Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)

Reality Chekhov

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Vanya on 42nd Street on DVD.

I've never really seen anything like Vanya on 42nd Street. The movie starts with Louis Malle's familiar gritty, low budget camerawork that charictarized My Dinner With Andre.

We see Wallace Shawn, now more readily recognized on the street than he was thirteen years ago, standing eating a kanish. Andre Gregory walks down 42nd street, followed by Julianne Moore and other actors. They meet in front of a dilapidated old theatre and go inside. We know we are going to see Chekov's Uncle Vanya. One woman says she's never seen it. Gregory begins to explain it to her. Everyone begins to wander around the beautiful, crumbling old theatre, chatting, setting up. Wallace Shawn lays down on a bench and shuts his eyes. When he wakes up, he will be Uncle Vanya. Before we know it, two people begin having a conversation. Slowly, we realize that the play has begun. The camera swings around later and we see Shawn, who is now the director of the play, sitting and watching with the audience.

The actors are wearing street clothes. They drink from paper cups burped up by a coffee machine. We hear car alarms in the background. Malle's camera shakes every once in a while, Yet, the camera gets up close to the actors and catches marvellously intimate performances that the stage could not begin to catch. We begin to enter the world of Uncle Vanya. We get involved with the drama. The old theatre becomes the old mansion in the story. Between scenes, Gregory gets up and leads his audience to where the next scene will be, explaining when and where in the story it takes place. (The actors cannot use the stage for fear that it will collapse. They use lobbies, stairwells and other locations in the theatre.)

In short, this is totally unorthadox theatre and totally unorthadox cinema, and they are married in a very easy and comfortable way. We are treated to a very intense dramatic story in a very easy and casual way.

Apparently, Gregory assembled these actors and actresses with the idea of rehearsing Uncle Vanya without ever performing for an audience. They met on and off for years before Gregory approached Louis Malle to direct a film of a run-through. The actors are extremely comfortable with each other as a result, and it's easy to see how possible real life relations may have mirrored the ones in the story.

The company used David Mamet's adaptation of the Chekov play, and Joshua Redman contributed a small but beautiful jazz score. Julianne Moore, by the time Vanya on 42nd Street was made, had already appeared in the popular and critically acclaimed films The Fugitive and Short Cuts. A lot of great names and great talent in a great film created very cheaply and interestingly. Vanya on 42nd Street is a rare experience.

DVD Details: One of the decade's most special treasures. Director Louis Malle reunites with his My Dinner With Andre cast for this unusual staging of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. Andre Gregory directs the play in a dilapidated New York theater, while the cast -- Wallace Shawn and Julianne Moore among them -- uses every possible corner of the place (except the collapsing stage) for their performances. The actors never use any costumes or makeup, and Malle even leaves outside noises on the soundtrack. Joshua Redman contributes a lovely jazz score, and David Mamet adapted the play. Columbia/TriStar's DVD ($24.95) includes a few trailers.

Starring: Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory, Julianne Moore, Phoebe Brand, Lynn Cohen, George Gaynes, Jerry Mayer, Larry Pine, Brooke Smith, Madhur Jaffrey
Written by: David Mamet, Andre Gregory, based on the play by Anton Chekhov
Directed by: Louis Malle
MPAA Rating: PG
Running Time: 119 minutes
Date: April 25, 1997