Europa, Europa: Honore Eloquently Updates Ovid for Masterful, Playful Adaptation
There really isn’t a modern counterpart (even if Francois Ozon might come close) for the style and sensibility of director Christophe Honore’s Metamorphoses, an adaptation of Ovid’s classic text, updated for the 21st century.
Continue reading...
There really isn’t a modern counterpart (even if Francois Ozon might come close) for the style and sensibility of director Christophe Honore’s Metamorphoses, an adaptation of Ovid’s classic text, updated for the 21st century.
Continue reading...
- 3/22/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
“Metamorphoses,” the newest film from Christophe Honoré (“Love Songs,” “The Beautiful Person”), promises an enchanting and mythical time in its exclusive trailer and poster.
A modern-day retelling of Ovid’s Roman poem of the same name, “Metamorphoses” follows Europa, a girl who decides to skip class and winds up meeting Jupiter, a young man who takes her on a journey to his world of powerful gods who are capable of transforming humans into plants or animals. As the confrontation between seductive, yet vengeful gods and innocent mortals unfolds, Europa grasps a greater sense of life and love.
Read More: 6 Must-See French Films and Special Events From Rendez-Vous With French Cinema
An official selection at Venice Days at Venice Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, and International Film Festival Rotterdam, the film stars Amira Akili, Sébastien Hirel, Mélodie Richard, Damien Chapelle, and George Babluani.
“Metamorphoses” opens theatrically in New York on...
A modern-day retelling of Ovid’s Roman poem of the same name, “Metamorphoses” follows Europa, a girl who decides to skip class and winds up meeting Jupiter, a young man who takes her on a journey to his world of powerful gods who are capable of transforming humans into plants or animals. As the confrontation between seductive, yet vengeful gods and innocent mortals unfolds, Europa grasps a greater sense of life and love.
Read More: 6 Must-See French Films and Special Events From Rendez-Vous With French Cinema
An official selection at Venice Days at Venice Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, and International Film Festival Rotterdam, the film stars Amira Akili, Sébastien Hirel, Mélodie Richard, Damien Chapelle, and George Babluani.
“Metamorphoses” opens theatrically in New York on...
- 3/8/2017
- by Allison Picurro
- Indiewire
A version of this article originally appeared on ew.com.
Emma Watson loves to read.
The actress has that in common with her brainy Harry Potter character Hermione as well as bookish Belle, who she plays in the much-anticipated film Beauty and the Beast, out March 17. In addition to being a bookworm, Watson is also an outspoken feminist and as well as a Un Women Goodwill Ambassador and promoter of the organization’s HeForShe movement, which is dedicated to recruiting men into the movement for gender equality. As a response to her work with the Un, she launched the feminist...
Emma Watson loves to read.
The actress has that in common with her brainy Harry Potter character Hermione as well as bookish Belle, who she plays in the much-anticipated film Beauty and the Beast, out March 17. In addition to being a bookworm, Watson is also an outspoken feminist and as well as a Un Women Goodwill Ambassador and promoter of the organization’s HeForShe movement, which is dedicated to recruiting men into the movement for gender equality. As a response to her work with the Un, she launched the feminist...
- 2/21/2017
- by Madeline Raynor
- PEOPLE.com
Gem Wheeler Jan 12, 2017
Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone are comedy trio The Lonely Island. Here are just some of their finest songs and sketches...
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping was – yep, it’s time to call it - the funniest film of 2016. For those who blinked a little too long and didn’t catch it on its brief appearance in UK cinemas, the DVD release is your chance to find out what you’ve missed: a hilarious parody of current pop music’s excesses that blends acerbic criticism of predatory gossip shows and social media mobs with a sweet story of three feuding rappers struggling to mend their friendship. The fact that this touching tale also features Seal fending off a pack of wolves, Justin Timberlake dressed as a fish, and a bagpiper playing a lament at a beloved pet turtle’s Viking-inspired funeral comes as no surprise...
Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone are comedy trio The Lonely Island. Here are just some of their finest songs and sketches...
