“ Diving in the Dark”: A Documentary Honoring a Great Brazilian Pianist: Joao Assis Brasil
Documentaries participating in the current international film festival display that Rio de Janeiro may not be Vienna— where such geniuses of so-called classical music as Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven thrived– but in its own way so-called Marvelous City has been and continues to be an international capital of music. The documentaries include this portrait […]
A Falecida (The Deceased), still a modern tragedy by Brazil´s Euripedes, Nelson Rodrigues at the Copacabana Palace Theater
Today with artificial intelligence taking over many aspects of life, this theatre-lover would like to suggest to the able producers and directors of an outstanding production of Nelson Rodrigues “The Deceased” that they find a means via headphones to translate simultaneously in various languages for tourists this “Carioca tragedy” by a Brazilian theatrical genius. For […]
“Witness for the Prosecution”: My nomination for a retroactive Oscar (or Harold?) award
As the 96th edition of the Academy Awards ceremony approaches this Sunday, 10 April 2024, I –always a perennial latecomer—saw a film at the only surviving cinema here in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro called Joia (Jewel), which I would award even today all the TOP Academy awards. How strange that although nominated for Oscars in […]
Maestro, a fitting cinematic tribute to Leonard Bernstein
It is three hours since I have returned from viewing a film which has deeply touched me: Bradley Cooper´s “Maestro” about the life of the Mozart of our time, American composer, pianist and Maestro Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990).I hesitate to predict that the film– produced by Stephen Spielberg and Martin Scorsese among others–will run away with […]