Sun 20 May 2012

An Evening at the Renewed HaBima

Posted by Dan Romascanu under theatre
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The Israeli national theater Habima is back home in its renovated location in central Tel Aviv. The many years of wandering in temporary spaces, the problems with the building and funding seriously impacted the conditions of viewing and the level of the performances for the last few years. As a faithful subscriber I was waiting for the meeting with the old theater in the renewed building with the expectation of meeting an old friend I could talk only by Skype for a while. At last, that moment came last evening. I will begin with the building.

 

 

Unfortunately I could find more detailed information about the history of the building and the new project only in Hebrew, and very little about the history and the location in English. The overall impression is good, the renewal designed by sculptor Dani Karavan keeps the principal lines and ideas of Oscar Kaufman’s original International Style building raised between 1935 and 1945, but integrates it better with the neighborhood, and has an airy and spacy look. The underground parking provides a much better access than before, space for the cars of visitors of the halls in the theater and of the Mann Auditorium (the siege of the Philharmonic whose turn is now to be in renovation) and of the Helena Rubinstein pavilion of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The exit rush was far from the nightmare described in some other reports, but maybe we just were lucky with a less crowded evening. The HaBima complex pairs well with the Golda Center which is located less than ten minutes walk away, to give to Tel Aviv a second focal point of culture and recreation fit to the first (and only by now) great metropolis of culture in Israel. The interiors are also airy and elegant, the crowded and dark corridors of the old theater are gone, although I personally miss the gallery of portraits of the great actors – where are they now? The only darker nuance in the silver cloud is the theater hall itself, or better said the Maskin hall which seems to be the same as before renovation, including known problems like the tall balcony edge that preempts good viewing in the first rows of the balcony area.

 

source http://www.habama.co.il/Pages/Description.aspx?Subj=1&Area=1&ArticleId=15731

 

The play last night was The Beauty Queen of Leenane, by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, premiered in 1996, which enjoyed success on Broadway and East End as well.  It’s a black comedy, mixing realism and even naturalism inspired by the grim landscape and realities of country-side Ireland in the years before the industrial boom of the 90s, family drama, dark comedy and absurd theater. Although the themes are not necessarily among my favorites I enjoyed the mix and the balanced and well paced writing, as well as the professional direction (Hanan Shnir) and acting. The two central characters, mother and daughter, embraced in a relation of hate and disillusions were especially well played by Dvora Kider and Lilian Berto. HaBima is back home, and the theater needs to ger back the confidence of its viewers disappointed or skeptical after all the years of wandering in periphery theaters and of mediocre productions. Stagings like The Beauty Queen of Leenane are not breakthroughs but they can provide the building blocks of the solid performances well chosen from the world contemporary repertory which need to be bart of the re-building process.

 

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Fri 18 May 2012

Cartea de Film: Michel Marie – Noul Val Francez

Posted by Dan Romascanu under books, movies
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Cu trei-patru ani in urma cinematecile si festivalurile de film din intreaga lume au celebrat jumatate de secol de la aparitia pe scena cinematografiei franceze si internationale a fenomenului numit Noul Val Francez – o generatie de creatori in mare majoritate tineri grupati in jurul revistei Cahiers du Cinema care au inceput sa creeze simultan filme personale si directe, care puneau sub semnul intrebarii multe dintre formulele cinematografiei clasice – productia, scenariul, distribuirea, tehnicile de filmare, alegerea actorilor si a tematicii. Cu aceasta ocazie s-au scris si destul de multe articole in revistele de specialitate si carti, printre care apare in traducere romaneasca in seria ‘Filmul pentru toti’ a editurii IBU Publishing, 2010 cartea din 2007 a profesorului universitat Michel Marie ‘Noul Val Francez – O scoala artistica’. Traducerea ii apartine lui Laurentiu Dulman, prefata Magdei Mihailescu.

