Review 4

GREAT GATSBY(2013)

Director - Baz Luhrmann
Producer - Baz Luhrmann, Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher, Catherine Martin, Catherine Knapman
Writer - Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce
Composer - Craig Armstrong
Genre - Drama
Release Year - 2013
Country - USA, Australia
Run Time - 143 minutes

Lead Actors:
Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby
Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway
Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan
Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan
Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson
Adelaide Clemens as Catherine
Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker
Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim
Jason Clarke as George Wilson
Max Cullen as Owl Eyes
Brendan Maclean as Klipspringer
Jack Thompson as Nick Carraway's Doctor, Walter Perkins

Plot:
In a summer Nick Carraway moved to work as a bond salesman in New York. Nick rented a house in West Egg, a suburb of New York where the "new rich" lived. Nick graduated from Yale and has connections in East Egg. One night Nick went to East Egg to have dinner with his cousin, Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, a classmate of Nick's at Yale. There, he met Jordan Baker, a beautiful and cynical professional golfer. Jordan tells Nick that Tom had an affair. Returning home from dinner, Nick saw his mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby, holding out his arms toward the Long Island Sound. Nick looked out across the water, but saw only a green light blinking at the end of a dock on the far shore. A few days later, Tom invited Nick to a party in New York City. On the way, Tom picked up his mistress,Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George Wilson, the owner of an auto shop. At the party, Myrtle got drunk and made fun of Daisy. Tom punched her and broke her nose. Nick also attended one of Gatsby's extravagant Saturday night parties. He ran into Jordan there, and met Gatsby for the first time. Gatsby privately told Jordan a story she described as the most "amazing thing." After going to lunch with Gatsby and a shady business partner of Gatsby's named Meyer Wolfsheim, Nick learnt one story: Gatsby had met and fell in love with Daisy before World War I, and bought his West Egg mansion just to be near her. At Gatsby's request, Nick arranged a meeting for them. The two soon rediscovered their love. Daisy invited Nick and Gatsby to lunch with her, Tom, and Jordan. During the lunch, Tom realized Daisy and Gatsby were having an affair. He insisted they all went to New York City. As soon as they gathered at the Plaza Hotel, though, Tom and Gatsby got into an argument about Daisy. Gatsby told Tom that Daisy had never loved Tom and had only ever loved him. But Daisy could only admit that she loved them both, and Gatsby was stunned. Tom then revealed that Gatsby had made his fortune by bootlegging alcohol and other illegal meant. Tom then dismissively told Daisy to go home with Gatsby, since he knew Gatsby wouldn't bother her anymore. They left in Gatsby's car, while Tom, Nick, and Jordan followed sometime later. As they drived home, Tom, Nick, and Jordan came upon an accident: Myrtle was hit and killed by a car. Tom realized that it had been Gatsby's car that struck Myrtle, and he cursed Gatsby as a coward for driving off. But Nick learnt from Gatsby later that night that Daisy had been actually behind the wheel. George Wilson, distraught, was convinced that the driver of the yellow car that hit Myrtle was also her lover. In the afternoon, Nick had a kind of premonition and found Gatsby shot to death in his pool. Wilson's dead body was a few yards away. Nick organized a funeral, but none of the people who were supposedly Gatsby's friends came. And even Daisy left the city with her family, she and Tom asked their butler not to tell where they were and when they would return.

To begin with, it's necessary to say that this movie for Baz Luhrmann is a bright returning after Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge. The adaptation itself is vivid images of the 20s, illegal whiskey, jazz, frantic dances. Nick Carraway, a "narrator", became a witness of the lives of several people, he was a observer, and a participant. Jay Gatsby was a man of mystery. Everybody saw him only as a rich man, who arranged exellent parties, but nobody knew him as a real man. Nick Carraway was his true friend.  Daisy remained for him as his meaning of the life.Gatsby was a dreamer, hopeless romantic, who died with the name of his favorite on the lips. For me Daisy was a changeable, amorous woman, she was a image of American society of that time. I was pleasantly surprised with musical accompaniment, especially, the idea to combine the music of 20s with modern hip-hop.My favorite songs Crazy In Love and Back to Black appeared in a new variation. As many other people I didn't understand the usage of 3D format for this movie, maybe it's an advertising gimmick. But I think without it the film is a qualitative adaptation, and a perfect job of the whole film crew.

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The article The Lord of the Sings: Sir Christopher Lee, 91, to release heavy metal album written by Daisy Wyatt was published in The Independent on May 24, 2013. It reports at length that the famous actor,Christopher Lee, who played the wizard Saruman in the Lord of the Rings, is making first venture into heavy metal and releases his first album.

Speaking of the actor's biography it's interesting to point out that he has starred in the Lord of the Rings, Hobbit and Star Wars franchises and played Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the evil wizard Saruman. But Sir Christopher Lee is only now fully exploring his dark side, when releases his first heavy metal album next week.

The author says that the man has already released previous album Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross featured symphonic metal music, but this is his first album to exclusively feature heavy metal. The record, which features track names such as “Massacre of the Saxons”, “The Devil’s Advocate” and “The Ultimate Sacrifice”, is likely to appeal to fans of Sir Lee’s fantasy films. Lee appears on the cover brandishing a sword and surrounded by fire. The album was arranged by Richie Faulkner, the lead guitarist for heavy metal band Judas Priest.

It's an open secret that Sir Lee said he had played quite a few parts in his career which have appeared in heavy metal songs, such as “Wicker Man” by Iron Maiden and “The Man with the Golden Gun” by Alice Cooper.

The article draws a conclusion that Sir Lee joins a number of high profile actors, such as Hugh Laurie and Steve Martin, who have released albums alongside their TV and film work. Artists including Zooey Deschanel, Jennifer Lopez and Will Smith have established careers as both actors and musicians, though they are yet to release any heavy metal…yet.

As for me, sometimes I like listening to heavy metal songs, and the movies The Lord of the Rings are my favourite ones, and when I read this article for the first time I wanted to listen to some songs of Sir Christopher Lee's album.

Pleasure Reading 6. Chapter 6-7

Maugham met Larry by chance at a play performance. Larry told about his life in Germany, and how he had spent some months in a monastery in Alsace. But he was not satisfied with the answers given to his spiritual questions by the monks. He returned to Paris and then traveled to Spain, where he lived in Seville with a girl. Then he traveled to India. He was fascinated by Indian spirituality and made his way to the holy city of Benares and later to a place called Madura. He absorbed the Vedantic philosophy of reincarnation and liberation. Eventually he became a disciple of the renowned saint, Shri Ganesha. When he had been at the guru's ashram for two years, he had a mystical experience one morning at sunrise. Larry then decided to return to Europe. He told Maugham that he now intended to return to America, got a job as a car mechanic and lived with calmness and compassion. Eventually he planed to settle in New York, where there were lots of libraries, and became a taxi driver. Six months later, Sophie MacDonald had her throat cut and was thrown into the river in Toulon. Maugham was asked by the police to identify the body. Larry is there also. He informs Maugham that he has got rid of all his money and has booked his passage on a ship leaving for America from Marseille. Gray and Isabel were also returning to America. Using Isabel's capital, Gray was getting back into business as vice-president of an oil company in Dallas, Texas. Maugham didn't see Larry, Isabel or Gray again, but he assumed that the Maturins were happily settled in Dallas and that Larry was pursuing exactly the life that pleased him.

Pleasure Reading 5. Chapter 5

Isabel persuaded Maugham to take them on a tour of the rougher areas of Paris. In a cafe they met a drunken American named Sophie MacDonald, who was an old friend of Isabel. Sophie had never gotten over the loss of her husband and baby in a car crash. She became promiscuous and took to drink. Some while later, Larry, who had known Sophie since she was fourteen, decided he wanted to save her from the degradation of her life. He proposed marriage, and she accepted. Isabel was distraught at this news, but Maugham advised her to make friends with Sophie in order to keep Larry in her life. Isabel agrees to do so, but she is not at home when Sophie arrives at her apartment for the shopping expedition they had planned. Isabel had left instructions for a bottle of Polish vodka to be left on a tray in the vacant apartment. Sophie was duly tempted and went back to her former dissolute lifestyle. Her marriage to Larry never took place. Meanwhile, Elliott's health was failing, and he was desperately disappointed not to have received an invitation to a grand party given by Princess Novemali. Maugham managed by a trick to get him an invitation, and Elliott died happy.

