WATCH: Three Idiots

3 Idiots, the story of three friends at the top Indian engineering college, is the highest-grossing Bollywood movie in India of all time. It uses the conventions of the typical Bollywood genre while expanding and twisting them into a wonderful tale teetering between broad comedy, tragedy, and just plain silliness.

The pressures to succeed at the college are intense, with the emphasis on rote memory, scoring high on exams, and following the rules to the letter. The love of learning, science or engineering is considered heretical and anti-productive. Students struggle, some contemplate suicide while other actually do. The toll on all the students is apparent, but harshest on those who have commitments to care for their families when their studies are complete. Get a degree, get a job, support your elders. That’s the pattern.

Told in a flashback, the film is framed by the story of two of the friends, now successful in their chosen fields, who are looking for Rancho, played by the delightful Aamir Khan. He was the only student who seems to be able to combine his genius for engineering with his delight in learning. He mysteriously disappeared on graduation day and no trace of him can be found. When, at last, the friends think they’ve found him, it turns out Rancho isn’t Rancho.

But all ends well, of course, and it’s well worth watching.

WATCH: Flood

Disaster movies pretty much follow a predictable plot with stock characters and situations. There’s the slightly befuddled professor who used to be at the top of his field but is now out of it due to drink who has alienated his family; the professor’s former smart graduate assistant who is now some high mucky muck in the government’s science section; the two scientists with conflicting opinions on what’s at stake; the room full of data crunchers trying to predict when and where disaster strikes; they have something in common, usually a woman or love interest; and the government officials who just don’t get it and don’t know what to do.

It doesn’t really matter what type of disaster is approaching: freezing; meteor impact; alien creatures; enormous wildfires; gigantic sea creatures; or the catastrophic earthquake. I can’t even count the number of times Los Angeles has been leveled by a ten-plus quake. But for my money, the one that gets me is the giant storm at sea that creates massive tsunamis. The one recurring nightmare from my childhood involves being swallowed up by huge waves.

So, why oh why did I watch Flood, the 3-hour television series from Britain? Well, because of the cast: Robert Carlyle, Tom Courtenay, Joanne Whalley, David Suchet, Tom Hardy, and Susan Woolrich. The plot follows all the standard rules. When a raging storm coincides with high seas it unleashes a colossal tidal surge, which travels mercilessly down England's East Coast and into the Thames Estuary. Overwhelming the Barrier, torrents of water pour into the city. The lives of millions of Londoners are at stake. With only hours to save the city, will all these cardboard characters save the city and the day? Will the barriers hold? Will everyone pull together and make a plan and learn to love and respect each other? Is the pope a Nazi?

Well, the special effects are, well, pretty effective. And the really good thing about watching it on DVD – you can multitask! Read a book, or make one. Cook your dinner or eat it. Groom the cat. Heck, you can probably go for a walk and not miss much. But fun is fun, even if it’s recycled. Of course, you could just watch Independence Day. At least you’d get a few laughs.

WATCH: Mrs. Brown’s Boys

From my “Guilty Pleasures” list comes a new entry called Mrs. Brown’s Boys. It’s a sitcom created by Brendan O’Carroll, who plays Mrs. Brown in drag. So far, there is only one season of 6 episodes, which first aired In Ireland in January 2011. The cast is mostly Irish, and many of the actors are relatives of O’Carroll. The title character first appeared in his novel The Mammy.

Mrs. Brown is a widow who has six grown children – five sons and one daughter, and she sees it as her duty to help (interfere) with each of them. This is made fairly easy since 3 of her sons and her daughter live at home with her, as does her elderly father-in-law.

The humor is gross, the characters are stereotypes, the language raunchy, and it’s all so much fun. Filmed before a studio audience, Mrs. Brown often breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the viewers. Another really funny thing is that they leave the bloopers in and just keep going. When someone enters a room too soon or calls a character by the wrong name or the camera crashes into the set, Mrs. Brown will make some ad lib that’s right on target.

