volcanohunter Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Starting on Friday, August 21, PBS will be airing Frederick Wiseman's film about London's National Gallery. http://www.thirteen.org/programs/national-gallery/ Link to comment
sandik Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Thanks for the heads-up -- I'm a Wiseman fan. On a related note, I saw a doc last week about the remodeling of the Rijksmuseum. The New Rijksmuseum was a wonderful look at a grueling process -- it took 10 years to bring the project through, including several backtrackings because of design trouble, permit trouble and the myriad challenges of dealing with fragile, valuable artworks. The opening scenes, where heavy machines are crunching through interior walls and drilling holes in the roof for new windows, are astonishing. Absolutely worth watching. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted August 19, 2015 Author Share Posted August 19, 2015 The opening scenes, where heavy machines are crunching through interior walls and drilling holes in the roof for new windows, are astonishing. Wow. I must track down that film. Link to comment
sandik Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Wow. I must track down that film. It just ran for a couple weeks in Seattle -- I'm not sure what the distribution plan is like, but it's worth the effort. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted August 22, 2015 Author Share Posted August 22, 2015 Wiseman's film includes some dance. Wayne McGregor appears about two-thirds of the way through to plan the choreography he will produce to coincide with a Titian exhibit, and the film ends with Leanne Benjamin and Edward Watson performing some of that choreography. On the whole, however, I found much of the film frustrating. Wiseman's taste in art obviously does not match mine, so many of my favorite paintings in the National Gallery are either given very short shrift or are completely absent, and instead, he dwells on works I've never wanted to spend much time on myself. The discussions during staff meetings are crushingly boring, but what goes on in the conservation workshops is completely fascinating. Link to comment
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