the traveler's resource guide to festivals & films
a FestivalTravelNetwork.com site
part of Insider Media llc.
Connect with us:
Reviews
April '23 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 26 April 2023 19:35
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater Releases of the Week
Twilight
(Arbelos Films)
Hungarian director György Fehér, an associate of Béla Tarr—whose use of slow tracking shots and stark B&W camerawork became ubiquitous in his films—made his debut with this strikingly composed procedural. Although he only made one more film (Passion, a 1998 adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice) before his death in 2003 at age 63, the accomplished Fehér has made a resonant exploration of a detective who investigates horrific child murders.
Instead of Tarr’s existential dread, Fehér zeroes in on society’s alienation; there are several extraordinary sequences—shot by master cinematographer Miklós Gurbán, who also did the grading of this brand-new, beautifully restored print—including very unsettling close-up “interviews” with two young girls.
(Music Box Films)
Virginie Efira won the best actress Cesar (the French version of the Oscar) for her devastating performance in Revoir Paris (opening in June), which makes that film seem more penetrating than it is. Efira performs a similar miracle in Rebecca Zlotowski’s film, playing Rachel, a schoolteacher without children of her own who loves her boyfriend Ali’s young daughter Leila as if she is her own—until his ex-wife initiates a reunion that might squeeze Rachel out of their lives altogether.
Zlotowski’s delicate writing and directing provide Efira with another showcase for her emotionally shattering acting; ideally, she should have won the Cesar for her draining portrayals in both films.
Somewhere in Queens
(Roadside Attractions)
Ray Romano has not gotten his hit TV show Everybody Loves Raymond out of his system, as this sitcom-ish feature he wrote, directed and stars in proves for 105 middling minutes. Multiple generations of a Queens extended family are always quarreling and eating—but always circling the wagons when necessary.
It’s amusing but rarely biting, providing little of substance for actors as good as Laurie Metcalf (who plays Romano’s cantankerous cancer-survivor wife) and Tony Lo Bianco (who plays Romano’s cantankerous father). Romano always falls back on stereotypes and clichés, wasting the usually delightful Jennifer Esposito (as a neighboring widow) and Sadie Stanley (as Romano’s son’s erstwhile girlfriend) in nothing parts.
Scare Package II: Rad Chad's Revenge
(Shudder)
For those waiting with bated breath for the sequel to Scare Package, it’s finally arrived: I haven’t seen the original, but it seems obvious that the sequel trods pretty much the same ground, using a thread of a plot—the death of Rad Chad, a horror movie buff whose funeral becomes a series of death traps for the attendees—as an excuse for an anthology of short genre parodies.
The sequences, directed by Aaron B. Koontz, Alexandra Barreto, Anthony Cousins, Jed Shepherd and Rachele Wiggins, are tongue-in-cheek homages that are definitely hit-or-miss, as these sorts of things tend to be. The package itself is presentable: there’s a fine hi-def transfer; and the extras are a directors’ commentary; making-of; bloopers and deleted scenes; and other cheeky bonus material.
Time of Roses
(Deaf Crocodile)
Hot on the heels of the label’s last resurrection, last month’s The Assassin of the Tsar, Deaf Crocodile now unveils another restored, rarely-seen film: Finnish director Risto Jarva’s brooding 1969 sci-fi opus, set in the then near-future of the year 2012.
It’s an antiseptically perfect world whose key word is “progress,” so when a journalist looks into the death of a nude model a half-century earlier for his TV program, he belatedly discovers that this perfect world is not nearly as progressive as he thought. It’s a thought-provoking concept that comes across onscreen as less than full formed; still, Jarva—who died in a 1977 car accident at age 43—made a major contribution to aesthetically interesting sci-fi. The film has been beautifully restored in hi-def.
(C Major)
In Giacomo Puccini’s classic—and tragic—love triangle, the intense emotions in the music are put across superbly by the trio of singers who take on these roles in Davide Livermore’s traditional but gripping production at Milan’s La Scala in 2019.
