A new film by Robert Altman about the Joffrey Ballet puts a new spin on filming dance. “Working with director of photography Andrew Dunn, Altman often shoots from unusual angles, tracking gracefully from head to toe, for instance, or elsewhere using noteworthy crane shots and other devices to bring the viewer arrestingly, literally inside the dance.”
Tag: 07.13.03
Rebranding German Culture
Is German culture stolid, dull and humorless? “To counter their stereotyping as humorless, rude, know-it-all, perfectionist workaholics with a historic tendency toward murderous chauvinism, Germans will soon be portrayed in advertisements across Europe as hedonistic, with-it, athletic sexpots. Think Claudia Schiffer, not Helmut Kohl.”
Reality Bombs, Reruns Soar
Last summer reality TV dominated American TV screens, and reruns of winter shows died. So this summer networks flooded screens with new reality shows and the reruns (mostly) disappeared. So what’s popular? “Thirteen reality programs had premieres during May and June, and not one has cracked the Top 10 list, according to the most recently available A.C. Nielsen Co. ratings (for the week ending July 6). Reruns of sitcoms and dramas, meanwhile, have dominated the upper echelons of the ratings.”
Australia’s Top 100
What do Australians like to read? If a new poll is to be believed, fantasy rules. On a list of 110 favorite books, “J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was voted the most popular book in Australia, and there were no surprises when it came to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series being voted consecutively at number two, three, four and five. Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets was the most popular of the series, being voted Australia’s second-best read.”