TRAVEL TUESDAY 242 - KRAKÓW, POLAND

“Krakow is one of my favorite places on earth. It is a medieval city full of young people. A wonderful, striking combination.” - Jonathan Carroll

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Kraków, also spelled Cracow or Krakow, is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River (Polish: Wisła) in the Lesser Poland (Polish: Małopolska) region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life and is one of Poland’s most important economic hubs. It was the capital of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1038 to 1569; the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1596, the Free City of Kraków from 1815 to 1846; the Grand Duchy of Cracow from 1846 to 1918; and Kraków Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1998. It has been the capital of Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999.

The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland’s second most important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was already being reported as a busy trading centre of Slavonic Europe in 965. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre.

The city has a population of approximately 760,000, with approximately 8 million additional people living within a 100 km radius of its main square. After the invasion of Poland by the Nazi Regime at the start of World War II, the newly defined Distrikt Krakau (Kraków District) became the capital of Germany’s General Government. The Jewish population of the city was forced into a walled zone known as the Kraków Ghetto, from which they were sent to German extermination camps such as the nearby Auschwitz never to return, and the Nazi concentration camps like Płaszów.

In 1978, Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków, was elevated to the papacy as Pope John Paul II — the first Slavic pope ever, and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. Also that year, UNESCO approved the first ever sites for its new World Heritage List, including the entire Old Town in inscribing Kraków’s Historic Centre. Kraków is classified as a global city with the ranking of high sufficiency by GaWC. It is cited as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, as well as one of the most unique destinations in the world.

Kraków has extensive cultural heritage across the epochs of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, and its architecture includes the Wawel Cathedral and the Royal Castle on the banks of the Vistula river, the St. Mary's Basilica, Saints Peter and Paul Church and the largest medieval market square in Europe, the Rynek Główny. Kraków is home to Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in the world and traditionally Poland’s most reputable institution of higher learning. In 2000, Kraków was named European Capital of Culture. In 2013 Kraków was officially approved as a UNESCO City of Literature. The city hosted the World Youth Day in July 2016.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 217 - WARSAW, POLAND

“No invader has ever conquered the heart of Poland, that spirit which is the inheritance of sons and daughters, the private passion of families and the ancient, unbreakable tie to all those who came before.” -  James A. Michener 

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Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa), is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.711 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 2.666 million residents, which makes Warsaw the 9th most populous capital city in the European Union. The area of the city covers 516.9 square kilometres, while the city’s agglomeration covers 6,100.43 square kilometres.

Warsaw is an Alpha–global city, a major international tourist destination and an important economic hub in East-Central Europe. It is also known as the “phoenix city” because it has survived so many wars throughout its history. Most notably, the city had to be painstakingly rebuilt after the extensive damage it suffered in World War II, during which 85% of its buildings were destroyed. On 9 November 1940 the city was awarded Poland’s highest military decoration for heroism, the Virtuti Militari, during the Siege of Warsaw (1939).

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MUSIC SATURDAY - ANTONIO CARTELLIERI

“We still have to overcome the notion that a clarinet squeaks. People need to remember what a beautiful instrument it is, including in popular music.” - Anat Cohen 

Antonio Casimir Cartellieri (27 September 1772 - 2 September 1807) was a Polish-Austrian composer, violinist, conductor, and voice teacher. His reputation dissipated after his death, not to be resurrected until the late 20th century. One son was the spa physician Paul Cartellieri. Another, Josef Cartellieri, compiled some largely second-hand biogaphical notes about the father he scarcely knew.

Cartellieri was born in Danzig. His father, Antonio Maria Gaetano Cartellieri, was Italian, and his mother, Elisabeth Böhm, was Latvian. Both of his parents were opera singers and he received his earliest musical education from them. When he was 13, his parents divorced, at which time Cartellieri moved with his mother to Berlin. In that city he began studying music composition.

In 1791, at the age of 18, Cartellieri became court composer and music director for Micha_ Kazimierz Ogi_ski in Poland. In 1793, he returned to Berlin with his employer where his first opera premiered successfully. He then went with the Count to Vienna, where he continued with further musical studies in music theory and composition under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and possibly Antonio Salieri.

On 29-30 March 1795, the première of his oratorio “Gioas re di Giuda” took place in Wiener Burgtheater. (In the interval, Beethoven played his first piano concerto, which was Beethoven's public debut as a composer). In 1796, Cartellieri was engaged by Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowicz (1772-1817) as the Kapellmeister, singing teacher, and violinist, roles he held until his death 11 years later.

His other duties at court included directing operas and playing the violin in both concerts of chamber music and symphonic music. He notably performed in the world premières of several works by his friend Beethoven under the composer's baton, including the Eroica Symphony and the Triple Concerto on 23 January 1805. He died in Liebhausen, Bohemia at the age of 34.

Here is his Concerto for Two Clarinets in B flat.
Mov.I: Larghetto - Allegro 00:00;
Mov.II: Larghetto 13:11
Mov.III: Rondo: Allegro 18:56
Clarinet I: Dieter Klöcker Clarinet II: Sandra Arnold accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Pavel Prantl.

