{"id":2114,"date":"2014-06-20T06:25:41","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T10:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=2114"},"modified":"2014-07-01T06:42:58","modified_gmt":"2014-07-01T10:42:58","slug":"such-stuff-as-dreams-the-tempest-vs-ida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=2114","title":{"rendered":"Such Stuff as Dreams: The Tempest vs. Ida"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Shakespeare,<\/a>

Sherman Howard (Prospero) and Erin Partin (Ariel) in The Tempest, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (photo: imgick.nj.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Quite a contrast recently between the nonstop cannonade of literary touchstones in The Tempest<\/em>\u2014in an exuberant and colorful production at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey<\/a>, alas, only through June 22\u2014and the oppressive restraint of the near-silent black-and-white movie from Poland, Ida<\/em>, viewed the same day (trailer<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In the live\u2014and lively\u2014play, the portrayals by Sherman Howard (Prospero), Lindsey Kyler (Miranda), John Barker (Caliban), and especially Erin Partin (Ariel) were remarkable.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare touches button after button with his iconic quotes: \u201cHell is empty and all the devils are here\u201d (wait, that sounds like John Boehner\u2019s voice!), \u201cNow I will believe that there are unicorns,\u201d \u201cWe are such stuff as dreams are made on,\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s past is prologue,\u201d , \u201cO, brave new world, that has such people in\u2019t,\u201d \u201cmy library was dukedom large enough,\u201d or \u201che receives comfort like cold porridge,\u201d Ida<\/em> has hardly any dialog.<\/p>\n

David Denby<\/a> in The New Yorker<\/em> puts a positive spin on this, saying, \u201cI can\u2019t recall a movie that makes such expressive use of silence and portraiture.\u201d In Ida<\/em>, instead of being carried along by a current of words, we float in a bleak, misty, ambiguous atmosphere, albeit rendered with beautiful cinematography, \u201cevery shot as definitive as an icon,\u201d Denby says, quite truly.<\/p>\n

But after all Shakespeare\u2019s verbal passion, Ida<\/em> felt like cold porridge indeed. Perhaps the filmmakers had some great story in mind and just forgot to tell it, because they give the barest of bones and leave viewers (me, anyway) with more questions than answers\u2014not so much about the past, which the movie explores in sufficient glimpses\u2014but about what is going on right now in the minds of the characters on the screen.<\/p>\n

Agata Kulesza, does a fine job playing the aunt of the main character, a sheltered, opaque novitiate raised in a convent (Ida), played less well by Agata Trzebuchowska. The pair uncover a terrible but not uncommon World War II tragedy, and the question of whether exposure to her aunt\u2019s earthiness will persuade somnambulant Ida to abandon the convent seems none too debatable. Bear in mind the Rotten Tomatoes critics<\/a> gave it 93%, so don\u2019t take my word for it.<\/p>\n

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