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Armenian State Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Sunday, 30 June 2024 09:12; Written by Jack Angstreich

At Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium on the night of Thursday, June 27th, I had the immense pleasure of attending an amazing concert exclusively devoted to the seldom performed but brilliant music of Aram Khachaturian, presented by the extraordinary musicians of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra under the sterling direction of Sergey Smbatyan.

The evening began superbly with the revised version of the outstanding Triumphal Poem, an inventive, stirring work with an almost satirical interlude and a forceful conclusion. A remarkable soloist, Sergey Khachatryan, then entered the stage to admirably play the underrated Violin Concerto in D Minor from 1940. The initial movement—marked Allegro con fermezzo—is propulsive, with solemn, lyrical passages—it drew applause—while the Andante sostenuto movement that follows opens suspensefully and is song-like too, if in a more subdued manner. The Allegro vivace finale is exuberant but with quieter episodes, ending powerfully.

The second half of the event was even more memorable, starting with three wonderful selections from the popular ballet, Gayaneh, from 1942. (The Adagio from this score was used by director Stanley Kubrick in his 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.) The charming Dance of the Maidens preceded the mysterious and bewitching Lullaby and the lovely, waltz-like Aysheh’s Dance.

The program proper closed marvelously with five enthralling selections from another very famous ballet, Spartacus, from 1953. The spirited, delightful Introduction and Dance of the Nymphs was succeeded by the rhythmic, exhilarating Scene and Dance with Crotalums that finishes softly. The ensuing Variation of Aegina and Bacchanalia is exciting, and has a celebratory ethos. The enchanting, exquisite Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia builds in intensity but concludes gently and the Dance of Gaditanae and Victory of Spartacus is haunting and then triumphal. An enthusiastic ovation elicited three fabulous encores: first, the Waltz from the 1944 symphonic suite, Masquerade, from incidental music for a play by Mikhail Lermontov, and then, the indelible Sabre Dance and Lezghinka from Gayaneh.

“Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Catherine Breillat” at Lincoln Center

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Saturday, 29 June 2024 09:30; Written by Jack Angstreich

Fat Girl

From June 21st through the 27th, Film at Lincoln Center presented “Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Catherine Breillat,” a long overdue retrospective—programmed by Florence Almozini and Dan Sullivan—of the cinematic oeuvre of that extraordinary director, in anticipation of the release on the 28th—at this same venue—of her latest opus, the marvelous Last Summer, which had its local premiere at last year’s New York Film Festival.

Already a published author as a teenager, she began as a novelist and sometime actress, appearing in a small role along with her sister in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris in 1972—that pathbreaking movie, in its radicalism and explicit sexuality, would seem to be an important precursor for her own distinctive practice as a filmmaker. She collaborated with Federico Fellini in some capacity as a screenwriter on his interesting late work from 1984, And the Ship Sails On, and has co-written scripts for Marco Bellocchio and Liliana Cavani. Also significantly, she was the source of the original story—and co-wrote the screenplay for—Maurice Pialat’s powerfulPolicefrom 1985–this was already several years after she had begun to direct features.

The earliest of these that I saw was also the first one I encountered, the striking36 Fillettefrom 1988. I didn’t see her impressive next movie, Dirty Like an Angel—from 1991—until somewhat later. I’ve never seenCouples et amantsfrom 1993, but it’s immediate successor, Perfect Love from 1996 further intrigued me and suggested her assurance as a filmmaker. The following Romance—from 1999—was an audacious endeavor with some beautiful sequences but I thought it ultimately artistically unsatisfying. I look forward to revisiting all of these.

With her next feature,Fat Girl (2001)she seemed clearly to have emerged as a major director, if she was not one already. Brief Crossing (2001) and Sex Is Comedy (2002) were both excellent and further extended her range. The invaluable critic J. Hoberman described Anatomy of Hell (2004) as her “most radical film.” (He added, “But in its stunning dialectic between tasteful and tasteless, Romance is surely her most insolent.”) The Last Mistress (2007), based on a novel by Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, seemed to me to be possibly her greatest work to date, along withFat Girl.I was unconvinced by her adaptation of the Charles Perrault fairytale, Bluebeard (2009) and have not seen Sleeping Beauty (2010), also based on Perrault.

