Converting this hit Broadway play to film posed a real challenge.
How to "open it up" so that it worked as film, was Director Fred Schepisi's challenge to his production crew. What was successful onstage needed to be properly converted.
The original playwright John Guare also scripted here, and did a respectable job with a tough assignment. The production ended up being edited in a kind of "patchwork quilted" manner, often with mixed results: the constant juxtaposing and vacillating of scenes seemed to become redundant at times.
The cast did good work, though. Each lead--Donald Sutherland, Will Smith, and Stockard Channing--brought his and her own distinctive persona to their respective part.
To focus in on Channing, she certainly has enjoyed a remarkably varied career, with an almost breathtaking array of fully developed characters. Although she's been in the business working constantly for over thirty years to date, she still looks great. Her emotional range is enormous, and every part she tackles is intelligently realized.
The currently long running tv series, "The West Wing" is a case in point, in which she constantly appears as creative and energized as in the first episode. Even after playing "Six Degrees" for four years at Lincoln Center, her film work here looks completely fresh.
In an interesting bio on Bravo, Channing revealed that she's happy to be where she is: sort of on the "second-tier" of the "star ladder." As fine as she is, she doesn't have "It" like, say, a Julia Roberts--but then she admits to being happy "not surrounded by armed guards of photographers all the time." Thus she can walk down a street in relative obscurity. Yet when viewers see her in a production, they recognize "that face and that voice." (Personally, I always thought she might've had better career luck going by her real first name, "Susan.")
"Six Degrees" is admittedly quite a talkfest for film, a kind of an intellectual exercise, not for all tastes. One has to really focus in and keep the brain attentive. For those who have the energy and willingness to do so, "Six Degrees of Separation" offers a most intriguing and enjoyable dramatic experience.
How to "open it up" so that it worked as film, was Director Fred Schepisi's challenge to his production crew. What was successful onstage needed to be properly converted.
The original playwright John Guare also scripted here, and did a respectable job with a tough assignment. The production ended up being edited in a kind of "patchwork quilted" manner, often with mixed results: the constant juxtaposing and vacillating of scenes seemed to become redundant at times.
The cast did good work, though. Each lead--Donald Sutherland, Will Smith, and Stockard Channing--brought his and her own distinctive persona to their respective part.
To focus in on Channing, she certainly has enjoyed a remarkably varied career, with an almost breathtaking array of fully developed characters. Although she's been in the business working constantly for over thirty years to date, she still looks great. Her emotional range is enormous, and every part she tackles is intelligently realized.
The currently long running tv series, "The West Wing" is a case in point, in which she constantly appears as creative and energized as in the first episode. Even after playing "Six Degrees" for four years at Lincoln Center, her film work here looks completely fresh.
In an interesting bio on Bravo, Channing revealed that she's happy to be where she is: sort of on the "second-tier" of the "star ladder." As fine as she is, she doesn't have "It" like, say, a Julia Roberts--but then she admits to being happy "not surrounded by armed guards of photographers all the time." Thus she can walk down a street in relative obscurity. Yet when viewers see her in a production, they recognize "that face and that voice." (Personally, I always thought she might've had better career luck going by her real first name, "Susan.")
"Six Degrees" is admittedly quite a talkfest for film, a kind of an intellectual exercise, not for all tastes. One has to really focus in and keep the brain attentive. For those who have the energy and willingness to do so, "Six Degrees of Separation" offers a most intriguing and enjoyable dramatic experience.