Cliffside Park High School Spring Concert; Hofstra University Graduation and Star Trek Into Darkness on Monday Morning Diary (May 20)

Cliffside Park High School symphonic band, including back row trumpet player Sammy Juliano at ‘Crescendo’ Spring Concert on Wednesday, May 15 (Sammy’s birthday!)

by Sam Juliano

With the end of the school year either completed in the institutions of higher learning or winding up in area grammar, middle and high schools, many have been attending year-end events in support of their children, relatives or friends.  This past week was memorable for two wonderful venues, attended by the entire family on Wednesday evening and Sunday afternoon.  The first, a mid-week spring concert titled “Crescendo” features the school’s symphonic band, advanced band, chorus and ensemble, under the guidance of director Derek Nelson for band and chorus and Leslie Auslin for ensemble.  My son Sammy played trumpet for the symphonic band, which negotiated Highlights from the Star Wars Saga, Selections from The Lord of the Rings-The Return of the King, Moussorgsky’s Great Gate of Kiev, a Beatles medley of “Yesterday,” “Michelle,” and “Eleanor Rigby” and John Philip Sousa’s El Capitan.  The Advanced band continued the program with highlights from West Side Story, an excerpt from Elmer Bernstein’s The Magnificent Seven, and selections from The Prince of Egypt.  After the chorus put their distinguished mark on the “Riversong,” “Beautiful Day,” “Turn Turn Turn,” “As Long As We Got Each other,” “I Won’t Give Up,” “Put A Little Love in Your Heart,” “Viva La Vida,” and “Go Ye Now in Peace” an impressive ensemble contingent gave rousing treatments to ‘Choral Highlights from Jersey Boys,’ and ten selections from Les Miserables including a solo from former Fairview Public School student Ernest Barzaga of “Stars” that sent the packed auditorium audience into frenzied applause.  Cliffside Park High School (my old alma mater, graduating class of 1972) should be proud of their musical chargers and the terrific work of their teachers.

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Washington D.C. school trip; The Great Gatsby; In the House; Kon-Tiki and Mother’s Day on Monday Morning Diary (May 13)

Danny Juliano with dad Sam at JFK’s gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C.

by Sam Juliano

To all those loving and resilient Moms and Mums out there, I hope you all had a beautiful Sunday in honor of your incomparable legacy.  I want to thank our very dear friend Dee Dee for remembering Mother’s Day on the sidebar, much as she acknowledges the year’s most celebrating moments on a regular basis.  She remains our own Rock of Gibraltar and loving friend.

Half of this past week was spent preparing for and attending an eighth-grade school trip to Washington D.C.  I served as one of the seven chaperons on the annual venture, which this year included the attendance of my son Danny, who graduates the eighth grade next month.  Although there was a period in my teaching career when I regularly made the trip, this is the first time I have done so in about 19 years.  Still overall I have participated about nine times, both as an educator and as a trustee on Fairview’s Board of Education (prior to my teaching career.)

I honestly can’t remember the last time I managed so much walking over a three-day period, and even now as I pen this report my legs, feet and hips are exceedingly sore.  The two buses left Fairview at around 6:30 A.M. on Wednesday morning, stopping first at Fort McHenry in Baltimore to tour the grounds and watch a video on Francis Scott Key and the advent of the “Star Spangled Banner.”  From there we arrived at Union Station in D.C., where the 66 kids and seven chaperons were given meal vouchers to negotiate at an over packed food court.  I sat at a table near an escalator and waited a while, only to find out later that the principal and a few other teachers were “looking” for me.  Getting lost on this trip on the very first day will be a humorous anecdote well into the future, as I have been reminded a few times already!  Ha!  In any case at this stage of the trip the kids were energetic, excited and having a great time.  Next up was an extended marathon visit to Arlington National Cemetery, which included a three mile walk to and from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and J.F.K’s eternal flame.  Although we absorbed a few rain showers during the three days, the time in Arlington was marked by gorgeous blue skies and sun.  The emotional Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier included the laying of the wreath by four Lincoln School soldiers, an act that was announced to the large gathering by one of the cadets.

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Mud, 42, What Maisie Knew, The Kid and Greatest Westerns Poll on Monday Morning Diary (May 6)

Coming-of-age adventure MUD, directed by Jeff Nichols is one of the best American films of the year.

