Latest news with #Fantasia
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
King of Kings: Orchestral Transcriptions of Bach by Andrew Davis album review – the late conductor's first love
Long before he became a conductor, Andrew Davis was an organist. As a teenager he had played the organ at the Palace theatre, Watford, and in the 1960s studied at the Royal College of Music before becoming organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge; he began his professional career as the keyboard player for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. In the last two years of his life, Davis returned to the music that had been his first love by making orchestral versions of some of JS Bach's organ works. In 2023, he began to record a selection of his orchestrations with the BBC Philharmonic for Chandos, but when he died in April last year just four arrangements had been recorded, and Martyn Brabbins stepped in to complete the project with the orchestra the following September. The result is a sequence that begins with the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which Davis has orchestrated in a relatively restrained way, especially when compared with the spectacular version that Leopold Stokowski famously concocted for Walt Disney's Fantasia, and it ends with the E flat St Anne Prelude and Fugue, while in between there is a series of chorale preludes, arranged like the bigger works in an unshowy but always thoroughly musical way: for instance, the Trio super Herr Jesu Christ, Dich zu Uns Wend becomes a busy instrumental movement that could have come out of the Brandenburg Concertos. The most interesting of the arrangements, though, is the one that Davis made a decade earlier than all the rest, of the great Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, whose more fastidious, almost pointillist orchestration recalls Webern's famous version of the six-part ricercare from Bach's Musical Offering. Modest these pieces may be, but they are a touching memorial to a fine, much missed conductor. This article includes content hosted on We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify
Montreal Gazette
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
Brownstein: Fantasia film fest celebrates veteran Montreal director George Mihalka for blazing his own trail
Veteran Montreal director George Mihalka gets his proper due after 45 years in the business. Finally. The Fantasia International Film Festival will present Mihalka with its Canadian Trailblazer Award, Friday at 6 p.m. at Cinéma du Musée, followed by a screening of his film Hostile Takeover. The fest will also screen another of his more memorable movies, Pinball Summer, followed by a Q&A with the director, Sunday at 4:05 p.m. at the same venue. And earlier that afternoon, at 2 p.m., Mihalka will deliver a Fantasia master class at Reggies in Concordia's Hall Building. While Fantasia may be renowned for delving into all aspects of genre film over the course of its 29 years, the festival, much to its credit, has also paid homage to unsung heroes on the local film scene. In recent years, it has given tributes to the likes of legendary Cinépix producers John Dunning and André Link, directors Larry Kent and Gerald Potterton, and the gonzo filmmaking gang of Allan (Bozo) Moyle, Stephen Lack, Frank Vitale and Peter Brawley. Mihalka is, without question, a pioneer on the film front. He has tackled every genre imaginable, from horror to hockey, comedy to crime and then some — in both French and English. Pretty remarkable since he spoke neither language before immigrating here from Hungary when he was just eight. The film for which Mihalka is probably best known is the slasher epic My Bloody Valentine, produced by Dunning and Link. That was 45 years ago, when Mihalka was but 27. Had Fantasia been in existence back then, its artistic director Mitch Davis would have certainly had the film kick off the fest. No less than Quentin Tarantino has acknowledged that My Bloody Valentine is his personal fave in the slasher field. But don't let the film's content fool you about its maker. There is little foreboding about Mihalka, 72 — far more teddy bear than terrifying and one of the nicest people in the biz. He has been spending equal time in Montreal and Hamilton these days, the latter so he can be closer to his daughter and work in Toronto. 'There has been no real formula for me. I just love making films and I don't like making the same one over and over again,' says the ever-affable Mihalka over a few brews at Ziggy's. 'I don't think I have a film canon, per se.' Not so sure. By his own estimate, Mihalka has directed over two dozen film and TV features and over 100 TV episodes, in nearly equal parts French and English. And talk about being all over the map. Apart from the aforementioned, there's Race to Mars, La Florida, Omertà, Les Boys IV, Dr. Lucille: The Lucille Teasdale Story, Scandale, Scoop, Bullet to Beijing, Eternal Evil. And Mihalka has just completed one of his most ambitious and expensive productions yet: Rise of the Raven, a 10-part miniseries shot in Hungary for ex-Montreal producer Robert Lantos. The first two hour-long episodes will première at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and the series will stream on CBC Gem soon after. 'It's the story about the guy who is responsible for why church bells ring at noon everywhere in the world,' elaborates Mihalka, who also co-created and executive-produced the project. Mihalka laments that the local film scene, particularly on the anglo side, has suffered. 'Montreal was such a great place for making movies. It's so unfortunate that things have dried up here. I would love to come back here to make a movie in French and follow it up with one in English, the way I used to do like clockwork. I so miss that, straddling both worlds,' he says. 'But when tax credits became much more important, we became prisoners of our postal code here.' In other words, far more work beckoned in Toronto. On that note, Mihalka points out that he and his partner Susan Curran are in the midst of making a documentary on the Cinépix duo of Link and the late Dunning, who made hugely successful films the old-fashioned way — without being completely at the mercy of tax shelters for financing. 