Following Salzburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Madrid, and Paris, Claus Guth’s critically acclaimed 2008 adaptation of Don Giovanni is presented at the Opera House. The title role of this provocative, youthful production (sold out weeks before the 2 March 2024 Budapest premiere) is performed by Gábor Bretz and Károly Szemerédy, the ensembles of the Hungarian State Opera are conducted by principal conductor Martin Rajna.
Don Juan, the arrogant womanizer who defies the heavens, has inspired authors in various art forms for centuries. His figure was first established by the 17th-century Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina, but his story was also written by Molière, whose play was adapted as ballet music by Gluck a hundred years later. (The contemporary French choreographer Thierry Malandain’s choreography to Gluck’s music was presented by the Hungarian National Ballet in 2021.) The first 18th-century opera adaptation and the Prague performances of Vincenzo Righini’s 1776 tragicomedy also contributed to Mozart...
Don Juan, the arrogant womanizer who defies the heavens, has inspired authors in various art forms for centuries. His figure was first established by the 17th-century Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina, but his story was also written by Molière, whose play was adapted as ballet music by Gluck a hundred years later. (The contemporary French choreographer Thierry Malandain’s choreography to Gluck’s music was presented by the Hungarian National Ballet in 2021.) The first 18th-century opera adaptation and the Prague performances of Vincenzo Righini’s 1776 tragicomedy also contributed to Mozart...
- 2/20/2024
- by Music MCM
- Martin Cid Music
Irène, the vibrant center of Sandrine Kiberlain’s impressive debut feature, is indeed radiant. Beaming with youth, she’s an 18-year-old aspiring actor, awakened to first love and to the vision of who she wants to be. Irène is also Jewish, living with her family in occupied Paris, and the awful paradox of her blossoming during the summer of ’42 while a hateful and murderous world is closing in is suggested by the movie’s original title, Une Jeune Fille Qui Va Bien: She’s “a young girl who’s doing just fine.” Her zest for life sustains her, and it’s also a dangerous kind of tunnel vision.
Played to awkward/graceful perfection by Rebecca Marder, in her first lead film role, Irène is almost always in exuberant motion, well captured by Guillaume Schiffman’s nimble, unobtrusive cinematography. When the camera lingers for a moment on her anklets and oxfords,...
Played to awkward/graceful perfection by Rebecca Marder, in her first lead film role, Irène is almost always in exuberant motion, well captured by Guillaume Schiffman’s nimble, unobtrusive cinematography. When the camera lingers for a moment on her anklets and oxfords,...
- 2/16/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“My need to work on monologues originates from my love of literature. I usually pick novels that have little or no dialogue, so that I perceive the book as a very long monologue. Since I make films where plot twists are rare, if not entirely absent, monologues help me to have something masquerade as a plot twist that is just not there,” says Paolo Sorrentino during a special event on the art of the monologue organized by the Torino Film Festival and held at the Teatro Astra on Friday. The talk was moderated by filmmaker David Grieco and festival director Steve Della Casa.
Reading the notes written by Andrea De Rosa (who could not take part in the event), Della Casa listed three types of monologues present throughout Sorrentino’s filmography. The first is the inner monologue, during which the character speaks alone, often with their voice over, while the...
Reading the notes written by Andrea De Rosa (who could not take part in the event), Della Casa listed three types of monologues present throughout Sorrentino’s filmography. The first is the inner monologue, during which the character speaks alone, often with their voice over, while the...
- 12/3/2022
- by Davide Abbatescianni
- Variety Film + TV
The "Futurama" character Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (voiced by Billy West) was named after Philo T. Farnsworth (1906 - 1971), the inventor of the world's first all-electronic image pickup device, better known to the masses as the television tube. The real Farnsworth has many other patents besides, mostly involving electronic imaging, radio, or nuclear fusion. He is one of the most important engineers in the history of broadcast media.
Prof. Farnsworth on "Futurama" is also an inventor with multiple patents, although his inventions tend to drift into the realm of crackpot lunacy. Prof. Farnsworth has an entire bank of doomsday devices, invented a smelloscope that can detect the odors of distant heavenly bodies, once kept a monkey whose tiny bowler hat granted him extreme intelligence, and often makes use of the fing-longer, which is a glove sporting an index finger the length of a billiard cue. That latter device is used more often than one might assume.
Prof. Farnsworth on "Futurama" is also an inventor with multiple patents, although his inventions tend to drift into the realm of crackpot lunacy. Prof. Farnsworth has an entire bank of doomsday devices, invented a smelloscope that can detect the odors of distant heavenly bodies, once kept a monkey whose tiny bowler hat granted him extreme intelligence, and often makes use of the fing-longer, which is a glove sporting an index finger the length of a billiard cue. That latter device is used more often than one might assume.
- 8/25/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Exclusive: Following the success of Shonda Rhimes-produced steamy Regency romance Bridgerton, Netflix is betting on another soapy period drama produced by a top showrunner from its roster of overall deals, Orange Is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan. The streamer has given an eight-episode series order to The Decameron, from Kathleen Jordan, creator of Netflix’s Teenage Bounty Hunters, and Kohan who executive produced the teen drama alongside her.