 

source http://www.elefant.ro/carti/divertisment/film/noul-val-francez-70479.html

 

Sunt pasionat si de film si de carti. De la o carte de film astept in primul rand informatie, organizata in asa fel incat sa-mi clarifice si sa puna ordine si sa adauge perspectiva filmelor pe care le-am vazut. Daca am sansa de a da peste o carte de film buna ea ma va si atrage in universul filmelor de care se ocupa prin perspectiva celui care a scris-o si va constitui o invitatie pentru viitoare vizionari sau eventual revizionari. Cartea lui Michel Marie atinge cu brio primul obiectiv, si doar partial pe cel de-al doilea. Se simte in organizarea materialului, in rigurozitatea prezentarii informatiei, in foarte utilele tabele si anexe care complementeaza textul scris formatia acdemica a autorului, si fara indoiala voi pastra cartea multa vreme in biblioteca si o voi scoate din cand in cand pentru a-mi aminti despre un film, pentru a-l localiza in opera autorului si in relatie cu creatiile celorlalti creatori ai generatiei.

 

source http://rushmoreacademy.com/tag/cahiers-du-cinema

 

Am aflat multe lucruri interesante care imi ofera dupa lectura o perspectiva mai completa a epocii si filmelor sale. Povestea Noului Val porneste desigur de la Cahiers du Cinema, sondajele si cronicile filmelor lui Vadim si Melville din anii 55-57. Apoi apar primele filme ale lui Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Varda. Anul 1958 in care se lanseaza Noul Val este si anul marilor schimbari politice in Franta si al crearii celei de-a Cincea Republici. Andre Malraux devine Ministrul Culturii si incurajarea noilor forme de expresie si a noilor creatori (asociati in parte si cu vederile politice de dreapta) devine intr-o oarecare masura politica de stat. Stilul personal al noii generatii de creatori rezulta din doua surse principale – asumarea in masura mult mai mare a controlului asupra felului in care este realizat filmul de catre regizor (filmul devenind o creatie personala si regizorul autorul sau inconstestabil) si economia de mijloace tehnice care ii obliga pe aceiasi regizori sa inventeze sau sa adopte procedee cum ar fi camera mobila, filmarea in decor natural sau urban, captarea directa a sunetului, care imprima produselor cinematografice un stil natural specific.

Capitolul dedicat metodelor de productie si de distributie este pasionant, chiar cand este vorba despre detaliile economice. Noul Val nu a aparut intr-o situatie de criza economica a cinematografiei franceze, dimpotriva, economic industria cinematografica se bucura de o prosperitate continua inceputa imediat dupa razboi. Revolta a fost in primul rand estetica, criticii si regizorii Noului Val (unii dintre ei erau si critici si regizori) considerand ca criza se manifesta in modul de exprimare, in sabloanele stilistice si estetice caracteristice cinematografului zis ‘de calitate’. Scaderea numarului de spectatori in sali care incepe la scurt timp dupa aparitia Noului Val poate fi pusa mai degraba pe seama impactului televiziunii care incepand cu anii 60 isi diversifica tematica, mareste numarul canalelor de difuzare si include din ce in ce mai multe filme in programele sale. Datele furnizate de Michel Marie arata in mod elocvent ca filmele Noului Val nu au fost mai putin sau semnificativ mai putin rentabile decat cele ale cinematografiei ‘de calitate’ care continua sa fie produsa si difuzata de creatorii vechii generatii si de epigonii lor, iar filmele cele mai populare ale Noului Val au cunoscut si ele succese de casa remarcabile.

 

source www.amazon.com

 

In capitolele dedicate conceptiei estetice si mai ales cel dedicat actorilor poate fi gasita acea scanteie de pasiune pe care eu ca pasionat de filme o caut in asemenea carti. Portretele facute unor actori ca Belmondo sau Ana Karina sunt superbe, iar analizele facute unora dintre creatorii Valului sau regizorilor care au creat in acea epoca, au influentat si au fost influentati de Noul Val fara a face parte din el (Vadim, Louis Malle, Melville) extrem de precise si profunde in pofida economiei de text.

