Hitchcock/Truffaut

I have long considered Alfred Hitchcock to be one of my very favorite directors.  I watched many of his movies at a young age late at night on public television.  I had a small black and white TV in my room and, when I couldn't sleep at 2:00 in the morning, my only option was public television (this was back in the day when there were very few channels and many of them signed off at midnight!).  I was introduced to a lot of wonderful old movies in this manner but Hitchcock's made a lasting impression, particularly Notorious, Spellbound, Rebecca, and North By Northwest.  My first exposure to Francois Truffaut was, ironically, as an actor in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which is a favorite!  I was very taken with his performance as a scientist investigating extraterrestrials and it was my Dad who told me that he was a famous director.  Of course, I have since become a fan of his movies, especially Day for Night.  What happens when one of the founders of the French New Wave meets with the Master of Suspense for one week to talk about the latter's entire body of work?  You get a groundbreaking book, published in 1966, considered by many filmmakers to be, not only a masterpiece, but a blueprint for the craft.  You also get a fascinating documentary by Kent Jones, which I had the chance to see last night, wherein he uses the films of both Hitchcock and Truffaut to illustrate the points mentioned in their epic conversations, which were recorded, with particular emphasis on Vertigo and Psycho.  Jones also interviews many of my favorite contemporary directors, such as Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Richard Linklatter, Olivier Assayas, Peter Bogdanovich, and Martin Scorsese, who talk about the effect the book, and Hitchcock's movies, had on them as filmmakers.  That they are effusive in their praise, which is interesting but gets to be a bit much, is to be expected;  however, it is incredibly compelling when they analyze specific scenes, especially when Fincher talks about Vertigo ("It's so perverted.") and Scorsese talks about Psycho.  I enjoyed this documentary immensely because it reminded me of why I love Hitchcock's movies and I think it is a must-see for any film lover.

Mozart & Mahler

There was one thing that got me through this difficult first week back at school after winter break and that was the prospect of listening to the Utah Symphony play Mozart, my favorite composer, on Friday night.  I've said this before but I credit the movie Amadeus with turning me on to classical music.  I remember distinctly the first time I watched it.  It was a Sunday night when I was in junior high and I was sitting on the floor in my parents' bedroom leaning against the foot of their bed watching it on HBO.  It was getting late and I'm sure that they wanted to go to sleep but they could see that I was absolutely transfixed and let me continue watching!  Several years later I was given a VHS copy for Christmas, the first movie I ever owned!  (When I moved to my new house I donated all of my VHS tapes and, later, I regretted that I gave away Amadeus.  I received a Blu-Ray copy for Christmas this year!)  Needless to say, I fell in love with Mozart's music after watching Amadeus over and over so I try to attend any concert featuring it.  Friday night the orchestra, along with soloist Augustin Hadelich, played Concerto No. 4 for Violin and Orchestra.  This piece totally exemplifies what I love about Mozart:  it is light, airy, romantic, and beautiful (not to be confused with simple).  Hadelich was absolutely brilliant (receiving a thunderous standing ovation) and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance!  But Mahler, though!  After the intermission the orchestra played Symphony No. 7 and I read in the program notes that this is considered the least popular of Mahler's symphonies.  It could very well be my favorite!  More than any other symphony that I've heard during the Mahler Cycle this year and last, this piece has made me a Mahler fan for life!  The first movement is rousing and exuberant with an incredible theme played by the brass, not to mention the horns, the harps (there were two), the timpani, and the crash cymbals!  There were moments when I couldn't catch my breath and, mind you, this was only the first movement!  It only got better!  The second movement features a playful theme by the woodwinds and the third movement is so vigorous that Maestro Thierry Fischer lost his baton (in what might possibly my favorite moment, ever, at a Utah Symphony concert!)  The fourth movement is beautiful and atmospheric with lovely violin and horn solos echoed by a guitar and mandolin!  It gave me goosebumps!  The fifth and final movement begins, spectacularly, with timpani and ends the only way it possibly could:  with the ringing of the chimes! I loved it!  It goes without saying that it was an exceptional evening and you should go here right now and get yourself a ticket for tonight's performance!

