On a night built around Vadim Gluzman it was the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra who stole the show.
On a night built around Vadim Gluzman it was the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra who stole the show.
Otto Tausk, Vadim Gluzman and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Photo Credit: VSO
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is wrapping up its 2023/2024 season in style. Friday evening’s prelude of sorts to the day of music and the season finale (Das Lied Von Der Erde yay) featured a big time performance of Shostakovich’s 5th symphony. When the orchestra is playing this well it’s hard not to be excited.
Tausk can probably conduct a great Shostakovich 5 in his sleep. The nerds amongst us remember his surprisingly excellent performance of the symphony with the VSOI program, back when that was a thing that existed. Friday night’s performance was straight forward and to the point but in all the right ways. This was the kind of performance that didn’t get in the way, and provided the orchestra a chance to go for it at every turn. The first movement moved at a quick tempo, flowing organically through its changing themes. Tausk has always had a grasp of the modernist Soviet scherzo and here was no exception, this was played with the gusto required. The Third movement, the gnarliest music of the work, had all of the emotional depth that it needed and more. The now mighty VSO strings searing through the movement’s climaxes in a way that seemed impossible 10 years ago. Also something that felt impossible for the longest time was a finale where everything didn’t get swallowed by percussion and brass. The VSO is now an orchestra that can go full bombast with the clarity of a truly great orchestra. Tausk, for his part, played the final movement with an intelligent ambiguity that made the movement feel like an internal struggle between joy and terror. Oh and those Mariss Jansons esque accelerandos peppered into the finale were a really fun touch.
The most exciting part of Friday’s performance was that the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra sounded as coherent as they have all season. The balances were perfect, the intensity impressive, and gone were some of the wobbles in the woodwinds and brass that have popped up here and there throughout the season. This felt as confident and comfortable as the VSO has been all season. Perhaps it was that Tausk has now been around consistently for the last month, perhaps it was the large special concert audience that provided motivation, or perhaps this is just one of the “VSO pieces.” Whatever it was everyone involved was on fire. Truly exciting stuff all around.
Oh yeah and Vadim Gluzman was there too. Gluzman is one of the most reliable soloists out there and Friday’s performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto was no exception. The first movement took a bit to get going but once the first orchestral outburst came halfway through the movement the VSO jump started what was a pretty great performance from there. The second movement was beautifully sweet and lyrical. Gluzman and the orchestra played off of each other wonderfully. The final movement, the highlight of the performance, Gluzman went full folk delivering a movement that felt almost stuck to the ground in the best ways possible. This was a really good performance from a great soloist that got its due from an enthusiastic Orpheum audience Friday evening.
At the end of the day though it was the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s magnificent Shostakovich that stole the show. This performance was so good that it made me question why not just put this symphony on as your big day of music ending performance? I understand not wanting to feel like you are ripping off paying customers the night before, but the VSO sold this concert on the Vadim Gluzman performance not the Shostakovich. I feel like there was a real missed opportunity here to really grab some potential new fans for the orchestra. You could have still done the Carmen fantasy and the VSO Sinfonietta play along in the first half and then really tried to blow the audience away with Shostakovich in the second. It feels like the VSO plays these kind of big splashy “not the usual crowd concerts” (and lets be honest most of next season) too safely. Casual classical crowds can handle thorny major works! You might just convert a few of the free customers into paying ones that way!
The LA Phil is winding down its season on a comfortable note. But when the hits are this good who can complain!
Gabriella Ortiz, Maria Duenas, and Gustavo Dudamel at Walt Disney Hall. Photo Credit: LA Phil
There is a lot of change in the air at the LA Phil. The much publicized departure of Gustavo Dudamel, the less publicized departure of two principal players, and the recent hiring of a new president are all things causing uncertainty around the orchestra. It’s perhaps nice then, amidst all the change and uncertainty, that the end of the season LA Phil concerts air on the side of comfort a little more than usual. Friday morning’s concert featuring Dvorak 9th symphony, Gabriella Ortiz’s big violin concerto Altar De Cuerda, and the John Williams Olympic fanfare felt like an orchestra and conductor playing the hits. Adventurous? Maybe not. But when the hits are played as well as they were Friday morning it’s almost impossible to complain.
Now this is still the LA Phil so of course one of the hits is a violin concerto that was written just three years ago. Gabriella Ortiz’s violin concerto Altar De Cuerda appears to be the centerpiece of their upcoming European tour, and based on Friday morning’s performance it’s a fantastic choice. This is not the first time I have heard this piece, I saw it near the end of 2022 during its second run of performances, so I have some familiarity with the work. In 2022 I wasn’t as high on it as others were, and while I thought the work’s second movement was extraordinary, I had a little bit more reservation on the movements surrounding it. When I heard it again on Friday my opinion of the work changed significantly. Friday’s performance unlocked the concerto everyone had been raving about for me.
It helps perhaps that I am more familiar now with Ortiz’s work than I was in 2022. I had the pleasure of hearing more of her work during the LA Phil’s California festival programs, including her incredible ballet Revolution Diamantina whose world premiere remains one of the best things I have seen live. Hearing more of her work has allowed me to connect some of the pieces of Altar De Cuerda a little bit easier. The first movement’s rhythmic looping melodies, weaving and changing subtly as they developed, felt more structurally obvious than they did to me two years ago, and very much in line with Ortiz’s creative rhythmic ideas. The second movement, which I always thought was extraordinary, played out even better this time especially getting to listen to the sheer intricacy of Ortiz’s spectacular percussion writing (no modern composer writes better for percussion than Ortiz). No other violin concerto I have heard new or old has been able to match the kind of haunting atmosphere that makes the second movement special. The finale, a ripping fast romp, didn’t feel aimless like it did to me a year and half ago and I even left humming some of the orchestral themes this time.
