Performance

Excerpt from the NFO:
Lou Reed co-founder of The Velvet Underground and the man behind such iconic rock songs as Sweet Jane and Walk on the Wild Side stars in one of the most satisfying concert films (Lee Marshall, Screen International) in decades. Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) captures this historic moment in time, as Reed performed his legendary 1973 album, Berlin, live for the first time. Rocking horns, soulful guitar and the angelic voices of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus bring Reed s devastatingly honest lyrics to full life in this exceptionally strong performance.Read More »

One of Brazil’s most internationally famous and most important performance companies, Teatro Oficina began its life in 1958 as an amateur company of students from the law school at Largo de São Francisco in São Paulo, adopting the name Associação Teat(r)0 Uzyna Uzona in 1971. Led by Zé Celso, the company set out to create a theatrical form radically different from the elitist and nationalist theatre companies of the day.

Housed in an extraordinary theatre space in central São Paulo designed by visionary architect Lina Bo Bardi, the company continues to produce some of Brazil’s most exciting and radical theatre work.Read More »

One of the most important artists of our era, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s career spans from techno-pop stardom to Oscar-winning composer and anti-nuclear activist. This intimate portrait explores Sakamoto’s return to music following a cancer diagnosis, leading to the creation of a haunting new masterpiece.Read More »

In this short named for the cocktail ordered at the hotel bar of Fassbinder’s BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE, a singer serenades a small crowd in a moody nightclub who all look the part of Fassbinder characters—if not of Fassbinder himself. Serra pays homage not by mimicking Fassbinder’s style but rather by alchemically conjuring the people, places, and modes of performance most identified with him.Read More »

Louis XIV is no newcomer to Albert Serra’s filmography, the hero of his latest opus to date, THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV (2016). ROI SOLEIL features a twin, even though, in the game of differences, it turns out that there are quite a few. Instead of Jean-Pierre Léaud, a non-professionnal actor whom Serra already worked with in his first films.Read More »

Quote:
The great Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins is captured brilliantly in this deeply moving film. Blank reveals Lightnin’s inspiration, and features a generous helping of classic blues. Includes performances at an outdoor barbeque and a black rodeo; and a visit to his boyhood town of Centerville, Texas. This powerful portrait is among Blank’s special masterworks.Read More »

Paul Elliot & Sean Lamberth wrote:
Library Music was composed and recorded specifically as an ‘off the shelf’ option for use in film, broadcasts and advertising. It was cheaper than commissioning a composer to score a soundtrack, and the music was written to cover every genre, every instrument and every atmosphere.

The Golden Era of Library Music is generally deemed to have been from the late sixties to the mid-eighties with thousands of albums produced during this time. It was a time when the world’s greatest composers had access to full orchestras in the best recording studios with the very best engineers and recording equipment.Read More »

Arrigo Boito’s Il Mefestefele was first performed in 1868 and his most known work. In Ken Russell’s modern interpretation presented by the Genoese Opera, it has Faust as an ageing hippy. He smokes marijuana and is tormented by his lost youth. Mephisto makes a bet with God that he can turn anyone to pagan life, even someone as innocent as Faust. From then on it is a battle of good against evil in a flamboyant, surreal display of primary colours, PVC costumes, nurses with swastikas, rocket trips, love and even characters dressed as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Ken Russell said because the devil is always with us is his reason for the contemporary setting. Written by Archie MooreRead More »

Quote:
Bergman’s production Yukio Mishima’s play Madame de Sade was not the first work by the Japanese playwright to be performed in Sweden. In 1959, Dramaten had produced some of Mishima’s Noh plays and in 1970, the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki visited Dramaten with a version of Madame the Sade. Mishima had been nominated several times to the Novel Prize in literature but was passed over in favour of his mentor Kawabata (1968).

The setting of Madame de Sade begins in France in 1772 and ends twelve years later, nine months after the French Revolution. Six Women, one of them Madame de Sade, discuss their views and feelings of the notorious sadist and sodomist Marquis de Sade.

An enthusiastic critical corps focussed on Bergman’s ensemble of actresses and on the concentration and musicality of his staging.Read More »