Sunday, July 06, 2003

The Last Bolshevik by Chris Marker 06 Jul 03 Le Tombeau d'Alexandre, 1993 [Alexander's Tomb/The Last Bolshevik] The Last Bolshevik opens to an insightful and relevant excerpted passage from author and critical thinker George Steiner's book, In Bluebeard's Castle: Some Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture: 'It is not the literal past that rules us [save, possibly, in a biological sense]. It is images of the past.' Composed in the structure of montage (an homage to the characteristic editing and filmic language of pioneering Russian filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Alexander Dovzhenko, and Vsevolod Pudovkin), the film is a series of posthumous video letters (narrated by Michael Pennington) to film essayist Chris Marker's personal friend, mentor, and fellow filmmaker Alexander Ivanovich Medvedkin, examines the trajectory of Medvedkin's life and career from within the context of the evolution of the Soviet Union in the 20th century, and in the process, provides a broader, incisive meditation on the nature of reality, fiction, art, ideology, and history. [Strictly Film School] 11:21:18 PM  Google It!

Art Exhibition Opens at Rome’s Colloseum 07 Jul 03 ROME, ITALY. The exhibition 'Nike: The Game and The Victory', just opened at Rome’s Colloseum and runs until January 7, 2004. The collection brings together statues, busts, mosaics and pottery, some dating back as far as the sixth century B.C., from Italian cultural hotspots like Florence and Pompeii and farther-flung sites such as Paris and Berlin. Two sprinting bronze figures from the first century B.C. seem to hurtle down one of the Colosseum’s many gangways, while a few steps away a 1,800-year-old marble athlete prepares to send his discus spiralling into the air. 'These ancient masterpieces have never before been seen side by side,' Anna Grandi, one of the organisers, said. 'We wanted to remove these pieces from their museum context and thrust them into the festival atmosphere of the Colosseum, which seemed the perfect stage for a sporty art exhibition,' she added. Friezes in the collection bear witness to the divine dimension the Ancient Greeks attributed to their sporting heroes, with depictions of Nike, the winged goddess of victory, crowning athletic champions. [ArtDaily.com] 10:56:07 PM  Google It!