“When you think of European modernist cinema, the cinema that changed the way we think of movies, that inspired the glories of American cinema of the 1970s and cinema around the world, it’s astonishing how many of those films were written by Tonino Guerra.”
Tag: 03.24.12
The Hunger Games Is A Political, Religious, Moral Commentary – Or So Everyone Says
“The Hunger Games, the teen action-adventure film that is opening to big numbers this weekend, is, without question, a parable of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s also a cautionary tale about Big Government. And undeniably a Christian allegory about the importance of finding Jesus. Or maybe a call for campaign-finance reform?”
Opium: A Real Spark For Artistic Genius (And Madness)
“It was the ‘magical conspiracy between opium, tuberculosis and God’ that inspired Keats’s great odes, Shelley’s laments, Schiller’s ballads, Novalis’s mysterious hymns, Chopin’s nocturnes, Murger’s brilliant vignettes of Bohemian life and countless other treasures of Romantic literature, music and the arts.”
Bringing The Twenty-Somethings Into Theatre – Online, Of Course
“Before shows open on stage, the audience gets to interact with characters on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr accounts. The theater company works with actors to develop the fictional characters on social media accounts.”
Designing For Opera, Ballet – And Kids’ Hospital Wards
“UCLA professor Robert Israel has often been called upon to help instill sorrow, tension and dread in opera-goers and theater and dance audiences.” At Johns Hopkins, he’s designing for children. “Now comes his cow who jumped over the moon — and other fanciful, brightly colored works. Hanging in the atrium of the children’s wing is Israel’s 22-foot-tall, red and pink ostrich consisting of fiberglass balloon shapes.”
Beautiful Book Shops? Who Needs ‘Em?
“The purpose of a bookshop is not to make its patrons sigh with pleasure, but to make them buy books. And I have seen scant evidence that, as a marketing strategy, the beautiful bookshop works very well as a selling venue. Some may succeed in spite of their beauty – through a great location or an excellent stock – but few because of it.”