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Maggie Langrick 3 days ago
FIrst, of all, I have to apologize to the Vancouver Opera and to punctual people in general for showing up at three minutes past curtain time yet again. For some reason, even though it's part of my job to publish the start times of events, I routinely manage to confuse 7:30 pm with 8 o'clock in my personal timekeeping. But thanks to my sister's daredevil driving and a little help from the green traffic-light fairy, I got to the Queen E Theatre just in time to be seated - and thank God I was on the aisle. Bellini's Norma opens VO's Golden Anniversary season, which then takes an Olympian-sized pause before resuming in March with John Adams's Nixon in China. In other words, if taking in a VO production is a winter-time tradition for you, or one you'd like to cultivate, don't wait - the daffodils will be in in bloom when you next get the chance. Norma is your classic woman-scorned drama, ramped up to epic proportions. Set in Roman-occupied Gaul sometime around 50 BC, it tells the ...Maggie Langrick 4 days ago
I'm not generally a fan of musical theatre. I find it hard to get swept up in something so blatantly contrived. (Getting in a knife fight, walking in the rain, or hiding in the bushes under a lover's window? What a great time to burst into song! I just don't buy the logic.) I often wind up itching for the musical number to end so we can get back to the story. So not the point, I know, but I can't help it. Having said that, I saw the Playhouse's production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels the other night and found it such a rollicking good time that my pedantic logic brain didn't even have a chance to spoil my fun by arguing the premise. Really funny stuff, especially from Josh Epstein, who played the smarmy American con artist Freddy Benson. His Ruprecht bit is far ruder and therefore much more fun than anything Steve Martin did with the same role in the film on which the play was based. And former Canadian Idol-ist Elena Juatco is charming as 'soap queen' Christine Colgate. She turned ...
Maggie Langrick 428 days ago
If Thursday's Brightlight Pictures Red Carpet Party felt like an elegant cocktail soirée, and Infinity Features' Canadian Images party on Friday was more like a homey potluck, the bash Insight Film Studios threw at Edgewater Casino Saturday was all nightclub. The packed-in crowd must have recovered from their gala hangovers. High prices at the cash bar didn't seem to be dampening the party mood as guests squeezed past each other in the dark while a singer belted out Amy Winehouse tunes and three huge overhead screens lit up with clips from Insight's film catalogue. Personally, I was missing Cin Cin's risotto - canapes on trays never seem to fill me up, no matter how many scallops or mini bocconcini skewers I pile onto my napkin. (The record so far: six at a time, and no, I'm not ashamed.) Never mind; I had a great time rubbing elbows with the pretty people. Michael Eklund told me about me how he got inside the mind of a producer for his latest role, in The Making of Plus One , ...
Maggie Langrick 430 days ago
Maybe it was the long day at work, or maybe it was the late return home from the Opening Gala the previous night... Whatever the reason, I was feeling rather too pooped to party when I arrived at Cinema 319 on Main Street for Friday's Canadian Images event. The rest of the crowd seemed to share my mellow mood, milling around in laid-back party clothes and nibbling triangles of pita bread and falafels. Luckily there was no shortage of places to flop down and put your feet up, as the comfy red club chairs and footstools in Infinity Features' elegant, hip screening room had been arranged into little clusters for the night. The topic on everyone's lips was Charles Martin Smith's Stone of Destiny, which was the Canadian Images opening film earlier in the evening. Smith was in an ebullient mood as we chatted about his experience of making the film in Scotland. Apparently Scottish crews work strict ten-hour days, rather than the 12-hour shooting schedule standard in North America. Sounds ...
Maggie Langrick 432 days ago
Is it just me, or do you think it's a little improper to serve sushi in front of live fish? Sorry fishies, but you are delishies. Aquatic sensitivities aside, the Vancouver International Film Festival's opening night gala was a raging success, attracting a mob of filmmakers, actors, publicists and media types that filled both floors of the Vancouver Aquarium. A festival organizer had joked with me earlier in the week that they had (half-seriously) considered stipulating a "no fleece" rule on the invitations. But judging from the well turned-out crowd, I'd say Vancouverites might be just about ready to glam up and shrug off our reputation as comfy-clothes addicts - I only saw one woman sporting the baggy-sweater-and-jeans interpretation of gala wear. It's progress. I chatted with Blindness screenwriter Don McKellar, who praised Vancouver audiences for their passion for screencraft, and with Mark Leiren-Young, whose critically acclaimed film The Green Chain is set to be ...
