KEEP THE LIGHTS ON by Ira Sachs

This film by the american director Ira Sachs, relates the long passion between two men in Manhattan, at the end of the 90's.
Erik (Thure Lindhardt) is a documentary maker, Paul (Zachary Booth), a lawyer. They met during a phone-sex party line. The simple sex relation-ship they had at the beginning changes into real passion, and finally profound love.
But we soon discover that Paul is addicted to crack : he's less and less absent, he disappears during days. Erik, too kindly, tries to save Paul from drugs addiction. It finally works. But could this love really work at all ?

The talent of the director is to keep off romanticism and to show in details what passion between two human beings can be. Iran Sachs divulges the most wonderful, sensitive, organic moments, but also and the most terrible : the incapacity of Erik to really cure his love and best friend Paul. The filming participates to this journey deep into Paul and Erik's lives, during ten years : shootings are really intimate, often focused on the actor's faces. 

Keep The Lights On is, in my point of view, a really original film, particularly because it doesn’t focus on the subject of homosexuality as a society debate. The real heart of this work is the question of love and how you can deal with it.

You could watch the movie trailer on Youtube.

_____________________________

D. Lefèvre - Week 5 - 221 words

Sylvia Kristel and Emmanuelle

Justine Barbe: week 5

In 1959, Éric Losfeld, famous French publisher of erotic literature, edited Emmanuelle. It was an underground edition. This autobiographic erotic novel would be written by Emmanuelle Arsan.

The story tells the sexual adventures of a young woman who travels toward Thailand to join her husband, a diplomat.

In seventies, when the sexual liberalization was booming in France, Just Jaeckin, director, decided to adapt the novel for the cinema. Sylvia Kristel, a Dutch actress, personified the role of Emmanuelle and became an international icon of erotic cinema. In fact, she continued to play the role of Emmanuelle and she played in other erotic movies like Lady Chatterley’s lover or Mata Hari.

Real success in France, the film was distributed worldwide, even in United-States and Japan.

However, the actress’s private life wasn’t fortunate. After a love drama, she became alcoholic, she took drugs and she lost much money.

Sylvia Kristel hadn't got a happy childhood. Her father left his family. She worked young but she became quickly a photographer’s model. After appearances in some movies, she came to fame with Emmanuelle. She played for about sixty films, for the cinema and the television. Her career was fruitful.

A lung cancer killed her the 14 October 2012. She was 60.

212 words.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sylvia-kristel-actress-who-became-typecast-by-her-role-in-the-erotic-classic-emmanuelle-8217259.html

Arman (Anchorage) - Week 4 - Louis Cailliau

Armand Pierre Fernandez was born on 17th november, 1928 in Nice and dead in New York on 22nd october, 2005. Arman was a french artist, painter, sculptor and plastistician, famous for his accumulations. He studied at the Decorative School Arts of Nice where he met Yves Klein, then at the Louvre School. He was a member of New Realist group by side of Cesar. One of the most inspired town in his work is Dunkirk (in the north of France). In his work, he didn't used only everyday objects, but also the most colossal of things. Anchorage, an accumulation of marine anchors erected in 1982, exposed in Dunkirk, is one of the artist's very imposing works of accumulation. Ease of these monumental assemblages acts on it mediate environment. Here the anchors appear to be the metaphor for a town entirely focused on the sea, Dunkirk, which has also inspired three other monumental projects : "Non plus jamais la guerre" and "Accumulation de grues portuaires", nether executed, and "A Stankewitch".

Louis Cailliau

Post-religious and funny activisms - Week 4 - Elodie Rousselin

 

Ramin Talaie/Corbis, The Guardian, 20 May 2009

 In 1999, Bill Talen, more knew now as Reverend Billy, started a new way of denonciation by laugh, a funny urban activism. Alone in Time Square, New York City, he preached againt consumerism society and its normalization, like a real reverend in a « post-religious church ». Quickly, people joined his artistic performance for create the known Church of Stop Shopping, officially names The Church of Life After Shopping. Today, more than 50 artists, performers and musicians, act in public spaces, through Europe and The US for defend imagination, creativity and the re-creation of the public spaces against the « Devil », corporate consumerism. They use different forms like anti-capitalism gospel, media activism, or cash register exorcisms for example. The « Church » acted principally on sidewalk and in chain stores.

