The Collaborators and PCVO Moderne Talen at Kinepolis - 1 December 2011


CollaboratorsLast week 11 students of the PCVO-course English attended Collaborators, a new play by John Hodge, performed in the National Theatre (London), and broadcast to cinemas across the UK and around the world on 1 December 2011.

The plot: Moscow, 1938. Mikhail Bulgakov, living among dissidents, stalked by secret police is offered a poisoned chalice: a commission to write a play about Stalin to celebrate his sixtieth birthday.

Inspired by historical fact, Collaborators embarks on a surreal journey into the fevered imagination of Bulgakov as he loses himself in a macabre and disturbingly funny relationship with the omnipotent Stalin.

Says the latter at the end: “Killing my enemies is easy. The challenge is to change the way they think, to control their minds. And I think I controlled yours pretty well. In years to come, I’ll be able to say: Bulgakov? Yeah, we even trained him. He gave up. He saw the light. We broke him, we can break anybody. It’s man versus monster, Mikhail.”.

John Hodge’s play is pervaded with the same surrealism as the novels of Bulgakov, especially his masterpiece, The Master and Margherita, a critique of Soviet society and its literary establishment. Bulgakov finished this novel in 1939. He had to rewrite it from memory after he burned the draft manuscript out of fear. It was only published in 1966, 13 years after the death of Stalin, once his protector.

Hodge’s blistering play depicts a lethal game of cat and mouse through which the appalling compromises and humiliations inflicted on any artist by those with power are held up to scrutiny.

With Collaborators Hodge and the actors honor Bulgakov, one of the most important writers of the 20th century, with dignity, humor and sensitivity.

We watched the play at Kinepolis, Hasselt and will be back for more!

Mieke Van Haegendoren

 

The wings of the dove - Wednesday 26 October 2011

Wednesday 26 October 2011 we went to the film “The wings of the dove”.
The film is set in 1910 after the in 1902 by Henry James written novel with the same name.
It is a story of love, friendship and richness.
Kate, a descendant of a wealthy family, is in love with a penniless journalist Merton Densher. She also becomes befriend with an American heiress Millie, who is interested in Merton. After Kate had heard Millie is ill, she convinced Merton to start a romance with the dying Millie....
Putting it this way you may gather that it is (again) one of the many romantic films. But it isn’t, absolutely not.
Perhaps you may easily forget the story but the issues of film will stuck in the memory.
This is not only the merit of the director Iain Softley who, by filming the story like an outsider without moral statements, forces the viewer to reflect on the morality of Kate’s plan.
The contribution of the actors, wearing splendid costumes, is also very important. The way they enter into their part gets the viewer involved in the story and the problems of the characters.
Moreover the story is filmed with outstanding cinematic techniques in elaborated decors in London as well as in Venice. In this way the film generates a good picture of the way of living in the beginning of the 20th century with a huge difference between the rich and the poor.
And last but not least, the English the actors speak is very beautiful.
In all it was pleasant to watch this movie with psychological background but without violence or aggression.
 
Hilde Vangeel & Johan Theunis