TIDY TIDBITS: Film & Theater
This was a week when we gorged on culture, films especially. The Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) is celebrating its 17th year, and over the course of ten days 270 films, a mix of documentaries and feature films, are screened. We were late getting tickets, having been away, but still managed to see several noteworthy films. Most of these are making the rounds of a number of film festivals, and at least some of them are set for commercial release in the next three to six months. Here are my thoughts and my recommendations:
Dior and I. An excellent film about the fashion industry and Raf Simons’ first couture collection for the House of Dior. Featuring both passages from Christian Dior’s memoir and the suspenseful account of the creation of Simons’ collection, this is documentary film making at its best. If you ever wondered why haute couture is so dear, then seeing all the hand work involved here, you will understand. The film was also the focus of a recent NY Times piece in their style magazine. Not for fashionistas only.
For the Record. A documentary about court stenographers and those who do closed captioning for TV shows and the like. I really enjoyed this film. My husband got bored and snoozed a bit. There was the excitement of the competition to see who was the fastest transcriber, and one of the contestants was local, from Sarasota. I think my librarian and linguistically-inclined friends would enjoy this one.
Blood, Sweat and Beer. The subject of this film is the craft beer industry and it portrayed two start-ups, one in Ocean City, Maryland, whose owner was having a rough time due to a copyright infringement law suit, and the other in a very depressed former Pennsylvania steel town. Two energetic recent college graduates took on the challenge of creating a brewery and pub in Braddock in the midst of abject poverty and neglect. The film could have used more editing, but it gives you a sense of how pervasive the craft beer industry has become.
Wildlike. A feature-length film set midst the gorgeous Alaskan scenery, this is the story of a teenage girl who is sent to stay with her uncle. She has problems with his behavior and runs away and attaches herself to a middle aged backpacker who has recently lost his wife and is trying to find some peace and solace in Denali National Park. Sensitively done and worth viewing.
Paradise, FL. Another feature film, this one shot in the Sarasota Bay area and hence of interest due to its local color. It’s a depressing tale of drug addiction and family strife straining the friendship and loyalty between two young male fishermen. Overly long and drawn out, it still held my interest. It would be better with some judicious cutting.
Theater
Asolo Rep did it again with their marvelous production of Somerset Maugham’s Our Betters! This was the equal of anything you’d see on Broadway and was both well cast and well staged. Featuring four women, all of whom were part of the exodus of American heiresses to Britain to find titled husbands, it was funny, fabulous and thought provoking about the role of women. This director chose to move the time of the play from 1917 to the 1920’s in order to have costumes that were more flowing and allowed the women characters greater freedom of movement. An inspired decision!