Francesco Meli as Tosca’s lover, the painter Cavaradossi, Luca Salsi as the evil antagonist, Scarpia, and Anna Netrebko as the heroine, Floria Tosca, are all startlingly effective under conductor Riccardo Chailly’s baton, as are the La Scala orchestra and choir. There’s first-rate hi-def video and audio.
CD Release of the Week
Thomas Adès—Dante
(Nonesuch)
For choreographer Wayne McGregor’s ballet based on Dante’s Inferno/Purgatorio/Paradiso trilogy, Thomas Adès has composed a fantastically visceral, marvelously elastic score that is mirrored by the lithe movements of London’s Royal Ballet dancers on the recently released Blu-ray video.
This recording allows one to concentrate on the music as Adès shrewdly consolidates his early avant-garde leanings, like his operatic success de scandale, Powder Her Face, with his later, more sophisticated work like the Shakespearean opera, The Tempest. This remarkable score is given a remarkable performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under music director Gustavo Dudamel.
Art Review—“Beyond Van Gogh” on Long Island
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 24 April 2023 13:04
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Beyond Van Gogh
Through May 14, 2023
Samanea New York, 1500 Old Country Road, Westbury, NY
vangoghlongisland.com
 |
| Beyond Van Gogh |
I must admit that the prospect of immersing myself in a famous artist’s works has never been appealing; that’s why Beyond Van Gogh—different versions of which have set down roots seemingly everywhere, including in Manhattan recently—became my first such experience when it opened just a 15-minute drive from my home.
My skepticism came about from my familiarity with Van Gogh’s work—I’ve seen hundreds of his paintings in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Kröller-Müller Museum in rural Holland, along with the obvious masterpieces at the Met, MOMA and other collections—and knowing that looking at real artworks is much more satisfying. Still, it must be admitted that the multimedia Beyond Van Gogh is a different way of looking at an artist: visual and thematic connections are shown to viewers through reproductions of several similar paintings—like a lineup of Van Gogh’s famous self-portraits—as well as replicating the atmosphere of the settings of his well-known works, including an outdoor café, a bedroom or wheat fields.
 |
| Beyond Van Gogh |
Standing in the main room where the action, so to speak, takes place, viewers are surrounded by a riot of colors that morphs from mere sketches to full-blown, and impossibly vibrant, paintings, accompanied by music like instrumental versions of “Here Comes the Sun” and Don MacLean’s “Vincent” as well as voices intoning Van Gogh’s thoughts in his letters to his beloved brother Theo (in both English and French), some of which can be read on the walls. The effect is of a Cliff Notes version of an immortal artist’s life and art: although it doesn’t give the full sense of what makes Van Gogh such a singular artist, it’s certainly a diverting way to spend an hour or so.
Also worth attending at Beyond Van Gogh—for an extra fee—is the virtual-reality A Life in Letters. My first VR experience, it immerses (that word again) viewers in the landscape that the artist immortalized in his paintings and, as one listens to Vincent narrate excerpts from letters to his brother about making art and getting inspiration, one sees (and feels) the seasons flow by; the deep greens, blues, yellows and even winter whites all make vivid appearances.
 |
| Akira Kurosawa's Dreams |
While wandering around the exhibit, I thought of that memorable segment in Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s 1990 omnibus film Dreams, where a man finds himself inside several Van Gogh’s paintings as he tries to find the artist himself (played by a strangely attenuated Martin Scorsese). While I’d prefer to get lost in Kurosawa's film, Beyond van Gogh will do nicely in the meantime.
"Strands" of Prokofiev With The National Symphony Orchestra
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 20 April 2023 19:41
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Gianandrea Noseda Conducts The National Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Chris Lee
At Carnegie Hall on the evening of Tuesday, April 18th, I had the pleasure of attending an excellent concert presented by the admirable musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra under the superb direction of Gianandrea Noseda.
