Rendering 10. Cinema

The article “Good Vibrations” was published by Robbie Collin on March 28, 2013. It discussed Robbie Collin reviews Good Vibrations, a biopic of Belfast punk impressario Terri Hooley.

In addition, is life really as formulaic as biopics make it look? The plot trajectory of Good Vibrations is so predictable you could chart it with a quadratic equation. This is a genial and generous account of the career of Belfast punk impresario Terri Hooley, best known as the man who discovered The Undertones and some other rough gems, while both The Troubles and his troubles took their toll.

Speaking of this situation, the expected story beats are hit in the usual order: the humble beginnings, the arrival of the supportive wife (Jodie Whittaker, doing good work in a boring role), the vital strokes of luck, the equally vital strokes of genius, the backbreak, the heartache, and finally the vindication.

It’s necessary to point out that Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson’s script gives Hooley some lovely lines to say, while perhaps cutting him a little too much slack. Belfast of the Seventies and Eighties feels right, too: Co-directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn are good on tactile details like flat beer and chunky coins; they also let the music speak for itself. This is no 24 Hour Party People (2002), but it induces all the tingles that the title promises.

            In conclusion I’d like to say that Richard Dormer is a Northern Irish actor, playwright and screenwriter. And I think Richard Dormer is a hairy tuffet of charisma in the lead role here.

Rendering 9. Cinema

The article “Robbie Collin's 10 bestaction films of all time” was published by Robbie Collin on March 26, 2013. It discussed as Barry Norman picks his top 10 film epics, Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin hits back with his own list of the 10 best action films.

In addition, in this week's Radio Times, film critic Barry Norman has selected his 10 favourite movie epics. His list includes modern hits such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy alongside established classics such as Lawrence of Arabia and Ben-Hur.

Here, there is a list:

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Ben-Hur (1959)

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Gladiator (2000)

Gone with the Wind (1939)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)

Napoleon (1927)

Spartacus (1960)

Throne of Blood (1957)

Speaking of this situation, there's not much to argue with in Norman's list, though some viewers might struggle to stay awake for many of these films' three-hour plus running times. With that in mind, here Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin selects his favourite 10 blockbusting action films that will keep you glued to the sofa - and wide awake - right up until the closing credits.

As for me, I prefer to watch modern films, but maybe now I’ll watch something from this list.

Film Review 2

Directed by       Darren Aronofsky

Produced by      Ari Handel, Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Brian Oliver

Screenplay by   Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin

Starring             Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis

            Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller and horror filmdirected by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis. The plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company.

            Nina Sayers, a young dancer in a prestigious New York City ballet company, lives with her mother, Erica, a former dancer. The company is preparing to open the season with Swan Lake. The director, Thomas Leroy, has to cast a new principal dancer after forcing Beth Macintyre into retirement. Leroy wants the same ballerina to portray the innocent, fragile White Swan as well as her dark, sensual twin, the Black Swan. Nina auditions for the part, performing flawlessly as the White Swan, but not quite able to emulate the characteristics of the Black Swan. Although Nina does not do well during her audition, she approaches Thomas and asks him to reconsider her as the lead role. He tells her she is the ideal dancer to cast as the White Swan, but she lacks the passion needed to correctly portray the Black Swan. When Thomas forcibly kisses Nina, she displays a change of character and bites him, convincing him to cast her as the Swan Queen.

            The relationship between the two dancers Lily and Nina is tense because of Lily's indiscretions, but Lily invites Nina to a night out. Nina is hesitant at first but decides to go against her mother's wishes. At a restaurant that evening, Lily offers Nina a capsule of ecstasy to help her loosen up. Though reassured its effects will only last a few hours, Nina turns it down. Lily later slips it into her drink at a nightclub while she is absent. Nina returns home late, fights with her mother, barricades herself in her room, and has sex with Lily until Lily smothers her with a pillow.

            Nina's hallucinations become stronger as she sees Thomas and Lily have sex in a backstage area and Beth stabbing herself in the face at the hospital with a nail file which Nina drops bloodied in the elevator. She has a violent argument with her mother, after which Nina passes out. Since her mother had called to say Nina was sick, Thomas assigned understudy Lily to take over, but reluctantly gives way when Nina insists on performing.

