The BlackBox Ensemble, a New York City-based contemporary music collective, presents a concert program at The Noguchi Museum of sonic landscapes designed to explore our relationship with space, time, objects, and memory. The program features the world premiere of the English-language version of Borrowed Landscape, a narratorio written and directed by playwright duo tauchgold (Heike Tauch and Florian Goldberg) and composer Dai Fujikura, as well as compositions by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, inti figgis-vizueta, and Toru Takemitsu.
The final work in this four-part program will be the premiere of Borrowed Landscape, which originated as a German-language radio play with music by Dai Fujikura and text, scenario, and direction by tauchgold. BlackBox Ensemble and The Noguchi Museum are honored to present this work for the first time in a live concert setting, with a new English translation.
The play tells the story of three special instruments: a Stradivarius violin walled up in a cellar in Budapest,...
The final work in this four-part program will be the premiere of Borrowed Landscape, which originated as a German-language radio play with music by Dai Fujikura and text, scenario, and direction by tauchgold. BlackBox Ensemble and The Noguchi Museum are honored to present this work for the first time in a live concert setting, with a new English translation.
The play tells the story of three special instruments: a Stradivarius violin walled up in a cellar in Budapest,...
- 10/19/2023
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
It goes without saying that movie music has come a mighty long way in the last 100 years or so, but the first two decades of the 21st century have nevertheless been an extraordinarily active and evolutionary stretch of time for film scores. Without discounting the bold and formative achievements of old masters like Bernard Hermann and Toru Takemitsu, it’s fair to say that the rise of independent cinema and the challenge of the digital age have provoked a true paradigm shift in how we think about musical accompaniment.
Rock and avant-garde musicians like Jonny Greenwood and Mica Levi have used narrative projects as inspiration to explore new facets of their genius, while more traditional composers such as Alexandre Desplat and Carter Burwell have risen to the challenge by delivering the most beautiful work of their careers. Indeed, some of the very best movie scores in recent memory (including the...
Rock and avant-garde musicians like Jonny Greenwood and Mica Levi have used narrative projects as inspiration to explore new facets of their genius, while more traditional composers such as Alexandre Desplat and Carter Burwell have risen to the challenge by delivering the most beautiful work of their careers. Indeed, some of the very best movie scores in recent memory (including the...
- 8/10/2023
- by Wilson Chapman, David Ehrlich, Kate Erbland and Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Over the weekend, the management team of Ryuichi Sakamoto shared a final parting gift from the towering musician, who died in March — a playlist he compiled for his funeral.
The 33-song set runs for about two-and-a-half hours and primarily features compositions by prominent Western composers like Erik Satie, Bach, Ravel, and Debussy. Additionally, there’s a piece from famed Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu, and the playlist opens with a work from Sakamoto collaborator Alva Noto. Sakamoto also included music by the Bill Evans Trio, Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, David Sylvain,...
The 33-song set runs for about two-and-a-half hours and primarily features compositions by prominent Western composers like Erik Satie, Bach, Ravel, and Debussy. Additionally, there’s a piece from famed Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu, and the playlist opens with a work from Sakamoto collaborator Alva Noto. Sakamoto also included music by the Bill Evans Trio, Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, David Sylvain,...
- 5/15/2023
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
A long-retired Red Cross nurse whose only real plans for the winter of 1976 involve redesigning the inside of her family’s beach house and planning her granddaughter’s seven birthday party, Carmen — played by the elegantly unraveling Aline Kuppenheim — spends her days fussing around with the furniture and waiting for her doctor husband to return from Santiago on the weekend, oblivious to the discordant electric daggers of the Mariá Portugal score that cuts a hole into the soundscape around her. She dreams of a living room that’s soaked in the kiss-pink shade of a Venetian sunset, and at one point is so entranced by a vat of swirling paint that she hardly seems to hear the screams of a young leftist as they’re disappeared off a nearby street in broad daylight.
But Carmen is not quite as callous as her Westchester chic wardrobe might suggest. The empathy that...
But Carmen is not quite as callous as her Westchester chic wardrobe might suggest. The empathy that...
- 5/3/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Graduating as Ozu’s assistant with his debut feature-length at Shochiku in 1960, Masahiro Shinoda (b. 1931) saw the dawn of the Japanese New Wave and rose to prominence alongside the likes of Nagisa Oshima, Yasuzo Masumura, Koreyoshi Kurahara, and Shohei Imamura among a whole host of others. Though he would spend most of his career reinterpreting and reimagining whole genres including the yakuza film and jidaigeki, the films across his four-decade-long career would predominantly be united by a re-examination of Japanese historical, societal, and national identity, complete with a focus on alienation, mythologies, and religious and moral turmoil. Frequently coupled with composer Toru Takemitsu, cinematographers Masao Kosugi and Tatsuo Suzuki, and actress Shima Iwashita (whom he would go on to marry), Shinoda’s films grapple with man’s perturbing darkness and its effect on the personal and national conscience. Like most of his Nūberu Bāgu compatriots, Shinoda frequently negated cinematic and narrative traditions,...
- 2/22/2023
- by JC Cansdale-Cook
- AsianMoviePulse
Japan boasts one of the most robust and oldest film industries in the world, with historian Yomota Inuhiko dating its origins as far back as 1896. With visionary filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki among the industry's most recognizable names, Japan has produced some truly extraordinary films. Beyond sweeping historical epics and fantasy fare sharing the country's extensive folklore, Japan has produced a growing number of dramas that have stood the test of time.
From slice-of-life portraits across Japanese history to biting commentaries on society, Japanese dramas widely feature precision in storytelling and deliberate pacing to meditate on its themes. For decades, cinema has become a place for Japanese artists to question and subvert cultural norms directly while exploring and pondering existential themes. With that all in mind, here are the 15 best Japanese drama movies, from avant-garde pieces to animated films that delve into more humanist subject matter, showcasing different...
From slice-of-life portraits across Japanese history to biting commentaries on society, Japanese dramas widely feature precision in storytelling and deliberate pacing to meditate on its themes. For decades, cinema has become a place for Japanese artists to question and subvert cultural norms directly while exploring and pondering existential themes. With that all in mind, here are the 15 best Japanese drama movies, from avant-garde pieces to animated films that delve into more humanist subject matter, showcasing different...
- 1/27/2023
- by Samuel Stone
- Slash Film
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Woman in the Dunes"
Where You Can Stream It: The Criterion Channel
The Pitch: A bug-hunting schoolteacher finds himself stranded in a sandpit with a woman, at the mercy of demented villagers, and forced into a life of shoveling sand.
