6:33 PM 3/23/2011 by Jay A. Fernandez

Universal cranks up the nudity and profanity in its forthcoming stoner comedy Your Highness, starring Natalie Portman, Danny McBride and James Franco, in this red-band trailer. It opens April 8.

Check it out:

The Bottom Line
It’s simple: if you like the movie, you’ll like the show.

Venue
Gielgud Theatre, London (Through Oct. 1)
Cast
Meow Meow, Joanna Riding, Carly Bawden, Andrew Durand, Dominic Marsh
Director-adaptor
Emma Rice

LONDON – Jacques Demy’s 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was a romantic weepy with beautiful colors and unforgettable melodies by Michel Legrand that won devoted followers, and anyone who liked the film will like the new stage musical version.

Not everyone’s tasse de thé although it won the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes, the film is beautiful to look at, not least thanks to the young Catherine Deneuve, and tells an achingly melancholy tale of love in fine style. The stage version, adapted by Emma Rice and her Kneehigh troupe, has similar attributes with lovely singing and stage tricks to make up for the lack of lyrical cinematography.

The main difference is the introduction of a mistress of ceremonies, or maitresse (teacher) as she calls herself, played by Australian cabaret star Meow Meow, who has won acclaim in London and New York. Dressed in a clinging black number with a thigh-high split skirt and never without a cigarette, she establishes the story at the opening curtain and remains on stage throughout the production to pop in an out of scenes.

Without her unmistakable sex appeal and charm, the role might get in the way, but Meow Meow (formerly named Melissa Madden Gray) has oompf to spare and her drollery adds some welcome pepper to the proceedings.

The show follows the film closely as teenaged Genevieve (Carly Bawden) and garage mechanic Guy (Andrew Durand) fall in love despite the disapproval of the girl’s mother, Madame Emery (Joanna Riding). Madame runs the umbrella shop in Cherbourg, a French seaside town that in 1957 has seen better days.

Faced with bills that pile up, Madame decides to sell her jewelry and that’s when Genevieve meets wealthy Roland Cassard (Dominic Marsh), who is smitten instantly. No sooner have Genevieve and Guy sworn eternal love than he is called up to join the French army, embroiled in the war in Algeria. But the girl is pregnant and when Cassard shows that is no obstacle to his pursuit of her, the die is cast.

As in the film, the key to the show’s success is the elegance of French composer Legrand’s music since all conversation is sung through. Sheldon Harnick has done a terrific job with the English lyric translations, which are witty and clever, and never mundane. The famous song “I Will Wait For You” is introduced in the first act and returns several times to lock into the brain of every audience member. It is, however, sung with ineffable sweetness by Bawden, whose tone, breathing and diction are of the highest order.

Legrand, who was at the West End first night presentation, did the orchestrations and vocal arrangements, and the singing of the other cast members is of similar quality. Durand captures his soldier’s growing bitterness and Cynthia Erivo displays lovelorn patience as Madeleine, the nurse of Guy’s ailing Aunt Emily. For some reason, Dominic Marsh plays auntie as well as the rich suitor, but he has a fine voice.

Riding gets to act and sing in anger, which is not always easy, and she carries it off blithely. Meow Meow also demonstrates a flare for bluesy torch songs with the addition of Legrand’s “Sans Toi” (Without You) with lyrics by Agnes Varda from Varda’s film “Cleo de 5 a 7.”

Set designer Lez Brotherston places all the action on a moveable set with stairways, lots of neon signs, a slide and miniature buildings that recreate Cherbourg. A trio of sailors and some femmes fatale flit about the stage, occasionally sing, move props, and even chauffer characters about the stage. One scene involves two sailors with their fingers in a spotlight to represent lovers walking.

It’s a bold attempt to manufacture the same kind of artifice that colored images achieve in the film and, remarkably, it conjures up a similarly rhythmic and fleeting charm.

Venue: Gielgud Theatre, London (Through Oct. 1)Cast: Meow Meow, Joanna Riding, Carly Bawden, Andrew Durand, Dominic MarshMusic: Michel LegrandEnglish lyrics: Sheldon HarnickDirector, adaptor: Emma Rice, based on the film by Jacques DemySet and costume designer: Lex BrotherstonLighting designer: Malcolm RippethSound designer: Simon Baker

March 12, 2011

Priced from $600 to $2,000 or more, ultraportables skimp on size and weight but not on horsepower and features. The best of the lot feature fast Intel Core CPUs, 4GB of RAM, accelerated graphics and video, hi-res displays, and even solid state drives. These laptops can also be long on battery life and good looks. Shortcomings may include tinny audio, a crimpy display, small and slippery keyboards, and an absent DVD drive.  [ The InfoWorld Test Center picks the year's best hardware, software, and development tools for the 2011 Technology of the Year Awards. | Keep up on the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: Wrap Up newsletter. ] TOP ULTRAPORTABLE LAPTOPSAcer Aspire TimelineX 1830T-68U118 Alienware M11x (second revision) Asus U33Jc Dell Inspiron M101z HP Pavilion dm1z Lenovo IdeaPad U260 Sony VAIO VPCY218FX Sony VAIO Z-Series VPCZ137GX Toshiba Portege R700-S1330 Toshiba Satellite T235-S1345

Enlarge Jean-Paul Barbier/AFP/Getty Images A container of mixed oxide, or MOX, a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium, that Japan uses as nuclear fuel for the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, is loaded aboard the Pacific Heron ship in the French port of Cherbourg on April 8, 2010.

