Category Archives: Cinema, video & DVDs

Spaceman is lightyears away from Operaman

Posted on April 24, 2024 by barczablog

After a friend described Spaceman as Adam Sandler’s best film I had to have a look, especially given that nobody I know takes Sandler seriously, and quite a few grimace at the mention of his name. I recently quoted CS … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals | Tagged Adam Sandler, Anger Management, Claude Debussy, comedy, criticism, CS Lewis, Eddie Murphy, Franz Kafka, improv, improvization, Jack Nicholson, Operaman, Pelleas et Melisande, Robert Altman, saturday night live, Spaceman | Leave a comment

Korngold’s other film-score

Posted on March 26, 2024 by barczablog

On April 7th the ARC Ensemble present a concert “The Viennese in Los Angeles”, a happier title than what they might choose to call it, from composers in exile. In the promotion for the event we’re told that for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology | Tagged A Midsummernight's Dream, ARC Ensemble, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ernest Kanitz, Felix Mendelssohn, Kevin Ahfat, Leni Riefenstahl, Max Reinhardt, Robert Müller-Hartmann, Royal Conservatory of Music, Simon Wynberg, Triumph of the Will, Warner Brothers | Leave a comment

Jerskin Fendrix scores Poor Things

Posted on March 18, 2024 by barczablog

Every year in the aftermath of the Academy Awards I’m left wondering how they do it. Yes I should be in awe of the creations: but I was speaking of the awards process. Why this film and not that one? and … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology | Tagged Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Billie Eilish, Black Panther, Danny Elfman, Emma Stone, film music, Good Will Hunting, Jerskin Fendrix, John Neville, Kinds of Kindness, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ludwig Göransson, Mark Ruffalo, Martin Scorsese, Michael Kamen, Poor Things, Richard Strauss, Terry Gilliam, The Fisher King, Till Eulenspiegel, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Yorgos Lanthimos | Leave a comment

Robbie Robertson’s Killers of the Flower Moon

Posted on February 26, 2024 by barczablog

I watched the last hour of Killers of the Flower Moon today. I had heard terrible things about the violence in this film, although the same was true of Taxi Driver, another Martin Scorsese film with a brilliant orchestral score … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Reviews | Tagged A Midsummernight's Dream, Academy Awards, Erich Korngold, Felix Mendelssohn, John Williams, Killers of the Flower Moon, Ludwig Göransson, Martin Scorsese, Max Reinhardt, Oppenheimer, Oscars, Robbie Robertson | Leave a comment

30 years since Derek Jarman died.

Posted on February 19, 2024 by barczablog

It’s the anniversary of Derek Jarman’s passing, February 19th 1994. He was 52 years old when he passed. I was looking at Jarman’s IMDB entry, where there are a pair of pictures with him with Amy Johnson, listed on IMDB … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Amy Johnson, Aria, David Ferry, Derek Jarman, Franz Schubert, Frederic Chopin, Leontyne Price, Pet Shop Boys | Leave a comment

Days of Happiness / Les Jours heureux #tiff23

Posted on September 12, 2023 by barczablog

It’s a pleasure and privilege to watch a film at tiff followed by a talkback, where directors and performers respond to our questions. A woman in front of me asked writer & director Chloé Robichaud the question I would have … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Ariel Méthot, Arnold Schönberg, Barbara Hannigan, Chloé Robichaud, Days of Happiness, Gemma New, Gustav Mahler, Keri-Lynn WIlson, Les Jours heureux, Norm Wilner, Nour Belkhiria, Pelleas und Melisande, Sophie Desmarais, Speranza Scapucci, Sylvain Marcel, Tár, TIFF, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Leave a comment

Blithe Spirits

Posted on September 6, 2023 by barczablog

Hmm: another trip to Shaw, another ghost story. Last time it was Wharton’s The Shadow of a Doubt. “Shadow” is another word for spirit, right in the title. This past weekend Erika and I went to see Blithe Spirit at … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews, Spirituality & Religion | Tagged Bert Lahr, Blithe Spirit, Constance Cummings, Damien Atkins, Dan Stevens, David Lean, Donna Soares, Edith Wharton, Edward Hall, Isla Fisher, Jenny Wright, Judd Apatow, Judi Dench, Julia Course, Kay Hammond, Leslie Mann, Margaret Rutherford, Mike Payette, Rex Harrison, Richard Addinsell, Shaw Festival, The Shadow of a Doubt | Leave a comment

Three Oppenheimers

Posted on August 27, 2023 by barczablog

No one left the IMAX theatre for the three intense hours of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Nightmare images that night reminded of my childhood, portents of the end of the world as I tossed and turned. Kai Bird and Martin J … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Opera, Reviews | Tagged agency, American Prometheus, Black Panther, Bruce Robinson, Christopher Nolan, Ennio Morricone, Fat Man and Little Boy, Gerald Finley, J Robert Oppenheimer, John Adams, John Cusack, John Donne, Kai Bird, Laura Dern, Ludwig Göransson, Martin J Sherwin, Melodrama, Miserere, Oppenheimer, Otello, Roland Joffé, The Mission, The Untouchables | Leave a comment

Edith Wharton’s The Shadow of a Doubt at Shaw Festival

Posted on August 12, 2023 by barczablog

There’s a mystery underlying Edith Wharton’s play The Shadow of a Doubt. The text was just rediscovered by scholars in 2016, after sitting unproduced. There was almost a production in 1903 but it was cancelled. And now the Shaw Festival … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged Damien Atkins, Daniel Day-Lewis, Edith Wharton, Georges Feydeau, Gillian Gallow, Haui, Katherine Gauthier, Martin Scorsese, Melodrama, Michelle Pfeiffer, Oscar Wilde, Patrick Galligan, Peter Hinton, Tara Rosling, The Age of Innocence, Winona Ryder | 4 Comments

Asteroid City, America

Posted on July 4, 2023 by barczablog

Wes Anderson is at it again with Asteroid City. Once more, an elaborate structure plays games with the viewer. Asteroid City is the name of a play within the movie, a fictitious place in America. We go back and forth … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Reviews | Tagged Alexandre Desplat, Asteroid City, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Edward Norton, ET, Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, Jason Schwartzman, Moonrise Kingdom, Oppenheimer, Paris Dispatch, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Wes Anderson | Leave a comment