27th September 2014

4 films, 4 countries…

It’s been a busy few days once again and luckily the trains, planes and automobile gods have been on my side.

It began with a decent BA flight to one of my favourite US cities: Chicago.   The excellent Gene Siskel has been a warm host to my films over the years and, ages ago, they booked a season of preview screenings of IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN.   Flying these days is so easy with all the hundreds of entertainment channels available though of course I watched the airline version of our Matisse film!  Seriously, I did but then I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel (dir: Wes Anderson) that I missed in the cinema. I loved it – and wished I had seen it on the big screen.  I can’t say it enough: films are best in the cinema… I picked up a paper on arrival at the airport and was delighted with a decent review for Chopin in the Chicago Tribune: 

Anyone who admired British director Phil Grabsky's previous documentary portraits of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn is likely to find his latest film, "In Search of Chopin," equally absorbing, informative and, yes, entertaining.  Performance excerpts and interviews flesh out the saga of the brilliant if short-lived Polish-born composer and pianist (he was only 39 at his death) whose keyboard music represents the quintessence of the Romantic piano tradition. Links are drawn between Chopin's creative impulse and his emotional fragility, lifelong battle with tuberculosis and sometimes fraught romantic relationships, including a notorious liaison with novelist George Sand.  Included is illuminating commentary by pianist-performer Hershey Felder, who portrayed the composer in his one-man show, "Monsieur Chopin," at the Royal George Theatre here in 2005.

The audiences were good over the weekend – with some sell-outs 

What was extremely pleasing was the crowd reaction to the film.  I thought, while making this film, that Chopin was beginning to seem to me to be as popular as Mozart and Beethoven – and I now think it’s true.  There’s something about a somewhat flawed character – or one with human weaknesses that we all share – that draws us to them and their art.  Those creative giants that sit on their pedestals, stony as granite, don’t draw us in. It’s those who share the human weaknesses we all have and yet still produce extraordinary art, those are for many the most appealing.  Van Gogh – who we are also making a film about – is another perfect example.

Anyway, I always love my visits to the great city of Chicago and I wish I could have escaped the iron claw of the endless emails I have to deal with more often so that I could have explored the wealth it contains.  I did get to visit its Art Institute and also managed to run along its lake shore (so intelligently kept for public use when the city was being built).  But this really is a monumentally busy moment for us and I was only just about able to deal with the dozens of emails I get every day.  It wasn’t long before I was en route to Philadelphia to film at its Museum of Art (yes, the ‘Rocky’ steps!) for our forthcoming Impressionists film).   It and the wonderful Barnes nearby are yet another two examples of great art American galleries.  Our film on the Impressionists will be exploring why so much art ended up there, in Pittsburgh, Boston, New York, DC, LA, Cleveland, Atlanta, Dallas and so on.  I interviewed a very articulate curator there called Jennifer Thompson – I really admire these curators who dedicate their lives to really understanding and caring for the art in their charge.  Jenny’s interview will certainly help us get a deeper understanding of who the impressionists really were.   We talked in front of a gorgeous painting of Poplars by Monet – it will be in the Philadelphia version of the show but is too fragile to travel to Paris or London.

 

Poplars on the Bank of the Epte River –Claude Monet 1891

There’s a nice story about the painting: Monet had to pay to stop them being cut down to be used as timber.  He was desperate to paint them and the money offered did the trick (for a while at least).

After the interview and a quick dash to the Barnes I flew home to London and, after a crazy detour with my son to Manchester to see Man City crush Sheffield Wednesday 7-0, I caught an early morning train to Paris.  The Musee du Luxembourg has started the hanging of its forthcoming exhibition (which is the backbone of our film) – they’ve never really said yes to a film like this before so it was with some sense of relief and accomplishment to be actually inside filming.  One has to tread carefully around the unpacking and hanging of priceless artworks – but we’re used to it.  The thrill of seeing paintings, that you’ve seen many times in books, suddenly before your eyes is magnificent. We were there the day the National Gallery was unpacking and hanging its works. I particularly love this one:

 

Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando – Edgar Degas 1879

It was a strenuous day with all the equipment (for myself and good friend & colleague David Bickerstaff).  (Note: don’t expect to find Parisian taxis in a hurry).  We do, however, have some important footage now – as well as another curatorial interview with Sylvie Patry, a charming and articulate expert from the Musee d’Orsay.   My colleague refused to let me spend all night doing emails and took me on a long walk – with a decent intake of red wine en route – through Paris.  I’ll need to catch up on my sleep another time…(on trains no doubt).

Next day (Friday) was special: we began with a fascinating interview with the descendants of Paul Durand-Ruel. The story of the dealer behind the commercialisation of impressionism (at the end of the 19th century) is gripping.  Equally gripping therefore was the opportunity to see his very stock books, account books, note books with the names of Manet, Monet, Pisarro, Cezanne and others all liberally dotted about.  I love the history that emanates from contemporary objects and this was certainly one of those moments.   

David and I then departed from central Paris and drove the short distance (but 90’ in traffic) to Auvers-sur-Oise.  This town is rightly a pilgrimage centre for art lovers, especially those of Vincent van Gogh.   Here one can visit the Café Ravoux and see the room in which he slept, painted and died.  The café has been wonderfully cared for by an impressive Belgian entrepreneur and art-lover.  It has been lovingly restored and boasts a classy restaurant now (highly recommended!).  Everywhere there are traces of Van Gogh’s last two months.  Around the town, one can see the locations of paintings (with facsimiles attached to posts), the house of Dr Gachet, the church Notre Dame d’Auvers and sadly the cemetery where Vincent and indeed his brother Theo lay side by side. Vincent shot himself on July 29th 1890.

