Synopsis
This famous Chinese scroll painting traces the Emperor Kangxi’s second tour of his southern empire in 1689. Painted by Wang Hui (1632-1717) and assistants, it was executed before Western perspective was introduced into Chinese art. Hockney contrasts the more fluid spatial depictions of this scroll with a later scroll painted by Xu Yang and assistants, The Qianlong Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour (1764-1770), scroll four. This scroll illustrates the same tour, but now taken by the Qianlong emperor, grandson of the Kangxi emperor. Influenced by Western perspective, the Qianlong scroll presents the emperor in a single tableau, whereas the Kangxi scroll depicts a continuous travel narrative filled with details of daily life in the towns and countryside along the route. Reference is also made to the use of perspective in Capriccio: Plaza San Marco Looking South and West (1763) by Italian painter Canaletto (1697-1768).

Director Philip Haas (Angels and Insects and Up at the Villa), and artist David Hockney take you on a magical journey through China via a marvelous 72-foot long 17th-century Chinese scroll entitled The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour (1691-1698), scroll seven. As Hockney unrolls the beautiful and minutely detailed work of art, he traces the Emperor Kangxi’s second tour of his southern empire in 1689. Hockney’s charming and fascinating narration helps bring the bustling streets and waterfronts of three hundred years ago to life. Hockney spins a dazzling discourse on eastern and western perceptive and their relationship to his own artistic vision. His trip through one of China’s most magnificent artworks is a joyous adventure for all!

494MB | 46m 01s | 720×480 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/9E61CCF922291DC/A-Day-on-the-Grand-Canal.avi

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Philip Haas & David Hockney – A Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor of China or: Surface Is Illusion But So Is Depth (1988) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

In the 1800s a naturalist marries into a family of British aristocrats.

based on A.S. Byatt’s creepy, wonderful, novel… And there’s nothing creepier than Patsy Kensit’s doughy pig-face.

from allmovie:

A 19th-century British naturalist falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, but he soon discovers that her family’s perfect facade disguises unexpectedly grim secrets. Director and co-screenwriter Philip Haas’s adaptation of A.S. Byatt’s Morpho Eugenio eschews the usual gentility of Victorian period pieces in favor of subtle creepiness. The unsettling mood is emphasized by the film’s detailed attention to its protagonist’s scientific endeavors, which center on the study of insects and their behavior.In fact, it is his love of insects that brings William (Mark Rylance) to the well-heeled Reverend Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp), who takes a personal interest in William’s welfare when a shipwreck leaves William practically penniless. William is welcomed into the Alabaster home, and he resumes his entomological studies while courting the reverend’s daughter, Eugenia (Patsy Kensit). Close-up glimpses of insect society parallel this aristocratic world and hint at the dark secrets with which William soon becomes unexpectedly familiar. As in Haas’s previous film, The Music of Chance, an unusual, highly symbolic filmmaking approach creates an effective drama, with the potentially detached intellectualism balanced by unusual characterizations and an absorbing attention to detail.

Philip Haas’ adaptation of A.S. Byatt’s witty, ironic take on the social practices of an aristocratic family in Victorian England is a chilling meditation on the insularity of wealth. However, it focuses on William Adamson Mark Rylance, an impoverished naturalist who has returned from a decade in the Amazon. He becomes a long-term guest of Jeremy Kemp, who has an interest in science, and eventually marries his lovely daughter Eugenia Patsy Kensit. Drawing a not too subtle parallel between the habits of the insect societies Adamson studies and the barbaric mores of his highly civilized patrons, Haas throws the assumed hierarchy of species into question. As in a Henry James’ novel, the characters’ behavior is often oblique and their speech elliptical, yet they point the way to an ugly truth that is soon surmised. Rylance is properly dour and dense as a scientist too myopic to divine his fate, Kensit effective as the butterfly fluttering her wings, and Kristin Scott-Thomas brilliantly ironic as the plain, sympathetic Matty Brompton. Paul Brown’s stunning costume design, particularly for the women, also plays an integral role in the film’s impact.

2.08GB | 1h 52m | 718×550 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/C3420F062E59A1A/Angels_&_Insects_(1995).mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Philip Haas – Angels & Insects (1995) first appeared on Cinema of the World.