Screening Log
This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.
August 2007 activity
Total Log Entries: 52
- Adam (9)
- Andrew (0)
- Chet (0)
- Chiranjit (1)
- David (0)
- Eva (0)
- Evan (0)
- Ian (5)
- Jenny (3)
- Katherine (0)
- Leo (5)
- Megan (2)
- Rumsey (4)
- Teddy (3)
- Thomas (5)
- Timothy (0)
- Victoria (0)
Total Comments: 35
- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1)
- Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy (2)
- When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts (0)
- Eastern Promises (0)
- The Departed (0)
- Knocked Up (5)
- Little Children (0)
- Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (0)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (0)
- Transformers (0)
- Being Michael Madsen (2)
- The GoodTimesKid (0)
- Carefree (0)
- Music and Lyrics (0)
- Inland Empire (0)
- Why We Fight (1)
- Paths of Glory (0)
- Hannah Takes the Stairs (0)
- Superbad (2)
- Jesus Camp (0)
- Titicut Follies (0)
- Ultraviolet (2)
- Eyes Wide Shut (1)
- Seraphim Falls (0)
- The Puffy Chair (1)
- Red Dawn (1)
- Robot Monster (0)
- Touch of Evil (1)
- A Clockwork Orange (7)
- Les Misérables (0)
- The Magnificent Seven (0)
- Nighthawks (0)
- Slaughterhouse Five (0)
- Hot Fuzz (2)
- Sunshine (0)
- Rescue Dawn (0)
- The Wild Blue Yonder (0)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (0)
- The 11th Hour (0)
- Shanghai Express (0)
- Trasgredire (0)
- Faces (0)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (0)
- Viva Baseball! (0)
- Holiday (0)
- Cloak & Dagger (6)
- Oepidus Rex (0)
- Dead Man’s Shoes (0)
- Sunshine (0)
- This Is England (0)
- Sweet Smell of Success (1)
- Once (0)
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Oepidus Rex / USA/Japan / 2005
Normally I wouldn’t bother to mention a viewing of an opera production on film but this Stravinsky Oratorio (with a running time just under an hour) was directed by the famed director, Julie Taymor, captured live in 1992 during the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan. The production is one of the most intriguing spectacles I’ve ever seen captured on film. Taymor utilizes masks, sculpture, ballet, and traditional Japanese theater forms to create a powerful, timeless, yet distinctive rendition of the Sophocles tragedy. She positions the singers/main characters upstage while dancers duplicate the drama just behind them and a massive chorus of singers provide accompaniment along the sides. However, all the performers are in relationship as the production is unified through an amazing feat of intricate and enveloping set design and costuming.
Apparently, productions of this Stravinsky work have not been especially successful nor particularly noteworthy, save a mid-eighties production featuring sets by David Hockney, which (among other things) drowned out singer performances.
The great Jessye Norman, who sang Jocasta in the John Dexter/Hockney production, is again cast as the woman who, unknowingly, sleeps with and marries her own son, Oepidus, compellingly played/sung by Philip Langride. Bryn Terfel gives a striking performance as Creon and the dancer, Min Tanaka doubles as Oepidus. The costuming for the singers is particularly effective in that the headpieces/masks and the plastique arms and hands extend and elevate their delivery. They become living, breathing, icons right in front of us. Though unadorned with such accoutrement, Kayoko Shiraishi, the narrator, commands attention right away with her Noh theater style delivery and maintains her fiery approach throughout. Seiji Ozawa conducts an electric Saito Kinen orchestra that rounds out this amzingly kinetic production.
by Marlin Tyree | Source: Phillips DVD
01 Aug 2007 6:44 PM | Submit Comment