            The first act goes well, until Nina is distracted by a hallucination during a lift, causing her partner, playing the Prince, to drop her. Distraught, she returns to her dressing room and finds Lily there. Lily announces she is to play the Black Swan. Nina shoves her into a mirror, shattering it. Lily seems dead but then she wakes up and starts to strangle Nina. She grabs a shard of glass and stabs her rival in the stomach, killing her. Nina hides the body and returns to the stage to dance with passion and sensuality. Sprouting feathers, her arms become black wings as she finally loses herself and is transformed into a black swan. At the end of the act, she receives a standing ovation. Offstage, Thomas and the rest of the cast congratulate her on her stunning performance. Nina takes Thomas by surprise

            Back in her dressing room before the final act, Nina is congratulated by Lily, showing that their fight was imaginary. The mirror, however, is still shattered. She removes a shard from her own body and realizes she had stabbed herself. Dancing the last scene, in which the White Swan throws herself off a cliff, Nina spots her mother weeping in the audience. As Nina falls backward onto a hidden mattress, the theater erupts in thunderous applause. Thomas and the cast gather to congratulate her—only to find that she is severely bleeding. As the white ceiling lights envelop her, she whispers, "I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect."

            I think that this film is very serious and clever. And it made us think about our actions.

After watching Black Swan, I can say that it is the most disturbing psychological thriller of the year. Black Swan director, Darren Aronofsky, did a great job in making a film capable of evoking reactions in the audience.

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The article "Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon" was published by Charles Spencer on March 27, 2013. It discussed Jonathan Slinger's Hamlet at the RSC.

In addition, he was enjoying a ruminative roll-up outside Vauxhall Tube when a diminutive chap bounced up to him. Irritating, very irritating indeed, but it is just as well he didn’t punch him on the hooter because he realized it was David Farr, the director of this new RSC Hamlet.

Speaking of his production, It is annoying, too. Farr is the kind of director who has 20 bright ideas before breakfast and bungs them all on stage to prove how clever he is. Sometimes it works but a show-offy approach to Hamlet strikes me as verging on the obscene.

In fact the defining notes of Jonathan Slinger’s Hamlet are relentless anger and withering sarcasm, a reductive view of the character that becomes decidedly wearing. At one point he even starts singing Ken Dodd’s Happiness in a mocking way and, with his piscine features, thinning hair and ill-fitting suit he looks more like an embittered low-rank civil servant than a prince.

It’s necessary to point out that This Hamlet becomes psychotically violent towards Pippa Nixon’s touchingly vulnerable Ophelia, and at one point he strips off her clothes and holds a knife to her throat. The closet scene with Gertrude is almost equally ferocious but misses the residual tenderness that should underlie the raw encounter.

It’s important to point that Only rarely does Slinger do justice to some of the greatest dramatic poetry ever written. You ought to feel that you are looking into Hamlet’s mind, heart and soul during the great soliloquies. In Slinger’s sneering performance such moments are rare. There is too much fury (despite his own advice to the players, this Hamlet constantly “tears a passion to tatters”), too many ironic funny voices, too much business. When he learns that he is to be sent to England, Slinger even does a little Morris dance.

In conclusion, I’d like to say that The quality the actor fatally lacks is warmth, though he does strikes some gentler, quieter notes at the end which hint at what might have been.

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The article "Gibraltar, Arcola Theatre, London" was published by Dominic Cavendish on March 29, 2013. It was discussed that there’s potential in Gibraltar, a play about an IRA cell gunned down by an SAS team in 1988, but James Robert Carson’s production may leave your interest foundering.

In addition, what are your feelings abo

ut Mairead Farrell, Sean Savage and Daniel McCann? Let me jog your memory. They were the three members of an IRA cell gunned down by an SAS team outside a petrol station on Winston Churchill Avenue in Gibraltar on March 6 1988. The so-called “Gibraltar Three” had been plotting to detonate a car-bomb near the military band assembled for the weekly changing of the guard at the governor’s residence.

