Spanish Archive
Isolation (2017)
A nice little horror/thriller. Isolation (2017) Cast: Dominic Purcell, Luke Mably, Marie Avgeropoulos, Tricia Helfer, Stephen Lang Director: Shane Dax Taylor Studio: Lionsgate (6/20/17) Video: 2.35:1 for 16:9 screens, color Audio: English 5.1 DD Subtitles: English, Spanish Length: 94 min. Rating: ****1/2 This is full of highly unexpected twists, and proves that it is not wise to trust anyone. Better acting than most horror films, and it is not predermined who will be the last ones standing at the end. I don’t want to introduce spoilers, so just watch the film. The story of the couple trying to patch up a failing marriage by a vacation in the Bahamas is always paramount. And the gore is kept to a bare minimum. A most enjoyable thriller all around, and a nice view of the Bahamas to top of it. The transfer of films to standard DVDs has really gotten excellent lately. —John Sunier
Solace, Blu-ray (2017)
Hopkins plays a consultant with psychic powers to solve a series of murders. Solace, Blu-ray (2017) Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Abbie Cornish, Colin Farrell, Matt Gerald Director: Afonso Poyart Studio: Lionsgate Premiere (3/14/17) Video: 2.40:1 1080p for 16:9 screens, HD color Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish Extras: Commentary track with director, “Visions and Voices: The making of Solace,” featurette, Trailer gallery Length: 102 min. Rating: ***** This is a thrilling and well-done tale of a brilliant retired psychic who is hired by a younger friend on the FBI force investigating a series of three bodies with identical wounds, cryptic notes and no other evidence. At first the woman involved in the team doesn’t believe him, but he proves to her conclusively that he can see the past and future. He also sees what will happen to each of the people close to him. It turns out that all who have been murdered by the serial murderer – who is a step ahead of the psychic – have some sort of terrible physical ailment which they will shortly die of and he is supposedly saving them all the suffering involved. The killer’s mission almost […]
The 9th Life of LOUIS DRAX, Blu-ray (2017)
A thriller of a film about a child’s supposed death-defying accidents. The 9th Life of LOUIS DRAX, Blu-ray (2017) Actors: Aaron Paul, Jamie Dornan, Michael Adamthwaite, Aiden Longworth, Oliver Platt Director: Alexandre Aja Studio: Miramax/ Summit/ Lions Gate (2/7/17) Video: 2.39:1 for 16:9 screens, color HD 1080p Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD MA Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish Extras: “The Making of The 9th Life of Louis Drax” Length: 108 min. Rating: ****1/2 The young boy Louis has survived eight near-death accidents already and in the film (during his Ninth birthday picnic) falls off a high cliff into the water in California. A doctor, Allan Pascal, is drawn into the thrilling mystery of this accident and dark coincidences, and also begins to fall for the boy’s beautiful mother, Natalie. The circumstances of his (and his father) falling off the cliff are hashed over several times. Oliver Platt is great as the therapist, Dr. Perez, who uses hypnotism and other unorthodox techniques to tap into the boy’s unconscious mind. (For some reason Platt is given no credits for a major role in the film.) The role of his father (who was not his real father) is also good. New clues emerge as the […]
The Girl on the Train, Blu-ray (2017)
A daring thriller without the usual gun play. The Girl on the Train, Blu-ray (2017) Cast: Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux Director: Tate Taylor Studio: Universal Studios Home Ent. 61179949 (1/17/17) (2 discs) Video: 1.85:1 for 16:9 screens, color HD Audio: English DD 5.1 & 2.0, French DD 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD 5.1 Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish No region software Extras: Digital copy, UltraViolet, Deleted and extended scenes, The Women Behind the Girl, On Board the Train, Commentary track with director Great job of acting for Emily Blunt as the girl destroyed by her recent divorce, spending her daily commutes (even though she was fired for being an alcoholic a year ago) fantasizing about the seemingly perfect couple living in a house her train passes each day. Things change when she sees something shocking there and becomes entangled in the mystery that unfolds. It concerns her probable guilt in killing another woman because this lady was having an affair with her husband. But as it has turned out in other films, she did not kill anyone, and it was her own ex-husband who was the killer. The actress playing the local policewoman is also […]
