"Vanya on 42nd street" is Louis Malle's last film. It is a worthy conclusion of his career. The film has much in common with "My dinner with André" both regarding style (mixture of cinema and theater) and cast (Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory).
The film is about a rehearsal of the "Uncle Vanya" play of Anton Chekov in the empty and dilapidated New Amsterdam theater on the 42nd street in New York. This rehearsal did produce a film, but it did never produce a performance with live audience.
The rehearal character gives the performance on the one hand a modern twist. The actors are wearing their normal clothes. You see them drinking a cup of coffee out of a cardboard cup during a break and the next moment you see them performing in the same clothes.
On the other hand there is nothing changed in the content of the play. There has been no attempt to "translate" "Uncle Vanya" to modern times. By the way this would be quite unnecessary because the themes of "Uncle Vanya" (loneliness, longing, sense of uselessness and above all the fear for a wasted life) are of all times. At the end of the film Sonya (Brooke Smith) summarizes the fear of a wasted life as follows: "All we can do is live. We live through a long row of days and the endless evenings". After this she expresses the hope of a second chance and a more meaningfull life in the Hereafter.
It would be a misunderstanding to see "Vanya at 42 street" as a mere theater registration. In my opinion it is the best of both worlds. We have an outstanding play performed by outstanding actors and cinema adds to all this a marvelous composition of the images. Just look at the image at the end of the movie when all is said and done (mostly said), the visitors are gone and Vanya and Sonya resume their work at the estate (by the way this is also the scene of the above mentioned quote). The perpsective of this image, and there are many more, is so beautiful.
Finally one little remark about the casting. In the play Yelena (Julianne Moore) is the woman everyman loves. Sonya on the other hand is the woman that no man sees. The Sonya on 42nd street (Brooke Smith) however is so beautiful and captivating that this is hard to image.
The film is about a rehearsal of the "Uncle Vanya" play of Anton Chekov in the empty and dilapidated New Amsterdam theater on the 42nd street in New York. This rehearsal did produce a film, but it did never produce a performance with live audience.
The rehearal character gives the performance on the one hand a modern twist. The actors are wearing their normal clothes. You see them drinking a cup of coffee out of a cardboard cup during a break and the next moment you see them performing in the same clothes.
On the other hand there is nothing changed in the content of the play. There has been no attempt to "translate" "Uncle Vanya" to modern times. By the way this would be quite unnecessary because the themes of "Uncle Vanya" (loneliness, longing, sense of uselessness and above all the fear for a wasted life) are of all times. At the end of the film Sonya (Brooke Smith) summarizes the fear of a wasted life as follows: "All we can do is live. We live through a long row of days and the endless evenings". After this she expresses the hope of a second chance and a more meaningfull life in the Hereafter.
It would be a misunderstanding to see "Vanya at 42 street" as a mere theater registration. In my opinion it is the best of both worlds. We have an outstanding play performed by outstanding actors and cinema adds to all this a marvelous composition of the images. Just look at the image at the end of the movie when all is said and done (mostly said), the visitors are gone and Vanya and Sonya resume their work at the estate (by the way this is also the scene of the above mentioned quote). The perpsective of this image, and there are many more, is so beautiful.
Finally one little remark about the casting. In the play Yelena (Julianne Moore) is the woman everyman loves. Sonya on the other hand is the woman that no man sees. The Sonya on 42nd street (Brooke Smith) however is so beautiful and captivating that this is hard to image.