FILM, TELEVISION, RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE AND BALLET
SCORCESE a retrospective by Tom Shone (Thames & Hudson £29.95) is a celebration of a career, which is superbly illustrated and presented, yet always critical. It took Scorcese a long time to get the Oscar he deserved. Which is his best film?
The great thing is that you hear Scorcese’s voice throughout. Which is your favourite film? Taxi Driver? (“There’s a lot of talk, but no sex, no lovemaking, no nudity”) Raging Bull? (“make the film as openly as possible with no concessions at all for box office or audience”) The Last Testamant of Christ? Goodfellas? (“what fascinated me most was the details of everyday life”) The Age of Innocence? Departed? (“I just wanna make the movie I wanna make”). And what about the films I haven’t mentioned? They are all here. Scorsese admirers will have a field day.
INSIDE HBO’S GAME OF THRONES Seasons 3 and 4. By C A Taylor (Gollanz £20). Who can forget the wedding? Who will ever forget the medieval wedding to end all medieval weddings? It has already passed into legend.
Every actor wants to be in this popular television series and it has certainly transformed Peter Dinklage’s career out of all recognition.
This illustrated companion, with chatty comments by the actors and creative team, will please dedicated fans.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT MOVIES (Faber £25) Presented by Little White Lies. 50 people in the movie business tell us what they love about the movies. Amongst them are Francis Ford Coppola, Pedro Almadovar, Quentin Tartantino, Helen Mirren, Juliet Binoche, Terry Gilliam, Michael Fassbender, etc, etc.The answers are lightweight, inarticulate, glib, mundane and, in the case of Ray Gosling, alarming.
Tim Burton comes up with a good quote but only Wes Anderson makes any real attempt to answer the question. The portraits of the contributors are always unusual and interesting
RUSSIAN AVANT GARDE THEATRE: WAR, REVOLUTION & DESIGN (Nick Hern Books £25). The period covered is 1913-1933. If you cannot get to the exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, which continues until 25 January 2015, then this catalogue will show you what you are missing: groundbreaking, radical, and truly amazing theatre designs. The photographs of the innovative sets and the dynamic costume designs, art works in themselves, make you wish you were still able to see the productions on stage today.
STEVEN McRAE Dancer in the Fast Lane (Oberon £16.99) A really beautiful photographic record by Andrej Uspenski of McCrae’s dazzling, virtuoso (high-risk, high-adrenaline) work with the Royal Ballet.
Here are eight ballets including, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, La Sylphide and The Sleeping Beauty. And what is amazing is that so often the Australian dancer has had only a few days to prepare with some of the ballerinas.
This is a lovely souvenir for his many admirers.
ROYAL BALLET 2014-15 (Oberon £17.50) is an invaluable preview for ballet regulars as to what is coming on next year and there is also a good selection of photographs from the 2013/14 productions. The beautiful images bring back happy memories and whet the appetite to return to the ROH for more beautiful images.
The Royal Ballet has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award, the highest honour awarded by the Royal Academy of Dance.
You can buy your copy of any of these books at discounted prices by clicking on the links below:
