14th August 2015

Midway through August….not that you’d know it looking outside of my window in Brighton as the rain pours down in buckets….  The centre of the city is dotted with small floods…Ah, summer time in England.    It is nice, however, to have a pause in the schedule and finally get back to giving everyone an update. It really has been toooooo long.  My, how we have been busy.  Yesterday we finished CONCERTO – A BEETHOVEN JOURNEY.  On and off in production for four years it is a 92’ film about one of the world’s great pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and his dedication over those past few years to playing essentially just Beethoven, above all the 5 piano concertos.  As soon as I heard the suggestion that this ‘journey’ was going to happen I asked him for permission to film from start to finish.  Little did I know just how successful the touring would be and how extraordinary the reviews of the music would be. He and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra became the absolute must-have tickets….  Thus to be on-stage and behind-stage with them has been a privilege and a thrill.  The film though is a re-evaluation of Beethoven and I think we offer a fresh and revealing new biography of arguably the greatest composer that has ever lived.  As ever, making the film is one thing, distributing another.  Our first release is the UK cinemas on September 7^th…yes, that’s 3 weeks!  Now, far be it from me to blow my own trumpet (well, maybe sometimes..) but here’s a review we just had from the highly esteemed Gramophone Magazine:

One of the highlights of the BBC Proms so far has been Leif Ove Andsnes’s Beethoven piano concerto cycle with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and if you’re suffering withdrawal symptoms from music-making of such freshness and imagination, there’s a treat in store on the horizon. Phil Grabsky’s film ‘Concerto: A Beethoven Journey’ looks at the five piano concertos in collaboration with Andsnes and the Mahler CO’s three-year series of concerts and recordings (for Sony Classical), 'The Beethoven Journey'.Andsnes proves a wonderful guide to these five extraordinary works, speaking with humility, wisdom and insight about what they mean to him and the challenges they present to the performer. He is disarmingly frank about his relationship with the works when in his twenties and how he came to terms with them. He explains what made him determined to perform them over the course of a few years, and record them. Footage from the concerts in Prague, which Sony Classical used for its CD releases, forms the backbone of the film. We also see Andsnes and Gustavo Dudamel talking about the works prior to performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  For lovers of Beethoven’s music, admirers of Leif Ove Andsnes – and his fan base has probably grown exponentially in the past few weeks – or simply lovers of high-class music documentaries, ‘Concerto’ demands to be seen. It is a wonderfully uplifting and rewarding experience.  ‘I knew this exclusive journey with Leif Ove would allow me access to great performance,’ said Grabsky, ‘but I had no idea it would be this great. These became the best reviewed concerts of the past few years and I was on stage to record them. Even more importantly the music and Leif Ove's intelligent and accessible insight creates a staggeringly interesting new biography of arguably the greatest composer of all time.’ The film will be screened throughout the UK on September 7 – for details of participating cinemas visit Seventh Art’s website.

Not bad!  The release internationally will happen between now and next Spring.  We also had two wonderful preview screenings in Norway, high up in the Arctic Circle in a city called Bodø.  Leif Ove was there with the MCO playing the full 5 concertos and we screened the film twice to a sell-out crowd in between concerts.  It was wonderful to be in Norway with Norwegians for the premiere of a film about Norway’s number one artist.   More than that, it was a great excuse to travel up from Bergen and right up the western edge of this staggeringly beautiful country. I can’t recommend it enough.

To be honest, I needed the break.  The EXHIBITION ON SCREEN mega-project is all-consuming and it was pretty exhausting right up to the US screening on 14^th July (Bastille Day) of our last film in the Season – The Impressionists and the Man who Made Them.   We are really pleased with the 5 films this season – and in some countries they are still screening them (New Zealand, Korea, Brazil to name but three).  I’d always want (and need) a bigger audience worldwide but it’s growing and 40 countries is pretty impressive.  It looks like Van Gogh (with in excess of 100,000 seats sold) will be our best but Impressionists and Rembrandt may run it a close second.  Matisse deserved to do better but being first in the season (after a bit too long of a break from the end of Season 1) didn’t help. Girl with a Pearl Earring was some people’s favourite film but maybe was hindered a little by confusion from the Scarlett Johansson film of the same name.   

