How much does personal history humanize world history? Genealogist Randy Schoenberg sets out to answer that existential question in Matthew Mishory’s documentary “Fioretta,” which captures his quest to share his centuries-long family history as a prime example of the persecution and murders of Jews in Austria during a horrific time in history.
Randy leads the Schoenberg family affair, which brings together various generations on a trek to Vienna to revisit the graves of and memorials to his ancestors. Randy himself was previously portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the narrative feature “Woman in Gold” after he sued the Austrian government in 2005 on behalf of Holocaust survivor Maria Altmann (played by Helen Mirren) to return five Gustav Klimt paintings that were stolen from her family by the Nazis.
Now, Randy wants to reclaim the city of Vienna itself for his own family, as well as seek out the gravestone of his oldest known ancestor,...
Randy leads the Schoenberg family affair, which brings together various generations on a trek to Vienna to revisit the graves of and memorials to his ancestors. Randy himself was previously portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the narrative feature “Woman in Gold” after he sued the Austrian government in 2005 on behalf of Holocaust survivor Maria Altmann (played by Helen Mirren) to return five Gustav Klimt paintings that were stolen from her family by the Nazis.
Now, Randy wants to reclaim the city of Vienna itself for his own family, as well as seek out the gravestone of his oldest known ancestor,...
- 11/30/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
“The great rooms caused so much poetry and history to press upon him that he needed some straying apart to feel in a proper relation with them,” wrote Henry James early in his 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle, the loose inspiration for writer-director Bertrand Bonello’s disquieting and spectacular The Beast. James is describing the house in which his protagonist, John Marcher, crosses paths with the woman, May Bertram, who will prove not to be the love of his life, mainly because of Marcher’s unwillingness to take a risk on intimacy. This is due to his fear of a “beast” that he feels could pounce at any moment.
That beast isn’t anything concrete or corporeal, but rather a metaphorical unease—a dread of all the terrible things that life could mete out. And as Marcher discovers at the end of James’s novella, the beast has struck without him ever realizing it.
That beast isn’t anything concrete or corporeal, but rather a metaphorical unease—a dread of all the terrible things that life could mete out. And as Marcher discovers at the end of James’s novella, the beast has struck without him ever realizing it.
- 9/12/2023
- by Keith Uhlich
- Slant Magazine
UK music artist Peter Doherty will be a special guest of the 19th Zurich Film Festival in September, accompanying the world premiere of bio-doc Peter Doherty: Stranger in My Own Skin.
The film will play in Zff’s Sounds section celebrating relationship between film and music.
“The film Peter Doherty: Stranger In My Own Skin is a twofold minor sensation. Firstly, the Zff gets to present it to the public as a world premiere,” said Zff Artistic Director Christian Jungen. “Secondly, the protagonist Peter Doherty will present the film in person.”
The bio-doc chronicles the English rock star who, after reaching the pinnacle of his career, sinks into the depths of a serious drug addiction.
The intimate portrait was shot by director and musician Katia deVidas, who followed the wild life of The Libertines frontman at close quarters for over the course of a decade and is now the artist’s wife.
The film will play in Zff’s Sounds section celebrating relationship between film and music.
“The film Peter Doherty: Stranger In My Own Skin is a twofold minor sensation. Firstly, the Zff gets to present it to the public as a world premiere,” said Zff Artistic Director Christian Jungen. “Secondly, the protagonist Peter Doherty will present the film in person.”
The bio-doc chronicles the English rock star who, after reaching the pinnacle of his career, sinks into the depths of a serious drug addiction.
The intimate portrait was shot by director and musician Katia deVidas, who followed the wild life of The Libertines frontman at close quarters for over the course of a decade and is now the artist’s wife.
- 8/29/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
A documentary about musician Pete Doherty will have its world premiere at this year’s Zurich Film Festival in the Sounds section.
Described as “an intimate film portrait of his scandalous rockstar life,” “Peter Doherty — Stranger in My Own Skin” is helmed by Doherty’s wife, Katia deVidas. Doherty will present the film in-person, and also perform live following the documentary’s screening.
“The biopic chronicles the British rockstar who, after reaching the pinnacle of his career, sinks into the depths of a serious drug addiction,” Zff artistic director Christian Jungen said in a statement. “His wife, director and musician Katia deVidas, followed the wild life of the Libertines frontman at close quarters for over 10 years. We’re looking forward to welcoming them both to Zurich.”
The Sounds section of Zff, which launched last year, showcases feature or documentary films centered on musical themes or that feature exceptional soundtracks. This...
Described as “an intimate film portrait of his scandalous rockstar life,” “Peter Doherty — Stranger in My Own Skin” is helmed by Doherty’s wife, Katia deVidas. Doherty will present the film in-person, and also perform live following the documentary’s screening.
“The biopic chronicles the British rockstar who, after reaching the pinnacle of his career, sinks into the depths of a serious drug addiction,” Zff artistic director Christian Jungen said in a statement. “His wife, director and musician Katia deVidas, followed the wild life of the Libertines frontman at close quarters for over 10 years. We’re looking forward to welcoming them both to Zurich.”