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping was – yep, it’s time to call it - the funniest film of 2016. For those who blinked a little too long and didn’t catch it on its brief appearance in UK cinemas, the DVD release is your chance to find out what you’ve missed: a hilarious parody of current pop music’s excesses that blends acerbic criticism of predatory gossip shows and social media mobs with a sweet story of three feuding rappers struggling to mend their friendship. The fact that this touching tale also features Seal fending off a pack of wolves, Justin Timberlake dressed as a fish, and a bagpiper playing a lament at a beloved pet turtle’s Viking-inspired funeral comes as no surprise...
- 1/11/2017
- Den of Geek
Les Malheurs de Sophie
Director: Christophe Honoré
Writers: Christophe Honoré, Gilles Tourand
One of France’s most underrated directors (at least judging on the level of attention he receives overseas) is Christophe Honoré, who is perhaps best known for his 2007 film, Love Songs, which played in the Main Competition at Cannes. A unique and utterly charming musical, Honore followed up his collaboration with Alex Beaupain with less success for 2011’s Beloved, which closed the Cannes Film Festival. Usually casting either Louis Garrell, Chiara Mastroianni or both in nearly all his features, his latest, Metamorphoses (2014), an adaptation of the famed text by Greek poet Ovid, premiered at Venice Days with little fanfare. Honore’s also responsible for the provocative George Bataille adaptation, Ma Mere (2004) which features an infamous performance from Isabelle Huppert. His tenth feature film, Les Malheurs de Sophie (Sophie’s Woes), is loosely based on a famed children’s...
Director: Christophe Honoré
Writers: Christophe Honoré, Gilles Tourand
One of France’s most underrated directors (at least judging on the level of attention he receives overseas) is Christophe Honoré, who is perhaps best known for his 2007 film, Love Songs, which played in the Main Competition at Cannes. A unique and utterly charming musical, Honore followed up his collaboration with Alex Beaupain with less success for 2011’s Beloved, which closed the Cannes Film Festival. Usually casting either Louis Garrell, Chiara Mastroianni or both in nearly all his features, his latest, Metamorphoses (2014), an adaptation of the famed text by Greek poet Ovid, premiered at Venice Days with little fanfare. Honore’s also responsible for the provocative George Bataille adaptation, Ma Mere (2004) which features an infamous performance from Isabelle Huppert. His tenth feature film, Les Malheurs de Sophie (Sophie’s Woes), is loosely based on a famed children’s...
- 1/12/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Midas Flesh #1-4 (2014)
Written by Ryan North
Art by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb
Published by Boom! Studios
Midas Flesh is a high concept science fiction saga with down-to-earth protagonists from the creative brain of writer Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) and frequent artistic collaborators Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb (Adventure Time). The story is about the house shaped ship Prospect and its three freedom fighters: the human scientist Fatima, the kindly dinosaur scientist Cooper, and their straight shooting, yet intelligent leader Joey as they discover a planet completely made of gold, which supposedly has some kind of weapon that can take out the evil Federation. Midas Flesh #1 reveals this doomsday weapon to be the finger of the not so mythical King Midas, whose golden touch ended up ending life on Earth as we know because the gold particles transmuted through the air.
From this premise, Midas Flesh...
Written by Ryan North
Art by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb
Published by Boom! Studios
Midas Flesh is a high concept science fiction saga with down-to-earth protagonists from the creative brain of writer Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) and frequent artistic collaborators Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb (Adventure Time). The story is about the house shaped ship Prospect and its three freedom fighters: the human scientist Fatima, the kindly dinosaur scientist Cooper, and their straight shooting, yet intelligent leader Joey as they discover a planet completely made of gold, which supposedly has some kind of weapon that can take out the evil Federation. Midas Flesh #1 reveals this doomsday weapon to be the finger of the not so mythical King Midas, whose golden touch ended up ending life on Earth as we know because the gold particles transmuted through the air.
From this premise, Midas Flesh...
