Sweet Smell of Success

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Alexander Mackendrick, Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success, Tony Curtis

Sweet Smell of Success

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick

USA, 1957

Cornerhouse, 29 December 2013

A supremely dark film, unnerving and disturbing still, possessing absolutely no moral centre or heart at all; it is completely disenchanting.

Half-mad at least, J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) is a columnist who rules over a hellish city where corruption and hypocrisy are rife.  His domineering hold over a much younger sister is suggestive of incest or worse.  Only the sister’s musician lover (‘the Dallas boy’) is in any way admirable, but he’s a victim, easy pickings for Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis in perhaps his best ever performance).  Sidney is a publicist for sale, a lackey, a creep, a blackmailer and a pimp, but at least he’s a survivor.  A city rat, he looks like he’s crawled out of a Jim Thompson novel.

The cinematography is superb, as evocative as Weegee’s photography.  Here it is almost always night; neon signs offer loans and liquor, traps for the weak and the unwary; skyscrapers and subways frame a world weirdly out of kilter.  Everywhere there are shadows and pools of darkness.

But, unlike as in Weegee’s world, the law here are agents of evil and none are saved.  There’s a perfect ending, with no hint of justice or redemption.

Sweet Smell of Success was shown as part of the My Noir season, further details are here.

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magickal metrosexual

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magickal metrosexual, osc poem

medieval artist

modern alchemist

bohemian monk

magickal metrosexual

Fill the Void

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Fill the Void, Hasidic, Irit Sheleg, Rama Burshtein

Fill the Void

Directed by Rama Burshtein

Israel, 2012

Cornerhouse, 22 December 2013

At root, a film about moral choice – if love be a matter of choice rather than destiny.

It is set in a Hasidic community, convincingly drawn.  The question is whether, when her elder sister dies while giving birth, Shira should marry the widower.  There is pressure for her to do so but she must make up her own mind.  This community has apparently a formal system of match-making, even so marriage must be a free choice and done for the right reasons.

The film has a slow, measured pace yet one’s attention never wavers.  Rather, one relishes the film’s subtlety and the opportunity to become engrossed in diverse social machinations and the characters’ several concerns.  To the very end, one is uncertain whether the right choice has been made.

Of particular note is Irit Sheleg’s performance as Rivka, a fierce matriarch.

Richard Dadd

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Richard Dadd

Here is an interesting web page all about the Victorian painter Richard Dadd:

http://www.noumenal.com/marc/dadd/

Cinema Paradiso

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Cinema Paradiso, Enzo Cannavale, Giuseppe Tornatore

Cinema Paradiso

Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore

Italy, 1988

Cornerhouse, 15 December 2013

This is in a way another film about World War Two and its aftermath.

It is a beautiful film, touching upon life and art, friendship and love, ambition and calling, the village that forms you and the city where your destiny lies – amongst other things.

The film’s great strength is that it is romantic yet has its eyes wide open: the camera sees all, doesn’t miss a trick.  ‘All’ here would include: the social divisions of the village and the way (e.g.) that the left-winger is always left standing in the square and never hired, the loveless life of the mature Salvatore and his estrangement from his mother.  There’s an homage to Peeping Tom.

Enzo Cannavale’s performance as Alfredo, the projectionist who becomes an avuncular presence in Salvatore’s life when his father doesn’t return, is outstanding.  The lad Salvatore – talkative, loud, always answering back – is a delight.

Anyhow, a classic film – and one can see clearly now how much Travelling Light, the National Theatre’s play of a few years back, owes to it.

L’Elisir d’Amore

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Donizetti, Je cherche après Titine, Kang Wang, L'Elisir d'Amore, The Elixir of Love, Thomas Hopkinson

L’Elisir d’Amore (The Elixir of Love)

Music by Gaetano Donizetti

RNCM Theatre, 12 December 2013

Can there be a more beautiful love song than Una furtiva lagrima?

It is an aria that Kang Wang (as Nemorino) sings superbly in this splendid production of Donizetti’s lively comedy.

One can clearly see that Gilbert and Sullivan systematically plundered L’Elisir d’Amore throughout their career, rather in the manner of the Soviet Red Army dismantling the factories and plants and railways of Manchuria at the end of the Second World War.  Their The Sorcerer being perhaps the most direct descendent.  Dulcamara’s closing aria (a fine performance all around by Thomas Hopkinson) led to Leo Daniderff’s Je cherche après Titine, the song pastiched/performed by Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times, which is another indication of Donizetti’s pedigree.

