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Film and the Arts
National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America PLay Carnegie Hall
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 07 August 2024 09:02
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Photo by Chris Lee
At Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium on the evening of Monday, August 5th, I had the exceptional privilege to attend a fabulous concert—as part of World Orchestra Week—featuring the superb and precocious members of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America—along with musicians from the Polyphony Ensemble—under the stellar direction of the eminent Marin Alsop.
The event began marvelously with an exciting account of Samuel Barber’s excellent and undervalued Symphony No. 1, Op. 9, which bears the unmistakable imprint of that extraordinary composer, who provided this program note for the work’s New York premiere:
The form of my Symphony in One Movement is a synthetic treatment of the four-movement classical symphony. It is based on three themes of the initial Allegro non troppo, which retain throughout the work their fundamental character. The Allegro opens with the usual exposition of a main theme, a more lyrical second theme, and a closing theme. After a brief development of the three themes, instead of the customary recapitulation, the first theme in diminution forms the basis of a scherzo section (Vivace). The second theme (oboe over muted strings) then appears in augmentation, in an extended Andante tranquillo. An intense crescendo introduces the finale, which is a short passacaglia based on the first theme (introduced by the violoncelli and contrabassi), over which, together with figures from other themes, the closing theme is woven, thus serving as a recapitulation for the entire symphony.
The opening movement is variegated in character, alternately intense and subdued, while the second possesses a relative and not unexpected levity, if with some agonistic moments. The loveliest component of the score is the lyrical third movement, which is slightly reminiscent of the orchestral music of Jean Sibelius and reaches a powerful climax—and the finale too builds to a forceful conclusion.
The renowned soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet then entered the stage to brilliantly perform George Gershwin’s jazzy, exhilarating Rhapsody in Blue from 1924, orchestrated by Ferde Grofé—this rendition was sparkling, dazzling and unusually lucid. Enthusiastic applause elicited a delightful encore: Victory Stride by James P. Johnson—the author of the “Charleston”—arranged by Nicholas Hersh.
The second half of the concert was even more remarkable: a mesmerizing version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s enthralling Scheherazade, Op. 35, from 1888. The first movement, titled The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship and marked Largo e maestoso, is stirring and enchanting, while in the succeeding Andantino, The Legend of the Calendar Prince, the exquisite melodies evoke the Orient. The wistful third movement—The Young Prince and the Young Princess, an Andantino quasi allegretto—is somewhat playful at times, and the Allegro molto finale is propulsive and exuberant, although it closes quietly and mysteriously. Another rapturous ovation was rewarded with a second wonderful encore, a new piece by Laura Karpman entitled Swing.
August '24 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 07 August 2024 01:04
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week
The Beautiful Summer
(Film Movement)
Director/co-writer Laura Luchetti’s empathetic and sensitive coming-of-age saga follows the introspective 17-year-old Ginia (played, in a starmaking turn, by the terrific Yile Yara Vianello), who is simultaneously confused and excited by her attraction to Amelia (persuasively embodied by Deva Cassel, daughter of Italian actress Monica Bellucci and French actor Vincent Cassel), who’s a headstrong model for local artists.
With a 1938 Turin setting that is both evocative and quietly chilling—Il Duce Mussolini’s fascists are hovering in the background—Luchetti’s gorgeously realized feature was one of the happiest surprises of this year’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema series at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center in June.
(Abramorama)
The creation of Electric Lady Studios—immortalized on Jimi Hendrix’s classic album Electric Ladyland—is the subject of John McDermott’s entertaining documentary, which lands us in late ’60s Greenwich Village alongside Hendrix’s legendary engineer-producer, Eddie Kramer, and others involved in the planning, construction and running of the first artist-owned music facility in rock.
Hendrix music is generously played and the talking heads (which include John Storyk, the studios’ architect; and two of Jimi’s band members, Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox) are chatty and revealing in this valuable chronicle of an indispensable music studio, later populated by the likes of John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie and the Clash.
Modernism, Inc.
(First Run)
Director Jason Cohn’s enlightening account that explores how architect Eliot Noyes transformed American design in the mid-20th century smartly condenses a knotted history of design into something digestible, spirited, but never dumbed down.
Fond remembrances and paeans from his family members, colleagues and historians blend with well-chosen vintage footage to present this nuanced portrait of Noyes’ ongoing importance to contemporary design, from his playful but norm-shattering designs for IBM and Mobil to his family’s unique home.
(Submarine Deluxe)
Although this documentary’s stated aims are lofty, even necessary—simulating a possible insurrection on January 6, 2025, four years after the real-life attempted coup to overturn a lawful presidential election, with many actual politicians and government insiders playing a fictional presidential cabinet and advisors—what we’re actually watching ends up less than the sum of its parts.
