Reid Farrington reimagines Alfred Hitchcock’s ROPE in entertaining multimedia whirlwind at P.S. 122
Performance Space 122
150 First Ave. at Ninth St.
Through May 9, $20
www.ps122.org
www.reidfarrington.com
In 1948, Alfred Hitchcock released his first Technicolor film, a psychological thriller loosely based on the Leopold & Loeb murders, starring Farley Granger and John Dall as a pair of Nietzschean “superior intellects” who throw a dinner party in their New York City apartment immediately after killing a former classmate and stuffing him into a chest they leave in the middle of the living room as guests start arriving. Reid Farrington, who previously reimagined Carl Th. Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC in THE PASSION PROJECT, deconstructs and reconstructs Hitchcock’s film in GIN & “IT,” a multimedia whirlwind in which Farrington digitally removes ROPE’s characters and projects them individually onto screens that four actors move around the set, creating a three-dimensional effect that mixes live theater with film. (“It” was Hitchcock and screenwriter Arthur Laurents’s code word for the underlying homosexuality between Granger and Dall’s characters, which they subtly hid from the censors.)
Hitchcock famously shot ROPE in ten continuous, uncut takes, ranging from four and a half to ten minutes each, using a carefully choreographed dolly with a small spotlight on it to weave throughout the characters and specially built set that the crew had to constantly move around to keep the action flowing seamlessly; Farrington reverses that, with Karl Allen, Keith Foster, Christopher Loar, and Tim McDonough, one of whom is always wearing a tiny light on his head (serving as director while also mimicking the dolly), carrying around Granger (referred to as Brown Suit), Dall (Blue Suit), Jimmy Stewart, Joan Chandler, and the other actors on translucent screens, essentially following the path the dolly took in the making of the film, representing the viewer’s gaze. Farrington reveals all the behind-the-scenes goings-on as the four performers stop to discuss a technical glitch with the offstage crew, switch responsibilitles, and punish one of their own for making a mistake; meanwhile, in between “takes,” Farrington includes audio snippets from an interview Hitchcock gave to a French journalist talking about how and why he made ROPE the way he did, with several of his pronouncements being echoed by what’s occurring onstage. In ROPE, Hitchcock sought to make the perfect film about the perfect murder; in GIN & “IT,” a self-described “technical ballet,” Farrington reveals that there is no such thing as perfection, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had by all.
After hard-luck fisherman Syracuse (a decidedly unglamorous Colin Farrell) raises his net to find out he has caught a woman (Alicja Bachleda) from the bottom of the sea, his life takes a dramatic shift in Neil Jordan’s wonderful fairy tale, ONDINE. Syracuse, also known disaffectionately as Circus for his checkered past, resuscitates the beautiful woman, who appears to have lost her memory and later chooses the name Ondine, which means “little wave.” Syracuse brings Ondine fishing with him, and when she sings her strange, haunting song, he catches more lobster and salmon than he ever has before. But his wheelchair-bound daughter, Annie (Alison Barry), who needs a new kidney, thinks than Ondine might be more than just good luck; she believes that Ondine is a selkie, a supposedly mythological sea creature who can live on land for seven years before having to return to her watery home. But when a mysterious stranger suddenly shows up in town, everyone is forced to reevaluate their changing lives. Gorgeously shot by master cinematographer Christopher Doyle (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE) in the coastal village of Castletownbere and along Poulin Harbor, ONDINE is a compelling story that easily could have turned into treacly melodrama but manages to keep surprising up to the very end. Farrell is excellent as the uneducated, simple, but lovable Syracuse who, when not fishing or taking his daughter to her weekly dialysis treatment, shares his tale with the town priest (Stephen Rea) in some very funny scenes. Jordan (MONA LISA, THE CRYING GAME), who has a house in Castletownbere, has made a fairy tale audiences can really believe in with ONDINE, which features a lush soundtrack by Sigur Rós’s Kjartan Sveinsson that accompanies the lush locations.
Turkish-born Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek’s latest foray into family drama might be somewhat slighter than such earlier triumphs as HAMAM and LE FATE IGNORANTI, but this examination of a dysfunctional group of relatives in Lecce is still plenty of fun. Riccardo Scamarcio, looking like a young, brooding Ray Liotta, stars as Tommaso, a gay man who is ready to come out during a big dinner celebrating the expansion of the family pasta-making business, but his older brother, Antonio (Alessandro Preziosi), steals his thunder by coming out first, shocking everyone and giving their father, Vincenzo (Ennio Fantastichini), a heart attack. Antonio is kicked out, leaving Tomasso to take over his role in the factory when what he really wants is to return to Rome to be a writer and live with his lover, Marco (Carmine Recano). But as he works with the gorgeous but dangerous Alba (Nicole Grimaudo), he learns about responsibility, among a few other surprising things. Meanwhile, his grandmother (Ilaria Occhini) agonizes over a long-lost love, his quirky aunt, Luciana (Elena Sofia Ricci), searches for a husband, and his mother, Stefania (Lunetta Savino), continues to boss around the very dour maid, Teresa (Paola Minaccioni). LOOSE CANNONS feels a little too old-fashioned, and the plot takes too many sitcom-like twists, but there is real heat between Scamarcio and Grimaudo, and the story is told with such charm and good humor that it overcomes some of the more confusing aspects of its meta-narrative.