A tale of tender love, just a twinge of cynicism added as spice, together with the sublime Una furtiva lagrima.  Perfect entertainment.

L’Elisir d’Amore is showing again on Saturday, but that’s the last chance to see it.  Further details are here.

Finally, here’s Pavarotti singing Una furtiva lagrima.

Wanted! Robin Hood

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Charles Way, Emilio Doorgasingh, Library Theatre Company, Peter Landi, Wanted! Robin Hood

Wanted! Robin Hood

By Charles Way

Library Theatre Company

The Lowry, 3 December 2013

Emilio Doorgasingh as the Sheriff in Wanted! Robin Hood by Charles Way. Photo by Jonathan Keenan.

What you have is an action-packed adaptation of the story of Robin Hood.

So be prepared for swashbuckling swordplay, much adroit swinging from chains and plenty of jousting with staffs.  Along, that is, with the standard fisticuffs and an archery contest.

Emilio Doorgasingh as the Sheriff made an excellent baddie.  He came across as an angry, imperious man with a warped sense of entitlement.  Such as you might have too, if you’d just returned from fighting overseas in the Crusades and witnessing who knows what atrocities.  Another actor who stood out for me was Peter Landi: he took on two principal roles and was splendid in both.  As the jovial Friar Tuck he beamed and occasionally bristled, while he convinced also as Sir Guy, a sinister, malevolent assassin. Neither Sir Guy nor the Sheriff was simply a pantomime villain.

There were some scary moments but children from about eight years old will, I think, relish them.  All in all, a terrific Christmas play: adventures aplenty await, accompanied by generous helpings of humour, and there is a happy ending to boot.

Wanted! Robin Hood is at The Lowry until 11 January 2014, further details can be found here.

YCAT Series – Concert 1

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Adam Newton, Bartosz Woroch, Chausson, Mozart, Philip Higham, Piano Quartet in A major, Poulenc, Robert Thompson, YCAT Series - Concert 1

YCAT Series – Concert 1

RNCM Concert Hall, 26 November 2013

It is always a great pleasure to hear young musicians bring venerable works to life.

At this concert the quartet – Bartosz Woroch, Philip Higham, Robert Thompson and Adam Newton – played works by Mozart, Poulenc and Chausson.  The latter work stood out.  Chausson’s Piano Quartet in A major had a jaunty. meandering quality.  Melodies emerged gradually, becoming steadily more pronounced.  You listened with rapt attention.

Bartosz Woroch looked to be an extraordinarily fine violinist – definitely one to watch.  He had a brilliant technique and a complete focus on the present moment.  A luminous intensity.  Now alone mattered.

A very enjoyable concert.

The Broken Circle Breakdown

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Cornerhouse, Felix Van Groeningen, The Broken Circle Breakdown

The Broken Circle Breakdown

Directed by Felix Van Groeningen

Belgium, 2012

Cornerhouse, 1 December 2013

Not only a love story, a heart-wrenching tale of loss, and an ode to bluegrass music: it’s also about Europe’s disenchantment with America following Bush’s response to 9/11, that nation’s diminishment and loss of moral capital.

The music is wonderful and the moving central story draws you in, but the presence of Bush makes the film seem somewhat dated.  Even so, the paradox of America as at once the land of freedom and self-invention and home to a backward looking species of conservative Christianity is well brought out.

A good film.

RNCM Wind Orchestras

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Andriessen, Der Aufstand, Gavin Higgins, Hohler Fels, On Jimmy Yancey, Paul Goodey, RNCM Wind Orchestras, Stravinsky, Symphonies of Wind Instruments

RNCM Wind Orchestras

RNCM Concert Hall, 29 November 2013

This concert began with a bang and a clatter and the commotion kept up until it dwindled to a halt at the close.

The orchestra were performing Gavin Higgins’ Der Aufstand.  Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments was next, to be followed by Andriessen’s jazzy On Jimmy Yancey, which had a more conventional feel: the piano had its place.  In the second half there was the world premiere of Paul Goodey’s Hohler Fels, a work with manifold delicate melodies.

These were all works where wind instruments, and to some extent percussion, predominated.

It was a curious concert on the whole, though an enjoyable one.  I’d compare it to the experience of reading a sci-fi or steampunk novel that presents an alternative history of the world: this is how (all) music might have been, had the piano and other string instruments not been invented, or at any rate not dominated so much.