Richard Davis, the prolific bassist who adorned jazz classics by Pharoah Sanders, Eric Dolphy, and Andrew Hill and laid the musical foundation for Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, has died at the age of 93.
Davis’ daughter Persia confirmed her father’s death Thursday on both a memorial page and to Madison 365; Davis taught at the University of Wisconsin for over 40 years, but spent the last two years in hospice care. “We appreciate all the love and support the community has shown him over the years,” Persia Davis added.
The Chicago-born...
Davis’ daughter Persia confirmed her father’s death Thursday on both a memorial page and to Madison 365; Davis taught at the University of Wisconsin for over 40 years, but spent the last two years in hospice care. “We appreciate all the love and support the community has shown him over the years,” Persia Davis added.
The Chicago-born...
- 9/7/2023
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Mitski has announced a string of intimate North American acoustic shows in support of her upcoming album, The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We.
Dubbed “Amateur Mistake,” the tour includes performances in Mexico City, Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto throughout the month of September. Come October, Mitski will play previously announced shows in the UK and Europe. Check out her updated tour schedule below.
Tickets for the LA, NYC, and Toronto shows will be distributed via lottery beginning Wednesday, September 13th (fans can register here). Meanwhile, tickets for the Mexico City show are currently on sale.
In addition to her upcoming tour dates, on September 7th Mitski will host a series of music and film double features that’ll take place at movie theaters in Chicago, Dallas, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Nashville, Sydney, New York, and Tokyo. At each event, fans will get to hear The Land Is...
Dubbed “Amateur Mistake,” the tour includes performances in Mexico City, Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto throughout the month of September. Come October, Mitski will play previously announced shows in the UK and Europe. Check out her updated tour schedule below.
Tickets for the LA, NYC, and Toronto shows will be distributed via lottery beginning Wednesday, September 13th (fans can register here). Meanwhile, tickets for the Mexico City show are currently on sale.
In addition to her upcoming tour dates, on September 7th Mitski will host a series of music and film double features that’ll take place at movie theaters in Chicago, Dallas, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Nashville, Sydney, New York, and Tokyo. At each event, fans will get to hear The Land Is...
- 9/5/2023
- by Scoop Harrison
- Consequence - Music
Days after she teased the news in a voice memo sent to fans, Mitski has officially announced that her seventh studio album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, will be out September 15th via Dead Oceans. As a preview, she’s shared its lead single “Bug Like an Angel.”
The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, which Mitski describes in a press release as her “most American album,” pulls from a vast pool of influences, including spaghetti western soundtracks, Arthur Russell, Igor Stravinsky, and more. To help flesh it out, she employed a full orchestra and a 17-person choir, working again with her longtime producer Patrick Hyland.
“The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people,” Mitski adds of the album’s themes. “I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness,...
The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, which Mitski describes in a press release as her “most American album,” pulls from a vast pool of influences, including spaghetti western soundtracks, Arthur Russell, Igor Stravinsky, and more. To help flesh it out, she employed a full orchestra and a 17-person choir, working again with her longtime producer Patrick Hyland.
“The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people,” Mitski adds of the album’s themes. “I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness,...
- 7/26/2023
- by Abby Jones
- Consequence - Music
The music of Igor Stravinsky continues to influence composers around the world today.
Throughout his life, Stravinsky wrote music that pushed the boundaries of traditional composition. His innovative approach included unusual harmonic combinations and orchestration, which opened up new possibilities in composition. From the premiere of his iconic ballet The Rite of Spring to his later works, Stravinsky challenged audiences and changed the course of modern music.
In this article, we will take a deep dive into the influential music of Igor Stravinsky. We will explore how he transformed classical music, examine some of his most famous works, and look at ways that other composers have been inspired by his work. By the end, you will have a comprehensive understanding of one of the most important figures in classical music history.
Background and Education of Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky was a Russian composer born in 1882 and is considered one of...
Throughout his life, Stravinsky wrote music that pushed the boundaries of traditional composition. His innovative approach included unusual harmonic combinations and orchestration, which opened up new possibilities in composition. From the premiere of his iconic ballet The Rite of Spring to his later works, Stravinsky challenged audiences and changed the course of modern music.
In this article, we will take a deep dive into the influential music of Igor Stravinsky. We will explore how he transformed classical music, examine some of his most famous works, and look at ways that other composers have been inspired by his work. By the end, you will have a comprehensive understanding of one of the most important figures in classical music history.
Background and Education of Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky was a Russian composer born in 1882 and is considered one of...
- 3/8/2023
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
Click here to read the full article.
Bob McGrath, the Sing Along With Mitch tenor who portrayed the friendly music teacher Bob Johnson for more than four decades as an original castmember on Sesame Street, died Sunday at home with his family in New Jersey. He was 90.
“Hello Facebook friends, the McGrath family has some sad news to share,” McGrath’s family posted on his Facebook page Sunday. “Our father Bob McGrath, passed away today. He died peacefully at home, surrounded by his family.” (Hollywood also paid tribute to the actor on social media.)
Born on a farm in Illinois, McGrath was one of the four non-Muppet castmembers when Sesame Street debuted on public television stations of Nov. 10, 1969.
With no acting experience, producers always told him to be himself. Over the years, he sang dozens of the show’s signature tunes, including “Sing, Sing a Song” and “The People in Your Neighborhood,...
Bob McGrath, the Sing Along With Mitch tenor who portrayed the friendly music teacher Bob Johnson for more than four decades as an original castmember on Sesame Street, died Sunday at home with his family in New Jersey. He was 90.
“Hello Facebook friends, the McGrath family has some sad news to share,” McGrath’s family posted on his Facebook page Sunday. “Our father Bob McGrath, passed away today. He died peacefully at home, surrounded by his family.” (Hollywood also paid tribute to the actor on social media.)
Born on a farm in Illinois, McGrath was one of the four non-Muppet castmembers when Sesame Street debuted on public television stations of Nov. 10, 1969.
With no acting experience, producers always told him to be himself. Over the years, he sang dozens of the show’s signature tunes, including “Sing, Sing a Song” and “The People in Your Neighborhood,...
- 12/4/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
True story of lovers thwarted by the repressive Soviet military in the 1970s has sadly not lost any of its relevance
Made last year but suddenly obliquely relevant after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this Estonian-British co-production examines some of the ways a repressive and homophobic state apparatus scars citizens with shame. Based on a true story according to the opening credits, the setting is the late 1970s when the Soviet Union still occupied the Baltic nations. Provincial Russian youth Sergey Serebrennikov is doing his national service at an army base in Estonia. He has a coy flirtation going with local beauty Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya), a secretary on the base for a commanding officer, and he is pally with his bunk mate Volodja (Jake Henderson). However, when Sergey is assigned to serve as a sort of valet to suave ace fighter pilot Roman Matvajev (Ukrainian actor Oleg Zagorodnii), the attraction...