 
Breakfast the next day was fun – sitting in the very café where Vincent sipped his own morning caffeine 124 years ago – and have a look at this photo below – do you recognise the painting that that coffee pot is from? Clue: it’s not a Van Gogh.  Email us at info@seventh-art.com if you do.  First correct answer gets a DVD from Season 1.   Good luck. All I’ll say is that I was surprised to be able to hold it.   (and while the owner is 100% sure of its veracity, we must remain a teeny bit sceptical I guess). 

Rush, rush, rush: filming in Dr Gachet’s attic, the church grounds, by the river Oise, outside the town hall, inside the café… Quick salade et petite bierre then off back to Paris.  Horrible re-introduction to urban life as one meets the traffic again. Urgh.   But we make Gare du Nord with time to spare – at which point poor David heads off alone to London with 6 bags….and I head to Germany with 3. 

First of all I travel the Thalys from Paris to Brussels in 80 minutes. And then Brussels to Cologne in a couple of hours. It’s really so easy – and cheaper too than our criminally over-priced British rail system. (I was, the other day, quoted over £200 / $330 for a two hour train ride from London to Manchester on Virgin Trains! No wonder Virgin boss Richard Branson boasts of his £3bn fortune – disgusting & it’s why so many still drive).   Anyway on the efficient, friendly and cheaper Thalys I got to Koln (Cologne) bang on time and was in my hotel five minutes later.

The next day was all about filming some final scenes for CONCERTO – A BEETHOVEN JOURNEY.   Leif Ove Andsnes is now embarked on his final stage of residencies. This is where he plays all 5 piano concertos in one location over a period of a few days.  I can tell it’s hard – and Bonn was the first one – as he looked noticeably more tired and stressed than he did when I filmed him a month or so ago in Bergen.  But you only have to watch one concert (in this case playing the 1st & 5th) to understand the effort he is putting in.  Not just the performance but the travel, the CD signings, the dinners with executives and so on….   For my purposes I needed some footage of the 5th in particular and the concert as a whole.  The Beethovenhalle, the orchestra and Leif Ove could not have been more helpful and it all went extremely well.

That just left Monday morning – and a very appropriate location to more or less finish the filming of CONCERTO – A BEETHOVEN JOURNEY.  The Beethoven birthplace in Bonn.

I have been there before, of course for IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN but it’s an evocative and fascinating place to return to with a camera – especially as it was the first time Leif Ove had visited it – and he was given a detailed your with the director Michael Ladenburger.  It will only be a short moment in the film but something was revealed that they only discovered a few months ago which is directly relevant to the concertos – so that was a stroke of real luck as I captured it on camera. It is something neither I nor Leif Ove knew and is directly relevant to Beethoven and his concertos.  You, dear friends, will need to watch the film….

At that , I took my leave and headed for the final set of 4 train journeys that got me home by midnight.  My feet ache, my back aches, my head aches but what a fascinating few days. 

24th September 2014

Phil talks to WFMT while he's in Chicago with In Search of Chopin for a special series of preview screenings prior to its release next year. See below or follow the link for the original article: http://ow.ly/BRCeD

Documentary Filmmaker Phil Grabsky at WFMT

Friday, September 19, 2014 by Noel Morris

Filmmaker Phil Grabsky at WFMT, photo by Noel Morris

When Phil Grabsky looks out into the world, he sees stories that need to be told. As an independent filmmaker, he’s followed his passion from Brazil to Angola, from Chernobyl to Afghanistan. He also has a fascination for great composers.

In Search of Chopin
“His grave in Paris remains a place of pilgrimage and his music continues to sell out concert halls worldwide – but who exactly was this man who was terrified of public performance, who fled his Polish homeland for Paris never to return, took up with the most notorious transvestite in France, rarely gave public performances and, despite a life of ill-health, wrote some of the deepest and most powerful music ever written? How exactly did a young Polish boy rise to such heady heights?
For four years, Phil Grabsky has traveled the globe in his quest to lay bare the life and music of Chopin.”
—Seventh Art Productions

Phil Grabsky is in Chicago to introduce his new film In Search of Chopin. He stopped by WFMT to play Guest Host with Kerry Frumkin, and offered a mixture, including Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and (of course) Chopin. “I can’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to explore Chopin.” According to Mr. Grabsky, with all the negativity in the world, it’s essential to immerse oneself in the works of people who are so inspired.

Phil Grabsky speaks with Kerry Frumkin, photo by Noel Morris

He talks about a moment in the film, In Search of Chopin, when pianist and performance artist Hershey Felder wonders how so much talent could be poured into one person [Chopin]. “Is it a gift from God?”
According to Mr. Grabsky, one can’t help musing about such things, but the challenge is to train the lens upon “what can be explained.” That is, stitching together a narrative through the art, the people, and the events of a subject’s life.
In Search of Chopin is the latest in Phil Grabsky’s composer series which includes In Search of Haydn, In Search of Beethoven, and In Search of Mozart.
Click to learn more about Phil Grabsky and his company Seventh Art Productions.
In Search of Chopin runs at the Gene Siskel Film Center through October 2nd. Director Phil Grabsky will be present for audience discussion at all screenings, Friday-Monday, September 19-22. The 2:00 pm shows on Saturday and Sunday will be moderated by WFMT’s Andrew Patner.