ART SUNDAY - TEODOR AXENTOWICZ

“Every viewer is going to get a different thing. That's the thing about painting, photography, cinema.” - David Lynch 

Teodor Axentowicz (Armenian: Թեոդոր Աքսենտովիչ ; born May 13, 1859 in Braşov, Romania – August 26, 1938 in Kraków) was a Polish-Armenian painter and university professor. A renowned artist of his times, he was also the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. As an artist, Axentowicz was famous for his portraits and subtle scenes of Hutsul life, set in the Carpathians.

Axentowicz was born May 13, 1859 in Braşov, Hungary (now Romania), to a family of Polish-Armenian ancestry. In 1893 in Chelsea, London, he married Iza Henrietta Gielgud, aunt of Val Gielgud and John Gielgud of the theatrical dynasty. A son, Philip S.A.D. Axentowicz was born in Chelsea in 1893. Between 1879 and 1882 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. From there he moved to Paris, where he was a student of Carolus-Duran and continued his education until 1895. During that time he started a long-time cooperation with various journals and started his career as a copyist, duplicating the works of Tizian and Botticelli for Le Monde illustré. He also made numerous travels to London and Rome, where he prepared a set of portraits, one of the first in his career.

In 1894 he started collaboration with Wojciech Kossak and Jan Styka during the preparation of the Racławice Panorama, one of the largest panoramic paintings in the history of Polish art. The following year he moved to Kraków, where he became a professor at the local Academy of Fine Arts. He was also active in the local society and cooperated with various societies devoted to propagation of arts and crafts.

In 1897 he founded an artistic conservatory for women and soon afterwards became one of the founders of the Sztuka society, whose members were such artists as Józef Chełmoński, Julian Fałat, Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer, Jan Stanisławski, Włodzimierz Tetmajer, Leon Wyczółkowski and Stanisław Wyspiański. In 1910 he became the rector of the Academy and since 1928 was also an honorary member of the Zachęta Society. He died August 26, 1938 in Kraków.

Throughout his life he had numerous exhibitions, both in Poland and abroad. He was awarded many gold metals at both national and international exhibitions. The most notable were organized in: Berlin (1896, 1913), St. Louis (1904), Munich (1905, 1935), London (1906), Vienna (1908), Rome (1911), Venice (1914, 1926), Paris (1921), Chicago (1927), and Prague (1927). His paintings can be found in almost all public collections in Poland and in numerous private ones there and abroad.

In 1904 at the St. Louis World’s Fair, Axentowicz received a Special Commemorative Award in recognition of distinguished service in connection with various national sections of the Department of Art. While in Paris, he received the prestigious title of Officier d’Académie Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Member of Académie des Beaux-Arts. In addition to Society of Polish Artists “Sztuka”, he was also a member of Hagenbund and a founding member of the Vienna Secession.

The painting above is his Święcenie (“Celebration”), typical of his folk scene paintings.

ART SUNDAY - TADEUSZ MAKOWSKI

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once one grows up.” - PabloPicasso  

Tadeusz Makowski (29 January 1882, Oświęcim - 1 November 1932, Paris) was a Polish painter who worked in France and was associated with the School of Paris.

From 1902 to 1906, Makowski studied classical philology at the Jagiellonian University. During that time, he also began studying art at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts with Jan Stanisławski and Józef Mehoffer. Upon completing his studies there in 1908, he moved to Paris, where he would live for the rest of his life.

Originally he painted in the relatively conservative style taught by his professors. Then, he painted some frescoes that attracted the attention of a group of Cubist painters led by Henri Le Fauconnier, who worked in Montparnasse. This had a decisive influence on his work and the paintings of the period reflect the cubist ideals. At the invitation of Władysław Ślewiński, he spent the war years in Brittany and would return there several times. These trips inspired him to depart from strict cubism and go back to studying nature; creating many stylised landscapes.

Later, his favourite subjects were carnivals, fairs and children, done in a style inspired by the old Dutch Masters, Polish folk art and naïve art. He also did woodcut book illustrations. During the 1920s, he lived briefly in the Netherlands. From 1912 to 1931, he kept a diary that was published in Warsaw in 1961 by the State Publishing Institute (PIW).

Above is his “Winter”, painted in 1918. There is an element of naïve simplification in the painting, but its overall composition, subject matter, atmosphere and palette of colours pays homage to Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “Hunters in the Snow”. More representative of his oeuvre are the children playing and dressing up.

ART SUNDAY - ČIURLIONIS

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.” – Leonardo Da Vinci

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (Polish: Mikołaj Konstanty Czurlanis; 22 September [O.S. 10 September] 1875 –10 April [O.S. 28 March] 1911) was a Lithuanian painter, composer and writer. Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau and was representative of the fin de siècle epoch. He has been considered one of the pioneers of abstract art in Europe. During his short life he composed about 400 pieces of music and created about 300 paintings, as well as many literary works and poems. The majority of his paintings are housed in the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania. His works have had a profound influence on modern Lithuanian culture.

Čiurlionis was born in Senoji Varėna, a town in southeastern Lithuania that at the time was in the Russian Empire. He was the oldest of nine children of his father, Lithuanian Konstantinas, and his mother, Adelė née Radmanaitė (Radmann), who was descended from a Lutheran family of Bavarian origin. Like many educated Lithuanians of the time, Čiurlionis's family spoke Polish, and he began learning Lithuanian only after meeting his fiancée in 1907.

