Welcome to the new profile
We're still working on updating some profile features. To see the badges, ratings breakdowns, and polls for this profile, please go to the previous version.
Reviews13
ossurworld's rating
Some disparaging commenters have called Flavio Villani a mediocre talent who is the subject of a documentary on his effort to play Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto with a symphony orchestra.
It takes a snide and cowardly person to label Villani anything but brave and courageous to make such an effort. To tackle that difficult and breathtaking piece of music in a concert is like throwing a touchdown pass at the Super Bowl.
And, the sports metaphor certainly applies to Villani who came late to music-but found himself challenged and gripped by becoming a pianist of classical order. He left his native Italy and went to study in New Zealand at age 26.
His efforts are documented in this little film that shows him walking on the beach, admiring nature, cooking, and living a normal middle-class life while he ruminates on the power of Rachmaninoff's intimidating piano composition.
We see him practice alone, practice with a second piano, and prepare for this first attempt to play with a symphony. It is daunting, and he is committed. A gay man, alienated by both classical music and his personal life, he is a man in exile in New Zealand. He returns home triumphantly, reconciling with his family before the big concert.
We see and hear snippets of the First Movement and almost the entire Third Movement on the big night. Whether he made a single mistake or several, we might never know, so complex is the concerto. The music is staggering, dramatic, and ultimately a melodious work of genius. He acquits himself admirably.
If you have never heard this concerto, you have missed one of the great experiences of life.
If someone without as much passion and heart want to knock his efforts, they reflect on their own base misunderstanding of the human condition.
This little story of one person's integrity and decency is a beacon in the dark world of today's inhumanity.
It takes a snide and cowardly person to label Villani anything but brave and courageous to make such an effort. To tackle that difficult and breathtaking piece of music in a concert is like throwing a touchdown pass at the Super Bowl.
And, the sports metaphor certainly applies to Villani who came late to music-but found himself challenged and gripped by becoming a pianist of classical order. He left his native Italy and went to study in New Zealand at age 26.
His efforts are documented in this little film that shows him walking on the beach, admiring nature, cooking, and living a normal middle-class life while he ruminates on the power of Rachmaninoff's intimidating piano composition.
We see him practice alone, practice with a second piano, and prepare for this first attempt to play with a symphony. It is daunting, and he is committed. A gay man, alienated by both classical music and his personal life, he is a man in exile in New Zealand. He returns home triumphantly, reconciling with his family before the big concert.
We see and hear snippets of the First Movement and almost the entire Third Movement on the big night. Whether he made a single mistake or several, we might never know, so complex is the concerto. The music is staggering, dramatic, and ultimately a melodious work of genius. He acquits himself admirably.
If you have never heard this concerto, you have missed one of the great experiences of life.
If someone without as much passion and heart want to knock his efforts, they reflect on their own base misunderstanding of the human condition.
This little story of one person's integrity and decency is a beacon in the dark world of today's inhumanity.
One of the first of the Warner Oland Charlie Chan movies is a beautifully restored print from 1931. It has other surprises too. It was filmed on location in Charlie Chan's home base of Honolulu and uses the scenery to great effect. It is cryptically called The Black Camel.
Fresh off the horror of the year, Dracula, you have two cast members in fine fettle: Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi. They play a respective butler and a questionable psychic, all too willing to help Chan.
Lugosi and Frye were scheduled to make James Whale's Frankenstein after this picture, but when Whale saw this, he thought Bela Lugosi would be too scary for the monster. The part went to Karloff instead.
The film does not hide some white tourist prejudice, compounded because the detective is both Chinese and a policeman. And, the cast of extras includes many Hawaiians.
The dark metaphor of the Black Camel has something to do with kneeling Death coming a-calling. It is one of many little aphorisms that Charlie Chan spouts dryly.
Instead of an irritating older son, this film features an inept young assistant to Chan. We do see Charlie's family at a large dinner table in one scene, but the cheap sets and low budget formula would come in the next few films.
Warner Oland is masterful, as always, and it is quite a mangled English that we hear from both Oland and Lugosi in their conversations, that are witty.
There are a half-dozen quite credible suspects, and they are indeed all gathered in the drawing room (and dining room) for the big reveal.