Directors Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber turn this plausible doomsday scenario into an effective if derivative pulse-pounding thriller, but the reality of what happened on January 6, 2021 is still too raw to make this well-intentioned cautionary tale more than an intriguing but manipulative curio. The best moments are unfiltered comments by real veterans Chris Jones, Kris Goldsmith and Janessa Goldbeck (CEO of VetVoice, which originated the staging of this scenario), who emotionally discuss how imperative saving democracy is. More of their reality and less of the actual war game would have made this a more powerful—though, admittedly, entirely different—film.
Blu-ray Release of the Week
June Zero
(Cohen Media)
In Jake Paltrow’s accomplished anthology feature, which tells the fragmented stories of several ordinary people on the periphery of the 1962 execution of Nazi Adolf Eichmann (which occurred just after midnight on June 1, hence the film’s title), is burnished by intelligence and sympathy.
The three tales, which move from humor to horror, are followed by a bittersweet epilogue, as Paltrow takes the measure of a young nation grappling with shared traumas that nevertheless leave room for triumph over tragedy. Paltrow’s 16mm images look quite striking on Blu-ray; too bad there’s no interview or commentary that contextualizes this complex historical drama.
Gerhard—Don Quixote (Complete Ballet)
(Chandos)
Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970) isn’t as well-known as fellow Catalan composers Xavier Montsalvatge and Federico Mompou, but his music is just as original, especially in his melding of popular and classical forms with a more rigid 12-tone method. His delightful zarzuela/operetta, The Duenna, might be the best example, but his other stage works have the same captivating variety. The works on this disc all originated in the 1940s, after Gerhard left his beloved Spain following the civil war and settled in England.
There’s the attractive suite for the ballet Allegrias as well as the complete ballet Don Quixote, one of Gerhard’s most enchanting and gorgeous scores. Rounding out this recording is Pedrelliana, originally written in 1941 but revised 13 years later; it’s a heartfelt memorial to Gerhard’s beloved teacher Felipe Pedrell. Juanjo Mena leads the BBC Orchestra in vigorous renditions of this often exuberant music.
July '24 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 31 July 2024 22:46
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week
The Bohemian
(Music Box)
Czech writer-director Petr Václav’s absorbing biopic introduces Josef Mysliveček, a late 18th-century, Prague-born composer who was much sought-after throughout Europe for his operas and vocal music. He reportedly inspired Mozart, and the film includes a marvelous sequence of Mysliveček meeting and discussing music with the young prodigy; it also shows how Mysliveček’s prodigious appetite for women could have been a factor in his premature death at age 43: he got a serious case of syphilis and had his nose disfigured by an inept doctor.
Vojtěch Dyk’s towering portrayal of Mysliveček is buttressed by a large and talented supporting cast led by Italian actress Barbara Ronchi (also in Marco Bellocchio’s latest masterpiece, Kidnapped) as one of Mysliveček’s vocal collaborators.
(Neon)
This ungodly mashup of The Silence of the Lamb and the Swedish TV series The Bridge stars Maika Monroe as an autistic, and possibly clairvoyant, FBI agent tracking a serial killer who has ties to her and her family. Writer-director Osgood Perkins’ artful-looking thriller relies too much on jump scares (and jump non-scares) as well as redundant flashbacks made more enervating by being in a different aspect ratio. Monroe’s persuasive performance is nonetheless hampered by Perkins, whose opening sequence allows this supposedly smart character to make the first of several stupid decisions.
As the title character, Nicolas Cage seems to have been directed with a cattle prod, giving a hammier performance than usual; Longlegs might have been more resonant if Longlegs himself was excised from the meandering narrative.
Sleep No More
(Iris Indy Intl)
This 2014 crime drama by Antonia Bogdanovich—daughter of hit-or-miss Peter Bogdanovich—has been reedited to create a director’s cut that still remains nondescript. The relationship between a neglectful father and his two battered sons is the main throughline, with other shady characters and an unlikely femme fatale hovering around but adding up to very little.
It’s as if Bogdanovich highlighted her plot’s lesser aspects: instead of showing the youngest son’s reciting Shakespeare while his older brother pickpockets spectators multiple times, the budding—and more interestingly oedipal—relationship between the oldest son and a friend’s lonely and available mother deserves more screen time. The fine cast features a terrific Rebecca Romijn as the mom, but nothing hits with any real dramatic force.
The Fall Guy
(Universal)
If you thought that pairing Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt—both Oscar nominated for their supporting performances in last summer’s Barbie and Oppenheimer, respectively—would be irresistible, then David Leitch’s overblown action comedy will dissuade you of that notion.
