Review: Noël Coward's Private Lives

Noël Coward's Private Lives (West End Theatre Series)
Cert: 12A / 113 mins*¹ / Dir. Jonathan Kent




As part of their 'West End Theatre Series', Cinema Live have filmed a production of Private Lives at the Gielgud Theatre. Largely so that people like myself, who like the idea of the theatre if not the actuality, can get a little bit of culture for a change.

Anna Chancellor and Toby Stephens lead the classic Noël Coward play, as a divorced couple who meet again while honeymooning with their new partners*², and decide to resume their stormy relationship again. Anthony Calf and Anna-Louise Plowman have the supporting roles as their aggrieved other-halves, and the first two acts variously feature the players interacting as pairs, although the final one has all four characters trading insults and barbs (and is all the sleeker and funnier for it). While the setup doesn't exactly sound laugh-a-minute, it's an excellent platform for Coward's writing, and he's certainly put plenty of himself into both of the leads. Chancellor is consistently strong in her role, with Stephens mostly matching her but really coming into his own in the final scenes. Calf and Plowman are close enough for jazz, but I'm not entirely sure they're suited to the parts. That said, they make for a fine ensemble together, and that's what's important.

But here's the thing…

Noël Coward's comedy is delicate and restrained, even (especially) at its most vicious, and that's undermined by having the performers overacting and bellowing at each other throughout. Because this was a filmed theatrical performance, the cast are playing for the crowd that's there, not the cinema patrons who - thanks to the camerawork - are a lot closer to the action than the live audience. At many points in the first act it felt like rehearsed lines being repeated on-cue, rather than spontaneous wit*³, and it's a shame because there are some great lines in there which need more interaction to really shine. By the final act when all of the characters are on-stage together, there's a reason for the raised voices and elevated personalities, so it all works much better in context.

From a technical standpoint, while the camerawork kept the pace moving nicely, it looks like the operators have been working on zoom to avoid them walking across the stage during a live performance (which is fair enough). But because of this, the few infrequent scenes featuring fast movement of people or objects look really choppy and framey. It's not a deal-breaker, but I'd be surprised if no-one in post-production noticed. Another odd choice was to have the sound projected from the front speakers only, by the screen, making the show much quieter than other stage-productions I've seen at the cinema, and exacerbating the shouty performances.

But, still. All in all, I did enjoy the play, but I don't think this is the best performance of it (even from this cast), and I'm sure that I'd have had far more fun in the theatre. It may yet happen...



Pretty much.



Not as much as I know I should have.



In the theatre, undoubtedly; in the cinema, not quite.



If you get the opportunity to see it live, do it..



No.



Probably not this version.



No.

Have you seen this live? How did it work for you?

*² That's 113 minutes with the 15 min interval. Just saying. Yeah.
*² I have to admit to spending most of the first act thinking "So Noël Coward essentially wrote the first draft of Duty Free? Wow…"
*³ Yes, I know that's exactly what it is, and I know it's exactly the performers' job to make me forget this ;)

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: How I Live Now

How I Live Now
Cert: 15 / 101 mins / Dir. Kevin Macdonald



There are a lot of good things to be said about Kevin Macdonald's How I Live Now, but no matter how much it kept impressing me, the film kept stumbling into what future generations will refer to as The Meyer Trap. There's a good, solid story about a girl trying to overcome serious mental health issues, holding her shit together for the sake of her new-found family while London is destroyed by a terrorist-activated nuclear device. But obviously that won't be enough for today's audiences (literary or cinematic), so let's throw in a hormonally charged love story as well, shall we? Nuclear war and the study of societal breakdown and adaptation is never interesting enough.

But y'know, love it for what it is, don't hate it for what it isn't, and I did enjoy this movie. Macdonald's masterstroke arrives straight away in the form of Saoirse Ronan, whose portrayal of Daisy is played as not quite unbearable at the beginning, and not quite loveable by the end. There's a definite arc for her her character which even her immediate co-stars don't get, and while their performances are equally earnest, it really is Ronan who puts in the leg-work. Some fairly dark themes are explored here, although the worst of these are touched on, rather than tactlessly rammed home.

The love-story aside (which I moan about, but I do accept as part of the film), we also take several segues into vocal-soundtrack territory, which is one of my many bugbears with movies marketed at the female-teen demographic. Because you can't, presumably, be expected to know if a character's sad unless they're looking out of a window while some breathy, acoustically-backed hipster sings about how sad they are. What's that? You've got soundtracks to sell? Oh.

But listen, don't let my whinging put you off (do you ever?); this is a well-made film of a slightly flawed story, and no matter how much I slapped my forehead when the characters walk calmly home through nuclear-fallout-ash, continue to drink and wash with obviously polluted water, move into a ramshackle barn with no apparent supplies other than the fruit from the rained-upon trees, and obstinately resist evacuation from armed forces, I did also let out a small whoop of delight as Daisy let off the two shots from her handgun. Yeah, I'm going to assume she'd worked out how to safely fire and reload it by that point; it was so good, I don't even mind.

How I Live Now is an engaging movie, and from what I've read of the novel's Wiki page, isn't afraid to step out from the shadow of its forebear to tell a more direct story (read: no-one's telepathic in this. Although there is a cow-whisperer. Make of that what you will). It's surprisingly American for a British film, and I mean that as a compliment. You can do a lot worse.

Largely.



Largely.



Almost.



You won't lose too much by watching it at home.



Not really.



I'm really not sure.



I don't think there is. Which is a shame, as it could use one in a couple of places.

Do you think Daisy and Edmond's deformed children will be the result of drinking and washing with radioactive water, or the fact they they're blood-relatives?

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.