San Francisco at Christmas time

I spent the few days around Christmas up in the Bay area with Mei's family and we took a day to visit San Francisco, skating in Union Square, checking out the gingerbread and sugar castle at the Westin St. Francis, taking a cable car ride and eating ice cream at Ghirardelli's. It's been unseasonably cold but the day we visited was clear and sunny and beautiful. Here are some pictures I took over the weekend. There are also pictures of a giant silk lantern show from China and quite a few of the buche de noel (Yule log cake) that Mei and I made for the family Xmas eve dinner.

The Artist

I'm playing a little catch up here. I saw this movie just before heading into the Xmas break. This is a black and white silent movie and I was curious about it because it's gotten amazing reviews. I loved it! Without words (there aren't even a lot of intertitle cards) the movie becomes all about visuals and music, making it almost more akin to opera than a typical movie. The facial expressions of the actors are so much more important and this movie has two great acting faces. The basic story is of the "A Star is Born" variety, where a big movie star of the silent era crashes into the dawn of talkies and is unable or unwilling to adapt while a young upstart gets a few lucky breaks and becomes a huge star. The two main stars are French actors unknown to us in the US. In addition to the expressiveness of the actors faces, the movie uses movement in all kinds of ways to tell the story (movement of the actors across the scene, or of the camera around the action).

This is one of those movies that I don't think will work as well in a private home on your own TV. It is critical to see this movie in a theatre where the sound can truly surround you, as well as with an audience where the shared reactions can become part of the 'sound environment' contributing to the movie.

Pina

We had an opportunity to screen this movie by Wim Wenders as a fund raiser for City of Angels ballet. This is a documentary in 3D which includes scenes of Pina's own dances along with her dancers talking about her influence on them as well as performing in various interesting locations (warehouse, factory, field, street median, etc.) throughout the city where they company is based. The 3D was wonderfully done and a great way to capture dance. Pina's own dances can be joyful, angsty, violent, funny. Pina Bausch passed away very suddenly a few years ago, while this movie was being planned. Rather than cancel the movie, Wenders and Pina's dancers decided to continue, to make a movie as a tribute to her. What is most emotionally affecting in the movie is hearing her dancers talk about her, her influence on them, how she made them the dancers they are. They all clearly idolize and adore her and you can feel very strongly in their on-location dances all of the things they feel about her and what her loss means to them. There is an amazing scene where old footage of Pina dancing in Cafe Muller is inserted into the dance with her current dancers. This is a terrific use of 3D technology and a wonderful documentary of a creative genius and the people she inspired.

Joffrey's Nutcracker

At this time of year, the Nutcracker parade can get a bit tedious. Thank god for the beauty of Tchaikovsky's music. I am planning to see a local production this year because my friend Suzanne has a role in it. An opportunity came up to see the Joffrey version at the Music Center. I'm really glad I went, because this is a terrific version! My teacher, Joan, said it was maybe the best she's ever seen (and she's seen a few)!

The sets and costumes are gorgeous, making for a visually pleasing ballet. The Act 1 party scene moves well and never gets dull which can often happen. The mice are terrifically cute and the battle scene is fast moving, slightly chaotic. Drosselmeyer is appropriately creepy. The whole ballet moves very fast, and there is a lot of complicated patterning in the Snow and Flower scenes, with a lot of asymmetry to keep your attention.

This company does not rank their dancers. The Nutcracker Prince (Fabrice Calmels), Snow (Victoria Jaiani) and Sugar Plum (April Daly) that I saw were clearly top rank but all of the dancers in the various divertissements of the second act were wonderful. The company has a lot of tall men, and they use them well in both the Snow and Flower scenes.

This was definitely worth seeing amongst the long parade of Nutcrackers during December!