Made last year but suddenly obliquely relevant after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this Estonian-British co-production examines some of the ways a repressive and homophobic state apparatus scars citizens with shame. Based on a true story according to the opening credits, the setting is the late 1970s when the Soviet Union still occupied the Baltic nations. Provincial Russian youth Sergey Serebrennikov is doing his national service at an army base in Estonia. He has a coy flirtation going with local beauty Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya), a secretary on the base for a commanding officer, and he is pally with his bunk mate Volodja (Jake Henderson). However, when Sergey is assigned to serve as a sort of valet to suave ace fighter pilot Roman Matvajev (Ukrainian actor Oleg Zagorodnii), the attraction...
- 4/19/2022
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Eve Babitz, a writer and once-and-future “it” girl closely identified with the 1960s and early-’70s in Los Angeles, has died at 78.
Relatives confirmed her death on social media as well as to the Associated Press, but did not specify a cause.
Part-West Coast wild child, part-boho intellectual, Eve once described herself as a “stacked eighteen-year-old blonde on Sunset Boulevard… who is also a writer.” A famous image from 1963 shows her playing chess against Dadaist artist and writer Marcel Duchamp, with Babitz completely naked and Duchamp fully clothed.
As a writer and creative muse, Babitz had a wide-ranging impact, drawing comparisons to Joan Didion, who recommended a piece of hers to Rolling Stone, kick-starting her writing career. She also ventured outside the world of letters, designing album covers for Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and Linda Ronstadt. She had romantic connections with notable figures like Jim Morrison of the Doors, Harrison Ford,...
Relatives confirmed her death on social media as well as to the Associated Press, but did not specify a cause.
Part-West Coast wild child, part-boho intellectual, Eve once described herself as a “stacked eighteen-year-old blonde on Sunset Boulevard… who is also a writer.” A famous image from 1963 shows her playing chess against Dadaist artist and writer Marcel Duchamp, with Babitz completely naked and Duchamp fully clothed.
As a writer and creative muse, Babitz had a wide-ranging impact, drawing comparisons to Joan Didion, who recommended a piece of hers to Rolling Stone, kick-starting her writing career. She also ventured outside the world of letters, designing album covers for Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and Linda Ronstadt. She had romantic connections with notable figures like Jim Morrison of the Doors, Harrison Ford,...
- 12/18/2021
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Time is everything in a Terence Davies film. In Benediction, his biopic about English poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden), he eventually covers his subject’s marriage to Hester Gatty (Kate Phillips). There’s a shot of the couple standing still, facing the camera as they pose for a wedding photo (a shot that tends to pop up throughout the director’s filmography). The camera flashes, we see the black-and-white photo, and then a fade transitions us to the future, where it rests on their bedside while Hester looks at their newborn child. The sequence is an encapsulation of what Davies does best: observing life with one’s head facing backwards, the cumulative weight of the past bearing down on every moment of the present.
Benediction shows how Sassoon got to that point in his life and beyond, hopping back and forth from his younger days to his older self (played...
Benediction shows how Sassoon got to that point in his life and beyond, hopping back and forth from his younger days to his older self (played...
- 9/12/2021
- by C.J. Prince
- The Film Stage
Coco Chanel was a style icon, one of the most world-known designers. Her style embodies an entire era, recognized by elegance, minimalism in the use of accessories, and convenience. This article discusses the top five films that describe this woman’s life.
Chanel Solitaire, 1981
Directed by George Kaczender and starring Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton, Rutger Hauer,
The film tells about the life and love of the amazing and unique Coco Chanel. It is a romantic story full of sadness, longing, and beautiful music. Interestingly, one-seventh of the total budget (one in seven million dollars) was spent on costumes for this film.
The film is built as a memory of the life of a young, successful, but unhappy Gabrielle Chanel, in which every person, be it Etienne Balsan, Arthur Capel, or Adrienne – all influenced Coco and her life.
Gabrielle Chanel. La Permanence d’un style. 2001
The film mainly describes the period of Coco Chanel’s activity,...
Chanel Solitaire, 1981
Directed by George Kaczender and starring Marie-France Pisier, Timothy Dalton, Rutger Hauer,
The film tells about the life and love of the amazing and unique Coco Chanel. It is a romantic story full of sadness, longing, and beautiful music. Interestingly, one-seventh of the total budget (one in seven million dollars) was spent on costumes for this film.
The film is built as a memory of the life of a young, successful, but unhappy Gabrielle Chanel, in which every person, be it Etienne Balsan, Arthur Capel, or Adrienne – all influenced Coco and her life.
Gabrielle Chanel. La Permanence d’un style. 2001
The film mainly describes the period of Coco Chanel’s activity,...
- 7/26/2021
- by Michael Walsh
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Winning the prize for first post-pandemic indoor stage performance, L.A. Opera will present composer Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex for a single matinee June 6 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The inimitable Stephen Fry — prerecorded at London’s Abbey Road studios — will appear onscreen as the narrator of the production.
Based on a 1927 libretto written by Jean Cocteau and later translated by E.E. cummings, the 50-minute opera-oratorio recounts Oedipus’ inquiry into the murder of King Laius. Oedipus, the King of Thebes, discovers that Laius, whom he secretly killed, was actually his father and that he has slept ...
Based on a 1927 libretto written by Jean Cocteau and later translated by E.E. cummings, the 50-minute opera-oratorio recounts Oedipus’ inquiry into the murder of King Laius. Oedipus, the King of Thebes, discovers that Laius, whom he secretly killed, was actually his father and that he has slept ...
Winning the prize for first post-pandemic indoor stage performance, L.A. Opera will present composer Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex for a single matinee June 6 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The inimitable Stephen Fry — prerecorded at London’s Abbey Road studios — will appear onscreen as the narrator of the production.
Based on a 1927 libretto written by Jean Cocteau and later translated by E.E. cummings, the 50-minute opera-oratorio recounts Oedipus’ inquiry into the murder of King Laius. Oedipus, the King of Thebes, discovers that Laius, whom he secretly killed, was actually his father and that he has slept ...
Based on a 1927 libretto written by Jean Cocteau and later translated by E.E. cummings, the 50-minute opera-oratorio recounts Oedipus’ inquiry into the murder of King Laius. Oedipus, the King of Thebes, discovers that Laius, whom he secretly killed, was actually his father and that he has slept ...
Alice Coltrane’s early solo work has made her an icon on par with her husband and collaborator, John — last year, her 1971 LP Journey in Satchidananda earned a spot on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums list. But around 20 years’ worth of her musical output, dating from the time when she devoted herself to Hinduism and founded an ashram in California, still remains obscure. An upcoming release, Kirtan: Turiya Sings, will offer a fresh look at one exemplary album from this period.
Originally released on private-press cassette in 1982 via Coltrane’s ashram,...
Originally released on private-press cassette in 1982 via Coltrane’s ashram,...
- 6/2/2021
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Sofia Coppola honored her New York City roots — and one of its most renowned cultural institutions — with a new short film for the New York City Ballet. Shot in black-and-white by her “On the Rocks” and “The Beguiled” cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd, the film features the music of Frédéric Chopin, Igor Stravinsky, Johannes Brahms, and more, and choreography from dance legend Jerome Robbins, among others. Previewing five new works, the short was filmed on location at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, and serves as a fundraiser introducing New York City Ballet’s spring season, and first-ever virtual gala.
