It’s not the first time I’m warning you, and it won’t be the last: Don’t believe the trailer. The latest film that deserves this precaution is the Israeli box office sensation The Farewell Party, which presents, in its truncated teaser, as a daffy retirement-home comedy with a saccharine center. While laughs do occasionally puncture the gravity of the film’s subject matter, … [Read more...]
‘Farewell’ mirrors crumbling world in monarch’s emotional disarray
In Farewell, My Queen, director Benoît Jacquot’s dramatization of a few days in the lives of Marie Antoinette and her servants, the pampered monarch doesn’t care if anybody eats cake. The storming of the Bastille has just begun, and besides, she has more pressing concerns, like the clandestine love affair she’s having with an adulterous duchess. Farewell, My Queen is Jacquot’s … [Read more...]
Distinctive program marks Platt’s farewell to Boca Symphonia
Alexander Platt’s final concert over the weekend as the principal conductor of the Boca Raton Symphonia was a good example of the kind of event that has distinguished his three-year tenure: fresh programming, young, rising soloists, and an affection for canonical works that allows him to see well-established pieces with new eyes. He’s been able to pass his sense of engagement … [Read more...]