The program began promisingly with an impeccable performance of George Walker’s impressively orchestrated if dour—its opening is brooding and stormy—Sinfonia No. 4, “Strands,” a piece within the mainstream of High Modernism written in 2012 when the composer was ninety years old and which features music from two African-American spirituals. (Program annotator Peter Laki adds that Walker “won the Pulitzer Prize for his orchestral song cycle Lilacs in 1996.”) The author stated: “I wanted to compose a work that was more than an overture or extended fanfare.” He also said:
The Sinfonia begins with an introduction that consists of several sections before the principal theme is stated. This theme recurs several times. The quotation of the first spiritual provides a pensive relief from the proclamatory nature of the theme that precedes it.
The briefer snippet of the second spiritual is affirmative. The following section consists of a melodic bass line over which fragmented interjections are superimposed. A similar section recurs, combining with the opening phrase of the second spiritual played by the piano during the course of the work. The bass material appears briefly in the coda.
Even better was a remarkable account of Sergei Prokofiev’s challenging, eccentric but engaging—and brilliant in its way—Piano Concerto No. 2, with the renowned Daniil Trifonov as soloist, a piece that is also programmatically modernistic in character. The introduction to the first movement is meditative and strangely Romantic; the rest of the movement is disquieting in its dissonances but attains a stirring climax. The ensuing, brief, propulsiveScherzois appropriately and characteristically playful. The Intermezzo is a queer march that at least approaches parody. The Finale begins manically and excitingly and then becomes introspective, even lyrical, in maybe the concerto’s most beautiful passage; after a number of unexpected divagations, the movement rushes to a surprising conclusion. In response to the enthusiastic applause, Trifonov played a delightful encore (which the artist has also recored): Prokofiev’s Gavotte from Three Pieces from Cinderella, Op. 95.
Most extraordinary of all, however, was the second half of the event: a meticulous reading of Igor Stravinsky’s astonishing score for the ballet,The Firebird, which must be one of the most frequently performed works in the current repertory. After an uncanny introduction, dizzying music accompanies the appearance of the Firebird. Following the haunting emergence of the enchanted princesses, one of the loveliest sections occurs in the garden before Prince Ivan nears the evil sorcerer Kashchei’s castle. The music becomes agitated as “his minions charge the Prince” and becomes more ominous with Kashchei’s arrival. The “Infernal Dance” is thrilling and and anticipates the composer’sThe Rite of Springwhile the bewitchingBerceusemust be the most glorious part of the score. Prince Ivan’s wedding to the most beautiful of the princesses provides a stunning close. The audience rewarded the musicians with a standing ovation.
April '23 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 20 April 2023 00:59
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week
The Lost Weekend
(Iconic Events)
When John Lennon went to L.A. without Yoko Ono in 1973, their assistant, 22-year-old May Pang, accompanied him—he ended up staying there partying and recording while he and Pang began a romance that lasted for 18 months, until Ono decided she wanted him back.
Most Lennon fans are familiar with that basic outline, but Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman, and Stuart Samuels’ documentary recounts those heady days through the eyes of Pang herself, who narrates her version of events, saying that Lennon was ready to leave Yoko for her, a claim that is seemingly backed by Lennon’s son, Julian, who not only chats engagingly about his dad and his own friendship with Pang, but is also seen, at the end, hugging her and walking down the street arm in arm, a pointed visual about John and May’s relationship if there ever was one.
(Film Movement)
Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has made his mark with the mammoth character study Happy Hour and last year’s international breakthrough—and Oscar-winning best international film—Drive My Car. That notoriety has led to the release of his 2008 student film, in which the themes and directorial hallmarks of his later films are given rough, choppy form.
Unlike his mature films, where dialogue is meaningful and has its own kind of narrative propulsiveness, here the characters falling in and out of relationships sit around and don’t have much to say that’s memorable. Still, this is an interesting blueprint for what would be (mostly) perfected later.