In Japan, where rural population decline is an ongoing problem, there are places in the countryside that will actually pay people to live there. As 2023 began, the BBC and CNN reported that the government has upped its incentive program to 1 million yen per child for families willing to move away from the crowded capital of Tokyo to less thriving towns.
The villagers in "Woman in the Dunes" have devised a different scheme. They prey on solo travelers like...
The Movie: "Woman in the Dunes"
Where You Can Stream It: The Criterion Channel
The Pitch: A bug-hunting schoolteacher finds himself stranded in a sandpit with a woman, at the mercy of demented villagers, and forced into a life of shoveling sand.
In Japan, where rural population decline is an ongoing problem, there are places in the countryside that will actually pay people to live there. As 2023 began, the BBC and CNN reported that the government has upped its incentive program to 1 million yen per child for families willing to move away from the crowded capital of Tokyo to less thriving towns.
The villagers in "Woman in the Dunes" have devised a different scheme. They prey on solo travelers like...
- 1/14/2023
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Mikio Naruse solidified himself as one of Japan’s most admirable filmmakers. His work is known for the pessimistic yet raw outlook on life, showing that the world is not a perfect place while focusing on human vulnerability. Much like Kenji Mizoguchi, he frequently gave women a voice in his work, notably working with beloved actress Hideko Takamine throughout his career. In addition, Naruse would sometimes create premises for narratives that sound surreal on paper yet would be executed wonderfully on film. Look no further than his final masterpiece, “Scattered Clouds,” also known as “Two in the Shadow.”
Released in 1967, this would be Mikio Naruse’s final film, as he would later pass away in 1969 from cancer. His health was already declining when he made this movie, yet that didn’t keep him down when directing this tragic love story. Fittingly writing the screenplay is Nobuo Yamada,...
Released in 1967, this would be Mikio Naruse’s final film, as he would later pass away in 1969 from cancer. His health was already declining when he made this movie, yet that didn’t keep him down when directing this tragic love story. Fittingly writing the screenplay is Nobuo Yamada,...
- 11/23/2022
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
In this hour-long mix devoted to musician Tôru Takemitsu’s soundtrack oeuvre, the Japanese master’s varied body of scoring sounds and collaborations is in full effect, offering a spectrum of different emotions and genres.Takemitsu was a pivotal figure in modern classical music and much of his work continues to influence the contemporary canon today. Early in his career the composer was exposed to Western sounds while working a job for the US Armed Forces, and many of his groundbreaking compositions synthesized Western and Eastern sensibilities. Membership in the avant-garde Jikken Kōbō (an experimental music workshop formed in Japan’s postwar 1950s) led to an interest in and passion for the work of John Cage and concepts such as musique concrète, which can be heard throughout Takemitsu’s singular sound. Additionally, images of Japanese gardens, water, and the poems of Emily Dickinson inspired the tonalities of Takemitsu’s sound,...
- 6/22/2022
- MUBI
Pedro Almodóvar’s dark mystery “Julieta” (December 21, Sony Pictures Classics) is Spain’s Oscar submission this year. After he introduced the Hitchcockian “tough drama” at Cannes, the storied Spanish auteur and Oscar-winner (original screenplay, “Talk to Her”) sat down with me to discuss Hitchcock, adapting Alice Munro, and the woman who was originally set to play the title character: Meryl Streep.
Check out highlights from our conversation and video below.
Read More: Pedro Almodóvar on Almost Making ‘Julieta’ with Meryl Streep: She’s a ‘Sublime Instrument’
“Hitchcock is always present,” said Almodóvar of the master of suspense’s influence on “Julieta,” including “Strangers on a Train.” “Even if I don’t think about him, he’s like the mother of the cinema.” Ditto Patricia Highsmith, the oft-adapted novelist whose books have provided a template for countless writers and filmmakers hoping to thrill their audiences.
The writer-director, who’s humble...
Check out highlights from our conversation and video below.
Read More: Pedro Almodóvar on Almost Making ‘Julieta’ with Meryl Streep: She’s a ‘Sublime Instrument’
“Hitchcock is always present,” said Almodóvar of the master of suspense’s influence on “Julieta,” including “Strangers on a Train.” “Even if I don’t think about him, he’s like the mother of the cinema.” Ditto Patricia Highsmith, the oft-adapted novelist whose books have provided a template for countless writers and filmmakers hoping to thrill their audiences.
The writer-director, who’s humble...
- 12/15/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Pedro Almodóvar’s dark mystery “Julieta” (December 21, Sony Pictures Classics) is Spain’s Oscar submission this year. After he introduced the Hitchcockian “tough drama” at Cannes, the storied Spanish auteur and Oscar-winner (original screenplay, “Talk to Her”) sat down with me to discuss Hitchcock, adapting Alice Munro, and the woman who was originally set to play the title character: Meryl Streep.
Check out highlights from our conversation and video below.
Read More: Pedro Almodóvar on Almost Making ‘Julieta’ with Meryl Streep: She’s a ‘Sublime Instrument’
“Hitchcock is always present,” said Almodóvar of the master of suspense’s influence on “Julieta,” including “Strangers on a Train.” “Even if I don’t think about him, he’s like the mother of the cinema.” Ditto Patricia Highsmith, the oft-adapted novelist whose books have provided a template for countless writers and filmmakers hoping to thrill their audiences.
The writer-director, who’s humble...
Check out highlights from our conversation and video below.
Read More: Pedro Almodóvar on Almost Making ‘Julieta’ with Meryl Streep: She’s a ‘Sublime Instrument’
“Hitchcock is always present,” said Almodóvar of the master of suspense’s influence on “Julieta,” including “Strangers on a Train.” “Even if I don’t think about him, he’s like the mother of the cinema.” Ditto Patricia Highsmith, the oft-adapted novelist whose books have provided a template for countless writers and filmmakers hoping to thrill their audiences.
The writer-director, who’s humble...
- 12/15/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Told in flashback over 30 years of guilt and grief, this tender melodrama based on three Alice Munro short stories is Pedro Almodóvar’s best film in a decade
Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar’s latest, his most moving and entrancing work since 2006’s Volver, is a sumptuous and heartbreaking study of the viral nature of guilt, the mystery of memory and the often unendurable power of love. At times, the emotional intrigue plays more like a Hitchcock thriller than a romantic melodrama, with Alberto Iglesias’s superb Herrmannesque score (the director cites Toru Takemitsu, Mahler and Alban Berg as influential) heightening the noir elements, darkening the bold splashes of red, blue and white. Three short stories from the Canadian author Alice Munro’s 2004 volume Runaway provide the source material, but the spirit of Patricia Highsmith looms large as strangers on a train fuel the circling narrative (one character even observes that...
Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar’s latest, his most moving and entrancing work since 2006’s Volver, is a sumptuous and heartbreaking study of the viral nature of guilt, the mystery of memory and the often unendurable power of love. At times, the emotional intrigue plays more like a Hitchcock thriller than a romantic melodrama, with Alberto Iglesias’s superb Herrmannesque score (the director cites Toru Takemitsu, Mahler and Alban Berg as influential) heightening the noir elements, darkening the bold splashes of red, blue and white. Three short stories from the Canadian author Alice Munro’s 2004 volume Runaway provide the source material, but the spirit of Patricia Highsmith looms large as strangers on a train fuel the circling narrative (one character even observes that...
- 8/28/2016
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Watch a movie scored by Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann or John Williams and you instantly recognize the composer’s signature sound.
Having just received the prestigious Vision Award at the Locarno Film Festival, Howard Shore has amassed a body of work that requires him to be mentioned among those fellow composing legends. From the ominous underbelly he gave “Seven,” to the magical rhythms that drive “Hugo,” to the dour tones encapsulating the reporters’ struggle in “Spotlight,” to the music that brought Tolkien’s Middle Earth to life, Shore has been behind some of the very best film scores of the last 40 years.
Read More: Legendary Composer Ennio Morricone Is Releasing A Greatest Hits Album
Yet what’s remarkable about Shore’s body of work, and what separates him from the other scoring legends, is that there’s nothing instantly recognizable binding together his diverse scores.
Growing up in Toronto, the...
Having just received the prestigious Vision Award at the Locarno Film Festival, Howard Shore has amassed a body of work that requires him to be mentioned among those fellow composing legends. From the ominous underbelly he gave “Seven,” to the magical rhythms that drive “Hugo,” to the dour tones encapsulating the reporters’ struggle in “Spotlight,” to the music that brought Tolkien’s Middle Earth to life, Shore has been behind some of the very best film scores of the last 40 years.
Read More: Legendary Composer Ennio Morricone Is Releasing A Greatest Hits Album
Yet what’s remarkable about Shore’s body of work, and what separates him from the other scoring legends, is that there’s nothing instantly recognizable binding together his diverse scores.
Growing up in Toronto, the...
- 8/19/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Japanese art filmmaking writ large by director Hiroshi Teshigahara: a strange allegorical fantasy about a man imprisoned in a sand pit, and compelled to make a primitive living with the woman who lives there. Perhaps it's about marriage... Woman in the Dunes Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 394 1964 / B&W / 1:33 full frame / 148 min. / Suna no onna / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 23, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida, Hiroko Ito Production Design Totetsu Hirakawa, Masao Yamazaki Produced by Tadashi Oono, Iichi Ichikawa Cinematography Hiroshi Segawa Film Editor Fuzako Shuzui Original Music Toru Takemitsu Written by Kobo Abe Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the 1960s the public interest in art cinema reached out beyond France and Italy, finally giving an opening for more exotic fare from Japan. Director Hiroshi Teshigahara earned his moment in the spotlight with 1964's Woman in the Dunes, an adaptation of a book by Kobo Abe.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the 1960s the public interest in art cinema reached out beyond France and Italy, finally giving an opening for more exotic fare from Japan. Director Hiroshi Teshigahara earned his moment in the spotlight with 1964's Woman in the Dunes, an adaptation of a book by Kobo Abe.
- 8/9/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Japanese film-maker’s adaptation of King Lear is still visually and dramatically breathtaking
This 1985 film was the last proper epic from Japanese maestro Akira Kurosawa, and it’s a magisterial achievement. An adaptation of King Lear, rereleased in a splendid 4K restoration, it tells the story of Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), an elderly warlord with a history of ruthless slaughter, who entrusts his domain to three sons, rather than daughters, their individual battle regalia – red, yellow and blue – giving the film a striking colour coordination. The increasingly livid, ghostly Noh-style makeup worn by Nakadai highlights the theatricality, as does a somewhat Brechtian performance from Peter (just Peter) as an androgynous fool.
Kurosawa’s deployment of huge armies in vast landscapes displays a pre-digital mastery that we can only gasp at today, and the castle siege sequence – arrows flying, blood flowing, stage crimson – is all the more magnificent for the...
This 1985 film was the last proper epic from Japanese maestro Akira Kurosawa, and it’s a magisterial achievement. An adaptation of King Lear, rereleased in a splendid 4K restoration, it tells the story of Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), an elderly warlord with a history of ruthless slaughter, who entrusts his domain to three sons, rather than daughters, their individual battle regalia – red, yellow and blue – giving the film a striking colour coordination. The increasingly livid, ghostly Noh-style makeup worn by Nakadai highlights the theatricality, as does a somewhat Brechtian performance from Peter (just Peter) as an androgynous fool.
Kurosawa’s deployment of huge armies in vast landscapes displays a pre-digital mastery that we can only gasp at today, and the castle siege sequence – arrows flying, blood flowing, stage crimson – is all the more magnificent for the...
