Passage des arts
Valérie Amarou
Jean-Pierre Devillers
Olivier Lamour
Olivier Lemaire
Andy Sommer
Michel Quinejure
Richard Melloul
Nicolas Lévy-Beff
Nathalie Plicot
Catherine Aventurier
Laurence Thiriat
Also Directed by Valérie Amarou
Also Directed by Jean-Pierre Devillers
Stefan Zweig was the most read author of the German language in the 1930s. He believed in a united, peaceful Europe and travelled most parts of the world. He was a pacifist and was torn apart by to the cruelties and horrors of the second World War. He committed suicide in Brasil. This documentary tells the story of his life.
A documentary about the life and career of Maurice Pialat produced by his widow, the accomplished film producer Sylvie Pialat. The film interweaves clips from his films with interview footage of Pialat, who speaks of growing up as an only child, his interest in painting, his early influences in cinema from Yasujiro Ozu to John Ford, his disaffection with the French New Wave, and the theme of abandonment in his films. Pialat’s remarks offer insights into his aesthetic strategies and hint at his reputation as a challenging, irascible director, known for having pushed his actors to deliver raw and powerful performances.
At the dawn of World War II, the French resistance organized an incredible exfiltration of masterpieces from the Louvre Museum to save them from the hands of the Nazis. Operation Jacques Jaujard, the museum's director, who had previously participated in the evacuation of the Prado Museum during the Civil War, directs the operation. Jaujard had an extraordinary personality and was madly in love with art. Although he was a faithful servant of the State, he used his knowledge of the system and his audacity to serve a noble cause: to save the artistic heritage of Humanity.
The many references in contemporary film to Edward Hopper's works, as well as the widespread reproduction of some of his paintings have made his universe familiar to many. His unclassifiable figurations weave a dialogue between appearances and light, between the unmistakeable and enigma. Focusing on the artist's personal life in the context of 20th century America, "Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas" bears witness to a fiercely independent painter, who was aware of the issues of his era, and who was hostile to the imprisonment that a modern American art opposing realism and abstraction could lead him to. This film brings the artist to life, transposing his realist and metaphysical poetry. It is a subtile and passionate work, which at last unveils one of the most important painters of American modernity.
French soccer fans, celebrities and athletes retrace the exhilarating events of July 12, 1998, as France earned a historic win in the World Cup final.
Also Directed by Olivier Lamour
Also Directed by Olivier Lemaire
This film examines the mechanisms of Nazi extortion during World War II, and is interspersed with current issues surrounding restitutions. It retraces the incredible stories of 3 major works having belonged to Jewish collectors. From their plundering by the Nazis to their final restitution: Man with a Guitar by Georges Braque, Herbstsonne by Egon Schiele and Sitting Woman by Henri Matisse.
Food waste pervades modern society in countries around the globe. This documentary visits key locales to show the problem and a few solutions.
Silicon Valley, California, USA, 2010. Instagram was born with the purpose of offering its users a simple way to enrich the visual quality of their photographs; but it soon became a powerful tool aimed at people who, in order to feel good about themselves, and regardless of their personal circumstances, worship appearance, fame and luxury.
Also Directed by Andy Sommer
JK's is definitely in love with Italy; not only is he fluent in Italian but he sings here traditional songs some of which are in the Napolitanean dialect and he is good at it. There are wonderful views of the Italian coastline with Jonas driving an iconic Alfa. There are bits of black and white film from his childhood spending holidays in Italyas a boy. The audience adores him and his voice soars easily as such songs are easy on someone used to much heavier Verdi or Wagner roles. A delight to the ear.
The first ever performances in Munich, this production was entrusted to Dmitri Tcherniakov, whose worldwide reputation is underpinned by productions like Eugene Onegin and Macbeth at the Paris Opera and Don Giovanni at Aix-en- Provence. The superb international cast includes a fine Blanche de la Force in Susan Gritton and an excellent Madame de Croissy by Sylvie Brunet, who was favourably compared to Rita Gorr in the press.
