Weekend
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT • THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015 • PAGE B1
Avant-garde explored in ‘New
Zealand New Performance Festival’
BY PERSIS TICKNOR-SWANSON
Spectator Staff Writer
A little piece of New Zealand has arrived in New
York at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.
Over the span of three weeks, the New Zealand New
Performance Festival showcases nine works created
by various artists eager to explore new theatrical
territory.
The final two shows take place this weekend.
“Chet Baker: Like Someone in Love” by Goldthorpe
Creative shows on March 28 and 29, and “All
Your Wants and Needs Fulfilled Forever” by The
Playground Collective shows on March 26 and 27.
“Chet Baker: Like Someone in Love” is about
American jazz musician Chet Baker and his struggles with fame and heroin.
“It’s quite dark and it’s a bit of roller-coaster ride,
and everyone seems to enjoy it,” David Goldthorpe, a
producer of the festival and the writer and principal
actor for “Chet Baker,” said.
Goldthorpe wrote the show eight years ago and
has performed it many times. His show seeks to
explore the multifaceted aspects of the famous performer’s personality.
“I’d always loved Chet’s music. I wanted to do
a show to explore a darker side,” Goldthorpe said.
“He was a man who had such an angelic and demonic energy. He would be singing all these love
ballads one minute and the next would be shooting
up heroin and yelling at people.”
“All Your Wants and Needs Fulfilled Forever,”
the other show this weekend, follows a man named
Simon trapped in a “Truman Show”-esque situation
while dealing with a rift in his family. “The Truman
Show” was a movie in which the main character was
unknowingly the subject of a television drama and
was manipulated by the show’s creators.
“It is absurd comedy because it’s quite playful in
that we really make fun of the fact that we are here
to see a show that is supposed to enlighten something about real life, where in reality life is nothing
like a show,” director Robin Kerr said. “We are trying to create something enlightened.”
For Goldthorpe, New Zealand’s perspective on
American culture is part of the festival’s intrigue.
Some of the shows provide an outside perspective on the culture in which Americans are so
immersed.
“[Baker] often had a lot of things to say about the
U.S. that he would not have said while in the States
when he was touring Europe,” Goldthorpe said.
Another piece, “So-So Gangsta” by James Nokise,
follows a New Zealander’s experience in a gang and
depicts how the gang culture of New Zealand is directly based off gang culture in the United States.
“The same marginalized groups in New Zealand
embraced this culture from America,” Goldthorpe
said. “It’s interesting to have a completely foreign
perspective on an American tradition.”
“All Your Wants and Needs Fulfilled Forever”
also displays some American influences.
“There was a lot of thinking around what it is
like to grow up in New Zealand and interpret life
through video games and the deluge of American
culture,” Kerr said. “Our generation particularly
grew up more immersed in American pop culture,
rather than British pop culture.”
“What we are doing is showing the odd ways
we project. It is our normal, but it’s strange for
Americans to think about reflecting back on what
we see. It’s like fun-house mirrors,” Eli Kent, the
writer and actor in the lead role of Simon, said.
The tight-knit New Zealand environment is tangible in the show.
“I think the spirit of collaboration is really
special,” Kerr said. “We are all really involved in
each other’s shows. That’s something about New
Zealand—it is really small and we have brought a
community over here.”
Kerr and Goldthorpe were both excited because
while they appreciate the sense of New Zealander
solidarity, to work in New York has been a unique
opportunity.
“New York is like absolute mecca if you are a theater major. It’s also as far removed from Wellington
as you can be,” Goldthorpe said.
“We have been in New York for about three or
four days, and it’s full of different kinds of people
and it’s overwhelming,” Kerr said. “Even just last
night, we walked out the door of our theater and
immediately ran into a colleague who we didn’t
know was in town. You could spend a lifetime here.”