In 1878 his family moved to Druskininkai, 50 km away, where his father went on to be the town organist. Čiurlionis was a musical prodigy: He could play by ear at age three and could sight-read music freely by age seven. Three years out of primary school, he went to study at the musical school of Polish Prince Michał Ogiński in Plungė, where he learned to play several instruments, in particular the flute, from 1889 to 1893. Supported by Prince Ogiński's 'scholarship' Čiurlionis studied piano and composition at Warsaw Conservatory from 1894 to 1899. For his graduation, in 1899, he wrote a cantata for mixed chorus and symphonic orchestra titled ‘De Profundis’, with the guidance of the composer Zygmunt Noskowski. Later he attended composition lectures at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1901 to 1902.

He returned to Warsaw in 1902 and studied drawing at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts from 1904 to 1906 and became a friend with a Polish composer and painter Eugeniusz Morawski-Dąbrowa. After the 1905 Russian Revolution, which resulted in the loosening of cultural restrictions on the Empire's minorities, he began to identify himself as a Lithuanian. He was one of the initiators of, and a participant in, the First Exhibition of Lithuanian Art in 1907 at Vileišis Palace, Vilnius. Soon after this event the Lithuanian Union of Arts was founded, and Čiurlionis was one of its 19 founding members.

In 1907 he became acquainted with Sofija Kymantaitė (1886–1958), an art critic. Through this association Čiurlionis learned to speak better Lithuanian. Early in 1909 he married Sofija. At the end of that year he travelled to St. Petersburg, where he exhibited some of his paintings. On Christmas Eve Čiurlionis fell into a profound depression and at the beginning of 1910 was hospitalised in a psychiatric hospital ‘Czerwony Dwór’ (Red Manor) in Marki, Poland, northeast of Warsaw. While a patient there he died of pneumonia in 1911 at 35 years of age. He was buried at the Rasos Cemetery in Vilnius. He never saw his daughter Danutė (1910–1995).

Čiurlionis felt that he was a synaesthete; that is, he perceived colours and music simultaneously. Many of his paintings bear the names of musical pieces: Sonatas, fugues, and preludes. In 1911 the first posthumous exhibition of Čiurlionis’s art was held in Vilnius and Kaunas. During the same year an exhibition of his art was held in Moscow, and in 1912 his works were exhibited in St. Petersburg. In 1957 the Lithuanian community in Chicago opened the Čiurlionis Art Gallery, hosting collections of his works.

In 1963 the Čiurlionis Memorial Museum was opened in Druskininkai, in the house where Čiurlionis and his family lived. This museum holds biographical documents as well as photographs and reproductions of the artist's works. The National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius was named after him in 1965. Čiurlionis inspired the Lithuanian composer Osvaldas Balakauskas’ work ‘Sonata of the Mountains’ (1975), and every four years junior musical performers from Lithuania and neighbouring countries take part in the Čiurlionis Competition.

Čiurlionis's name has been given to cliffs in Franz Josef Land, a peak in the Pamir Mountains, and to asteroid #2420, discovered by the Crimean astrophysicist Nikolaj Cernych. Čiurlionis's works have been displayed at international exhibitions in Japan, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere. His paintings were featured at ‘Visual Music’ fest, an homage to synaesthesia that included the works of Wassily Kandinsky, James McNeill Whistler, and Paul Klee, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2005. A commemorative plaque has been placed on the building of the former hospital in Marki, Poland where Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis died in 1911. Čiurlionis’s life was depicted in the biographical feature film ‘Letters to Sofija’ directed by Robert Mullan in 2012.

The precise number of Čiurlionis musical compositions is not known – a substantial part of his manuscripts did not survive, while others presumably perished in the fire during the war, or were lost. The ones available for us today include sketches, rough drafts, and fragments of his musical ideas. The nature of the archive determined the fact that Čiurlionis’ works were finally published only hundred years after the composer’s death. Today, the archive amounts to almost 400 music compositions major part of which are works for piano, but also significant works for symphony orchestra (symphonic poems ‘In the Forest’ and ‘The Sea’,  overtures, cantata for choir and orchestra), string quartet, works for various choirs (original compositions and Lithuanian folk song arrangements), as well as works for organ.

The painting above is 'Angels' (aka 'Paradise') of 1909.

BELATED MUSIC SATURDAY - WIENIAWSKI

“If you put your hand on the piano, you play a note. It’s in tune. But if you put it on the violin, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. You have to figure it out…” -  Itzhak Perlman 

Henryk Wieniawski (10 July 1835 – 31 March 1880) was a violinist and composer, born in Lublin, Congress Poland. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka (Wolf Helman), was the son of a Jewish barber named Herschel Meyer Helman, from the Jewish Lublin neighbourhood of Wieniawa, when barbers were also practising dentists, healers, and bloodletters. Wolf Helman, also known as Tobiasz Pietruszka, changed his name to Tadeusz Wieniawski, taking on the name of his neighbourhood to blend into his Polish environment better. Prior to obtaining his medical degree, he had converted to Catholicism. He married Regina Wolff, the daughter of a noted Jewish physician from Warsaw, and out of this marriage Henryk was born.

Henryk’s talent for playing the violin was recognised early, and in 1843 he was accepted by the Paris Conservatoire, where special exceptions were made to admit him, as he wasn’t French and was only nine years old. After graduation, Henryk toured extensively and gave many recitals, where he was often accompanied by his brother Józef on piano. In 1847, he published his first opus, a “Grand Caprice Fantastique”, the start of a catalogue of 24 opus numbers. When his engagement to Isabella Hampton was opposed by her parents, Wieniawski wrote “Légende”, Op. 17; this work helped her parents change their mind, and the couple married in 1860.

