Wednesday, November 26, 2014

 

GIFT IDEAS 2014 - SHAKESPEARE


SHAKESPEARE WRITES GREAT PRESENTS!

>>CLICK ON ANY IMAGE!<<

LINKS TO
EVERYTHING SHAKESPEAREAN



THE COMPLETE WORKS

OXFORD PRINT                                  KINDLE
                    



SONNETS - ANALYZED

HELEN VENDLER                            STEPHEN BOOTH

                             


THE MAN

RUSSELL FRASER               JAMES SHAPIRO             JAMES SHAPIRO

          


COMMENTARY

HAROLD BLOOM





SONGS

INCLUDES LYRICS, MUSIC
AND BEAUTIFUL PERFORMANCES
OF MUSIC FROM
SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS




VIDEOS

LINKS TO MORE THAN 1,000 DVDS
OF VIDEOS OF SHAKESPEARES' PLAYS!



IF YOU NEED A KINDLE...

HERE'S A LINK TO WIKIPEDIA -- ALL ABOUT THE KINDLE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle

AND A LINK T0 AMAZON





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Tuesday, November 25, 2014

 

GOTHAM IFP FILM AWARDS 2014


INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER PROJECT (IFP)
GOTHAM IFP FILM AWARDS 2014

DECEMBER 1, 2014 6:30
www.ifp.org

Perhaps the first film awards of the year, celebrating independent, "smaller" films, the GOTHAM IFP FILM AWARDS are a good place to check out the independent film movement, and some great films that may not have gotten enough ad space or theater time to have been easily discovered.

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)

Boyhood
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, producers 
(IFC Films)

The Grand Budapest Hotel
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)

Under the Skin
Jonathan Glazer, director; Nick Wechsler, James Wilson, producers 
(A24)


DOCUMENTARY

Actress
Robert Greene, director; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, Robert Greene, producers 
(The Cinema Guild)

CITIZENFOUR
Laura Poitras, director; Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky, producers 
(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)

Point and Shoot
Marshall Curry, director; Marshall Curry, Elizabeth Martin, Matthew Van Dyke, producers 
(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)

Macon Blair
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


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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
www.TFANA.org

John Douglas Thompson's performance in Marlowe's exciting Tamburlaine is a magnificent tour de force.


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
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

JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON ON WIKIPEDIA
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

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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, 
and it's a good way to get up to speed on the show 
and the current story lines.

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
about as different a character as one could imagine!)
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

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