“When [the] future Nobel laureate … made his one and only film in the mid-1960s, he structured it both as a chase film and as a homage to the earliest years of cinema. However, you won’t be surprised to learn that the resulting work, Film, is far more complex, strange and intellectual than its slapstick forebears.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
London’s National Theatre Has Begun Producing Off-Broadway
“While the play had its world premiere at the National Theatre in London, in collaboration with Headlong, the creative team and cast wanted a future life for the show. When a West End or New York transfer didn’t come together, they tried another way.” NT exec Tim Levy explains how it happened (and might happen again).
Iran Releases Toronto Filmmaker From Prison
“Mostafa Azizi, 54, was released from an Iranian prison on Saturday after serving about one year of an eight-year sentence for charges of insulting the country’s leader and spreading propaganda against the state.”
Recreating Ancient Instruments – *Really* Ancient, Like The Carnyx
The European Music Archaeology Project (EMAP) “covers the Paleolithic Era to around A.D. 1000 and the Dark Ages. Calling on the skills of archaeologists, philologists, acousticians, metal workers and others, it has brought back to life instruments ranging from ancient bagpipes to 30,000-year-old vulture-bone flutes.” (includes sound clips)
Fan Fiction: Peter Schjeldahl On The Computer-Generated Rembrandt
“Like its literary equivalents, it mimics the effect of a particular creator’s art. Working backward from that point, it passes the creator’s intention – intelligence, emotion, soul – coming the other way. There’s no harm in it.”
Is Theater Criticism Too White? Here’s How To Change It
The keynote speech at this year’s American Theatre Critics Association conference in Philadelphia.
Are There Really Qualities In Black Music Or Art Or Lit That Only Black Critics Can Perceive?
Rick Moody suggested as much in a recent New York Times Book Review essay. George Packer – citing Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin – begs to differ. And what if we suggested the same about European art or music?
Orchestral Musician (Disgruntled) On ‘What I’m Really Thinking’
“We’re not all friends. The person on my right had an affair with the person on my left, and the ex sits close by. … Most people around me have had affairs, abuse alcohol or smoke. The working conditions are grueling enough that people develop coping mechanisms. It is a hugely toxic environment.”
Calling His Bosses Liars, Johan Kobborg Rejects Offer To Stay On As Director Of Romania’s National Ballet Company
Last week, the interim director of the Bucharest National Opera who stripped Kobborg of his artistic director title was quickly replaced, and Romania’s culture minister worked out a deal with Kobborg to stay on, with title. But things haven’t exactly worked out.
Longtime New Yorker Cartoonist Killed In Car Crash
“He had a particular beat, as it were – the preppy world, the world of Ralph Lauren, the Protestant WASP establishment that was on their way out, holding on to their diminishing privileges.”