At the invitation of Anton Rubinstein, Wieniawski moved to St. Petersburg, where he lived from 1860 to 1872, taught many violin students, and led the Russian Musical Society’s orchestra and string quartet. From 1872 to 1874, Wieniawski toured the United States with Rubinstein. Wieniawski replaced Henri Vieuxtemps as violin professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles in 1875. During his residence in Brussels, Wieniawski’s health declined, and he often had to stop in the middle of his concerts.

He started a tour of Russia in 1879 but was unable to complete it, and was taken to a hospital in Odessa after a concert. On 14 February 1880, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s patroness Nadezhda von Meck took him into her home and provided him with medical attention. His friends also arranged a benefit concert to help provide for his family. He died in Moscow a few weeks later from a heart attack and was interred in the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

His daughter Régine Wieniawski, born in Brussels the year before his death, also became a composer. She published her early works as ‘Irène Wieniawska’, but after marrying Sir Aubrey Dean Paul and becoming a British subject, she used the pseudonym ‘Poldowski’. Another daughter, Henriette, would go on to marry Joseph Holland Loring in 1904, who was among the victims of the Titanic disaster. Wieniawski was a player in the Beethoven Quartet Society in London, where he also performed on viola.

Henryk Wieniawski was considered a violinist of great ability and wrote some very important works in the violin repertoire, including two technically demanding violin concertos, the second of which (in D minor, 1862) is more often performed than the first (in F-sharp minor, 1853). His “L’École moderne: 10 Études-caprices” is a very well known work for aspiring violinists. What is commonly called the ‘Russian bow grip’ is sometimes called the ‘Wieniawski bow grip’, as Wieniawski taught his students his own kind of very rigid bowing technique (like the Russian grip) that allowed him to play what he called a ‘devil’s staccato’ with ease. This ‘devil’s staccato’ was used to discipline students' technique.

Here is Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor (violinist, Midori, with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; Conductor: Leonard Slatkin - Live Radio Recording, 1988).
1. Allegro Moderato
2. Preghiera. Larghetto
3. Rondo. Allegro giocoso

TRAVEL TUESDAY #27 - WARSAW

“Poland should be strong and prosperous and independent and play its proper role as a great nation in the heart of Europe.” - George H. W. Bush

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel!

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Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa), is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.711 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 2.666 million residents, which makes Warsaw the 9th most populous capital city in the European Union. The area of the city covers 516.9 square kilometres, while the city's agglomeration covers 6,100.43 square kilometres.

Warsaw is an Alpha–global city, a major international tourist destination and an important economic hub in East-Central Europe. It is also known as the “phoenix city” because it has survived so many wars throughout its history. Most notably, the city had to be painstakingly rebuilt after the extensive damage it suffered in World War II, during which 85% of its buildings were destroyed. On 9 November 1940 the city was awarded Poland’s highest military decoration for heroism, the Virtuti Militari, during the Siege of Warsaw (1939).

We visited Warsaw in July 2003 and enjoyed the trip immensely. The people were wonderful, there was an enormous number of things to see, a city of great beauty, art, culture and courage. The Mermaid of Warsaw (Polish: Syrenka Warszawska) is a symbol of Warsaw, represented on the city’s coat of arms and well as in a number of statues and other imagery.

The sculpture in Warsaw’s Old Town Square seen here was designed by Varsovian sculptor Konstanty Hegel. Originally (1855-1928) and now (since 2000) it stands in the marketplace. At other times, it was moved to different places in Warsaw. In 2008, the original sculpture made of bronzed zinc was taken from the market for maintenance work. The sculpture was in a very poor condition due to mechanical damage and numerous acts of vandalism. The repaired original was transferred to the Museum of Warsaw, and replaced with a copy of made by the Jacka Guzery foundry in Dąbrowie near Kielce.

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MOVIE MONDAY - THE PIANIST

“Sometimes even music can’t substitute for tears.” – Paul Simon

Think of this situation: One evening you are sitting in your dining room and enjoying a delicious dinner with your family. The radio is playing some light music, there is laughter and pleasant conversation, all is warm and cosy. Isn’t this a blessed situation to be in, enjoying family life, peace, contentment?

Then there is an announcement on the radio. Because of your surname (or colour of your skin, or religion, or whom you voted for last election - or take your pick of whatever unreasonable “reason”) you are told that you have 24 hours to vacate your home, taking with you only one suitcase with your belongings. You are to present yourself at an internment facility where an uncertain future awaits you. Possibly you will be split away from your family, you could be forced into hard labour or even put to death…

Can most of us even imagine this scenario happening to us, in our cushy, protected and wonderfully democratic first world environments? (and a glance down my friends list here on Google confirms that I am addressing a first world audience for the major part). “Can’t happen…”, you say. And yet it did, it does and will keep on happening unfortunately.

Yesterday we watched Roman Polanski’s highly acclaimed film “The Pianist” (2002). It is a harrowing film based on the life of a brilliant pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman a Polish Jew, who has written an autobiographical account of his experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. He witnesses first-hand the atrocities of the Nazis in the Polish capital. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off to the Nazi extermination camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw. He is helped and hindered in his struggle to survive by some unlikely characters, but overall his message is one of hope despite the devastation that he witnesses.

