Film Festival 09- Theatre of War
Theatre of War
USA 2008, 96m
Director: John Walter
Festivals: Tribeca 2008
"The Public Theater's 2006 revival of Mother Courage in New York
starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, provides the foundation for
a canny re-introduction to the ever-invigorating Bertolt Brecht.
John Walter skillfully layers together rehearsal moments, archival
audio of startling immediacy, and interviews with Streep, Tony
Kushner (who wrote the production's translation), Brecht
associates, and others. Theater of War reveals its subject, who
fled the Nazis in the early 30s, to be an evolving thinker (now
boiled down in the critical usage to the 'brechtian' chestnut)&
The mix of hybrid approach and vivid detail bring Brecht into sharp
focus." - Nicolas Rapold, Film Comment. "For anyone interested in
the continuing relevance of theater in a society dominated by
momentary electronic impulses, in the responsibility of artists in
wartime and in the greatest anti-capitalist, anti-government,
antiwar and anti-romantic playwright of the 20th century, Walter's
cool, capable, stimulating exploration is a must." - Andrew
O'Hehir, salon.com
In English and German, with English subtitles
