08/30/2022
FELLINI FALL SERIES BEGINS AT EMORY AUGUST 31, 2022
Beginning Wednesday, August 31, the Emory University Cinematheque presents a respective of the films of the great Italian film director, Federico Fellini.
All the great Fellini films like La Strada and La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2 are here with the knowledgable introduction to each film by Dr. Matthew Bernstein and Dr. Angela Porcarelli.. Screenings and parking at Emory are free!!!
A different film SCREENS each Wednesday through November 30. Each film begins at 7:30 PM in 208 White Hall on the Emory campus. Come early for the best seats.
05/28/2022
"Elvis" The Baz Luhrmann bio of the legendary rocker for the newly reconstituted Warners studio is due June 24.
At its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this week it received a 12-minute standing ovation and an enthusiastic thumbs up from his daughter, Lisa Marie.
The film centers around the relationship between Presley and his manager, the illegal Dutch immigrant who took the name, Tom Parker before becoming an honorary Kentucky colonel. Parker played by Tom Hanks, managed his career, and exploited the singer, from his early days in Memphis to Presley's death from prescription drug abuse in 1977.
Elvis's mother, Gladys, was rightfully suspicious of Parker whom she believed was too manipulative and too greedy for her son's own good. She was probably right on both counts, but once he fell under the old carny's spell, he could never shake loose.
After a two year stint in the Army the revolutionary sound and persona Presley created in the 50s, was dropped in favor of a less controversial style that could be packaged for Hollywood. During most of the 1960s he shuffled through 31 mostly forgettable films that were noted for the quick buck they produced for the studios that produced them and the shameless way they exploited his talent.
Luhrmann, whose baroque style tends to overshadow every subject he's touched in his 30-year career, has finally met his match in an increasingly distracted subject whose later years were marked more by the excesses of self-charicature than by a sense of self-discovery.
In "Elvis" the over-the-top film director meets an equally over-the-top and self-referencing all-American icon"
Watch the trailer for Elvis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e86DmKGoVAc
05/15/2022
Ukraine's winning entry in the Eurovision competition on May 14, 2022 as seen in this powerful music video by Kalush Orchestra.
https://youtu.be/Z8Z51no1TD0
11/17/2020
"The Art of the Conductor"
Yoel Levi In Conversation With Bob Bahr
Begins December 6.
Presented by The Temple in Atlanta
A series of four hour-long Sunday evening conversations in December with musical selections and performance video on Zoom. Classes are at 6PM. They begin on December 6 and continue on December 13, 20, and 27.
Discover the music of four different modern composers, Mahler, Stravinsky, Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein with Yoel Levi, one of the world's leading conductors.
For 12 years Yoel Levi was music director and conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra during which time the orchestra achieved world wide renown. Since then he has appeared with most of the leading orchestras of the world.
Bob Bahr writes and lectures extensively about the arts. His most previous class at The Temple was "Power and Public Performance - Film and TV in the 1950s" in October, 2020.
Registration link https://tinyurl.com/y2224kz8
05/15/2020
David Draiman and the group, "Disturbed." Their powerful version of Paul Simon's "The Sound of Silence," recorded in 2015.
Russel Crowe described this as "the greatest rock recording ever."
It seems particularly relevant today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4
Below are the lyrics
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
"Fools, " said I, "You do not know
Silence, like a cancer, grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells, of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence
05/14/2020
Billy Wilder - Up Close Seminar
Four Films With Noted Film Scholar Matthew H. Bernstein and Bob Bahr Begins June 5. Friday mornings at 10:30 AM on Zoom. Free.
To sign up use this link - https://tinyurl.com/y9a7a2su
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
A weekly discussion about some of the greatest films of Hollywood's Golden Era directed by Billy Wilder.
The four films, in order of discussion are DOUBLE INDEMNITY, (1944) SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950), SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) and THE APARTMENT(1960).
They were all great popular successes that had something important to say about modern life then and now.
Please plan on viewing each film prior to the weekly class. Options for viewing films are at www.justwatch.com
(all are ET)
Friday Jun 5, 2020 10:30 AM
Friday, Jun 12, 2020 10:30 AM
Friday, Jun 19, 2020 10:30 AM
Friday, June 26,2020 10:30AM
Matthew H. Bernstein is Goodrich C. White Professor and Chair of Department of Film and Media at Emory University.
Bob Bahr heads the Center for Media and the Moving Image. He writes and teaches frequently about film and modern life.
