Make several visits to the Dali exhibition in Melbourne. At least two - there is simply not enough time to absorb it all otherwise. When I first tried on Sunday, the line for tickets wound round in several loops so I just had a look at the 'Kiddies Dali' set up in the main entrance. There was a clock with reverse numbers on the wall and a bust of a woman with a poached egg on her head. Plastic lobsters and telephones lay around and the children were having a wild time.
I could have made do with that.
On the way in the man sitting at the entrance made a point of looking up and down the visitors and announcing loudly whether he thought they would enjoy the exhibition or not. He said nothing to me. So, as an obvious Dali ignoramus I wanted to read a lot of the information on the boards set near the paintings. Some of it is in the painful loony elaborations that experts in art can descend to but it does help to know a bit more about his life. I never imagined Dali had a normal childhood with a father etc. but here they both are and the exhibition progresses through to his wonderful electric colours and obsession with the wild landscape he grew up in. Several large panels near the entrance introduce you to this strange part of the north western Spanish coastline and it appears again and again in the work.
I loved a film of an exhibition he did in America in the thirties. It seems very primitive, full of strangely dressed manequins and models swimming in pools of swirling water. Even stranger to know that an exhibition of Whistler's Mother had been the other hit of that time.
His mastery of the techniques of the old masters and absorption of the new made him able to do almost anything. I particularly loved his portraits of his wife Gala - the famous one in colour of her face emerging from circular shapes and a much later pencil drawing focusing on her penetrating eyes.
Near the exit there are tiny lighted boxes of his jewellery with photographs of him at work on them on the opposite wall. I noticed he advised young artists to master the technique of the greats...and after that they will let you do anything. How right he was but sometimes, just sometimes I wished he would cheer up a bit.
To see a trailer of the Dali Exhibition, click here:
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Escapist
When in Los Angeles a few years ago, I went to talk to an agent who represented Brian Cox in America and since then have followed his career more keenly. His translation from English heavyweight theatrical to an international film actor is unusual and he gave us a bit of an insight into this when he chatted to the audience after a screening by Popcorn Taxi recently.
They said he liked a chat and he does. His phone conversation from New York, full of theatrical anecdotes told us about his decision to go to America where he believed he would be a 'character support'- but this film came about after he had expressed a desire to be more. When Rupert Wyatt came to him with a script, he asked him to go back and write him a leading role and, when Wyatt did so he joined the movie as exec. producer and helped get finance for it.
It is beautifully shot and edited and, though full of violence suppressed and real does not step over the border that runs between unbearable and bearable. The camera drifts away when something nasty looks like happening to the beautiful Dominic Cooper and we only cop an eyeful when the most loathed character is roundly thumped and left for dead.
The plot lives on several different levels and in our world of many escapes, it can be taken on all of them. I liked the changes in tense and the weird intercuts between what we hope and what we see. I loved Damian Lewis in another fantastic variation of himself...the first I have seen since the telly production of 'Life'. A very loathsome reptile he can be too. Stranger than that is the Joseph Fiennes character. Fiennes has to go a long way to stop me seeing him as a Siamese cat and cast as he is as a physical heavy complete with scary hood, he does a great job of it.
It is set in the goal which was used for Noel Coward's scene in the original 'Italian Job.' But now it is not bright and chatty as it seemed when Coward sat there in glory, stroking a cat. Dark and claustrophobic, the impression of caged testosterone is palpable.
When this movie was reviewed on Tuesday night on ABC radio, it was described as 'not a Chick Flick' by two cheerful chappies. Well, I suppose that depends on what sort of chick you are. I loved it. Hurry along.
To see a trailer of 'The Escapist' click here:
They said he liked a chat and he does. His phone conversation from New York, full of theatrical anecdotes told us about his decision to go to America where he believed he would be a 'character support'- but this film came about after he had expressed a desire to be more. When Rupert Wyatt came to him with a script, he asked him to go back and write him a leading role and, when Wyatt did so he joined the movie as exec. producer and helped get finance for it.
It is beautifully shot and edited and, though full of violence suppressed and real does not step over the border that runs between unbearable and bearable. The camera drifts away when something nasty looks like happening to the beautiful Dominic Cooper and we only cop an eyeful when the most loathed character is roundly thumped and left for dead.
