tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61492251699826910212024-02-18T18:17:21.739-08:00COUNTERpointFilm. Music. Russian, Soviet and East European. Avant-garde. Other stuff that interests me.John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-13009157683985238332011-05-10T09:37:00.000-07:002011-05-10T09:44:06.508-07:00Picturehouse Film Club - May<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsLNu4qir1AkhG4R1nrw248uIMAgjmLWtqCvlQ7uIBrTz8ee2tv6aJAB1sVfwu3VRFioQot4qRYDxP33i-bguC5vU1ZjNKYbzy0DHm_V3NOVTcSmrq7v1td3AVsIlkGvVIt7Ax42vUfjY/s1600/picturehouse.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 114px; height: 97px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsLNu4qir1AkhG4R1nrw248uIMAgjmLWtqCvlQ7uIBrTz8ee2tv6aJAB1sVfwu3VRFioQot4qRYDxP33i-bguC5vU1ZjNKYbzy0DHm_V3NOVTcSmrq7v1td3AVsIlkGvVIt7Ax42vUfjY/s320/picturehouse.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5605036323164329186" /></a><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 114px; height: 114px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqv6_olrdBpOBVYbmzIphxLlhMT7aoEssr2jEW5L7nMJDV3emkHAj8aYIZui8KO4Bm_QmGWDGn0hHEbv6TUTQj2mcuoEM_H-XwGXv4MRGjovsBfkkP_s7pfebF99hIMgnwbT2ULy-2GBc/s320/qztyx.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5605036169875187682" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Last night's </span></span><a href="http://www.london.wea.org.uk/component/content/article/130"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">WEA Film Club</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> at Clapham Picturehouse was great fun and the films were about as big a set of contrasts as you could imagine.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The feature was </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hanna</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and a post-film discussion ranged over how sympathetic the lead character was, how well it mixed the thriller and fairy-tale elements, the (intentional or otherwise?) trajectory of Joe Wright's career, the publication history of the Grimm's stories, and the veracity of Hollywood accounting methods...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then it was downstairs to the bar for a Staropramen (or whatever), a collection of short films and a chat with the makers.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We kicked off with two from Alan Walsh, whose impressively "just get on with it" approach meant that, when he realised he needed another film for the event, he just went out and made it. But first there was </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mirror Mirror</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, a quirky little film that's a reinterpretation of something that his film school managed to destroy.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/22120216?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe></span></span><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/22120216"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mirror Mirror</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> from </span></span><a href="http://vimeo.com/user3921957"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alan Walsh</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> on </span></span><a href="http://vimeo.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Vimeo</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></p></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That was followed by his new one, so hot off the metaphorical moviola that, announced as </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Coffee</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, it had been retitled </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Short Changed.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alan talked about his training in Prague before his regular collaborators </span></span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1490222/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anthony Cozens</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and Ben Jeen Williams joined in to give us an insight into where they get their inspiration from and the way they work.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After that there was a distinct change of mood with three films from </span></span><a href="http://www.feinerart.freeola.com/index.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rebecca Feiner</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Based in the East End, Rebecca makes films, curates, writes etc. She brought along three of her films. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Skin Code</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> is the film element of an installation that she took to the Cannes Film Festival. In a one-person cinema, the viewer watches extreme close ups of a man's body to a soundtrack of Gregorian chant. Amusingly, while lots of Cannes visitors liked it, they were mostly men who were keen to reiterate that they didn't like it in </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that way...</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWf7ID9s0CjLt7W3zYCBa7J66UonuhSUE_MpWWNG9uLR8bxulEFzlK10p8tOMAVVMLSHbkljlXwbGCxLBNbI7lmn_8Fz5EBvT_nnh2oP7ZuD6uEDaGIjja3mHVHkpcVfIvQXpNoUIxLA/s1600/St+J+Bethnal.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWf7ID9s0CjLt7W3zYCBa7J66UonuhSUE_MpWWNG9uLR8bxulEFzlK10p8tOMAVVMLSHbkljlXwbGCxLBNbI7lmn_8Fz5EBvT_nnh2oP7ZuD6uEDaGIjja3mHVHkpcVfIvQXpNoUIxLA/s320/St+J+Bethnal.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5605035704305982466" /></a></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Exhumation</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> is another installation film, screened in the Belfry of St John's church in Bethnal Green as part of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ghost II</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, an exhibition curated by </span></span><a href="http://www.sarahsparkes.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sarah Sparkes</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and </span></span><a href="http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/staff/ricarda-vidal.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dr Ricarda Vidal</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. It's another semi-abstract piece very much concerned with the body. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rebecca was interested to see her films in different circumstances from the ones they were conceived for: a room full of people rather than a one-person box and on a screen rather than a wall and, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">à </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">propos</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hanna</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, touched on their gender concerns.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15784228?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/15784228">EXHUMATION</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user4916212">Rebecca Feiner</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Next up was a free-form documentary, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Spirit of Hackney Wick</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, which roams over the 2009 Hackney Wicked Arts Festival, which is organised by local artists in the shadow of the gates which have divided Hackney preparatory to the 2012 Olympics. Afterwards we talked about how the film undercuts the official propaganda about the Olympics and how it is increasingly difficult for artists to find affordable places to live and work.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#A0A095;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Next month's film (13 June) is the documentary </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Senna</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, when director Asif Kapadia,who will also be interviewed before we move on to another selection of short films and directors (that's the films that are short, not the directors. Though, of course, if you are a short director...)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As before, feel free to get in touch if you'd like the chance to come along and show your films.</span></span></div></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-64170040297393139012011-05-02T06:20:00.000-07:002011-05-02T10:12:43.290-07:00Show Your Shorts<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKXx2jX2XQyQVs_wAi4Rf2huUnEPdpIP_ia0BkTj96XdG9AIiihrMnKhwQX2Lk1OHRuRtuOvFwmwdyMF-nFQHdij5pW0ZSJkBEZ4M4jVDOD-mPRFlCBsveTBf0bKhbxIPg5atUcRYldDA/s1600/qztyx.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 114px; height: 114px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKXx2jX2XQyQVs_wAi4Rf2huUnEPdpIP_ia0BkTj96XdG9AIiihrMnKhwQX2Lk1OHRuRtuOvFwmwdyMF-nFQHdij5pW0ZSJkBEZ4M4jVDOD-mPRFlCBsveTBf0bKhbxIPg5atUcRYldDA/s320/qztyx.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602162840995012082" /></a><br /><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 114px; height: 97px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsxlX0bw5gvUwutS7Q8wAuDbzLgvtcOagF-vNS_yave48Z5bWyWbUQQo9aC236GVl0xUlkaAlwdB-mLqFYOqazCttMUiTZkc2tqkEXBnEdSOl6Lig66W6dKh5XBW-n70PzOEB_xOq7fMY/s320/picturehouse.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602154703296923858" /><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">'ve started hosting a </span></span><a href="http://www.london.wea.org.uk/component/content/article/130"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#9999FF;">Film Club</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> for the </span></span><a href="http://www.wea.org.uk/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#9999FF;">Workers’ Educational Association</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> London, in association with </span></span><a href="http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Clapham_Picturehouse/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#9999FF;">Clapham Picturehouse</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#9999FF;"> </span>(76 Venn St, London SW4 0AT, two minutes walk from Clapham Common tube).</span></span></div></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It'll be happening every second Monday of the month, 6pm to 10pm, and the format is that after the main feature there'll be a discussion, then we'll go up to the bar to watch some short films and discuss them with the film-makers. £10 for the evening.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There's a full list of dates and details of how to submit your films at the bottom of</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">this post. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Meanwhile the next event is on Monday 9th May at 6pm: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">HANNA, </span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the new action/fairy tale/thriller from director Joe</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wright, plus post film discussion</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"invigorating to the extreme; a feast on the eyes and ears… the most stylistically engaging recent release to come out in quite some time. …. this is new territory for Joe Wright. Two of his </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">previous thr</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ee feature films were the period pieces, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Pride and Prejudice and Atonement.</span></span></i></div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglczbevZX9N6pDe8u2Q4zCM6fia4df74WZxT1HjsznS4lhjx3MXnmttC4qF6Sc5NNbzXiAzOW5cmtKwns9MJfmkt1LFyBBQrwc04Rd7U8hS9Ims2d_5tuGYXd1JxNvPUTlerst4hA4BB0/s320/hanna1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602161147724383426" /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Without Wright at the helm, this would have been a mediocre film with a fantastic central performance. He has transformed the material into a </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">hip wo</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">rk of art with incessantly strong visual flair. Clearly influenced by many different sources, Wright puts his inspiration to good practice. His use of tracking shots, extreme close-ups, extreme long shots, handheld camera work and much more all contribute to </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hanna</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">’s singularly high-powered style. He also keeps a lot of the action in camera, making the choreography stand out. Whether creating an engaging hyper-stylistic action set piece or subjectively aligning the audience with Hanna’s experiences, Wright always has motivations for his choices and it is a delight to work through them while watching the film."</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://criterioncast.com/2011/04/10/catherine-reviews-joe-wrights-hanna-theatrical-review/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#9999FF;">Catherine Stebbings at Criterioncast </span></span></span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">8.30pm Intermission</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and a chance to get a round in </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">9pm Show Your Shorts</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: two short films by Alan Walsh and three by Rebecca Feiner, with both filmmakers in conversation </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ALAN WALSH</span></span></b></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">MIRROR MIRROR</span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. The story of one man and the lengths he’ll go to fit in. Told through his relationship with his mirror, we see him try to re-invent himself to the demands of society </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">COFFEE. </span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">First screening of Alan Walsh’s new short! </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">REBECCA FEINER</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> "mixes the confessional style of Tracy Emin with the objectivity of American conceptualist, Joseph Kosuth" - Mark Currah, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Time Out</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, Sept.1999 </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">EXHUMATION.</span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> "the only ghosts that haunt are the ones we carry with us." </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Exhumation</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> explores memory & the ghost of violence. To survive and preserve our identity we suppress memories and choose to forget. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Exhumation</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> is the first film where the artist has chosen to place herself as performer. Originally screened in 2009 as the main installation for </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">GHOST II</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, an annual exhibition in London curated by Dr Ricarda Vidal & Sarah Sparkes. </span></span></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></b></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">SKIN-CODE. </span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Reversing the camera's traditional gaze, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Skin-code</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> gets up close and personal, exploring masculinity, body as landscape and the notion of a male muse. Premiered at the Cannes film festival 2003 as part of the centenary of the Lumiere brothers cinema, in an unsual DIY cinema for one - a wardrobe (</span></span><i><a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117886760?refCatId=1422"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#9999FF;">Variety</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">)</span></span></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></b></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">SPIRIT OF THE WICK. </span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Capturing the spirit of the area through the annual arts festival </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hackney Wicked</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, contradicting glossy propaganda promises of Olympic regeneration. The festival is organised by the artistic enclave living and working in the shadow of London's 2012 Olympics site, whose high security walls and infamous "blue gates" have sliced Hackney Wick in half. Premiered on 23 July 2010 as part of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Spirit of the Wick</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, a festival of 31 short films, installations and sculpture curated by Rebecca Feiner at Stour Space, an old converted wine warehouse on Fish Island, Hackney Wick, London. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">FUTURE DATES (all on the second Monday of the month at 6pm): </span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">13 June; 11 July; 8 August; 12 September; 10 October; 14 November; 12 December</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">If you'd like a chance to Show Your Shorts, drop me line or contact Steve Rushton at</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Clapham_Picturehouse/News/Item/Wea_Film_Club/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#9999FF;">WEA</span></span></span></a></span><p face="inherit" color="initial" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; "><br /></p><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-87339810771103696852010-10-27T06:51:00.000-07:002010-10-27T07:06:22.481-07:00Blackmail<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Something I've been meaning to flag up for a while is </span></span><a href="http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=10517"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hitchcock's </span></span></a><i><a href="http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=10517"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Blackmail</span></span></a></i><a href="http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=10517"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> at the Barbican</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, on Sunday 31 October at 8pm, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing a new score by </span></span><a href="http://www.neilbrand.com/index1.shtml"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Neil Brand</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. T</span></span><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 178px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0bxPU79S4gSn8bglo-wevHFI9JmrSVFh59dP0CIutbM_6VHqahXKOf8SM-8Jjym761os11MXZnnunWEF_8QbGvlD4Q3j1B8Sf-oM3ghIrsBiKES9FQoQ-ufSsZrqmlk5asqqZmysScs/s320/Blackmail%5B1%5D.