I finally watched the last episode of The Sopranos and HBO's filmed version of Wit.
TS: I still find the violence unsettling. This episode switches between (among others) middle class dinner parties and scenes at the strip join (Bada Bing Club?) where the men "get their axles greased" with the strippers in the VIP room. The one scene where a stripper is beat to death by Ralphie almost made me stop watching. The dinner scenes were filmed in dark light, giving the psychological feel of demons munching over the bones of their victims. That the women were somehow removed from their husbands other lives didn't lessen, but rather heightened the overall darkness of these people.
W: Emma Thompson and Mike Nichols wrote the screenplay. Nichols directed. Thompson starred as the John Donne scholar undergoing massive chemotherapy for stage four ovarian cancer. As her character says, "there is no stage 5."
This play affected me deeply. I have a friend in similar circumstances and by the ending I was sobbing, something I rarely do with a movie.
Thompson as always is a delight to watch. She plays intelligent, strong characters well. The only role I ever found fault in was when she was in a yuppie film (Peter's Friends?). For me, she could read the phone book. Eileen Atkins is excellent as her mentor. It was the scene where she visits her at the end that did it for me. The kid doctor was also fine, particularly in the scene where he tells Thompson about his passion for cancer research. Suddenly he is one scholar talking the language to another. She respects that, while recognizing the tension or paradox between his passion and her riddled body. Audra McDonald (wonderful Broadway Diva) is the fine as the nurse who looks out for her patient.
