art
Artistic, musical, creative, and entertaining topics of art about all things geek.
Five stars for The Lost Daughter
middle-aged professor who once abandoned her family, a little girl who wanders off on a beach and even that girl's missing doll, which when found spurts filthy water from her mouth – there are many lost daughters in this eloquent adaptation of Elena Ferrante's 2008 novel, along with one eye-opening find: Maggie Gyllenhaal as a filmmaker with a true artist's vision.
By Alessandro Algardi3 years ago in Geeks
The underrated genius of David Bowie's acting
ne of the many pioneering elements of David Bowie's career was his commitment to the visual. For Bowie, sound and vision went hand in hand. His many star personas – Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Major Tom – each came with their own fully realised aesthetic worlds, costumes, make-up and artwork that were as instantly recognisable as the music itself. Long before the advent of MTV, Bowie was making short films to promote his music, and he would go on to push the boundaries of the form with iconic videos such as Ashes to Ashes. Indeed, Bowie's final gift to the world came in filmic form – the video for his last single Lazarus was released on 7 January 2016, just three days before his death.
By Mao Jiao Li3 years ago in Geeks
Why Lady Macbeth is literature's most misunderstood villain
eductress. Manipulator. Madwoman. The Fourth Witch. These are just a few of the more hostile descriptors that Lady Macbeth has been saddled with ever since The Tragedie of Macbeth (the full title of the Scottish play) was first performed 416 years ago. As a schoolgirl studying William Shakespeare's timeless tale of ambition, morality, betrayal and murder, my first impression was that she was all of the above: a straightforward, out-and-out villain. A wife who, after learning of a witches' prophecy declaring her Scottish general husband would become king, persuades him to commit regicide, take power and subsequently ignites a bloody civil war? Lady M is certainly no angel.
By Many A-Sun3 years ago in Geeks
The film changing how we see the internet
When we think about how the internet shapes our lives, especially in art, we tend to imagine the worst. From TV shows like Black Mirror and feature documentaries like The Social Dilemma, to novels like The Circle, writers and filmmakers have portrayed the digital realm as one where we indulge self-destructive and narcissistic impulses, and where our privacy and security is breached. However, as the dystopian treatments of the internet mount up, one filmmaker has been on a different mission: to showcase the beauty of online connection. In the eyes of Japanese anime director Mamoru Hosoda, the web is an ever-evolving realm of exciting potential, an attitude embodied in his aesthetic approach to visualising this digital world.
By Cindy Dory3 years ago in Geeks
Mass and the films trying to make sense of senseless violence
n 20 April 1999 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold walked into their high school in Columbine, Colorado and, with one act of violence, changed America forever. Harris and Klebold's plan, which they had been working on for over a year, was to set off homemade bombs, but when those failed to detonate they instead walked through the halls and used the four guns they'd acquired to injure 24 people and kill 13 more before taking their own lives.
By Sue Torres3 years ago in Geeks
Why Buster Keaton is today's most influential actor
Buster Keaton was something of an enigma to his own era. The silent-film star launched himself between rooftops, battled storms and sand dunes, boarded moving vehicles – and frequently trailed behind them, perfectly horizontal and as suspended as our disbelief – all in the name of comedy, and all while seeming unfazed. Film historian Peter Kramer, in his essay The Makings of a Comic Star, contends that Keaton's "deadpan performance was seen as a highly inappropriate response to the task of creating characters which were rounded and believable". His unrelenting imperturbability was misinterpreted as a lack of emotional expression, or perhaps acting skill.
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Geeks
The iconic Hollywood films transformed by test audiences
The joyous musical number on a traffic-jammed freeway in La La Land. The decomposing head popping out of a sunken boat in Jaws. Julia Roberts dancing with Rupert Everett at the end of My Best Friend's Wedding; Anne Archer shooting Glenn Close at the end of Fatal Attraction. They're all much-loved parts of much-loved films, and they all have something else in common: they made it into cinemas thanks to you – or somebody like you, anyway. The films' directors didn't put these sequences in their initial edits, but after audiences at test screenings had had their say, new scenes were shot, or old ones were rescued from the cutting-room floor.
By Alessandro Algardi3 years ago in Geeks
Cabaret: How the X-rated musical became a hit
t's 50 years since the release of Cabaret, Bob Fosse's ground-breaking 1972 film musical set against the backdrop of the dying days of Germany's Weimar Republic and the country's growing support for the Nazi Party. A story of loving impossible loves and the torture of self-discovery in a world of demagogues and uncompromising hate, it has a tragic immediacy that makes it as contemporary as ever. In 2021 yet another production of the original stage musical opened in London's West End, which has been received with acclaim and packed audiences.
By Mao Jiao Li3 years ago in Geeks
The Northman review: 'Not weird or violent enough'
The Northman is a film in which a Viking prince proves his worthiness by farting, and then levitates while his father's innards morph into a magical fortune-telling tree. It's a film in which Björk plays a witch with no eyes and a wheat-sheaf headdress, and a frenzied Valkyrie rides a white horse across the sky. Noses are bitten off, throats are torn out, and a man staggers into a fire, holding handfuls of his own entrails. It's not your typical Friday night at the cinema. And yet, despite all of the strangeness and brutality mentioned above, The Northman isn't quite strange or brutal enough.
By Cindy Dory3 years ago in Geeks
Why Jennifer Lopez is Hollywood's most underestimated star
Sing the lyric: "Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got" to any millennial, and chances are they'll pipe back: "I'm still, I'm still, Jenny From The Block". Twenty years on from its release in September 2002, Jennifer Lopez's song Jenny from the Block is still just as infectious an earworm, and has pulled in 162 million views on YouTube and counting.
By Sue Torres3 years ago in Geeks
Review: "Hellraiser"
Clive Barker is known for a certain kind of horror that revels in pain with slight tones of sex. His work in Hellraiser is no exception in this case with its kinky overtones and visually striking villain, Pinhead. The original films had their share of fans due to the visceral nature of their proceedings. All of the things you could expect to see in a remake are here, such as sadomasochistic monsters and a cast of morally questionable characters. Still, unlike the original, it doesn’t stick the landing, nor does it have bite.
By Nick Cavuoti3 years ago in Geeks
