A SEPARATION
JODAEIYE NADER AZ SIMIN
Iran 2011 Farsi

DIR Asghar Farhadi
SCR Asghar Farhadi
CAST Leila Hatami, Peyman Moadi
Shahab Hosseini

Louis Martini Sonoma Cabernet 2009

Beppi in the Globe: "This is well-sculpted cabernet, with nothing out of place. The texture is polished, delivering flavours of cassis, cedar, tobacco and toasty oak. A light dusting of tannins provides structure and yields a satisfyingly dry finish. Ideal for steak or roast beef." 

There's one bottle of wine that is the introduction to what the fuss is about. "So that's what they mean when they say things like 'you can taste the dirt the grapes where grown in.'" It was a bottle of Martini Napa Cab camping in Monterey Bay summer mid-70s... This one was very nice with bar-b-que burgers at Luna Vista on Quadra Island.

Yecla Monastrell 2009. This Spanish red is derived from 100 percent Monastrell grapes sourced from older vines and aged in French oak barriques. It is a purple-hued red and offers up a nose of blackberry, pepper spice and blueberry. Ripe and fruit-forward with flavours of black cherry, chocolate and licorice, this wine is ideal for spicy dishes and Mediterranean seafood.

Beppi sez: 89 points 16 bucks: Too bracing and crisp to be called a crowd-pleaser (acid haters beware), this red will appeal to those with a taste for bone-dry, earthy Spanish bargains. Monastrell is the same as mourvèdre, a tannic grape that delivers astringent backbone. The wine is full-bodied, plummy and herbal.

Kissed by the Tuscan Sun

Monte Antico Toscana 2007. Beppi sez: 89 points, 15 bucks. Yes, one can still find affordable and positively delicious Tuscan reds from the superb 2006 vintage. This is made from 85-per-cent sangiovese, 10-per-cent cabernet sauvignon and 5-per-cent merlot. Unlike many such blends, though, it doesn’t let the French grapes obliterate sangiovese’s fragile cherry fruit and earthiness. The cab and merlot merely contribute a bit of oomph in the mid-palate as well as tannic structure. It is medium-bodied, with pure cherry, a touch of leather on the finish and dusty tannins that stimulated my chewing reflex. I love wines you can chew. Drink it now or keep it for two more years.

Meghan identified its pinot characteristics.

MY WINNIPEG
Canada 2007

DIR Guy Maddin
SCR George Toles, Guy Maddin
CAST Ann Savage, Louis Negin, Amy Stewart, Darcy Fehr, Brendan Cade, Wesley Cade, Guy Maddin

Researchers at the UK’s National Media Museum Discover First Color Motion Picture, 1902

Tinhorn Creek Pinot Noir 2009

Beppi says "standout". 
14.7% alcohol(!) 
Incendiary. 
20 bucks.

From Illustrated Vancouver — Jack Shadbolt and Paul Goranson

Jack Shadbolt (left) and Paul Goranson (right) working in 1940 on a mural for the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver. Photograph from the Vancouver Art Gallery library, photographer unknown. The theatre opened in 1941 (early May, I believe) in the midst of WWII, and in December of that same year Paul Goranson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force.

If you recall, Goranson worked with E.J. Hugues and Orville Fisher in the late 1930s after they graduated from the Vancouver School of Art. All three would become war artists: “In 1939 Hughes enlisted in the RCA as a gunner. Appointed a war artist in 1940, he was posted to Petawawa, Ontario, and in 1942, to England.” Fellow muralist Orville Fisher had joined the Royal Canadian Engineers in August of 1940. In fact, Jack Shadbolt also followed them into combat; “he enlisted in the army as a signalman on 28 October 1942.” More at: Illustrated Vancouver, Jack Shadbolt (left) and Paul Goranson (right)...

BASQUIAT
United States 1996
DIR Julian Schnabel
CAST Jeffrey Wright, Dennis Hopper, Michael Wincott, Gary Oldman, Claire Forlani, David Bowie, Benicio Del Toro,Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, Parker Posey
Basquiat - Movie info: cast, reviews, trailer on mubi.com

BROTHERS
BRØDRE
Denmark, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden 2004
DIR Susanne Bier
SCR Susanne Bier, Anders Thomas Jensen
CAST Connie Nielsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas

CARLOS
France, Germany 2010
DIR Olivier Assayas
SCR Olivier Assayas, Dan Franck
CAST Édgar Ramírez, Alexander Scheer, Nora von Waldstätten

Beppi sez:

Quails Gate Pinot Noir 2010 Sez Beppi:
SCORE: 91 PRICE: $24.99 in B.C.A B.C. leader in pinot noir, Quails’ Gate does a splendid job here. It’s medium-bodied, with sweet, jammy berries in the foreground, joined by tobacco, cinnamon, dark chocolate, a hint of charred wood and good snugness from fine-grained tannins. Try it with grilled salmon or pork tenderloin. ($25.99 in Sask., soon to be released for $22.99 in Man., various prices in Alta.)


