Streaming tip: Roman Polanski's film of David Ives' (via Sacher-Masoch) play VENUS IN FUR

Overlays aplenty figure in the filmed version of VENUS IN FUR, from the theatrical play by David Ives (itself based on the work of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, though I'm not certain Leopold ever wrote anything quite this disarmingly funny). First, the film has been adapted, with the help of Mr. Ives, by that notorious director, lecher, ever-present prison-dodger, and quite a talent, Roman Polanski (shown below). Second, it stars his wife of long-standing, Emmanuelle Seigner opposite the French actor, Mathieu Amalric, who looks awfully like Polanski did in his earlier years. So on one level, watching this movie is like watching a director put his wife through some sexual paces with a man who clearly resembles his younger self. Wow. Or maybe ouch.

Not having seen the legitimate theater version (though literally everyone I know who saw either the Broadway or original off-Broadway mounting loved it), I can only say that seeing this relatively short, 95-minute movie was a lot of fun -- as much for those overlays mentioned above, as for the witty, game-playing script that Ives has delivered and the terrific performances from Seigner (below) and Amalric (further below). This is Polanski's second attempt in two years to bring to the screen a popular theater piece, and it is a pleasure to report that he succeeds here every bit as completely as he failed with his earlier transfer, Carnage (based on Yazmina Reza's play, The God of Carnage).

I also must take back my earlier comment that the director should be let nowhere near comedy, as Polanski proves himself quite adept at the light touch required to bring Ives work's to the right life. Venus in Fur is nothing if not a lot of fun.

Whoever was in charge of set and location has come up with a simply ravishing little dilapidated theatre in which to film (below). Every nook and cranny seem to be filled with history, lechery, fun and frolic -- not to mention probably every great classic ever staged. You can practically smell the dank but pleasurable aroma of the place as you watch.

The story is that of what looks like a slightly over-the-hill and down-on-her-luck actress (Seigner), arriving terribly late for an audition with the play's writer and maybe director (Amalric). The latter doesn't want to even give the former a chance, and so she begs, lies, and cajoles him into at least a few moment of stage time.

Initially Vanda (the actress appears to have the same name as the character for which she is auditioning) seems a not-too-smart cookie with a lot of sex appeal. Soon, however, we're sure that she's the smartest person in the room, if not in the whole of Paris.

Watching Seigner and Amalric parry and feint, gain and then lose the upper hand is wonderful fun. The two play together like the by-now old pros that they are: French acting royalty of a newer sort than, say, Michèle Morgan and Jean Gabin.

If things begin to run down just a tad in the film's final half hour, I don't think you'll grouse much. Performances, direction and writing are of such a high order and so perfectly conjoined that this is one of those rare movies in which you suspect that the actors and crew had as much fun as will the audience who's about to watch.

Venus in Fur -- released here in the USA via Sundance Selects and running 95 minutes -- can be seen now via Netflix streaming and elsewhere digitally. It's also available on DVD.

With sad,sweet,funny swan song LIFE OF RILEY we wave good-bye to a French new-waver

Watching Alain Resnais' newest -- and final -- film, LIFE OF RILEY can't help but be a sad experience for those of us who loved the guy's work, even if, for me at least, it took some decades to fully appreciate that work. Memory is one of this fabled French filmmaker's major themes, and I don't think that memory -- for young people, anyway -- has quite the major place in one's life that it occupies in later years. Resnais was also an experimental filmmaker right up until the end. Yet his experiments were always coupled to narrative in a way that, with some extra work, of course, one could begin to fathom meaning, while appreciating the style.

The filmmaker, shown at right, died earlier this year, and it is difficult to watch Life of Riley (Aimer, boire et chanter is the original French title) -- based, as several of his films have been, on the the work of British playwright Alan Ayckbourn -- without imagining that Resnais knew quite well during the filming how little time he had left. I suspect his widow, Sabine Azéma, (pictured below, right), who is also one of the stars of the movie, would know for certain. The rest of us will just have to watch and wonder and enjoy. That last action, for Resnais fans, at least, will not be difficult, for he has given the movie a wonderfully "fake" look that combines gorgeous shots of the countryside and expensive estates with very obvious stage sets, and then occasionally places his actors in close-up against hand-drawn backgrounds that bring to mind comic book art.

