order: Series—7 episodes), 2013 Labor Special Victims Unit” (TV Day, 2013 “Graceland” (TV Series), 2000 Joe Gould's Series), 2012 “Law & Order: Secret, 1991-1998 “Law & Special Victims Unit” (TV Order” (TV Series), 1994 Series), 2010 The Aspern Papers, Nobody's Fool, 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, 1992 Single White 2006-2008 “Grey's Anatomy” (TV Series—25 episodes), 2007 Female, 1991 “Women & Men 2: In Love There Are No Rules” “Weeds” (TV Series), 2007 “Crossing Jordan” (TV Series—13 (TV Movie), 1991 “A Marriage: Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred episodes), 1996-2007 “Law & Order” (TV Series), 2004 Melinda Stieglitz” (TV Movie), 1985 “The Equalizer” (TV Series), 1984 and Melinda, 2004 “Six Feet Under” (TV Series), 2002 Bad “Miami Vice” (TV Series), 1980 Brubaker, 1976 “Serpico” (TV Company, 2002 “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (TV Series), Series), 1974 The Great Gatsby, and 1973 “Much Ado About 2001 The Man Who Wasn't There, 1999 “Homicide: Life on the Nothing” (TV Movie). Street” (TV Series), 1998 “Remembering Sex” (TV Movie), 1997 “The Larry Sanders Show” (TV Series), 1996 Kansas City, JULIANNE MOORE ... Yelena (b. Julie Anne Smith, December 3, 1996 Trees Lounge, 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, 1993 The Night 1960 in Fayetteville, North Carolina) appeared in 76 films and We Never Met, 1991 The Silence of the Lambs, 1988 The television shows, among them 2015 The Hunger Games: Moderns, and 1988 “The Equalizer” (TV Series). Mockingjay - Part 2, 2015 Seventh Son, 2014 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, 2014 Non-Stop, 2013 Carrie, 2013 WALLACE SHAWN ... Vanya (b. Wallace Michael Shawn, The English Teacher, 2009-2013 “30 Rock” (TV Series—7 November 12, 1943 in New York City, New York) has appeared episodes), 2012 What Maisie Knew, 2012 “Game Change” (TV in 157 films and television shows, including 2014 Drawing Movie), 1985-2010 “As the World Turns” (TV Series—19 Home, 2014 Don Peyote, 2013 Fear of Falling, 2013 The episodes), 2010 The Kids Are All Right, 2007 I'm Not There., Double, 2011-2013 “Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness” 2006 Children of Men, 2004 Laws of Attraction, 2002 The (TV Series—6 episodes), 2013 “The Good Wife” (TV Series), Hours, 2002 Far from Heaven, 2001 The Shipping News, 2001 2008-2012 “Gossip Girl” (TV Series—11 episodes), 2011 The Evolution, 2001 Hannibal, 1999 Magnolia, 1999 The End of the Speed of Thought, 2010 Toy Story 3, 2009 “ER” (TV Series), Affair, 1999 A Map of the World, 1999 An Ideal Husband, 1998 2009 “Life on Mars” (TV Series), 2009 “Law & Order: Special Psycho, 1998 The Big Lebowski, 1997 , 1997 The Victims Unit” (TV Series), 2006 “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” Lost World: Jurassic Park, 1996 Surviving Picasso, 1995 Nine (TV Series), 2001-2006 “Crossing Jordan” (TV Series—8 Months, 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, 1993 , 1993 The episodes), 2004 The Incredibles, 2004 , Fugitive, 1993 Body of Evidence, 1992 The Hand That Rocks the 2004 “Sex and the City” (TV Series), 1999 Toy Story 2, 1999 Cradle, 1990 “B.L. Stryker” (TV Series), 1989 “Money, Power, “Homicide: Life on the Street” (TV Series), 1999 My Favorite Murder.” (TV Movie), and 1984 “The Edge of Night” (TV Martian, 1994-1997 “Murphy Brown” (TV Series), 1996-1997 Series). “Clueless” (TV Series—17 episodes), 1995 Toy Story, 1995 Clueless, 1995 The Wife, 1994 Vanya on 42nd Street, 1994 Mrs. LARRY PINE ... Dr. Astrov (b. March 3, 1945 in Tucson, Parker and the Vicious Circle, 1993 The Cemetery Club, 1992 Arizona) appeared in 94 films and television shows, including Nickel & Dime, 1991 Shadows and Fog, 1989 Scenes from the 2014 “Unforgettable” (TV Series), 2013 Fear of Falling, 2013 Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, 1987 The Princess Bride, 1987 Jimmy P., 2013 “House of Cards” (TV Series—6 episodes), 2013 Nice Girls Don't Explode, 1987 Radio Days, 1984 Micki + “The Good Wife” (TV Series), 2011-2012 “Homeland” (TV Maude, 1984 The Bostonians, 1984 The Hotel New Hampshire, Series), 2012 Arbitrage, 2009 The Good Heart, 2006 “Law & 1983 The First Time, 1982-1983 “Taxi” (TV Series), 1982 A Order: Special Victims Unit” (TV Series), 2004 Melinda and Little Sex, 1981 My Dinner with Andre, 1980 Atlantic City, 1980 Malle—VANYA ON 42nd STREET BABETTE’S FEAST—4

