Director: Adrian Wills
A SHARED DETERMINATION
Formula One car racing seems an unlikely backdrop for the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil® to first make contact. But George Harrison and Cirque founder Guy Laliberté met at Grand Prix events and discovered a mutual passion for motor sports. Out of those encounters grew friendship and the idea of bringing together the most popular music of the 20th century with the world’s greatest circus performers. Cirque du Soleil would meet the Beatles, in a noble experiment – one in which both partners would agree to share creative control for the first time ever.
Sadly, George Harrison passed away before development began. But Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, were determined to pursue the venture.
All Together Now tells the story of this bold collaboration and the resulting live show.
WE CAN WORK IT OUT
Artistic endeavours are periodically fraught with a climate of tension. This project was no exception. But patience and compromise became the order of the day. And, as Paul McCartney says at one point, “We understand, we’ve been at this a long time too.”
The first step for Sir George Martin, the band’s legendary producer, along with his son Giles was to delve into the archives, accessing and digitizing the original multitracks of the Beatles’ recordings. Then, in a secluded room at Abbey Road Studios, father and son began conjuring up a fresh musical canvas by experimentally reshaping the original masters into a soundscape that would form the backbone of the show.
The soundtrack, the first Beatles album available in 5.1 surround sound, would go on to win two Grammy Awards.
Show director Dominic Champagne then went to work interpreting melody and lyric to fashion a daring performance of acrobatics, dance and even extreme sports. LOVE now plays to enraptured audiences at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas 10 times a week.
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Documentary master Frederick Wiseman’s 38th film in a career that has spanned more than that number of years, turns his attention to one of the world’s greatest ballet companies, the Paris Opera Ballet. John Davey’s camera roams the vast Palais Garnier, an opulent 19th century pile of a building: from its crystal chandelier-laden corridors to its labyrinthine underground chambers, from its light-filled rehearsal studios to its luxurious theater replete with 2,200 scarlet velvet seats and Marc Chagall ceiling. LA DANSE devotes most of its time to watching impossibly beautiful young men and women — among them Nicolas Le Riche, Marie-Agnès Gillot, and Agnès Letestu — rehearsing the choreography of Mats Ek, Wayne McGregor, Rudolf Nureyev and Pina Bausch. For balletomanes and the curious alike, LA DANSE serves up a scrumptious meal of delectable moments, one more glorious than the next, made even more precious by their ephemeral nature.
Director: Nikolai Mullerschon
Baron Manfred von Richthofen is the most feared and celebrated pilot of the German air force in World War I. For him and his companions, air “dogfights” are events of a sporting nature, involving a technical challenge and honourable conduct, ignoring the terrible extent of war. But after falling in love with the nurse Kate, Manfred realizes he is only being used for propaganda means. Caught between his disgust for the war, and the responsibility for his fighter wing, von Richthofen sets out to fly again.
Official site
Director: Amin Matalqa
- WINNER of Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival
- WINNER of Best Film at Seattle International Film Festival
- WINNER of Audience Award at Portland Film Festival
- Jordan’s official entry for the 81st Academy Awards (2009) In the category Best Foreign Language film.
An aging airport janitor who is mistaken for an airline pilot by a group of poor neighborhood children weaves fantastical stories to offer hope for a sad and sometimes unchangeable reality.
Director: Rune Denstad Langlo
- WINNER of Best New Narrative Director at the Tribeca Film Festival
- WINNER of the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin International Film Festival
Following a nervous breakdown, ski athlete Jomar has isolated himself in a lonely existence as the guard of a ski park. When he learns that he might be the father of a child way up north, he sets out on a strange and poetic journey through Norway on a snowmobile, with 5 litres of alcohol as his only provisions. On this trip through amazing arctic landscapes, Jomar seems to do everything in his power to avoid reaching his destination. He meets other tender and confused souls, who will all contribute to push Jomar further along his reluctant journey toward the brighter side of life.
Official site (Norwegian)
Director: Mark Leiren-Young
Nothing is Ever Clear Cut!