16th April 2014

It’s been a while since I posted a blog – apologies.  I haven’t been holiday – there just haven’t been enough hours in the day!  I must say I admire those who manage to blog practically every day – where do they find the time?  So what news the good ship Seventh Art?  EXHIBITION ON SCREEN has been the biggest consumer of time, as you might imagine.  After our June screening (live in the UK only) of MATISSE LIVE FROM TATE MODERN we’ve been busy re-editing it and adding in footage from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This (wonderful) exhibition is heading to New York next month and we have been fortunate enough to gain access to the preparations (and a real insight into MoMA’s relationship with Matisse over the years).  This is the first time MoMA (surely one of the world’s top museums) has co-operated on a film like this so for the cinema so we feel very privileged.  For those who saw the film in June, you’ll want to see it again as we’ve added about 15 minutes of fascinating material – and for those who haven’t seen it yet then MATISSE FROM TATE MODERN AND MOMA will be coming out on November 4^th in over 40 countries.    Meanwhile we’ve been busy working on 4 other films – yes, 4!   GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING AND OTHER TREASURES FROM THE MAURITSHUIS is almost done and looks spectacular.  If you’re interested in what is now perhaps the second most famous painting in the world, then this is the film for you.  Or if you’re just interested in a stunning ‘jewel box’ of an art gallery replete with masterpieces, then this is also the film for you.  Or if you just like art…..    REMBRANDT FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERY AND RIJKSMUSEUM has also starting shooting and is looking great. He really is one of the greats.    As for the other two, well we’re deep into the research for VAN GOGH and also THE IMPRESSIONISTS.  What a season!  Keep an eye on exhibitiononscreen.com  (sign up to the newsletter here so we’ll let you know when the films are coming to a screen near you – and also like our Facebook page).  

 Why not let us know what you think?  And we’re always open to ideas for Seasons 3 & 4….we have some of the exhibitions sorted but not all….Is your local gallery doing a major show? Let me know.  

 

Now, that’s not all folks….to all my Australian friends: IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN opens on Thursday.  The Sydney Morning Herald has called it a ‘masterpiece’….  Now famously we’re told to treat positive and negative reviews with the same disdain. Rubbish: the good reviews are written by the intelligent, articulate and erudite journalists out there. We all know that!!    The Australian newspaper gives it a big thumbs up too (read here)  – so surely that’s enough to get you down to your local cinema.  One thing is for sure: there’s nothing on TV worth watching…..  Or just go for the wine & cake.  Right, must dash: currently working on a re-release of our Leonardo film and have to work on the script.  Best wishes to you all, Phil. 

PS: I leave you with very sad news from the world’s number one arts blogger  

 

 See the original from Real Clear Arts here

Judith H. Dobrzynski:

This is just plain bad: Last week, a painting titled Madonna with the Saints John the Evangelist and Gregory Thaumaturgus (1639) was stolen from a church in Modena, Italy. Not only was the church alarm system in active, but also the Baroque masterpiece wasn't insured.

It's a big painting -- 10 ft. by 6 ft. -- and reports say it was stolen in its frame, with speculation that the theft was "ordered" by a private collector because a work of this size and renown would be hard ever to resell openly. Unless, speculated the Telegraph in London, it was "cut up into pieces in an attempt to sell it on."

The Telegraph's article, pegged the value of the work at "up to £5 million," or nearly $8.4 million.

It was stolen in the middle of the night from the church of San Vincenzo in the northern town of Modena earlier this week. Curators admitted that lack of funds meant the alarms protecting the painting were not working.

"There was an alarm in the church, but it was inactive," said Monsignor Giacomo Morandi, of the archdiocese of Modena.

It had been paid for by a donation from a local bank but once those funds dried up it had been switched off, he told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

"It's very difficult to protect every single work of art," he added.

The work has hung in the Church of San Vincenzo ever since it was painted. According to The History Blog,

An allied bomb struck San Vincenzo on May 13th, 1944, destroying the presbytery and the choir and its late 17th century frescoes, but the Guercino survived. Let’s hope it can survive human greed.

The History Blog also provided these details:

San Vincenzo is not a parish church so it doesn’t stay open all week. The doors are opened every Sunday for mass and locked after the service is over. The thieves made their way inside, stole the painting and got out without leaving a trace. There is no sign of forced entry on the church door. The priest only realized something was wrong because the door was open.

Police believe at least three men were involved in the theft because the piece is so big and heavy, especially still inside the frame, that it one or two people wouldn’t be able to move it. They probably got in during mass on Sunday, August 10th, and hid until they could do their dirty deed under cover of night. They must have had transportation, most likely a van.

...The Carabinieri’s Tutela Patrimonio Culturale unit (a national police squad dedicated to investigating stolen art and antiquities) are in charge of the investigation. They’re looking through phone records and security camera footage from along the street. There are no cameras pointed at the church, but a van large enough to contain the painting should have been captured by other cameras. Looks as if we have seen the last of this work for some time. But maybe the police will get lucky.

5th May 2014

A blog of numbers…

Just flying over Singapore, 34000 feet up. 

Half way through an 11,500 mile trip from New Zealand to UK.

I’ve just done 7 screenings in 3 days of the all-new IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN.

Good audiences but total folk in the 100s – smaller screens in NZ.

I did seven intros and seven Q and As. Total time talking: 7 hours.

Press: 3 hours.

Hours worked per day – 20.  Length of trip 6 days.  120 hours worked.  And I’m not joking.

At airport, had some time to tidy up emails. Deleted my Sent box from last two years….20,000 of them – thus 10,000 a year, hence average of 30 a day…

Ran 9km along Auckland waterfront.  Perk of the job. Over the last year, I have run in hills of Santa Fe, the waterfront of Chicago, Stanley Park in Vancouver and Central Park in NY. Total KM run…er, lots.