Jean-Paul Barbier/AFP/Getty Images A container of mixed oxide, or MOX, a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium, that Japan uses as nuclear fuel for the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, is loaded aboard the Pacific Heron ship in the French port of Cherbourg on April 8, 2010.

Some outside experts are particularly concerned about high levels of plutonium in one of the damaged Japanese reactors. About 6 percent of the fuel rods in reactor No. 3 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant are made from so-called “mixed-oxide” (MOX) fuel, which contains plutonium as well as uranium. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, MOX fuel presents particular risks in an accident. For one thing, it melts at a slightly lower temperature.

In addition, plutonium is a particularly long-lived and toxic material. The half-life of plutonium-239 is 24,000 years, so if it escaped in smoke from a burning reactor and contaminated soil downwind, it would remain hazardous for tens of thousands of years. But officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency say the presence of MOX fuel does not add significantly to the dangers. Denis Flory, a top safety official at the agency, pointed out that all used nuclear fuel contains plutonium. It forms naturally within conventional uranium fuel as the uranium is bombarded by neutrons. And although plutonium is a long-lived emitter of radiation, it is also quite heavy, so it is not likely to move very far downwind from its source.

The Bottom Line
David Mackenzie romance uses a real-world music fest as backdrop for thinly plotted story of bad behavior.

Venue
South By Southwest Film Festival, Spotlight Premieres section
Director
David Mackenzie
Screenwriter
Thomas Leveritt
Cast
Luke Treadaway, Natalia Tena, Mathew Baynton, Ruta Gedmintas

AUSTIN — A verité-style feature enacting the thinnest possible plot with a supporting cast of 85,000 souls, You Instead, shot in four-and-a-half days amid the muck and clamor of Scotland’s T in the Park music festival, offers less pop ecstasy than expected. After a while though, it does find its hook. Commercial potential depends wholly on the art-house cachet of director David Mackenzie, who makes a stark turn here from the darker tales (like Young Adam) that earned him attention.

The story centers on two fictional bands, the Make and the Dirty Pinks, who share stages with such real-life groups as the Proclaimers and Kassidy. (More famous T fest performers, such as Jay-Z, evidently didn’t want to be filmed.)

After getting into a vague ego-fueled rumble in the opening scenes, the two bands are forced to co-exist when a mysterious black man — shades of Spike Lee’s “magical negro,” he seems to be the only person of color at the event — appears out of nowhere, handcuffs Adam (Luke Treadaway) from the Make to the Pinks’ Morello (Natalia Tena), and runs off to make mischief elsewhere.

Moviegoers looking for action will have to content themselves with that little gesture for quite some time, as much of the following hour or so consists of Adam and Morello wandering festival grounds looking for bolt-cutters. They get on each other’s nerves throughout — in an inarticulate fashion that never threatens to develop into screwball banter — while Mackenzie cuts away to shots of costumed revelers, texting youths and a poncho-clad sea of humanity pogo-dancing in the rain.

Though it takes forever, Thomas Leveritt’s script does eventually gin up enough friction — mostly through Adam and Morello’s jealous lovers, who must awkwardly tag along through the night — to get us to care about the inevitable spark between the handcuffed duo. Viewers who stick around through meandering scenes of drinking and carnival rides will be rewarded, in the end, by a muddy but creative shower make-out scene and an onstage romantic gesture that even the director admits is “a wee bit cheesy.”

At a turning point in the plot, Adam tells Morello’s boyfriend “I’ve known her ten hours, and I know her better than you.” If the movie had done anything at all to prove that to us, You Instead could have been a smart music lover’s rom-com instead of simply feeling like a movie made on a dare.

Venue: South By Southwest Film Festival, Spotlight Premieres sectionProduction Company: Sigma FilmsCast: Luke Treadaway, Natalia Tena, Mathew Baynton, Ruta Gedmintas, Gilly Gilchrist, Alastair Mackenzie, Gavin Mitchell, Joseph Mydell, Jonny Phillips, Sophie WuDirector: David MackenzieScreenwriter: Thomas LeverittProducer: Gillian BerrieExecutive producers: Malte Grunert, David Mackenzie, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross, Geoff Ellis, Jamie Laurenson, Christine Langan, Robbie Allen, Carole SheridanDirector of photography: Giles NuttgensProduction designer: Judi RitchieCostume designer: Kelly Cooper BarrEditor: Jake RobertsSales: Bankside FilmsNo rating, 80 minutes