Speaking of the situation, does that lack of sympathy matter? I think it does – there’s a fine line between intelligent detachment and emotional non-involvement. “Gibraltar”, a fictionalized retelling of the aftermath of the shootings that draws on verbatim evidence, usefully re-airs valid questions about how the truth is obtained, if ever, yet it remains stubbornly and at times fatally lacking in human-interest drama.

It’s necessary to point out that Brett is a former newspaperman – he was the legal manager to The Times and Sunday Times. With the help of co-writer Sian Evans, he frames the evening in media terms, suggesting that investigative journalism which breaks the rules and takes its time might get nearer the heart of the matter than a more “legit” approach that dashes after headline-grabbing nuggets of information.

It’s important to point that the explosive ITV 1988 current affairs episode Death on the Rock is re-imagined as “Ambush”, the work of a serious-minded but inexperienced reporter called Amelia (placid, pretty Greer Dale-Foulkes); her star witness is Karina Fernandez’s Rosa (plainly modelled on the vilified local figure Carmen Proetta), whose statements contradict other accounts and assumptions in the IRA’s favour. Looking on with weary scepticism is a hack called Nick (a rumpled, ruminative George Irving), whose line of inquiry takes him into the twilight world of drug-running and Gibraltarian power politics. There’s potential here but with James Robert Carson’s bare-bones, bloodless production running at over two hours, your interest in the convoluted proceedings may well founder sharpish.

I’d like to conclude that You’d be forgiven for feeling nothing – or nothing but cold contempt. This vile little plot of theirs came just months after the Enniskillen Remembrance Day atrocity, one of the most revolting acts of barbarism the IRA had a hand in during the Troubles.

Rendering 6. Theatre.

             The article “Punchdrunk announcemajor new collaboration with the National Theatre” was published by Daisy Bowie-Sell on March 21, 2013. It discussed theatre company Punchdrunk have announced a new show based on the play Woyzeck by Buchner with a free, 'live trailer' in east London.

            It’s important to point that theatre company  Punchdrunk, known for transforming huge derelict spaces for their promenade theatre productions, will team up with the National Theatre on their new show. And a Hollywood Fable will open in June in a secret location in London and is the company's biggest production since 2007'sThe Masque of the Red Death, where they took over Battersea Arts Centre in London for a year.

            In addition, a s part of the lead up to the opening of the show, a ten minute 'live trailer' is currently being staged in east London, where people can walk off the street and into a performance. And the exact location of the trailer is a secret but it is free and will be open in a shop on Kingsland High Road for the next two weeks.

            Speaking of the situation, Punchdrunk has become synonymous with huge theatre productions staged in unusual spaces since it put on Faust in a warehouse in Wapping in 2006. After that production, they were based at Battersea Arts Centre between 2007 and 2008 for The Masque of the Red Death. The production involved the audience exploring rooms themselves and finding their own way through the building while wearing masks and cloaks.

            It’s necessary to point out that The Drowned Man is based on Buchner's text Woyzeck, which tells the story of a soldier in Germany. Punchdrunk's adaptation will be set in the 1960s in a film studio. The company has only three months to work on the production, a much shorter time than the six months they prepared for The Masque of the Red Death.

            In conclusion, Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the National Theatre said: "Punchdrunk have provided some of my most exciting dramatic experiences over the past decade. I can't wait to see their new theatrical adventure."

            As for me, I think it’s gripping. And To my mind this show will excite the company's many fans, who feverishly anticipate Punchdrunk's every move.

            

Rendering 5. Theatre.

            The article “Paper Dolls, Tricycle Theatre” was published by Jane Shilling in The Telegraph on March 7, 2013. It discussed Philip Himberg's play about a group of five Filipino men who emigrated from Manila to Tel Aviv is lacking in focus and tension.

            It’s important to point that in 2006, the Israeli director Tomer Heymann presented his documentary, Paper Dolls, at the LA Film Festival. In the audience was Philip Himberg, artistic director of the Theatre Program at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. Himberg was so struck by the innate theatricality of Heymann’s film about a group of five gay Filipino men who worked in Tel Aviv as carers for elderly Jewish men, and in their spare time performed as a group of singing drag artists, the Paper Dolls, that he decided to turn it into a play.

