The Free Press is bringing back a Reviews section after some absence. We hope to review plenty of events around town. Check back frequently and if what\'s going on is any good.
Arts & Culture
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The REDCAT revival of Wallace Shawn’s 1996 The Designated Mourner is eerily timely, opening amidst the tyrannical Trump regime’s ongoing attack on its critics, ranging from el presidente’s firing of the FBI chief for his investigation of a citizen above suspicion (but beneath contempt) and the May 10 arrest of a reporter in West Virginia for the heinous thought crime of trying to ask “Health” Secretary Tom Price a question.
In Mourner, Larry Pine (a veteran of the big and little screen and stage with endless credits, including House of Cards and Dead Man Walking) portrays the poet Howard, a scion of the ruling class who turns against them and champions the "dirt people" (working class) in opposing the "rats" (elite). Daughter Judy (writer Deborah Eisenberg) is among Howard’s literary and political acolytes. As opposition to the rulers mounts leftist intellectuals are arrested and executed by the oligarchy.
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The REDCAT revival of Wallace Shawn’s 1996 The Designated Mourner is eerily timely, opening amidst the tyrannical Trump regime’s ongoing attack on its critics, ranging from el presidente’s firing of the FBI chief for his investigation of a citizen above suspicion (but beneath contempt) and the May 10 arrest of a reporter in West Virginia for the heinous thought crime of trying to ask “Health” Secretary Tom Price a question.
In Mourner, Larry Pine (a veteran of the big and little screen and stage with endless credits, including House of Cards and Dead Man Walking) portrays the poet Howard, a scion of the ruling class who turns against them and champions the "dirt people" (working class) in opposing the "rats" (elite). Daughter Judy (writer Deborah Eisenberg) is among Howard’s literary and political acolytes. As opposition to the rulers mounts leftist intellectuals are arrested and executed by the oligarchy.
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The USSR had Sergei Eisenstein, while Bulgaria had Angel Wagenstein. The life and work of the 94-year-old screenwriter and novelist is wonderfully depicted in Andrea Simon’s top notch documentary, Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon, which had its West Coast premiere at Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills during the 12th annual South East European Film Festival.
This extremely well-directed, enlightening nonfiction biopic paints a fascinating portrait of this leftwing Jewish writer who was born 1922 in Plovdiv. The son of a Bulgarian dedicated Communist - who, the son quips, naively “expected the world revolution to take place next Tuesday” - little Angel met his father on a visit to the prison where he was confined for his role in what Weapon contends was the first armed uprising against a fascist regime. Wagenstein (alternatively spelled as “Vagenshtain”) would recount this largely overlooked 1923 rebellion in one of his first scripts, 1954’s The Heroes of September.
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The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival focuses on features, shorts and documentaries from and about Asia and the Pacific Islands. The films screened during LAAPFF in L.A. from April 27-May 4 and in Orange County from May 5-11 are all shot on location in Asia and Oceania and/or depict characters of and/or were made by talents of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry, such as Mele Murals, a documentary about Hawaiian street artists. As such, LAAPFF provides cineastes with an invaluable window into the movies and societies of Asia and Polynesia, and of individuals from those ethnic groups living in continental North America. The L.A. venues where LAAPFF screenings and conferences took place highlight specialty cinema, such as the opening and closing night galas at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre and the Directors Guild of America on Sunset Strip, as well as the Downtown Independent, the arthouse where I viewed the below.
THAILAND: BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK
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My readers (hiya Ma!) know I’m usually very careful regarding plot spoilers, either completely avoiding or clearly labeling them, so as not to ruin the element of surprise for theatergoers. This is actually the first time I’ve reviewed a play when critics and ticket buyers are not given the program until after the play and reviewers are admonished in a press kit disclaimer printed in boldface to “not give away details of the plot.” So, to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, your reviewer will make it a point to “talk softly, but carry a big Bic” in this critique.
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Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year American Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul by Clara Bingham is a valuable contribution to further understanding and popularizing the radical upsurge of the 1960s. The book is an oral history and we hear from well-known figures of the time such as Ericka Huggins, Tom Hayden and Robin Morgan as well as others like Vivian Rothstein, Wesley Brown and Jan Barry who did significant work mostly behind the scenes in one or more of the movements that together made up The Movement. Though the focus of the book is the one-year period from the summer of 1969 to the summer of 1970, the interviews cover ground going back much earlier and thus provide many important insights about context and individual development.
The primary focus of Witness to the Revolution is the movement against the war in Vietnam. There’s a great deal about the white Left as well as the counterculture and nothing about free jazz, DRUM, AIM, Stonewall or Black Arts. This was a conscious choice.
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The 12th annual South East European Film Festival kicked off with a gala screening at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills of writer/ director Rajko Grlić’s The Constitution, a stellar must-see movie full of humor and humanity that set the tone for this filmfest. I say that because sometimes cinefiles “suffer” through specialty cinema (especially those bearing English subtitles), but The Constitution reminded me of the joy of discovering those “foreign” films by Luis Bunuel, Francois Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, et al, at an arthouse that transported us beyond Hollywood glitz and glamour to a more “sophisticated” cinematic view of the world beyond our shores.
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It never fails to amaze me how what we see on stage or screen often reflects what’s going on in the real world, aka “out there in TVLand.” For instance, I previously pointed out how LA Opera’s January/ February production of Mozart’s 18th century The Abduction from the Seraglio, largely set in Turkey, mirrored today’s ongoing debate over Islamic extremism versus so-called “moderate Muslims.” Now, hard on the heels of Bill O’Reilly’s (long overdue) ouster from Fox News, Giacomo Puccini’s 1900 opera Tosca is being performed on the boards of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion through May 13.
And you don’t have to be a clinical psychologist like Dr. Wendy Walsh to analyze the opera’s theme of sexual harassment and how it relates to scandals regarding the alleged mistreatment of women (purportedly including Dr. Wendy) by O’Reilly, as well as Fox’s terminated gauleiter, Roger Ailes, plus the pussy-grabber-in-chief, Donald Trump (who, but of course, defended both of his fellow accused abusers - isn’t it clear how rightwing politics favoring the rich and powerful fits together with abusive treatment of women? It’s all of a piece.).
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Los Angeles, April 21, 2017 - The Russian Revolution is coming to L.A.!
As Angelenos commemorate the L.A. urban rebellion’s 25th anniversary the 1927 documentary THE FALL OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY- about Russia’s 1917 urban uprisings - is being screened as part of the “TEN FILMS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD” series, a cinematic centennial celebration the of the Russian Revolution.
What: THE FALL OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTYscreening.
When: Friday,7:30 p.m., April 28, 2017.
Where: The L.A. Workers Center, 1251 S. St. Andrews Place, L.A., CA 90019.
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James Q. Whitman's new book is called Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law. It is understated and overdocumented, difficult to argue with. No doubt some will try.
In cartoonish U.S. historical understanding, the United States is, was, and ever shall be a force for good, whereas Nazism arose in a distant, isolated land that lacked any connection to other societies. In a cartoonish reversal of that understanding that would make a good strawman for critics of this book, U.S. policies have been identical to Nazism which simply copied them. Obviously this is not the case.