The Cherry Orchard
directed by Michael Cacoyannis
starring Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates, Katrin Cartlidge, Tushka Bergen, Andrew Howard, Melanie Lynskey, Xander Berkeley...

As we are getting closer and closer to the release of Michael Cacoyannis' adaptation of The Cherry Orchard I decided to re-design the page I have been writing about the film. Most of what I'll write will be derived either from my reading of the original play or from what I know of the cast as it is presented at IMDB. I would also like to thank Karen Rappaport from the Alan Bates Files for all the info she has been providing me, and for the photograph from Alan Bates below.

Rumour has it that...

The Cherry Orchard may be part of the London Film Festival. All remains unconfirmed, of course.
Amazing however how abundant these rumours can be. I've been thinking of starting one of those myself and then put the blame on whoever. Like Melanie Lynskey is to be playing the lead in an incredibly good film where she keeps her NZ accent. The film is both touching and funny, clever yet unpretentious, with a tremendously good script served by astonishingly great camerawork, and wonderful acting. The shooting is to take place either near Lyon, France, or somewhere in England, depending on where I am staying next year.

The story

Russia, late nineteenth century. The play opens as the old Ranyevskaya is coming home from Paris where she has been dilapidating the family fortune. As a result the household is forced to sell the cherry orchard (which is also the pride of the province) and have it chopped down - or lose everything. The play focuses on the reunion of loved ones, but also on the coming home to the sacralized place where the past is honored, only to be given up.

The cast

From left to right: Alan Bates, Katrin Cartlidge, Tushka Bergen, Mel!, Xander Berkeley
And if the IMDB is correct, they should be playing Gayev, Varya, Anya, Dunyasha, and Yepikhodov.

The characters

Ranyevskaya (Charlotte Rampling)

The whole story revolves around her (no I was not going to type her name one more time). She comes across as a bit of a crank who has chosen to have her life led by passion rather than convention. Problem is, that has put herself and her family (originally rich Russian land owners) in a rather difficult position, financially speaking at least. That is none of her concern however, as she insists in only seeing the sweet nostalgia of coming home.

Gayev (Alan Bates - who had already worked with Cacoyannis on Zorba the Greek)

Ranyevskaya's brother (I did write her name after all. Ah, the joys of Russian spelling...). He is about her age, though probably a bit younger, and stayed at home, thus witnessing the family bankrupcy. Idealistic as he may be, he proves less blindfolded than his sister as he realizes the threat looming over the family orchard. He'd virtually do anything to keep it, and is desperately clinging to every possible hope. Oh, and he also has a tendency to lyricism which frequently drives him to tears.

Varya (Katrin Cartlidge)

Sensible and even rigid, she is the 24-year-old foster daughter of Ranyevskaya (this spelling-thing is just a matter of habit, I assure you) and has remained home, like Gayev. She is struggling to bring her foster mother to reality: they are broke and have to sell the family orchard. It's either that or lose everything. Apart from that, she is also in love with Lopakhin, which is kind of ironic as he is the prospective buyer of the cherry orchard. Actually, marriage would be the best option for her and her foster family, but though the feelings seem to be mutual and nearly legitimate, he has never proposed...

Anya (Tushka Bergen)

Ranyevskaya's 17-year-old daughter and Mel's serious competition as I see it (sure Mel plays the cute housemaid, but Tushka plays the 17-year-old daughter of the house. And she isn't ugly, either). She is coming home from Paris with her mother as the relatively spoiled brat of a ruined family.

Trofimov (Andrew Howard)

A student, he is Anya's sweetheart (told you she was Mel's rival! Oh you don't know Andrew Howard is Mel's boyfriend. Well he is. Well, at least was when I wrote this), though Varya strongly disapproves of the relationship and of Trofimov as a whole. Andrew Howard also plays the only male character Melanie's age who is not after her. And Andrew ended up getting Mel. Well done.

Dunyasha (Melanie Lynskey)

At very long last! (thinks the near-to-depression fan) Well I didn't mention Mel's character earlier because it isn't crucial to the play, it doesn't make any move, nor brings any change to the situation (no I didn't mean to say she was part of the furniture!), but she does have quite a lot of scenes (all characters have approximately the same number of lines, actually), and you'll be glad to know that the play opens with her on stage, sided by Lopakhin. Now I just hope Michael Cacoyannis didn't change that...
Now, as far as her character goes: Dunyasha is the housemaid, and a pretty clumsy one, too, which makes for some really funny scenes (actually her character somewhat reminds me of her Jacqueline in Ever After. Though just in some ways, of course). She also appeals to quite a number of males around, and has several suitors striving to win her favours - she however defines herself as a romantic girl waiting for true love and who'll only be touched by the appropriate discourse as spoken by he who has the key not to the Fourth World, but to something like her inner self (I'll leave you to imagine the consequences).
And jus to share a weird thing: the second time I read the play Dunyasha's character was circled in green in the list of the cast. Life seems to be very strange indeed.
More stuff: I wouldn't want to be revealing too much, but Mel's character is supposed to dance at the beginning of Act 3. Stars twinkle above, and you almost can touch them from here...