Simon, 1979 All That Jazz, 1979 Manhattan, and 2002 “Teamo know it when I see it" opinion, perhaps the most famous single Supremo” (TV Series). He also wrote 6 plays and screenplays, line associated with the court. which are 2013 Fear of Falling, 2010 Tea Time (Short) (script), Malle is sometimes associated with the nouvelle 2004 The Fever (play/screenplay), 2004 Marie and Bruce vague— though his work does not directly fit in or correspond to (screenplay), 1997 The Designated Mourner (play), and 1981 My the auteurist theories that apply to the work of Godard, Truffaut, Dinner with Andre. Chabrol, Rohmer, and others, and he had nothing whatsoever to do with Cahiers du cinéma, he did exemplify many of the characteristics of the movement, including using natural light, and shooting on location. His film Zazie dans le métro (Zazie in the Metro, 1960, an adaptation of the Raymond Queneau novel) did inspire Truffaut to write an enthusiastic letter to Malle. Other films also tackled taboo subjects: The Fire Within (Le Feu follet, 1963) centres on a man about to commit suicide, Murmur of the Heart (1971) deals with an incestuous relationship between mother and son and Lacombe Lucien (1974), co-written with Patrick Modiano, is about collaboration with the Nazis in Vichy France in World War II. The second film earned Malle his first (of three) Academy Award nominations for "Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced." In 1968 Malle visited and made a seven part documentary series, L'Inde fantôme: Reflexions sur un voyage and a documentary film, Calcutta, which was released in cinemas. Concentrating on real India, its rituals and festivities, LOUIS MALLE (from Wikipedia) (30 October 1932 – 23 Malle fell afoul of the Indian government, which disliked his November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and portrayal of the country, in its fascination with the pre-modern, producer. His film, Le Monde du silence, won the Palme d'Or and consequently banned the BBC from filming in India for and Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1956. He was also several years. Malle later claimed his documentary on India was nominated multiple times for later in his his favorite film. career. Malle later moved to the and continued to Malle worked in both French cinema and Hollywood, direct there. His later films include Pretty Baby (1978), Atlantic and he produced both French and films. His City (1981), My Dinner with Andre (1981), Crackers (1984), most famous films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958), Alamo Bay (1985), Damage (1992) and Vanya on 42nd Street Lacombe Lucien (1974), Atlantic City (1980), My Dinner with (1994, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya) in Andre (1981), and Au revoir, les enfants (1987). English; Au revoir, les enfants (1987) and Milou en Mai (May Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Fools in the U.S., 1990) in French. Just as his earlier films such Thumeries, Nord, France. He initially studied political science at as The Lovers helped popularize French films in the United the Sciences-Po before turning to film studies at IDHEC instead. States, My Dinner with Andre was at the forefront of the rise of He worked as the co-director and cameraman to Jacques American independent cinema in the 1980s. Cousteau on the Oscar and Palme d'Or-winning (at the 1956 Malle was married to Anne-Marie Deschodt from 1965 Academy Awards and Cannes Film Festival respectively) to 1967. He had a son, Manuel Cuotemoc (born 1971), with documentary The Silent World (1956) and assisted Robert German actress Gila von Weitershausen and a daughter Justine Bresson on A Man Escaped (French title: Un condamné à mort (born 1974) with Canadian-born French actress Alexandra s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut, 1956) before making Stewart. He married actress Candice Bergen in 1980. They had his first feature, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (released in the U.K. one child, a daughter, Chloé Malle, in 1985. He died from as Lift