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532712649585823170" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">his will be about the fourth score I'll have heard for it but if Neil Brand's past scores are anything to go by, it should be good.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span><div></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Years ago (1993, a little research rather scarily tells me), I remember seeing </span></span><a href="http://www.boosey.com/shop/composer/Jonathan+Lloyd?langid=1&ttype=SHOPTEXT&ttitle=Snapshot&id="><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jon</span></span></a><a href="http://www.boosey.com/shop/composer/Jonathan+Lloyd?langid=1&ttype=SHOPTEXT&ttitle=Snapshot&id="><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">athan Lloyd</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">'s score which, after an initial flurry, doesn't seem to get done much any more. Perhaps the fact that the Lyons Corner House scene featured a set of variations on the (still-in-copyright) </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tea for Two</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> is a disincentive. Youmans comes out of copyright in 2016, so hang onto your hats...</span></span></div><div></div><div></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Oddly enough I was only doing a session comparing the sound and silent versions a couple of weeks ago, so this will be an interesting addition to the mix.</span></span></div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiySwVectfhirrKNUeSJ9kimtA6mvuEzJ4fgsbWldKIs-ERRd-1y2oH4ba3YZJbWuQo0Z3tGiAz8B0zCs5BhFbJDIbvvUOQM7IYYaZB3rXi3tly6I91O23Cbt3GjbE4ZIPlNuuZflKdGkA/s1600/Blackmaildvd.jpg"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiySwVectfhirrKNUeSJ9kimtA6mvuEzJ4fgsbWldKIs-ERRd-1y2oH4ba3YZJbWuQo0Z3tGiAz8B0zCs5BhFbJDIbvvUOQM7IYYaZB3rXi3tly6I91O23Cbt3GjbE4ZIPlNuuZflKdGkA/s1600/Blackmaildvd.jpg"></a></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiySwVectfhirrKNUeSJ9kimtA6mvuEzJ4fgsbWldKIs-ERRd-1y2oH4ba3YZJbWuQo0Z3tGiAz8B0zCs5BhFbJDIbvvUOQM7IYYaZB3rXi3tly6I91O23Cbt3GjbE4ZIPlNuuZflKdGkA/s1600/Blackmaildvd.jpg"></a></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiySwVectfhirrKNUeSJ9kimtA6mvuEzJ4fgsbWldKIs-ERRd-1y2oH4ba3YZJbWuQo0Z3tGiAz8B0zCs5BhFbJDIbvvUOQM7IYYaZB3rXi3tly6I91O23Cbt3GjbE4ZIPlNuuZflKdGkA/s1600/Blackmaildvd.jpg"></a></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbBD3tMQtRlB8DjO3QNgc-l-c1fphfGuTx7neHUaV8WK9PT77ya52fxuEyOXT-FiZkJa7c9N883iCVNtY-eOXT57GERGCtUiFP89TrJuzc2lxQT8_XqPg_Lbx8bh5_-wa6Ga8PM4srns/s1600/Blackmaildvd.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 120px; height: 175px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbBD3tMQtRlB8DjO3QNgc-l-c1fphfGuTx7neHUaV8WK9PT77ya52fxuEyOXT-FiZkJa7c9N883iCVNtY-eOXT57GERGCtUiFP89TrJuzc2lxQT8_XqPg_Lbx8bh5_-wa6Ga8PM4srns/s320/Blackmaildvd.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532720152049180434" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Shamefully, you have to go to Germany to get a decent DVD of both the silent and sound versions of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Blackmail</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> [</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Erpressung</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">] (even though it uses NFTVA material. It also turns up in a nice, but now, I see, quite expensive box called </span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz9jiv8JgN4uq4r_-hhH22BcPiK5GDc0OVWqIUVmco6kZBehXaYCX7_Ti7PAoYVw-7rLE_qzCbY7aObXdw1L6Wna3-hMJwWSEjo1x94aTRoz2ITPgYrNlUPz0bLEUVKg9slkQ9CPJM25Y/s1600/41lq+Ei29VL._SL500_AA300_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 175px; height: 245px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz9jiv8JgN4uq4r_-hhH22BcPiK5GDc0OVWqIUVmco6kZBehXaYCX7_Ti7PAoYVw-7rLE_qzCbY7aObXdw1L6Wna3-hMJwWSEjo1x94aTRoz2ITPgYrNlUPz0bLEUVKg9slkQ9CPJM25Y/s320/41lq+Ei29VL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532716177864660978" /></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Master of Suspense,</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> though the selection of titles is a bit random: </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Champagne</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> (1928), two </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Blackmail</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">s (1929), </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Murder</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> (1930) and its German-language equivalent </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mary</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> [</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mord - Sir John greift an</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">] (1931), </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rich and Strange</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> (1931) </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Foreign Correspondent</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> (1940), </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Suspicion</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> (1941) and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Under Capricorn</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> (1949). </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hopefully the </span></span><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/saveafilm.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">BFI's Olympic project</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of restoring all nine of Hitchcock's surviving silents and commissioning new scores will bring forth a grand box to replace some of the less than satisfactory transfers that we currently labour under, perhaps (and this is mere speculation) including this new</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Blackmail</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> score. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2yvoZn2IfzKXj7WBfnw8ay1yM4Hsz1OqhMcV0uQpciT6gDnj1QM1GFsRyNtEHffZ2UCbqy59wBLGErBc4EkrUWao16dDeN8nXUEeSkgLvRjlY4wkO37oE0qUa3cr33k_LMADCfVUIZ74/s1600/mountaineagle415.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 169px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2yvoZn2IfzKXj7WBfnw8ay1yM4Hsz1OqhMcV0uQpciT6gDnj1QM1GFsRyNtEHffZ2UCbqy59wBLGErBc4EkrUWao16dDeN8nXUEeSkgLvRjlY4wkO37oE0qUa3cr33k_LMADCfVUIZ74/s320/mountaineagle415.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532711212925383842" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the meantime, there's still a chance to donate to the restoration fund and, of course, to have one last look in the loft for that print of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Mountain Eagle</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">!</span></span></div></span><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-30374498663255662052010-10-26T06:04:00.000-07:002010-10-27T07:02:58.069-07:00Russian Film Festival<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfX7xxpjDHbSj6JCRxC6gVXCckpKT8R40WtD7jGyjBeT-2EflnhnqRIrbfj0R0WK31RAsMH0yjYPD39Nk1qPe_VOac5GsIeyaUgRBjnPWuVn5WRI6XoNUoaINig6wY-rS6ngbhjokNrs/s1600/Ugly-Duckling-.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 202px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfX7xxpjDHbSj6JCRxC6gVXCckpKT8R40WtD7jGyjBeT-2EflnhnqRIrbfj0R0WK31RAsMH0yjYPD39Nk1qPe_VOac5GsIeyaUgRBjnPWuVn5WRI6XoNUoaINig6wY-rS6ngbhjokNrs/s320/Ugly-Duckling-.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532349168034494706" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Autumn's always a busy time for me: immediately after the London Film Festival, there'll be the </span></span><a href="http://academia-rossica.org/en/film/film/film"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Russian Film Festival</span></span></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rather than try manically to blog as we go I'll try to put a bit of perspective to both events. But a heads up for a couple of RFF strands. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">They'll be marking the centenary of Tolstoy's death with a few films, including a complete </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">War and Peace</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Война и мир</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) -</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">presumably the proper widescreen print rather than the TV pan-and-scan that occasionally turns up! and, even rarer, Vengerov's </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Living Corpse</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Живой труп, </span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1968). Should be fascinating to see this after the LFF's revival of Ozep's silent version a couple of years ago.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The animation strand is, as usual, strong, with retrospectives of Garry Bardin and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Irina Evteeva. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bardin's </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">dark 1990 fable </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Серый волк энд Красная Шапочка</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">was on Channel 4. Once. About 15 years ago. Probably at about 3am. So it'll be interesting to see how he deals with Andersen's </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Ugly Duckling</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Гадкий Утенок,</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> illustrated above)</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">especially as, keeping fine old traditions intact, it was banned from Russian TV.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Among Evteva's work is a version of Pushkin's </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Little Tragedies</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Маленькие Трагедии</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) which again should prove an interesting compare-and-contrast with Mikhail Shveitser's 1979 effort. Evteeva races through in 38 minutes what took Shveitser (as so often in his career) a lumbering 240 minutes. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A propos</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Tolstoy, Shveitser's </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kreutzer Sonata</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> always seems longer than its 158 minutes, though it might have been nice to include it in the festival as a little nod to Oleg Yankovsky, who died earlier this year. I've not seen his 209-minute </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Resurrection</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Воскресение</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">from 1961. But there are so many Tolstoy adaptations to choose from...</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Anyway, back to what </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">is</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> in the festival, there's a whole load more, of course focusing on recent films, so I'll report back in due course.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><i></i></div></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-41144785534626349602010-10-26T05:27:00.000-07:002010-10-26T05:58:39.555-07:00Paris exhibition<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zSZpWH5NKwQDxkDt8mh59JmmicVoHfvhuyeLKo65WFgJgdPref7oPQn4KxPLCgLi4YLlKDbe_kd5MKlrqneNz9nABN0Ya77rOx5qb2N5CqCxq7fx9q5fcVi4cFJHzEAkUnmbqAaYKIM/s1600/Paris+cover+small.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 187px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zSZpWH5NKwQDxkDt8mh59JmmicVoHfvhuyeLKo65WFgJgdPref7oPQn4KxPLCgLi4YLlKDbe_kd5MKlrqneNz9nABN0Ya77rOx5qb2N5CqCxq7fx9q5fcVi4cFJHzEAkUnmbqAaYKIM/s320/Paris+cover+small.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532331994218900642" /></a><br />I should flag a festival happening in Paris' Cite de la Musique, under the banner <i>Lenine, Staline et la Musique. </i><div><br /></div><div><i></i>A whole series of fascinating events will entertain Parisians from now until the middle of January. Apart from the big names: Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian etc, there'll be chances to catch undeservedly lesser-known talents like Artur Lourie (who turns up in a veiled reference in Akhmatova's <i>Poem without a Hero</i>), Vladimir Deshevov, Nikolai Roslavets and Alexander Mosolov. Some of them are seen as 'one-work' composers (e.g. Deshevov, for <i>Rails</i>), so this will hopefully be a chance to correct that impression. <div><br /></div><div>More info on the festival <a href="http://www.citedelamusique.fr/minisites/1010_lenine/index.htm">here</a></div><div><br /></div><div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 145px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzmjzddEj-8TdEtZ6vu9lfpkFCWxpjlVfoDp55wN8knLjTxl9KVq3iLZVwgaYDyRCUQIF0nIbJx0n-HaaksfBLJhXwLnAEHyw0IIQXFTzFpL2bUVAPOdreG7YkMhodZWz5F7cuuwRqfS4/s320/Paris+p1+small.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532335583406679858" /></div><div>Also worth noting is the very impressive (256-page) accompanying catalogue (the cover is illustrated above). I had the pleasure of penning the cinema essay - the first page of which is on the left.</div><br /></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-77126095218921365112010-07-28T02:02:00.000-07:002010-07-28T02:43:53.072-07:00Cinéphilia West<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whilst I don't want this blog to become yet another outlet for obituaries, it's definitely worth passing on the very sad news that </span><a href="http://www.cinephilia.co.uk/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#993399;">Cinéphilia West</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - I welcomed their exhibition of Polish film posters </span><a href="http://counterpointfandm.blogspot.com/2009/09/polish-film-posters.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#993399;">here</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - has been forced to close.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">An edited version of their announcement, which you can read in full on the site:</span></div><div><blockquote><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The short story is that our ex-partner and landlord, Mr Amin Taha, has reneged on an existing agreement to enter into a new lease, at market rate, at our premises at 171 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, and has re-taken possession of the premises with a view to sell the entire building as vacant and without an existing tenant in situ. As Cinéphilia West was occupying the premises under a temporary arrangement ahead of the formal execution of a long-term lease we have no choice but to cease operation there and seek alternative premises for our business. This is with immediate effect, as no notice was given but bailiffs imposed to re-possess the premises, leaving us completely exposed to the damage to our reputation as though the business itself was not viable or successful, which it was, and giving the impression that we are in any way at fault, which we are not. We have been torpedoed by a very unscrupulous man, but do not have the substantial means to challenge his behaviour through legal channels, despite having the full force of the law in our favour. </span></p> <p color="#333333" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; "></p></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></p></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As you can see, this isn't any failure on their part but - well, I suppose I'd have to be careful to word this in a non-actionable manner!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Perversely, I hope that the landlord has a real buyer: it would be doubly annoying if it stays empty after he'd been persuaded to "put it on the market" by some over-enthusiastic estate agent. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Thankfully, undeterred, they're looking for new premises and asking for suggestions. The alliteration and assonance of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Cinéphilia South</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> would appeal to me - let alone the improved proximity. </span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-17145063183642453702010-07-27T08:15:00.000-07:002010-07-27T08:51:39.817-07:00Farewell, UKFC<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRFELD7cq00AO6AoAzsep0p9QOxUR4tvY9TzNPGzdaaeCnm_u5J5KVpiRDSc6vSHDfW84Eg8RJQmW0M_E1ryT8RvtQNNBH33ep7qszrhsk7OBsP1DoybR-YnX8KMahnITqehbjBLeiDW0/s1600/nowhere-boy200"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRFELD7cq00AO6AoAzsep0p9QOxUR4tvY9TzNPGzdaaeCnm_u5J5KVpiRDSc6vSHDfW84Eg8RJQmW0M_E1ryT8RvtQNNBH33ep7qszrhsk7OBsP1DoybR-YnX8KMahnITqehbjBLeiDW0/s320/nowhere-boy200" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5498614116272044050" /></a><br />AND SO, IT STARTS…<br /><br />If culture was hoping for a stay of execution until October’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), yesterday it was disappointed. 55 organisations chopped or merged, the most high-profile demise being the <a href="http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/">UK Film Council</a>.<br /><br />The UKFC bestrode a huge – perhaps unbridgeable – field. Simultaneously making the economic, cultural and educational cases probably proved an unmasticateable mawful, and in film funding it often tried to make sure the toast fell jam-side up, with minority shares in semi-bankable projects.<br /><br />Their First Light fund successfully supported young filmmakers but there’s little for experimental and artists’ film: <i>Nowhere Boy</i> and <i>Hunger</i>, whatever they are, aren’t cutting-edge and arguably Taylor-Wood and McQueen could have found their money elsewhere. And the UKFC wasn’t interested in gallery video art.<br /><br />Not that that’s necessarily bad: The senior management’s background was overwhelmingly commercial, and wisely chose to channel money to organisations who knew the subject. But there was precious little of it.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/">BFI</a> used some to programme and release on DVD artists’ films, and even commission installations from people including Mat Collishaw and the Wilson Twins. Then there’s the <a href="http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/">Independent Cinema Office</a>, <a href="http://www.onedotzero.com/">onedotzero</a> and others servicing (usually) slightly different groups. The Digital Innovation in Film programme (co-funded by NESTA – relatively safe under its endowment) helped some small (and not so small) companies.<br /><br />Beyond that are bodies largely or wholly independent of the UKFC. Having been kicked around far too much in past years <a href="http://www.lux.org.uk/">LUX</a>, with its superb archive of artists’ films is an ACE client – though they’ve also been helped by UKFC. