Vanya On 42nd Steet

Vanya on 42nd Steet

Amazon.com

This stirring 1994 work by Louis Malle brought the legendary French filmmaker into another collaboration with actors-writers-directors Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, scribes and stars of the great My Dinner with Andre. The situation here is that Shawn and Gregory were participants in a years-long, informal project remounting a production of Chekhovs Uncle Vanya every few months for select friends and the general worthiness of the idea. Wearing street clothes and strolling to a crumbling New Amsterdam theater on Broadway, actors Shawn, Julianne Moore, George Gaynes, Brooke Smith, Larry Pine, Phoebe Brand, Lynn Cohen, and others would do a full run of the text (as sharply translated by David Mamet) while a beaming Gregory (the plays director) looked on. Malle--who died following this film--spent a few days transforming the theatrical experiment into a viable film that maintained the companys unusual purpose and spirit. The result is something between a narrative feature and a documentary about an acting workshop, and is both highly entertaining and cinematically enthralling. A terrific final note in Malles distinguished career, this is a must-see for anyone who cared about his work or who has a passion for Chekhov. --Tom Keogh
Rate Points :4.5
Binding :DVD
Label :Sony Pictures
Manufacturer :Sony Pictures
ProductGroup :DVD
Studio :Sony Pictures
Publisher :Sony Pictures
UPC :043396749870
EAN :9780767848923
Price :$24.95USD
Lowest Price :$69.95USD
Customer ReviewsStark, moving, and brilliant!
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
This is how Chekhov was meant to be performed! The setting is bleak, dark, heavy, honest, and so are the performances - but the stand out is clearly Brooke Smith. Her portrayal of Sonya is raw and lyrical, and it lit a small fire in my heart that burned brighter as the film progressed. She literally glows in the flame that she kindled. Something in her makes my emotions dance to whatever song her face and eyes are singing, and I was left groaning and sighing with inexplicable ache and hope.

This is what theatre and cinema are meant to be. I want to be transported outside of myself in order to recognize my deepest places reflected back at me through a character. Brooke Smith shows me the deep places that exist in all of us, even if were too bound up to reveal them to each other.

Buy, buy, buy Vanya on 42nd Street! And then take a deep breath, surrender to the truth and beauty of Chekov, the universal ache and loneliness of Brooke Smith as Sonya, and come to the understanding that we are most alive when our heart aches for that which we can never have.

Louis Malles swan song: Uncle Vanya on 42nd Street.
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
Vanya on 42nd Street is a 1994 film collaboration between French director Louis Malle and actors-writers-directors Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn. The three had previously worked together on the must-see 1981 film, My Dinner with Andre. This film was the last of Malles career. (He died of lymphoma following filming.) The engaging film features a cast of actors including Shawn, Julianne Moore, George Gaynes, Brooke Smith, Larry Pine, Phoebe Brand, and Lynn Cohen, who rehearse in their street clothes for a performance of Chekhovs major play Uncle Vanya (as translated by David Mamet) in the rat-infested, 1903 New Amsterdam theater on NYCs 42nd Street, while Gregory supervises the workshop rehearsals. Their performance of Chekhovs tragicomedy about "the wasted life" is intended for an invitation-only audience. This film will appeal to anyone with an interest in Checkov. His popular play has also been adapted into three equally hard-to-find films on DVD: Dyadya Vanya, Sam Neills Country Life, and Sir Anthony Hopkins August.

G. Merritt

a beautiful film that showcases ensemble work on the stage......
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
VANYA ON 42ND STREET was my introduction to director Louis Malles body of work. This 1994 film was the last film Malle completed before he passed away, and it is a great tribute to his talent for storytelling, as well as a great vehicle for his very talented cast. Basically, the film takes place on a stage, where the cast (including Julianne Moore and George Gaynes) is doing a read thru of Anton Chekhovs UNCLE VANYA. Together, they capture the dismal reality that Chekhovs characters live in, and its very engrossing. The actors are very engaging. This is another one of those films that doesnt rely on excessiveness. Minimalism is a great, underutilized quality in films, in this day and age. I really think that the understated direction and wonderful collective atmosphere sustained throughout the duration of the piece is beautiful. Definitely give this one a go!

Vanya on 42nd Steet
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
Magnificent? May be it can be a word to define it. A bunch of great actors get together around a worn table in a decrepit and abandoned theater. They start a play. They are all dressed as you or me would be. They have no make-up. But they have themselves.

And in minutes they capture you they inmerse you in the Chekhovs world. They show you art in its more elevated sense.

This is Vanya on 42nd Steet.

Vanya on 42nd Street
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
Pared down, offbeat approach to rendering of Chekhov may inflame purists, but actually makes the playwrights dark, depressing work more accessible. We get the full treatment, with no flubbed lines or distractions to break the dramatic tension of the piece. And though Shawn and Moore may not be ideal casting, they turn in holding performances which transport us to that bleak, far-away time in rural Russia. A daring and intelligent piece of work from the late Malle, which takes us behind the velvet curtain to view at close quarters the practice and discipline of acting.

Similar Item

Uncle Vanya

My Dinner with Andre

Amazon.comThe sheer audacity of My Dinner with Andre drew throngs of curious filmgoers who made the film the most talked-about art-house hit of 1981. After all, whod ever heard of a movie consisting of nearly two hours of nonstop dinner conversation?

A Doll's House

DescriptionA womans struggle to have her voice heard in a mans world is "startlingly moving" (The Wall Street Journal) in this cinematic adaptation of Henrik Ibsens famous play. "Superior performances" (The New York Times) by Claire Bloom (Crimes and

Three Sisters

Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (Broadway Theatre Archive)