Daca descrierea influentei jucate de cinematograful american nu aduce elemente de surpriza, in schimb am fost destul de mirat de aprecierea relativ moderata a influentei Noului Val asupra altor scoli cinematografice in lume. Michel Marie pare a considera ca aceasta influenta a fost mult exagerata si ca ceea ce s-a intamplat cam in aceeasi epoca si in anii urmatori perioadei de explozie a Noului Val (1958-1962) in cinematografia engleza, poloneza sau cehoslovaca a avut in principal radacini culturale si formative locale, impactul cineastilor francezi, a filmelor lor si a modului lor de abordare a artei cinematografice fiind doar marginale.

Fie ca suntem de acord, fie ca nu cu concluziile acestui capitol nu putem nici ignora si nici ocoli cele petrecute in cinematografia franceza la sfarsitul anilor 50 si inceputul anilor 60. Modul de productie al filmelor, relatia intre regizor, actori si rezultatul muncii lor, si noutatile tehnice introduse si promovate de noul val au schimbat fata cinematografiei franceze si a celei internationale. Cartea lui Michel Marie este o sursa de informatie bogata la prima lectura si o referinta utila dupa aceea in intelegerea acestui fenomen deosebit.

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Thu 17 May 2012

Amos Oz la ICR – Tel Aviv

Posted by Dan Romascanu under books
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Amos Oz este astazi poate scriitorul strain cel mai tradus in Romania. I-au aparut in traducere 12 carti (din cele 27 pe care le-a scris pana acum) si inca trei sunt planificate sa apara pana in toamna lui 2013, inclusiv cel mai recent volum de povestiri ‘Ben Haverim’ (‘Intre prieteni’). A fost primul scriitor israelian tradus in Romania inca in anul 1981 (si acea carte a sa ‘Mihael al meu’ a fost prima carte a unui scriitor israelian pe care am citit-o). A vizitat de cateva ori Romania, a primit premiul Ovidiu in anul 2004, iar vizita sa din februarie in acest an a fost intens reflectata in presa literara romaneasca, la posturile de televiziune si a culminat cu dialogul de la Ateneu cu Gabriel Liiceanu, care a atins momente de intensa dezbatere intelectuala si reala emotie atunci cand au abordat esenta relatiilor complexe dintre scriitorul israelian si continentul pe care parintii sai l-au parasit in anii premergatori celui de-al doilea razboi mondial si Holocaustului.

 

 

O seara de dezbatere pe tema traducerii si receptarii scrierilor lui Amos Oz in Romania organizata de Institutul Cultural Roman, filiala  din Tel Aviv avea toate sansele sa fie un succes, un eveniment interesant nu numai pentru publicul israelian cunoscator al limbii romane ci pentru toti cititorii si admiratorii israelieni ai lui Amos Oz. Nu stiu cati dintre acestia cunosc povestea de dragoste dintre Oz si cititorii romani, succesul de care se bucura acesta in Romania, impactul pe care o vizita ca cea pe care a facut-o Oz la inceputul acestui an acolo o are asupra vietii intelectuale romanesti. Aducand-o in Israel pe Denisa Comanescu, poeta cunoscuta si editoarea lui Oz la editura Humanitas (si cea care raspunde de seria ‘Raftul Denisei’ – amanunt pe care l-am aflat doar astazi) si alaturand-o traducatoarelor in limba romana a cartilor lui Oz (intre care Marlena Braester mi-a facut o excelenta impresie prin continutul relatarii si modul de impartasire al experientelor sale) ICR si-a facut o parte din datorie. Din pacate insa a esuat complet in popularizarea evenimentului in presa si media locala. Nu este prima data cand astfel de activitati inclusiv vizite ale unor intelectuali romani de marca organizate de ICR ajung exclusiv la publicul originar din Romania, care prin structura sa este inaintat in varsta si care cu exceptia unui numar din ce in ce mai redus de scriitori, ziaristi si intelectuali nu este interesat de cultura de calitate din Romana. De data aceasta insa dezamagirea a fost amplificata de faptul ca eroul serii a fost scriitorul cel mai cunoscut al Israelului de astazi, scriitor care aduna sute de oameni din publicul de limba ebraica oriunde ar aparea doar sa se stie ca va fi acolo si va vorbi sau citi din opera sa, si de comparatia cu succesul vizitei lui Oz la Bucuresti de acum trei luni.  La Bucuresti Oz a umplut sala Ateneului cu peste 900 de spectatori si multi dintre cei care doreau sa-l vada si sa-l asculte au ramas afara. Astazi la Tel Aviv doar primele trei randuri ale salii Tzavta au fost pline si nici ele complet. Cultura romaneasca are multe de oferit in diversele sale domenii si dialogul cultural romano-israelian ar putea continua o traditie de interactie culturala de secole intre culturile romaneasca si evreiasca. Pentru asta insa ICR Tel Aviv trebuie sa ajunga sa discute cu ‘mainstream’-ul cultural israelian, in ebraica si in engleza, sa-si faca evenimentele cunoscute prin presa si media de cultura si de divertisment israeliana in ebraica, chiar cu riscul de a lasa in al doilea plan canalele de comunicare (din ce in ce mai firave de altfel) ale presei de limba romana si asociatiilor de limba romana de aici.