Films completed last year – 4: Manet, Vermeer, Munch and Chopin.

Films on the way…7

Concerts filmed for IN SEARCH OF BACH… 2.  Years to completion….er….5? 10?

Current job satisfaction on a scale of one to ten:  9.  

4320 miles flown from Auckland, 7180 to go to London…

30th MARCH 2014

A long three week trip to the USA. As I head back to Atlanta airport to head home, it seems an absolute age since I boarded the plane to come out to LA on the 6^th March…but let’s go back to the start:

…6^th March and I am heading to Los Angeles for meetings regarding the next run of films for EXHIBITION ON SCREEN.  I am also heading there for some early press work on IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN.  At Heathrow I was delighted to be told I was on the Upper Deck of my BA flight to Los Angeles that I was then confused, on boarding, when there were no stairs to climb….Doh! This was a new Airbus A380 – with its two decks.   Anyway, I wasn’t in need of a bed as I had lots of work to do. I was feeling kind of pleased with myself until I realised the guy in front had been on his Mac revising a contract also for 6 hours straight.  That is some kind of concentration.  Goes to show that however hard you work there’s always someone else working harder…   That said, the past few weeks and months for me have been – and sorry to my regular blog readers as you’ve read this before – as busy. This really is an intense period in my life.  Previous major TV series were exhausting - In the Shadow of the Sun was tough. I Caesar took me to the absolute limit. Escapefrom Luanda was a chore – but nowadays it’s a full time job raising the funds and another full time job contracting and another full time job marketing….all that as well as researching, writing, filming and editing.   Still, the days may be very long right now but at least it involves a lot of researching great art.   

Time for a brief update: where is the good ship Seventh Art sailing these days?   As those of you who read my blogs know, we have just finished IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN and it has its world premiere in New Zealand in a few weeks, then Hungary, Australia, USA, Canada….I have also been continuing the project with Leif Ove Andsnes – we had our first sit-down to look at an edit the other day and it went really well – though I admit we spent as much time discussing whether Man City, Chelsea or Liverpool would win the league.   Leif Ove is on tour in the US now and this is the type of review he has been getting time & again:

Leif Ove Andsnes at Carnegie Hall, Part of a 19-CityTour

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI (New York Times)

Many young virtuoso pianists perform the Beethoven sonatas as a demonstration of their musical depth. But when he emerged as a major young artist, the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes avoided Beethoven. He thought he should wait until he had “something to say,” as he explained in 2012 in an appearance on WQXR and WNYC radio studios. Well, Mr. Andsnes, 43, is certainly making up for lost time. He is in the midst of what he calls, perhaps too grandly, “The Beethoven Journey,” a multiyear immersion in the master’s works. For its main project, he is recording and performing the five Beethoven piano concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, directing the ensemble from the keyboard. The second CD in this series was just released by Sony Classical, with superb accounts of the Second and Fourth Concertos. On Wednesday night, Mr. Andsnes performed a Beethoven recital at Carnegie Hall, one stop in a 19-city tour. The hall was nearly full for an evening that included only one of the popular sonatas with titles attached, the “Appassionata.” Mr. Andsnes began with the Sonata No. 11 in B flat (Op. 22), an overlooked work considered the last of Beethoven’s early-period sonatas. Its musical materials seem almost intentionally ordinary, with a crisp opening theme that leads to a nothing-special melody over a rippling accompaniment. But it’s what Beethoven does with such elements throughout the work that is so extraordinary. In his Apollonian approach to the piece, Mr. Andsnes brought out the surprising wildness and strangeness of the music. His performance had me recalling comments he made at the Greene Space. When asked why he had avoided Beethoven, Mr. Andsnes said that “pianistically” the music did “not have obvious sensual qualities” of works by Chopin, Schumann, Janacek, Grieg and Rachmaninoff. Well, from his playing on Wednesday, Mr. Andsnes has definitely found ways to connect with Beethoven’s pianistic sensuality. In the first movement of the Sonata No. 11, he brought milky textures and alluring colorings to bursts of undulant figures in the bass and stretches of passagework in the mercurial development. In the finale, each time the beguiling rondo theme returns, Beethoven makes it more elaborate and playful, qualities Mr. Andsnes conveyed with wondrous nuance and detail, while maintaining cool, almost sly control. He then turned to a late work, the Sonata No. 28 in A (Op. 101), giving a noble and beautifully natural performance of a deceptively complex score, which ends with a joyous yet knotty fugue. After intermission, he offered an exquisite account of Six Variations on an Original Theme in F. The “Appassionata,” the Sonata No. 23 in F minor, is a touchstone of Beethoven’s middle period. Many pianists make the most of the music’s stormy contrasts and intensity. Mr. Andsnes’s more magisterial interpretation allowed every stark element to come through while enhancing the dramatic sweep, especially during his uncannily controlled account of the onrushing finale. In response to a standing ovation, Mr. Andsnes performed three encores: an impish Beethoven bagatelle; the perpetual-motion finale movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 22 in F; and, for a change, the last of Schubert’s “Moments Musicaux,” played with beguiling tenderness.