Pleasure Reading 4. Chapter 4

Two and a half years after the stock market crash, Isabel and her family were living in Elliott's Paris apartment. Once Maugham went to Paris on other business. While waiting for her husband to come back home, Maugham met Isabel and her children. The woman told Maugham that the years after the crash had been difficult. Asked if she regreted not marrying Larry, Isabel told Maugham that Gray was a wonderful husband and very kind to her and their children. When Gray arrived, Maugham was taken aback by the contrast in the way the years had changed him. Maugham continued to see Isabel and her family and enjoyed their company.Once at a cafe that he used to visit as a youth, a bearded, disheveled man said hello to Maugham. Maugham didn't recognize the man, who turned out to be Larry. Gray asked him about the crash, but Larry said that because the U.S. government had guaranteed his money, he hadn't lost anything. Larry said that he had been in India and heard from Dr. Nelson about Isabel's marriage. Larry asked about Elliott and then about Gray, and Maugham told him that Gray was trying to find himself in Paris. Larry said he would like to see them. Maugham told Isabel and Gray that Larry planed to visit them, and they were delighted, and soon Larry went to their home. In contrast to Gary, he looked young and had retained his attractiveness. Isabel asked what Larry had been doing all these years. He said he had spent time in Italy, Spain and the East. Also he said that he had visited with spiritual Yogis and learned Hindu, one of a half dozen languages that he had learned. Maugham noticed that Isabel was looking intently at Larry. Abruptly, Larry got up, said good night and went home. Days after Larry helped Gray using his knowledge in Eastern medicine when Gray was suffering from a migraine headache. Larry started coming over regularly, curing Gray's headaches when they flared up. Maugham asked Isabel if she still loved Larry. She said yes but that she had married Gray because she had to marry someone. Maugham and Isabel then got into a discussion about the true meaning of love. Maugham then reintroduced Suzanne Rouvier, the woman who told Maugham about Larry's war story and brush with death. Suzanne was a farm girl who moved to Paris with her artist lover as a youth. She had spent the next several years moving from one lover to another. Eventually, she settled down and became a mistress to a businessman from Lille. A week after meeting Larry unexpectedly, Maugham had dinner with Suzanne, who met Maugham through a common artist friend. While having dinner, Larry walked past and said hello to Suzanne. He sat down, has a quick dinner and then said goodnight. Suzanne then told the story of how she knew Larry. Six or seven years earlier, Suzanne was recovering from a bought with Typhoid that had left her thin and weak. She ran into Larry, whom she knew through an artist friend, and he offered to take her out to the country where they could spend a long holiday. She and her daughter had spent an idyllic time in the small town, swimming, boating and reading. During this time, Larry unexpectedly told her the story about his best friend dying while saving Larry's life during the war. When Suzanne fell in love with the man, she noted that he never made a pass at her. Once Larry told her he had to leave and kissed her. He also gave her 12,000 francs. Suzanne, like Isabel, said she couldn't understand Larry.

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The article Cannes Film Festival 2013 review: Inside Llewyn Davies starring Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake written by Geoffrey Macnab was published in the Independent on May 20, 2013. It reports

about new film - Inside Llewyn Davies - directed by the Coen brothers. This is ostensibly a film about the Greenwich Village folk music scene in the early 1960s. It's necessary to point out that the most impressive detail about the film is the sure-footed way the Coens combine comedy, music and brooding film noir elements.

Speaking of the main characters of Inside Llewyn Davies it's interesting to say that Llewyn Davis (brilliantly played by Oscar Isaac) is an ambitious but hapless folk singer with a very chaotic private life. He has seemingly made fellow folk singer Jean Berkey (an enjoyably spiky Carey Mulligan) pregnant. She is in a relationship with a friend of his (played in solemn fashion by Justin Timberlake) and is furious at the predicament he has put her in.

The author says that the structure of the film seems partially inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses. The story is set in the dead of winter over only a few days but still has an epic quality. Like Leopold Bloom in Joyce’s novel, Davis ricochets around the city, having misadventures. He loses a friend’s cat. He has nowhere to stay. Needing a gig, he eventually heads off to Chicago on a road trip with a thoroughly obnoxious jazz musician and his Dean Moriarty-like sidekick.

Speaking of the structure and composition of the film it's interesting to point out that there are echoes here of Barton Fink. Like John Turturro’s tormented screenwriter, Davis endures increasingly strange and phantasmagoric experiences as he pursues success. In the early scenes, the tone is comical. The Coens don’t skimp on the satire at the expense of the earnest, hipster folk crowd. At the same time, the music is often glorious. The film is open-ended and deliberately confounds our expectations at every turn. It’s as mercurial as its own lead character, who can seem like a self-pitying, aggressive bore one moment and sing like an angel the next.

The author draws a conclusion that we are never quite sure how talented Davis actually is. The opening of the film shows him singing a beautiful and haunting solo but no sooner has he finished his performance than he is beaten up in the back yard.

As for me, I'd like to say that the Coen brothers are the masters in modern cinematography. My favourite their works are Intolerable Cruelty, Paris, je t’aime (segment «Tuileries»), True Grit and Burn After Reading.

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The article Moscow Becomes a Major Music Festival Setting written by Andrei Muchnic was published in The Moscow Times in April, 29. It reports at length that as citizens of the capital of our country now flock to the outdoor oases to play sports, jog or stroll around the parks of Moscow, it means that in the upcoming months they will enjoy to listen to good music there, because the time of open-air music festivals will start soon.

Author says that these festivals are one of the major draws of the re-imagined parks, and Moscow is quickly turning into one of the main European hubs for festivals. In the past, Russian music lovers typically planned to travel abroad every summer. However, many of the same headliners are now coming to Moscow. This situation was completely unthinkable just a couple of years ago when Afisha Picnic was the only open air event in Moscow worth attending.

The article carries a lot of comment on  just some of the festivals people are excited about this summer. As soon as Moscow finally wakes up from the seasonal slumber and shakes off the remaining patches of snow, Bosco Fresh Fest will open at Gorky Park. It's a part of a two month long Cherry Tree Forest Festival, which also includes theater performances, film screenings, and book readings. This year's headliner is a French musician, Woodkid, who will perform together with Grammy winner Yury Bashmet's symphonic orchestra on May 20. The festival area will center around the Buran space shuttle, close to the embankment. Hermitage Garden, a small green refuge in the middle of the city, has always been a traditional venue for music festivals. This year Ahmad Tea organizes its third festival here.This year the lineup is no less impressive, with critical darlings Alt-J and dance veterans Hot Chip as headliners. Also this summer the first ever music festival will be organized on the All-Russia Exhibition Center's premises. The concerts will take place on the main alley around the famous Friendship of Nations Fountain. First of all the festival is not just one, but two days in length. Secondly, its lineup includes the two most popular Russian rock artists: Mumiy Troll and Zemfira. Also putting in an appearance will be international heavyweights such as The Killers, Justice, and Crystal Castles. Lastly, Park Live is the first Moscow festival to introduce a night program, which will take place on the Chemical Stage in Pavilion #20, usually used to exhibit Soviet achievements in the chemical industry. The night program's headliners are the famous Australians, Pendulum. Open-air music festivals will take place in July as well - they are Subbotnik in Gorky Park and Afisha Picnic in Kolomenskoye.

As for me, I think such outdoor events, actually in parks is a good chance to spend free time in the city, and of course to meet your friends. My friends and I like to visit music festivals, and I'm sure this summer is no exception.

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The article Hop Farm 2013 cancelled due to poor ticket sales written by Daisy Wyatt was published in The Independent in May, 3. It reports at length that an annual music festival in Kent, Hop Farm was cancelled this year due to poor ticket sales.