Created by Jordan, who serves as showrunner, The Decameron is set in 1348 when the Black Death, the deadliest pandemic in human history which killed as many as 200 million people, strikes hard in the city of Florence. A handful of nobles are invited to retreat with their servants to a grand villa in the Italian countryside and wait out the pestilence with a lavish holiday. But as social rules wear thin, what starts as a wine-soaked sex romp in the hills...
Created by Jordan, who serves as showrunner, The Decameron is set in 1348 when the Black Death, the deadliest pandemic in human history which killed as many as 200 million people, strikes hard in the city of Florence. A handful of nobles are invited to retreat with their servants to a grand villa in the Italian countryside and wait out the pestilence with a lavish holiday. But as social rules wear thin, what starts as a wine-soaked sex romp in the hills...
- 8/18/2022
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Jean-Louis Trintignant, the thoughtful French actor who headlined such art house classics as A Man and a Woman, My Night at Maud’s, The Conformist, Three Colors: Red and Amour, has died. He was 91.
Trintignant died Friday at his home in the Gard region of southern France, his wife, Marianne, and agent told the Agence France-Presse.
Trintignant received a number of accolades throughout his 60-plus-year career, including the best actor prize from Cannes in 1969 for Costa-Gavras’ political thriller Z and a Cesar Award in 2013 for Michael Haneke’s Amour, which also won the Oscar for best foreign-language film.
With more than 130 screen and 50-plus stage credits to his name, Trintignant was a highly prolific and respected talent who could perform anything from Shakespeare to commercial French comedies, from art house favorites by Bertolucci, Kieślowski and Truffaut to popular romances and sci-fi flicks — as...
Trintignant died Friday at his home in the Gard region of southern France, his wife, Marianne, and agent told the Agence France-Presse.
Trintignant received a number of accolades throughout his 60-plus-year career, including the best actor prize from Cannes in 1969 for Costa-Gavras’ political thriller Z and a Cesar Award in 2013 for Michael Haneke’s Amour, which also won the Oscar for best foreign-language film.
With more than 130 screen and 50-plus stage credits to his name, Trintignant was a highly prolific and respected talent who could perform anything from Shakespeare to commercial French comedies, from art house favorites by Bertolucci, Kieślowski and Truffaut to popular romances and sci-fi flicks — as...
- 6/17/2022
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It would be easy to miss just how commitedly Sally Potter’s first film in five years operates as trenchant political satire, because that’s an incomplete definition for what she’s achieved. “The Party” is foremost a brilliant clockwork farce, brimming with wit and bile, the way Molière would do it, or Edward Albee. Featuring a veteran cast in top form and running just 71 minutes, this post-Brexit chamber piece hits like a fast jab to the face — one that bruises and draws blood. It’s probably possible (especially for an American viewer) to coast through this film on its comedic set-ups...
- 2/14/2018
- by Ray Greene
- The Wrap
The Old Globe presents the Globe-commissioned world premiere adaptation of The Imaginary Invalid written by Moliere and reinvented by the acclaimed theatre group Fiasco Theater. Fiasco last delighted Globe audiences with their inventive reimagining of Into the Woods in 2014. This new take on the hilarious classic tale is directed by Fiasco Co-Artistic Directors Jessie Austrian and Noah Brody. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below...
- 6/2/2017
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team of the Globe-commissioned world premiere adaptation of The Imaginary Invalid written by Moliere and reinvented by the acclaimed theatre group Fiasco Theater. Fiasco last delighted Globe audiences with their inventive reimagining of Into the Woods in 2014. This new take on the hilarious classic tale is directed by Fiasco Co-Artistic Directors Jessie Austrian and Noah Brody.
- 5/12/2017
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Theater Close-Up -- the unique collaboration between Thirteen and the large community of New York City area Off-Broadway and regional theaters - continues with John Strand's The Originalist, captured live on-stage at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Monday, March 13 at 9 p.m. on Thirteen, with an encore presentation on Sunday, March 19 at 340 a.m. The play will also air Sunday, March 26 at 10 p.m. on WLIW21. The play, directed on the stage by Molly Smith, will be available for streaming for two weeks after the broadcast.L to R Edward Gero as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Kerry Warren as Cat in The Originalist at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Credit C. Stanley Photography. Four-time Helen Hayes Award winner Edward Gero Red returned to Arena Stage as one of America's most brilliant and polarizing figures Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. When bright, liberal, Harvard...
- 3/1/2017
- by TV News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Red Bull Theater today announced the complete cast for their 2016-'17 Season kick-off, a special benefit reading and party on Monday, October 10th 730pm at Symphony Space Moliere's Tartuffe, translated by Richard Wilbur, directed by Marc Vietor who directed last season's acclaimed The School for Scandal, and starring Bill Camp, Julie Halston, Dana Ivey, Reg Rogers, Derek Smith, and Michael Urie, along with Christian DeMarais, Gretchen Hall, Naomi Lorrain, and Ben Mehl.