 

My film on Leif Ove will be on BBC4 in 2015 but it’s the exception not the rule.  TV in the UK continues to be a mess: BBC4 doesn’t have a controller, BBC 3 is going on-line only. SkyArts hasn’t recovered from the impact on Sky generally of higher prices for soccer caused by their own sky-high fees they pay being topped by even higher fees (hundreds of millions) by British Telecom. Sky Arts’ boss James Hunt has moved on.  Channel 4 lost their arts comm ed Tabitha Jackson a while ago and may well have no arts policy at all for all I can see. ITV does Perspectives – celebrities on artists.  Radio is the best place for the arts but I was disappointed to read that Mark Lawson has quit Front Row, allegedly for bullying (and I really admire Front Row and Mark Lawson’s knowledge) but bullying is certainly rife in broadcasting.  Such a shame.  While I’ve been travelling in the USA the Director General of the BBC made a speech about increasing their arts output.  I’m delighted it’s back on the agenda and felt to be worthy of a ‘big speech’.  They’d abandoned the arts a decade ago so this is a welcome U-turn.  The only criticism I’d make is that they always play it so safe: everything with presenters, opera from London, Shakespeare, etc.  They don’t exist in the same commercial sphere as me or Sky Arts so the BBC is the one place where you should be able to experiment with new ideas, less white-middle-class-male-London-centric art, even make some films that are themselves works of art.  It has to be repeated though that, in my opinion, art lovers have never in history been as well served.

Talking of arts lovers, my old mate Tim Marlow has just become director of exhibitions at the Royal Academy – great news: I’m delighted for him. We’ll do less TV projects together but I know he’ll do an excellent job and welcome less travelling.

The Big Project (deservedly capitalized) continues to be EXHIBITION ON SCREEN. Hence the main reason I am en route to the USA. I have some important meetings as well as filming some interviews.  We have some big news coming up so keep an eye on the Facebook site or sign up to the newsletter.  For those of you who love art, I think you’re going to be happy with the results of our labour.

Later….much later….so here I am on the plane back to England.  Madness; where did those three weeks go?  It’s already a blur of planes, trains and automobiles.  I had some very successful screenings of Season 1 EXHIBITION ON SCREEN, great preview screenings of Chopin, and lots and lots of meetings and visits. Last, but certainly not least, I filmed some fascinating interviews for forthcoming films.  The rest of my work was scripting (and of course endless contracting) for the big film that is coming up MATISSE: LIVEFROM TATE MODERN – on June 3^rd!  UK only – then to the rest of the world in October.  Now this is going to be fantastic….

 

27 November 2013

Now this is a day I have looked forward to for some time….  I guess I have been working on the IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN script for two or three years…tweaking, amending, cutting, revising….  Sometimes weeks go by with nothing and other times it’s highly engaged and productive.  Gone are the days that one could focus on one project at a time – and the EXHIBITION ON SCREEN project has been extremely time-consuming.  But I have always had Chopin in my head and certainly in recent weeks, as the date of final narrative readings approached, my mind has been very focused on this.   It’s one thing to have a general sense of things in a script – a note-form paragraph, something roughly done, a marker.  But when you know that within days Juliet Stevenson is going to be reading the final script and David Dawson reading the letters of Chopin, there is no longer any room for inaccuracy or flaccid writing. Everything has to be precise, accurate, flowing and accessible.

On the early train to London, I make last minute changes and alterations…As I walk from Victoria Station past Buckingham Palace to the voice-over studio in Soho, I am still going over it all in my head…Every word, one has to think how will Juliet and David deliver it.  The studio is a smallish basement on Berwick Street but they’re good. Except they don’t have a printer for three 83-page scripts…Possible delay is averted though by a professional printers next door.  Juliet is first up.  What can I say about Juliet that you don’t already know?  Simply one of this country’s finest actors – as well as being smart, sensitive, gorgeous, friendly and highly professional.  Choosing her to be the narrator of Mozart was a brilliant suggestion (by a colleague of mine in 2005) and being able to use her subsequently for Beethoven, Haydn and now Chopin is simply fantastic.  She makes sentences come to life.  Any of you that listen to her audio books will know she is a born story-teller.  It only took us two hours to read the whole script…and she did it so well.   Then in came David Dawson – a brilliant actor that I first saw playing Romeo in Stratford. I thought long & hard about the right voice for Chopin and decided that David was absolutely right – not only for the skill with which he can deliver lines but the ability to carry that mix of frail body but fiercely competent and endlessly sharp intellect.

By the end of the session, I felt as close to the ‘real’ Chopin as I think I’ll ever get.  Now it’s all electronic signals on their way, via email, to my editor and into the film.  In 20 years time, there they’ll still be…..it’s done, it’s locked, any faults are mine and mine alone.   There still remain two months of finishing the film but the end is in sight….

04 July 2013

6am my time, grey outside. Talking to Australian radio – 3pm their time & sunny. No wonder I get confused. Life would be so much easier if you didn’t have to sleep. I have to ring New Zealand now, then LA….I am rapidly losing touch with what time or day it is in little ol’ Brighton. I only got back last night from a thoroughly exhausting but highly productive four days filming in Warsaw (for In Search of Chopin).

So it feels time to share some thoughts…. Our biggest project remains of course EXHIBITION. Our second film in the brand went out last week. Munch from Oslo has been very well received by audiences although some of our cinema partners have yet to screen so we don’t have a full picture. It takes years to build a loyal audience, as NT Live now have, but we’re clearly moving in the right direction. The problem is always going to be press & publicity – trying to connect with folk who have hundreds of other ‘products’ all chasing for their attention. We only have 162 Likes on our facebook page – we need to get into the thousands. The galleries in Oslo have expressed their delight with the film which is nice – and has led to new (and major) galleries coming to us. That’s great – and quite right too! It’s our idea. It’s only three years since everyone was looking at me in amazement at the very idea of putting an exhibition in a cinema – not any more. The paintings by Munch looked absolutely fabulous on the big screen and difficult and expensive though it was I am thrilled we chose that exhibition to cover. Now we’re busy on Vermeer – and really that should be a blockbuster. What a painter! And there is this myth that there’s little to say about him or his work as we don’t have many records. Well, a bit of detective work and actually one can say an enormous amount. I start editing the biographical films in a couple of weeks and can’t wait. Having been lucky enough to film the 4 Vermeers at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and then the 5 Vermeers at the Met in New York a couple of weeks ago, I know just how remarkable his art is. So that’s very exciting. Plus we’re advanced in the planning to film 4 or 5 more major galleries & exhibitions next year.