The Sounds section of Zff, which launched last year, showcases feature or documentary films centered on musical themes or that feature exceptional soundtracks. This...
- 8/29/2023
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
Deal Park, NJ — Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Theater (Axcbt), the Jersey Shore’s professional ballet company, will present a one-night-only special event, “Architects of Dance,” featuring the Company in choreography by some of the greatest modern dancers of our time who will also perform on the program, on Thursday, May 18, 2023, at 7:30 p.m., in the Atrium at Bell Works Studio in Holmdel, New Jersey. The evening will include a pre-performance reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by a private VIP tour of Bell Works led by Lead Designer and Creative Designer Paola Zamudio beginning at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the performance are $25 general admission or $75 for the VIP experience, including the performance, tour and reception. Tickets are available at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center Box Office.
Inspired by the Bauhaus architectural movement, Axcbt Artistic Director Gabriel Chajnik conceived of “Architects of Dance” to illustrate how choreography and architecture can influence each other.
Inspired by the Bauhaus architectural movement, Axcbt Artistic Director Gabriel Chajnik conceived of “Architects of Dance” to illustrate how choreography and architecture can influence each other.
- 5/10/2023
- by Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
Every so often, you’ll see a portrait-of-the-artist documentary that’s so beautifully made, about a figure of such unique fascination, whose art is so perfectly showcased by the documentary format, that when it’s over you can’t believe the film hadn’t existed until now. It feels, in its way, essential. “Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV” is like that. Directed by Amanda Kim, it’s a tantalizing portrait of Nam June Paik, the revolutionary Korean-born video artist who, in the late ’60s and ’70s, did nothing less than invent an art form.
When he was first becoming famous, about 50 years ago, you’d go to see a Nam June Paik installation at someplace like the Museum of Modern Art, and it would seem quirky and exotic — a tower of stacked TV screens, all flashing what looked like the squiggly visual equivalent of feedback. It was weird and kind of gripping,...
When he was first becoming famous, about 50 years ago, you’d go to see a Nam June Paik installation at someplace like the Museum of Modern Art, and it would seem quirky and exotic — a tower of stacked TV screens, all flashing what looked like the squiggly visual equivalent of feedback. It was weird and kind of gripping,...
- 1/26/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
The documentary Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV, which explores the groundbreaking video artist’s life and work, is like nothing Paik ever would have made himself. It’s far too straightforward and chronological, far too concerned with presenting things in a clear and comprehensive fashion — whereas Paik spent most of his career seriously messing things up, whether he was doing it with musical instruments, television sets or live TV broadcasts distorted through time and space.
But that doesn’t mean director Amanda Kim’s first feature isn’t worth a look. For anyone interested in the origins of what we now call video art, not to mention mass media and the internet, it’s essential viewing. Paik was a true visionary who foresaw the virtual world we now live in, and Kim’s film chronicles how he channeled that vision through madcap sculptures and installations that took...
But that doesn’t mean director Amanda Kim’s first feature isn’t worth a look. For anyone interested in the origins of what we now call video art, not to mention mass media and the internet, it’s essential viewing. Paik was a true visionary who foresaw the virtual world we now live in, and Kim’s film chronicles how he channeled that vision through madcap sculptures and installations that took...
- 1/26/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
9 DoigtsThis year at the Locarno Festival I am looking for specific images, moments, techniques, qualities or scenes from films across the 70th edition's selection that grabbed me and have lingered past and beyond the next movie seen, whose characters, story and images have already begun to overwrite those that came just before.***The bracing discovery a one-act opera by Arnold Schönberg in Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet’s From Today Until Tomorrow (1996), which is playing in the festival's Pardo d’onore tribute to Straub. Encountering a film by the husband and wife duo of Straub-Huillet is always at double meeting: one, with the perspective of their filmmaking, but also with whatever source material they are transforming into cinema, whether Bach’s music, dialogues by Cesare Pavese, or in this case, a short opera from 1928 by Schönberg. Where most adaptations for the cinema smother their sources to supposedly be more optimized for the seventh art,...
- 8/11/2017
- MUBI
The long-scarce, oft-praised work of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet has found a home with Grasshopper Film, whose first release will be the duo’s 1973 cinematic opera Moses and Aaron. The picture, based on Arnold Schoenberg’s unfinished rendition of the Biblical tale, is set largely within a Roman amphitheater, this approach and design resulting in a surreal vision of the well-trod ground that is its central conflict — extremely austere on the face of it, yet with an oddly comic temperament (e.g. one scene outright recalling a Zaz movie) humming right below the surface.
Moses and Aaron will come to DVD and Blu-ray this November, with theatrical bookings along the way; thus there is now a trailer showcasing the 2K restoration, particularly glowing appraisals from luminaries such as Chantal Akerman and Thom Andersen, and a decent preview of Straub-Huillet’s intoxicating, bizarre style.
Watch the preview below:
Moses...