- 9/12/2016
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
At breakfast with Anton Honik, Miri Ann Beuschel and Forældre director Christian Tafdrup Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, Michael Haneke, a rabbit memory not from Alice In Wonderland, Danish fairy tales, Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Molière's Tartuffe and an Andrei Tarkovsky tracking shot pops up in my conversation with director/writer/actor Christian Tafdrup.
In a turn of events straight out of David Lynch's Lost Highway book of identity magic, Kjeld (Søren Malling of Nikolaj Arcel's A Royal Affair) dreams to relive his younger days. This comes true in unexpected ways through Miri Ann Beuschel and Elliott Crosset Hove. With their son Esben (Anton Honik) leaving for college, Kjeld and Vibeke (Bodil Jørgensen of Cæcilia Holbek Trier's Agnus Dei and Anders Thomas Jensen's Men & Chicken) feel that their suburban house has become too big and empty for them. They...
Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, Michael Haneke, a rabbit memory not from Alice In Wonderland, Danish fairy tales, Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Molière's Tartuffe and an Andrei Tarkovsky tracking shot pops up in my conversation with director/writer/actor Christian Tafdrup.
In a turn of events straight out of David Lynch's Lost Highway book of identity magic, Kjeld (Søren Malling of Nikolaj Arcel's A Royal Affair) dreams to relive his younger days. This comes true in unexpected ways through Miri Ann Beuschel and Elliott Crosset Hove. With their son Esben (Anton Honik) leaving for college, Kjeld and Vibeke (Bodil Jørgensen of Cæcilia Holbek Trier's Agnus Dei and Anders Thomas Jensen's Men & Chicken) feel that their suburban house has become too big and empty for them. They...
- 7/23/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Newsroom (Real and Algerian): Malek Bensmail’s Checks and BalancesOn the eve of the general election for President of the Algerian Republic in 2014, Algerian filmmaker Malek Bensmail set off to Algiers to document the campaign that will eventually lead to the 4th mandate of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. As he did in 2004 for his Le grand jeu, Bensmail uses documentary cinema to examine the struggle of his country to conquer real democracy, come out of an infernal cycle of political crisis and civil conflicts, and to break with the "old ways" (structured by corruption, confiscation of power by a caste and the lack of a modern project).In 2004, Bouteflika campaigned for his second mandate and Bensmail was in the "war room," examining the mechanisms of control and corruption under the mask of a civilian regime. This time, the campaign is seen from the offices of the most important and respected independent French-speaking daily,...
- 8/16/2015
- by Marie-Pierre Duhamel
- MUBI
Theater has inspired, entertained, and challenged audiences for thousands of years, but at the crux of great work is often great controversy. These bold playwrights have courted scandal and worse for the sake of their messages; here are 10 important plays that have flown in the face of historical norms, confronting censorship (and even violence) for the sake of art and expression. “Lysistrata,” Aristophanes, 411 B.C.Politically charged theater is not a recent phenomenon; Aristophanes wrote this anti-war comedy in 411 B.C., and productions continue to spark angry protests to this day. The plot centers on a female-led sex-strike, and themes of power and sex are at the root of the comedy and the controversy. The United States’ Comstock Law banned “Lysistrata” in 1873, and the Moscow Art Theatre faced threats of arrest when it brought its production to the States in the 1920s. The play has since been adapted into numerous films,...
- 10/21/2014
- backstage.com
It all begins with a freeze frame of a dirt road somewhere in Yorkshire county, lined with trees whose lush foliage converges above in an arch. What could it be if not a portal? The movie itself, meanwhile, has not even started as we watch the opening credits, encased in large old-fashioned frames, slowly fade away—a device consistently favored by Alain Resnais who opened each of his 19 features likewise, holding off the films themselves until the screen no longer contained any visual surplus. The freeze frame comes to life as the camera pans farther down the road; then we find ourselves in a theatrical set.
We have been here before, of course. Resnais' Smoking/No Smoking, also based on a play by British playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn, is set in Yorkshire as well. Life of Riley (Aimer, boire et chanter) borrows from the five-hour diptych its theatrical setting, one...
We have been here before, of course. Resnais' Smoking/No Smoking, also based on a play by British playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn, is set in Yorkshire as well. Life of Riley (Aimer, boire et chanter) borrows from the five-hour diptych its theatrical setting, one...
- 6/17/2014
- by Boris Nelepo
- MUBI
These days, the number of indies premiering on a weekly basis can be both thrilling and intimidating. To help sift through the number of new releases (independent or otherwise), we've created the Weekly Film Guide. Below you'll find basic plot, personnel and cinema information for today's fresh offerings. Happy viewing! Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. today, Friday, April 25th. (Synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.) Bicycling with Moliere Director: Philippe Le Guay Cast: Fabrice Luchini, Lambert Wilson, Maya Sansa, Camille Japy, Annie Mercier Synopsis: "A kind of theatrical odd couple, Serge Tanneur (Fabrice Luchini) and Gauthier Valence (Lambert Wilson) aren’t really friends but they’re willing to pretend if it’s to their mutual advantage. And perhaps it is: Gauthier is the star of a hit TV show, but he has an itch to stage Moliere’s Le Misanthrope, and he wants to persuade Serge,...
