Old Czech Legends by Jiří Trnka

OLD CZECH LEGENDS / Staré povesti ceské

ANIMATION FILM

CZECHOSLOVAKIA | 91 MINUTES | 1953| Czech with English Subtitles 

The Czeck film Director Jiří Trnka is renown as the great master of puppet making and puppet animation. His contribution to that special art form is quite significant. Because of his influence in animation, he was called "the Walt Disney of Eastern Europe".

For his Old Czech Legends, Trnka chose six classic Czech folktales, more specifically, historical legends that were put into a literary form in 1984 by the writer Alois Jirásek in his book with the same Czech title as Trnka's film.

Trnka is careful to vary the tales' tone and tempo, transforming long forgoten heroes of national legends into living characters, incarnated by his very unique puppets he designed and made himself. Trnka’s work is equally impressive for his innovative editing, lighting, and sound. He was a winner of many international film award, raising the bar for the future puppet animators and influencing their work, even of the Quay Brothers. 

The film represent a unique opportunity to become acquainted with the work of a master puppeteer Jiří Trnka, and to get to experience his way of transmitting a narrative through his animated puppets.

The film was featured at the Montreal's FNC 2017 film festival (Festival du noveau cinéma) in LES INCORTOUNABLES (THE UNAVOIDABLE) category.     

FNC OFFICIAL SYNOPSES

"The lives of the earliest inhabitants of the historic land of Bohemia, recounted in a series of six stop-motion animation segments. Released in 1953, this film by the Czech director breathes humanity and empathy into the folk tales behind the heroes and legends of Czechoslovakia. Inspired by the book Ancient Bohemian Legends by Alois Jirásek, Old Czech Legends is proof not just of Trnka’s outstanding artistry and puppeteering talent, but also his amazingly inventive use of cinematic language."

MMFA 2017: The Western

ONCE UPON A TIME… THE WESTERN
A New Frontier in Art and Film
October 14, 2017 - February 4, 2018

The Western is first major multidisciplinary exhibition on the myths and stereotypes associated with the genre of the Western film from the 19th century to today. It examines the creation, transmission and transformation of the Western myth in North America in both the United States and Canada. Over 400 paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, artefacts, film stills and excerpts show how the genre has evolved through ongoing dialogue between the fine arts and cinema. This multidisciplinary exhibition offers a new interpretation of the Western film genre by examining its links to visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography) from the mid-nineteenth century to today.

Initiated by the MMFA, the exhibition is co-produced with the Denver Art Museum (DAM). It is part of the official programming of Montreal’s 375th anniversary.

Similarly to movie making, THE WESTERN also comprises three elements: the set, the cast and the action.

• There are great paintings of Western landscapes, popular novels and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, all of which helped drive American Western mythology setting.
• The types of figures that presided over the creation of the Western, including the cowboy, the “Indian,” the trapper, the scout and the pioneer, have much to tell us about the prevailing stereotypes, conveyed by artist-illustrators such as Frederic Remington, harles Schreyvogel and Charles Marion Russell.
• The typologies for action are alsonestablished: attacks on a stagecoach or train, duels, saloon brawls, and cavalry charges.

The exhibition also traces the evolution of the Western, first through photography and then with excerpts from numerous films: from silent shorts (The Great Train Robbery) to the big screen with Raoul Walsh, Howard Hawks, Fred Zinnemann, Robert Aldrich, John Huston, Sam Peckinpah, John Schlesinger and Henry Hathaway, among others. John Ford embodies the culmination of the classic Western, while Sergio Leone, with his iconoclastic detachment, reframes the genre. The overview concludes with the Western revisited, with films by Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee, Joel and Ethan Coen, Tommy Lee Jones and Paul Thomas Anderson.

The exhibition also shows how the genre served as a means of expression for the counter-culture movement during the Vietnam War, with films that reflected the growing concern for safeguarding personal freedom. Visitors will see the original Harley Davidson from the film Easy Rider and major paintings by Andy Warhol and Fritz Scholder that speak to the emergence of the American Indian Movement.