BORTKIEWICZ: Lyrica Nova; Etude in D-flat Major; Nocturne; Esquisses de Crimee; Three Preludes; Piano Sonata No. 2 – A. Soldano, p. – Divine Art
The music of Bortkiewicz receives ardent and luxurious realization from pianist Soldano. BORTKIEWICZ: Lyrica Nova, Op. 59; Etude in D-flat Major; Nocturne from Op. 24; Esquisses de Crimee, Op. 8; Three Preludes; Piano Sonata No. 2 in c-sharp, Op. 60 – Alfonso Soldano, p. – Divine Art dda 25142, 69:31 (10/14/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: The Ukrainian composer Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952) had been unknown to me until his name arose in a conversation in Atlanta with Rudolf Firkusny, who stated that he had worked with Vaclav Talich on one of this composer’s concerted pieces. Bortkiewicz had studied with Liadov and Karel van Ark at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, but also with Liszt pupil Alfred Reisenauer. A life of almost perpetual migration for Bortkiewicz followed the events after the Russian Revolution, the rise of Nazism, and the outbreak of WW II. Finally, in 1945 Bortkiewicz received from Vienna a pension that could supplement his teaching at the Vienna City Conservatory. A self-admitted Romantic composer, Bortkiewicz held melody in esteem, sporting a distinct aversion to developments in atonal, serial, aleatory, and cacophonous music. His tonal syntax takes its diverse cues from Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Medtner. From the groups assembled by pianist […]
MOZART & CHOPIN: “Dialogue” – Josep Colom, p. – Eudora
MOZART & CHOPIN: “Dialogue” – Josep Colom, p. – Eudora multichannel SACD 1404, 79:09 (2/10/16) ****½: A recital that bridges the aesthetic worlds of Mozart and Chopin. We need not succumb to mystical nonsense to believe that great works of art can communicate with one another over time. There are convergent notions at work in the most enduring aesthetic achievements. We see this all the more in individuals of like sensibilities. Aristotle, who believed in the intelligibility of nature and ably delineated the methods of science, could easily converse with Nobel prize-winning scientists of today. In music, too, it is rewarding to think of musical affinities which defy time. The present recording does just this sort of imagining and allows two such figures to meet and hold up a mirror one to the other: Mozart and Chopin. Josep Colom is a veteran Spanish pianist, renowned for his recordings of De Falla, Mompou and Brahms. He is a teacher and jury-member for the Chopin Piano Competition. On this recording, he surely enjoys the finest sound engineering of his career as he debuts for a small but outstanding Madrid-based audiophile label, Eudora. We were suitably impressed with this label’s issue of Haydn […]
Nadia Reisenberg, piano – Live Ch. Recitals and Home Solo Performances = Works of WEBER, MOZART, BEETHOVEN, LISZT & Others – Romeo (2 discs)
Piano virtuoso Nadia Reisenberg’s “personal elation” in making chamber music with gifted friends and colleagues. Nadia Reisenberg – Live Chamber Recitals and Home Solo Performances = WEBER: Grand Duo Concertante, Op. 48; MOZART: Piano Trio in E-flat Major, K. 498 “Kegelstatt”; BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11 “Gassenhauer”; Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 16; MOZART: Pastorale Variee; LISZT: Spanish Rhapsody; DVORAK: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81; GLAZUNOV: Valse Allegretto in D, Op. 42, No. 3; CHOPIN: Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 42; Nocturne No. 20 in c-sharp minor, Op. Posth. – David Glazer, clarinet/ The Galimir String Q. (Dvorak)/ Members of the Budapest String Q. (Beethoven Op. 16)/ David Glazer, clar./ David Soyer, cello (Mozart, Beethoven, Op. 11)/ Nadia Reisenberg, p. – Romeo 7318/19 (2 CDs) 78:20, 74:50 [Distr. by Albany] ****: Despite having virtually “retired” from the active concert stage in 1947 in order to fulfill her teaching duties and her parenting role, Nadia Reisenberg (1904-1983) once more commands our attention in a series of chamber (and solo) works organized by her son, producer and commentator Robert Sherman. With the help of archivist Donald Manildi and engineer Seth Winner, these concerts receive a new […]