Cono Sur Pinot Noir. Impossible: an econo pinot noir.Some of the recent plantings have proven especially favourable to the new darlings of Chilean viticulture, pinot noir and syrah, which have joined bread-and-butter varieties merlot, cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay. Carménère, the country’s signature red, with its fruity-spicy profile, has found its own groove, shedding its herbaceous backbite with the move to well-drained slopes free of excessive winter rain or haphazard flood irrigation. Didn't survive a follow up tasting weeks later, though. Useful lesson in identifying tannins. Woke up feeling like I'd had a tea bag on my tongue all night.  

Montebuena Rioja 2009

Beppi sez:: Medium-full-bodied and earthy, this big Spanish bargain offers notes of cigar tobacco, forest floor and light, fine-grained tannins. It is a good red for herb-crusted leg of lamb. $15.99 in B.C.

TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY
United Kingdom 2005

DIR Michael Winterbottom
CAST Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon

THE NAKED CITY

UNITED STATES 1948

DIR Jules Dassin
CAST Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart

Largest Selection of Edward Hopper Works at Madrid Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

TheMuseo Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Réunion des musées nationaux de France are presenting the exhibition hopper, to be shown first in Madrid then in Paris. It bring together the largest and most ambitious selection of works by the US artist ever to be shown in Europe, with loans from major museums and institutions including the MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, in addition to various private collections and with a particularly generous loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The latter is sending 14 works from the Bequest of Josephine N. hopper, the artist’s wife. The exhibition has also benefited from the collaboration of the Terra Foundation for American Art.

http://www.irc.umbc.edu/2005/10/01/cone-sisters/

INTHE NAME OF THE FATHER

UNITED KINGDOM, IRELAND 1993

DIR Jim Sheridan
CAST Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Emma Thompson

JULES AND JIM
JULES ET JIM
France 1962
DIR François Truffaut
SCR Jean Gruault, François Truffaut, Henri-Pierre Roché
CAST Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre

Birthday present collected. Home made pizza paired cleverly with Quail's Gate Dry Reisling and Calona Artists Series Pinot Noir at Meghan's cool digs and a spring evening walk in the blooms and blossoms of Victoria to the Fernwood neighbourhood and the exquisite Belfry Theatre and a fine production of God of Carnage. And the walk home through Gary Oak neighbourhoods but not before a round of prosecco at ear drum splitting Stage Wine Bar (in comes the cast of course ever so urbane).

Lights on for Lights Out! at the Vancouver Art Gallery

From The Vancouver Sun: Lights on for Lights Out! at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Lights Out! Canadian Painting from the 1960s

Vancouver Art Gallery, To April 29.  More details at vanartgallery.bc.ca

VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Art Gallery has raided its extensive permanent collection for an exhibition that focuses exclusively on painting from the 1960s. Called Lights Out!, the exhibition of 88 paintings looks at a medium that was undergoing big changes in the decade. When it began, painting was still considered the premier form of art making. By the end of the ’60s, not only were artists starting to work in new media such as video and photography, they were also exploring entirely new approaches such as performance and conceptual art.

MELANCHOLIA
Denmark, Sweden, France 
Germany, Italy 2011
DIR Lars von Trier
SCR Lars von Trier
CAST Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt

Approaching the 2 hour mark, I'm starting to root for the rogue planet.

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
United States 1958
DIR Richard Brooks
SCR Tennessee Williams, Richard Brooks, James Poe
CAST Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives

COFFEE AND CIGARETTES
Italy, Japan, United States 2003
DIR Jim Jarmusch
SCR Jim Jarmusch
CAST Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Alex Descas, Cate Blanchett, Steve Coogan, Alfred Molina, RZA, Bill Murray, Joie Lee, Cinqué Lee, Steve Buscemi, Joseph Rigano,Vinny Vella, Vinny Vella Jr., Renée French, Isaach de Bankolé,Jack White, Meg White, GZA, William Rice, Taylor Mead

Taurino Riserva Salice Salentino Rosso

Beppi scores it 91. 

