Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)

Memorable, crazy movie

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Of the three filmed "Vanya"s I've seen, the classic British version with Redgrave and Olivier seemed being stagy and uninvolving, like a Victorian drawing-room comedy, the Russian version from '71, directed by Konchalovsky, was too stylized and peculiar to have much of an impact (the location, a decayed dacha in a picturesque rural landscape, was more memorable than the performances), and this one, from '94, seems just about right. Lookists might object that Wally Shawn's too geeky and gnomelike to be convincing as Vanya, and conversely that Brooke Smith's too attractive to play Sonya, and maybe so, but from the moment the camera shifts from the chitchat at the refreshments table to Dr. Astrov and the nurse sitting by the samovar and delivering the play's (almost) opening lines, you feel like you're getting the best of both worlds—experiencing the intimacy of one of director André Gregory's cultish, invitation-only performances on the home screen of your choice. David Mamet's expedited version of the play (and a resulting running time of 119 minutes) seems just about right; even if we don't know what to make of Sonya's final assurances to Uncle Vanya that it will all be made right in the next life, it still comes across as a poignant moment. In the years to come, Wally Shawn would occasionally put on a limited-engagement, first come–first served production of one of his own plays in a similar desolate Downtown setting, and as a not very committed theatergoer, I could never get it together to go to one; no problem—in retrospect, watching Louis Malle's brilliant film on a DVD that came in the mail seems like a more satisfying theatrical experience.

This is an endlessly fascinating filming of a play in rehearsal - we meet the actors as they congregate at an old theater on 42nd Street that is scheduled for demolition. So natural is the acting that we don't realize that the actors have begun the play until one of the characters mentions a samovar... The cast is uniformly excellent -- with the exception of Wallace Shawn -- whose obvious choices and broadly comic persona make us aware that he's attempting to ACT while everyone else seems to truly inhabit their characters. Particularly notable are Julianne Moore, Larry Pine and Brooke Smith. This is a heartbreaking version of a difficult play (thank goodness for close-ups - the extended scene between Sonya and Yelena would be torture on-stage - it's brilliant on-screen. If only we'd gotten an ACTOR (rather than an odd personality) in the role of Vanya, it would have been perfect.

I sympathise with the Russian poster who took exception with Mamet's tampering with Chekhov but I still admire this film a great deal. As a non-Russian and non-Russian speaker I have loved Chekhov since the time I was able to distinguish great writing from mediocre and I have always felt that no matter how fine a given translation I was still losing the occasional untranslatable nuance to which Russian speakers have access. Vanya is also one of my favourite Chekhov plays and I just wallowed in this wonderful version. It's magical the way that once inside the rehearsal space with the actors schmoozing Wally Shawn stretches out on a bench almost imperceptibly and Larry Pine asks Phoebe Brand casually how long they've known each other and unless you really know Chekhov you'd think this was just actor small-talk instead of the first lines in the play between the Doctor and Nanny,or, to put it another way, Malle has led us both artfully and seamlessly into the performance and then, having done so, he throws in a touch of the Brechts by deliberately reminding us we're watching actors acting and not people living. The first time he tips his glove is via Wally Shawn's cup which has I Love NY written on it then later Andre explains to the visitors (who, I suspect, have been planted there for just that purpose) that it's now a different time. The acting throughout is beyond praise and a wonderful high note for Louis Malle to end his career. 10 out of 10 going away.

First, full disclosure: I've seen Uncle Vanya performed by the Bolshoi Theater, and have read the play over a dozen times, in the original Russian. It is dear to me, and I have some rather definite ideas about what it is, and what it should be.Having said that...I must say that while I really liked how the actors were filmed coming into the rehearsal area from the streets of NY, and thought that several deviations from Chekhov were appropriate and even inspired, and though I was awed by the acting of Shawn, Larry Pine, and especially Brooke Smith, ...I had a few problems with this production.Above all--I had a problem with Yelena (played by Julianne Moore) as a giggling airhead. Was this the idea of Moore, or director Gregory, or of David Mamet, who altered the original play? It certainly wasn't Chekhov. Yelena certainly is, in some respects, empty, false, hollow. But having her giggle in response to Vanya's confessions of love is completely at odds with what Chekhov had in mind. She may not be entirely serious, but she does take other people seriously; and her reaction here is more like pity and disgust than like levity and thoughtless dismissal. Yelena is not an airhead valley-girl. The other problem arises from how the play is shot as a movie. As noted by zetes below, theater and film are different media. Obviously Chekhov, who died in 1904, was writing only with the stage in mind. Hence some dialog is bound to be either too weak, or too strong (probably the former). And sure enough, while Brooke Smith is absolutely WONDERFUL as Sonya throughout, her final speech--which in the original play is rousing, inspiring, really uplifting--comes across as way too understated. On the stage, Sonya should give her "We will find peace!" speech at full pitch, packed with emotion; but if Smith had given such a delivery here, with camera in a close-up shot of her as she spoke, the effect would have been completely over-the-top. Her delivery is the best it can be, given the medium; but it's not what Chekhov intended.All this aside, there is a lot to like here, and I'm glad I was able to find this at the video rental store.