It is a marvellous account of one man’s struggle to survive, a testament of self-preservation and a reassurance that there are people who are willing to help us selflessly in our hour of need. People whom we consider as friends may drag us down and denounce us, betray us; while at the same time our enemies may stretch out a friendly hand that may save our life in our direst hour. Despite its grim subject matter, this is not a paean to Jewry and the holocaust in aggressive tones, nor is it an all out denunciation of a regime whose excesses are historically documented. It is a film that singles an individual, an anti-hero if ever there was one and his feeble attempt to overcome his fate, an attempt that becomes an all-consuming battle towards the end. His life, being his music, is his only focus and salvation.

This is a film that brings out raw emotion from the viewer, it is one that depresses and uplifts, takes one from the depths of desperation to the highest peaks of hope and elation. The music of the film (mainly Chopin) is exquisite and entirely apt. If you have not seen this film, definitely one to watch!

MOVIE MONDAY - THREE COLOURS: BLUE

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” - Albert Camus

The Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski has quite a few films in his portfolio, but the worldwide success he deserves came in the mid-nineties with his trilogy “Three Colours”. It is not surprising that he chose the three colours on France’s flag, blue, white and red and the country’s national motto of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” with which to construct his trilogy, as Poles have had a special bond with France for quite some time.

Last weekend I watched again Kieslowski’s 1993 film “Three Colours: Blue”,which I consider to be the best of the trilogy. As I expected, I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time I had watched it when it was first released. “Blue” concerns itself with the life of Julie, the wife of a famous and successful composer, who survives him and her young daughter, both of whom are killed in the car accident that begins the film.  The film is very much a study of Julie’s character and how she copes with her manifold losses.

If you have not watched it, I will not spoil for you, but suffice to say that it concerns itself with the theme of “liberty” on a personal level. Julie has been so scarred by her loss that she becomes an emotional cripple, chained to the past simply because she will not acknowledge it. Her grief is so immense that she chooses to black it out, ignore it and live a life free of emotional involvements, free of love, friendship, commitment. The theme of freedom is turned in on itself when Julie discovers that her strategy is failing and she has to redefine her life and her concept of “liberty” according to new parameters, as life intrudes into her self-imposed emotional isolation.

Juliet Binoche delivers a tour de force of acting brilliance in this film, and her dazzling depiction of grief in all of its manifestations is quite an amazing achievement. Her suffering through most of the film is linked of course to the loss of her family, but also she evinces from the role the nagging survivor’s guilt.

Cinematographer Sławomir Idziak’s camera captures images of peerless beauty in this movie and frame by frame, a complex painting is constructed, like the artist’s canvas is completed by brushstroke upon brushstroke. The musical score of the film composed by Zbigniew Preisner is magnificent and complements the images admirably. As a composer of music myself, I found the process of musical composition portrayed in the film accurate and illuminating for myself also!

If you have not seen this film, I strongly recommend it. It is slow-paced, confronting, disturbing, challenging, but also very rewarding.

MOVIE MONDAY - JOSEPH CONRAD

“We live, as we dream - alone.” – Joseph Conrad

Jósef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski (1857-1924) at age 15 ran away from his native Poland to seek his fortune in the world and ended up in Marseilles. There he signed on as crewman on a merchant vessel and spent the next 15 years sailing the seven seas. At 30 years of age he landed in London and decided to settle there. He married and began writing novels - in English. Now, what kind of English he learnt aboard merchant sailing ships late in the 19th Century might well be imagined, with crews comprising Greeks, Italians, Chinese, Filipinos, Indians, Galicians... However, his genius overcame all difficulties, linguistic or otherwise, and he is now known as one of the greats of English literature, Joseph Conrad. His works include the novels: “Lord Jim” (1900), “Heart of Darkness” (1902) and “Nostromo” (1904). He also wrote short stories.

Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with a marked accent). He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent universe. He was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English sensibility into English literature.

While some of his works have a strain of Romanticism, his works are viewed as modernist literature. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many authors, including D. H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Gerald Basil Edwards, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Graham Greene, and many others. Films have been adapted from, or inspired by, Conrad’s “Almayer's Folly”, “An Outcast of the Islands”, “Heart of Darkness”, “Lord Jim”, “Nostromo”, “The Secret Agent”, “The Duel”, “Victory”, “The Shadow Line”, and “The Rover”.

Writing in the heyday of the British Empire, Conrad drew on his native Poland’s national experiences and on his personal experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world, while plumbing the depths of the human soul. Appreciated early on by literary cognoscenti, his fiction and nonfiction have gained an almost prophetic cachet in the light of subsequent national and international disasters of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The most famous movie adaptations of his works are: Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Sabotage” (1936), based on “The Secret Agent” (1907); Richard Brooks’ “Lord Jim” (1964), and Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (1979), based on “Heart of Darkness.” Conrad sold the American screen rights to his fiction in 1919. In the next year he composed a screenplay entitled “The Strange Man”, based on the short story “Gaspar Ruiz”. He did not like to work for the film business, and did not know about screenwriting – not surprisingly, the studio rejected his script.

