Episode 234 — Prelude To A Kiss

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

Here's a clip from the Tony Awards performance.

I haven't ever seen this play in full, but from this I can see why it would work much better on stage. The narration is a direct address to the audience, giving the whole story the feeling of a flashback/memory in the first place (which helps the weird story structure make more sense). In the movie the voice-over narration feels more real-time. It also helps that on stage you just have pieces of furniture placed to give a suggestion of the location, with lighting to only highlight the most important part of the stage and the rest sitting in a kind of blackness. The movie is very flatly lit with fully-dressed sets or locations, which hurts your focus on the characters. The quick, stilted line delivery plays as self-conscious comedy here, but feels terribly serious in the movie.

Seems like the theater director didn't really understand how to make the magical realism translate to cinematic language. And yeah, Meg Ryan was probably wrong for the part. You need someone who suggests a kind of darkness or unhappiness from the beginning, not a bubbly persona like Ryan's.

[TrueBreenius 38]

After thinking about it for a while, I think it would be more affecting if Rita stayed in the old man's body but Peter continued to love and support her in that form. People with AIDS don't get the disease because they desire it, and it can't be cured by wanting it hard enough. I personally believe that the mechanics of body switching in this work muddles the AIDS metaphor. 

[DannytheWall 196]

4 hours ago, sycasey 2.0 said:

I haven't ever seen this play in full, but from this I can see why it would work much better on stage.

You notice that too huh?  This movie is a case study for the differences between stage and film as different mediums.  That being said, I'm sure there is a director that could make it work. The movie is often described as a fairty tale or magical realism as you've noted. It would probably have to be with some more expressionistic style or willingness to break out of the traditional objective camera. Michel Gondry comes to mind (Eternal Sunshine/The Science of Sleep). Anyone else come to mind? 

Revisiting this movie made me dig out my notes of the play script. There's two quotes at the very beginning, before the Act One proper. 

Quote

Then the king's daughter began to weep
and was afraid of the cold frog,
whom nothing would satisfy
but he must sleep
in her pretty clean bed.
-- The Brothers Grimm,
The Frog Prince

Death destroys a man,
but the idea of death is
what saves him.
-- E.M. Forster
Howard's End

The way I directed the play was to start with a thematic monologue featuring snippets of dialogue, especially the "who is this woman I married" kind. Leaning in to the flashback/memory structure you mention. Then we started in the Boyle home with the wedding prep and we see Rita and Peter in love, playful. Next, the wedding, the kiss, and the first part of the honeymoon-- the strangeness. Then Peter has another aside, which lets us flashback all the way to the beginning and their first meeting, falling in love, meeting the parents. We return to the second part of the honeymoon as the audience realizes with Peter that something isn't right. It's the height of tension on the beach when he's left alone and that's the end of Act 1. The rest of Act 2 plays out linearly.   

Another benefit to this was that the audience anticipated the Old Man's return, and there was suspence and surprise heightened accordingly. When we rehearsed, however, we focused first on the Peter and Rita relationships, with the actor for the Old Man sitting in so that he could mimic her movements and etc when swapped. Likewise, we devised scenes for the Old Man so the actor for Rita could observe him and add mannerisms. 

 

[DannytheWall 196]

Okay, last thing. (Sorry, fell down a rabbit hole.) 

Prelude to a Kiss in 1992 wasn't only capitalizing on Meg Ryan stardom or the trend for rom-coms at the time. There seemed to be an equal trend of adapting plays into movies in the early/mid 90s.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (1990) 
A Few Good Men by Aaron Sorkin (1992) 
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet (1992)
A Bronx Tale by Chazz Palminteri (1993) 
Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin (1993)
Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon (1993)
Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare (1993) 
Bar Girls by Lauran Hoffman (1994)
The Madness of King George (1994)
The Browning Version by Terence Rattigan (1994)
American Buffalo by David Mamet (1996) 
Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill (1996) 
The Crucible by Arthur Miller (1996) 

Plus a SLEW of Shakespeare remakes-- 
from 10 Things I Hate About You, She's the Man, and even the Lion King 
to pretty much everything by Branaugh or Kevin Kline   

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

7 hours ago, DannytheWall said:

You notice that too huh?  This movie is a case study for the differences between stage and film as different mediums.  That being said, I'm sure there is a director that could make it work. The movie is often described as a fairty tale or magical realism as you've noted. It would probably have to be with some more expressionistic style or willingness to break out of the traditional objective camera. Michel Gondry comes to mind (Eternal Sunshine/The Science of Sleep). Anyone else come to mind? 

