Jyms of Wyzdom for 3 January 2020

New Year Edition: We have to talk about movies…prepare yourself for a brief lesson…Little Women is in town, a nearly perfect film, directed by Greta Gerwig, whose last film was Lady Bird, an outstanding first film for a director. Little Women is just wonderful, so please don’t miss it. Of more urgency, perhaps, is Cats, that received so-so reviews from the Times and Time, and is said to be bombing at the box office. We almost didn’t go, but then I watched the trailer and it sold me. Here’s the lesson: You must realize that film and stage are very different art forms. The movies can do things we can only dream about on stage, live. Stage technology has advanced, but only the most wealthy theaters can afford some of the newest toys, like multiple projectors and smart lights. These things cost tens of thousands of dollars—each! Cats utilizes quite a bit of filmic magic, such as CGI, outstanding make up and full-body costumes, and all the sets are enlarged so our human cats seem to be inhabiting the huge human world. Just watching the individual tails of the cats and all the behaviors we see from our cats, is wonderful. The surprising cast members that include Dame Judy Dench, Ian McKellen, Idris Elbe, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, James Corden and Rebel Wilson is just fine, each in an age-appropriate role.  Hint: “Memory” is in twice, so don’t be upset if you think the first time was all you’d get from Jennifer Hudson! Can you spell reprise? In short, we were just amazed by the whole thing, so I would urge you to go, in case it is on its way out. It’s playing at both cinemas—AMC is cheaper.  The director was Tom Hooper, whose last film was Les Miserables that we showed at Film Forum last summer.

If you want immortality—make it! [Poet Joaquin Miller]

Courage is a strange thing: One can never be sure of it. [Writer Raymond Chandler]

Opera: We have two Met in HD dates coming up soon: Jan 11—Wozzeck, a new production with Peter Mattei as the tormented title character—he is always worth watching. Alban Berg based his opera on Georg Buchner’s unfinished play, Woyzeck, that the young author was working on when he died, at 23, in 1837. His other plays included Danton’s Death, about the French revolutionary, and Leonce and Lena, that satirized the nobility. In Woyzeck, the characters are all working people. The fragments of play that survived place the story in the German Expressionistic style, but the music goes all over the place, perhaps appropriate to the violent, insanity inducing plot. When I was studying Continental Drama as a grad student, the professor was very German, so none of u would ever forget, on the first day of class, the professor telling us we would start by reading AAAALLLL of Buchner, and move on to AAAALLLL of Ibsen and Strindberg. If we had any sanity left after all that, we might go see the 3 hour film about Edvard Munch’s tragic life! It was a memorable class…really.

I stand by my last remarks about this one: I think it may work best as an opera, but it would help you to “get” the music if you can tune to YouTube where there are a couple of complete productions to watch.

Then, February 1, we have the much praised new production of Porgy and Bess, by George and Ira Gershwin, staring Eric Owens and Angel Blue. We pretty much all know the gorgeous score and the basics of the story, set in South Carolina. What’s not to love?

Literally thousands of wonderful friends have accompanied me in life, and many now await me in the secret eternity  to come. I have enjoyed the long voyage. [Photographer Ansel Adams]

Happy New Year! I sincerely hope this year lives up to its hype—2020—as in perfect vision..of what? It would be nice if we all accepted that climate change is real…it would be nice if we all learned to love more, be all we can be, and be as human as we can be. Meanwhile, sign up for some OLLI classes next week!

Jim Held