03/16/2020
IN THE BATTLE AGAINST CORONAVIRUS HUMANITY LACKS LEADERSHIP BY YUVAL NOAH HARARI MARCH 15, 2020
Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher and the bestselling author of Sapiens, Homo Deus and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.
Many people blame the coronavirus epidemic on globalization, and say that the only way to prevent more such outbreaks is to de-globalize the world. Build walls, restrict travel, reduce trade. However, while short-term quarantine is essential to stop epidemics, long-term isolationism will lead to economic collapse without offering any real protection against infectious diseases. Just the opposite. The real antidote to epidemic is not segregation, but rather cooperation.
Read more at link below.
In the Battle Against Coronavirus, Humanity Lacks Leadership
People need to trust scientific experts and public authorities. Countries need to trust each other. By Yuval Noah Harari
07/20/2019
Cats Is Coming in December/
A trailer for “Cats” the movie, director Tom Hooper’s latest cinematic vivisection of a popular musical, was unleashed upon an innocent public July 18. It is notable for its familiar Andrew Lloyd Webber score, A-List talent and its Doctor Moreau-esque human-cat hybrids that made many appalled viewers look upon their whiskered familiars with a newfound terror.
Using what Hooper described as cutting-edge “digital fur technology,” the filmmaker has rendered Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson and Dame Judi Dench as abominable dancing creatures that wouldn’t make the cut in a medieval bestiary. But while this feline nightmare swirled in my head – it doesn’t help that I am allergic to the titular animal – I realized that Hooper’s menagerie of demons looked familiar to me.
From The Forward
Cats – Official Trailer (Universal Pictures) HD
In Cinemas This Christmas Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CatsMovieUK/ http://www.catsmovieuk.co.uk Genre: Epic Musical Cast: James Corden, Judi De...
07/19/2019
Reel Faith review of Disney's new The Lion King
Disney’s highly-anticipated The Lion King update arrives in theaters this week, bringing with it a bevy of emotions and nostalgia. Early reviews reveal a critical divide, with some praising the update and others feeling unsatisfied. Does it live up to the hype of its highly-successful 1994 predecessor?
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/reelfaith/2019/07/review-dazzling-the-lion-king-a-worthy-companion-to-original.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Best+of+Patheos&utm_content=57
07/12/2019
Wonderful documentary film, The Spy Behind Home Plate, opening today, July 12 in Atlanta at the Midtown Art Cinema across from Piedmont Park. Won't be around long. See it today! A true and astonishing American hero!
Aviva Kempner’s The Spy Behind Home Plate is the first feature-length documentary to tell the real story of Morris “Moe” Berg, the enigmatic and brilliant Jewish baseball player turned spy. Berg caught and fielded in the major leagues during baseball’s Golden Age in the 1920s and 1930s. But very few people know that Berg also worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), spying in Europe and playing a prominent role in America’s efforts to undermine the German atomic bomb program during WWII.
The Spy Behind Home Plate reveals the life of this unknown Jewish hero through rare historical footage and photographs as well as revealing contemporary and past interviews with an All-Star roster of celebrities and other individuals from the worlds of sports, spycraft, and WWII history.
Among the contemporary interviewees are authors Robert Fitts, David Ignatius, and Thomas Powers, baseball executives Jerry Reinsdorf and Bud Selig, biographer Nicholas Dawidoff, film professor Annette Insdorf, Los Angeles Angels manager Brad Ausmus, MLB historian John Thorn, OSS Society president Charles Pinck, playwright Michael Frayn, sports columnist Ira Berkow, sports commentator Larry Merchant, and U.S. Senator Edward Markey.
07/01/2019
NEW CLASS ON ARTHUR MILLER AND MARILYN MONROE BEGINS JULY 10TH.
Today, July 1st would have been the 63rd wedding anniversary of one of the most unusual celebrity marriages of the 20th Century.
On this date in 1956 Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were married by Rabbi Robert Goldberg. He was the same Rabbi who counseled Miss Monroe during her conversion to Judaism shortly before the marriage.
The marriage for both was filled with the possibility of a new beginning, both personally and professionally. They were married for five years.
Bob Bahr will be examining the life and careers of these two very different people in "The Jewish Genius and The Hollywood Goddess - Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe Together" beginning Wednesday July 10 at The Temple in Atlanta, Georgia.
The class meets from 10:30 AM to 12 Noon Wednesdays for four weeks. Registration is $39 for the series. To register https://www.the-temple.org/event/age-and-stage---sages-and-kulanu---mornings-with-bob-bahr3.html