Roger Michell (1956-2021)
It’s amazing the things that float
Very pleased the annual internationally renowned print fair IFPDA continues its online Zoom presence. Design fairs, alas, seemed to have dwindled away somewhat in that regard after Covid re-opening. It’s not expensive to do an event live-stream. Exponential marketing.
Seems that IFPDA are uploading these talks etc to YouTube. But one’s always better off catching it live. Bit like art openings: it’s a deadline. A date. Otherwise, with the best intentions of the world they get lower and lower in one’s ’to do’ list. Until: I knew it. Damn. Missed it.
Can’t say that I miss sitting through 3-4 movies a day at the NYFF. (Great line-up this year. Seems like there was never no Covid!) Or, indeed, any other festival. Many folk, I’m sure, think: well- how hard can that be! Well, all tasks are relevant. It’s a bit like wine tasting. Not. You don’t/can’t spit out the movie 20seconds even 20minutes in and form a judgement. But if it were ever possible elasticizing and slowing down the movie viewing experience to a wine tasting. Then, maybe. For me, jaded critics had and have no sympathy. Punish them with salted movie pretzels irritating their eyes as such their tongue for months on end.
As I know well, one can watch a gazillion movies and still be an unbiased critic. Most of these movies are there for promotion. Goodness knows most need it! And most one will see in some form or other in the near future. What I miss most (and it’s true for art fairs as well) is that movie that stays with you. You know it probably won’t get much of a release if any! There’s this and that and the other. But it’s a fine movie. A really interesting artist. Perhaps struggling with their ideas, or perhaps not. Thinking of a film once seen at the Tribeca Fest, Levan Akins’ Certain People. Who wants to see a movie about rich bo-ho’s, the equiv of a private upstate NY Hamptons. Was so ‘ffffing’ real. Luckily Whit Stillman cut through that and gained an audience. A reputation.
Hey! Great to see actor Alessandro Nivola on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. What? Is Anita Hill cryptonite;)! Hey, dude. At least you ain’t forced to dress and run as a sausage in Milwaukee! How many folk have been to…How many can even spell…Remember we sat in the casting waiting room so many times. The 90’s. Hey: hate to break it to ya but I always got that part! Maybe ‘cause they knew I could be a, hummm, a furry existence. But you got to gig with real talent! Now whoah you’re even more for real. Not that you weren’t with Cage. Warner Brothers, the rrrrrrrrrealist of the real. You either get it or ya don’t. Hey. Lauren Bacall’s secrets. What’s to tell. Now we have Facebook. Lordy Lordy loo! Next we’ll have a rapping’ Woodpecker. No.no.No. I draw the line. ….it made how much in its opening weekend?
Plus ça change….
Guess some of us who don’t pass the ‘entrance protocol’ for cinemas will have to settle for seeing Dune in our private home cinemas;) Not being flippant about that at all. But us creatives and writers can set our own terms now. “Why the ‘f’ would I want to get on a plane, sit across a table and listen to all that babble” then get Covid on the return journey even after being vaxed and die! Being creative is indeed now a luxury not available to most other mensch. Including other mensch creatives;(
So pleased for Dune director Denis Villeneuve who’s been successfully working away for decades. Sicario, Arrival (would have been proud just cast as a finger in that:), and Blade Runner 2049 brought him American attention. See all this guy’s movies. MOVIES not TV. You won’t be disappointed.
For those not quite ready to ‘vax up’ and enter the opera house again, PBS are free streaming as of 10pm tonight (Oct 8) Friday the Great Performances at the Met: Three Divas at Versailles (from this May). All a bit ghostly 'Phantom of the Opera' watching these divas sing to an empty theater in Marie-Antoinette’s Royal Opera House. Can’t accuse the Met Opera for employing an ‘off-site’ orch here. The Rosenkavalier finale should be really spooky. (Oh-you get what you’s pay for: only 1 hour of a 2h performance), PBS leaves you believing Marie-Antoinette was Spanish not….PBS at it’s best. Making you question life:) Guess we are all used to it now. Boo! These great ‘gals’ need an audience, though. Well. We’re trying!
KITTY was very disappointed not to hear Strauss’ ‘cat trio’. “No pain no P, PBS,” spakes KITTY.
Tomorrow is another day. Maybe.
…
James Corden and Daniel Craig do iconic movie ‘karaoke’ promoting the latest Bond pic No Time to Die. Tell me this doesn’t cheer up everyone. Moreover. Makes one think about the power of movies. The shadows of Platos’ Cave. Why people want to be actors. Directors. One thinks about our human need for a spotlight. Hello Ricky Gervais’ The Office almost too painful to bear. One is extremely blessed if possibly to step outside that need. Forever a lonely place. Those who believe in finding a truth. Once found, yet another thread unravels. Russian dolls. The monad.
The saddest, transcendent of Bond movie scenes, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. When one takes on ‘powers that will always be more’ the they will try killing what always you love the most. Why it all still matters. Why we continue to wrestle with the flickering images of our modern caves.
Very brave opera singer Angela Gheorghiu spakes out on the neglect/obfuscation of her homeland’s composers. After seeing the film/documentary Collective one has so much sympathy for that country’s ordinary and extraordinary folk. Their London cultural institute was always so welcoming, excited for their culture and anyone who showed an interest. Yet equally always worried about central government who paid the bills and of course set the agenda. I’m still listening.
Not into linking to talk shows but Stephen Colbert hosts the cast of HBO’s Succession Season 3 (starting October 17). There’s not a false note in that series including the theme. Should we really be watching these things instead of something more edifying? We need and crave both the wheatgrass and the ice cream don’t we Joaquin Phoenix?;) As poet Philip Larkin (Louis Armstrong devotee) once described the likes of John Coltrane and modern jazz as the effect of drinking a quinine martini and having an enema simultaneously. Not appropriating that to Succession, of course. Always feel such high quality shows are cleansing rather than sugar binging for humanity’s disciples.
We are what we eat. We are what we watch. And a lot of Americans watch Fox News now celebrating its 25th anniversary. How is all somehow/what forgiven? How does all that happen?
Succession is brilliant in addressing some of those thorny questions albeit fictionally. A plug for Australian actress Sarah Snook: who is she?! Went and watched a 2014 movie she did with Ethan Hawke Predestination. Totally amazing! Just goes to show, keep plugging away if acting is your thing. Seek and ye will most probably find.
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmmm, hmmm, hmmmmm: Little prince, from who knows where…
Should have been three ‘C’s at the beginning but hopefully KITTY didn’t notice.