As always it’s the funding that slows us down… We’re trying a Kickstarter crowd-funding appeal but that’s not working out. And talks with possible brand sponsors continue without resolution. On the other hand, we have more and more cinemas coming on to the network. And DVD sales of Manet are strong. I saw a guy gave the Tate £10m yesterday…I wish he’d thought of us instead! It was exciting though to be in Warsaw yesterday knowing that Munch would be shown there. Also last week working with Leif Ove Andsnes in Bergen and knowing Munch would be shown there too. Then, as I said, in the USA a few days before that and Munch would be there too. Global really does mean global. I hope my In Search of Chopin gets the same distribution.

The past few days in Warsaw have provided so much material – I did six extensive interviews with Polish experts and that added so much colour and understanding to the story. Plus a lot of hiking around with my camera gear to get location footage – some of which I have never seen in any film on Chopin. By the way, I have to say I very nearly missed the flight out. I had top leave home at 4am on Sunday and then foolishly realised I was low on fuel. I stopped to fill up and for the first time ever I put a Petrol pump in to my Diesel car. It fitted but wouldn’t start: then I noticed my error. It didn’t start because the attendant had, by pure chance, dashed out for two minutes at that very moment and the pumps need the attendant to turn on. What a stroke of fortune. Once I got to Warsaw, it was a heck of a schedule – non-stop dawn to dusk but I have cracked the all-important early years now. Be under no illusuions, he was not made in Paris– he was pretty much fully formed when he left Warsaw as a young man. Our image of Warsaw is so stuck on the images of 1944 & 1945 that we forget what it used to be like…one of those great cities like Dresden, Prague, Berlin, St Peterburg and so on. All being well, I can get to editing the film in the Autumn.

One last thing: I must end by paying tribute to an Australian documentary director that has died.Dennis O’Rourke was an inspiration to me and many others – and is a great loss to the industry. Here’s a extract from an unfinished book (that I hope to publish one day) about my time in Afghanistan where I bizarrely first met Dennis on my first night in Kabul:

 

The guesthouse was called Everest and the two young Afghan owners, who had immediately seen an opportunity to make some money in post-war Kabul, were very welcoming. Some tea, toast and boiled eggs were placed on a table decorated with plastic roses in a cup of water. Nearby, gripped by music videos on the satellite TV, sat Iranian traders, a Pakistani journalist and, most remarkably, another film-maker. His name was Dennis O’Rourke and, to steal a line from the film Casablanca, ‘of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world’, what a coincidence that he was here! For, in some ways, it was his influence that had brought me to Kabul in the first place. The feeling that I needed to change the way I made films had been creeping up on me throughout the 1990s. I loved making films for the BBC, Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel but this was unquestionably the start of a ‘dumbing down’. Meanwhile, stories from outside the UK were frowned upon; reality strands were the new ‘must-watch, water-cooler’ TV. ‘Big Brother’ was a massive success and I remember how joyful its commissioning editors were. In private they told me that the worse the housemates behaved the happier they were. Personally, I was fed up with it. I didn't want to make series about British shopping centres and airports and ignore the other 200-plus countries in the world. As I was beginning to ponder just how to change things, I visited the Sheffield Documentary Festival. There I ignored the many sessions dealing with what commissioning editors were looking for; instead I sat for three days watching feature documentary after feature documentary. This was before Michael Moore came along and changed everything by making Fahrenheit 9/11. That film took more than $100m at the box office and, in doing so, opened up all sorts of doors. At this time, the very word‘documentary’ was dirty to distributors and exhibitors. Few wanted them. And yet here in a dark cinema in Sheffield, I was seeing film after film where the film-makers clearly had felt compelled, no matter what, to make the films they wanted to make. One film in particular made a real impression on me. It was Dennis O’Rourke’s Cunnamulla. What most impressed me was that he had shot it on his own with a small new Sony camera called the PD150. Now, when the history of film-making is written, a whole chapter ought to be dedicated to this piece of technology. This small camera changed everything. Costing only £4000, fully kitted out, these cameras were designed by Sony, apparently for the corporate market. But they made them so well that professional film-makers snapped them up – no longer did we need an expensive crew costing thousands a day – now, if you were a director who knew how to use a camera, you could pack all you needed in one case and hop on a plane. The only hurdle was your own indecision. People have asked if it was hard to get into Afghanistan? No, it was easy. I caught a plane to Islamabad then another to Kabul. I then caught a taxi and checked into a hotel where, bizarrely, I had bumped into O'Rourke. Dennis was there making his own film – eventually called Landmines: A Love Story. We chatted over a beer and it was rather comforting that Dennis wasn’t really sure what his film was to be about – the premise was to look at stories concerning landmines in three different countries. In the end, it was focussed entirely on Afghanistan. Here was a big-time, well-known director also on his own in a difficult city searching for a city. If I had admired him before I admired him even more now. To cap it all – and cementing my unequivocal support for the man ever since – he gave me the last beer in his fridge. That says it all.

