“Live and Become” – 2005 Film Directed by Radu Mihăileanu

April 11th, 2023

(Via MUBI Live and Become )

Live and Become (French: Va, vis et deviens) is a 2005 French drama film about an Ethiopian Christian boy who disguises himself as an Ethiopian Jew to escape famine and emigrates to Israel. It was directed by Romanian-born Radu Mihăileanu. It won awards at the Berlin and Vancouver film festivals among others.  (Wiki)

 

Tony Cragg

April 9th, 2023

Happy birthday Tony Cragg 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Cragg  (wiki)

 

See more sculptures by Tony Cragg from here,  https://www.tony-cragg.com/

 

 

 

 

Tyranny of Design? Or Chairs as Characters

Good bye Ryuichi Sakamoto

April 2nd, 2023

  • Ryuichi Sakamoto homepage

  • His nickname is Kyoju, which means Professor in Japanese.

  • Listen to Ryuichi Sakamoto playing “Bring Them Home” (Sakamoto was an activist for peace- scroll down) (Previous post)
    Kitano Takeshi and Ryuichi Sakamoto

  • Senga Nengudi at Dia Beacon – 2023

    March 28th, 2023

    “I live in the fourth dimension when I create landscapes.”

    Senga Nengudi homepage

    Senga Nengudi Exibition at Dia Beacon

  • Over her five-decade-long career, Nengudi has realized a remarkable body of work that blurs the boundaries between sculpture and performance, fine art and ritual, individual authorship and collective energy. Made of everyday materials such as vinyl, water, nylon, sand, dry-cleaning bags, lint, paper, and tape, Nengudi’s installations are at once proxies for bodies and sites for performance. The works accommodate a variety of cultural references from African, Japanese, and South Asian rites to Western avant-garde art. Characteristic of her openness to multiplicity, the artist, born Sue Ellen Irons, has assumed pseudonyms that inflect her creative identities as sculptor (Senga Nengudi), painter (Harriet Chin), photographer (Propecia Leigh), and writer (Lily Bea Moor).

    Dia’s long-term exhibition of Nengudi’s work will be accompanied by a performance program and publication, revealing the multiplicity of her practice. Sculptures and room-sized installations from the years 1969 to 2020 will be on display at Dia Beacon, including recent acquisitions in Dia’s permanent collection. Performances at Dia Beacon and partnering venues will activate and complement the sculptural presentation, and an artist’s book will collect, for the first time, Nengudi’s drawings, photographs, prints, poems, performance instructions, and other writings.

  • A. O. Scott Film Critic Retired from Film Criticism

    March 20th, 2023


    (Via

    A,O Scott

    In 2023, he moved to the The New York Times Review of Books.

  • In a 2009 interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Scott named the following five films as his favorites of all time. [15]
    La Dolce Vita
    The Godfather
    Sullivan’s Travels
    McCabe and Mrs. Miller
    The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance


  • Florida Project The Best film of the year 2017 NY times

    A.O. Scott puts “The Florida Project” at No. 1 and writes that it “managed to be both the most joyful and the most heartbreaking movie of the year.” Scott praised director Sean Baker, supporting actor Willem Dafoe and leading lady Brooklynn Prince, who is 7 and lives in Winter Springs. Scott adds that Brooklynn’s performance as Moonee “has earned a place in the canon of American mischief alongside the likes of Eloise and Tom Sawyer.”

    1a6dc8a-filmlazarescu
    Dec 11, 2007 actor Ion Fiscuteanu
    (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu)

    Actor Ion Fiscuteanu, a Star of Romanian Stage and Film, Dies at 70 (NYtimes)
    A, O Scott on Romanian New Wave

    New York Times critic A.O. Scott has recorded several pieces on films coming out of Romania, called Romanian Cinema Rising, in light of the current hype surrounding Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.

  • The Passing of Nobel Prize Winning Author Oe Kenzaburo

    March 13th, 2023
  • Oe Kenzaburo
    Oe was married to sister of Tampopo director Itami Juzo.

    BBC Obit – Oe Kenzaburo

  • Oe Kenzaburo and Mario A
    (interesting photos of Oe Kenzaburo and his family and friends here)

  • Oe and his sonOe Kenzaburo and his son Hikari

    The birth of Hikari was a turning point in Oe’s life and in his literary career. Much of Oe’s later fiction examined the relationship between disabled and non disabled people. Hikari turned out to be exceptionally gifted in music, and he is acknowledged as one of the most famous composers in Japan.
    Hikari Oe Wikipedia here

    Art and Healing: Conversation with Oe (UC Berkeley edu)

  • Oe Kenzaburo and Kazuo Ishiguro in Conversation. (Among many other topics they discussed Yukio Mishima)

  • Happy International Women’s Day

    March 8th, 2023
  • 1catherineindochine
    (Indochine)

  • Requiem

  • Kate Millet by Alice Neel – 1970


  • (Nancy Kwan, Bruce Lee and Sharon Tate)

  • Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer – A Thrilling Documentary by Doug Pray

    March 6th, 2023
  • Levitated Mass documentary film Michael Heizer

    In 2012, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art debuted Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer. How it got there was a work of art in itself, and the topic of a documentary by Doug Pray. Derek Blasberg caught up with Pray to talk about his film.

