“The Plow That Broke the Plain (1936) and The River (1937) will make die-hard liberals long for the time when the government really knew how to produce propaganda on behalf of worthy causes. For a brief while, to propagate its domestic programs, the Roosevelt administration went into the movie business.”
Tag: 02.25.07
Sunshine Bright At Spirit Awards
“The misfit family of ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ cruised to easy victory yesterday afternoon at the Spirit Awards, where the road-trip comedy won prizes for best feature, directors, supporting actor Alan Arkin and first screenplay.” Ali Selim’s ‘Sweet Land,’ which has yet to find a distributor despite critical praise on the festival circuit, took the prize for best first feature.
Elo On The Upswing
Boston Ballet’s resident choreographer, Jorma Elo, is notorious for not getting his dances done on time, but his stark, high-energy style has reenergized an often-troubled company. “In recent years, as Elo’s schedule has filled up with prestigious commissions, he’s become known for a particular contemporary spin on ballet… He won’t say what his pieces are meant to convey, or how his own calm demeanor offstage relates to the often frantic energy onstage.”
The Play Is Back On Broadway
Only a couple of years ago, theatre buffs were bemoaning the grip that the musical had on Broadway, and wondering if the day of the serious play had all but passed. Now, with twelve new plays slated to open on Broadway in the next several months, non-musical drama is making a serious comeback.
A Stranger On The Red Carpet
Journalist David Carr has spent the last several months covering Hollywood the way a journalist from Japan might cover the U.S. – as a consummate outsider attempting to make sense of a foreign culture. “I’ve been a serious journalist most of my life, and the red carpet reminded me of a national political campaign without the stakes. Juggling an endless array of badges, people wearing headsets and the overall star apparatus, I had a great deal of access, but very little insight.”
Suffocating Amid The Oscar Fluff
Have the Oscars become so overhyped and overtly political that they’re no longer worth caring about? Chris Vognar thinks so: “I’m dumbfounded at the exalted place the Oscars hold in the public (and especially the media) imagination… The Oscars now stand at the peak of what you might call an entertainment-industrial complex. They are the ultimate self-generating content machine, a mix of old lore and new fluff, little of it consequential in any except as a cash cow on par with the Super Bowl.”
When Does An Elite School Become Elitist?
“The Denver School of the Arts has, in 16 years, grown into one of the most exclusive public schools in the Rocky Mountain region, admitting less than a third of the students who apply to get in every year. In auditions, artistic prowess trumps grades, determination, hardship and whether applicants even have a Denver address. [But] some community advocates and school-board members are concerned that the school is an oasis with a figurative moat around it; those who can afford private lessons are likelier to make the cut.”
Which Dutoit Will Philly Be Getting?
Peter Dobrin says that the success or failure of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s decision to appoint Charles Dutoit as interim chief conductor will depend on which Dutoit shows up for work. “Will it be the slightly jaded Dutoit, who in recent years sometimes turned in disengaged, glib interpretations? Or will it be the harder-working Dutoit, who carefully cultivates the orchestra’s sound and programs repertoire that is both meaningful and entertaining?”
So, Are They Just Playing Beethoven And Mahler?
Scott Cantrell complains that the Dallas Symphony’s newly unveiled 2007-08 season deliberately ignores the late 20th century. And that’s not all: “Even earlier composers such as Bartók, Nielsen, Bohuslav Martinu and neoclassical-period Stravinsky have gotten short shrift here, not to mention the Second Viennese School of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg… One doesn’t want to belabor political correctness, but in a city that’s a gateway to and from Latin America, shouldn’t the DSO feel a little guilty about not programming a single composer from south of the Rio Grande? And can it really be going a whole season without a single work composed by a woman?”
Adjustable Pricing Looms For The Arts
You know that sick feeling you get when you find out that the guy in the airplane seat next to you paid several hundred fewer dollars for his ticket than you paid for yours? Well, increasingly, you can now get that same feeling in your local theatre or concert hall. “Sold-out houses — houses that are really sold out — seem heading toward the same extinction as hand-torn ticket stubs. For those willing to pay, in the future there will always be seats, just as there are always full-fare seats on a peak flight.”