27th January 2014
At lunchtime on Sunday I sat in the front row of Screen 2 at the Barbican watching – for the first time on a big screen since November – Richard II Live from Stratford-upon-Avon. Tonight I sat in the front row of Screen 3 of Cineworld Haymarket at the premiere of Digital Theatre’s screen version of Private Lives. Two months on from making Richard II I’m still trying to organise my thoughts about it, and doubtless I’ll continue musing on Private Lives, in part because it takes such a different approach to translating a stage play for the screen. But I can’t help but say that I was once again thrilled by what the team achieved with Richard II – and remember Henry IV part one is to be broadcast on 14 May (above) – and a touch disappointed by Private Lives. read more »
26th January 2014
A explanation, of sorts, for my absence, is in the complementary post to this, as are recommended film and TV links from the past month or so. Today, before we get back to the blog in earnest, here are further links, of literature and Ladybird Books, of peep shows (as above) and digital culture and more.
• Thousands of years of visual culture made free through Wellcome Images: it’s wonderfully welcome news that the Wellcome Foundation has made freely available more than 100,000 images under a Creative Commons license; the details are in this post, and the full credit for the wonderful image above is as follows:
L0031022 Looking at a Peep show in the street, Peking (detail)
Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images
[email protected] http://wellcomeimages.org
A Manchu girl, wearing platform shoes, and a Manchu bannerman, in
his sheepskin coat,stand looking at a travelling Peep show.
The showman is wearing winter dress made of coarse cotton cloth.
Peking, Pechili Province, China.
Photograph 1869 By: John Thomson
Gold and Platinum-toned albumen print by Michael Gray, 1997
Published: -
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 2.0
read more »
25th January 2014
Nearly a month and not a single new post. Given the time of year, I might have expected things to have been quiet, leaving plenty of time for the blog. But not a bit of it. I have started work on the next two cinema broadcasts for the RSC’s Live from Stratford-upon-Avon. At Illuminations we have been busy developing new broadcast ideas and working on a project for the Science Museum. Distribution of our DVD box-set of An Age of Kings continues. And I have been writing two journal articles, a book review for Sight & Sound, preparing a Screen Plays season for BFI
, editing archive material for Tate Britain’s exhibition about Kenneth Clark in May, and teaching some classes at the Royal College of Art. Today, I’m taking part in a Q&A after a special encore screening at the Barbican of Richard II Live from Stratford-upon-Avon, which coincides with the end of the show’s stage run. So I’ve not been idle, just not contributing here – and not being very active with social media either. To start again, however, here is the first of two collections of links that have engaged me recently, with a concentration today on those related to television (including HBO’s True Detective, above) and cinema. read more »
2nd January 2014
To conclude our 2013 round-up, and before we get to the business of 2014 over the weekend and next week, this is our final ‘top ten’ of the year. Let’s hope that the new year can offer as rich a range of experiences.
1. The Great Beauty
Unsurprisingly Paolo Sorrentino’s panorama of modern Rome (above, with Toni Servillo) has featured in the ‘tens’ by Linda and by Keith, and in many other end-of-the-year round-ups. I saw the film on a Sunday afternoon from the front row of one of the small screens at Clapham Picturehouse – and I was completely overwhelmed. Visually, aurally (part of the score is by Zbigniew Preisner), this is great and glorious cinema…
2. Gravity
… as is Alfonso Cuarón’s astonishing space adventure. Back in November I posted a clutch of links for those interested in learning more about the film, its production and reception. Including it here also gives me an excuse to feature the 2-D trailer once again.
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2nd January 2014
At the end of every year each of us at Illuminations and at our sister company Illuminations Films contributes a top ten of cultural highlights of the year. We run these through this holiday period, with the penultimate contribution today from our head of business development Louise Machin.
1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Apollo Theatre
I saw this in March and immediately loved the innovative, hi-tech staging, incredible lighting, and sound design (above) which indicated the grid-like, sensory over-laden world that artistic genius, Christopher (Luke Treadway), perceives around him: overwhelming, busy and noisy. Mark Haddon’s cult novel highlights Christopher’s struggles with the difficulties of everyday life whilst those close to him buckle under the emotional pressures they face.
