The process of watching Moses and Aaron (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1975) can be a frustrating one. Adapting an opera by Arnold Schönberg, this movie refuses, for half of its runtime, to move. The narrative is one of the most dramatic (and most often-adapted) Read More …
Theological themes may not be a notable element in Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac, or in most screen adaptations, but Joe Wright’s showy musical version, starring Peter Dinklage—adapted for the screen from her own stage play by Dinklage’s wife, Erica Schmidt, with songs by members Read More …
The “Disney Renaissance” of the late 1980s and early 1990s pushed the boundaries of animation by taking the formulas of Broadway musicals, applying them to fairy tales, and selling the results to grown-ups who might never have considered going to a Disney cartoon. So when Read More …
It would be difficult to overstate the weirdness of this film, but the oddity of the following sentence is some indication of what you’re in for: Adapted from the writings of the French Catholic poet Charles Péguy, Bruno Dumont’s unclassifiable theological rock musical blends theodicy Read More …
The first time I wrote about Annette I compared it to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Mulholland Drive. I still think that is one of the most apt comparisons to describe Leos Carax’s hypnotic and meta musical. In my appreciation of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Read More …
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story begins with what looks like a shot from the director’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. The camera hovers over a crumbling city, swooping past a wrecking ball as it haunts the remains of a once bustling neighborhood. Eventually, Read More …
The more particular you make your story, the more universal it becomes, or so they say. And Norman Jewison’s adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof (1971), one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history, is certainly a case in point. On the surface, it is a story Read More …