The problem especially afflicts the major fall festivals: Venice, Telluride, Toronto. “The way films are received at major festivals … dictates how independent and prestige titles will be positioned for the rest of the year. That positioning will then influence the Oscars, which govern in turn the types of films that get made and celebrated. While most big film festivals are built on good intentions, the atmosphere around them has become oddly reductive.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
50,000 Candy-Colored Lights At Australia’s Uluru
“Located on the grounds of the Ayers Rock Resort in the Northern Territory, this remarkable exhibition” – titled Field of Light Uluru in English and Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku (“looking at lots of beautiful lights”) in the language of the indigenous Pitjantjatjara people, to whom Uluru is sacred – “from artist Bruce Munro has already drawn some 120,000 visitors since it opened in 2016.”
Renovated Theatre Celebrates Reopening By Firing Staffers Who’d Been There For Decades
“Staff who are understood to have worked at the Hull New Theatre for more than 20 years were told they no longer had jobs at the venue just days before it reopened. Casual workers at the theatre were told they would need to apply for ‘newly created’ casual roles after its £16 million refurbishment.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.18.17
Kusama in Seattle, Post Script, And On to LA
When, on a recent day, The Broad museum announced that “due to overwhelming demand” additional tickets for the coming Yayoi Kusama exhibition would be available on Oct. 2, it added this to the statement: … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-09-18
“The Difference Between Quality Art and Crap” Take Four
Processing my exchange with Vladimir Feltsman, I find myself distracted by something I have long more or less ignored: the art of the piano as manifest by the young artists who today dominate the scene – what Feltsman calls “a new artform.” … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2017-09-17
Bausch Reborn
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch returns to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (through September 24). … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-09-17
Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile at the Ace Hotel/LA
In some ways, this pairing makes absolutely no sense — a jazz pianist and a bluegrass mandolinist, playing together? But in another, it’s nearly inevitable. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-09-18
Monday Recommendation: Tatum’s Town
Bob Dietsche, Tatum’s Town (Bobson Press)
Most Art Tatum devotees know that Toledo, Ohio, was his hometown. It was where his genius became evident when he was a teenaged Fats Waller disciple. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-09-18
The ‘Monkey-Selfie’ Copyright Case Is, At Long Last, Over
Six years after a macaque in Indonesia picked up photographer David Slater’s camera and took photos of herself, three years after the U.S. Copyright Office supposedly settled the matter, and two years after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed standing and filed a lawsuit, PETA and Slater have settled the case. Reporter Sudhin Thanawala explains the terms.
Why Science-Fiction Writers Couldn’t Imagine The Internet
Indeed, scientists couldn’t really imagine the World Wide Web much before it appeared. As Lawrence Krauss puts it, “the imagination of nature far exceeds that of human imagination. If you had locked a group of theoretical physicists in a room 50 years ago and asked them to predict what we now know about the universe, they would have missed almost all the key discoveries we have made since.”
How We Staged ‘Merchant Of Venice’ In The Old Venice Ghetto
Director Karin Coonrod writes about the process, from getting set materials to the site by boat and hand-truck to the dilemma of casting Shylock (and her unconventional solution) to reworking the unsatisfying-to-us-in-2017 ending, all in the places where the story would have happened.
‘Fatal Attraction’ At 30: An Oral History
Glenn Close: “I’m proud my character elicited such a visceral response. Now she’s considered one of the greatest villains ever, and that to me is a mistake. I’ve never thought of her as a villain, just in distress.”
Adrian Lyne, director: “I never realized, 30 years later, people would still be talking about bunny boilers.”
A Fyre-Festival-Level Fiasco For Contemporary Classical Music
“For a first-time festival, the Newport Contemporary Music Series boasted a program that might make even Tanglewood blush: a star-studded lineup featuring appearances by Philip Glass, four-time Academy Award winner André Previn, and Lord of the Rings composer Howard Shore.” It ended up, alas, as what an official with the Boston musicians’ union described as “probably the greatest amateur act the union has ever seen.” A bass player contracted for that festival orchestra says it was a disaster “epic proportions that will go down in the Boston freelancing lore of nonpaying gigs.” Malcolm Gay explains how it all came crashing down.
Why Big Musicals Have Become Big Business
“On the heels of its most lucrative season yet, with a record-setting $1.37b in ticket sales, Broadway has experienced something of a rebirth. From the success of La La Land on the big screen to Hamilton onstage, there’s a collective renewed interest in theater that’s been reflected in a wave of movie-musicals and televised live-concert experiences. All of this seems, to entertainment industry insiders, like the chorus following a crescendo.” How has this happened? Disney and Glee.