Abuse of Weaknessfrom 2013—which was screened at the New York Film Festival—if slighter than her very best films, demonstrated that she was still a force with which to be reckoned. Film at Lincoln Center’s summary reads as follows:

In 2004, at the age of 56, Catherine Breillat suffered a serious stroke. Her left side was initially paralyzed, and after five months in the hospital she worked like a demon to walk again. Not long after, she prepared an adaptation of her novel Bad Love and decided to cast the notorious “swindler of the stars,” Christophe Rocancourt, fresh from a jail term for fraud. Over the next several months, Rocancourt took advantage of Breillat’s condition and stood by her side as she wrote him checks amounting to €650,000. She later took him to court and won her case, and chronicled the experience in a book that she then adapted into this uniquely haunting film, with a bold, tough performance by Isabelle Huppert as the Breillat stand-in and French/Portuguese rapper Kool Shen as the con man.

Huppert is indeed dazzling and her realization of the role is a true tour de force, remaining one of the most compelling components of this pleasurable film.

Last Summer, a remake of a Danish movie from 2019, is another outstanding achievement, and it was on Cahiers du Cinéma’s list of the ten best films of 2023. It stars Léa Drucker and the luminous Samuel Kircher, a relative newcomer.

Orchestra of St. Luke’s Bach Festival Day Three

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 28 June 2024 10:17; Written by Jack Angstreich

Photo by Richard Termine.

At Zankel Hall on the night of Tuesday, June 25th, I had the great privilege to attend this year’s extraordinary third of three amazing concerts in the Orchestra of St. Luke’s annual Bach Festival, under the outstanding direction of the conductor and celebrated fortepianist, Kristian Bezuidenhout.

The event began splendidly with a superb account of Johann Christian Bach’s marvelous Symphony in G minor, Op. 6, No. 6, W.C 12. In a useful note for the program, Steven Jude Tietjen commented as follows:

Christian's Symphony No. 6 in G minor was written for and first performed at one of the Bach-Abel concerts in 1770, along with the five other symphonies comprising his Opus 6. It's considered by many scholars to be one his most dramatic and ambitious symphonies, recalling the tempestuous and exciting Sturm und Drang style of his contemporary, Joseph Haydn, with his own refinement and expressive theatricality.

The opening Allegro is suspenseful while the ensuing slow movement—markedAndante più tosto adagio—is grave in mood but surprisingly forceful, and the Allegro molto finale is propulsive and intense.

Also excellent was an outstanding performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s magnificent Fugue in 3 subjects fromThe Art of the Fugue,BWV 1080, presented here in an astonishing arrangement for strings. The annotator explains:

J. S. Bach'sThe Art of the Fugue,a collection of fourteen fugues and four canons, is a testament to the composer's endless imagination and inventiveness. Each piece is based on the same theme in D minor that is then transformed through seemingly infinite permutations, repetitions, reversals, and embellishments. This Fugue in 3 subjects was unfinished when Bach died and is often included as the fourteenth fugue in the collection.

The first half of the evening closed memorably with a sterling version of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach’s wonderful Piano Concerto in D minor, Wq. 17, H. 420 featuring Bezuidenhout as soloist. A dynamic Allegro precedes a lyrical slow movement—with an Un poco adagio tempo—concluding exhilaratingly and virtuosically with another Allegro.

The second part of the program was comparable in power, starting with an awesome realization of C.P.E. Bach’s exquisite Symphony for Strings in C Major, Wq. 182, No. 3, H. 659. The initial movement (Allegro assai) is vibrant and ingenious while the succeeding, solemnAdagiois arrestingly strong in contrast. The Allegretto finale is animated and brisk in rhythm.