Adapted for stage by Simon Stephens, this production gives us the world through Christopher’s eyes, which is why it works so well. Starting with a great doggy corpse stuck with a garden fork, Christopher begins his detection trail, virtually disregarding those around him except his teacher, Siobhan (Niamh Cusack) who seems to be the only character able to comfort him when all else appears to stop functioning as he goes into emotional crisis. A must-see, once the Apollo has its roof back on. read more »
1st January 2014
At the end of every year each of us at Illuminations and at our sister company Illuminations Films contributes a top ten of cultural highlights of the year. We run these through this holiday period, with the third contribution today from Illuminations Films’ Simon Field. Thank you, Simon. Happy new year to you – and to all!
It was a very strong year for the Venice Biennale and several of the exhibitions in Venice would warrant inclusion in notable experiences of 2013: the marvellous, carefully curated Edouard Manet show – with its room of still lives the least of its pleasures – Jeremy Deller’s British Pavilion, the Anthony Caro condensed retrospective of substantial works.But I’d highlight the main show in the central pavilion of the Giardini and then continued (somewhat exhaustingly it has to be admitted) in the Arsenale: the Massimiliano Gioni-curated The Encyclopedic Palace (above). Echoing in some of its participants, outsider artists that we’ve seen in shows in London this last year (at the Hayward and the Wellcome Collection), it included an endlessly fascinating collection of encyclopedic visions of the world, strange collections and personal cosmologies from the mystical to the wittily everyday (Fischli and Weiss). read more »
31st December 2013
At the end of every year each of us at Illuminations and at our sister company Illuminations Films contributes a top ten of cultural highlights of the year. We run these through this holiday period, with the fourth contribution today from filmmaker and facilities manager Todd Macdonald.
1. Cirque De Soleil: Kooza, Royal Albert Hall
This was probably one of the most heart stopping live performances I have ever seen. Some of the acrobatics seemed so unnatural for any human to be able to achieve that it almost didn’t feel real to watch. It was the spinning wheels that looked like a giant rotary cheese grater act that stole the show. Two men scaled it’s frame whilst it span at speed, performing skips and flips in the brief moments they were at the top of it’s rotation. The trailer gives you a pretty good idea of how amazing the Cirque De Soleil is; utterly jaw dropping.
read more »
30th December 2013
At the end of every year each of us at Illuminations and at our sister company Illuminations Films contributes a top ten of cultural highlights of the year. We run these through this holiday period, with the third contribution today from Illuminations Films’ Keith Griffiths. Thank you, Keith – happy new year to you!
Keith: Being a country recluse with little London or overseas travel this year, my cultural input was rather limited in comparison to the non-stop lives of some. But then when I read the about the vast number of exhibitions, concerts and performances friends have visited this year, I get a fierce attack of indigestion. So much ‘stuff’. Do we really need all this to improve our minds and lives? I think I am fast turning into an Edmund Burkean reactionary.
1. Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s
In this spirit – my most pleasurable documentary was Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s, a riveting story of one of NYC’s mythic landmarks. Fabulous stories from Bergdorf Goodman’s iconic history directed by Matthew Miele. The legend, the parties, the fashion idols, the windows, the women, the buyers and shoppers all come to life in an essay to a site where creativity and commerce reigned equally.
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29th December 2013
Across the past fortnight Royal Opera House director of opera Kasper Holten has been posting a video diary of his rehearsals towards a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni which opens on 1 February. (The image above is a detail from the playbill of the opera’s Vienna premiere in 1788.) Holten has taped three episodes to date and they make a fascinating contrast with the production diaries created by Royal Shakespeare Company for Richard II. Holten’s pieces are shorter, far simpler – to date, just him filming himself speaking to camera – and strongly authored, as this first one demonstrates. I have embedded the other two across the jump, along with a clutch of additional links for this last weekend of 2013. Thanks for Twitter tips to @StephensSimon, @pkerwood, @KeyframeDaily, @lukemckernan, @manovich and @melissaterras.
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28th December 2013
At the end of every year each of us at Illuminations and at our sister company Illuminations Films contributes a top ten of cultural highlights of the year.
We run these through this holiday period, with the second contribution today from Tom Allen who is a recent recruit to the marketing team. As with most of these offerings, his ten is in no particular order.
1. Persona
“Nicholas Ray is cinema,” Jean-Luc Godard said of the great American director. That’s kind of how I feel about Ingmar Bergman after watching Persona (1966). OK, so that’s the feeling I get from watching most Bergman, but Persona is different, not least because watching Persona is watching a director at the very height of his powers. There are few films that I might describe as perfect, but Persona may well be one. read more »
