Reviews

David Warner and Dame Peggy Ashcroft are mesmerising as, respectively, King Henry VI, and his wife Margaret of Anjou, the She-Wolf of France in Peter Hall's legendary production of Shakespeare's cycle of plays about The Wars of the Roses.

Warner gives a performance that is indescribably sad as the saintly, depressed and mad king, (Shakespeare puts pearls of poetry into the mouth of a man who was effectively an imbecile) and equally, if not more memorable, is Ashcroft's depiction of the way Margaret descends from a figure of courage and steadfastness, into a monster of vengeance and terrifying cruelty. The brilliant decision of Ashcroft to give her Margaret a stutter adds tremendous poignancy to the character.

I haven't seen this monumental production of the complete Wars of the Roses cycle for many years ... it still haunts my memory, and I would give anything to see it again.

The DVD shown is not for the great Australian Mini-Series, but for another film, once called "Water Under The Bridge", but now known as "Save it For Later".

The Australian mini-series was, in my opinion, the best acted, most moving drama ever shown on Australian television. It managed the almost impossible trick of being extremely moving and yet unsentimental at the same time. it features a truly great performance by Robyn Nevin.The drama of life between the two world wars builds to a climax where a heartbreaking choice is offered to the young man who is the story's protagonist ... the last scenes of this story have haunted me since this series was first shown in 1981. It is overdue for a DVD release.

There is plenty of fun to be had in this uneven Danny Kaye entry, the sequence where he gives an excruciatingly complicated explanation of the espionage activities of a group of mittel-European spies with very similar names is a hoot, but it is the ballet parody of "The Polovstian Dances" that takes this film to the heights of film comedy.

I believe this sequence to be one of the three funniest sequences in cinema, along with the first half hour of Chaplin's "Modern Times" and "Daphne's", (Jack Lemmon's), engagement sequence from "Some Like It Hot". The fact that it is unavailable on DVD is as inexplicable as it is regrettable.

After the almost triumph of the recent "Sweeney Todd" movie, I sat down to have another look at "Into The Woods', which I saw on Broadway the night it was recorded for video, and the bad news is, it's not wearing well, (hisses from the Sondheim fanatics, of which I am usually one).

It is now my opinion that there are several problems with the work as presented on DVD.

The first is that I find Bernadette Peters handling of the role of the witch grossly overplayed and mannered. Having seen both this and Australian cabaret performer Judi Connelli's playing of the role, I found the latter's more subtle playing of the role infinitely preferable, (and indeed the Sydney production with its more inventive and imaginative sets and costumes, as well as the performances, was much better).

The production and performances are not, however, the main problem however ... I think it is the piece itself. There is a boffo start to the first act and the moments leading up to the finale are very moving, first-rate Sondheim, but boy does this show get bogged-down in the middle, and especially in the last act. Dark, dreary and depressing with quite a few moments when the cleverness of the lyrics draws attention to itself, and not in a good way like in "Sweeney" but in a way that reminds me of what some great writer or other once said ..."whenever you write a passage that you tell yourself is especially fine, strike it out!" ... this would avoid lines like "When the end is right, it justifies the beans!" and other infelicities.

Now I have voiced such misgivings about the second act previously, only to be shouted down by the Sondheimites that I don't understand, that I miss the point, that the second act is meant to be dark and gloomy because it is the other side of the fairy-tale ...but I DO understand ... what I object to is that it the central section is musically monotonous, the production is dreary to look at, the book is simplistic and sentimental, (a Sondheim anathema) and ultimately, boring. Great moments like the Princes' "Agony" duet don't quite make up for the gloom.

I admit that I have enjoyed much in this show in the past, (partly the anticipated excitement of seeing a Sondheim musical), especially the innovative Sydney production rather than the rather dull vision presented on the DVD ... but for me, it doesn't stand up to repeated viewings, whereas I could watch any version of "Sweeney Todd" or "Follies in Concert" many times with out any diminishing enjoyment. I still love Sondheim, but not unconditionally.

Excellence in crassness, in vapidity, in editing that destroys what were apparently quite good dance sequences ... Yes, I voted it as excellent in the hope that this comment wouldn't be down on the tenth page where all the no star reviews are stored. This film is the most nauseous mess I have ever seen. Migraine inducing visuals, absurd musical choices, actors chewing the scenery while singing hammed-up versions of "The Sound of Music".

Now, to be fair, I've never seen the film in its entirety, but I have tried to see it through three times to understand why some people love it ... and failed ... I can't make it to the end. The noisy, garish, tasteless assault defeats me every time. The only successful performance in the film is by Nicole Kidman's porcelain epidermis. Dancers of the calibre of Caroline O'Connor must have been furious at the way their performances were hatcheted.

There was a movie in there somewhere Baz, but you couldn't find it, so you drowned it in treacle. Lovers of this film are masochists or boneheads.

For me, this was the best Australian film since "Lantana" ... no, I'll revise that and say it's better than "Lantana". The script was brilliantly written, with believable dialogue and characterization, and yet with an eerie, unsettling tension and mystery about it. The acting was very good all round, and in the case of Brendan Cowell, superb. I loved the music score and the moody photography. One of the most outstanding features of this most unusual film was the outstanding sound design. The scene where Brendan Cowell's character tries to drown out the ringing in his ears by making a variety of loud noises is uniquely effective in it's use of sound as an element of a film. You never quite know where this film is going, but when you get there, it's devastating. This film does on a minuscule budget what many big-budget Hollywood blockbusters could never do ... it touches your heart and it makes you use your brain.

The saddest, best scripted and best acted offering in the "Dalziel and Pascoe" saga sees the two detectives investigating a long buried mystery which resonates tragically in the present ...a fine series at the top of its form, before it became top heavy when Warren Clarke became executive producer and excellent characters like Sgt. Wield were dropped in favour of more concentration on the Dalziel character.

The two Reginald Hill "D & P" novels that are crying out for a production, but which were strangely overlooked, were"Arms and the Woman", (possibly because the plot centres on Ellie, Pascoe's wife) and "Pictures of Perfection", (possibly because it concentrates on the character of Sgt. Wield ... also because it's a character piece where nothing much happens. It is my favourite of Hill's highly entertaining books).

Though this version of Britten's opera is musically impressive and has some fine performances and good photography, this TV. adaptation is bitterly disappointing, due entirely to some poor directorial decisions.

The chief of these is to make the ghosts appear far too early, in far too corporeal form. Henry James, the author of the novella on which the opera is based keeps the ghosts at a distance at first, seen fleetingly high in a tower, or across water or through glass until, as their sinister presence grows stronger, they approach nearer. Here, they are striding about in very fleshy form, right from the beginning. As a result, the most chilling scene in the opera, with Peter Quint appearing at the window, a terrifying moment in most opera or movie versions of the story, has no impact whatsoever. This is a fatal fault in a production of the most subtly frightening of all ghost stories.

The children also appear too old for their roles.

All in all, what is the point of a production of this work, now matter how well performed, if it delivers no chills