RAVEL: Miroirs; Gaspard de la Nuit; Pavane pour une infant defunte – Ragna Schirmer, p. – Belvedere
RAVEL: Miroirs; Gaspard de la Nuit; Pavane pour une infant defunte – Ragna Schirmer, p. – Belvedere 08002, 60:10 (11/4/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: An excellent Ravel interpretation, though a strange cover. Ragna Schirmer has won the highly regarded International Bach Competition in Leipzig twice and been the recipient of Germany’s top classical music award, the ECHO Klassik. Her tutors include Bernard Ringeisen in Paris, himself a student of Marguerite Long, friend and student of Maurice Ravel. She performs in prestigious concert halls of Europe, China and New Zealand, as well as at renowned music festivals such as the Heidelberger Frühling (artist in residence 2010), the Beethovenfest Bonn, the MDR-Musiksommer, the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, and the Salzburg Festival. Ragna Schirmer is also active as a teacher. Having been appointed professor at the College of Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim at the age of 28, she has taught talented young pianists at the Musical Department of the “Latina August Hermann Francke“ in the city of Halle an der Saale since 2009. The Ravel recording derives from sessions 8-10 January 2014 in Germany. The somewhat disturbing cover art for this CD – of pianist Schirmer’s fondling a puppet of Ravel – […]
GRANADOS: March of the Defeated; Torrijos; Suite on Galician Songs – Barcelona Sym. Orch. & Chorus/ Pablo Gonzalez – NaxosGRANADOS: Concerto in c “Patetico”; ALBENIZ: Concierto fantastico; Rapsodia espanola – Melani Mestre, p./ BBC Scottish Sym. Orch./ Martyn Brabbins – Hyperion
Two CDs involving Enrique Granados. GRANADOS: March of the Defeated (1899); Torrijos (1894); Suite on Galician Songs (1899) – Barcelona Sym. Orch. & Chorus/ Pablo Gonzalez – Naxos 8.573263, 54:47 (4/4/16) ****: GRANADOS: Concerto in c “Patetico”; ALBENIZ: Concierto fantastico in a, Op. 78; Rapsodia espanola – Melani Mestre, p./ BBC Scottish Sym. Orch./ Martyn Brabbins – Hyperion CDA67918, 76:58 (4/4/16) (Distr. by HM/PIAS) ****: All of these works are getting their first recording (partly in observance of the centenary of his death), and although Granados is known mainly for his solo piano music, these two CDs show off some of his orchestral music. The painful march of the defeated is not identified as to what battle this is from, and the composer’s talent for lyrical writing is shown in his incidental music for the play Torrijos. The suite on folk songs uses Galician melodies and dance rhythms in an effort to reflect the landscapes of this region. Barcelona is a wonderful city, and its symphony orchestra is excellent in these world premiere recordings. The Cor Madrigal choir is heard only in three of the five sections of the Torrijos incidental music. Sonics are fine for the standard CD format. […]
GREGORY PECK Centennial Collection – To Kill a Mockingbird & Cape Fear + Extras, Blu-ray (1961 & 2/2016)
A fine remastering of one the most important films ever made. GREGORY PECK Centennial Collection – Remastering of To Kill a Mockingbird & Cape Fear + Extras, Blu-ray (1961 & 2/2016) Cast: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Brock Peters, Robert Duvall, Phillip Alford Studio: Universal Pictures 61181322 (10/11/16) 2 discs Directors: J. Lee Thompson & Robert Mulligan Producers: Sy Bartlett & Alan J. Pakula Writers: James R. Webb & Horton Foote Music: Bernard Hermann for both films Video: 1.85:1 for 16:9 screens, black & white Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 & 2.0 & mono, French DTS-HD MA 2.0 Subtitles: French, Spanish, English for the hearing