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.no-w-here.org.uk">no.w.here</a> does some great work with precious little. There are galleries such as the <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/">Tate</a> and the (possibly, still troubled) <a href="http://www.ica.org.uk/">ICA</a> and publisher/distributors like <a href="http://www.wallflowerpress.co.uk/category/artists-film-video">Wallflower Press</a>. Outside London, though, the picture is patchier.<br /><br />So how might the UKFC’s demise affect artists who work in film? At the moment it’s hard to say, but the temptation is to say “not much”. Their money – when they have it – comes from elsewhere.<br /><br />So, we still await the CSR…<br /><div><br /></div><div>Thanks to <a href="http://www.axisweb.org/">axisweb</a>, which commissioned this piece and ran it <a href="http://www.axisweb.org/dlForum.aspx?ESSAYID=18104">here</a></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-45110426858598155802010-04-09T01:39:00.000-07:002010-04-09T06:52:40.637-07:00Varèse<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUCenUygji8clPup_tEPljxDPjNbOzF4ebmAKXlj1dg5jp_-ywOGaAUFduozC_HaLUV5nUIaPbtb26k_LUnjiMYBlLYV_8Q_qb4QhZkEq_zCQ_JIhnMw0G_0-H-Ynuhk2HZrAo-cyDWE/s1600/Varese"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUCenUygji8clPup_tEPljxDPjNbOzF4ebmAKXlj1dg5jp_-ywOGaAUFduozC_HaLUV5nUIaPbtb26k_LUnjiMYBlLYV_8Q_qb4QhZkEq_zCQ_JIhnMw0G_0-H-Ynuhk2HZrAo-cyDWE/s320/Varese" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458115794472101170" /></a><br />Sometimes the sheer challenge of presenting a work and the exigencies of concert-planning can mean that even the most important ones exist more by reputation. <div><br /></div><div>So it is with Edgar (or, depending on how he felt at the time, Edgard) Varèse. It's impossible to conceive of 20th-century (and even 21st-century) music without him, yet when was the last time you saw anything performed? <i>Ionisation</i> (his greatest hit) needs 13 percussionists for just 6 minutes ("What are they going to do for the rest of the concert?", thinks the administration). So here's a version broadcast on ZDF (BBC4, anyone?)*</div><div><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/a9mg4KHqRPw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a9mg4KHqRPw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>And what about the first piece that he admitted into his canon, <i>Amériques</i>, with its 27 woodwind and 29 brass complemented by correspondingly large string and percussion sections? <i>Déserts</i>? The taped "interpolations of organised sound" might put concert halls off (though on the up-side it only needs twenty performers) but that doesn't explain why Pierre Boulez omitted them from his first recording. And then, again, from his second.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>So a big welcome for the South Bank Centre's mini-fest <a href="http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/series/varese-360">Varèse 360</a>, which doesn't just play the music (including a couple of UK premieres) but has added stagings and video projections. </div><div><br /></div><div><br />I haven't seen it yet but it's entirely in keeping with Varèse's ideas: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRc3o4RkV8XoCht3kDeBNWKds3LCdSdJiRVwfnRtq1IIzqGIdd4nZIuXoDa7239n7oFHfHfHh8y3c-yE8md4IZDGhbUPncjVMuCOE_NeJH3MiHTDr6BHY6noWRt5ykvsqq1D3cNvtudA/s1600/Brussels+interior.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRc3o4RkV8XoCht3kDeBNWKds3LCdSdJiRVwfnRtq1IIzqGIdd4nZIuXoDa7239n7oFHfHfHh8y3c-yE8md4IZDGhbUPncjVMuCOE_NeJH3MiHTDr6BHY6noWRt5ykvsqq1D3cNvtudA/s320/Brussels+interior.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458115051313918498" /></a>another of his classics, <i>Poème électronique,</i> was written for the Philips Pavilion at Expo '58 in Brussels, where it was broadcast through 350 or 400 speakers in a stomach-shaped space designed by Le Corbusier's assistant (later a composer) Iannis Xenakis. Le Corbusier himself oversaw the accompanying images and film clips. Though the pavilion itself was dismantled, we do have various designs, notes and stills and a stereo version of Varèse's composition, so that it was possible to make a sort of <a href="http://www.edu.vrmmp.it/vep/">virtual recreation</a>.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Among <i>Varèse 360</i>'s sidebar events is a screening of the 1920 <i>Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde</i> (an uncredited Varèse played a police officer), for which Scanner has sampled the composer's works to create a new score. Safe to say that it's very different from whatever Hugo Riesenfeld might have written for the original release.</div><div><br /></div><div>Varèse has fared a bit better on disc. Given that two, admittedly very full, CDs will seal the deal, pretty much any single disc (and actually there have been quite a lot) constitutes a significant collection, while shorter pieces like<i> Ionisation</i> and <i>Density 21.5</i> for solo flute turn up on a number of compilations. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhps3pcfeQqV3FBR-Ek2Ds5De9_zBe-UtGBhQQB_Mbu1-d_FSmCRYLq9T8Sa4xyfX0lyL361yPgfUQnuaRtriXEd5Y3JZ5LzyrNnNyL0kH7ez3nwkB5Oiu63hvXwvJCv7X705Wxr4202mo/s1600/51O6eN8gQkL._SL160_AA115_.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 115px; height: 115px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhps3pcfeQqV3FBR-Ek2Ds5De9_zBe-UtGBhQQB_Mbu1-d_FSmCRYLq9T8Sa4xyfX0lyL361yPgfUQnuaRtriXEd5Y3JZ5LzyrNnNyL0kH7ez3nwkB5Oiu63hvXwvJCv7X705Wxr4202mo/s320/51O6eN8gQkL._SL160_AA115_.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458114058435022930" /></a>But there have been several more or less complete surveys starting with Robert Craft, graced with a great psychedelic cover, but, like his equally pioneering Webern set, occasionally more enthusiastic than accurate. After that came [not comprehensive and in no particular order] Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano and Christopher Lyndon-Gee. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijZHmo7Pa-bwcfgLJL2DErO2WN2C3kXVAQSuEGd_iYzQMS-4eNwZfMvcvaSRiR0Z9VenJbh2lc9CEuy1xKYk2RaDOY3gwE6wMPHlEFNmh3Yo0zdhU2N4JepGdfTvdNa-IqZuN5rfLvEEQ/s1600/41e6xJAEUXL._SL160_AA115_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 115px; height: 115px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijZHmo7Pa-bwcfgLJL2DErO2WN2C3kXVAQSuEGd_iYzQMS-4eNwZfMvcvaSRiR0Z9VenJbh2lc9CEuy1xKYk2RaDOY3gwE6wMPHlEFNmh3Yo0zdhU2N4JepGdfTvdNa-IqZuN5rfLvEEQ/s320/41e6xJAEUXL._SL160_AA115_.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458112940564258354" /></a>Riccardo Chailly (carrying the imprimatur of Varése's amanuensis Chou Wen-chung) includes a couple of byways that are otherwise unobtainable and presents the original version of <i>Amériques</i> - Varèse's later, less resource-heavy version is generally performed. But even without those, Chailly's is the single set to get. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjkHp3ylq2nMtz4cG9o-p8wYFyBOmlEdFrA0BA8iJIa1-5f2AWbJ-Fy0aVITVzv5vDNmlb6xQ4nWKIav_gzOff4bgPrrHb4aD8oqppnJfio3STTxuwx9nkQkAZHVX6_TRaINUmRTfNj4A/s1600/51DTROIZKEL._SL160_AA115_.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 115px; height: 115px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjkHp3ylq2nMtz4cG9o-p8wYFyBOmlEdFrA0BA8iJIa1-5f2AWbJ-Fy0aVITVzv5vDNmlb6xQ4nWKIav_gzOff4bgPrrHb4aD8oqppnJfio3STTxuwx9nkQkAZHVX6_TRaINUmRTfNj4A/s320/51DTROIZKEL._SL160_AA115_.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458112539930888034" /></a>For historical interest, you can also get the boxily recorded Frederic Waldman etc al "volume 1" (there was no volume 2) that inspired Frank Zappa.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>For those who want a preview, I'll be presenting two one-hour shows as an introduction to Varèse and his works on <a href="http://resonancefm.com/">Resonance 104.4fm</a> (8pm on Wed 14 and Thurs 15 April). Then we'll glue them together and broadcast a single two-hour extravaganza at some point in the future.</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEREw3FG0mWpo_njnBfp7_hZbfVWu8QcRP16UkSs6VMAsL3ioBeOSJKNWtpDEa1NCxO9A9xMEujE880Wo_lDq9NJ6jKFku7dcyO9alB9uClmJ3V7XhSE0Gh_2_nv2wvoswh4rXi1hZPA/s1600/images.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 91px; height: 68px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEREw3FG0mWpo_njnBfp7_hZbfVWu8QcRP16UkSs6VMAsL3ioBeOSJKNWtpDEa1NCxO9A9xMEujE880Wo_lDq9NJ6jKFku7dcyO9alB9uClmJ3V7XhSE0Gh_2_nv2wvoswh4rXi1hZPA/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458122437570492818" /></a>*There's also a performance by the Ensemble InterContemporain and Boulez on Youtube: it sounds better but the close-ups and panels that come and go made me concentrate on the individual performer (actually, usually their hands) rather than the whole ensemble. </div><div><br /></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-32199422641611108082010-04-06T05:21:00.000-07:002010-04-06T07:59:28.769-07:00Maska and Stanko<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgFicYZkC-UslJjIridua9c9_E2yshuZP9sVi0GJoJJadp39cnzGnj4cyRM4vu2XUNSxIto-5ac_LAWkWRT8GjE0PXejVfiy-T52N8ahKk7V8WVO4ZPCJCMa6eY7kXdGivtfeQpRa81tk/s1600/tomaszstanko1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 197px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgFicYZkC-UslJjIridua9c9_E2yshuZP9sVi0GJoJJadp39cnzGnj4cyRM4vu2XUNSxIto-5ac_LAWkWRT8GjE0PXejVfiy-T52N8ahKk7V8WVO4ZPCJCMa6eY7kXdGivtfeQpRa81tk/s320/tomaszstanko1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457018033746576578" /></a><br />Trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's Barbican concert reflected the two halves of a career split by tragedy.<div><br /></div><div>In 1963 he joined the brilliant composer-pianist Krzysztof Komeda's band, becoming his closest colleague. Komeda, one of the pioneers of European jazz, was equally inspired by classical music and free jazz and, after Roman <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWj5gqyfBfbhO48r0YYBaCLsMX01iGfNSYEndJGlJyszK4_T8ZT7Yh21fwiA2ZkeSORxODF5sW-S_o58A9ZHufpZ31RSwZEjdja_VlcFhC-BblA4Ujrb6HEHQBYquctPxquRZjE3xgG0/s1600/Komeda_02.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWj5gqyfBfbhO48r0YYBaCLsMX01iGfNSYEndJGlJyszK4_T8ZT7Yh21fwiA2ZkeSORxODF5sW-S_o58A9ZHufpZ31RSwZEjdja_VlcFhC-BblA4Ujrb6HEHQBYquctPxquRZjE3xgG0/s320/Komeda_02.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457017702459234098" /></a>Polanski's early short <i>Two Men and a Wardrobe</i> (<i>Dwaj ludzie z szafa</i>, 1958), scored around forty films. In 1969, aged 38, he died (depending on who you believe, as a result of a car accident or when some drunken horseplay went wrong). </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig-IT0rFoSx6vYoE5v4r6SMWAqcXuI_2IkZd8-HN08Mvrs1Z-sthtvFJJGB9eIenHvdumHcj6fbkGD1NnAuo81-89yUaV9EXZ_j7GjJcHTs3i3EmIvAXV1VpJH7oJnKCZeJRgEUBHanxg/s1600/images-1.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 116px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig-IT0rFoSx6vYoE5v4r6SMWAqcXuI_2IkZd8-HN08Mvrs1Z-sthtvFJJGB9eIenHvdumHcj6fbkGD1NnAuo81-89yUaV9EXZ_j7GjJcHTs3i3EmIvAXV1VpJH7oJnKCZeJRgEUBHanxg/s320/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457015107475736194" /></a>Stanko, who had up to then been content within Komeda’s group, set out on his own, but continued to play his friend's music, climaxing with the 1997 album <i><a href="http://www.ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/1600/1636.php?cat=&we_start=0&lvredir=712&we_search=%2Bstanko">Litania</a></i>, which itself became a classic.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2f4jJ_Jc1UgNMAuxeC1SKKTB5m_amkduw5jc2eGk5-WxQWZCR0HpzSLjO3u3SoLFK4b2ssJGJbnmK9fvcIyGN81bc9U3f8CexwuAvosBh3yKVy7Vsk0aLR-Y32FcK7YHTcYFzgpB5Lic/s1600/images-2.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 64px; height: 85px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2f4jJ_Jc1UgNMAuxeC1SKKTB5m_amkduw5jc2eGk5-WxQWZCR0HpzSLjO3u3SoLFK4b2ssJGJbnmK9fvcIyGN81bc9U3f8CexwuAvosBh3yKVy7Vsk0aLR-Y32FcK7YHTcYFzgpB5Lic/s320/images-2.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457015732469320562" /></a>But the evening began with the world premiere of the Brothers Quay’s new short film, <i>Maska</i>, based on Stanislaw Lem’s 1976 short story. Anyone who has seen their work (<a href="http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_2787.html">this excellent two-disc set</a> collects their short films) will know what to expect: odd animated marionettes playing out oblique but disturbing dramas in gelid, granular light. <i>Maska</i> showed their usual love of craftsmanship: even a shot that could be achieved in a few minutes in live action - a diaphanous cloth being drawn back - was carefully animated. Rich, luminous visuals – the dense shadows of the cavernous set, pierced by shafts of glowing highlights, are accompanied by a soundtrack that included sections of Penderecki’s <i>De Natura Sonoris</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>A being, created limb by limb, transmutes first into a woman and then something more, taking us from mystery, through unease to mythic near-horror. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ignoring the story's possible political interpretations, the Quays are more interested in the robotic Frankenstein: a protagonist that describes its own birth and development, re-forming itself by sheer force of will; shape-shifting and obfuscating its personality, making us wonder about its old husk (or heart?), leaving us peering in on a strange cold world, as compelling as it is unsettling.</div><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJFD-vXP0IS6302SH_vN5SbkSHuBlgfwKx6GlGeff1tAlnZVxVLVBVhGaEyIJ58Y-lkuSJM6IEsb0kBidyaitRxZnGJMQBrdFkqk13WpEWGq7Ao1joBG95u1rDde_DuDd1tuVb_OHTSlk/s1600/Egzekutor.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 147px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJFD-vXP0IS6302SH_vN5SbkSHuBlgfwKx6GlGeff1tAlnZVxVLVBVhGaEyIJ58Y-lkuSJM6IEsb0kBidyaitRxZnGJMQBrdFkqk13WpEWGq7Ao1joBG95u1rDde_DuDd1tuVb_OHTSlk/s320/Egzekutor.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457011945992259922" /></a>As the last credit held the screen, Stanko’s sextet appeared and launched into a selection from his own score to the 1999 film <i>Egzekutor</i>. Starting insouciantly, Stanko’s husky trumpet was shadowed by soprano Justyna Steczkowska, each taking turns to ride over the other. Saxophonist Adam Pieronczyk occasionally joined in, adding more subtle colours to the duet. Meanwhile Steczkowska, in her spangly mini-dress, once or twice broke into a brief, self-absorbed, gentle wiggle. In the middle Pieronczyk’s dense and harder driven solos contrasted with pianist Dominik Wania, who alternated fluid runs with cool but decisive chords.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The second half was the Komeda tribute – majoring on his films with Polanski – minus Steczkowska, but with accompanying visuals: archive and original footage, clips from <i>Knife in the Water</i> and live relays of the musicians. In the event, it was dominated by the live relays – of the rest there was too little to be something and too much to be nothing. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The highlight was an extended medley, Wania again showed his versatility punching out a jagged but contemplative opening and later returning for a dreamy Debussian response to Pieronczyk’s tightly frantic solos. It was all held together by Stanko’s recurring Spanish-tinged trumpet.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLyVKHA4cYrVdkGIFRzm6eLJnri94y8J3vg63PX5y7HCKD0Q4Bckz_Q1m60d4uSekKtP6yTYhy7ZqCqgwUwNtwty_PcPJ8fPbAJxdlOZqZ0pUITvTyMqQCwZIlURrDb2f7d69NhblrFY/s1600/images-3.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 69px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLyVKHA4cYrVdkGIFRzm6eLJnri94y8J3vg63PX5y7HCKD0Q4Bckz_Q1m60d4uSekKtP6yTYhy7ZqCqgwUwNtwty_PcPJ8fPbAJxdlOZqZ0pUITvTyMqQCwZIlURrDb2f7d69NhblrFY/s320/images-3.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457036768173699506" /></a>For an encore, the dream sequence from <i>Rosemary’s Baby</i> was accompanied by one of Komeda’s greatest hits – riotously welcomed by the crowd – <i>Sleep Safe and Warm</i> again with Stanko and Steczkowska leading. The sextet beautifully captured the music’s lullaby mood, but abandoned the original orchestra’s bitterly ironic saccharine tone - and of course ignored this sequence's hypnotically somnolent soundscape. The new approach reflected the deep well of Komeda’s creativity, making a fitting end to the evening.<br /></span></p></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-63303176998880956612010-04-06T04:44:00.000-07:002010-04-06T05:05:51.514-07:00Waterloo (near Waterloo)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywUrOGGGzxSRrUNxSsSmj3E3i5ctZ9AQYhCQxtVlBj2QWM8LHFccmFevg33u8NA-B-FVYGbrZUloyCUFT4NhtUK9DDZtTwecFFOYqTqx2hNViQ4kqPOXFM79zIdAyy5ZxwMDfH35PrcQ/s1600/waterloo10_w140_cred_140x186_08d70c3396f160e0d6ef7e0b9c1c5a24_cred_140x186_08d70c3396f160e0d6ef7e0b9c1c5a24.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 140px; height: 186px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywUrOGGGzxSRrUNxSsSmj3E3i5ctZ9AQYhCQxtVlBj2QWM8LHFccmFevg33u8NA-B-FVYGbrZUloyCUFT4NhtUK9DDZtTwecFFOYqTqx2hNViQ4kqPOXFM79zIdAyy5ZxwMDfH35PrcQ/s320/waterloo10_w140_cred_140x186_08d70c3396f160e0d6ef7e0b9c1c5a24_cred_140x186_08d70c3396f160e0d6ef7e0b9c1c5a24.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456989902434163554" /></a><br />A quick note to point out (to those who don't already know) that I'll be at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday 22 April introducing Karl Grune's 1929 film <i>Waterloo</i>, with the Philharmonia Orchestra playing the UK premiere of Carl Davis' score, under the composer himself. The film starts at 7.00 but <a href="http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/concerts/22apr10/">I'll be talking at 5.45</a>.John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-74268947872981366182010-04-04T01:56:00.000-07:002010-04-06T04:38:55.034-07:00Shutter Island<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTY0Q_22Ljd6ye8bKomAP7IMnPo4hjA9AKDdMchS7WoEM6TzAPCBL81w-eVPFA-bFt33TmETRb0N8xEjGW4c3k_s29yK8HKV3N0qHyMzIWNqKWF5-rHr_aAtrzNhgEb81etwHAYpEqhrk/s1600/shutter-island-cover-extralarge_1264466523863.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTY0Q_22Ljd6ye8bKomAP7IMnPo4hjA9AKDdMchS7WoEM6TzAPCBL81w-eVPFA-bFt33TmETRb0N8xEjGW4c3k_s29yK8HKV3N0qHyMzIWNqKWF5-rHr_aAtrzNhgEb81etwHAYpEqhrk/s320/shutter-island-cover-extralarge_1264466523863.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456294365994391394" /></a><br />Somewhat belatedly (the problem of coordinating diaries), I just saw <i>Shutter Island</i>. A lot of reviews have concentrated on the labyrinthine (dare I say implausible?) plot though the "twist" - guessable in essence, if not in detail, within the first few minutes - bothered me less than in <i>The Sixth Sense</i>, which simply wasn't good enough to stop me being annoyed at how its self-proclaimed USP had failed.<div><br /></div><div><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbYPwY5eqtHBPvVvxClu8ZX_XVoQh3Jn5Hlp561ItSfBCstkiQGk9zrGEE_TmMpJshOipz4LZ7M6FIp66g-s4znvpUya58fGRHVX_cGEvtlxzUZ4qlb6bs0bZ_IYfUxFx_I99LitH_B0U/s1600/shutter_cliff.