Vanya on 42nd Street (Criterion Collection)

Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore. In the nineties, André Gregory mounted a series of spare, private performances of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a crumbling Manhattan playhouse. These treasures of pure theater would have been lost to time had they not been captured on film by Louis Malle. A stellar cast of actors embark on a full read-through of Uncle Vanya (adapted into English by David Mamet); the result is as memorable and emotional a screen version of Chekhov’s masterpiece as one could ever hope to see. 1994/color/120 min/PG/widescreen.