 

 

Ce a fost totusi in aceasta seara? Am mentionat interventia Marlenei Braester, adaug faptul ca Denisa Comanescu a vorbit pe larg, detaliat si cu evidenta empatie despre istoria editarii lui Amos Oz in Romania, si despre planurile de viitor in colectia de autor pe care o editeaza la Humanitas. Apoi a venit momentul asteptat de toata lumea, cel in care a vorbit Oz. Dupa cateva minute in care a evocat in engleza amintiri despre vizita sa din Romania, scriitorul a trecut in ebraica, lasand la o parte temele ‘romanesti’ si abordand tematica scrierilor sale si modul lor de geneza. A vorbit despre familie, a vorbit despre desertul la tarmurile caruia locuieste, a vorbit despre modul in care isi asimileaza personajele si incepe sa le dea viata pe hartie. Totul pare asa de simplu in versiunea sa. Simplitatea geniului. Spre sfarsit a citit fragmente din ‘Regele Norvegiei’, una din povestirile  din volumul recent aparut, povestire aparuta si in The New Yorker. Cu vocea sa linistita si calda, Oz este un excelent cititor si interpret al propriilor sale scrieri.

Cu acesta lectura s-a incheiat seara dedicata lui Amos Oz, traducerii si receptarii sale in Romania. Nu au fost intrebari din public. Aveam multe sa-l intreb si sincer nu stiu daca voi avea vreodata ocazia – despre cele pe care le-a spus la Bucuresti, daca este constient de impactul sau in Romania si de discutiile starnite de dialogurile sale acolo, in special de cel cu Liiceanu de la Ateneu. Atomosfera mi s-a parut insa prea rarefiata pentru asemenea intrebari. Cand Amos Oz va castiga premiul Nobel conferintele sale vor umple salile din intreaga lume. Imi place sa cred ca va continua si atunci dialogul dintre el si publicul cititor din Romania. Poate va mai exista atunci o astfel de ocazie. Am dreptul sa sper.

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Wed 16 May 2012

Cote d’Azur Snapshots

Posted by Dan Romascanu under travel
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This was my first time on the Cote d’Azur. Unfortunately it also was one of these frustrating standards meetings with a schedule that did not allow me any sightseeing, and no time spent out of the hotel and meeting rooms excepting for the social. Well, enough complaining, there are tougher jobs than mine, there is always a next time or so we like to say, and I had the time to take some photos and share them with you.

 

 

The campus near the meeting place in Sophia Antipolis is called Les Algorithmes (The Algorithms), it may be the name of a company. Above are the signs at the entry.

 

 

Can you imagine that I was a mere 20km from Cannes and that I left the area today, the day the Festival opens? Will I ever live through such an event, I do not know. Anyway, this is the closest I got to the Festival, the evening we traveled to Nice for the meeting social event. The bus I was in turned left.