Author says that even after 8 weeks of heavy marketing and with such a great bill that the sponsors had to cancel, though they were convinced this didn't reflect on the artists, it highlighted the poor economic climate. Promoter Vince Power announced in March that he would be scaling back the festival due to a difficult financial year, but now confirmed Hop Farm would not go ahead. Also the man said that the festival's organizers worked very hard to try to make it work but it proved too much a of mountain to climb and despite fighting hard, circumstances were such that based on poor ticket sales and the forecast selling rate substantial losses would be made.

Speaking of the participants of the concert it's necessary to point out that My Bloody Valentine, The Horrors, Rodriguez, Jimmy Cliff and Martha Wainwright were among the acts announced for the 2013 line-up.

The article draws a conclusion that ticket holders will receive a full refund from their ticket agents

In my opinion, this music festival, Hop Farm festival in Kent, should be an amazing weekend camping event in 2013. It was created by Festival Republic founder, John Vincent Power. After its first year the festival was nominated at the UK Festival Awards with "Best New Festival". 

Review 3

The Legend of Valentino(1975)

Director - Melville Shavelson
Producer - Aaron Spelling, Leonard Goldberg
Writer - Melville Shavelson

Composer - Charles Fox
Genre - Biography/Drama
Release Year - 1975
Country - USA
Run Time - 96 minutes

Lead actors
Franco Nero as Rudolph Valentino
Suzanne Pleshette as June Mathis
Judd Hirsch as Jack Auerbach
Lesley Ann Warren as Lesley Warren
Milton Berle as Jesse L. Lasky
Yvette Mimieux as Natacha Rambova
Harold J. Stone as Sam Baldwin
Alicia Bond as Nazimova
Constance Forslund as Silent Star
Brenda Venus as Constance Carr

Legend of Valentino is a TV-short retelling of the life of legendary silent screen star Rudolph Valentino, here portrayed by Franco Nero. This TV movie was advertised as "romantic fiction," which was just as well since its only nods to the truth are the basic facts of Valentino's enormous screen fame and the national hysteria attending his early death in 1926 of peritonitis. Typical of Legend of Valentino's fabrications is the depiction of Valentino's first meeting with his future mentor, screenwriter June Mathis. In real life, Mathis discovered Valentino by watching him play a string of supporting roles; in Legend, she confronts him in her living room while he's burglarizing her house.

Plot
In this version of the silent film era superstar, Rudolph Valentino, a young and impoverished Italian immigrant, was discovered as he was robbing the house of screenwriter June Mathis, a somewhat older woman who was already a film-world insider. Having forgotten the young man, Mathis soon came to recognize his star potential and leaded him into the world of movies. Eventually, Valentino became the biggest male sex symbol of his time.

Direction
I know Melville Shavelson for his such works as The Princess and the Pirate(1944) and The Great Lover (1949). Melville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Shavelson was nominated twice for Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay—first for 1955's The Seven Little Foys and then for 1958's Houseboat. He shared both nominations with Jack Rose. He also directed both films. Other films he wrote and directed include Beau James (1957), The Five Pennies (1959) for which he won a Screen Writers Guild Award,It Started in Naples (1960), On the Double (1961), The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962), A New Kind of Love (1963), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), and Yours, Mine and Ours (1968). Shavelson was a noted instructor at USC's Master of Professional Writing Program from 1998-2006; he taught screenwriting. Shavelson died of natural causes in 2007.

Acting
Of course, it's necessary to emphasise Franco Nero and his acting in this film. Franco Nero was a more credible Valentino, he even had a genuine Italian accent,besides he looked more Italian,he was passionate and handsome enough to pass as the world's greatest lover.

In conclusion, I'd like to tell you that I chose this film, The Legend of Valentino, because we, the members of MovieClub, I join to, discussed his films and watched them and it was interesting to get some new information about the man. Rudolph Valentino may not be a familiar name to people today, but in the 1920s, he was about as popular as it's possible to be. To say Valentino was the first Superstar and a very handsome man wouldn't be an exaggeration. But once he said: "Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams." I think it's true. As a main character of Sheikh, he was charming. While he were stealing a heroine (a beautiful romantic scene!), I'm sure every woman wishes to be her. Valentino left cinematography in 1926 when he died of peritonitis-infection, he was 31! The Great Lover was gone, and now is largely forgotten. But Valentino, despite the brevity of his stardom left an impressive filmography. He was the first of his kind, and his success paved the way for all of the other iconic male stars who would follow in his wake.

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The article Hollywood 1930s child star Deanna Durbin dies aged 91 written by Belinda Goldsmith was published in The Independent on May, 1. It reports at length that Deanna Durbin, a singing child movie star of the 1930s who became one of the world's highest paid actresses died at the age of 91.

Author says that her son Peter H. David was quoted as telling The Deanna Durbin Society newsletter that the actress died "a few days ago", thanking her admirers for respecting her privacy. No other details were given.

There is a lot of comments on actrees's life as well. The actress was born Edna Mae Durbin in Winnipeg, Canada, but moved to California with her British-born parents when she was young. She broke into the movies in 1936, aged 14, when she appeared in Every Sunday with Judy Garland. She made her name playing the ideal teenage daughter in Three Smart Girls in 1936 and in its profitable follow-up the next year, One Hundred Men and a Girl. Capitalising on her fame, Universal cast Durbin in a series of musical movies including That Certain Age and Mad About Music which made the actress with the sweet soprano voice into one of Hollywood's most popular stars. Durbin shared a special Juvenile Award with Mickey Rooney at the 1938 Oscars for their "significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth".
Spealing of Deanna Durbin's following years of her acting career it’s necessary to point out that the woman found fame hard to handle and, despite trying to move on from her image as the perfect daughter with films such as Christmas Holiday (1944) and Lady on a Train (1945), she walked away from stardom aged about 28.

The article draws a conclusion that from 1949 Deanna Durbin stayed out of the limelight, moving to France with her third husband, the French director Charles David. She gave only one interview in the following decades and rejected all offers of a comeback.

As for me, I've never heard her name and even we didn't talk about this actrees during the session of MovieClub when we discussed famous actors and actrees of 1920-1930s. Having browsed some sites consecrated to Deanna Durbin I've learned that she was really an outstanding woman. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine Street. And after actrees's death many people showed respect for her by laying flowers and other symbolic tributes at her star.

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The article 'Don't you know who I am?' - Reese Witherspoon arrested for disorderly conduct written by Matilda Battersby was published in The Independent on April, 22. The article reports at length that Reese Witherspoon  was arrested for disorderly conduct after her husband was stopped on suspicion of drink driving.

The author gives the detailes of that evening when accident happened. The Hollywood movie star, 37, and her husband, Jim Toth, 42, were arrested in Atlanta during the early hours of Friday morning by a state trooper. According to police reports the trooper initiated a traffic stop after noticing that the car the couple were travelling in wasn’t staying in its lane. He reported that Toth had “droopy eyelids, watery, bloodshot eyes and smelled strongly of alcohol”. The report states Witherspoon refused to stay in the car while her husband was breathalysed. Witherspoon repeatedly got out of the car and was told that she would be arrested if she left the car again. Witherspoon was arrested on grounds of disorderly conduct. Toth was placed under arrest charged with driving under the influence.

The couple were released by police just hours later on Friday morning. Witherspoon released a statement on Sunday night apologising for her behaviour said that she clearly had one drink too many and she was deeply embarrassed about the things she had said. The article draws a conclusion that Witherspoon was in New York by for the premiere of her latest film Mud on the next day.

I've read a lot of comments written by readers of The Independent after this article. In my opinion, Witherspoon made a mistake but she deserves another chance. But this accident isn't good for actrees's acting career, especially her fans were surprised at her aggressive behavior.