- 4/3/2016
- by Jonathan Romney
- The Guardian - Film News
"What Does ‘Cinematic TV’ Really Mean?" reads the headline over Matt Zoller Seitz's introduction to a video at Vulture that features examples of imaginatively directed television such as Fargo, True Detective, The Leftovers and The Knick. Also in today's roundup: Reverse Shot has launched a new symposium in which writers argue that the director isn't the true auteur. So far: "Leon Shamroy's Leave Her to Heaven" and "Juliette Binoche's Clouds of Sils Maria." Plus: A review of Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan highlighting the work of composer and sound designer Tôru Takemitsu, interviews with Eric Khoo, John Cameron Mitchell and Tab Hunter—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/22/2015
- Keyframe
"What Does ‘Cinematic TV’ Really Mean?" reads the headline over Matt Zoller Seitz's introduction to a video at Vulture that features examples of imaginatively directed television such as Fargo, True Detective, The Leftovers and The Knick. Also in today's roundup: Reverse Shot has launched a new symposium in which writers argue that the director isn't the true auteur. So far: "Leon Shamroy's Leave Her to Heaven" and "Juliette Binoche's Clouds of Sils Maria." Plus: A review of Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan highlighting the work of composer and sound designer Tôru Takemitsu, interviews with Eric Khoo, John Cameron Mitchell and Tab Hunter—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/22/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
What makes a Ghost Story scary? This classic was almost too artistic for the Japanese. Masaki Kobayashi's four stories of terror work their spells through intensely beautiful images -- weirdly painted skies, strange mists -- and a Toru Takemitsu audio track that incorporates strange sounds as spooky musical punctuation. Viewers never forget the Woman of the Snow, or the faithful Hoichi the Earless. Finally restored to its full three-hour length. Kwaidan Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 90 1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 183 161, 125 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 20, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Michiyo Aratama, Rentaro Mikuni; Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiko Kishi; Katsuo Nakamura, Tetsurao Tanba, Takashi Shimura; Osamu Takizawa. Cinematography Yoshio Miyajima Film Editor Hisashi Sagara Art Direction Shigemasa Toda Set Decoration Dai Arakawa Costumes Masahiro Kato Original Music Toru Takemitsu Written by Yoko Mizuki from stories collected by Kiozumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) Produced by Shigeru Wakatsuki Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
- 10/20/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
There are many names that come to mind when one looks back at the Japanese New Wave era: Nagisa Oshima, Koreyoshi Kurahara, Shohei Imamura, Masahiro Shinoda, and many, many more. The movement truly began with the adaptation of Shintaro Ishihara’s novel Crazed Fruit, released with the same name by director Ko Nakahira in his 1956 film. The film would kickoff a movement, a collective stream of films that juxtaposed a time in Japanese history where the traditional society of Japan clashed with the coming of a more contemporary way of living. The American occupation ended in 1952, bringing forth a difficult period for the Japanese individual and the struggle for the realization of purpose in a changing country.
One cannot discuss the Japanese New Wave without Hiroshi Teshigahara and his collaborations with Japanese writer Kobo Abe and composer Toru Takemitsu. Teshigahara didn’t make many films during this period of extreme...
One cannot discuss the Japanese New Wave without Hiroshi Teshigahara and his collaborations with Japanese writer Kobo Abe and composer Toru Takemitsu. Teshigahara didn’t make many films during this period of extreme...
- 9/1/2015
- by Anthony Spataro
- SoundOnSight
Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2014 discoveries”…
Heather McIntosh: MaddAddam Trilogy, Margaret Atwood. Volumina for Organ, György Ligeti. Mind Brains (Orange Twin Records)
Lavallee: In Z for Zachariah, Craig Zobel goes from a “Great World of Sound” (pardon the pun) to nothingness. How did you research dystopia, lifeless scapes and survivalism?
McIntosh: The score fits somewhere between pastoral and experimental. Research, I studied a lot of contemporary organ scores, like the Ligeti one above (not that the score really went that far out).
Lavallee: This is your second outing with Craig, your previous collaboration was the cringe worthy essay on victimization. In terms of instrument selection, what did you sprinkle onto Z?
McIntosh: For Compliance, it was cello driven. For Z for Zachariah, Cello is still there, but there is a larger chamber ensemble sound, pump organ, piano, choral ensemble, French horn, and a as always a sprinkling of electronic ambience.
Heather McIntosh: MaddAddam Trilogy, Margaret Atwood. Volumina for Organ, György Ligeti. Mind Brains (Orange Twin Records)
Lavallee: In Z for Zachariah, Craig Zobel goes from a “Great World of Sound” (pardon the pun) to nothingness. How did you research dystopia, lifeless scapes and survivalism?
McIntosh: The score fits somewhere between pastoral and experimental. Research, I studied a lot of contemporary organ scores, like the Ligeti one above (not that the score really went that far out).
Lavallee: This is your second outing with Craig, your previous collaboration was the cringe worthy essay on victimization. In terms of instrument selection, what did you sprinkle onto Z?
McIntosh: For Compliance, it was cello driven. For Z for Zachariah, Cello is still there, but there is a larger chamber ensemble sound, pump organ, piano, choral ensemble, French horn, and a as always a sprinkling of electronic ambience.
- 2/5/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Toru Takemitsu referred to music as the art of time. He modeled his compositions after gardens, attributing the ideas of time and space involved in cultivation to the placement of notes and time signatures within his music. The elements of nature were musical notations; dirt was the base layer; the stones never move; some plants grow and have different cycles than others. The ideas of cultivating time, space, movement, and growth into a composition were an inspiration to my process as a filmmaker. Like a garden, a film involves a delicate balance that you can never force or will into […]...
- 1/21/2015
- by Cameron Bruce Nelson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Toru Takemitsu referred to music as the art of time. He modeled his compositions after gardens, attributing the ideas of time and space involved in cultivation to the placement of notes and time signatures within his music. The elements of nature were musical notations; dirt was the base layer; the stones never move; some plants grow and have different cycles than others. The ideas of cultivating time, space, movement, and growth into a composition were an inspiration to my process as a filmmaker. Like a garden, a film involves a delicate balance that you can never force or will into […]...
- 1/21/2015
- by Cameron Bruce Nelson
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
At the beginning of the month we got word that soundtracks (of two volumes each) are being released for "Hannibal" Seasons 1 and 2, but details on the latter were scant. Today that changes as we have the official Season 2 artwork and more!
From the Press Release:
Lakeshore Records will release two new volumes of music from the hit NBC television series Hannibal, composed by Brian Reitzell (Lost in Translation, "Boss").
The Hannibal Season Two Volumes 1 & 2 Original TV Soundtracks will be available digitally on September 2nd and on CD September 23, 2014. As with the two volumes of music from Season One, released digitally August 5th and arriving on CD September 2nd, each track on these two albums is a suite of music from an episode of the series.
“In this second season of Hannibal each episode is named after a Japanese food course,” said Reitzell. “It kind of gave me the opportunity to...
From the Press Release:
Lakeshore Records will release two new volumes of music from the hit NBC television series Hannibal, composed by Brian Reitzell (Lost in Translation, "Boss").
The Hannibal Season Two Volumes 1 & 2 Original TV Soundtracks will be available digitally on September 2nd and on CD September 23, 2014. As with the two volumes of music from Season One, released digitally August 5th and arriving on CD September 2nd, each track on these two albums is a suite of music from an episode of the series.
“In this second season of Hannibal each episode is named after a Japanese food course,” said Reitzell. “It kind of gave me the opportunity to...
