the traveler's resource guide to festivals & films
a FestivalTravelNetwork.com site
part of Insider Media llc.
Reviews
Reviewing ReelAbilities Film Festival
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 07 February 2011 05:00
- Written by Marion DS Dreyfus
ReelAbilities Film Festival
Manhattan, February 2011
For most of the history of cinema, and of course film festivals—“a latter-day development that is now a thriving boom industry throughout the country and even the globe”—the agora of offerings devolved on particular stars (John Wayne, Steven Seagal, Elvis) or stables of bankable luminati, on origin/location (Sundance, Lincoln Center, ‘Bollywood,’ Cannes), genre (Sci-Fi, horror, indie, Western, noir, Geek, nouvelle vague) or some combinatorial outlier (teen, rom-com, chick-lit [grrr], kiddie, cartoon, underground, even the dopey script, ultra-cheapo mumblecore).
The performers in these festivals were almost uniformly genetically unmatched, exorbitantly beautiful, and fully physically abled.
After 100 years of film and counting, the Jewish Community Centers, better known as simply the JCC, has focused on the truly underserved: Special needs programming.
Cinefantastique Roundtable: Hopkins to Psycho/The Little Mermaid vs. Beauty and the Beast
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 26 January 2011 18:56
- Written by Daniel Persons
All kinds of news prompt all kinds of discussion from this week’s panel: the rumored casting of Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock in a film about the making of Psycho gets theofantastique.com’s John W. Morehead, CFQ’s Steve Biodrowski, and Dan Persons musing about what behind-the-scenes events could be dramatized in a film that aren’t already well-known; while elsewhere there’s a debate about the relative quality of The Little Mermaid as compared to Beauty and the Beast. Plus, John gives his impression of the Science Fiction episode of Pioneers of Television; Steve gives a rundown of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead; while Dan unleashes his animeniac on Durarara!! and Summer Wars.
{enclose http://media.blubrry.com/mightymoviepodcast/media.blubrry.com/cinefantastique/mightymoviepodcast.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/roundtable_v02n04_Roundtable_20110124_v01.mp3}
The Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast: Steven Moffat's Jekyll
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 24 January 2011 15:51
- Written by Daniel Persons
And the dream comes true for one young, idealistic podcast host. After months of campaigning, Dan finally gets a chance to bring Steven Moffat's (Doctor Who) BBC series, Jekyll, to the table for an extended discussion. Listen in as CFQ editor Steve Biodrowski and theofantastique.com's John W. Morehead join Dan Persons in a spirited and detailed appraisal of this updated sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novella, and learn whether this radical reenvisioning -- featuring standout performances by James Nesbitt (Bloody Sunday) and Gina Bellman (Coupling), plus corporate conspiracies, weird science and, oh yes, lesbian private detectives -- is worth your time.
{enclose http://media.blubrry.com/mightymoviepodcast/media.blubrry.com/cinefantastique/mightymoviepodcast.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/spotlight_v02n03_2_Jekyll_v01.mp3}
New York City Ballet's Winter Season Off to a Splendid Start
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 24 January 2011 10:12
- Written by Jack Angstreich
The winter season of New York City Ballet opened splendidly on Tuesday evening, January 18th, 2011, with an extraordinary program devoted to the great George Balanchine.
The first work presented was the glorious Balanchine masterpiece, the Walpurgisnacht Ballet, set to the wondrously ballet music from Charles Gounod's opera, Faust. What the corps lacked in discipline, they compensated for in dynamism -- indeed, the entire company seemed to radiate an exceptional degree of energy throughout the evening.
Of the featured dancers, the most impressive in Walpurgisnacht was the fine principal, Wendy Whelan, who performed with her customary and admirable precision -- despite one stumble -- even if her dancing here may have fallen short of the sublime.
If Walpurgisnacht instantiates the retrospectively classicist half of Balanchine's genius, the next work on the program, the Duo Concertant, set to an appealing chamber score by Igor Stravinsky, represents the prospective modernism of the master.
The lithe Sterling Hyltin, one of the stronger female principals in the company, achieved some thrilling moments. Her partner, Robert Fairchild, looking noticeably thinner after what seemed a long absence, exceeded all expectations with his sensational solo in the penultimate movement.
The mesmerizing Valse-Fantasie, set to delightful music by Mikhail Glinka, is another apotheosis of classical ballet. The charming Ashley Bouder was at her best here; Andrew Veyette, her partner, occasionally dazzled with his characteristic athleticism.
Balanchine's masterful, The Four Temperaments (set to one of Paul Hindemith's strongest scores), one of the choreographer's most inventive and innovative works, closed the program magnificently. If the arresting ensemble work of the corps de ballet often outshone the featured dancers in this piece, Ask la Cour nonetheless surpassed himself in the third variation while principal dancer Teresa Reichlen's technical accomplishment was typically impressive in the fourth.
New York City Ballet
January 18, 2011
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023
212-870-5640
