In the seventeenth chapter of “The Voyage of the Beagle,” Charles Darwin turned to the mating habits of the giant Galápagos tortoise. “When the male and female are together, the male utters a hoarse roar or bellowing, which, it is said, can be heard at the distance of more than 100 yards,” he wrote. This is also the most accurate description that we possess of the duet performed by Mick Jagger and Christina Aguilera in “Shine a Light,” Martin Scorsese’s documentary on the Rolling Stones. [link]

Mr. Lane is – as usual – on the money.

In an interview with the cast and filmmakers of the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, No Country For Old Men, Javier Bardem (and the Coens) talk about how his hair came to look the way it was in the movie.

Lisa Schwarzbaum (Moderator): I think there are two things that dominate this film – one is landscape and the other is hair. It is the hair of your character. How was that decided?

Javier Bardem: I think it was a decision taken by the brothers and Paul Le Blanc, no? And i was just the victim. I just had to live with it for the next three months.

LS: So you didn’t come in and say this is how I like it?

JB: No. No, I’m not that sick.

And later, Josh Brolin recounts an off-set remark made by Bardem.

Javier got his hair cut and then we went to the Cowgirl Cafe, which is kind-of a lesbian bar in Santa Fe. And he was sitting there, and he was kind-of depressed and I said,

“You know, it’s all good. It’s the Coens. You know, you love their movies.”

He looks to me and he goes (in a spot-on Bardem impression),

“I’m not going to be laid for three months!”

It’s from a whole series of videos on YouTube culled from one show by IFC News. Watch the ‘hair’ part of the interview:

Was in New York recently, and whenever I’m there I try to catch an off-Broadway play, or a decent Broadway one, if that’s possible. Well, this time I was way off Broadway – on 59th between Park and Madison, in fact – at the 59E59 theaters. The play was Michael Hollinger‘s Opus (directed by Terrance Nolen) and it was brilliant.

The story is about the fictitious Lazara string quartet. Why is that interesting? Well, that question is answered in the first few minutes of the play when we are told that being in a quartet is like a marriage, only without the fidelity. The dynamics, the politics and the interdependencies between the members and their sometimes clashing, sometimes attracting personalities are riveting for the entire intermission-free, ninety minutes of the play.

There’s Alan (Richard Topol), who’s easygoing and extremely likeable. There’s Carl (Douglas Rees) who’s the only married one, and he’s understated and always trying to iron out the mostly petty and always passionate disagreements between the group’s members. There’s Elliott (David Beach) who’s clearly the leader, and extremely controlling, driven and caustic. And there’s Dorian (Michael Laurence), who’s the most stereotypically artistic, being a poet at heart and a visionary, but also the least stable.

We begin when Dorian mysteriously disappears. Now, the members of the quartet are somewhat like rock stars of the classical world in that they are extremely popular, have had a documentary made about them and have even won a Grammy. So with an upcoming performance at a White House function, the disappearance causes quite a stir, and they are forced to look for a replacement. And that’s where Grace (Mahira Kakkar) comes in to the picture. She wows them at her audition and is practically hired immediately. What happens over the next hour and a half is a meandering drama with enough comedy, romance and tension to keep you at the edge of your seat.

Hollinger, a violinist himself, creates a montage of scenes that occur mostly during rehearsals or backstage before and after a performance. They fluctuate between the past and the present, and with each scene it becomes clearer why Dorian disappeared and what the quartet should do next. The acting is subtle and enticing, with each character played to believable perfection. And the plot, well, there isn’t really a plot, per se, other than the sheer pleasure one derives from watching the members talk, argue, love, hate, philosophize and reminisce.

Picture Source

Mahira Kakkar

An aside on Grace, who was played by Kolkata-born Julliard graduate, Mahira Kakkar. Her performance was, to say the least, quite endearing. Her character is a young musician, fresh out of graduate school, trying hard to impress the members. She plays a wide-eyed but extremely talented neophyte, trying to understand the dynamics of the much older, much established quartet. At times, her presence was necessary to create an offset to Beach’s egotistical and chauvinistic Elliot. At other times, she was just refreshing. It was great to see an Indian-born desi in an off-Broadway play (although she’s not the first desi that I’ve seen on Broadway), and that too, speaking with an almost Indian accent. It’s about time us desis start to represent on the theater scene, and Kakkar is an excellent ambassador.