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 64px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbYPwY5eqtHBPvVvxClu8ZX_XVoQh3Jn5Hlp561ItSfBCstkiQGk9zrGEE_TmMpJshOipz4LZ7M6FIp66g-s4znvpUya58fGRHVX_cGEvtlxzUZ4qlb6bs0bZ_IYfUxFx_I99LitH_B0U/s320/shutter_cliff.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456984281803740850" /></a><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cFYZou8LUhOXY5ibT296S3DdNUh-LhCWWHET1JFmdACpTuaBEwJ-X33wReXVFTm8Orq0yYG_1yAXXI_T1v0G38Sh0XJuB2sfRgMFNNfTCvNf1KBQlbptnN_ijn46e6ZfUeRvDTxY8EU/s320/black_narcissus" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456978258550812866" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 68px; " />Others have dissed it because of the plethora of movie references, majoring on the acrophobic <i>Vertigo</i> and <i>Black Narcissus </i>and another film which, were I even to mention it, might give my smarter readers (as if you aren't all smart!) a clue as to what happens. As if it's the first time Scorsese's ever done something like <i>that</i>!</div><div><br /><div>But back to <i>Shutter Island</i> and a number of critics have talked about the music. Scorsese does use original scores: Howard Shore followed on from a blossoming relationship with Elmer Bernstein that was cut cruelly short by the composer's death* (or the intervention of Harvey Weinstein, if you believe what some say). But many of his soundtracks rely on pre-existing music in a way that's worth a study in itself. Still, it works for Woody Allen, though a more pertinent comparison - which we'll come back to - is Kubrick.</div><div><div><i><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gR-jRu6_g65xm0YR-Hx1oNRxt2ADVl-Rs_AyamC4KdaBnZRAVYBD6NiHhDhIIUQy6GO7ciql1VTkh6Gcx4AY9CQKVZ1V7j9E6VKpRSUTFPIxdbf1AnL3Rdd8EbeSrlbwPD_e4xmJjMw/s1600/shutter-island-cover-extralarge_1264466523863.jpg"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div></a><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gR-jRu6_g65xm0YR-Hx1oNRxt2ADVl-Rs_AyamC4KdaBnZRAVYBD6NiHhDhIIUQy6GO7ciql1VTkh6Gcx4AY9CQKVZ1V7j9E6VKpRSUTFPIxdbf1AnL3Rdd8EbeSrlbwPD_e4xmJjMw/s1600/shutter-island-cover-extralarge_1264466523863.jpg"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The music was chosen by Scorsese's old friend Robbie Robertson - </span>The Last Waltz <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">is their most famous collaboration but he's been involved with several other films. Now, looking at the playlist, the first name to come to mind would not be the driving force behind The Band, though Paramount were so excited that their </span><a href="http://www.paramount.com/node/9522"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">press release</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> didn't even bother to mention the names of the actual composers.**</span></div><div><div><div><br /></div></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">But think about the filmic associations of some of the names on the list and the fog lifts slightly. </span><span class="Apple-style-span">2001</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">, </span><i>The Shining</i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">and</span> <i>The Exorcist</i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">share</span> <i>Shutter Island</i>'<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">s</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">needle-drop aesthetic and all feature the "acceptable faces of modernism" Ligeti and Penderecki. </span><i>Shutter Island</i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">and</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">The Shining <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">even share Ligeti's <i>Lontano</i>. In later years those two have been joined by Alfred Schnittke (who duly turns up here).</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The soundtrack divides into three types of music. There are some vintage pop songs while the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">mournful post-minimalism quotient is filled with Ingram Marshall, John Adams, Lou Harrison and the oscillating <i>On the Nature of Daylight</i> by Max Richter, best-known for <i>Waltz With Bashir</i>. At the end of the film, it returns as a new underscore to Dinah Washington's recording of </span>This Bitter Earth<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">.</span></span></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">But there's also a gratifyingly large chuck of unrepentant modernism, though as usual such music accompanies threat, madness, violence, etc. The aforementioned </span><i>Lontano</i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">with its wonderful thick yet fluid textures, dark and glistening, the hypnotic ritual of Morton Feldman's </span><i>Rothko Chapel, </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">a bit of middle-period Gianto Scelsi - the surprising step-father of </span><i>TV Times</i>' f<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">ormer agony aunt and Eurovision Song Contest presenter Katie Boyle - which precedes his later, Zen-like utterances. Probably the most extreme piece is Nam June Paik's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">Hommage à John Cage, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">a post-fluxus mixture of pre-recorded tape and the sounds of random live performance. But undoubtedly the 'tune' that most of the audience will go out whistling is Penderecki's long-gestating Third Symphony. The insistent passacaglia theme (actually more of a rhythm) sits as solid as </span>Shutter Island <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">itself</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">As is the way with film soundtracks, a lot of the pieces are abbreviated or overlaid with dialogue so it's great to think that soundtrack purchasers will be exposed to the full, mad glory of Nam June Paik, the middle section of </span><i>Christian Zeal and Activity</i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">with its looped recording of a preacher, or the near sub-ambient Brian Eno - all things that would probably have passed them by in the sound mix.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Anal emo teenagers will point out that Mahler's Piano Quartet, a long-ignored student work, wasn't actually premiered until 1965, eleven years after the film in which a record of it is played was set and might even question why Max von Sydow makes a point of mentioning its key signature: nobody who actually knows about classical music bothers with that kind of detail and anyway it's the only one he wrote (that we know about). Anal emo pensioners will point out that </span><i>This Bitter Earth</i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">came out in 1960 (though we can bat them aside by pointing out that it's a non-diegetic track).</span></div><div><br /></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 88px; height: 88px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipn-QtmGHJNNW_UpePeLqYi33yqSZ1Id9pZStRyJBlaytRkO2dWIV2qZnrPQm9KrXFtsP6NkYLVHA7uskSN7XMo0RV0F87RLSjRPpBgbESc82vsGpg-dSWbBAm8GHSDOjrbFxB_NWAhNc/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456283671270861250" /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">For me, the film that came to mind was </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">Cape Fear. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">They're both genre pieces that weren't generated by Scorsese: </span>Cape Fear<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "> started out as a Spielberg project and </span>Shutter Island<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "> moved from Wolfgang Petersen to David Fincher before he picked it up. Nevertheless he made them both his own and, ironically had two of his biggest hits. And the relentless and increasingly frenetic Penderecki, a thick block of sound coming out of Polish sonorism can't help but remind us of Bernard Herrmann's original </span>Cape Fear<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">, as </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">channelled by <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">Elmer Bernstein.</span></span></span></span></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Anyway, you can get the soundtrack from Rhino Records, </span><a href="http://www.rhino.com/shop/product/various-artists-shutter-island-original-motion-picture-soundtrack"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">*Having said that, he's also used ... errrrrr ... Philip Glass and U2.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">** For your delectation here's a proper track-list (some of the pieces are on slightly obscure labels so I'm giving them a leg-up, with links):</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">1) Ingram Marshall: </span><a href="http://www.ingrammarshall.com/recordings.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Fog Tropes</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">.</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Brass Sextet from the Orchestra of St Lukes, pre-recorded tape/John Adams</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">2) Penderecki: </span><i><a href="http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.554491">Symphony No 3</a></i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">(passacaglia). National Polish RSO/Antoni Wit</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">3) Cage: </span><i><a href="http://www.moderecords.com/catalog/180_181cage.html">Music for Marcel Duchamp</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Phillip Vandré (prepared piano) [written for Hans Richter's film </span><i>Dreams That Money Can Buy</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">4) Nam June Paik: </span><i><a href="http://www.subrosa.net/index_fr.htm">Hommage à John Cage</a></i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[tape and live performance]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">5) Ligeti: </span><i><a href="http://www2.deutschegrammophon.com/cat/result?sort=newest_rec&PRODUCT_NR=4292602&SearchString=lontano&SEARCH_OPTIONS=&IN_XXSERIES=&IN_XXPQ=&per_page=10&COMP_ID=&ALBUM_TYPE=&IN_SERIES=&ART_ID=&IN_XXAWARDS=&start=0&MOZART_22=0&GENRE=&presentation=list&ADD_DECCA=0">Lontano</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Vienna Philharmonic/Abbado </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">6) Feldman: </span><i><a href="http://www.newalbion.com/NA039/">Rothko Chapel 2</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, David Abel (viola), Karen Rosenak (celeste), William Winant (percussion), California EAR Unit</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">7) </span>Cry. Johnnie Ray</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">8) Max Richter: </span><i><a href="http://www.maxrichter.com/en/releases/view/2">On the Nature of Daylight</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Max Richter</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">9) Scelsi:</span><i><a href="http://www.moderecords.com/catalog/176scelsi.html">Uaxuctum: the Legend of the Mayan City, Which They Themselves Destroyed for Religious Reasons</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Concentus Vocalis, soloists, Vienna RSO/Peter Rundel [the soundtrack album only has a section of the full piece]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">10) Mahler. </span><i><a href="http://www.prazakquartet.com/discography-en/ID/35">Piano Quartet</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Prazak Quartet</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">11) Adams. </span><i><a href="http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/the-chairman-dances">Christian Zeal and Activity</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">San Francisco SO/Edo de Waart</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">12) Lou Harrison: </span><i><a href="http://www.newprofessionals.co.uk/recordings.htm">Suite for Strings</a></i><a href="http://www.newprofessionals.co.uk/recordings.htm"> (</a><i><a href="http://www.newprofessionals.co.uk/recordings.htm">Nocturne</a></i><a href="http://www.newprofessionals.co.uk/recordings.htm">)</a>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The New Professionals Orchestra/Rebecca Miller </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">13) Brian Eno: </span><i><a href="http://www.astralwerks.com/">Lizard Point</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Brian Eno [not easy to find on the website but it's on their re-release of </span><span class="Apple-style-span">Ambient 4: On Land</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">14) Schnittke: </span><i><a href="http://www.bis.se/index.php?op=album&aID=BIS-CD-507">Hymn no 2</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Torlief Thedéen (cello) Entcho Radoukanov (double bass) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[sadly, I don't think that Borodin Quartet cellist and dedicatee Valentin Berlinsky ever recorded it]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">15) Cage. </span><i><a href="http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559070">The Root of an Unfocus</a></i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Boris Berman (prepared piano) [For what it's worth, Merce Cunningham, for whom it was written. said this piece was about fear, awareness of the unknown, struggle, and the final defeat]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">16) Ingram Marshall: </span><i>Prelude: The Bay</i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">[originally the musical element of </span><i>Alcatraz</i>, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">a </span><a href="http://www.ingrammarshall.com/recordings.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">multimedia piece</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> about the island]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">17) Bennie Benjamin and George David Weiss: </span><i>Wheel of Fortune</i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Kay Starr</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">18) Lonnie Johnson: </span><i>Tomorrow Night</i>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Lonnie Johnson</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">19) Clyde Otis (arr. Max Richter) </span><i>This Bitter Earth</i>, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Dinah Washington (and Max Richter)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#53524B;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:16px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div></div></i></div></div></div></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-71668736038368564912010-02-11T02:46:00.000-08:002010-02-11T08:34:51.880-08:00AvatarCopyright seems to be going into some sort of hyperdrive-meltdown: on the one hand, the internet increasingly seems like the free digital repository of anything you might need, while Australian band Men at Work is hobbled by a perverse and in many ways <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/larrikin-music-publishing-snares-land-down-under-royalties/story-e6frg8n6-1225826893478">incomprehensible ruling</a> in favour of the copyright equivalent of an ambulance chaser.<div><br /><div><br /></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 118px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCBmJhA7RMYvvr94-YQVVhuYh9Us5LZgcuoOK2CeFEQsmAYfnOfZxBKLLnwwxOiG3bwYauPiCasiGHZ9Js8st0FeF2oY9c8AwjXPSQX1bzuRrDN7c4Bf8fa6C3XU2XnFVGhmCby9n1J0/s320/Avatar+james+cameron.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436983057769092002" /><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">Unsurprisingly, <i>A</i></span>vatar</i> (left) is coming in for a bit of similar treatment. There's already been a 'heated debate' about whether or not it rips off the Strugatskys' <i>World of Noon </i>books (1961-85)<i>.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>In this post-, even anti-imperialist series,</div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 133px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQ9COg0MDSkv4OtBhSGVk1vhbNSrnKrHLQc-0G9jJcd9DdKYJQZ6yv4HYEcLsosAjd-cLh-veKKVUwKGN6JeHvVH5C58CDoz3Zc-W41QyB2eAvHueBZt4asVmgDLjkJOkUYXsmIQRAP8/s320/Anxiety.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436983650488698418" /><div>set in the 22nd-century, the planet Pandora is filled with fantastical flora and fauna. In the fifth book, <i>Disquiet</i> (<i>Беспокойство</i>, 1965) humans set up a laboratory to study the mysterious biosphere but thereafter the book and the film only fit where they touch.</div><div><br /></div><div>English translations (mostly from Macmillan) appeared in the 1970s and 1980s. But, despite some attempts to stir up a controversy (evil westerners ripping off a Russian icon), the surviving Strugatsky (Boris) seems sanguine, unsurprisingly since, after the death of brother Arkady, he approved of a collection of other writers' tales set in the Noon universe.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, bunking off from Paradjanov duties yesterday, I went to see <i>Avatar</i>. This isn't the place for an in-depth review. Briefly: it's a great experience but a pretty poor film that mixes up the Mayans, Yggdrasil and any other myths that came to hand. One (unintentional?) moment of hilarity came with the apparently serious use of the word "<a href="http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Unobtainium">unobtainium</a>" (hopefully Cameron cleared that trademarked name!)</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>But I was struck by the music. </div><div><br /></div><div>As you might expect, it was by James Horner, who isn't entirely unfamiliar with accusations of - shall we say - being .... errrrrr .... 'overly-influenced' by other composers. Still, the usual 'victims' are Khachaturian, Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and as they say, if you're going to steal (and who says he is stealing - certainly not me!) steal from the best.</div><div><br /></div><div>Musically, it's a bit of a hodge-podge. With the percussion and ethnic chanting I occasionally thought it was going to break into something like Karl Jenkins' <i>Adiemus.<br /><br /></i></div><i><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">But then - leaping lizards - there's a fantastic theme for the Na've tribe. Damn, it sounded familiar. So I upset Melissa by humming it a bit too loudly in the few quiet bits of the film to remind myself and - yes - it's definitely hovering around Kutuzov's theme from Prokofiev's</span> <i>War and Peace</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> - 47 seconds into this:</span></div><div><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lfocIfw9ZQQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lfocIfw9ZQQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Now, sometimes things like that are unconscious and sometimes they have a meaning. Hans Zimmer convincingly argued that his <i>Gladiator</i> 'borrowings' from temp-track standby, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Holst's</span> Mars<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">, were a deliberate counterpart to Ridley Scott's ironic references to <i>Triumph of the Will.