Moses and Aaron will come to DVD and Blu-ray this November, with theatrical bookings along the way; thus there is now a trailer showcasing the 2K restoration, particularly glowing appraisals from luminaries such as Chantal Akerman and Thom Andersen, and a decent preview of Straub-Huillet’s intoxicating, bizarre style.
Watch the preview below:
Moses...
- 7/18/2017
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
“1st film watched in 1st freshman film class was ’72’s History Lessons. It was a great ‘Welcome to boot camp, motherfuckers’ moment.” – Nick Pinkerton
Parsing the embarrassment of riches amongst ’60s French cinema, the annals of Official Film History tends to split us into the New Wave (Godard, Rivette, Rohmer, etc.), the left-bank (Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda), and the successive “ Second New Wave” (Maurice Pialat, Jean Eustache, Luc Moullet). Bouncing between realism and the avant-garde, these filmmakers, to varying degrees of mainstream acceptance, left an undeniable mark on post-war art cinema. Yet provided you’re hip enough to know, there’s two particular names that seem to instantly dwarf the aforementioned, at least in the terms of uncompromised Film Art: the husband-wife duo of Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet — or, if you prefer, the synthesized, punchier Straub/Huillet.
The mystique that has emerged around this duo is not...
Parsing the embarrassment of riches amongst ’60s French cinema, the annals of Official Film History tends to split us into the New Wave (Godard, Rivette, Rohmer, etc.), the left-bank (Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda), and the successive “ Second New Wave” (Maurice Pialat, Jean Eustache, Luc Moullet). Bouncing between realism and the avant-garde, these filmmakers, to varying degrees of mainstream acceptance, left an undeniable mark on post-war art cinema. Yet provided you’re hip enough to know, there’s two particular names that seem to instantly dwarf the aforementioned, at least in the terms of uncompromised Film Art: the husband-wife duo of Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet — or, if you prefer, the synthesized, punchier Straub/Huillet.
The mystique that has emerged around this duo is not...
- 3/3/2017
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
Boulez Is Dead. In 1952, when the French composer, conductor, sage, and musical potentate Pierre Boulez was in his 20s, he concluded a biting essay about his elder, Arnold Schoenberg, with the regicidal flourish: “Schoenberg Is Dead.” He meant that the man’s genius had gone off course and backed itself into a historical dead end — that the revolutionary needed to be overthrown. Boulez, the perpetual guerrilla leader who died yesterday at 90, outlived his enemies, his acolytes, the stylistic wars he inflamed, and the century whose musical culture he shaped.For my generation, and for several earlier and a couple of later ones, he was a prophetic figure — revered, resented, admired, and feared. In person, he always seemed mellower, and funnier, than his reputation suggested. Even when he was flicking away neoclassicism, neoromanticism — neo-anything, really — as lazy nostalgia, he did so with a distinctively wry tone. “This...
- 1/6/2016
- by Justin Davidson
- Vulture
Music and Sex: Scenes from a life - A novel in progress by Roman AkLeff (first installment can be read here; second here; third here; fourth here; fifth here).
[Warning: the chapter below contains "adult situations." Seriously, this one's not for the faint-hearted.]
Walter’s new home, Carman Hall, was an utterly soulless pile of cinder blocks. No effort at all had been made, during its design and construction two decades earlier, to build in anything conveying the slightest sense of warmth. No carpeting in either the halls or in the suites, no wood anywhere except the doors, no decorative touches, nothing but bare straight lines. One imagined it had been designed so it could be hosed down with minimum effort between school years to as to be literally as well as aesthetically antiseptic. There was not even any accommodation made for cooking; not only were there no kitchen nooks, even hotplates were forbidden (though, given that they were horrific fire hazards, that made sense,...
[Warning: the chapter below contains "adult situations." Seriously, this one's not for the faint-hearted.]
Walter’s new home, Carman Hall, was an utterly soulless pile of cinder blocks. No effort at all had been made, during its design and construction two decades earlier, to build in anything conveying the slightest sense of warmth. No carpeting in either the halls or in the suites, no wood anywhere except the doors, no decorative touches, nothing but bare straight lines. One imagined it had been designed so it could be hosed down with minimum effort between school years to as to be literally as well as aesthetically antiseptic. There was not even any accommodation made for cooking; not only were there no kitchen nooks, even hotplates were forbidden (though, given that they were horrific fire hazards, that made sense,...
- 6/16/2015
- by RomanAkLeff
- www.culturecatch.com
A deeply moving and very satisfying piece of entertainment that knits up seemingly disparate elements in a tapestry of family pain and pride. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Maria Altmann just wants back that portrait of her aunt, the pretty one that used to hang in her family’s home when she was a child, and which reminds her of her aunt, who died far too young. Problem is, that home was in Vienna in the 1930s, and when the Nazis swooped in, they confiscated the painting and all her family’s other belongings. And despite Austria’s new spirit of reconciliation in the late 90s, including efforts toward art restitution, this painting is different. It’s Gustav Klimt’s famous “Woman in Gold” — now known as “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” — and it...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Maria Altmann just wants back that portrait of her aunt, the pretty one that used to hang in her family’s home when she was a child, and which reminds her of her aunt, who died far too young. Problem is, that home was in Vienna in the 1930s, and when the Nazis swooped in, they confiscated the painting and all her family’s other belongings. And despite Austria’s new spirit of reconciliation in the late 90s, including efforts toward art restitution, this painting is different. It’s Gustav Klimt’s famous “Woman in Gold” — now known as “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” — and it...
