Year: 2013
Great Expectations & Performance
Saturday, March 16th, 2013 Film Reviews,In making the umpteenth version of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, British director, Mike Newell, resisted doing something ‘bold and audacious’ just for the novelty value. So far, so good, because the greatest crimes against the classics are committed when directors allow the preoccupations of our own age to disfigure those stories that have become part […]
Roy Jackson, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Kirsteen Pieterse, Vika Begalska
Saturday, March 16th, 2013 Art Column,Last week I was reminded of the gulf that exists between the art world and the rest of the world, when ABC radio asked me to comment on the Mayor of Newcastle’s view that funding for a new regional gallery should come from selling works in the collection. His logic was: the holdings of the […]
Archibald Prize 2013: A Preview
Friday, March 15th, 2013 Art Column,In the past it has been relatively easy to pick the painting that should win the Archibald Prize, and then to pick the one that will win it. This time around, I confess I’m all at sea. There is a general feeling among the Art Gallery of NSW staff that this year’s finalists are better […]
Alliance Francaise French Film Festival 2013
Saturday, March 9th, 2013 Film Reviews,“Gwynplaine we are made for each other. The monster you are outside, I am inside.” Where do you get to hear – or at least read – lines like that? Only at the 24th Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, or until a featured item gets an Australian release. From an exceptionally strong program last year […]
Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan
Saturday, March 9th, 2013 Art Column,As Art Month begins, there’s no doubt the most talked-about show in town is Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan, at the National Art School Gallery. If last Saturday’s attendances at this exhibition were of any significance, one might imagine Sydney was infected by a passion for art. Despite the rainy weather a surprising number of people […]
The Art Gallery of NSW: The Master Plan Revealed
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 Blog,Mention a “Master Plan” and people start thinking about Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies. Yesterday that role was shared between Steven Lowy, President of Trustees, and Director, Michael Brand, as they unveiled their wicked new vision for the Art Gallery of NSW. Lowy gave us the bad news about the existing gallery – […]
Cloud Atlas & The Paperboy
Saturday, March 2nd, 2013 Film Reviews,Watching a movie can occasionally inspire us to adopt that quaint old-fashioned pasttime of reading a book. The new adaptation of Anna Karenina sent me back to Tolstoy, if only to confirm that a terrible film may be made from a great novel. Over the past year I’ve found myself re-reading Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, […]
Perth Festival
Saturday, March 2nd, 2013 Art Column,With the mercury touching 40 degrees for days on end, a major attraction of the art component this year’s Perth Festival was its display in air-conditioned rooms. ‘Light’ was the overarching theme of the festival shows, although it was a relief to get out of the glare of the sun into an environment where illumination […]
Amour & Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir
Saturday, February 23rd, 2013 Film Reviews, Uncategorized,As a Valentine’s Day promotion this year, Madman Entertainment put together a package of eight DVD releases intended to take the “guesswork” out of finding a gift for one’s nearest and dearest. The selection was decidedly off-beat, including A Declaration of War, about a couple whose child has cancer; A Royal Affair – an historical […]
Turner From the Tate
Saturday, February 23rd, 2013 Art Column,According to J.M.W. Turner, the secret of being a great artist was “damn’d hard work.” This is difficult to argue against, especially when said by a painter whose pictures came to define the Romantic era – that time when artists stopped being seen as tradesmen and aspired to the role of individual genius. Yet Turner […]