Reviews of films, books and CDs that deserve a second look

FILM

DARK VICTORY
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Warner Brothers
1939

It's a bold statement, but Dark Victory is one of the most perfectly directed movies I've had the pleasure of watching. Each scene is packed with pizzazz and pathos, not to mention perfectly set-up and possessing an unparalleled attention to detail. Dark Victory is a four-hanky forgotten gem from 1939 starring Bette Davis as Judith Traherne, a sassy society gal who finds out she's got a fatal brain tumour.

Judith's life is a round of parties, horseback riding, and gay repartee. But lately she's been getting these headaches. Her faithful pal Ann (played by Geraldine Fitzgerald), convinces her to get it checked out. She waltzes into Dr Frederick Steele's office and her life changes forever. She falls in love with the brilliant brain surgeon, whom she saves from a life of dullness in Vermont. But alas, he cannot save her. Dr Steele tells her he's got to operate, immediately. Luckily, she's got the kind of brain tumour that forces one to wear jaunty hats all the time. Unluckily, it's fatal. In a stunning display of medical un-ethics, Dr Steele doesn't tell her she's only got months to live. Instead he proposes to her and makes Ann promise not to tell Judith about her prognosis. Of course it can't last, and Judith stumbles upon her file in his office. Later during lunch, her beloved asks her what she'd like to eat. Her response? "I think I'll have a large order of... PROGNOSIS NEGATIVE!!!!!"

This film glides effortlessly from Long Island cocktail society to poignant melodrama in one tight, witty, and never mawkish package. Davis is wonderful, acting almost exclusively with her eyeballs. Ronald Reagan plays her fey tipple-mate and even he is able to go from dashing drunk to concerned friend --before sailing off to Europe. The only sore point is the strange casting of Humphrey Bogart as Michael O'Leary, her stable manager. His awkward romantic overtures toward his mistress are jarring, but not as much as his "Irish" accent.

This movie really delivers --on laughs, on emotions, and on looks. If only they still made stars like Bette Davis. Maybe Wynonna Ryder wouldn't have been sent down if she had more lines like "Don't you know I'm in love with you, silly? Now, what will you have -- some tea or a drink?"

Jazz

MILES DAVIS
In a Silent Way
Columbia Records
1969

Why not take a soothing trip back in time into the cool and groovy world of Miles Davis. In a Silent Way, recorded in 1969, captures the spirit of a basement jam session. There is a very sensual quality to this record. Davis's trumpet playing is ethereal--you can almost feel his fingers lightly brushing against the brass keys. The album has two tracks, "Shhh/Peaceful" and "In a Silent Way/It's About Time". The first track has a more free-form structure, highlighted by an instrumental cacophony of abstract expressionism for electric piano, electric guitar, bass and drums. The sound of the trumpet wafts over the groovy baseline and gives you the impression that the tune floats. "In a Silent Way/It's About Time," has a soft feel to the melody. It's discreet, yet very sensual, with soft flutters of the trumpet. The tune's intensity increases from subtle beginnings and culminates in a melodious jam, always accentuated by Davis's trumpet playing. Other jazz greats make up the jam band, including Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, both on the electric piano. Josef Zawinul's organ playing adds a certain mysterious depth to the tracks. On an easy Sunday afternoon, pop this album into the CD-player --or better yet, a vinyl onto the old turntable -- and let the mellow melodies transport you.

OPERA

THE MAGIC FLUTE

The biggest challenge in setting Mozart's famous German singspiel, the Magic Flute, for the stage is that it's exactly that: a singspiel, a spoken play with musical numbers. While most opera singers are fluent enough in German to sing through the language, they often do miserably in the spoken parts, making for a long wait for the Queen of the Night's show-stopping arias.

This 2003 Royal Opera House production, shot live at Covent Gardens, is remarkable in every way. Here, the spoken dialogues are anything but boring or inadequate. The only principal role held by a non-German is Englishman Simon Keenlyside's Papageno and he injects life and meaning into every word. What's more -- and this is true for the whole cast -- he really acts the part. A bit of an acrobat, Keenlyside is aided by an ever masterful and unobstrusive camera that follows his comic acting in close-ups.

Soprano Dorothea Röschmann portrays a real flesh-and-blood Pamina: her sound is full-bodied, dark and velvety, and she floats high notes admirably. Her natural charm and effortless singing are exquisite to watch and hear. But the one that steals the show is Diana Damrau's mesmerizing Queen of the Night. She's an incredible actress and she sings her two arias flawlessly.

