Posts

Showing posts from October, 2014

"A Coffee in Berlin" / "Oh Boy" (2012)

Image
Film Review: 'A Coffee in Berlin' Reviewed online, June 4, 2014. (In 2012 Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, AFI film festivals.) Running time:  85 MIN. (Original title: “Oh Boy”) Crew Directed, written by Jan Ole Gerster.  Camera  (B&W, widescreen), Philipp Kirsamer;  editor , Anja Siemens; music, Major Minors, Cherilyn MacNeil; production designer, Juliane Friedrich; costume designer, Ildiko Okolicsanyi, Juliane Maier; sound, Magnus Pfluger; sound designer, Felix Andriessens; supervising sound editor, Fabian Schmidt; re-recoring mixer, Adrian Baumeister; stunt coordinator, Martin Goeres; visual effects supervisor, Jean-Michel Boublil; associate  producers , Gerster, Timon Modersohn, Tom Schilling; assistant director, Timon Modersohn. With Tom Schilling, Friederike Kempter, Marc Hosemann, Katharina Schuttler, Justus Von Dohnanyi, Andreas Schroders, Arnd Klawitter, Martin Brambach, R.P. Kahl, Lis Buttner, Theo Trebs, Katharina Hauck, Steffen C. Jurgens, Sanne Schnapp, Fre

"Call the Midwife"

Image
When it comes to scripted drama, babies are the nuclear option. If a show needs a sure-fire way of ramping up tension and making viewers pay attention, all it needs to do is put a baby in some kind of jeopardy, and the easiest way to manipulate viewers' emotions is to show a mother in childbirth experiencing complications. It's so easy for TV shows or movies to use stories like these for cheap, exploitative effects that it's hard not to be suspicious any time a pregnant lady or a stroller shows up on screen. That's why the modest accomplishments of " Call the Midwife " (premieres Sunday, Sept. 30 on PBS Masterpiece; check local listings) are all the more laudable. Here's a show that, for long periods of time, respectfully and sensitively depicts the difficulties and joys of labor and delivery, and the lives of working-class mothers, some of whom don't have access to quality medical care. The ingredients of this six-episode season, which is bas

"Requiem"

GIUSEPPE VERDI REQUIEM Dirijor: DAVID CRESCENZI (invitat) Cu participarea Sopranei BARBARA KRIEGER(invitată) Mezzosopranei ANDRADA IOANA ROŞU Tenorului MARIUS VLAD BUDOIU Baritonului ZOLTÁN NAGY (invitat) ORCHESTRA ŞI CORUL OPEREI NAŢIONALE ROMÂNE CLUJ-NAPOCA Dirijor cor: CORNELIU FELECAN The  Messa da Requiem  is a musical setting of the  Roman Catholic  funeral mass ( Requiem ) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by  Giuseppe Verdi . It was composed in memory of  Alessandro Manzoni , an Italian poet and novelist who was admired by Verdi. The first performance, at the  San Marco  church in  Milan on 22 May 1874, marked the first anniversary of Manzoni's death. The work was at one time called the  Manzoni Requiem . [1]  Although originally composed for liturgical  purposes, in modern days it is rarely performed in liturgy, but rather in concert form of around 85–90 minutes in length. Musicologist  David Rosen  calls it 'probably the most frequently performed ma