It could also be that this was just a better performance than last time. The orchestra now has quite a few performances of Altar De Cuerda under their belt, even in comparison to October 2022, and has likely benefited from it. As has Maria Duenas who, unlike the last time I saw the concerto, felt like she had more of a grasp on how to add herself into the concerto. Sometimes with a modern concerto it feels like the soloist has time to get the work through their fingers and little more. Duenas has had a lot of time and performances to dive into the work now and it shows. She seemed to have much more of a connection to the work Friday than I remember in 2022. I felt more energy in the outer movements, especially her intensity in the finale, and more melancholic loneliness in the central movement. All these observations could just amount to me being more attuned to the concerto and Ortiz’s work in general than I was a year and a half ago, but either way Friday afternoon I finally felt like I got the full scale of Altar De Cuerdo that was missing the first time.
The warhorse that accompanied the concerto Friday afternoon was Dvorak’s 9th symphony, my childhood favorite. The New World symphony has been programmed to death in Vancouver (Otto Tausk will have conducted the work 3 times on main subscription programs in his 7 seasons in Vancouver when it arrives again next season) so despite my long standing love and nostalgia for the work it really takes a great performance to get me going nowadays. Luckily this was a spectacular performance. Dudamel and the LA Phil felt fully locked in from the jump. This wasn’t a run of the mill performance of a work that this orchestra can surely play in their sleep. Everyone involved felt motivated and boy did it ever show.
Dudamel for his part took more risks here than in his pre-pandemic live recording with the orchestra. There was almost a mahlerian quality to the first movement, the main Allegro molto section moved a little less briskly than usual, and the orchestra hit the breaks often to put a lot of contrast between the quicker driven sections and the quieter melodic ones. The movement lost none of its intensity though and built perfectly to its dramatic close. The second movement hit all the right notes taking its time to let the music sing without ever losing its flow. The perfectly balanced brass chorales and the beautiful section where the front row string players take over the melody were highlights here. The scherzo had that same push and pull quality of the first movement especially when the orchestra slammed on the brakes not only for the trio section, but for the whole second theme as well giving both a beautiful song like quality. The finale by contrast was played at a breakneck speed almost the whole way through and was delivered with an intensity that is rare even in the best performances. This was easily the best version of the finale I have seen live, and it blew their recorded version out of the water in both virtuosity and intensity. Of course the orchestral playing was all top notch, this is music the LA Phil knows like the back of their hand, and when motivated like on Friday afternoon they sound as good or better than any orchestra anywhere. Fantastic stuff all around.
It’s rare on a “serious subscription program” to feature John Williams in any capacity so it was a treat to get to hear serious performances of both his Olympic fanfare in the overture slot and a surprise Raiders March as an encore. The Olympic Fanfare was perfectly judged and very well played but it was strangely the Raiders March encore that got me. It seems almost corny to say it but this was a really thrilling performance of the Raiders March. In a time when John Williams’ tempos really start to sag (he’s in his 90s hard to blame him) and every regional orchestra play a mediocre version at pops concerts it’s almost a revelation and to hear the Raiders March played as well as it was Friday. This was a performance with vigor in its steps that really captured the sense of wonder and excitement that has made Williams music so popular for so long. This wasn’t a token “let’s play Williams because he is popular” type performance but one that felt like everyone involved loved the music they were playing. Rarely do performances of John Williams’ music do anything for me, this one made me feel like a kid again.
A great performance of John Adams’ most famous major work provides hope for future adventurous programming.
Maestro Tausk and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performing Shostakovich with Paul Huang. Photo credit: VSO Instagram
It’s almost hard to believe, given how integral his work is to the west coast classical music scene, that John Adams’ most famous major work Harmonielehre is only just making its BC debut this weekend (April 26/27). It’s a major work, one that really tracks the development of its composer almost in real time, and when it hit the Orpheum stage for the first time Friday evening it felt over due. Luckily the cliche of “better late than never” applies here as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under music director Otto Tausk delivered as great of a reading as you could ask for. This was indeed a performance worth waiting for!
Harmonielehre on paper is the kind of piece that would seem to suit maestro Tausk’s conducting style and tendencies. It’s the perfect mix of rhythmic sharpness and big romantic textures that requires a certain attention to detail in the orchestral balances. In execution Tausk and the VSO delivered on this promise and more. This was an intense, committed performance that gave the piece its due from the opening moments. Never have the opening brass blows sound so thunderous! The VSO has been playing phenomenally well under Tausk, especially in the last two seasons, and this was another great example of just how good the orchestra can be.
Perhaps the most impressive part of this performance though was just how well maestro Tausk had a hold of the overall structure of the piece. Best of all was the more abstract second movement which, under Tausk’s baton, felt like a vivid and eerie nightmare. There was real emotional weight to the performance and when the movement’s searing climaxes came they felt as devastating as they did inevitable. The same level of interpretative care given to the rest of the piece, Tausk and the VSO approached this with a real sense of forward momentum that ensured Harmonielehre’s more minimalist sections flowed organically and never got bogged down in the details. I don’t know why I am even a hint surprised at this point. Tausk has delivered fresh, exciting interpretations of big works all throughout his tenure. Something about this performance of Harmonielehre though felt special.
Unfortunately the first half of Friday night’s program was not nearly as strong. This was really a tale of two performances. Paul Huang’s Shostakovich violin concerto no 1 was rough going. It’s probably hyperbolic to call a performance from such a clearly talented violinist flat out awful, but it’s definitely fair to call his Friday night Shostakovich dull as dirt. Huang just didn’t have any sense of the work, showing no capability of even approaching the emotional requirements of the concerto. The first movement felt aimless, Huang seemed to have no idea how to go beyond just playing the notes. The second movement felt like it was moving through molasses both in tempo and sharpness. The big cadenza in the third went nowhere up until the late gymnastics and the finale ended as dull and lost as the piece began. Huang is clearly a talented soloist, his tone is clear and he gets through the athletic passages with ease. Perhaps this was a victim of high expectations, the last performance of this concerto in Vancouver was a phenomenal reading from Alina Ibragimova. Perhaps Huang needs to put this concerto away for a little while. Either way it didn’t work well on Friday evening.
