Wednesday, November 26, 2014
GIFT IDEAS 2014 - SHAKESPEARE
SHAKESPEARE WRITES GREAT PRESENTS!
>>CLICK ON ANY IMAGE!<<
LINKS TO
EVERYTHING SHAKESPEAREAN
EVERYTHING SHAKESPEAREAN
OXFORD PRINT KINDLE
SONNETS - ANALYZED
HELEN VENDLER STEPHEN BOOTH
THE MAN
RUSSELL FRASER JAMES SHAPIRO JAMES SHAPIRO
COMMENTARY
SONGS
Labels: analysis, biography, Harold Bloom, Helen Vendler, music, plays, Shakespeare, sonnets, Stephen Booth
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
GOTHAM IFP FILM AWARDS 2014
INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER PROJECT (IFP)
GOTHAM IFP FILM AWARDS 2014
DECEMBER 1, 2014 6:30
Talking about "discovering," this is a good place to mention IFP's MADE IN NY MEDIA CENTER, a significant resource for indie filmmakers and film lovers, (and other-media entrepreneurs...) which sponsors collaborations, classes, screenings, events, incubation... and other activities. (www.nymediacenter.com)
Some thoughts...
Looking through the list of distributors shows very few companies represented. Sony Pictures Classics, Fox Searchlight Pictures, IFC Films, and A24 seem to lead the list, and they have, mostly, the biggest small pictures with the best known actors. More distributors would be a good thing!
I was disappointed not to see Scott Haze on the list of nominees. His performance in James Franco's CHILD OF GOD is one of the all-time great film performances. It wasn't widely seen, perhaps since it did not have one of the more prominent distributors (and it was a brutally uncompromising performance in a brutally uncompromising film).
Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo
SPECIAL JURY AWARD: ENSEMBLE
FOXCATCHER
Photo by Eric Roffman
At a NYFF 2014 panel discussion
Here are the nominees:
PICTURE
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, director; Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole, producers
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Boyhood
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, producers
(IFC Films)
(IFC Films)
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Love Is Strange
Ira Sachs, director; Lucas Joaquin, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Ira Sachs, Jayne Baron Sherman, producers
(Sony Pictures Classics)
(Sony Pictures Classics)
Under the Skin
Jonathan Glazer, director; Nick Wechsler, James Wilson, producers
(A24)
(A24)
DOCUMENTARY
Actress
Robert Greene, director; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, Robert Greene, producers
(The Cinema Guild)
(The Cinema Guild)
CITIZENFOUR
Laura Poitras, director; Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky, producers
(RADiUS, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films)
(RADiUS, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films)
Life Itself
Steve James, director; Zak Piper, Steve James, Garrett Basch, producers (Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films)
Manakamana
Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, directors; Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, producers
(The Cinema Guild)
(The Cinema Guild)
Point and Shoot
Marshall Curry, director; Marshall Curry, Elizabeth Martin, Matthew Van Dyke, producers
(The Orchard and American Documentary / POV)
(The Orchard and American Documentary / POV)
ACTOR
Bill Hader
The Skeleton Twins
(Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate)
Ethan Hawke
Boyhood
(IFC Films)
Oscar Isaac
A Most Violent Year
(A24)
Michael Keaton
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Miles Teller
Whiplash
(Sony Pictures Classics)
ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette
Boyhood
(IFC Films)
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Beyond the Lights
(Relativity Media)
Julianne Moore
Still Alice
(Sony Pictures Classics)
Scarlett Johansson
Under the Skin
(A24)
Mia Wasikowska
Tracks
(The Weinstein Company)
BINGHAM RAY BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR
Ana Lily Amirpour
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
(Kino Lorber)
James Ward Byrkit
Coherence
(Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Dan Gilroy
Nightcrawler
(Open Road Films)
Eliza Hittman
It Felt Like Love
(Variance Films)
Justin Simien
Dear White People
(Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate)
BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
Riz Ahmed
Nightcrawler
(Open Road Films)
Blue Ruin
(RADiUS)
Ellar Coltrane
Boyhood
(IFC Films)
Joey King
Wish I Was Here
(Focus Features)
Jenny Slate
Obvious Child
(A24)
Tessa Thompson
Dear White People
(Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate)
AUDIENCE AWARD
Actress
Robert Greene, director; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, Robert Greene, producers
(The Cinema Guild)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, director; Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole, producers
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Boyhood
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, producers
(IFC Films)
CITIZENFOUR
Laura Poitras, director; Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky, producers
(RADiUS, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films)
Coherence
James Ward Byrkit, director; Lene Bausager, producer
(Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Dear White People
Justin Simien, director; Effie Brown, Ann Le, Julia Lebedev, Angel Lopez, Justin Simien, Lena Waithe, producers
(Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate)
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Ana Lily Amirpour, director; Ana Lily Amirpour, Justin Begnaud, Sina Sayyah, producers
(Kino Lorber)
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, director; Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson, producers
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
It Felt Like Love
Eliza Hittman, director; Eliza Hittman, Shrihari Sathe, Laura Wagner, producers
(Variance Films)
Life Itself
Steve James, director; Zak Piper, Steve James, Garrett Basch, producers
(Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films)
SPECIAL JURY AWARD – ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE
Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum
Foxcatcher
TRIBUTES
Bennett Miller
Ted Sarandos
Tilda Swinton
SOME STORIES...