The purpose of the play is in the journey itself, and the ending, although damn good, is not a surprising twist or a melodramatic coup d’?tat. Probably the only surprise (and, in retrospect, it shouldn’t have been a surprise at all) was how much fun I had watching the members of the quartet interact with witty dialogue and melancholy observations about life. Not unlike the interactions that we all have had with our own friends and significant others. I could easily see this play making it to Hollywood, and if it does, I’ll be the first in line to buy a ticket to watch it again.

Milos Forman’s (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus) latest movie can be divided into two halves: The first half being intellectual masturbation for the anti-war groups; and the second half, a historical melodrama. Putting the two together results in a political soap opera which is as intellectually compelling (and just as easy on the eye) as two attractive undergraduates in a fancy restaurant, discussing politics with a vaulted rally of typified liberal clich?s.

The movie is more about Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem) than it is about Goya (Stellan Skarsg?rd). The latter is relegated to the background, perhaps symbolic of his real-life role as passive chronicler of history. Goya survived several vacillations in Spain’s political climate by agreeing to paint for anyone in power, including the church. At the same time though, he created etchings which were dark and satirical and show up frequently through the movie.

So while Goya is painting portraits of In?s Bilbat?a (Natalie Portman) and Brother Lorenzo, the latter, armed only with his ambition and (for some reason) an overtly dulcet tone leads a movement for increased action against heretics. This results in the official summoning of In?s who is under suspicion of following “ancient Judaistic rituals” since she was spotted refusing to eat pork at a tavern one night. And in a scene transition that New York Times critic Matt Zoller Seitz calls “an early candidate for transition of the year” she is “put to the Question” (a euphemism for torture), confesses to being a heretic, and is imprisoned. She is, in reality, a devout Christian but simply doesn’t like pork.

Goya Unveils a Painting of Queen Mar?a Luisa (Blanca Portillo)

In?s?s father, Tom?s ( a rich merchant), asks Goya for help, who arranges for Brother Lorenzo to dine at their residence one night. As we learn, Tom?s has other intentions and though the evening starts with a civilized dinner argument about “the Question,” it ends with Lorenzo hanging upside-down from the chandelier suspended by his wrists, and ultimately agreeing to sign a confession that he is the “bastard child of a chimpanzee.” As far as entertainment value goes, this was the movie?s climax, with everything after this being soporific in comparison.

Bardem acted well, despite a shallow characterization, but Skarsg?rd was miscast as a background character. Goya surfaces in the second half only insofar as the Portman characters of In?s and her daughter physically resemble characters from his etchings. If only her portrayals were as interesting.

Forman survived Nazi and Czech communist rule and that probably played a part in the creation of the movie. He is most famous for his riveting and thought-provoking depictions of real-life geniuses and rebels – those who exist on Society’s fringes (McMurphy,Mozart, Flynt, Kauffman). Here, though the production is slick, he provides us with only a very brief glimpse of the inherent conflict and drama associated with such personalities. The script, co-written by Forman and Bu?uel regular, Jean-Claude Carri?re, might work as a Dadaist feature, but fails as a historical drama, and is even more disappointing as a biopic.

Pacino increasingly sought out big, shouty parts and then inflated them past their already outsized proportions: He out-Sataned Satan in The Devil’s Advocate (1997), spontaneously combusted at regular intervals in Two for the Money (2005), and imitated a disgruntled spaniel in this year’s Ocean’s Thirteen.

The victory of shtick over craft is disheartening. It’s important to remember, though, that the man is a populist, whether he’s communing with admirers outside the stage door or directing Looking for Richard, a film obsessed with making Shakespeare accessible to a mass audience. [link]

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From the trailer, it looks like they are back with a bang and are bringing on all the blood, noir, edginess, and “edge-of-the-seat”-iness from their Blood Simple days. After Ladykillers, I think it’s about damn time. And the fact that Javier Bardem is playing the bad guy definitely can’t hurt. Release date is 21 November, 2007. I can’t wait!

From Love and Longing in Bombay.

Happy birthday, Vikram Chandra.

Sometime in the 1980s (or thereabouts), I heard ‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’ for the first time. It was on my father’s Sony stereo system, which was covered with a custom-made plastic case and occupied an exalted position on his bedroom shelf. I had just been given “stereo privileges” which meant that my father considered me old enough to use it, and was confident I wouldn’t set it on fire. No fires were caused in listening to the song, but the upbeat mood and catchy tune hooked me. From that point on I considered myself a Police (and Sting) fan.