impaired, All regions Extras: A Conversation with Gregory Peck, Fearful Symmetry: The Making of To Kill a Mockingbird, Academy Award Best Actor Acceptance Speech, American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, Excerpt from Tribute to Gregory Peck, Scout Remembers, Feature Commentary Track with Director Robert Mulligan & Producer Alan Pakula, 100 Years of Universal: Restoring the Classics, Theatrical Trailer, BD-Live, My Scenes, Pocket BLU App Length: TT: 236 min. Rating: ***** The big thing is not only the wonderful remasterings of both great motion pictures, but also the many extras concerning the terrific contributions which Gregory Peck made to the first film, and as a […]
************ Chick Corea (piano) & Bela Fleck (banjo) *********** Two – Concord Jazz
A terrific live 2-CD album covering many genres which you’ll probably play over and over. * Chick Corea (piano) & Bela Fleck (banjo) – Two [TrackList follows] – Concord Jazz CIA-37992-2 (2 CDs) [9/11/15] *****: This is a live version follow-up to an earlier studio album the pair entitled The Enchantment. Ten of the 11 tracks are repeats, but the improvisations go on about twice as long in each case. These are among the best duets ever recorded, and the rather strange combination of banjo and piano go together just perfectly, in a completely enthralling fashion. We didn’t get The Enchantment, but this one is a total winner from start to finish. The communication between these two is amazing – They like having more time and space during their concerts, and clearly love performing and improvising together. Each one gives the other one plenty of room to listen to exactly what they are doing at the moment, and they do this intently and intuitively. Never mind their sometimes corny stage patter when they are talking to the audience, pay attention to the music. The audience goes absolutely wild when Bela says they will be doing a bluegrass number since he played some […]
The Infiltrator, Blu-ray (2016)
Just because it didn’t do well in the theaters doesn’t mean this thriller is not well worth seeing. The Infiltrator, Blu-ray (2016) Cast: Bryan Cranston, Diane Kruger, John Leguizamo, Benjamin Bratt Director: Brad Furman Studio: LipSync/ good films/Broadgreen Pictures 941805540 (10/11/16) Video: 2.40:1 for 16:9, 1080 HD color Audio: English & Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS 5.1 Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish Extras: Audio commentary track by director and Bryan Cranston, Deleted scenes, The Three Bobs, How to Infiltrate Length: 127 min. Rating: ****1/2 There were some similarities between this film and the series The Night Manager. This film is based on the true story of a U.S. customs agent who was about to retire, but instead of playing it safe, works undercover under tremendous pressure to take down a huge Columbian money-laundering scheme and cocaine dealers. At any moment, the slightest slip (such as when his suitcase with a tape recorder hidden inside suddenly becomes visible to some of the bad guys) can get him killed. “Bob” Mazur (one of his cover names) finds that he has deeply infiltrated Pablo Escobar’s drug operation in 1986 by posing as a slick money-grubbing businessman. The actor of HBO fame is teamed […]
Mordecai Shehori, p.: Learning by Example Series, Vol. 4 = Pieces by BEETHOVEN, SCHUMANN, DUSSEK, DIABELLI, MASSENET & Others – Mordecai Shehori, p. – Cembal d’amour
Listen and learn’ serves as the satisfying rubric for this diverse excursion into the music of many styles. Mordecai Shehori: Learning by Example Series, Vol. 4 = DUSSEK: Allegro in G Major; DIABELLI: Bagatelle in C Major; HAYDN: “Gypsy” Rondo; BEETHOVEN: Gertrude’s Dream Waltz; “Rage Over a Lost Penny,” Op. 129; SCHUMANN: Traeumerei, Op. 15, No. 7; The Prophet Bird; GRIEG: Papillon; WALDTEUFEL: The Skaters Waltz; FIELD: Nocturne in B-flat Major; FAURE: Romance sans Paroles; MASSENET: Melodie; DEBUSSY: Clair de Lune; Deux Arabesques; Reverie; A. RUBINSTEIN: Romance in E-flat Major; ALBENIZ: Malaguena; SCRIABIN: Album Leaf; KABALEVSKY: Having Fun; JOPLIN: The Cascades – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour 184, 70:33 (8/1/16) *****: The first piece I sought out on Mordecai Shehori’s latest “Learning by Example” disc (rec. 6/16) was Beethoven’s 1795 “gypsy” rondo in G Major, his “Rage over a Lost Penny.” Ever deceptive in its innocent lightness and charm, this work establishes a pattern – 56 measures long – of repeats in the left hand with an ascent in the right that move from G Major to e minor and then back to g minor. Beethoven exploits this “ternary” pattern throughout, with modulations to A-flat Major and E Major […]