The series isn’t available on DVD in the US yet, but the full episodes are available on YouTube, starting here.

Interesting aside: Angelica Houston made a film of the book, which she titled Agnes Browne. It’s set in the late 1960s, when the characters children are all school age. The television version updates the time to the present and the kids are all grown up.

LISTEN: La Fanciulla del West

A bad experience with an opera can put you off it for life. That's what happened to me with Puccini's La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West). I first encountered it in the 1958 London Records recording with Renata Tebaldi (Minnie), Mario Del Monaco (Dick Johnson aka Ramerrez), and Cornell MacNeil (Jack Rance), conducted by Franco Capuana. The smaller parts were sung by stalwarts such as Piero de Palma, Giorgio Tozzi, and others. All three main singers were at the height of their powers, but Capuana was reliable and dull. And therein may be the problem. The entire performance seems uninspired and certainly not engaging. The passion between Minnie and Ramerrez is non-existent, or so muted as to be hardly noticed. The overall effect was simply forgettable.

And that's what I did, simply forgot about it until the Met did a live in HD broadcast with Deborah Voight, Marcello Giordani, and Lucio Gallo, conducted by Nicola Luisotti. The 1991 production was designed by Giancarlo del Monaco, son of Mario. Here, the main problem involved the singers. Less than stellar in these roles, they walked through the performance, often seemingly unaware that they were supposed to be interacting with each other. The overly realistic sets and costumes distracted from rather than enhanced the music and storytelling, and did nothing to probe the psychology of the characters. Once again, I decided this was forgettable Puccini.

Then...One day last week I was listening to my favorite internet radio station, Otto All Opera, and heard something so riveting I had to stay put until it was over. Here was a performance from the Florence Maggio Musicale of Fanciulla. Recorded live on June 15, 1954, with Eleanor Steber, Mario del Monaco, and Gian Giacomo Guelfi. What a difference! Steber is so intense, and del Monaco seems only to have needed an audience to come to life and the bandit. But the main difference is the conducting of Dmitri Mitropoulos, who propelled the action without rushing it, lingered over the tender moments, and let the singers find their character's inner beings.

I immediately went to Amazon.com and ordered a copy. The sound is typical (pirated?) 1950s sound. The beginning is problematic and distant, but it gets better. There is no libretto, just a plot synopsis and cast biographies. And, as with all these kinds of recording, it's the performances that are the reason for getting and listening to them. I've always loved Steber's voice, since I first heard her singing Samuel Barber's concerto for soprano and orchestra, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, which she commissioned. Del Monaco is always loud or, when needed, even louder, but he's wonderful. I've never heard Guelfi before, and don't recognize the name, but he's a fine Italianate baritone, and a terrific Jack Rance.

It's great to have a new opera in the listening queue, and really wonderful to have one that I'd dismissed and found again.

WATCH: The Trip

When Steve Coogan is asked by the British newspaper The Observer to tour the England countryside and review its finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend. But, when she him and goes to America, he goes through a list of friends and acquaintances and decides to ask his best friend Rob Brydon, an irritating but really talented mimic.

The two men have been friends for 11 years, and you can see their attraction to each other: they like and know the same songs, recite the same poetry and lines from movies, imitate the same famous actors, and enjoy getting under each other’s skin. Their personal lives are very different: Steve is divorced with a teenage son while Rob is happily married with a new baby. Steve “takes aim” at any woman in sight while Rob can only wait to get home to his wife.

In real life Coogan is most well-known for his British television character Alan Partridge, the awkward and politically incorrect regional media personality. Brydon is a stand-up comedian, BBC radio show panelist, actor and writer. Both starred in Tristram Shandy: a Cock and Bull Story, directed by Michael Winterbottom, who also directed The Trip.

