a play and two movies

I went to see Tom Stoppard's Arcadia Thursday evening. I know I saw the 1995 NY production, also with Bill Crudup but didn't remember much of it.

We were in the "gods," so I (at least) had trouble hearing some of the dialog--luckily I brought my opera glasses so I could see the whole thing).

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last movie of the weekend

The White Countess written by Kazuo Ishiguro and directed by James Ivory takes place in Shanghai, which in the mid-1930s is a crossroad of emigres from Russia (the White Russians such as the Countess Sophia --Natasha Richardson--and her hateful inlaws -I don't recall we learn whatever happened to her husband, the father of her child) and Europe (Jews fleeing anti-Semitism). A blind, former American Diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) with a tragic past, longs to open a perfect gorgeous nightclub insulated from the outside world, which he names The White Countess. And in the outside world the Japanese are making ominous moves toward China.

I enjoyed this very much, although I loathed Sophia's "family" --her mother-in-law and sister-in-law who are portrayed (all but the grandma and pa who are simply out of it)as cold, vicious, and ungrateful to the woman who is basically saving their bacon by working in nightclubs. They needn't have been SO horrible to her.