</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Actually in this case, I'm willing to give Horner, the benefit of the doubt (or a get-out-of-jail-free card). Sadly the Youtube clip of the end of the Bolshoi production of <i>War and Peace</i> can't be embedded but the chorus takes up Kutuzov's theme to sing:</span></div><div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">We came to fight to the death. To fight to the death, the people came forward. With our blood we have defended Russia. We have defended our mighty land. Our Field Marshal led us onward, led us rightly into battle for our country.</span></blockquote></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Compare Kutuzov's theme to </span><span class="Apple-style-span">Avatar</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> - hop to around 5'10" in this compilation (though you'll have to wait for it to buffer), where it begins to gel.<br /><br /><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://static.ning.com/socialnetworkmain/widgets/video/flvplayer/flvplayer.swf?v=201002091145" flashvars="config=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundtrackfans.ning.com%2Fvideo%2Fvideo%2FshowPlayerConfig%3Fid%3D2350108%253AVideo%253A17934%26ck%3D-&video_smoothing=on&autoplay=off&isEmbedCode=1" width="456" height="344" bgcolor="#000000" scale="noscale" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed> <br /><small><a href="http://soundtrackfans.ning.com/video/video">Find more videos like this on <em>Soundtrack Fans</em></a></small><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Perhaps Horner is drawing a parallel between the Napoleonic attack on Moscow and the events in <i>Avatar</i>? Perhaps so - in both cases the victims strategically withdraw to come back with renewed vigour.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Then again, Horner also seems to have been rethinking his music for </span>Glory <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">(1989),</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> but what </span>Avatar<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">'s got to do with the American Civil War, I don't know.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Beyond that, it's not for Horner to explain why Prokofiev - himself an inveterate self-devourer - used Kutuzov's theme in <i>Ivan the Terrible</i> (1944) - he was working on </span><span class="Apple-style-span">War and Peace</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> at around the same time - in a more downbeat version, as a lament for the Tartar steppes.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Obviously it works for Horner: <i>Avatar</i> has picked up his tenth Oscar nod. As far as the Academy is concerned the film itself is probably like Goldman-Sachs - too big to fail, so will pick up the statue. Might Horner join in the celebrations? Perhaps - he won for Cameron's last outing, </span><span class="Apple-style-span">Titanic.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">But then again, given the film's story and its subsequent commercial success, perhaps Horner would have been better quoting this:</span><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kHs-6xnMEdE&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kHs-6xnMEdE&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div></i></div><i></i>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-78688568628416797602010-02-10T04:33:00.000-08:002010-02-10T04:59:29.204-08:00ParadjanovLooking forward to the <a href="http://www.paradjanov-festival.co.uk/">Paradjanov Festival</a>, which centres on a <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank/film_programme/march_seasons/sergei_paradjanov">season at BFI South Bank</a>, starting on 1st March. <div><br /></div><div>Before that, there's a pre-amble this Friday 12th February. Layla Alexander-Garrett, the festival organiser, will give a talk about the director at the <a href="http://www.scrss.org.uk/cinemaevents.htm#paradjanov">Society for Cooperation in Russian and Soviet Studies</a>. Kick-off's at 7pm and tickets are a fiver (£3 for members).<div><br /></div><div>There's also a symposium about the director on 6th March, so I'd better sign off and get down to writing my paper!</div></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-48084984844888661482010-01-20T04:02:00.000-08:002010-01-20T05:10:12.096-08:00You're the Stranger Here<div>Apologies for not flagging up my mate Tom Geens and the retrospective/premiere in the <a href="http://www.shortfilms.org.uk/">London Short Film Festival</a> at the ICA. Not only did Tom manage to finagle getting his new feature film (<i>Liar</i>) programmed (how does that work in a 'short film' festival?) but he went on to win "Best Short Film 2010" with his new short, <i>You're the Stranger Here</i>. It's an ideal film for those who enjoy witnessing outbursts of inexplicable and disturbing violence in surreal and unsettling Ceausescu-ish places (Hammersmith, if I recall). </div><div><br /></div><div>So, belated congrats... and hopefully Film4 (who part-funded it) will pull their fingers out and get it on TV.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can see a teaser trailer for <i>You're the Stranger Here</i> <a href="http://www.chickenfactory.co.uk/stranger.html">here</a> (hear, hear!) along with clips from Tom's other films at <a href="http://www.chickenfactory.co.uk/hellochicken.html">Chicken Factory</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Tom's now developing another feature that sounds like it'll have his trademark dark comedy and needling of the middle classes with uncomfortable silences...</div><div><br /></div>On a personal note, <i>Stranger</i> marks my entry to IMDb. After months of workshopping over three continents, Tom felt that I was ready to play (triumphantly, even if I do say so myself) 'Man in the Waiting Room'. It would have been a cough and a spit (if he left in the coughing or the spitting).John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-18083951904668118282009-11-18T06:48:00.000-08:002009-11-19T01:12:43.381-08:00An event for your Diary<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdeZ8jky0iNrlzWnoNuoQKIEMriCc1iOI9LOyVyMBIRwxGxC4JBgKecHtRKiz1R8itL947RIgIRSUMZbvZIR84HuQIejuuCF8k46rXH_-xQHawlkDHZKrp9xrvFCOJTRsQmnYa97gOnk/s1600/Diaryt2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 179px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdeZ8jky0iNrlzWnoNuoQKIEMriCc1iOI9LOyVyMBIRwxGxC4JBgKecHtRKiz1R8itL947RIgIRSUMZbvZIR84HuQIejuuCF8k46rXH_-xQHawlkDHZKrp9xrvFCOJTRsQmnYa97gOnk/s320/Diaryt2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405477859905323938" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Second Run have recently released Márta Mészáros' <span style="font-style: italic;">Diary for My Children</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Napló gyermekeimnek,</span> 1982) on DVD. Even better, the rest of the trilogy (<span style="font-style: italic;">Diary for My Loves</span>, 1987 and <span style="font-style: italic;">Diary for My Father and Mother</span>, 1990) will follow, so we'll all be able to ditch the VHS's from the C4 screenings all those years ago!<br /><br />In the meantime there's a special screening of <span style="font-style: italic;">Diary for My Children</span> at the Renoir Cinema on Sunday 22nd November at 2.15, at which I'll be interviewing the uncredited co-writer, and director in her own right, Éva Pataki.<br /><br />It's a wonderful, semi-autobiographical film about the teenage Juli, returning to Hungary in 1947, having spent the war exiled to the USSR, where her parents died. It perfectly captures the contradictions of post-war Budapest (as I imagine!): the freedoms of western-type fashion shows and the impositions of the regime; moments of personal joy and grating bureaucratic idiocy, and memories and strange dream sequences set against quotidian banalities. All seen through the eyes of Juli, growing to be a woman, discovering love and developing the cinephilia that will lead her to film school.<br /><br />Zsuzsa Czinkóczi's fantastically touching performance captures Juli's frustration at the lies, dissembling and surreal paranoias that surround her. She carefully balances the solemn and melancholic retreat into memories of pre-war happiness with the steeling of Juli's resolve to counter what she sees around her. Exactly as Mészáros herself does in the film.<br /><br />You can read more about the film, on Second Run's website, <a href="http://www.secondrundvd.com/release_dfmc.php">here</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.curzoncinemas.com/#/events/qanda/diary_for_my_children_qanda_eva_pataki">Here's</a> the Renoir cinema page, with details of the event.John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-73291531075668986712009-11-11T12:56:00.000-08:002009-11-11T04:56:10.753-08:00Benya Krik<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiccqA4OMwUNngO7_jdmVJkHCwu2_M_H8pJ71anvXwXFIVedaiDHbGR87ApnhyaZ3Jten-pZ0F5eGQ_EQyhp9HIh2eyYmeQ6bUL9I-bzd6_GehPIVrxcbXj_Ivb0fFZUjOv7hx0KQLpC2Q/s1600-h/Benya_Krik"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiccqA4OMwUNngO7_jdmVJkHCwu2_M_H8pJ71anvXwXFIVedaiDHbGR87ApnhyaZ3Jten-pZ0F5eGQ_EQyhp9HIh2eyYmeQ6bUL9I-bzd6_GehPIVrxcbXj_Ivb0fFZUjOv7hx0KQLpC2Q/s320/Benya_Krik" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384978794880478786" border="0" /></a>It seems a good moment to mention a forthcoming screening of <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/calendar/productions/a-world-of-jewish-music-benya-49372">Benya Krik</a> at the Purcell Room on 29 November 2009. Among other things, it's a fascinating view of early 20th-century Jewish life, apparently shot partly on location in Odessa. <div><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie3yjEv-8vqG4UyYlrZVCaDhpBkQ53N7Yb6zpBh5Pewhom7TDAXbjiEcps0UdJO3S4uCQd7VjQ5E7wGx73uxuT8TSEcYN7ed8JVoRcv1_IEtVuH3RD1uPLZs-egRaOLNh-Fxf0_Dd4LHQ/s1600-h/benya_krik-0.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 128px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie3yjEv-8vqG4UyYlrZVCaDhpBkQ53N7Yb6zpBh5Pewhom7TDAXbjiEcps0UdJO3S4uCQd7VjQ5E7wGx73uxuT8TSEcYN7ed8JVoRcv1_IEtVuH3RD1uPLZs-egRaOLNh-Fxf0_Dd4LHQ/s320/benya_krik-0.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384990606540580354" border="0" /></a>Made in 1926, it was directed by Vladimir Vilner, while Isaac Babel based the script on his own short stories <span style="font-style: italic;">The King</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">How It Was Done in Odessa</span>. The Russian texts and the 'kino-povest' (illustrated, left) are <a href="http://lib.ru/PROZA/BABEL/odessa.txt">here</a>, and Jeff Glodblum - that's Goldblum - reads <span style="font-style: italic;">The King</span> (in English) <a href="http://legacy.kcrw.com/jewish/jss.html">here.</a><br /><br />But Krik, the leader of a bunch of criminals, is hardly admirable and the film had something to offend everyone.<br /><br />For starters, Krik's gang seems to be first precursors of, and then profiteers from the Revolution. Even though they're ultimately foiled by the Bolsheviks, the regime, obviously, was not impressed.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Jewish groups were alarmed that it might inflame anti-Semitism.<br /><br />The Soviet Union spent 1921-22 struggling economically in the face of what Lenin called "the elemental forces of the petty-bourgeois environment", before initiating a limited return to capitalism, even de-nationalising some enterprises - excluding, of course, the 'commanding heights' of heavy industry, banking etc. This 'New Economic Policy' became increasingly divisive: on one hand it made available luxuries - and even some essentials - that state and collective organisations were so signally failing to provide, but NEP-men were despised as spiv-like semi-gangsters and, plugging into Russian anti-Semitism, were often seen as Jewish.<br /><br />In such an environment, <span style="font-style: italic;">Krik</span> couldn't do right for doing wrong. Not only did it upset the authorities, but it was accused of ignoring the proletariat and concentrating on Jews (as if they were inimical!). But of course, it 'concentrates' on them only to criticise them as cynical petty thieves who are happy to trash tradition and their Jewishness in the pursuit of profit. <div><br /></div><div>A few months later Babel's astonishing play <i>Sunset</i> opened, in which Krik, fearing disinheritance, beats his father up then arranges an abortion for his gentile girlfriend, and forces his sister into marriage to obtain the dowry. After all this, he is praised by the local rabbi. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAduVi0Ay2TZHXQi9WXDQVKj13cYdwmuzjs3SJD4xas_VTywtp6AMPwhFANZVEYPCmQvQEqhzcuUWg8Q5WF5KxYA1MBFON4vtFOmtwwKJ3Rn_UfhAR9EnGxzm9VRN2YhuqicPh7CEjDHI/s1600-h/Yaponchik_mishka.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 90px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAduVi0Ay2TZHXQi9WXDQVKj13cYdwmuzjs3SJD4xas_VTywtp6AMPwhFANZVEYPCmQvQEqhzcuUWg8Q5WF5KxYA1MBFON4vtFOmtwwKJ3Rn_UfhAR9EnGxzm9VRN2YhuqicPh7CEjDHI/s320/Yaponchik_mishka.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384997137894219794" border="0" /></a>Ethnically even more confusing is that Babel based Krik on the well-known Odessa gangster Mishka 'Yaponchik' (Mike the Little Jap) Vinnitsky, though I'm not sure why - he was Jewish and born in Odessa. Allegedly this is a portrait.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwgP7xzVLnBtvLw0XU4bgHVtKGFEckgjQpS23MxzJW1Yy9c0b7Bg19na5n0G7JTqWTNTTZpvn9t4M-ZWtNRLB3Cr_fCdk2OyzZ5ZqRmsNM_j7f1nqK24XRFAt8s6DEpLM_wPJZ0h1KKLg/s1600-h/deja-vu.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 145px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwgP7xzVLnBtvLw0XU4bgHVtKGFEckgjQpS23MxzJW1Yy9c0b7Bg19na5n0G7JTqWTNTTZpvn9t4M-ZWtNRLB3Cr_fCdk2OyzZ5ZqRmsNM_j7f1nqK24XRFAt8s6DEpLM_wPJZ0h1KKLg/s320/deja-vu.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385000529846106674" border="0" /></a>He's also the subject of Juliusz Machulski's Polish film <span style="font-style: italic;">Déjà vu</span> (1988), which takes the action to Chicago: I suppose the archetypal US gangster city - it's where Balabanov's <span style="font-style: italic;">Brother II </span>goes. Babel, perhaps seeing that he had created a potentially long-running franchise, didn't kill Krik in the books but he does die in Vilner's film, suffering a fate based on Mishka's death. Maybe Babel felt (or was advised) that the more popular medium needed to show retribution.<br /><br /></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_YGrwSqQo5SjKAvPxSNz743dGG_3Nhfa9oWsTnhdE9UopK-b5jE4l7oygVnYiT_pDbjclZ-Ql0RAZXQdApJI0aqBN-jIzAKysERgwn5_q94Am6H30S-SNXFJwkKQhuQOwW_BrDHzHFHQ/s1600-h/mishka_yaponchik-adventurer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 125px; height: 94px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_YGrwSqQo5SjKAvPxSNz743dGG_3Nhfa9oWsTnhdE9UopK-b5jE4l7oygVnYiT_pDbjclZ-Ql0RAZXQdApJI0aqBN-jIzAKysERgwn5_q94Am6H30S-SNXFJwkKQhuQOwW_BrDHzHFHQ/s320/mishka_yaponchik-adventurer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385002788158916578" border="0" /></a>Krik is still a popular hero, largely thanks to the panache which Babel gave him - the Russian movie <span style="font-style: italic;">Мишка Япончик</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Mishka Yaponchik</span>, 2007) is part of the series <span style="font-style: italic;">Great Russian Adventurers</span>! You can see a silent movie style trailer <a href="http://www.1tvrus.com/anonce/pkvs/7633/?tz=47">here</a>.<br /><br />Vilner's film was released in January 1927 but pleased nobody. It was almost immediately banned in Ukraine and never shown in Moscow. It has since fallen into that huge well of forgotten curiosities. After a couple more films, Vilner returned to the theatre, from when he had come.<br /><br />Nevertheless Eisenstein recommended the script to Ivor Montagu, whose English translation was published by Collett's in 1935 in a numbered edition of 500. That sold well enough to go to another numbered 500. I've never seen this tome but I suspect it's the 1925 script that Babel wrote with Eisenstein, who later remembered the author observing that "writing a script is like calling the midwife out on your wedding night".</div><div><br /></div><div>Eisenstein, whilst eating stewed apples, sharing vodkas with Malevich, and corresponding with Stefan Zweig, was dividing his time between <i>Krik</i>, <i>1905</i> (aka <i>The Battleship Potemkin</i>) and a wartime front-line brothel comedy called <i>The Bazaar of Lust</i>. In 1932 he praised the 'laconicism' of 'the vastly underestimated play <i>Sunset'</i>, though it had been heavily criticised and dropped from the repertoire five years previously. Babel got permission to go to Paris for a year and on his return he and Eisenstein would work on the banned and destroyed <i>Bezhin Meadow.</i> In 1939 he was arrested for being an 'anti-Soviet Trotskyite spy' (recruited during his time in Paris) and 'a member of a terrorist conspiracy'. He was shot in 1940 and dumped in a mass grave.</div><div><div><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7Tt3FM7jxEA2vKVeKCXlI3d7_oKXQM7TNVl-uCAqZCcdV7YwjzaN5zZ7ydKOFpyFw_OCqI5wS8MLXeHiSC4kJkoDON2Yu9kPmycYT9SCQWY5e3aQyFIYrCxNqUYSRUO7OKO_eBNbhA8/s1600-h/lgbenya.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7Tt3FM7jxEA2vKVeKCXlI3d7_oKXQM7TNVl-uCAqZCcdV7YwjzaN5zZ7ydKOFpyFw_OCqI5wS8MLXeHiSC4kJkoDON2Yu9kPmycYT9SCQWY5e3aQyFIYrCxNqUYSRUO7OKO_eBNbhA8/s320/lgbenya.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385003310356407922" border="0" /></a>You can get a silent DVD of <i>Benya Krik </i>from <a href="http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.brandeis.edu/jewishfilm/Catalogue/images/lgbenya.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.brandeis.edu/jewishfilm/Catalogue/films/benyakrik.htm&usg=__9La5WHb-rXoriQMMj1q3q34b1jw=&h=362&w=258&sz=21&hl=en&start=20&tbnid=e1Q1Pcd1FgWeGM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=86&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmishka%2Byaponchik%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG">The National Centre for Jewish Film</a>, but better go to the South Bank where klezmerish live music is provided by <a href="http://www.robinharris.info/%20Home%20Page.html">Robin Harris</a> in a screening that's part of the <a href="http://www.jmi.org.uk/">Jewish Music Institute's</a> Jewish Culture Day.<br /><br /><br /></div></div></div></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-74334801430814899692009-11-10T10:26:00.000-08:002009-11-11T01:07:14.072-08:00Schnittke<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqG6YLgJexCS3BR9wvfzbS6ODDmMmQgI6mXEOrr50Qg7WRddcxFeMjfVZ1BE5OP6S_i7AoyD02ZsS4dqVMKSkGEX0asL-C8ybCklwyfQw1r0xeOXezp3uFx351GCRA4gVkSV2eUpGoxXI/s1600-h/Schnittke+LPO.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 174px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqG6YLgJexCS3BR9wvfzbS6ODDmMmQgI6mXEOrr50Qg7WRddcxFeMjfVZ1BE5OP6S_i7AoyD02ZsS4dqVMKSkGEX0asL-C8ybCklwyfQw1r0xeOXezp3uFx351GCRA4gVkSV2eUpGoxXI/s320/Schnittke+LPO.