Three things make this film a joy to watch. First: the rapport between the two actors/characters, which shows a real depth and caring in their friendship, even as it strains to the breaking point. Second: the preparation, presentation and discussion of the food in some of the most highly rated restaurants in England. Third: the breathtaking views of the Lake District and the North of England. A visit to Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s exotic Greta Hall are a bonus.

The Trip is just over two hours long, and there may be just a bit too many imitations of Sean Connery. And there’s a moment when you’re relieved that Rob finally tells Steve to just shut up. That scene is followed by a wonderful one in which Steve can’t shut up a hiker trying to explain the landscape in the same boring, factual detail the he’s just done to Rob. It’s wonderful. And so is this movie.

LISTEN: Opera on the Internet

Internet radio keeps expanding and, as everything connected to the web, some things are a lot better than others. Listening to opera on the radio is a mixed blessing. Performances, both recorded and live, from all over the world are easily available 24 hours a day, and it’s a great way to discover new works and hear unknown performers. The downside, of course, is sound quality. Some stations broadcast at very low bandwidth, while others support themselves by indiscriminately interrupting streaming sound with really annoying commercials, some on a ten-minute cycle no matter where they are in a particular work. And many stations don’t provide any information on what is being broadcast, so if you want to track it down on Amazon or iTunes, you are completely out of luck.

There are two sources for internet-streamed opera that are invaluable. The first is All Otto Opera, which broadcasts full-length recorded operas without interruptions. In between each presentation there’s about one minute of commercials. I recently heard Orazi e Curizai by Saverio Mercadante, which was a real find. I only knew the composer from his flute concertos and hadn’t realized he also wrote operas. This one is like early Verdi on steroids. What a never-ending rush! Obviously, it was a necessary purchase. When connecting through iTunes, All Otto Opera provides a scrolling bar at the top with enough information on the work being played to start looking for it. There’s also their website which lists items on their playlist. I found the Mercadante opera selling on Amazon for $60 on CD, but only $17.98 for download. It’s now a regular part of my listening rotation.

The best source for finding live opera is Opera Cast. It lists stations and performances from all over the world, listed by scheduled time using Greenwich Standard time as its reference. (There’s a handy Time Zone Converter here.) Divided by days of the week, you simply have to click the link you want to be connected to the performance. I recently listened to a great live performance of Die Walküre from Oslo. Opera Cast also lists operas being broadcast on over-the-air stations, including regularly scheduled programs, like The Sunday Night Opera on KUSC.

The easiest way to get to these internet stations is through iTunes Radio, but there are other sources. Just do a Google search on “internet radio guide” and you’ll find them. Hook your computer up to a good speaker system, and you can be lost in the world of opera for days and days. Not a bad way to be!

WATCH: The Shadow of the Tower

Henry the VII of England doesn’t have the larger-than-life image of his son, Henry VIII, or his granddaughter, Elizabeth I. He seems to have spent most of his time putting down rebellions and proving his right to reign. But his story contains the seeds of all those interesting events that took place in the other Tudor monarchs – the Reformation, the Armada, the question of succession, and more.

The Shadow of the Tower is a 13-part series from the BBC originally broadcast in 1972, and released on DVD in 2011. It stars James Marshall as Henry VII and begins with his victory over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field and ends with the death of his son Arthur shortly after his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Overall, the series is very well written and acted. Some of the episodes are extremely interesting, particularly number 5: “The Serpent and the Comforter.” Written by Hugh Whitemore, it’s a discussion of faith, heresy, reason, mystery, and faith and how easily they intertwine and create a numbing confusion. Others episodes, such as Number 8: “The Princely Gift,” about the explorer Lewes Cabot, are uninvolving and seem to be taking up airspace.

As with all older BBC productions, actors who are now household names crop up in smaller roles in single episodes – John Castle, Geoffrey Palmer, and Peter Bowles to mention just a few. Stars of the British stage, like Rachel Kempson and Donald Eccles, appear in several episodes. Everyone, of course, looks so very young.