The final part of the exhibition concentrates on a reinterpretation of the Western genre by contemporary artists from the 1980s till today. These works also cover the themes of race, sexuality and gender. Indigenous artists also participate with their own take on the Western.

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Hover you mouse over images for description  and credits.



For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.

Playing with Fire

Centaur Theatre /49th Season

PLAYING WITH FIRE: THE THEO FLEURY STORY

Persephone Theatre Production

Quebec Premiere

Directed by RON JENKINS

Performed by SHAUN SMYTH

October 3 - 29, 2017

The play is based on the book Playing With Fire by THEO FLEURY & KIRSTIE MCLELLAN DAY.

The play is a remarkable solo, two-hour-long performance by Shaun Smyth who impersonates Theo (Theoren) Freury in his autobiographical onstage narrative. Those who might be seated in the first rows will be especially impressed with the tremendous physical stamina required to play this role. The actor's sweat is as real as his skating skills, and the force he puts into his enactment of Fleury's life is remarkable. You don't have to be a hockey fun or expert to appreciate this play. It speaks directly to the audience, portraying Theo's hockey star career and life turbulences that he so remarkably succeeded to overcome.

Extremely successful on ice, Fleury went through tough knocks in his life: uncaring parents, despicable sexual abuse from the person of trust who was building his future hockey carrier, his later alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling and womanizing. Through all that, playing hockey was central in his life, the anchoring stone of sorts, that brought him through various life perils. He was undeniably a great success on ice, but not in his private life. Nevertheless, he managed to navigated through tough knocks, and later to take them with a grain of salt and even irony as revealed in the play based on his co-authored book.  

Fleury  was one of the smallest professional ice hockey players at his times, only 5' 3" (168 cm) tall, yet he was known for his physical style that often led to altercations. He played for Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers, and Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey league (NHL), Tappara of Finland's SM-liiga, and the Belfast Giants of the UK's Elite Ice Hockey League. He was drafted by the Flames at the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, and played over 1,000 games in the NHL between 1989 and 2003.

The play's set is quite unique - a hockey ring where the actor actually skates. What looks like ice is made of plastic that is refereed to as 'plastic ice'. The skates do not glide as easily on it as on real ice, forcing the actor, Shaun Smyth, to exert an extra effort to make his skating seem effortless. Smyth was not a hockey player and in fact not even an avid scater. All the skating skills and passes one sees on the stage are the result of Theo Fleary's personal coaching. Many gestures and moves are exact copies of Fleury's style.

Although the Persephone Theatre Production had received a number of request to permit other theatre institutions to stage this play, all were refused because it was feared they will not be able to capture the real spirit of the play and portray Theo Fleary and his journey with enough authenticity and or even fineness. 'Finness' might appear as a wrong word since a good number of profanities are used in the play, mirroring the exact manner of Theo's speech, yet the play handles quite delicately the narrative of the sexual abuse that justifies this term.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Set and Lighting Designer - David Fraser

Lighting Director - Dean Cowieson

Projection Video Design - Corwin Ferguson

Sound Designer and Composer - Matthew Skopyk

Costume Designer - Juli Elkiw

Stage Manager - Melanie Rogowski

Assistant Stage Manager - Elyse Quesnel

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Hover your mouse over images for description and credits.

For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

Sunday Chat-ups

Sunday Oct. 8 @ 12:30pm

FREE

Join Editor in Chief, Lucinda Chodan, in conversation with Playing With Fire playwright, Kirstie McLellan Day.

Saturday Salons

Saturday Oct. 7 & 14

Following the matinee performance.

FREE

Get to know Centaur’s new Artistic and Executive Director, Eda Holmes, in casual conversation about this production and all things Centaur.

Both Chat-up and Salons are being held in the Ted T. Katz Family Trust Gallery and are open to public. Complimentary refreshments are offered courtesy of Bonaparte Restaurant.

Talk-Backs

Oct. 12 (Eve) & Oct. 15 (Matinée)

Following the performance.

FREE

 Audiences are invited to stay 

after the show for a lively 

Q&A with actor, Shaun Smyth.

