Vitro Nasu

Four Stories about Alexander Sokurov (By Victor Kossakovsky | August 16, 2019)

I dedicated my new film Aquarela to Alexander Sokurov and people have asked me why, so I thought I’d write something to explain. Everybody knows that he’s an outstanding filmmaker, a scientist of cinema who’s made an incredible contribution to cinema language with films like Russian Ark, Mother and Son and Faust. And people in Russia know he’s a real fighter – someone who’s trying to save St. Petersburg, where they’re destroying buildings to put up a 400-meter tower in the center of the city, and fighting for human rights, arguing with Putin to try to save Oleg Sentsov.

Oleg Sentsov is an Ukranian filmmaker

Putin Critic Sokurov Shuts Russian film foundation

Alexander Sokurov, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has shut down his film foundation after legal attacks from Russia’s culture ministry. (July 2019)

(Anton Sikharulidze & Elena Berezhnaya)

HyperFocal: 0

Dan Graham obit, Art News

Dan Graham, Conceptual Artist Who Bent Time and Space, Dies at 79

Dan Graham wiki

Daniel Graham (March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022[1]) was an American visual artist, writer, and curator.
Graham grew up in New Jersey. In 1964 he began directing the John Daniels Gallery in New York, where he put on Sol LeWitt’s first one-man show, and in groups shows, exhibited works of Donald Judd, Dara Birnbaum, Dan Flavin, and Robert Smithson. Like these artists, Graham considered himself a writer-artist, publishing essays and reviews on rock music, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s paintings, and Dean Martin’s television show. His earliest work dealt with the magazine page, predating but often associated with Conceptual art. His work often focuses on cultural phenomena, and incorporates photography, video, performance art, glass and mirror structures. He lived and worked in New York City

One of a Kind by Donald Graham – Photos (Many photo portraits here)

Dan Graham Radically Reworked Perceptions – Interview

Best & Worst about Art School by Dan Graham

(Madison Chock and Evan Bates)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy birthday Harriet Andersson (90 years old today)

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(Peter Weller and Diane Keaton in Shoot the Moon)
Also a birthday of Alan Parker who directed Midnight Express, Shoot the Moon, Angel Heart etc. (See an obit for Alan Parker who passed away July 2020)

Jason Brown
(and Nathan Chen)

Jason Brown
(and Nathan Chen)

Jason Brown skates to Nina Simone here

Nathan Chen Skates to La Boheme Charles Aznavour at Olympic short program for men.

DEERsKIN

SF Chronicle Deerskin review

“Deerskin” is a fun bit of French twistedness, a black comedy about a newly divorced man experiencing a bizarre variety of crackup. It stars Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”), who is both a leading man and a send-up of a leading man, and that double quality he has — of being a subtly comic rendering of the very thing he actually is — turns out to be ideal for this movie’s weird spirit.

French Comedy Horror

Deerskin review: a strangely enjoyable film about a jacket fetish

John Cassavates passed away on Feb 3, 1989 .
Ben Gazarra passed away on Feb 3, 2012
Cassavates directed Ben Gazzara in Husbands, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night.

Happy birthday Kenneth Anger (95 years old?)

Gertrude Stein, Simone Weil, Alan Sondheim and Carl Theodor Dreyer were all born on Feb 3.

Faces from left, Anna Akhmatova, Meryl Streep, Patricia Clarkson and Simone Weil.

We have the actresses to portray Anna Akhmatova and Simone Weil. Would anyone care to write scripts for these talented actresses?

Robert Duncan passed away on Feb 3,1988, San Francisco.
See Robert Creeley and Robert Duncan portraits by Kitaj here.

Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley and Robert Duncan by Kitaj

(Dirk Bogarde and Monica Vitti in Modesty Blaise directed by Joseph Losey)

See full film here

Monica Vitti Queen of Italian Cinema dies aged 90

(Alain Delon and Monica Vitti)

Monica Vitti wiki