Another interesting thing about the series is that women play a very minor, almost invisible role. Unlike The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth or Elizabeth R, the women in this retelling of history have little to do. It’s difficult to tell if Henry loved Elizabeth of York or not, since they rarely interact. This aside, it’s a great way to spend a rainy weekend.

WATCH: Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen

I hate Woody Allen movies. Really. I’ve hated Woody Allen movies since I saw Bananas. I hate the schlemiel character he created and plays and plays and plays without variation. And don’t even get me started on his “high art fake Ingmar Bergman” phase. Or his older-man-fixated-on-nubile-young-girl scenario. Yuck. Leave it in the therapist office.

Which brings me to Midnight in Paris. I was told (promised) by good friends that there was no schlemiel in this movie. And what exactly is the Owen Wilson character (Gil) except a stand-in for a too-old-to-pull-it-off Allen? Wilson even speaks in the cadence of that irritating schlemiel. And what about those rich-white Americans? Never seen them before, huh? Or the pedantic American so-called scholar? The parents who know the price of everything and the value of nothing? Are all young American women stupid (Inez and Carol)? And all French women smart, attractive and introspective? Yup. I guess so. Please don’t tell me this is satire. It’s trite.

The better parts of the film were the fantasies placed in the Twenties. But there’s that irritating little prick again. All these characters are wonderful, and thank you Kathy Bates for not making a caricature of Gertrude Stein. Thank you Corey Stoll for making one out of Hemingway. And thank you Daniel Lundh (Juan Belmonte) for being the most beautiful thing in the movie. Be still my beating heart.

This weekend I saw three really great film: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, The Makioka Sisters, and Double Hour. I guess 3 out of 4 is a pretty good run. I just keep thinking: what a really good movie this would be if someone else had been in control.

READ: Role Models by John Waters

John Waters can do no wrong, whether it’s making remarkable, wonderful, absurd, decadent films, or stand-up commentary, or writing a self-portrait told through the stories of the people who have influenced him, meant something to him, or were simply the kinds of people who interested him in his own quirky way.

His role models include a fascination with people as diverse as Saint Catherine of Siena, Denton Welch, the pornographer Bobby Garcia, and the oh-so-coy Johnny Mathis, and many others.

There are moments when you begin to wonder: are these people so interesting in and of themselves, or is Waters making them interesting? Would we really care about them if they didn’t wandered into his path?

The best part of the book is the chapter titled “Bookworm,” in which Waters lists five books he thinks everyone should read, including Denton Welch’s In Youth Is Pleasure, a coming-of age novel; Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, a scary psychological novel that predates Columbine; Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies, Tennessee Williams favorite book; Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children, a glorious portrait of a horrible family and its scars; and Ivy Compton-Burnett’s Darkness and Day, an “insanely inventive revision of Oedipus Rex.”

Check them out of your local public library…if you can find them. Only 2 copies of the Stead book are in the entire County of Los Angeles Library system, and the only copy of the Compton-Burnett that I can find locally is in the Honnald Library of the Claremont Colleges. I guess it’s time to pony up the $50 to get one of their cards. The cheapest price on Amazon is over $40 for a used copy. No brainer, right?

Have fun with John Waters, and if you haven’t seen Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, or Desperate Living, you haven’t lived life to its fullest. If you’re like a little less adventure, there’s always Hairspray! Go for it!

WATCH: Guzaarish

A Bollywood movie about euthanasia? Starring Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan? What were they thinking and how could they ever pull it off? And who would have ever thought it could be as good as it is?

Ethan Mascarenhas, formerly the world's greatest magician, has been quadriplegic since a performance went wrong 14 years before. For the past 12 years Ethan's health has been relatively stable, largely due to the relentless dedication of his nurse, Mrs Sofia D'Souza. He lives and works at his home, spreading new magic to millions of people with his irrepressible wit and spirit through books he has written and his radio show. But now his internal organs are failing. To avoid permanent hospitalization and machine life-support, Ethan petitions a court to be legally allowed to die. Ethan's request - his 'guzaarish' - shocks everyone in his world, but especially threatens his relationship with Sofia, who is the core of his existence.