There also isn't necessarily a reason Baldwin's narration had to be in voice-over. You could still easily have him talk to the camera. It seems like they tried (for some reason) to make the movie play as straight naturalism and not magical realism, right up until the body swap occurs. Kind of baffling. I mean, John freaking Hughes did it, so it's not like audiences wouldn't have ever seen that before.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

On 2/28/2020 at 11:23 AM, grudlian. said:

The least realistic thing in the movie is that the guy can just start styling Meg Ryan's hair after looking at pictures of her. One can learn Alec Baldwin likes Molson or spaetzle from a diary. But I definitely wouldn't just pick up how to style hair unless it was something simple like a pony tail or a simple braid.

What if he was a hairstylist?

[Cam Bert 8145]

So I was unable to find this movie online anywhere or to rent or buy reasonably BUT I did listen to the episode. Much like my fellow country men as a Canadian who happens to live in Japan I feel I must chime in on Molson's and Kirin.

As far as my knowledge goes their is nothing literally linking these two combines. The first Japanese beer that was imported to America I believe was Sapporo beer in the early mid eighties. While Kirin, Asahi and Sapporo are all available in America more easily now, these beers are actually no longer imported. They are now manufactured and brewed in the United States. In 1996 Anheuser-Busch took over producing Kirin for the American market. In the early 2000s Coors and Molson merged with Coors, so the two brands don't even share a American based manufacture. However, what both these beers have in common is being the generic go to beer. As mentioned in Canada you have Molson's and Labatt's and those are the big two. No matter where you go in Canada you'll find them. They aren't the best but they are the go to standard lager beer. I don't think my grandparents every bought anything else. They had their one brand and they knew what they were getting and it was affordable. Similarly Japan you basically have Kirin or Asahi. Easily a good 95% of restaurants are going to have Kirin or Asahi. They are the big two and the standard go to lager beer. Yes there are other national brands like Sleeman's or Sapporo that you can get and aren't that rare but you have the classic big two. In that sense yes there is a spiritual connection between Molson's and Kirin, but no actual connection.

For beer fans wanting to try a good Japanese beer that is often imported, see if you can track down Hitachino or Minoh beer(their stout is excellent). There are technically better ones but not sure of their availability.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

I feel like maybe this is a metaphor for depression or mental illness on the Meg Ryan half. Meg Ryan is clearly depressed or at least suffering from extreme anxiety. No one who is mentally well on their wedding day is going to be wishing to be an old man with most of his life past him because she "fears life". What exactly is there for Rita to fear? She has a very good life. Logically she has nothing to be scared of. I have both depression and anxiety. I get it. I often fear things that make no sense. So I can understand fearing everything going forward even though everything is ok.  However I see a therapist and I'm on medication. I would never get married if I was feeling like that. I'd be in back to back sessions and uping my Cymbalta.

I kind of even see the "losing his wife to a stranger" as a metaphor for mental illness and a depressive episode. The people in your life do lose you. You become a stranger and in a way you "go away" .  

[gigi-tastic 2322]

On 2/29/2020 at 8:40 AM, skoll said:

As a listener from a Canadian border state (Michigan), Molson and Labatt are ubiquitous throughout our stores, are considered domestic beers in bars and are official beers of sports teams.  It wasn't until I traveled elsewhere that I realized Molson and Labatt are not standard light beers that everyone knows about. 

As a fellow Michigan resident I didn't realize it until this episode