The concert ended delightfully with a fabulous rendition of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s remarkably precocious Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271, the “Jenamy,” again with the conductor as soloist. The Allegro first movement is ebullient and sparkling. Next is a weighty, elevated, and serious Andantino that has a sense of urgency. The work finishes with an energetic and brilliant Rondo.

The artists were deservedly rewarded with enthusiastic applause.

June '24 Digital Week IV

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 27 June 2024 22:16; Written by Kevin Filipski

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week

Last Summer

(Sideshow/Janus)

French provocateur Catherine Breillat hasn’t made a film in nearly a decade following a stroke, but her long-awaited return doesn’t disappoint, as she adapts a Dutch film, Queen of Hearts, that dissects the relationship—first antagonistic, then sexual, finally emotional—of a 40ish wife, Anne, and her teenage stepson, Théo.

Breillat, in her usual rigorous way, explores the psychological state of Anna—who also, ironically, is a respected lawyer—and, despite some narrative misplays (a few important scenes are elided), allows her to tell her truth, even when it’s based on a torrent of lies. As Théo, Samuel Kircher is simultaneously (and plausibly) a child and a man, while Léa Drucker gives a towering performance of feminine sexual confidence as Anna, a woman who makes a wrong decision and keeps making them.

Copa 71

(Greenwich Entertainment)

Unearthing lost footage of the heretofore rarely known 1971 women’s world cup in Mexico, directors Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine have made an engrossing documentary exploring the cover-up of women’s issues on a global scale a half-century ago.

Revisiting the found footage with several original players on the teams from Mexico, Denmark, France and England, the filmmakers also enlist U.S. soccer superstars Brandi Chastain and Alex Morgan, who provide the important context of being introduced to their sport’s trailblazers decades before they themselves were the faces of women’s soccer, which continues growing in popularity worldwide.

The Escort

(Film Movement)

This ponderous and blackly comic 2023 exploration of Croatia’s seedy underbelly, the final film of director Lukas Nola before dying of cancer at age 58, in 2022, has some unsavory characters exploiting, double crossing, harassing, and blackmailing each other, as 40-year-old businessman Miro—after having sex and sharing cocaine with her—discovers dead escort Maja in his hotel bathroom, and things unsurprisingly spiral from there.

Nola wanted to make a heavily satiric drama about the cynicism and corruption in his home country, but since everyone is appalling it ends up with loads of thickly laded-on dramatic irony alongside many metaphoric shots of birds and animals. Lena Medar as Maja in the early scenes and Hrvojka Begović as Miro’s wife Darija later on enliven the proceedings when they appear, at least.

The Small Back Room

(Rialto)

This modest 1949 melodrama by the formidable filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger might not be as expansive and eye-catching as their other classics from this era—1947’s Black Narcissus and 1948’s The Red Shoes immediately preceded it—but it’s a superior psychological character study that also functions as an engrossing wartime melodrama.

Leading to an exciting bomb-defusing climax, the film boasts excellent performances by David Farrar as the crippled hero Sammy and Kathleen Byron as Susan, the woman who believes in him. The 4K restoration looks tremendous.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

(Lionsgate)

Guy Ritchie’s talent for directing amusing if innocuous action flicks—such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and The Gentlemen—continues with this entertaining spy caper about British secret agents during WWII, based on real events.

Ritchie will never be subtle, but for a movie like this—filled with espionage and big set pieces—that isn’t needed, and the cast is having great fun too: best are Henry Cavill as Gus March-Phillipps (purportedly Ian Fleming’s basis for James Bond) and Eiza Gonzalez, whose winning turn as Marjorie Stewart, the feistiest of femmes fatales, steals the picture. The film looks splendid in UHD; lone extra is a making-of featurette.

Monkey Man

(Universal)

Dev Patel’s directorial debut is loud and clanky but never boring, even if it sometimes seems desperate to be exciting as we follow Patel as a nameless misfit who makes a little cash fighting in underground rings until he finds the opportunity for payback from the elites who destroyed his honor.

