Hollywood
The Seckerson Tapes: Conductor John WilsonSaturday, 30 October 2010![]() John Wilson and the orchestra which bears his name created an absolute sensation at the 2009 Proms with their celebration of 75 years of MGM musicals. A total of 3.5 million people watched the broadcast live; countless more all over the world will... Read more... |
Electronica: BBC Concert Orchestra, Will Gregory Moog Ensemble, Hazlewood, QEHThursday, 07 October 2010![]() I would call them burglars: musicians from the experimental rock, electronica and sound-art traditions who cross the genre divide, sneak into the world of classical music, pillage its more easily pillaged valuables, thieve its respectability, filch... Read more... |
Wall Street: Money Never SleepsMonday, 04 October 2010![]() The long-delayed sequel has earned no more than a small, insignificant footnote in movie history. Psycho II, Gregory’s Two Girls and Texasville, to name only three disparate examples, were all superfluous post-scriptums to much venerated, much... Read more... |
BuriedFriday, 01 October 2010![]() He’s six feet under from the start. Paul Conroy is in a wooden coffin a dead-man’s distance beneath Iraqi soil when the flick of his Zippo illuminates him in the darkness where we’ve heard thudding and screaming. His oxygen, like the film, will last... Read more... |
Tim Robbins and the Rogues Gallery Band, Union ChapelFriday, 01 October 2010![]() Actors and musicians are always trying to swap places, often with hilarious consequences (as long as you didn't pay for a ticket). Madonna in Body of Evidence? Keanu Reeves in his inexcusable band Dogstar? I think not. But Tim Robbins is a... Read more... |
Tony Curtis Liked It Hot, 1925-2010Thursday, 30 September 2010![]() Tony Curtis, who has died in Las Vegas at the age of 85, made an improbable leap from Bronx street kid - the erstwhile Bernie Schwarz, who was always getting beaten up - to Hollywood icon in the 1950s and early Sixties. That he was able to do so... Read more... |
The TownTuesday, 21 September 2010![]() Welcome to Charlestown, a Boston neighbourhood of just one square mile that has produced more bank robbers than anywhere else in America. Here crime is a “trade” passed down from father to son, and the height of ambition is to serve your inevitable... Read more... |
Eat Pray LoveSunday, 19 September 2010![]() Julia Roberts takes a long time to find her centre in Eat Pray Love, a glossy adaptation of the Elizabeth Gilbert memoir that, while offering a respite from the usual cinematic diet of reboots, remakes and comic-book blockbusters, ends up being just... Read more... |
theartsdesk MOT: Dirty Dancing, Aldwych TheatreSunday, 05 September 2010![]() I suspect that more than half the audience that goes to see Dirty Dancing on stage has seen the 1987 movie, and that quite a few of them have seen the stage version more than once. There’s a strange feeling of being at a party where everyone knows... Read more... |
The SwitchMonday, 30 August 2010![]() Step aside Prince Charming – there’s a new fairy tale in town, and your only substantive contribution fits into a small plastic sample pot. At some point in the last few years the Shangri-La, the unattainable dream of romantic comedies, shifted from... Read more... |
The Curse of Cruise: When Co-Stars VanishTuesday, 24 August 2010![]() You’ve heard of the Curse of Frankenstein. You know all about the Curse of Hello! But you may not be aware of the deadliest hex of them all. It goes by the name of the Curse of Cruise and, you just never know, it may be about to strike again. Film-... Read more... |
Five Easy PiecesWednesday, 11 August 2010![]() Five Easy Pieces is the nominal sibling to Easy Rider, which put Jack Nicholson a step from stardom in 1969. But Pieces, this 40th-anniversary reissue reminds you, was a very different film. The soundtrack is Patsy Cline, not Steppenwolf, and we... Read more... |