to the Scaffold and in the U.S. originally as Frantic, later lymphoma at their home in Beverly Hills, California on as Elevator to the Gallows) in 1957, aA taut thriller featuring an Thanksgiving Day 1995. original score by Miles Davis, the film made an international film star of , at the time a leading stage actress of Steven Vineberg; “Vanya on 42nd Street: An American the state Comédie-Française. Malle was 24 years old. Vanya” (Criterion Notes) Malle's The Lovers (Les Amants, 1958), which also In the long history of stage-to-screen , there’s never starred Moreau, caused major controversy due to its sexual been anything quite like Louis Malle’s Vanya on 42nd Street content, leading to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case (1994), an astonishing hybrid blurring the boundaries between regarding the legal definition of obscenity. In Jacobellis v. Ohio, theater and film, rehearsal and performance, actor and character. a theater owner was fined $2,500 for obscenity. The decision was The production began in 1989, as an extended workshop under eventually reversed by the higher court, which found that the the guidance of , perhaps the most gifted stage film was not obscene and hence constitutionally protected. director in America, who assembled a superb cast of actors to However, the court could not agree on the definition of rehearse Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at the abandoned "obscene," which caused Justice Potter Stewart to utter his "I Victory Theater on Forty-second Street. They met, over the Malle—VANYA ON 42nd STREET BABETTE’S FEAST—5

course of more than four years, whenever their professional Gestapo during the occupation because he can’t get into the schedules allowed, without any plan to perform before an Resistance, was a woodcutter named Pierre Blaise, with no audience. But toward the end of that period, they began to invite previous acting experience. Both Chekhov and Constantin friends to watch the rehearsals. Eventually, Gregory asked Malle Stanislavski, who directed Chekhov’s plays at the Moscow Art to film the play, performed by the actors in street clothes, with Theatre, hated the European theater of their time for its fakery bare-bones furniture and rehearsal props, and they installed and its tendency to showcase stars; they believed in an ensemble themselves in the magnificently decrepit New Amsterdam ethic, and Chekhov wrote scenes that can be played only with the Theatre across the street, unused for decades, its stage rendered kind of psychological realism Stanislavski trained his actors to impracticable by flooding and mice, so that they were restricted achieve. Though audiences would certainly recognize some of to a section of what had been the orchestra. the faces in Vanya on 42nd Street, only Julianne Moore (as Malle’s long career, which began in 1956, when he Yelena) has had a movie star’s trajectory, and in 1994 she was codirected Jacques Cousteau’s undersea documentary The Silent just beginning to land leading roles. Gregory has a way of World, flowered during the , and eventually working with an ensemble that is strikingly at odds with the occupied simultaneous spheres in France and in Hollywood, quick-pick-up approach of professional theater in the United includes no other dramatic States; you’d have to travel as adaptations. Still, Vanya far as France’s Théâtre du Soleil wasn’t entirely new territory to find another company that for him. In 1981, he directed takes years to cultivate a Gregory and actor-playwright production. His aim is to permit Wallace Shawn (who plays the actors to peel open the play, Vanya) in the one-of-a-kind layer by layer, and locate the film My Dinner with André, more deeply embedded and written by Shawn, in which the surprising elements in their two men philosophize over characters. An elusive truth was dinner at a restaurant about also what Malle was after in theater and their lives. It isn’t a Lacombe, Lucien with Blaise documentary: Shawn culled and his then equally the conversation, which is inexperienced costar, Aurore heady and eccentric and as witty as the dialogue in a high Clément, though he approached it via a different avenue. It’s comedy, from a series of discussions