Simon Callow, Mark Elder and Gerard McBurney share a love for the music of Ivor Novello, which will be celebrated in a Prom, Glamorous Night
One day over lunch some 15 or more years ago, the trailblazing conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, Mark Elder, the Shostakovich scholar and avant-garde composer Gerard McBurney and I discovered our shared passion for the music of Ivor Novello. The slow-burning result of that encounter is the late-night Prom on 9 August celebrating the work and remarkable life of our hero. All those years ago we pledged that we Must Do Something About Ivor, but exactly what was unclear. Novello was the most successful British musical theatre composer of the 20th century before the meteoric rise of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and one of the great figures of his time. But it would have been hard at that moment in the 1990s to have chosen a less fashionable...
One day over lunch some 15 or more years ago, the trailblazing conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, Mark Elder, the Shostakovich scholar and avant-garde composer Gerard McBurney and I discovered our shared passion for the music of Ivor Novello. The slow-burning result of that encounter is the late-night Prom on 9 August celebrating the work and remarkable life of our hero. All those years ago we pledged that we Must Do Something About Ivor, but exactly what was unclear. Novello was the most successful British musical theatre composer of the 20th century before the meteoric rise of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and one of the great figures of his time. But it would have been hard at that moment in the 1990s to have chosen a less fashionable...
- 8/3/2012
- by Simon Callow
- The Guardian - Film News
As a teenager I'd scoff at the unreality of the Hollywood musical, but now their numbers seem utterly delightful
We are now nearing the end of a run of days that, by my reckoning, are always the most enjoyable London can offer. They start around 22 December, when taxis, tubes and restaurants are at last empty of Christmas drunks, and end on 3 or 4 January, when work resumes. Every year during this interval, an older and easier kind of London asserts itself; also, an emptier one. The people for whom the city is mainly a work station go home to Lancashire and France. Commuters, if they bother to come in, return soberly with last-minute parcels on the teatime trains. Tourists are fewer, and easily avoided once you leave the axis that stretches from Harrods to St Paul's. On the buses, you notice more people like yourself: middle-aged, or past it, and often...
We are now nearing the end of a run of days that, by my reckoning, are always the most enjoyable London can offer. They start around 22 December, when taxis, tubes and restaurants are at last empty of Christmas drunks, and end on 3 or 4 January, when work resumes. Every year during this interval, an older and easier kind of London asserts itself; also, an emptier one. The people for whom the city is mainly a work station go home to Lancashire and France. Commuters, if they bother to come in, return soberly with last-minute parcels on the teatime trains. Tourists are fewer, and easily avoided once you leave the axis that stretches from Harrods to St Paul's. On the buses, you notice more people like yourself: middle-aged, or past it, and often...
- 12/31/2011
- by Ian Jack
- The Guardian - Film News
The Big Bang Theory’s two-time Emmy winner Jim Parsons is trading in physics for psychosis next summer in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s upcoming revival of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1944 comedy, Harvey. Parsons, who made his Broadway debut as big-hearted hospital administrator Tommy Boatwright in last season’s Tony-winning Normal Heart revival, will play Elwood P. Dowd, an affable man whose best friend is the titular 6-foot 3½-inch imaginary rabbit. When Elwood’s odd behavior threatens his upstart sister’s social life, she tries to have him committed, only to end up in the loony bin herself. Broadway...
- 11/29/2011
- by Aubry D'Arminio
- EW.com - PopWatch
Paulette Dubost, known as the "Dean of French Cinema," and an actress in films directed by Jean Renoir, Marcel L'Herbier, Jacques Tourneur, Julien Duvivier, Max Ophüls, Preston Sturges, François Truffaut, Louis Malle, and Marcel Carné, died of "natural causes" on Sept. 21 in the Parisian suburb of Longjumeau. The Paris-born Dubost had turned 100 years old on October 8, 2010. Dubost's show business career began at the age of seven, performing various duties at the Paris Opera. Following some stage training, her film debut took place in 1931 in Wilhelm Thiele's Le bal, which also marked the film debut of Danielle Darrieux (who's still around and still active). Ultimately, Dubost's film career was to span more than seven decades, during which time she was featured in over 140 movies. She is probably best remembered as the adulterous chambermaid Lisette in Jean Renoir's 1939 comedy-drama La règle du jeu / The Rules of the Game, considered by...
- 9/25/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
News and portrait photographer with an eye for the unexpected and the authentic
Michael Ward, who has died after a long illness, aged 82, was a news photographer for almost 40 years and once calculated that his archive of prints and negatives covered 5,500 assignments, mainly though not exclusively for the Sunday Times. And yet he came late to his career and never felt confident that he completely understood it. Towards the end of his life, after half a century with a camera, he wrote that he knew "as much or as little about the processes of photography as a decent amateur". Technically, he knew he was far from accomplished. Aesthetically, he was never sure what separated a good picture from an indifferent one.
He had several exhibitions – the venues included the National theatre and the National Portrait Gallery – but he always remained suspicious about photography's claim as art. Nevertheless, many of his pictures are sympathetic and memorable.
Michael Ward, who has died after a long illness, aged 82, was a news photographer for almost 40 years and once calculated that his archive of prints and negatives covered 5,500 assignments, mainly though not exclusively for the Sunday Times. And yet he came late to his career and never felt confident that he completely understood it. Towards the end of his life, after half a century with a camera, he wrote that he knew "as much or as little about the processes of photography as a decent amateur". Technically, he knew he was far from accomplished. Aesthetically, he was never sure what separated a good picture from an indifferent one.
He had several exhibitions – the venues included the National theatre and the National Portrait Gallery – but he always remained suspicious about photography's claim as art. Nevertheless, many of his pictures are sympathetic and memorable.
- 5/18/2011
- by Ian Jack
- The Guardian - Film News
It’s a silly story, only possible with music.
After spending last weekend immersed in the horrors of trench warfare, World War I style, via Raymond Bernard’s Wooden Crosses, I’m in the mood for something light and frivolous – how about a romantic comedy, a musical one at that? Sure – Criterion’s Eclipse series has got just the thing for me, in Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals. But which one of the four best fits the occasion? Well, it’s the first weekend of June, that time of year when blissful young couples traditionally get married, a custom going back to ancient Roman times when Juno was paid special homage as the goddess of marriage. Of course, June weddings also have the practical advantage of ensuring that if the bride gets pregnant on the honeymoon, she won’t be ready to give birth until after the harvest time, and...
After spending last weekend immersed in the horrors of trench warfare, World War I style, via Raymond Bernard’s Wooden Crosses, I’m in the mood for something light and frivolous – how about a romantic comedy, a musical one at that? Sure – Criterion’s Eclipse series has got just the thing for me, in Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals. But which one of the four best fits the occasion? Well, it’s the first weekend of June, that time of year when blissful young couples traditionally get married, a custom going back to ancient Roman times when Juno was paid special homage as the goddess of marriage. Of course, June weddings also have the practical advantage of ensuring that if the bride gets pregnant on the honeymoon, she won’t be ready to give birth until after the harvest time, and...
- 6/8/2010
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
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