PUCCINI: La Boheme (complete opera), C Major Blu-ray (2016)
It’s hard to divorce this release from recent events. PUCCINI: La Boheme (complete opera), Blu-ray (2016) Performers: Daniela Dessì (Mimì)/ Fabio Armiliato (Rodolfo)/ Alessandro Luongo (Marcello)/ Alida Berti (Musetta)/ Federico Longhi (Schaunard)/ Marco Spotti (Colline)/ Angelo Nardinocchi (Benoit/Alcindoro)/ Ugo Tarquini (Parpignol)/ Marco Simonelli (Sergente dei doganieri)/ Jacopo Bianchini (Un doganiere)/ Orchestra and Choir of the Puccini Festival Torre del Lago/ Valerio Galli Director: Ettore Scola Studio: C Major 736204 2014 Video: 16:9 HD 1080i, color Audio: PCM stereo 2.0, DTS-HD MA 5.1 Subtitles: Italian, German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese No region code Length: 123 min. Rating: **** There is something particularly pathetic, in Act 3 of this production, hearing Mimi utter the words “Alas, I am dying.” For the magnificent soprano playing her, Daniela Dessi, died just a couple of months ago in August from colon cancer that she had just begun receiving treatment for, and the opera world is still in shock from the news. She had promised to be back on stage in October, so something obviously went horribly wrong between prognosis and treatment. Her husband and longtime singing partner, and the Rodolfo in this production, Fabio Armiliato, messaged: ‘A short, horrible and incomprehensible illness has […]
MOSZKOWSKI: From Foreign Lands – Rediscovered Orchestral Works – SF Ballet Orch./ Martin West – Reference Recordings
A delightful set of rediscovered orchestral works of Moszkowski. MORITZ MOSZKOWSKI: From Foreign Lands – Rediscovered Orchestral Works [TrackList follows] – San Francisco Ballet Orch./ Martin West – Reference Recordings HDCD RR-138, 72:45 [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Although Moszkowski composed an opera, ballet, three orchestral suites, a symphony, songs, concertos, and chamber music, if this neglected composer is given any attention at all it is for his salon-type piano compositions. He arranged some of these for full orchestra, and the first five selections on this CD are those. The other two were orchestrated by others in 1912 and 1884. Four of the Moszkowski selections are world premiere recordings. These are memorable and melodious orchestral compositions which, especially in their full orchestra versions, seem much more than mere salon pieces from the 19th century. The opening Torch Dance is based on a tradition at some German weddings in a certain area of a dance with torches featured. The From Foreign Lands is a nearly half-hour suite which has been a San Francisco Ballet performance. This ballet orchestra is one of the leading ones in the world, and the excellent recording was made in the low-noise environment of Skywalker Sound with engineer […]
BACH: St. John Passion (A ritualisation by Peter Sellars) – DVDs & Blu-ray (2014/16)
An unsettling visual version of questionable value, but high musical marks. BACH: St. John Passion (A ritualisation by Peter Sellars) – DVDs & Blu-ray (2014/16) Performers: Mark Padmore (Evangelist)/ Camilla Tilling (sop.)/ Magdalena Kožená (mezzo)/ Topi Lehtipuu (tenor)/ Christian Gerhaher (bari.)/ Roderick Williams (Jesus)/ Berliner Philharmoniker/ Rundfunkchor Berlin/ Simon Rattle Director: Peter Sellars Studio: Berliner Philharmoniker BPHR140031, 2014 (2 DVDs and Blu-ray disc) Video: 1080i Full HD for 16:9 (Blu-ray) Audio: PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1 (DVDs), 2.0 PCM, DTS-HD MA 5.1 (Blu-ray) Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean No Region Code Length: Concert: 135 mins, Extras: 52 mins. (in Hi-Def on Blu-ray) Digital Concert Hall: 7-Day Ticket for the Berliner Philharmoniker’s video streaming service Rating: *** This is the BPO’s second Sellars foray of this type into Bach, the first being the St. Matthew Passion a few years back. What type, you ask? Well, a dramatization of the passion. And I’m a long way from being convinced about it, despite the slobbering European press and other predictable quarters hailing it as “revelatory”. Perhaps I am simply being overly-religious in my sentiments; I have always found that the Bach passions speak very well for themselves, with a simplicity and directness […]
