Documentaries on Art – 4 : REMBRANDT

Documentaries on Art – 4


REMBRANDT

24th May 2009; 5.45 pm
Ashwin Hospital Auditorium
Call : 97904 57568
http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.com/

Agatha Bas

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, known commonly as Rembrandt, is considered a master of Western Art. With more than 600 paintings and about 2,000 drawings and etchings, (and even more that have been lost as time passed) he is one of the most prolific artists of all time. The variety of the subjects used in his work is amazing when compared to others who specialized in only certain types of painting. Nudes, landscapes, portraits, everyday scenes, birds and animals, historical and mythological figures, biblical subjects, and self-portraits are all to be found in his creations.

Portrait of Nicolaes Ruts

Rembrandt was born in Leiden, The Netherlands on July 15, 1606, the son of a miller of modest means. His education was not neglected, but the university bored him and he later dropped out to study art. He began with a local teacher and then left to study in Amsterdam where he mastered his lessons in six months. He returned to Leiden and at only 22 was already taking on students.

The Nightwatch

He moved back to Amsterdam in 1631 and later married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the cousin of a successful art dealer who would enhance his career, introducing him to wealthy patrons who commissioned portraits from him. His other paintings were greatly sought after and he was making enough money to afford a huge house filled with many famous works of art.

Man in a Golden Helmet

Unfortunately, however, his private life was not so successful. Of his and Saskia's four children, only one survived infancy and Saskia herself died in 1642. He was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1656 after his ostentatious lifestyle exceeded even the substantial funds he was making as a painter, teacher, and art dealer. He was forced to auction off his treasured art collection as well as his house. He began to focus more on painting for his own enjoyment rather than for commission and his paintings from this time are thought to be his best, showing a depth of richness and spirituality missing in the precise brushstrokes of his earlier works.

Rembrandt and Saskia in the Scene of the
Prodigal Son in the Tavern

Hendrickje Stoffels, a housekeeper whom he had hired in 1649, had become his common law wife and Rembrandt used her as a model for several of his paintings. He often called friends and family into his studio to serve as ideals for historical and mythological paintings, disguising them as portrayals of famous characters. Sadness still seemed to follow him, however, when in 1663 his second wife died, followed in 1668 with the death of his only surviving child, Titus. Rembrandt himself lived less than a year afterwards, dying on October 4, 1669.
(Source: Internet)

17th May 2009; Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds

The Birds
A film by Alfred Hitchcock
Country: USA
Runtime: 119 min
English with English sub tiltles
17th May 2009 ; 5.45 pm
Ashwin Hospital Auditorium
Call : 97904 57568
http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.com/

This masterpiece is one of Hitchcock's purest forays into cinema. An unusual Hitchcock film in many ways, including that it has little hint of plot twists, The Birds amounts to Hitchcock's masterpiece entry in the late crop of 50's monster films. Loosely based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier (who also provided source material for Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn and Rebecca), the film couldn't be simpler: birds attack humans. Hitch never provides an explanation or even a satisfactory conclusion to this problem. What's more, the first real attack doesn't come until around the film's halfway point, and yet the Master keeps us riveted throughout with his playful little hints. By the time The Birds reaches its climax, the tension and terror becomes almost joyously unbearable.The Birds introduces us to Melanie Daniels, a socialite in the fullest sense of the word. A creature of her big-city environment, comfortable with her social and sexual status, adroit, adept at getting what she wants. Intelligent, wily, occupied, but powerfully bored, indulging her not-very-serious whims until they have serious results.Hitchcock and Evan Hunter (screenplay) give us a rogues’ gallery of Freudian dysfunction: Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), a San Francisco lawyer and mama’s boy incapable of committing to an intimate relationship; Lydia Brenner (Jessica Tandy), Mitch’s neurotic mother, depressed since the death of her husband four years ago and desperately jealous of any woman who shows an interest in her son; Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), a spinsterish school teacher still bitter and obsessed long after Mitch has spurned her affections; and, finally, the frigid and vain Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), who begins a flirtation with Mitch that seems destined for the same failure that beset Annie Hayworth’s scuttled relationship.Hitchcock’s penchant for minimalist frames and charged visual metaphors, influenced by silent era expressionism, here has been razored down to resemble Japanese artistry, especially in the way Hitchcock places figures in relation to landscapes. Robert Burks’ superb cinematography is crucial. The sparseness of the drama makes The Birds the first haiku monster movie.
In The Birds, humans are living in a gilded cage, fluttering behind bars, delivered from the dangerous freedom of true flight, living in what Norman Bates called “private traps."
(Source : Internet)

Alfred Hitchcock

He was known to his audiences as the 'Master of Suspense' and what Hitchcock mastered was not only the art of making films but also the task of taming his own raging imagination. Director of such works as Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds and The 39 steps, Hitchcock told his stories through intelligent plots witty dialogue and a spoonful of mystery and murder. In doing so, he inspired a new generation of filmmakers and revolutionized the thriller genre, making him a legend around the world. His brilliance was sometimes too bright: He was hated as well as loved, oversimplified as well as over analyzed. Hitchcock was eccentric, demanding, inventive, impassioned and he had a great sense of British humor.