- 5/21/2015
- by Logan Dalton
- SoundOnSight
Erwan Larcher (Hippomène) and Vimala Pons (Atalante) in Christophe Honoré's Métamorphoses
Métamorphoses director Christophe Honoré discussed with me why myths and cinema make a rare happy coupling, with a few exceptions. La Vie Est Un Roman by Alain Resnais, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, and Rita Hayworth as a goddess are conjured up by us inside the Furman Gallery at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Pina Bausch's Café Müller seems to have unconsciously influenced the performances of Erwan Larcher and Vimala Pons. The mythical cast includes Amira Akili, Sébastien Hirel, Mélodie Richard, Damien Chapelle, George Babluani, Matthis Lebrun, Gabrielle Chuiton, Jean Courte, Rachid O., and Keti Bicolli.
Christophe Honoré with Anne-Katrin Titze: "For myths, there is one filmmaker working today whom I admire tremendously and that is Apichatpong Weerasethakul…" Photo: Anne-Katrin...
Métamorphoses director Christophe Honoré discussed with me why myths and cinema make a rare happy coupling, with a few exceptions. La Vie Est Un Roman by Alain Resnais, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, and Rita Hayworth as a goddess are conjured up by us inside the Furman Gallery at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Pina Bausch's Café Müller seems to have unconsciously influenced the performances of Erwan Larcher and Vimala Pons. The mythical cast includes Amira Akili, Sébastien Hirel, Mélodie Richard, Damien Chapelle, George Babluani, Matthis Lebrun, Gabrielle Chuiton, Jean Courte, Rachid O., and Keti Bicolli.
Christophe Honoré with Anne-Katrin Titze: "For myths, there is one filmmaker working today whom I admire tremendously and that is Apichatpong Weerasethakul…" Photo: Anne-Katrin...
- 3/17/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
On My Skin: Barraud Explores the Essence of Monstrosity
There are moments within Antoine Barraud’s sophomore feature Portrait of the Artist that tend to feel enlivened with an arresting strangeness. There is the peripherally entertaining notion of provocative body horror shadowing us while we follow a filmmaker creating his latest project, simultaneously losing his grip on reality. But more often than not, the film feels like a thriller version of Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery. Barraud’s French language title, Le Dos Rouge (basically The Red Back) was perhaps too literal of a title, and the allusion to Joyce’s classic text (though this is really more ‘as a middle aged man’) gives it a certain extra textual density since Joyce’s novel is an allusion to Daedalus, the man responsible for constructing the Labyrinth which entombed the deadly Minotaur in Greek Mythology.
Bertrand (Bertrand Bonello) is a filmmaker...
There are moments within Antoine Barraud’s sophomore feature Portrait of the Artist that tend to feel enlivened with an arresting strangeness. There is the peripherally entertaining notion of provocative body horror shadowing us while we follow a filmmaker creating his latest project, simultaneously losing his grip on reality. But more often than not, the film feels like a thriller version of Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery. Barraud’s French language title, Le Dos Rouge (basically The Red Back) was perhaps too literal of a title, and the allusion to Joyce’s classic text (though this is really more ‘as a middle aged man’) gives it a certain extra textual density since Joyce’s novel is an allusion to Daedalus, the man responsible for constructing the Labyrinth which entombed the deadly Minotaur in Greek Mythology.
Bertrand (Bertrand Bonello) is a filmmaker...
- 3/15/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Les Malheurs de Sophie
Director: Christophe Honoré // Writers: Christophe Honoré, Gilles Taurand
One of France’s most underrated directors (at least judging on the level of attention he receives overseas) is Christophe Honoré, who is perhaps best known for his 2007 film, Love Songs, which played in the Main Competition at Cannes. A unique and utterly charming musical, Honore followed up his collaboration with Alex Beaupain with less success for 2011’s Beloved, which closed the Cannes Film Festival. Usually casting either Louis Garrell, Chiara Mastroianni or both in nearly all his features, his latest (see trailer below), Metamorphoses (2014), an adaptation of the famed text by Greek poet Ovid, premiered at Venice Days with little fanfare. Honore’s also responsible for the provocative George Bataille adaptation, Ma Mere (2004) which features an infamous performance from Isabelle Huppert. His tenth feature film, Sophie’s Woes, is loosely based on a famed children’s novel by the Countess of Segur,...