Kerr is also intrigued by the difference in
SEE NEW ZEALAND, page B4
ILLUSTRATION BY ADA TAM
PAGE B2
Best
of
WEEKEND MARCH 26, 2015
Movies filmed in New Zealand
While Chicago is known for its deep-dish pizza and political corruption and New York is known for bagels and Broadway, New Zealand
doesn’t have the same type of instant recognition. Originally settled by the Maori tribe, it was colonized by the British in 1840. Because
of its remote location, New Zealand was geographically isolated for 80 million years, boasting an impressive amount of biodiversity. The
gorgeous topography and unspoiled terrain, from picturesque mountains to miles of beaches, has made New Zealand a prime location
for shooting many films. —AFRODITE KOUNGOULOS
‘King Kong’
Lord of the Rings Series
An action-filled reboot of the 1983 classic,
the 2005 version of “King Kong” details the
kidnapping of a legendary giant gorilla, later
dubbed King Kong and brought to New York
and put on display by an overly ambitious
filmmaker. Kong is captured on the mythical Skull Island when director Carl Denham
stumbles upon the gorilla and tries to put him
on Broadway in a get-rich-quick scheme. All
the filming and visual effects happened in New
Zealand, with principal photography shot in
Miramar. “King Kong” takes advantage of New
Zealand’s remote location, seamlessly transitioning from a mystical island to a densely
populated city.
The wildly popular film adaptations of
J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novels were
filmed entirely in New Zealand. The bulk
of the principal photography was shot across
multiple conservation areas and national
parks from October 1999 to December 2000,
with sporadic supplemental shoots happening between 2001 and 2004. Over 150 locations were used in total, some so remote
that the crew brought survival kits along in
case emergency helicopters would be unable
to reach them. However, the New Zealand
Department of Conservation received backlash for approving the films before assessing
the full extent of damage that would have
been caused. Tongariro National Park was
most intensely affected and required major
reparations after battle scenes were filmed
there.
‘Whale Rider’
A heartfelt family drama, “Whale Rider”
tells the story of Paikea Apirana (Pai), a
young Maori girl who aspires to become
the chief of her family’s tribe some day. Her
grandfather attempts to dissuade her because the role is traditionally filled by the
first-born grandson of the famous Whale
Rider, who was the first to ride a whale in
Hawaiki, the original home of the Maori.
Because of her special relationship with the
whales, Pai is later able to rescue her grandfather’s whale tooth, proving herself as the
tribe’s rightful leader. The film was mainly
shot in Whangara, on the eastern coast of
North Island, as well as in Auckland. In this
case, the geography was masterfully integrated into the plot, taking viewers on a
virtual tour of New Zealand’s topography
and the history of the Maori.
‘Bridge to Terabithia’
ILLUSTRATION BY KAYA TIBILOVA
Based on a young adult novel of the same
name by Katherine Paterson, the principal photography for “Bridge to Terabithia”
was shot in Auckland, New Zealand. The
film centers around two children in rural
Virginia who invent an alternative world
for themselves called Terabithia. To escape
the mundanity of their daily lives and the
wrath of a school bully, the friends Jesse and
Leslie spend all their free time in the woods
of Terabithia, located across a small creek.
The elaborate computer-generated trolls and
monsters look perfectly at home between the
endless expanse of trees, effectively blurring
the lines between fantasy and reality.
Cultural differences
on display in
performance festival
NEW ZEALAND from page B1
COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
FUNNY GUYS | ‘Get Hard’ centers on an investment banker who enlists the help of a friend to prepare him for his new life in prison.
Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart talk ‘Get Hard,’ prison in pop culture
BY ANTONIA GEORGIEVA
Contributing Writer
Notorious comedians Kevin Hart and Will
Ferrell sat down with a group of college students,
including a reporter from Spectator, from all over
the country this week and talked about their most
recent project, “Get Hard.” The new comedy that
comes out in theaters this week is Etan Cohen’s
directorial debut and centers around investment
banker James King (Ferrell), who prepares for
his time in jail with help from Darnell Lewis
(Hart). Hart and Ferrell discussed their collaboration, their work with Etan Cohen, and what
they learned about life in prison.
What is a common misconception about the
prison system that you learned in the process and would like to clear up?
KEVIN HART: In jail they give you buckets
sometimes to go and do No. 2. There you go,
cleared up!
WILL FERRELL: I don’t even know if there are
any misconceptions about prison because I
think we have so much information out there,
so probably a misconception would be that
there is any nice part about prison.
As both very successful comedians, is there
anything that you have learned from one
another while working on the film?
KH: Well, the one thing I could say about taking
from Will is just the approach to his craft—very
professional, very humble, a guy who really appreciates everything and is grounded, and I think
that’s why he’s in the position he is in today.