- 4/10/2015
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
[...] and also, indeed more, perhaps in those who were in no way exceptional and have left no trace, there was something that went beyond the struggle against Nazism, something – be it only for a moment, the last one – that contributed, whether they knew it or not, to the “dream of a thing” which men have had “for so long,” to the enormous dream of men.These words of Franco Fortini, spoken in Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub’s Fortini/Cani (1978), are a kind of summation of one of the major themes of their work. From one film to the next, they return to this “dream of a thing”: the day Camille dreams of in Eyes Do Not Want to Close At all Times (1969) when “Rome will allow herself to choose in her turn,” human’s desire to commune with the gods in From the Cloud to the Resistance (1979), the “new duties,...
- 3/17/2015
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
A classicist using Romantic harmonies, Johannes Brahms (1833-97) was hailed at age 20 by Robert Schumann in a famous article entitled "New Paths." Yet by the time Brahms wrote his mature works, his music was thought of as a conservative compared to the daring harmonies and revolutionary dramatic theories of Richard Wagner. But in the next century, Arnold Schoenberg's 1947 essay titled "Brahms the Progressive" praised Brahms's bold modulations (as daring as Wagner's most tonally ambiguous chords), asymmetrical forms, and mastery of imaginative variation and development of thematic material.
The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.
The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.
- 5/8/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
We’ll Never Have Paris, from Big Bang Theory star Simon Helberg, to close the festival, which has also revealed details of its Germany focus.
Simon Helberg’s romantic comedy We’ll Never Have Paris has been named as the closing night film of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (June 18-29).
Helberg, who plays Howard Wolowitz in Us sitcom The Big Bang Theory, wrote, co-directed with Jocelyn Towne and stars in the film, based on the co-directors’ real life romantic history. Zachary Quinto, Alfred Molina, Melanie Lynskey, Jason Ritter and Maggie Grace co-star.
The film follows a neurotic young man (Helberg) rattled by a sudden declaration of love from an attractive co-worker (Grace) moments before he is about to propose to his girlfriend (Lynskey). Heartbroken, she flees to Paris, and he must race across the Atlantic to win her back.
Released in the UK by Metrodome, the film is produced by Robert Ogden Barnum (All is Lost) and Katie Mustard...
Simon Helberg’s romantic comedy We’ll Never Have Paris has been named as the closing night film of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (June 18-29).
Helberg, who plays Howard Wolowitz in Us sitcom The Big Bang Theory, wrote, co-directed with Jocelyn Towne and stars in the film, based on the co-directors’ real life romantic history. Zachary Quinto, Alfred Molina, Melanie Lynskey, Jason Ritter and Maggie Grace co-star.
The film follows a neurotic young man (Helberg) rattled by a sudden declaration of love from an attractive co-worker (Grace) moments before he is about to propose to his girlfriend (Lynskey). Heartbroken, she flees to Paris, and he must race across the Atlantic to win her back.
Released in the UK by Metrodome, the film is produced by Robert Ogden Barnum (All is Lost) and Katie Mustard...
- 4/29/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Bruce Labruce’s film [pictured] will have its world premiere at Berlinale; Beta Cinema picks up Alain Gsponer’s Solothurn opener Akte Grüninger.
Berlin-based Raspberry&Cream has picked up its second Bruce Labruce title, Pierrot Lunaire, which will have its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Forum Expanded section next month.
Sales company m-appeal’s label for often sexually charged films had been launched in 2010 with Labruce’s La Zombie, shown at the film festival in Locarno. M-appeal had previously handled sales on the director’s 2008 film Otto.
The new 56-minute black-and-white feature, which is produced by Labruce’s regular collaborator Jürgen Brüning, is inspired by composer Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which is based on the poems of Albert Giraud and is widely regarded as one of the most influential works composed in the 20th century.
The plot of Labruce’s new film centres on a young woman regularly dressing as a man, who falls in...
Berlin-based Raspberry&Cream has picked up its second Bruce Labruce title, Pierrot Lunaire, which will have its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Forum Expanded section next month.
Sales company m-appeal’s label for often sexually charged films had been launched in 2010 with Labruce’s La Zombie, shown at the film festival in Locarno. M-appeal had previously handled sales on the director’s 2008 film Otto.
The new 56-minute black-and-white feature, which is produced by Labruce’s regular collaborator Jürgen Brüning, is inspired by composer Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which is based on the poems of Albert Giraud and is widely regarded as one of the most influential works composed in the 20th century.
The plot of Labruce’s new film centres on a young woman regularly dressing as a man, who falls in...