4K/UHD Releases of the Week
Cool Hand Luke
(Warner Bros)
Stuart Rosenberg’s 1967 chain-gang drama, which has earned its status as an American classic, came out at a time when anti-establishment rebels started appearing in movies and novels; Luke could be a cousin of McMurphy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. And like McMurphy, his legend lives on among his fellow prisoners.
Paul Newman as Luke is perfection and George Kennedy indelible in his Oscar-winning turn as compatriot Dragline headline a first-rate cast (including Strother Martin, who gets to say the immortal line, “What we have here is a failure to communicate”). It’s beautifully directed by Rosenberg, grittily photographed by Conrad Hall and satisfyingly scored by Lalo Schifrin. The film looks great in 4K; extras are a commentary by Newman biographer Eric Lax and a vintage making-of featurette.
(Warner Bros)
One of Hollywood’s first—and best—detective stories, with Humphrey Bogart as the immortal private eye Sam Spade, is this 1941 classic directed confidently by John Huston and featuring an unforgettable cast led by Mary Astor as femme fatale Ruth and Peter Lorre as bad guy Joel Cairo.
It’s unbeatable entertainment, and Warner’s UHD transfer gives the B&W photography by Arthur Edeson added luster. Extras on the accompanying Blu-ray are another Eric Lax commentary; “Warner Night at the Movies”; featurettes The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird and Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart; short Breakdowns of 1941; makeup tests; and three radio broadcasts.
Blu-ray Releases of the Week
Cocaine Bear
(Lionsgate)
The title tells all in this crazy little movie about a bear who downs the drug stash dropped from a plane and ends up tearing several poor suckers to pieces when they happen to cross its path in a Georgia national forest. It’s sort of based on a true story, but director Elizabeth Banks and writer Jimmy Warden have instead turned it into a rollickingly idiotic comedy.
Good sports like Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, Jason Whitlock Jr and (in his last role) Ray Liotta provide the human fodder and make this more entertaining than it has any right to be. There’s a good hi-def transfer; extras are interviews, a gag reel and deleted/extended scenes.
(Warner Bros)
We didn’t really need another Magic Mike movie (although my wife disagrees); still, director Steven Soderbergh finds ways to subvert genre clichés, managing to make Mike’s final go-round if not particularly substantial at least intermittently diverting. Channing Tatum is better at moves than speaking, and he has a perfect partner in Salma Hayek, better at wearing well-tailored clothes than speaking.
There are amusing if old-hat U.S. vs. Britain jokes (it takes place in London), along with sensational dance numbers, including one on a double-decker bus and a drenched pas de deux finale between Tatum and the spectacular Kylie Shea that’s worth sitting through the other 110 minutes for. The film’s saturated look is well-captured on Blu; extras are a making-of featurette and a deleted scene.
DVD Release of the Week
Martin Roumagnac
(Icarus Films)
This 1946 tragic romance stars the great French actor Jean Gabin and international sensation Marlene Dietrich—surprisingly, the only time they ever made a film together even though they were real-life lovers for seven years—as an odd couple separated by class and ultimately united in murder.
Georges Lacombe helmed this sophisticated drama that has pockets of dry wit and a sober view of how snobbery is two sides of the same coin, as the tense trial that serves as the film’s histrionic climax (followed by a rather obvious O. Henry ending) flavorfully shows.
Alfred Schnittke—Psalms of Repentance
(Pentatone)
The music of Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-98) often tended to the spiritual—in addition to his varied film scores, symphonies and chamber music, he composed much religious and choral music, including his lovely Requiem.
This disc tackles one of his most ambitious vocal compositions, a 40-minute, multi-movement work for mixed choir, written in 1988; it’s movingly sung by the choir Cappella Amsterdam, led by Daniel Reuss, in a masterly performance that’s an absolute balm for the soul.
More Articles...
Newsletter Sign Up
Upcoming Events
No Calendar Events Found or Calendar not set to Public.