“Apasionado” – Works of SARASOTA, BIZET, RAVEL, WAXMAN = Ning Feng, violin/ Orq. Sinfonia – Channel Classics
“Apasionado” – SARASATE: Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20; LALO: Symphonie Espagnole in D Major, Op. 21; SARASATE: Romanza Andaluza, Op. 22; RAVEL: Tzigane; BIZET/WAXMAN: Carmen Fantasy – Ning Feng, violin / Orquestra Sinfónica del Principado del Asturias / Rossen Milanov – Channel Classics CCS 37916, 72:07 (4/1/16) ****: Apasionado or purely virtuoso, these works deliver violinistic fireworks by the carload. So far in his recording career, Chinese violinist Ning Feng has tackled only a couple of the warhorses of the violin repertoire, namely the Bruch and Tchaikovsky concertos. With the current recording, he adds a once-popular concerto to his catalog. As the name of Édouard Lalo’s work implies, it combines elements of concerto, symphony, and symphonic suite in a unique manner. With its Spanish flavor, colorful orchestration, and varied emotional palette, it should still be a crowd pleaser but is heard rarely in the concert hall these days—and rarely recorded. In fact, except for remastered recordings by violinists past such as Isaac Stern, this seems to be the only SACD version currently available. It’s a very recommendable version, too, one that captures the wide-ranging landscape of the piece, from the fiery opening through the operatic drama of the Andante to the ebullience […]
“Sephardic Journey” = Works of ASSAD, LEISNER, RIVERA & Others – Cedille
By all means give this gorgeous album a chance. “Sephardic Journey” = ASSAD: Sephardic Suite; LEISNER: Love Dreams of the Exile; RIVERA: Plegaria y Canto (al Bodre de la Mar); ALAN THOMAS: Trio Sefardi; JOSEPH WILLIAMS: Isabel – Cavatina Duo/ Avalon String Q./ Desiree Ruhstrat, v./ David Cunliffe, cello – Cedille CDR 90000 163, 75:44 [Distr. by Naxos] ****: What are the chances that two separate albums, each titled Sephardic Journey, would appear on two different labels one month apart? Pretty miniscule I would assume, but this is exactly what has happened. I can’t comment on the Avie release featuring Apollo’s Fire since it is not under consideration, but this new release with the Cavatina Duo (Eugenia Moliner, flute, and Denis Azabagic, guitar) and guests is simply lovely in all respects. What is a “Sephardic Journey”? In this case, the married duo discovered that they had roots in the Sephardic Jewish world that was established on the Iberian Peninsula around the year 1000 AD. It spread throughout Spain and Portugal, finally coming to a rather disparate ending when Spain’s Catholic monarchs opened a period of horrendous persecution in the late 1400s. The culture, by all accounts, was lively and deep, […]
Backtrack, Blu-ray (2016)
Basically a horror film, but without the demons and gore. Well done. Backtrack, Blu-ray (2016) Cast: Adrien Brody, Sam Neill, Robin McLeavy Director: Michael Petroni Studio: Lionsgate (4/26/16) Video: 2.40:1 for 16:9 screens, 1080p HD color Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, DD 5.1 Subtitles: English, Spanish Extra: “The Psychology of Backtrack” featurette Length: 89 minutes Rating: ***** This is a very well-developed and directed paranormal mystery film with a suspenseful plot twist near the end. I didn’t realize until I saw one of the Amazon reviews that the older psychiatrist (Sam Neil) for the star, Adrien Brody, was also a ghost and referred his patients to Brody. This film really hits on the “I can see ghosts” bit of Sixth Sense, and Brody does a great job of playing the nervous, gloomy and put-upon man whose young daughter had been killed a year earlier in a bicycle accident when he looked away briefly in a store window. A new young patient who doesn’t talk appears in Brody’s psychiatric office, and she appears and disappears suddenly. It turns out that all of Brody’s patients are ghosts, and all have one thing in common, which is the wreck of a train near […]
