The packed house at the Castro Theatre last Thursday greeted the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival opening night with applause and enthusiasm. Directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel's "What Maisie Knew" takes the Henry James novella and updates it to 21st-century NYC. Adorable munchkin Onata Aprile, who shines as the title character, was in the house for the after-film Q&A, along with the beaming directors. Actors Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan were not present, but they were fully committed on film as Maisie's atrocious parents. Bad Mommy! Bad Daddy! But Alexander Skarsgard and Joanna Vanderham as Maisie's hot "pretend parents": You may pass Go.
"Maisie" is probably James' most accessible book for the attention span-deprived, being short and sweet. As it's told from the point of view of a little girl, the Master is not quite as long-winded as usual. The film does the work proud. Out There caught up with friends and fellow pressies at the opening-night afterparty at Temple nightclub. Festival season has arrived.
Bully Pulpit
Bullies are personas so non grata these days, so props to a daring new title. "Bel Canto Bully" by Philip Eisenbeiss (Haus) describes the life and times of the opera impresario who dominated the bel canto period, Domenico Barbaja. Barbaja promoted his era's greatest opera singers and produced operas of great composers Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti , propelling them to success in the opera houses of Naples, Milan and Vienna.
Bel canto is so named because its operas wed beautiful singing to flawless technique. Ironic, then, that Barbaja's methods of commissioning the masterpieces by Rossini et al. were marked by ruthless manipulation and intimidation. His manners were coarse, his language was vulgar, his life trajectory spanned the proverbial rags to riches, but his legacy includes helping bring into being some of the most beloved operas of all time.
Accompanying the book's release is a CD with the same title (Naxos) that includes an assortment of bel canto treasures, including arias from Rossini's La donna del lago, Bellini's Il pirate, and Donizetti's Roberto Devereux . Worth all the bullying?
"Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams"
With "Farther and Wilder: The Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson," Blake Bailey (Knopf) delivers a biography of "The Lost Weekend"'s author. That great novel of alcoholism was the basis for the same-name hit film that swept the 1945 Academy Awards. Jackson was an alcoholic and drug addict whose problems might have stemmed from the repression of his natural homosexuality. The book shows how his crush on a fraternity brother in college led to cruel taunting and humiliation, and further suppression of his true gay self.
"Triptych"
Author Jonathan Kemp's debut novel "London Triptych" (Arsenal Pulp) gets a North American edition this month after publishing success in the UK. The story travels back and forth in time among three different eras in gay life: in 1894, rent boy Jack Rose is a boy-brothel favorite of Oscar Wilde's; in 1954, gay senior Colin Read draws and lusts after physique model Gore; and in 1998, sex worker David cuts a decadent swath through late-20th-century London. At first all the uprooting from one time period to another is distancing, but the triptych does finally hang together in the end.
Corrrex Box
NY Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay offers this note: "The New York Times tries to be fastidious in issuing corrections for all its errors. In 2008, the corrections editor at the Culture section took great glee in having to issue the following correction; and he and I have made it, especially the phrase 'furtive man-on-man action,' into a running gag ever since. He just found the original again, and so I in turn share it with you now. Best, Alastair."
"Correction: A film review on Sept. 5 about 'Save Me' confused some characters and actors. It is Mark, not Chad, who is sent to the Genesis House retreat for converting gay men to heterosexuality. (Mark is played by Chad Allen ; there is no character named Chad.) The hunky fellow resident is Scott (played by Robert Gant ), not Ted (Stephen Lang ). And it is Mark and Scott, not 'Chad and Ted,' who partake of cigarettes and 'furtive man-on-man action.'" After all that, we need a cigarette.