“The challenge for me was to convey the feeling of seeing live dance,” Coppola told The New York Times. “A lot of dance is filmed in a very flat, standard way. But getting close up, which is thrilling in rehearsal, doesn’t always translate onto film either. I had...
“The challenge for me was to convey the feeling of seeing live dance,” Coppola told The New York Times. “A lot of dance is filmed in a very flat, standard way. But getting close up, which is thrilling in rehearsal, doesn’t always translate onto film either. I had...
- 5/8/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
New York springs back to life! With the vaccine available nationwide this year, things are finally starting to return to normal. In celebration of this return, New York City Ballet made a B&w short film promoting the return of their 2021 Spring Gala. Directed by none other than filmmaker Sofia Coppola, and featuring cinematography by her latest Dp collaborator Philippe Le Sourd, the lovely 25-minute short film takes us through a number of ballet performances filmed inside of the Lincoln Center. "Since March of 2020, the artists of New York City Ballet have been unable to perform at Lincoln Center. This is their return home." The short features a selection of music from Frédéric Chopin, Igor Stravinsky, Johannes Brahms, Samuel Barber, and (of course) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is only available to view online until May 20th, 2021 - and I highly recommend giving this a look, at least to admire the dancers...
- 5/7/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Less Is More (Lim), a European development scheme for limited-budget feature films, has unveiled its selection of 16 projects, a majority of which are from women filmmakers and talents coming from theater, visual arts or documentary.
In spite of the pandemic, the 7th edition received as many as 350 applications from more than 70 countries. The final roster includes projects from territories that were not represented in previous editions, such as Uganda, Vietnam and South Africa.
Among the projects selected are “I Love My Guodoheaddji,” set in the Arctic Circle within Norway’s Sámi community; “I Matter,” about a Romany community in Romania, and “A Song That Slays,” set in a Pokot tribe in Kenya. Other projects explore a cult in Czech Republic (“Goddess), sex addiction in Lithuania (Sofia’s World), and Celtic tales (“Birds of a Feather…).
Lim, which develops first, second and third feature projects, is organized by the Groupe Ouest,...
In spite of the pandemic, the 7th edition received as many as 350 applications from more than 70 countries. The final roster includes projects from territories that were not represented in previous editions, such as Uganda, Vietnam and South Africa.
Among the projects selected are “I Love My Guodoheaddji,” set in the Arctic Circle within Norway’s Sámi community; “I Matter,” about a Romany community in Romania, and “A Song That Slays,” set in a Pokot tribe in Kenya. Other projects explore a cult in Czech Republic (“Goddess), sex addiction in Lithuania (Sofia’s World), and Celtic tales (“Birds of a Feather…).
Lim, which develops first, second and third feature projects, is organized by the Groupe Ouest,...
- 3/1/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
In tandem with the arrival of the long-awaited authorized Frank Zappa documentary, UMe and Zappa Records have digitally released the official soundtrack for Zappa, featuring highlights from the composer’s catalog, live recordings, interview clips and a dozen unreleased tracks from Zappa’s vaults.
The 3Cd/5-lp version of Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack — out digitally now — boasts 68 tracks spanning from the Mothers of Invention’s Freak Out to Zappa’s final orchestral work The Yellow Shark. The deluxe version of the soundtrack also includes offerings from Zappa’s Bizarre...
The 3Cd/5-lp version of Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack — out digitally now — boasts 68 tracks spanning from the Mothers of Invention’s Freak Out to Zappa’s final orchestral work The Yellow Shark. The deluxe version of the soundtrack also includes offerings from Zappa’s Bizarre...
- 11/28/2020
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Sooner or later, any commercially viable documentary about the life and work of avant-garde musician Frank Zappa — outsider art’s ultimate inside man — has to grapple with the same headache from which Zappa suffered for the length of his career: the hostile relationship between commerce and creation. The biologically improbable love child of a time-bending orgy between Igor Stravinsky, Weird Al Yankovic, Jacob Collier, and Led Zeppelin (or maybe it would be easier to just call him a true original), the self-appointed Mother of Invention was a composer by nature, and a rock star by necessity.
He strove to create music that was alive with the same unbridled sense of freedom as he was; music that captured the absurdity of this world and served it back to the masses on wax. As Zappa is heard saying in the new and Alex Winter documentary that bears his name: “A lot of...
He strove to create music that was alive with the same unbridled sense of freedom as he was; music that captured the absurdity of this world and served it back to the masses on wax. As Zappa is heard saying in the new and Alex Winter documentary that bears his name: “A lot of...
- 11/26/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Following a listening party on Monday, Deerhoof dropped a surprise new album, Love-Lore, via Joyful Noise Recordings.
Love-Lore was recorded live in the studio over a single afternoon at Rivington Rehearsal Studios in New York City. The album contains a medley of 43 covers, which range from the Velvet Underground to Krzysztof Penderecki.
Muindi Fanuel Muindi wrote an essay to accompany the release, while Benjamin Piekut wrote the liner notes. “Deerhoof is not the future of music and doesn’t want to be — they simply want to embrace you, here and now,...
Love-Lore was recorded live in the studio over a single afternoon at Rivington Rehearsal Studios in New York City. The album contains a medley of 43 covers, which range from the Velvet Underground to Krzysztof Penderecki.
Muindi Fanuel Muindi wrote an essay to accompany the release, while Benjamin Piekut wrote the liner notes. “Deerhoof is not the future of music and doesn’t want to be — they simply want to embrace you, here and now,...
- 9/28/2020
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Los Angeles-based production-distribution house Cinema Libre Studio has acquired U.S. rights to Frédéric Choffat and Julie Gilbert’s “My Little One,” in the wake of its U.S. premiere at the Miami Film Festival.
The deal was closed by Philippe Diaz, Cinema Libre Studio chairman and Loic Magneron, founder of Paris’ Wide Management, the film’s sales agent.
Produced by Anne Deluz and Jessica Huppert Berman for Luc Peter’s Intermezzo Films and Les Films du Tigre, and co-produced by public broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (Rts), “My Little One” has been seen to date, of festivals, at Germany’s Frankfurt Biennal, Tübingen and Stuttgart and Mannheim-Heidelberg, as well as France’s Beaujolais French-Language Cinema Meetings and Switzerland’s Solothurn Film Festival, before its theatrical release in Switzerland.
“My Little One” has been licensed to South Korea in an all rights deal and to Eastern Europe, for premium pay TV and VOD.
The deal was closed by Philippe Diaz, Cinema Libre Studio chairman and Loic Magneron, founder of Paris’ Wide Management, the film’s sales agent.
Produced by Anne Deluz and Jessica Huppert Berman for Luc Peter’s Intermezzo Films and Les Films du Tigre, and co-produced by public broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (Rts), “My Little One” has been seen to date, of festivals, at Germany’s Frankfurt Biennal, Tübingen and Stuttgart and Mannheim-Heidelberg, as well as France’s Beaujolais French-Language Cinema Meetings and Switzerland’s Solothurn Film Festival, before its theatrical release in Switzerland.