The plot lives on several different levels and in our world of many escapes, it can be taken on all of them. I liked the changes in tense and the weird intercuts between what we hope and what we see. I loved Damian Lewis in another fantastic variation of himself...the first I have seen since the telly production of 'Life'. A very loathsome reptile he can be too. Stranger than that is the Joseph Fiennes character. Fiennes has to go a long way to stop me seeing him as a Siamese cat and cast as he is as a physical heavy complete with scary hood, he does a great job of it.
It is set in the goal which was used for Noel Coward's scene in the original 'Italian Job.' But now it is not bright and chatty as it seemed when Coward sat there in glory, stroking a cat. Dark and claustrophobic, the impression of caged testosterone is palpable.
When this movie was reviewed on Tuesday night on ABC radio, it was described as 'not a Chick Flick' by two cheerful chappies. Well, I suppose that depends on what sort of chick you are. I loved it. Hurry along.
To see a trailer of 'The Escapist' click here:
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Alone but not Lost
Here's a man all alone who did not 'beweep his outcast state.' Ian Fairweather, the subject of the documentary 'Fairweather Man' directed by Aviva Ziegler which I saw at a special screening at the Australian Film School, is a haunting and haunted person whose sad eyes follow you out of the auditorium and beyond. After a tormented childhood, unlike modern adventurers, this man went on a solo sea journey for a real purpose and emerged from it a changed and focused artist.
There is an air of discovery throughout this film which coincides with the comparative lack of information about the artist anywhere else - even on the net but for aficionados the power of this strange painter is well known. His transformative journey across the Timor Sea is wonderfully captured and, coinciding with his diary records, creates the world of sense and illusion he endured whilst drifting on his raft, staring at the sun by day and the stars by night as his eyes began to fail but not his mind. He lived for the rest of his life on the perception this journey provided.
Born in Scotland in 1891, Ian Fairweather was a true child of Empire. When his parents sailed back to India, he was left with his grandmother and maiden aunts and, seeing them you wonder how he came out of it alive. The maiden aunts resemble something even Disney, in his wildest dreams could not have cooked up and, in their less than tender care, the handsome little boy spent eight years of his life before he saw his family again. From then on it was the usual catastrophe - boarding school, the army, World War 1, escape, incarceration but finally, lessons in art culminating in his enrolment at the Slade in London.
'Fairweather Man' is a delicate interweaving of drama and documentary with additional footage so beautifully set that the whole is a seamless tapestry. Add to this the marvelous paintings and interviews with friends, family and arts luminaries to present a fascinating insight into one of our greats. I know the raft reenactment provided all sorts of logistical problems for the production but it shows how well a life can be brought back when skillfully handled. As David Marr said of Biography - "It should make you feel as if you have met the person." Watch ABC 1 next Thursday 16th July at 9.30pm and meet Mr. Fairweather.
To see a short feature on Ian Fairweather's painting 'Monsoon', click here:
'Fairweather Man' is available on DVD from: https://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/807426
There is an air of discovery throughout this film which coincides with the comparative lack of information about the artist anywhere else - even on the net but for aficionados the power of this strange painter is well known. His transformative journey across the Timor Sea is wonderfully captured and, coinciding with his diary records, creates the world of sense and illusion he endured whilst drifting on his raft, staring at the sun by day and the stars by night as his eyes began to fail but not his mind. He lived for the rest of his life on the perception this journey provided.
Born in Scotland in 1891, Ian Fairweather was a true child of Empire. When his parents sailed back to India, he was left with his grandmother and maiden aunts and, seeing them you wonder how he came out of it alive. The maiden aunts resemble something even Disney, in his wildest dreams could not have cooked up and, in their less than tender care, the handsome little boy spent eight years of his life before he saw his family again. From then on it was the usual catastrophe - boarding school, the army, World War 1, escape, incarceration but finally, lessons in art culminating in his enrolment at the Slade in London.
'Fairweather Man' is a delicate interweaving of drama and documentary with additional footage so beautifully set that the whole is a seamless tapestry. Add to this the marvelous paintings and interviews with friends, family and arts luminaries to present a fascinating insight into one of our greats. I know the raft reenactment provided all sorts of logistical problems for the production but it shows how well a life can be brought back when skillfully handled. As David Marr said of Biography - "It should make you feel as if you have met the person." Watch ABC 1 next Thursday 16th July at 9.30pm and meet Mr. Fairweather.
To see a short feature on Ian Fairweather's painting 'Monsoon', click here:
'Fairweather Man' is available on DVD from: https://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/807426
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