            Speaking of the situation, it’s necessary to point that directed by Indhu Rubasingham in her inaugural season as artistic director of the Tricycle Theatre, the drama begins with the sound of a jet plane interrupting a prayerful chorus of Hasidim. A bemused Israeli immigration official interviews Cheska, Sally), Zhan  and brothers Chiqui and Jorgio.

            In addition, you can see why Himberg was entranced by the Paper Dolls’ story: its themes are so multifarious and vivid – family, religion, sexuality, love, duty, what it means to be an outsider, the way that we express identity through costume – that they present a dramatist with almost too much material.

            As a result, this is precisely Himberg’s problem. He tries to include everything, and in the process, loses focus and tension. The play’s structure is perplexing – Cheska’s dramatic arrival suggests that she is a central character, but Sally’s relationship with Chaim and his daughter, the fretful dynamic between brothers Chiqui and Giorgio, and Yossi’s troubled relationship with his sexuality (and his powerful Jewish mother) all clamour for attention.

            As for me, Paper Dolls is an extraordinary true story exploring an unlikely collision of cultures and the universal desire to find ‘home’.  

Individual Reading. Summary 3.Ch. 21-25

                 During their meal, the narrator and Strickland had a shot talk about their lives, but the storyteller tried to be indifferent to him. The narrator decided that Strickland lived in a dream, and the reality meant nothing to him. Nevertheless, the storyteller asked Charles about his wife and children, but Strickland’s answer shocked him unpleasantly.

         Shortly before Christmas Dirk Stroeve came to ask the narrator to spend the holiday with him. He had a characteristic sentimentality about the day and wanted to pass it among his friends with suitable ceremonies. So, Dirk decided Strickland should be with them on that beautiful holiday. Soon, the storyteller and Stroeve knew that their friend Charles was obviously very ill.

         The narrator and Dirk visited him, and found out that his temperature was a hundred and four. He needed help. Presently they left him and went to Dirk where he persuaded his wife to convey sick Strickland in their home.

         

         

Film Review 1. Frida.

Directed by      Julie Taymor

Produced by    Sarah Green

                        Salma Hayek

                        Jay Polstein

Screenplay by  Clancy Sigal

                        Diane Lake

                        Gregory Nava

                        Anna Thomas

Based on Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo

                          by Hayden Herrera

Starring:           Salma Hayek

                       Alfred Molina

                       Antonio Banderas

           

            The film ‘Frida” was adapted by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. It was directed by Julie Taymor. It won Oscars for Best Makeup and Best Original Music Score.

            The names Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo are tightly linked in the history of 20th century art. Kahlo was known for paintings that were profound and greatly introspective. Rivera was a great muralist and was known for cubism as well as his extreme left- wing politics. FRIDA details the life of Kahlo and her turbulent relationship with Rivera.

            Frida covers their affair, their marriage, and their careers together. Each has affairs, though Diego goes in for dalliances a lot more than Frida is willing to tolerate. The film includes their travels to New York and the famous Rockefeller Plaza mural incident. When Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey Rush) flees Stalin and travels to Mexico Rivera and Kahlo play host to him and become involved in his fate.

            Sadly, the story of the two great artists does not really break much new ground. The relationship between Rivera and Kahlo is strongly reminiscent of that between John Reed and Louise Bryant in reds. Director Julie Taymor is not always sympathetic to Kahlo, who has her own affairs but is hypocritically enraged by Rivera's philandering. Kahlo allows herself to be hurt by it. Also, one feels through the entire film that as interesting as Kahlo was, the real story to be told would have been that of Rivera. It is generally the verdict of history that Rivera was the better of the two artists and the film frequently leaves us wanting to know more of him.

            What makes Firda's life story interesting? The fact that it's characterized by so much tragedy and heartbreak. Early in the story, Frida is a young schoolgirl who suffers from a terrible trolley accident, leaving her with multiple fractures and a metal rod impaling her lower body. While recuperating in a near full-body cast, Frida spends her time painting in her bed. Obviously, this is the beginning of what would be a life of tragedy feeding her artistic passion.