- 1/7/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Theatrical hell-raisers and the art world's enfants terribles take centre stage in our roundup of the biggest risk-takers of 2014
Theatre
Oh! What a Lovely War
Theatre-maker Joan Littlewood was a visionary, an iconoclast and a subversive. Her 1963 "documentary collage" about the bitter ironies of the first world war was way ahead of its time, using popular period song and hard-hitting testimony. Lyn Gardner Theatre Royal Stratford East, London E15 (020-8534 0310), 1 February to 15 May.
Macbeth
Shakespeare's dark tale as you've never seen it before, taking place in a secret location from dawn to dusk. Party with Duncan, bed down in Macbeth's castle on the 27th floor of a tower block, glimpse the witches in an underground car park, and join the feast at which Banquo will be an uninvited guest. The spectres will be bloody – but the food will be vegetarian. LG Secret location, London, 4 April to 31 May.
Grit
This...
Theatre
Oh! What a Lovely War
Theatre-maker Joan Littlewood was a visionary, an iconoclast and a subversive. Her 1963 "documentary collage" about the bitter ironies of the first world war was way ahead of its time, using popular period song and hard-hitting testimony. Lyn Gardner Theatre Royal Stratford East, London E15 (020-8534 0310), 1 February to 15 May.
Macbeth
Shakespeare's dark tale as you've never seen it before, taking place in a secret location from dawn to dusk. Party with Duncan, bed down in Macbeth's castle on the 27th floor of a tower block, glimpse the witches in an underground car park, and join the feast at which Banquo will be an uninvited guest. The spectres will be bloody – but the food will be vegetarian. LG Secret location, London, 4 April to 31 May.
Grit
This...
- 1/1/2014
- by Lyn Gardner, Andrew Dickson, Jonathan Jones, Adrian Searle, Imogen Tilden, Andrew Clements, Tom Service, Mark Lawson, Tim Jonze, Brian Logan, Oliver Wainwright, Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Henry Barnes, Judith Mackrell
- The Guardian - Film News
Hollywood has made some serious misjudgements when it comes to film titles in recent years: Avengers Assemble was an unnecessary decision informed by the stupid assumption that everyone in Britain would immediately think Tony Stark was about to face off against Sean Connery in a giant bear outfit, and both John Carter and Captain Phillips aren’t exactly the most inspiring titles ever released.
But, it has been an awful lot worse in the past, when brevity was apparently not something that ever came up for discussion. Titles could amble on aimlessly for hundreds of characters, without focus, and without the hooks needed to actually attract potential audiences, or in fact sell the film at all. And occasionally, the titles themselves could be flat out ludicrous, beyond the point of intrigue, and the result, especially for modern audiences fed on tight, smartly-conceived titles (for the most part) would be a...
But, it has been an awful lot worse in the past, when brevity was apparently not something that ever came up for discussion. Titles could amble on aimlessly for hundreds of characters, without focus, and without the hooks needed to actually attract potential audiences, or in fact sell the film at all. And occasionally, the titles themselves could be flat out ludicrous, beyond the point of intrigue, and the result, especially for modern audiences fed on tight, smartly-conceived titles (for the most part) would be a...
- 10/11/2013
- by Simon Gallagher
- Obsessed with Film
It is with regret that we have to report the passing, last week, of jazz composer and pioneering filmmaker Ed Bland at his home in Smithfield, Virginia at the age of 86. A Chicago natïve Bland was a jazz protégé and started first composing music using Arnold Schoenberg's atonal 12 tone system and worked his entire life as a composer, producer, concert impresario musical director and arranger for every major jazz artist and funk, soul and blues musician of the 20th century. Bland, as well, recorded and worked for every major record label and television network and served on the National Endowment of the Arts Recoding Panel. His music was even sampled by Beyoncé...
- 3/17/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Reposted For 2013 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
It was playing Bach that brought Canadian pianist Glenn Gould worldwide fame when his recording of the Goldberg Variations – at the time, 1955, a rather esoteric corner of the repertoire – and certainly a hefty percentage of his albums over the course of his career were devoted to the German Baroque master's keyboard output. But in celebrating the 80th anniversary of his birth on September 25, 1932 (and looking forward with sadness to the 30th anniversary of his death of a stroke on October 4, 1982), it's worth remembering that he was interested in many more composers. I didn't have to make too much of a conscious effort to diversify this baker's-dozen list until I got down to the last two spots. (All the recommended recordings were issued by Columbia Records/CBS Masterworks/Sony Classical.)
J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, Bwv 988; Sweelinck: Fantasia in D major; Schoenberg: Piano Suite Op.
It was playing Bach that brought Canadian pianist Glenn Gould worldwide fame when his recording of the Goldberg Variations – at the time, 1955, a rather esoteric corner of the repertoire – and certainly a hefty percentage of his albums over the course of his career were devoted to the German Baroque master's keyboard output. But in celebrating the 80th anniversary of his birth on September 25, 1932 (and looking forward with sadness to the 30th anniversary of his death of a stroke on October 4, 1982), it's worth remembering that he was interested in many more composers. I didn't have to make too much of a conscious effort to diversify this baker's-dozen list until I got down to the last two spots. (All the recommended recordings were issued by Columbia Records/CBS Masterworks/Sony Classical.)