The program began with the debut of Nicholas Ryan Kelly’s piece “Earth, Beloved” which unfortunately was as nothing happening as the performance of the Shostakovich concerto. I won’t go too hard on it, this is clearly a young composer who still needs to find his voice, but between bland orchestral textures and basic choral writing “Earth, Beloved” was nothing special. A little disappointing given VSO premieres and commissions (this was an Elektra choir commission) are a rare breed nowadays.
All of the criticism of the first half of the program didn’t ultimately matter by the end though. The draw here is an orchestra who continues to deliver excellent big works under their music director. Let’s hope in future years the orchestra’s programming can lean more into its adventurous side with interesting repertoire like Harmonielehre and less into its more stately “let’s do Beethoven 9 every ten minutes” side that next season seems to lean into a little too much. If it’s any solace to the orchestra big wigs the crowd at the orpheum didn’t look much smaller than the average masterworks program. More of this please!
A brilliant season closing Mahler 3 cements The OSM and Payare as one of the most exciting conductor orchestra pairings in the world.
Rafael Payare conducting the OSM in Mahler’s 3rd Symphony.
2023 is turning into the year of Rafael Payare. His first year as music director of the Orchesre Symphonique de Montreal seemed from the outside to be a sterling success. Rave reviews both at home and abroad, very successful guest conducting stints (including a performance of Brahms 1 in LA that blew me away), and an exciting new recording of Mahler 5 have kept his name in the back of my brain throughout the first half of the year.
Ultimately though hype can sometimes just be hype, especially in the world of classical music, (cough Klaus Makela cough) it takes strong performances to really back it up. Wednesday night’s performance of Mahler’s gargantuan third symphony with the OSM was the kind of performance that backs up a reputation. This was as striking a Mahler symphonic performance as I have heard, live or otherwise. The hype is real. Payare is indeed the real deal.
A lot had been made of the fire and intensity that Payare gets from an orchestra. His performances are dynamic and exciting for sure. What strikes me more in the performances I have seen though is the keen intelligence of his interpretations. His April Brahms 1 with the LA Philharmonic felt pitch perfect as if he had found the platonic ideal of that particular work. Thursday night’s Mahler 3 was similar in the sense that most of the choices Payare made just felt right. The contrast in the first movement’s two “marches” was made very clear through bold tempo and stylistic choices. With an especially singing opening horn call and slower tempo Payare and the OSM created an opening theme of deep mystery on the verge of sadness. This contrasted a secondary march theme that felt earthy and pinned to the ground while never loosing its jubulance or becoming led footed.
The biggest, and perhaps smartest, choice though was the prominence of the brass. This was some of the most motivated and incredible brass playing I have heard from an orchestra and every chance that he got Payare really brought it forward. Whether it was the beautiful unison playing of the horns, the incredible solom trombone solo, or the driving trumpets everything that was on display in the first movement seemed to come from the brass outwards. It was a decision that, in a way that seems true to Payare, just felt right and made the long first movement, and really the entire symphony, feel powerful and connected.
The second movement showed off Payare’s noticeable skill of creating music that really floats. Like the third movement of his La Phil Brahms 1, this second movement glided through the air almost without a pulse, creating a real surene, sureal atmosphere throughout. It felt unique in the Brahms, and it did here as well. The other thing that struck me through the middle movements Wednesday night was the OSM found the perfect Mahlarian character of sound. This was especially prominent in the calls from the excellent woodwind forces in the second movement and the wonderful backstage trumpet solo in the third. For an orchestra not primarily known for this music this was impressive.
Michelle DeYoung sang the 4th movement with beautiful clarity backed by an orchestra that delivered a perfectly creepy atmosphere. The fifth movement too was wonderfully sung between DeYong, the women of the OSM chorus, and Les Petits Chanteurs de Mont Royale and had the appropriate spring in its step.
The cherry on top of this great performance though was the incredible finale, which was perfectly executed by all parties. From the opening chord of the movement you could tell that the OSM strings were on pure form shaping each line to perfection. Payare’s tempos were perfect as well, slow enough to savor the melodic lines but never slow enough to veer into self-indulgence. Perhaps the biggest compliment I could give Payare in the final movement is that it felt, down to the timings and all, very early Haitink-esque. It all built to the perfect final chord which felt like it could have resonated forever if it was not for the excited crowd ready to give the symphony its due. Truly special music from what seems to be a very special conductor and orchestra partnership.
Some other brief thoughts:
As a first time visitor I have to say I was very impressed with the overall sound of the Maison Symphonique. The sound is clear and detailed but never cold. I would not call it a blow away acoustic (places like Walt Disney Hall or Severance Hall to name examples) but I would call it a higher level space than the new Gefin Hall in New York and if it was the concert hall I regularly visited I would never complain.
Payare is a fun conductor to watch move on the podium. He moves and sways up and down with the music but at the same time seems to have quite subtle hand gestures. It’s all very transfixing.
Puzzling decisions lead to a frustrating start to the 2022/23 Vancouver Symphony Orchestra season
Puzzling decisions lead to a frustrating start to the 2022/23 Vancouver Symphony Orchestra season
Otto Tausk Photo Credit: AARON AUBREY PHOTOGRAPHY 2017
Well I guess Otto Tausk was bound to miss at some point. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s music director has had a habit of making unique and fresh interpretive choices that have enhanced a lot of the standard repertoire he has conducted in Vancouver. One remembers the stunning contrasts of his Bruckner 4, the incredible rubatos at the end of his Dvorak 9, or the magnificent use of tempo changes throughout his Tchaikovsky 5. It was a small miracle all to itself that to this point the vast majority of these unique decisions worked so elegantly.
