“Chicago” wins best picture at the Oscars, Roman Polanski wins best director. “The telecast walked a tight-rope. Splashy song-and-dance numbers and a biting monologue delivered by host Steve Martin had to compete with some of the most bracing news of the day.”
Blog
On The War – Hollywood’s Divided House?
There is an impression that much of Hollywood opposes George Bush’s war on Iraq. But it’s more divided than that. “Producers, directors, writers and executives report heated disputes on sets, a sudden uptick in the use of the term ‘blacklist,’ an industrywide sense of confusion and a huge number of people changing their minds daily. There are not many conservative voices in Hollywood, certainly among the stars. But if you’re backstage, you hear a lot of sound people, makeup people and grips who are mostly supportive of President Bush. Even if they’re making $100,000 a week, actors like to think of themselves as rebels.”
Rediscovering Dance
There are so few original ballet scores – music written specifically for dance. “So when a lost ballet by Prokofiev — one of the greatest of all composers for dance — is rediscovered, it’s cause for rejoicing.”
Bollywood Works To Become Profitable
India’s Bollywood is the largest film industry in the world, but it hasn’t been profitable for years. “Although revenue in Bollywood has increased during the last five years, losses have also increased, reaching three billion rupees last year. The number of films made annually is expected to fall from 1,200 to below 1,000, leading to an increase in the average revenue per movie.”
Why “Chicago,” Why Now?
No one expected “Chicago” to become this big a hit. “But the movie’s domestic box office is now double that of ‘Moulin Rouge,’ the only other movie musical to fly in years, and, unlike that predecessor, ‘Chicago’ didn’t have to throw in David Bowie and Beck to entice the musical-phobic youthful demographic thought to spurn show tunes by John Kander and Fred Ebb. Young audiences have turned up anyway. Everyone has. The film has touched a nerve this year as no previous incarnation of Watkins’s play (there were two previous film versions) ever did.” Why? Even though the musical traces its roots back to 1926, its themes are timeless.
Artists – Activism In Slow Motion
“Art-world activism is everywhere, however, albeit at rather low volume.” But where it does penetrate the public conciousness, it seems not many people care. Reasons?
Art & Auction Magazine Sold
Louise Blouin MacBain, former CEO of auction house Phillips has bought struggling “Art & Auction” magazine from LVMH Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton, with plans to “redesign the 25-year-old magazine and develop a sister newsletter on art market data and investment trends. She plans to nearly double the magazine’s circulation of 22,000 over the next three months by expanding into Germany, France and England.”
Brit Galleries Take To New York
The theory is that more Americans will be staying at home for awhile instead of travelling out of country. Reluctant to give Americans up as customers, “a growing number of British dealers are establishing a more formal presence by opening galleries in New York. The logic is simply that if the customers are not coming to you, then you must go to them.”
Art For Smart Investors
There are some signs that art is currently a better investment than stocks and bonds. “Since London shares were last at present levels, seven years ago, the painting segment of the art market, as measured by Artprice.com, has provided an annual return of 6.8 per cent. A painting pays no dividend, is expensive to insure, and will cost you fat commissions to buy and sell. But if you put your 1996 nest-egg into a well-chosen work of art, rather than a selection of FTSE 100 blue-chips, you could afford to be pretty smug.”
If It’s Really Art, It Doesn’t Fit In A Cliche
Blake Gopnik has had it up to here with silly cliches about what art is or isn’t. In fact, he has a top ten list of the silliest pigeonholes critics and pundits try to force art into. Included are such gems as “Good Art Is The Mirror Of Its Times,” “Good Art Is Abstract,” and “Good Art Is Finely Crafted.” Says Gopnik of that last cliche, “a cuckoo clock is finely crafted.”