Cultural Notes - Barbie and Rope; BBC Proms; Jacob Collier
Do filmmakers need to meditate on the philosophy that 'less is more'?
‘Barbenheimer’ has at last arrived. I did half of the job on Wednesday night when I visited my local theatre to watch Barbie.
I'm still not decided on whether I'd describe Greta Gerwig's film as ‘stupidly brilliant’ or ‘brilliantly stupid’, but that's not to say I didn't find it to be an enjoyable viewing. It's unique as both a piece of art and as a cultural phenomenon; I'm already dreading the sequels/spin-offs which seem inevitable to follow.
No lover of pink myself, I nonetheless found the colour of the film wonderfully vibranf. Gerwig and Baumbach's script was witty, and the performances were excellent - I was particularly gladdened to see Kate McKinnon making the most of her considerable talent away from the dying embers of Saturday Night Live (if the writers’ strike ever ends, they could do a lot worse than getting her in to host an episode in the upcoming season).
Perhaps most crucially, the film has done a brilliant job in getting people back to movie theatres, in what we can only hope isn't a blip.
Do filmmakers need to remember that ‘less is more’
Staying on Barbenheimer briefly, I found this piece by The Times’ James Marriott to be a very interesting read. I don't want to pre-judge Oppenheimer, but another film which might be considered ‘bloated’ comes to mind: Damien Chazelle's Babylon, which I saw at the beginning of the year. There are excellent moments in it, but I found myself checking my watch more than once as it slowly reached its conclusion. Barbie seemed to me to be quite well-formed by comparison.
James references Hitchcock's Rope. Far from being considered one of Hitchcock's best - although that's doing it no disservice - it is nonetheless crucial in the transition into his golden 1950s period which began with Strangers on a Train and ended with Psycho. It is, I think, the first time he dares to show us a murder (or at least a body in the immediate aftermath) on screen. It is also the first of the four films he made with James Stewart.
Rope is notable for being his first in colour (if we set aside the one or two frames of red in Spellbound), and yet it’s interesting that this first foray doesn't seem to play a particularly standoutish role as it does in, say, The Wizard of Oz. Indeed, the whole film is rather minimalist.
James has already mentioned the film’s length (just an hour-and-fifteen), but there is also an incredibly small cast; the film is more like a play, set in one room (a mostly open-plan apartment); and, with the exception of the opening titles, the music in the film is entirely diagetic, consisting simply of Farley Grainger's repetitive performance of Poulenc's rather clockwork-like Mouvements Perpetuels.
Less is more. Hitchcock is acutely aware of that, even as he draws on an incredibly diverse pallette in his work - and Rope is an ode to telling a story simply whilst keeping the audience gripped throughout.
BBC Proms
My review of the opening night can be read here. There’ve been many delights since then, too.
The early music vocal ensemble Stile Antico’s tribute to William Byrd was excellent. This group don’t have an artificially ‘squeaky-clean’ sound, unlike a lot of others about at the moment; there’s a real earthiness to their sound, and not at the expense of beauty - they have that in spades. The highlight for me had to be Ne irascaris, Domine - Byrd’s slow ping-pong between the upper and lower registers was handled wonderfully, and the slow, descending lines in Civitas sancti tui (the second half of the motet) bloomed beautifully. As the piece came to an end, the subtle softening of dynamic and slowing of tempo from 'Jerusalem' was incredibly captivating. The whole concert is available on BBC Sounds.
If Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is, as Pierre Boulez said, the beginning of modern music, it was fitting that Benjamin Grosvenor’s stand-alone prom kicked off with this particular piece. Debussy disliked the term ‘impressionism’, but it’s hard to hear this particular piece without it coming to mind; there was suitably dreamy playing throughout, which only made the opening of the following piece, Liszt's Réminiscences de Norma, all the more striking for its stringency (though as the piece progressed, Grosvenor wasn't afraid to give the music room to breathe).
In a programme full of orchestra-to-piano transcriptions, it was something of a reversal to hear Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, most famous for the composer's own orchestral arrangement of four of its movements. It being a neo-Baroque piece, it’s a challenge to find the balance between that rigour and the more wispy qualities one finds in Ravel’s work more generally, but Grosvenor straddled the two modes quite effectively; the opening Prélude was a beautiful wash of sound, but with a clear outline poking through. La Valse - also by Ravel - completed the programme. As with Tombeau, one can listen to a piano version and miss the detail of the orchestra, but Grosvenor’s exquisite playing meant that there was no such worry here. Listen here on BBC Sounds.
Some pieces are overplayed. Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is one such piece. But there are two caveats for this performance by Pekka Kuusisto and The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen: firstly, that when the playing is so fresh as this, one can forget that it’s not a premiere. Secondly, that if the opportunity is taken to do something different - as was the case here, with the movements intertwined with folk song improvisations - it's worth doing; a person who has heard the Vivaldi a thousand times (a Classic FM listener or a resident of Venice, for instance) could not fail to have their interest piqued.
Also included in the programme was a performance of Beethoven’s 1st. Not only was the playing excellent, but the musicians again took the opportunity to perform an oft-heard piece in a more novel fashion; namely, by beginning the 4th movement by singing, and inviting the audience to sing back to them in call-and-response.
'Accessibility' is a much maligned word in today's arts landscape. But objection to it is not, I think, a rejection of the principle of opening things up, but more often by dumbing down and cheapening the repertoire, or else culling it until all that’s left are a few pieces that audiences will have heard on an advert in the last thirty years. That is most certainly not the way to do it. Engaging with the audience and giving them a fresh take on things, as in this concert, absolutely is.
Jacob Collier’s ‘WELLLL’
The 28-year-old British singer's latest album - the conclusion of the four-part Djesse series - will soon be upon us and a teaser in the form of this new rock-inspired single has dropped. This musician never fails to surprise; if it’s your first time coming into his soundworld, I’m incredibly envious.
Only Connect
This most esoteric of quiz shows returned last week for its 19th series. Read my own ode to this ‘ode to knowledge for knowledge’s sake’.