Even if you've seen the rest of Resnais' work, you won't have experienced anything quite like this. The story itself is a hoot and a half about death and dying. The title character George Riley has been told by his doctor and friend (Hippolyte Girardot, below, left) that he has little time left to live.

Not only the doctor's wife (Ms Azema) but her best friend (the standout performer, Caroline Sihol, at left, two photos above and just below; with Michel Vuillermoz) are both former flames of Riley and of course are bereft by this news.

As is Riley's most recent love (Sandrine Kiberlain, below, left) who has recently split from George into the arms of a nearby French farmer (André Dussollier, below, right). The women are beside themselves, each desperately needing to see herself as George's one true love, while their men are at sea due to their women's sudden surge of independence and possible infidelity. Oh, and did I mention that some of these characters are simultaneously rehearsing a play which is due to be performed very soon.

Now, this is utter artifice -- on one level as silly as can be -- and I suspect that the original.Ayckbourn play was much funnier that what we see here. Yet out of it, Resnais manages to show up humanity's lack and hypocrisy in a way that is more sad than funny. And the film's final scene, in which we at last see a character other than our ever-present sextet, is most unusual. In it, the daughter of one of the couples, played by Alba Gaïa Kraghede Bellugi, makes an appearance and somehow takes the movie into a deeper, darker contemplation of death's inevitability and finality.

If Life of Riley is nowhere near as interesting or layered a film as Resnai' most recent endeavors, Wild Grass and You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, it is still a film to be seen and savored -- for its performances, style and the fact that, having to work on what seems to have been less and less of a budget, the filmmaker nonetheless found a way to make his film so affordably and stylishly.

M. Resnais' final work -- from Kino Lorber and running 108 minutes -- opens in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema tomorrow, Friday, October 24. Elsewhere? Shocking as this may seem, no Los Angeles showing is yet scheduled. But the film will play at the Cinema St. Louis as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival on November 20 and 22, and then on December 5, it will play at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (unless, of course, Scott Walker wins his race for Governor once again and closes the school down).

The master MASTER BUILDER: Wallace Shawn, André Gregory & Jonathan Demme grace Ibsen

Who'd have imagined this? One of Henrik Ibsen's last plays, The Master Builder -- one that is not that often produced because it's so dense and difficult -- has now been brought to the screen in a modern dress version (translation and setting) that is the best by a very long shot that I have ever seen. Granted, I've only seen it on stage twice (and read it back when I was far too young to appreciate it). Yet this new version surpasses anything I've seen in bringing to light the play's meaning(s), characters and dialog. It is, first frame to last, a riveting experience.

Most of the credit must be laid at the feet of Wallace Shawn, who translated the play -- and so well! -- in this new version, which was first done as legitimate theater under the direction of André Gregory. Shawn then adapted that transla-tion into this screenplay, directed by Jonathan Demme (shown at right). Triple-threat Shawn, shown below, also acts the leading role of the master architect Halvard Solness as though he were born to play it. Perhaps he was. I doubt I shall ever associate another actor so thoroughly with this role.

If you've seen Shawn on stage and/or film, you of course know that he is very short of stature, so playing a "great architect" and a man entire towns look up to would seem a bit of a reach. Not at all. So fiercely intelligent is Shawn, so thoroughly has he immersed himself in the play and the role that he simply owns it. We hang on his every word, and he pays us back with the richest, most encompassing characterization imaginable.

What a horror is Solness! The lives he has destroyed! And yet, Shawn also allows to perceive the greatness that was there, and why this still matters. Though Solness and Shawn rule, the rest of the cast is equally strong, with a special shout-out to an actress I must have seen previously, though here she proves indelible: Lisa Joyce. Ms Joyce plays Hilde Wangel, the young woman (or maybe she's simply an apparition) who comes to visit Solness, telling him of the enormous impression he made on her as a young girl when he visited her town a decade previous. If you want to see a master class in acting, watch Ms Joyce and Shawn in their scenes together. These are sheer, unadulterated, moment-to-moment brilliance.