Pleasure Reading 3. Chapter 3

Larry went to work in a coal mine near Lens, in northern France, where he got to know his coworker, a Pole named Kosti. Kosti was an uncouth man, but he was educated and knew a lot about mystical religion, and this arouses Larry's interest. In the spring, Kosti and Larry left the mine and wandered across Belgium and into Germany, where they found work on a farm. They stayed there through the summer, but Larry decided to leave after Becker's daughter-in-law Ellie, whom he didn't even like, crawled into his bed one night. He made his way to Bonn, where he remained for a year. Meanwhile, Isabel married Gray Maturin, and they settled down in Chicago. Within three years she gave birth to two daughters. Gray prospered and became a partner in the family business. He and Isabel were wealthy and happy. Then in October 1929, the New York stock market crashed. Gray's father Henry died of a heart attack and Gray was destroyed financially. He couldn't find another job and his health broke down. With no other option available, he and his family went to live on their plantation in South Carolina.

Pleasure Reading 2. Chapter 2

The narrator spent several days in Paris early in the autumn of that year on his way to Marseilles where he met Larry for the first time after the young man had left Chicago. Larry said he spent his time in Paris loafing and reading. The following spring, Mrs. Bradley and Isabel arrived in Paris, ready to begin a long vacation. Soon the young woman asked Larry about coming back, and he told her there was no way he would. He said he was trying to find answers to philosophical questions about God and the soul. He told her that they could live off the $3,000 a year. But Isabel didn't want to live on such modest means. Unable to convince him to come back to Chicago, they agree to break off their engagement. Isabel returned to the house where her mother was staying and walked in on a tea party attended by rich, high−society people. She looked at the way they were dressed and
listened to the way they talked, realizing that this was what she needed and wanted. For her point of view this was the best way to live. Elliott helped Isabel to forget Larry. And Mrs. Bradley and her daughter went to London. There, they met more rich and important people, and Isabel could be introduced to young, rich men. The narrator visited London too. He and Isabel met in the English countryside and the young woman opened up and told him about the conversation she had with Larry that led to their breakup. Also she told Maugham about the couple's final night in Paris when they went drinking and dancing. Isabel said she had concocted a plan to seduce Larry forcing him to come back to Chicago. At the last moment, though, she had changed her mind and kissed him only.

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The article Cannes 2013 lineup: a programme of heavy-hitters and unexpected gems written by Peter Bradshaw was publiched in the Guardian on April, 18. The article reports at length that the 2013 Cannes Film Festival is going to be extraordinary one.


It's an open secret that in recent years Cannes has consolidated its primacy among the film festivals of the world. More than the first cuckoo, the announcement of the Cannes competition list is the first sign of spring. Speaking of major entries in competition they are Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac, Steve McQueen's Twelve Years a Slave, Stephen Frears's Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight. There is the expected parade of heavy-hitters and some former Palme d'Or-winners: Roman Polanski, Nicolas Winding Refn, Paolo Sorrentino, Steven Soderbergh, Alexander Payne, Joel and Ethan Coen, François Ozon, Takashi Miike, Hirokazu Kore-eda, James Gray, Abdellatif Kechiche and Asghar Farhadi.

There is a lot of comment on the competition openers. Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby features Leonardo DiCaprio as the charismatic and mysterious Gatsby himself. The opener for the Un Certain Regard sidebar section — the "alternative" selection Cannes purists whimsically insist is the soul of the festival itself — is Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring. And the sexiest and most hotly anticipated choice in competition without a doubt is Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, starring Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas. It is necessary to emphasize that Cannes 2013 is a great festival for Japan, and two very different Japanese auteurs are represented - Takashi Miike's Straw Shield and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Like Father Like Son. One of the hottest tickets in competition must surely be Steven Soderbergh's Behind the Candelabra, an HBO project that has blossomed into feature-film status. If ever there was a director who owed his position to Cannes it is James Gray, an American auteur that this festival has doggedly promoted – but whose prestige at Cannes has never quite translated elsewhere. The actor-writer-artist James Franco is appearing at Cannes as a director, with his As I Lay Dying, a version of the William Faulkner novel, adapted by Franco himself. And many others famous celebrities will appear at the ceremony Cannes 2013.

The article draws a conclusion that we see  a fascinating festival lineup, and as ever the best stuff will almost certainly be the unheralded movies that we don't even realise are there.

As for me, as a film-lover, this artile is a good chance to get to know the last news from Cannes. The 2013 Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 15 to May 26, 2013. The President of the Jury will be American film director Steven Spielberg.

Pleasure Reading 1. Chapter 1

The events of the book began in 1919. The narrator, Somerset Maugham, received the invitation from his friend Elliot Templeton  to a lunch in Chicago with him. There he met Mrs. Louisa Bradley, his friend's sister, her daughter Isabel and Isabel's fiance Larry Darrell. The next day the narrator had dinner with all of them again, where he was introduced to Gray Maturin, a Larry's friend, who also fell in love with Isabel. Gray's rich father offered Larry, who didn't have a job, a promising position in his company. But Larry was still suffering from the shock of seeing his best friend who had been killed during the World War I. He had no ambition or desire to work, and he turned the job offer down. Instead, he said he intended to go to Paris and loafed around for two years. Isabel said she would wait for him.

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The article Robert De Niro's Tribeca mission written by Ed Pilkington was published in The Guardian on April, 14. It reports at length that Robert De Niro's Tribeca film festival, formed just after 9/11, helped New York get back on its feet and now is being in progress.

There is a lot of comment on De Niro's professional career. The actor has been in the business of making films so long – his debut on the big screen was in 1965 – that his work is now being restored. And the actor is thinking about its restoring. The restoration in question is the painstaking return to its original glory of King of Comedy, Martin Scorsese's dark 1982 satire on modern celebrity obsession. The movie has been digitally remastered from the original camera negatives and will be shown later this month on the closing night of this year's Tribeca film festival, with both De Niro and Scorsese in attendance. He hasn't seen the movie in at least 20 years, and he wants to see it – it will bring back memories not just of what the actor did in the movie, but of that period in his life.

It's an open secret that King of Comedy will be one of the highlights of the 2013 Tribeca film festival, the celebration of New York and its movie-making tradition that De Niro co-founded in 2001 when the dust of the fallen Twin Towers had barely settled over Ground Zero. The first festival, in 2002, was framed as a form of economic stimulus, the aim being to attract visitors back to lower Manhattan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Speaking of the festival itself it's necessary to note that each year Tribeca festival has expanded, growing international tentacles until it can now claim to have screened more than 1,400 films in 80 countries, including through its Arabic offshoot, Doha-Tribeca. In the process, it has comfortably achieved its initial objective, generating about $750m (£488m) worth of economic activity for New York.

The author also says that it remains De Niro's ambition to make the festival part of the tradition of New York; that he hopes will be what it will be in years to come, and it's partially that now. His love of the city, and of its cinematic history, remains undiminished. He might have added that the city also gave him his champion, fellow New Yorker Scorsese, who conjured many of De Niro's greatest performances in Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991) and Casino (1995).

It's very likely that Tribeca film festival's struggles with its purpose in life have been exacerbated by the proliferation of movie festivals around the world and the increasingly clogged nature of the annual calendar. Tribeca, dubbed "Hollywood on the Hudson", suffers from its timing so soon after the Oscars. Like any festival, De Niro and Rosenthal are also having to grapple with the challenge of the internet and the opportunities it offers.

Speaking of the festival in this year, it's interesting to point out that the technique will be rolled out to the UK from 16 April, with an initial slate of six of the festival's films being offered for an eight-week run on pay-per-view through Virgin Media and digital platforms. The selected titles include Greetings from Tim Buckley and Fresh Meat. As a further foray into the world of digital film-making at this year's festival, there will be a tieup with Twitter's Vine to launch a six-second film competition. This will be a competition for films lasting six seconds and posted through Twitter's hashtag.

The article draws a conclusion that Robert De Niro is thinking about  he needs to do it for himself.

In conclusion I'd like to say that Tribeca Festival is really becoming more popular than in previous years. And speaking of my favourite film for this year I was impressed by the movie of an Italian director, Claudio Giovannesi, - Alì Blue Eyes where the story of collapsing of two immigrant cultures is told.

