Petri Pelkonen Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a famed Russian writer.His plays have lived on.Uncle Vanya is one of them.I read the play pretty recently, and it gives an excellent portrayal of unhappy people, who live their wasted life dealing with their misery.Over the course of three years director Andre Gregory and a group of actors rehearsed the play in the then-abandoned Amsterdam Theater on 42th street in New York City.The actors were in their street clothes and the performances were for an invited audience only.Gregory and Louis Malle decided to document the play.The result is Vanya on 42th Street (1994).This was the last movie of Louis Malle.The film is based on the English translation by David Mamet.Of course this whole thing wouldn't work if the cast wasn't something unique.And in this case it is.Wallace Shawn is the perfect man to play Vanya.Just look at the scene where he finally loses it and blames the professor for ruining his life.That's some amazing acting.The Finnish-born actor George Gaynes does brilliant work as Serybryakov.The then-rising star Julianne Moore is excellent as his young wife Yelena.Larry Pine is fantastic as Dr. Astrov, who likes to drink.Brooke Smith is amazing as Sonya with her unrequited love for Dr. Astrov.Lynn Cohen is terrific as Maman.And so is Jerry Mayer as Waffles.Stage actress Phoebe Brand gives her only movie performance playing Nanny and she does a great job.Also great work by Indian actress Madhur Jaffrey (Mrs. Chao) and Andre Gregory, who plays himself.There's some great spirit between these performers, that carries throughout the play.If you yearn for something intelligent, then you should watch Vanya on 42th Street.

VictorSMNJ Like many others I was blown away by this film. It is SO hard to film a play, but Louis Malle and the actors have worked some incredible magic.

mifunesamurai Chekhov's Uncle Vanya stripped down to its bare essentials when a group of New York actors rehearse in a decaying theatre with no set dressings or props but just their talent, accompanied by David Mamet's modern adaptation of the play. Off course it may be stagy but you fall under the actors spell and that's what it's all about.

KFL First, full disclosure: I've seen Uncle Vanya performed by the Bolshoi Theater, and have read the play over a dozen times, in the original Russian. It is dear to me, and I have some rather definite ideas about what it is, and what it should be.Having said that...I must say that while I really liked how the actors were filmed coming into the rehearsal area from the streets of NY, and thought that several deviations from Chekhov were appropriate and even inspired, and though I was awed by the acting of Shawn, Larry Pine, and especially Brooke Smith, ...I had a few problems with this production.Above all--I had a problem with Yelena (played by Julianne Moore) as a giggling airhead. Was this the idea of Moore, or director Gregory, or of David Mamet, who altered the original play? It certainly wasn't Chekhov. Yelena certainly is, in some respects, empty, false, hollow. But having her giggle in response to Vanya's confessions of love is completely at odds with what Chekhov had in mind. She may not be entirely serious, but she does take other people seriously; and her reaction here is more like pity and disgust than like levity and thoughtless dismissal. Yelena is not an airhead valley-girl. The other problem arises from how the play is shot as a movie. As noted by zetes below, theater and film are different media. Obviously Chekhov, who died in 1904, was writing only with the stage in mind. Hence some dialog is bound to be either too weak, or too strong (probably the former). And sure enough, while Brooke Smith is absolutely WONDERFUL as Sonya throughout, her final speech--which in the original play is rousing, inspiring, really uplifting--comes across as way too understated. On the stage, Sonya should give her "We will find peace!" speech at full pitch, packed with emotion; but if Smith had given such a delivery here, with camera in a close-up shot of her as she spoke, the effect would have been completely over-the-top. Her delivery is the best it can be, given the medium; but it's not what Chekhov intended.All this aside, there is a lot to like here, and I'm glad I was able to find this at the video rental store.