WF: Yeah, I think Kevin and I kind of share the
same philosophy in terms of, you know, we
obviously like to have a good time. We are so
thankful to be doing what we’re doing professionally. At the same time, we try to stay
grounded and work very hard.
What made you guys on board for this movie?
What interested you?
WF: Well, this was an idea that my friend and
writing partner Adam McKay had for a long
time. We kept talking about it, so we generated this idea from our company, and as
we started digging into the casting, figuring
out who would be great to pair up with, the
only name we started with—the first name
we started with was Kevin. We called him
up, pitched him the idea, and lucky for us he
was into it and he helped right away in the
development process with the script and his
character, and that was how the whole project
came together.
What was it about [director] Etan [Cohen]—
his style and flair—that drew you to want
to work with him, and how was the experience unique in comparison to your past
projects?
KH: That’s a great question!
WF: EC is obviously an established comedy writer here in Hollywood with a pretty good track
record, and I think he was on the short list
with one of those guys who was next in line
to direct a feature. He had done a short film
that attracted some notice, and when you talk
to him about a script in terms of his articulation of the story, you could tell he sounded
like he was a director. And I think that’s what
gave us the confidence to want to work with
him. Plus, he also—kind of in the 1920s, 1930s
way—he wore those old khaki director pants
and spoke through a bullhorn, so those things
really made him appear like a director.
Why is it important to have the ability to show
serious social tensions you touch on in “Get
Hard”?
WF: I think it’s a great way, as we explore our
differences and once you get through the chatter, we realize how similar we are. And kind
of through that examining through the world
of comedy, you are just able to point out how
silly these attitudes are that seem to pop up
from time to time.
KH: Well, I couldn’t have said it better than that.
When you were preparing and getting the idea
around for this movie, were there any prison movies or television shows that inspired
you or helped you prepare for the roles?
KH: For me, I watch a lot of “Sanford and Son,”
which kind of put me in the position to where
I was ready coming on set and I was working
towards something.
WF: I watched a lot of shows on the Cooking
Channel. It didn’t help me at all. It was probably a waste of time, and if I had to do it over
again, I wouldn’t have watched it.
[email protected]
directing styles between America and New
Zealand.
“We are come from a country in which we
are privileged to be honest quite freely,” he said.
“There is competition in New York, and there is
the challenge of how well we are understood by
other people.”
Kerr and Kent’s company, The Playground
Collective, creates its shows by first getting in
a room with their actors and talking about what
they all feel is relevant and important in their
lives. Then they improvise, building the show
up piece by piece.
Both Kerr and Kent’s and Goldthorpe’s shows
feature live music that is incorporated into the
plot.
“The jazz band is a New York trio which
I haven’t worked with before but they are a
high-quality band, so there’s a joy in that,”
Goldthorpe said. “It’s always exciting getting
to do the show in a new city because I get to
work with new people, which keeps it fresh
and interesting.”
For these shows, the personal and emotional involvement is essential to make them
powerful.
“It is a strange thing, feeling out a character,”
Kent said. “Then you start realizing all sorts of
elements about a character. I really think all
writers should act out the characters they are
writing so they are really living out the psychology of the person, so it makes sense.”
This deep emotional connection to the human
experience sets these shows apart from others
and makes them worth spectatorship.
“We are teasing ourselves and the audience because we all want to look like an action
movie, but life is actually more complicated
than that,” Kerr said. “It’s looking at stories
and how they attempt to find meaning and what
their role is in our lives. We read stories and
we watch movies because we hope that they
will fulfill us.”
Goldthorpe said, “What is special [about this
festival] is because in a Kiwi way, we wanted to
bring these shows to New York. It has been really rewarding because, coming to the home of
theater, it’s nice to know we still have something
relevant to offer.”
For those who aren’t swayed by the emotional intensity of the festival, Kerr had one final
pitch for his show to sum up the explorative
and playful theme of the festival: “We have a
talking lightbulb.”
[email protected]
MARCH 26, 2015
WEEKEND PAGE B3
My mom’s ‘bad taste’:
The value of trash TV
I
COURTESY OF CLUB ZAMANA
COMMUNITY | All Columbia-affiliated clubs can perform as long as they incorporate South Asian influences in their routines.
Annual ‘Tamasha Rogue’ showcase to celebrate South Asian culture
BY DAISY CHENG
Spectator Senior Staff Writer
Columbia’s South Asian performance groups
will converge on campus in Club Zamana’s showcase event, Tamasha Rogue, this Saturday.