Review 2

Black Swan(2010)

Director - Darren Aronofsky

Producer - Ari Handel, Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Brian Oliver

Screenwriters - Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin

Composer - Clint Mansell
Genre - Drama / Thriller
Release Year - 2010
Country - US
Run Time - 180 minutes
MPAA Rating - R

Lead actors

Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers/The Swan Queen
Mila Kunis as Lily/The Black Swan
Vincent Cassel as Thomas Leroy/The Gentleman
Barbara Hershey as Erica Sayers/The Queen
Winona Ryder as Beth MacIntyre/The Dying Swan
Benjamin Millepied as David Moreau/The Prince
Ksenia Solo as Veronica/Little Swan
Kristina Anapau as Galina/Little Swan
Janet Montgomery as Madeline/Little Swan
Sebastian Stan as Andrew/Suitor
Toby Hemingway as Tom/Suitor

Plot

Black Swan follows the story of Nina, a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, was completely consumed with dance. She lived with her mother Erica, a retired ballerina, who zealously supported her daughter's professional ambition. When artistic director Thomas Leroy  decided to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina was his first choice. But Nina had competition: a new dancer- Lily, who impresseed Leroy as well. Swan Lake requireed a dancer who could play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represented guile and sensuality. Nina fitted the White Swan role perfectly but Lily was the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expanded their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina began to get more in touch with her dark side with a recklessness that threatened to destroy her.

Direction

I saw first work of Darren Aronofsky watching Requiem for a Dream(2000). The film depicts different forms of addiction, leading to the characters’ imprisonment in a world of delusion and reckless desperation that is subsequently overtaken by reality. After I began to associated this director with a quality films, about hard stages and sides of people's life. And his next work I was really impressed by was The Wrestler (2008) starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. This tender, gripping and altogether remarkable film instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances. And I think it's a result of a huge role of Darren Aronofsky as a director and producer. In Black Swan we can see an outstanding talent of the man. Darren Aronofsky first became interested in ballet when his sister studied dance at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. The basic idea for the film started when he hired screenwriters to rework a screenplay called The Understudy, which was about off-Broadway actors and explored the notion of being haunted by a double. Aronofsky said the screenplay had elements of All About Eve, Roman Polanski's The Tenant, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novella The Double. The director had also seen numerous productions of Swan Lake, and he connected the duality of the White Swan and the Black Swan to the script. When researching for the production of Black Swan, Aronofsky found ballet to be "a very insular world" whose dancers were "not impressed by movies". Regardless, the director found active and inactive dancers to share their experiences with him. He also stood backstage to see the Bolshoi Ballet perform at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Costume Design

Nominated for Best Costume Design for the 2011 Critics' Choice Movie Awards, Kate and Laura Mulleavy designed the costumes for both the Swan Lake ballet in Black Swan, as well as other pieces worn by Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in the film. The Rodarte credit for the film reads Ballet Costumes Designed by Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte as they designed the Swan Lake ballet within the film and key costumes worn by Natalie Portman, including her white gown, white scarf, and grey practice tutu.

Background Music

Clint Mansell, a musician and composer, deserves the seperate words. He wrote the score for most Aronofsky's films including Black Swan. Clint Mansell and Darren Aronofsky is a perfect duet, the composer could convey the soul of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet.

About the movie Black Swan, I'm sure, many people have heard . This film was at the hearing in 2010. It is such picture that attracts us with its beauty, elegance, even a danger and temptation. The picture can scare away truthfulness and mysticism. BUT nevertheless you can't break away even for a second during watching it! “Still waters run deep", in my opinion, is perfect slogan for Black Swan. The plot of the film is amazing, after all, we are shown a consequence of one of the great desires of a man - opening of his second opposite side. The heroine was looking for her "alter ego" - Nina tried to stand in a new way, but she went too far in the attempts. The symbol of this evil "alter ego" was another ballerina - Lily, a demon, rival. She didn't just attend at the life of Nina, as an antipode, moreover she gradually survived the young woman out of her own consciousness. I can say that you begin to go crazy with Nina by the end of the film. Well, the movie keeps in suspense not worse than any other thriller, keeps to look for the edge between reality and madness, passion and lust, modesty and ambition, love and detestation, friendship and competition. What Natalie Portman did with her role  - this is something impossible. She played Nina Sayers fabulously. So,it is very difficult to describe, you need to see Black Swan!

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The article Choreographer Gillian Lynne says 'Reality TV is harming the theatre' written by Vanessa Thorpe was published in The Guardian on March,24. It discusses the a growing threat to musical theatre from television with Gillian Lynne.

She is a choreographer of Cats, The Phantom of The Opera and Aspects of Love, will receive an Olivier award for lifetime achievement next month. The woman says that  television, especially reality TV, is a danger because producers drop someone into a role who has been on television, moreover they want instant fame. Recently, the Wizard of Oz, Chicago and Oliver! have all been promoted by using cast members known to TV audiences first, but it is a trend she decries.

There is a lot of comment on Lynne's personal life and some other facts of her biography. At 87, Lynne is the most successful choreographer of several generations. The Olivier award will celebrate her contribution to theatre and a career she believes has been built ona commitment to her art and a dislike of shortcuts. Lynne worked most recently on the West End show Dear World, but her life in dance started in London's East End at the age of 16. Later, she danced with Sadler's Wells Ballet and at Covent Garden, before turning to acting, choreography and directing. Her story has also become familiar since educationist Sir Ken Robinson used Lynne as an example in a talk given initially as part of a TED event, which has been downloaded more than 15m times. Lynne danced the Black Queen in Checkmate, among other leading roles, at the Royal Opera House, where Dame Ninette de Valois picked her out as a rebel. Eventually, Lynne left Covent Garden, returning much later to choreograph and dance in opera interludes. In recent years, she has complained that the Royal Ballet has let its dancers forget the sensuality of dance.

The article draws a conclusion that Lynne's Olivier award means she joins an elite list of previous recipients. The ceremony in London will crown a career in which she has danced with both Frederick Ashton and Fred Astaire.

As for me, I was really impressed her playing in Cats, she is a great dancer of modern ballet. Jillian Lynne has a huge number of nominations and awards, and I hope her Olivier award isn't the last one.

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The article See the Play, Don’t Miss the Program written by David Belcher was published in The New Your Times on March, 26. It reports at length that the printed theater program for a performance is an important thing and not only for advertising. A London theater program is often a quick study guide.

The article discusses the distinguishing feature of a program in the capital of the UK'S theatres. In London most programs are all about the play you’re about to see. Granted, they cost anywhere from £2.50 to £4, or $3.80 to $6, but it’s an investment, not just a souvenir. The takeaway is a deeper understanding not just of the play but of some of Britain’s history, politics and culture.

There is a lot of comment on examples of different programms. The National Theatre’s production of James Graham’s “This House,” set in 1974, amid gridlock in Parliament as the Labor and the Tory whips battle for control amid an energy crisis, high inflation and record unemployment. It’s a dense, rapid-pace dissection of an era, and the program contains no less than three full-length articles of exposition, a glossary of political terms and a list of the members of Parliament who speak, if only for a few seconds.

Then the author tells about the West End revival of Harold Pinter’s 1971 masterwork “Old Times” that has garnered attention for the clever way that the actresses Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams are alternating the roles of Kate and Anna. Pinter’s memory play about a love triangle is dense with ambiguity, and the £4 program contains articles that guide viewers through 70 loaded minutes of Pinterese.

Speaking of the most well-known theatre in London, Shakespeare's Globe, where the program costs £4 and a floor ticket only £5, equal the cost of a movie in the West End, the printed programs also are specific to each play. There are three or four articles on Elizabethan England, as well as the history of the Globe and life in the theater in Shakespearean England.

It's an open secret that the National Theatre’s imposing, in The Shed, brick-red temporary theater that opens shortly while the Cottlesoe goes through a yearlong renovation. There programs for the series of experimental plays will cost £1, in keeping with The Shed’s minimalist concept — and its attempt to lure younger audiences to the theater. Even performers’ credits are refreshing. The National Theatre uses rehearsal shots instead of posed head shots for its performers.

The article draws a conclusion that in the UK where serial dramas and plays are still performed regularly on the radio, and most performers in the London theater have radio credits, it’s another example of how a theater program reflects its society.