“My Little One” has been licensed to South Korea in an all rights deal and to Eastern Europe, for premium pay TV and VOD.
- 3/11/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Jan Kounen’s comedy “My Cousin,” starring Vincent Lindon and François Damiens, will be one of the biggest French releases of the year. The film screens Friday at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris. In an exclusive interview with Variety, he talks about his key motivations for the project.
“My Cousin” is about two cousins (Lindon and Damiens) with wildly incompatible personalities and different ways of life, set in a luxurious Bordeaux vineyard. It marks a major new departure for Kounen, and is his first feature film for 11 years, after his 2009 Cannes closing film, “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky.”
Kounen has a cult following from previous pics such as “Dobermann” (1997), and spiritual Western “Blueberry” (2004), and is well known for his interest in shamanism, including his 2004 documentary “Other Worlds.” This interest has fed into his recent Vr projects – “Ayahuasca” (Kosmik Journey), “7 Lives” and “-22.7°C.”
“My Cousin” is produced by Richard Grandpierre’s Eskwad,...
“My Cousin” is about two cousins (Lindon and Damiens) with wildly incompatible personalities and different ways of life, set in a luxurious Bordeaux vineyard. It marks a major new departure for Kounen, and is his first feature film for 11 years, after his 2009 Cannes closing film, “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky.”
Kounen has a cult following from previous pics such as “Dobermann” (1997), and spiritual Western “Blueberry” (2004), and is well known for his interest in shamanism, including his 2004 documentary “Other Worlds.” This interest has fed into his recent Vr projects – “Ayahuasca” (Kosmik Journey), “7 Lives” and “-22.7°C.”
“My Cousin” is produced by Richard Grandpierre’s Eskwad,...
- 1/16/2020
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Mon cousin
It’s been eleven years since Dutch born Jan Kounen has unveiled a new feature, but in 2020 we’ll finally see him return with his fifth film, the comedy Mon cousin. Produced by Richard Grandpierre (Noe’s Irreversible and Climax) and lensed by Guillaume Schiffman (who has shot all of Michel Hazanavicius’ films), Kounen’s latest is co-written by Fabrice Roger-Lacan and actor Vincent Lindon (who also stars). Francois Damiens appears to be the sidekick. Kounen, something of a cult favorite thanks to a pair of oddball Vincent Cassel vehicles (1997’s Dobermann and 2004’s Renegade), closed the 2009 Cannes Film Festival with Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, which starred Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen.…...
It’s been eleven years since Dutch born Jan Kounen has unveiled a new feature, but in 2020 we’ll finally see him return with his fifth film, the comedy Mon cousin. Produced by Richard Grandpierre (Noe’s Irreversible and Climax) and lensed by Guillaume Schiffman (who has shot all of Michel Hazanavicius’ films), Kounen’s latest is co-written by Fabrice Roger-Lacan and actor Vincent Lindon (who also stars). Francois Damiens appears to be the sidekick. Kounen, something of a cult favorite thanks to a pair of oddball Vincent Cassel vehicles (1997’s Dobermann and 2004’s Renegade), closed the 2009 Cannes Film Festival with Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, which starred Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen.…...
- 12/30/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Dr. Donald W. Shirley was a piano prodigy of Jamaican descent who had mastered much of the standard concert repertory by age 10. “His virtuosity is worthy of gods,” Igor Stravinsky once said. Yet the idiosyncratic Shirley has been reduced to one of cinema’s long-standing racist stock characters in Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book.”
To be fair, “Green Book” doesn’t set out to be a Don Shirley biopic; however, the movie’s billed as essentially an interracial buddy comedy. Universal, which produced the film, plans to submit the true-life road trip film in the Best Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globes (although its eventual category placement will be determined by the Hollywood Foreign Press). American buddy comedies have generally mandated equal screen time to both characters — except when one of those characters is black, and exists almost entirely to help transform his white companion on a quest toward salvation.
To be fair, “Green Book” doesn’t set out to be a Don Shirley biopic; however, the movie’s billed as essentially an interracial buddy comedy. Universal, which produced the film, plans to submit the true-life road trip film in the Best Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globes (although its eventual category placement will be determined by the Hollywood Foreign Press). American buddy comedies have generally mandated equal screen time to both characters — except when one of those characters is black, and exists almost entirely to help transform his white companion on a quest toward salvation.
- 11/23/2018
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
“At each stage in his remarkable career, he’s been the first. He’s been somebody who’s walked through that door before everybody else has. That’s given people behind him enormous confidence. And he’s done it with grace.”
Those are the words President Obama uses to describe the writer-producer-arranger-composer Quincy Jones near the end of the new documentary Quincy. Jones is one of the great musical figures of the 20th century, a restless polymath who worked across jazz, the blues, pop, funk and rap. His work always...
Those are the words President Obama uses to describe the writer-producer-arranger-composer Quincy Jones near the end of the new documentary Quincy. Jones is one of the great musical figures of the 20th century, a restless polymath who worked across jazz, the blues, pop, funk and rap. His work always...
- 9/21/2018
- by Elias Leight
- Rollingstone.com
Pick any critical cultural moment of the last six decades, and you’re likely to find Quincy Jones’ fingerprints somewhere on the tape. In those 60 years, he has toured with Ray Charles as a teenager, written chart-toppers for Lesley Gore, arranged music for Frank Sinatra, produced Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” and launched the careers of Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, and Whoopi Goldberg, to name a few. His name is synonymous with black culture, American music, and humanitarianism. But few have had the privilege to sit by Qunicy’s side holding his hand as he narrates one of countless stories stored away in his ever-sharp and creative mind. His daughter, the actress (now filmmaker) Rashida Jones, is one of them — and in the new documentary “Quincy,” she graciously shares the rarefied experience with the rest of the world.
Drawing on extraordinary archival footage and intimate moments shot over the last five years,...
Drawing on extraordinary archival footage and intimate moments shot over the last five years,...
- 9/9/2018
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Two of the summer’s most anticipated movies, “Incredibles 2” and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” are franchise follow-ups with music by the same composer. Surprisingly, neither score relies much on familiar themes.
It might have been a no-brainer for tunesmith Michael Giacchino to fall back on his well-known theme for “The Incredibles” (written in 2004) or on John Williams’ even more famous fanfare for the original “Jurassic Park” from 1993. Both make fleeting appearances in the new films, but otherwise the scores are entirely new.
“There is a tendency these days to just plug and play when it comes to scores from past years,” says the Oscar-winning composer (“Up”). “Many times, it derails what you’re trying to do narratively. And the last thing I want to do is just rehash what we did before. I like to bring something new and then lean on old themes only when you absolutely need them.
It might have been a no-brainer for tunesmith Michael Giacchino to fall back on his well-known theme for “The Incredibles” (written in 2004) or on John Williams’ even more famous fanfare for the original “Jurassic Park” from 1993. Both make fleeting appearances in the new films, but otherwise the scores are entirely new.
“There is a tendency these days to just plug and play when it comes to scores from past years,” says the Oscar-winning composer (“Up”). “Many times, it derails what you’re trying to do narratively. And the last thing I want to do is just rehash what we did before. I like to bring something new and then lean on old themes only when you absolutely need them.
