8
theconcordian
JANUARY 31, 2017
OPERA
Dialogues des Carmélites: finding courage Francis Poulenc's opera tells a tragic story of finding your vocation
Blanche, who is afraid of fear, decides to become a nun in an effort to find a place where she feels safe.Photos by Yves Renaud.
TIFFANY LAFLEUR ARTS EDITOR When it comes down to it, Dialogues des Carmélites is a story of fear. Fear of living, fear of death, fear of fear. Written by Francis Poulenc in 1956, Dialogues des Carmélites
is set in France in 1789 and is a fictionalised tale of the Carmélite nuns, who were guillotined in 1794 in the final days of the French Revolution for refusing to renounce their vocation. This first opera of the new year stars an all-Canadian cast, and tells the story of Blanche (Marianne Fiset), a young, skittish woman afraid of everything. Her fear is so great that she decides to become a nun, in order to find some peace and a place where she can feel safe from her irrational fear of the world. There, she meets the ailing Madame de Croissy (Mia Lennox), the prioress, who accepts her into the Carmelite convent in Compiègne. Blanche soon realizes that even the convent cannot totally be an escape for her fears. The political turmoil in France soon spills over into her safe, secluded refuge, which is threatened by revolutionaries who wish to dispose of the Church in order to found a new France. Blanche and her fellow nuns are labeled anti-revolutionists and are sentenced to death. One of the striking aspects of the opera is the almost complete lack of props or decor. The stage was largely barren, with only a handful of chairs to break up the empty space as the actors walked around. Long, white curtains acted as dividers and makeshift walls. This simplistic decor accomplished two things. It contrasted with Blanche’s fear of the world, a fear of fear rather than a concrete fear of a thing. The empty space emphasized that these fears were from Blanche, and
not from any outside agents. Secondly, this minimalistic decor heightened the drama, as the stage was stripped clean of any distractions. With several intense, emotional scenes, the lack of decor and props ensured that the audience’s full attention remained on the characters. As this was a largely dialogue-driven story, the limited decor heightened the dramatic elements, such as Madame de Croissy’s fear of death, evident as she writhed in pain and absolute agony before finally passing away, next to a shaken Blanche who bore witness. The tension climaxes in the final scene, when the nuns are persecuted and sentenced to death by guillotine. The nuns, standing on a dark stage with spotlights shining on each of them, begin to sing. One by one, the guttural sound of the guillotine marks the death of a nun, and one by one, the spotlights are extinguished, until none are left standing except Blanche, who continues to sing alone, until her light is extinguished as well. Dialogues des Carmélites’s minimalistic decor emphasized the fear, dread and courage felt by the nuns facing prosecution. Blanche carries the story through with her evolving relationship with her fears. What began as a fear of fear evolved into a fear of death, and an acceptance of her martyrdom in order to defend her vocation. öö Dialogues des Carmélites will be shown at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts on Feb. 2 and 4. Ticket prices range from $56 to $150.
FILM
The secret behind the best directors working today Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins are at the forefront of a new movement of visceral films MATTHEW COYTE STAFF WRITER Modern cinema has brought us so many films with too many cuts that make the action on screen nearly undecipherable. There are exceptions, but it is almost always a detriment, with many films using heavy editing as a lazy form of movie-making. In contrast to this trend, Quebec-born Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins have been breaking away from the familiar by lingering on shots and not overly editing their films. As Deakins said himself when discussing Sicario in a Deadline.com interview, "We built the tension by holding the shots a lot longer then somebody else might." The success of his films, and those with a similar approach such as The Revenant, prove there is a place for films that dive into an unflinching, realistic and unrelenting style. Villeneuve truly broke out into the mainstream back in 2013 with the release of his film Prisoners. The film depicts the lengths a father will go to in order to find his missing daughter, and the strain of such an experience. In short, the movie is emotionally draining. Prisoners was Villeneuve’s first real chance to prove himself in Hollywood, and he expertly handled the pressure of a demanding story, while working alongside some of the best
established actors. Audiences were drawn in by the story, the eerie tone and the devastatingly vulnerable performances of Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. The beautiful, dark, long, steady shots that compose the cinematography are an essential part of the film’s haunting mood. The first scene sets the tone not only for Prisoners, but for every subsequent Villeneuve project. We open with a shot of the woods. A deer walks into the frame. The camera pans out to show two hunters. One utters a prayer and fires. The deer falls. This one shot sets the bar for the rest of the film. This type of brutal honesty has been lacking from the silver screen recently. Villeneuve brings it back in a big way, thanks to breathtaking cinematography. Every shot in his recent films are masterfully composed. Every scene has a purpose. Enter cinematographer Deakins, a 12-time Academy Award nominee, who has worked on classic films like The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo and The Big Lebowski. Deakins was the reason actors Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro accepted roles in Sicario, they said in an interview with entertainment news site Collider. Brolin, Del Toro and Emily Blunt, who also worked on Sicario, expressed their respect for the established cinematographer and his legendary status
in the filmmaking community, in the same interview. His more recent films include successes like Skyfall and No Country For Old Men. His works never fail to instill a sense of dread and unease in the audience. Villeneuve has been at the forefront of a new movement in Hollywood of creating truly personal films with mainstream entertainment value. His passion for the
medium of visual storytelling is unique in this age of blockbuster, mind-numbing nonsense. Combine that with the genius of methodological and experienced cinematographer Deakins, and the audience is left with a unique film experience that creeps into the very soul. Their films are reviving a genre of intense and visceral movies, and this revival can only have a positive effect on filmmaking.
Denis Villeneuve has had a stream of successes on the silver screen after the release of his 2013 film Prisoners.