Before describing the movie, perhaps a little background is in order.  Obne way to gain citizenship in, for example, the United States is to marry a US Citizen.  There are actually people in the business of arranging such “marriages,” often for Russians or other Eastern Europeans, but for others as well.  Sometimes, one partner is able to convince an American to actually marry hin/her for love.  Once in the US and a citizen starts screaming “spousal abuse” and calls the police.  The idea is to now that he/she is now a citizen, a quick divorce would free them from the constraint of marriage.  As improbable as it sounds, I know somebody this actually happened to.  It didn’t work our for the new American, however: even the Fargo police are onto this scam.

Lorna is about the same sort of situation, only in Belgian.  In order to obtrain money for her and her boyfriend(Alban Ukaj) to open a coffee shop, Lorna(Arta Dobroshi) agrees to marry a Russian with deep pockets that is willing to pay dearly for Belgian Citizenship.  The underworld figure arranging all this, Fabie. played sleazily well by Fabrizio Rengionie.  The only problem is thet Lorna has already married the drug addicted Claudy(Jereme’ Remer) who Fabie and Lorna expect to die soon.  Problem is, he decides to clean himself up, thus throwing a monkey wrench into the marriage with the Russian.  I’ll leave the story at this point, but I’m sure you can already guess that it is not about Sunday picnics and walks in the parki.  It is about the underbelly of humanity, but portrayed without malice, just starkly.

Arta played Lorna stoically, and I never knew just what her agenda was.  I found her quite attractive, if flat cheated, but she was very believable as Lorna.  I had to feel for the mistreated Claudy, and for some reason did not out and out despise Fabie, but maybe I should have.  Rengione plays him with all the zest that Al Pacino put into Scarface.

Alright, so the performances wee good, the portrayal of that particular part of the Belgian underworld apparently accurate.  Of course, some of these players are not out and out sociopaths, or else there wouldn’t be a story.  But should you see the movie?  I don’t know.  I was not particularly impressed, but perhaps that’s because it had no shock value for me.  Except for the subject matter, for which a drug lord could have replaced Fabie, there wasn’t anything new here for me.

Not much action: there usually isn’t in indie’s.  If you like movies about the underworld, like the drug culture for example, then you’ll probably like this.  If you want romance, comedy, car chases or science fiction, there’s none of that here.

Acting:  B+
Story:  B-
Relevance:  B+

I’m not a frequent opera attendee, but I must remark on the contrasts.  When I first started attending the Arts in the F-M area in the early 70’s, Festival hall was a wooden structure just north of Old Main, also on the NDSU Campus.   Yes, this is where the concerts were performed, and the acoustics were, well, awful.  The F-M Symphony as well as the Opera company were, well, awful.  But better days are here: the new Festival Hall, built with private donations, is first rate with wonderful acoustics and comfortable seating and there literally isn’t a bad seat in the house.  The performance, described somewhat below, was enjoyable, but I did not expect the Metropolitan Opera of New York.

The choice of La Boheme is interesting given the current national debate about, among other things, health care.  The first time I saw/heard La Boheme performed it was a few years ago, also performed by the Fargo-Moorhead Opera.  In my experience, the story lines of most operas are pretty thin.  The attraction is the music, and La Boheme is no exception.  Simply put, it is the story of a group of artists(I’m using art in the general sense) in the Bohemian artist community in Paris around 1840.  They don’t have any money nor much food or heat.  But they live a carefree, fun life.  There is one problem, however.  One of them has consumption(tuberculosis) and, of course, they can’t afford medical care for her, and she eventually dies.  The Bohemian life has its price.

Now, about the performance.  I could go into more detail about the story, but don’t think that would add anything to this review.

The major characters were sung competently by nationally known, but not well known,  performers.  They included Claire Kutler, who sang Mimi, the consumptive.  Marc Shreiner sang Rudolfo, her boyfriend.  Marcello and Musetta, another artist and his lady friend, were sung by Mark Walters and Sonya Hedlum.  Other performers were Ashraf Sewailam, Paul HIndemith and Peter Halvorson(who sang two roles of one appearance each) rounded out the major cast.  All of these performers have journeyman credentials, having performed similar roles in performances of about this level, some a little more prestigious, some less.  It seemed to me from reading the program that Halvorson was the most qualified, but I find in Opera and Ballet it is sometimes the case that the best performers sometimes have important but not major roles.

The opera was sung in Italian with subtitles displayed above the stage.  I wasn’t able to read the subtitles very well from my nest to the last row seat, but I could read some, already knew the story, and understand enough French and Spanish, which are similar languages so that I was never out of sync with what was going on on stage.

The soloists, while not major league calibre, were very good and a joy to listen to.  I did feel both the chorus and orchestra, conducted by Italian Anthony Barese did leave a bit to be desired, in my opinion.  In particular, it seemed the chorus was shouting as opposed to singing(maybe it was supposed to be that way, but I don’t think so) and I thought the string section of the orchestra was weak and loose, as opposed to having the tight string sound good orchestras produce.  But, this isn’t the Met.

As usual when reviewing arts events particularly at NDSU, I must complain about the lack of attendance.  Fully half the balcony was empty, including what used to be the President’s box, as it has been since Laurel Loftsgaard was NDSU’s president.
Of course, there was a football game the next day.

I ffelt this was an entertaining evening, and think we in the area are fortunate to have such a company, as well as a place to perform, in our nudist.  I’ll probably go to more of these performances.

The next performance of the Fargo Moorhead Opera is Amahl and the NIght Visitors, December 12th and 13th at the Fargo Theatre.

This last Friday some friends of mine and I took in Army of Darkness, a cult favorite of  most of our entourage.

Army of Darkness is the third in the “Evil Dead” trilogy, began in 1982 with “Evil Dead” by Sam Raimi.  There followed “Evil Dead 2,” and then in 1992, the climax, “Army of Darkness.”

The first two movies in this trilogy are klow or no budget standard Grade B horror films.  Then, somehow Dino De Laurentis aquitred and produced the finale.  This movie had a budget, and it showed.  Instead of grainy film, the film quality was first rate.  There were many actors and extras and the script and acting was at least professional.

The movie begins with a review of what happened in the first two; at least enough so that the viewer wouldn’t be missi9ng any information needed to understand the -er- plot of the current offering.

The movie concerns a big box store worker played by Bruce Campbell.  Somehow, he gets transported back to 13th century England, already a rip off of  the sci fi time travel flick “Timeline.”  He and his ‘73 Oldsmobile land right in the middle of one of the usual English Viking conflicts.  What happens to this conflict I’ll leave in case you want to see the movie, and the reest of the story involves Campbell trying to retrieve a magic book that will, among other things, allow him to get home.  So there is much adventure, fighting with real characters and animated ones, in which just about every adventure, horror or war story beginning with The Odyssey, and ending with The Lord iof The Rings, is ripped off (hmm, Oh yes, The Lord of the rings was written before 1992).

The two hours and one minute passed very quickly, since virtually every scene was stolen from somewhere else.  Maybe not side splitting stuff, but I was amused constantly during the movie.

This movie is strictly for B-grade horror fans, but remember, this is supposed to be  cult classic. If movies like this are tolerated by you, as this one was by me, viewing them with a cult audience can be a lot of fun, as it was for me in this case.

Entertainment value:   B
Relevance: None at all
Necessity toi suspend disbelief: total.