The Hours, Hollywood’s adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s novel about Virginia Woolf, is drawing criticism from literary historians who feel the Oscar-nominated film, starring a nearly unrecognizable Nicole Kidman, unfairly portrays Woolf as an ugly, suicidal misfit. Oh, and that nose, according to these offended experts, is just way off.
Tag: 02.15.03
Ararat Cleans Up At Genies
Atom Egoyan’s controversial film about Turkish genocide in the early 20th century scored big at the Genie Awards, Canada’s answer to the Oscars. Ararat, which was praised by critics and well-received by the public, took home five Genies, including best picture. Best director went to David Cronenberg for his latest creepy drama, Spider.
A Tale of Two Orwells
A real, old-fashioned literary spat is developing on the pages of two of America’s most respected magazines, and the focus of the debate is George Orwell, the cynical cuss who penned Animal Farm and 1984 and coined the term “Cold War.” In the blue corner, arguing for Orwell’s continuing relevance in the age of George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, is professional agitator Chris Hitchens, backed up by The New Republic’s literary editor, Leon Wieseltier. And in the red corner, arguing that Orwell wasn’t nearly as prescient and sagelike as he is often given credit for, is Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Louis Menand. Let’s get ready to grumblllllllle!
Dumbing Down Canadian Radio?
The venerable Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is coming under heavy fire these days for a slew of programming changes at Radio One that critics say represent nothing more than a naked attempt to ‘dumb down’ the network’s content and grab more listeners from desirable demographics. The newly created Sounds Like Canada has been a profound disappointment, to the extent that its popular host has left the show, at least temporarily. The motivation for the changes at CBC may be a basic desire for the network to better reflect Canada’s diversity of cultures, but what does it benefit the company to gain a few new listeners, and lose all the old ones, not to mention a few broadcast standards in the process?
Exodus In Colorado
Soon, it seems, there will be nothing left of the Colorado Springs Symphony but the name, a board, and a whole lot of questions. In the last month, the symphony has filed for bankruptcy, seen its music director resign in protest of that action, and gotten a judge to void its contract with its musicians. Now, the CSS’s associate conductor has resigned as well, taking some nasty shots at the board on his way out the door.
Changing Sides
Susan Trausch has been a newspaper writer for three decades, and a playwright for, um, about 5 minutes now. “Someday when I grow up, I may be a playwright. Right now I’m an apprentice, a journalist in transition who has taken theater-as-a-second-language classes at adult education centers over the past eight years.” Along her journey from one side of the critical glass to the other, Trausch has gained a new respect for collaboration, broad thought, and most of all, ambiguity.
The Collector Behind The Curtain
So who is Joey Tanenbaum, the art collector who this week announced a massive donation of 211 works of 19th-century art to an Ontario gallery? And what motivates the collector to spend so much of his time and money acquiring such very specific pieces? Well, the short answer is that he’s a gregarious, talkative 71-year-old real estate magnate from Toronto, “a man who loves to tell stories, so it should be no surprise that he has a deep feeling for the narrative power of art, the very quality that relegated the French academic painters to the dust bin of history.”