Season three is underway….and there are some exciting films coming this Autumn/Fall and into 2016.  I’ve been directing a film about Renoir that we are calling ‘Renoir – the Unknown Artist’. It’s based on the extraordinary collection of Renoirs at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.  We are about two-thirds of the way through and my understanding and appreciation of Renoir has really increased.  The artwork will look super on the big screen but there’s a fascinating story that we unveil as we go.  My colleague David Bickerstaff is working on two films – Goya (based on the forthcoming exhibition at the National Gallery) and Painting the Modern Garden - Monet to Matisse (based on next year’s exhibition at the Royal Academy).   Both films are looking stunning.  Plus, plus. Plus..plenty more in the pipeline for next year and beyond. 

From time to time I even get the chance to go to galleries for fun!  I was in New York a few days ago and wandered (the very busy – who says no-one is interested in art!!) Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Simply staggering – especially if you let yourself get lost and end up in galleries you’ve never seen before.  I certainly left with lots of film ideas – I’d love for example to make a film about Islamic Art and also American (pre-20^th century) art.   I’ll never run out of subjects, that’s for sure.

One final thing: do keep an eye on our Facebook site for EXHIBITION ON SCREEN – we post a lot of art stories. They are really interesting.   And do feel free to leave comments : we respond to them all.

February 24th in LA

Dateline Los Angeles….very flash..  I guess I came about as close as I'll ever get to the Oscars 2 nights ago...I was there to show my In Search of Chopin film on the invite of Poland's no 2 in the USA. He had a party in his house last night as they had 4 or 5 possible Polish winners...In the end they did get the big one - best foreign language film with Ida. As you can imagine they were delighted.  Personally I'm bored to death with awards shows - although, remarkably, the two big winners Birdman and Grand Budapest Hotel were great films...I'm just so glad American Sniper was snubbed. Yuk.

It's very sunny here (though I've been stuck indoors doing emails and research all day) but tonight we have our LA premiere of Chopin – better than any Oscar ceremony!  

I’m shocked when I look at the date and realize we are almost in March.  What a crazy few months it has been –  starting the release of Chopin, filming CONCERTO as well as producing five EXHIBITION ON SCREEN films. These are now done and slowly being released here, there and everywhere.  The brand is building – slower than one would like – but it’s a steady incline at least.   Audience reactions are great – as evidenced but some sell-out shows I attended on the West Coast last week – but the economics are tricky while folk continue to see cinema as cheap entertainment. No-one really questions (well, I do!) paying £80 or $120 for a rock concert or theatrical piece but cinema we expect to be about a tenth of that. I’m not saying that’s wrong but it makes life pretty hard.  Mind you, we are finally starting to get some interest from sponsors which is good news.  It really is essential we keep making films like these: my family and I made a terrible mistake recently and went to see a film called Kingsman. We thought it was a kids’ spy thriller.  Boy, were we wrong!  It is a sick, vile, humourless exploration into how violent we can make a film and still only get a 15 certificate. If you enjoy seeing folk cut in half or a church full of parishioners being slaughtered, then this is for you. But then somehow I doubt you’d be reading my blog if it were…..  And guess what, this awful film has taken over $100m already and climbing.  What a world….

[Next day]   

Back in my oh-so-different world, I had a lovely screening of IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN in (a freezing) New York this evening. The Carnegie invited their privileged members to a screening – plus a preview clip of CONCERTO – A BEETHOVEN JOURNEY. It went really well – and both looked great on the big screen.  CONCERTO looked really super – the first time I’d seen any of it projected.  Very exciting.  Right, need to pack as I have an early flight tomorrow to Philadelphia (a great town) and then home….

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. 

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….

 

26th January 2014

A rather belated Happy New Year to everyone! January seems to have whizzed by and Spring is certainly just around the corner, unless you live in the many parts of the world experiencing strange weather these days. We, in the UK, have had a wet & windy time of late and there’s a good deal of flooding still around. I also feel for my many friends in the USA & Canada who have experienced some of the coldest weather in memory. It hasn’t really had much impact on me as I’ve been pretty well tied to my desk or edit suites since before Christmas. 

