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Month: February 2015

“Apparitions: Frottage and Rubbings from 1860 to Now” @ Hammer Museum (UCLA)

  Dominick Di Meo– “Untitled (numbers creatures)” This  pioneering exhibit—the first to focus on frottage as an art technique– currently ongoing until May 31, is a scintillating, deceptively simple display of approximately 100 artworks by fifty artists using the technique known as frottage (French: “to rub”).   Rubbing a textured surface with a pastel, charcoal pencil, crayon, or printer’s ink over paper or canvas on top of a textured surface, the artist creates a relief image. Associated with the surrealist movement, particularly Max Ernst (1891-1976) , these rubbed...

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“Salamander”—Hiding Under a Rock

“Salamander” the movie   This Belgian drama twelve-part  TV miniseries, released through Netflix and BBC in 2014, is a crime thriller in the same league as the edge-of-the-seat series Wallander, Bridge, and The Killing. A small private bank in Brussels, is robbed of 66 safe deposit boxes belonging to some of the most prominent statesmen in Belgium. A scandal is brewing since all are members of a secret society, code-named Salamander, dating back to the Second World War. A highly scrupulous police inspector Paul Gerardi (Filip Peeters) begins the investigation, unaware of the...

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“Still Alice”—Unforgettable

Adapted from neuroscientist Lisa Genova’s novel, “Still Alice” takes a straightforward look at the sad, terrifying and difficult-to-bear illness of Alzheimer’s. But bear it we must. The story of Alice Howland (the remarkable Julianne Moore), a fifty-something linguistics professor happily married to a fellow intellectual (Alec Baldwin) and the mother of three adult children (the youngest superbly played by Kristen Stewart) could be a story about any of us. After receiving a diagnosis for Alzheimer’s, Alice attempts to deal with the challenges of the disease as intelligently and courageously...

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“Foxcatcher”—Let This One Go

‘Foxcatcher” the movie “Foxcatcher” is director Bennett Miller’s explorations into the dark side of sports. Based on true events, “Foxcatcher” retells the dark and tragic story of the megalomaniac multimillionaire, John E. (“Eagle”) du Pont (played by the unrecognizable Steve Carrell). A failed wrestler himself, du Pont lavishes a fraction of his fortune onto the Schultz brothers whom he hopes will win the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Most of the scenes are shot near du Pont’s Foxcatcher estate in rural Pennsylvania. Flattered by du Pont’s attention and financial support, Mark Schultz (Channing...

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