Entitled The Ages of Man, the actor's monologue premiered at the 1957 Edinburgh International Festival, won a Tony Award for Gielgud's performances on Broadway in 1959 and 1963, and allowed him to tour his solo show for ten years (the 1966 CBS broadcast of Gielgud's performance earned producer David Susskind an Emmy Award). Gielgud received a Grammy Award in 1979 for his third recording of the monologue and, in 2010, a DVD of his televised performance was released posthumously.
For ballet dancers and opera singers, the stages of one's professional life are also broken down into three primary phases.
- When they are young and healthy, their strength and flexibility often allow them to perform impressive acrobatic tricks with their body and voice.
- Midway through their career, they are likely to have achieved significant success while learning how to pace their performance, discipline their talent, and demonstrate greater depth as they communicate their art to audiences.
- Eventually, most reach a stage where the body (or voice) no longer has the same stamina or agility as before. Some opera singers (Leonie Rysanek, Placido Domingo, Martha Mödl) have been able to transition into performing character roles or tackling repertoire written for a lower vocal range than their original 'fach.' Whether or not their physical decline may be due to injuries, the irony is that this transition usually occurs as they reach their peak as interpretive artists and have finally learned how to make the most of their skills. At this point, some move into teaching, directing, and giving master classes in order to share their knowledge with a younger generation. Others may retire or move into a completely different profession.
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Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome captures the youthful ebullience and concerned worries of students graduating from the Akkol Bolshoi orphanage as they embark upon adult life. The orphanage is located near the satellite field that communicates with rockets launched from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome as they head toward the International Space Station. Over the course of two summers, the documentary follows nine 16-year-old teenagers as they participate in writing, video and photographic workshops led by Lydia Matthews, Lyazzat Khanim, and Jeanne C. Finley.Using scientific and fictional images of space travel as a metaphor, the group discusses their dreams, articulates potential challenges, and identifies those aspects of Kazakh folk culture they hope to take with them as they transition into their new universe. As their mentors explain:
“We engaged students to imagine (through images and stories) their journeys upon graduating from the orphanage. Rockets launched overhead from the nearby Cosmodrome inspire their dreams as they write about and perform their imagined future selves. Guided by the nomadic spirit and natural beauty of the Steppes, the teens explore questions of time and truth in relation to the challenging reality of their lives. By interweaving ideas from space exploration, traditional Kazakh literature, and global popular culture as well as their own personal desires and interests, we challenge the students to write about the skills that will empower them as they enter Kazakh society with little or no support. Traditional Kazakh culture, global popular iconography, and space travel are infused throughout their performances and imaginatively used as protective talismans on their journey into an uncertain adulthood. The students then playfully perform their imagined future selves, collaboratively staging photographic self-portraits with simple objects (a rock, a cell phone, a scarf found at the orphanage) that capture the stories they had begun to write.”
The documentary features a haunting original score composed, written, and performed by Portland Threshold Choir Director, Kri Schlafer, with lyrics drawn directly from the teenagers' writings (the Threshold Choir is "a growing international community of choirs on call to sing with, and for, those embarking on significant life changes ranging from birth to death and all thresholds in between"). In her Director's Statement, Finley explains that:
“Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome developed into a full-length documentary on what felt like its own volition. The realities of life for orphans and displaced children is far more complicated and challenging than generally described. It always begins with loss. There is no single story or solution than can summarize or solve this complexity. Through the development of creative imagination, each child’s story and situation must be considered individually, not as policy, in order to address the core of their trauma.”
“As an adoptive mother of a Kazakh son, I intend for viewers to part from this film with a newfound understanding about the complications created by disrupted childhoods and the subsequent journeys into orphanages, foster care, and adoption. The 16-year-olds aging out of the Akkol orphanage were prompted to tell their stories through writing and recorded performances. Their handwritten answers ranged from the feasible to the fantastic. Journeys is an homage to, and an extension of the work that these teenagers created.”