During the global movement Ocuupy Wall Street, Reverend Billy followed by his preachers « spreaded the word », several times to the militants of New York : 

Anonymous, Poètes Indignés blog, 6 May 2012

The concept of « For be happy, Shop ! » cross the Atlantic Ocean to Lille, North of France, where an active movement is grewing up, defending social justice, environmental protection and anti-militarism message. But, it's look that the French Church use a quirky humour.

In fact, for the last legislatives elections, the Reverend Alessandro di Giussepe been candidate for the constituency of Lille - Loos - Faches-Thumesnil. He recolted 1,29 % of votes, and his campaign video clip has seen almost 80 000 times.

He declared recently that he'll be candidate for the municipal elections of Lille in 2014.

Official websites : 

 

 The Church of Stop Shopping

Église de la Très Sainte Consommation - Lille 

Alexej Ravski

Bastien Verdier

WEEK 4

http://www.ravski.com

Alexej Ravski was born in 1961 in Russia. He always painted. In 1990, he was graduated from Belarusian Academy of arts. After that, he quickly became a real great paintor with his own style.

Now, he’s exibits in France and many other contry of the Europeen union, and USA. 

He’s style is not contemporary : no abstraction, violence nor concepts. He uses simply traditional method but he’s choise of subjects and colors are not common. He like lively colors as yellow or orange, but blue and red also.   

He treats his subjects with sensualism and chooses  to represent artist, violonist,  danceurs, young men and woman, for talk about the time witch passes and the vanity of life. 

He’s picture are joyful and mélencholic in the same time because he tries to show that the enjoyments of the people masks their despair and fear of the deth. Contrary to what we could think, he’s fond a lot of succes with yong people.

Week 4, Justine Florentin: Tacheles

Tacheles, one of the most important alternative art places in Berlin, is closed. It has a long story and has often had a new face. Today is the end for the 22 years-old squat of artists.

During the cold war, this house was in the eastern part of Berlin, and because they hadn’t enough funds to maintain it, they left it empty. In 1989, when the wall fell down, some artists – brought together in a collective – said that this building is important for the city as it was opened in 1909 as a mall occupied by a Jewish family. Then, during the war, it became a Nazi office and it is obvious that nobody wanted to get it back afterwards because of the heavy symbolic burden.

But it is one more empty house in the former eastern Berlin… That is why the city agreed to leave it to the artists: they occupy the place and do something here, and the city doesn’t have to maintain the building. During more than 20 years, artists from all over the world came to Tacheles, painted, exhibited their works, sold paintings or other works of art, organized concerts, etc. It was a live-box for alternative ways of expression, and it became one of the sightseeing points of Berlin.

The problem is that the building is becoming a kind of ruin in the middle of Berlin, and the city cannot pay for it ; the bank in charge of the place requested its demolition, which means the end of this refuge for homeless, anarchist and misunderstood artists.

The Fundus investment company plans to break Tacheles down in order to build a new building of glass with modern flats. After many petitions and demonstrations, the supporters of the squat are less and less… it is obvious that nobody can do anything more for it, capitalism wan.

It may mean that those artists have to find another place in the big empty city and develop their art away. But the building was symbolic. It is maybe a new era in Berlin: the one of economic development for one of the poorest capital in Europe, in spite of its abundance in terms of creativity.

(366 words)

source: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19473806

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/sep/05/closure-tacheles-berlin-sad-alternative-art

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The FRINGE is the name a festival taking place in the city of Edinburgh (Scotland) since 1947. This festival is considered as the largest arts event in the entire world. Most of the shows are comedies and theatre plays. But it also gathered exhibitions, operas, dance, musicals etc. In 25 days, 2600 shows are taking place, from 47 countries. It's an occasion for half of the shows to be created for the first time (world premiere). In 2011, the Fringe sold more than 1,8 millions tickets !

This festival was created "in the fringe" of the Edinburgh International Festival, presenting itself as "the most exciting, innovative and accessible Festival of the performing arts in the world". As its name indicated it, The Fringe Festival is an alternative to this institutional and official festival of Edinburgh : in 1947, some theatrical companies were not invited to this festival, so they take the opportunity to create their own event and to institute a rule : their is no selection to perform into the Fringe, every artists in the world can take part of it. Its slogan : "Come on in and join us in this celebration of arts and entertainment!"

This festival could be seen as an entertaining event, but an article in the Guardian proves that the committed creation has also a place of honor : an Amnesty International Freedom of Expression award was created, and rewarded in 2012 a theatre play, The Two Worlds of Charlie F, about injured soldiers returning from Afghanistan.

