The Seagull (1975) w/ Blythe Danner

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/2/06 at 1:21pm

Is this as brilliant as I've heard it is elsewhere? I've been thinking about getting the DVD.

[Up In Lost]

Posted: 11/2/06 at 2:22pm

Not sure if it's the same thing, but Ithaca College is doing it as our next show!

[Jon]

Posted: 11/2/06 at 2:27pm

Is this the production that was on PBS, also starring Frank Langella, Lee Grant and Kevin McCarthy? if so, it was pretty damned brilliant.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 11/2/06 at 2:54pm

It's very, very good, but if you really want yer socks knocked off, check out Danner in the DVD of ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE, also with Langella. I was weepin' like a baby at that one!

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/2/06 at 3:03pm

Although I grew up watching this on PBS (they used to repeat things a lot), I don't think it's that good a production. I don't know of a good film or video of The Seagull, though I would love to see either of the BBC versions with Maggie Smith.

That Eccentricities is terrific, I agree. Updated On: 11/2/06 at 03:03 PM

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 9:26pm

What's the Sidney Lumet film with Vanessa Redgrave like?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 11:00pm

Vanessa Redgrave was simply extraordinary as Nina in Lumet's The Seagull. Her scene in the last act with Konstantin was so raw and heartbreaking, it's almost difficult to watch. By far the best Nina I've ever seen. The rest of the casting is a little uneven -- Simone Signoret is an odd choice for Arkadina (a little too French) and James Mason was a bit too old for Trigorin, but Kathleen Widdoes, David Warner and the rest are fine. But, really, this film is worth tracking down for Redgrave's performance alone.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/4/06 at 4:35am

I wish I had saved this from when I taped it on TV some years back. My memory is that though Redgrave is wonderful (as she apparently had been when she'd played Nina onstage), the film is pretty much a miss, lacking any sense of the comedy so important to the play and trying too hard to open it up. IIRC, most of the famous Nina-Treplev scene in the last act is played outside, but perhaps I'm misremembering.

Like you, Margo, I definitely remember feeling that Signoret's casting was quite strange and that Mason was too old (as was Signoret) and that their relationship was pretty much lacking any sexuality.

I would like to see it again, though. I do remember liking Harry Andrews as Sorin.

Even with some problems, the Williamstown version is a lot better.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/4/06 at 9:04am

The Lumet version seems to be pretty rare. There aren't even any external reviews of it on imdb. Has it ever even been released on video?

Anyway, I'll try to check that version out if I get the chance, but I think I'm going to get the one with Danner and also the Nightingale production with her.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/4/06 at 9:57am

I love this production, especially Lee Grant and Olympia Dukakis

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/4/06 at 1:53pm

Yes, the Lumet version is pretty rare and I don't believe it's ever been released on video -- in part I suppose because there have been SO many film versions of the play over the years. I managed to find a copy on Ebay a few years ago and the video had been apparently taped off of some foreign language channel (it contains subtitles in what appears to be Portugese, though the actual soundtrack is in the original English). And yes, you're right that it lacks the humor the piece should contain (and the Nina-Treplev scene does indeed take place outside at night in the forest next to the house).

I can remember wanting to track this version down after seeing the all-star version of the play in the Park back in 2000 (with Streep, Kline, Walken, Harden et al). I can recall discussing the embarassingly amateurish performance Natalie Portman gave as Nina with friends and a couple of the older ones started waxing poetic about seeing Redgrave in the role when the Lumet film version came out (in 1968!) so I made it a mission to find it, which I did a few months later.

Aside from Ebay, perhaps Lincoln Center has a copy of it? Not sure. In the mean time, the Danner version is certainly worth purchasing.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/4/06 at 7:06pm

I had taped the Lumet off Bravo (back in the days when it really was an arts station, and with no commercials). Now I'm sorry I didn't save it. If I had, I guess I could make some money on ebay.

Unlike a lot of other people, I thought that Portman gave a very decent performance as Nina. Not thrilling or brilliant, but certainly competent, which in a way I think is kind of right for the play as a whole, that Nina be a somewhat colorless, kind of mediocre girl, surrounded by all these oversize, self-dramatizing characters.