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It’s not “nostalgia” for a cinema of the past that haunts “The Deep Blue Sea,” director Terence Davies explained, but a “yearning.” That purely cinematic ache pulsing through the British auteur’s latest film, a hushed, melancholy exploration of love through the eyes of the impossibly romantic Hester (Rachel Weisz), is
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Film Peter Greenaway’s “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover” (1989) is not a movie that calls for popcorn, not only because of its twisted antics — running the gamut of blood, shit and piss — but because it is a bold, serious film. Michael Gambon plays Albert
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When Edouard Manet unleashed his “Olympia” upon the world in 1863, the aesthetic conventions that had previously held art together were suddenly, violently flouted. A turning point for Impressionism, this oil-painted portrait depicts a fully nude, voluptuous courtesan supine on a bed. Previous paradigms of female beauty were jettisoned in
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Keith Brown’s favorite novel is Greil Marcus’ “Lipstick Traces.” In the subdued, understated manner that is his hallmark, he claimed that it taught him to reject everything he had ever known and embrace the philosophy of punk rock at the age of 17. A rather odd statement, coming from a
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“What do you see?,” grunted an artist in paint-splattered clothing. The question, repeated several times in the first moments of Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s “Red,” was directed to his young assistant. There’s clearly an imbalance in the dynamic. The older man’s severe glasses channeled the sheer force of his personality, whereas
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The fat underneath their chins sways, their heads wobble and bobble, their hands flit faster than hummingbird wings — these are men in a trance. They speak to each other without opening their mouths, but with looks and nods, with the subtle variations of the tones of their instruments. They
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Intricately woven, The Shins’ new release, Port Of Morrow, is like the canvas of a cathartic dream. Lucid, colorful and delicate, it strips down inhibitions and holds the listener through a spine-tingling sequence of emotions. Displaying unparalleled songwriting and refined musicianship, this album is the band’s most enticing and poignant
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There is bliss in this mess / There is madness all around,” Daniel Rossen utters in “Golden Mile,” off his first solo EP Silent Hour/Golden Mile. There is bliss with twangy acoustic guitar plucks that brighten the slow-treading melancholic piano riffs, while the tiers of symphonic instruments create an intricate
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We are much unlike the ballet as far as performances go,” forewarned a company musician in his introduction to last Saturday night’s performance by Carolina Lugo’s & Carole Acuna’s Ballet Flamenco at the Brava Theater in San Francisco. He requested that the crowd assume an active role in the performance
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Have you been listening to chamber hip-hop operas recently? As of yet, your iPod doesn’t alphabetically list this between blues and classical. Nor does Spotify, Grooveshark or iTunes offer you this section to listen to your favorite rap-cantatas. This is because, as JooWan Kim, co-founder of Ensemble Mik Nawooj, revealed,
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