Mr. Gregory, above, right,  plays Knut Brovik, one of those men whom Solness has effectively destroyed. He's now working on the destruction of Brovik's son, Ragnar -- a fine Jeff Biehl, above, left -- a talented architect who works under Solness' thumb. Gregory's one scene, in which he begs Solness to honor his son's work, is one of the most moving I've encountered in a long while.

Finally, there is Julie Hagerty  in the role of Aline Solness, Halvard's beaten-down wife. Ms Hagerty may be best known for her dizzy comic timing in movies such as Airplane! and A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, but her dramatic chops are fully in evidence here. She makes Aline somehow a figure of improbable yet enormous neurasthenic strength.

The always excellent Larry Pine (above, right, as the local doctor) and Emily Cass McDonnell (as Solness' bookkeeper/mistress -- another life waiting to be destroyed) complete this remarkable cast.

A year or two back, when Cindy Kleine's André Gregory: Before and After Dinner opened theatrically, we saw in that documentary scenes of the Master Builder play being rehearsed or maybe even performed. Those scenes looked very good, as I recall. But little could have prepared us for just how good this production really is.

A MASTER BUILDER (can't think why Shawn changed the title from the original The to an A, but I guess he's entitled) opens this Wednesday, July 23, for a two-week run in New York City exclusively at Film Forum. Distributed by Abramorama and running two hours and seven minutes, it will undoubtedly play theaters elsewhere, too. But since Abramorama still does not have a working website (come on, get with the program!), we'll never know....

New from Hal Hartley --via FANDOR-- the highly theatrical, diverse & funny potluck MY AMERICA

Just about the perfect "watch" for Independence Day (on which day the film made its debut via FANDOR), MY AMERICA, the new work from Hal Hartley, is almost nothing like what you usually get from this man, one of America's premier independent filmmakers ever since his first full-length feature premiered in 1989 -- the same year, by the way, that Steven Soderbergh premiered his first full-length feature. While you could hardly find two more divergent career paths, for me it has long been Hartley who has kept the faith, so to speak -- even if some of his more recent films have failed to find much or nearly any audience. Still, Hartley (shown below) has maintained his "quirk," offering us many good films and one great one (Henry Fool), while Soderbergh bounces from independents to commercial blockbusters (or would-be) and back again with ease.

Hold on, though: If you're expecting anything like the usual Hartley endeavor, better set your expectations differently. My America is a compilation film with its roots in legitimate theater, made up of around 20 short monologues written by 20 different playwrights. These have been culled from the 50 monologues that were first presented at Maryland's Center Stage in 2012. From those 50, these 20, I guess, were chosen to grace Hartley's 78-minute finished film. Since the left-out playwrights include the likes of Anna Deavere Smith and Christopher Durang, one can only marvel or worry at the process of selection.

As good as many of these monologues are, My America also made me pine for Hartley's writing, nudging me to realize that, as a filmmaker, his work is even more dependent on his screenplay and dialog than on his visual sense. So, once you've set your mind to enjoying these varied and interesting, funny and not-so theater pieces, photographed in differing locations, some of which could easily be (and maybe were) the stage itself, you can relax into appreciating what these writers have to say about America today. And also appreciate the consummate skill with which most of the actors perform the playwrights' work.

The fact that these monologues are at least two years old hardly changes their worth or timeliness, since our country is in pretty much the same shape now as it was in 2012. As with any series of individual pieces, some are better than other. None take a nose dive, however, and several -- including Bekah Brunstetter's piece in which a Southern mom (two photos up) talks about food, death and the one percent; Dan Dietz's soldier's tale (above) of Afghanistan; and Kristen Greenidge's "Hit & Run" (below) -- are splendid little gems.

The performers are often quite wonderful, too, helping their monologue take off into the stratosphere. Kristine Nielsen, shown at bottom, plays a lady in pearls who tracks the decline of modern civilization back to a very odd and funny source, while Thomas Jay Ryan (below) essays a half-hidden fellow who tells us of fallen Presidents and asks if we are the cat, the mouse, or just "one of these assholes." Mr. Ryan is, as he often proves to be, funny perfection.

