Thursday 2nd February

Thursday 2nd February

The international screening of LEONARDO LIVE is coming up...and it's all very exciting. Here's an extract of an interview I did for a US newspaper which sums up why I'm so happy we went through so many hoops to make this film.

I have been making films for 25 years - and in recent years this has included many arts & culture films. My films IN SEARCH OF MOZART, IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN & IN SEARCH OF HAYDN play to good audiences in cinemas and concert halls around the world and thus I know there is in an audience out there. It is TV that has abandoned its public service ethics and gone down-market and down-hill but crowds of all ages remain who want to learn about great composers and great artists. I have made over 100 films about artists and I always feel such a sense of privilege to be in galleries after the visitors have all gone home. I wanted thus to bring all these things together and present a major exhibition not just to TV audiences but cinema audiences. TV is one thing but in the cinema it plays on a big screen in high-definition, no interruptions, great audio, like-minded folk around you, nice cup of coffee and a slice of cake...and a stunning look at the works and life of one of the most creative genius's ever to walk the planet - if that's not worth 90 minutes of your time, I don't know what is! I have close relationships with galleries around the world but above all the UK - and thus I went to talk to my friends at the National Gallery What, I asked, have you coming up in two years time that might work in cinemas...they smiled and said, we have the best possible answer to that question...Leonardo! The exhibition focusses on his time in Milan - which was the most productive time of his life. The National Gallery has brought nine of his paintings (almost half his painting output) under one roof for the one and only time in history. It has never happened before and it will never happen again. I feel so honoured to have been the one camera team to have been allowed in to film these works in detail - and to give you, the audience, a rare opportunity to share in these masterpieces. Plus we go behind-the-scenes of the exhibition too. If I have a favourite moment from the many great moments in the film, maybe it's the look at the new Leonardo painting, the Salvador Mundi. It's the first 'new' Leonardo discovered and acknowledged as one of his in over a hundred years and it's quite wonderful. The reaction has been tremendous - and the sense of pride that all over the world folk have had a chance to share in these examples of what humans are capable of means that we are certainly going to do more. We have a few already lined up and it's all very exciting. What the Met has done for opera and the National Theatre for theatre, PhilGrabskyFilms.com will try to do for art. When you look at so many of the feature films out there - $100m productions that seem little more than an excuse to show violence of one sort or another - there has to be room for small projects like this which celebrate creativity. We all know that we are able to bomb, shoot, stab, punch and swear...but it's good to remind ourselves that we can also paint, sculpt, compose....