TV Guide: Anton Chekhov

Video: La Petite Lili

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:20:52 -0500

Anton Chekhov's {+The Seagull} receives an updated adaptation in this drama from veteran French filmmaker Claude Miller. Mado (Nicole Garcia) is a successful actress who is spending the summer at her country estate with her boyfriend, Brice (Bernard Giraudeau), a noted filmmaker who directed her latest picture. Also staying with Mado is her son, Julien (Robinson St venin), a budding experimental filmmaker with a combustible personality who is infatuated with Lili (Ludivine Sagnier), a beautiful young woman whose family lives nearby. Lili is attentive but cool around Julien, who doesn't pay much heed to the attentions of Jeanne-Marie (Julie Depardieu), the daughter of Mado's caretaker (Marc Betton) who has long held a torch for him. When Julien screens his latest film for Mado and her guests, it leads to a bitter argument between the two as her criticism of her son's work devolves into a series of personal attacks on one another. As Julien threatens to sever ties with his mother, Lili courts the attentions of

Video: August

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:24:01 -0500

Anthony Hopkins made his directorial debut with this adaptation of Anton Chekhov's {+Uncle Vanya}, recasting the action in Hopkins' homeland of Wales. Ieuan Davies (Anthony Hopkins) has devoted most of his life to managing the estate of Professor Blathwaite (Leslie Phillips); while he's generally been content with his lot in life, lately Ieuan feels he's thrown away his existence and wishes he'd done something with himself. The Professor spends only the summer at his estate, and brings along his second wife, Helen (Kate Burton), whom Ieuan has long loved from afar; his frustrated love for her leads him to drink heavily and contemplate murder and suicide. Family friend Dr. Lloyd (Gawn Grainger) is also attracted to Helen, much to the dismay of Ieuan's niece, a plain woman in love with the good Doctor. In addition to directing and starring in August, Hopkins also composed the musical score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide.

Video: Vanya On 42nd Street

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:22:39 -0500

In the late 1980s, noted theatrical director Andre Gregory assembled a group of friends and actors and began rehearsing a new translation of Anton Chekhov's {+Uncle Vanya} by David Mamet, not with any specific performance in mind but as a way of exploring the beauty and precise construction of Chekhov's play. Louis Malle, a friend of Gregory's, became interested in the project and spent two weeks filming Gregory's actors as they performed {+Uncle Vanya} without an audience in a run-down theater near New York's Times Square. In these performances, the line between theater and real life is blurred as conversations between actors -- juggling take-out cups of coffee and wearing street clothes -- slowly grow into a superb performance of Chekhov's classic, with Wallace Shawn as Vanya, Julianne Moore as Yelena, Brooke Smith as Sonya, and Larry Pine as Dr. Astrov. With a certain sad irony, this marvelously realized adaptation of a play about people wondering what they've done with their lives proved to be Louis Malle

Video: Black Sabbath

Video Detective — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:57:09 -0500

This anthology features three chilling horror stories. Il Telefono is credited to Guy de Maupassant, although he never wrote such a story, and concerns a woman (Michele Mercier) receiving telephone calls from beyond the grave. Wurdulak, by Alexei Tolstoi, stars Boris Karloff as an aging vampire who can only feed on those he loves. Co-starring Mark Damon and Susy Andersen, it is clearly the best story of the three. The final tale, La Goccia d'Acqua, is falsely credited to Anton Chekhov. It features Jacqueline Pierreux stealing a ring from a corpse she is preparing for burial, only to be murdered by the old woman's ghost. The American version differs in four major areas: the print is shorter, the stories appear in a different order, there is a linking device with Karloff speaking directly to the audience from a foggy void, and Roberto Nicolosi's musical score is replaced with one by lounge-icon Les Baxter. The American release of the film is also missing a comic coda featuring Karloff riding on horseback (or is

Video: Black Sabbath

Video Detective — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:57:04 -0500

Video: Speed for Thespians

iTunes — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:34:26 -0500

Love and betrayal... In this film adaptation of Anton Chekhov s play "The Bear," art and life intersect before an audience of unsuspecting commuters on a NYC bus. The story weaves around the performance of three accomplished stage actors as they interact with the passengers in this suspenseful thriller.

Video: Upheaval

iTunes — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:27:59 -0500

A neurotic mother destroys the ones she loves most--is it on purpose? Starring FRANCES McDORMAND (Fargo, Friends with Money, Almost Famous) in a high intensity performance. With Sarah Adler ( Marie Antoinette). Based on a short story by Anton Chekhov.