- 8/20/2014
- by Debi Moore
- DreadCentral.com
Pluralism is the defining feature of music at the end of the 20th century – from the minimalist film music of Michael Nyman to the lush sounds of Toru Takemitsu to the spectralist works that explored sound itself, writes Gillian Moore
"We live in a time not of mainstream but of many streams," John Cage mused as he surveyed the musical scene shortly before his death in 1992, "or even, if you insist upon a river of time, then we have come to the delta, maybe even beyond a delta to an ocean which is going back to the skies … "
The 12th and final episode of The Rest Is Noise festival is called New World Order. It may still be too early to have the historical distance to tell what really mattered in classical music at the end of the 20th century. What is clear, however, is that in the closing decades...
"We live in a time not of mainstream but of many streams," John Cage mused as he surveyed the musical scene shortly before his death in 1992, "or even, if you insist upon a river of time, then we have come to the delta, maybe even beyond a delta to an ocean which is going back to the skies … "
The 12th and final episode of The Rest Is Noise festival is called New World Order. It may still be too early to have the historical distance to tell what really mattered in classical music at the end of the 20th century. What is clear, however, is that in the closing decades...
- 12/4/2013
- by Gillian Moore
- The Guardian - Film News
War is hell, for sure, but war can make for undeniably brilliant movie-making. Here, the Guardian and Observer's critics pick the ten best
• Top 10 action movies
• Top 10 comedy movies
• Top 10 horror movies
• Top 10 sci-fi movies
• Top 10 crime movies
• Top 10 arthouse movies
• Top 10 family movies
10. Where Eagles Dare
As the second world war thriller became bogged down during the mid-60s in plodding epics like Operation Crossbow and The Heroes of Telemark, someone was needed to reintroduce a little sang-froid, some post-Le Carré espionage, and for heaven's sake, some proper macho thrills into the genre. Alistair Maclean stepped up, writing the screenplay and the novel of Where Eagles Dare simultaneously, and Brian G Hutton summoned up a better than usual cast headed by Richard Burton (Major Jonathan Smith), a still fresh-faced Clint Eastwood (Lieutenant Morris Schaffer), and the late Mary Ure (Mary Elison).
Parachuted into the German Alps, they have one...
• Top 10 action movies
• Top 10 comedy movies
• Top 10 horror movies
• Top 10 sci-fi movies
• Top 10 crime movies
• Top 10 arthouse movies
• Top 10 family movies
10. Where Eagles Dare
As the second world war thriller became bogged down during the mid-60s in plodding epics like Operation Crossbow and The Heroes of Telemark, someone was needed to reintroduce a little sang-froid, some post-Le Carré espionage, and for heaven's sake, some proper macho thrills into the genre. Alistair Maclean stepped up, writing the screenplay and the novel of Where Eagles Dare simultaneously, and Brian G Hutton summoned up a better than usual cast headed by Richard Burton (Major Jonathan Smith), a still fresh-faced Clint Eastwood (Lieutenant Morris Schaffer), and the late Mary Ure (Mary Elison).
Parachuted into the German Alps, they have one...
- 10/29/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Western authority on the culture of Japan, his adopted homeland
Donald Richie, who has died aged 88, wrote extensively on Japan, his adopted homeland after his arrival in 1947 with the Us occupation forces. He was best known for his books on cinema, including The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (1959), the first major English-language study of the subject, co-written with Joseph L Anderson; The Films of Akira Kurosawa (1965); Ozu: His Life and Films (1974); and A Hundred Years of Japanese Film (2001). Richie played a pivotal role in introducing the director Yasujiro Ozu to foreign audiences and curated, in 1963, the first international Ozu retrospective, at the Berlin film festival. In 1983, he received the first Kawakita award, for individuals or organisations that have contributed to Japanese film culture.
Though recognised as the most important figure in introducing Japanese cinema to the west, Richie saw himself as a writer foremost and a film critic secondarily. His...
Donald Richie, who has died aged 88, wrote extensively on Japan, his adopted homeland after his arrival in 1947 with the Us occupation forces. He was best known for his books on cinema, including The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (1959), the first major English-language study of the subject, co-written with Joseph L Anderson; The Films of Akira Kurosawa (1965); Ozu: His Life and Films (1974); and A Hundred Years of Japanese Film (2001). Richie played a pivotal role in introducing the director Yasujiro Ozu to foreign audiences and curated, in 1963, the first international Ozu retrospective, at the Berlin film festival. In 1983, he received the first Kawakita award, for individuals or organisations that have contributed to Japanese film culture.
Though recognised as the most important figure in introducing Japanese cinema to the west, Richie saw himself as a writer foremost and a film critic secondarily. His...
- 2/21/2013
- by Jasper Sharp
- The Guardian - Film News
Above: A rack focus in Bullitt.
Trespassers Will Be Eaten
Perhaps a less eye-grabbing, but still “driving” title for this third Mubi soundtrack mix should be Shifting Gears...as such, it’s a free-falling, propulsive survey of scores focusing on the thriller in all of its manifestations: detective procedurals, bank heists, neo-noirs, spy films, psychodramas, giallos, chases, races, and sci-fi mind-games. Featured also are a few composers better known for their more famous musical projects. Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s metallic, rhythmic score for Rumble Fish, gamely taunts the self-conscious black and white street theatre of Francis Ford Coppola's film. So-called fifth Beatle, producer George Martin’s funky Shaft-influenced Live and Let Die score ushers in a more leisurely 70s-era James Bond, as incarnated by Roger Moore. Epic crooner visionary Scott Walker’s fatally romantic melodies for Leos Carax’s inventively faithful Melville adaptation Pola X is remarkably subdued and lush.
Trespassers Will Be Eaten
Perhaps a less eye-grabbing, but still “driving” title for this third Mubi soundtrack mix should be Shifting Gears...as such, it’s a free-falling, propulsive survey of scores focusing on the thriller in all of its manifestations: detective procedurals, bank heists, neo-noirs, spy films, psychodramas, giallos, chases, races, and sci-fi mind-games. Featured also are a few composers better known for their more famous musical projects. Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s metallic, rhythmic score for Rumble Fish, gamely taunts the self-conscious black and white street theatre of Francis Ford Coppola's film. So-called fifth Beatle, producer George Martin’s funky Shaft-influenced Live and Let Die score ushers in a more leisurely 70s-era James Bond, as incarnated by Roger Moore. Epic crooner visionary Scott Walker’s fatally romantic melodies for Leos Carax’s inventively faithful Melville adaptation Pola X is remarkably subdued and lush.