Tausk’s big miss finally came at the opening concert of the 2022/23 season with Ravel’s full ballet score for Daphnis and Chloe. For whatever reason the choice was made to perform the ballet without the usual wordless chorus. It created a performance that felt unfortunately hollow at the center. Even in the moments where Tausk and the orchestra dubbed over the chorus parts instrumentally the hole that was left in the overall atmosphere and mood of the piece remained. Most of the ballet’s bigger set pieces, especially the grand finale, just felt empty. Why go to the effort of performing the whole ballet without the chorus? It was a puzzling choice to say the least.
This was especially frustrating given how spectacularly the orchestra performed. This was some of the best orchestral playing I have heard from the VSO. The warm lushness in the strings that has been developed throughout the Otto Tausk’s tenure was on beautiful display here. This is a string sound that has really come a long way and they really got the chance to show it throughout. The VSO’s woodwinds are usually great and there was no exception here, principal flute Christie Reside and principal clarinet Janette Jonquil were especially excellent in their major parts towards the finale. Even Tausk, despite the choice to omit the chorus, gave an overall excellent interpretation. The ballet flowed beautifully from beginning to finish and most importantly had a real rhythmic energy. This was a Daphnis that really moved in a dynamic fashion and never threatened to be brought down by the weight of its lushness. It’s a real shame that all this orchestral excellence ultimately felt a little wasted in a performance that, despite the orchestra’s best efforts, felt frustratingly hollow.
Stewart Goodyear Photo Credit: Andrew Garn
The first half of the program saw Stewart Goodyear come last minute to play Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto. Goodyear’s last two performances with the orchestra have been rather fine with a very good Gershwin piano concerto back in 2019 and an equally spirited Rachmaninoff Variations on a Theme of Paganini early last season. The Tchaikovsky unfortunately never quite got to the level of either of those two performances as it never felt like it really got going until the final movement. In the first two movements it felt as though Goodyear failed to carry the dramatic tension of the piece. Goodyear had a way of making the fortes forceful throughout but really struggled to make the less flashy or dynamic parts of the concerto interesting. This especially made the first movement feel like it was dragging a fair bit. That being said Goodyear brought the goods for the final movement and the orchestra followed suit giving an exciting race to the ending that generated great applause from the packed Orpheum crowd. Not a great Tchaikovsky concerto by any measure but not a bad one either especially given the circumstances.
If there was an award for the strangest part of the night though it was in the opening. After a stirring Nimrod in tribute to Music Director Emeritus Bramwell Tovey, who passed unexpectedly in the summer, the VSO made the rather strange decision to bring out a BC MLA to trumpet the return of live music. It was an odd placement for a speech that really felt like it cheapened the tribute to the VSO’s most important music director. Why not just allow for a moment of silence instead, or have someone come and actually speak about Tovey? There was no need for a politician to speak here even if it is a strange staple of opening concerts and galas. Why cheapen such a nice little tribute? Who thought this was a good idea?
All that aside while I did leave the VSO’s opening concert a hint frustrated I also left hopeful for the season ahead. The orchestra is playing at a very high level at the moment and more often than not throughout the first few years of his tenure Tausk’s unique interpretive choices have helped more than they have hindered. A miss is going to happen every once and a while one just wishes it didn’t happen when the orchestra was playing as well as it was.
It’s the Oscars! Again…. In a kind of last minute decision I have decided, as a masochist, to once again Live blog them! This time on a different platform! Nice fresh start, same stale Oscars. Follow along on my 3-5 hour journey to insanity!
4:50pst: Quickly, while I am out of the loop and can’t make great predictions (it feels weird potentially being surprised) here is who I want to win:
Best Picture:The Power of the Dog
Best Director: Jane Campion
Best Actor: Benedict Cumbetbatch
Best Actress: Penelope Cruz (would not mind either Olivia Coleman or Kristin Stewart though)
Supporting Actor Kodi Smit-McPhee
Supporting Actress: Ariana Debose
Doc: Flee
Adapted: The Power of the Dog
Original: Worst Person in the World
Foreign Language: Drive My Car
There is more but that is what I can rattle off before the show! Talk to everyone in a few!
4:59: Testing live blogging on WordPress. Gotta say those pre-show deals make me angry that they cut all the technical awards. You couldn’t have cut half an hour of red carpet stupidity to honor the cool people who do production design?
5:05: Ok salty Fred begins and we are barely 5 minutes in. I get why we are starting with Beyonce I do but we cut all of the technical awards to do the same stupid original song performances. This is not the Grammys people! Man I am just going to have the same complaints as the last few times I did this aren’t I? I guess some things don’t change…
5:09: Let me be clear Beyonce is wonderful but I am just sad that this is not for movies anymore. If you just talked about movies I still think the same amount of people would watch.
5:15: Monologue was a nice little in and out. I think I just have residual saltiness from earlier but I am already a little dead inside.
5:18: Amy Schumer is on her own and is funny in a kind of strange extended monologue. But I don’t understand this extended monologue thing. Slamming Don’t Look Up fantastic! Just strange that all three of them didn’t get a chance at this spot? Maybe later I hate to give the producers the benefit of the doubt but I will for some reason.
5:24: Supporting Actress time…. First Award is 25 MINUTES INTO THE SHOW! And we had to cut the technical awards. Winner: Ariana Debose! Fantastic this is the right choice! No one saw West Side Story and that is a real shame. It feels like five years ago that movie would have been huge. Really good speech too we are one for one! Amazing what happens when we cut to the chase and give awards!
5:29: Take a drink when I complain about the technical awards I feel like it’s going to happen a fair bit.