MMFA 2017: Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Three Piece Reclining Figure No 1

THE MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

ADDS A BRONZE MASTERPIECE BY HENRY MOORE

GIFTED BY CIBC TO THE MUSEUM FOR ITS COLLECTION

September 27, 2017

Henry Moore’s Three Piece Reclining Figure No 1 (1961-1962), the artist's key work, has a new home in the MMFA’s Sculpture Garden. The CIBC gift-donation highlights both institutions’ commitment to preserving Montreal’s public art.

Purchased from the artist by CIBC in 1962, Three Piece Reclining Figure N^o 1 was the first large-scale outdoor sculpture by Henry Moore to be installed anywhere in Canada. It exemplifies the British artist’s well-known talent for blending human and natural forms. 

Originally installed near Dominion Square in the forecourt of the Montreal CIBC Tower, the artwork is now on permanent display in the Museum’s newly expanded Sculpture Garden. Presently it is located in front of the Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion, by the entrance door at 3410 Du Musée Avenue. But it considered it might get relocated in the future to a different location, even possibly to be displayed on Sherbrooke Street.

This large-scale bronze sculpture is a major contribution to the MMFA’s holding of the artist’s works. It is a welcomed addition to the major collection of 40 works by Moore held by the Museum, including six smaller bronze sculptures of reclining figures

The CIBC donated this sculpture to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in recognition of the CIBC’s 150th birthday and the Montreal’s 375th birthday, to be enjoyed by everybody.

Henry Moore’s Semi-abstract Art
Figures and landscapes animate Three Piece Reclining Figure N^o 1 (1961-1962). The human form is divided into three. The leftmost piece rises vertically to a wedge shape that looks like a head. Two large concave depressions on either side of the “spine,” boulder-like forms in the middle section, call to mind the lower torso and hips. The sculpture’s smallest piece is composed of two parallel rounded shapes that may be interpreted alternately as the peaks of rolling hills or bent kneecaps.

This acquisition is one of only two three-piece-reclining-figure sculptures Moore created between 1961 and 1963. From an edition of seven, with casts in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Tate Gallery, London, this bronze sculpture stands out as a particularly compelling example of Moore’s self-professed obsession with semi-abstract reclining figures, the subject to which he would most consistently return throughout his career.

Timeline of the Sculpture’s History

1961-62: Henry Moore’s Three Piece Reclining Figure N^o 1 was created at the request of CIBC. The financial institution sought the advice of Canadian artist and art consultant Cleeve Horne on the purchase of a sculptural piece to put in the outdoor plaza in front of the new office tower at 1155 Dorchester Blvd (now René-Lévesque Blvd West).

October 30, 1962: It was unveiled by Mayor Jean Drapeau. Unfortunately, during the official unveiling ceremony, it snowed so much that photographers could not get any good pictures before the piece became covered in snow.

Moore’s work was hailed as a masterpiece. Dr. Evan Turner, then the Director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts said, “Not in one hundred years has Montreal seen such a distinguished new work of public sculpture. [CIBC’s] new Moore is, easily, the most important single work of contemporary public sculpture on exhibit anywhere in Canada.”

January 19, 1963: Dorothy Pfeiffer of The Gazette stated, “I consider the sculpture a marvel of invention, dignity and artistic integrity. I think of it as a contemporary masterpiece… I believe it to be a magnificent art asset not only to the Province of Quebec, but to the whole of Canada.”

Early 1990s: Following renovations to the building, the sculpture was moved indoors, to the building’s atrium.

2017: CIBC celebrates its 150^th birthday and Montreal its 375^th – thus providing an ideal opportunity to offer the work a new home at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Photo above:

Natalie Bondil (right), Director General and Chief Curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Curator of International Modern Art, MMFA
Sylvain Vinet, Senior Vice President and Region Head for Eastern Canada, CIBC

Click on images to enlarge them

For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.


All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

MMFA 2017: Claude Cormier TOM IV

CLAUDE CORMIER

Flower Power - TOM IV

Summer-Fall 2017

This installation was designed at the request of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and realized with the support of the Ville de Montréal - City of Montreal. It celebrates the city’s 375th birthday, as well as the 50th anniversary of EXPO 67.