In my opinion, British theatre is a unique structure that differents from any other theatre's organization in the world. British are very proud of their traditions and customs and tried to rise above. Well, a theatre programm is a good example of it - designers and playwriters give it important role as well as directors give attention to actors and composers.

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The article Love Never Dies back to the West End written by Matt Trueman was published in The Guardian on March 19, 2013. It reports at length that famous Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel Love Never Dies was set to return for a UK tour after successful Australian staging.

At the beginning the author says that its London premiere was widely judged to be a flop. And the other day the composer let slip that a revival was in the works, due "later this year or early next". That prompted David Ian and Michael Harrison, producers of the West End production of The Bodyguard, to announce that they would be taking the musical. It is interesting to note that, according to Playbill.com, the pair are in the process of booking a 75 to 80-week run around Britain with an eye towards a West End return should it prove a success.

There is a lot of comment on the other facts of the new project. It would be based on the Simon Phillips's Australian staging, which premiered in Melbourne in May 2011, shortly before the show closed in London after 15 months. The original had a tricky run, struggling to shake off a handful of negative reviews – including famously being dubbed Paint Never Dries by theatre bloggers the West End Whingers – and closed for a short period of revisions.

It's necessary to emphasize that in Australia, Phillips's production went three better, scooping up 10 nominations at the Helpmann awards and winning three. And moreover it was subsequently filmed for DVD.

The article concludes by saying that its success was the result of having had "very little involvement from Webber ". He also revealed that his latest musical, based on the Profumo scandal, is now ready for production.

In my point of view, Andrew Lloyd Webber is an outstanding impresario of musical theatre. His famous shows are Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats , The Phantom of the Opera, Whistle Down the Wind, The Woman in White, The Wizard of Oz and many others. I watched DVD version of Love Never Dies with Ramin Karimloo stared as Phantom and I can say that after The Phantom of the Opera the first musical isn't so successful, but if you are fond of Christine Daae's story you appreciate the sequel at its true value.

Individual Reading 6. Chapter 43-58

The narrator tried to analyze what he had written about Charles Strickland. The young man couldn't understand everuhing the artist did, thought, felt and captured because in his opinion, there was a lack of facts and details about painter's life. For Strickland art was a manifestation of the sexual instinct; he was cruel, selfish, brutal and sensual. But Charles had a vision, and he was a great artist. Years later the young man went to Tahite, the last place where Strickland lived, and where the narrator met his friend, Captain Nichols. The latter told about the artist from his point of view, differented from the facts we knew about Charles. Then the young man was introduced to other people the painter dealed with. And they told their own stories about Strickland. Well, Sharles Strickland spent last years near Papeete, he was married and hed children. The man died of leprosy but before the death he reached the peak of his art. The walls of his house in Tahite imaged something extraordinary - from floor to ceiling it was covered with an elaborate composition, mysterious and wonderful. It was the work of a man who had delved into the hidden secrets; a man who knew  things which it was unholy for people to know. After the death of the artist his pictures became relevant for art, and everyone desired to have one of them or something else. Well, everybody wanted to touch his maiden, pure works to see thegreat art.

Individual Reading 5. Chapter 35-42

One morning Dirk entered the young man's house quickly and said that Blanche had tried to kill herself. The man was really dispirited and the narrator was shoked. The woman had taken poison after a quarelle with Strickland, and then she died at the hospital. The circumstances of Blanche's death necessitated all manner of dreadful formalities, but at last the men were allowed to bury her. After the funeral, Dirk went to his friend and he told him he had made up the mind to go away to Holland. Before leaving Stroeve told about how he decided to be an artist. It happened that he had a knack for drawing at school, at then his mother gave him a box of water-colours as a present. His parents sent him to Amsterdam to try for a scholarship, and he won it. At the end of his story he added that art was the greatest thing in the world. Also Dirk told about his meeting with Strickland. He hadn't been in his studio, he came in and found nothing was changed except a picture which Strickland left. There the nacked Blanche was captured. Stroeve described it as a great, wonderful work of art, he was seized with awe, he couldn't touch it. The man met Charles and asked to come with him to Holland, but the latter only said he had other fish to fry and gave Dirk the picture. Next mounth, the narrator met Strickland who came along with him. At the young man's house they were talking about Blanche and her death, about pictures, and Charles said that she had a perfect body, but he only wanted to paint a hude, and when he finished his picture he took no more interest in her - so, he never loved the woman. Actually, Strickland didn't want love, called it weakness, but sometimes he want a woman, that's all. Then Charles showed the narrator his pictures. The latter was taken aback by what seemed to him clumsiness of his techhique, he knew nothing of the simplification at which he aimed - a still-life of oranges on a plate were not round and lop-sided, and faces looked like caricatures. Well, the man didn't understand what the artist felt or wanted to say and convey. A week later Strickland went to Marseilles, and the narrator never saw him again.

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The article Russian police arrest man over acid attack on Bolshoi director Sergei Filin written by Shaun Walker was published in The Independent on March, 5. It reports at length that Russian police arrested a suspect in the acid attack that nearly blinded the artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre - Mr Filin.

The author says that the offender was detained before dawn in the small town of Stupino, Moscow Region, and is thought by police to have thrown the acid at 42-year-old Sergei Filin. But the person who ordered the assault is still at large.

Speaking of the complainant it is necessary to note that he is currently undergoing treatment in Germany to mitigate the consequences of the attack on 17 January.  After surgical intervention, Russian doctors were able to salvage Mr Filin’s sight, and he is now receiving further treatment for his sight and facial burns. He has said he hopes to return to work as soon as possible and is still speaking to his dancers by telephone and Skype.

It's an open secret that the atmosphere in the Bolshoi theatre is strained. A previous leader of the ballet troupe had to resign after pornographic photographs of him were disseminated online, while the theatre’s costly renovation programme has been plagued with allegations of corruption and incompetence. Russian media has played up a dispute between Mr Filin and Nikolai Tsiskaridze who has been engaged in a long-running dispute with the Bolshoi management, criticising the theatre publicly and repeatedly and effectively being banned from dancing.

The article carries a lot of comment on the police actions. Having questioned the majority of the employees and administrators of the theatre during their investigation into the acid attack, police returned to the Bolshoi this morning to conduct further searches. A raid was also carried out on a Moscow address belonging to relatives of the man arrested, according to the police source. A police source told that the person arrested this morning was not a member of the Bolshoi’s troupe, however added that a number of employees and dancers at the theatre were still being investigated by officers.

The article draws a conclusion that ballet performances at the theatre have continued despite the attack on Mr Filin.

Personnaly, I've never been in the theatre, but the last time I think everybody knows what is happening there, unfortunately more about intrigue on the stage than about its productions and performances. And I hope that the acid attack isn't just a newspaper hoax for somebody's reputation.

Individual Reading 4. Chapter 27-34

Two or three weeks passed, Strickland felt better, and the narrator went to the Louvre where he suddenly saw Stroeve. The latter seemed singularly disconsolate, and he told the young man that he suggested Strickland to occupy his studio thinking that both could paint, but Charles said him to get out. The narrator worried about this situation, but Stroeve asked to do nothing. A week later, Dick went to the young man - his clothes were in disorder, he looked suddenly bedraggled. He told that his wife decided to leave him, she fell in love with Strickland, and Stroeve packed his clothes up and left his house, where the wife abided with Charles. The narrator really understood the actions and motives of  Blanche Stroeve - she only thought that she loved her husband, and when the woman first saw Strickland - a big and strong man, his appearance was wild and uncouth, there was aloofness in his eyes and sensuality in his mouth - she loved him. But what the narrator couldn't understand was reaction of Dick who said his wife would return to him, and he just needed to wait. Once, the young man saw Charles and Blanche together in the cafe, they seemed not to change, moreover they behaved as nothing had happened. The meeting had been devoid of incidentand and finally the narrator couldn't tell how the couple were getting on. 

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The article A vanishing world, according to Andy Warhol: How the artist highlighted the plight of endangered animals written by Nick Clark was pulished in The Independent, March,1. It reports at length that such modern glamorous and well-known artist as Andy Warhol is interested in the future of Earth's environment and helps it through the art.