            I can add that the direction is extremely impressive throughout – Taymor (Titus) uses a variety of animation techniques and 3D effects to literally bring the paintings to life. Similarly, the horrific trolley crash sequence is filmed in an unusual way, ending as a riot of colours and noise.

                I can say that this film is a rather conventional one. Still, there is one feature that makes this movie interesting: special effects. There are scenes that depict Frida's paintings with interesting animations. For example, there's a painting that puts Salma Hayek's Frida in place of the actual painted Frida, but has much resemblance to the original. There's another painting with two Fridas, with Salma Hayek in the place of one Frida. The result is an image that looks as if the actress is meeting the painter as a tribute. All of these special effects scenes do help one understand how Frida's emotional turmoil ends up on the canvas.

Rendering 4. Painting.

            The article “Curators have mixed reactions to artist roster for Venice Biennale” was published by Gareth Harris in the Art Newspaper on March 15, 2013. It discussed the selection of artists by the curator Massimiliano Gioni for this year’s Venice Biennale and his activity.

            Speaking of his concept, it is inspired by the late artist Marino Auriti who, Gioni says, “on 16 November 1955, filed a design with the US Patent Office depicting his Encyclopedic Palace, an imaginary museum that was meant to house all worldly knowledge, bringing together the greatest discoveries of the human race, from the wheel to the satellite”.

            Giving appraisal of the situation, it’s necessary to point out that the beautiful thing is that Gioni's selections for his larger group shows are always very diverse, they introduce young artists, bring older often forgotten artists back to our attention and he always throws in a few totally unknown or very surprising artists. He does please the art market, perhaps a necessity in regards to the funding he needs for his shows, but he always manages to make the selections very surprising.

            In addition, A leading European curator, who preferred to remain anonymous, underlines that the list is weighted towards European and American artists with only five South American artists featured: “Do the maths: non-European and American artists appear to number 21 out of 154 artists in total, which is about 14%… Gioni, however, has a keen eye and precise curatorial hand, so I am quite sure it will be a beautiful show.” In 2011, we reported that Curiger’s selection showed “a clear bias towards Western European artists with a lesser one towards those from the US.

            In conclusion, Gioni’s shows are always very close to the pulse of the latest development in the art world and at the same time they also look at larger and timeless question of the human condition.

Rendering 3

            The article published on the website of the newspaper “The New York Times” on December 31, 2012 is headlined “Spiritual Landscapes of the Gilded Age”. The article repots that organized by Patricia C. Pongracz, the museum’s acting director, and the exhibition’s main attraction is a selection of 10 small- to medium-size windows, backlit and glowing. They are not the most impressive of Tiffany productions, as his most ambitious ones are still part of the fabric of churches all over New York City 

            The article informs us that there are of three types: landscapes, semiabstract cruciform compositions and figurative illustrations of biblical scenes. All are made of opalescent glass, a material that Tiffany and his competitor John La Farge developed through extensive experimentation that enabled variations of color, luminosity, shading and texture unknown to stained-glass artisans of previous times.

            It was revealed full descriptions of these types. The landscape windows are the most compelling. They were designed by Agnes Northrop. In a style related to Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts, her windows picture peaceful vistas through groves of trees and blooming foliage to brooks and still waters, mountains and luminous, fair-weather skies.  In the more abstract works like one based on an antependium — a traditional type of banner, the profuse ornamental patterning and the illuminated colored glass still exert much visual magnetism.

The figurative windows are fatally infected by Victorian sentimentality. In one based on a popular painting by the British artist George Frederic Watts, the Christian knight Galahad— in a full suit of armor, pausing with his white horse to meditate on his quest — is a vacuous doll.

            The article informs us that viewers may also notice that there are no representations of Jesus crucified or undergoing other agonies of the Passion. The dark side of the Christian mythos — its preoccupation with sin, suffering, judgment and redemption — is missing. 

Many churches often expanded to include spaces for educational programs, kitchens and dining rooms, and bowling allies and basketball courts to attract the younger set. 

            I can say that Tiffany participated in the degradation of art into decoration and religion into entertainment. His was the god of art and business. But no one can deny that he oversaw the production of some exceedingly beautiful things.