Vanya on 42nd Street

I sympathise with the Russian poster who took exception with Mamet's tampering with Chekhov but I still admire this film a great deal. As a non-Russian and non-Russian speaker I have loved Chekhov since the time I was able to... Full review

"Uncle Vanya" is a wonderful bare bones adaptation of one of the theater's classic plays. Let's face it, the average American who had to read Checkov in some required high school English class, was probably bored to tears. Same with... Full review

This is a beautiful inquiry into the human condition. If you doubt that Chekhov was a brilliant writer, then this will be your gateway to excellence. The movie sports a wonderful cast while supposedly filmed during a dress-rehearsal. This is... Full review

Malle's adaptation handles Tchekhov's notoriously difficult shifts in mood and context excellently, investing every scene and almost every word with an edge of ambivalence and frustration, and the performances are all first-rate. Moore in particular, from her first appearance in... Full review

Like many others I was blown away by this film. It is SO hard to film a play, but Louis Malle and the actors have worked some incredible magic.... Full review

I might not have ever seen this terrific film if it had not been for walking into the wrong theater. I was supposed to see screening of "A Night on Earth" during a local film festival, but I ended up... Full review

Chekhov's Uncle Vanya stripped down to its bare essentials when a group of New York actors rehearse in a decaying theatre with no set dressings or props but just their talent, accompanied by David Mamet's modern adaptation of the play.... Full review

There's no shortage of intelligent work in film. But here we have one of the most complexly referential things I've ever seen. Simple self-reference points to itself. Common self-reference points to the viewer defining the experience.But Mingus used to say... Full review

Okay, okay. Now that I've got that out of my system, I can actually review the movie.Vanya on 42nd Street is pretty much a perfect film, just like its predecessor My Dinner With Andre. Both films have the same three... Full review

The idea of filming a play gets turned upside down as we see the players before and after the (rehearsal) performance, essentially as themselves. One remarkable scene shows the cast during intermission chatting with each other and audience members while... Full review

But even Vanya on 42nd Street took a stage-bound production and made it magical. Turning a play into a movie is often fraught with problems, the most glaring of which is when a director tries to present the film as if it's bound by the same limitations of the stage. ... Full Review

If Vanya is the play's catalyst for melodrama, Astrov is its composed spokesman.....Elastic yet precise, Malle's film has the vitality and vividness of a Renoir --....The elegant cinematography is an object lesson in directorial humility:....Vanya himself is the narrative's dramatic engine:.... ... Full Review

Shawn has never displayed great range as an actor, but his Vanya is an altogether singular creationpoignant, if not maddeningly mercurial. Subtitled Scenes From a Country Life, Uncle Vanya is set in a provincial estate that an unhappy family calls home. ... Full Review

Vanya on 42nd Street may not be his greatest film, as Taylor trumpets....A lesser filmmaker could've easily botched this project, but only an adventurous one could've dreamed it up in the first place.....If Vanya is the play's catalyst for melodrama, Astrov is its composed spokesman.....Elastic yet precise, Malle's film has the vitality and vividness of a Renoir-it breathes..... ... Full Review

Malle filmed it last spring, with most of Gregory's original cast, including Shawn as Vanya, a failed, embittered academic, and the remarkable Julianne Moore as Yelena, the woman he adores. The actors don't ``project,'' but speak in soft, aching whispers. ... Full Review

At the beginning of Louis Malle's "Vanya on 42nd Street," members of a theatrical cast struggle through the noisy bustle of Times Square on their way to a rehearsal of Anton Chekhov's play "Uncle Vanya." ... Full Article

Vanya on 42 nd Street - (1994) André Gregory has the minor role of director for his version of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in a decrepit but charming theater with Wallace Shawn taking the part of Vanya. ... Full Article

From the Chicago Reader In this 1994 feature by Louis Malle, Andre Gregory directs a street-clothes production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (as adapted by David Mamet) in the ruins of Manhattan's New Amsterdam Theatre. ... Full Article

The story of Chunhyang is a centuries-old Romeo and Juliet -like tale of young lovers. The governor's son, Mongryong (Cho Seung-woo), falls in love with the lovely Chunhyang (Lee Hyo-jung) while out on a day trip, and marries her without ... Full Article