- 6/14/2018
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Hugely acclaimed French genre film producer Franck Ribiere (Inside, Livid, Cell 211, Malefique, Witching And Bitching, etc etc etc) steps into the director's chair for upcoming thriller The Most Assassinated Woman In The World. Set against the backdrop of the infamous Theatre Grand Guignol the story revolves around iconic actress Paula Maxa - the most famous of the Grand Guignol's leading ladies and the titular Most Assassinated Woman, who was graphically slain on stage multiple times a day - played here by Anna Mouglalis (Romanzo Criminale, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky). And while there is not yet an official synopsis out there we do have the first shot of Mouglalis as Maxa to share. You can click the version down below if you want to...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 5/30/2017
- Screen Anarchy
The rock star and provocateur is imperturbably articulate and droll in this entertaining documentary made of archive footage and interview clips
This excellent documentary doesn’t spell it out, but Frank Zappa was actually Frank Zappa’s real name (unlike, say, Ziggy Stardust) and everything about him was authentic, presented to the public on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. If anyone deserves an approving sobriquet with the “American” prefix – American Original, American Genius, American Rebel – it was Zappa, the rock’n’roll musician, freak-provocateur and contemporary composer and orchestral arranger influenced by Anton Webern, Edgard Varèse and Igor Stravinsky. This film allows him to speak “in his own words”, which means clips from his imperturbably droll, articulate performances in TV interviews over the years during which he morphed from sensually hirsute rock god to bearded patriarch, without selling out or putting on weight.
In a perfect world, “Zappa in his own words...
This excellent documentary doesn’t spell it out, but Frank Zappa was actually Frank Zappa’s real name (unlike, say, Ziggy Stardust) and everything about him was authentic, presented to the public on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. If anyone deserves an approving sobriquet with the “American” prefix – American Original, American Genius, American Rebel – it was Zappa, the rock’n’roll musician, freak-provocateur and contemporary composer and orchestral arranger influenced by Anton Webern, Edgard Varèse and Igor Stravinsky. This film allows him to speak “in his own words”, which means clips from his imperturbably droll, articulate performances in TV interviews over the years during which he morphed from sensually hirsute rock god to bearded patriarch, without selling out or putting on weight.
In a perfect world, “Zappa in his own words...
- 11/21/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw at the International Documentary film festival Amsterdam
- The Guardian - Film News
These are challenging times for any filmmaker who doesn’t want to be told what to do. Chasing a slice of the Hollywood studio pie almost always brings compromise, and many foreign-born directors return to their home countries and assemble independent film and television projects.
That was the path of Dutch-born Paul Verhoeven, whose career began in his own language with “Soldier of Orange” and the Oscar-nominated “Turkish Delight.” From there he forged an A-list career that included “Basic Instinct” (which played competition in Cannes) “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Starship Troopers,” and, yes, “Showgirls.” His last Hollywood movie was “Hollow Man” with Kevin Bacon in 2000.
When Verhoeven could no longer find material that suited him, he went back to Holland. His 2006 Dutch World War II drama “Black Book” (Sony Pictures Classics) starred Carice Van Houten, before she joined “Game of Thrones,” and was shortlisted for the foreign Oscar.
Now he has...
That was the path of Dutch-born Paul Verhoeven, whose career began in his own language with “Soldier of Orange” and the Oscar-nominated “Turkish Delight.” From there he forged an A-list career that included “Basic Instinct” (which played competition in Cannes) “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Starship Troopers,” and, yes, “Showgirls.” His last Hollywood movie was “Hollow Man” with Kevin Bacon in 2000.
When Verhoeven could no longer find material that suited him, he went back to Holland. His 2006 Dutch World War II drama “Black Book” (Sony Pictures Classics) starred Carice Van Houten, before she joined “Game of Thrones,” and was shortlisted for the foreign Oscar.
Now he has...
- 11/18/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
These are challenging times for any filmmaker who doesn’t want to be told what to do. Chasing a slice of the Hollywood studio pie almost always brings compromise, and many foreign-born directors return to their home countries and assemble independent film and television projects.
That was the path of Dutch-born Paul Verhoeven, whose career began in his own language with “Soldier of Orange” and the Oscar-nominated “Turkish Delight.” From there he forged an A-list career that included “Basic Instinct” (which played competition in Cannes) “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Starship Troopers,” and, yes, “Showgirls.” His last Hollywood movie was “Hollow Man” with Kevin Bacon in 2000.
When Verhoeven could no longer find material that suited him, he went back to Holland. His 2006 Dutch World War II drama “Black Book” (Sony Pictures Classics) starred Carice Van Houten, before she joined “Game of Thrones,” and was shortlisted for the foreign Oscar.
Now he has...
That was the path of Dutch-born Paul Verhoeven, whose career began in his own language with “Soldier of Orange” and the Oscar-nominated “Turkish Delight.” From there he forged an A-list career that included “Basic Instinct” (which played competition in Cannes) “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Starship Troopers,” and, yes, “Showgirls.” His last Hollywood movie was “Hollow Man” with Kevin Bacon in 2000.
When Verhoeven could no longer find material that suited him, he went back to Holland. His 2006 Dutch World War II drama “Black Book” (Sony Pictures Classics) starred Carice Van Houten, before she joined “Game of Thrones,” and was shortlisted for the foreign Oscar.
Now he has...
- 11/18/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Words takes its title from a song found on the composer’s 1972 fusion album The Grand Wazoo, and there may be no better preparation for the Frank Zappa revealed in director Thorston Schutte’s extraordinary documentary than this command to consume, and then presumably digest and defecate out, the sort of journalistic queries Zappa routinely endured, with patience, smarts and inescapable sarcasm, throughout his career. “Being interviewed is one of the most abnormal things that you can do to somebody,” Zappa explains during a TV interview to a reporter whose expression, an uneasy mixture of intimidation and confusion, remains constant throughout their encounter.
The composer’s testy relationship with the media is one of the threads that unites Schutte’s somewhat unusual approach—there are none of the usual associates, scholars and friends on hand to tell you secondhand (at best) what a genius Zappa was,...
The composer’s testy relationship with the media is one of the threads that unites Schutte’s somewhat unusual approach—there are none of the usual associates, scholars and friends on hand to tell you secondhand (at best) what a genius Zappa was,...
- 6/25/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
1. "Simple Song #3" ("Youth"): Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang looked inward at his minimalistic roots to compose this song that summarizes the life of a retired conductor (Michael Caine) forced to confront his mortality at a Fellini-esque Swiss spa. He also found inspiration in Igor Stravinsky's mathematical precision but at the same time was emotionally demonstrative. The result is that the entire movie hangs on a song that's anything but simple. 2. "Writing's on the Wall" ("Spectre"): Despite some sniping from hardcore fans, Sam Smith’s melancholy ballad became the first James Bond theme to reach #1 in the UK. He captures the essence of Bond's Pov, which is a rarity: he's lonely and trapped and looking for a way out. In fact, Smith, who was touched by Bond's vulnerability, admitted that Sam Mendes instructed him to write a love song about 007 calling it quits. Read More: The 6 Best Score Oscar Contenders.