Themes covered here range from our current economic times to the "magic" of real estate, from our non-ending war(s) to our ever-present racism, prison, aging, Asians and more. There's even a Southern musical interlude, written by Polly Pen and performed by Jeb Brown (below), about little Jimmy spinning in a baseball field.

Think of the film as a welcome antidote to the latest confusion from Dinesh D'Souza and his America. The only piece here that D'Souza might cotton to is the first: Gyydion Suilebhan's monologue about a dad going all teary-eyed patriotic at a sports event.

All in all, My America is a rich feast of hors d'oeuvres, rather than dinner. Yet I suspect that it may seem even better and more nourishing a few hours after viewing. Which you can do now, thanks to Fandor.
Click here for specifics.  (If you live in the NYC area, you can also see the film at a one-time screening at the IFC Center, this coming Wednesday evening, July 7, at 7pm, hosted by Hal Hartley and Fandor's Ted Hope.)

Del Shores' SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES: a very funny, moving, filmed play about growing up gay

One of the characters in SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES -- a new work from perhaps America's best and funniest writer/filmmaker to tackle the gay issue, Del Shores -- notes in passing that this is all preaching to the con-verted. Maybe so. But, Jesus Christ, what a sermon! TrustMovies admits that, going into this two-hour-and-18-minute movie, it did seem initially like been-there/done-that. But very quickly the story and characters take on the particularities of lives lived. If you're gay, or if you're close to anyone who is, I suspect that Southern Baptist Sissies will very quickly become irresistible.

Shores, shown at left, has literally filmed his play, which was done some time back theatrically at the Zephyr Theater in Southern California. But like a smart filmmaker, he uses the camera gracefully and cleverly, coming in for close-ups and moving it wisely to take us from scene to scene, location to location. We see, and in fact become part of, the theater audience, and yet the end result is more of a movie than anything else. But it's a movie that features live acting. And what acting!

Southern Baptist Sissies tells the story of four boys -- above, left to right: Benny (William Belli), Andrew (Matthew Scott Montgomery), TJ (Luke Stratte-McClure), and Mark, our narrator and more-or-less lead character (Emerson Collins) -- beginning at age twelve and taking them through their teenage into their young-adult years. They are gay, and they are part of the Southern Baptist Church, and how each boy handles his situation -- with irony/anger, pretense that it doesn't exist, constant and worthless prayer, or full-out embrace of his homosexuality -- becomes the full tale we experience.

Along with our boys, we meet their parents (what's left of them -- mostly women seem the care-givers here), their pastor (played well by Newell Alexander, above), whose church takes literally center stage, and also a couple of hilarious denizens -- below, left, Dale Dickey, and right, Leslie Jordan -- of a local gay bar where one of our quartet ends up working/singing as a female impersonator.

All this is woven more and more expertly as the play moves on. Via comic repetition, storytelling, history and depth of characterization, we come to care so much about all these people. Even those deluded church folk. Mr. Shores strips away the cant and nonsense from those who must take the Bible word-for-word, and yet I think he still maintains some caring for these folk as human beings. There's plenty of anger here but not, I think, much hatred.

What there is plenty of in Southern Baptist Sissies is entertainment and feeling. Every single actor is terrific in capturing the specifics of his or her character. Best of all is the young Mr. Belli, who may never again in his career get a role (roles, really) as good as he's found here. Few actors do. Mr. Belli plays the adorable blond Benny (left, in third photo from top), as well as the chanteuse (above and below, right) that he morphs into as an adult. He is simply wonderful in both roles, singing and acting up a storm with not a moment that rings false. And yet he never seems to be stealing the scene. He fits right into the ensemble.

It is difficult to explain exactly how Mr. Shores manages to keeps us glued for so long and so tightly. But he certainly understands, as the best dramatists do, how to deepen character via situation and event, until we're hanging on every word and deed.

I am a bit loathe to recommend this one as highly as I have clearly already done. As I say, we're preaching, I guess, to the choir. But if we take what Jesus himself actually preached as any kind of guide -- love and forgiveness first: the Beatitudes were all about blessings for what one is and does, as opposed to the Commandments, which were all about Don't -- one imagines that, were our pal J.C. able to view Southern Baptist Sissies, he would heartily approve.

