My two favorite Gene Hackman movies, Night Moves and The Conversation, both appeared in 1974-75 and form an unintended existential diptych. The early Seventies, damn.
The Sinfonia concertante is simply the most astonishing piece.
It is not the first such case. Bix Beiderbecke was good technically, but could not read music, let alone sight-read, to save his life; this created many issues for him, including when he was with Paul Whiteman.
The production design (Mario Chiari) and cinematography (Giuseppe Rotunno) of Visconti’s Le notti bianche combine to create one of the most magical “spaces” in all of cinema. Mastroianni is impeccable here; Maria Schell a little weird and overacting.
Ornette will forever be somewhat controversial because he was not a good player technically. He HAD to invent his own way of doing things, because he could not do them the standard way. [more]
Great fan of Peter Cookson here! Co-founder of The Actors Studio, husband of Beatrice Straight.
Michael Cacoyannis (BOTD 1922-2011), The Trojan Women - Splendid version using Edith Hamilton’s great translation. Hepburn, Redgrave, Papas, Bujold! Pauline Kael: “The four actresses come from different cultures, but they all bring intensity of life to the screen; that’s what makes them stars.”
Jan Stuart’s The Nashville Chronicles is an excellent production history which I recommend. All kinds of great tidbits.
That is very true about the safety factor, so this is great to hear. Bridget-Michaele Reischl in Green Bay wanted to go a little more daring in her programming than was always practical, but she did recruit Jennifer Higdon as a composer-in-residence!
