If you thought things were bleak for the Martha Graham Company last month when it disbanded, they’re even worse now. “The company board has changed the locks on the warehouse where it keeps its costumes and scenery out of fear that its former artistic director would take them. That artistic director, Ron Protas, whom Graham herself chose to carry on her work, operates by cell phone from a location he refuses to reveal and is working to prevent the company from performing any of Graham’s dances.” – New York Times
Tag: 07.06.00
PEERING ON OUR PEERS
- “Survivor,” “The Real World,” “1900 House,” and now “Big Brother” – Why the current obsession with voyeurism and so-called “reality television”? “The camera has become central to Hollywood’s notions of voyeurism, also privacy. To generations raised on television, just sitting in the dark and watching surreptitiously now seems normal. But, add a camera, or a 100 hidden cameras as a new film recently did, and it’s still possible to make the concept feel pretty racy.” – NPR 07/06/00 [Real Audio file]
MOVIE INVESTIGATION ICED UNTIL AFTER ELECTION
This spring, US presidential candidate Al Gore launched an investigation into why so many movie productions are heading north to Canada. Now completion of the report has been delayed because of potential political ramifications. If the report attacks Canadian tax incentives to the movie industry, “state incentives (in the United States) may be vulnerable under international trade rules, just as (states) would argue that what Canada is doing is vulnerable under international trade rules. – Toronto Star 07/06/00
DEFENDING A “PORNOGRAPHIC THELMA AND LOUISE
French intellectuals, celebrities and movie makers took to the streets of Paris Wednesday to defend a hardcore movie panned by the critics and banned from general movie theatres by the French censors. The demonstration took place in front of an MK2 cinema in Paris’ Latin Quarter. The theater is one of 20 that have been defying the State Council’s ruling. – Variety 07/06/00
- CENSORSHIP WARNING: French Culture Minister Catherine Tasca warned that the court ruling raised the prospect of a return to state censorship. – BBC 07/06/00
A SINGULAR DIRECTION
Zhang Yimou is revered in the West as one of China’s greatest filmmakers. But his name is still inseparable from that of Gong Li, his partner for eight years and the star of the cycle of six Zhang films. Most were historical dramas with strong political undertones. Now that the pair has split, Zhang’s last two films have none of the lush sense of historical sweep we associate with his name, and you couldn’t imagine Gong Li playing in either of them. – The Age (Melbourne) 07/06/00
LIFE’S A BEACH
An environmental group in Thailand has sued 20th Century Fox for the ecological damage incurred on Phi Phi island during the filming of the Leonardo DiCaprio film “The Beach.” Nonetheless, “DiCaprio has repeatedly defended the use of the Thai island. The ‘Titanic’ star has also insisted that producers improved Maya beach and said the movie would boost tourism.” – The Age (Melbourne) 07/06/00