The Conversation is a feature at PopOptiq bringing together Drew Morton and Landon Palmer in a passionate debate about cinema new and old. For their tenth piece, they discuss Guy Maddin’s fusion of silent-era horror and dance, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002).
Drew’S Take
Every autumn, I treat Halloween the way some Midwestern moms obsess over Thanksgiving or Christmas. Horror novels (last year, I finally read Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box and loved it), true crime documentaries, and an abundance of films make up the majority of my media diet for about six weeks. Over the past week, I’ve been re-reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula and re-watching the glut of adaptations out there. I think I’ve finally dialed in my three favorite translations…in no particular ranking! Obviously, F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) has a certain advantage from being the “first,” but it has...
Drew’S Take
Every autumn, I treat Halloween the way some Midwestern moms obsess over Thanksgiving or Christmas. Horror novels (last year, I finally read Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box and loved it), true crime documentaries, and an abundance of films make up the majority of my media diet for about six weeks. Over the past week, I’ve been re-reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula and re-watching the glut of adaptations out there. I think I’ve finally dialed in my three favorite translations…in no particular ranking! Obviously, F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) has a certain advantage from being the “first,” but it has...
- 10/21/2015
- by Landon Palmer
- SoundOnSight
The world's biggest ballet star collaborated with an Indian art student in 1923 – and set a major dance career in motion
Reading on mobile? Click to view
Uday Shankar was a student at the Royal College of Art in London when, in 1923, he was summoned to a meeting with Anna Pavlova.
The great ballerina had become curious about Indian dance during a recent tour, and wanted to absorb something of it into her own repertory. She'd been informed that Shankar, while not a trained dancer himself, was something of an enthusiast, having grown up watching local folk dancing near his family home in Uttar Pradesh and court dancers at the palace of his father's employer, the Rajah of Jhalawar.
While that first meeting was almost an impulse on Pavlova's part, it launched a year-long association between her and the star-struck young Indian. Shankar was persuaded to abandon his art studies and join the ballerina's company,...
Reading on mobile? Click to view
Uday Shankar was a student at the Royal College of Art in London when, in 1923, he was summoned to a meeting with Anna Pavlova.
The great ballerina had become curious about Indian dance during a recent tour, and wanted to absorb something of it into her own repertory. She'd been informed that Shankar, while not a trained dancer himself, was something of an enthusiast, having grown up watching local folk dancing near his family home in Uttar Pradesh and court dancers at the palace of his father's employer, the Rajah of Jhalawar.
While that first meeting was almost an impulse on Pavlova's part, it launched a year-long association between her and the star-struck young Indian. Shankar was persuaded to abandon his art studies and join the ballerina's company,...
- 10/7/2013
- by Judith Mackrell
- The Guardian - Film News
A major star of the post-Diaghilev Ballets Russes, he was celebrated for his romantic roles
Frederic Franklin, who has died aged 98, was one of the best loved figures in the dance world. Always genial, always helpful, he possessed a razor-sharp memory of all the ballets he had appeared in. Franklin played an important part in the preservation of many early ballets by George Balanchine, and in 2002 was able to reconstruct episodes from Devil's Holiday, a ballet created by Frederick Ashton in 1939, never revived since and never seen on stage by Ashton.
Franklin, known as Freddie, was a major star of the post-Diaghilev Ballets Russes, forming a memorable and long-lasting partnership with the ballerina Alexandra Danilova; her champagne personality and his good looks and charisma combined to stunning effect. This was especially true in such ballets as Léonide Massine's Le Beau Danube and especially Gâité Parisienne. But Franklin also danced...
Frederic Franklin, who has died aged 98, was one of the best loved figures in the dance world. Always genial, always helpful, he possessed a razor-sharp memory of all the ballets he had appeared in. Franklin played an important part in the preservation of many early ballets by George Balanchine, and in 2002 was able to reconstruct episodes from Devil's Holiday, a ballet created by Frederick Ashton in 1939, never revived since and never seen on stage by Ashton.
Franklin, known as Freddie, was a major star of the post-Diaghilev Ballets Russes, forming a memorable and long-lasting partnership with the ballerina Alexandra Danilova; her champagne personality and his good looks and charisma combined to stunning effect. This was especially true in such ballets as Léonide Massine's Le Beau Danube and especially Gâité Parisienne. But Franklin also danced...
- 5/7/2013
- by Judith Cruickshank
- The Guardian - Film News
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