For Movie Monday today, I am reviewing a film that I had not seen before and was unfamiliar with, but which is based on Konrad’s short story: “Amy Foster”. The film is known by this title or alternatively by the name: “Swept from the Sea” (1997). It is directed sensitively by Beeban Kidron and there are some excellent performances by Vincent Perez, Rachel Weisz, Ian McKellen and Kathy Bates. One of the big pluses of the film is the excellent score by John Barry, that goes hand in hand with the action and beautiful cinematography of the bleak and windswept Cornish coast, where the action is set.

This story is one that Conrad must have felt very deeply about. It is about the survivor of a shipwreck of a migrant ship that was making its way to America and was full of Ukrainian immigrants. Yanko is the only survivor and his arrival in the small Cornish village is greeted by prejudice, suspicion and finally enmity. He is only treated kindly by Amy Foster, a wayward young woman who works as a servant in one of the farmhouses, is shunned by most villagers but even her own family. The two misfits fall in love and the whole community subsequently ostracises them.

From my description you might think that this is a “chick flick”, but I found it quite robust and the central theme is deeper and more sinister than an ill-starred romance. The supporting characters, especially the Doctor (Ian McKellen) and the daughter of one of the landed gentry in the village (Kathy Bates) have their own stories that form the backdrop for Yanko’s and Amy’s romance and the changing relationship of these two characters with the leads is an interesting subplot. Amy’s relationship with her family is another subplot that explains much of Amy’s character and actions.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie greatly and as an adaptation of a literary work it was well adapted, acted ably, directed sensitively and was full of atmosphere. It is well worth seeing and will please most, I think.

MOVIE MONDAY - IMPROMPTU

“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.” - George Sand

It’s Movie Monday and today a very witty, funny, poignant and quite robust film. It’s about one of the great love affairs of the 19th century and instead of the usual romantic and soppy cinematic excursions into this story that have been made, this film injects a dose of realism and mischief, while it does not detract from the romance of the story. The film is James Lapine’s “Impromptu” (1991).

Georges Sand was perhaps the most celebrated novelist of the early nineteenth century and one of its most notorious Bohemians, better known and more popular at the time than even Charles Dickens. Frederic Chopin was among the greatest pianists and composers of his age. “Impromptu” chronicles the meeting of George Sand and Chopin. It tells of Sand’s reckless pursuit of Chopin, of how Chopin resisted Sand’s advances and of how, despite the best and most mischievous efforts of many of those around them, they eventually fell in love and became a couple. In case you are unfamiliar with Sand, and think this is film about a homosexual couple, let me clarify the situation by saying that George Sand was the nom-de-plume of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, Baronne Dudevant, a French noblewoman who liked to wear men’s clothes in public and who was one of the few female pipe smokers of her time. Unconventional and Bohemian, with a long string of lovers and two children, she continually shocked her contemporaries in her search for true independence and freedom.

The cast of the film is exceptional and well-chosen. Judy Davis is fantastic as George Sand, Hugh Grant makes a surprisingly good Chopin, Mandy Patinkin revels in his role as Alfred de Musset, Julian Sands is an inspired Franz Liszt, Bernadette Peters does a great job as the fertile and bitchy Marie D’ Agoult and Ralph Brown is good in his supporting role as Eugene Delacroix. The actors interact with each other in wonderful syntony and although direction is a little patchy at times, the script and cast make one forget this and one’s interest never wanders away from what is essentially an involving and amusing story.

In the film, the foibles of the rich and talentless are contrasted with the intellectual and creative brilliance of the talented but penurious. The stay at the estate of the Duke and Duchess of D’ Antan is hilarious. Sharp satire is coupled with witty dialogue and the way that the romance between Sand and Chopin unfolds takes an almost secondary role to the intellectual and emotional fireworks between Sand and two of her former lovers, who are also staying at the estate. Needless to say that Chopin’s music features prominently in the movie, and there are many touching and tender moments in it as well. Historical accuracy and attention to costumes and sets transports one into the period of Paris of the 1830s and engages one into the lives and times of the individuals portrayed.

Unlike many costume dramas, this is not an “epic” film, nor a melodramatic biopic where facts have been slaughtered on the altar of romantic expediency. If one contrasts “Impromptu” with Charles Vidor’s 1945 “A Song to Remember”, what I mean becomes obvious. The older film is a highly romanticised and hollywoodised version of Chopin and Sand’s love affair. Cornel Wilde as Chopin and Merle Oberon as George Sand, is enough indication of the romantic interest shown in the film. While cinematically, Vidor’s film is what one would expect of Hollywood period dramas and no doubt this famous director knows his craft and has produced a highly engaging film, this biopic is essentially “world history according to Hollywood” and in the resulting glamourised and at times schmaltzy end-result, Sand’s character was the one most to suffer.

Watch “Impromptu” if you wish to have a pleasant 107 minutes, enjoying the witty dialogue, good acting, a good script and engaging cinema. Many laughs, wry chuckles and the occasional moment full of pathos are bound to please you.

ART SUNDAY - JACEK YERKA

“All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.” - Carl Jung
 
Jacek Yerka was born in 1952 in Toruń, Poland. He was born into an artistic family with both his parents graduates from a local Fine Art Academy. His earliest memories were of paints, inks, paper, pencils, erasers and brushes. As a child, Yerka loved to draw and make sculptures. He hated playing outside, and preferred to sit down with a pencil, creating and exploring his own world. This difference between the other children in his primary school led to social problems with his peers and Yerka describes his primary school life as being a “grey, sometimes horrifying reality.” However, Yerka later became “untouchable” in his high school due to his clever sketches of the school’s worst bullies.
 
