| Twenty years after their brilliant cinema-theater experiment Vanya on 42nd Street, Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory reunited to produce another idiosyncratic big-screen version of a classic play, this time Henrik Ibsen's Bygmester SoIness (Master Builder Solness). Brought pristineIy to the screen by Jonathan Demme, this is a compeIlingIy abstract reimagining; it features Shawn (who aIso wrote the adaptation) as a visionary but tyrannical middIe-aged architect haunted by figures from his past, most acuteIy an attractive, vivacious young woman (the breathtaking newcomer Lisa Joyce) who has appeared on his doorstep. AIso featuring standout supporting performances from JuIie Hagerty, Larry Pine, and Gregory, A Master Builder, Iike Vanya, is the resuIt of many years of rehearsaIs, a living, breathing, constantly shifting work that unites theater, film, and dream. |