Director: Christophe Honoré // Writers: Christophe Honoré, Gilles Taurand
One of France’s most underrated directors (at least judging on the level of attention he receives overseas) is Christophe Honoré, who is perhaps best known for his 2007 film, Love Songs, which played in the Main Competition at Cannes. A unique and utterly charming musical, Honore followed up his collaboration with Alex Beaupain with less success for 2011’s Beloved, which closed the Cannes Film Festival. Usually casting either Louis Garrell, Chiara Mastroianni or both in nearly all his features, his latest (see trailer below), Metamorphoses (2014), an adaptation of the famed text by Greek poet Ovid, premiered at Venice Days with little fanfare. Honore’s also responsible for the provocative George Bataille adaptation, Ma Mere (2004) which features an infamous performance from Isabelle Huppert. His tenth feature film, Sophie’s Woes, is loosely based on a famed children’s novel by the Countess of Segur,...
- 1/8/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Some eight fifteenths of the way through Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the epic poem relates the tale of an unnamed boy who was turned into a partridge. Flung from Minerva’s high temple by his jealous uncle Daedalus, the nascent inventor free falls into his new form as the Goddess intervenes, spinning his arms into wings. In observance of his near-death experience, Perdix the partridge, as he is identified in a recent translation, “declines the lofty trees, and thinks it best/To brood in hedge-rows o’er its humble nest.” (Pear trees, you’ll note, are conveniently low to the ground.)
Folded into twenty-eight lines of dactylic hexameter, Perdix’s snapshot of a story speaks to primordial self-absorption and condemnation as much as it does the whimsy of divine intervention. One could easily argue that 2006 years later, these two stanzas have been cracked open and scrambled into Pascale Ferran’s Bird People,...
Folded into twenty-eight lines of dactylic hexameter, Perdix’s snapshot of a story speaks to primordial self-absorption and condemnation as much as it does the whimsy of divine intervention. One could easily argue that 2006 years later, these two stanzas have been cracked open and scrambled into Pascale Ferran’s Bird People,...
- 9/15/2014
- by Sarah Salovaara
- MUBI
Exclusive: Paris-based company adds trio of Japanese titles to slate.
French MK2 has picked up sales on Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s An about the friendship between a baker and an old lady who bond over a passion for traditional red bean pastries.
The Paris-based company has also acquired Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s supernatural love story Journey To The Shore, about a dead man who takes his wife on one last trip together, and Masa Sawada’s documentary I, Kamikaze, revolving around the memoirs of Fujio Hayashi, one of the last surviving coordinators of Japan’s Second World War suicide missions.
The company has also added French director Christophe Honoré’s Metamorphoses - a re-telling of Ovid’s classic poem set in contemporary France using a young, unknown cast - to the slate.
MK2 is also handling Kawase’s Still the Water, a coming of age tale set on a remote Japanese island, which will premiere...
French MK2 has picked up sales on Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s An about the friendship between a baker and an old lady who bond over a passion for traditional red bean pastries.
The Paris-based company has also acquired Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s supernatural love story Journey To The Shore, about a dead man who takes his wife on one last trip together, and Masa Sawada’s documentary I, Kamikaze, revolving around the memoirs of Fujio Hayashi, one of the last surviving coordinators of Japan’s Second World War suicide missions.
The company has also added French director Christophe Honoré’s Metamorphoses - a re-telling of Ovid’s classic poem set in contemporary France using a young, unknown cast - to the slate.
MK2 is also handling Kawase’s Still the Water, a coming of age tale set on a remote Japanese island, which will premiere...
- 5/14/2014
- ScreenDaily
Metamorphoses
Director: Christophe Honore
Writers: Christophe Honore
Producer: Philippe Martin
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: George Babluani, Damien Chapelle, Sebastien Hirel
While his last film, 2011’s Beloved was unfairly criticized for being more of the same from the musically inclined provocateur, whose films sometimes feel like (in tone, not visual style) a sexually playful Jacques Demy, his latest effort, an adaptation of the Roman poet Ovid’s epic mythological narrative, sees Honore changing it up a bit. Continuing his penchant for adapting difficult literary works (his 2004 Isabelle Huppert headlined Ma Mere was an unfinished novel by Georges Bataille and 2008’s The Beautiful Person was inspired by a novel by Madame de La Fayette), Honore’s cast consists of mostly unknown actors, his first film in over a decade not to star either of his muses, Louis Garrel or Chiara Mastroianni. With such lofty aspirations, the enigmatic Honore’s latest...