- 4/25/2014
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Prolific comedy actor who worked with Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan and Hattie Jacques
The stony-faced, beaky comedy actor Graham Stark, who has died aged 91, is best remembered for his appearances alongside Peter Sellers, notably in the Pink Panther movies. His familiar face and voice, on television and radio, were part of the essential furniture in the sitting room of our popular culture for more than half a century. A stalwart in the national postwar comedy boom led by Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Dick Emery, Eric Sykes and Benny Hill, he worked with them all in a sort of unofficial supporting repertory company that also included Hattie Jacques, Deryck Guyler, Patricia Hayes and Arthur Mullard. He was also a man of surprising and various parts: child actor, trained dancer, film-maker, occasional writer, and dedicated and critically acclaimed photographer.
Like Gypsy Rose Lee, he had a resourceful and determined...
The stony-faced, beaky comedy actor Graham Stark, who has died aged 91, is best remembered for his appearances alongside Peter Sellers, notably in the Pink Panther movies. His familiar face and voice, on television and radio, were part of the essential furniture in the sitting room of our popular culture for more than half a century. A stalwart in the national postwar comedy boom led by Sellers, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Dick Emery, Eric Sykes and Benny Hill, he worked with them all in a sort of unofficial supporting repertory company that also included Hattie Jacques, Deryck Guyler, Patricia Hayes and Arthur Mullard. He was also a man of surprising and various parts: child actor, trained dancer, film-maker, occasional writer, and dedicated and critically acclaimed photographer.
Like Gypsy Rose Lee, he had a resourceful and determined...
- 11/1/2013
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
The Observer's critics pick the season's highlights, from the Misanthrope to Johnny Marr, Lulu to Lichtenstein, H7steria to Hitchcock. What are you most looking forward to? Add your comments below and download a pdf of the calendar here
December | January | FebruaryDecember
1 Film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D)
Well, not so very unexpected. Every move has been tracked by fanboys, from the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug to the return of the king, Peter Jackson, to take over directing from Guillermo del Toro. But Middle-earth (or, as it's sometimes known, New Zealand) is back for the next three Christmases.
3 Pop Scott Walker
The avant-garde Walker Brother returns with his first album since 2006's The Drift. Not for the faint-hearted, Bish Bosch finds the former romantic hero deep in dystopian territory, at once sonorous and rigorous.
3 Classical H7steria
World premiere of...
December | January | FebruaryDecember
1 Film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D)
Well, not so very unexpected. Every move has been tracked by fanboys, from the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug to the return of the king, Peter Jackson, to take over directing from Guillermo del Toro. But Middle-earth (or, as it's sometimes known, New Zealand) is back for the next three Christmases.
3 Pop Scott Walker
The avant-garde Walker Brother returns with his first album since 2006's The Drift. Not for the faint-hearted, Bish Bosch finds the former romantic hero deep in dystopian territory, at once sonorous and rigorous.
3 Classical H7steria
World premiere of...
- 12/2/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Medea, Glasgow
It's been a good year for playwright and director Mike Bartlett. Love, Love, Love played at the Royal Court and his adaptation of Chariots Of Fire is currently at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End (to 10 Nov). This latest play, which he also directs, is something very different: Euripides's tale of a woman scorned who takes her revenge on her ex-husband in the most appalling way is one of the greatest and most enduring of Greek tragedies. Now it's reinvented for the modern age in Bartlett's new version about a 21st-century woman who is unhinged by grief when her husband, for whom she has given up everything, leaves her for another woman. The excellent Rachael Stirling is in the title role in a production for Headlong, which will be touring to major venues across the UK until December.
Citizens, Thu to 13 Oct
Lyn Gardner
Kanjoos: The Miser,...
It's been a good year for playwright and director Mike Bartlett. Love, Love, Love played at the Royal Court and his adaptation of Chariots Of Fire is currently at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End (to 10 Nov). This latest play, which he also directs, is something very different: Euripides's tale of a woman scorned who takes her revenge on her ex-husband in the most appalling way is one of the greatest and most enduring of Greek tragedies. Now it's reinvented for the modern age in Bartlett's new version about a 21st-century woman who is unhinged by grief when her husband, for whom she has given up everything, leaves her for another woman. The excellent Rachael Stirling is in the title role in a production for Headlong, which will be touring to major venues across the UK until December.
Citizens, Thu to 13 Oct
Lyn Gardner
Kanjoos: The Miser,...
- 9/21/2012
- by Judith Mackrell, Mark Cook, Lyn Gardner
- The Guardian - Film News
Ever get the urge to watch "Game of Thrones" star Peter Dinklage cross-dress? First, perhaps you should re-examine your priorities. Second, you'll soon have your chance! Also read: "Game of Thrones" New Trailer Delivers Bloodshed, Romance and Suspense (Video) Dinklage will co-star in an all-male production of Moliere's "The Imaginary Invalid" at Bard College's 2012 Bard SummerScape in July. The actor, who plays Tyrion Lannister on the HBO hit, will portray Toinette, the maid to the hypochondriac Argan at the center of the play. "Star Trek: Voyager"'s Ethan Phillips will play Argan. Also read: "Game of...