 

 

The social event took place in the Palais de la Mediteranee on the Promenade des Anglais. No, we did not go to the Casino.

 

 

 

Here is a view of the famous Promenade des Anglais by night. Would I sound a little snobbish if I say that I was not extremely impressed? Maybe I need a second visit. Sure I need a second visit.

 

 

A closer view of the Le Negresco – one of the famous if not the most famous hotel in Nice. Its name comes from Henri Negrescu, the son of a Romanian Gypsy inn owner and violin player, who came to France at the beginning of the 20th century, started a restaurant in Nice that became that famous that it allowed him to get financing and hire Dutch architect Edouard Niermans to build the hotel that opened 99 years ago. More about the history of the hotel (in French) here.

 

 

A brutal 4AM wake-up took me today to the Nice airport for a sunrise time take-off.

 

 

Au Revoir, Cote d’Azur!

 

 

Fabulous view atop of the Alps before plunging into icy rain at the airport in Zurich.

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Wed 9 May 2012

The Impossible Escape (Film: The Next Three Days – Russell Crowe, 2010)

Posted by Dan Romascanu under movies
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I had many reasons to be unhappy with this film, yet I ended by being reasonably satisfied with my action movie selection. So what makes The Next Three Days work? It starts as a happy_family_meets_hell film (when the beautiful wife of an English teacher is accused and condemned for urder), flirts shortly with the court drama, then it turns into a reversed version of Convinction, with Russell Crowe playing the role of Hilary Swank . Then the last third is pure action, with very little credibility, as the way the hero tries get his innocent (maybe) wife out of prison is traditional escape and not decades of fight within the legal system.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1458175/

 

Sure, Russell Crowe is a good actor, Elizabeth Banks is not bad either, and director Paul Haggis already proofed in a couple of (better) films that he knows how to build characters and a compelling story around them. Yet, this film has all the chances to run into routine, there is nothing new or unexpected in its story line.

 

(video source ClevverMovies)

 

I believe that what saves The Next Three Days from failing is that the script and the director left in the story and the way it is told some ambiguity. We never know whether the woman is really innocent, the flashbacks are there not to clarify but to murk what really happened the night of the crime that triggered the events. Even if we assume (as the husband does) that the woman is innocent the act of escaping justice (and so many good cops chasing the couple and their kid) leaves viewers with a sense of morality in quite an uncomfortable solution. Director Haggis did not have a brilliant script at hand from screenplay writer Haggis. So he put into the direction a grain of uncertainty that is more realistic than all the rest of the story and saves the film. Because life itself has a grain of uncertainty.

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Tue 8 May 2012

The Risks of Good Education (Film: Kynodontas – Greece, 2009)

Posted by Dan Romascanu under movies
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Director Giorgio Lantimos‘ film Dogtooth (Kynodontas) is an anti-utopia. It imagines a world that does not exist, with rules and conventions so different from the ones of the society we live in that some of its aspects are shocking. A world governed by an order that kills emotions. A world separated from the real world by physical walls but also by a precipice which is deeper and wider than any physical wall. The material this precipice is made of is money and education.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1379182/

 

The family which is in the center of this film is rich. So rich that they can afford that only the father (owner of some manufacturing factory) goes to work, while the wife and the three children – twin girls and a boy, all just out of their teens – stay permanently at home. They seem to have never gone out of the villa they inhabit, they actually believe that the outer world is full of dangers, wild people and animals that just wait beyond the corner to bloodily kill them. Any intruder is considered a mortal danger (be it only a cat) with the exception of one woman brought by the father to satisfy the sexual needs of the growing boy. No contact with the world outside is allowed and in the absence of any information emotions cannot develop, or when they develop they are completely distorted.