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402577603730527794" border="0" /></a>In case you thought I'd forgotten about it - a heads-up/reminder of <span style="font-style: italic;">Between Two Worlds</span>, the Alfred Schnittke festival led by the LPO and happening at various places in London from 15 November to 1 December to mark what would have been his 75th birthday.<br /><br />It's hard in the course of such a mini-fest to do justice to the enormity of Schnittke's output (even if you think - as I don't - that it's wildly uneven). Of course there are things I'd want to have seen, primarily the hallucinogenically terrifying First Symphony, and one of the last symphonies, and perhaps a survey of the concerti grossi (and of course, more films!) but over all it's as balanced as it could be in the time available.<br /><br />The LPO has a minisite devoted to him <a href="http://www.lpo.org.uk/schnittke/index.html">here</a>.<br /><br />The main stuff is:<br /><br />15/11. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Gogol Suite</span> and the (brilliant) <span style="font-style: italic;">Monologue</span> followed by Prokofiev 6 at the <a href="http://shop.lpo.org.uk/performances/detail.asp?4978,63,0,0,0">RAM</a>.<br /><br />18/11. <a href="http://shop.lpo.org.uk/performances/detail.asp?3839,63,0,0,0">Royal Festival Hall</a>. A 6.15 pre-concert event with the 3rd SQ (his best?) played by the <a href="http://www.harphamquartet.co.uk/">Harpham Quartet</a>. Then, in the main concert, rather than just doing the <span style="font-style: italic;">Faust Cantata,</span> there are excerpts from the opera that swallowed it (basically as Act 3). These are semi-staged, so perhaps Jurowski is moving towards a very welcome production - in which case, hopefully he'll be conducting what Schnittke wrote rather than the 'Hamburg edition'. It's preceded by Haydn 22 (is the subtitle the only link?) and bits of <span style="font-style: italic;">Parsifal</span>. Here's a bit of Arte's broadcast of<span style="font-style: italic;"> Historia von D. Johann Fausten</span>. Would that BBC4...<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kGnrYgLrimQ&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kGnrYgLrimQ&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />19/11. Back at the RAM for a visit from the Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir and a good belt of <a href="http://shop.lpo.org.uk/performances/detail.asp?4982,63,0,0,0">Russian choral stuff</a>. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Concerto for Choir</span> is another cast-iron masterpiece.<br /><br />21/11. An all-day <a href="http://www.gold.ac.uk/crm/schnittke-archive/betweentwoworlds/">symposium</a> at Deptford Town Hall under the aegis of the <a href="http://www.gold.ac.uk/crm/schnittke-archive/">Alfred Schnittke Archive</a> at Goldsmiths. Even those usually averse to academic conferences might be tempted by the world premiere of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Concerto for Electronic Instruments</span>. This includes four ekvodins (a 1930s Soviet synthesiser), a crystadin (something to do with Oleg Losev's research, I assume), a camerton piano (errrrr...?) and a shumophone (even more errrr... but it sounds polyglottally tautological: 'shum' [шум] being Russian for 'noise' and 'phone' being Greek for 'sound'). In such company the theremin that the estimable Lydia Kavina will be playing seems almost workaday!<br /><br />On 22/11 those able to keep up will be headed to the South Bank Centre for <a href="http://shop.lpo.org.uk/performances/detail.asp?4251,63,0,0,0">another all-day-er</a>. Amongst the talks will be an unmissable interview with animator Andrei Khrzhanovsky, director of, inter alia, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Glass Harmonica</span> fresh from his debut feature (of which more anon) <span style="font-style: italic;">A Room and a Half</span>. The other music will include the hilarious <span style="font-style: italic;">Music for an Imaginary Play</span>, the fantastic <span style="font-style: italic;">Epilogue from Peer Gynt </span>and the Kandinskian <span style="font-style: italic;">Der gelbe Klang,</span> which I seem to remember being really interesting (if only I could find that decade-or-so old off-air cassette).<br /><br />25/11. Ater a couple of days rest you'll be ready to venture back for <a href="http://shop.lpo.org.uk/performances/detail.asp?5013,63,0,0,0">a kaleidoscopic look at old musics</a>: Stravinsky, the venerably double-barrelled Bach-Webern, Schnittke and Safronov. That's at 6pm, after which there's <a href="http://shop.lpo.org.uk/performances/detail.asp?3812,63,0,0,0">another concert</a>: Webern, Lindberg, Berg and Schnittke's Third Symphony. I prefer Schnittke's (more secular) odd-numbered symphonies and this is one of my favourites - a piece I find endlessly fascinating.<br /><br />Films are covered at <a href="http://www.pushkinhouse.org/en">Pushkin House</a> on 26 and 27 (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Ascent</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Commissar</span>) and 28 at the RFH (<span style="font-style: italic;">Agony</span>). Later on the 28th at the RFH there's a concert with an <a href="http://shop.lpo.org.uk/performances/detail.asp?3813,63,0,0,0">interesting pairing</a>: Schnittke's <span style="font-style: italic;">Second Cello Concerto</span> (which uses some of <span style="font-style: italic;">Agony</span>'s music) and Haydn's <span style="font-style: italic;">Seven Last Words</span>. The Schnittke is being played by Alexander Ivashkin (he and conductor Vladimir Jurowski are the main movers behind the festival), who, just a few days ago, was in Moscow playing and conducting a concert of <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.alexanderivashkin.com/03events.html">Unknown Schnittke</a>. </span>Hopefully there'll be a CD or at least some more performances.<br /><br />Things are wrapped up on 1 December at the <a href="http://shop.lpo.org.uk/performances/detail.asp?4990,63,0,0,0">QEH</a> with the String Trios by Schnittke and Tchaikovsky.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzHrxSh8h89mPokxLaCq9gkQNb_2PPZmXWtbxlDcFQ78tSKHdQNftsvR4TEkVjxGEgfIOwhyg_MKab-PVm0ysusjFt5rSNwe5vYjU1po6bHFWh7neCDnnMBzcARgTP11Yeme4D7iMAZE/s1600-h/13_schnittke_phaidon_sm.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 95px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzHrxSh8h89mPokxLaCq9gkQNb_2PPZmXWtbxlDcFQ78tSKHdQNftsvR4TEkVjxGEgfIOwhyg_MKab-PVm0ysusjFt5rSNwe5vYjU1po6bHFWh7neCDnnMBzcARgTP11Yeme4D7iMAZE/s320/13_schnittke_phaidon_sm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402565468085868626" border="0" /></a>Alexander Ivashkin's written several books about Schnittke, including a <a href="http://www.phaidon.com/Default.aspx/Web/alfred-schnittke-9780714831695">biog-intro (published by Phaidon)</a> that should be every anglophone's starting point<br /><br />As an adjunct I'm doing a one-hour intro to Schnittke and his music for <a href="http://resonancefm.com/">Resonance 104.4fm</a> on Friday the 13th at 8pm. Also listenable on-line.John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-35380861306914904342009-10-23T09:47:00.000-07:002009-10-24T03:34:10.409-07:00Double Take<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdVTrWfMm2OUwg5vRPDH-i6BhTEB0-OlphyA4pRVkOnYl1XiUfN8qDcMxUkW6EQvIdnrs5KK5SexXTGHuNHBjpcvafXe_8zPXza_Iu4zxcfWmHaEI4wHcLMq_UykjPOUA840vJfB7uUc/s1600-h/double_take_01.jpg" style="text-decoration: none;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395838570963406450" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 179px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixdVTrWfMm2OUwg5vRPDH-i6BhTEB0-OlphyA4pRVkOnYl1XiUfN8qDcMxUkW6EQvIdnrs5KK5SexXTGHuNHBjpcvafXe_8zPXza_Iu4zxcfWmHaEI4wHcLMq_UykjPOUA840vJfB7uUc/s320/double_take_01.jpg" border="0" /></a><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Johan Gimonprez’s <em>Double Take</em> (shown recently in the <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/376">London Film Festival</a>) is a post-modernist mash-up-CGI-mockumentary-philosophical-essay/gag-reel (that started life in 2005 (very differently) as the installation <i>Looking for Alfred</i>). But if that description hints at its porous structural borders, it takes an equally liberal view when it comes to revealing its subject matter.<br /><br />At its core is a monologue by British guerilla-provocateur-situationist-author Tom MacCarthy in which Hitchcock meets his younger self on the set of <em>The Birds</em>. But that in turn is based on a short surreal autobiographical tale by Borges in which the author meets his older self.<br /><br />As the film’s narrator says: “They say that if you meet your double you should kill him, or he will kill you; two of you is one too many.”<br /><br />But of course, even when you’ve killed your doppelganger, you won’t know if you are actually unique so life becomes, paradoxically, a lonely trawl for others of yourself. Whom you must kill.<br /><br />I suspect Borges would have enjoyed this ‘hitching’ to another author and he was very cinematically minded, thinking Hitch’s <em>The Thirty Nine Steps</em> greatly superior to Buchan’s novel. En passant, I should say that the Borges source material is its own doppelganger, existing in two forms: <em>The Other </em>and <em>August 25 1983 </em>(according to the ever-reliable Wikipedia, a day on which nothing of note occurred).<br /><br />From there, <em>Double Take </em>enters a hall of mirrors so complex that the viewer (and possibly director-scriptwriter Gimonprez) becomes (perhaps deliberately) almost completely lost.<br /><br />There’s the impressionist Mark Perry listening to a recording of Hitchcock, twinning his voice to loop (in both senses of the word) an explanation of the Maguffin (maybe Peter Bogdanovich was charging too much, or maybe he was just too good and would have knocked it off first time?) There’s the well-known Hitchcock lookalike Ron Burrage who, curiously, was born on Hitchcock’s thirtieth birthday, 13 August 1929, (Borges was born in the same year as Hitchcock but eleven days later: Gimonprez was born the day before, 1962, while Hitchcock was being interviewed by acolyte Truffaut, and making <em>The Birds</em>, the backdrop to MacCarthy’s monologue). There’s the story of Hitchcock’s two dogs and their appearance/non-appearance in <em>The Birds</em>; and there are that film’s two lovebirds (as well as Hedren and Taylor). Finally(?) of course there’s Hitchcock himself. Hitchcock walks down the street and has an uncanny, Borgesian-MacCarthyesque encounter with Hitchcock. There are the famous cameos, where Hitchcock sometimes ‘plays’ ‘Hitchcock’. And there are all manner of Hitchcock jokes from the openings of <em>Alfred Hitchcock Presents</em>, including Hitchcock staging a Hitchcock lookalike competition (and losing); And there are five cringeworthily sexist adverts for Folger’s Coffee – sponsors of <em>Alfred Hitchcock Presents</em>.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Double Take</i> has been something of a festival hit and there are five trailers on Youtube but they make it seem like it is just going to be a witty exploration of ‘the idea of Hitchcock’ and doublings – but there’s more. So here's a clip that is less of a hard sell and hints a little more at what the film is like.</div><div><br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8b7Jf1G-ejI&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8b7Jf1G-ejI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /></div><div><br />But even that largely excludes <i>Double Take</i>'s wider concerns. There are the mirrorings of Kennedy and Nixon in the fateful Presidential debate (broadcast on both radio and television but with very different ‘results’); Nixon also crops up as a counterpoint to Khrushchev in the Kitchen Debate. Of course, that leads us to Capitalism vs Communism, their respective contributions to the space race (and the arms race) and the Bay of Pigs (and Laika the dog). Meanwhile Cuba hovers between the two; Fidel makes a speech as fiery as the Cuban sun before visiting Nikita to cavort in the Soviet snow.<br /><br />At the bottom is the commodification of fear, and the way that the idea of ‘the other’ is reinforced to justify all kinds of official actions.”Two of you is one too many.” Who will kill whom?<br /><br />And it’s all recorded by the increasingly dominant television (slowly strangling its parent, cinema) as “History” (Gimonprez’s previous film was called <i>Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y</i>) is controlled by (or through) the media. I could push it further and talk about <em>Double Take</em>’s zapper-like (or even hypertext) editing, but I’ll leave that to you.<br /><br />Though it all centres on the very early 1960s, we’re brought up to date with Reagan-Gorbachev and Clinton-Yeltsin as new Nixon(s)/(Kennedy?(s))-Khrushchev(s). Even more contemporary resonances come with shots of New York skyscrapers, the story of how the Empire State Building was hit by a plane in 1945, and an approximation of the famous 911 “falling man” footage.<br /><br />It all ends with Donald Rumsfeld’s infamous “known knowns and unknown unknowns” speech, guaranteed to raise a laugh with audiences amused by the assonant riffing but which to me – no Rumsfeldian - seems surprisingly clear-sighted, despite the unsavoury ends which it was used to justify.<br /><br />Doubles and coincidences are all very well, but once you start looking, you can, if you care to, find them pretty much anywhere you look. Given the film’s deeper meaning, Gimonprez obviously decided to miss out on some of the most obvious ones: the two <em>Blackmails</em>, the two <em>Ma/(e)/n Who Knew Too Much, </em>the Hitchcock/van Sant <em>Psycho</em>s or the many other Hitchcock doppelgangers. Being a film, <em>Double Take</em> largely ignores the non-visual radio (home to several Hitchcock adaptations, sometimes starring the same and sometimes different actors) and books (both as source materials and post-film adaptations) and the various remakes and sequel (troublingly for the film’s premise, often, as with <em>The Birds</em>, not limited to a single reincarnation). It’s also a bit unfortunate that inescapable history means that the thread that ties the Cold War to Hitchcock is one of his weakest films (albeit set partly on Cuba) <em>Topaz</em>.<br /><br /><em>Double Take </em>has a fun surface and at its core is a vital idea, but it tries to cram so much in that in the end I began to feel like <em>Frenzy</em>’s Chief Inspector Oxford faced with his wife’s ‘cordon bleu’ meal; so rich as to be indigestible. Or even that Hitchcock himself – eventually overwhelmed by contemplations of geopolitics - has been turned into the film’s very own Maguffin. But without that, the premise and montage of archive material could start to look like something by Adam Curtis.<br /><br />By the way – <em>Frenzy</em> has two scores: Ron Goodwin stepped in when Hitchcock decided he didn’t like Henry Mancini’s. Of course, also <em>Topaz</em> was Jarre’s second attempt to work with Hitchcock: he was supposed to replace Herrmann on <em>Torn Curtain</em> but that gig ended up going to John Addison. And so it goes on… </div></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-11339961069999820782009-10-16T02:06:00.001-07:002009-10-22T03:30:10.929-07:00Russian Film Festival<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY57JDG0OEo79c6muYY-n7AqfAdfYR9nGgxPKNd73SWx-HjNptnWyPFt9PtOCd2211O5dNCsNTZBjdC9JkT08-KKRvRLY4ZZUbDFzkvQPRGqFk8jsl1S3hzZReAn4uFfxIiRz2JJurdEs/s1600-h/Assa2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 175px; height: 131px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY57JDG0OEo79c6muYY-n7AqfAdfYR9nGgxPKNd73SWx-HjNptnWyPFt9PtOCd2211O5dNCsNTZBjdC9JkT08-KKRvRLY4ZZUbDFzkvQPRGqFk8jsl1S3hzZReAn4uFfxIiRz2JJurdEs/s320/Assa2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393155237424528306" border="0" /></a><br />We're just about half way through the London Film Festival (a couple of posts to come) and already on the horizon is the <a href="http://films.academia-rossica.org/en/">Third Russian Film Festival</a> which precisely abuts it, starting the day after the LFF (30 October) and running until 8 November.<div><br /></div><div>As usual it concentrates on the newest Russian cinema (this year with ten UK premieres), but they've expanded the <a href="http://films.academia-rossica.org/en/?cat=32">docs and shorts section</a> and there's an archive strand showing the five great <a href="http://films.academia-rossica.org/en/?cat=9">Alexandrov-Orlova musicals</a>. All this with the usual set of guest speakers and debates.</div><div><br /></div><div>The features (which I'll quickly cover here) are dominated by films from the big names. Sergei Soloviev has two titles: <i>Anna Karenina</i> (literary behemoths have made popular source material recently). Somewhat unexpectedly, Soloviev sees a companion piece to <i>Anna Karenina</i> in his other festival film, <i>Assa-2</i>, a sequel to his cult perestroika rock classic from 1988. Amongst its cast is the great violist Yuri Bashmet, who began as a bassist in a rock group. </div><div><br /></div><div>More literature with an updating of Chekhov's <i>Ward 6</i> (<i>Палата 6</i>) from Karen Shakhnazarov. In between running Mosfilm, Shakhnazarov has made some intriguingly structured films, often intertwining humour and dark, moral ambiguity, so it will be interesting to see this tale of mental disintegration.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nikolai Dostal's <i>Pete on the Way to Heaven</i> (<i>Петя по дороге в Царствие</i>) might sound like a sequel to his wry 1991 comedy <span style="font-style: italic;">Cloud-Heaven</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Облака рай</span>) but, though it features another simpleton in nowheresville, it's more politically engaged. Another film about the events of 3 March 1953? That sounds almost like the beginnings of a season in itself.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The flight of Yuri Gagarin is another historical moment that's had a recent cinematic outing: though appearing only briefly, the cosmonaut was central to the plot of Alexei Uchitel's (to me, slightly disappointing) <i>Dreaming of Space (Космос как предчувствие, </i>2005). In <span style="font-style: italic;">Paper Soldier</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Бумажный солдат</span>) Alexei German Jnr takes a darker view of the events.<i><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px;font-family:sans-serif,serif;font-size:13;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:16;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px;font-family:sans-serif,serif;font-size:13;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:16;" ></span></span></span></span></i></div><div><i></i></div><div><br /></div><div>More literature, this time Nabokov, with Andrei Eshpai's <i>The Event (Событие)</i>. Nabokov isn't generally remembered for his plays and Eshpai avoids it being a simple filming. He comes from a line of composers (Yakov Andreyevich and Andrei Yakovleyevich), and he brings a similar degree of musical sensitivity to the film - central to it is the music of Bach, adapted by his father.