The good news is that yesterday we ‘Picture-Locked’ IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN. It’s been more or less a 4 year journey so to finally say ‘That’s it! No more picture editing’ is a great moment. There is still a lot to do with grading, audio mixing, subtitling and credits but I do feel a mountain has been climbed. Am I happy with it? Yes, definitely. I guess I wouldn’t have stopped editing were I not. But more than that, I admit there were times when I struggled with Chopin – it seems strange to say (after life stories like Mozart & Beethoven) but there seemed to be endless hard choices about what not to include. As ever, summarising (in an entertaining, accessible way) someone’s full and significant life in only 110 minutes is always going to be a challenge. The first good news for me is that one eminent historian of the period and a key Polish Chopin Institute have all given a full thumbs up. The Chopin Museum in Warsaw want to be able to show it regularly in their (wonderful) gallery – and actually that’s the best recommendation I could have got. The film is not yet finished but that’s a good sign. A lot of time is also being spent on sorting out the film’s distribution….and that goes well too.  We will be announcing officail release dates soon. So posters, press stills, social media and all that kind of thing are being worked on. What’s nice is those countries want to take the opportunity to reshow MOZART, HAYDN & BEETHOVEN. Well, we’ll see….let’s hope financially we can at least break even! 

 In a musical vein, I’ve been working on the other music film too which is the film about Beethoven’s 5 piano concertos – with Leif OveAndsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Having filmed (a 5-camera shoot) two more of the concertos in Brussels recently, we had a chunk more material to start playing with ideas in the edit suite. That’s always such an exciting, important and creative moment in any film’s life… This is a film that just has to avoid me messing up. I have the best music, performed by ‘the world’s best pianist’ `(The Irish Times) and a great orchestra. I’ve been hamstrung as always by the horrors of funding but I don’t think it’s impacted on the filming or the film…So I’m getting excited about that one too (which will be released in 2015). As for EXHIBITION ON SCREEN…we’re getting lots of requests for repeat screenings (To book a screening visit seventh-art.com). More on all that another time…. One last thing, if you’re in the UK, do try to see Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies at Stratford – brilliant.

Sunday 17th November 2013

Middle of November already? Really? Gee. As always, my excuse for not having blogged in a short while is my crazy schedule. It really has been crammed – and no sense of it letting up. IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN is coming to a conclusion – and looking good. We did a guide read through of narrative and Chopin’s letter’s with Juliet Stevenson and David Dawson. This is always a very exciting moment in the production process when finally I can strip my voice out and lay in a top professional’s. All of a sudden both elements come to life….The final read is on the 27th November so all hands are on deck to ensure that Mr Chopin’s life has been accurately summarised into 1 hour and 50 minutes….with no factual errors! Luckily I have four superb historical advisors who will spot any mistake…. It’s been a harder journey than I had expected – finances of course but also in terms of creativity: I feel I’m having to leave so much out – whole periods seem to have to be contained in a short example of music, a letter or two, an interview or two and a bit of narrative. But imagine if I had to make a film about your life and try to keep it in a film of under 100 or 110 minutes. So much would invariably be left out…. That’s the trick. What to keep in and how to present it in a film that folk will enjoy. I don’t want to tempt fate but I think we’ve done a good job with Fryderyk: and the performances of Leif Ove Andsnes, Lars Vogt, Ronald Brautigam, Daniel Barenboim and others are wonderful. Should be releasing to cinemas in Australia and New Zealand in May – watch this space.

Talking of Leif Ove Andsnes, tomorrow I am off to Brussels to film the next stage of my film about the 5 Beethoven piano concertos – all of which will be played in the film by this master of the piano. We’re set up to do a 5-camera shoot (on stage) including a full dress rehearsal (so I’ll have ten camera angles in the end). I’m nervous but also confident it’s going to be great. Leif Ove and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are a formidable combination. To remind you, this is for a May 2015 release….

Meanwhile, our brand EXHIBITION ON SCREEN also keeps us busy. The film from the Vermeer exhibition at the National Gallery was very well received with screenings ongoing. Art…and art lovers, sign up to the ExhibitionOnScreen newsletter, Twitter or Facebook site to keep in touch.