2nd June 2013 - shooting for Munch 150

Oslo 2^nd June 2013.   1am. Well, it’s in the can… (not that we use film canisters any more of course!  We should say ‘it’s on the cards!’ as everything we shoot goes on to memory cards and then is downloaded to computers ready for immediate editing).  Two days of intensive filming at the National Museum and the Munch Museum, both in Oslo.  The Munch 150 is an absolutely fantastic exhibition – I think it is rightfully being called a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ show.  230 of his wonderful paintings exhibited in a very smart way across the two locations.  I could name dozens of paintings I’d advise people to take a good long look at but if I had to pick a few I’d include ‘The Sick Child’, ‘The Kiss’, most of his self-portraits and ‘Madonna’.  Funnily enough, ‘The Scream’ wouldn’t be in my top 10- although I must say it’s very revealing to see it as part of The Frieze of Life room.  When you see the whole group of paintings side by side – and ‘The Scream’ among them - you get a fabulous sense of the colour thought (just look at the repeated use of orange), the rhythm of the works, the lines that pass from one painting to the next.  I didn’t really understand what the Frieze of Life room was before I stood inside it but it’s worth seeing the film just for that room alone.  Logistically this has been a tough one as we have had to fly in crew & equipment as well as hiring local grip equipment.  So lots of gear, excess baggage, hire car tomfoolery, parking, checking in and out of hotels, hunting for quick meals, carrying (and more carrying) of gear in and out of the galleries and, above all, the pressure of filming each and every required painting and interview.  AND in the most ridiculously expensive country I’ve ever been to.  £14 for a beer…. so tough but worth it.  We have stood and filmed some of the greatest paintings of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. I have become a real fan of Munch over the course of this project and hope we get big audiences to share my discoveries.  Ben, the director, has a big job now – the minute we get back to Gatwick at 2pm (Sunday) he’s off to the edit suite to piece it all together by Wednesday night. Then (once we’re happy with every last detail) it gets post-produced (including grading, audio mixing, captions and credits).  Then subtitling and preparation for the satellite transmission...which is coming rapidly down the tracks on June 27^th.  So we’ve a very busy few days ahead…plus I’m off to the USA to film some Vermeer paintings for the next film and I’m busy editing In Search of Chopin too….  

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893. National Museum, Oslo © The Munch Museum/ The Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Oslo/DACS, London 2013

Behind the scenes at Munch 150

28 May 2013 - 6 editors

I realised this morning that I have 6 editors all hard at work on various projects! That's unusual for us...and very exciting.  There's Tom working on the Munch film - which goes to cinemas June 27th (and varying dates). There's Angus working also on Munch and the trailer for the Vermeer film (October 10th and varying dates). There's David working on two super trailers for Exhibition and Concerto. There's my long-term colleague Phil beavering away on In Search of Chopin. There's Clive stitching together some Leif Ove Andsnes piano concerti. Finally there's Dave post-producing EXHIBITION: GREAT ART ON SCREEN - the Munch film & the Munch pre-film (the quiz that precedes the main film).   I could easily spend all day running from edit suite to edit suite.  To me, edits are where films are made. I know it's been said many times but it's true. A great director can't save a poor editor but it sure can work the other way around - and often does.  All the above-names editors are experts in their field and I love to improve my own skills by taking on board their ideas and craft.  For example, I always tell people that without Phil Reynolds editing my In Search of films I don't know what I'd have...His visual imagination and technical expertise combined make a great mix in the effort to keep the films entertaining and revealing.  I'm sure most folk understand the need for great choice of shots and clever cutting of them together - but editing is far, far more than that.  On a theoretical level, one has to understand (consciously or not) the science of semiotics - what images actually mean alone and in concert with others.  But on a more instinctive level, the choice of music, the grade, the audio FX, the space between words, the decision when to be wide or when to be close, etc, etc, etc....  I can bring Phil all the concert footage in the world and all the leaves and clouds (!) but sometimes it feels as if I have brought him a lot of random words and a story structure and then asked him to write a best-selling novel with it.  I absolutely love this process though. With the In Search ofs I know for sure that there is a really strong film there, it just needs to be teased out slowly.  And of course one feels the pressure of knowing that, really, no-one has made a film about these composers in quite this depth and with quite this need to get it right for the premiere screening and those screenings in 10, 20, 30 years time... I have that feeling right now with Chopin. What a wonderful composer - I just have to get it right (or as right as we can) to be fair to him and his legacy.  Films in both cinemas and TV these days are seen as disposal, throw-away, insubstantial...I have exactly the opposite view which frankly makes me a bit of an old dinosaur...but a relatively content one!

Tuesday 4th December

On a Czech train, ambling through the countryside between Dresden and Berlin. A beautiful sunny winter’s day. Nice German cheese roll for lunch. All is well. Well, almost. I had just travelled all the way to Dresden to interview a wonderful musician for my Chopin film and was just outside the hall, with all my gear, when the person rang me to cancel due to illness. Ah well, not to worry – I’ll get the interview another time and at least I got to see Dresden (with its impressively re-built old town) for the first time. In the snow too…can it really be almost December? A year since we did Leonardo Live? Over a year since we launched The Boy Mir – Ten years in Afghanistan? 9 months since I toured some cinemas in Australia and New Zealand… My daughter and I looked at each other in amazement at the weekend when we got the Christmas decorations out of the loft – ‘but we only just put them up there, Dad!’….Time does indeed fly…

Nadar, Edouard Manet, 1874

Most of my year has been extremely busy and extremely unpaid. A huge amount of investment and risk-taking at our expense. But, as always, as we try to choose only projects which interest us, it has been fascinating too. It’s no terrible hardship to be engaged in a highly detailed film on Chopin. Nor is it the end of the world to be looking deep into the life of Manet. Certainly it’s Manet that has been taking up our time over the past three months – and what a fascinating period it was in mid -19th century Paris. We’ve made films before about the impressionists but it’s great to be back in the library and in Paris revisiting the subject. As always, I am fascinated by the economic context of a period. Manet, for example, lived at a time of expanding demand in art, the growth of the gallery, the dealer, the critic. There was even a considerable demand for paintings that could be rented for social events (a party at home for example) and then you had the growth of regional museums (who thus wanted paintings to show). All of this (and more) created a world where the artist moved from even further from the nameless artisan to the world superstar.