5:32: If you have ever read me do one of these you know that I hate those “best picture video packages” and they are back! Again we had to cut the technical awards!
5:34 I love Regina Hall but we have another excruciatingly long bit at the expense of the technical awards. Come on people! This is what your complaining about how the Oscars need to be “mainstream” has done
5:37: Best Sound because for some reason we couldn’t seperate sound mixing and editing… There is a difference folks. This award survived because it has movies people have “heard of” here. Dune wins! I hate the sound in Dune the score blares over everything to the point of detriment. Oh well. The academy doesn’t care about this one we are off an on with the winners. Again we could have done this with the Short Film categories instead of that Regina Hall bit.
5:40: We have a tribute to White Men Can’t Jump for some reason…. This rolls into Cinematography which is honestly a really good field this year. Winner Greig Fraser Dune! Honestly would not be my choice but Dune is very well shot so I shall give it that. Special shout out to Janusz Kaminsky who does special stuff in West Side Story. He would probably be my pick here (although again this is a solid category).
5:45: Correction to earlier I have been shouting out the awards that got cut as the technical awards. It’s an easy short hand I apologize as I know it’s not just technical stuff that got canned.
5:47: Ok so we got Doc short subject. It was clearly recorded earlier. Again I don’t know why we couldn’t have done this live.
5:49: Visual Effects time. It’s kind of a fun visual effect how tall Jacob Elordi is. Winner Dune! Dune is going to clean these up and that’s ok. This is another one I am ok with even though I find the visual aesthetic of Dune to be drab at best. The guys get played off surely because we have to do another BEST ORIGINAL SONG performance later. Never mind it’s because we have to do a JAMES BOND TRIBUTE WHY NOT… SIGH
5:53 WHY DO WE NEED A 60 YEARS OF BOND TRIBUTE PACKAGE???? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
6:00: We don’t talk about how unnecessary these original song performances are.
6:01: Oh yeah We don’t Talk About Bruno was not the song that got nominated from Encanto. Honestly like this song better so solid choice. Does this mean we get We Don’t Talk About Bruno later in the show…. Wonderful…. Again we cut awards for this.
6:04: Animated feature is next. Solid category all things considered. Honestly Flee should win this but won’t. Winner Encanto! Saw this coming. It’s the populist choice. Can’t be too mad I think Flee will win best documentary so it should get its time in the sun.
6:08: Wait the top 5 cheer moments are from all years? Ok this is so strange… Who greenlit this? Also the Zack Snider hive won which is the surest sign that YOUR IDEA DIDN’T WORK! This is the most insane Oscars broadcast I can remember. That one I had to laugh at if we are being honest.
6:11: Am glad we have a commercial break I am reeling from what just happened. We just had the top five stand up and cheer moments which involved no movie that happened before 1999 in which the number one moment was from Zack Snider’s Justice League. You can’t make this stuff up. The Oscars have lost the plot officially.
6:14: The Oscars are not going to become more mainstream for the ways they have handled this. No one cares about James Bond tributes or dumb twitter awards. The reason that the Oscars are less popular is because movies are less popular and there is nothing that the Oscars can do about it. It’s sad but it’s reality.
6:19: A bad add for the museum. I guess they spent a lot of time and money on it so they had to. I have tea but I am still grumpy this tells you where we are at.
6:20: Best supporting actor time! I don’t have a good read on this one maybe I am just a little out of the loop. Winner Troy Kotsur! Now that I think about it this was probably the obvious choice. This is probably a good sign for CODA’s best picture chances. I don’t have too much to say on this one but the speech was very nice so we are two for two on the big awards! Inspiring stuff!
6:28: So from that nice speech we get Chris Evans introducing a Lightyear add. This show man… Fun fact living in Canada, instead of a Lightyear trailer I got a Joe Fresh add! YAY!
6:33: International film is coming up. This is a weirdly disappointing category, no Titane, no Parallel Mothers. Winner Drive My Car! Hey at least the winner is great! Drive My Car is extraordinary and more than worthy of this award. It’s also a film that is still in theaters and I recommend carving out the three hours for it. DO NOT PLAY RYUSUKE HAMAGUCHI OFF STAGE YOU BASTARDS!!! He shut them down atta boy!!! Ryusuke Hamaguchi deserves far more than 20 seconds and that they tried to play him off so unceremoniously was insulting.
6:39: Another best song nominee performance. See previous complaining.
6:43: Apperently on the American broadcast the Ukrain message led directly into a crypto.com. Classy… In Canada we just got a rolex add which is better? Worse? I don’t know. Agree with the folks that said it should have been a red cross add though that seems like a better idea.
6:45: I feel like making the short film video packages shorter than the “here are the best picture nominees” packages are the Oscars producers trolling me.
6:46: Costume Design. Is this on the show solely so they could give Dune more big awards? NO! Winner Jenny Beavan for Cruella! Can’t argue that, Cruella is technically a movie about costume design! This is a nice little speech in which Beavan breaks down her own outfit! Fitting! This show’s best moment’s have been the speeches which makes sense because THIS IS AN AWARD SHOW!
6:51: So it’s We Don’t Talk about Bruno time. Why? Because it’s popular I guess.
6:55: We are almost at the two hour mark. This show has been atrocious minus the actual awards show portion which has actually given us so good speeches. I don’t wish for this to entirely be a dry awards show but man what they have delivered in its stead has been abysmal.
6:59: BTS for no reason… They shout out Will Smith in Alladin for no reason! Great needed that.
7:02: Original Screenplay time! Wait so they give us a Juno tribute but don’t have Diablo Cody present the award? I don’t know guys. Original Screenplay is not a great category this year. I guess Licorice Pizza is the only real winner here. Winner Belfast! Woof. This one is rough guys. Especially since Belfast is a movie that is really let down by its screenplay. That is the first really bad winner of the evening. Big yikes. I wonder if this means this is a best picture shoe in. Yikes.