This Event Cinema is such a great new genre though – the RSC Richard II was in cinemas last week and by all accounts sold out. I saw it live at Stratford two weeks ago and it is a great show. David Tennant is super. I’d have loved to see the cinema relay but was busy on Wednesday at a Brighton Film Festival event – where Benedict Cumberbatch very kindly gave me an autograph for my daughter (an aspiring actress) and hoped ‘we work together one day’. Benedict, you’ve a fan for life now (me!). Another actor I think is wonderful is Henry Goodman – I went to see his Arturo Ui show at the Duchess Theatre in London last weekend. He is a ‘tour de force’ in it. I have mixed feeling sometimes about the heightened realism or exaggeration of Brecht but I thoroughly enjoyed this show – and especially Henry. If you love acting, go see this – quick.

To end, one sad note: Antony Caro died on the 23rd October. I really liked Antony and tried hard to make a film about him – even financing some filming of an installation he was doing in France – but simply couldn’t get a broadcaster on board. And now he’s gone. A great artist. One small postscript, just for fun: if you’re looking for a musical recommendation today, how about Mozart’s K207 – violin no1 in B flat major. And, if you fancy looking at one painting today, try the Double Portrait of Constantin Huygens and Suzanna van Baerle by Jacob van Campen. At the Mauritshuis, the Hague, Netherlands. You’ll think Suzanna is sitting right next to you……

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.

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 9th October

The day started at sunrise. Stanley Park is a truly gorgeous spot in Vancouver and running around the sea wall is fabulous 10 mile run. It would be too easy on these trips to eat, work and sleep so you have to squeeze in exercise whenever possible.  Golf's my thing but the courses were too far and too expensive so running was the alternative.  This really is a great city and the backdrop of mountains is special.  That said, it wasn't long before I was back on the computer doing the endless stream of emails and then into the cinema for the second of the Vancouver International Film Festival screenings of Haydn... 

Another busy show. Only about 3900 years to go if I want to reach the entire North American population at this rate.  At least I know there will always be a huge pool of folk who haven't seen the film and, with encouragement and access, would like to.  Compare that to the US Presidential Debate last night between Romney & Obama.

Guess how many folk in the US are said to have watched that?  Go on, guess.....67 million!  A good figure for a show in the UK (and a rare figure too) is 10 million - it just shows what a vast continent this is. 

I left Vancouver today and had a stunning left-side window seat all the way down the Pacific Coast to LA...Snow-peaked mountains, endless hills and valleys.  Then if there is a city that illustrates size, it's LA! Flying over its endless suburbs, you marvel at how they bring water to every household, how those millions eat every day, commute, entertain themselves and so on. Simply boggling. My trip to LA allowed me to escape this craziness within the LA Philharmonic and the ceaseless wonders of Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto (played by Leif Ove Andsnes and the LA Phil, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel). Even though I was filming it and thus busy, I wasn't so distracted that I failed to appreciate the genius of the composer and the expertise of these performers.  Outside the Walt Disney Concert Hall, late on a Saturday night, the streets were full of revellers, flashing police cars and the homeless bedding down where-ever warmth could be found.  What a city.  I didn't have much time to explore though as an early flight next day took me to NY and then a speedy train to Washington DC the day after that.  It was an endless movie out of the windows. There is so much to admire in this country, not least the landscapes which tend to get ignored a little in favour of cityscapes. I'm looking forward to my tour in March when I'll get to drive to 10 or 20 cities.  And then there will only be another 3899 years left before as many people have watched In Search of Beethoven / Mozart / Haydn as watched Mitt Romney threaten to kill Big Bird.

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.

Wednesday 15th August - Olympics and Chopin (amongst other things)

Gatwick Airport. En route with Easy Jet to Toulouse. Preparing myself for the scrum at boarding…

My mind is a jumble of projects which I am sure isn’t terribly healthy, although it’s certainly stimulating in its way. Nor have I recovered from the wonderful Olympics. I was one of many who were a bit cynical and a bit worried that we’d put on something a bit average, How wrong I was – from the superb opening ceremony, they have been a joy. I was asked in the office today what were my highlights and I was stumped…Mo, Jessica, the cycling team, Becky (we still love you!), the rowers, Tom Daly, the equestrian team, oh and lots more. I also loved an Afghan getting a bronze, the Saudi women, the Turkish and Algerian gold medal athletes, Phelps, and of course Andy Murray. See? Where do you stop? Of course that’s from a pretty British perspective – in France the TV seemed to be showing a completely different Games – all judo and handball. Anyway, what a show – well done to all concerned. I’m glad to see it was a film director (Danny Boyle) who pulled off the best Opening Ceremony ever too.

