5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
5.18.11
Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
5.17.11
FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
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5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm
5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
Lenox boutique launches new e-tail site
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
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FILM REVIEW: Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)
4.21.10
Greta Gerwig in "Hannah Takes the Stairs"
Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)
Dir. by Joe swanberg
Starring Greta Gerwig
Regarding Greta Gerwig, who writes, acts, and even plays trumpet in this film: No female actor has ever reminded me so much of Marlon Brando in her reliance on naturalism -- which is, as we know, the greatest artifice of all, and the most difficult to pull off.
I don't want to give anything away, but Gerwig even seemingly acknowledges her debt to Brando here, inventing a bit of business at one point in the film that comes right out of The Godfather, when she playfully puts something in her mouth that could be Brando's cotton balls and/or the sliced orange peel in the garden death scene.
And the same can be said of the writing in this film -- it's almost 'non-writing' which, in order to pull off (as I think they do -- but that is the question that will obviously split viewers and critics), is as incredibly difficult to do successfully as the acting.
This is an incredibly modest film -- insular, with only a few roles, and less 'plot' rather than 'scenes' that do, in fact, reveal character and change over time.
If it weren't for the compelling performances, the heartbreakingly realistic emotional struggles of the characters, and the wit and ingenuity of the dialogue and the setups, it wouldn't work. But it has them all, and mostly, it has Greta Gerwig, who has an uncanny sense of how the camera sees her, and seemingly totally un-self-consciously uses that to her -- and our -- advantage.
Seth Rogovoy is Berkshire Living's award-winning editor-in-chief and cultural critic.
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