The artist graduated in 1976 from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Nicolas Copernicus University in Toruń. He specialised in graphic art. During the first few years after graduation he exhibited posters, for example at The Biennial Exhibition of Polish Posters in Katowice in 1977 and 1979, at the international biennial exhibitions in Lahti and Warsaw, among others. Since 1980 he devoted himself completely to painting.
 
Basing on precise painting techniques, taking pattern from former masters like Jan van Eyck or Hieronymus Bosch but mainly on his unlimited imagination he creates surrealistic compositions, particularly admired by enthusiasts of sci-fi in all varieties. He inspired the fantasy writer Harlon Ellison to write 30 short stories, which along with Yerka’s pictures constituted the publication entitled “Mind Fields”. The same American publisher “Morpheus International” released the album “The Fantastic Art of Jacek Yerka”.
 
In 1995 the artist was awarded the prestigious World Fantasy Award for the best artist. He exhibits in Poland and abroad (in Germany, France and USA among others), being an esteemed representative of the science fiction stream of art. His paintings have recently inspired film-makers. The artist has been invited to cooperate in the production of an American movie “Strawberry Fields” in which his paintings was to be accompanied by the Beatles’ music.
 
The painting above is called “The City is Landing” and shows Yerka’s style to advantage. A meticulously detailed fantastic landscape, painstakingly rendered, well composed and with luscious attention to colour and form. It is a delicious excursion into the land of fantasy and with a meaning that can be extremely personal for each person who views the work.

MOVIE MONDAY - THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VÉRONIQUE

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death” - Albert Einstein

We watched a DVD that we bought at a market at the weekend. I had been looking for this film on and off whenever I remembered it, as I had heard a lot about it, and I had found it once in a DVD shop, but at $36 I was not going to buy it. At about a quarter of the price, it was much more attractive to buy at the market, and we finally got to watch it! I am glad that we did, although I can now understand why the comments I heard about the film were a little controversial. It is a typical “European Art Film”, which description would put many viewers off straight away! The other thing that may put off some people is that it won two prizes at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991, and several other international film critics’ prizes – that is another negative for many!

The 1991 film is Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “La Double Vie de Véronique” (The Double Life of Veronica). This is a Polish/French production and it stars the youthful and luminous Iréne Jacob who for this role won the best actress prize in Cannes. She is supported by a Polish/French cast and the film is set in both Krakow, Poland and Paris, France. As the title suggests, Iréne plays a double role, the Polish Weronika and the French Véronique. The whole film is based on the premise of the Doppelgänger (an apparition or double of a living person). Weronika and Véronique never meet, although their paths cross once, but their lives show some curious intermingling and amazing connections.

The film operates on many levels and can be interpreted in a variety of ways, as its texture is rich and the story simple enough. However, it is full of beautiful images, complex incident and overlapping viewpoints. The personality of the two Veronicas is quite different, yet they do share many sensitivities and their interactions with the other characters provide much to explore for the viewer. The film is slow and the lack of a forward driving storyline with a definite introduction, build-up to a climax and a strong dénouement will put many people off. However, it is an engaging film where the viewer shares in the creative process and just like one of those “join-the-dot” pictures, it is only when all the dots are joined that the final picture is revealed. It is the viewer who needs to join the dots in this film (and some of the harsh critics may say that the viewer has to number the dots as well!).

Weronika in Krakow is a very talented singer who also has a heart condition. She decides to become a professional singer and is successful in her audition to join a prestigious choir as a soloist. Véronique in Paris is a musician also, but on a whim decides to abandon her singing lessons and prospects of a professional career, and rather continues teaching (rather untalented) children the rudiments of music. Her life seems to be the complete opposite of Weronika’s, and this is also seen when one life ends tragically, while another continues rather more optimistically. As one may suspect, music plays a key role in the film and the music score is quite beautiful, written by composer Zbigniew Preisner who has collaborated with Kieslowski before in his “Three Colours” trilogy, especially so in the remarkable “Three Colours: Blue” with Juliette Binoche.

Weronika sings an amazing solo in her first performance and this is the beginning of the second Canto of Dante’s Paradiso:
“O voi che siete in piccioletta barca,
desiderosi d’ascoltar, seguiti dietro
al mio legno che cantando varca,
Non vi mettete in pelago, ché forse,
perdendo me, rimarreste smarriti.
L’ acqua ch’ io prendo giá mai non si corse;
Minerva spira è conducemi Appollo
 è nove Muse mi dimostran l’ Orse.” - Dante, Paradiso, II, 1-9.

“O Ye, who in some pretty little boat,
Eager to listen, have been following
Behind my ship, that singing sails along,
Turn back to look again upon your shores;
Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure,
In losing me, you might yourselves be lost.
The sea I sail has never yet been passed;
Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo,
And Muses nine point out to me the Bears.”

Dante describes the ascent to heaven and Iréne Jakob really looks angelic as she sings the soaring verses. It is easy to see how she became Kieslowski’s muse (she starred again in his “Three Colours: Red” of 1994). This scene together with some others relating to stars, and Veronica’s name itself, have prompted some to interpret the film on a Christian theme (I had difficulty with this interpretation). Others view it more as an existentialist flibbertigibbet that can be seen as substantial or as lightweight as one cares to make it.

