The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.
The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.
1954-12-01
6.2
A biographical feature on the Italian literary giant, Gabriele D'Annunzio. Set in late 19th century Italy and France when the artistic style, Decadentismo, was beginning to take shape, the film focuses on D'Annunzio's life when he was already an established poet and journalist in Rome. A staunch opponent of democracy and commoners, he searches for passion and pleasure among the wealthy and noble. One such noblewoman Elvira Fraternali Leoni, serves as the muse for his first novel - The Pleasure (Il Piacere).
Ernest Borgnine tours the country in his Luxury coach bus, The Sunbum.
A dying marshal deputizes a drifter to deliver the two killers in his custody to prison. However, the new deputy must elude a pair of bounty hunters who want to deliver the prisoners themselves to collect the reward and would think nothing of killing the deputy to get them.
The story of Monica Chowdry, a National Spelling Bee champ…from 15 years ago. Life hasn’t quite panned out as expected for Monica since her big win. When her estranged older brother returns home to help care for their sick mother, the siblings must find a way to reconcile.
Alex, a struggling painter, is going through a particularly bad patch. Dumped by his girlfriend and unable to get work, Alex finds his life taking a rare upswing when he moves into a new apartment and falls for his neighbor, Lori. But when things start to go wrong between Alex and Lori, their close proximity to each other proves to have an enormous downside, leading to further amusing antics.
William Brown attempts to secure more pay and shorter hours for schoolboys.
Armand Dranem performs The True Jiu-Jitsu ("Le Vrai Jiu-Jitsu", by P. Briollet & G. Fabri / C. D'Orviet) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Dranem, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.
Jakob thinks that everything is going well with his girlfriend, but the relationship ends abruptly. He can not put her behind him, even if a new girl enters the picture.
When a woman fed-up with life in general commits suicide, what's left ? In the same vein, a lover, a mother, a friend, a few buddies, all orphans, all well-to-do, but mainly lost at sea without a ship. The lover : Paul, a lone wolf who tries to escape from his memories through drink or by chasing women as though they were the cure to everything. The best friend : Lucie, coming and going, suitcase in hand , as though she were carrying a corpse or a time bomb, ready to flee at the drop of a hat with her suitcase of course. The mother : Marthe. Between shovel and incinerator, she counts her dead, cat and husband included. And then, there is Lucien, madly running after Lucie, screeching guitar in hand. And the others, always running.
Ruby is a young part-time stripper who wallows in drugs, sex, and other excesses in meaningless existence. When Ruby gets entangled with a local drug dealer O-Rock in her apartment, she seduces him, takes his drug stash, and splits. This leads to a series of events with increasingly dangerous consequences.
"I only say the sun goodbye." Dionisos captures the existential unease where insomnia echoes and shadows of past regrets linger. As days blend into unconsciousness, the night unveils a haunting struggle between personal demons and the unending flow of existence.
In a bid to escape their domineering wives, two womanizing slackers get saddled with a corpse amongst other challenges in a foreign country.
Hapless gangsters are hired by the yakuza to tail his daughter. Once the identity of the boy she's dating has been unveiled, the boss offers a reward for his capture.
Les D'Arcy is a living legend. At 89 years old, he's obviously not received the memo about slowing down, and is going for gold, literally. He's headed to China to compete in the over 80s Table Tennis Championships in Inner Mongolia. A seven time world champion, he still lifts weights to train - something he's been doing for decades, after surviving a sickly childhood. Of course compared to some, Les is a spring chicken. Australian legend Dorothy deLow is 100, and finds herself a mega celebrity in this rarefied world. She'd better watch out though- Texan Lisa Modlich is fifteen years her junior and is determined to do what it takes to win her first gold. Director Hugh Hartford follows eight players from five countries, as they prepare to compete in this extraordinary sporting event that is as much about the tenacity of the human spirit as it is about taking home the title.
A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.
The life of Ukrainian-Soviet avant-garde composer Alexander Mosolov inspires three stories about creation and individualism in the face of state power, set against the Great Purge of the 1930s and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
After a wonderful time in Hungary Sissi falls extremely ill and must retreat to a Mediterranean climate to rest. The young empress’ mother takes her from Austria to recover in Madeira.
Director helmut Dietls and Patric Susskinds illustrate a legendary story of two lovers who cant keep themselves away from death.
A lightning-fast 10-minute dive into art, cinema, music, culture, and beyond, in each part. Ditch the fancy, embrace the fun. No script, just surprises. This part talks about music and its history
Violinist Mischa Elman performs a set of two of the most recognizable popular classic violin pieces: "Humoresque" composed by Antonín Dvorák, and "Gavotte" by François-Joseph Gossec. He is accompanied off screen by pianist Josef Bonime, although Bonime's instrument can be seen in the background behind Elman on screen. In one continuous single shot, the stationary camera focuses in squarely on Elman as he performs the two pieces.
Jenny is young. Her life is over. She killed someone. And she would do it again. When an 80-year-old piano teacher discovers the girl’s secret, her brutality and her dreams, she decides to transform her pupil into the musical wunderkind she once was.
As Tobias, a young director, supposes that his girl-friend Ellen had an affair with his brother Markus, front man of "Hansen", one year ago, he decides to shoot a documentary about the band's next tour. When Ellen joins the project, everybody's emotions boil over, although they are observed all the time.
A ruthless real estate agent discovers a passion for piano and auditions with help from a young virtuoso, but the pressures of his corrupt career threaten to derail his musical aspirations.
Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, (English: The Ring of the Nibelung). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 26 June 1870, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 14 August 1876.
The Opening of the Wells with music by the Czech composer, Bohuslav Martinu was supposed to be part of Laterna Magika II.: Tour programme in 1960. However, it was banned by the communist committee tasked with judging the performance from “a politically correct” point of view. The committee claimed that Radok’s manners and morals were behind the times, and that the director did not show the ultra-modern techniques of Czechoslovakian agriculture. The premiere was postponed and Radok was fired from the Laterna Magika Theatre. His young colleagues (including Milos Forman) were officially asked to finish the rehearsals without the controversial part, and to make other minor changes in other scenes (these changes were made). Alfred Radok considered this to an unforgivable betrayal, as he expected them to leave the theatre to support him.
Arima Kousei won numerous piano competitions while under the strict watch of his mother. He was known as the human metronome during that time. Since the death of his mother, Kousei has been unable to hear the sound of his piano. He then meets Miyazono Kaori through childhood friend Sawabe Tsubaki. Kaori plays the violin and has a free sprit. Since meeting her, Kousei is able to face the piano again. Meanwhile, Kaori holds a secret.
In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.
This was recorded over three nights at the Philharmonie in Berlin. It does, however, provide a fitting close to the career of Claudio Abbado, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1990 until May of 2013, when the music here was recorded.
Letters, Riddles and Writs is a one act opera for television by Michael Nyman broadcast in 1991.
A middle aged composer returns to Vienna after ten years in America, falls in love with a Japanese student and writes his last opera for her.
A vacuum repairman moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant, who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. The pair decide to collaborate, and the songs that they compose reflect the story of their blossoming love.