- 12/29/2015
- by Bill Desowitz
- Thompson on Hollywood
It’s easy to take the music of Star Wars for granted. After all, that would mean no iconic opening fanfare. There would be no disco remixes nor any “Cantina Band” for future filmmakers to quote from. College marching bands would have to find something other than “The Imperial March” to tease the away team with, and Nick Winters would never treat his lounge audience to his timeless cover. A reality without Star Wars music would find a different soundtrack sitting atop AFI‘s greatest film scores.
Fortunately, John Williams’s original Star Wars score did happen, and in 1977 it was a big deal. Disco and R&B owned the pop music charts. For science-fiction and fantasy cinema — genres whose idealism had diminished in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate –soundscapes were defined by synthetic music that separated viewers from their fantastical worlds onscreen. Context is essential to...
Fortunately, John Williams’s original Star Wars score did happen, and in 1977 it was a big deal. Disco and R&B owned the pop music charts. For science-fiction and fantasy cinema — genres whose idealism had diminished in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate –soundscapes were defined by synthetic music that separated viewers from their fantastical worlds onscreen. Context is essential to...
- 12/2/2015
- by David Klein
- SoundOnSight
"Fantasia" wasn't a huge hit when it was first released 75 years ago (on November 13, 1940).
Since then, however, over the course of multiple re-releases, the Disney feature has earned a reputation as a masterpiece for its blend of lushly recorded classical music and dazzling Technicolor animation. It eventually became a huge success in both theaters and on home video and spawned several sequels and spinoffs, not to mention parodies by other studios.
Still, as many times as you've enjoyed the ballet-dancing hippos or Mickey Mouse's botched attempt at using magic to shirk drudgery, there's a lot you may not know about "Fantasia." Read on, and watch out for those magic mushrooms.
1. The germ of the film began when Walt Disney bumped into legendary Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski (pictured) outside Chasen's restaurant in Hollywood. Disney told Stokowski of his idea to make one of his trademark "Silly Symphony" shorts out...
Since then, however, over the course of multiple re-releases, the Disney feature has earned a reputation as a masterpiece for its blend of lushly recorded classical music and dazzling Technicolor animation. It eventually became a huge success in both theaters and on home video and spawned several sequels and spinoffs, not to mention parodies by other studios.
Still, as many times as you've enjoyed the ballet-dancing hippos or Mickey Mouse's botched attempt at using magic to shirk drudgery, there's a lot you may not know about "Fantasia." Read on, and watch out for those magic mushrooms.
1. The germ of the film began when Walt Disney bumped into legendary Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski (pictured) outside Chasen's restaurant in Hollywood. Disney told Stokowski of his idea to make one of his trademark "Silly Symphony" shorts out...
- 11/12/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Sundance Selects has taken Us rights to culture critic turned filmmaker Nelson George's "A Ballerina's Tale," a world premiere of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. The film will hit theaters and VOD on October 14, 2015. "A Ballerina's Tale" takes an intimate, behind-the-curtain look at the career of Misty Copeland, the African American ballerina who just last month was promoted to principal dancer in New York's American Ballet Theatre. The documentary shadows Misty as she physically recovers from her triumphant, but demanding 2012 lead performance in Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird." This portrait of a preternaturally gifted dancer was acclaimed at Tribeca. "Ballerina's Tale" was produced by Leslie Norville and executive produced by Dorria L. Ball, Ingrid Graham and Misty Copeland. Read More: Sundance Acquires Tribeca Doc "Misery Loves Comedy"...
- 7/21/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
New York – He was a Chicago-born director who explored his culture with a delicacy and poignancy that set his debut feature film “Patang” apart from any other experience, and within that art he sought to understand the world beyond his American birthplace. Prashant Bhargava passed away suddenly in New York City on May 16th, 2015, of undisclosed causes. He was 42 years old.
Filmmaker Prashant Bhargava
Photo credit: Kushi Films
I first met Prashant not through a face-to-face happenstance, but through his mother. It was at the opening night reception at the 2011 Chicago International Film Festival that this smallish women approach me, out of the blue, and asserted that she thought I was someone who was “important.” When I described what I was doing there, she thrust a flyer into my hand promoting “Patang,” making its Chicago debut at the festival. I attended the screening, and secured a interview date with Prashant.
Filmmaker Prashant Bhargava
Photo credit: Kushi Films
I first met Prashant not through a face-to-face happenstance, but through his mother. It was at the opening night reception at the 2011 Chicago International Film Festival that this smallish women approach me, out of the blue, and asserted that she thought I was someone who was “important.” When I described what I was doing there, she thrust a flyer into my hand promoting “Patang,” making its Chicago debut at the festival. I attended the screening, and secured a interview date with Prashant.
- 5/18/2015
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Radhe Radhe: Rites of Holi, a music and film collaboration by celebrated composer pianist Vijay Iyer and filmmaker Prashant Bhargava will be performed at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s New Wave Festival December 18-20th —featuring actress Anna George, and a live score performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by Steven Schick. Preceding the performance, Bowery Arts+Science presents an exclusive Conversation with the Filmmakers of Radhe Radhe at Bowery Poetry 6:30pm on Monday, December 15th, moderated by Janet Elber, Artistic Director of Martha Graham Dance Company.
Inspired by the Holi festival, Radhe Radhe: Rites of Holi is one of the most exciting commemorations of last year’s 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Celebrated filmmaker Prashant Bhargava and composer Vijay Iyer have sculpted an original performance of live music and film upon the fundamental structure referenced by the famed Russian composer—but in an entirely new cultural framework.
Inspired by the Holi festival, Radhe Radhe: Rites of Holi is one of the most exciting commemorations of last year’s 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Celebrated filmmaker Prashant Bhargava and composer Vijay Iyer have sculpted an original performance of live music and film upon the fundamental structure referenced by the famed Russian composer—but in an entirely new cultural framework.
- 12/13/2014
- by Stacey Yount
- Bollyspice
Life, love and relationships are familiar subjects for filmmakers, so much so that it's often hard to find an original take or a distinct voice taking on such subject matter. But post-New Wave director Philippe Garrel is likely to succeed on each score with his latest "Jealousy." Starring the director's son Louis Garrel and Anna Mouglalis ("Gainsbourg," "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky"), the story follows a man who leaves his wife and daughter and takes up with his girlfriend, chronicling the repercussions of that decision, and the future that lies ahead. The film is at once contemplative and lighthearted, with this exclusive scene highlighting the latter, as the protagonist playfully despairs over the the "methods of corruption" he faces when a lollipop is stolen. "Jealousy" opens on opens on August 15th at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, and on Friday, August 22nd at the...
- 8/14/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Lorin Maazel, who died at age 84 on Sunday, from complications of pneumonia, was a true Renaissance man of music: a child prodigy as a conductor and violinist, and later a composer as well.
