• JUDD APATOW: ONE-MAN BRAND

    Funny People“Funny People” is only the third film Judd Apatow has directed—after “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up”—but he is already a one-man brand. When his name is on a poster, audiences know they’re in for a laidback, semi-improvised, filthy yet big-hearted “bromantic” comedy, in which the bonding between some slacker buddies overshadows anything as trivial as boy-meets-girl.

    They also know they’re likely to see some mix of actors from the so-called Judd Squad, a repertory company of rising comedians which includes Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, Jason Segel and Apatow’s wife, Leslie Mann. Studio accountants, meanwhile, know they’re in for a summer hit that will rake in many times its modest budget.

    But the main reason why Apatow, 41, has attained mogul status is that he’s even more influential as a producer than as a director. “Pineapple Express”, “Step Brothers”, “Drillbit Taylor”, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Superbad” are all seen as Apatow productions, regardless of who actually had the job of shouting “action!” “Funny People” is the first Apatow film to feature a superstar, Adam Sandler. Mercifully, Sandler’s back catalogue of puerile dreck is scarcely relevant. He’s in the Judd Squad now. 

    "Funny People" British release, August 28th

    ~ NICHOLAS BARBER
     


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  • THE VERBIER FESTIVAL: WHERE EGOS DAREN'T

    High culture, high summer and high altitude create a rousing major chord when Verbier hosts the only classical-music festival you can reach by cable car. Since 1994, stellar musicians have been dropping their fees to wallow in this collegiate atmosphere. Maestros conduct the resident youth orchestra. World-class soloists volunteer for scratch chamber groups. Egos are left at the bottom of the mountain.

    How does Martin Engstroem, the festival’s Swedish founder, pull it off? The answer lies partly in the music of the setting. Streams descant and trill along gutters between chalets; pastures clang with cow bells; the view across the valley is an alpine symphony.

    Last year the pop singer Rufus Wainwright dipped his toe in Mozart. This year, as well as the pianists Lang Lang and Martha Argerich and the violinists Joshua Bell and Vadim Repin, Verbier’s siren song has lured a mind-boggling cast to its “Don Giovanni”. To get Bryn Terfel, Edita Gruberova, Rene Pape, Susan Graham and Thomas Quasthoff on one stage, an opera house would have to blow its annual subsidy. The main stage is a 1,600-capacity tent near the Au Vieux Verbier tavern; the one hazard, rain. “We’ve never cancelled a concert,” Engstroem says. “But here you never know what’s going to happen.” That’s the beauty of it.

    Verbier festival  July 17th to August 2nd 

    ~ JASPER REES
     

    Picture Credit: AP


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