[And now, time for a whole The-Barber-Of-Siberia digression:
There is of course the Russia-connection, but the funny part is that the housemaid in the film is also called Dunyasha! I'm still wondering whether it's a reference to Chekhov or just a typical name for housemaids. And now getting to the personal, uninteresting stuff (and I mean it!!!!!): several sequences were shot in Sesimbra, Portugal (hurray! That's close to Lisbon! Yeah! Go! Actually films get shot in Portugal because of the low production costs there... If only we weren't such a poor conutry as compared to the rest of Europe... Anyway), and a girl I knew from highschool (Maria Makhanko, please forgive any mispelling...) worked on the crew! I bet she worked as a translator, I mean she does speak French, Portuguese, Russian, and English... Which makes me think, maybe this might be my ticket into the film industry. Languages, that is. Hmmmm. I'll think about it. Anyway, Maria wanted to be a director and Nikita Mikhalkov was her god, so I suppose it must have been a dream come true for her. Too bad I lost her contact.
Well, that was it for The Barber of Siberia! (All Titanic & Doctor Zhivago lovers can go see this with their eyes shut... So to speak... Oh, and those who liked the uniforms in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet)]

Back to The Cherry orchard:

Yepihodov (Xander Berkeley)

The family accountant, and some accountant, knowing the incredible debts that are swamping Ranyevskaya and her relatives. He is also desperately in love with Dunyasha (that's Mel!), and is in that the dignified heir/predecessor (depending on how you look at it) of Jed Brophy 's John-that-idiot-boarder, and if I were a spoiler I would tell you that his attempts at seducing Mel are just as ill-fated. And just to give an extra spin to the merry-go-round of references, connections, and recurrent characters, Yepikhodov has to remind you of Shallow Grave's David. A chartered accountant he may be, but at least he tries hard. The point is, I don't think you're even trying. And then from Shallow Grave to Jude (following the red-brick road), Christopher Eccleston meets yet another escape from Borovnia, Kate Winslet. Ah, the joys of obsession. Soon enough we'll be saying that there is a relation between all this and Twelfth Night (why Malvolio! Of course! It's so obvious!)

Lopakhin

The son of mujiks (ie Russian peasants), he has become a rich man while Ranyevskaya's family was getting poorer. The prospect of buying the cherry orchard and the whole of the land feels awkward to him, as this was the place he was not even allowed into as a young boy, and where his grandparents worked as servants. The possibility of his marrying Varya, also of working-class origin but adopted by Ranyevskaya, makes it all the more queer as the order of things is definitely changing. His character is often opposed to that of Trofimov in the play, as Lopakhin obviously suffers from an inferiority complex towards anyone who has come close to a school - I'm not sure I share Chekhov's views on class, though.

Comments on the play, the film, the cast, Mel's career, etc

Funny how re-reading the play I realize the Russian melancholia is much like the Portuguese too-quoted-by-foreigners-for-my-taste saudade or fado or whatever it's called. That tendency to always look back at the remembrance of things past and never move forward, being as one is much too self-absorbed in one's lamentations and nostalgia. Well, I criticize it but I do it as well.

This is Chekhov's last play, as he died a few months after the Russian premiere , and indeed not only his concerns in The Cherry Orchard are definitely those of a dying man - I wouldn't be surprised if he saw himself as the very cherry orchard - but they are further stressed by the closing monologue of the 87-year-old Feers, who is the oldest character in the play (his grandson and Dunyasha's loverboy actually wishes him dead) and lastly seen as a very sick man.

Mel's career: Well, it's doing just fine. Movies, movies, and more movies, plus an article in Movieline (check out the pic!), and this films looks like very good news for her (first of all, it got her her current boyfriend). Apart from that, this is a good play (chances are the script's good as well), there's a great cast all around her (although, theoretically, she isn't the main focus in the play), and in a storyline that's basically pretty depressing (it's classified as "drama" at the IMDB) she is one of the few genuinely funny characters - in a play that's so concerned with death, her incredible liveliness is indeed refreshing to hear. In short: looking like a good part, in a good film.