On Montreal's Du Musée Avenue, the TOMs in their 10 different colours radiate like a shower of sparks in a night's fireworks display, and the tangle of circular motives with their separate hues blending into each other reflect the psychedelic spirit of the 1960s.

This work consists of 15,000 temporary overlay markers (TOM) that are regularly used in road-pavement work zones.

This is the 4th work by Claude Cormier exhibited in the Montreal Museum of Fine Art's Sculpture Garden. Read about his previous MMFA installations:

• MMFA 2012-2013: Carpet of Daisies - TOM I & Field of Poppies -TOM II here.
• MMFA 2014: Mirage - TOM III here.

Click on images to enlarge them.

For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

Renzo Carbonera: Stop and Listen

Stop and Listen
Documentary film by Renzo Carbonera 

Italy / 54 min. / 2010 / English subtitles

Polyphonic Choir of Ruda is one of hundreds of all-male choirs in Italy. Regardless of the fierce competition, it gained musical international hights of recognition and appreciation.

Polyphonic (polyphony) in vocal musical tradition implies singing simultaneously more than two parts, each with a melody of it's own. Choral tradition has deep roots especially in Northern Italy where local choirs are a pride of their communities. A small town of Ruda, with a population of less than 3,000 people, is located in Italy's north-est corner, about 10 km from the border with Slovenia. Their choir underwent a major decline at the turn of the millennia and a solution was sought in finding a new choir director. Unusual and maybe even controversial, the choice fell on Fabiana Nato, a female, who became the choir's director in 2004. This broke with the well established tradition of all-male-choirs being directed by a man.

The film little by little introduces a spectator to the Italian tradition of vocal choir music and to the history of Ruda's choir. It shows the type of men who let their lives to be intertwined with the life of the choir, and their reasons why they join on a purely voluntary bases without any pay. It reveals their true passion for the music they sing, their deep need to express their worldly existence through this artistic activity, and their respect and appreciation for their choir director.

The true focus of the film is Fabiana Noro, the lovely and enigmatic choir's director, the only salaried person, who resurrected the choir from their slumps and brought them to the world's recognition. This slim and elegant lady, who at first appears to be too fragile to manage a 40 men choir, became a driving force in their lives, with her iron will reinforcing their motivation and commitment to achieve perfection. Amazingly, none of the singers can even read a musical score. Their mastery is all based only on their auditory and vocal skills that they continuously train and perfect.

The film shows the problems with finding funds and the appropriate repertoire that would attract audiences. Fabiana is searching for new songs for their program, new musical challenges. Not all her venues are fruitful. Luckily, she avoids disasters that brake many creators when they try to catch the "in" styles and forms, or try to appear advanced and innovative, which could lead to their art becoming quite banal, regardless of the public's initial interest.

It is only after a conversion with a choir member that Fabiana realizes what her choir is all about, how it has to be based on what comes deep from the choir members themselves, from inside their beings, what resonates with their hearts and souls, since they are the ones who are the true instruments of their art. With that insight, Fabiana is finally able to navigate her choir to their highest successes and achievements.  

This is an inspiring film to see. It raises questions of what is true artistic authenticity, what makes true art, how to gain audiences' attention and appreciation by simply honouring and being your true self.

This documentary served as an inspiration for Renzo Carbonera to create his first full length feature film RESINA (2017), which was shown at the Montreal World Film Festival 2017 in the category FIRST FEATURE FILM. You can read more about it here.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Renzo Carbonera

Story Line: Gino Pennacchi, Dino Gentili, Renzo Carbonera

Participants: Fabiana Noro, Adriano Bon, Pierpaolo Gratton, Anedi Sdrigotti, Gianni Casatto

Photography: Luca Coassin

Editing: Alessandro Sabbioni ed Ennio Guerrat

Sound: Francesco Morosini

Music: Coro Polifonico di Ruda

Production: Tico Film (Sarah Pennacchi, Gino Pennacchi)

International sales: Poorhouse International ltd (Dr Moritz Reiner)

Stop and Listen FILM TRAILER