Her appointment as director of English National Ballet “sets up a fabulous prospect for the art form, for the Spaniard is astonishing in myriad ways: driven, ambitious, furiously intelligent, mischievous, occasionally cutting, always funny, inquisitive, probably far too open and, I can’t help mentioning, exquisitely beautiful.”
Tag: 04.15.12
Reinventing Clytemnestra As A Righteously Angry Mother
Playwright Gwyneth Lewis: “In Aeschylus, Clytemnestra is a wicked man-woman who upstages her husband, takes a lover and is later killed by Orestes, her son. Fiona Shaw pointed out to me that Clytemnestra is the only character in this family whose death isn’t avenged, so I decided to explore why not and to tell the story from her point of view. Imagine you were at home and you heard that, in order to win a war, your husband had allowed your daughter to be killed.”
What’s The Fastest Language? Well, In Sounds, Or In Content?
In a study of seven major tongues, Spanish and Japanese were found to have the greatest number of syllables per second, with Mandarin the slowest and English in the middle. But most of the languages conveyed information at about the same rate. (You want fast? Try Malayalam.)
Italian Cinema’s Anti-Berlusconi, Laura Morante
“One of the country’s most famous actresses, Morante, who could be described as a kind of Italian Catherine Deneuve, … is hoping to exploit the changing times in her country by playing her own part in promoting a different, more powerful role for women in cinema” after 20 years of media mogul Berlusconi’s bunga-bunga aesthetic (if that’s the word).
Paralyzed Ballet Dancer, Now Recovered, Set For Return To Stage
Jack Widdowson, 19, was mugged and beaten last November on a vsit to Cardiff; the attack initially left him paralyzed from the neck down. Last week, “[he] performed his first jump since being injured – and was invited to perform with the English National Ballet” next month and again in June.
Is The American Shopping Mall Dead?
“Almost no new malls are being built any more anywhere in the country. In fact there are scores of malls that are dead and abandoned. Many others are on life-support and are close to being boarded up or redeveloped into more productive use.”
Everyone Loves James Franco, The Man Who Can Do Anything
“After a somewhat heady and hilarious dissection of Franco’s short film Dicknose in Paris (a clip was shown), the conversation ricocheted among topics, including Franco’s love of Faulkner; insider stories about director Nicholas Ray; Natalie Wood and Dennis Hopper during the filming of Rebel Without a Cause; and the upcoming MOCA show called ‘Rebel.'”
Matilda Sets Records At The Oliviers
The musical sets a record for youngest awardee and wins seven of the ten awards for which it was nominated.
Time For American Movie Stars To Go Bollywood?
Julia Roberts thinks so – as long as the audience could handle her accent.
There Was A Real Love Story On The Titanic – And It Might Have Sparked The Movie
“Emilio Portaluppi was an Italian artist who changed his travel plans to join the Titanic at the last minute. He traveled as a second class passenger, according to new archival research into the elusive Titanic survivor. And though he may not have had the charms of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster movie, Portaluppi was a romantic with first class tastes.”