Offscreen Notes
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Donald Richie (1924-2013)
One of the foremost advocates of Japanese cinema and culture for the West, Donald Richie, passed away on February 19, 2013 at the age of 88 in Japan, where he lived since the late 1940s. Richie’s goal in life was to open up the west to the art of the great Japanese filmmakers, notably Ozu, Kurosawa and Mizoguchi and did so across numerous books and essays. His advocacy of Japanese art and culture will be sorely missed.
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Acting Workshops (Starting May 18, 2013)
After a 3 year absence, Carole Zucker will be back in Montreal, teaching an acting workshop. The workshops are taught to develop the actor’s imagination, flexibility, focus, concentration, responsiveness, emotional intelligence and vitality. The workshops only work in so far as the student is committed to the process; you must be willing to do the work. We often start the workshops with breathing and meditation exercises to help students to focus on the day ahead of them. The workshops are offered to those with an interest in acting, amateur theater, those who may wish to go on to drama school and people who want to explore their creativity. Experience is not necessary.
The workshops have been given annually in Montreal, Canada, Burlington, VT, and in the UK since 1999. They are not intended as a substitute for the full conservatory experience, but are offered to those with an interest in acting, amateur theater, those who may wish to go to drama school and those who want to explore the acting process and their creativity. The workshop is invaluable for film makers who want to learn more about the acting process and how to direct actors. Commitment to the process is all that is required of the student. The Beginners Meisner Technique Workshop will be held in the Faubourg Building, starting on May 18th. A special discounted rate is available for all students in the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. Check out the website to find out more about the technique, the dates, and the instructor. Check the website for more information. -
Michael Winner: 1935-2013
Prolific British director Michael Winner passed away on January 21, 2013 at age 77. I reviewed one of my favorite Winner films, The Sentinel, a few years back on Offscreen. Winner is perhaps best known for his classic vigilante action revenge film starring its iconic star Charles Bronson, Death Wish, and its two sequels. Winner formed a strong working bond with Bronson, who he would direct in several other action/crime films (The Stone Killer, The Mechanic). Horror fans will also remember his take on James’s story Turn of the Screw, The Nightcomers, starring Marlon Brando.
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Mariangela Melato (1941-2013)
One of the greatest female comedienne’s at the tail end of Italy’s ‘golden era’ of film comedy, Mariangelo Melato, passed away on January 13, 2013 at the age of 71. Melato starred on the stage and screen since the 1970s and lit up both with an intelligence and vigor that made it appear as if she were living life at a constant full throttle. International fame came to her in her roles starring opposite Giancarlo Giannini in Lina Wertmuller’s Mimi the Metal Worker (1972) and Swept Away (1974). Melato worked with other great directors such as Luchino Visconti (Monaca di Monza, 1967), Elio Petri (The Working Class go to Heaven (1971), Steno (La polizia ringrazia, 1972), Vittorio De Sica (Lo chiameremo Andrea, 1972), Claude Chabrol (The Nada Gang), Sergio Corbucci (Di che segno sei?, 1975), Fernando Arrabal (The Tree of Guernica, 1975), and Luigi Comencini (Il Gatto, 1977).
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Film Studies For Free
Nice to see that Offscreen has once again made the cut in the indispensable Film Studies For Free year end poll of Top 12 Established online Film Studies Journals. Thanks to Catherine Grant again for her continued amazing work in holding together the single most amazing online film studies resource. FSFF rules.
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Gualtiero Jacopetti: 1919-2012
With the popularity of the documentary continually on the rise due to its permeability to splinter out into fictional terrains such as mockumentary, fake documentary, and reality programs, a special mention should go to one half of the co-founder of what he called the “anti-documentary,’ the mondo film, Gaultiero Jacopetti. Jacopetti worked in tandem with Franco Prosperi and Paolo Cavara to make the first mondo film, Mondo Cane, in 1961, and then a slew of follow-ups that would go on the influence a generation of even more lurid and more staged films in the 1970s and 1980s. Jacopetti died on Wednesday, Nov. 28 in Rome at the age of 91.
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The Film Society
There is a new event being hosted at Concordia, in VA-114 and JA De Seve, The Film Society screenings. The Film Society is run by Phil Spurrell, who has been serving the film community in Montreal for 20 years, hosting monthly or bi-monthly screenings of 16mm (and sometimes 35mm) old, classic and contemporary films. The nice thing about The Film Society is that with the transition to digital projection, this is one of the few places where you can still see actual celluloid in Montreal, where right now there are very few remaining venues that still screen 35mm (Cinema du parc, Ex-Centris and the Cinémathèque). Thisi Friday, Nov. 23, the FS is having a special 20th anniversary event to launch its new Concordia Partnership, at the J.A. deSeve theatre at 7:30pm. It is a surprise title of a 35mm cinemascope (BIG) film. The actual regular screenings will be held normally on Sunday nights.
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Cinema Politica
A listing of upcoming November and December 2012 screenings.
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MUSIC & THE MOVING IMAGE VIII
Conference at NYU Steinhardt: May 31-June 2, 2013
CALL FOR PAPERS
The annual conference, Music and the Moving Image, encourages submissions from scholars and practitioners that explore the relationship between music, sound, and the entire universe of moving images (film, TV, video games, mobile media, and interactive performances) through paper presentations.
This year’s conference will feature two roundtables: “Film Scoring: Teaching The Practice,” chaired by Dan Carlin, Dir. Scoring for Motion Pictures & Television Program, USC. The panel will include Paul Chihara, Head of Visual Media Program, UCLA; George S. Clinton, Chair of Berklee College Film Scoring; Halldor Krogh, Dir. Film Scoring, Lillehammer University, Norway; and Ron Sadoff, Dir. NYU Steinhardt Film Scoring.
A panel dedicated to “Music Production Libraries in Television” will feature Doug Wood (composer, COO Omnimusic). We welcome submissions that address TV music.
The Program Committee: Krin Gabbard (Jammin’ at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema); Raymond Knapp (The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity); Katherine Spring (Saying It With Songs (forthcoming)); and coeditors of Music and the Moving Image, Gillian B. Anderson (Haexan; Pandora’s Box; Music for Silent Film 1892-1929: A Guide); and NYU faculty, Ron Sadoff (The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation).
MaMI follows the NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop, May 21-30, 2013.
Abstracts or synopses of papers (250 words) should be submitted to: Dr. Ron Sadoff, mamicon2013@gmail.com chair of the program committee, no later than Dec. 17, 2012.
E-mail ron.sadoff@nyu.edu for more information.
Dept. of Music and Performing Arts Professions, Program in Film Scoring: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/scoring/
NYU – 35 West 4th St, New York, NY 10012
Conference fee: $185.00 – Students: $85.00; NYU Housing Available
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Koji Wakamatsu: 1936-2012
On October 17, 2012, iconoclastic Japanese director Koji Wakamatsu has died after complications following being hit by a taxi cab. This is tragic news, which uncannily recalls Theo Angelopoulos dying by a similar cause earlier this year, 24 January 2012, at the same age as Wakamatsu, 76. Wakamatsu had just completed his latest film, The Millenium Rapture (2012), which is playing at Montreal’s FNC (Festival de nouveau cinema). Offscreen has written on two of Wakamatsu’s seminal political Roman Porno films, Ecstacy of Angels and Go, Go Second Time Virgin. Wakamatsu had made another film in 2012, which also played in Montreal, at Fantasia 2012, about Yukio Mishima 11:25: The Day He Chose His Own Fate. A sad day indeed for world cinema.