As in most Bollywood movies, there’s singing and dancing, strategically placed to add to the emotional impact or further the story. Both are used to great effect, and the magic is so wonderful it will bring tears to your eyes.

Thanks to Netflix and it’s Watch Instantly feature for making this available.

WATCH: The Second Coming

Steve Baxter (Christopher Eccleston) is found on the roadside in a confused and illogical state. As Steve rambles on that he's the Son of God, Steve's friend Judith (Leslie Sharp) can't help but wonder if he's gone off the deep end. Knowing that he'll need proof to make everyone believe he really is the Second Coming, Steve arranges to present himself to the public. Miraculously, they believe him, and his "revelation" creates a media whirlwind.

What if there was a Second Coming and the Son of God arrived on earth? What would he say? What would you do? Are you ready for Judgement Day? Steve Baxter, a video shop worker, is found wandering the Yorkshire Moors after 40 days and nights, mumbling he is the Son of God. Steve isn't mad - he is the Second Coming. He needs to stage a major event to get the world to sit up and take notice, so he performs a miracle at Manchester City football ground. The world's media kicks into a frenzy. Steve has a simple purpose - Mankind must produce a Third Testament or face Judgement Day, in five days time. Fear, cynicism and violence erupt and worldwide pandemonium ensues. But if God is real then so is the Devil. Can the Third Testament be found in time? Can the Son of God save the human race? And, should he bother?

READ: George Latham, Physician and Murder by Ernst Weiss

George Latham is a confessed murderer who has written the story of his life as an explanation for his crime – the brutal murder of his wife. He’s also a physician who is more interested in research than in tending to and aiding those in need of his services. As he sees it, his true calling is to find a cure for Yellow Fever, using rats as his lab animal of choice.

Written in the form of a detailed explanation for the murder of his wife, the novel chronicles Latham’s life, from boyhood to convict to world traveller. He has an incredible eye for detail, commenting on the smallest item or event. He is also an extremely unreliable narrator. He makes it seem as if his wife is responsible for her own murder. Every failure is the fault of a colleague, a family member, or a circumstance of life.

Herr Doktor Latham has learned from his father, a failed explorer and an unhappy civil servant, that humanity is divided into two distinct types: frogs and rats. Rats, both human and rodent, play an important part in his life, from experiments to a general view of history and philosophy.

The bulk of the novel concerns the search for the cause of Yellow Fever, which is ravaging the island of C., where Latham has been sentenced for his crime. Because he is a physician, he is sent to work in the hospital rather than into the fields and forests surrounding the main city. While there, he conspires with the other doctors and researchers there to become human subjects in experiments testing their theories about how the disease is transmitted. The philosophical, moral, ethical and political ramifications of such human experimentation provide arresting reading and an interesting foreshadowing of what would happen just a decade later in Nazi Germany. Artists often see the future better than the rest of us.

Latham's inflated sense of self makes him an ideal unreliable narrator. After he's infected himself with the blood from a Yellow Fever mosquito, here's what he says: "My Y.F. had meaning. For the first time since this terrible illness had begun afflicting and killing people, it had meaning. The experiment was a necessary one, whose result would be that things would change. It had great significance. Though I lay powerless in the grip of this awful disease, my mind and my will made me superior to it." He could have easily said, superior to it and everything and everyone else.

First published in German in 1930 and available for the first time in English, George Latham, Physician and Murder is one of several great novels produced in Europe between the two World Wars. Author Ernst Weiss, a Moravian Jew, was highly praised by such writers as Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka. Weiss committed suicide in Paris when the Nazi army invaded France in 1940.