J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, Bwv 988; Sweelinck: Fantasia in D major; Schoenberg: Piano Suite Op.
- 2/11/2013
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
The Observer's critics pick the season's highlights, from the Misanthrope to Johnny Marr, Lulu to Lichtenstein, H7steria to Hitchcock. What are you most looking forward to? Add your comments below and download a pdf of the calendar here
December | January | FebruaryDecember
1 Film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D)
Well, not so very unexpected. Every move has been tracked by fanboys, from the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug to the return of the king, Peter Jackson, to take over directing from Guillermo del Toro. But Middle-earth (or, as it's sometimes known, New Zealand) is back for the next three Christmases.
3 Pop Scott Walker
The avant-garde Walker Brother returns with his first album since 2006's The Drift. Not for the faint-hearted, Bish Bosch finds the former romantic hero deep in dystopian territory, at once sonorous and rigorous.
3 Classical H7steria
World premiere of...
December | January | FebruaryDecember
1 Film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D)
Well, not so very unexpected. Every move has been tracked by fanboys, from the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug to the return of the king, Peter Jackson, to take over directing from Guillermo del Toro. But Middle-earth (or, as it's sometimes known, New Zealand) is back for the next three Christmases.
3 Pop Scott Walker
The avant-garde Walker Brother returns with his first album since 2006's The Drift. Not for the faint-hearted, Bish Bosch finds the former romantic hero deep in dystopian territory, at once sonorous and rigorous.
3 Classical H7steria
World premiere of...
- 12/2/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
This remarkable creator – of orchestral pieces and chamber works as well as hybrids of film and performance art – draws on a plethora of influences, yet devises her own astonishing sound
All articles in this series
After Igor Stravinsky, it's a bit of a cliche to think of contemporary composition as making the most of the etymological truism that the roots of the verb "to compose" come from the Latin "componere" meaning "to put together" – ie that you're not creating anything new as a composer, merely creating new combinations of sounds, of things, of ideas, that already exist. But Austrian, er, composer Olga Neuwirth (whose recent viola concerto Remnants of Songs ... An Amphigory will have its first British performance at the Proms on 13 August) perhaps more than any other musician of her generation (she was born in 1968) really does take that principle as her starting point.
What does that mean for how her music sounds?...
All articles in this series
After Igor Stravinsky, it's a bit of a cliche to think of contemporary composition as making the most of the etymological truism that the roots of the verb "to compose" come from the Latin "componere" meaning "to put together" – ie that you're not creating anything new as a composer, merely creating new combinations of sounds, of things, of ideas, that already exist. But Austrian, er, composer Olga Neuwirth (whose recent viola concerto Remnants of Songs ... An Amphigory will have its first British performance at the Proms on 13 August) perhaps more than any other musician of her generation (she was born in 1968) really does take that principle as her starting point.
What does that mean for how her music sounds?...
- 8/7/2012
- by Tom Service
- The Guardian - Film News
Our critics' picks of this week's openings, plus your last chance to see and what to book now
• Which cultural events are in your diary this week? Tell us in the comments below
Opening this week
Theatre
27
Return of Abi Morgan's play, set in a convent, which examines faith, science, ageing and loneliness. Maureen Beattie stars and Vicky Featherstone directs. Citizens, Glasgow, Thursday to 26 May, then touring.
Mayfest
Fabulous festival in Bristol of work from both established and emerging artists. It's a real mixture, very little of it in traditional form. Be adventurous. Various venues, Thursday to 27 May.
100% Norfolk
Famed Berlin company Rimini Protokoll, who create theatre with real people, are exploring the experiences, hopes and dreams of 100 Norfolk dwellers. Theatre Royal, Norwich, Friday and Saturday.
Pop
The Horrors
Still riding the wave of last year's fantastic Skying album, the Horrors tour with support from the equally great and similarly psychedelic Toy.
• Which cultural events are in your diary this week? Tell us in the comments below
Opening this week
Theatre
27
Return of Abi Morgan's play, set in a convent, which examines faith, science, ageing and loneliness. Maureen Beattie stars and Vicky Featherstone directs. Citizens, Glasgow, Thursday to 26 May, then touring.
Mayfest
Fabulous festival in Bristol of work from both established and emerging artists. It's a real mixture, very little of it in traditional form. Be adventurous. Various venues, Thursday to 27 May.
100% Norfolk
Famed Berlin company Rimini Protokoll, who create theatre with real people, are exploring the experiences, hopes and dreams of 100 Norfolk dwellers. Theatre Royal, Norwich, Friday and Saturday.
Pop
The Horrors
Still riding the wave of last year's fantastic Skying album, the Horrors tour with support from the equally great and similarly psychedelic Toy.