FOXCATCHER
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2014/10/foxcatcher-at-nyff-2014.html
TRACKS
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2014/09/tracks.html
CITIZENFOUR
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2014/09/nyff-2014-adds-world-premiere-of-laura.html
SCOTT HAZE
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2014/07/child-of-god-scott-haze-and-james-franco.html
TRACKS
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2014/09/tracks.html
CITIZENFOUR
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2014/09/nyff-2014-adds-world-premiere-of-laura.html
SCOTT HAZE
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2014/07/child-of-god-scott-haze-and-james-franco.html
Labels: Birdman, Boyhood, Channing Tatum, GOTHAM IFP FILM AWARDS, IFP, Julianne Moore, MADE IN NY MEDIA CENTER, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Scarlett Johansson, Scott Haze, Steve Carell
Monday, November 17, 2014
MARLOWE'S TAMBURLAINE AT TFANA
THEATER FOR A NEW AUDIENCE (TFANA)
PRESENTS
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE'S
TAMBURLAINE PARTS I AND II
with JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON
NOVEMBER 1, 2014 - DECEMBER 21, 2014
John Douglas Thompson as Tamburlaine
TAMBURLAINE PARTS I AND II
TFANA
Credit Gerry Goodstein
Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564 a few months before Shakespeare. His first play, Tamburlaine the Great was first performed in 1587. It was based on the career of Timur the Lame, written in blank verse, and was a major success. (Shakespeare's first play was likely Henry VI from about 1590.) Tamburlaine the Great Part II was a sequel.
Timur was a vicious warrior. According to references cited by Wikipedia, he may have been responsible for the deaths of as many as 17 million people -- about 5% of the world's population in his time, the mid 1300s.
Marlowe's Tamburlaine is charismatic, cruel, and a brilliant warrior. His tactics are to gain allies with his charisma, terrorize his foes with his cruelty, and win battles with his military acumen. A peasant and a thief, he is constantly being underestimated by the leaders of the great powers of his day. His victories in Persia, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt give this story an unmistakable modern currency.
As a play, Tamburlaine Part I is also a love story, as Tamburlaine woos his captive princess, Zenocrate of Egypt.
As a playwright, Marlowe writes elegant blank verse. But, unlike Shakespeare, there are few if any truly memorable lines. Also, the play is almost all plot; there is very little subtlety of characterization; only Tamburlaine, and hardly anyone else, gets any dimensionality.
The plotting is relatively simplistic. Tamburlaine and his adversary of the moment face off with bravado and insults, each predicting victory, after which the adversary either yields to Tamburlaine and switches sides, or Tamberlaine's armies prevail, and the enemy is killed, or enslaved and humiliated.
John Douglas Thompson as Tamburlaine
And in cage, Chukwudi Iwuji as defeated and enslaved Bajazeth
And in cage, Chukwudi Iwuji as defeated and enslaved Bajazeth
TAMBURLAINE PARTS I AND II
TFANA
Credit Gerry Goodstein
The action is rather brutal; however, in this production, the director stages murders stylistically, by simply splashing a bucket of red, bloody liquid over the actor.
Tamburlaine Part II, as mentioned before, is conspicuously a sequel, and seems to tread on much of the same ideas as Part I. The brutality escalates, including the drowning of all the men, women, and children from a city that resists.
One new idea in Tamburlaine Part II is Tamburlaine's attempts to turn over his legacy to his sons. Predating King Lear, two of Tamburlaine's three sons profess loyalty to their father's militarism, and one son embraces a peaceful life. Calling this third son effeminate and a traitor, Tamburlaine kills him.
