Viciousness at the Bolshoi

The director of the Bolshoi Ballet has acid thrown in his face and The New York Times reports on the vicious underside of the Bolshoi Ballet. “The stories about vengeance at the Bolshoi Ballet go back centuries: The rival who hid an alarm clock in the audience, timed to go off during Giselle’s mad scene, [...]

Maurice Sendak and the Strange Wild Things of My Childhood

“The magic of childhood is the strangeness of childhood, the uniqueness that makes us see things that other people don’t see.” “I’m just clearing the decks for a simple death. You’re done with your work. You’re done with your life. And your life was your work.” –Maurice Sendak, TateShots: Maurice Sendak and Tell Them Anything [...]

Melodrama All Around

Seems like we’re not the only ones who have noticed a resurgence of melodrama.  Chris Vognar writes about melodrama, Black Swan and The Fighter. 

Ballerinas Watch Black Swan

The New York Times has a piece on dancers’ reaction to Black Swan. Meanwhile, Jonathan Romney interviews Darren Aronofsky and writes: “There’s much steamy weirdness that you don’t normally associate with ballet fictions: hallucinations, horror, lesbian clinches with doppelgängers.” Which is exactly what I associate with them. I’d like to see dancers respond to other [...]

For Jean-Claude on his 50th Birthday

Mubi has a lovely, thoughtful post on Jean-Claude van Damme in honor of his 50th birthday. ” But what does that make of an action-star-inverse like Van Damme, who’s at his most interesting when he’s at his most vulnerable and who does not, unlike Stallone or Willis, wield that vulnerability as a weapon, but presents [...]