Archive for November, 2009

He Who Binds Himself to a Joy
Does the Winged Life Destroy
But he Who Kisses the Joy as it Flies
Lives in Eternity’s Sunrise

William Blake

         Along with her husband and artistic collaborator Christo, she helped wrap the Pont Neuf  in Paris, the Reichstag in Berlin;  swathed the Biscayne Bay Islands near Miami in a luscious  Pink,  and in 2005, she filled  Central Park with 7,503 Saffron Colored Gates .  Those gates transformed a barren winter landscape into something amazing and alive and created a new relationship to a  familiar terrain. 
      French artist Jeanne-Claude – of the  vibrant red hair and even redder lips  – didn’t mind,  she once said, in an interview, that the monumental projects that she and Christo devoted themselves and that took years to complete and cost millions —  were just transient – ephemeral works.  What it was all about – she said – was creating joy.  Their works expressed “the quality of love and tenderness that we human beings have for what does not last.”
       Jeanne-Claude died this week, at the age of 74.

      Acclaimed documentary  filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us deep into the heart of the Paris  dance world with his new film: ‘La Danse:  The Paris Opera Ballet. ’ Like a Degas painting come to life, Wiseman  uses his signature technique – an unobtrusive camera that penetrates into heretofore closed worlds — to reveal the details that create Life and Art — as they are lived.
      Among the great pleasures of the film are watching such French stars –  — dancers like Aurelie Dupont and Laetitia Pujol rehearse new works; costume designers with painstaking attention to detail hand sewing on buttons and glitter; the glorious opulence of the Palais Garner where the company is based. And of course — there’s Paris itself.
     Wiseman — whose other films include ‘Titicut Follies’ and ‘State Legislature’  shows the joy of creation — and also the sweat and grit that underly the most soaring works.  
     It’s playing at the Film Forum along with another Beauty: Michael Powell’s classic film “The Red Shoes,” which stars Moira Shearer as the dancer who must choose between Art and Life.  But Don’t Choose!  Just Run — and See these great works of Art before they close.