The filmed play/musical has been touring the country for some time now, playing various cities coast to coast. Next up are Sioux Falls, SD, at the Club David on May 4th; Sedona, NM, at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on May 8th; and an extended run in Raleigh, NC, at The Rialto, beginning July 18th. As more dates appear, I'll post them here.

There will also be a DVD coming eventually -- as well as, I hope, stream-ing via various links. Keep watch here, and I'll try to update as new information arrives.

Theater on film: the Menier Chocolate Factory revival of Sondheim's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG gets well-deserved, encore screenings nationally

There was a time, long ago, when TrustMovies used to attend legitimate theater several times a week. Prices were much more affordable back then, but even he missed the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along because the show closed suddenly, so all he ended up with were tickets to be refunded. He bought the original cast album however, wore it out, and always imagined that the critics must have had their heads up their posteriors not to love a show with music and lyrics this wonderful.

Over the years much tinkering has been done on this musical, resulting in various "revivals" that still, according to the sources, didn't quite make it. Even so, my partner and I several years ago happened to catch a small, off-off-Broadway revival down in the East Village done by, I believe, a group of players that originated in Brooklyn and was mostly amateur. No matter, they did such a staggeringly good job with this show that we sat there in our seats, crying for joy at the wondrous finale and applauding like mad with the rest of the audience at the curtain call. (What's more, the little group's rendition of the show's final song, Our Time, proved even better and more moving than that of this new production.)

Now comes a version of Merrily... that Mr. Sondheim himself has decreed the best ever. I haven't seen enough of those many productions to say for sure, but this "videod" version of one of the performances from London's Menier Chocolate Factory -- which won a host of awards and had an extended, sold-out run earlier this year --  is so wonderful in almost every way that, at last, critics and audiences alike can rejoice. It seems they finally got it right.

"They" would be the director Maria Friedman, and her terrific cast, all of whom do justice to the book (by the late George Furth), and music and lyrics by Sondheim. The three leads -- Damian Humbley (above, center) as Charley Kringas, Olivier award winner and Tony nominee Jenna Russell (above, right) as Mary Flynn, and Mark Umbers (above, left) as Franklin Shepard -- are splendid, first moment to last. Every bit as wonderful is the young woman who plays Beth Spencer, Claire Foster (below). Together these four produce the kind of musical theater magic that creates permanent golden memories.

As anyone interested in musical theater by now knows, Merrily..., based on the play by Kaufman and Hart, proceeds backwards in time from our trio's pinnacle of "success" until they are kids again, just beginning their adult life. This makes for plenty of irony and sadness as plans and dreams go by the wayside to be replaced with... well, other things.

Sondheim's score makes the most of this, and he delivers some of his most beautiful songs -- Our Time (above), Not A Day Goes By, and Good Thing Going, as well as some of his finest up-tempo, "pattery" numbers like Old Friends and Opening Doors (below). The fun and the surprisingly deep emotions engendered by these songs and scenes, as performed by the expert cast -- which speak to all of us about dreams deferred and ambitions unfulfilled -- should leave musical theater-lovers somewhere near seventh heaven.

If what we saw in the video link that we watched is anything like what theater audiences will see, do not expect ravishing visuals. This is pretty standard stuff, with the usual close-ups and such that call attention to the moment but do not allow, as does the real theater experience, the viewer to look where s/he prefers at any particular time. The sound however is excellent, so the music and lyrics come across full-strength.

After successful and often sold out nationwide screenings last month, this filmed (well, "videoed") presentation, distributed by Specticast, will be making its encore showing around the country, beginning Monday, Dec. 23, through Feb. 28 of next year. So there should be plenty of opportunity to view this soon to be legendary production -- and at prices far below what you'd have to pay to see it in London (or on Broadway -- the hoped-for move to which no longer appears to be in the cards).

To see the complete listing of which cities and theaters will be screening Merrily We Roll Along, and when, simply click here and then scroll down to the very lengthy list.