Feb 16, 2010 | No Comments | ByBirds Eye View
Marion Davies in The Patsy
The Birds Eye View Sound and Silents Retrospective this year features three delightful blonde and boisterous stars. Kelly Robinson, BEV retrospective programmer, gives her insights into these actresses and the flaxen-haired characters they play. The Musicians: Patti Plinko, Gwyneth Herbert and Jane Gardner, who will be putting their own spin on the films with specially commissioned original scores, tell us how it’s going and what their personal take is. Read the full story
Feb 16, 2010 | No Comments | ByBirds Eye View
By Lucy Bolton
Marilyn Monroe stars in Gentleman Prefer Blondes
The blondes who feature in the Birds Eye View Sound & Silents series and the Blonde Crazy Retrospective demonstrate the complexity of the images and personality traits that have been attributed to blondes from the earliest days of cinema. Like her fellow feminine filmic staples –the showgirl and the femme fatale – the blonde can be unfairly dismissed as a predictable set of conventions and relegated to the role of one-dimensional spectacle.
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Feb 9, 2010 | No Comments | ByClare Callan
Mira Calix
Fresh from winning a Composer of The Year Award 2009, Mira Calix is known for her innovative scores, often accompanied by unique visual displays. As part of a special commission for the BEV Film Festival this year she will be presenting an original score for the first ever feature-length animation. Subtle and beautiful, The Adventures of Price Achmed was directed by Lotte Reiniger in 1926. The trailblaizing Warp-signed composer/ musician shares the story so far… Read the full story
Feb 8, 2010 | 1 Comment | ByRachel Millward
Rachel+bump - now two months bigger...
Well, this is the funniest of festival years for me. Just as Birds Eye View gears up to what looks to be an outrageously brilliant festival – a true celebration of the scope of women’s creative vision, I gear up to a very different moment of creativity – giving birth for the first time. There’s something rather poetic (and nuts) about the timing for me. Should I go those two “permissable” weeks over the official due date, our baby girl could be coming into the world on opening night. Which means that the festival – my first baby, of sorts, is now safely in the hands of BEV’s most excellent team, allowing me to focus on this momentous and unknown journey ahead. Obviously, should baby decide to come this week, or next, I may shuffle down to share in the joys of closing night delight, but maybe our new little world will be too fresh and fragile – we shall see…
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Jul 30, 2009 | No Comments | ByRachel Millward
Rumba, in selected cinemas from Friday 31st July
BEV’s Creative Director Rachel Millward had the happy chance to see Rumba this week. Delighted to see something so fresh and involving on screen, Rachel was fascinated by how the creative trio used their physical theatre background to bring a new vision to film. Read on for some enlightening insights from co-director and star, Fiona Gordon:
Rachel: What prompted you to venture from the world of theatre into cinema?
Fiona: As soon as video cameras were available, Dom and I began to experiment. It took a long time to translate physical theatre language into cinema. Things really worked when we started not to worry about trying to find a ‘cinematographical’ way of working, but instead to take advantage of what physical theatre can do. So, we used the frame – instead of editing to make rhythm, we’d do it within a sequence shot. This gives a really good momentum for the actor, and lets the audience choose what to focus on, rather than directing their gaze through close-ups. In theatre you have to use your imagination, you have to make believe. We try to keep that in the film. That’s why we use corny old effects rather than slick digital ones. There’s a sense of it being faulty – that’s a very ‘theatre-ish’ thing to do. Read the full story
Mar 3, 2009 | No Comments | ByBirds Eye View
The Broken Hearts – “A Hollywood musical on hallucinogenics” (The Independent) – will be offering live musical accompaniment and a healthy dose of performance for the Vamp film A Fool There Was next Monday 9th Mar 6pm at the BFI Southbank. They also host a radio show on Q Radio every Sunday evening amongst other things (which include launching a fashion collection with Beyond The Valley, making songs, music videos for those songs, plus films about the circus…).
This week the theme on the show was “Silent Movies” and their special guest was none other than Bishi, the award-winning singer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ, who is also providing live music for one of the Vamp films in the festival – Salome. Adding to this, every week on The Broken Hearts radio show they have a section called Sartorial Memorial – the Fabulous Fashions of the Dearly Departed and this week they chose Theda Bara, star of A Fool There Was. Here is an extract: Read the full story
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