7:05: Adapted Screenplay time! This category is far stronger and probably a good window into the best picture winner. This will give us a good idea whether or not The Power of the Dog stands a chance to win anything. If the Dune screenplay wins (it won’t) I will cry. Winner Sian Heder CODA! This means CODA wins everything which is a little sad. There is nothing wrong with CODA necessarily it’s just not close to the best film nominated. The Power of the Dog backlash was real! I guess I can only root for Campion at this point. She gives a good speech though! This is just going to be one of those years that the best, most challenging film won’t win.
7:10: THE TWITTER BEST MOVIE OSCAR! Oh my this is rough. The Zach Snyder film wins which means YOUR AWARD DOES NOT WORK!
7:11: Realizing that I have been spelling Snyder wrong the whole broadcast which is the best mistake I could have been making.
7:15: Wait best score was one of the awards cut wow! I hate this show! In other news Dune won! Which is the most egregious award of the night I hate that score a lot. Mostly because it was the only thing I could hear throughout the movie! I love how best Original song is the most important thing ever and Best Score gets relegated to the preshow. It’s like the Oscars don’t care about movies! Shocker!
7:19: Next original song performance. See previous complaints.
7:20: LAST HOUR!!! And I am running out of tea… SEND HELP!
7:24: Editing next it was another cut award. Dune won! Weird. Weirder is editing being cut from the live awards! Again the OSCARS DON’T CARE ABOUT MOVIES!
7:28: What is this bit? What is going on anymore? Why do I care? Should I? Help me? Am done with this show.
7:30: Wait what just happened part 2. Why are Chris Rock and Will Smith working a pro wrestling angle? Help me.
7:31 Documentary time! I am still reeling Chris Rock and Will Smith just worked a pro wrestling angle for no reason. Winner Summer of Soul! Can’t be too sad about that one. Flee does go home empty handed sadly. Summer of Soul is extraordinary though and well worth a watch! Questlove is great here! Again when this is an award show this show is kinda good!
7:36: Look I love the Godfather, you probably love the Godfather but man do we not need this. There are so many better ways to do this. Wait Robert De Niro is not in the Godfather.
7:47: In memorium rant time. I have thought the latest iterations of the in memorium have focused too much on the musical performance and not enough on the people who passed. I will give this year a plus for people coming out and giving a small speech on the bigger ones. But I still feel like the In Memorium should just be about the people who passed and nothing more. But this is me being grumpy.
7:50: This show is the worst Oscars I have seen. That bar is low too. The Oscars no matter how wretched always felt like the did at least celebrate the movies. They may get things wrong but at least they were about celebrating a beautiful artform that I love dearly. Tonight is an embarrassment of grand magnitude.
7:55: Best Original Song! The Main event! I hate this show. Winner No Time to Die! Good choice Billie Eilish fits the bond esthetic well and the song is really good! I hate that this award is front and center on the show but at least the right song won.
7:59: Big Kev Cosner! Director time! I hope Jane Campion gets something here otherwise I might just throw the baby out with the bathwater. Winner Jane Campion! YAY FINALLY! Thank god this does not go empty handed. CODA will win best picture but this is the real award in my opinion. The Power of the Dog is the best film of the year and I am glad Campion got this award.
8:08: So we are getting a pulp fiction reunion for what reason? I don’t know either. Maybe best actor is more important? Maybe just focus on that please?
8:09: Best actor time! Or a Pulp Fiction tribute hard to tell. This is a week category I am not going to lie. In reality this should just be Cumberbatch running away with this but it’s not going to be. They just show them yelling in the clips, makes sense people think acting is yelling. Winner Will Smith! Well. This show is an embarrassment. Will is getting emotional about protecting people. Dude this would have been a great speech if you didn’t just punch Chris Rock. And Production Screw Ups! This show! He did apologize… to the academy and other nominees. This is the weirdest thing that could have happened.
8:21: All weirdness aside giving Will Smith that award was the wrong choice to begin with as his is the 4th or 5th best performance of that bunch. Although that doesn’t matter so much any more.
8:24: This show is so deeply terrible I am having trouble focusing. I just want it to be over.
8:29: Best Actress time! Strong category although I think there are three great performances here and nothing else. Winner Jessica Chastain! Boo. That was expected but boo. I don’t have much to say here. End this show please. Jessica Chastain is a good actress and deserves good rolls but man why here why now. Her speech is very good though which makes us almost perfect for great speeches on this show. Again the awards portion of this show however flawed the winners may be has been good please focus on that in the future.
8:34: Liza!!! That’s nice. Nice to see Liza. Best Picture Time! You know if you put film snippets here it would be more impactful. Winner CODA! Eh what you gonna do. After it won adapted screenplay it was a sure thing. At least Jane Campion won for director.
8:39: Well there you have it after three and a half grueling hours this show is finally over. I have so much to say about this horror show but for now I need a break. Time to make dinner and better life choices! Thanks for anyone who took the time to read anything!
I do not love comparative film criticism. It feels sometimes like a cheep way not to take the film you are discussing on its own terms, instead reducing it to a copy of something that has come before. All that being said it can be useful at times, especially in the rare subgenre in which not that many films exist. Enter Jochum Trier’s The Worst Person in the World the latest addition to the very underserved subgenre of “millennial post college films.” The film features a female protagonist in her mid 20s stumbling to find herself in a big city running through relationships and professions along the way. Sound familiar? It’s frustrating to me that Frances Ha is the one film that really comes to mind in this scenario but watching The Worst Person in the World Frances Ha wouldn’t leave my brain. I feel like it’s hard to talk about the Worst Person in the World without at least comparing it in passing the Frances Ha just because there are not many other films that occupy the same space. So, sigh, I guess I gotta do some comparative film analysis.