In addition to the human element, the glory and magnificence of the night sky as depicted in Journeys Beyond The Cosmodrome are reason enough to watch this hour-long documentary. Here's the trailer:
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Heading into early adulthood, a fictional film written and directed by Levan Akin entitled And Then We Danced follows a young folk dancer named Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani) who, together with his dance partner since childhood, Mary (Ana Javakishvili), has been studying with the Georgian National Ensemble. One day a new man enters the dance studio, eager to audition for a spot on the company's upcoming tour. |
| Poster art for And Then We Danced |
Having left his home and girlfriend in Batumi, Irakli (Bachi Valishvili) proves to be a gifted dancer who easily socializes with other members of the company. Though Merab at first feels threatened by Irakli's talent, as the two young men start to bond, Irakli becomes closer to Merab than Merab's drunken, irresponsible brother, David (Giorgi Tsereteli). Despite their poverty, vodka keeps flowing until the two men lose their inhibitions. Their initial passion and tentative steps toward self discovery lead to a kind of puppy love until Irakli suddenly disappears, leaving Merab with a gaping hole in his life.
When David impulsively marries a young woman from a rich family as a means of escaping from poverty, Irakli returns to Tbilisi just in time to attend the wedding. During their brief reunion, Irakli confesses to Merab that, while back home in Batumi caring for his dying father, he married his former girlfriend.
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| Bachi Valishvili (Irakli) and Levan Gelbakhiani (Merab) in a scene from And Then We Danced |
Akin claims that his film was inspired by a May 2013 news clip in which several dozen young people were marching in a Pride parade in Tbilisi while there was a counter-demonstration by the Georgian Orthodox Church and some far-right protesters. “The images I saw on the news just stuck with me. The people marching in the Pride parade hid in a little bus, which was literally torn apart by the mob. It looked like a proper zombie movie. Since I’m of Georgian origin, I felt the urge to make a film about being gay and young in Georgia,” he recalls. “Georgia used to be tolerant towards minorities, religions, etc., but there is now a big movement saying that to be a true Georgian you have to be an Orthodox Christian. The young generation hates the traditional dance and music that represents the oppressive patriarchal society they don’t want to be a part of.”
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| Levan Gelbakhiani (Merab) and Bachi Valishvili (Irakli) are among the young performers in And Then We Danced |
In addition to some rich cinematography, And Then We Danced does a beautiful job of capturing the first awareness of a same sex attraction between its two male leads. Nevertheless, Akin faced some stiff challenges in transforming his idea into reality. As he stresses:
“We shot this film guerrilla-style. I found Levan on Instagram while researching about the situation in Georgia. He’s a typical dancer (very hard with himself), but I knew he would be amazing onscreen. We worked with the cast in a neo-realistic way, filming real people in their environment. An actor has the tools to bring things out and take them back, but Levan didn’t have that privilege and lived a lot of scenes. For a period of three months, I followed him in his small grocery shop and the restaurant where he works (which actually stayed open while we were filming). It was hard for him. What you see is very real, which is why he is wonderful.”
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| Levan Gelbakhiani stars as Merab in And Then We Danced |
“When rumors about some of our themes got out, we received threats and decided to get bodyguards. Had people really known what we shot, we would have been thrown out! I’m sure Russia sees this film as a piece of EU propaganda because it’s damned interesting and political as hell. We got amazing support from people on Instagram.”
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| Bachi Valishvili is Irakli in And Then We Danced |
Finding financial support proved to be another challenge for Akin, who managed to get some funding from the Swedish Film Institute but got absolutely no cooperation from the Georgian arts community. Nevertheless, he has managed to create an extremely poignant film which benefits from some beautiful cameo appearances, especially Marika Gogichaishvili's tender portrayal of Merab's Grandma Nona and Kakha Gogidze's characterization of Aleko, the ensemble's dance teacher and disciplinarian.
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| Levan Gelbakhiani stars as Merab in And Then We Danced |
"Levan Gelbakhiani gets perhaps 400 messages a day, but unfortunately a lot are hate messages. They are actually calling me Satan on some of Georgia’s social media, so I must have done something right!" says the filmmaker. Here's the trailer:
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The final stop on the journey to old age is Pedro Almodovar's latest film, Pain and Glory, in which Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is an aging, depressed filmmaker, tortured by a constellation of physical ailments, who revisits the past in his dreams, on paper, and in real time. |
| Antonio Banderas stars as Salvador in Pain and Glory |
True to Almodovar's gift for creating memorable female characters, Pain and Glory delivers magnificent performances by Penélope Cruz as Salvador's mother in the 1960s (when he was a young boy), Julieta Serrano as the aged and dying Jacinta, and Nora Navas as Salvador’s sister, Mercedes.