"Sexy stuff, this succulent, medium-bodied blend of negroamaro with malvasia nera shows sweet cherry, with marzipan, flowers and licorice, even a hint of funky barnyard air. Consider it poor man’s Barolo. Braised red meats would pair nicely. $18.95 in B.C., $15.40 in Que." 

Eadweard J. Muybridge 182nd Birthday Google Doodle

GOODBYE SOLO
United States 2008
DIR Ramin Bahrani
SCR Bahareh Azimi, Ramin Bahrani
CAST Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo

Dry the Rain —Western Edge Theatre: the New Waves Festival

Dry the Rain is great fun. You'll laugh, you'll cry. The performances are a delight. Great jokes and brisk pacing. Oh, and it's about some serious stuff. But you can't have much more fun pondering serious stuff.

Western Edge Theatre: the New Waves Festival featuring Dry the Rain

http://thehackery.ca presents more Habitat 76 footage. For more info go to http://habitat76.ca

CRÍA CUERVOS...
Spain 1976
DIR Carlos Saura
SCR Carlos Saura
CAST Geraldine Chaplin, Ana Torrent, Conchita Pérez, Maite Sánchez

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Alex Schafran The Rocky Road to Dublin reposted from thepolisblog.org.



In the merry month of June, when first from home I started,
And left the girls at home alone and broken hearted,
Shook hands with my father dear, kissed my darlin' mother,
Drank a pint of beer, my tears and grief to smother;
Then off to reap the corn, and leave where I was born.

ANOTHER YEAR
United Kingdom 2010
DIR Mike Leigh
SCR Mike Leigh
CAST Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Stuart McQuarrie, Martin Savage, David Bradley, Peter Wright, Imelda Staunton

Is there any other director who can make ordinary life, ordinary people, ordinary problems as compelling and meaningful as Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky, Secrets and Lies Very Drake, High Hopes)? In Another Year he takes us through the yearly seasons and the seasons of life with a happily married couple in their autumnal years and in their relationships to family and friends and especially to Mary, a needy, insecure colleague. British filmmakers deal frequently with class status, and inequality. In this fascination example, as A.O. Scott of the New York Times has noted, Leigh is dealing with the unequal distribution of happiness in life.

Extraordinary decision to run the film with the captions for the hearing impaired! Some of the delicate creatures in attendance apparently have complained of not catching all the dialogue in British films. These captions (large yellow on black) include things like [WIND RUSTLING] and [CHUCKLING]! The co-ordinator was sitting in front of me and I asked him if they were necessary. Oh yes says he some people have asked for them. It's like having the film vandalized. Anyway I'd seen it so left in a huff.

URBANIZED
United States, United Kingdom 2011
DIR Gary Hustwit
CAST Sir Norman Foster, Amanda Burden, Alejandro Aravena,Oscar Niemeyer, Rem Koolhaas

THE SKIN I LIVE IN

LA PIEL QUE HABITO

Spain 2011

DIR Pedro Almodóvar
SCR Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, Thierry Jonquet
CAST Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, 

Prolific Pedro (All About My Mother, Broken Embraces, Volver) has done it again with a stylish  drama/thriller about appearance and reality, beauty and ugliness, this time focussing on plastic surgery. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas, returning to work with Almodóvar) is haunted by past tragedies, which propel him into developing a synthetic skin which can withstand any ageing or damage. He finds in Vera Cruz the perfect guinea pig for his experiment, a flawless beauty who may have the key to his past from which he is trying to escape and for which he is trying to compensate. A graphic and disturbing film, but with Almodóvar's unmistakable style and penetration of obsession. Skin is a major work not to be missed!

But it wasn't available so instead from film-maker favourites of Ron and Shirley, the Belgian Dardenne brothers The Kid With a Bike.

THE KID WITH A BIKE
LE GAMIN AU VÉLO
Belgium, France 2011
DIR Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
SCR Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
CAST Cécile De France, Thomas Doret

Exhibition of Diane Arbus Photographs Opens at Fotomuseum Winterthur

Diane Arbus, A family on their lawn one Sunday in Westchester, N.Y. 1968© The Estate of Diane Arbus.

From ArtDaily.org: 

Exhibition of two hundred photographs by Diane Arbus opens at Fotomuseum Winterthur

WINTERTHUR.- Diane Arbus (New York, 1923–1971) revolutionized the art she practiced. Her bold subject matter and photographic approach produced a body of work that is often shocking in its purity, in its steadfast celebration of things as they are. Her gift for rendering strange those things we consider most familiar, and for uncovering the familiar within the exotic, enlarges our understanding of ourselves. Arbus found most of her subjects in New York City, a place that she explored as both a known geography and as a foreign land, photographing people she discovered during the 1950s and 1960s. She was committed to photography as a medium that tangles with the facts. Her contemporary anthropology—portraits of couples, children, carnival performers, nudists, middle-class families, transvestites, zealots, eccentrics, and celebrities—stands as an allegory of the human experience, an exploration of the relationship between appearance and identity, illusion and belief, theater and reality. 