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Melody for a Street Organ</i> (<i>Мелодия для шарманки</i>) continues Kira Muratova's recent strong run of films. Muratova is wonderfully attuned to the soundscapes of her films (though sadly its an aspect of her work that's often overlooked) and here, as in some of her others, the score is by the great Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. </div><div><br /></div><div>One genre that isn't really associated with Russia is the mockumentary, but while in the west it's often a chance for some gentle humour at the expense of a tangentially important subject, <i>Russia 88</i> (<i>Россия 88</i>) strikes at one of the country's hearts: patriotism, nationalism and xenophobia. Like all successful mockumentaries there's an ambiguity about the central character and there's been a huge debate about whether it actually promotes the neo-Nazism that it portrays - an effect that is disturbingly intensified by the unprompted vox pops that support such views.</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite some more positive prognoses for the country there's still a supply of bleak films and Nikolai Khomeriki's <i>Tale in the Darkness</i> (<i>Сказка про темноту</i>) fills that role here. A brutalised far-Eastern population and child cruelty beings to mind <i>Freeze Die Rise Again</i> (<i>Замри умпи воскресни</i>) but this is a contemporary - and harrowing - story, though some critics saw light at the end of the tunnel.</div><div><br /></div><div>Undoubtedly the weirdest feature in the festival is <i>First Squad (Первый отряд)</i>. There's an undeniable mystical streak in the national character. War films have always been popular there. They have a great animation tradition. The country has an interesting relationship with Japan. Hey presto - a supernatural WW2 anime! Clearly, 14 year-old Nadya (of course, Russian for 'hope') is no Slavic <i>Tank Girl</i> but <i>First Squad</i> can't be anything less than interesting (and must be more successful than the <i>Tank </i><i>Girl</i> film!)</div><div><br /></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-2484376902712752452009-10-02T07:41:00.000-07:002009-10-02T10:18:57.121-07:00Cinéphilia WestAs I <a href="http://counterpointfandm.blogspot.com/2009/09/polish-film-posters.html">mentioned</a> a couple of weeks back, <a href="http://www.wallflowerpress.co.uk/">Wallflower Press</a> has a new outlet, <a href="http://www.cinephilia.co.uk/west/">Cinéphilia West,</a> at 171 Westbourne Grove (close to Needham Road). There's a screening space, a gallery and a bookshop, and there'll be a regular stream of events. And, of course ... the essential caff.<br /><br />Even better news is that the current exhibition of Polish posters is set to run until 31 January 2010 and some to-be-announced events are planned.<br /><br />The first (Polish-themed) event is on 25 October, opening a three-part season on Polish film avant-garde, from its beginnings till now. World expert Marcin Giżycki will present a brief history of avant-garde film in Poland, from the work of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson in the 1930s to the 1950s and Andrzej Pawlowski's influential <span style="font-style: italic;">Cineforms</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Kineformy,</span> 1957). Giżycki will also discuss the work of Jalu Kurek, Jerzy Zarzycki and Tadeusz Kowalski - previously unknown in the UK. Giżycki sets Polish film avant-garde in the context of other, contemporary film avant-gardes, making this a perfect introduction to the next strand - from the 1960s to the 1980s.<br /><br />It's impossible to choose a single still to illustrate the wonderfully fluid and abstract <span style="font-style: italic;">Cineforms</span> and Adam Walaciński's music also plays a central part, so here it is on Youtube:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yy_mhZgAvGA&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yy_mhZgAvGA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />While you're in the area (and, presumably, in the mood), you could pop over to <a href="http://www.patio-restaurant.com/">Patio</a>, the excellent and veritable Polish restaurant at the Shepherd's Bush Green end of Goldhawk Road.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dJ8GJ2TAqj-Qa6qRsqUKljFL407CEzrd7jxpRIpASdt59LyDSNVgrIYlBGsRPmQtn6IdvtYhLFqcm-uljC-Ii_HbiZwab72FYgxfKrukaNn0bicGF9ETLIbZZqY-fZWgHgKE9B6y-To/s1600-h/yul+brynner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 175px; height: 106px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dJ8GJ2TAqj-Qa6qRsqUKljFL407CEzrd7jxpRIpASdt59LyDSNVgrIYlBGsRPmQtn6IdvtYhLFqcm-uljC-Ii_HbiZwab72FYgxfKrukaNn0bicGF9ETLIbZZqY-fZWgHgKE9B6y-To/s320/yul+brynner.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388035453515989858" border="0" /></a><br /><br />But back to Westbourne Grove (via Vladivostok) and little quiz for you to enjoy: which film starring Yuli Borisovich Brynner takes us from Nice, through Paris and New York, to Westbourne Grove?John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-40643763114233766532009-09-24T06:24:00.000-07:002009-09-24T07:49:38.068-07:00Toast to StalinGoldsmiths College is giving us a rare chance to hear Prokofiev's cantata <span style="font-style: italic;">Toast to Stalin</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Здравица</span>). Soviet national radio commissioned Prokofiev to write it as a 60th birthday present for the tyrant in 1939 and he must have had mixed feelings after after the different fates of <span style="font-style: italic;">Alexander Nevsky</span> (a triumph - albeit temporary) and the <span style="font-style: italic;">Cantata on the 20th Anniversary of the Revolution</span> (undeservedly, a catastrophe). Neverthless he managed to select texts (in that Soviet neologistic oxymoron, 'modern folk poems') that spend most of the time discussing the people's happiness rather than praising the man directly. It also contains a couple of hilarious fingers in the pocket.<br /><br />Also on the programme is Gubaidulina's piano concerto, <span style="font-style: italic;">Introitus.</span> While its not terribly virtuosic, it is very intense and typical of her late 1970s/early 1980s work: rich with personal religious symbolism (that listeners might not even pick up on) and extremely contemplative (there's a lot of wondering how many ways you can play an F sharp).<br /><br />Between the two is a suite from Korngold's first film, Max Reinhardt's <span style="font-style: italic;">A Midsummer Night's Dream</span> (1934). Just as the Nazis had been unable to unlink the play from Mendelssohn's music so Rheinhardt always intended to use it. It was just a question of who would edit it. Actually it was hardly a question - Rheinhardt had known Korngold since they met at the premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony in Munich in 1910 and Rheinhardt had no intention of taking the studio's suggestion of Franz Waxman. In the end Korngold added some bits of Mendelssohn's other works including the Scottish Symphony and orchestrations of some <span style="font-style: italic;">Songs without Words.</span><br /><br />Much as I love Haydn, this isn't really the place to discuss him.<br /><br />The programme in full:<br /><br />Haydn: Symphony No 101 (<span style="font-style: italic;">Clock</span>)<br />Gubaidulina: <span style="font-style: italic;">Introitus*</span><br />Korngold: <span style="font-style: italic;">Midsummer Night's Dream</span> (suite from the film).** UK premiere.<br />Prokofiev: <span style="font-style: italic;">Toast to Stalin***</span><br /><br />Drosostalitsa Moraiti (piano)*<br />Casey Evans (soprano)**<br />Goldsmiths Chorus***<br />Goldsmiths Sinfonia, conductor Alexander Ivashkin<br /><br />2 October 2009, 19.00<br /><br />The Great Hall<br />Richard Hoggart Building<br />Goldsmiths College<br /><br />Tickets are £7; £5 (concs) and £3 (Goldsmiths students)<br /><br />Further details are <a href="http://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=3017">here</a>.John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-36680186862538773502009-09-18T08:37:00.000-07:002009-09-18T10:04:22.231-07:00Has<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCd4bU8Qvr9yavM8X9Wp4uMHWaWGt0q3gSP28KEMwm1UoNUwPaMYKrGdPdgMPjqNNqJCEM-Hr1utNzAJRBAcbtNhZBokkYvAaKpWh3OWdsu8FuSBCOk77Lnxkk-FJCVLOpaWULMpUqLOM/s1600-h/hourglass+sanatorium"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 201px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCd4bU8Qvr9yavM8X9Wp4uMHWaWGt0q3gSP28KEMwm1UoNUwPaMYKrGdPdgMPjqNNqJCEM-Hr1utNzAJRBAcbtNhZBokkYvAaKpWh3OWdsu8FuSBCOk77Lnxkk-FJCVLOpaWULMpUqLOM/s320/hourglass+sanatorium" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382841762101401266" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A quick heads up the retrospective of five films by Wojciech Has at the Barbican.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Given his surrealist bent, it might seem appropriate that Has was born on All Fools' Day (1925). His forty-odd year career began just after the war with several documentaries that seem to have made little impact. In 1958 he made his first feature, <i>The</i> <i>Noose</i> (<i>Petla</i>) a disturbing nocturnal tale of an alcoholic. The same year saw <i>Farewells</i> (<i>Pozegnania</i>) a story of a wartime romance framed with almost fetishistic visuals. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But the highwater mark came in with two cultish masterworks from the 60s and 70s.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Saragossa Manuscript</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Rę</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i>kopis znaleziony w Saragossie</i>, 1965) is a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> superb adaptation of Jan Potocki's extremely literary novel (</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">actually originally published in French) which intertwines several nested stories set during the Napoleonic Wars</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. With a gently humorous transgressiveness, it's no surprise that it inspired film-makers like Bunuel and Lynch and, beyond that, The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. It also inspired an a</span><a href="http://koti.mbnet.fi/cgurney/reality/saragossa.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">lternate soundtrack</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> version from Aleksander Kolkowski and Marek Pytel.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The last of the five films in the retrospective is </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (Sanatorium Pod Klepsydr</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: italic; line-height: 19px; font-family:sans-serif, fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ą, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1973), after Bruno Schulz's collection of dreamy stories, with an overlaying contemplation of the Holocaust, of which the author was, paradoxically, both a survivor and a victim.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Once you've seen these two you'll want to buy the </span><a href="http://films.mrbongo.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">DVD</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">s - but see them on the big screen first.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">After the Barbican the season moves on the Edinburgh, Manchester and Brighton.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">To go with the season there'll be a new installation at the Barbican by the Brothers Quay, long-time Has and Schulz admirers.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There's more about it at the </span><a href="http://www.polishculture.org.uk/film/surrealist-visions-of-wojciech-has/#"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Polish Cultural Institute</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> and the </span><a href="http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/series.asp?ID=758"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Barbican Cinema</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, -webkit-fantasy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-49685815999876713502009-09-17T03:04:00.000-07:002009-09-17T08:06:45.092-07:00LFF<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A quickie on the LFF. The launch was last week and after a few days of digesting the programme, here are a few of the things I'm looking forward to (and not).</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As per usual the galas are nice for star-spotting (though you'll be spending most of your time at the Vue West End, while the Odeon is<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.makearchitects.com/#/projects/8202/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">redeveloped</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;"> </span>to include a hotel, flats, restaurants and, sadly, smaller screens) But in reality, wouldn't you rather see the very beautiful restoration of Asquith's </span></span><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/520"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Underground</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;">,</span> with live music from Neil Brand and ensemble? - actually, in a welcome reappraisal of the archive strand it </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">is</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> a gala! Or how about Hollis Frampton's epic seven-film sequence </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/410"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Hapax Legomena</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">? </span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As to the East European stuff, for the minute I'll limit myself to brief details:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/504"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Tales from the Golden Age</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Amintiri din epoca de aur</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span>. A Romanian-French black comedy set under Ceaucescu, that's been picked up by Trinity Films. More info </span></span><a href="http://www.talesfromthegoldenage.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">here</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/407"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Help Gone Mad</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Сумасшедшая помощь, </span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Sumasshedshaya pomoshch'</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span>. A Beckettian-Kaurismakian 'bleak and lugubrious comedy' from Boris Khlebnikov.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/447"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Morphia</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Морфий</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Balabanov's latest, scripted by the late Sergei Bodrov Junior and based on Bulgakov. Must be a candidate for proper distribution but, as yet, hasn't been picked up.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/459"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Osadné</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. A documentary about the titular Slovakian village and its relationship to the rest of Europe.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/472"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Protektor</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. A Czech drama about a journalist and an actress who gradually realise the implications of the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/476"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">A Room and a Half</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Полторы комнаты или сентиментальное путешествие на Родину, Poltory komnaty ili sentimental'noe puteshestvie na Rodinu</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span>. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A fantasy that realises exiled poet Joseph Brodsky's imaginary incognito trip back to Russia. Director Khrzhanovsky is best-known for his animation (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Glass Harmonica</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> is a classic) and this live-action film interpolates animated sequences. </span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/494"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">St George Shoots the Dragon</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Sveti Georgije ubiva azdahu</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span>. A WW1 Balkan epic from Srdjan Dragojevic (director of P</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">retty Flame, Pretty Village</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">). It's allegedly the most expensive Serbian film ever, though if East European cinema teaches us anything, it's that there's no necessary connection between budget and quality.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/501"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Sweet Rush</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Tatarak</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">).</span> Just as Britain belatedly gets to see Wajda's </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Katyn</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, the LFF launches his new one. Counterpointing the fictional story are Krystyna Janda's meditations on the death of her husband, cinematographer </span></span><a href="http://counterpointfandm.blogspot.com/2008/07/kosiski.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Edward Kłosiński</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">,</span> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As yet, nobody's picked up up, but hopefully we won't have to wait too long for a proper release.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/537"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Who's Afraid of the Wolf?</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Kdopak by se vlka bál?</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span> A Czech family drama that merges into a fairy-tale world, and specifically Little Red Riding Hood. Sounds intriguing, and the LFF listing specifically mentions the score by Jan P Muchow. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Meanwhile, there's the Russian </span></span><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/540"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Wolfy</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; line-height: 17px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Волчок, Volchok</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span>.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Another redemptive, fantasy-tinged childhood story, this time loosely based on the dysfunctional family of lead actress Yana Troyanova.