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| Penélope Cruz portrays Salvador's mother, Jacinta, when he was a young boy in Pain and Glory |
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| Salvador (Antonio Banderas) visits with his aging mother, Jacinta (Julieta Serrano), in a scene from Pain and Glory |
Unlike Almodovar's brilliant comedies, his newest film takes a serious look at an artist in decline who is painfully aware of his growing decrepitude and a desire to mend his relationships with two men from an earlier stage in his life. These include his former lover, Federico (Leonardo Sbaraglia), and the actor, Alberto Crespo (Asier Etxeandia), who starred in Salvador's hit film, Sabor.
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| Alberto (Asier Etxeandia) and Salvador (Antonio Banderas) are reunited after 32 years of silence in Pain and Glory |
With his physical condition preventing him from making another film, Salvador finds a therapeutic outlet in writing about his past. A monologue he has written entitled The Addiction describes his passionate affair with a man during the 1980s and explains why they separated. In a magnificent plot twist, Salvador gives this monologue to Alberto as a gift, insisting that his name not appear as the author but that Alberto take full credit for creating the piece. As Alberto performs The Addiction in a small theatre in Madrid, an older man in the audience recognizes his own story being acted out in front of him.
Thirty years after moving to South America, Federico pays a visit to Salvador in the kind of warm and tender scene between older gay men that people rarely have a chance to witness onscreen or in real life.
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| Former lovers Federico (Leonardo Sbaraglia) and Salvador (Antonio Banderas) are reunited in a scene from Pain and Glory |
A memory of his childhood desire for Eduardo (César Vicente) -- the handsome laborer and aspiring artist who painted a portrait of the nine-year-old Salvador (Asier Flores) -- comes to light through another intriguing plot twist that is crafted and shot with the kind of loving innocence and naive beauty that a mature artist like Almodovar knows exactly how to frame.
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| Eduardo (César Vicente) is a laborer whose physical beauty stirs the first homoerotic desires in young Salvador’s mind |
Although critics and fans who have rapturously followed Almodovar's career might seek to catch any references to his previous films, the truth might surprise them. As the filmmaker notes:
“If you write about a director (and your work consists of directing films) it’s impossible not to think of yourself and not take your experiences as a reference. My house is the house where Antonio’s character lives. This is the most autobiographical aspect of the film and it turned out to be very comfortable for the crew. As a matter of fact, [cinematographer] José Luis Alcaine came to the house several times to see the light at different hours of the day, so as to reproduce it later in the studio. The furniture in the kitchen (as well as the rest of the furnishings and the paintings that hang on its walls) are mine or have been reproduced for this occasion. We tried to make Antonio’s image, especially his hair, look like mine. The shoes and many of the clothes also belong to me, as do the colors of his clothing. When there was some corner to fill on the set, the art director sent his assistant to my house to get some of the many objects with which I live.”
“Antonio is one of the actors who is best at listening to and looking at his companions in a shot, but on this occasion the fire in his eyes comes from deeper. All of us who witnessed his performance, day by day, were moved. He has chosen, with me by the hand, the opposite attitude to that which characterizes his most important work because the spirit of his character is opposite to the bravura of the characters he has played to date. Profound, subtle, with a very varied gallery of minute gestures, he has pulled off a very difficult character, full of risks. In my opinion, this film marks his rebirth as an actor and the start of a new era.”
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| Salvador (Antonio Banderas) stands before a painting of him as a nine-year-old boy in a scene from Pain and Glory |
Because so much magnificent work has gone into the writing, directing, and acting in Pain and Glory, it's best for me to refrain from giving away any spoilers. This film is a stunning achievement by a cinematic master at the top of his game, the kind of film in which the creative sum is far greater than any and all of its parts. Here's the trailer:
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