First though I gotta get to a couple of things. First it’s very frustrating that there are so few of these kind of “millennial post college” coming of age stories. It’s a fertile subgenre and I feel like too many filmmakers and producers shy away from it because it is a complicated one to tackle. There are two major challenges that spring to mind immediately as to why they might be so difficult to make. For one the amount of empathy required of the filmmaker towards their lead character is astronomically high because it feels as though audiences (especially in the internet age) are less forgiving of adults making mistakes than they are with teens. It makes it a tightrope walk of sorts for filmmakers to try to pull off. How does one make an already adult character humanly flawed without turning off at times judgemental audiences in 2021? Secondly by proxy of taking place a later in life it’s hard to rely on the “firsts” tropes that other coming of age stories have to their advantage. Post college films seem to rely more on feelings about their character’s experiences than the freshness of the experiences themselves which requires more nuance on the whole and nuance now a days does not come easy. Despite this it is still frustrating that these films about millennial adult life don’t seem like they really exist, especially given how many “Gen X in flux” movies seemed to get made in and around the 90s and the mid 00s.
The second thing I wanna tackle is The Worst Person in the World on its own merits because there is plenty to talk about here independently on how it interacts with Frances Ha. Firstly this is a brilliantly made film from a technical standpoint. One of the things that Trier explores is how to visually represent feelings and experiences. He often does so in utterly spectacular fashion. One sequence in particular involving a time freezing fantasy and the main character Julie (the utterly spectacular Renate Reinsve) running through the streets of Oslo displays a sense of longing visually as well as I have ever seen before. The extended scene is virtuostic, using plenty of long moving shots and a spectacular visual concept to its advantage but also does a great job at servicing the intimate on top of being flashy. The flashy fantasy sequence is able to transition brilliantly back to reality and deliver one of the most painful and intimate conversations in the entire film. Trier’s sense of how to meld fantastic setpieces and intimate emotions is admirable and perhaps the film’s best quality.
The issue The Worst Person in the World runs into in its back half is an over reliance on melodrama. Trier uses more melodramatic plot beats, a cancer diagnosis to someone close to Julie, and the ever looming conversation of children as a way for the film to be reflective and unfortunately it all comes off as an unnecessary crutch of sorts. It’s almost as if Trier doesn’t fully trust the audience to fully empathize with the characters without having to insert big tragic life events. It makes the back half of The Worst Person in The World frustrating especially given how great the first half of the film is.
This is unfortunately where comparisons to Frances Ha make themselves because the one thing that feels missing at the center of The Worst Person in the World is Greta Gerwig. What has made Greta Gerwig’s films so special is her superhuman ability to empathize with her characters. No matter how many mistakes she makes or frustrations she causes Frances is always empathetic. There is no need to use big storytelling or tropey feeling devices to make it work. There is an underlying trust in the audience that Gerwig possesses that seems absence here. It’s what makes Frances Ha a special film and where The Worst Person in the World comes up slightly short.
The Hollywood theater is an interesting beast. It’s a newly renovated theater in Kitsilano and it has a kind of retro revival look to it. As you walk into the main hall you are met with a giant bar on either side that ends up taking half of the seating area and it leaves quite the sense of awe as you are coming in. The rest of the theater is pretty standard revival fare but it looks good. A seemingly nice addition to the ever dwindling amount of independent Vancouver theaters.
I say seemingly because unfortunately there is a big issue with the Hollywood theater that has nothing to do with its looks. The acoustics in the Hollywood theater are, well, terrible. You can hear everything, the squeak of the doors as people enter and exit, the sound of shoes sticking to the floor, and unfortunately worst of all people chatting in the lobby behind the theater. It makes the experience of watching a quiet film like Memoria tough as the creeks and the ambient chatter are accentuated by the lack of noise coming from the speakers. It isn’t a deal breaker and heaven knows there are a ton of very noisy theaters in Vancouver (anyone who loved the VSO as I do knows the pains of the Orpheum) but I wish people took more care in the acoustics of their theaters.
Well now that we are two paragraphs in I guess we have to tackle Memoria. Saying nothing of course of the quality of the film Memoria is a truly unique and transfixing experience. It’s just very difficult film to write about and one I feel like I will be processing for quite some time. It’s trying to come up with intelligent sounding things to write about the film that kept delaying this article throughout the day as I puttered around trying desperately to put fingers to keyboard.
Memoria is quiet and abstract and never fully reveals its intentions. It often times seems to resemble more of a thought poem than a film, and it often times feels like director Apichatpong Weerasethakul wants the viewer to loose themselves into its trance more than follow it. Tilda Swinton plays Jessica who hears a strange loud noise that no other character can and spends the rest of the film trying to find it. Memoria is a series of vignettes as Jessica wanders through Columbia looking for answers. Of course given the description I gave above one would assume that the film is not interested in exploring those answers. One would be correct.
Yet still Memoria is a very satisfying experience. I did end up finding myself lured into its meditation, moving to each place the film took me with a clear mind. All the while the film is underlined by a strange sense of unease that gives the film an interesting edge as it moves from one place to another. It is going to take a while to fully process the film from the standpoint of meaning, as while I ascribed my own ideas and experiences upon the goings in the film I do not claim to be able to fully decipher Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s broader intentions. The film is a times beguiling to say the least but it’s also one who’s beautiful images have been planted very firmly into my head. Memoria is a film I am still processing and one I hope to revisit in the very near future.
