Tag Archives: opening night

Arts & Entertainment, Film & TV

SIFF 2012 Full Lineup Announced, Tickets On Sale NOW

Depending on the resiliency of your browser’s cache, the all-new, but still-familiar SIFF 2012 Festival website started appearing on various local internets sometime before Thursday’s lunch hour, complete with a festival calendar, film descriptions, trailers, and all sorts of other bells and whistles including MvB’s beloved “screw the site, all I want is SIFFTER!”

Yes, the flashy film sorter seems to be updated with this year’s lineup to help you narrow the choices to your favorite Martial Arts Erotic Coming of Age Detective stories. But, alas, the pocketable, insanely useful iPhone version iSIFF still seems to be stuck in 2011 (why it doesn’t exist as a year-round resource for SIFF’s year-round programming remains among Seattle’s enduring mysteries). And one last question, if we may: Why is the SIFF Lounge conveniently located near no other festival venues (closest one Cinerama) at Henry & Oscar’s, aka Belltown middle of nowhere?

But all that being said, let’s get ready to festival! Like some rough beast, its hour come round at last, the 2012 Seattle International Film Festival is snuffling at our door. Are you ready for 460 films from 75 countries (273 features, 64 documentaries, 187 short films)? Are you prepared to take in 61 world premieres, 36 North American premieres, and 24 U.S. premieres? Of course not! Don’t be ridiculous.

That’s why in the coming weeks we’ll be hivemindmelding to help you figure out what…tenth, let’s say, of this festival is best worth your time. And really, if you see half of those, you’ll feel it in your flattened tuchus by the end. [Full disclosure: The SunBreak is a media sponsor of the festival, which means we get listed in tiny, tiny type somewhere on their site, and get to give you free tickets–ed.]. If you can’t wait for our crystal ball readings, but know that you like, for instance, to laugh, be scared witless, see the future, or find yourself horribly depressed by the bleak state of the environment/familial betrayals/human rights/the economy, SIFF re-upped last year’s experiment of organizing the festival into user-friendly Pathways.

Let’s hash through the details (and DEFINITELY reacquaint yourself with last year’s pro-tips): Get yer series passes here. The Opening Night film is local gal Lynn Shelton’s Your Sister’s Sister, this Thursday, May 17 @ McCaw Hall. Here’s the gala tix, and here’s the even-fancier SIFF 2012 Red Carpet Experience.

In terms of in-city programming, this year’s map is a little more compact with most regular screenings taking place downtown at Pacific Place, in Capitol Hill at the Egyptian and both Harvard Exit screens, and on SIFF’s home turf in lower Queen Anne with three screens at the Uptown and one at the Film Center. Once again, the festival will take the show on the road to Renton, Everett, and Kirkland, but we have enough trouble catching everything in Seattle and don’t expect to venture beyond city limits.

ALL OF THE GALAS:

In addition to the opening and closing night soirees, the festival is packed with parties. As a Saturday Gala (a gala because of the day of the week?), there’s Robot and Frank, May 19 @ Pacific Place Cinemas, even though EW totally reviewed it last June. There’s a second (another?) Saturday Gala: As Luck Would Have It, May 26 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown and the locally-shot Friday Gala (forget it) the Details, June 8 @ Egyptian Theatre. The film at the Centerpiece Gala (now THAT’s a real gala) for the tres French the Chef, June 2 @ Egyptian Theatre and at the Gay-La, it’s the appropriately titled Gayby, June 6 @ Egyptian Theatre. Locally-filmed Grassroots, an adaptation of the true Seattle story of monorail evangelizing Grant Cogswell’s ill-fated campaign for city council, closes the festival with a gala screening at SIFF Cinema Uptown followed by a boozy party at the Grand Hyatt. For extra credit, use the existing monorail to get from the Queen Anne screening to the downtown party. PRO TIP.

But wait, there’s more. Some presentations are more special than others:

  • Brave, see Pixar’s latest on June 10 @ Pacific Place, a few days before it goes into wide release.
  • Diaz – Don’t Clean Up This Blood fictionally recreates the clashes at the 2001 G8 summit (timely!) June 1 & 2 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown; June 5 @ Harvard Exit
  • The Last Reef 3D, takes you on a 40 minute underwater voyage, no SCUBA certification required on June 3 & 4 @ Pacific Science Center IMAX
  • People Like Us finds young Captain Kirk and Effie Trinket dealing with earthbound family drama on June 4 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown; June 5@ Egyptian Theatre
  • Trishna brings Tess of the D’Ubervilles into contemporary Rajasthan, India by way of Michael Winterbottom. May 18 & 20 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown

And this year, SIFF also pays tribute to a couple of film legends, bringing them into the company of film lovers for the right price. But don’t hold your breath, as these are cancellation-prone:

  • An Evening with Sissy Spacek feat. Badlands, June 7 @ SIFF Cinema Uptown
  • An Evening with William Friedkin feat. Killer Joe, June 9 @ Egyptian Theatre

LIVE PERFORMANCES
Live music is scaled back this year compared to the past few. Personally I’m a little scared of Emerald City Visions: A Hip-Hop Reinterpretation of The Wiz, curated by Larry Mizell, Jr and staring rising stars of Northwest hip-hop June 1 @ The Triple Door, but these things usually turn out to be memorable.

