Mas del cine que nunca veremos comercialmente....

MOVIES

Mankind's Appetite for Destruction in the 20th Century By STEPHEN HOLDEN Published: April 27, 2007

Julien Jourdes for The New York Times Paolo Cherchi Usai's silent film "Passio"will screen at the Tribeca Film Festival with a live performance from Trinity Choir.

The grainy black-and-white image of a man's emaciated corpse lying face up, his limbs splayed as in a crucifixion, is the first picture flashed in "Passio," an austere fusion of silent film and modern sacred music that has its debut New York performance this evening at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. The music for this event, presented by the Tribeca Film Festival, is the 70-minute St. John Passion ("Passio") written by the Estonian minimalist composer Arvo Pärt in 1982 and sung by the Trinity Choir in voices so pure they suggest a seraphic chorus beyond the human sphere. The film, with which the music synergizes into a somber lament on humanity's destructive impulses, was assembled from found material by the Italian filmmaker and silent-film scholar and archivist Paolo Cherchi Usai. Much of it looks as if it came from the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s. As one unsettling image follows another, the film compiles a damning "secret" history of human cruelty retrieved from the cultural scrap heap of the 20th century. Connecting the images is the oratorio's Latin text in calligraphy, by Brody Neusenschwander, that scrolls up the screen sideways in lightninglike flashes that disappear almost in the blink of eye. Sight and sound, lightness and dark. "Passio" is a musical shadow play. A dress rehearsal of "Passio" at Trinity Church on Wednesday evening, which I attended, was the first full run-through of the work, some of which was sight-read by the musicians. But the coordination of film and live music proceeded with only minor glitches

Paolo Cherchi Usai A scene from "Passio."

The most remarkable quality of "Passio." ">"Passio" is its lack of grandiloquence. If great art can be made without a conspicuous display of ego, this is it. The score, written in Mr. Pärt's tintinnabular style, sounds almost disembodied, hovering somewhere between here and eternity. The voices of Peter, Pilate and Jesus are distinct but unemotional. The sorrow expressed is beyond tears. Only in the final moments does the music swell to a conclusive amen. Because its sources are anonymous, the film has a similarly egoless quality, although a grim humor creeps into some of its imagery. It is a movie highly conscious of the Surrealist tradition. One of the longest visual sequences, reminiscent of the notorious 1929 Buñuel-Dalí collaboration,"Un Chien Andalou,"is a close-up of an eye operation, the eyeball rolling back and forth as surgical instruments probe the cornea. Above all, "Passio." ">"Passio" is a film about sight and how history contrives to bury some images while elevating others. We see scientists peering through microscopes, doctors operating, X-rays of the skeleton beneath the flesh, photonegative images of faces, and pieces of film being cut and defaced. These images play into the story of Jesus as an object of examination, ridicule and torture. The movie evokes a theme that has increasingly surfaced in the contemporary world of media inundation. It suggests how our obsession with studying, multiplying and beautifying our images robs us of our humanity. Instead of contemplating paintings in a museum, visitors prefer to take pictures of them with their digital cameras. Reality television is unreality. And in the movies, violent, digitally enhanced spectacle is steadily subverting human drama. Studying life through a camera's lens turns us into detached observers reluctant to tear ourselves away from the role of clinical voyeur to take action against the very inhumanity we witness and record. The movie ends with its most confrontational scene: a baby's birth shown backward, so that the infant, having glimpsed the world, returns to the womb, having chosen not to be born. Because these images are silent, blurry and flickering, and most are black and white (there are some hand-colored kaleidoscopic abstractions), they have a ghostly quality. Mr. Usai has called them "manifestations of our neglected or repressed collective memory." I would describe them as lingering shadows from a 20th-century nightmare. "Passio." will be performed at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, at 112th Street, Morningside Heights, tonight at 8 and tomorrow night at 7 and 10, and at Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, Sunday at 3 and 5:30 p.m. $25; tribecafilmfestival .org.

