So it's disappointing that Fiennes's new version (in which he both directs and stars) fails to fully exploit it.
What are a couple of the specific challenges when a person both directs and acts in the same film, and in this case is also the producer?
Mr. Guttenberg both directs and plays the central role, an unsuccessful actor named Jimmy Zoole who finds himself home alone in his Los Angeles apartment on New Year's Eve.
There's a generational healing dimension that's mirrored in the partnering of Martin Sheen, the star, with his real-life son, Emilio Estevez, who both directs and plays his own fictional counterpart.
In "Le Grand Amour," Étaix, who both directs and stars, plays a meek married man whose meekness is tested by the constraints of family life and a family business.
Charles Edwards, who both directs and designs this Opera North production, hedges his bets, stripping the stage to the rear loading bay, as if both to confirm that we are in a theatre and abnegate the theatricality of a work conceived for concert performance.
