Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
Directed by Louis Malle

Film Review

For this inspired adaptation of Anton Chekhov's play "Uncle Vanya", acclaimed French director Louis Malle eschewed the traditional filmmaking approach in favour of something far more radical and - as it turns out - far more effective.   The film begins in New York's bustling Times Square with a group of ordinary-looking men and women coming together and heading for the run down New Amsterdam Theater.  As the group of friends chat they slip seamlessly into a rehearsal of an English version of Chekov's play, which they perform off stage in their everyday clothes, with the meanest of props and no sets.

Instinct tells you that this cannot possibly work as a film yet - miraculously - it does.  A wonderfully evocative script and some remarkable acting compel us to suspend our belief and transport us through time and space to a remote country estate in feudal Russia of another century.  Malle's unobtrusive yet effective direction allows the actors to grab our attention and hold us spellbound as they "live", not "act", Chekov's play.

For the intellectually minded or for those who love theatre, Vanya on 42nd Street offers an extraordinarily rewarding experience, beautifully poetic in its simplicity and heart-breaking in its naked portrayal of human inner conflict.  There is also an intimacy that no conventional theatre production can give, which comes partly from the way the play is filmed, but also from the actors' familiarity with their text.   A film that rigidly defies classification and transcends all the conventional film genres, it is perhaps the one film in Louis Malle's rich and varied filmography that can truly be described as totally unique.

The film originated when actor Wallace Shawn and theatre director Andre Gregory - who had previously worked with Malle on his 1981 film My Dinner with André - invited the French director to attend a private performance of David Mamet's translation of Chekhov's play.  In 1989, Shawn and Gregory had assembled a group of actors to rehearse the play, not with any public performance in mind, but just to allow them to develop a personal appreciation of the play.  When Malle saw the play performed by these enthusiastic and talented actors in a modest setting, he immediately realised the potential this offered for a film.  Malle's judgement proved to be right, as can be seen from the finished product.

When it was released, the film earned rave reviews and is regarded by many as one of Malle's finest works.  It was unfortunately destined to be the director's final film - he died from cancer within a year of the film's release.  It is perhaps fitting that Louis Malle, one of the standard bearers of the French New Wave, should end his filmmaking career with a work of great artistic merit and originality.  Paradoxically, it is a film in which Malle allowed the actors and the script to assume far greater importance than his direction.  Yet, in common with most, if not all, of Malle's films, it is one which offers an insightful, poignant and occasionally witty meditation on the daily trauma that is human experience.

Film Synopsis

In busy New York, a group of actors and theatre folk assemble at a dilapidated theatre to perform a rehearsal of an English language translation of Chekhov's play “Uncle Vanya”.  The play begins with Professor Serybryakov returning to his Russian country estate with his young wife Yelena.  In his absence, the professor's affairs have been managed by his brother-in-law, Vanya, and Sonya, the daughter from his first marriage to Vanya's sister.  Vanya barely conceals his hatred for Serybryakov - he is resentful of his years of relentless toil, blames the professor for his sister's untimely death and has always desired Yelena.   Sonya, a plain and simple woman, also pines for an unrequited love, hers being Dr Astrov, a philosophical country doctor who tends to her father's ailments.  Tragically, Astrov scarcely notices Sonya, for his attention has been entirely stolen by the beautiful Yelena...