Director: Christophe Honore
Writers: Christophe Honore
Producer: Philippe Martin
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: George Babluani, Damien Chapelle, Sebastien Hirel
While his last film, 2011’s Beloved was unfairly criticized for being more of the same from the musically inclined provocateur, whose films sometimes feel like (in tone, not visual style) a sexually playful Jacques Demy, his latest effort, an adaptation of the Roman poet Ovid’s epic mythological narrative, sees Honore changing it up a bit. Continuing his penchant for adapting difficult literary works (his 2004 Isabelle Huppert headlined Ma Mere was an unfinished novel by Georges Bataille and 2008’s The Beautiful Person was inspired by a novel by Madame de La Fayette), Honore’s cast consists of mostly unknown actors, his first film in over a decade not to star either of his muses, Louis Garrel or Chiara Mastroianni. With such lofty aspirations, the enigmatic Honore’s latest...
- 3/6/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Feature Juliette Harrisson 24 Sep 2013 - 07:00
A beginner's guide to the myths behind new adventure show, Atlantis, starting this Saturday on BBC One...
If there’s one thing we know about BBC One’s forthcoming Saturday night drama Atlantis, it’s that the characters we see week to week on the show won’t necessarily bear a lot of resemblance to their mythological Greek forebears. We can only assume that they will, nevertheless, have one or two things in common; we can at least confirm that Medusa will still end up with snakes for hair. And so, to whet your appetite for all things Atlantean, cast your eyes over our quick idiots’ guide to Atlantis’ main characters and their mythological counterparts.
The first rule of Greek mythology is that there are dozens of different versions of every story and numerous different tales attached to every hero or heroine, with no...
A beginner's guide to the myths behind new adventure show, Atlantis, starting this Saturday on BBC One...
If there’s one thing we know about BBC One’s forthcoming Saturday night drama Atlantis, it’s that the characters we see week to week on the show won’t necessarily bear a lot of resemblance to their mythological Greek forebears. We can only assume that they will, nevertheless, have one or two things in common; we can at least confirm that Medusa will still end up with snakes for hair. And so, to whet your appetite for all things Atlantean, cast your eyes over our quick idiots’ guide to Atlantis’ main characters and their mythological counterparts.
The first rule of Greek mythology is that there are dozens of different versions of every story and numerous different tales attached to every hero or heroine, with no...
- 9/23/2013
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Following its acclaimed 16-week run at the Lookingglass Theatre Company this fall, Metamorphoses brings the mythical tales of Ovid to life at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, 10 years after the Broadway premiere. BroadwayWorld has a video of Mary Zimmerman and Arena Stage's Technical Director, Scott Schreck, talking about construction of the production. Check it out below...
- 2/15/2013
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
Company You Keep: Greenaway’s Latest a Beguiling, Sumptuous Cinematic Film
One seems to forget that Peter Greenaway has been prophesying the death of cinema (for well over a decade now) after watching his visually sumptuous new film, Goltzius and the Pelican Company, which sees the auteur in top form, combining his arresting visionary panache with his signature taboo baiting subject matter in the realm of the high brow. The subject matter is a hard sell, and those unfamiliar or unaccustomed to Greenaway’s unclassifiable narratives (or lack thereof) will most likely be as baffled as ever, but fans of the director and/or offbeat, striking cinema will hopefully embrace one of the infrequent working Greenaway’s best films to date.
Hendrick Goltzius (Ramsey Nasr), a late 16th century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints, takes his employees, known as the Pelican Company, to visit the Margrave of Alsace...