This Festival is a proof that all arts can be honored in only one event and can gather people and artist all over the world.

http://www.edfringe.com/

_________________________

D. LEFEVRE - Week 4 - 272 words

OFFTA Festival in Montreal Justine Barnier Week 4

The OFFTA has been realized in parallel with the FTA (Festival Trans-Ameriques), it offers an area for the valuation of avant-garde creation.

Different artistic places in Montreal are invested and allow young and local artistic companies to unveil their creations.

Basically, the OFFTA is created in order to decompartmentalize arts and to move publics. It really wants to question art and representation issues.

Because of the interruption of a first festival which had proposed the display of new creations, the need to create a new event was necessary. Five actors on the theatral stage organized the first edition in 2007.

This event offers attendant measures for artistic and dramaturgic practices, and practical aids too.

Now, theatre, danse, performance and every performing arts are merging into so that they have real experimentation and mixing spaces. International distributors are invited  and the festival is becoming a mirror of  Contemporary creation of Quebec.

For more information on the 2013 edition :

http://offta.com/en/index.php

http://contemporaryperformance.com/2012/08/13/opportunities-offta-festival-2013-montreal-qc-canada/

“Camille Redouble” in cinema

This movie, directed and played by Noemie Lvovsky, says about Camille, a woman of forty in 2011 who don’t like her life. She’s a bad actress without work or little scene, her husband is going back with a student and want to sell their apartment where she lives, a lot of regret about the relation with her daughter, the dead of her mother (Yolande Moreau) the same day she learned she was be pregnant at 17 years old… and she drink too much whisky. In the New Year’s Eve, organized by her best high school friend’s and after to cut her wedding ring, she passes out and turns back at the time of high school. She is in eighties with her physic and her knowledge about the twenty five years. Already, nobody believes her except for little bit a teacher who has fun about. How to change his life when we hate this? Can we really change its without losing his bearings and that we love of his life? This movie, tribute to “Peggy Sue got married” from Francis Ford Coppola, asked about memories,  destiny, melancholy, fantasy of the past and present, nostalgia…with laughs and smiles.

Maïwenn B., Week 4, 200 words

Trailer: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xtfqo8_camille-redouble-bande-annonce-du-film_shortfilms

Justine Barbe, week 4

Frankenweenie, by Tim Burton

Frankenweenie is the last Tim Burton’s movie, distributed in cinemas in October 2012.

In 1984, Tim Burton directed already a short film (29 minutes) titled Frankenweenie. For the director, the new version was an important project which matured for several years. He decided to work again his story for a black and white feature film.

The story is inspired by the James Whale’s movie, Frankenstein, created in 1931 in United-States (the second movie adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel). A little boy, Victor Frankenstein, is sad because his dog and best friend, Sparkly, is dead. He will try to come back him to life with the science.

Tim Burton used the stop-motion method which consists to make moves with objects. It was a laborious work. For example, 200 very detailed puppets were made to represent the different dog’s emotions and bring him to life.

This movie is imbued with the Tim Burton’s emotions and personality. It consisted in reproduce his childhood’s universe.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xse9cm_comic-con-2012-frankenweenie-a-personal-journey-for-tim-burton_news

162 words.

Océane Doucet : Work 4

Do you think we have to be purist in classical music?

Should it be faithful to the musical tradition ?

Here two questions that finally raises the article.

I think that the slogan of the Director Thomas Crawford « music as the masters heard it » suggests that the image of the orchestra is more important than listening and final result.

Is it important to reveal to authenticity in classical music ? I don't think because it's important to innovate and dare to go to modernity.

Today, I think succeed in preserving the pass, make an act of memory, but it mustn't enclose in refusing evolution.

Thomas Crawford is a conductor who is a champion of both historically accurate performance styles of the Baroque and Classical repertoire and of new American music. He recorded many Cds.

In France we have the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées who focused on the romantic repertoiry on ancient instruments.

It created in 1991 the Director of the Theater Champs-Elysées : Alain Durel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/arts/music/american-classical-orchestra-opens-at-alice-tully-hall.html?_r=1&ref=music

 

Stefan Harris creator of beautiful things.

Week 4: Benoit S.

Stefan Harris creator of beautiful things.

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.

Oscar Wilde, Preface of Dorian Gray 1891.

Stefan Harris, Self Portrait, oil on canvas, 60X90 cm, 2012

Stefan Harris is a young British artist. He works on the field of contemporary art. He makes painting, architecture, design and photography.