 

(video source aftertastetv)

 

It’s no wonder that this film shocked a lot of people, intrigued other and marveled a few. I am in-between the two last categories. There are many cruel and explicit scenes in this film, as the characters develop a set of reactions that is a function of their misreading of the world whenever an intrusion happens, under the form of a forbidden VCR tape (only family tapes are allowed) or of an unlucky animal. The antiseptic atmosphere created inside the perimeter of the villa reminded me Michael Haneke‘s  two versions of Funny Games. There are two levels of possible readings of the world created by Lantimos in Dogtooth. One is the social commentary which talks about the extremes of the isolation brought up by money. The other is about the dangers and the spiritual emptiness created by an extreme education that tries to isolate the young souls from the realities of the world. To grow as a full man one needs to have the eyes open to reality.

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Mon 7 May 2012

Stretching to the Limit (Film: Limitless, 2011)

Posted by Dan Romascanu under movies
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One of the latest films I saw before ‘Limitless’ was ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’. The two share at least one line in which the supernatural capabilities of the hero are explained by his making used of 100% of his brain capabilities, while us, the rest of the mortals scarcely use 10% or 20%. In this movie the explanation is a memory enhancement drug, in the other one magic but is there a difference? Let us not forget that the best film director Neil Burger has on record (better than this one) was ‘The Illusionist’. This director probably does believe in magic.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219289/

 

What are the effects of the drug on our hero which seems to be doomed to be an eternal loser? They turn him into a super-smart analyzer and winner into the stock market, a heart-breaker speaking all languages immigrant waiters speak, but they also put him in trouble with the Mafia and maybe – we just never know – turn him into a murderer. Bradley Cooper with the help of some special effects that make his eyes more blue than deep sea when under influence does a fairly good job which is not pushed into the corner even by Robert De Niro in another of these roles that do not do too much good to his filmography but may round corners to his bank account.

 

(video source Newfromhollywood)

 

The film does work eventually especially if concerns about morality and credibility are pushed aside. If at some point in time one may suspect that the story will make the case about drugs not really improving life or eventually asking the payback for their effect some disappointment may be in the waiting. Limitless is fair entertainment based on an interesting premises, the kind of movies we remember the idea but not the details soon after we finished the viewing.

 

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Sun 6 May 2012

Mission Accomplished, the Oscar (Film: The Iron Lady – Meryl Streep, 2011)

Posted by Dan Romascanu under movies
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If the goal of The Iron Lady was to get another statuette for Meryl Streep, the mission was accomplished. Streep receives a generous part which takes former British PM Margaret Thatcher from her early days in the Commons to the peak of her career and then to the sunset of her life, ruined by the Alzheimer disease and devastated by the loss of her husband. She does the best of this wonderful opportunity and the Oscar is fully deserved. She is so good that for a while many people who saw this film will have her image in mind when the name Margaret Thatcher is pronounced rather than the one of the real life character.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1007029/

 

From any other point of view this film is a failure. Director Phyllida Lloyd is at her second feature film and the first non-musical one, and her rich experience in theater and opera was of little help here. There are two principal threads and none of them makes it to the viewer.

 

the Real Ms. Thatcher - source http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher

 

The first theme is about the fight of an old woman with the Alzheimer disease, the loneliness of the old age and the feeling of loss she is encountering having lost her partner of a life, a partner she most of the time neglected as she was engaging on the most thrilling career a woman could engage in the late 20th century. This could have been a very interesting movie, but in order to make it the director and script writers should have diminished the other theme, and avoid repetitions and trivial situations. They have done none of these, so the treatment of this theme is seldom moving, but seems quite disrespectful on the other hand (after all Ms. Thatcher is still alive, and fighting the disease so detailed described in the film).

 

(video source trailers)

 

The political career of the only PM elected three times in a row in the history of England in the 20th century is obviously the second theme. This one is however treated with such a respectful superficiality that it looks not even like a biopics but at some moments as a Conservative propaganda collection of clips and dramatized dialogs, with Streep instructed to declaim all possible slogans in the Little Tory Book, and the background of the events never even scratched beyond its surface.   50 years from now nobody will understand watching this film why the British Prime Minister decided to enter war with Argentina over the Falklands or why protesters were furiously surrounding her car.

The Iron Lady brought Meryl Streep a(nother) well deserved Oscar. It will find its place in the Meryl Streep retrospectives. Mission Accomplished. Nothing more.