- 10/15/2012
- by Paul Clipson
- MUBI
Above: Image from Maurice Binder's title sequence for Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
Sleep Little Lush
This follow-up to the previous soundtrack mix, Hyper Sleep, is very much the same animal: a chance gathering of mesmerizing music tracks, carefully arranged to focus on the interstitial character of film music—its ability to distill into hallucinatory moments, the most sensual or emotional qualities of a film’s nature, and amplify these sensations to increase their temporal impact. With this idea of music as intoxicant in mind, the passing this year of John Barry was a loss of one of the great “perfumers” of film composing (for more on music as perfume, see Daniel Kasman’s “Herrmann’s Perfume”). The beautiful themes that Barry scored for the world of 007 that open this collection set the spell for a kaleidoscopic (largely) 60s and 70s sample of some of the best film music written by Ennio Morricone,...
Sleep Little Lush
This follow-up to the previous soundtrack mix, Hyper Sleep, is very much the same animal: a chance gathering of mesmerizing music tracks, carefully arranged to focus on the interstitial character of film music—its ability to distill into hallucinatory moments, the most sensual or emotional qualities of a film’s nature, and amplify these sensations to increase their temporal impact. With this idea of music as intoxicant in mind, the passing this year of John Barry was a loss of one of the great “perfumers” of film composing (for more on music as perfume, see Daniel Kasman’s “Herrmann’s Perfume”). The beautiful themes that Barry scored for the world of 007 that open this collection set the spell for a kaleidoscopic (largely) 60s and 70s sample of some of the best film music written by Ennio Morricone,...
- 12/26/2011
- MUBI
Above: Composer Cliff Martinez. Photograph by Robert Charles Mann.
Bernard Herrmann, John Barry, Georges Delerue, Toru Takemitsu...sometimes it seems like cinema's greatest composers are all behind us. But just as films were not "better back then," soundtracks weren't either. Looking for great soundtrack artists nowadays is akin to looking for great movies: there seems a lot more of everything, and it takes a roving gaze (and ear) to find that excellence and expression splintered across film festivals, creaking home video releases, YouTube videos (see, recently, a gathering of music by Jorge Arriagada for Raúl Ruiz's films) and other disseminations of the ever-widening world of cinema.
While I may look forward to a film by a director I like, or one shot by a cinematographer I'm interested in, it's not every day I'm excited to hear a movie. One major exception to this aural ignorance is a name that...
Bernard Herrmann, John Barry, Georges Delerue, Toru Takemitsu...sometimes it seems like cinema's greatest composers are all behind us. But just as films were not "better back then," soundtracks weren't either. Looking for great soundtrack artists nowadays is akin to looking for great movies: there seems a lot more of everything, and it takes a roving gaze (and ear) to find that excellence and expression splintered across film festivals, creaking home video releases, YouTube videos (see, recently, a gathering of music by Jorge Arriagada for Raúl Ruiz's films) and other disseminations of the ever-widening world of cinema.
While I may look forward to a film by a director I like, or one shot by a cinematographer I'm interested in, it's not every day I'm excited to hear a movie. One major exception to this aural ignorance is a name that...
- 9/27/2011
- MUBI
Reviewing Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower is not an easy task for me. I wasn't even aware of the Japanese New Wave movement before watching it, but once I learned it drew from similar inspirations as the French New Wave I wasn't in the least bit surprised considering the one name that never escaped me while watching Pale Flower was Jean-Luc Godard. The comparison, however, was more of a feeling, more of a sense of directorial presence and control and the styles seem to simply match up. I also noticed hints of The Third Man and Sweet Smell of Success in the noir atmosphere, wet stone and dark shadowy corners of the night.
The experimental score by Toru Takemitsu also stands out and as you begin to make your way through the slim, but informative special features even more corners of this world will begin to reveal themselves that you hadn't even noticed before.
The experimental score by Toru Takemitsu also stands out and as you begin to make your way through the slim, but informative special features even more corners of this world will begin to reveal themselves that you hadn't even noticed before.
- 6/9/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Film:
The second best non-Godzilla export cinematically from Japan has been the samuari genre, but the yakuza genre, a proud, lively ode to gangsters and their tales has been equally as popular. Aided by a crafty sound design, and a dark, moody, often romantic cinematography, 1964′s Pale Flower, is a soft-spoken look at the underworld with the juxtaposition of innocent love and danger. But it’s director Masahiro Shinoda and composer Toru Takemitsu fusion of image and sound that makes Pale Flower far more memorable than the listlessness of the plot.
A gangster named Murak is finally released from jail after a small sentence, and is immediately brought back into the underworld, where he meets a beautiful young lady named Saeko, who decided to escape from the lulls of everyday life by participating in the underworld’s illegal gambling clubs.Here, one yearns to leave but the other is seduced into the crime world,...
The second best non-Godzilla export cinematically from Japan has been the samuari genre, but the yakuza genre, a proud, lively ode to gangsters and their tales has been equally as popular. Aided by a crafty sound design, and a dark, moody, often romantic cinematography, 1964′s Pale Flower, is a soft-spoken look at the underworld with the juxtaposition of innocent love and danger. But it’s director Masahiro Shinoda and composer Toru Takemitsu fusion of image and sound that makes Pale Flower far more memorable than the listlessness of the plot.
A gangster named Murak is finally released from jail after a small sentence, and is immediately brought back into the underworld, where he meets a beautiful young lady named Saeko, who decided to escape from the lulls of everyday life by participating in the underworld’s illegal gambling clubs.Here, one yearns to leave but the other is seduced into the crime world,...
- 6/1/2011
- by Jon Peters
- Killer Films
Pale Flower Directed by: Masahiro Shinoda Written by: Ataru Baba, Masahiro Shinoda Starring: Ryo Ikebe, Mariko Kaga, Takashi Fujiki I have practically no experience with Japanese New Wave filmmaking but it's clear that the influence of Pale Flower has seeped its way through the landscape of modern crime films (Jim Jarmusch's filmography comes to mind). After my first viewing I found Masahiro Shinoda's film to be as mysterious as it is cool with it's stark black and white photography, inspired visuals and complex characterizations. It also left me realizing that it might take a second viewing to totally grasp the subtleties of Pale Flower. The film stars Ryo Ikebe as Muraki, a Yakuza gangster fresh out of prison. Having been put away for murdering a member of a rival gang, he quickly realizes upon his release that the two factions have since called a truce, leaving him to adjust to the changes.
- 5/25/2011
- by Jay C.
- FilmJunk
Chicago – I’ve been lucky enough to cover a number of fantastic Criterion Collection releases for films that I already counted among my favorites including Roman Polanski’s “Repulsion,” Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory,” Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire,” and David Cronenberg’s “Videodrome.” While that’s an undeniable joy, it’s almost more fun when a Criterion title arrives for a film that I’ve never seen — a lost classic. Such was the case with this month’s “Pale Flower,” a somber gem about sad people in a changing world.
