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Calendar of Events Archives Grand Opening Celebration! |
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Date: Friday, November 27, 2009 |
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In Search of Memory A Film by Petra Seeger. The life and work of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century, Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel. IN SEARCH OF MEMORY is a compelling blend of autobiography and history that recounts the life of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century and illuminates scientific developments in our understanding of the brain's role in recording and preserving memory. In addition to archival footage and dramatic re-creations of Kandel's childhood experiences in Nazi-occupied Vienna and his formative years as an emigrant in New York, the film features discussions with Kandel, friends and family, as well as his public lectures in Vienna and New York which explore both his professional and personal life, especially his emotional ties to Judaism. |
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If you cannot see the trailer for In Search of Memory above at right, click here: |
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Pere Portabella Doubleheader featuring:
The Silence Before Bach (Die Stille vor Bach) and Warsaw Bridge (Pont de Varsovia) Mystic Independent Theater presents two films by Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella, dubbed “the legendary Spanish Surrealist and 78-year-old enfant terrible” by Film Forum. Portabella and his production company Films 59 have fostered some of the most emblematic films in the history of Spanish cinema for the last 50 years. The Silence Before Bach and Warsaw Bridge both premiered at a retrospective of Portabella’s life’s work at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. These films have rarely been shown in the USA, due to the filmmaker’s resistance to releasing his work on DVD. Shadow Distribution is America’s first to release Warsaw Bridge with the assistance of Jonathan Demme. |
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The Silence Before Bach (Die Stille vor Bach) January 1 – 24, 2010 Directed by Pere Portabella The long-awaited new film from former Bunuel producer and visionary director Pere Portabella, one of the world’s most distinctive and original film voices, The Silence Before Bach is a true wonder. “Bach’s music is the only thing that reminds us the world is not a failure,” says a character in the film. Portabella, taking Bach’s music as a theme and a starting place, but taking it on the road, both literally (two Spanish truck drivers discuss its fine points; a group of several dozen young cellists play rapturous Bach on a subway car they appear to have taken over) and otherwise (as Portabella recreates the composer’s life—sort of; the film opens with a player piano moving of seemingly its own accord through a bare art gallery, really dancing a pas de deux with Portabella’s camera.) The music is as glorious as the cinematic art; the film’s meanings open and perhaps even profound. The Silence Before Bach premiered at MoMA in New York, as part of a retrospective |
2007 Barcelona Film Award Winner. |
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“THE SILENCE BEFORE BACH is a mélange of genres including narrative vignettes and documentary sequences on the theme of the transformational power of great music. At one moment his camera records a subway car packed with passionate cello-playing musicians; at another he is following a guide who gives tours of Leipzig dressed in full Bach regalia; and in a third he stages Felix Mendelssohn’s discovery of sheet music for the “St. Matthew Passion” used by a butcher to wrap meat. By turns funny and serious, poignant, sexy and refreshing, The Silence Before Bach is very nearly unclassifiable, like so much of Portabella’s oeuvre.” –Film Forum The Silence Before Bach “brings Bach’s music to life with a mysterious, magnificent blend of drama, documentary, and quasi-surrealist whimsy. Beginning with a scene of a player piano rattling off the Goldberg Variations while rolling through a bright, bare loft, Portabella tickles the senses with a series of skits... From puckish humor and borderline kitsch, a great and serious notion emerges: the construction of modern Europe on the basis of classical music.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker “Haunting, elegiac and dazzling!” – New York Magazine "Every moment alive with intelligence. The title derives from a comment by E. M. Cioran asserting that before Bach there was only stillness, and that his music justifies existence." “One of the year’s major film events. The Catalan master hasn’t lost his cutting-edge instincts or the enigmatic meter that underlies his work… his writing like calligraphy, his treatment of space architectonic, and his narrative free-floating.”– Film Comment “DELECTABLE! Gorgeous lensing and art direction and some of the world’s most beautiful music!” – V.A. Musetto, New York Post “A meditation on the power of music to transcend geography and time and unite humanity in a kind of universal ecstasy. Evokes the spirit and legacy of this artist, shedding light on the lasting beauty of his work.”– S. James Snyder, The New York Sun To View the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SUhTp_ndw4 |
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Warsaw Bridge (Pont de Varsovia) Directed by Pere Portabella Presented by Jonathan Demme and Shadow Distribution: Synopsis A Statement from Jonathan Demme “Visually, Warsaw Bridge is incredibly elegant, full of wonderfully sinuous camera movements and exquisite cinematography by Tomas Pladevall. And you have to love a film in which the credits suddenly pop up 20 minutes after it has begun, another sign of Portabella's devious, meta-cinematic humor. I'd be lying if I said I understood Warsaw Bridge; I suspect that will take several more viewings. But I certainly haven't enjoyed any other film as much so far this year.” – George Robinson, CINE-JOURNAL. “The New York premiere of Warsaw Bridge was a highlight of MoMA's September 2007 retrospective of the Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella. Portabella began the film after reading a curious newspaper item: “The body of a scuba diver was found in a burnt forest.” Taking this wonderfully strange headline as a point of departure, the director crafted a wondrous feature full of romance, music, theater, dramatic settings, fluid camera movements, and gorgeous nonsense. Somehow, quite magically, it all comes together, and a story of betrayal—sort of—emerges.” |
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Special Event Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 3 pm
The musicians include: Sheila Falls Keohane, a three time North American Irish fiddle champion who won the All-Ireland championship at age 15. Acoustic guitar player John Brennan whose credits include touring with POCO and Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Stonington native, singer Haley Plourde-Cole who trained at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and was a contestant on American Idol will be a special guest. She will perform several songs including an unforgettable version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
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(Left) Sheila Falls Keohane |
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Get a Fresh Start for the New Year! Banish the post-holiday blahs Stonington Natural Health Center's Join Naturopathic Doctor Stephanie Bethune, ND for a FREE TALK on safe and effective ways to:
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