Costume and set designs are superb, neither childish nor grotesque (with the exception of a hilariously bold Papagena), which is a tremendous relief from what we're used to seeing in modern productions nowadays. The ending in particular is brilliant, but the whole production, staged by David McVicar and designed by John Macfarlane, is bound to become the new Magic Flute of reference.

Die Zauberflöte's music is what you can expect from eminent Mozartian Sir Colin Davis, rendered here on DVD in glorious digital surround sound. And with fine singing actors such as the ones in this cast, the investment makes even more sense. An illustrated synopsis, a behind-the-scene tour and a highly interesting feature on Die Zauberflöte by conductor Sir Colin Davis are included. PMP

BOOKS

The Alexandria Quartet
by Lawrence Durrell
Faber, 1962

The sea is high again today, with a thrilling flush of wind. In the midst of winter you can feel the inventions of spring. A sky of hot nude pearly until midday, crickets in sheltered places, and now the wind unpacking the great planes, ransacking the great planes....

'I have escaped to this island with a few books and the child--Melissa's child...."

So begins Justine, the first of four books which make up Lawrence Durrell's great work. Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea complete the quartet. The four are often bound together in a single volume and this is as it should be, for each of the books weaves itself into the others. The truth of which you are so certain in Bathazar is turned inside out in Clea and again in Mountolive. People and situations become chameleons which change to mirror the point of view of the observer. Nothing is quite what it seems. The reader becomes a dreamer drugged with a sensuous sleep, an addict in love with addiction.

By the time the quartet ends, 877 pages later, you have been caressed and buffeted by those great Egyptian winds until they have become as familiar -- and as dangerous -- as the novel's characters. Post-war Alexandria seethes with spies and sexuality. The powerful and shadowy Nessim, Justine's husband, calls the city "the great winepress of love..."

It is not so much a book as a web of words without defined edges. In the introduction Durrell calls it "a word continuum." To step inside the covers during a cold Canadian winter is move into the rich intrigue of the Nile delta, where the songs you fell in love to still play on scratchy gramophones faintly heard in spring's violet twilight. DE

POP

Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys

One album I think stands the test of time is Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. Of course I'm not alone in this opinion--it has been cited as a masterpiece and a major influence by Paul McCartney, Elton John, Lou Reed, and REM among others. In 1995, Britain's Mojo magazine assembled an esteemed panel of musicians and critics to determine the "Greatest Album Ever Made," and Pet Sounds was the winner.

Part of the appeal is the background story. After suffering panic attacks in 1964, Beach Boys singer/songwriter Brian Wilson quit touring and hunkered down in the studio. Inspired by the Beatles Rubber Soul, he wanted to compose an album that would hold together from beginning to end, rather than simply a collection of singles and throwaway tracks. He spent months obsessively tinkering with the tunes, striving to create great art while slowly losing his mind.

Finally released in 1966, Pet Sounds was initially a commercial flop, and Brian Wilson would later be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, manic depression and brain damage. But while it may have been the work of a near-mad genius, Pet Sounds is remarkably coherent. Its well-crafted, impeccably produced songs, such as "Caroline No," "God Only Knows," and "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times," have a range of emotion rarely found in pop music. AS

CLASSICAL

Sibelius' Violin Concerto
per Heifetz
RCA Victor Red Seal label
BMG Classics
1959

Child prodigism -- if I can coin a word -- is a disease, which is generally fatal. I was among the few to have the good fortune to survive." So says Jascha Heifetz, master violinist, in the jacket notes to a recent reissue of his 1959 classic rendition of Jean Sibelius' violin concerto (Op. 47 in D minor). A breakthrough recording featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under conductor Walter Hendl, it's widely regarded as the seminal interpretation of this astounding work.

Sibelius (1865-1957) is one of Finland's few composers to have left a significant mark in modern classical music. His only violin concerto represents the best of the age: a dichotomy of romanticism and discordance, anthemic and sentimental themes. Unlike Stravinsky, whose work scandalized and galvanized his contemporaries, Sibelius believed in the marriage of grace and form to create thought-provoking music which still managed to seduce the senses. As such, you might argue that he combined the best of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky -- a compelling image of the Industrial age.

Heifetz took liberties in his interpretation of the work; a more recent recording with soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter under André Previn and the Staatskapelle Dresden is perhaps truer to the original -- and also lacks the passion and strength of Heifetz's version.

You'll find the long-awaited re-release on Amazon.com. MP