Vanya on 42nd Street

I oftentimes just wish that films adapted from plays would just show us the damn play. Vanya on 42nd Street just shows us the damn play.

This is about the greatest performance of this play I can imagine. The movie may not be "cinematic" in the traditional, clichéd sense, but as Roger Ebert wrote, "There is not a shot that calls attention to itself, and yet not a shot that is without thought." As to the film's aesthetic (eschewing costumes and scenery), Ebert also got it exactly right: "The drama seems to take place outside time." Everyone is marvelous, but I really had no idea Wally Shawn is SO great. And Brooke Smith is superb.

Pine was the standout for me, and generally, the acting is strong (least favorite performance: Wallace Shawn). I usually warm easily to filmed plays but for some reason, I found this one distancing, so it left me kinda cold. Might deserve a rewatch, though.

loc42's review lol

There is something wrong with the idea of trying to catch the essence of human beings always in a more accurate and refined way with digging deep into them as they "perform" in the classical theatrical way. Eventhough it is essentially humanistic and assumes them to be good by nature, it's made from the same element of fascism: it assumes an essence and tries to capture it in vain. That can only evoke a feeling of death as it is in the end. That's not cinema that's human pornography.

The work done over several years by André Gregory and the cast pays handsome dividends in this, Malle’s final film. Chekhov’s ode to the sacrifices of the plain, the ordinary and the forgotten, taken up here through a slightly free adaptation by David Mamet, is offered in a convincing and affecting way with minimal means, although perhaps the final speech was not quite nailed. Malle was never flashy but he really had a good feeling for composing images and a good feeling for human relationships.

"Drive my car" filmini zlemeyi düşünürken filmin Çehov'un "Vanya Dayı" adlı oyunu ile çok ilgili olduğu ve eğer bilginiz yoksa pek anlama imkanı bulunmadığını öğrenince tercih ettiğim, Çehov'un mükemmel oyununu, Julianne Moore'un o doyulmaz güzelliği eşliğinde izlememe vesile olan bir film oldu.

Malle & cast are fantastic at having each character distinct in their own role and yet all commonly intertwined by their fears and lack of existential certainty. A raw rehearsal is brilliant IMO, because here it’s cinematic narrative leaves you no choice but to oblige by the symbolism of Chekhov’s play. Not only visual imagination, but adherence to theatre dialogue puts viewers in an intimate space.

A film about the rehearsal (but morphing into the full play) of "Uncle Vanya" set in a then-decrepit theatre in NYC. Chekhov's play itself is pretty gloomy. What's so beautiful, though, is the intimacy in which we experience it -- we are almost participants in the production. Worth seeing for any aspiring actor.

Tio Vanya em Nova York estreava há 25 anos no Festival de Veneza. Impressionante que a Julianne Moore já vai fazer 60 anos ano que vem e como ela tá lindíssima e talentosíssima aqui. Eu nunca havia lido esse texto do Tchekhov então o deslumbramento aqui é duplo, além do texto impecável contamos com um "ensaio" deveras inspirado do Malle. BlurayRip no MakingOff.

It's a really magnificent performance of the play with no costumes or sets to speak of. A pure celebration of great theater.

A valentine for theater lovers, probably.

The part of Andre Gregory and Louis Malle in this is truly inspired - Gregory is the one who had long worked this unto perfection with the cast, and Malle was content to convey it as a casual rehearsal. I have to say I like what they did better than the Chekhov play itself or Mamet's adaptation, which get a little stagey and affected. The modern backdrop elevates it tremendously by defamiliarizing and layering everything. Acting is uniformly amazing.

80.500

This is excellent and everything I was hoping but what the hell is David Mamet doing on this job?

Wonderful. Really wonderful. When you're curious about how acting really works - try watching this.

One glaringly fictional, and filmic, device, however -- a single passage of voice-over interior monologue, while other characters on other occasions must content themselves with standard soliloquies -- capriciously violates the "rehearsal" premise. That last conceit aside, the movie, as its title forthrightly announces, is more documentary than fiction, a continuation of the theatrical run for one final performance, a filmed record of it. Or in other words, it's still more a play than a movie.

Strange little idea for an art film that doesn't quite work out