- 5/23/2012
- by Tim Kenneally
- The Wrap
Sacha Baron Cohen's film joins Team America and The Producers in depicting despots as one-dimensional buffoons. But why are we obsessed with satirising tyrants – and is it right to find them funny?
Ever since His Excellency Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen, self-styled beloved oppressor and chief ophthalmologist of the People's Republic of Wadiya, inadvertently spilled Kim Jong-il's ashes over Ryan Seacrest's tux outside the Oscars, the world has had to deal with some pretty awkward questions.
What is it with our obsession with satirising dictators? Was Aristotle correct when he suggested that the right genre for dramatising bad men is comedy not tragedy, or should it be beneath us to find power-crazed nutjobs funny? Why can't Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Aladeen (slogan: "Death To The West!") in the upcoming movie The Dictator, find some tougher targets? If it was wrong of the Sun to mock Roy Hodgson for his inability to pronounce rs,...
Ever since His Excellency Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen, self-styled beloved oppressor and chief ophthalmologist of the People's Republic of Wadiya, inadvertently spilled Kim Jong-il's ashes over Ryan Seacrest's tux outside the Oscars, the world has had to deal with some pretty awkward questions.
What is it with our obsession with satirising dictators? Was Aristotle correct when he suggested that the right genre for dramatising bad men is comedy not tragedy, or should it be beneath us to find power-crazed nutjobs funny? Why can't Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Aladeen (slogan: "Death To The West!") in the upcoming movie The Dictator, find some tougher targets? If it was wrong of the Sun to mock Roy Hodgson for his inability to pronounce rs,...
- 5/15/2012
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
The distinctive and beguiling Irish actor David Kelly, who has died aged 82, was as familiar a face in British television sitcoms as he was on the stage in Dublin, where he was particularly associated with the Gate theatre. But he was perhaps best known in recent years for playing Grandpa Joe in Tim Burton's movie adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), an engaging performance that was honoured with a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Film and Television Academy; Johnny Depp, who played Willy Wonka, paid a touching tribute on a video link from Hollywood to Dublin.
Kelly was a tall and flamboyant figure who was often cast as a comic, eccentric Irishman, notably as Albert Riddle, an incompetent, one-armed dish-washer in the late 1970s British sitcom Robin's Nest; he...
Kelly was a tall and flamboyant figure who was often cast as a comic, eccentric Irishman, notably as Albert Riddle, an incompetent, one-armed dish-washer in the late 1970s British sitcom Robin's Nest; he...
- 2/14/2012
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Author and playwright best known for his literary drama Tom and Viv
Michael Hastings, who has died aged 74, shot to prominence in the first wave of new playwrights at the Royal Court in the 1950s. His best known play, Tom and Viv, about the difficult marriage of Ts Eliot and Vivienne Haigh-Wood, was presented there in 1984, by which time he was well established as a novelist, biographer and author of short stories. He was an unclassifiable writer, despite his sporadic allegiance over the years to the Royal Court. Much of his work is imbued with his experience of travelling in Spain, Kenya and Brazil. The fractured domestic relationships which he documented in Tom and Viv, and in his last West End play, Calico (2004), reflect his own difficult childhood and a lifetime interest in psychoanalysis.
Hastings was brought up by his mother, Marie, in a council flat in Brixton, south London.
Michael Hastings, who has died aged 74, shot to prominence in the first wave of new playwrights at the Royal Court in the 1950s. His best known play, Tom and Viv, about the difficult marriage of Ts Eliot and Vivienne Haigh-Wood, was presented there in 1984, by which time he was well established as a novelist, biographer and author of short stories. He was an unclassifiable writer, despite his sporadic allegiance over the years to the Royal Court. Much of his work is imbued with his experience of travelling in Spain, Kenya and Brazil. The fractured domestic relationships which he documented in Tom and Viv, and in his last West End play, Calico (2004), reflect his own difficult childhood and a lifetime interest in psychoanalysis.
Hastings was brought up by his mother, Marie, in a council flat in Brixton, south London.
- 12/1/2011
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Hell and Back Again Trailer I talked about the first trailer for this movie a couple of months ago [1]. Danfung Dennis looks like he's made...
- 9/16/2011
- by Christopher Stipp
- Slash Film
This November, a series of events are planned to celebrate its 100 year history
The Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, home to one of the oldest repertory companies, will celebrate its centenary later this year with a special gala performance of The Ladykillers.
A new book on the Williamson Square landmark and a series of events will also mark the 100th anniversary on November 11.
The gala evening will include a pre-show champagne reception and a chance to join the cast – which includes Peter Capaldi, James Fleet and Ben Miller – after the show to toast the theatre as a special birthday cake is cut.
The Ladykillers adapted for stage by Graham Linehan is on from November 3-19, but is sold out already.
Meanwhile, the cast of Roger McGough's adaptation of Moliere's play, Tartuffe, have been entertaining audiences at the Playhouse. Tartuffe runs until Saturday.
The Playhouse is also launching a book to...
The Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, home to one of the oldest repertory companies, will celebrate its centenary later this year with a special gala performance of The Ladykillers.
A new book on the Williamson Square landmark and a series of events will also mark the 100th anniversary on November 11.
The gala evening will include a pre-show champagne reception and a chance to join the cast – which includes Peter Capaldi, James Fleet and Ben Miller – after the show to toast the theatre as a special birthday cake is cut.
The Ladykillers adapted for stage by Graham Linehan is on from November 3-19, but is sold out already.
Meanwhile, the cast of Roger McGough's adaptation of Moliere's play, Tartuffe, have been entertaining audiences at the Playhouse. Tartuffe runs until Saturday.
The Playhouse is also launching a book to...
- 9/13/2011
- by Helen Carter
- The Guardian - Film News
Peter Michael Falk was born in New York on September 16, 1927. Despite making his first stage performance at 12 years old, Falk was solely focused on academia - achieving a degree in political science in 1951 and a Masters in public administration in 1953. However, after being rejected from the CIA, his attention slowly turned back to acting, and in his spare time he performed in plays in Hartford where he now worked as a management analyst. By 1956, at the age of 29, Falk left his job and declared himself an actor. Moving back to New York, his professional debut came off-Broadway in Moliere's Don Juan, after which he starred in the lauded revival of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards. His theatrical agent advised him to stay on stage due to his glass eye, which he had since the age of 3 following a tumour. However, in 1960 he shunned his agent's advice and moved...
- 6/24/2011
- by By Paul Millar
- Digital Spy
Columbo star Peter Falk has died at the age of 83.
The beloved actor passed away peacefully at his Los Angeles home on Thursday.
Falk was born in New York in 1927 and enjoyed a career spanning 50 years.
He broke into the acting industry in 1956 when he landed a role in an off-Broadway production of Moliere's play Don Juan. That same year, he made his Broadway debut in Diary of a Scoundrel.
He later shifted his focus onto TV and film work, but he was warned early on not to expect too much success due to a glass eye he had implanted at the age of three - after doctors found a malignant tumour in his right eye.
However, he defied Hollywood agents and scored his film debut with a small role in Wind Across the Everglades in 1958. Two years later, Falk appeared as gangster Abe Reles in Murder, Inc - the same year he married first wife Alyce Mayo, with whom he has adopted daughters Catherine and Jackie. The movie was a hit with critics and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1961.
Murder, Inc. proved to be Falk's break-out role, and he would go on to reprise the role again in 1960s TV series The Witness.
Meanwhile, his film career continued to rise with a part in Frank Capra's 1961 comedy Pocketful of Miracles - another Oscar-nominated role - and parts in director pal John Cassavetes' movies Husbands (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974).
But it was Falk's turn as Lieutenant Columbo in the hit TV crime series Columbo that he is best known for. The programme aired on U.S. network NBC between 1971 and 1978, and later moved to ABC, where it was shown from 1989 to 2003. The role won Falk four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.
Falk suffered from deteriorating health towards the end of his life, suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
His personal life hit the headlines in January 2009 when his daughter Catherine, a real life private detective, battled Falk's second wife, actress Shera Danese, to be named conservator of his estate. Catherine claimed her father also had dementia and could no longer care for himself.
Falk is survived by Danese, whom he married in 1977, and his two children.
The beloved actor passed away peacefully at his Los Angeles home on Thursday.
Falk was born in New York in 1927 and enjoyed a career spanning 50 years.
He broke into the acting industry in 1956 when he landed a role in an off-Broadway production of Moliere's play Don Juan. That same year, he made his Broadway debut in Diary of a Scoundrel.
He later shifted his focus onto TV and film work, but he was warned early on not to expect too much success due to a glass eye he had implanted at the age of three - after doctors found a malignant tumour in his right eye.
However, he defied Hollywood agents and scored his film debut with a small role in Wind Across the Everglades in 1958. Two years later, Falk appeared as gangster Abe Reles in Murder, Inc - the same year he married first wife Alyce Mayo, with whom he has adopted daughters Catherine and Jackie. The movie was a hit with critics and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1961.
Murder, Inc. proved to be Falk's break-out role, and he would go on to reprise the role again in 1960s TV series The Witness.
Meanwhile, his film career continued to rise with a part in Frank Capra's 1961 comedy Pocketful of Miracles - another Oscar-nominated role - and parts in director pal John Cassavetes' movies Husbands (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974).
But it was Falk's turn as Lieutenant Columbo in the hit TV crime series Columbo that he is best known for. The programme aired on U.S. network NBC between 1971 and 1978, and later moved to ABC, where it was shown from 1989 to 2003. The role won Falk four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.
Falk suffered from deteriorating health towards the end of his life, suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
His personal life hit the headlines in January 2009 when his daughter Catherine, a real life private detective, battled Falk's second wife, actress Shera Danese, to be named conservator of his estate. Catherine claimed her father also had dementia and could no longer care for himself.
Falk is survived by Danese, whom he married in 1977, and his two children.
- 6/24/2011
- WENN
Deviating from French cinema for the first time in a few weeks, Not In The English Language returns with a film technically not in any language, with F. W. Murnau’s Tartuffe.
