The Toronto International Film Festival is a massive event and a vitally important industry showcase, there’s no doubt about that. But Ron Weiskind was stunned by how disorganized the whole event has become, and wonders if it reflects a downturn in TIFF’s fortunes. “Last year, I did interviews for nine movies, most of them major releases. This year, none of the top studios (except MGM, which may be sold soon) is offering press roundtables.” Admittedly, one could argue that making life easy for the press is not the mission of a festival, but in an industry that lives and dies by its media coverage, it’s a bad sign when reporters can’t navigate the proceedings.
Tag: 09.11.04
Eisner To Leave Disney
Coming off a brutal year in which he faced withering criticism for his business tactics and came dangerously close to not being reelected to the company board, Disney CEO Michael Eisner has announced that he will leave the company when his contract expires in 2006. Sources suggest that the board would not have renewed the contract anyway, and that the announcement was a way for both sides to save face in what had become an embarrassingly public and drawn-out separation.
A Problem Of Succession
Two years is a long, long goodbye by corporate standards. Not only that, but the race to succeed Michael Eisner at the helm of Disney is reportedly wide open, leading to fears that the two-year lame duck period could cause chaos or institutional paralysis. “That could be particularly problematic for Disney, which has just started to rebound after a prolonged stock slump and months of turmoil marked by a failed takeover bid from cable giant Comcast Corp. and a shareholder revolt to unseat Eisner.”
And God Said Unto Pinocchio…
“Two years ago, pop culture analyst Mark I. Pinsky unleashed The Gospel According To The Simpsons, a book analyzing the surprising spiritual topics knitted into Fox’s irreverent animated TV farce. Now it’s The Gospel According To Disney… So what’s the substance of Disney’s substitute gospel? Good is always rewarded. Evil is always punished. Overcome adversity. Work hard (even ‘Whistle While You Work’). All things work together for good in the long run. And have faith, faith in yourself but also in an undefined something beyond yourself.” And before you even ask, this gospel applies to Disney’s films, not to its corporate power structure.
Lucerne’s Glory
If the BBC Proms are the People’s Choice Awards of orchestra festivals, then the Lucerne Festival must surely be the Oscars. Presented in one of the finest modern concert halls in the world and featuring a lineup that most critics would agree amounts to the very best orchestras the world has to offer (Cleveland, Concertgebouw, Vienna, etc.), Lucerne has risen in recent years to become the festival for people who are serious about music. More than that, though, the festival has boosted the profile of the city, and now, the fest’s director has built a unique orchestra just for Lucerne, “drawing together outstanding orchestral musicians and soloists… from across the European continent.”
ABT Principal On Medical Leave
A principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater has been placed on medical leave and will not perform at all during ABT’s fall season. Nina Ananiashvili, who hails from Tbilisi, Georgia, will reportedly return in the spring, but the company isn’t disclosing the nature of her illness or injury.
A New Intellectual-In-Chief
“Six months after the abrupt dismissal of its former editor, The American Scholar, one of the nation’s leading literary and intellectual journals, has found a successor. On Thursday, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the journal’s publisher, named Robert S. Wilson to replace Anne Fadiman, whose departure after a budget dispute with the publisher led to the angry resignation of 20 contributing editors and board members.”
Behind The Fraud, Some Very Nice Instruments
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra opens its season after a summer of turmoil surrounding the ensemble’s purchase of millions of dollars of possibly overvalued instruments from now-imprisoned financier Herbert Axelrod. And while the controversy is far from over, James Oestreich says that it’s nice to see the music once again taking center stage in Newark. “Whatever the collection may be worth beyond the smoke and mirrors of expert appraisals, no one questions that these are marvelous instruments and a boon to the orchestra.”
The Sounds Of 9/11
A new audio-guided walking tour of lower Manhattan has just launched, memorializing the fall of the World Trade Center towers. At first blush, the idea of listening to the horrific sounds of 9/11 seems like a ghastly exercise, but the tour, put together by two National Public Radio producers, blends together such a wide array of aural experiences that you can’t help but be drawn in.