The endless action set pieces are cleverly done but soon induce exhaustion over the course of two hours—still, it’s filmed with a real rage, and if you find yourself on Patel’s wavelength, you might get more out of its redemption narrative. The 4K image is eye-poppingly good, but there are no extras.

Purple Rain

(Warner Bros)

There’s an unresolvable dichotomy in Prince’s 1984 film debut: whenever his superb music is heard or performed onstage, the movie soars into the stratosphere; but his acting (and everyone else’s) is so atrocious that whenever he speaks or tries to show emotion, you can’t help but burst out laughing at the histrionic ineptitude.

But yes, those great songs—highlighted by the classic title track, featuring Prince’s most emotive guitar solo that approaches David Gilmour’s on “Comfortably Numb”—make one ignore the risible performances by Prince, Apollonia, Morris Day and the entire Revolution. Director Albert Magnoli earns more demerits for continuously cutting to the awestruck club audience whenever Prince is onstage. It all looks and—especially—sounds glorious in 4K; extras comprise a commentary by Magnoli, producer Robert Cavallo and cinematographer Donald E. Thorin; First Avenue: The Road to Pop Royalty featurette; and music videos for several Prince hits as well as songs by Morris Day and the Time and Apollonia.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

American Fiction

(Warner Bros)

Writer-director Cord Jefferson’s often savagely funny satire of how deeply racism is embedded in the American psyche, based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel, Erasure, explores the many ramifications of frustrated author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison’s transparent attempt to write a banal novel that white publishers and audiences will lap up as “authentically Black”—and is disgusted when it actually takes off as a major literary phenomenon.

Jefferson’s film also tenderly chronicles Monk’s mostly dysfunctional family, and these scenes, playing off the more sardonic authorial episodes, provide the dramatic heft. The magisterial acting comprises Jeffrey Wright’s towering portrayal of Ellison, Sterling K. Brown’s wounded brother Cliff, and a fantastic female quartet: Tracee Ellis Ross (Monk’s sister Lisa), Issa Rae (successful author Sintara Golden), Erika Alexander (Monk’s love interest Coralie) and the ageless Leslie Uggams (Monk’s family matriarch Agnes). Although there aren’t any extras, context is everything and an interview or commentary would be helpful. There’s a first-rate Blu-ray transfer.

The Boys in the Boat

(Warner Bros)

In his latest directorial effort, George Clooney dramatizes how the underdog University of Washington rowing team and its coach overcame the odds to represent the U.S. in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Clooney has made a conventional, inspirational movie that tells an interesting story competently and without any surprises—it effectively builds to the gold-medal showdown against the Germans (with Hitler in attendance, of course).

There’s a fine cast led by Joel Egerton as the coach to Courtney Henggeler as his supportive wife, while Alexander Desplat’s jaunty score sounds overly familiar—but also effective. There’s a quite good hi-def transfer, but in keeping with many new releases, nothing in the way of any extras.

Common-Law Wife/Jennie, Wife Child

(Film Masters)

The vaults of obscure B movies have been opened, what’s been pouring out includes this pair of B&W cheapies that push the boundaries of lasciviousness as far as they could in the early ’60s (1963, to be exact).

Common-Law Wife follows an old coot, unhappy with his current gal pal, wants to get together with Baby Doll, who is his young niece; not to be outdone, Jennie, Wife Child shows a young bride, bored with her older husband, get it on with an attractive young farmhand. Both movies are about what you’d expect, though the amateurishness is kind of endearing; the hi-def transfers are sharply defined. Extras are commentaries on both films and an hour-long doc, That’s Hicksploitation: The Origin of Southern Sinema.

Six in Paris

(Icarus)

This 1965 omnibus film set in various Paris neighborhoods is a definite time-capsule that’s forgettable because none of the filmmakers makes his short memorable as both narrative and a locale. In fact, only Claude Chabrol’s final segment, La Muette—despite heavy-handed O. Henry irony—scores; it’s too bad that someone like Jean-Luc Godard whiffs.

