See Ya at What Gets Me Hot

Kees Van Dongen, 1877-1968 - Retrospettiva

Dal 25 giugno al 7 settembre 2008, Sala delle Esposizioni Quai Antoine Ier
4, Quai Antoine Ier -- Monaco. L'esposizione retrospettiva concepita e co-prodotta dal Nuovo Museo Nazionale di Monaco e dal Museo delle Belle Arti di Montreal, in partenariato con il Museo Boijmans Van Beuningen di Rotterdam, è senza dubbio la più importante manifestazione dedicata a Kees Van Dongen dopo quella del Museo d'Arte Moderna di Parigi del 1990. Essa riunirà più di 200 opere delle quali alcune non esposte al pubblico da più di mezzo secolo.

Bettina Rheims - OLGA (OPENING) Puoi trovare la felicità

A cura di Philippe Dagen, critico darte e giornalista e organizzata in collaborazione con la Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont di Parigi, la mostra presenta oltre novanta splendide immagini e si articola in sezioni tematiche strettamente concatenate per raccontare lopera di Bettina Rheims dal 1991, con Chambre close, al 2004 con Shanghai. Dal 24 Settembre
al 23 Novembre 2008, FORMA Centro Internazionale di Fotografia di Milano

Bettina Rheims: "CHAMBRE CLOSE" OPENING: Ausstellung

Vernissage chambre close mit Roman Libbertz

Bettina Rheims Photographs Madonna: " a lot of people don't know, but i'm not a big madonna fan; however, i love b.r.

Madonna photographed by Andy Erle and Bettina Rheims for Bedtime Stories in 1994.
On the background the song Human Nature video versions.

The Collector by Martin Hampton

THE COLLECTOR from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.

Bernard Hermann (from ebin)

In '56 with Hitchcock on the set of The Man Who Knew too Much....sort of
Bernard Hermann was born in New York City on June 29, 1911. He won an Academy Award for The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941). He is particularly known for collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock. He did the music on Orson Welles' infamous 1938 The War of the Worlds radio broadcast, composed the scores for several fantasy films by Ray Harryhausen, and many TV programs.
This article has a great analysis of what makes Herrmann's music tick:

On the Citizen Kane set with Orson Welles
Essentially Herrmann regarded himself as a Romantic composer, stylistically speaking. His music was indeed emotional, moody, with great depth of feeling. Herrmann stated, "As a composer I might class myself as a Neo-Romantic, inasmuch as I have always regarded music as a highly personal and emotional form of expression. I like to write music which takes its inspiration from poetry, art and nature. I do not care for purely decorative music. Although I am in sympathy with modern idioms, I abhor music which attempts nothing more than the illustration of a stylistic fad. And in using modern techniques, I have tried at all times to subjugate them to a larger idea or a grander human feeling."

The Romantic period of music came to full fruition in the 19th century, and it is interesting to note what Herrmann wrote to his wife on November 1947: "My feelings and yearnings are those of a composer of the 19th century. I am completely out of step with the present."

Playing himself in The Man Who Knew Too Much
While Herrmann’s music — his entire oeuvre — cannot be easily pigeon-holed, almost all of his works showed a natural Dramatist (a terrific aptitude for drama, whether musically or in his personal life!) that flowed along a romantic channel of expression. One suggestion is to say that he was a 20th Century American Modernist Romantic. He tended to excel in music written not so much in a co-called abstract construct (concert works, say, or symphony) but in response to an external stimulus or medium such as the Big Screen (feature film), the Small Screen (television), radio plays, and the opera (Wuthering Heights). His dramatic instincts really shined in these Show Business mediums.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

The Trouble with Harry (1955)
I think the prelude to Vertigo (1958) is his most powerful and dramatic. At first, it's as if there is no melody (trying to hum it is about as difficult as humming The Beach Boy's "Let's Go Away for a While" from Pet Sounds). But after repeated listening, it gives me chills. The melody (rolling in around :54) is like waves crashing slowly onto a beach. Watch this in it's entirety and call me in the morning:

Of course, it doesn't hurt to have it perfectly synced with one of the best opening credit sequences done by Saul Bass. And to say it's one of his best is saying quite a lot.

North by Northwest (1959)

Psycho (1960)

Herrmann's Cape Fear (1962) score filtered through Elmer Bernstein for the 1991 remake

His last movie soundtrack was for Taxi Driver (1976). How could that film have not become a classic with a Bernard Hermann score??