by Sam Juliano

Wonders in the Dark will be hosting a Greatest Westerns of All-Time polling/blogothon tentatively slated for a Monday, September 2nd launching.  In an e-mail send out to about forty site writers, friends and affiliates over the weekend, the newest WitD project will focus on a genre that is too often ignored, even by those who enjoy categorizing films.  The western has long been seen as a unique American film genre, but the Europeans have also checked in with their own interpretations, most famously the sub-genre known as the spaghetti western.  In addition, there are  a number of Asian films that follow the formula as well, with the celebrated Kurosawa films Seven Samurai and Yojimbo as notable examples.  Voters will be asked to submit their own Top 60 in numerical order for tabulating purposes and longtime statistician extraordinaire Angelo A. D’Arminio Jr. will again navigate the numbers of the submitted ballots. (D’Arminio, a huge western aficionado, will himself be casting a ballot for this particular polling as well.)   Completed ballots are due in on an extended e-mail chain on August 1st and the results will be announced just days before my family embarks on a 12 day trip to the U.K. later in the month.  When the results are forwarded I will then invite the entire voting body (and even a few others who may prefer not to actually cast ballots) to claim the sixty writing assignments that coincide with the final numerical tabulation.  Like the last project that covered film comedies the day-by-day unfolding of the Top 60 in reverse order will be featured on Monday through Friday, with the weekends exempt.  Anyone interested in voting and/or writing is welcome to leave a comment on the thread with the request.  All are welcome and will be approved.  It is approximated that the western project will run until late November, when the No. 1 film will be unveiled to the blogging community.  I have already received e mails from Sachin Gandhi, Brandie Ashe, Maurizio Roca, Dennis Polifroni and Frank Gallo promising enthusiastic participation, and another from Pierre de Plume expressing delight with the new venture.  Tony d’Ambra sent on a fantastic sidebar banner to alert bloggers of the endeavor as well.  But I am sure there will be many more.

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Tribeca Film Festival Bonanza on Monday Morning Diary (April 29)

Saudi Arabian gem ‘Wadjda’ is a groundbreaker in more ways than one.

Documentary masterwork ‘Kiss the Water’ focuses on salmon fishing in Scotland. Eric Steel’s beautifully-crafted film is one of the best films at Tribeca.

 

by Sam Juliano

The Tribeca Film Festival concluded on Sunday night, and all told it was quite an event, and a real boost to the NYC cultural scene.  The festival jury handed on their awards on Thursday, naming the popular Australian film set in Laos, The Rocket, top narrative film, while documentary honors were bestowed upon The Kill Team.  Kim Mordaunt’s largely Lao-language The Rocket focuses on a 10-year-old tribal boy in Laos’ mountains who hopes both to build a rocket and find a new home for his family. It features a host of nonprofessional actors, including Sitthiphon Disamoe, who won the festival’s Best Actor prize.  I managed to see the film on Sunday afternoon and found it utterly charming, though it will probably finish a bit lower on my own Ten-Best list of the festival to be published in a few days.  The remarkable popularity of the film was confirmed on Saturday night when it also won first place in Heinecken’s audience award contest which means a $25,000 prize both to the top narrative film and documentary by exiting moviegoers who are asked to rip through the number of a 1 through 5 rating grid on the corresponding ballot given out by ushers at the film’s start.  Rarely does the same film win both the audience and jury prizes, but this feat bodes quite well for the Australian film’s chances for a distribution in the major cities at least for starters.

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Tribeca Film Festival Madness on Monday Morning Diary (April 22)

Norwegian gem ‘Before Snowfall’ competes in Best Narrative competition at Tribeca Film Festival

Screen cap from extraordinary Kazakh film ‘Harmony Lessons’

by Sam Juliano

The 12th Tribeca Film Festival launched on Thursday and for Lucille and I it was quite a hectic four day weekend mainly spent watching fifteen (15) feature films at the Claridge Chelsea Cinemas and the SVA on 23rd Street and at the AMV Village 7 on 11st Street and Third Avenue.  The annual event will continue through Sunday, guaranteeing in the neighborhood of 18 to 20 more films before all is said and done, if current projections pan out.  Seeing such a formidable number of films in a relatively limited time window requires a good deal of stamina and the ability to choose the films that in the end are the right ones.  There is some luck involved of course, but advance research and a familiarity with the kind of films that make Tribeca such a unique venue will increase the chances for a favorable outcome.

While I plan to post a comprehensive and film-specific round-up after the festival’s conclusion next week, I would still like to size up the first batch of movies seen over the event’s opening days.  As it is now two films from abroad, the Norwegian Before Snowfall and the Kazakh-German Harmony Lessons, both stark and harrowing films that are strangely beautiful and wrenching emotional works are the finest I have seen to this point.  The latter film, driven by a fascinating surreal context and ravishing visuals, is helmed by the young director Emir Raigazin, and came close to winning the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival last year, while.  Similarly the strong narrative underpinning of  the strangest of ‘road’ movies, Before Snowfall, garnered the oft-arresting film a major Scandinavian award for it’s Kazakh-Norwegian director Hisham Zaman, who followed up the Sunday afternoon screening with a most engaging Q & A at the CCC.

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To The Wonder, The Place Beyond the Pines, The Angels’ Share and James Cagney blogothon on Monday Morning Diary (April 15)

by Sam Juliano

With the spring break reaching it’s conclusion, those of us in the teaching fraternity will return to the stretch run – the fourth and final marking period.  Lucille will be staying back for a day or two more as a slight complication arose on Sunday when fluid built up in the area of the stitches, necessitating a brief return to the emergency room on Sunday, where another small incision allowed for a draining.  She’s now on antibiotics.  I want to thank all the friends and readers who in one way or another have extended kind words for her speedy recovery.