Meanwhile, my own film-making has been much more modest: yesterday though I had the absolute pleasure of filming Leif Ove Andsnes playing Chopin and Beethoven at the Snape Proms in Snape, Suffolk. As always, it was a bit of a chore to set it up, get the gear, get to the location, overcome the logistical problems that often do (and yesterday did) pop up – but once I’m filming and he’s playing, it’s all so worth it. I’m finding this project very interesting as, unlike Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart, Chopin is, of course, largely single piano works. Quite how that will finally look on film is a bit of a concern. I try to film each piece in a way that is sympathetic to the story at the moment but there really are only so many ways to film a piano and pianist (without getting very show-biz). I also know that my audience are not afraid to just watch and listen too. I don’t need to panic after twenty seconds – people sat enraptured last night for two hours so I’m sure they’d be happy to watch a pretty static shot and edit of Leif Ove playing for a few minutes on screen. We’ll see. What is clear so far is that the first twenty years of his life in Warsaw are essential and need a lot of research and focus. That was true of the other three composers too: so much can be learnt from looking at their formative years. I’m off to France today, partly to go to Nohant and then Paris and look at some of the locations he lived in but really the most important location in his story is, by far, Warsaw. Sadly, the broadcaster that had seemed very likely to commission the film pulled out last week – as they have had budget cuts. So I’m half way through the film and haven’t raised a penny – not very impressive. But in September we’re going to try everything: broadcasters, arts funders and private donations (through crowd-sourcing). Fingers crossed…

Another piano project that is nearing conclusion is my pet project ‘PIANO NOTES: THE UTTERLY PARTIAL HISTORY OF THE PIANO WITH RONALD BRAUTIGAM’. Not only has that got to be the longest title in history but, if I say so myself, it’s really good. The first 13 shows are done and just need grading and mixing. It’s wonderful to see him play chosen works by the greatest of composers and then talk about them. It will be such a useful tool for young pianists for years to come but also, I’m sure (and I hope) will be much valued by aficionados of classical music no matter their age. Ronald was great when I interviewed him – having to articulate about one composer after another until we had covered all thirteen episodes of series 1 (of 2).

It reminded me of the much-missed David Chandler, once Head of Military History at Sandhurst. I will never forget interviewing him in depth about six great commanders. He talked at such length and with such insight about Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Nelson, Grant and Zhukov. It didn’t matter what I asked him – he had the answer. A lovely, lovely man who was one of the great Napoleonic experts (and Marlborough too). I also remember taking the interview to show my Channel 4 commissioning editor. He too was thoroughly impressed and then told me to shoot it again as I’d shot from the side that showed off David’s missing tooth. Tail between legs, I scurried back to Sandhurst, and shot it all again (from the other side). It’s over 15 years since I made The Great Commanders and I look back on that period with enormous fondness. I had a great commissioning editor (who, yes, made me shoot stuff again sometimes!) at a once-great channel (C4) with a decent budget that allowed me to really focus on six wonderful stories – and write a book too. I travelled the world filming actual locations, taking experts with me. It was the first military history project Channel 4 did and, to their surprise, was a great success. The book sold 50,000 copies and, as so often, the receipts seemed to end up elsewhere. Getting back to my point though: so often it is these experts that we film-makers absolutely rely on. I always make a point of paying them, even when I can’t afford to pay musicians or orchestras.

It does all seem a long time ago: can you guess what the audience share is this week for the main channels? In digital homes it’s as follows: BBC1 35%, ITV 9%, BBC2 6%, C4 4%, C5 3%, More 4 0.9%, BBC4 (less than 0.67%), SkyArts (even less). Maybe those figures are skewed by the Olympics…but still, I remember when BBC 2, C4 and C5 were vying for 10%... Those days are long gone. The dominance of terrestrial is certainly over. I try not to follow the crowd as it’s way, way too busy (it’s like boarding an Easy Jet flight – all elbows and crushed toes) but we are developing an arts app, have put my books on Kindle and Audible and Amazon TV…and do talk as often to non-broadcasters as to broadcasters). I don’t know how so many decent films still get made (as far as docs are concerned, BBC4 is the best) but there’s a lot of ducking and diving involved nowadays. The danger is you spend so much time fund-raising that you actually don’t spend enough film-making…