Copyright by the New York Times 2007

Idea de negocio en "Los Rosales"

Abrir artículo en el Browser. 26 de Abril de 2007 . Una tendencia que crece en Buenos Aires Llegaron los hoteles boutique , para sentirse como en casa LAURA REINA LA NACIÓN (ARGENTINA) Martes 10 de abril de 2007 BUENOS AIRES. (Anexo de ElTiempo.com "Hoteles con diseño en Cartagena En La Heroica han proliferado en los últimos años pequeños hoteles en los que priman el diseño y la elegancia. Es el caso de Agua Bed and Breakfast, construido en una casa colonial del siglo XVII donde funcionaba una fábrica de tabaco. Precios desde 548.000 pesos, en acomodación doble. Informes: (5) 664 9479. Otros hoteles: La Merced. Precios desde 510.000 pesos. (5) 664 7727 Casa del Arzobispado. Precios desde 506.000 pesos, más impuestos. (5) 664 4162 La Passion. Precios desde 490.000 pesos. (5) 664 8605; Quadrifolio. Precio: 625.000 pesos (5) 664 6053.) Pequeños y lujosos, son los favoritos de los turistas por el ambiente intimista En Palermo, una tranquila terraza con reposeras para que el turista disfrute de la tranquilidad Foto: Gustavo Seiguer Será por el ambiente intimista. O por el servicio personalizado. O tal vez porque esas dos cualidades logran algo muy difícil de alcanzar cuando se viaja: sentirse como en casa. Cualquiera que fuere la razón, los hoteles boutique son ahora los preferidos por los turistas en todo el mundo. Por eso, en Buenos Aires y gran parte del país este tipo de hotelería está en plena expansión. En la Capital no son pocas las casas de familia, en barrios como Palermo y San Telmo, que se transforman de un día para otro en hoteles boutique , bautizados así por ser pequeños y lujosos. Incluso algunos establecimientos tradicionales, como el Meliá Plaza, en Recoleta, colgaron el cartel de hotel boutique , algo que también piensa hacer la exclusiva cadena Caesar s Park cuando inaugure, en julio próximo, un emprendimiento de más de 50 habitaciones en Cerrito al 300. Y hay más: Francis Ford Coppola, el famoso director de El padrino , decidió invertir parte de su fortuna en un proyecto de este tipo en Palermo. Según cuentan, las puertas de la casona por la que pagó 900.000 dólares se abrirán en diciembre, cuando llegue al país para filmar una nueva película. ¿Se puede hablar de una "boutiquemanía"? Es posible. Con distintos estilos, que van del ultramoderno al neoclásico, en la ciudad suman más de 50 los hoteles de este tipo y permanentemente abren nuevos, como Gurda Tango & Winery Hotel, en San Telmo, o La Cayetana, en Monserrat. La próxima apertura, el 15 de mayo, será Moreno Buenos Aires, un edificio declarado patrimonio histórico que conserva el estilo art déco . Y, en octubre, Vitrum, en Palermo Viejo, promete revolucionar con su estética vanguardista: pura sofisticación. Cada vez hay más adeptos a la nueva onda que busca en alojamiento servicios personalizados Foto: Gustavo Seiguer "El concepto con el que se trabaja es el de crear lugares con carácter, con personalidad y diseño moderno y vanguardista, haciendo mucho hincapié en los detalles y el trato personalizado", define Jorge Juri, gerente general de buenosaires.com.ar , sitio dedicado a la venta de servicios turísticos por Internet que tiene un apartado dedicado a esta clase de hospedaje. Cuestión de servicios La explicación del boom de estos establecimientos hay que buscarla en los servicios que brindan. "Se están abriendo muchos hoteles de este tipo porque los huéspedes buscan un lugar donde sentirse más tranquilos, con más intimidad, como en su casa", dice Gisela Tenenbaum, a cargo del área comercial de Casa Las Cañitas, una propuesta que, justamente, busca recrear ese "sabor a hogar". El lugar donde funciona el hotel era una casa de familia que se redecoró y readaptó manteniendo el concepto de hogar. "Pensamos en un lugar cómodo, incluso donde se pueda trabajar. Es un lugar fino, pero no pretencioso. Quisimos lograr que al ingresar en el living la mirada se distendiera. Son lugares donde vale la pena estar por un buen tiempo. Para una sola noche es preferible ir a un hotel convencional", explica Mónica Szalkowicz, una de las dueñas. En Casa Las Cañitas se organizan todos los jueves degustaciones de vino y también hay clases de telar a pedido del huésped, que se lleva de recuerdo la prenda tejida por él. Incluso hay un quincho con parrilla y jardín que permite vivir la experiencia del asado dominguero. Todo, para que el extranjero se sumerja en las costumbres argentinas. A tan sólo una cuadra de Casa Las Cañitas, sobre la calle Báez 248, Finisterra surge con un concepto distinto. La propuesta es combinar una arquitectura moderna con algunos objetos antiguos estilo Luis XV que pertenecieron a la familia de los dueños. "Esto era una vieja casona que perteneció a mi abuela. Hace dos años a mi mamá se le ocurrió reformarla y hacer un lugar donde se le diera al huésped una atención personalizada, que es la que no encontraba cuando viajaba", cuenta Pablo Badler, director comercial del hotel. Ambientes tranquilos para que ls huéspedes disfruten de la tranquilidad Fotos: Gustavo Seiguer El jardín con un añejo limonero y la terraza con jacuzzi y reposeras para tomar sol son los lugares preferidos de los huéspedes. "La diferencia con un cinco estrellas es que en un hotel de 600 habitaciones te sentís solo, estás huérfano. Acá, la idea es acompañar al huésped, entablar una relación con él", comenta Badler. El boom de estos pequeños hoteles es tal, que incluso hay cadenas que los agrupan. Una de ellas es Newage Hotels (NA), que tiene 13 establecimientos en distintos lugares de la Argentina y uno en Buzios, Brasil. Además, este año anunciaron la apertura de seis más. Uno de ellos es el modernísimo Vitrum. "La gente que viaja habitualmente quiere algo distinto; vivir la experiencia. Cada uno de nuestros hoteles está emplazado en espacios increíbles, y cada uno lleva la impronta, el espíritu del lugar", comenta Isobel Falk, gerente de Marketing y Comunicación de NA. Otra de las cadenas que agrupa a los hoteles boutique es Ten Rivers & Ten Lakes. Con 11 opciones en distintos puntos del país, ofrece a los turistas la posibilidad de alojarse en hoteles con encanto. A esta cadena pertenecen La Cayetana y Casa Monserrat. Por Laura Reina De la Redacción de LA NACION COPYRIGHT © 2007 CASA EDITORIAL EL TIEMPO S.A. Prohibida su reproducción total o parcial, así como su traducción a cualquier idioma sin autorización escrita de su titular. Reproduction in whole or in part, or translation without written permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Prelude to a kiss.......

