Film: You may remember Swedish director Jan Troell, who made two linked Oscar-nominated films, The Emigrants and The New Land, in the early ’70s. Now 83, he has crafted a stunning, downbeat, history-based film, The Last Sentence, but since the story it relates is Swedish history, it is likely to be unfamiliar to most American viewers. It focuses on a crusading newspaper … [Read more...]
The View From Home 62: An Asian shocker with a soul, pre-Antonioni Antonioni, GMO agit-prop
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance: Back in 2003, I didn’t really buy into the hype surrounding Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy — with the exception, of course, of its unforgettable, single-take, 4-minute tracking shot that remains one of the best fight scenes ever filmed. But after seeing its predecessor, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (Tartan, Blu-ray, $29.95), I’ll need to give it a second … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 2-6
Dance: One of the nice things about today’s technology is that so many arts groups are using film to present insider looks at the worlds they inhabit, often with major stars giving people a glimpse into their lives. So it is with Sara Mearns, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet who is renowned for her work as Odette/Odile in the great Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 18-20
Theater: The second shoe of Palm Beach Dramaworks’ summer concert series drops this weekend with The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser’s quasi-operative romantic musical about a middle-aged Italian vineyard owner who falls for a San Francisco waitress. Loesser authorized the two-keyboard arrangements that the concert will employ, for a score that includes such arias as “My Heart … [Read more...]
Sundays: The Great War’s technology lesson
One hundred years ago this month, Europe was in the throes of a buildup to catastrophe in the aftermath of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28. It would climax, as we all know, in a four-year conflict that for its savagery and scale of destruction was unequalled in all of human history. World War I set in motion the even more cataclysmic … [Read more...]
Sundays: The Great War’s technology lesson
One hundred years ago this month, Europe was in the throes of a buildup to catastrophe in the aftermath of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28. It would climax, as we all know, in a four-year conflict that for its savagery and scale of destruction was unequalled in all of human history. World War I set in motion the even more cataclysmic … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 4-7
Theater: This is the final weekend for the 19th annual Summer Shorts Festival by City Theatre, at the company’s home in the Carnival Studio Theater of Miami’s Arsht Center. Whittled down to a more manageable 10 plays of 10-15 minutes duration each, that does not leave much room for error. Still, it wouldn’t be Summer Shorts if the production did not include a few … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Chamber Festival set to open 23rd season
What is surely one of Palm Beach County’s longest-running summer concert series returns tonight for its 23rd season, as some of the area’s best-known classical musicians gather for four weekends of chamber music. The works on this year’s iteration of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival are perhaps more unfamiliar than usual, but the programming of music that’s off the beaten … [Read more...]
The A-word, and one sharp comedy
Obvious Child is the best and funniest comedy about women’s reproductive options since Citizen Ruth, but that alone isn’t saying much. The subject of abortion is still largely a third rail in mainstream films, despite the pretense that Hollywood is a bastion of leftism. Even when they’re unplanned, movie pregnancies are usually taken to term and are viewed as gifts. The A-word … [Read more...]
‘The Life’ makes a gritty return at Delray Square
By Dale King The sad and sorry lives of Times Square’s sordid population of hookers, drug- and crime-dealers during the 1980s are brought to the stage with excellent grittiness and striking realism in the musical/drama, The Life, now playing at the Delray Square Performing Arts Center. It’s quite the occasion for Gary Waldman and Jamison Troutman of Florida Theater … [Read more...]