Photo Courtesy of Berlinale
Day two began with another, yet very different kind of slow burn in Azor. Set in Argentina in the 80s Azor examines the mundane everyday actions that ultimately lead to dictatorships being able to flourish. Azor follows Swiss private banker Ivan (Fabrizio Rongione) as he goes from meeting to meeting chasing after the work of his partner who has mysteriously disappeared and who’s absence is felt at every turn. Azor keeps its intentions and plot close to the vest, revealing its politics slowly and subtly as it goes along. It’s an admiral feat to pull off especially for a first time director in Andreas Fontana. Subtlety in film is hard especially when it comes to politics, which makes the Fontana’s patience and pacing all the more interesting. It helps that the film is also gorgeously shot using all of its extravagant settings to its advantage. It’s perhaps not the easiest of watches, and is sometimes a little too patterned even for a film about the mundane but by the time the film makes its final point Azor feels wholly satisfying in a unique and admiral way.
Photo Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
After two very slow films in a row the final film of my second day of VIFF, Compartment No. 6, felt like a real sweet treat. The film is essentially a play between two characters Laura (Seidi Haarla), a young archeology student on her way alone to the arctic circle, and Vadim (Yuriy Borisov), a young working class Russian, as they find themselves stuck on a long train north together. The film plays upon usual kinds of tropes, two young people bonding because of close proximity, but through the charming nature of its leads and because of the empathy the film has for the both of them it all works tremendously. Compartment No. 6 is a sweet and charming ride and while its not a film that might stick with me through the end of the festival it’s one that I must admit was the change of pace I needed after the two slow and challenging films that opened my festival.
That’s it for today! Unless something catches my eye in the afternoon the next time you will hear from me will be Monday morning with thoughts on Wife of Spy, The Worst Person in the world, and my return to the best place to watch a movie in Vancouver… The Vancouver Playhouse!
Happy first day of VIFF everybody! Before I see my first film of the festival I have a couple things to cover including what films you can expect me to write about and a big out of festival film. All this coming up as soon as I take the ice pick out of my hair…
So what films should you expect me to cover? My lane tends to be more in the realm of the international offerings at the festival big and small. So expect me to stick to the Contemporary World Cinema and Gateway sections of the program (with some docs sprinkled in here or there). I love and appreciate the people who are able to really dive deep into the realm of Canadian and BC film (and when I read things throughout the festival I will try to link them here) I just can’t really give you a great perspective on those portions of the festival so I tend to leave them alone. My festival starts with Memoria this evening (Friday) and I see afternoon and evening films Saturday and Sunday so expect a few posts over the weekend. After that things get more evening heavy so expect a single wrap up piece either at the end of the night or the early the next morning throughout the mid week portion of the festival.
Now on to Titane which is perhaps the highest profile art-house picture not playing at VIFF. As for why it’s garnering so much excitement, for one it’s from Julia Ducouranu who burst on the scene with the bizarre cannibal coming of age film Raw. For another Titane won the Plam D’Or which is kind of a big deal. It’s also an utter shocker some critics going as far to call it the wildest thing they had scene at Cannes.
Calling Titane wild almost does not do it justice. Any sort of description of the events that occur throughout the film don’t really describe the true extent of its insanity. This is strange given the film’s plot description involves its central character Alexia (played pitch perfectly by Agathe Rousselle) having sex with cars, murdering many people, and disguising herself as a broken fireman’s (Vincent Lindon) long lost son to try to escape the police. Yes Titane is wilder than that plot description, and yes somehow it all works perfectly.
Ducouranu’s chief specialty through two films has been mining intense tension through discomfort. Titane never shies away from making the central character do unseemly things and never tries to justify any of them. Titane asks the viewer to accept all of the murder and dubious intentions then asks the audience to go along with a relatively sweet found family story in its back half. It’s audacious to say the least, especially in a world where there are so many big American movies (including one that opened just last weekend) that are so desperate get you to like their central characters that they jump through endless hoops to justify all of their terrible actions. Ducouranu does no such thing and her constant commitment to the bit makes Titane a marvel by the time it succeeds at connecting its seemingly disparate halves. Even as the film feels close to loosing control Ducoranu never backs down and as Titane speeds towards its stunning, if not strangely optimistic conclusion it all comes together magnificently.
The filmmaking on display in Titane is almost as impressive as the audaciousness of its storytelling. Ducouranu’s camera mines truly thrilling sequences, including an intense and uncomfortably intimate dance sequence, by just letting the camera follow the action without cutting. Just like her storytelling Ducouranu’s camera never let’s her audience off the hook leading to the most intense film going experience of the year.
Coming out of a film like Titane in broad daylight is a strange but exciting experience. It’s the kind of film that makes you excited about the possibilities of the art even as it’s also made you feel like you have been run over by a truck. It’s so explosive and unafraid that you wish that ten percent of its audacity would rub off on other filmmakers and maybe just maybe American movie studios. The world would be a better place if that happens this much is for sure.
Welcome to The VIFF Diaries a small personal blog for the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival. My name is Fred I have been writing off and on about film since my early teens. You probably have not read my writing, the blog I had throughout high-school and university got the traffic of a very small house party, but hopefully if you end up staying you will enjoy what you read. Or at the very least don’t have it in you to leave a particularly terrible comment.
As for what you will find here The VIFF Diaries is going to be a mix of traditional film reviews/opinions and personal comments on the experience of attending the festival this year. This of course is the first festival that is mostly in person since the Covid-19 pandemic began so that provides some interesting points to talk about (yes there will probably be a lot of fun “how long and well handled are the lines” talk). At the same time though this is a fun chance for me to get back into the groove of writing about things that I love again. A fresh start of sorts.
So why should you come with me? Well you can come for the film takes, (I am seeing and writing about a lot of interesting films) I personally find reading people’s opinions on art of all sorts as a fascinating way of getting to know them. Or you can come just to argue vociferously for your favorite film. Either way I appreciate the traffic, however small it will be.
I guess that concludes it for now. As I write this I am nervous, my fingers feel a bit out of shape and my mind fears the results of actual humans (or hell even Russian bots) reading this. At the same time though there is a palpable excitement in my stomach. I love writing about film even if it is for absolutely no one. This time I have an actual domain too!
The Vancouver Subscription Scene 