This wonderful early mystery is a surprise and delight on every level.
Fresh off the horror of the year, Dracula, you have two cast members in fine fettle: Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi. They play a respective butler and a questionable psychic, all too willing to help Chan.
Lugosi and Frye were scheduled to make James Whale's Frankenstein after this picture, but when Whale saw this, he thought Bela Lugosi would be too scary for the monster. The part went to Karloff instead.
The film does not hide some white tourist prejudice, compounded because the detective is both Chinese and a policeman. And, the cast of extras includes many Hawaiians.
The dark metaphor of the Black Camel has something to do with kneeling Death coming a-calling. It is one of many little aphorisms that Charlie Chan spouts dryly.
Instead of an irritating older son, this film features an inept young assistant to Chan. We do see Charlie's family at a large dinner table in one scene, but the cheap sets and low budget formula would come in the next few films.
Warner Oland is masterful, as always, and it is quite a mangled English that we hear from both Oland and Lugosi in their conversations, that are witty.
There are a half-dozen quite credible suspects, and they are indeed all gathered in the drawing room (and dining room) for the big reveal.
This wonderful early mystery is a surprise and delight on every level.
Let's face it: the city of Kankakee, Illinois, needs all the help its Chamber of Commerce can provide.
Enter director/writer Thomas Desch. He has put together a fascinating centerpiece for reviving the city: its greatest single tourist and artistic point is the house that Frank Lloyd Wright designed at the turn of the 20th century.
An American Home has an unwieldy and ridiculous subtitle Frank Lloyd Wright's B. Harley Bradley House, but don't be daunted. You have here architectural history and how it is personally tied to the fates of real people who try to live and work within a building's architecture.
Wright was a genius and his first example of the Prairie Home was in Illinois where the well-to-do young Bradley's commissioned a house, stable, and accompanying residence for their family. Perhaps some places are benighted and cursed.
As amazing and beautiful as the house was-and now is again-it had a hard journey over 100 years. And, so did the cursed owners.
With its stunning stained glass, lead-lined windows, largely sold at auction, and its furniture and tables bought for exorbitant prices by celebs like Barbra Streisand over the years, the Wright house has been decimated.
The owners have variously committed suicide and been kidnapped and murdered (one during renovation of the structure).
Yet, generous patrons have thrown millions of bucks into refurbishing the Yesteryear Restaurant of 50 years (bankrupt in the 1980s) and fallen into disrepair, to save it from demolishing.
Its stable was an afterthought that was saved only by large protests. You may be shocked to learn 20% of Frank Lloyd Wright's designs have been destroyed.
So, we have no issue with the Kankakee people who are proud of the most impressive building and home of their city. Interesting history and biography.
Enter director/writer Thomas Desch. He has put together a fascinating centerpiece for reviving the city: its greatest single tourist and artistic point is the house that Frank Lloyd Wright designed at the turn of the 20th century.
An American Home has an unwieldy and ridiculous subtitle Frank Lloyd Wright's B. Harley Bradley House, but don't be daunted. You have here architectural history and how it is personally tied to the fates of real people who try to live and work within a building's architecture.
Wright was a genius and his first example of the Prairie Home was in Illinois where the well-to-do young Bradley's commissioned a house, stable, and accompanying residence for their family. Perhaps some places are benighted and cursed.
As amazing and beautiful as the house was-and now is again-it had a hard journey over 100 years. And, so did the cursed owners.
With its stunning stained glass, lead-lined windows, largely sold at auction, and its furniture and tables bought for exorbitant prices by celebs like Barbra Streisand over the years, the Wright house has been decimated.
The owners have variously committed suicide and been kidnapped and murdered (one during renovation of the structure).
Yet, generous patrons have thrown millions of bucks into refurbishing the Yesteryear Restaurant of 50 years (bankrupt in the 1980s) and fallen into disrepair, to save it from demolishing.
Its stable was an afterthought that was saved only by large protests. You may be shocked to learn 20% of Frank Lloyd Wright's designs have been destroyed.
So, we have no issue with the Kankakee people who are proud of the most impressive building and home of their city. Interesting history and biography.