DRIVE
United States 2011
DIR Nicolas Winding Refn
SCR Hossein Amini, James Sallis
CAST Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Ron Perlman, Albert Brooks

Danish-born and educated Refn, whose previous work has been in genre films and TV, surprises with this dramatic, violent, but highly artistic film, described as "a 1200 horsepower hybrid". Ryan Gosling, one of the best young actors working today, plays a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a "wheelman" in a robbery to help a woman he loves. Quickly he realizes that the heist is a set-up and he is being targets by some pretty nasty individuals. A propulsive, streamlines independent film, Drive went on to win Best Director at Cannes and has garnered many other prizes for its stylistic retro thriller look and its rendering of the ambiguous anti-hero known as Driver.

1982 Camerawork calendar. Accounts include Drinking Driving CounterAttack, HMS Media Services (local ads running in Time magazine BC edition), Bob Masse Studios, Eli Productions (Powder Blues).

Frida Kahlo: Her Photos | Artisphere

ARLINGTON, VA.- Artisphere is the first and only venue in the United States to present Frida Kahlo: Her Photos, 259 images from her personal collection of over 6,500 photographs sealed until 2007 that allow viewers to experience a rarely seen intimate side of the artist.

More Information: Calendar | ArtisphereFRIDA KAHLO: HER PHOTOS | Artisphere

LOOSE CANNONS

MINE VAGANTI

Italy 2010

DIR Ferzan Ozpetek

CAST Riccardo Scamarcio, Nicole Grimaudo, Alessandro Preziosi

Tommasso is the youngest son of a large traditional southern Italian family that has been in the pasta-making business since the 1960s. Whereas they think he is in Rome studying finance, he is actually studying literature, writing a novel, and living with his boyfriend. At an upcoming gathering, he has decided to tell his family the truth, but unexpected complications develop. The humour is way over-the-top, but delicately handled in this thought-provoking and hugely entertaining film.

Film not seen. Home with the flu. Doctor I found on the internet recommends Jamesons

Diane Arbus — 80 Artworks @ The Vancouver Art Gallery

Diane Arbus | 80 Artworks @ The Vancouver Art Gallery selection of Bif Naked. 80 artworks from the VAG collection to celebrate its 80th Anniversary.

A SCREAMING MAN

UN HOMME QUI CRIE
Belgium, France, Chad 2010

DIR Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
 SCR Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

CAST Youssouf Djaoro, Diouc Koma

In his glory days, Adam had been the swimming champ of central Africa. But now, at age 55, the new Chinese owners of the tourist hotel have decided he is too old for his job as pool attendant and have transferred it to his son Abdel while Adam has been relegated to the more demeaning job of gatekeeper. Making his personal crisis worse, the country is at war with rebels, and everyone is expected to help with the war effort, either with money or with conscriptable family members. Adam has only his son to give. This rare and moving glimpse into everyday life in central Africa was a huge hit at Cannes where it won the Jury Prize (runner up to the Palme d'Or).

CITY OF GOD
CIDADE DE DEUS
France, Brazil 2002
DIR Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
SCR Paulo Lins, Bráulio Mantovani
CAST Leandro Firmino, Alexandre Rodrigues
Phellipe Haagensen, Alice Braga,

AMÉLIE
LE FABULEUX DESTIN 
D'AMÉLIE POULAIN
France, Germany 2001
DIR Jean-Pierre Jeunet
SCR Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 
Guillaume Laurant
CAST Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, 
Rufus, Dominique Pinon

.

IN A BETTER WORLD
HÆVNEN
Denmark, Sweden 2010
DIR Susanne Bier
CAST Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm

Anton lives in 2 worlds. As a doctor in an African refugee camp, he treats victims of civil war and negotiates with the local warlord. Back home in an idyllic Danish village he is under pressure to deal with the macho father of a local bully who is making his son's life at school miserable. In a better world, how should one respond to violence? Director Bier (After the Wedding, Brothers, Things We Have Lost in the Fire) has teased us with moral speculation before. Winner of the Academy Award For Best Foreign Language Film.

But... conflicting with the Western Edge production of The Glass Menagerie at the City Centre Stage.