“Tamasha means fun, party in Hindi, and that’s
really what we try to do in the show,” Rohini
Sengupta, BC ’16 and vice president of Club
Zamana, said.
To highlight the immense talent on campus,
Club Zamana selected exclusively Columbia performers, as opposed to hiring external performers
as they have done in previous years.
“We focused and stayed within the Columbia
community because we were all at auditions, and
it’s really overwhelming the amount of talent we
have on campus,” Sengupta said. “Since we’re a
student organization, we want to showcase student
talent.”
The unique quality of Tamasha is that to participate, performers do not need to be in either Club
Zamana or a South Asian group. Tamasha’s goal is
to promote community through the appreciation
and unity of South Asian culture in the form of
performing arts.
“It’s an incredible way to build community,”
Sengupta said. “It’s open to anyone, any freshman,
first-year, senior. You don’t have to be a part of
Zamana—anyone who goes to this school can be a
part of it, and they can speak for it.”
Club Zamana’s showcase generates great anticipation and hype among students through its
theme, hence the name Tamasha Rogue.
“Every year we go through a big brainstorming process, starting in December or November,”
Kieran Birch-Desai, SEAS ’18 and an organizational committee member in Club Zamana, said.
“It was pretty hard this year to think of a creative,
fun theme.”
“I think something that people look forward to
each year and something that adds to the hype is
the theme,” Rhea Padalkar, SEAS ’17 and secretary of Club Zamana, said. “This year we’re doing
Tamasha Rogue. It’s involving a kind of heist and a
whodunit mystery.”
Members of Club Zamana began publicizing
Tamasha Rogue even before spring break and used
innovative, creative ways to attract attention. This
is part of the hype that the organizers work hard to
generate in preparation for the actual show.
“Our media is always crazy. We have door
hangers and posters and flyers everywhere,
so that definitely adds an element of surprise,
and seeing what we do with it during the show
and in our videos and whatnot,” Padalkar said.
“Everyone’s always really excited to see what we
have for our media.”
Tamasha Rogue stands out from other cultural
shows on campus in that it strongly emphasizes
South Asian culture in a unique blend between
tradition and novelty. All performers—South Asian
or not—must incorporate some South Asian flair to
their performance.
“It’s a great way to show what South Asian students or students interested in South Asian culture
have been doing the entire year, and it’s about making a stand: We are here, we would love to share
and unite people through our culture, South Asian
culture,” Sengupta said.
“Just the event itself, we have so much buildup
leading up to it,” Harsha Vemuri, SEAS ’17 and
intergroup chair, said. “It’s more than just what
happens on Saturday.”
[email protected]
The Director Must Not Be Credited redefines cinematic storytelling
BY ANNE MARIE BOMPART
Spectator Senior Staff Writer
It began with Danish directors Lars von
Trier’s and Thomas Vinterberg’s dedication
to eschew special effects in film and return to
traditional methods of storytelling. Since its inception in 1995, Dogme 95 has grown into a significant avant-garde filmmaking movement. On
March 13, the movement was installed in New
York City at the Museum of Arts and Design,
where a series of its movies can be viewed.
Dogme’s manifesto of simplicity is called the
“Vow of Chastity” and begins with 10 rules that
reject anything superficial in action, lighting,
location, and music.
“When von Trier got together to make the
manifesto, the 10 rules, the ‘Vow of Chastity’
was set up because they were really responding to Hollywood and large-budget films,”
Jake Yuzna, director of public programs at the
Museum of Arts and Design, said.
Vinterberg and von Trier felt that the trend of
imitating elaborate Hollywood films detracted
from the real locus of the film—the story itself.
“There was this so-called Hollywoodization
of low-budget films that were happening, and
this generation of French filmmakers and people
in school who wanted to make big blockbustergenre movies,” Yuzna said. “What von Trier and
people are pushing against were: You can make
a film with any video camera, not giant budgets,
you don’t need a genre like science fiction or
horror or action. Just the very basics, which are
some actors and a camera in the room together.”
Despite its minimalism, Dogme 95’s filmmaking tactics were not reductive. The movement is still relevant due to the contemporary
pervasiveness of its inventive approaches.
“There are so many breakthroughs in filmmaking that Dogme led to that became so ubiquitous that we don’t even realize now,” Yuzna
said. “Like the idea of having a jump-cut time
where you see a character and without a kind of
cut jumps to another moment—now we just see
it all the time, but we don’t even think twice.”
“And it’s kind of a credit to the movement that its breakthroughs have become so
COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF ART AND DESIGN
PROVOCATIVE
|
The films are unconventional in both content and form.
commonplace that too often people don’t realize where that came from,” he added.
Radically reinventing cinematic conventions was always the main goal of the movement, shown in its decision to do away with
aspects like genre.
“You don’t even have to make genres, you
don’t have to do any of that, kind of push away
all of that stuff and focus on the core of the stories and characters and drama, really,” Yuzna
said. “They were known for being troublemakers, too. They were often referred to as the ‘bad
boys’ of Danish cinema, as if there were so many
to choose from, and they were definitely trying
to be provocative when they did.”
Some of the films have netted prizes at bigname festivals such as Cannes and Berlinale,
which speaks to the movement’s burgeoning
internationalism.
“It was most active with the Danish filmmaker, but spread out. We saw American filmmakers making it, Spanish, some from Argentina,
French—it hit pretty much every continent that
was producing cinema at the time,” Yuzna said.
Despite the movement’s far reach, some of
the other, non-award-winning films have largely been ignored by the international film circuit. One of The Director Must Not Be Credited
festival’s main draws is that the relatively obscure avant-garde films on display are gaining
a wider audience.
“Except for few directors whose names
were already well-established in the film festival circuit in Cannes or Berlin—those films
got attention—a lot of the other films that were
recognized as Dogme films fell into obscurity,
so they only were only in their country of origin,” Yuzna said.
The Museum of Art and Design’s tour has
the potential to realize von Trier’s hope of a
wide-scale cinematic revolution. Above all, the
goal of Dogme 95 is for filmmakers to challenge
the mainstream and to return to individuality.
“He [von Trier] thinks of Dogme as when
you hit a rut and you’re stuck and you go back
and make a Dogme film,” Yuzna said. “That sort
of creates all these challenges and hurdles and
makes you think as a filmmaker in a different
way and realize new ways of solving problems—
open up avenues in yourself that you wouldn’t
expect.”
[email protected]
f you’ve never watched
“The Millionaire
Matchmaker,” you’re
not missing out. Perhaps
Columbia has tainted my
ability to enjoy trashy teleMADISON
vision. Perhaps the idea of
SEELY
male millionaires paying a
Guilty
woman thousands of dollars to assemble hordes of
Ple asures
bachelorettes for them to
sift through reminds me of
what’s fundamentally wrong with the world.
In either case, I have found myself unable to
watch it even ironically. This disdain complicated my most recent winter break, when
I found myself in pajamas on the couch with
my mom—who was, unfortunately, in control
of the remote.
I should preface this by saying I’ve known
about my mother’s horrible taste for a long
time. When I was in middle school, she
would desperately defend the integrity of a
movie until I watched it with her, only to discover it was a Lifetime Original. Her nightstand contains stacks of Danielle Steel novels,
the audio versions of which have often snuck
their way into mother-daughter road trips.
However, I’ve historically been roped into
these interests under the pretense of “quality
time.”
That night on the couch as she highlighted
an episode of “The Millionaire Matchmaker”
in the DVR—with several more lined up for
future self-flagellation—she preached its gospel to me. All I had to do was watch an episode or two or eight with my mom. “Please,
please, we barely get any time together. You
have to watch this with me,” she implored. At
that point, what was I going to say? “No, I’d
rather sit in my room and wade in self-assurance”? She clicked play.
Fifteen minutes in, I got up and left the
room. Not in a dramatic kind of way, but I
couldn’t risk starting an argument over something so arbitrary. What was the point of this
show—to highlight the worst parts of human
interaction? To insult women? To box people
into these literally unbelievable roles and test
the limits of their dignity? Whatever it was,
it was certainly not to get me thinking on a
critical level. As soon as I realized that I was
watching it wrong, I knew I needed to leave.
I politely but sadly excused myself from the
situation. Mom didn’t appear to mind, but I
could tell she was upset—not because I didn’t
enjoy the show, but because it meant we
would be spending less time together, albeit
momentarily.