In the year between his well known classics Der Letzte Mann (1924) and Faust(1926), Friedrick Wilhelm Murnau produced Tartuffe. Historically deemed a minor piece in Murnau’s body of work, I find it hard to empathise with those who deem this to be an unfair assessment. While the film is not particularly terrible it lacks the magic that empowers the likes of Sunrise or Faust.
Loosely based upon the play Tartuffe, ou l’Imposteur, that fell from the pen of Moliere, Murnau frames Moliere’s tome with a separate, but rather familiar set up. The framed section of the film works a charm, in which the tale of a young actor that returns to his grandfather’s home is told.
In the year between his well known classics Der Letzte Mann (1924) and Faust(1926), Friedrick Wilhelm Murnau produced Tartuffe. Historically deemed a minor piece in Murnau’s body of work, I find it hard to empathise with those who deem this to be an unfair assessment. While the film is not particularly terrible it lacks the magic that empowers the likes of Sunrise or Faust.
Loosely based upon the play Tartuffe, ou l’Imposteur, that fell from the pen of Moliere, Murnau frames Moliere’s tome with a separate, but rather familiar set up. The framed section of the film works a charm, in which the tale of a young actor that returns to his grandfather’s home is told.
- 2/23/2011
- by Adam Batty
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Keira Knightley's fears over her West End debut proved well-founded after she was hit with a slew of bad reviews, with one critic insisting the actress "has all the charisma of a goldfish."
The Pirates of the Caribbean star landed a role in a London adaptation of Moliere classic The Misanthrope, opposite Damian Lewis and Tara Fitzgerald.
Knightley previously spoke of her worries about her performance, fearing she would be "burned alive" by the critics.
And when the curtain went up for the reviewers on Thursday, Knightley's predictions turned out to be all too accurate.
Quentin Letts, who reviewed the play for Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, wrote, "Keira Knightley may be one of 21st century cinema’s revered objects but on stage she proves little better than adequate.
"Her arrival on the West End in an interesting (but intellectually disingenuous) treatment of Moliere’s Le Misanthrope is, well, on the dull side. She has all the charisma of a serviceable goldfish. Miss Knightley has a flawless face but it does not move about much."
While the Daily Express' theatre critic, Paul Callan, adds, “Her lack of stage experience is sometimes painfully evident. It is rather sad that the heart-wrenchingly beautiful Miss Knightley does not come up to scratch."...
The Pirates of the Caribbean star landed a role in a London adaptation of Moliere classic The Misanthrope, opposite Damian Lewis and Tara Fitzgerald.
Knightley previously spoke of her worries about her performance, fearing she would be "burned alive" by the critics.
And when the curtain went up for the reviewers on Thursday, Knightley's predictions turned out to be all too accurate.
Quentin Letts, who reviewed the play for Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, wrote, "Keira Knightley may be one of 21st century cinema’s revered objects but on stage she proves little better than adequate.
"Her arrival on the West End in an interesting (but intellectually disingenuous) treatment of Moliere’s Le Misanthrope is, well, on the dull side. She has all the charisma of a serviceable goldfish. Miss Knightley has a flawless face but it does not move about much."
While the Daily Express' theatre critic, Paul Callan, adds, “Her lack of stage experience is sometimes painfully evident. It is rather sad that the heart-wrenchingly beautiful Miss Knightley does not come up to scratch."...
- 12/18/2009
- WENN
There is no point pretending that the play itself will be the main attraction to lots of the audience at London's Comedy Theatre when its new show officially opens next week. The West End debut of Keira Knightley will irresistibly get all the headlines and shift a lot of the tickets, though the rest of the cast of The Misanthrope – including Damian Lewis, Dominic Rowan and Tara Fitzgerald – are not exactly duffers. A special word of welcome is due, nevertheless, for the overdue return to the London stage of any play by Molière, who is an all too rarely performed dramatist in this country these days. We haven't yet reached the point where any reference to Molière requires a footnote to explain that he was a celebrated 17th-century French comic playwright. Yet things may be heading that way. Even the National Theatre, which in its early days was a staunch champion of his work,...
- 12/9/2009
- The Guardian - Film News
Stage West presents Liz Lochhead's wry and funny Good Things.
49-year-old Susan is going through what is generally described as a bit of a rough patch. Her husband has left her for a much younger woman, she has lost her job, her father is slipping into senility, and her teenage daughter is behaving like-well-a teenager.
Now she's volunteering in a resale shop, and maintaining a (mostly) cheerful determination not to fall into victimhood, in Liz Lochhead's comedy Good Things, beginning Thursday, October 29 at Stage West's Vickery playhouse.
Susan's co-workers, the nurturing and possibly gay Frazer, and the micro-managing Marjorie, are eager to see Susan's life sorted out in appropriately fairy-tale fashion. They've encouraged her attempts at online and speed-dating, though she herself is less than enthusiastic. It hasn't worked out very well so far; she's currently having to dodge the attentions of one particularly creepy match-up. And then into the shop comes David,...