There’s a bit of fun early on, but the pointless action scenes pile up in mind-numbing fashion, especially in the interminable 146-minute extended cut. Gosling is always game, but Blunt seems out of her element (her best moment finds her singing karaoke to “Against All Odds,” a very low bar); the stunt men are unsurprisingly spectacular, but it all adds up to a noisy misfire. The 4K image looks impressive; extras include a gag reel, making-of featurettes, extended scenes, and Leitch’s and producer Kelly McCormick’s commentary on both cuts.
Blu-ray Releases of the Week
Back to Black
(Universal)
Sam Taylor-Johnson, who made the intriguing misfire Nowhere Boy about John Lennon’s teenage years, has now done the same with this biopic about Amy Winehouse, the talented British singer who lost her battle to the demons of fame, alcohol and drugs at age 27 (joining the so-called “27 Club,” populated by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain).
Matt Greenhalgh’s by-the-numbers script follows Amy from teen obscurity to stardom, while Taylor-Johnson’s generally competent direction rightly focuses on her songs—yet it never coheres dramatically, with even the final, desperate scenes coming off mechanically. Lesley Manville (Amy’s nan), Eddie Marsan (her dad) and Jack O’Connell (her husband) acquit themselves well, but it’s Marisa Aleba who makes this rote portrait watchable with a thrilling performance that’s less an impersonation than a deeply-felt immersion. There’s a good hi-def transfer; extras comprise Taylor-Johnson’s commentary and on-set featurettes.
(Well Go USA)
When 12-year-old Charlotte’s pet spider Sting (of course she names it that!) reaches monstrous, human-eating proportions, writer-director Kiah Roache-Turner decides that his only mission is to use the general squeamishness of viewers to arachnids to try and scare the hell out of his audience, overt ridiculousness be damned.
Taking place in the claustrophobic rooms of an apartment building, it’s minimally effective, although it’s stretched out far beyond its meager means before its 90 minutes are up. There’s an excellent hi-def transfer; extras are making-of featurettes and interviews.
CD Release of the Week
Meyerbeer—Le prophète
(LSO Live)
The grand operas of German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) held stages for decades after his death but have since fallen out of favor for reasons including the massive cost to produce such spectacles and a sense that his style was retrograde (anti-Semitic screeds by noted bigot Richard Wagner didn’t help). But there are signs this might be changing. At Bard Summerscape, Leon Botstein leads an elaborate production through August 4 of this five-act 1849 opera about an innkeeper who becomes a radical Christian prophet, which leads to a fiery, tragic climax.
And this accomplished performance from last summer’s Aix Festival in France is well-paced by conductor Mark Elder, beautifully performed by the London Symphony and Mediterranean Youth orchestras, Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône and Lyon Opera Chorus, and impressively sung by a cast that’s led by John Osborn (Jean de Leyde), Elizabeth DeShong (Fidès) and Mané Galoyan (Berthe). The three-SACD recording gives listeners a thrilling intro to Meyerbeer’s epically-scaled music drama.
July '24 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 24 July 2024 19:28
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Streaming Release of the Week
Fresh Kills
(Quiver Distribution)
Who knew that actress Jennifer Esposito—heretofore best known for supporting roles in movies and recurring roles in TV series like Spin City and Blue Bloods—would write and direct a richly authentic slice of Italian-American life, from the point of view of two daughters growing up in a Staten Island household with a father who happens to be a Mafioso?
Esposito obviously knew, and her film keeps the organized crime clichés at bay while treating the women in this milieu with freshness and zesty humor. Esposito is also winning as the girls’ mother Francine, as is Annabella Sciorra as her antagonistic sister Christine, while Odessa A’zion and Emily Bader, as daughters Connie and Rose, give breakout performances.
Rocky—Ultimate Knockout Collection
(Warner Bros)
The original Rocky, winner of the 1976 best picture Oscar and directed with precision by John G. Avildsen, remains the ultimate rags to (almost) riches fairy tale nearly a half-century later. Too bad the sequels got progressively more gimmicky, from II’s perfectly plausible rematch with Apollo Creed to III’s comic version of fighting Mr. T (as Clubber Lang) to IV’s “us vs. them” Cold War battle with Russian Ivan Drago. At least Avildsen returned for V, which had some of the original’s grit, but number 6 (Rocky Balboa) had Stallone at the helm for the series’ dullest entry.
Stallone becomes less appealing with each successive movie and Talia Shire—heartbreaking in the original—has little to do as the stories progress (and Adrian was killed off for Balboa), but there are the always exciting boxing sequences. This set brings together all six films—and the director’s cuts of IV and Balboa—which look superlatively grainy throughout. An extra Blu-ray disc collects the extras, mostly from the original movie but also an hour-long Making of Rocky vs. Drago: Keep Punching, with Stallone himself as our guide. The Balboa disc also includes a Stallone commentary, deleted scenes and various on-set featurettes.
