Pumpkin Carving 2019

With Tashena away at college (we miss her) I wondered whether Sean would want to carve pumpkins this year.  I told him that we didn't have to do it if he didn't want to because I sometimes worry that these seasonal activities are more for my benefit than for his.  He responded that we had to do it because it was tradition!  I got some of the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen and we carved them Tuesday night!  It was a lot of fun and my sister roasted the seeds which is my favorite part!

Happy Halloween!

The Lighthouse

I thought The Witch was one of the best horror movies I've ever seen because I felt so uneasy while watching it.  Robert Eggers' latest film, The Lighthouse, is another masterpiece that drew me into the madness on screen with such intensity that I could hardly breathe.  It is a dark and atmospheric psychological thriller about two men who descend into madness that is so brilliant I know that I will be thinking about it for days.  I may even need to see it again.  Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson), a man with a troubled past looking for a new start, arrives on a desolate island in New England in the late 1800s to serve as an assistant to the lighthouse keeper, Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe).  Wake is as gregarious (and flatulent) as Winslow is taciturn which immediately sets them at odds with each other.  Wake also allocates the most difficult tasks to Winslow, refusing to give him access to the top level of the lighthouse, and berates him for what he considers to be a subpar performance of his duties.  Their adversarial relationship is intensified when a storm delays the ferry coming to relieve them and their rations run low.  Winslow begins having hallucinations and becomes almost obsessed with seeing what is at the top of the lighthouse leading to several prolonged confrontations between the two men.  The narrative is from Winslow's perspective so there are many times when you are not sure if what you are seeing is real and I think this brilliantly draws the viewer into his madness.  Pattinson (who I think is very underrated as an actor) gives the best performance of his career and certainly the best one I've seen this year.  He convincingly portrays a man losing his grip on reality and displays every human emotion imaginable, from absolute despondency to ecstasy (in a brilliant scene).  Dafoe also gives an incredible performance as a man already unhinged.  The narrative is filled with enough mythology and allegory, my favorite being the seagull, to warrant another viewing just to unravel it all and the ambiguous ending will keep you thinking for days.  This movie is technically perfect.  The sound design, which features unrelenting wind, crashing ocean waves, creaking floorboards, blaring foghorns, and jarring machinery, is unbelievably unsettling and contributes much to the claustrophobia felt by the men and, vicariously, by the audience.  Finally, the black and white cinematography, the atmospheric lighting, the 1.19 to 1 aspect ratio, and the period verisimilitude in the production design (much like in The Witch) make you feel like you have traveled back into the 1800s for a viewing experience that will blow your mind.  I cannot recommend this haunting movie enough but it might be too intense for sensitive viewers.

The Current War

I saw a trailer for The Current War several years ago and I immediately wanted to see it because Bennedict Cumberbatch in a period drama is pretty much everything.  Then I never heard anything more about it until I saw it on the Salt Lake Film Society website under the Coming Soon tab a few weeks ago.  I've been counting down to this weekend ever since!  Inventor Thomas Edison (Cumberbatch) is interested in bringing electricity to power his light bulbs to the common man.  He decides that Direct Current (DC) is the best way to power the country but it has a limited range requiring generators to be built close together with expensive copper tubing buried underground connecting them.  Businessman George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) decides to try Alternating Current (AC) because it can work over longer distances with transformers and overhead power lines, making it significantly cheaper.  However, Edison believes that AC is dangerous and tries to discredit Westinghouse, with a subplot involving the creation of the electric chair, in their competition to get cities around the country to their systems.  There is another subplot involving Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), a brilliant inventor who is unable capitalize on his inventions because he lacks funding, who works for Edison but ultimately joins forces with Westinghouse.  Eventually, both Edison and Westinghouse submit competing bids to power the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and thereby receive invaluable publicity.  This movie looks beautiful with interesting camera angles, incandescent lighting, and gorgeous period costumes.  Cumberbatch is perfect as the disheveled, distracted, and dismissive genius (he excels at this kind of role) who wants to win at any cost.  Shannon is charismatic as the businessman who wants to succeed on his own merit rather than resorting to mudslinging.  However, the story is quite jumbled with lots of short and choppy scenes and I sometimes found it difficult to follow what was going on.  The story is also not quite as compelling as it could have been.  I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more focus on Tesla because I have always been fascinated with him.  This isn't a bad movie but it didn't live up to my expectations so I recommend waiting until it is available to stream.

