“But those who see, do not see what they see…”
—Carmelo Bene
Practically unknown outside his native Italy yet as essential to the grammar of cinema as a Brakhage, Carmelo Bene finally gets his first retrospective in the English-speaking world courtesy of the Anthology Film Archives (after running at the Harvard Film Archive) on the 10th anniversary of his death.
Though chiefly known for his theatrical work, this possessed avant-gardist gate-crashed the 7th Art leaving in his wake a succinct but indelible body of work: a death rattle of anti-cinema. Utterly removed from the abominable provincialism of auteur cinema and its authorial individualism, his films are acts of self-dispute, impudently staging the tragic farce of his inner (artistic) life.
Bene’s films regurgitate the disorder of life and its forms; with a contusive freedom of imagination he desecrates the codes of filmmaking while testing his own capacity to live up to his visions.
—Carmelo Bene
Practically unknown outside his native Italy yet as essential to the grammar of cinema as a Brakhage, Carmelo Bene finally gets his first retrospective in the English-speaking world courtesy of the Anthology Film Archives (after running at the Harvard Film Archive) on the 10th anniversary of his death.
Though chiefly known for his theatrical work, this possessed avant-gardist gate-crashed the 7th Art leaving in his wake a succinct but indelible body of work: a death rattle of anti-cinema. Utterly removed from the abominable provincialism of auteur cinema and its authorial individualism, his films are acts of self-dispute, impudently staging the tragic farce of his inner (artistic) life.
Bene’s films regurgitate the disorder of life and its forms; with a contusive freedom of imagination he desecrates the codes of filmmaking while testing his own capacity to live up to his visions.
- 4/28/2012
- MUBI
Opera novice Mike Figgis is taking charge of Lucrezia Borgia at the Eno. Trouser parts and Renaissance porn were part of a steep learning curve
Mike Figgis is about to make his debut as an opera director at English National Opera. But his production of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia is hardly the fulfilment of a dream for the 62-year-old Oscar-nominated director. "I was never an opera-goer growing up. I was a jazz musician. I'd go and see Miles Davis. It would never cross my mind to go to the opera. My only preconceptions about opera were based on clips I had seen, to be honest." He smiles sheepishly beneath his mop of hair. "I only went to my first opera three or four years ago, when my girlfriend took me to the Met in New York."
Figgis is the latest in a long line of Eno's recruits from the worlds...
Mike Figgis is about to make his debut as an opera director at English National Opera. But his production of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia is hardly the fulfilment of a dream for the 62-year-old Oscar-nominated director. "I was never an opera-goer growing up. I was a jazz musician. I'd go and see Miles Davis. It would never cross my mind to go to the opera. My only preconceptions about opera were based on clips I had seen, to be honest." He smiles sheepishly beneath his mop of hair. "I only went to my first opera three or four years ago, when my girlfriend took me to the Met in New York."
Figgis is the latest in a long line of Eno's recruits from the worlds...
- 1/21/2011
- by Tom Service
- The Guardian - Film News
• Eno hopes to repeat Minghella success
• Company says 'It's our most ambitious season yet'
The man who defined Monty Python's visual language, and directed such films as Brazil, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is to try his hand at opera for the first time.
Terry Gilliam is to direct The Damnation of Faust at English National Opera next summer – where it is hoped that his production of Berlioz's masterpiece will not be beset by the problems that have harried the director in other contexts.
Heath Ledger died part way through the production of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, while The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was abandoned after Jean Rochefort, the star, suffered a herniated disc and the set flooded.
John Berry, Eno's artistic director, acknowledged the risks for newcomers attempting to take on opera. "It can be like a car crash coming at you from every angle,...
• Company says 'It's our most ambitious season yet'
The man who defined Monty Python's visual language, and directed such films as Brazil, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is to try his hand at opera for the first time.
Terry Gilliam is to direct The Damnation of Faust at English National Opera next summer – where it is hoped that his production of Berlioz's masterpiece will not be beset by the problems that have harried the director in other contexts.
Heath Ledger died part way through the production of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, while The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was abandoned after Jean Rochefort, the star, suffered a herniated disc and the set flooded.
John Berry, Eno's artistic director, acknowledged the risks for newcomers attempting to take on opera. "It can be like a car crash coming at you from every angle,...
- 4/15/2010
- by Charlotte Higgins
- The Guardian - Film News
English National Opera will hope to repeat the successes of Anthony Minghella's Madam Butterfly
You can sometimes hear complaints about English National Opera – they just grab the most fashionable names from the theatre, say the company's critics, and stick them in opera and hope for the best. (Rupert "Enron" Goold's 2009 Turandot was the one that really split opinion – some found it wayward but with flashes of brilliance, others felt it proved that the only really successful opera directors are those who are primarily musicians.)
For next season, announced today, at least one can see that Eno are being consistent – they are forging a distinctive identity based on the idea of hooking talent out of other artforms and using that as a way of tempting new audiences into the London Coliseum.
And certainly, I'll be dying to see how Terry Gilliam envisions Berlioz's Damnation of Faust next May – as well...
You can sometimes hear complaints about English National Opera – they just grab the most fashionable names from the theatre, say the company's critics, and stick them in opera and hope for the best. (Rupert "Enron" Goold's 2009 Turandot was the one that really split opinion – some found it wayward but with flashes of brilliance, others felt it proved that the only really successful opera directors are those who are primarily musicians.)
For next season, announced today, at least one can see that Eno are being consistent – they are forging a distinctive identity based on the idea of hooking talent out of other artforms and using that as a way of tempting new audiences into the London Coliseum.
And certainly, I'll be dying to see how Terry Gilliam envisions Berlioz's Damnation of Faust next May – as well...
- 4/15/2010
- by Charlotte Higgins
- The Guardian - Film News
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