Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)

IMDb plot summary: New York actors rehearse Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" in a dilapidated theatre.

Directed by Louis Malle. Starring Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore, Brooke Smith, and Larry Pine.

So in 1994, an actual group of actors worked through performance workshops of Chekhov in an abandoned theater in their street clothes for no public audience, it was solely for their own artistic growth and development. And this is that play. It was pure coincidence that I watched this after another Dogville, another movie with a very pared down almost Brechtian aesthetic. And while I love the concept of it and find many of the performances very compelling, it's a movie that forces me to come to terms with one of my most guilty confessions as a theater lover and teacher -- I don't like Chekhov. I find his plays tedious and uninspiring and seldom rewarding enough to make the long journey into them. And that continues to be the case here. While I enjoy these performances (Brooke Smith and Wallace Shawn especially stand out) I am just so, so bored with the stories and the characters and their long wordy monologues about their deep-seated ideals. If you are a big fan of his work, this is an immensely talented cast doing a stripped-down text-focused production, and it's probably worth a watch. But it just didn't work for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Vanya on 42nd Street < Letters from Iwo Jima

Vanya on 42nd Street > An Ideal Husband

Vanya on 42nd Street > The Rescuers Down Under

Vanya on 42nd Street > Bananas

Vanya on 42nd Street > Wind River

Vanya on 42nd Street < Waterloo

Vanya on 42nd Street > Lost in America

Vanya on 42nd Street > The Sandlot

Vanya on 42nd Street < Waxwork

Vanya on 42nd Street > Melinda and Melinda

Vanya on 42nd Street < Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

Final spot: #1687 out of 3255, or 48%.