One seems to forget that Peter Greenaway has been prophesying the death of cinema (for well over a decade now) after watching his visually sumptuous new film, Goltzius and the Pelican Company, which sees the auteur in top form, combining his arresting visionary panache with his signature taboo baiting subject matter in the realm of the high brow. The subject matter is a hard sell, and those unfamiliar or unaccustomed to Greenaway’s unclassifiable narratives (or lack thereof) will most likely be as baffled as ever, but fans of the director and/or offbeat, striking cinema will hopefully embrace one of the infrequent working Greenaway’s best films to date.
Hendrick Goltzius (Ramsey Nasr), a late 16th century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints, takes his employees, known as the Pelican Company, to visit the Margrave of Alsace...
- 1/9/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Lookingglass Theatre Company opens its 25th Anniversary Season with Metamorphoses, based on the Myths of Ovid, written and directed by Lookingglass Ensemble Member Mary Zimmerman. The show will play tonight, September 19 September 28, 2012. The return of Lookingglass seminal production, coinciding with the 10th Anniversary of the Broadway run, will open at Lookingglass in the fall of 2012 and will then move to Washington D.C.s Arena Stage. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below.
- 9/25/2012
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
On the occasion of Joseph Nechvatal's upcoming exhibition at Galerie Richard in New York (April 12 through May 26), the recent publication of his new book Immersion into Noise, and a concert of his remastered viral symphOny in surround sound. Taney Roniger is an artist and writer who lives and works in Brooklyn.
Bradley Rubenstein: We really want to get into the new book, as well as the upcoming show, but can you take a minute and give us a little backstory? You have always slipped in and out of categories: actions, painting, sound art, writing....
Joseph Nechvatal: Well, when I was going to undergraduate art school at Southern Illinois University (Siu), I was making drawings and little gouaches and smaller-type paintings on paper, generally. And they were well-received. I was not so interested in painting on canvas at the time. You have to put it in the perspective of the...
Bradley Rubenstein: We really want to get into the new book, as well as the upcoming show, but can you take a minute and give us a little backstory? You have always slipped in and out of categories: actions, painting, sound art, writing....
Joseph Nechvatal: Well, when I was going to undergraduate art school at Southern Illinois University (Siu), I was making drawings and little gouaches and smaller-type paintings on paper, generally. And they were well-received. I was not so interested in painting on canvas at the time. You have to put it in the perspective of the...
- 3/29/2012
- by bradleyrubenstein
- www.culturecatch.com
Matthew Barney: Djed Gladstone Gallery Through October 22, 2011
The opening pages of Ovid's Metamorphoses describe a time before the ages of silver, bronze, and iron, when Spring was everlasting and nectar flowed in streams; mankind was "without a law," did right always, and lived contentedly. This was definitely not the times described in Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, the libretto for Matthew Barney's project of the same name, which he has been working on since 2007. We might be wise to take the writer's words with grains of salt, however. The novel, though not without moments of wit and brilliance, is on about the same level as a certain Bangles song we can name, but won't, when it comes to Egyptology. The exhibition of Barney's project avoids being pinned down quite so hard by being 1.) an element of his larger series of performances and installations, and 2.) quite beautiful.
read...
The opening pages of Ovid's Metamorphoses describe a time before the ages of silver, bronze, and iron, when Spring was everlasting and nectar flowed in streams; mankind was "without a law," did right always, and lived contentedly. This was definitely not the times described in Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, the libretto for Matthew Barney's project of the same name, which he has been working on since 2007. We might be wise to take the writer's words with grains of salt, however. The novel, though not without moments of wit and brilliance, is on about the same level as a certain Bangles song we can name, but won't, when it comes to Egyptology. The exhibition of Barney's project avoids being pinned down quite so hard by being 1.) an element of his larger series of performances and installations, and 2.) quite beautiful.
read...
