The Bridge. In 2004 Eric Steel set up movie cameras near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, filmed twenty-three people diving to their deaths, then interviewed their friends and family members without telling them that he was making a documentary that would also contain footage of the deaths of their loved ones. Is The Bridge exploitative? Does it aestheticize suicide? I find these questions impossible to answer. All I know is that I couldn’t turn my eyes from this deeply unsettling portrait of human despair and its aftermath (TT).
Archives for May 2007
TT: So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.
Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.
BROADWAY:
• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)
• A Chorus Line * (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, reviewed here)
• Company (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter and situations, reviewed here)
• The Drowsy Chaperone (musical, G/PG-13, mild sexual content and a profusion of double entendres, reviewed here)
• Frost/Nixon * (drama, PG-13, some strong language, reviewed here, closes Aug. 19)
• LoveMusik * (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)
• A Moon for the Misbegotten * (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes June 10)
• 110 in the Shade (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here, extended through July 29)
• Talk Radio (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)
• The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection, reviewed here)
OFF BROADWAY:
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here)
CLOSING THIS WEEKEND:
• Biography (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Sunday)
TT: Almanac
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius.”
George Steiner, Language and Silence
TT: Almanac
“Modern kids are raised with the understanding that people don’t spontaneously burst into song at crucial moments in their lives. And isn’t that a horrible thing, to remove such evidence of grace on earth from their belief system? Of course there are people who start tap-dancing at unexpected moments, or improvise a tune while plucking lyrics from the air. They’re called children, and if you spend any time with them, you’ll witness life as a musical forty times an hour.”
Ty Burr, The Best Old Movies for Families
TT: In transit
I’m traveling.
Later.
TT: Almanac
“Like every man under a single dominating passion, he grew in suspicion and in fear.”
Melville Davisson Post, “The Hidden Law”
SHORT BUT SWEET
“Orion Books, one of England’s top publishing houses, has just brought out the first six titles in a series of abridged versions of such classic novels as Anna Karenina, Moby-Dick, and Vanity Fair. I’m not inclined to be snippy about them…”
TT: The land of content
I’m sitting on the patio of the master bedroom of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Muirhead Farmhouse, watching the sun set and listening to the wind in the trees. I cannot imagine being in a more beautiful place at a more beautiful time.
Now I’ll shut my iBook off for the night and return to the moment….