It's an open secret that Warhol's screenprints are more commonly associated with Hollywood glamour queens Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor. In his new work he uses the trademark style to highlight the issue of endangered animals, in a series set to go up for sale this month.

There is every reason to believe that the prints from new exhibition, which will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London later, are estimated to bring between £250,000 to £300,000. The complete set of 10 screenprints in the Endangered Species series Andy Warhol referred to as “animals in make-up,” include colourful prints of an African elephant, a bighorn ram, a San Francisco silverspot butterfly, a black rhinoceros, an orangutan and a Pine Barrens tree frog. The series were produced in 1983 but came out of Warhol’s concern over ecology after a conversation with his New York art dealers Freya and Ronald Feldman.

There is a lot of comment on that the auction house is currently selling off many of the artist’s works - in November, an auction at Christie’s in New York brought in more than $17m. It has also been auctioning off 125 works by the pop artist online.

The author says that The Sotheby’s auction will also feature a unique colour screenprint Self-Portrait as well as the Cambell’s Soup II series. It comprises 10 screenprints , which are expected to go for £150,000. Others include Shoes, a print with diamond dust, and three Sunset screenprints.

Throughout history, many species of animals have gradually disappeared from the Earth. Unfortunately, this process of extinction seems to be accelerating. Personally, I think this artist's project is a good investment of his money, time and efforts into not less good business - environmental problem.

Individual Reading 3. Chapter 16-25

Having learned that her husband would live separately in Paris without money but with a desire to become an artist, Mrs. Strickland as she was a strong woman, began to keep her own business, and 5 years later she already had the office in Chancery Lane and employed several girls. The narrator visited her to say that he decided to move in Paris after boring daily routine in London, and the woman told about her new life and asked the young man to send money for Charles. Having arrived in the capital of France the narrator visited his friend, a painter, Dirk Stroeve, who immediately informed him about great artist - Charles Strickland , and the men went to the cafe to meet him.

Charles Strickland changed - untrimmed beard, long hair, his body was cadaverous, and he wore the same suit he had had 5 years ago. When the small sum of money which he brought with him come to an end and he couldn't sale any his picture - he set about earning a bit of them. The man worked as a guide and as a translator and even as a house painter. But Charles Strickland suffered from no dismay, took money from the Stroeves and that's why Mrs. Stroeve hated him.

Before Christmas Strickland was seriously ill and Dick brought him to care about at his house.

Review 1

Frida (2002)

Frida is a 2002 Miramax/Ventanarosa biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter - Frida Khalo. This filw was adapted by Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas from the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Khalo written by Hayden Herrera. The movie was directed by Julie Taymor and stared Salma Hayek as Frida Khalo, Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera, Geoffrey Rush as Leo Trotsky, Mia Maestro as Cristina Khalo. Frida made its world premiere on August 29, 2002, opening the Venice International Film Festival. 

 

The film begins with Frida's youth when she went to a college. Once her friend and she got into trouble - a trolley bus collided with a bus they were riding. The young woman was impaled by a metal pole and the injuries she sustained plague her for the rest of her life. She stayed at the bed and did't stand up for a long time after the accident. To help her to spend time, her father brought her a canvas and the character started painting. Frida also detailed artist's relationship with the muralist Diego River, she had met at the college. When Rivera proposed to the young woman, she told him she didn't expect from him loyality. Diego's appraisal of her painting ability was one of the reasons she continued to paint. Frida and Diego spent a lot of time together, and once the young painter told she would never sleep with him, but soon they got married. Throughout the marriage, River cheated on her with a wide array of women, while Frida was afraid she hadn't her own children. Then the couple went to New Yourk City as Diego could paint the mural Man at the Crossroads at the Rockfeller Center. While the wife and the husband were in the Unitid States, Khalo suffered a miscarriage, and her mother died in Mexico. Rivera refused to compromise his communist vision of the work to the needs of the patron, Nelson Rockfeller. As a result, the mural was destroyed, and the couple returned to Mexico. Khalo's sister, Kristina, got divorced with her husband and she moved at the studio of two painters to work as Rivera's assistant. Soon Frida discovered that Diego was having an affair with Kristina. Frida left him and subsequently sinked into alcoholism. The couple reunited when he asked her to welcome Leo Trotsky and his wife who had been granted a political asylum in Mexico. Later Khalo and Trosky began a love affair, which forced the married Trotsky to leave artists. Frida went to Paris after Diego realized she was unfaithful. When she returned, he asked her to divorce. Soon Trotsky was murdered in Mexico City. Rivera was temporarily a suspect, and Kahlo was incarcerated in his place when he wasn't found. Rivera helped get her released and then asked her to remarry him, and she agreed. Her health became worse, her leg was amputated. But before the death she had an exhibition in her own contry. The doctors said her not to leave the house, but she couldn't miss such event, and she was brought there on her bed. 

This is a fabulous film about a bright woman, about the revolutionary nature, the indefatigable desire, the energy. Frida Khalo was suffering a lot, but there was nothing that could break her vital energy. After the bus accident Frida Khalo spent a year bedridden, soon she began to capture self-portraits. She drew a foot, because it was the only one part of her body she could see in such position. And then began to draw her suffering. Another side of her life, full of the suffering as well was connected with the relations with Diego Rivera. They had similiar interests -  views on life, politics, history. They loved each other. They were both artists - she was a talent, and he was her critic. But their love, their family, it seemed to broke into pieces, like the terrible bus accident. Frida and suffering was the whole inseparable thing. Maybe just the suffering formed her as a person and artist. And illness forced her always to fight. 

Salma Hayek put a part of her soul in the role of the great painter - Frida Kahlo. To show the way of life of the legendary women from the girl to adult was a difficult task. The other actors also played very well, and we cannot say that someone of them looked just like a shadow in the background of Hayek. 

I think the film is beautiful, emotional and reliable. There is a beauty, pain, betrayal, jealousy and unique talent, towering over all life's turns. Here we can see real Frida Khalo - passionate, pure, bright embodied in the frail body of a small vulnerable woman.

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The article Whaam! artist Roy Lichtenstein was 'not a fan of comics and cartoons' written by Nick Clarck was published in The Inderpendent, February, 18. It reports at length that the painter didn't consider himself as pop-artist, and The Tate is now trying to show him with new side.

Speaking of the painter it's necessary to point out that Dorothy Lichtenstein, his widow, revealed that he was “not a fan of comics and cartoons”, nevertheless Lichtenstein was one of the central figures in American pop art, whose comic strip paintings are among the most iconic pieces of 20th century art. He had another close to 40 years after the working on other imagery, not only the early ‘60s cartoon images.

It's an open secret that the painter was famous for his works based on comic strips coloured using hand-painted dots. Roy Lichtenstein, who died in 1997 at the age of 73, started painting in the late 1940s, but it was not until the early 1960s that he developed his signature style inspired by industrial printing processes.

The author says that Tate Modern is staging the first comprehensive retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein since his death in 1997. The exhibition, which opened a week ago, brings together more than 125 works. As well as the Tate’s own Whaam!, above, and familiar images including Drowning Girl and Masterpiece the show includes little seen sculptures, landscapes, drawings and a series of female nudes.

There are a lot of comments on Dorothy Lichtenstein's words about her husband's exhibition. She added her husband had felt “somewhat” frustrated at being pigeonholed for the comic book pictures and as a pop artist. Despite being known for paintings such as Whaam!, Lichtenstein “was not a fan of comics and cartoons.

The article draws a conclusion that sponsors of the exhibition in Tate Modern and other people as well hope to expand the canon of Roy Lichtenstein. Jack Cowart, founding executive director of the Lichtenstein Foundation, said “We wanted people to say: ‘Gee I didn’t know he did that too’.”

Personally I discovered Lichtenstein's works when I watched Desperate Housewives, an American television series created by Marc Cherry. You can see some artist's pictures in its caption. In my opinion, people need to know more works of a painter and discover new points of view about him. Well, I hope the exhibition of Roy Lichtenstein in The Tate tells us something not just interesting but also something unimaginable and stupendous.

