Category Archives: Movies
Mank – Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th December 2020Mank is a film is a film about the writer Herman Mankiewicz, specifically during the time (1940) he spent writing the script for Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, though there are flashbacks to 1930 and other years in the 30s. David Fincher directed Gary Oldman in the title role. Mankiewicz (called Mank by everyone in the…
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Hamilton in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th July 2020Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical based on Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton is the most successful stage musical of the current century. Three performances of the show were recorded in 2016. They were melded into a single version which was intended for to be shown in movie theaters. Miranda sold the distribution rights to Disney for…
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Carlos Gardel
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st January 2020Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), though not well known in the US, is still a major cultural presence in Latin America. Born out of wedlock in Toulouse France he was named Charles Romuald Gardès. When he was two he and his mother moved to Buenos Aires where he became Carlos Gardel. His good looks and expressive baritone…
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Norma – Animal Version
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th November 2019The short video below depicts a snippet of the Guerra Chorus from Bellini’s Norma. For more details about the piece read the entry in the Vimeo Blog. The video was produced by Bloom Pictures.
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Shostakovich’s First Film Score
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th September 2019Dmitri Shostakovich wrote 29 film scores. The first of these was composed when he was 23 years old. The New Babylon is an expressionistic depiction of the Paris Commune of 1871. It was released in 1929 and was a failure. It’s plot is summarized here. The music is brilliant and presages virtually everything Shostakovich was…
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Ella Brennan – Commanding the Table
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th April 2018This is not a film review, rather it’s a recommendation that you see the movie the title of which is above. Netflix has it. The movie tells the story of Ella Brennan who has been the Doyenne of New Orleans restaurateurs for more than 60 years. She first made Brennan’s into a eating powerhouse. She…
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Shostakovich – The Gadfly
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th January 2018Dmitri Shostakovich’s music seems to be in the process of eclipsing that of all other 20th century composers, again proving Verdi’s dictum that the only critic that counted, in the long run, was the audience. The Russian composer was a prolific composer of film music. His most famous piece from that ouvre is the Romance…
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Ich Ging zu Ihm – Korngold Das Wunder Der Heliane
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th November 2017The title of this piece is the 2nd act aria from Das Wunder Der Heliane by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957). The opera was completed before the composer reached his 30th birthday. His most popular opera, Die Tote Stadt, was written when he was only 23. Born in Moravia, but raised in Vienna, Krongold was the…
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John Wayne – A Biography
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th June 2014John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman 672 pages Simon & Schuster – 2014 Why a new 574 page biography (this total does not include the notes and index) on a movie star who died in 1979 and who likely made more bad films than any other actor in the history of the business? Because…
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Metropolis Elektro at the LHUCA
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th March 2013Fritz Lang’s silent movie epic with an original soundtrack was performed live to two sold out audiences on March 22 and 23 at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts. The music was written by Scott & Amy Faris. The film was the opening work of the 2013 Flatland Film Festival. Metropolis is a landmark in the history…
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