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
Masahiro Shinoda’s “Pale Flower” opens with an interesting narration from lead Muraki (Ryo Ikebe), a hardcore Yakuza who has just been released from prison for murder. He misanthrophically comments on the “beasts” around him and the changing world he sees. Why should anyone be put in jail for putting just a pathetic creature out of...
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
Masahiro Shinoda’s “Pale Flower” opens with an interesting narration from lead Muraki (Ryo Ikebe), a hardcore Yakuza who has just been released from prison for murder. He misanthrophically comments on the “beasts” around him and the changing world he sees. Why should anyone be put in jail for putting just a pathetic creature out of...
- 5/24/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
DVD Playhouse: May 2011
By
Allen Gardner
Blow Out (Criterion) Brian De Palma’s greatest Hitchcock homage, with a dash of Antonioni thrown in for good measure. John Travolta gives one of his best turns as a sound-effects engineer who unwittingly records a political assassination, then finds himself hunted by a ruthless hitman (John Lithgow, a memorably creepy psycho) after saving the life of the kindly, albeit dim-witted call girl (Nancy Allen, excellent) who was with the deceased. Terrific blend of suspense and very black humor, perhaps De Palma’s finest hour as an auteur. Beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Interviews with De Palma, Allen, cameraman Garrett Brown; Photo gallery; De Palma’s 1967 feature Murder a la Mod; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 2.0 surround.
Kes (Criterion) Ken Loach’s landmark 1970 film is both a heart-rending portrait of adolescence, and a pointed socio-political commentary on life in the North of England.
By
Allen Gardner
Blow Out (Criterion) Brian De Palma’s greatest Hitchcock homage, with a dash of Antonioni thrown in for good measure. John Travolta gives one of his best turns as a sound-effects engineer who unwittingly records a political assassination, then finds himself hunted by a ruthless hitman (John Lithgow, a memorably creepy psycho) after saving the life of the kindly, albeit dim-witted call girl (Nancy Allen, excellent) who was with the deceased. Terrific blend of suspense and very black humor, perhaps De Palma’s finest hour as an auteur. Beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Interviews with De Palma, Allen, cameraman Garrett Brown; Photo gallery; De Palma’s 1967 feature Murder a la Mod; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 2.0 surround.
Kes (Criterion) Ken Loach’s landmark 1970 film is both a heart-rending portrait of adolescence, and a pointed socio-political commentary on life in the North of England.
- 5/9/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
In a world that is getting more and more used to streaming their TV shows, their movies and even their lives, one company is known as the king of it all, and that’s Netflix. But Hulu, being around since 2007, has started to gain some steam this past year alone. Then Hulu Plus came along officially in November 2010, and as a monthly paid subscription promised subscribers full seasons of television shows, more episodes of series that were already on the site. When Criterion announced they were partnering with Hulu to showcase their films on the site, we here at CriterionCast were a bit skeptical.
A bit might be treading lightly. As fans, we first thought it was the biggest mistake they could have made. It was from the mindset that the ‘only’ streaming sight out there was Netflix and any other choice was a poor one. Myself being one that...
A bit might be treading lightly. As fans, we first thought it was the biggest mistake they could have made. It was from the mindset that the ‘only’ streaming sight out there was Netflix and any other choice was a poor one. Myself being one that...
- 4/29/2011
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
Composer Toru Takemitsu on the "Black Hair" sequence in Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan (1965):
"I wanted to create an atmosphere of terror. But if the music is constantly saying, "Watch out! Be scared!" then all the tension is lost. It's like sneaking up behind someone to scare them. First, you have to be silent. Even a single sound can be film music. Here, I wanted all sounds to have the quality of wood. We used real wood for effects. I'd ask for a "cra-a-a-ck" sound, and they'd split a plank of wood, or rip it apart, or rend it with a knife. Using all these wood sounds, I assembled the track." —from the documentary Music for Movies: Toru Takemitsu (1994)
What you are listening to:
Toru Takemitsu's score for Kwaidan:
(1) Opening titles
(2) The Black Hair
(3) The Woman of the Snow
(4) Hoichi the Earless - Tale of the Heike
(5) Hoichi...
"I wanted to create an atmosphere of terror. But if the music is constantly saying, "Watch out! Be scared!" then all the tension is lost. It's like sneaking up behind someone to scare them. First, you have to be silent. Even a single sound can be film music. Here, I wanted all sounds to have the quality of wood. We used real wood for effects. I'd ask for a "cra-a-a-ck" sound, and they'd split a plank of wood, or rip it apart, or rend it with a knife. Using all these wood sounds, I assembled the track." —from the documentary Music for Movies: Toru Takemitsu (1994)
What you are listening to:
Toru Takemitsu's score for Kwaidan:
(1) Opening titles
(2) The Black Hair
(3) The Woman of the Snow
(4) Hoichi the Earless - Tale of the Heike
(5) Hoichi...
- 12/10/2010
- MUBI
I have just returned from eight days of watching movies in Tokyo, to discover an array of Japanese films screening right here in New York. Let’s start with “The Face of Another” (1966), unspooling Tuesday as part of the Film Forum’s two-week showcase of movies with music by the renowned composer Toru Takemitsu. The noirish “Face,” directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, tells of a businessman (Tatsuya Nakadai) whose visage is horribly disfigured in an industrial accident. He allows a doctor to fit him with...
- 12/5/2010
- by By V.A. MUSETTO
- NYPost.com
Hiroshi Teshigahara's under-seen classic kicks off a retrospective for Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu at Film Forum. Oftentimes, a work of art can be a metaphor for something bigger than itself without the power of that metaphor ever becoming completely apparent to the viewer/reader/user. We read books, watch plays and see movies that were perhaps made to be allegories, allusions to the greater circumstances of our lives, yet these reference points can easily be missed; even when we are cognizant of what a work is a metaphor for, that doesn't always mean that the power of this metaphor will lend resonance to the work of art itself. This is not the case, however, with Horishi Teshigahara's classic allegory for man's struggle in a meaningless universe, Woman In The Dunes. Listed as one of the greatest films ever made by no less than Andrei Tarkovsky, the film expresses cinema's potential to make powerful,...
- 11/30/2010
- TribecaFilm.com
Akira Kurosawa, 1985
Kurosawa's last great film was made after many years in the wilderness. His star had fallen in Japan after a period of extraordinary artistic fertility ended in the mid-60s. His eyesight was failing; he'd attempted suicide. In 1980, he returned to favour with Kagemusha, which was seen as a rehearsal for his long-planned adaptation of King Lear. Ran finally appeared in 1985, and in its portrait of a great man who has lost control of his offices of power, critics were quick to read the experiences of the director himself.