Though it was obvious after Part I that this play could be about current events, the director includes some unnecessary anachronisms in Part II, perhaps to underscore the connections with the present time. This includes using photographs for paintings, using guns, and dressing one character in a modern suit. (By modern, here, though, the director seems to be using the 1900s as his stylistic model.) Also, perhaps to suggest some kind of universality, the director made the strange choice to cast the same actor as both Tamburlaine's love (and later, after her death, her statue) and -- in between her death and her reappearance as her statue -- as the adult son of Bajazeth, one of Tamburlaine's first victims.
Among the many reasons to see this production are John Douglas Thompson's great performance, a chance to experience Marlowe's rarely seen Tamburlaine, and to realize that this exciting play, written 500 years or half a millennium ago, could have been written today about today's news.
Theater For A New Audience (TFANA), which is now in its second season in its new home, the comfortable and elegant Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, is not difficult to reach from Manhattan, either by car over the Brooklyn Bridge, or by subway. Nearby, one also finds restaurants, parking, and BAM, the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Inside, TFANA houses a well-stocked classic book stall, drinks and refreshments.
TFANA'S CURRENT SEASON
TAMBURLAINE PARTS I AND II
NOVEMBER 1, 2014 - DECEMBER 21, 2014
SOHO REP'S AN OCTOROON
FEBRUARY 14, 2015 - MARCH 8, 2015
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
APRIL 24, 2015 - MAY 24, 2015
LINKS
THEATER FOR A NEW AUDIENCE
www.TFANA.org
TAMBURLAINE ON WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamburlaine_(play)
TAMBURLAINE ON AMAZON
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Douglas_Thompson
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE ON WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe
CHRISTOPHER MARL0WE ON AMAZON
SHAKESPEARE ON AMAZON
TIMUR THE LAME ON WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur
Labels: Christopher Marlowe, Chukwudi Iwuji, John Douglas Thompson, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, TAMBURLAINE, TFANA, Timur The Lame
Saturday, November 08, 2014
AARON SORKIN'S THE NEWSROOM ( FINAL SEASON )
The six episode final season of Aaron Sorkin's THE NEWSROOM will begin on Sunday, November 9 on HBO at 9:00.
The show explores the problems of a fictional newsroom reporting on actual recent events. Editorial decisions, journalistic responsibilities, legal, ethical, moral, business and personal issues all come into play.
It's a great and fascinating show!
Watching and discussing this show should be required coursework in any school of journalism.
The teaser-trailer for this season looks very interesting:
THE OFFICIAL HBO NEWSROOM SITE
http://www.hbo.com/the-newsroom#/
The final episode of the last season is available on the HBO site above,
THE NEWSROOM ON WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Newsroom_(U.S._TV_series)
THE NEWSROOM ON IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1870479/
JEFF DANIELS ON IMDB
(Jeff is currently in DUMB AND DUMBER TO;
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001099/
JEFF DANIELS ON AMAZON
AARON SORKIN ON WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Sorkin
AARON SORKIN ON IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/
AARON SORKIN ON AMAZON
CAST:
Jeff Daniels -- Will McAvoy
Emily Mortimer -- MacKenzie McHale
John Gallagher, Jr. -- Jim Harper
Alison Pill -- Maggie Jordan
Thomas Sadoski -- Don Keefer
Dev Patel -- Neal Sampat
Olivia Munn -- Sloan Sabbith
Sam Waterston -- Charlie Skinner
Also:
Jane Fonda -- Leona Lansing
Chris Messina -- Reese Lansing
Adina Porter -- Kendra James
David Harbour -- Elliot Hirsch
Hope Davis -- Nina Howard
Margaret Judson -- Tess Westin
Chris Chalk -- Gary Cooper
Thomas Matthews -- Martin Stallworth
Wynn Everett -- Tamara Hart
Jon Tenney -- Wade Campbell
Terry Crews -- Lonny Church
Kelen Coleman -- Lisa Lambert
David Krumholtz -- Dr. Jacob Habib
Paul Schneider -- Brian Brenner
Riley Voelkel -- Jennifer Johnson
Marcia Gay Harden -- Rebecca Halliday
Hamish Linklater -- Jerry Dantana
Grace Gummer -- Hallie Shea
Constance Zimmer -- Taylor Warren
John F. Carpenter -- Herb Wilson
Trieu Tran -- Joey Phan
Labels: Aaron Sorkin, Alison Pill, Dev Patel, Emily Mortimer, HBO, Jane Fonda, Olivia Munn, Sam Waterston, The Newsroom
