Author Archive
Through the Eye of the Camp: Parsing Leonard Cohen’s ‘Old Ideas’
Leonard Cohen bookends his new album Old Ideas with a song about mortality (“Going Home”) and a song about the divided culture (“Different Sides”). Throughout, Cohen refines the use of gospel-impulse female singers who added vitality to his own special, deep-toned gravity on the great 1992 The Future (remember the title track’s exhortations to “Repent!”)....
Stained-Glass Melodrama: Zhang’s ‘Flowers’ Blooms
In The Flowers of War, filmmaker Zhang Yimou presents the Japanese occupation of Nanking in 1937 through the point of view of Chinese Catholic schoolgirl Shujuan (Xinyi Zhang). The rape of Nanking coincides with the development of Shujuan’s sexual identity as a woman, an experience that colors her memories of national trauma. To dramatize this,...
Best Album and Best Gallery Exhibition of 2011
‘Watch the Throne,’ Kanye West & Jay-Z; ‘Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’amour fou’ Call Larry Gagosian You belong in museums —Jay-Z, “That’s My B**ch” Jay-Z dreams of collapsing the class and race divisions reflected in high art and pop art hierarchies. Reverse the title of Kanye West & Jay-Z’s love song from their Watch the Throne...
A Franchise of One’s Own: Twilight Saga From Page to Screen
“Twihards” hate Bella. In each installment of author Stephenie Meyer’s blockbuster Twilight book series, Bella Swan embodies Meyer’s own distinctly feminine sexual anxieties. This Difference distinguishes the popular saga—justifying its appeal despite its perverse conceit. Bella’s recognizable yet frustrating choices—displayed during the books’ stages of social-sexual development—are perceived through the temptations offered by the world...
Utopian Variations: Diana Ross and Pet Shop Boys Go West
Over the past 50 years, the utopian hope of West Side Story’s “Somewhere” evolved from its Broadway-Hollywood romantic origins to the political (Diana Ross & The Supremes) to the analytical (Pet Shop Boys). As the musical’s star-crossed lovers—white ethnic Tony and Puerto Rican Maria—recognize the racial tensions and urban gang violence keeping them apart, Leonard...
Putting Impressionism on Film
Renoir restores family tradition “An idea.” That’s how (fictionalized) impresario Henri Danglard (Jean Gabin) introduces his latest discovery Nini (Françoise Arnoul) to a dance instructor in Jean Renoir’s French Cancan (1954). The Museum of Modern Art’s annual presentation of a Gaumont restoration returns more than just the luster to Renoir’s first color film; it restores...
Stephen King Debunks the Art of Horror
Two gallery artists subvert TV doc “The horror genre is not trying to make you think.” Stephen King spends an hour arguing this thesis in Turner Classic Movies’ original documentary A Night at the Movies: The Horrors of Stephen King (airing 8 p.m., Oct. 3 on TCM). King emphasizes the way scary movies get the...
CITYARTS FORUM: Straw Dogs, Straw Arguments
In an online exclusive feature, CityArts critics examine Hollywood’s remake obsession and its negative effects on film culture. Armond White reviews Straw Dogs’ art legacy and takes on the review of record. Gregory Solman recalls what makes Peckinpah great that Rod Lurie just doesn’t understand. And John Demetry analyzes the treacheries of Hollywood hackwork. Exposing...
Liberating Liz
Andy Warhol’s Gagosian print show puts humanity back in celebrity Chelsea’s Gagosian Gallery Liz exhibit returns Andy Warhol and Elizabeth Taylor to the uses of the post-9/11 audience. Elizabeth Taylor’s death on March 23, 2011, joined those of other popular artists who combined expressive and sexual innovation with political conviction: Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Robert...