49-year-old Susan is going through what is generally described as a bit of a rough patch. Her husband has left her for a much younger woman, she has lost her job, her father is slipping into senility, and her teenage daughter is behaving like-well-a teenager.
Now she's volunteering in a resale shop, and maintaining a (mostly) cheerful determination not to fall into victimhood, in Liz Lochhead's comedy Good Things, beginning Thursday, October 29 at Stage West's Vickery playhouse.
Susan's co-workers, the nurturing and possibly gay Frazer, and the micro-managing Marjorie, are eager to see Susan's life sorted out in appropriately fairy-tale fashion. They've encouraged her attempts at online and speed-dating, though she herself is less than enthusiastic. It hasn't worked out very well so far; she's currently having to dodge the attentions of one particularly creepy match-up. And then into the shop comes David,...
- 10/17/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
Hollyoaks star Gerard McCarthy has announced that he is to star in a production of classic Molière play The Miser. The 28-year-old actor, who plays cross dresser Kris Fisher in the Chester-based soap, will return home to Belfast for the one-off Lyric Theatre performance later this month. Writer David Johnston's new adaptation of the French playwright's classic will be the headline show during the theatre's 'off-site' season while its new £18 million home is built in the city. McCarthy has previously performed alongside Liam Neeson and (more)...
- 10/9/2009
- by By Daniel Kilkelly
- Digital Spy
The Imaginary Invalid: By Prescription Only, based on Le Malade Imaginaire by Molière and written and directed by Nyit award winner Aliza Shane, will be presented as part of the world premiere of the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. The Festivity will take place June 9th through the 28th at the newly renovated 440 Theatres at Astor Place and Lafayette in New York City.
- 5/26/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
Director/Photographer Kevin Abosch is set to begin production on his second feature project this year, 'Tartuffe', an Irish production of Molière's classic French stage-play. Abosch, who recently wrapped photography on his debut feature 'Vena', plans to begin shooting the comic tale at the end of July. In what the director calls "a contemporary abstraction of the original work with Tartuffe re-imagined as a spiritual guru," the film is a direct adaptation of the stage-play with a contemporary Irish setting.
- 5/26/2009
- IFTN
The Topanga Philharmonic Orchestra (Tpo) celebrates its gala 30th anniversary with a concert of family fare to benefit programming at The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Conductor Guido Lamell of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra is joined by musicians of the Los Angeles and Santa Monica Philharmonic Orchestras, and Theatricum artistic director Ellen Geer weaves theatrical magic into the music with selections from the upcoming Mainstage Repertory Season that includes Julius Caesar and Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekov and The Miser by Moliere. The benefit performance to support the non-profit theater's repertory and education programs that entertain, inspire and educate thousands of Angelenos each year, will take place at Theatricum Botaniucm's rustic outdoor amphitheater in Topanga on Saturday, May 16 at 2:00 pm.
- 4/18/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
Dog Run Rep announces, as part of the South Street Seaport Winter Theatre Season, a new American adaption of Moliere's classic comedy Tartuffe, directed by Jeff Cohen. Tartuffe will play a four-week limited engagement @Seaport (210 Front Street), presented, in part, through the generous support of General Growth Properties. Performances begin Friday, March 6 and continue Saturday, April 5. Opening Night is Monday, March 9 (7 p.m.).
- 2/13/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
Dog Run Rep presents Winter Theatre At South Street Seaport featuring Dog Run Rep, Abraxas Stage Company, Studio 42, and Unknown Productions. Celebrating its 3rd season, Dog Run Rep?s mission is to enhance cultural programming in Lower Manhattan. As part of its Seaport Semester program, General Growth Properties, the owners of the South Street Seaport, is teaming up with the collaboration by providing the @Seaport! venue at 210 Front Street for Winter Theatre at South Street Seaport. The line up includes: *Dog Run Rep presents Moliere?s Tartuffe, adapted and directed by Jeff Cohen. Tartuffe, set in 1930?s New York, begins performances on Friday, March 6th and runs through Sunday, March 29. *Abraxas Stage Company?s Crazy Head Space, a new musical, begins performances on Thursday March 12th and runs through Sunday April 5. *Studio 42?s New Play Reading Series will be presented on Monday evenings, February 16th through March 30th. *Unknown Production?...
- 2/2/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
- Sony Pictures Classics has given us the newest trailers and poster one sheet for Moliere. Written by Gregoire Vigneron and Laurent Tirard and directed by Laurent Tirard the period pic shall open in New York and Los Angeles on July 27, 2007. 1644, Paris. 22-year-old Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also known as Molière, is not yet the writer that history recognizes as the father & true master of comic satire, author of "the Misanthrope and Tartuffe, and a dramatist to rank alongside Shakespeare & Sophocles. Far from it. He is in fact, a failed actor. His Illustrious Theatre Troupe, founded the previous year, is bankrupt. Hounded by creditors, Molière is thrown into jail, released, then swiftly imprisoned again. When the jailors finally let him go, he disappears. The combined efforts of historians have unearthed no trace of him before his reappearance, several months later, when his troupe begins touring the provinces - a tour that will last for thirteen years,
- 4/27/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
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