Can’t wait? “Enjoy” and start decoding the SIFF 2012 official “trailer” (which, as clever as it is in squeezing so many film references into two and a half frenetic minutes, you will quickly grow to hate once you see it in front of six or so films):

Arts & Entertainment, Music

The Morlot Era at Seattle Symphony Has Now Begun

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Morlot_Opening Night
©2010 Darin Fong Photography
Efe Baltacıgil_Credit Christian Steiner
Roman, Joshua1(c)Jeremy Sawatzky

Ludovic Morlot at Opening Night at Seattle Symphony, 2011 (Photo: Ben VanHouten)

Demarre McGill (Photo: ©2010 Darin Fong Photography)

Efe Baltacigil (Photo: Christian Steiner)

Joshua Roman (Photo: Jeremy Sawatzky)

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Morlot_Opening Night thumbnail
©2010 Darin Fong Photography thumbnail
Efe Baltacıgil_Credit Christian Steiner thumbnail
Roman, Joshua1(c)Jeremy Sawatzky thumbnail

Saturday night at Benaroya Hall saw the dressiest Seattle crowd since the opening of McCaw Hall, with silks, satins, sparkles and high fashion abounding. The occasion? Ludovic Morlot’s debut as music director of the Seattle Symphony. The auditorium was packed, following a pre-concert cocktail party and preceding a gala dinner.

Proceedings on stage began with a brief, graceful welcome by board chair Leslie Jackson Chihuly, who mentioned also that conductor, now laureate, Gerard Schwarz and his wife Jody were present, as were Morlot’s wife Chizlane and two children.

And then the concert began.

As well as Morlot, two more musicians made their orchestra debuts at this concert: principal cello Efe Baltacigil and principal flute Demarre McGill, both experienced performers who seemed very much at home in the repertoire. Two positions remain open, that of concertmaster, and unexpectedly and to our loss, principal horn, as John Cerminaro has quietly retired.

Morlot chose wisely for his gala program. All four works were immediately accessible to the audience, two of them familiar favorites, one being French, as is Morlot. The third was an appropriately classical opener stylishly played, Beethoven’s Overture to The Consecration of the House, and the fourth showcased Morlot’s adventurous musical spirit and that of solo cellist Joshua Roman, who has had his own following here ever since his two years as principal cellist with the Seattle Symphony.

So often people turn away from concert programs which include a composer name they don’t know–particularly if it is from the 20th, or heaven forbid, the 21st century. Morlot is determined to undo that prejudice and at the same time encourage the performing of music from genres which have rarely been welcome on a symphony stage. Yet many well-known performers from other genres have written in a symphonic vein, though that may not be where their fame lies. Take Frank Zappa, whose “Dupree’s Paradise” comes up in next week’s symphony concerts.

In this gala, it was a concerto for cello and wind orchestra by 20th century classical and jazz pianist Friedrich Gulda. He frequently mixed both genres on the concert stage and he does in this 1980 work.

While the stage was being reset, Morlot took the microphone to say a few words, including his thanks to the community and the orchestra for making him and his family welcome, and he also took time to thank the stagehands, by name, for the work they do. Talking about the outreach he hopes to do, bringing music to people, and people to Benaroya, he mentioned that school children will be able to come free to Masterpiece series concerts on a companion ticket. He talked a bit about Gulda, and his passion for jazz and improvisation as well as his ability to play and record impeccable classical performances.

The cello role in the Gulda is nonstop for the entire 30 minutes of this five-movement work. The mood swings from folk type melodies to jazzy sections and back without a hitch, the jazzy parts backed by a couple of electric guitars and drumset. Much of the music is recognizable dance rhythms such as a German laendler going oom-pah-pah to a lullaby to a Sousa-type march with the tuba belting it out. The third movement is an extended unaccompanied cadenza for the cello, with brief snatches from the Marseillaise, Reveille and more, each of which brought appreciative laughs from the attentive audience.

It isn’t a profound work, but it is great fun and musically solid, just right for a concert such as this. Roman did it proud, his technique as unerring as ever, his tone singing, his musicianship making the most of the work’s arches and shape. Morlot too made the most of it, keeping the balance and the vigor going throughout.

Morlot’s own abilities showed up best in Gershwin’s An American in Paris. In his hands it became a joyous, exuberant performance, yet with seamless connections between sections, and nuance which left one hearing it fresh.

Bolero, by his compatriot Ravel, is a crowd-pleaser, not for any exciting musical content, but for the way its constant repetition grows from soft to huge, and by the contrast in different instruments playing that melody. Morlot brought snare drummer Michael Werner, who repeats the same brief phrase from start to finish, to perform at the front of the stage. I’ve never heard this piece begun so softly. It seemed no one was playing at all, but the cellists’ hands were moving, as were Werner’s, and only gradually, as one listened harder, did the sound begin to emerge and grow.

In the middle, Morlot, a violinist, put down his baton and joined the first violins for a spell, while around him the musicians continued as closeknit as before. Towards the end, he took up his baton again, but it showed, which perhaps he intended, the coherence and professionalism of the orchestra, that, where necessary, it can play without leadership.

All in all, this was an auspicious beginning to Morlot’s tenure here. Let’s hope that packed audience repeats at many more concerts. Preview the many, varied programs to come here.