</span></span></span></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/390"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">The Ferrari Dino Girl</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Holka Ferrari Dino</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span> is a welcome return for Jan Nemec. An autobiographical look at the footage he shot of the 1968 Soviet invasion, how he smuggled it out of the country and its fate thereafter. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Victor Alampiev's enigmatic avant-garde 8-minute </span></span><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/694"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">My Absolution</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> </span>will be shown on a loop in the studio on 25 October for anyone to drop in for free.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As for shorts, there are three Polish and two Latvians. I wish they'd put them on as supports to appropriate features (like the LFF used to many years ago - even if they were often unannounced so you might end up seeing the same thing three times). But unless there's been a change of heart, here are links to the programmes in which they appear. From Poland: </span></span><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/507"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Chick</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, </span></span><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/426"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Don't Look Back</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> </span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">(</span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Nie Patrz Wstecz</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span> and </span></span><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/462"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">A Story of a Missing Ca</span></span></span></i></a><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/462"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">r</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;"> (</span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Historia a Braku Samochodu</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">)</span>. The Latvian pair, both children's films (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When Apples Roll</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Kad Aboli Ripo</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">) and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Magic Water</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Dzivais Udens</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">) are at least gathered in the same </span></span><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/338"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">strand</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">.</span> Also, </span></span><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/544"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Romka-97</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> is a Finnish film set in St Petersburg.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the British film </span></span></span><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/463"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Perestroika</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">,</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Sarah Turner re-enacts her Trans-Siberian rail trip from twenty years ago, and readdresses the footage that she shot at the time.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Elsewhere, </span></span><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/519"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Trimpin: the Sound of Invention</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">,</span> a doc about the sonic experimenter looks worthwhile. Again, no distributor but it's showing at the ICA who, if they have any money, might be tempted to give it a week or so.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/376"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Double Take</span></span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, a Hitchcock mockumentary-found-footage-CGI-mash-up looked hilarious in the LFF trailer.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Another mash-up - this time about love and creation, destruction and death - comes from Gustave Deutsch with </span></span><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/392"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">FILM IST: a girl & a gun</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I'm hoping no-one holds me to the rash predictions I made about the 'inevitable' inclusion of Terry Gilliam's </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus,</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> but there's always the possibility that it's the surprise film.</span></span></span></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Another change is that there'll be a proper </span></span><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/644"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">awards night</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (again, back to the future). Fest director Sandra Hebron </span></span><a href="http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/other-festivals/festival-news/london-film-festival-injects-extra-15m-into-53rd-edition/5005435.article"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">said</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"> </span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The idea is very much to raise the festival both in terms of its public address but also in terms of its relationship with the industry. A lot of the things we’re doing are about trying to bring the festival up to a level of parity with festivals internationally that operate on a similar scale."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> But at the </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/09/london-film-festival-audiences-first"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">same time</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">:"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We are not an A-grade competitive festival and at the moment we are not aspiring to be one" and that she</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> would personally resist copying the likes of Cannes by having a high-profile competition strand because it would not be true to London's aim to be a festival for audiences. So, is this </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">the start of a (slow) march towards making the LFF more Cannes-ish, Venetian or Berlinian? We shall see.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Finally, I would say that </span></span><i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/454"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Nowhere Boy</span></span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">,</span> Sam Taylor-Wood's John Lennon biopic (though the LFF brochure denies it that description) has divided the people that I've talked to. Except I can't. Perhaps it's just who I knock around with, but everyone is shuddering with horror at the prospect. Certainly the trailer makes it look like a standard biopic, with no evidence of the 'authorial signature' that the programme cites. But who knows... </span></span></div><div><br /></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-45693918984974996712009-09-07T04:01:00.000-07:002009-09-07T05:44:15.532-07:00Polish film postersPolish film posters must be some of the best in the world, and there's a chance to see a selection of around 50 in a new exhibition at Cinéphilia West, running from September 1st to 30th.<br /><br />Often the designers approach the job very differently than their Western counterparts do: they're more interested in capturing the film's mood or in coming up with something metaphorical. Probably this<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjz-dBfOD-cS6int_fq0HyDIvsv8JwLIgUZBENklzZt4yPEv0hJzw2Wmzwune1BJrtmOt_nJDkEZzzrtIDrd_VJcWmSKwb1jsfs4425iNR5n3m_bUghKQZIW7uw3fjBHCRpRcfetBn-xc/s1600-h/Sacrifice.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjz-dBfOD-cS6int_fq0HyDIvsv8JwLIgUZBENklzZt4yPEv0hJzw2Wmzwune1BJrtmOt_nJDkEZzzrtIDrd_VJcWmSKwb1jsfs4425iNR5n3m_bUghKQZIW7uw3fjBHCRpRcfetBn-xc/s320/Sacrifice.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378701275294184594" border="0" /></a> isn't best for comedies (some of them - rightly or wrongly - seem to come out looking quite bleak, if comedic at all!) but darker stories work brilliantly as the designers get to the heart of the matter in a way that hardly ever happens in the west.<br /><br />A good example is Roman Kowalik's poster for Tarkovsky's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Sacrifice.</span> The film doesn't include any (literal) crucifixions, the house where everything happens isn't shaped like a church/cross and the hero remains fully-clothed throughout. Yet this image captures the film's tortured and joyful austerity. The image that was used in the West - the finale's solitary sapling worked well enough as a symbol of hope but it almost gave too much away: even without seeing the film, Tarkovskians would probably guess that that was how it ended. Kowalik leaves us wondering how (I don't suppose 'whether' was ever up for grabs) the anonymous man will escape. Or even if he wants to.<br /><br />There are too m<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-NBSioZBI_W0AXxSSemS6Whu_zhnPliZoZnIxTGQ4mu20aa1Sokni2eM3ZkY5q2_eoOhyphenhyphenjvTtTIRnnX9pObbZ2oB4v4Cg7fqg2AZQP6TffzqVNLj36wGmNQ-POWh77nQjMdWq7Keu9E/s1600-h/Short+Film+about+Love.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 207px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-NBSioZBI_W0AXxSSemS6Whu_zhnPliZoZnIxTGQ4mu20aa1Sokni2eM3ZkY5q2_eoOhyphenhyphenjvTtTIRnnX9pObbZ2oB4v4Cg7fqg2AZQP6TffzqVNLj36wGmNQ-POWh77nQjMdWq7Keu9E/s320/Short+Film+about+Love.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378690376817913202" border="0" /></a>any great posters to put in a single blog entry, but here's one of my favourites: Andrzej Pagowski's <span>haunting image for Kieślowski</span><span>'s </span><span style="font-style: italic;">A Short Film About Lov</span><span style="font-style: italic;">e</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;">Krótki film o miłości</span>, 1988). It brilliantly captures the film's desperate ambiguity regarding what I suppose might have once been called the ownership of the gaze.<br /><br />Here's the press release from <a href="http://www.polishculture.org.uk/film/polish-film-poster-exhibition-at-cinephilia-west/">The Polish Cultural Institute</a> and there'll be some more information on the <a href="http://www.cinephilia.co.uk/">Cinéphilia West</a> website in due course. Note that the exhibition is at Cinéphilia West, on Westbourne Grove, rather than the HQ, off Brick La<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYcY7kDYkDtTa44Lp8iI30s_bDucv8FGSWCdSqMwdhCXTmRYda93QealuWy-v-V6ms2Z6MtJw5TpNAfZ6KIKtX3Ybdlxb5MqrTJkXSvBSZw6eLU-seoKw4vowR9yjQ6It0IrvsXxv0qGA/s1600-h/mystery"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYcY7kDYkDtTa44Lp8iI30s_bDucv8FGSWCdSqMwdhCXTmRYda93QealuWy-v-V6ms2Z6MtJw5TpNAfZ6KIKtX3Ybdlxb5MqrTJkXSvBSZw6eLU-seoKw4vowR9yjQ6It0IrvsXxv0qGA/s320/mystery" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378688475037920066" border="0" /></a>ne.<br /><br />And now: a little competition, I've removed the title etc from this poster for a very famous film. Anyone identifying it will win ... a lifetime's subscription to this blog!John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6149225169982691021.post-58430349438621789422009-06-29T14:42:00.000-07:002009-07-01T11:14:22.759-07:00The Bronze Horseman<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Many cities have developed (either deliberately or by happenstance) an internationally recognized ‘logo’ – the Eiffel Tower, the Brandenburg Gate, a routemaster on Westminster Bridge (preferably to the accompaniment of Big Ben’s chimes, though increasingly, it’s an image of the Eye), etc. Moscow’s is clearly Red Square – or more precisely St Basil’s, but what of St Petersburg? The raised bridges appear frequently, or the Winter Palace complex. Palace Square and the Alexander Monument?</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 118px; height: 157px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrb-AhGJSWyeulEgwAyTeAWU5xG2hYWifNXJNO1M3zMrbr68GaAc3dLr6XNB2hiGyzBWyh1FLeALfzkZPfwJKcbxFJRPkPlxaFmZIvuRRxRiOTfSu0Pe8t4hk_Qwb2qKb_0XC9bTpzfzA/s320/Bronzehorseman" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353512849912044530" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">At home there’s only one contender – the Bronze Horseman in Decembrists’ Square. Unveiled in 1782, it had been commissioned by Catherine the Great with a dedication to her predecessor Peter. But the ambiguity of the phrase "From Catherine II to Peter the Great" meant that it wasn't simply a metaphorical gift, but a statement of linearity which, given Catherine's somewhat tenuous claim to the throne was an astonishing piece of chutzpah.<br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Be that as it may, it was soon taken to the city's heart and in 1833 Pushkin was inspired to write his ghoulish story about the statue's retribution on a man who cursed Peter's decision to build the city on a swamp. As an aside it's interesting that three years earlier he'd written </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Stone Guest</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, a take on Don Giovanni that also climaxes with a statue coming to life. Though </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Bronze Horseman</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (read it </span></span><a href="http://web.ku.edu/~russcult/culture/handouts/bronze_horseman.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">here</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) seems quite ambivalent about the city it was hailed as a masterpiece and became very popular (possibly for its embedded anti-Polish sentiments) so that its title (actually, literally </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Copper Horseman</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">[</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Медный всадник</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">] was then retrofitted to the statue.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNDwBMDEoJvSB-sral0W9b_IXB3lc_9hIlq7rx292FY4j8YviwRmco6_VzZrKMY4dm6AeAmtJ61l3dvBFVUPcWXQIrR1go_TGdD6TeQUVhNDpOMhtKFNCIwvyNdvN4osYgj4t21ziw_zU/s1600-h/Surikov_Bronze_Horseman"><img style="float:left; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 151px; height: 110px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNDwBMDEoJvSB-sral0W9b_IXB3lc_9hIlq7rx292FY4j8YviwRmco6_VzZrKMY4dm6AeAmtJ61l3dvBFVUPcWXQIrR1go_TGdD6TeQUVhNDpOMhtKFNCIwvyNdvN4osYgj4t21ziw_zU/s320/Surikov_Bronze_Horseman" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353520145907457906" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL2Yo48cyXfizLBcd1XZgvIPFUnDTEHBHwME1cX4QYtV52M3uNTszaL_lpk_US28zN1gvEOoHzdTWzcmWPaCDGoirbJFvWTNEuwaJywzmdeovRcCz6-kaxpHtWaP0SD2ehw9-jxzwoqQc/s1600-h/benois_frontispiece_bronze_horsemans.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 96px; height: 128px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL2Yo48cyXfizLBcd1XZgvIPFUnDTEHBHwME1cX4QYtV52M3uNTszaL_lpk_US28zN1gvEOoHzdTWzcmWPaCDGoirbJFvWTNEuwaJywzmdeovRcCz6-kaxpHtWaP0SD2ehw9-jxzwoqQc/s320/benois_frontispiece_bronze_horsemans.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353538938913927666" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It's worth pointing to a couple of paintings: Vasily Surikov's benign view [left] and, more famous, Benois' illustrations for a 1904 edition of Pushkin's poem. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pushkin and/or Benois also inspired composers </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Glière </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and Myaskovsky but I'll leave them for another post. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Because of the myth that the city would stand as long as the statue, during the Siege of Leningrad it was – perhaps superstitiously - completely covered with sandbags. In much the same way, Britain only survives because the ravens at the Tower of London have their wings clipped. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'll finish by mentioning a film appearance: Chiaureli’s jaw-dropping 1950 Stalin hagiography </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Unforgettable Year 1919 (</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Незабываемый 1919 год)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. To the marvelously inappropriate accompaniment of Shostakovich’s </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Attack on the Red Hill</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> – a miniature Rachmaninovian piano concertino (previously mistranslated as </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Assault on the Beautiful City of Gorky</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">), Stalin, like a night-watchman, patrols the city, pausing only to strike a pose in front of the statue: as Peter had founded the city, so Stalin would defend it.</span></span></span></span></i></span></span></div><div><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4SGDQjONgLMP4bWkpWnDoJNhnh53Pf6FF7m_TdMrhfUIqZAK8Q0yYDjEc_g2nkCfp3hrSIOBdWJLYV8HQfRc78bPcY8scTYC7F_k_TkNwrNCXfrGj2zTboGBYoptCPzvVg8ewkSeyVVM/s1600-h/Stalin_B_Horseman.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 293px; height: 169px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4SGDQjONgLMP4bWkpWnDoJNhnh53Pf6FF7m_TdMrhfUIqZAK8Q0yYDjEc_g2nkCfp3hrSIOBdWJLYV8HQfRc78bPcY8scTYC7F_k_TkNwrNCXfrGj2zTboGBYoptCPzvVg8ewkSeyVVM/s320/Stalin_B_Horseman.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353518710474811074" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Actually Chiaureli wisely allows Stalin a couple of seconds of noble profile on his own before cutting to the money shot. After that, we catch up with some soldiers and, as their patrol is brought to a halt Shostakovich’s music is unceremoniously faded down.<br /><br />Chiaureli’s need for, and appreciation of, music certainly seemed to come and go: perhaps he had difficulty in deciding what he wanted – or in explaining it to the benighted composer. Certainly </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1919</span></span></i></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and his previous collaboration with Shostakovich – the notorious </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Fall of Berlin</span></span></i></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (1950) – feature some of the most ham-fisted music-editing ever to besmirch a film. I wonder if the shocking edits and fades up and down were a slap in the face or helped the composer cope with being forced to do such work.</span></span></span></div>John Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12634073135998771712noreply@blogger.com0