Strange body art of “12 Years a Slave” 2
Unlike his socially and racially acute art, Steve McQueen’s movies bring out something strange in him. His first film, “Hunger,” carried an overwhelming emotional wallop in its graphic depiction of imprisoned IRA fighter Bobby Sands’ 1982 hunger strike. It went too far, but in good ways—the ways strong art always goes too far. His next, ...
See you @ CU! Classical Underground opens its season
Oct
16
2013
We are fans of the Monday night classical music series, Classical Underground. The formula for the off-the-beaten-track performances goes like this: nosh, sip, chew, gab … and then refined listening. Hosts Olga Vlasova and Alexey Steele throw open the gate to their vault of an artist’s loft located in a weird wonderland — a faraway industrial ...
The perils of Pauline Schindler 1
In an early letter, Pauline Schindler wrote, “One of my dreams, Mother, is to have, someday, a little joy of a bungalow, on the edge of the woods and mountains near a crowded city, which shall be open just as some people’s hearts are open, to friends of all classes and types… Surely the mother ...
Dance historian Nancy Reynolds thanks Mr. B and Mme. T
Oct
14
2013
On October 7, 2013, at the Apollo Theater in New York, amongst the other “Bessie” Awards bestowed on dancers and choreographers, a dance writer, Nancy Reynolds, director of research for The George Balanchine Foundation, was honored with a Bessie for her Service to the Field. Nancy shared her acceptance comments with arts·meme: “First I’d like ...
Kyle Abraham’s “Kollide” in world premiere by BODYTRAFFIC
Oct
12
2013
It’s not possible — without being extremely personal — to describe what took place when the handsome and effervescent local dance troupe BODYTRAFFIC took to Santa Monica’s Broad Stage last night. Because this happening company isn’t just a triumph for itself—of course, it’s that too—but for an entire community that has waited for lightening to ...
Love for Henry in Orange County
A beautiful event Thursday night, October 20, 2013, a cocktail hour in honor of California’s preeminent arts patron Henry Segerstrom, the force behind Orange County’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts and subject of a new coffeetable book. The vast party took place at Assouline Publishing‘s chic boutique at South Coast Plaza, developed by Segerstrom circa ...
Koehler on Cinema: Clips
It may well be, as one Los Angeles cinephile said to me last week, “the year’s most important film series.” UCLA Film Archive’s “A Century of Chinese Cinema,” unlike the archive’s recent survey of contemporary Chinese cinema curated by former archive programmer Cheng-Sim Lim and REDCAT film series co-director Berenice Reynaud, takes a more historical ...
Koehler on Cinema: The Jia “touch”
The Fifth Generation of Mainland Chinese filmmakers who emerged in the 1980s, such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, began their careers as rebellious independents, but have settled for roles as state-approved makers of harmless epic period pieces like Zhang’s “The Flowers of War.” (To seal his official bona fides, Zhang masterminded the ultra-nationalist Beijing ...
Koehler on Cinema: Anti-piracy finds a hero in “Captain Phillips”
It had to happen. Sooner or later, Hollywood’s breathless, unending campaign against piracy was sure to find movie expression, its ideally useful metaphor. Coinciding roughly with the industry’s propaganda war against the netherworld of downloaders and other ne’er-do-wells, pirates of the classic seafaring variety from Somalia have raided and taken ransom commercial freighters. Sometimes, they’ve ...
Cool Hollywood jazz feted in festival
Jazz has been such an integral component to American motion picture soundtracks for so long, we sometimes forget it wasn’t always so. Try to think of modern motion picture soundtracks without jazz and it’s, well, unthinkable. Don Ellis’s vibrant, taut music to “The French Connection,” Johnny Mandel’s poignant songs like ”The Shadow of Your Smile” ...