In Search of Beethoven

A month into the editing now and the beast that is the film IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN makes slow but steady process. I remember the rough-cut of IN SEARCH OF MOZART once topped 11 hours - or maybe even more than that - and now Beethoven has hit double figures, edging over ten hours yesterday. It's not my fault! He just wrote so much great music which I have been fortunate enough, after a lot of hard work, to gain access to film - and I have also been lucky enough to have done 40 or 50 interviews with world experts on him and his music. So the challenge is whittling it down, and down again, until it is more like 2 or 3 hours. So far we've had no really tough decisions to make - except for cutting one world famous violinist who simply felt unnecessary. But I tremble at facing choices between symphonies or not being able to keep in all five piano concertos, etc. And I really don't want to only have 20 second clips - ah well, time will tell. It's Saturday today so the office is quiet and I can spend the day snipping away. I shouldn't take the great Michelangelo's name in vain but it feels like his wonderful unfinished slave sculpture- you know there is a work of art in there somewhere but it involves extraordinary precision in working through the marble until the form is fully realised. We'll see...Meanwhile, my days are accompanied by the performance of, among others, Helene Grimaud, Ronald Brautigam, Vadim Repin, Claudio Abbado, Paul Lewis - and so, so many more. Somebody asked me the other day what is my favourite piece and it's impossible to answer - it's the piece I'm working on at that moment. Yesterday we were editing the Missa Solemnis that I filmed in the Musikverrein in Vienna and we were laying the violin solo over an extract of interview from the conductor Fabio Luisi in which he was explaining how the violin playing over the orchestra was written by Beethoven like that to illustrate the Holy Ghost hanging over mankind. I love that kind of insight, explaining what I am seeing and what it means. The World Premiere is now set for 30th March in the Concert Hall in London's Barbican so I have a tight schedule to keep to now. US, Australian, Dutch theatrical releases are also being sorted out so one can feel the pressure ramping up. No-one has tried to make anything as comprehensive as this (just as no-one has made a film as comprehensive about Mozart as IN SEARCH OF MOZART) and I really feel a responsibility to do a good job not just for the screenings and broadcasts we'll have next year but the screenings and broadcasts we'll be having in 10 years. Mind you, one has to wonder what kind of media environment we'll be living in over the next decade: I went to a UK channel's Commissioning Briefing a few days ago and their Editor of Factual announced how delighted she was with a recent production (that had got just under 3 million viewers) - the title? 'The Woman with Giant Legs'. You can see why I can never raise the money to make films like Beethoven! I don't know what's worse - the broadcaster commissioning something like that or 3 million people deciding that was the best way they could spend an hour of their time. Or, indeed, the fact that, in a public forum, you would declare great pride in having shown such a film. Maybe it was ever thus: poor old Ludwig had to put up with the knowledge that the most popular symphony during his life time was his so-called Battle Symphony - all cannons and rousing patriotic tunes. Maybe human nature simply doesn't change and artists just have to deal with that fact and work around it. Anyway, my edit suite awaits - this morning, it's the fantastic Endellion String Quartet and the late quartets...

Filmmaker Phil Grabsky's July 2007 blog

July 4th 2007

'Beautifully lensed' - 'lensed'?? I don't believe that word exists - and that from a reviewer in Variety. Oh dear. Anyway, he more or less liked the Mozart film which is still rating 90% on the Rotten Tomatoes site. The world of blogs, internet sites, MySpaces, etc, is bottomless…. Whenever I 'Google' In Search of Mozart, I am amazed at the scope of who's talking about it and where. My favourite so far though are the Singles' dates that met at screenings in LA. Excellent. I'm off to screenings in 2 weeks in New York, Newport, Chicago and Boston - I'll keep an eye out for singles on blind dates… I'm sure Mozart would have thoroughly approved. I'm certainly looking forward to those screenings - especially, I have to say, the Opening Night at Cinema Village in New York. It's a special cinema at one of the true hearts of cinema anywhere in the world - and so to have a documentary on a classical composer play there is, for me, a thrill. Hopefully, I won't be sitting on my own - but, if I am, I'll still be humming along.

Meanwhile, the whole distribution juggernaut is beginning to kick into gear for ESCAPE FROM LUANDA - it was only finished days ago but already we have festivals chasing us for copies. I'm very level-headed about all that. We'll see how it does and then go from there. Interestingly enough, only today, Angola have refused to allow BA to fly into Luanda any more in retaliation for the British banning Tagg airlines (due to an EC report that concluded they were too dangerous for the European air corridors). What a mess. And just as we were planning how to show the film to the school and students.

Talking of students, I ran the gauntlet of thousands of screaming kids last night when I went to the European premiere of the latest Harry Potter. The film is tremendous - each graphic wonder costing more than my entire annual film budget! You have to hand it to them - they do what they do supremely well. I wouldn't know where to start. It too, by the way, was 'beautifully lensed'….

Escape from Luanda - Trailer

Expected to tour festivals worldwide before being released in cinemas and on DVD in early 2008.

Latest Film: Escape from Luanda

4^th May 2007

With May only just beginning we have one production commencing, one coming to an end, one touring cinemas, another entering festivals and a couple seeking funding – what a busy month we have ahead!

Escape from Luanda – the end, or should I say beginning, is now in sight. Next week I will be travelling back and forth to London for the final online edit. Then it will be full steam ahead as we crack on with festival entries and the planning of our premiere, watch this space…

Tuesday 2^nd May we held a private screening of Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl at the Tate Modern’s Starr Auditorium – a great venue for any of you who are yet to go there. Tim Marlow asked David Bickerstaff and I about our experiences of Chernobyl and future plans for the film. A thank you to all those that sacrificed half of the Chelsea – Liverpool match to join us; we even managed to catch the crucial penalties afterwards. David recently visited Gdansk in Poland for a similar screening, and on May 21^st we have a screening as part of the Brighton Festival, this time a chance to hear a Q & A afterwards with David, Mario the poet and myself – there are a few tickets left.

In Search of Mozart continues to be a big success in the USA & Canada, with cinemas booking extra dates to keep up with the demand – now covering at least 20 different cities and cinemas. Almost everyday I hear of a new screening or a new newspaper review, in fact just yesterday I was sent a link to a podcast from an interview I did with a journalist. Mozart (you really have to be careful what you say – as all of a sudden it’s on the internet as a podcast!)

Finally, the follow-up to The Boy is well under way with another trip to Afghanistan under our belt; we have now edited together a pilot with which we’re trying to pull together enough funds to enable the final shoot to happen and the expensive post-production stages. The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan continues to be a success with DVDs selling well and new screenings being arranged all the time.