Balanchine's Ballets Russes

I usually prefer seeing full-length ballets rather than a grouping of one-acts but my friend convinced me to see Ballet West's production of Jewels last season and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to see Balanchine's Ballets Russes last night.  I am glad that I did because it was wonderful.  This production features three of George Balanchine's earliest works as a choreographer when he was under the tutelage of Sergei Diaghilev in Paris while a member of the famed company Les Ballets Russes.  The first piece is Le Chant du Rossignol (The Song of the Nightingale) which tells the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a Nightingale (Sayaka Ohtaki) who saves an ailing Chinese Emperor (Christopher Sellars) from Death (Katlyn Addison) and features music from Igor Stravinsky.   The sets and costumes for this ballet are recreations from the originals by Henri Matisse and I found them to be very striking.  I liked the athleticism of the choreography for the Warriors, Chamberlains, and Mandarins. Both Ohtaki and Addison (one of my favorites in the company) danced their roles beautifully.  The next piece is Apollo and it was definitely my favorite of the evening.  This ballet depicts the birth of the Greek god Apollo, his interactions with the Muses of poetry (Calliope), mime (Polyhymnia), and dance (Terpsichore), and his ultimate ascension to Mount Parnassus.  The choreography is very elegant and I especially enjoyed the innovative patterns and shapes created when Apollo (Chase O'Connell) dances with Calliope (Emily Neale), Polyhymnia (Chelsea Keefer), and Terpsichore (Beckanne Sisk).  I was particularly struck by how well the choreography interprets each particular Muse (my favorite was Polyhymnia).  I liked the simple costumes and the stark set with just a staircase representing Mount Parnassus.  Stravinsky's music for this ballet is incredibly beautiful and I was very moved by it.  The final piece is Prodigal Son, based on the parable from the Bible, and it is very dramatic.  The Prodigal (Christopher Sellars) is a rebellious young man who leaves his home only to be seduced by a Siren (Allison DeBona) and robbed by her followers.  Wretched and alone, he returns home and is forgiven by his father (Trevor Naumann) and sisters (Lillian Casscells and Victoria Vassos).  The costumes and set for this ballet are recreations of the originals by the expressionist artist Georges Rouault and, once again, I thought they were quite striking.  The choreography between the Prodigal and the Siren is frenzied and provocative but the final scene of forgiveness between him and his family is quite affecting.  I enjoyed hearing the music of Prokofiev, who wrote the score for this ballet, for the second night in a row!  After this production, as well as Jewels last season, it looks like I am becoming a fan of the one-act ballet!  Balanchine's Ballets Russes is an evening of three compelling ballets that is not to be missed!  Go here for tickets.

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

When I was a little girl in Canada my family lived next door to an older couple from Russia.  They were unable to have children of their own so they regarded me as a sort of surrogate granddaughter.  My parents warned me not to bother them but I loved going over to their house as often as I could because it was dark, exotic, and filled with the most magical objects, including an exquisite samovar that had pride of place in their living room.  They spoke Russian to me and served me pryanik, a type of Russian cookie, when they had tea in the afternoon.  I loved them dearly!  Because of this early influence, I have always been fascinated with all things Russian (I've been to Russia twice).  I love Russian history and Russian literature but I especially love Russian music because it is so passionate.  Last night's Utah Symphony concert featured three Russian composers, including my favorite Rachmaninoff, and I loved it so much!  In fact, my heart was almost bursting with emotion throughout the entire evening!  The orchestra began with Night on Bald Mountain, a moody and atmospheric tone poem composed by Modest Mussorgsky and arranged by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov.  This piece is especially appropriate right before Halloween because it depicts a Witches' Sabbath and I always picture a group of witches dancing around a fire whenever I hear it.  I especially like the dramatic theme played by the brass throughout.  Next came the amazing Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff.  I have always loved this piece, including all of the Themes and Variations, because it is equally fiery and passionate, grand and stirring, wild and tempestuous, and unbearably romantic.  If I had to pick a favorite, like everyone else, I would pick Variation 18 because it is so beautiful and plaintive (perhaps you have heard it because it is featured in many movies, including Somewhere in Time).   Guest soloist Lukas Vondracek played it brilliantly!  I really enjoyed watching his fingers fly up and down the keyboard and his performance garnered a spontaneous standing ovation (and an encore) immediately after its conclusion.  After the intermission, the concert concluded with Symphony No. 5 by Sergei Prokofiev.  This piece was written during the height of World War II as a tribute to the triumph of the human spirit and I particularly loved the final movement because it is so energetic.  This concert was absolutely sublime and I think you should get a ticket (go here) to tonight's performance of the same program.