People say when they are doing something they particularly like, they can hardly believe it is them and wonder if they will be discovered as an impostor. When I got my first big acting job in a television series, I worried that I would get run over and the feeling of being so lucky would abruptly end.There's a feeling of 'Pinch me, is this happening?' I felt that filming 'Mao's Last Dancer' and, well now there is another landmark.
To celebrate 'Mao's Last Dancer' making $14 million dollars and climbing to the 12th highest grossing Australian film ever, I thought I'd put a selection of interviews of the main cast on the blog. They are attached to mine and contain wonderful insights from Bruce Beresford, Li Cunxin and producer Jane Scott on the casting and making of the movie.
Its especially interesting to hear Madeleine Eastoe talk about her preparation for her first acting role. As a prima ballerina with the Australian ballet, she had no experience of film work before but after working with a coach, she was considered to have mastered the American accent to the extent that the actors from the USA had no idea she was Australian!
I am keeping my fingers crossed that the film climbs up one more level - that will be overtaking the iconic 'Murial's Wedding', the truly fabulous Australian earner.
Also, a reminder that leading man, Chi Cao will be coming to Australia next year to dance in 'The Nutcracker'. Book that one in for an inspiring night.
To see interviews about the filming of 'Mao's Last Dancer', click here:
Monday, November 16, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Looking for Ludwig
This is a long film for a Beethoven ignoramus. Two hours and twenty minutes, most of which is engaging but the last twenty did start me thinking about the quality of the upholstery.
Nevertheless, it is a fresh light on an old master. As someone who had to climb wooden stairs to an attic to have my piano lessons staring at an enraged Ludwig print...this kindly portrait came as a surprise. And he was quite a looker.
As a young man, the strength and intelligence is obvious in his eyes but also a warmth that is almost never represented in portraiture. The film takes us through his life musically using his work as a guide to his interior life. As always with the masters, the question of finances scurries after him relentlessly but here we are also introduced to his many romances and attempted engagements. Beethoven fell for titled women whose families did not fall for him - who knew that Von and not Van is the sign of aristocracy? -and the strain of his solitary life showed in his work.
As an ignoramus, I had no idea how revolutionary he was, not only in his thoughts as in 'Eroica' but in the techniques he used. Or how competitive in his mastery of the piano,vying with his contempories with extraordinary elaborate musicality. It is as shocking to hear of the performances that did not work as it is surprising to hear that the police were called to one recital at which the reception was so enthusiastic, the audience had to be forced to go home.
The documentary is filled with a delightful array of Ludwig experts, conductors, pianists and scholars, most of whom could have leaped fully formed from a Dickens novel. The entrancing nuttiness of their performances is one of the real highlights for me. Still, I would have liked more of his personal life but where to put it? Those seats were pretty hard at the end.
To see a trailer of 'In Search of Beethoven', click here:
Nevertheless, it is a fresh light on an old master. As someone who had to climb wooden stairs to an attic to have my piano lessons staring at an enraged Ludwig print...this kindly portrait came as a surprise. And he was quite a looker.
As a young man, the strength and intelligence is obvious in his eyes but also a warmth that is almost never represented in portraiture. The film takes us through his life musically using his work as a guide to his interior life. As always with the masters, the question of finances scurries after him relentlessly but here we are also introduced to his many romances and attempted engagements. Beethoven fell for titled women whose families did not fall for him - who knew that Von and not Van is the sign of aristocracy? -and the strain of his solitary life showed in his work.
As an ignoramus, I had no idea how revolutionary he was, not only in his thoughts as in 'Eroica' but in the techniques he used. Or how competitive in his mastery of the piano,vying with his contempories with extraordinary elaborate musicality. It is as shocking to hear of the performances that did not work as it is surprising to hear that the police were called to one recital at which the reception was so enthusiastic, the audience had to be forced to go home.
The documentary is filled with a delightful array of Ludwig experts, conductors, pianists and scholars, most of whom could have leaped fully formed from a Dickens novel. The entrancing nuttiness of their performances is one of the real highlights for me. Still, I would have liked more of his personal life but where to put it? Those seats were pretty hard at the end.
To see a trailer of 'In Search of Beethoven', click here:
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