Kris Rasmussen: July 2007 Archives

Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman, famous for his unique psychological, dreamlike storytelling style, passed away today in Sweden at the age of 89. Though he has not directed a feature film in many years, discussion of his work by film critics and movie buffs has never really stopped, and much of that discussion revolves around the spirituality of many of his movies.

Raised as a minister's son in a strict Lutheran home, much of Bergman's work dealt with man's search for meaning and relationship with God in an often cold and alienating world. Though he often disparaged religion in its various forms, movies such as "The Seventh Seal" (1957) as well as the three movies generally known as the Bergman trilogy--"Through A Glass Darkly" (1961), "Winter Light" (1962), and "The Silence" (1963)--all dealt with the question of God's existence and the role faith plays in human lives.

I know what some of you are thinking: With the thriller "Zodiac" out on DVD this week as well as the recently released, family-friendly, Hallmarkish "Sweet Land," how could I make something to do with Shakespeare my DVD pick of the week? Well, it’s pretty simple, really. "Shakespeare Retold" is not some fancy, shmancy version of the work of the world's most famous playwright. In fact, you don’t have to know a thing about iambic pentameter or the original plays themselves to appreciate these four totally modern vignettes oh-so-loosely based on the bard.

The stories in "Shakespeare Retold" are funny, smart, and skewer everything in modern culture from politics to media to the complexities of familial relationships, with a refreshing lack of cynicism and--for the most part--raunch.

Since each episode on the two-disc set is an hour to an hour-and-a-half long--and some are decidedly better than others--feel I need to steer you toward the best of the four adaptations, which would be "The Taming of the Shrew." This version of "Shrew" is set in modern day London where a snarky woman named Katherine is a saavy, ruthless politician who is trying to become the new prime minister. However, her spoiled actress younger sister keeps stealing Katherine's limelight, and an unexpected romance with a slob she meets at a party messes up her plans for global domination.

The entire story unfolds with the look and feel of "Bridget Jones's Diary." (In fact, Shirley Henderson, who plays Katherine, also played one of Bridget's friends in that movie.) But "Shrew" is in some ways even more insightful, as it dissects the insecurities of an intelligent woman trying to balance her life priorities with some degree of integrity. Henderson is just fabulous at portraying Kate as both hateful and empathetic. Henderson and her foil Rufus Sewell, who plays Petruchio, have a good old-fashioned screen chemistry reminiscent of old Cary Grant movies.

This version of Shakespeare is so much better than any of the romantic comedies at the box office lately (the adaptation of "Midsummer Night's Dream" is also clever) that I encourage you to settle in and have a date night ( or a girls' night in ) and enjoy a new twist on a timeless tale.

I haven't had the pleasure of seeing the Broadway version of "Hairspray," but I do remember not being a big fan of the original movie by John Waters. (For some reason, it was just a little too creepy for me.) But none of that mattered as I watched the latest incarnation of the 1960's spoof that came to the theaters this past weekend.

A stellar cast, including John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah and adorable newcomer Nikki Blonsky, puts their own spin on the be-bop world of a second-rate dance show in Baltimore. While it is certainly not easy to adapt extravagant Broadway shows to the big screen (Think about last year’s "Dreamgirls") this "Hairspray" has the right amount of sweetness, silliness, smarts, and sass to make it one of the most enjoyable movies I've watched in a long time. Even if you are not a huge theater geek like me, I dare you to sit through this movie and not smile, tap your feet, or feel inspired to be kinder to your fellow man.

Of course the success of any version of "Hairspray" rests almost solely on the portrayal of chubby, bubbly Tracy Turnblad (Blonsky), the sixteen-year-old teen obsessed with the local teen dance show, "The Corny Collins Show." Despite her stature, Tracy dreams of become one of the cool kids from her high school who dances on the "American Bandstand"-style program. When she spends a day in detention with a few of the black kids who occasionally dance on the show (once a month the show has "Negro Day"),Tracy really learns how to shake her groove thing and becomes an overnight Baltimore sensation for her dancing ability as well as for her cockeyed optimism. When she announces on the show that she wishes "every day could be Negro Day," she begins a civil rights stir that leads to a protest to integrate the dancers on "The Corny Collins Show."

Hollywood’s envisioning of the turbulent 60s has primarily relied on JFK, riots, Woodstock, and Vietnam as the defining images of that decade. Former "Sopranos" producer Matthew Weiner has instead dared to relentlessly and fearlessly examine every sacred cow of that era through the eyes of a group of charming, but sleazy ad execs in the AMC series "Mad Men."

With glitz and style--not to mention lots and lots of smoke--Weiner deftly weaves a tale in which prejudice, sexism, and a hefty use of tobacco products are common place. More importantly, Weiner uses these events to foreshadow our own current culture wars. In fact, "Mad Men" is, in some ways, what the sometimes smart, savvy, relevant show "Studio 60" tried so hard to be.

The world of the Sterling Cooper ad agency embodies a time younger generations of viewers will find hard to imagine--when it was acceptable to drink scotch and smoke in your office while telling your secretary to show off her legs if she wants to get ahead. But even the boys club at Sterling Cooper is beginning to feel the times changing as creative director Dan Draper is faced with the problem of how to continue to advertise cigarettes now that an article in Reader's Digest claims that tobacco will kill you. Traditional family values are being chipped away at because women are going on something called "The Pill." And Draper is being asked to create a positive political image for some guy named Nixon who wants to run for president.

Yet the most provactive storyline of the night was the introduction of a fiesty Jewish department store heiress who is considering hiring the agency to promote their stores. In yet another twist, Weiner does not attack white-black race relations but rather blatant anti-Semitism.

Preparing for the sales meeting, the ad execs rack their brains trying to think of where they can find a Jew to bring into the meeting to make "these people" more comfortable. After wondering if they should just go down and "grab one of them" from the corner deli, the head of the company brings in a nerdy looking guy to the office and tells Draper he "had to go all the way to the mail room, but I found one."

Watching "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" late, late at night with an audience younger than me and far more into the wizarding world than me was a fascinating reminder of why Harry Potter has become an iconic representation of the Gen Y/Millenialists who have grown up with him. In the darkest chapter yet of the Potter saga, Harry and his friends--many who are from broken families--are angry, alienated, and overwhelmed by the thought of being unprepared to live as young adults in a dark and chaotic world. Feeling that corrupt adults and political systems aren't of any use to them, they quietly begin to train themselves to face a new war against evil. (Yes, I am still talking about plot of the movie, but the metaphors for today's society seemed obvious over and over again as I watched the movie). So while "Phoenix" does not have all of the razzle-dazzle of the other films, and lacks a little cohesiveness, it stands on its own as a powerful look at the next step of one young man's heroic journey.

One of the challenges of watching the film is that the novel "Order of the Phoenix" was roughly 900 pages, so huge amounts of detail and many secondary characters needed to be cut from the book to turn it into a movie, and that may make following the film a bit tricky at times for those who are not die-hard Potter enthusiasts. However, the basic plot of the film centers around Harry's return to Hogwarts after the aftermath of Harry's battle with You-Know-Who. While Harry is still grieving the death of Cedric and fearing what may be next in the fight with Voldemort, the Ministry of Magic has decided to downplay the event as if it never happened, and does this through tabloid gossip and innuendo. They also turn Hogwarts into something of a totalitarian state, as the new Ministry of Magic and the new defense of the dark arts teacher establish new laws at Hogwarts that basically don't allow students to do magic or anything else without approval from the Ministry.

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