Born in France in 1930 to American parents, he was raised in Los Angeles. His family was musical: one grandfather was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Lorin’s father taught voice and piano, and Lorin’s mother started the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. A child prodigy blessed with perfect pitch, Lorin was playing violin at age five and piano at age seven, but was especially captivated by conducting. Studying with Vladimir Bakaleinikov, the associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Maazel made his conducing debut at age eight with the University of Idaho Orchestra and quickly moved on to more prestigious ensembles. When Bakaleinikov became assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra the same year, the Maazel family went with him.
Born in France in 1930 to American parents, he was raised in Los Angeles. His family was musical: one grandfather was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Lorin’s father taught voice and piano, and Lorin’s mother started the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. A child prodigy blessed with perfect pitch, Lorin was playing violin at age five and piano at age seven, but was especially captivated by conducting. Studying with Vladimir Bakaleinikov, the associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Maazel made his conducing debut at age eight with the University of Idaho Orchestra and quickly moved on to more prestigious ensembles. When Bakaleinikov became assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra the same year, the Maazel family went with him.
- 7/14/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
BBC America has acquired A Poet in New York, a film about Dylan Thomas’ final days. The drama is written by Andrew Davies, BBC’s venerable screenwriter most acclaimed for the 1995 Pride and Prejudice as well as more recent well-received series like House of Cards and Little Dorrit. It features several beloved BBC actors, with Tom Hollander (Rev., Pride and Prejudice) as Dylan Thomas and Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) as his wife. Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting, Page Eight), and Phoebe Fox (Switch, New Tricks) co-star.
The film will premiere this fall on BBC America and is directed by Aisling Walsh (Room at the Top, Loving Miss Hatto).
From BBC America -
“One of the most renowned poets in the world, Dylan Thomas is the creator of some of the most memorable lines in the English language. Known for his wild, hard-drinking lifestyle as well as his brilliance, his...
The film will premiere this fall on BBC America and is directed by Aisling Walsh (Room at the Top, Loving Miss Hatto).
From BBC America -
“One of the most renowned poets in the world, Dylan Thomas is the creator of some of the most memorable lines in the English language. Known for his wild, hard-drinking lifestyle as well as his brilliance, his...
- 6/27/2014
- by Claire Hellar
- SoundOnSight
Distrib Films has acquired all U.S. rights to master director Philippe Garrel's 'Jealousy.' Starring Louis Garrel ('Love Songs') and Anna Mouglalis ('Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky'), the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and earned strong reviews at the New York Film Festival. "Philippe Garrel is one of the world’s great filmmakers. Jealousy is not only one of his most beautiful films but also his most accessible. We hope we can make this his most successful film in America ever," said François Scippa-Kohn, President of Distrib Films.
- 4/7/2014
- by Luke Slattery
- Indiewire
Polish composer of film music best known for Bram Stoker's Dracula, Death and the Maiden, and The Pianist
Very few 20th-century classical composers set out with the intention of writing music for films. Wojciech Kilar, who has died of cancer aged 81, was no exception. Would he ever have dreamed, when he was studying composition in Poland, that he would later go on to score more than 100 films and build his reputation on that body of work rather than in the concert hall? It took Kilar more than 30 years of composing music for Polish films before he became internationally recognised because of his creepy score for Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
The acclaim that Kilar accrued from his music for Coppola's pyrotechnical horror movie led to work on other widely shown English-language films, such as Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996) and three by Polish-born Roman Polanski...
Very few 20th-century classical composers set out with the intention of writing music for films. Wojciech Kilar, who has died of cancer aged 81, was no exception. Would he ever have dreamed, when he was studying composition in Poland, that he would later go on to score more than 100 films and build his reputation on that body of work rather than in the concert hall? It took Kilar more than 30 years of composing music for Polish films before he became internationally recognised because of his creepy score for Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
The acclaim that Kilar accrued from his music for Coppola's pyrotechnical horror movie led to work on other widely shown English-language films, such as Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996) and three by Polish-born Roman Polanski...
- 1/7/2014
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vicious.jpg
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that critics find it far easier to write negatively than positively about the arts. Always primed to give pubescent, wide-eyed bands a good thrashing or waiting in the wings to finally take down a loathsome artist a peg or two with a damning review (evinced in the slew of derision heaped on Razorlight’s final album) the critic thrives on the frightening power a small selection of words can have on the reader, and the futures of the musicians in question. They will insist that ‘Album X’ is an abysmal effort and a musical travesty of the highest order. And as anyone can be a critic nowadays thanks to social media, the word travesty gets bandied about a little too often.
My point is that genuine musical travesties often get lost in the shuffle. Sure, it’s...
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that critics find it far easier to write negatively than positively about the arts. Always primed to give pubescent, wide-eyed bands a good thrashing or waiting in the wings to finally take down a loathsome artist a peg or two with a damning review (evinced in the slew of derision heaped on Razorlight’s final album) the critic thrives on the frightening power a small selection of words can have on the reader, and the futures of the musicians in question. They will insist that ‘Album X’ is an abysmal effort and a musical travesty of the highest order. And as anyone can be a critic nowadays thanks to social media, the word travesty gets bandied about a little too often.
My point is that genuine musical travesties often get lost in the shuffle. Sure, it’s...
- 12/11/2013
- by Daniel Owens
- Obsessed with Film
Let's travel back in time to 1910, when the skirts were longer, the hats bigger and the films way silent-er. Behold, 17 reasons 1910 was a golden year for culture.
1.) A 16-minute film adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is released.
2.) Mardi Gras looked especially creepy.
3.) Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Firebird" premieres in Paris.
4.) Silent fantasy film "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" brings black-and-white ruby slippers to the screen.
5.) Egon Schiele paints a kneeling nude self-portrait aptly titled "Kneeling nude self-portrait."
.
6.) Garment workers go on strike in New York City.
7.) Mark Twain passed away at 74 years old. In his biography he wrote: "I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. The Almighty has said no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"
8.) Russian lit giant Leo Tolstoy died at 82 years old.
1.) A 16-minute film adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is released.
2.) Mardi Gras looked especially creepy.
3.) Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Firebird" premieres in Paris.
4.) Silent fantasy film "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" brings black-and-white ruby slippers to the screen.
5.) Egon Schiele paints a kneeling nude self-portrait aptly titled "Kneeling nude self-portrait."
.
6.) Garment workers go on strike in New York City.
7.) Mark Twain passed away at 74 years old. In his biography he wrote: "I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. The Almighty has said no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"
8.) Russian lit giant Leo Tolstoy died at 82 years old.
- 8/29/2013
- by Priscilla Frank
- Huffington Post
Tattooed thugs in vests using lasers that look like kids' water guns … Why can't sci-fi films get to grips with what the future might actually be like?
• Elysium: interviews with Matt Damon and director Neill Blomkamp, plus Peter Bradshaw gives his verdict
Immediately after executing yet another monstrous act of unspeakable violence, Sharlto Copley, who plays the villain in the new sci-fi thriller Elysium, says: "That's what I'm talking about." It is the year 2154, yet the sadistic mercenary makes use of an expression that first appeared in a Depression era Fats Waller ditty, and enjoyed a certain vogue in the United States at the dawn of the present millennium, but is now, in 2013, no longer heard that often.