- 5/15/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
In the early 1950s, as the big studio system breathed its last, Hollywood produced a succession of classic Tinseltown fables: Sunset Boulevard, In a Lonely Place, Singin' in the Rain, The Barefoot Contessa, A Star Is Born and, right in the middle, The Bad and the Beautiful, made in 1952 and back in the cinemas to accompany a Minnelli retrospective at the Nft. Though directed with Minnelli's characteristic delicacy, this is essentially a producer's film, made by John Houseman, one of the great figures of 20th-century American theatre and cinema. Houseman's first Hollywood job was supervising the script of Citizen Kane, his second was working for David O Selznick. In The Bad and the Beautiful, Houseman applies a similar structure, intelligence and suavity to a ruthless Hollywood genius much like Selznick as he brought to Charles Foster Kane.
An old-style Hollywood studio boss (Walter Pidgeon) brings together a movie star (Lana Turner...
An old-style Hollywood studio boss (Walter Pidgeon) brings together a movie star (Lana Turner...
- 4/23/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
"Released in 1938 and now available in a remastered edition from the Warner Archive Collection, The Great Waltz was one of Louis B Mayer's frequent attempts to bring culture to the American masses by buying up wholesale lots of European talent," writes Dave Kehr in the New York Times. It's a "biographical fantasy woven, with no particular concern for the truth, around the figure of the Austrian composer Johann Strauss." And now out from New Yorker Video, "the 1975 film adaptation of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet stands in roughly the same relation to The Great Waltz as Schoenberg's dissonant, 12-tone compositions do to Strauss's infectious oom-pah-pahs. Schoenberg's unfinished opera is a work of the utmost sobriety and seriousness — a philosophical assertion of monotheism that confirmed Schoenberg's reconversion to Judaism — and it is presented by Straub and Huillet in a form that avoids any theatrical effects (or,...
- 2/4/2012
- MUBI
Virtuoso violinist heard on a string of classic Hollywood movie scores
The American violinist Israel Baker, who has died aged 92, was renowned among his fellow musicians but unknown to most of the millions who heard him play on the soundtracks of such movies as Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 shocker Psycho, where he led Bernard Herrmann's screaming violin effects accompanying the stabbing of Janet Leigh in the shower scene.
Baker belonged to a select group of musicians who could fit into any situation at a moment's notice and read any piece on sight. But while making a lavish living in the Hollywood film and recording studios, he also had a considerable concert career.
He was born in Chicago, the youngest of four children of Russian immigrants. At six he appeared on national radio, and from his late teens he played in orchestras. At 22 he was concertmaster of Leopold Stokowski's All-American...
The American violinist Israel Baker, who has died aged 92, was renowned among his fellow musicians but unknown to most of the millions who heard him play on the soundtracks of such movies as Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 shocker Psycho, where he led Bernard Herrmann's screaming violin effects accompanying the stabbing of Janet Leigh in the shower scene.
Baker belonged to a select group of musicians who could fit into any situation at a moment's notice and read any piece on sight. But while making a lavish living in the Hollywood film and recording studios, he also had a considerable concert career.
He was born in Chicago, the youngest of four children of Russian immigrants. At six he appeared on national radio, and from his late teens he played in orchestras. At 22 he was concertmaster of Leopold Stokowski's All-American...
- 1/11/2012
- by Tully Potter
- The Guardian - Film News
A late-Romantic composer who occasionally worked in a more modern style, Alexander Zemlinsky (October 14, 1871 – March 15, 1942) was something of a prodigy. Anton Bruckner was among his teachers. Brahms, impressed by the Symphony in D and a quartet, recommended Zemlinsky to Simrock, Brahms's publisher and arranged a stipend for the young composer. Zemlinsky was friends with the slightly younger Arnold Schoenberg and taught him counterpoint (in which Brahms had tutored Zemlinsky); Schoenberg later married Zemlinsky's sister.
The connection to Schoenberg (who studied music with no-one else) probably contributed to the revival of Zemlinsky's music, which was largely forgotten in the decades after the Nazis drove the Jewish composer first from Germany back to his native Vienna, and then to America, where he found none of the success Schoenberg achieved in exile.
A few choice volumes Decca's Entartete Musik series ("decadent music," the Nazis' phrase for music they found insufficiently Aryan or overly...
The connection to Schoenberg (who studied music with no-one else) probably contributed to the revival of Zemlinsky's music, which was largely forgotten in the decades after the Nazis drove the Jewish composer first from Germany back to his native Vienna, and then to America, where he found none of the success Schoenberg achieved in exile.
A few choice volumes Decca's Entartete Musik series ("decadent music," the Nazis' phrase for music they found insufficiently Aryan or overly...
- 10/14/2011
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Above: Un héritier (2011).
According to my best available sources, the first Jean-Marie Straub/Danièle Huillet film to appear at the Locarno film festival was their 1994 short, Lothringen! (All corrections and updates to this are welcome.) This turns out to be perfectly appropriate for the appearance of Straub in Locarno circa 2011, in which new and old work appears in three separate programs, including a revival screening of Lothringen! (sometimes known as Lorraine!) as part of a Straub shorts program. That program also includes one of Straub's newest films, Un héritier, which was commissioned by the Jeonju film festival for its annual Jeonju Digital Project and, in what's now a tradition, is here in Locarno. This edition of the project is about as strong as any recent one, with the Straub and a small masterpiece by José Luis Guerín, Memories of a Morning, which sees him in the sublime mode of En construcción,...