DE FALLA: Complete Works for Solo Piano – Juan Carlos Rodriguez, p. – Paladino Music
All of Manuel de Falla’s piano music, sensitively played by fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Rodriguez. MANUEL DE FALLA: Complete Works for Solo Piano – Juan Carlos Rodriguez, p. – Paladino Music pmr0062 (Distr. by Naxos), 73:36 *****: Manuel Maria de los Dolores Falla y Matheu (Manuel de Falla) was born in 1876 in Cadiz, Spain and died in Alta Garcia, Argentina 70 years later. He became one of the leading Spanish composers of the 20th century, along with Isaac Albéniz (1860 – 1909) and Enrique Granados (1867 – 1916). He left music lovers with dozens of stage works, including three of the best – La vide breve (Life is short – 1913), El amor brujo (Bewitched Love, or The Magician – 1915), and El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-cornered Hat – 1917). And he spent his last decades obsessed with completing his monumental opera Atlántida, but never did. This CD presents all of the known piano music that Manuel de Falla composed – and helpfully does so in chronological order. Manuel de Falla took piano lessons in the city of his birth, developed an interest in journalism and literature in his teenage years, and established two literary magazines. By […]
The Hateful Eight, Blu-ray (2016)
A typical bloody Tarantino film, but a good story, fine acting and lovely widescreen 65mm cinematography make it a great experience. The Hateful Eight, Blu-ray (2016) Director: Quentin Tarantino Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh Studio: The Weinstein Company/Anchor Bay 8063848, 2 discs (3/29/16) Video: Shot on 65mm film at 2.76:1 for 16:9 display, 1080p HD color Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1 Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish Extras: “Beyond the Eight” – Behind the Scenes, “Sam Jackson’s Guide to Glorious 70mm” Length: 187 min. Rating: ****1/2 If you didn’t already get it, this is the eighth feature film by Tarantino. For the story’s winter Wyoming landscape, the film was shot using 65mm lenses and cameras which hadn’t been used since the 1970s, around Telluride, CO. And it was presented in 70mm as a Road Show Attraction at the few special theaters equipped for it, such as the Hollywood here in Portland. It has five chapters and is set around a decade after the Civil War. The film got three Academy Award Nominations but was aced out by The Revenant. The film opens with bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) trying to get his handcuffed-to-him […]
The Last Witch Hunter, Blu-ray (2016)
A new world of witches and black magic, and a more versatile Vin Diesel than in his previous movies. The Last Witch Hunter, Blu-ray (2016) Cast: Vin Diesel, Michael Cain, Elijah Wood, Rose Leslie, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Julie Engelbrecht Director: Breck Eisner Studio: Lionsgate/Summit (2/2/16) (2 discs: DVD & Blu-ray) Video: 2.40:2 for 16:9 screens, 1080p HD color Audio: English DTS:X, English DTS Digital Surround, SpanishDTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, English descriptive audio, English DTS Headphone: X (Dolby Digital English 5.1 and 2.0 on DVD, also Spanish DD 5.1 & English descriptive audio) Extras: Commentary track, “Crafting the Magic” featurette, Two animations, “The Last Witch Hunter sizzle reel, Deleted scenes Length: 112 min. Rating: **** It might be best to view the extras first. The two short animated films explain about the race of bad and good witches who were here before humans came. They supposedly unleashed the Plague on the world, and the more vicious of the supernatural creatures still live amongst us. Special witch hunters have battled their enemies around the world for centuries. Kaulder (Diesel) managed to supposedly slay the witch queen and decimate her followers centuries ago, and he is now 800 years old. A whole new […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