Individual Reading 2.Chapter 8-15

Having returned at London, the narrator met Miss Waterford who told him about Strickland's parting - the husband broke his wife. The young man hurried to talk with Mrs. Strickland, and she said him about the letter from husband where the latter informed that he was at Paris, he decided to never come back and live alone. The woman asked the narrator to follow her husband and try to return him, and the young man went to France. He found Mr. Strickland quickly, and in a very unsuitable hotel, but without any lover. And the man explained his desire to become a painter, that he had visited painting classes at London, which he continued to go to in Paris. The narrator came back without Mr. Strickland, and he didn't know what he would say Mrs. Strickland about the unsuccesful journey.

Rendering 2

The article From (and to) Russia with love was written by David Lister in The Independent, February, 17. It reports at length that V&A Museum opened the exhibition that reveals the golden age of relations between the British monarchy and the Russian Tsars led to the exchange of the freatest gifts the world had seen.

 

Speaking of the relation's history it's necessary to point out that a process of ambassadorial gifts between the two countries when Elithabeth I sent an embasseador bearing gifts to Ivan the Terrible. It resulted in some fabulous treasures being exchanged between the two courts, and even Ivan the Terrible wanted to marry the virgin queen.

 

The article carries a lot of comment on that Ivan the Terrible may have been terrible for the Russians but he was the most friendly Tsar to the English. The two monarchs did continue their relationship in diplomacy, with Elizabeth at one point offering him sanctuary in England, though cannily insisting that he be responsible for his own expenses.

 

The author reports the beginning of the 17th centuary was a period of remarkable closenees between the two countries. Elithabeth I ordered to stage Twelfth Night for the Russian ambassador, and it's significant that Love's Labours Lost has a whole scene in which characters turn up dressed as Muscovites.

 

The article discusses that for the first time the exhibitions will be put on at London's Victoria & Albert Museum and follows a similar exhibition staged in the Kremlin at the end of last year by the Kremlin's director of museums, Elena Gagarina. As the woman said she anticipated an increasingly close cultural relationship.

 

The author says the general galleries of the V&A are now showing the silver-gilt gates from Kiev and other objects ranging from a 19th-century Mother and Child triptych to 200 20th-century posters and a collection of 19th-century photographs of people associated with the theatre in St Petersburg. The museum also Russian toys and revolutionary ceramics as well as jewellery from the Russian Royal collections. But this new exhibition of the Treasures of the Royal Courts with its story of ambassadorial gifts from the founding of the Muscovy Company in 1555 is the biggest venture yet involving unprecedented loans from the Kremlin's own museums. Comprising more than 150 objects, the exhibition will chronicle the ritual and chivalry of the royal courts with heraldry, processional armour and sumptuous textiles, paintings and miniatures. At the heart of the exhibition will be spectacular British and French silver that was given to the Russian Tsars. The important role of heraldry will be stressed with such items as The Dacre Beasts will be on display with the “Kynge's Beeste's” stone lions – the only beasts known to have survived from Henry VIII's royal palaces.

 

The article concludes by saying that closeness between two courts stopped in 1649 with the execution of Charles I, and Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich expelled all English merchants from Russia.

 

In my opinion, the exhibition in the V&A Museum is a good chance to increase warm relations between Russia and the United Kingdom. It's hard to predict the course of events in future but may be the closeness in cultural aspect will become closeness in political one.

Individual Reading 1. Chapter 1-7

Charles Strickland was exceptionally multi-faceted painter, but at the end of his death he was unknown. After the death, a writer, Maurice Huret, wrote the article in Mercure de France about him, and through it rescued the man from oblivion. Many other journalists, writers, and even the son of Charles Strickland tried to tell people about the painter's life, his background. But he was so restrained and reserved that nobody could give complete description, and W. S. Maugham as a narrator of the whole novel decided to tell us his own view of Strickland's life. It was the time of Maugham's youth and in one evening he met Mrs. Strickland who prefered literature, enjoyed art and she gave luncheon-parties, after one of which the narrator and the woman made friends. Then Mrs. Strickland invited Maugham to dine with her family and friends, where promised to introduce the husband to. Charles Strickland was an ordinary husband and father of two children, he worked as a stockbrocker, people thought about him as a dull man, but his wife described him as awfully good and kind one. The summer was coming, and Mrs. Strickland and Maugham was going to go out of London and they arranged to meet in the autumn.

Rendering 1

The article Federico Barocci: divinity in the details was published by Michael Prodger in The Guardian on February 16, 2013. It reports at length that the exhibition of Federico Barocci, a lost old masterful painter whose works because of its non-moving position-he captured altarpieces, for example,- have never been displayed in The National Gallery, London, before.

Speaking of general information about Federico Barocci it's interesting to note that he was the most celebrated artist of the generation that immediately followed the High Renaissance deities of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Titian and Raphael. The master was patronised by such authoritative people as Pope Pius VI, the Emperor Rudolf, the Duke of Urbino and even a saint, Filippo Neri.Of Barocci's 80 finished paintings Urbino alone has more than Britain, France, Spain and America combined, and many of his altarpieces remain in the churches for which they were painted.

Analyzing the situation in Barocci's exclusively religious pictures, which didn't endear him to Protestant taste, its distinctive style – fondant colour harmonies and an emotional sweetness, the author says that his works were outshine the shadowy dramas of Caravaggio and his adherents. So that's why he has left little impression on the public consciousness. Speaking of the exhibition it's necessary to point that it contains some 20 paintings and 65 drawings, pastel studies and oil sketches.

The article carries a lot comment on the biography of the master. He was born in Urbino, his family's profession as scientific instrument makers influenced on Barocci's compositions, with figures placed around the pictures like the numerals on a dial. In Rome, where the young master went to further his career, he met Michelangelo and probably had access to some of his drawings that Barocci began to reconcile the two Renaissance artistic opposites of design and colour. But Michelangelo first noticed the young painter when he alone among a group of students hung back while the others rushed to gain the great man's attention.  In 1565 when Michelangelo's fellow painters invited Barocci to a picnic and poisoned his salad. Barocci suffered stomach problems for the rest of his life. The discomfort was such that he vomited after every meal, slept fitfully and was plagued by nightmares, and could paint for only two hours a day.

The author says that the master returned to Urbino to the day of his death. Painting three-metre tall altarpieces was too physically demanding for a man who was permanently nauseous, so Barocci minimised his time in front of the canvas by meticulous preparation. Some 2,000 of his drawings exist, which is a sign of both the quality of his draughtsmanship and their importance in his method.According to Bellori, Barocci was kindly disposed to poses, in his brushwork there are no filler passages. Such a degree of planning was unprecedented. The beauty of his drawings and pastels, and the way he would repeat them with the slightest changes, reveal a perfectionist with obsessive tendencies.

Giving appraisal of the style and method of capturing, the author says that the colour marks the master apart. Barocci was a lay member of the Capuchin mendicant preaching order, and he believed that worshippers responded most deeply to colour and sentiment. He was also that rare thing, a good painter of babies, and also liked to include animals in his pictures. He was not, however, always sweetness personified himself, he was also depressive.

The article draws a conclusion that the exhibition in the National Gallery, which includes paintings that have never before left Le Marche, shows that in Barocci sentiment and power are not incompatible. Appropriately though, the exhibition is also a resurrection of a lost master - Federico Barocci.

As for me, honestly I've never heard the name of this painter before. And of course after the reading of the article I thought I had to see some of the master's works, pictures, etc. And I was really impressed by his relegious theme in every work and allegorical meanings of every picture, the colour scheme he used, the striking accuracy of people. Well,  Federico Barocci was one of the most prominent painters of his time, and I hope after the exhibition in London people all over the world will know his name like name of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Titian and Raphael.

My Pleasure Reading

Year I Term I - Charlotte Bronte "Jane Air"

Year I Term II - Stephenie Meyer "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner"

Year II Term III - Helen Fielding "Bridget Jones's Diary" 

Year II Term IV - J. R. R. Tolkien "The Hobbit"

Year III Term V - W.S.Maugham "The Theatre"

Year III Term VI - W.S.Maugham "The Razor's Edge"