Italy
TheoremThursday, 11 April 2013
Terence Stamp has drolly recalled being over the moon when the Catholic church attacked Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema, in which he starred, on its release in 1968. “It was a very obscure movie – it was going to be seen by four drag queens and... Read more... |
Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, British MuseumSaturday, 30 March 2013
"In the midst of life we are in death.” This is a line we may feel compelled to reverse as we encounter the first exhibits in the British Museum’s extraordinarily powerful exhibition, for this is a display vividly bringing... Read more... |
Interview: Film Director Matteo GarroneTuesday, 19 March 2013
When Matteo Garrone’s sixth film Gomorrah won the 2008 Grand Prix at Cannes, it announced Italian cinema’s resurrection to the world. When his follow-up, Reality, won the 2012 Grand Prix, opinion was more divided. Where Gomorrah rigorously exposed... Read more... |
Simon Boccanegra, English Touring OperaSaturday, 09 March 2013
Simon Boccanegra has, as English Touring Opera’s director James Conway points out, never quite made the running outside Italy amid Verdi’s output. It went through three to five different versions in a short space of time. Despite the Romeo and... Read more... |
Federico Barocci: Brilliance and Grace, National GalleryThursday, 28 February 2013
Federico Barocci, who he? According to the National Gallery, a great Renaissance, mannerist and Baroque painter hardly known outside Italy, the National’s own Madonna of the Cat his only easel painting in a public collection in the UK... Read more... |
Joyce DiDonato, Il Complesso Barocco, Barbican HallThursday, 07 February 2013
It may look like a sure-fire hit to let Kansas mezzo Joyce DiDonato rip through the drama-queen repertoire of the Baroque. But last night’s exploration of the dustiest, most overgrown byways of 17th and 18th century Italian opera needed every drop... Read more... |
La Traviata, English National OperaSunday, 03 February 2013
How’s a good time girl to bare her beautiful soul when a director seems bent on cutting her down to puppet size? It doesn't bother me that Peter Konwitschny shears Verdi’s already concise score by about 20 minutes to shoehorn it into a one-act drama... Read more... |
DVD: Berberian Sound StudioTuesday, 25 December 2012
Berberian Sound Studio has the quirky flavour of an academic treatise on shlock horror with lively slide illustrations. Peter Strickland’s claustrophobic homage to the Italian giallo – in which diabolical dismemberings are perpetrated upon female... Read more... |
DVD: Zombie Flesh EatersFriday, 14 December 2012
Zombie Flesh Eaters was at the heart of the early Eighties’ video nasty furore. Pilloried without being seen, it was cast as revolting and shocking, and subsequently banned from release. This pin-sharp, definitive restoration of Lucio Fulci’s 1979... Read more... |
Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss, BBC FourWednesday, 31 October 2012
With Horror Europa, Mark Gatiss provided further confirmation that he’s now one the most astute, likeable and measured figures contributing to our current cultural landscape. His approach is entirely personal, but never derailed by unfettered... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Ennio Morricone, Rites of Spring, Hotlegs, Cults Percussion EnsembleSunday, 28 October 2012
Ennio Morricone: In ColourKieron TylerThe recent release of Berberian Sound Studio raised the level of interest in Italian film soundtracks. From the moment Ennio Morricone’s compositions for the spaghetti westerns of the Sixties attracted attention... Read more... |
LFF 2012: It Was the SonFriday, 19 October 2012
Italian cinema’s resurgence can be felt in the ghetto-operatic sweep of Daniele Cipri’s cautionary Sicilian tale. Like Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah follow-up Reality (also at the LFF), it shows an initially likeable working-class family unravelled by... Read more... |
