innopac Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Testimony, the 1988 film with Ben Kingsley, is out on dvd. Link to comment
dirac Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Testimony, the 1988 film with Ben Kingsley, is out on dvd. Thank you for the heads up, innopac. I have not seen it. Could you (or anyone else who's familiar with it) tell us more about the film? Link to comment
innopac Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share Posted October 30, 2007 Testimony, the 1988 film with Ben Kingsley, is out on dvd. Thank you for the heads up, innopac. I have not seen it. Could you (or anyone else who's familiar with it) tell us more about the film? I was expecting a traditional documentary based on the book... hadn't even realized Ben Kingsley was in the film. But it is a very moving film. Visually it is like a poem, smoothly blending images from the time, footage from films about the period, segments of performances of Shostakovich's music, Fellini like nightmarish episodes and acted scenes based on Shostakovich's life... with the music and spoken words weaving in and out. Connecting Shostakovich's Music to His Times Link to comment
dirac Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Testimony, the 1988 film with Ben Kingsley, is out on dvd. Thank you for the heads up, innopac. I have not seen it. Could you (or anyone else who's familiar with it) tell us more about the film? I was expecting a traditional documentary based on the book... hadn't even realized Ben Kingsley was in the film. But it is a very moving film. Visually it is like a poem, smoothly blending images from the time, footage from films about the period, segments of performances of Shostakovich's music, Fellini like nightmarish episodes and acted scenes based on Shostakovich's life... with the music and spoken words weaving in and out. Connecting Shostakovich's Music to His Times Thanks for the link to the review. This paragraph caught my eye: Like Ken Russell's film biographies of composers, Mr. Palmer's portrait makes everything seem a little larger than life. It also lacks Mr. Russell's prurient sense of the erotic wellsprings of creativity. Most of the scenes of Shostakovich's domestic life are cliched portraits of tranquillity amid paranoia. Some of the surreal touches are simply bizarre. What is Shostakovich's teacher, Glazunov, doing surrounded by giant alphabet blocks? Link to comment
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