He was born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, his father was a green grocer called William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914), his mother was Emma Jane Whelan (1863 - 1942) and he had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (Born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock(born 1892). He grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic family. He attended St Ignatius college and a school for engineering and navigation. In 1914, when Hitchcock was 15 years old, his father died.

It was around 1920 when Hitchcock joined the film industry, he started off drawing the sets (Since he was a very skilled artist) and he met Alma Reville, though they never really spoke to each other. It was only when the director for "Always tell your wife" fell ill and Hitchcock had to complete the film, that he started off in the directing part of the film world, then Alma Reville and Hitchcock began to talk to each other.

Hitchcock had his first shot of being the director of a film in 1923 when he was to direct the film "The Number 13", though the production was stopped. Hitchcock didn't give up then. He directed a film called "The Pleasure Garden" in 1925, a British/German production, which was very popular. In 1926, Hitchcock made his first notable film, "The Lodger". In the same year on the 2nd of December, Hitchcock married Alma Reville. They had one child called Patricia Hitchcock (born 7th July 1928).

His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of them which also made him famous in the USA. David O. Selznick, an American producer at the time, got in touch with Hitchcock and the Hitchcock family moved to the USA to direct an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1940).

It was when Saboteur (1942) was made, that films companies began to call his films after him; such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.

During the making of Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's wife Alma suffered a paralyzing stroke which made her unable to walk.

He retired soon after making Family Plot (1976). He started to write a screenplay with Ernest Lehman called "The Short Night" then later David Freeman who completed the script. Though due to Hitchcock's failing health the film was never made. Freeman published the script after Hitchcock's death.

In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep

10th may 2009 ; Eric Khoo's Be With Me

Be With Me
A film by Eric Khoo
Year : 2005
Country : Singapore
Language: Cantonese | English | Mandarin
with English subtitles
10th May 2009 ; 5.45 pm
Ashwin Hospital Auditorium

Be With Me is basically three stories intertwined by fateful connections. The base of the three stories is real life character Theresa Chan, a sixty one year old woman who was blinded at fourteen, and became deaf at twelve.

The film begins with words pecked out on an old manual typewriter: “Is true love truly there, my love? Yes, if your warm heart is.” The fingers typing them belong to Ms. Chan, who applies the question to the movie’s fictional stories, each of which involves a different generation.

There's little dialogue in most of this absorbing biography-drama hybrid by Singapore filmmaker Eric Khoo. It has three intersecting fictional story lines--a shopkeeper is haunted by his wife's memory, a security guard spends hours alone, sometimes stalking a glamorous executive who works in the building, and a teenager finds first love through an Internet chat room--and these characters' silence reflects their apartness..
Khoo believes in minimal dialogue. In fact, nobody speaks for the first half-hour or so. Rather, he tells his stories through keen observation of his characters going about their daily lives. Images of Singapore’s sleek, modern skyline crowded with anonymous, nearly identical towers accentuate the movie’s view of urban life today as a chilly, impersonal wasteland.
These three fictional tales are seemingly unrelated until they intersect haphazardly at the end of the movie. This elliptical, poetic movie is filled with yearning, humor, and warmth.
(Source: Internet)

Eric Khoo

Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo was born in 1965 and was from an early age immersed into the world of cinema. He attended City Art Institute in Sydney, Australia where he studied cinematography. Starting out with short films, a number of which have won prizes and been screened at festivals overseas. He has also produced and/or directed made-for-television film, music videos, and television advertisements. Khoo is perhaps best known for his three critically acclaimed feature films that have been invited to festivals all over the world: Mee Pok Man (1995), 12 Storeys (1995), and Be With Me (2005). Mee Pok Man won prizes not only in Singapore, but also in Fukuoka and Pusan. 12 Storeys (1997) won him the Federation of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI)

Award, the UOB Young Cinema Award at the 10th Singapore International Film Festival, and the Golden Maile Award for Best Picture at the 17th Hawaii International Films Festival. It was also the first Singapore film officially to be invited to participate at the Cannes Film Festival. Be With Me played as the opening film of the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and has met with rave reviews.

Khoo’s films tend to explore a set of hard-hitting themes, including a sense of alienation in contemporary Singapore, nostalgia for a more humane past, and the centrality and complexity of human sexuality.

In many ways, Khoo is a public intellectual who, through his films, raises a critical awareness – uncomfortable as this may be – among his audience of their own conditions of existence, or at least of other people’s conditions of existence that they perhaps may be partly responsible for. Eric Khoo will be a pivotal name in any history of Singapore film waiting to be written in time to come.
(Source: Internet)