between him and Gregory, easy to imagine Malle’s being immediately sympathetic to but it’s no less carefully shaped than any of Shawn’s stage Gregory’s project. works, and the two stars are playing fully conceived characters, Chekhov wasn’t alone among the great modernist “Wally” and “André.” This little charmer of a picture comes to playwrights in questioning the presumptions of theatrical realism. mind most vividly in the opening sequence of Vanya, where the A couple of decades after Uncle Vanya, Luigi Pirandello actors stroll through midtown on their way to the New confronted the issues of realism in Six Characters in Search of Amsterdam, exchange pleasantries, and introduce the friends and an Author, and in some ways Vanya on 42nd Street suggests, relatives they’ve brought to the day’s run-through—the visiting especially in the opening, a reverse-Pirandellian take on niece of Phoebe Brand (who plays Marina, the nanny) and Chekhov’s masterpiece. Pirandello’s play queries the basic Shawn’s friend Mrs. Chao and a young acquaintance of hers, theatrical notion that actors on a stage can take on the mantle of Flip. Like My Dinner with André, this section looks like a someone else’s reality without turning it artificial; Gregory and documentary but isn’t. (Mrs. Chao is actually played by the Malle accept this challenge to realism by showing us that great famous Indian chef and cookbook writer, and actor, Madhur actors who have burrowed deep inside their roles can shift into Jaffrey, and her friend is the soon-to-be film writer and director them with such ease that you don’t notice the transformation Oren Moverman.) until you’re already caught up in it. This is the Stanislavskian In other ways, too, Malle was the ideal director for the ideal, accomplished when actors draw on their own experience to project, which strips down Chekhov’s late-nineteenth-century furnish the emotional core of their characters. Shawn, wandering story about Russian intellectuals in the provinces and reimagines through the playing area at the New Amsterdam with Mrs. Chao, it as a text for Stanislavski-trained American actors. (David confides that he’s exhausted because he hasn’t slept well for Mamet’s adaptation, based on a literal by Vlada several nights, and he lies down on a bench to rest; Larry Pine Chernomordik, moves Chekhov’s dialogue as close as possible to chats with Brand (an original member of the Group Theatre, American rhythms without sacrificing the often poetic self- where Stanislavskian acting was first practiced in America in the consciousness of the characters’ speeches.) Not only was Malle a 1930s) about how overcommitted he is, rehearsing several plays superb actor’s director but he also ferried back and forth simultaneously. Without warning and without missing a beat, throughout his professional life between fiction films and their conversation becomes the opening exchange of Uncle documentaries and was fascinated with the idea of softening the Vanya, between Dr. Astrov and Marina, and only after we realize line between them. In A Very Private Affair (1962), for instance, this, a moment or two late, do we see that Shawn has already he cast in a role clearly inspired by her real-life slipped into the character of Vanya, dozing nearby. It takes two persona, and the young man he chose to play the lead in (or perhaps three) viewings to understand that Malle has Lacombe, Lucien (1974), the story of a peasant who joins the prepared us for this metamorphosis even earlier: What seems like Malle—VANYA ON 42nd STREET BABETTE’S FEAST—6

a throwaway credit sequence, with the actors on the street, is act, we stop noticing that we’re not watching a fully designed already pairing them with their characters. George Gaynes, who production—or if the thought does occur to us now and then, it’s will play the haughty, self-pitying, out-of-touch professor, as an emissary from the real world pinching us to remind us that Serebryakov, looks like an old-world gentleman out for a stroll, this is a movie of a rehearsal of a play, before we forget again dressed impeccably in an overcoat and a wide-brimmed hat; and are swept up in the emotional turmoil of the characters’ lives. when he makes his first-act