His painting plays with reality. He tries to reproduce play of light, each mark on faces he paints. It creates painting as realistic as photography.

He made a self portrait on February 2012, on his website he says that this painting took him nine months to complete. He made a video to show his artistic process. 

It reminds the entire self portrait made in art history especially those which plays with realism like Rembrandt or Frida Kahlo (especially with the strength in the eyes and the intimacy between the painting (and the painter!) and the spectator).

On this masterpiece, we can find a link with the novel of Oscar Wilde “The portrait of Dorian Gray”. The painter captures his youth and freezes it on the canvas. On his set expression, we can see the youth but also the soul of Stefan Harris.

Just like Oscar Wilde says: To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. Stefan Harris makes both of them…

Words: 216

Maurice Sendak or 'The uniqueness that makes us see things that other people don't see'

The Tate broadcast a moving tribute video to Maurice Sendak, the American illustrator, who died last may, aged 84. And who, without a doubt, was unique.

---

It is a place into the forest. A place where magic happens. A place where mystery is. In his New-York upstate house, Maurice Sendak talks about Herman Melville and William Blake, about being an artist, and childhood.

Regarding his words on William Blake, the most interesting part is not the meaning of what he says. It's his unability to describe what William Blake Art work makes him feel. He ends up comparing it to a divine love. And there certainly is the mystical inspiration that led his hand to magic.

Endless poetry comes out of this 5 minutes portrait, as if Maurice Sendak had embodied Blake's words. Maurice Sendak turns our certitudes upside down with a mischievous look in the eye, and reveals that "strangeness" is the magic of Childhood.

Who else in the cultural industry, would have said no to a new episode of a successful book ? Maurice Sendak actually says he's not selling his art : he's living it. He's breathing it. And describes with an appropriate metaphor, the artistic process :  

“Artists have to take a dive. Either you hit your head on a rock and die or the blow to the head is so inspiring that you come back up and do the best work you ever did. But you have to take the dive. And you do not know what the result will be.”

This TateShots video was taped in december 11, a few months before M. Sendak left the ordinary world for the place where the wild things are. Let's wish him a nice stay.

>> Watch the video on The Space

------------------

Amélie Blandeau - Week 4 - 246 words

Umbrella art installation

Annaïck Guena

This summer during the art festival Agitagueda, an artist suspended colorful umbrellas above streets of Agueda in Portugal.  These thousand umbrellas seemed to floating in the air. This explosion of colours created an artificial and bright atmosphere. This installation, which was a game between colorful light and the shades on the ground, changed the promenade in streets of Agueda, in wonderful trip.  

The photographer Patricia Almeida took pictures of this incredible installation. Her images of this magical “Umbrella sky” are saturated and brilliant.

This unreal installation is one example of the ephemeral umbrella art, and reminds monumental projects of land art.  In the same way, in 1991, the artists Jeanne Claude and Christo have installed 3000 blue and yellow umbrellas in Japan and USA, creating a spectacular effect.

The web site “Environmental graffiti” shows 18 monumental installations around the world, like umbrella trees in Greece or a red umbrella ball in Shanghai.   (152)

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/incredible-umbrella-art-installations-around-world/9696

Sources : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184151/Shower-colour-Artist-creates-illusion-floating-umbrellas-vivid-art-installation.html

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/colorful-floating-umbrellas-portugal

Hollywood costumes exhibition

Hollywood costumes exhibition opens in London

On 17th October has oppened an exhibition entitled « Hollywood costumes » in the Victoria and Albert museum. More than a hundred of costumes will be shown until 27th January 2013.

What Darth Vader would be without his legendary black cape and helmet ?

More than a simple accessory, cortumes allowes an actor to become someone else, to become the character he playes. This exhibition is not only about beautiful Middle Ages's style dresses, as we can used to see. There are also the James Bond's black suit or the clothes of Matt Damon in Bourne Identity. The more casual costume has a very useful role. That is this exhibition seems to want to show to the public.

In a technical point of view, it needs five years to the organizers to gather all of the costumes. Indeed, the Hollywood costumes exhibition recounts the history of costumes design from the all last century, from The Wizard of Oz (1939) to The Blues Brothers (1980), from The Seven Years Itch (1955) to Brokeback Mountain (2005).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI0Qhf2Nw0k

http://news.yahoo.com/hollywood-costumes-exhibition-opens-london-132040128.html

Anne-Lise Salin, 174 words, week 4