Stravinsky

A portrait of John Grierson, the first Canadian Government Film Commissioner and founder of the National Film Board in 1939. Interweaving archival footage, interviews with people who knew him and footage of Grierson himself, this film is a sensitive and informative portrait of a dynamic man of vision. Grierson believed that the filmmaker had a social responsibility, and that film could help a society realize democratic ideals. His absolute faith in the value of capturing the drama of everyday life was to influence generations of filmmakers all over the world. In fact, he coined the term 'documentary film'.

A study of the automobile and its pervasive effect on the history of North America. Focusing on the Ford dynasty, from the original Henry car through to Henry II, the film demonstrates how society has adapted to fit the needs of the automobile.

Part documentary/part dramatization, this film details several of the highest-profile unsolved cases of disappearances, mysterious changes in personality and other strange occurrences related to the Bermuda Triangle.

A portrait of one of England's greatest composers. Winner of the Prix Italia.

A documentary by Tony Palmer on English composer Sir William Walton (1902–1983), made shortly before his death. The film includes the only full-length interview ever recorded with Walton. Filmed at his home on Ischia and in Oxford, London & Oldham, it includes contributions from Laurence Olivier, Sacheverell Sitwell and Lady Susana Walton. Specially performed extracts of his music are conducted by Simon Rattle in his first substantial contribution to television when he was in his early 20s, with Simon Preston, Julian Bream, Yvonne Kenny, Yehudi Menuhin, Iona Brown, John Shirley-Quirk, Elgar Howarth & Ralph Kirshbaum, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford & Los Paraguayos.

A behind-the-scenes look at the Aldeburgh Festival and the opening by The Queen of the new concert hall at Snape.

Julian Bream, considered by many as the greatest classic guitarist of the 20th century, tells the remarkable story of his life in music. Over three hours of material, illustrated with over one hour of complete musical performances, includes contributions from John Williams, Peter Pears, Igor Stravinsky, William Walton, George Malcolm, Richard Rodney Bennett and Ali Akbar Khan. Julian’s influence has resulted in a repertoire rich in contributions from Britten, Walton, Henze, Takemitsu, Tippett, Rawsthorne, Lennox Berkeley and countless others. He enthusiastically communicates his musical passions which are celebrated in this generously documented DVD. Highlights include Julian’s coming out of retirement for a performance of Britten’s Nocturnal, written for the guitarist, and an emotional return to the composer’s home in Aldeburgh, and an exclusive BBC Radio 3 recording of Richard Rodney Bennett’s Sonata for Solo Guitar.

Walt Disney's timeless masterpiece is an extravaganza of sight and sound! See the music come to life, hear the pictures burst into song and experience the excitement that is Fantasia over and over again.

Blending lively music and brilliant animation, this sequel to the original 'Fantasia' restores 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' and adds seven new shorts.

The journey of Michael Padovic, an American professor who arrives with his wife, Helene, at a Portuguese convent where he expects to find the documents needed to prove his theory: Shakespeare was born in Spain; not in England.

An enterprising producer believes he has hit upon a winning concept: a program of original animated shorts set to classical music. Undeterred by warnings that this has already been done by an American named 'Prisney,' he rallies an orchestra of geriatric women, a bullish conductor, and an animator that he keeps locked in the dungeon. What could go wrong?

At a decrepit farm outside a remote American desert community, something takes over the minds of some of the local humans and animals and is able to see through their eyes and control their actions.

Andreas Kartak, a homeless man living under the bridges of Paris, is lent 200 francs by a stranger as long as he promises to repay it to a local church when he can afford to. Kartak is determined to pay back his debt but circumstances, and his alcoholism, forever intervene.

Carmen: Impetuous Carmen seduces Don José in order to convince him to let her out of jail. Once outside, she thinks she’s finally free before realizing that she’s in fact prisoner of a love triangle: she wants to be with the famous Torero Escamillo, but she can’t make Don José go away. Petruska: At Saint-Petersburg’s carnival, three puppets are playing the same role over and over: the unhappy lover Petrushka, the coquette and a Moor. Fed up with this endless part that never goes well for him, Petrushka attacks his rival and flees from the puppets theater. Carmen Suite, staged by Alberto Alonso, is a one act ballet about a passionate, free-spirited woman caught in a love triangle. Stanislavsky’s Petrushka, choreographed by Edward Clug, encapsulates the story of a puppet that came to life, burdened by the human emotions of love, jealousy, and rage. Both stories envelop the characters which refuse to abide by the rules, to whom even the thought of submission is repulsive.

From the Rai Arturo Toscanini Auditorium in Turin: Johann Sebastian Bach – Anton Webern: Fugue (Ricercata) for 6 voices from *The Musical Offering* BWV 1079 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto in A major K. 622 for clarinet and orchestra – Aaron Copland: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra – Igor Stravinsky. Conductor: John Axelrod.

The supremely world-weary Lemmy Caution, last seen in Godard's "Alphaville" (France/1965), has several strange encounters while trying to make his way from the former East Germany to "the west."

From the Rai “Arturo Toscanini” Auditorium, pianist Vadym Kholodenko performs, for his debut with the Rai Orchestra, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, perhaps the most complex and demanding of the Russian composer’s four concertos. Conducting is Uzbek maestro Aziz Shokhakimov, who presents the final version, from 1947, of the famous ballet Petrushka, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s death.

In this hybrid of animation and live-action, a counterculture monkey blows the studio's budget directing a bizarre fantasy film, which is actually an overdubbed Russian children's movie.

In Montréal, Jean-Pierre is fired on the set of a TV commercial where he's an apprentice technician. He's penniless, behind on his rent, with a thin resume and no college units. He has a fiancée, Michelle, but his head is turned by a free-spirited model, from the U.S., who saw him being fired and comes to his flat to apologize. She's Elizabeth, a combination of feckless innocence and sexual freedom. Jean-Pierre borrows money from his outlaw friend, Dock, and buys clothes to impress Elizabeth. Soon he's sleeping with her, and he pulls a theft with Dock to get money to take her to Acapulco. Michelle tries to bring him back to her orbit. Is there a way out for Jean-Pierre?

Broadcast on 1 February 1956, composer Arthur Benjamin's Mañana was the first opera commissioned by the BBC. "The small Andalusian village comes to life in a sequence of short scenes introducing its inhabitants: a group of gossiping washerwomen, the prying eyes of the old rich widow looking down from her window, the neglected boy playing in the square, the pickpocket at work, the lazy man stretched out snoring in the midday sun, the Wise Man who mends china and writes letters for the poor and is fed in turn by the community. What will happen on the day when his food is given to a boy wrongly imprisoned in the local gaol and the Wise Man goes hungry? His anger is such that he prophesies the end of the world for mañana (tomorrow morning) and the credulous village repents and makes ready to meet its doom." —George R. Foa