Blu-ray Releases of the Week
Anselm
(Janus Contemporaries)
German director Wim Wenders returns to the 3D format that worked well for his documentary Pina, about choreographer Pina Bausch, which showed dancers gracefully moving in space; but Anselm, displaying German artist Anselm Keifer’s paintings, installations and sculptures, only intermittently suggests the impressive spaciousness of his works.
The rest of the 90-minute doc is a decent primer on the artist’s life and art, both controversial in his native country, where he has been accused of being a Nazi sympathizer and a Nazi. Wenders’ eye, of course, is unerring; but for all the 3D segments showing Keifer’s works’ sheer monumentality, seeing the artist riding around on his bike or a tree branch glistening with snow isn’t the most essential use of the technology. The hi-def image is vividly rendered whether on the 3D or basic Blu-ray disc; lone extra is a 15-minute Wenders interview.
(Dynamic)
Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti—famed for classic operas like L’elisir d’amore, Lucrezia Borgia and Lucia di Lammermoor—had a huge failure with this music drama about the ninth-century Alfred the King, who led the Saxons in what is now England.
After its 1823 premiere, the opera took two centuries to be restaged, in this 2023 production from Bergamo, Italy; director Stefano Simone Pintor gives it the heft of an historical epic, but the music and characterizations often lack drama or depth. Still, the playing by the Orchestra Donizetti Opera and Coro della Radio Ungherese under conductor Corrado Rovaris and the lead performances of Antonino Siragusa (Alfredo) and Gilda Fiume (Amalia) help somewhat. There’s a first-rate audio and video transfer.
Have You Got It Yet?—The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd
(Eagle Rock)
Syd Barrett’s shadow loomed large over Pink Floyd since the late ’60s—while only in the band a short time, his colorful personality and mental illness informed its best works: The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. In Roddy Bogawa and Storm Thorgerson’s enlightening documentary about his life, death, and legacy, the legend of Barrett “the mad genius” is put into context; the directors they never lose sight of Barrett the person, troubled soul, friend, colleague, lover and brother.
Among those who discuss Barrett are his Floyd mates Roger Waters and David Gilmour, both obviously still affected by his demise, while psychological experts explain the vagaries of mental illness and how drugs like LSD can warp one’s mind. Bogawa and Thorgerson explore Barrett’s decline tactfully, thoughtfully, and sympathetically. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; extras include a commentary, Bogawa interview, featurettes on Barrett’s’s art and lyrics, and two Gilmour concert performances of the tune “Arnold Layne.”
(Warner Bros)
After a couple of dud seasons, this detective series returned to, if not quite the heights of the first season, at least watchability, as creator Issa López smartly—if unoriginally—sets the show in Alaska, in darkness literal and metaphorical. The plot weirdly melds horror and sci-fi about unexplained deaths at a remote base.
The explanation is ultimately unsatisfying, the atmosphere is vaguely sinister, but it’s held together by formidable acting by Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as the investigators. There’s a good Blu-ray transfer; extras are several making-of featurettes.
DVD Release of the Week
All Your Faces
(Icarus Films)
In France, restorative justice brings together victims and perpetrators for therapy sessions that theoretically help both parties. Writer-director Jeanne Herry ruthlessly explores how these justice workers set up such important face-to-face meetings as well as their effect on the lives of everyone involved. With two cases as the centerpieces—victims meeting convicted felons and Chloé wanting closure with the estranged brother who sexually abused her as a child—Herry’s very talky film remains involving for two hours thanks to unsentimental writing and precise direction.
In a large cast that’s riveting, realistic and often moving (there’s Leïla Bekhti, Élodie Bouchez, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gilles Lellouche and Denis Podalydès, for starters), the standouts are Miou-Miou—Herry’s real-life mother—as Sabine, horribly shaken after her mugging, and Adèle Exarchopoulos, who deservedly won the Cesar for best supporting actress for her remarkably assured yet emotionally vulnerable Chloé.
Beethoven—Triple Concerto
(Decca)
Beethoven’s imposing concerto for violin, cello and piano has always attracted superstar soloists, and when the stars themselves align—as they do for this recording that features the wonderful stylings of violinist Nicola Benedetti, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, who sound transcendent together and apart—the musical results are simply magical, with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Philharmonia Orchestra providing sensitive accompaniment.
Rounding out this first-rate disc are eloquent readings by the trio of several Beethoven folk song arrangements (with bass-baritone Gerald Finley) and the Kreislers’ evocative “Londonderry Air.”
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