- 9/26/2011
- by bradleyrubenstein
- www.culturecatch.com
Matthew Barney: Djed Gladstone Gallery Through October 22, 2011
The opening pages of Ovid's Metamorphoses describe a time before the ages of silver, bronze, and iron, when Spring was everlasting and nectar flowed in streams; mankind was "without a law," did right always, and lived contentedly. This was definitely not the times described in Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, the libretto for Matthew Barney's project of the same name, which he has been working on since 2007. We might be wise to take the writer's words with grains of salt, however. The novel, though not without moments of wit and brilliance, is on about the same level as a certain Bangles song we can name, but won't, when it comes to Egyptology. The exhibition of Barney's project avoids being pinned down quite so hard by being 1.) an element of his larger series of performances and installations, and 2.) quite beautiful.
read...
The opening pages of Ovid's Metamorphoses describe a time before the ages of silver, bronze, and iron, when Spring was everlasting and nectar flowed in streams; mankind was "without a law," did right always, and lived contentedly. This was definitely not the times described in Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, the libretto for Matthew Barney's project of the same name, which he has been working on since 2007. We might be wise to take the writer's words with grains of salt, however. The novel, though not without moments of wit and brilliance, is on about the same level as a certain Bangles song we can name, but won't, when it comes to Egyptology. The exhibition of Barney's project avoids being pinned down quite so hard by being 1.) an element of his larger series of performances and installations, and 2.) quite beautiful.
read...
- 9/26/2011
- by bradleyrubenstein
- www.culturecatch.com
Pacific Banana (Original Release Date: 5 February 1981)
This week marks the first instance of me reviewing a movie discovered as a direct result of writing this column. I anticipate future cases where I will find newly discovered movies so disagreeable I will be made to wish I had never lighted on the idea of reviewing these suckers, but this isn’t one of those cases. Pacific Banana is a treat. It flies thick through a fog of continuity errors, the casts’ collective stab at acting is lamentable, the plot contrivances begin stacking tall from the outset, and the plot is threadbare, but its charm and good-naturedness make it hard not to developsome affection for it.
Part of this charm is in its casually smarmy approach. If I were cataloging it for a special interests video store, I would categorize it a “milquetoast sex romp,” and I would put it on the same shelf as Porky’s,...
This week marks the first instance of me reviewing a movie discovered as a direct result of writing this column. I anticipate future cases where I will find newly discovered movies so disagreeable I will be made to wish I had never lighted on the idea of reviewing these suckers, but this isn’t one of those cases. Pacific Banana is a treat. It flies thick through a fog of continuity errors, the casts’ collective stab at acting is lamentable, the plot contrivances begin stacking tall from the outset, and the plot is threadbare, but its charm and good-naturedness make it hard not to developsome affection for it.
Part of this charm is in its casually smarmy approach. If I were cataloging it for a special interests video store, I would categorize it a “milquetoast sex romp,” and I would put it on the same shelf as Porky’s,...
- 2/4/2011
- by Thurston McQ
- Corona's Coming Attractions
10 Critical Thoughts About... True Grit Highly specific observations on the Coen Brothers' Western with Jeff Bridges. By Ray Rahman After losing her father to the notorious Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) undertakes an improbable trek toward justice. Seeking the help of men with "true grit," she strings along Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and Laboeuf (Matt Damon) to accompany her through Indian Territory, where she believes her father's murderer is hiding. 1. It's based on the book True Grit, not the movie True Grit. But since it's the Coen brothers, it's probably also based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, Faulkner, the Book of Deuteronomy, Bless Me, Ultima, the Crimean War, the 1992 Chicago Cubs, Barton Fink, leaked diplomatic cables, Wishbone, Laos, McCarthyism... 2. It's a mighty fine Western movie. As far as Westerns go, this one's as good as it gets. [...]...
- 12/24/2010
- by Ray Rahman
- Nerve
Former Page 3 Girl and glamour model Keeley Hazell is set for an improbable journey into the world of magic in a short film to be released online in January of 2011.
Venus And The Sun is reportedly a new take on the ancient 'Venus And Adonis' poem from Ovid's Metamorphoses, wherein the beauteous goddess, infatuated with the equally attractive Adonis, tries to steer him away from his perilous passion for hunting. The synopsis for Venus And The Sun reads:
...Keeley who thinks she's solved all her problems by taking up an unexpectedly high-brow hobby: translating Latin. The language has given her magical powers, enabling her to ward-off the frenzied attention of her adoring fans, and the British Library offers an ideal refuge.