Appropriating Lear gave Kurosawa scope to meditate on man's diminishing through age, but, in so doing, he produced, at 75, a film of breathtaking power and scale, and one of the most visually arresting war films ever made. The title translates as "chaos", and this is what erupts when Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), the patriarch of the Ichimonji clan, attempts...
Kurosawa's last great film was made after many years in the wilderness. His star had fallen in Japan after a period of extraordinary artistic fertility ended in the mid-60s. His eyesight was failing; he'd attempted suicide. In 1980, he returned to favour with Kagemusha, which was seen as a rehearsal for his long-planned adaptation of King Lear. Ran finally appeared in 1985, and in its portrait of a great man who has lost control of his offices of power, critics were quick to read the experiences of the director himself.
Appropriating Lear gave Kurosawa scope to meditate on man's diminishing through age, but, in so doing, he produced, at 75, a film of breathtaking power and scale, and one of the most visually arresting war films ever made. The title translates as "chaos", and this is what erupts when Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), the patriarch of the Ichimonji clan, attempts...
- 10/19/2010
- by Killian Fox
- The Guardian - Film News
Akira Kurosawa, 1985
Kurosawa's last great film was made after many years in the wilderness. His star had fallen in Japan after a period of extraordinary artistic fertility ended in the mid-60s. His eyesight was failing; he'd attempted suicide. In 1980, he returned to favour with Kagemusha, which was seen as a rehearsal for his long-planned adaptation of King Lear. Ran finally appeared in 1985, and in its portrait of a great man who has lost control of his offices of power, critics were quick to read the experiences of the director himself.
Appropriating Lear gave Kurosawa scope to meditate on man's diminishing through age, but, in so doing, he produced, at 75, a film of breathtaking power and scale, and one of the most visually arresting war films ever made. The title translates as "chaos", and this is what erupts when Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), the patriarch of the Ichimonji clan,...
Kurosawa's last great film was made after many years in the wilderness. His star had fallen in Japan after a period of extraordinary artistic fertility ended in the mid-60s. His eyesight was failing; he'd attempted suicide. In 1980, he returned to favour with Kagemusha, which was seen as a rehearsal for his long-planned adaptation of King Lear. Ran finally appeared in 1985, and in its portrait of a great man who has lost control of his offices of power, critics were quick to read the experiences of the director himself.
Appropriating Lear gave Kurosawa scope to meditate on man's diminishing through age, but, in so doing, he produced, at 75, a film of breathtaking power and scale, and one of the most visually arresting war films ever made. The title translates as "chaos", and this is what erupts when Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), the patriarch of the Ichimonji clan,...
- 10/19/2010
- by Killian Fox
- The Guardian - Film News
• I picked up on something of David Fincher in The Social Network I hadn't noticed before—his appreciation for script's which split his protagonists into dopplegangers. In this film, the character of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is cast not just as Jesse Eisenberg (in a strong, concrete-like performance of moving singularity) as Zuckerberg, but as Andrew Garfield's sweet best friend, Justin Timberlake's opportunistic nerd-playboy, Rooney Mara's irritated ex-girlfriend, and more. The film's structure is likewise split across recollections from two different depositions, and is further underlined by having a set of twins be major characters (actually one actor duplicated via special effects!), the references to the two-men crew team, etc. Thinking back on how Benjamin Button was split across the characters he encounters across different time periods, each reflecting versions of himself and his thinking, Zodiac's obsession being shared between the three major characters and the anonymous killer,...
- 10/4/2010
- MUBI
What you are listening to:
A little medley from some of the films playing for free in our festival of Cannes selected favorites. Go here to see what films are viewable for free in your area.
"Titoli: Atmosfera Tensiva" by Giovanni Fusco. From Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960).
"Cucurrucucu Paloma (Live)" by Caetano Veloso. From Wong Kar-wai's Happy Together (1997).
"Ti ricordi di siboney" by Nino Rota. From Federico Fellini's Amacord (1974).
"Mesecina (Moonight)" by Goran Bregovic. From Emir Kusturica's Underground (1995).
"My Favorite Things (Rehearsal)" by Björk. From Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (2000).
"Eternal Smile" by Chow Hsuan. From Johnnie To's Election (2005).
"Notturno II" by Giovanni Fusco. From Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960).
"Not Human" by Javier Navarette. From Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (2006).
"Siegfried's Funeral March" by Richard Wagner. From Aleksandr Sokurov's Moloch (1999).
"Harakiri" by Toru Takemitsu. From Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri (1962).
"Chunga's Revenge" by Frank Zappa.
A little medley from some of the films playing for free in our festival of Cannes selected favorites. Go here to see what films are viewable for free in your area.
"Titoli: Atmosfera Tensiva" by Giovanni Fusco. From Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960).
"Cucurrucucu Paloma (Live)" by Caetano Veloso. From Wong Kar-wai's Happy Together (1997).
"Ti ricordi di siboney" by Nino Rota. From Federico Fellini's Amacord (1974).
"Mesecina (Moonight)" by Goran Bregovic. From Emir Kusturica's Underground (1995).
"My Favorite Things (Rehearsal)" by Björk. From Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (2000).
"Eternal Smile" by Chow Hsuan. From Johnnie To's Election (2005).
"Notturno II" by Giovanni Fusco. From Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960).
"Not Human" by Javier Navarette. From Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (2006).
"Siegfried's Funeral March" by Richard Wagner. From Aleksandr Sokurov's Moloch (1999).
"Harakiri" by Toru Takemitsu. From Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri (1962).
"Chunga's Revenge" by Frank Zappa.
- 6/2/2010
- MUBI
In the golden days of radio the great symphony orchestras of the world broadcast over short and long wave bands, creating pockets of listeners all over the globe. In isolated Japan in the 1940s the young composer Toru Takemitsu learned the ways of Western music from the Armed Forces radio network. In Maine, Charles Ives listened to the premiere of his 2nd Symphony, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, over the radio. When FM came in after the Second World War, sound quality improved, but the since the range of FM is limited to line-of-sight, those millions of listeners lucky enough to get an ionosphere bounce from New York to Vermont or Chicago to Colorado were left in silence. The advent of the long-playing record took the thrill and necessity away from live broadcasts, and radio audiences shrank. Then came the golden age of...
- 9/5/2009
- by Gerald Sindell
- Huffington Post
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