Sep

24

Book ‘Em: You Say You Want A Revolution.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

September 24, 2007 |

Before she was known for directing the stage production of Disney’s The Lion King, Julie Taymor was known for her work with experimental theater, particularly puppets. Naturally she was known to a much smaller crowd; no doubt when she was asked to stage The Lion King a lot of people scratched their heads and said, “Julie who?” while a few scratched their heads and said, “How the heck did Disney find out about Julie Taymor?” As Edward Rothstein said in a 2005 Smithsonian article, though, Taymor “is really a shaman of sorts. She has the ability to move between worlds, pass across borders, descend into darkness and reemerge with promises of transformation.”

And transformation is something she does amazingly well: she specialized in stage productions, especially puppetry, long before Disney approached her; she’s done an acclaimed filmed stage version of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (which, by the way, is amazing); a video release of Shakespeare’s The Tempest featuring Avery Brooks from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Caliban, and, for PBS, an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s story Hop Frog. Titled Fool’s Fire, this short film is sadly not available anywhere, having never been formally released on either VHS or DVD. It looks absolutely amazing from the brief glimpses I’ve seen. That brings me to Eileen Blumenthal’s book Playing With Fire, which has actually just been released in a third edition. Since the first edition was published in 1995, Taymor has continued adding to her long list of extraordinary accomplishments, including directing Anthony Hopkins in the film Titus, as well as directing one of my favorite movies, Frida. I went into Frida expecting a standard biopic. In my humble opinion biopics tend to emphasize the events of a famous person’s life–who they slept with, who they married, significant turning points–and ignore whatever they did that makes them worth remembering in the first place. While Taymor’s film was about the life of artist Frida Kahlo (played by Salma Hayek), her work has a prominent place: it’s often used to bridge transitional moments or reveal Kahlo’s inner feelings. In other words it was a great tribute to a great artist.

Taymor’s latest film is Across The Universe which, from the trailer (see below) appears to be just as visually striking as her other work, but also to have the same serious, emotional depth. As I always do I’ve tried to avoid learning anything about the film so I can go into it with an open mind, but it is set in the 1960’s with, apparently, an elaborate soundtrack by the Beatles. This would seem to be revisiting old territory; as a teenager in the late ’80s and early 90’s I remember when the 60’s were hip, presented to us as an idyllic time when everybody wore tie-dyed shirts. A guy I went to college with spent at least three days every week wearing a t-shirt that said, “If you remember the 60’s YOU WEREN’T THERE!” Now the 60’s would seem to be passé; to do a film set in that period about student protests and draft dodging would seem as doubly-retro as a remake of Hair. And yet we shouldn’t overlook the fact that now, perhaps more than ever, we need a revolution. We need our world to change. Art is one way for that change to begin, and there are few artists more qualified than Julie Taymor to transform our world for the better.


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