But when she meets Adam, the one Sun-reader in the country she hadn't bargained for, Keeley is given a lesson in not judging books by their covers.
Venus And The Sun is reportedly a new take on the ancient 'Venus And Adonis' poem from Ovid's Metamorphoses, wherein the beauteous goddess, infatuated with the equally attractive Adonis, tries to steer him away from his perilous passion for hunting. The synopsis for Venus And The Sun reads:
...Keeley who thinks she's solved all her problems by taking up an unexpectedly high-brow hobby: translating Latin. The language has given her magical powers, enabling her to ward-off the frenzied attention of her adoring fans, and the British Library offers an ideal refuge.
But when she meets Adam, the one Sun-reader in the country she hadn't bargained for, Keeley is given a lesson in not judging books by their covers.
- 11/16/2010
- Shadowlocked
London, May 7 – Harry Potter star Emma Watson thinks she is the worst student in her acting class.
Watson, who has been playing the role of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, put her career on hold to enrol at Brown University in America, where she also studies European women’s history and Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
And despite performing in Hollywood over the past decade, Watson remains modest about her abilities.I think I’m actually the worst person in the class,” the Telegraph quoted her as telling Vanity Fair magazine. (Ani)...
Watson, who has been playing the role of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, put her career on hold to enrol at Brown University in America, where she also studies European women’s history and Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
And despite performing in Hollywood over the past decade, Watson remains modest about her abilities.I think I’m actually the worst person in the class,” the Telegraph quoted her as telling Vanity Fair magazine. (Ani)...
- 5/7/2010
- by News
- RealBollywood.com
Emma Watson has said that she is the worst person in her university acting class. The Harry Potter star told Vanity Fair that she is studying European women's history, Ovid's Metamorphoses and acting as a liberal arts student at Brown University. Of her acting lessons, Watson quipped: "I think actually I'm the worst person in the class." She added that used to be very similar to Harry Potter's Hermione Granger, explaining: (more)...
- 5/7/2010
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
"It was just awful," she recalls thinking at first, during freshman week. "I was like, I must be mad. Why am I doing this?" And what was with all the party-hearty stuff? She nervously attended her first frat party, hoping she might get into the swing of things. "I felt like I'd walked into an American teen movie. I picked up the red cups. I was like, Wow, they really do drink from these." Then she started meeting people: a roommate who had no interest in Harry Potter (phew!), some really friendly rower guys, and eventually one Rafael Cebrian, who's a rock musician and actor in his native Spain and has reportedly become her boyfriend. After shopping classes, she settled on European women's history, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and acting. "I think actually I'm the worst person in the class," says Watson...
- 5/5/2010
- by Vanity Fair
- Huffington Post
Just because fantasy is everywhere doesn't mean it has to appeal to the lowest common denominator. We must keep sight of its roots in ancient storytelling and its power to transform
There are few things people love more then a well-told tale. We've been gathering around the fire (or that 20th-century equivalent, the television set) and telling each other stories for as long as we've had language. And to judge by the narratives that have filtered down to us through oral traditions and early written records, fantasy has always been essential to those stories.
Stories from the ancient world are infused with the fantastic, from Ovid's Metamorphoses to Beowulf, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Myth, legend, folk and fairytales have fired our imaginations for thousands of years. We have used the fantastic to take mundane reality and transform it, sometimes for escapist pleasure, and sometimes to find meaning in...
There are few things people love more then a well-told tale. We've been gathering around the fire (or that 20th-century equivalent, the television set) and telling each other stories for as long as we've had language. And to judge by the narratives that have filtered down to us through oral traditions and early written records, fantasy has always been essential to those stories.
Stories from the ancient world are infused with the fantastic, from Ovid's Metamorphoses to Beowulf, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Myth, legend, folk and fairytales have fired our imaginations for thousands of years. We have used the fantastic to take mundane reality and transform it, sometimes for escapist pleasure, and sometimes to find meaning in...
- 4/20/2010
- by Damien G Walter
- The Guardian - Film News
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