Abrir artículo en el Browser. Abril 26 de 2007. Barrera vaticina KO y Calderón se molesta ESTÉWIL QUESADA Redactor de ELTIEMPO Barranquilla "El deporte del boxeo no es de los más machos, ni se trata de quién es más macho en el 'ring'. El boxeo es un asunto de y para gente muy inteligente". Ronald Iván Calderon, campeón defensor del título mínimo de la OMB. Foto: Alfonso Cervantes / EL TIEMPO El colombiano Ronald Barrera (izquierda) posa junto a rival, el puertorriqueño Iván Calderón. Foto: Alfonso Cervantes / EL TIEMPO El colombiano Ronald Barrera (izq.) y el puertorriqueño Iván Calderón se miraron detenidamente ayer antes de la pelea mundial que sostendrán el sábado en Barranquilla. Ir al artículo en El Tiempo.com COPYRIGHT © 2007 CASA EDITORIAL EL TIEMPO S.A. Prohibida su reproducción total o parcial, así como su traducción a cualquier idioma sin autorización escrita de su titular. Reproduction in whole or in part, or translation without written permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Del cine que nunca veremos comercialmente......

MOVIES The Man Who Made Mapplethorpe By PHILIP GEFTER Published: April 24, 2007 Correction Appended: April 25, 2007 An article in The Arts yesterday about a new documentary on the photography collector Sam Wagstaff misstated the name of the museum that was charged with obscenity in 1990 when it showed work by Robert Mapplethorpe, Mr. Wagstaff's protégé and lover. It was the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati — not the Cincinnati Museum of Art.

Francesco Scavullo Foundation The collector Sam Wagstaff, left, and the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in a 1974 portrait by Francesco Scavullo.