  • Michael Heizer The City in the Nevada Desert (Previous Post) (See a photo of Michael Heizer with a short bio)

  • Isolated Mass / Circumflex (#2)
    Artist: Michael Heizer
    1968/1978
    Mayari-R steel
    146 × 1461 × 8 in. (370.8 × 3710.9 × 20.3 cm)
    Place Created: United States, North America

    De Menil
    Michael Heizer Isolated Mass./Cucumflex 2 1968
    https://www.menil.org/exhibitions/260-outdoor-sculpture-at-the-menil

    Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023)

    March 2nd, 2023
  • Herbie Hancock tweeted.

    Wayne Shorter, my best friend, left us with courage in his heart, love and compassion for all, and a seeking spirit for the eternal future. He was ready for his rebirth. As it is with every human being, he is irreplaceable . . .

    Wayne Shorter was able to reach the pinnacle of excellence as a saxophonist, composer, orchestrator, and recently, composer of the masterful opera “…Iphigenia “ I miss being around him and his special Wayne-isms but I carry his spirit within my heart always.

    Herbie Hancock
    12:44 PM · Mar 2, 2023

  • Wayne Shorter Official

    Remembering Wayne Shorter, Rogue Philosopher (1933-2023)

  • Hinamatsuri, Girls Day in Japan – 2023

    March 1st, 2023

  • (Makanai directed by Hirokazu Koreeda)

  • 1acarSolar
    Girls building a solar toy car.

  • Name these girls – Happy Hinamatsuri album

  • Google Hinamatsuri

    The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi (雛流し, lit. “doll floating”), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them.(via wiki)

  • 1adollsKitano
    (Hidetoshi Nishijima in Dolls directed by Takeshi Kitano)

    Elizabeth Taylor in Iran Part II

    February 27th, 2023
  • The Dazzling Beauty of Elizabeth Taylor in Iran

  • Elizabeth Taylor was born on Feb 27, 1932

  • Elizabeth Taylor Her Place in the Sun”> (Previous Post)

  • Monty Clift was her best friend

  • 1taylorjames
    (Taylor with James Dean)

  • HIV Activism
    Taylor was one of the first celebrities to participate in HIV/AIDS activism and helped to raise more than $270 million for the cause.[65] She began her philanthropic work after becoming frustrated with the fact that very little was being done to combat the disease despite the media attention.[66] She later explained for Vanity Fair that she “decided that with my name, I could open certain doors, that I was a commodity in myself – and I’m not talking as an actress. I could take the fame I’d resented and tried to get away from for so many years – but you can never get away from it – and use it to do some good. I wanted to retire, but the tabloids wouldn’t let me. So, I thought: If you’re going to screw me over, I’ll use you

    Julian Sands Remembered by his best friend John Malkovich

    February 24th, 2023
  • John Malkovich on best friend Julian Sands, a storyteller and so funny. (guardian)

    One of the last conversations John Malkovich had with Julian Sands, his best friend of 40 years, concerned how to prepare yourself for death. You can see that conversation in their new film, Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes, which premiered at the Berlin film festival this week. Malkovich fears it will be their last together.

  • See a photo of Julian Sands and John Malcovich when they were in “The Killing Fields


  • (With N. Kinski and Julian Sands in “Night Sun” directed by Taviani brothers)

    Julian Sands
    Julian Sands, Harold Pinter the pregnant pause extended

    In his one-man show “A Celebration of Harold Pinter,” which he performs tonight at the Whittier College Writers Festival, the 55 year-old Brit reveals Pinter’s lesser known side—his surprising warmth and tenderness, as evidenced in his poetry, prose, letters, and the recollections and anecdotes of friends, including Sands himself. John Malkovich, with whom Sands previously worked in The Killing Fields, directs.

  • It is the dead of night,

    The long dead look out towards
    The new dead
    Walking towards them

    There is a soft heartbeat
    As the dead embrace
    Those who are long dead
    And those of the new dead
    Walking towards them

    They cry and they kiss
    As they meet again
    For the first and last time

    Harold Pinter, 2002

  • Yeh Ballet Julian Sands and Netflix India
    Fun ballet film, Julian Sands played a wild ballet instructor.

  • Julian Sands on youtube -5 questions asked.