In 2005, legendary pianist Daniel Barenboim performed the complete Beethoven piano sonatas over 8 concerts in 2 weeks at the Staatsoper in Berlin. These definitive performances were lavishly filmed and beautifully produced, and are now presented here in a.32 sonatas recorded during a series of eight concerts which took place in the summer of 2005 at the Berlin State Opera House. Included is a comprehensive booklet with notes on all 32 sonatas and interactive Beethoven and piano timelines
Leading Chopin interpreter Nelson Freire is the soloist in Chopin’s lyrical and brilliant Second Piano Concerto. On the podium the French conductor Lionel Bringuier makes his Proms debut conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and gives a sizzling performance of Roussel’s Symphony No.3 and of Ravel‘s score for the ballet Daphnis et Chloé – Suite No 2. ‘’The programme, otherwise entirely French, highlights everywhere this purity of style and gesture (which would give him more in common with Pierre Monteux than Charles Munch), which charms all who see and hear the young conductor: a clear and understandable beat, subtle control of balance and level, natural rhythm and pulse, and expression without embellishment.’’
This is an exhilarating experience both visually and aurally. How wonderful that Barenboim is havng such success with Verdi this late in his career.The excitement and power is there in all the big movements and the tempi shouldn't upset anyone. There is clarity and drive in all the big choral fugues and the climaxes will knock your socks off. But it was the quiet moments I found most moving. The incredibly detalied camera work increases this sense of intimacy and the video quality is excellent. Really.
Wagner’s mystic masterpiece Parsifal at the Staatsoper Berlin, staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal is a medieval epic story marked by Christian, Buddhist and esoteric references. It is about redemption and renewal, but this new production by Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov adds a jarring note : revenge. This “Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage” is similar to a Medieval epic, a blend of metaphysical dreams and esoteric battles with constant spiritual references. This new production is directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, conducted by Daniel Barenboim and sung by an international cast of excellent singers: Andreas Schager, Anja Kampe, Wolfgang Koch, René Pape, Tomas Tómasson and Matthias Hölle.
Andy Sommer's documentary tells the story of Austrian conductor and composer Gustav Mahler and tries to realistically recreate his life during the period when he commanded the Vienna Opera.
A hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus at the Teatro Real de Madrid. Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialisation of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In twenty scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.
In 2010, for the first time in its history, the Bolshoi Opera presented Alban Berg’s masterpiece Wozzeck conducted by Teodor Currentzis. Dmitri Cherniakov’s aim with this bold, sensitive transposition was “to highlight the hidden sorrows of a late twentieth-century man dwelling in a megalopolis.”
Also Directed by Michel Quinejure
"SHIGERU BAN features extensive interviews with this innovative young architect (b. 1957), who explains the practical, philosophical and esthetic aspects of his work. In addition to his conservationist interest in using recycled materials, Ban discusses his influences, his concerns with the bidimensional and tridimensional nature of his buildings, his aim to incorporate structural elements into the overall designs, as well as their sensitivity to light and shade, which lends unusual vitality to his buildings."
Also Directed by Richard Melloul
Also Directed by Nicolas Lévy-Beff
Also Directed by Nathalie Plicot
An artist with an exuberant imagination, a painter of the most extraordinay gardens and terrifying hells, a respected public figure of Hertogenbosch, and a man of faith – Hieronymus Bosch is certainly the most fascinating and mysterious artist of the Renaissance.
Also Directed by Catherine Aventurier
Also Directed by Laurence Thiriat
No city in the world has sparked as many desires and fantasies as Venice. In the 18th century, its heady atmosphere of freedom produced an extraordinary cultural flowering. Famous artists like Vivaldi, Tiepolo father and son, Canaletto, Longhi, Guardi, Goldoni and Casanova hurled themselves into a giddy whirl of libertinage while leaving their stamp on the unique city. Then, in 1797, Venice surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte. Carnival was over, and the masks came off. Venice: Flamboyant to the End transports us from canal to canal, palazzo to palazzo, bathing us in the magical atmosphere of this maze of a city and conjuring up the uniquely flamboyant Venice of the 18th century.
For more than a decade, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler's right-hand man during the infamous Third Reich, assembled a collection of thousands of works of art that were meticulously catalogued. Why did he steal entire collections, mainly those belonging to Jewish families, ultimately victims of the Shoah? Was it to satisfy his aesthetic ambitions and his insatiable personal greed or was he acting in the common interest of the Nazi rulers?