Tall, handsome and rich would be one way to describe Sam Wagstaff, a legendary figure in the international art world of the 1970s and '80s. Urbane is another. Iconoclastic, certainly. And glamorous, without a doubt. But the word that keeps cropping up in "Black White + Gray," a new documentary about Mr. Wagstaff by a first-time director, James Crump, that will be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival next week, is "visionary." Mr. Wagstaff was one of the first private art collectors to start buying photographs as early as 1973, long before there was a serious market for them. His photography collection came to be regarded not only for its scholarship. It was also original and unorthodox, and turned out to be extremely valuable. Mr. Wagstaff sold it to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1984 for $5 million, a fortune at the time, establishing that institution's collection of photographs, now among the finest in the world. But the Wagstaff mystique deepens around his relationship to Robert Mapplethorpe, his lover, to whom he was also mentor and career impresario. Mr. Mapplethorpe, 25 years his junior, was the bad boy photographer who scandalized the National Endowment for the Arts with his formal and highly aestheticized homoerotic photographs, which were given a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of Art in 1988, securing his legacy. Still, obscenity charges were brought against the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati when it mounted an exhibition of Mr. Mapplethorpe's work in 1990. Mr. Wagstaff himself affectionately called him "my sly little pornographer." Mr. Mapplethorpe, a young artist from a working-class neighborhood in Queens, was making elaborate constructions with beaded jewelry when he and the patrician Mr. Wagstaff, who had been a well-known curator at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, met at a party in Manhattan in the early 1970s. Throughout the film, interviews with more than a dozen people who knew them both provide an intimate and anecdotal picture of their lives, both individually and together. In particular, Patti Smith, the poet and rock star, offers tender descriptions of her friendship with both men. Ms. Smith's friendship with Mr. Mapplethorpe began in 1967 when they were both art students at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. They were living together near the Chelsea Hotel in the early 1970s when Mr. Mapplethorpe first brought Mr. Wagstaff to meet her. "Sam came in and seemed totally at home in my mess," she recalls. "We liked each other immediately. He had such a great sense of humor and had such a nonpretentious and nonsanctimonious spiritual air." Dominick Dunne met Mr. Wagstaff when they were both young men in New York, and he talks about the dichotomy between Mr. Wagstaff's life in the closet in the 1950s and his more public profile later with Mr. Mapplethorpe. "Sam Wagstaff was the New York deb's delight," he says in the film. "He was probably one of the handsomest men I ever saw. Tall and slender and aristocratic-looking. And he was funny. And he was nice. And the girls went absolutely nuts over him." Gordon Baldwin, a curator at the Getty Museum, recalls in the film that Mr. Wagstaff was proud of his aristocratic background and says Mr. Wagstaff told him more than once that his family had owned the farms where the Metropolitan Museum is now, at the time of the Revolution. "It was pretty clear that he came from a starchy background," he said. Still, Mr. Dunne notes how oppressive the taboos about homosexuality were for Mr. Wagstaff in the 1950s. Having had a privileged childhood on Central Park South and attended Hotchkiss with classmates like Dean Witter, of the brokerage firm, and Malcolm Baldrige, future secretary of commerce under President Reagan, Mr. Wagstaff seemed destined to become part of New York society. He didn't like talking about that period in his life, Ms. Smith remembers. "He would say things with a painful tone in his voice about the suppression and oppression of a homosexual man in the 1950s," she said. "I never asked him about it because it was the one area I