entrance a few minutes later, he’s The key item in the movie for exploring this notion is the “I still sporting the hat and wears his coat over his shoulders like a New York” coffee cup on the dining room table, an anachronism cape. Pine, who as Astrov falls in love with the professor’s wife, that becomes merely part of the fabric of the setting, imbued like Yelena, and tries to tempt her into an affair, strolls through the everything else with the indolent, unsettled atmosphere of this theater district, turning to admire a shapely young woman as she Russian country estate. This interaction of late-twentieth-century passes. Moore and Brooke Smith (as Yelena’s stepdaughter, New York actors with a turn-of-the-century Russian text Sonya) arrive together, chattering enthusiastically—anticipating acknowledges both and celebrates the tension between them as the girlish relationship that will spring up between their well as the overlap. That’s why the music we hear behind the characters, after a period of iciness, at the end of act 2. Shawn opening and end credits isn’t, say, a balalaika melody but a stands by a vendor’s stall, munching marvelous jazz score by Joshua Redman. contemplatively on a knish, an image The point is that Uncle Vanya speaks as that seems oddly right for a latter-day powerfully to contemporary Americans as Vanya, that combination of failed it did to Russians at the sunset of the age intellectual, disappointed sensualist, and of the czars. The magnificence of the tragic clown. Lynn Cohen, who plays performers, perhaps the most Vanya’s mother, Maman, the extraordinary group of actors ever professor’s most devoted reader, exudes gathered to bring Chekhov’s play to life, a distinctly New York bohemian confirms it. elegance as she strides down the street Vanya on 42nd Street turned out with her bag swinging from her to be Malle’s final film. His output was shoulder. When they arrive at the so varied that it doesn’t seem particularly theater, Brand and Jerry Mayer (who strange that his swan song is so unlike the plays the estate hanger-on, Waffles) are Renoiresque French movies he is best already there to greet them, just as their known for: Murmur of the Heart (1972); characters are continually in attendance Lacombe, Lucien; Au revoir les enfants at the estate where Vanya and Sonya (1987). Of course, he made many pictures live year-round and Serebryakov and Yelena have just arrived on in America too, and his editing rhythms in Vanya are as precisely an extended summer visit. attuned to the relaxed, colloquial styles of the cast as Mamet’s The pared-down setting and the rehearsal props are language rhythms. The film is a triumphant cross-hatching of reminiscent of Our Town, but Thornton Wilder used those talents—Gregory’s and Malle’s, Chekhov’s and Mamet’s, and devices to keep the audience aware that they were watching a the actors’, whose poignant intimacy as a true Stanislavskian play; Gregory and Malle use them, paradoxically, to show how ensemble takes us straight to the heart of Chekhov’s vision of little the details of setting matter when the details of character are how human beings can interact on a stage (or on-screen) when worked through and profoundly right. At some point in the first there’s no theatrical self-consciousness to get in the way.

The online PDF files of these handouts have color images

Just four more in the Spring 2014 Buffalo Film Seminars:

April 15 , The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001, 110 min April 22 Tommy Lee Jones, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, 2005, 120 min April 29 José Padilha, Elite Squad, 2007, 115 min May 6 John Huston, The Dead, 1987 83 min

CONTACTS: ...email Diane Christian: [email protected] …email Bruce Jackson [email protected] ...for the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: http://buffalofilmseminars.com ...to subscribe to the weekly email informational notes, send an email to addto [email protected] ....for cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/ The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the Market Arcade Film & Arts Center and State University of New York at Buffalo with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News