movie
The mystery of the black-eyed blonde
Marlowe
Where is it screened: Cinemas across the country
genre: Tension
Duration of the movie: 109 min
in May: Neil Jordan
script: William Monahan
Actors: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Alan Cummings, Danny Huston
language: English
The film’s revenue: $5 million (according to Box Office Mojo by IMDb Pro)
ticket price: NIS 44-47
IMDB Score:
5.4/10 (3,100 votes)
The character of the private detective, Philip Marlowe, was created by the writer Raymond Chandler sometime in the 1930s. Now, Merlo is back on the movie screen (the detective’s plots have been at the center of several movies and TV series over the years). The new film, “The Mystery of the Black-Eyed Blonde,” based on the book by Booker Prize winner John Banville, was co-created by Academy Award-winning director Neil Jordan and Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Monaghan.
“The Mystery of the Black-Eyed Blonde”, a thriller in the film noir style, takes place in LA in the 1930s. The services of Merlo (Liam Neeson) are hired by Claire Cavendish (Diane Krueger), the daughter of a well-known movie star, in order to find her lover who she claims faked his death. Soon the investigation gets complicated and Marlo uncovers a web full of lies and complications.
The literary context
The character of Philip Marlowe was conceived by Raymond Chandler, who is considered one of the fathers of detective literature in the 20th century. Chandler drew Merlo Shirt as a police detective and an investigator in the former Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, a cynical and tough type, a skilled sniper, highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and boxing, a lover of the bitter drop, especially brandy and whiskey. Chandler died in 1959, but the character of the detective he created continued to live on to this day through various writers, who bought the franchise and wrote books based on the character of Marlowe. “The Mystery of the Black-Eyed Blonde” is based on one of those books that “brings” Merlo to life – the book by the Irish writer John Banville.
the cinematic context
Compared to the many books in which Merlo’s character has starred since Chandler’s death, in recent decades his character in cinema has almost disappeared. During the 1940s and 1970s, a number of films were created centered on the character of the famous detective, the most famous of which is “The Big Coma” (1946), in which the person who played Marlowe is Humphrey Bogart himself.
“The Mystery of the Black-Eyed Blonde” maintains the film noir style that characterized the first films in which the detective starred. The term “film noir”, or in direct translation from French, the dark film, refers to films made in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, including “The Hawk from Malta”, “The Great Heat” and “Double Life Insurance”. The characteristics of film noir films include, among others, contrasting black and white photography, crime plots with many twists and turns, tough and flawed men and women of the femme fatale type, a woman who uses her sexuality to influence others to act as she wishes, sometimes against their own good.
2 things you should know
● Brian to Yahoo! Entertainment director Neil Jordan said that one of the main reasons why he made the film is that he wanted to see the actor Liam Neeson, with whom he worked on several films in the past, in the role of detective Philip Marlowe. Although Neeson is older than most of the actors who have played Marlowe in the past, Jordan claimed that when he imagined Marlowe, he always saw him older, around Neeson’s age, now 70.
● A few words about the film: This is Liam Neeson’s 100th (!) film, and Merlo’s 11th version on the cinema screen.
Why did we choose him?
Reviews of the film are divided and it does have a number of failures – the story is predictable and the plot progresses at a slow pace. At the same time, thanks to the impressive production, it is a period film that uses language and a cinematic style that is rare to see on the cinema screen these days. For fans of the genre, it is unequivocally recommended to leave the house for it.
concert
“Confession of the Soul” concert series
The Israeli Symphony Orchestra
Guests: Ilyich Rivas (conductor), Clara-Yumi Kang (violin)
ticket price: NIS 50-215
Length of the show: About two hours including a break
Purchase of tickets and show dates and times: isorl.smarticket.co.il
The Israeli Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion will host in the upcoming series two interesting musicians from abroad, for both of whom this will be their first performance with the orchestra.
The first guest is the conductor Ilyich Rivas, 30, who was born in Venezuela and lives in the USA. Rivas studied conducting from a young age with his father, the conductor Alejandro Rivas. His debut as a conductor was at the age of 16 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and since then he has managed to conduct on Many orchestras around the world.Watching his videos on YouTube reveals an energetic and creative young conductor, and arouses great curiosity to watch him perform live as well.
The second guest is violinist Clara-Jumi Kang. Kang, 36, born in Germany of Korean descent, currently lives in the US. She started playing the violin at the age of three, and studied at high music schools in Germany and the USA (among them the prestigious Juilliard School). She made her first appearance with the symphony orchestra of Hamburg at the age of five, and since then has been performing regularly with orchestras around the world.Her recordings on YouTube reveal a virtuoso violinist with perfect technical control, and like Rivas, she also arouses great interest.
Conductor Ilyich Rivas / Photo: Aude Boissay
The title of the concert series in which the two will be hosted is “Confession of the Soul”. In the first part of the concert, Clara-Yumi Kang with the orchestra will play the concerto for violin and orchestra by Johannes Brahms, one of the great concertos of German Romanticism.
In the second part, Symphony No. 2 by Jan Sibelius, the national composer of Finland, will be performed. This wonderful piece was composed in 1901, and Sibelius wrote about it that it was “the confession of my soul” (this quote gave the current concert its name). The second symphony is perhaps the most well-known and performed of the seven symphonies completed by Sibelius, and is characterized by a relatively accessible musical language and a spectacular ecstatic ending.