The cinematography is stunning and the use of colour quite beautiful. The film presages the “Three Colours” in this respect and one can see the germs of ideas that Kieslowski incubated in order to arrive at the later films (1993/4). The full colour interspersed with an almost sepia effect, the dated, almost hand-tinted look and the images of almost no colour at all push and pull us into the story and propel the narrative forward. The scenes with the performances of the marionettes has a pivotal role in Véronique’s discovery of herself and the discovery of her double, but is also catalytic in moving her life forward.

An enjoyable, memorable film, deceptively simple on first viewing, but I am sure can be seen again to discover yet more hidden more depths. I don’t generally like seeing films again, but this one I would enjoy seeing again next year. Come to think of it, it’s time I watched “Three Colours: Blue” again!

POSTCARD FROM BRISBANE 2

“It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy.” George Horace Lorimer

The weather in Brisbane today was beautiful – a lovely, sunny, warm day with blue skies and just the hint of a breeze. As we progress into the Southern Hemisphere winter, the weather in my home town Melbourne gets progressively colder and wetter and greyer, while in Brisbane, the subtropical dry season is beginning, with equable temperatures and a dry, warm climate. Many people living in the southern states of Australia have their holidays up in the North in the midst of winter, as a relief from the winter blues.

I had to attend a ministerial seminar and workshop today, which although informative was at a low level and reading a webpage would have given as much information. However, it was valuable in that I made some good contacts who will no doubt prove to be very useful in the future. One wonders how much money from the public purse is wasted on activities such as this where guest speakers and consultants (who are paid a fortune!) are invited to “educate” high level people in education who are themselves experts in many of the fields that are covered…

Walking back through the City after the seminar I was surprised by the very large number of people milling around the busy streets and shops, the huge amount of traffic and the considerable construction that was going on. We are fortunate here in Australia that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has touched us but lightly and amongst the developed economies in the world we are doing very well. With about 5.5% unemployment and a moderate to low deficit, Australia seems to be an economic paradise when compared to the USA and some European countries. It seems we are still the “lucky country”, but for how long?

The latest budget delivered by our government has started some alarm bells ringing and the opposition is forecasting doom and gloom (but after all that is the job of the opposition, is it not?). The GFC is far from over and Australia’s healthy economic is about to take a beating according to some economists. Australia’s natural resources and its mining wealth seem to have been one factor that protected it from the worse of the crisis. Now with the new tax on mining some politicians are predicting dire financial effects. However, the tax on profits of multinational companies that exploit Australian resources before these profits leave the country seems only fair to the local population. Time will tell where these times are leading us, I just hope it’s not the case of “let’s start third world war in order to resolve all sorts of problems all at once”.

finance |ˈfīnans; fəˈnans| noun
The management of large amounts of money, esp. by governments or large companies.
• monetary support for an enterprise: Housing finance.
• ( finances) the monetary resources and affairs of a country, organization, or person: The finances of the school were causing serious concern.
verb [ trans. ]
Provide funding for (a person or enterprise): The city and county originally financed the project.
ORIGIN late Middle English: from Old French, from finer ‘make an end, settle a debt,’ from fin ‘end’. The original sense was [payment of a debt, compensation, or ransom]; later [taxation, revenue.] Current senses date from the 18th century, and reflect sense development in French.

THE BLACK MADONNA

“Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.” - Abraham Joshua Heschel

Art Sunday today highlights the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. This is an icon of the Virgin Mary which is a Polish national symbol as well as a holy religious relic. It has been in the country for the last 600 years, but legend relates that the icon was painted by St Luke the Evangelist on a cypress table-top from the house of the Holy Family. The icon is documented to have been brought from Jerusalem via Constantinople and Belz, to finally reach Częstochowa in 1382.

The original image was repainted after being damaged in 1430, when Hussite raiders devastated the church in which the icon was kept. The painting was repaired, but ineptly as the original painting was encaustic (hot wax painting technique) and the restoration was tempera. The paint sloughed off and the solution was to repaint the picture after scraping the wood.

The painting is of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Infant in a pose known in the Orthodox Church as “Η Παναγία η Οδηγήτρια” (I Panayía I Odogétria, “The Virgin who Shows the Way”). The Madonna shows the way of salvation by directing attention to the Christ Child, who extends His right hand in benediction, while holding the gospels in His left hand.

The image of the Black Virgin is a recurrent theme and many shrines possess an icon or statue of a black Madonna. About 450 have been documented around the world, but mainly in Europe. Concerning why the Virgin Mary is depicted black, in Aramaic (the language of Jesus) black means “sorrowful”. Nowadays the Virgin Mary is often depicted as a black woman and thus points to the trans-racial universality of the Christian faith. This image of a black Madonna is easier for people in Africa, say, to identify with. In Japan, Japanese Christians depict the Madonna as a Japanese woman and similarly so in china, where her features are Chinese.

The image seemed apt for today, which is the international day against racism. The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was established in 1966, following a tragic event that shocks the conscience: The massacre in 1960 of 69 young students peacefully protesting against apartheid laws, adopted by the South African government, a brutal regime that applied the theory of inequality between races, regardless of humanity’s moral and ethical advances. Proclaiming this International Day for the 21st of March, the United Nations General Assembly called upon the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.