At least the Stefan-Mieke romance is strong, although you lament there’s not enough of it. There’s also no real sense of danger - a killer for an alleged thriller. Where he and the story run into problems is through a script by Simon Burke that overflows with clunky dialogue and mass implausibilities. As you’d expect from a veteran of the boards, Leveaux knows how to coax top performances from his entire cast, which also includes a fine Eddie Marsan (“Ray Donovan”), almost too convincing as the sociopathic Himmler. See, I told you he was dotty.Ĭredit goes to director David Leveaux, the London theater wiz making his film debut, for delivering all this mayhem with a straight face. In fact, he and his second wife (his first was Queen Elizabeth II’s second cousin, Augusta), the estimable Hermine (a splendid Janet McTeer), are waiting on pins and needles for word from The Fuhrer that all that Great War mess is bygones and his throne is still there for the taking. Unlike the German people, whose relatives he sent to horrifying deaths during World War I, a duck, he tells Mieke, “will never blame you for his troubles, or ask you to abdicate your throne.” Bitter? Yes. It seems the Kaiser (a terrific Christopher Plummer) has taken a fancy as well, finding her companionship stimulating while feeding the ducks on his expansive estate. Stefan, being a man, thinks he’s in control, oblivious to the fact that Mieke is far more than what she seems, and being a closeted Jew isn’t even half of it. He’s already on thin ice with his superiors for some undisclosed malfeasance in Poland that left him scarred (from shrapnel) and a bit confused about just what he’s fighting for. Stefan Brandt (played with chiseled brawn by “Divergent” hunk Jai Courtney), the one-and-only Nazi with a heart. Toss in a torrid romance and a couple side plots about an imminent visit from SS boss Heinrich Himmler and a disgraced emperor with a futile wish of Hitler restoring him to power, and you have yourself a rip-roaring soap opera to rival “Downton Abbey.” How could Hollywood, always looking for the next “Casablanca,” resist? It couldn’t - unfortunately - and the results are mixed, beginning with the stupid idea of changing the title to the generic - and decidedly unsexy - “The Exception.” Why? I’m assuming it’s in reference to our dashing leading man Capt. But author Alan Judd found a clever way to make him vital in his later years with his novel “The Kaiser’s Last Kiss.” In it, the somewhat dotty octogenarian is the unwitting center of a palace intrigue in which a German captain is sent by the Reich to keep an eye on the exiled old gent whose Dutch estate in Doorn is believed to be infiltrated by a British spy. The project is supported by UCA research fund, Tom Gillies, Bradley McGinty and Lisa Moore for the live streaming and recording.One doesn’t often, if ever, associate Kaiser Wilhelm II with the Second World War. His music and recordings have been released by Edition Wandelweiser Records, Another Timbre, Elsewhere, Intonema, INSUBrecords, Leerraum, to name a few. Stefan’s work has been performed at the Kunstraum Düsseldorf, Kid Ailack Concert Hall Tokyo, Gez-21 Saint Petersburg, University of the Basque Country Bilbao, Lely Amsterdam, the Diapason Gallery, New York and at Säulenhalle Landhaus Solothurn, among other locations. For him “music is directly linked to the sensual, if the sensual is taken in a literal meaning as the starting-point of perceiving music at all.” His work often incorporates everyday material alongside traditional instruments. Stefan Thut is interested in processes and scores inviting both performers and audience to delve into a different world. What kind of sound emerges when certain materials and stringed objects are dragged on the floor? How about playing an instrument as a response to the sound perceived? two strings and three (2016) Related to the activity of dragging is bowing a string very slowly, as in between stagnation and movement and as a time frame for a melody to unfold.
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