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Rezensionen (4)
07. Jan 2019
Penderecki's finest disc
My favorite of all Penderecki recordings, and I virtually own all of them. "Kosmogonia" is a masterpiece of spectacular sonics, but it's so much more: A brilliant composition that, properly given the attention when listening, will seem to carry the listener to another planet. Unforgettable.
16. Dez 2015
Sub-par in some picture qualities
Anyone can put out a calendar; the worth of it is due to the selection and quality of the photos. The average photo in this product is sub-par in photo reproduction for the size of the pics. Many of them (the cover photo, not surprisingly excluded) has black snouts and black facial areas that are difficult to make out because of poor resolution. In fact, in a few of them it's difficult or impossible to make out details of the mouth.
I'd suggest, if you are (like me) fond of Pekingese dogs, getting a different dog calendar.
13. Feb 2018
Villeneuve carries Ridley Scott's vision into new territory
It was the long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 science fiction classic, “Blade Runner” that grabbed me unlike any other film in 2017. As I accumulated four theatrical sojourns watching “Blade Runner 2049” I found a deeper and richer cinematic experience with each viewing, one that, to me, even surpassed the original as a work of serious art (for this is no action picture). The reason for this undoubtedly was due to Scott entrusting the great Canadian director, Denis Villeneuve (who previously made “Incendies”, “Prisoners”, “Sicario” and the previous year’s “Arrival”) to honor the original film’s world and philosophical themes while laying claim to his own vision and personal style. Taking place 30 years after Deckart and Rachael emerged from the elevator to leave the smog and overpopulation of 2019 Los Angeles, the new film follows a recent model replicant (with a normal human lifespan) called ‘K’ (played perfectly by an appropriately imperturbable Ryan Gosling) as he investigates a growing replicant freedom uprising to discover the remains of a once-pregnant replicant, something that leads him not only into mysterious territory in which he discovers the now reclusive Rick Deckart (Harrison Ford in one of his most subtle performances), but also leads him into a journey into his own identity. Darker and more sparse than the original, “Blade Runner 2049” dives into a more nihilistic milieu where the earth’s digital and technological systems have been wiped out from an ecological disaster known as the Blackout, and the air and water have become toxic, plants and animals have gone extinct, and there has been mass migration to urban centers with the rich moving to off-world colonies. Even sunlight is only visible through thick layers of smog and clouds, and various cities like San Diego have become large garbage disposal areas. Villeneuve, now at the peak of his directorial powers, moves us poetically, inexorably throughout this world for a full 164 minutes, something for which the film’s cynical detractors criticize, but I praise him for having the courage to allow its story to develop in a carefully measured fashion, taking the time to engulf its willing and patient viewers into its world view. I liken it to turning over one’s self to the listening of a Wagner opera like “Parsifal” in which time seems to stop as one is encompassed completely into another place, another time -- and after its long viewing I seem to awaken as if having submitted to a dream, emerging somewhat reborn and more enlightened with knowledge of the human experience. And that is really what this and the original film are really about. Underneath its marvelously detailed science fiction trappings with its state-of-the-art production design and special effects (often eschewing CGI for authentically-constructed sets and realistic miniatures), and heightened to a level of unmatched beauty by the cinematography of Roger Deakins, the film is really a thoughtful meditation on what makes us human. To me this is the most accomplished film of 2017, and one I long to experience again and again in future viewings.