Four years of curating elitist
preferences of television and
music has left me so judgmental
that I am unable to let the little
things go and enjoy my visits
home with her.
It wasn’t until after four years of only
annual visits that I’ve come to accept her
bad taste as my own problem. Four years of
curating elitist preferences of television and
music has left me so judgmental that I am
unable to let the little things go and enjoy my
visits home with her. Watching the rest of an
episode of “The Millionaire Matchmaker”
would not insult my identity as a woman, but
it would give me at least 20 more minutes
of time spent with my mom. At some point,
perched upon my ivory tower, I had ranked
my mom’s superfluous forms of entertainment beneath my own, and thus also the importance of shared time together.
Accepting my mom’s bad taste has of
course meant subjecting myself to things I do
not necessarily enjoy watching or doing. But
it has also allowed me to make two very important strides: to take myself less seriously
and to value the time spent with family as the
best form of entertainment. I will never give
up my desire to engage critically with television or otherwise, no matter the perceived
quality of the content. However, my mom—
and “The Millionaire Matchmaker”—have
taught me how to determine when and how
that engagement should manifest.
My mom was the one who first recommended “House of Cards” to me. She said
she thought I’d enjoy it, that it seemed like
my taste. I not only love this because she was
right, but also because it reinforced that, had
I not spent years watching Lifetime with her
or falling asleep in the car to the tune of a
Danielle Steel romance, she might never have
learned my preferences. I hope one day to
return the favor—but only after several more
nights of watching “The Bachelor” with her,
of course.
Madison Seely is a Columbia College senior
majoring in creative writing. Guilty Pleasures
runs monthly.
WEEKEND PAGE B4
Flipside
Guide
MARCH 26, 2015
WHERE IT’S AT
Time: Various
Place: 30 Lincoln Center
Plaza
Cost: Tickets start at $27
Rating: »»»
COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA
MATERIAL GIRL The Metropolitan Opera’s newest production highlights the pitfalls of materialism and the dark sides of shallow dreams.
|
‘Manon’
Opera explores doomed love, greed
BY KALLY PATZ
Senior Staff Writer
Both stunningly animated and visually bare, the Metropolitan
Opera’s “Manon” is a series of constant contrasts. The lavish red of a
bed is made small by the looming, gray buildings outside. Gauzy tulleclad ballerinas dance amid wire chain-link fences. Manon, stalking her
prey in a vibrant pink gown, is electric against a concrete ballroom.
The uncomfortable juxtapositions are the inevitable result of dreamers grinding against experience.
Jules Massenet’s opera opens with a young Manon (Diana Damrau)
traveling for the first time, declaring that she wants to live only for
pleasure. Even cloaked in dismal grays, Manon moves with the intensity of a prima donna. She embraces grand gestures and emotions—as
if already living the vibrant life she imagines.
In an operatic escalation, she meets Chevalier des Grieux (Vittorio
Grigolo) while waiting at a train station, declares her love for him,
and decides to elope. With the passion comparable to that of Helen
and Paris or Romeo and Juliet, the two throw themselves against a
faded wall in their overflowing passion and then run, arms splayed
and heads thrown back, to the front of the stage singing about the
future of their love.
It’s a doomed pleasure from the start. The couple’s bare, bright
apartment seems unstable and small surrounded by the dark, immense city. The world outside is constantly invading their intimate
cocoon in the form of soldiers dressed in navy, self-proclaimed “men
of experience,” who would like Manon to return home in accordance
with her family’s wishes.
WHERE IT’S AT
Time: Various
Place: 1886 Broadway
Cost: $14
Rating: »»»«
Soft as the small apartment, Grigolo sings with the sweet, high purity of a small bird. As his gentle notes dream up a life with Manon, his
voice seems horribly vulnerable and breakable. The audience wants
to protect him, to save him from what the program notes promise.
Committing herself to the pursuit of grand floppy hats and long
white gloves, Manon leaves her poor lover to marry the wealthy
Monsieur de Bretigny (Dwayne Croft). Singing above an orchestra
punctuated by affected flourishes and trills, she relishes in the adoration of the crowd and the material pleasures of a furry pink gown.
Like the ballerinas who scurry onto the stage, she lives for the fawning
of her audience. Each gesture to a man on the Parisian promenade
and swish of a skirt is performance—costumed in pink, Manon is on
constant display.