could really sense pain in him." Mr. Wagstaff certainly made up for lost time. In the early 1970s, he "became an eager participant in the excesses of the age," says Joan Juliet Buck, the writer who narrates the film with a lofty voice, reading adulatory, if not lapidary, biographical prose that delivers the facts about Mr. Wagstaff's life in a tone aimed at, well, posterity. He was "always in rebellion against his conservative and upper class background," she notes. "He often held drug parties in his Bowery apartment," Ms. Buck says at one point, as if holding her nose at the very idea. "He used drugs for sex and he liked the alternative perspectives they offered." Philippe Garner, a director of Christie's in London and a friend of both men, says in the film: "My guess is that Robert gave Sam the courage to explore areas of his personality, to savor a darker kind of lifestyle than he would have done on his own. He unlocked a dark genie within him." Despite Mr. Wagstaff's sybaritic activities and his relationship with Mr. Mapplethorpe, unconventional at the time, he managed to amass a world-class photography collection and also to shape the other man's career. From the humble Polaroids Mr. Mapplethorpe was making when they first met to his more provocative and refined photographs, which now command $300,000 a print at auction, the influence of Mr. Wagstaff's taste and aesthetic sensibility on his work is undeniable. The film's title, "Black White + Gray," has several meanings. Most, if not all, of the photographs in the Wagstaff collection were black and white. Most of Mr. Mapplethorpe's best-known work is black and white too, and many of his nude subjects were African-American. But more specifically, the title refers to an exhibition called "Black, White and Gray" organized by Mr. Wagstaff as a curator at the Wadsworth Atheneum in the early 1960s. The show included works by Barnett Newman, Ellsworth Kelly, Ad Reinhardt and Jasper Johns, among others. The show "sent shock waves through popular culture and heralded fashion's embrace of Minimalist aesthetics," Ms. Buck says in her narration. At the time Vogue magazine published an eight-page feature on James Galanos's couture, with Mr. Wagstaff's exhibition as the backdrop. "Back in the 1960s, curators like Sam, Frank O'Hara and Henry Geldzahler were much more like artists than a lot of curators on the scene are today," Raymond Foye, the publisher of Hanuman Books, an independent press, says in the film. "He had a very special antenna to find what was new, what was good, what resonated with him," says Clark Worswick, a curator and photography scholar. The film's narration tends to cast Mr. Wagstaff in nothing less than Olympian terms: "His aesthetic underscores an unequal vision grounded in passion, intelligence, sexuality and clever financial speculation," Ms. Buck recites as rare self-portraits by Mr. Wagstaff are shown. "He had few rivals in his time. And none at all today." The intimate, never-before-shown photographs of Mr. Wagstaff and Mr. Mapplethorpe throughout "Black White + Gray" make great social anthropology, and the interviews with Ms. Smith, Mr. Dunne and others give depth and warmth to an otherwise stiff, if earnest, portrait. Both Mr. Wagstaff and Mr. Mapplethorpe died of AIDS, Mr. Wagstaff in 1987 and Mr. Mapplethorpe in 1989. One snippet of footage shows a shy and endearing Ms. Smith reciting a short poem of hers in an interview on the BBC in 1971: "New York is the thing that seduced me. New York is the thing that formed me. New York is the thing that deformed me. New York is the thing that perverted me. New York is the thing that converted me. And New York is the thing that I love too." Written before she met Mr. Wagstaff, this little gem nevertheless proves to be a fitting coda to the film — and to the man. "Black White + Gray" shows next Tuesday at the Pace Schimmel Center, 3 Spruce Street, at Park Row, Lower Manhattan. Tickets and schedule: tribecafilmfestival.org or (866) 941-3378.

Copyright by the New York Times 2007

Related Link http://www.mapplethorpe.org/selectedworks.html Copyright © 2006 The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.