Nicely restored in hi-def, the film has a graininess that brings a sense of authenticity to the project; extras are short archival interviews with producer-actor Barbet Schroeder and directors Jean Rouch and Eric Rohmer.

The Underground Railroad

(Criterion)

Barry Jenkins’ epic adaptation of Colin Whitehead’s colossal, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that transforms the titular railroad an actual train that transports enslaved people to freedom is straitjacketed by that potent metaphor that becomes less potent reality. Whereas in the book, the railroad remains in the reader’s mind (however real it is for the characters), that we can see it in Jenkins’ series turns allegory into blunt melodrama, however skillfully directed and forcefully acted by a huge cast.

There are indelible moments that wonderfully visualize Whitehead’s prose, although at ten hours, the accumulation of hideous details becomes oppressive. Criterion’s hi-def transfer looks pristine, and the voluminous extras include commentaries by Jenkins, cinematographer James Laxton, and lead editor Joi McMillon; a new graphic-novel adaptation of an unfilmed chapter; The Gaze, a companion film by Jenkins; and deleted scenes.

Yuja Wang in Concert

(C Major)

The fiendishly talented pianist Yuja Wang is as well-known for her fashion sense as she is for her extraordinary performances—indeed, she changes her form-fitting outfits twice during this 2022 Vienna recital.

But none of that takes away from her ability to project curiosity and intelligence while playing several difficult pieces, from Scriabin and Kapustin to Beethoven and Ligeti—all done effortlessly but impressively. Both hi-def audio and video are first-rate.

DVD Release of the Week

Manifest—The Complete Series

(Warner Bros)

In this tense drama series, passengers on a plane that took off in 2013 end up landing five years later, yet all aboard feel that it was only a few hours—from this intriguing Twilight Zone premise comes myriad plot strands both personal and professional, including deaths in families, new relationships and marriages, and other rude intrusions of life.

Throughout these 62 episodes over four seasons, the intersections of the various subplots are laid bare, and if some of the segments become dramatic dead ends, there’s enough of interest here to make the long trip worthwhile—and there are fine performances by a large cast led by Melissa Roxburgh and Josh Dallas.

CD Releases of the Week

Go, Lovely Rose—Songs of Roger Quilter

(Chandos)

Songs for Peter Pears

(Signum Classics)

British composer Roger Quilter (1877-1953) was a prolific creator of art songs, and this excellent disc is a fine introduction to his vocal stylings. Although his colorful tunes set to Shakespeare lead off this recital—the opening six songs are culled from various groupings, with all of his captivating Three Shakespeare Songs (1905-6), his first Bard settings, represented—the CD title, Go, Lovely Rose, comes from the lovely song that’s part of his 1922 settings, Five English Love Lyrics. Tenor James Gilchrist and piano Anna Tilbrook collaborate beautifully on this broad overview of a graceful melodist’s most skillful works.

British tenor Peter Pears (1910-86) was the inspiring muse of his professional and personal partner, the great Benjamin Britten, and while Britten’s masterly Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo—the very first vocal work he wrote expressly for Pears’ unique voice—is part of this exemplary disc, other composers are also represented, including Arthur Oldham, Geoffrey Bush and Richard Rodney Bennett, whose 10-minute “Tom O’Bedlam’s Song” is a remarkable vocal showcase. Two elegant cycles by the underrated Lennox Berkeley—better known as the father of composer Michael Berkeley—complete an exceptional introduction to vocal music written specifically for one of the finest 20th-century musical interpreters. Tenor Robin Tritschler, who gives these songs impassioned readings, is adroitly accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau, guitarist Sean Shire and cellist Peter Higham.

Reviews

Armenian State Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

“Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Catherine Breillat” at Lincoln Center

Orchestra of St. Luke’s Bach Festival Day Three

June '24 Digital Week IV

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