Laurel & Hardy Retrospective @ the Austrian Filmarchiv (VIDEO)

Here is yet another reason to schedule a visit to the Austrian Film Archives. One of Europe’s formost institutions of its kind, the Archive is holding a retrospective of films by the classic comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. Celebrated for their edgy, slapstick and even at time physically violent humour, the Anglo-British duo defied traditional (or often any kind of) narrative while creating an entertainment style that was copied by numerous other comedic acts. The Austrian Continue …

Q&A with Egyptian-American Poet Yahia Lababidi (VIDEO)

Your name :  Yahia Lababidi (1973), Aphorist, Poet, Essayist Place of birth : Cairo, Egypt Residence :  Washington, D.C. Artist’s statement – Looking to use words, to lose words.  To harness the spirit that swims through them.  To get words to echo our silences.  Interested in art that triggers an ecstatic moment, and the role of the artist as secular mystic. MV – Favourite book(s) & author(s) – Nietzsche, Rilke, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Wilde. The ones Continue …

Q&A with Dutch Artist Bas de Wit

Bas de Wit (1977) Born in: Budel, The Netherlands Lives in: Maastricht, The Netherlands Dealer: Figge von Rosen Galerie (Berlin/Cologne) Artist’s statement – Making monuments to the huge fiasco of your very own enthusiasm MV – Favourite movie(s) & director(s) – My Top 5000 List begins with:  Stanley Kubrick (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest); Stanley Kubrick (Dr. Strangelove), Mary Poppins (the movie), Federico Fellini; Todd Solonz (The NeverEnding Story), Roy Andersson (Songs From the Second Continue …

Berlinale 2012 Announces First Five Films In Competition (VIDEO)

Berlin International Film Festival 2012 has confirmed its first five fiction films that will be screening in Competition. Coproductions from Indonesia, Spain, the People’s Republic of China, Hongkong-China, the Philippines, Great Britain, Germany, the USA and France are well represented at the Berlinale’s forthcoming edition. Films featuring in the Berlinale Special include: Don – The King Is Back, Marley, La chispa de la vida, Keyhole and Death Row. During the coming weeks, we will bring you updates, news & reviews on the Berlinale, Continue …

National Media Museum’s Mission Impossible

Bradford, UK – Colin Philpott, the Director of the National Media Museum, is leaving his post in the Spring to pursue “long term and creative projects” beyond the museum which include the publication of a book that is due for release in Autumn of 2012. In the meantime, the NMM doesn’t miss a beat in offering a wide variety of exhibitionary, scholarly and entertaining projects. For example, in case you missed Brad Bird’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Continue …

Rest in Peace: Vaclav Havel (1936-2011)

Václav Havel has died at the age of 75. He was the dissident Czekoslavakian playwright who used the power of theatre (on and off the stage) of the absurd – that is the absurdities of life and politics – to bring down communism during the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Havel was Czechoslavakia’s first democratically elected president who led his country through a peaceful breakup from Slovakia, in 1993. The Power and the Powerless (1978) one of Continue …

Rob Reiner to Direct George Clooney in Stage Reading of (Proposition) “8″

When thinking about theatre, in or out of Hollywood, heartthrob George Clooney’s name does not appear anywhere on one’s list of considerations. However, the  director of the Ides of March and the star of The Descendants will appear in a one night (only) reading of the play “8” at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre (in Los Angeles) on March 3, 2012. Written by Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk Dustin Lance Black, “8″ is a response to the federal trial Continue …

Museum of Moving Image’s Magical Screenings (VIDEO)

Museum of Moving Image, in Astoria, NY, is organizing a magical program of films and lectures that explores histories and theories of films about … magic. There is a bit of every genre presented: silents, talkies, melodramas, mysteries, comedies, horror movies, romances, documentaries and magic and magicians who have appeared on the big and small screens. It is little wonder that before the popularization of moving image, in the 1890′s, stage magicians were the world’s Continue …

Q&A with Spanish Photorealist Painter Bernardo Torrens

Bernardo Torrens (1957) Born & Lives in: MADRID, SPAIN Dealer: Bernaducci Meisel Gallery, NYC Artist’s statement:  My work is about the human being. The deepest part of the human being. Any of my subjects tries to be the representation of the Humanity. Also in some cases they pretend to be the representation of a group of all people. My work is also deeply connected with my life and circumstances. Weight, intensity, sincerity, reflection are key Continue …

Queen Elizabeth (Taylor) & La Pérégrina Pearl (VIDEO)

Also see, The Other Jewels in Elizabeth Taylor’s Life As reported by The Artnewspaper, one of the most outstanding objects sold at the Christie’s auction of the late Elizabeth Taylor jewelry collection was La Pérégrina, a pearl that once belonged to Mary I of England. The piece was presented to her by Philip II of Spain at the time of their marriage, in 1554. The pearl, having returned to Spain after Mary’s death, was given to Queen Continue …

The Other Jewels in Elizabeth Taylor’s Life

  Last night, the sale of Elizabeth Taylor’s collection of jewels at Christie’s brought in $116 million. The auction house’s estimate for 80 objects in the Taylor collection had been valued at $20 million. Needless to say that leading up to the event, much ado had been made about the late British-born American actress’ life. During the 10-day exhibition held at Christie’s New York, some 25,000 visitors had paid $30 to view the objects that are going Continue …

Bennett’s Lady Gaga Goes on Auction

Tony Bennett’s portrait of Lady Gaga is on sale on eBay Celebrity for $5,000. The nude portrait was executed during an Annie Leibovitz shoot for Vanity Fair. The proceeds of the sale will benefit both singers’ foundations: Bennett’s Exploring the Arts and Gaga’s Born This Way. Bennett and Gaga recorded the 1937 Hart and Rodgers classic The Lady is a Tramp, early in the fall (2011).