The tireless and gifted film critic Richard R.D. Finch has once again given the film community an unforgettable blogothon, with a wholly enthusiastic fraternity of writers covering the work of acting icon James Cagney all week long at their respective sites.  Hosting the venture from The Movie Projector, Finch wrote a stupendous piece on White Heat, a classic gangster film from the 50′s directed by Raoul Walsh that Finch later revealed was his favorite of all Cagney pictures.  Following up on the spectacularly-successful William Wyler project from last year -one that attracted letters from hugely appreciative members of the great director’s family -Finch covered the full gamut of Cagney’s craft from the most famous roles to those that have languished off the radar for years.  The net result is a reference archives that Cagney fans can refer back to well into the future.  Congratulations to R.D. Finch and to all those participating with reviews and/or comments.

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James Cagney blogathon: Max Reinhardt’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

Note: The following review of Max Reinhardt’s 1935 film version of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is part of The Movie Projector’s ‘James Cagney blogothon’ hosted by R.D. Finch.

by Sam Juliano

The advent of the shimmering 1935 Hollywood interpretation of Shakespeare’s ethereal A Midsummer Night’s Dream was appropriately enough the result of public adoration of the stage work that ultimately inspired it.  Back in the days of the pre-code cinema, theater director Max Reinhardt was known for his flamboyant and controversial stage incarnations of the Bard, and his production of Midsummer was a huge hit in Vienna.  Attending one of the stagings, coincidentally enough, was Warner Brothers film mogul Jack Warner, who was executive in charge of overseeing what films the studio would be producing.  While at the time crime dramas and backstage musicals were the rage, Warner wasn’t oblivious to the Oscar bait films that could bring added prestige, what with the slew of successful literary adaptations crafted at M-G-M.  Two such works in fact debuted in the same year as Midsummer, and both ere based on Dickens’ novels: A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield.  While Reinhardt had long scoffed at the possibilities of cinema approaching the “superior” form of live theater, he quickly reversed himself after Warner offered him a sweet deal and the complete access to the studio’s advanced technical capabilities; that for example would enable characters to dissolve into this air.  Sold into expanding the possibilities of the stage Reinhardt drastically reversed himself, stating with unbridled enthusiasm: “The motion picture is the most wonderful medium for the presentation of drama and spectacle the world has ever known.  The screen has leaped further ahead in the last few years than the stage has evolved in centuries.”

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11. Civilisation

 

by Allan Fish

the next in the series of small screen classics

(UK 1969 670m) DVD1/2

Man – the measure of all things

p  Michael Gill, Peter Montagnon  d  Michael Gill, Peter Montagnon, Ann Turner  w  Kenneth Clark

presented by  Kenneth Clark (with Ian Richardson, Patrick Stewart, Ronald Lacey, Eric Porter (voice))

There are so many reasons to venerate Kenneth Clark’s monumental – in every sense – small screen undertaking.  It was the first of the mammoth documentary series that came to redefine the BBC’s factual programming unit in the seventies.  It was the first major series undertaken in the colour age.  It was the start of a series of three such momentous works – Alistair Cooke’s America and Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man are the others – that still stand as magnificently as the rocks at Stonehenge in British – and thus world – television history.  It is on the foundations laid here, and on those laid by Cooke, Bronowski and later the natural history programmes of David Attenborough (who had a large part to play in persuading Kenneth Clark to do this epic series when a BBC2 administrator in the mid-late sixties) that all the wonders of the digital age documentaries from around the millennium, from The Blue Planet to Auschwitz to A History of Britain, stand fast.  It might be old school, but its targets, modus operandi and intentions are probably more relevant than ever.

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Renoir; Trance; The Evil Dead; Roger Ebert and James Cagney Blogothon on Monday Morning Diary (April 8)

Christa Theret as Andree Heuschling and Michel Bouquet as Pierre-Auguste Renoir in “Renoir.”

Vincent Rottiers as Jean Renoir and Theret in “Renoir”

by Sam Juliano

I would like to thank everyone who sent e mails and site notices expressing concern for Lucille’s gall bladder procedure conducted this past Thursday.  I drove Lucille home from Engelwood Hospital just hours after she moved into the recovery room, and she is already on her feet and about.  She also extends her appreciation to all who were thinking of her.

Richard R.D. Finch’s James Cagney blogothon will be launched today with the first entries appearing at the respective sites of the various contributors, and will continue through Friday the 12th.  The Wonders in the Dark contribution will be posted on Wednesday.  It will be a review on the 1935 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which I will working on today and tomorrow.  Judy Geater, John Greco, Jon Warner and Marilyn Ferdinand will also be posting reviews at their own sites during the week.

This past week’s passing of the beloved film critic Roger Ebert ignited a remarkable response from film goers worldwide, especially in Chicago, where citizens there were seemingly invested from a personal perspective.  Ebert’s impact on film and criticism will continue to make it’s mark well into the future, and his work will always be re-examined and held in the highest esteem.  His resilience during an eleven year battle with cancer is an inspiration to all.

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Roger Ebert: The Death of an Icon

National treasure Roger Ebert (1942-2013)

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