The battle between loggers and environmentalists is defining, dividing and destroying communities in Canada and around the world. The Green Chain is a powerful, funny and thought-provoking film about the conflicts between people on both sides of the battle who love trees — and are willing to risk anything to protect their personal visions of the forest.
The Green Chain examines a community and a way of life through a series of riveting inter-linking monologues inspired by the true tales and personalities that define today’s forests.
The Logger loves trees. They are his life. Ben Holm blames the “tree huggers” for trying to destroy his world.
The Protester loves trees. Abigail Edwards wants her grandchildren to know the difference between a forest and a tree farm and is willing to go to jail for her beliefs.
The Firefighter loves trees. He watched his life go up in smoke long before the forest fires hit. Now Brett Hall serves ice cream cones…except during forest fire season.
The Star loves trees — and Leila Cole loves a good cause, and some good publicity — even if she has to go to a small backwater town to get it.
The Executive loves trees. John Clements is the Vice-President in charge of Public Relations for a major logging company who finds his beliefs challenged by the destruction of an ancient tree.
The Tree Sitter loves trees. He lives in one, 100 feet in the air. Dylan Hendrix (not his real name) hopes that people will listen to him…and that he won’t fall out before they do.
The Waitress loves trees. Jenni Holm’s life reflects the challenges faced by her entire community, and the ongoing casualties of the “war in the woods”.
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Director: Raoul Ruiz
Starring: John Malkovich, Saffron Burrows, Nikolai Kinski
A character study and a meditation on art in a time of opulence and syphilis. Gustave Klimt (1862-1918) lies in hospital, dying. In reveries, he recalls the early 1900s: it’s fin de siècle Vienna. At the World Exposition in Paris, Klimt meets Georges Méliès, who does a moving picture for him, and Klimt falls under the spell of a woman who may be Lea de Castro. We see Klimt in his studio; we meet his mother and sister, who suffer from mental illness. We watch Klimt the libertine. On his deathbed and as a younger man, he imagines things as well: encounters with ministers and waiters and with women who are willing participants in his pleasures. Is this the source of art?
Director: Terry Jones
Irreverent satire of Biblical films and religious intolerance focuses on Brian, a Jew in Roman-occupied Judea. After joining up with an anti-Roman political organization, Brian is mistaken for a prophet, and becomes a reluctant Messiah.
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Directors: Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 film written and performed by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin), and directed by Gilliam and Jones. It was initially conceived during a gap between the third and fourth seasons of their popular BBC television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
In contrast to the group’s first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, which was a compilation of sketches from the television series, Holy Grail was their first film composed of wholly original material. It generally spoofs the legends of King Arthur’s quest to find the Holy Grail. The film was a success on its initial run and retains a large-scale cult following today. Idle later used the film as the inspiration for the 2005 Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot.
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Director: Paul Morrison
In 1922, Madrid is wavering on the edge of change as traditional values are challenged by the dangerous new influences of Jazz, Freud and the avant-garde. Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson) arrives at the university; 18 years old and determined to become a great artist. His bizarre blend of shyness and rampant exhibitionism attracts the attention of two of the university’s social elite – Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltrán) and Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). Salvador is absorbed into their decadent group and for a time Salvador, Luis and Federico become a formidable trio, the most ultra-modern group in Madrid. However as time passes, Salvador feels and increasingly strong pull towards the charismatic Federico – who is himself oblivious of the attentions he is getting from his beautiful writer friend, Margarita. Finally, in the face of his friends’ preoccupations – and Federico’s growing renown as a poet – Luis sets off for Paris in search of his own artistic success. Federico and Salvador spend the holiday in the seaside town of Cadaques. Both the idyllic surroundings and the warmth of the Dali family sweep Federico off his feet. Salvador and he draw closer, sharing their deepest beliefs, inspirations and secrets, convinced that they have found a kind of friendship undreamt of by others. It is more than a meeting of the minds; it is a fusion of souls. And then one night, in the phosphorescent water, it becomes something else…
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