When I heard they were going to be touring again after a twenty-four year hiatus, it was a no-brainer. I had to go. So I awoke one morning in late February (when they went on sale), logged into Ticketmaster and bought tickets to their show at the McAfee Coliseum in Oakland on June 13th. The show sold out in a less than two hours.

The Opening Band

We got to the venue na?vely at 6:30pm, like it said on the ticket. Now, we weren’t aware of the existence of warm-up acts. After hanging around for about an hour, we were inundated for another hour with something that sounded like a dial-up modem logging on to a network, except a few thousand decibels louder . As it turned out, this was the opening band – Fiction Plane – led by Sting, Jr. a.k.a. Joe Sumner. Clearly, something went awry with the genetics there. When they stopped playing, one guy in the audience clapped. He narrowly escaped for his life as fellow concert-goers attacked him with their soft drinks and hot dogs. I exaggerate, of course, but it suffices to say that there were no long lines to buy their CD.

Wrapped Around Your Finger

At around 9pm, the Police (finally!) got off to a rocking start with ‘Message in a Bottle’. A good, strong opening which was jazzed up with a stronger beat from its album version. In fact, several of the songs were literally “jazzed up” from their original versions- probably an influence of Summers technical brilliance and Sting’s foray into jazz since the split. For instance, ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’ had an extended percussion intro which really brought on the mood. I should mention that Copeland was making full use of his extended percussion kit throughout the show. In ‘Walking on the Moon’ (a personal favorite), Sting did a pan-flute solo. It wasn’t great, but it worked. ‘De Do Do Do…’ was funky as always and hit the spot. On the other hand, ‘Every Breath You Take’ – which had its last breath taken away from it several years ago, from being overplayed and over-covered by other musicians, fell flat.

All songs were longer than the album versions from the eighties – and this was not necessarily bad. Also, while normally the three have a backing band which plays the horns and additional guitars, on this tour all backing parts were written out – it was only the three of them performing on stage.

Invisible Sun

Ultimately, the concert was too short. They left after less than an hour of playing, and had to be drawn out thrice. Call me cheap, but paying over a hundred dollars for the ticket should be enough to have the band play two sets lasting forty-five minutes each (at least) plus one encore, if things are going well. The total playing time for this concert was under an hour and fifteen minutes, and that included all the time spent clapping to get them back on stage.

Also, from a practical perspective, the stadium was not well-equipped to handle a concert like this. First off, there were only three screens – two on each side of the stage, positioned for best viewing by only the audience facing the stage, and one behind the band. Since we were at an angle, we could see only one screen, and that too, barely. Secondly, the acoustics were suboptimal, with there being quite a bit of echo (and therefore, distortion) in the stadium seats. A better venue for this sort of thing is the Shoreline Amphitheatre.

Overall, although it was great to see them perform live, the concert was a tad disappointing. There was a fair amount of experimentation and deviation from the original recordings. And like with all experimentation it was high-risk. Which means that when it worked, it really rocked. But when it didn’t work, it really stank. The bad songs, the short performance and the issues with the venue definitely were a downer. That said though, it was the Police after all, and they did rock, even if it was only for some of the time.

Picture source

Good Night (no, really!)

Setlist
Message in a Bottle*
Synchronicity II*
Don?t Stand So Close to Me*
Voices in My Head / When the World Is Running Down
Spirits in the Material World*
Driven to Tears
Walking on the Moon*
Truth Hits Everybody
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic*
Wrapped Around Your Finger*
The Bed?s Too Big Without You
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da*
Invisible Sun*
Walking in Your Footsteps
Can?t Stand Losing You*

Encore 1
Roxanne*
King of Pain*

Encore 2
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take

Encore 3
Next to You

*These songs really rocked. The rest ran the spectrum from Could you hurry this up, please? to Hm…it’s ok.

Ms. Jolie is now more of a brand than a person, and she comes in six flavors:

1. The celebrity.
2. The sexpot.
3. The Brad handler.
4. The mother.
5. The world saver.
6. Oh yes, the actress.

[link]

He talks about Jolie in a review of ‘A Mighty Heart’. And in doing so, he has yet again proved his adroitness at turning the lowly film review into a full-fledged Art Form. Here’s the unabridged version of #4:

4. The mother. Official estimates as to how many children Jolie now possesses, and from how many continents, change on a weekly basis. When not giving birth herself, she likes to order in. How this has affected Mr. Pitt is unclear, but his expression is sometimes that of a man who stepped out to hail a cab and got run over by a fleet of trucks. [link]

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