Beau Jest at HCT

Hale Centre Theatre likes to ring in the new year with a comedy and, once again, they picked a delightful one!  I interrupted my long winter's nap (it has been hard adjusting back to reality after winter break and I have been in bed by 8:00 most nights this week) to see their production of Beau Jest last night and it is absolutely hysterical! Sarah Goldman's parents want her to marry a nice Jewish boy and, because the man she is dating isn't Jewish, she hires an actor named Bob to pretend to be her boyfriend. There is only one problem. He isn't Jewish, either! With her parents at the door, there is no other choice but to proceed (Bob believes he can handle the "role" because he was once in a touring company of Fiddler on the Roof) and, of course, chaos ensues! I laughed and laughed at all of their antics, particularly when Sarah and Bob embrace and inadvertently hit the radio (several times) causing them to be serenaded by the song "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin over and over again. LizAnne Chapman is suitably overwrought as Sarah and Bryan Dayley is incredibly endearing as Bob and they have great chemistry together but, in my opinion, Ben Parkes, as Sarah's uptight brother Joel, and Todd Michael Thompson, as Sarah's boyfriend Chris, steal the show! Parkes brings a physicality to his role that is just so much fun to watch, especially in a scene involving throw pillows! I laughed out loud, as did everyone around me, in the scene where he tells Sarah to get over it! Thompson's facial expressions (and his double finger gun) are a hoot, especially when he competes with Bob for Sarah's attention! So funny!  I only have two complaints.  First, the scene with the Seder is much too long (in a play that is otherwise filled with lots of snappy dialogue) and I started to lose interest but it is early in the run and I suspect it will tighten up. Second, the set, uncharacteristically, is rather blah and, in my opinion, doesn't really look like an apartment that a young woman living in Chicago would have.  It didn't detract from my enjoyment but I kept wondering if it was the same set from last year's Over the River and Through the Woods. Aside from that, I definitely enjoyed Beau Jest and I highly recommend it for a bit of fun on a long winter's night!  It runs through January 30 and tickets can be purchased here.

A Day Snowshoeing

I really love snowshoeing and last winter was so mild that I only got to go a couple of times.  This winter we definitely have enough snow and my brother-in-law Trent showed me a great place to go that is literally five minutes from my house (I plan on going a lot).

Last Saturday Trent, Kristine, the kiddos, and I snowshoed the Meuller Park Canyon Trail and it was so much fun!

What a great day!

New Year's Celebration

If you are a music lover, the best place to be on New Year's Eve is Vienna attending one of the many concerts featuring the classic Viennese waltzes made famous by Johann Strauss and his family.  If you can't afford the airfare to Vienna, the next best place to be is Abravanel Hall to hear the Utah Symphony's version.  Last year Marilyn and I took my Mom to the New Year's concert and she loved it so much I decided to get her a ticket for this year's concert which was performed last night.  It was as much fun watching my Mom's reaction to each piece as it was listening to the music!  The concert began, appropriately, with the Overture to Die Fledermaus (about a ball on New Year's Eve in Vienna) by Johann Strauss, Jr.  This piece was very rousing and I especially enjoyed the chiming of midnight (I love the chimes).  Next, Utah favorite Celena Shafer sang "Mein Herr Marquis" from Die Fledermaus.  Shafer also gave a highly amusing rendition of "Meine Lippen sie kussen so heiss" from Giuditta by Lehar later in the evening.  Most of the concert featured incredibly stirring waltzes from Johann Strauss, Jr. and Josef Strauss, including the instantly recognizable On the Beautiful Blue Danube.  My favorite piece of the evening was "New Year's Eve Ball" from War and Peace by Sergei Prokofiev.  I kept picturing women in ball gowns twirling and twirling in a grand ball room of an opulent palace in St. Petersburg.  The concert ended with an encore of the ever popular Radetzky March by Johann Strauss, Sr. complete with enthusiastic clapping from the audience.  It was a lovely evening made even more so by the giggling of my Mom after every single number!  Happy New Year!