Arts Under Review
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The latest in cinema, the visual arts, music, and performance.
Performance: Blomstedt’s Distinctive Style
Television: The 80th Annual Oscars
Features Editor
This French cartoon recently nominated for an Academy Award is billed mostly as a movie about the Iranian Revolution in Iran. In the end, however, the graphic novel-based movie speaks much more to the universal experience of growing up. The lush black-and-white animation centers on the childhood and adolescence of Marji, a girl born in Iran in the early 1970’s.
The first third of the movie or so follows Marji as her world is turned upside down by Iranian Revolution. Before the revolution, Marji is deeply influenced by the dreamy ideas of her Communist uncle, an opponent of the Shah and former resident of the Soviet Union. But soon the Shah is deposed in favor of a new, hardliner regime. The movie does a good job of depicting this jarring change in her life: one day her life is brimming with Western ideas and values, and then suddenly she is wearing the headscarf and learning about her new Supreme Leader. Her secret adolescent rebellion against the new regime (listening to the Bee Gees, for instance) is hilarious and touching.
But soon the movie veers in more personal territory. Marji is sent to Vienna during the dangers of the Iran-Iraq War, where she goes through the pains of high school and living away from home. While her heartbreaks and crises remain entertaining, the movie loses focus. The grand tensions of the Revolution are now far away, and instead we are left with conflicts over boys. The film even drags a little bit while she lives homeless on the streets for several months. By the time she returns to Iran at about age 19, she has been changed by the West. She tries to fit back into the rigid lifestyle of Revolutionary Iran, but ultimately cannot handle it and moves to France.
The movie is alive with humor, excellent visual effects, and an eye for the universal feelings of adolescence. But in the end, just as the Iranian Revolution was the defining moment of her life, it becomes the defining moment of the movie. Its too bad, then, that the moment is over so early on.
Performance: Blomstedt’s Distinctive Style
Staff Writer
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor emeritus of the San Francisco Symphony, led four performances earlier this month of some of Tchaikovsky’s greatest works: the Piano Concerto no. 1 and the Symphony no. 6, the so-called Pathétique. At the February 16 concert, the conductor presented the two masterpieces with an undeniably unique style that was often deeply moving but also occasionally unsettling. Blomstedt’s interpretations were heavy, broad and masculine which accentuated the symphony’s torment especially well. But too often, especially in the fast movements of the works, the conductor aimed for concentrated sound and texture at the expense of lyricism and melody-driven phrasing. Ironically, Blomstedt’s legato is stunning and lush, and was exceptional in the opening movement of the symphony.
Nikolai Lugansky was the piano soloist for the evening, and gave an impressive performance. His technique was highly polished, precise and bold. Lugansky established a strong presence in the opening movement with his large sound and continued to impress, especially in the rapid passages of the second movement. The main gripe I had with the concerto was the tempo of the first movement: it was too slow to properly portray the sweeping grandeur, especially in the orchestral tutti. The brass section, crucial in both works, fell short of expectations as well. Again, in the first movement, the brass was not adequately balanced in sound and came across as too throaty. I suspect overzealous coaxing by Blomstedt caused this to happen.
The same brass problem would continue to plague the symphony, especially in the march-like third movement, which culminates in a rousing descending scale. But brass aside, Blomstedt’s heady and rich stroke highlighted the intense, emotive qualities that give the symphony its nickname. His hauntingly beautiful phrasing and handling of the strings in the finale of the symphony concluded the concert. All in all, Blomstedt delivered a satisfying and distinctive performance.
Television: The 80th Annual Oscars
It’s hard to determine what, exactly, was wrong with the 80th annual Academy Awards last week. Jon Stewart, reliably funny, was the host. The line-up of movies and actors nominated for the big awards was interesting. The media, a lover of binaries and conflict, cast the year as an epic battle of the year’s critically-approved No Country for Old Men versus There Will Be Blood, with a touch of Juno to lighten the mood. With the end of the television writers’ strike a couple weeks beforehand, the entertainment world seemed thrilled that the Oscars could go on as planned.
And yet, something was lacking. The glitz and the glamour seemed contrived, almost. The show wasn’t compelling, the songs were boring, and the stars seem muted. The American ones at least. The non-American winners, including Marion Cotillard for Best Actress, were emotional , sobbing and emotionalizing their way through their acceptance speeches. Without them, the show would have been as lifeless as Mars.
Juno was the most talked-about film, the cute indie film that might finally break through and win some of the big awards, where Sideways and Little Miss Sunshine failed. It was not to be, of course, as No Country of Old Men seemed to be the overall winner on the night, picking up Best Picture and Best Director among others. All of the major winners seemed to be deserving in their own way, but the show lacked a defining moment like last year, when Martin Scorsese finally won Best Director after decades of nominations with no cigar.
The movie industry today is in a state of flux, as pirating seems to only grow as online sites grow more creative. Ticket revenues seem to be stagnant as television’s increasing budgets and complex shows prevents a renewed creative opposition to the dominance of movies. The Oscars this year may have reflected that—a mood of pessimism in the industry, one clearly without the resources or ideas to continue to make itself relevant in the decades to come.