With subtle persistence, the role Manon plays in public begins to
overwhelm her. In the privacy of scenes with Chevalier des Grieux,
she can’t seem to take it off. Throwing herself onto the red bed in his
chapel as she tries to seduce him, she unconsciously blurs with Titian’s
painting of Venus reclining on a red couch. She becomes more icon
than person, a shallow character that becomes broken and incomplete
when the audience walks away.
Playing with and basking in her audience’s literal applause, Damrau
blurs her identity as a performer with her identity as Manon. We’re
given the same treatment as the men her dominating character lures
and teases. Almost unconsciously, we join the audience that feeds
and abuses her.
After the final “Bravo!” and bow, our uncomfortable role doesn’t
quite end. The contrasting greys and velvet reds of the opera house
aren’t unlike those that punctuate the set we’ve just left. The streetlights that flickered through the opera’s final scene are there to meet
us as soon as we step outside. Joining Lincoln Square’s other theatergoers, we’re left with the unsettling suggestion that the performance
has yet to end.
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COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PHOTOS
DOG-EAT-DOG | In the style of ‘Animal Farm,’ the film uses
canine characters to explore issues of systematic oppression.
‘White God’
Politically allegorical film falls slightly
short of its ambition
BY MARLEE FOX
Spectator Senior Staff Writer
The main character of “White God” is a dog, but that should
neither deter you nor lead you to believe that the film is Disneyesque. Directed by Kornél Mundruczó and set in modern-day
Budapest, the surprisingly moving saga follows mixed-breed
canine Hagen and his young owner, 13-year-old Lili. When Lili
is forced by her father to abandon Hagen under an overpass, the
dog’s life turns tragic as he is hunted, abused, and attacked by
the merciless humans he encounters.
It should be noted that Hagen, as well as his other four-legged
friends, never speak. The canine’s story is conveyed entirely
through striking music and visuals. The film is an exceptional
example of how powerful and creative a tool a camera can be
in manipulating an audience and conveying a story. The film’s
cinematographer, Marcel Rév, has created a unique piece of visual storytelling that allows viewers to not only sympathize with
Hagen but also relate to him on a complex and philosophical level.
To its creators, “White God” is even more than a movie. It is
intended to metaphorically represent the oppression of minorities and their inevitable uprising, according to Mundruczó. But
while the film undoubtedly succeeds as a piece of cinematic art,
it falls apart as an allegory.
At first glance, it may seem a little strange to represent the oppressed masses with dogs. But as the film continues, Mundruczó
blurs the line between human and beast as the dogs themselves
begin to adopt more fantastical human qualities. While the dogs
never speak, Hagen is unrealistically humanized, with his transformation culminating in a massive and bloody canine uprising
against the many people who have wronged him. In rebelling,
Hagen adopts many of the qualities of his abusers, confusing a
distinction that is meticulously defined throughout the rest of
the film.
While Mundruczó’s message seems clear, he oversimplifies
one of the most complicated and pertinent issues included. With
the exception of Lili, the human characters in “White God” are
so blindly brutal that they become caricatures. Their abuse of
Hagen is their only role in the film, leaving them undeveloped
and one-dimensional. While their actions certainly stoke the
viewer’s anger and make for a dramatic and dynamic film, their
behavior lacks the nuance necessary to accept “White God” as
political allegory.
Others may see the film and disagree. Perhaps oversimplification is unavoidable in such a grand endeavor. “White God” may
be short on dialogue, but it is certainly not lacking in ambition.
The questions the film raises, and occasionally tries to answer,
are not only weighty, but simultaneously personal and societal.
While watching, one feels as if the film is operating on many
different levels. “White God,” thus, is a masterful film that manages to convey meaning at an unprecedented, multifaceted level.
“White God” is currently screening at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas
and IFC Center.
[email protected]
WHERE IT’S AT
Place: iTunes
Cost: $7.99
Rating: »»«
COURTESY OF MILAN ZRNIC
CONFORMITY |
The artist abandoned his signature ’80s-influenced synthpop and emotional lyrics for an album with more commercial appeal.
‘Eclipse’
Twin Shadow’s newest album is a
step backward for the talented artist
BY AFRODITE KOUNGOULOS
Spectator Senior Staff Writer
Like Doritos Locos Tacos, synth-influenced new-wave artist Twin
Shadow’s new album “Eclipse” was released to much hype and high
expectations. While his previous two albums were an updated combination of New Order-era synthpop and alternative rock, “Eclipse”
ultimately leaves listeners feeling unfulfilled and holding our breaths
as we wait for the magnetic pull of his earlier tracks.