Is this a deliberately "ironic" use of a retro, anachronistic Americanism by a snarky South African scumbag, tantamount to some wiseacre in 2013 reaching back more than a century and exhuming the expression,...
• Elysium: interviews with Matt Damon and director Neill Blomkamp, plus Peter Bradshaw gives his verdict
Immediately after executing yet another monstrous act of unspeakable violence, Sharlto Copley, who plays the villain in the new sci-fi thriller Elysium, says: "That's what I'm talking about." It is the year 2154, yet the sadistic mercenary makes use of an expression that first appeared in a Depression era Fats Waller ditty, and enjoyed a certain vogue in the United States at the dawn of the present millennium, but is now, in 2013, no longer heard that often.
Is this a deliberately "ironic" use of a retro, anachronistic Americanism by a snarky South African scumbag, tantamount to some wiseacre in 2013 reaching back more than a century and exhuming the expression,...
- 8/22/2013
- by Joe Queenan
- The Guardian - Film News
They were music megastars, and they all opened up to him. As Tony Palmer's best films resurface, the documentarian talks to Phelim O'Neill about Leonard Cohen's tears, John Lennon's fake beard – and the day Liberace invited him into his hot tub
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view video
Tony Palmer was studying moral sciences at Cambridge University in the 1960s when a moderately famous band arrived in town. "I got a call to attend this press conference the Beatles were holding, to cover it for the college paper," he recalls. "They'd had a No 1 single or two by then, so they were very well known – but not yet intergalactic. Afterwards, John Lennon came up and asked me why I hadn't asked them any questions. I told him I found the whole thing pretty silly. He laughed, and when I told him I was studying moral sciences,...
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view video
Tony Palmer was studying moral sciences at Cambridge University in the 1960s when a moderately famous band arrived in town. "I got a call to attend this press conference the Beatles were holding, to cover it for the college paper," he recalls. "They'd had a No 1 single or two by then, so they were very well known – but not yet intergalactic. Afterwards, John Lennon came up and asked me why I hadn't asked them any questions. I told him I found the whole thing pretty silly. He laughed, and when I told him I was studying moral sciences,...
- 7/28/2013
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
They were music megastars, and they all opened up to him. As Tony Palmer's best films resurface, the documentarian talks to Phelim O'Neill about Leonard Cohen's tears, John Lennon's fake beard – and the day Liberace invited him into his hot tub
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view video
Tony Palmer was studying moral sciences at Cambridge University in the 1960s when a moderately famous band arrived in town. "I got a call to attend this press conference the Beatles were holding, to cover it for the college paper," he recalls. "They'd had a No 1 single or two by then, so they were very well known – but not yet intergalactic. Afterwards, John Lennon came up and asked me why I hadn't asked them any questions. I told him I found the whole thing pretty silly. He laughed, and when I told him I was studying moral sciences,...
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view video
Tony Palmer was studying moral sciences at Cambridge University in the 1960s when a moderately famous band arrived in town. "I got a call to attend this press conference the Beatles were holding, to cover it for the college paper," he recalls. "They'd had a No 1 single or two by then, so they were very well known – but not yet intergalactic. Afterwards, John Lennon came up and asked me why I hadn't asked them any questions. I told him I found the whole thing pretty silly. He laughed, and when I told him I was studying moral sciences,...
- 7/28/2013
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
John Wilson, a British-born animator who worked with Walt Disney, David Lean, Igor Stravinsky, and Billy Wilder in the course of a remarkably long and varied career, has died at the age of 93. Wilson’s first published work consisted of cartoons he had scribbled down while in a Cairo hospital, recuperating from wounds sustained while serving with the London Rifle Brigade during World War II. Discharged from the Army, he moved to London and eventually took a job in the art department at Pinewood Studios, working on such films as Lean’s Great Expectations (1946) and the lavish fantasy ...
- 7/3/2013
- avclub.com
Innovative animator whose credits include Lady and the Tramp, Petroushka and Grease
The pioneering animator John David Wilson, who has died aged 93, launched his studio, Fine Arts Films, in 1955 and found success with his first short subject, an adaptation of a Japanese folk tale, Tara the Stonecutter, which was screened in America with Teinosuke Kinugasa's Oscar-winning samurai drama Jigokumon (Gate of Hell, 1953). Next came Petroushka (1956), for which Igor Stravinsky (despite negative feelings towards animation following Disney's Fantasia) was persuaded by Wilson to prepare a shortened score for the film and conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the soundtrack. Petroushka won several festival awards and was the first animated film to be accepted by the Venice film festival.
Wilson's diverse productions ranged from innovative TV commercials for Instant Butter-Nut Coffee, made with the actor and humorist Stan Freberg, to a groundbreaking 15-minute film, Journey to the Stars, for the United...
The pioneering animator John David Wilson, who has died aged 93, launched his studio, Fine Arts Films, in 1955 and found success with his first short subject, an adaptation of a Japanese folk tale, Tara the Stonecutter, which was screened in America with Teinosuke Kinugasa's Oscar-winning samurai drama Jigokumon (Gate of Hell, 1953). Next came Petroushka (1956), for which Igor Stravinsky (despite negative feelings towards animation following Disney's Fantasia) was persuaded by Wilson to prepare a shortened score for the film and conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the soundtrack. Petroushka won several festival awards and was the first animated film to be accepted by the Venice film festival.
Wilson's diverse productions ranged from innovative TV commercials for Instant Butter-Nut Coffee, made with the actor and humorist Stan Freberg, to a groundbreaking 15-minute film, Journey to the Stars, for the United...
- 7/2/2013
- by Brian Sibley
- The Guardian - Film News
John David Wilson, a pioneering animation producer and director who worked on everything from Lady & the Tramp and an Igor Stravinsky ballet film to Grease, died June 20 in a nursing home in Blackpool, England. He was 93. The Englishman, schooled in the art of animation by David Hand, the director of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Bambi (1942), founded Fine Arts Films in the 1950s. Wilson's five-minute animated shorts, featuring popular songs like Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” and Jim Croce's “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” were seen on The Sonny & Cher
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- 7/1/2013
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
To become part of a public consciousness is a wonderful, perhaps the most wonderful, compliment to strive for. The nature of society as it exists today offers little more than a momentary idealism that lends to the reluctance of anything more than a singular perception of an event. From the existence of the horrific to the contact of a personal, a defensive mechanism places itself as a window of protection, absolution by a different form of social connectivity the standard to embrace unity via psychological isolation in opposition to the risk offered by considered emotional response.
Presented usually as a derogatory veil to draw over the plausibility that this is worth consideration in its viability as a response, I would argue the opposite entirely. The aforementioned consciousness in its most positive form lends itself more to the side of acceptance and memory if the subject at hand offers control over receivership.
Presented usually as a derogatory veil to draw over the plausibility that this is worth consideration in its viability as a response, I would argue the opposite entirely. The aforementioned consciousness in its most positive form lends itself more to the side of acceptance and memory if the subject at hand offers control over receivership.
- 6/30/2013
- by Brett Faulds
- Obsessed with Film
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