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Fri 4 May 2012

An Accomplished Musician – Emil Aybinder

Posted by Dan Romascanu under music
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I had the privilege to hear last night a musician that I knew nothing before. I actually came to listen to Israeli percussionist Chen Zimbalista in a program of Gypsy Music, part of a series of World Music which runs in parallel with the Hot Jazz music series at the  Museum of Art in Tel Aviv. The great surprise of the evening was to discover Emil Aybinder, one of the best accordionists I have ever listened to.

 

source http://www.youtube.com/user/cant0naa

 

Emil Aybinder is born in Bassarabia (the ‘Republic of Moldova’) in 1949, and lives in Israel since 1990. He founded the accordion section at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and created the the Ensemble for Folklore Music at the Academy. His repertory is broad, the focus is on Balkans (and especially Romanian) music, but the two records I bought show him approaching beautifully the French and Latino-American sounds as well. He is playing with virtuosity and passion, his stature on stage is remarkable, while his eyes search permanently the reaction, the sparks and the joy from the audience, from which he seems to extract the energy to do more and more music.

 

(video source tomcohen1)

 


(video source paulviolino)

 

(video source cant0naa)

 

Here are a few of the Romanian-inspired songs I found on youTube.

Emil’s Web site can be accessed at http://www.aybinder.com/.

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Sun 29 Apr 2012

TV series – Rubicon (2010)

Posted by Dan Romascanu under TV
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I like detective or spy stories, but only those with soul and brains, and unfortunately there are not too many. I do not like conspiracy theories but I recognize that they make great thriller and action movies stuff – X-Files (arguably the best science-fiction series in the history of television) included. Rubicon is a combination of the two themes in the right ratio and is the best TV show I have seen in Israel this year. Unfortunately it was produced by a smaller American TV network, and did not enjoy the rating success that would allow it to survive more than one season. It happens unfortunately too often lately with shows I like – definitely my taste is not in tune with the one of the American mainstream viewers.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1389371/

 

The detective theme of ‘Rubicon’ centers within a Manhattan based spy agency, one of the many which seem to divide in pieces of puzzle the American spying and counter-terrorism system. It’s employees are not supermen or action people, but smart bureaucrats or analysts as they call them nowadays, they do not call the president on daily (or weekly episode basis) as in ’24′ and if and when they carry a gun they do it with the same tremor as you and me would do it. They are usual people who deal however with the same global terrorism threats as 24′s Jack Bauer did, and they are pray to the same pressures as the CTU, or even larger, fighting not only the enemy out there but also a malefic conspiracy of riches trying to manipulate the whole world. Their position is much worse however, as the corruption seems to have infiltrated to the higher echelons of the reporting line. As in the best novels and movies of the spy genre (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy comes immediately to mind) nobody can trust anybody in the organization, and the corridors of the building as well as its outskirts are permanently infested with surveillance cameras, electronic bugs and suspicious eyes.

 

(video source Telestrekoza1)

 

The best part lies however in the characters building. If the spy intrigue remains sometimes cloudy and murky we do not care as much because we have real human that build themselves beautifully on the screen. The series starts as the Israeli ‘Special Team’ with a new boss nominated to the team Will Travers (James Badge Dale) who replaces the former team leader who apparently committed suicide, deals with all the conflicts and will pay the price of trying to do the right thing. His boss Kale Ingram (Arlis Howard)  happens to be gay, so he may be the good guy (one of the more recent stereotypes in American cinema and TV scripts) but who knows in this suspicion filled atmosphere. Assistant Maggie (Jessica Collins) and smart but drugs addicted analyst Tanya (Lauren Hodges) fight each their own daemons. There are more characters, and each of them is clearly and carefully designed and by the time the series end we care for all and understand their motivations. More than a spy drama ‘Rubicon’ is a psychological thriller and maybe exactly the qualities that I appreciate in the series are not the ones that broader audiences attracted by the more immediate striking emotions in action series are used to. I feel to be in complete divorce with the mainstream taste that dictated ‘Rubicon’ to be terminated.

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