Movies

The obvious comparison is to Moonlight, and many of the same elements were there. Moody atmospheric music, slow camera pans, beautiful photography, credible and moving acting. Also, slow and plotless – but that is just fine for me.

This was a deceptively simple love story, going back in forth over time, but always understandable.

Some of the scenes were simple, but really amazing: her standing in the street as banners flap overhead, he puzzling over an unfinished block of wood sculpture as smoke swirls around his head.

I’m not sure it was necessary to have the several slide show sections with black and white photos of racial oppression – it wasn’t really needed, and seemed to break the mood. Every thing about racism was summed up in the staring contest between Fonny and the cop outside the small grocery store.

This was the “sing along” version of Bohemian Rhapsody. It was an interesting movie because I didn’t really know that much about the band, apart from a few of their iconic songs. For quite a few of the sing-along portions, I wasn’t able to because I just didn’t know the song. However, there were some famous one: We Will Rock You, Bohemian Rhapsody, We are the Champions, Another One Bites the Dust.

Rami Malek played Freddy Mercury, the mercurial lead singer. I recognized him, but couldn’t place him until I found in Wikipedia that he had been in I Robot of course. I should have remembered those big eyes! Other Wikipedia stuff highlighted some of the inaccuracies, the main one being that the band never actually broke up, although that was a big plot point in the movie. I guess it was necessary to bring some drama, the prodigal son returning to his family, the band.

Altogether, an enjoyable movie.

I expected more of an architectural documentary, but this was really more about opera.  The best parts were the comments by Leontyne Price, who sang at the opening of the new Met Opera at Lincoln Center.

The movie started with the old opera house, classic red and gold, but cramped, and technically flawed.  It was interesting to see how in those days (the 50’s, not so long ago), opera was an event, and popular across class lines. An interesting and key character in the story was Rudolf Bing, general manager of the opera from 1950-72. He was originally from Vienna, and retained the accent, but seemed to be an impeccable and knowledgeable director.

The new Lincoln Center took up 3 full city blocks.  The old tenement neighborhoods were torn down in the late 50’s under the leadership of Robert Moses, New York’s Baron Haussman.  There were some interviews with people who had grown up in the neighborhood, but they didn’t seem too bitter.  It was interesting to see how the final design of the Met Opera was considerably scaled back from the original architectural designs, due of course to cost.

The local interest is that the Hopkins Center was designed by the same architect: Wallace Harrison.  It is easy to see how its modern design with 5 tall arches is echoed in the Met Opera that came shortly after.

Film site

I am a big fan of the original Blade Runner, as well as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, so of course I had to go see this movie.

I liked the rain and snow, and gloom, reminiscent of the earlier one.  The initial scene, with the desolate dead tree, set the dystopian tone. It was certainly appropriate to have the wooden Ryan Gosling play a replicant.  The plot was a bit confusing, but the details fit into place eventually.  The birth storyline seemed a bit thin, and it lacked the punch of the first one, the “what is human” angle. .