According to my best available sources, the first Jean-Marie Straub/Danièle Huillet film to appear at the Locarno film festival was their 1994 short, Lothringen! (All corrections and updates to this are welcome.) This turns out to be perfectly appropriate for the appearance of Straub in Locarno circa 2011, in which new and old work appears in three separate programs, including a revival screening of Lothringen! (sometimes known as Lorraine!) as part of a Straub shorts program. That program also includes one of Straub's newest films, Un héritier, which was commissioned by the Jeonju film festival for its annual Jeonju Digital Project and, in what's now a tradition, is here in Locarno. This edition of the project is about as strong as any recent one, with the Straub and a small masterpiece by José Luis Guerín, Memories of a Morning, which sees him in the sublime mode of En construcción,...
- 8/10/2011
- MUBI
The Observer's film critic reflects on The King's Speech – and how his own speech impediment has contributed to his life and character
From as early as I can remember until 1952, when I left home at the age of 18 to go into the army, there was an annual ritual on the afternoon of Christmas Day. Dinner, which meant turkey and all the trimmings followed by plum pudding, began around two o'clock and was carefully timed to end so that everyone could sit there beneath the paper decorations, wearing the hats that came out of the crackers, and earnestly, reverently listen to the king's Christmas message on the radio.
This hallowed national tradition, initiated by Sir John Reith in 1932, was not five years old when George V, who'd given four of them, died. His successor Edward VIII's landmark contribution to broadcasting was his 1936 abdication speech: there was no Christmas message that year.
From as early as I can remember until 1952, when I left home at the age of 18 to go into the army, there was an annual ritual on the afternoon of Christmas Day. Dinner, which meant turkey and all the trimmings followed by plum pudding, began around two o'clock and was carefully timed to end so that everyone could sit there beneath the paper decorations, wearing the hats that came out of the crackers, and earnestly, reverently listen to the king's Christmas message on the radio.
This hallowed national tradition, initiated by Sir John Reith in 1932, was not five years old when George V, who'd given four of them, died. His successor Edward VIII's landmark contribution to broadcasting was his 1936 abdication speech: there was no Christmas message that year.
- 12/26/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Robert Campbell asks Boston Globe readers what buildings they hate most, and it's bad news for concrete buffs.
Boston Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell asked his readers for their most-hated buildings and, surprise, surprise, brutalism took the brunt. The concrete-heavy, '60s style of architecture favored by budding, post-industrial east-coast cities like New Haven and Providence (and especially common across the pond in the UK) hit Boston particularly hard. Pretty much every big, concrete box there made it onto the Ugliest List: State Service Center (1970), 133 Federal Street (1960), JFK Federal Building (1966), and of course, City Hall (1968).
Brutalist icons are under fire from Newcastle to Connecticut to Cleveland. Will the style face extinction in Boston too? Not so fast, says Sarah Schweitzer:
"Could it be that the buildings are not inherently out of place in Boston? That rather they are feats of imagination and craftsmanship and tragically misunderstood -- the architectural equivalent...
Boston Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell asked his readers for their most-hated buildings and, surprise, surprise, brutalism took the brunt. The concrete-heavy, '60s style of architecture favored by budding, post-industrial east-coast cities like New Haven and Providence (and especially common across the pond in the UK) hit Boston particularly hard. Pretty much every big, concrete box there made it onto the Ugliest List: State Service Center (1970), 133 Federal Street (1960), JFK Federal Building (1966), and of course, City Hall (1968).
Brutalist icons are under fire from Newcastle to Connecticut to Cleveland. Will the style face extinction in Boston too? Not so fast, says Sarah Schweitzer:
"Could it be that the buildings are not inherently out of place in Boston? That rather they are feats of imagination and craftsmanship and tragically misunderstood -- the architectural equivalent...
- 3/23/2010
- by William Bostwick
- Fast Company
John Cage Experimental-music master composer and author John Cage was born in Los Angeles in 1912 into a cerebral household. After giving college a go, Cage dropped out and went on a European sojourn, ending up back in L.A., studying with the legendary composer Arnold Schoenberg. Cage made music out of anything he could conjure, including complete silence with his infamous 1952 piece "4:33." This imagination-stretching musical scientist experimented with plates and screws between the strings of the piano, an army of radios randomly broadcasting, tape players timed to bathtub gurgles and the whirr of blenders, whistles and kitchen percussion -- a complete faction of household appliances. Famous works include his book Silence (published in 1961) and the live-performance "Imaginary Landscape No. 4." Collaborations include musician David Tudor, choreographer/dancer Merce Cunningham, and artist Robert Rauschenberg. Among his many accolades are the...
- 6/12/2009
- by Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin
- Huffington Post
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