Also known as George Lewis Jr., Twin Shadow released his debut album “Forget” in 2010. “Confess,” a self-produced follow-up,
was released in 2012, leaving fans plenty of time to speculate about
which direction “Eclipse” would go in. When Lewis signed on to
major label Warner Music Group, it seemed that his style was headed
toward mass appeal, but the first two albums were promising enough
to make me hope he hadn’t yet lost his spark.
While Twin Shadow’s sound has always been ’80s-influenced,
“Eclipse” marks a departure from the signature poetic lyrics and
soft vocals of his previous two albums. Twin Shadow describes
“Eclipse” as an intentional move toward becoming less “elitist,”
swapping dreamlike basslines for more generic-sounding, repetitive beats reminiscent of Top 40 radio. While the catchy “Eclipse”
may indeed have more mainstream appeal, the trade-off doesn’t
feel worth it—moving into more radio-friendly territory makes
Twin Shadow lose the unique style that allowed him to gain popularity in the first place.
“Eclipse” opens with “Flatliners,” which has a slowed-down
bass drop and redundant lyrics reminiscent of British electronic
trio NERO’s song “Promises.” The mournful undertones of love
gone wrong are reminiscent of Twin Shadow’s previous albums, but
since most of the chorus consists of the lyrics “You breaking promises,” it lacks the depth and emotional chord perceived in “Tyrant
Destroyed,” the opening track on “Forget.”
Similarly, the bulk of the album’s songs rely heavily on the formulaic approach to radio success—the same looped 30-second uptempo drum beat, coupled with a lyrically devoid chorus. While
the songs will definitely get stuck in your head, it’s because they’re
meant to, not because you can’t stop mulling over well-articulated
lyrics or experimental beats.
In “Alone,” a slower, R&B-esque ballad turns into a somewhat
sappy dialogue reminiscent of “High School Musical” thanks to
featured artist Lily Elise’s verse.
“Turn Me Up” is the clearest stab at a pop hit and the most forgettable track. The rhyme scheme employed in titular track “Eclipse”
feels rudimentary, but the vagueness of the statement “You eclipse
me” has tinges of old Lewis: soulful grandeur that hints at a darker
backstory.
The quick tempo of “When The Lights Turn Out” makes this a
danceable, somewhat redeeming track, but it still falls flat. Neglecting
to use personal experience to structure a meaningful narrative is the
song’s—and the album’s—main downfall. When Lewis pleads with
his lover, “Don’t let me stand in the dark of your love,” it doesn’t have
the genuine hurt apparent in his earlier songs.
“I’m Ready” marks a transition back to old Lewis, seen in the
slow buildup to the bass drop and the line “holding me back are the
ghosts of embarrassing memories.” Coupled with “Old Love / New
Love,” the tracks are solid enough to salvage the album, even if only
partially. “Old Love / New Love” is pure Twin Shadow—unabashedly
psychedelic, dreamy opening chords coupled with mournful lyrics
effectively juxtaposed against rapid, dancey new wave-era beats.
The raw, insistent beats on “Watch Me Go” also set it apart from
the other songs, making it a shame that the track was relegated to
the end of the album.
Despite the positive trend in the middle, “Locked & Loaded” is
an abrupt ending track that sets a confused tone for how the album
is perceived as a whole.
While some tracks show glimmers of Twin Shadow’s old lyrical
prowess and funky fusion of R&B and synthpop, “Eclipse” fails to live
up to its full potential. Whereas his previous albums drew listeners
in with electric, demanding openers, “Eclipse” leaves listeners waiting with bated breath for a dynamism that never comes. However,
the magnetism of tracks like “Old Love / New Love” and “Watch Me
Go” prove that Twin Shadow’s prose hasn’t escaped him—he merely
chose not to use it in favor of a more intelligible album.
Twin Shadow’s newest project held so much promise, but felt
as paltry and unsatisfying as Taco Bell’s tiny Doritos-encased taco.
Hopefully, his next effort will mark a return to his tried-and-true
recipe, a staple best served simply.
“Eclipse” is currently available on iTunes.
[email protected]