The Australian documentary, Knowing The Score might be dubbed the story of a real-life Tar as it follows the life and career of Australian conductor, Simone Young. This is apparently a coincidence as Young wasn’t a direct influence on Tar although that film’s star, Cate Blanchett is a producer here. While, on one level, Knowing the Score is the story
Read moreWith Tar, his first feature length film as director since 2006’s Little Children, Todd Field mixes high fibre Ingmar Bergmanesque intellectualism with Michael Haneke’s growing sense of threat and some of the meticulous framing and clinical creepiness of Stanley Kubrick. It’s a very impressive but difficult combination requiring patience and work from the audience as they have to negotiate some
Read moreThe fascinating Australian documentary The Eulogy recounts the remarkable but tragic life of the phenomenally gifted Australian pianist Geoffrey Tozer who sadly died in 2009. The film’s title stems from the eulogy Tozer’s friend and supporter, former Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered at his funeral. There Keating lacerated the arts establishment for, he felt, turning its back on one of
Read moreNot to be confused with Nic Roeg’s freaky 1970 counter-culture film, Performance depicts the traumas afflicting a revered American string quartet as they confront human frailty in its many forms. The film was originally titled A Late Quartet but this was changed in Australia to avoid confusion with Dustin Hoffman’s film Quartet which also focused on a group of classical musicians.
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