Vancouver Art Gallery — Shore, Forest and BeyondArt From the Audain Collection

From the VAG website: The role of private collectors in the art world has always been essential to both artists and museums. Private collections are formed in a variety of ways, yet some achieve particular distinction for their depth, breadth and quality. 

The works assembled by Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa over the last two decades form one of the most important private holdings of work by First Nations and non-First Nations British Columbia artists. The Audains have created a collection that allows a particularly rich history of the art of British Columbia to be told.

Emily Carr Alert Bay Burial Ground I pass a crowd of school kids being enthusiastically guided through the exhibition. Look closely kids, yes it's a burial ground but check out the picture of her dog and look, there's an Orca whale. What's it doing in the grave yard? 


On the way to the gallery, I turn onto Robson and approaching with speed the high energy bubble of the US Women's National Soccer Team on Robson heading to stadium. The Olympic qualifying CONCACAF tournament is on.

Sintaluta, Danny Singer 2007

Danny Singer Calder 2005 Kincaid 2004

Lawren Harris Mount Thule, Bylot Island, 1930
Lawren Harris Mount Thule restoration

John Webber b1751

Nootka Sound engravings 1784

Nuu-chah-nulth man + woman

Jeff Wall River Road




Attila Richard Lukacs (b1962)Varieties of Love, Painting the Lovers' Portrait (1991)
Laurie Papou (b1964) She saw her fallen clothes as a charity, a homage (2000)
John Webber b1751


EJ Hughes
Brady's Beach near Bamfield
Departure From Nanaimo
Ferry Passing Malaspina's Gallery
Echo Bay
+
Bill Reid Killer Whale
+
Shadbolt

Gathie Falk Apples 22
Brian Jungen

UNDERTOW
CONTRACORRIENTE
Colombia, Germany, France, Peru 2009
DIR Javier Fuentes-León
SCR Javier Fuentes-León
CAST Cristian Mercado, Manolo Cardona, Tatiana Astengo

Set in the gorgeous, isolated coastal community of Cabo Blanco, primarily a fishing village this film blends local community ritual and drama with Latin American magic realism. Miguel, a macho and charismatic young man is married to the gorgeous Mariela, who is very pregnant with their first child. However, Miguel is also carrying on a secret affair with Santiago, a very handsome young painter. Only after Santiago dies does their relationship come into the open since from then on no one can see him except Miguel. Hanging on to both worlds and loves, refusing to let Santiago go, Miguel is pulled by the countercurrents until he realizes his true male identity, not his machismo is at stake, as well as his love and his community. Now he must make a decision

VIU Alternative Film Series, Spring 2012

Notes: Shirley Goldberg, Ron Bonham, VIU Humanities

January 13

THE TIME THAT REMAINS

LE TEMPS QU'IL RESTE

DIR Elia Suleiman

Suleiman (Chronicle of a Disappearance, Divine Intervention) returns to his native Nazareth to trace the history of Palestine from 1949 to the present in a series of absurdist dead-pan vignettes. As a sad-eyed witness, he registers the conflicts and contradictions of this half-century of tragedy and turmoil — as well as the impotence and stasis that has ensured. Instead of an angry diatribe, he has created a masterpiece of cogent dissent.

January 20

AFTERSHOCK

TANGSHAN DADIZHEN

China 2010

DIR Feng Xiaogang

Spectactular disaster film framed by the huge (8.2) Tangshan earthquake of 1976 and the Sichuan quake (8.0) of 2008. Director Xiaogang pulls out all the stops in this high action, emotional drama, focussing on the "aftershocks" for a particular family when a mother must choose between saving her son or daughter. When Feng Deng hears that she isn't chosen, yet later survives, her family bonds are pulled asunder. The film's emphasis on both physical and emotional restoration takes us over 30 years and all the way to Vancouver!! Part commercial blockbuster, part feel-good propaganda, part melodrama, Aftershock is to date the most popular Chinese film ever.

January 27

THE TREE OF LIFE

United States 2011

DIR Terrence Malick

Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) is a true artist and perfectionist, whose work is so all-inclusive that it must be seen on the large screen. A film which has generated a lot of controversy and opinion, Tree is demanding since we must leave all our expectations at the door (thus, the film stars Brad Pitt as the father of Sean Penn, but is far away from any Hollywood endeavour). While the central human story is set in 1950s Texas around the O'Brien family, American values, and the loss of innocence the film also shifts from pre-human, prehistoric time to the present. Malick's deeply humanistic meditation on birth, life and death moves with his inimitable vision between the cosmic order and the family order, showing that their stories for each of us are one and the same. Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes.