“Allen’s stature as an important filmmaker (unlike his personal reputation) has proved surprisingly sturdy – despite the withering self-assessments he offers every so often. In an interview during the filming of Match Point, he described himself as ‘functioning within the parameters of my mediocrity,’ and went on to note that if he were ever to make another great film, it would be ‘by accident.’ False modesty? Some, no doubt. But we would do best to take his words at face value.” And yet, writes Christopher Orr, “Allen’s reputation depends in no small part on the very indolence that undermines so many of his films.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
How A 17th-Century Naval Engineer Revolutionized Set Design
Here’s the story of Giacomo Torelli, whose “pole-and-chariot” devices made the spectacular stage effects of Baroque theater and opera possible.
What Jane Austen Has To Offer Straight Guys
William Deresiewicz, who began his career as an Austen scholar, has spent his adult life dealing with people’s surprise (if not more) at his choice of specialty. “Men, in particular, would get this look in their eyes, as if to say, ‘What’s wrong with you, dude?'”, while women often seemed to act as if he was intruding into a domain that was theirs (in a way that, say, George Eliot or Virginia Woolf or the Brontës are not). Here Deresiewicz considers what it is about Austen that would make women feel so possessive, what makes an Austen hero sexy, and how her novels taught him “how to be a better man.”
The Ten Greatest Hal Prince Broadway Productions, Ranked
Rachel Shukert: “It’s easy for such a list to seem like a list of the ten best Broadway musicals, period. Prince’s contribution to the American theater is so vast, so elemental, that it feels a little bit like ranking the ten best colors. A case can be made that green is a better color than yellow, but without both of them, the rainbow as we know it would cease to exist. Still, I’m always up for a challenge, particularly one that will engage and perhaps, enrage, the show-biz multiverse known as my Twitter feed.”
Was This Man The Mahler Of Mexico?
Silvestre Revueltas “wasn’t exactly a nationalist; folk music didn’t much interest him. He did, however, relish the popular idioms of his land. His music may call to mind Stravinsky at certain times, Mahler at others, as well as Bartók and Edgard Varèse, yet pulsing through its pages are the soulful sounds of the bands playing across the Mexican countryside, in villages and on ranches. This isn’t fusion so much as it is a celebration of both high and low, the refined and the rustic. What makes his body of work all the more astonishing is that Revueltas largely produced it during one turbulent decade – the final 10 years of his life.”
The Next Show From The Folks Behind ‘Sleep No More’ Will Be Six Hours Long, Performed For Two People At A Time
Kabeiroi, which the company Punchdrunk says is a “theatrical adventure” inspired by the surviving fragments of Aeschylus’s play of that name, will require each pair of audience members (no singletons allowed) to travel to various venues around London (transit fare not included) and spend much of the time outdoors and/or on their feet. Warning: “This production is not suitable for women at any stage of pregnancy [or] individuals who are claustrophobic or have a nervous disposition.”
How To Present A Ballerina Her Bouquet Without Tripping And Falling (Or Stealing Her Focus)
“In the world of classical ballet, the presentation of flowers to the lead ballerinas is a carefully choreographed ritual, one steeped in tradition and rules, and perfected by decades of practice. It’s also a study in contrasts, as ushers with no stage experience must walk across the stage to meet the most graceful of performers at center stage. What could go wrong?” You’d be surprised. Peggy McGlone talks with ushers at the Kennedy Center who do it.
Detroit Hires A ‘Chief Storyteller’, The First In Any U.S. City
“The $75,000 position … was conceived to give Detroiters a way to connect and discuss issues that don’t get covered by the city’s traditional media” – i.e., something other than ruin porn or comeback boosterism. The person named to the job is popular journalist Aaron Foley, author of How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass.
Photographer Stripped Of Award Because She Submitted Somebody Else’s Work
Madeleine Josephine Fierz of Switzerland won a gold medal at the Moscow International Foto Awards for a series of images of young Thais which she titled “I look at the world with the eyes of a child.” Turns out they were the work of a Thai photographer, and Fierze downloaded them from Pixabay.
Pierre Bergé, 86, Co-Founder Of Yves Saint-Laurent And Powerful Arts Patron
“His ambitions carried him far from fashion into the worlds of politics and culture. Though his clients were mostly rich and conservative, he was a staunch supporter of the Socialist Party, a contributor to liberal causes and a patron and arbiter of literature, theater and music.” President Mitterand appointed Bergé head of the Paris Opera, where his six-year tenure was stormy even by the standards of that notoriously contentious institution.