Edouard Manet,
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, 1862-63
Musee d'Orsay



Yesterday the Turner prize was won by Elizabeth Price for her video work. It’s not my cup of tea but at least the guy who works with faeces didn’t win nor the woman called Spartacus who entered a puppet show of the Jesus and Barabbas stories. I’ve never subscribed that art is anything that is called ‘art’ not anything that is in an ‘art gallery’. Maybe I’ve been spoilt by making so many films by what I would say are truly great artists – and that most certainly includes Manet. Of course the reaction to his submissions to the Paris salon elicited the same kind of response as mine to the Turner submissions. One critic said of Manet’s ‘Luncheon on the Grass’ ‘It’s best seen from a kilometre away’. And that was one of the polite comments. Maybe my kids, or their kids, will in a few decades time revere the Prices and Spartacus’ but I doubt it.

I feel the same about films – the endless desire for novelty and shock can often leave art, accuracy, morality trailing in its wake. When asked for lists of the greatest documentaries or indeed feature films generally of all time, I’d say most talk about films from decades ago. And most people’s favourite artists still include Manet, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and so on. In researching the works of Manet I’d been delighted to become acquainted, often for the first time, with works of great artistry. The film will be in the cinemas in March and I’m sure you’ll enjoy looking at the paintings we’ve included. The same goes for the ongoing film about Chopin – to be completed and first released in Australia next Christmas. What a treat to get to listen – carefully and not just as background music – to his wonderful creations. I’ll be spending time in Warsaw in April and can’t wait. Anyway, this lovely train is arriving at Berlin’s new(ish) main train station. It’s functional but there’s little artistry. I’ve a couple of hours free so maybe I’ll go for a quick walk around the western lakes…with Manet in my eyes and Chopin in my ears – and try to come up with some cunning schemes to pay for it all….

Monday 1st October

He only had to hit a little white ball into a hole not more than a few feet away.  Six feet to be precise.  He looked at it. Studied the angles. Did his preparation. Studied the angles again. Stood over the ball again. It’s not too much to say it was a putt to win, in my view, the Ryder Cup. He paused. The American Jim Furyk felt the gaze of millions of telespectators from the around the world. He already saw himself punching the air in celebration as the putt dropped into the hole. He looked up one last time. He hit the ball. It missed. Not long after, Europe won the most remarkable come-back I’ve seen since last May when the even more remarkable last minute goal by Sergio Aguero won (and deservingly so) Man City the English Premier League.  These are such fine lines between success and failure. A fraction of an inch on a putting green. A fraction of an inch on a football pitch. The penalty missed, the smash over-hit, the hurdle not quite cleared.  And there’s no going back. 

Right now, I am en route to Vancouver, one of my favourite cities in the world and home to a wonderful film festival (VIFF).  With three or four festivals on at any one time somewhere in the world, there are a tremendous amount of festivals out there. In the past few weeks, I have turned down trips to various places including Sardinia (SIEFF) which is a bit of a shame as not only have I always wanted to go there and THE BOY MIR won the top prize there.  Vancouver is one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to and I’ll be introducing IN SEARCH OF HAYDN. It will be fun to watch the film too as I have been tremendously busy on IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN for the past few months.   Both Haydn and Chopin share something with those golfers, footballers and tennis players.  They both experienced moments of fortune that carried their lives in one direction, when it could so easily have been another.  Too often I read suggestions that somehow they were pre-destined to be such successful artists.  It just ain’t so.  I’ve found that their lives – and the lives of all creative folk – have many moments of good fortune without which it’s plausible they quite simply would not have reached these heady heights.  Last week I spent a few long, tough but highly rewarding days in France filming for the Chopin film.  I finally feel I’m getting to know him and identify what parts of his story need to be told in a film.  Two days of walking Paris with my camera & tripod took me to all the spots he lived in and some he played at.

Then a three-hour drive south to the wonderful house he shared for seven summers with his partner, the female author George Sand.  The interiors there are fantastically well-preserved: it feels as if Chopin has just popped out for a walk. Finally therefore I start to get a sense of the man.  More importantly, I increasingly grasp his period of history, without which there can be no real understanding. How many other fine musicians and composers lie unrecognised because they remained in dour courts, or died early of smallpox, or ran out of money and changed careers?  Hadyn has moments of absolute fortune. Chopin absolutely did too. Sometimes, you have to be plain lucky.  The trick though is to practice twelve hours a day to make yourself lucky.  And then have the self-awareness to know when you’ve been lucky and to make the most of it. I’m lucky: I moan about lack of funding but I’ve just spent a week filming in France on a subject I love and now, tonight, I’ll screen a film I’m proud of to a sell-out audience in a city I find exhilarating.  Later this week I’ll be filming a Beethoven concert at the LA Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel and Leif Ove Andsnes. I’ve worked hard to be lucky but lucky I am.