'I really have to thank those two for my career. They made movies to put bums in seats. We had a golden age of crowd-pleaser films back then which could not only entertain people, but also support an industry. As Link used to say: 'Not too many people in the industry liked us, because we made money and that wasn't the Canadian way,'' Mihalka laughs. 'The pendulum has swung, and I think it has swung a little too far toward the auteur cinema of personal films. As famed producer Samuel Goldwyn once put it: 'If you want to send a message, use Western Union.'' Which is not to say Mihalka hasn't tackled more provocative fare over the years, but he has always focused on keeping audiences captivated at the same time. 'Nothing wrong with making movies about your own or someone else's trauma. We need Mike Leigh movies as much as we need Tarantino movies. I have never thought entertaining was the opposite of intelligent. You can have a smart movie that entertains. That's been my goal all my working life. Just because I don't furrow my brow while directing doesn't mean I can't be deep,' he muses before adding: 'I'm not at all interested in retiring, either. I'm still ready to rumble for this craft.'
Forbes
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
NYT Connections Today: Wednesday, July 23 Hints And Answers (#773)
Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections. Each day's game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today's Connections hints and answers, here are Tuesday's: It's Wednesday, and you know what that means: it's time for another round of Connections! I'm not sure I timed this trip over to Scotland very well. I'm missing so much fun stuff back in Montreal! The big comedy festival is back after a year off and my favorite film festival is taking place at the same time. I'll be able to catch maybe one Just for Laughs show and perhaps a few screenings at Fantasia, but I really need to time my mid-year visit here better for 2026. I'm waiting for my current favorite band to announce tour dates for next summer first so I don't miss them either. 🤐 Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It's a fun hangout spot, and you're more than welcome to hang out with us. Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don't look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes. Today's NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, July 23 are coming right up. How To Play Connections Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT's website or Games app. You're presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part. There's only one solution for each puzzle, and you'll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them. Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay. Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you're incorrect, you'll lose a life. If you're close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you're one word away from getting it right, but you'll still need to figure out which one to swap. If you make four mistakes, it's game over. Let's make sure that doesn't happen with the help of some hints, and, if you're really struggling, today's Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it's easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication's Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed. Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find our hints Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query. What Are Today's Connections Hints? Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today's Connections groups, I'll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them. Today's 16 words are... And the hints for today's Connections groups are: One Word For Each Connections Group Need some extra help? Be warned: we're starting to get into spoiler territory. Let's take a look at one word for each group. Today's Connections word hints are… What Are Today's Connections Groups? Today's Connections groups are... What Are Today's Connections Answers? Spoiler alert! Don't scroll any further down the page until you're ready to find out today's Connections answers. This is your final warning! Today's Connections answers are... Lots of words that end with animals today – TOMAHAWK, GEODUCK, BUGBEAR, ESCROW, SEAHORSE, WOMBAT and TITMOUSE. Of course, some of those are animals themselves. But I felt that there had to be a bit of a red herring going on here. The four words that form part of the real estate sales process had to go together, I felt. I was a little surprised that those were the blues. The yellows were up next after I figured out that BUGBEAR was one of 'em. I then suspected that my initial inclination of animals within animals might be a group after all. I tried my luck with those and, hey, I got the purples. That's a little odd for a purple group, but I'll take it (I'm sure tomorrow's will be something like "the third word in Shakespeare plays" to make up for it). That left the greens. I thought that with PORTERHOUSE and FLATIRON, they might be words that end in the names of Monopoly pieces, but you don't get a hawk in that game. They were actually just kinds of steaks. I knew that a porterhouse was a steak and probably should have been paying more attention to TOMAHAWK, as I might have figured out the group from that. Anyway, that's win 147 in a row thanks to a perfect game. Here's my grid for this one: 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟩🟩🟩🟩 That's all there is to it for today's Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Thursday's game if you need them. P.S. Here's a fun website I heard about a few days ago. On Pointer Pointer, you either tap the screen or move your mouse cursor to the location of your choice. The website will then find a photo of someone who appears to point at the cursor. It's a little unnerving, but I found it entertaining for a few moments. Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love! Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
Montreal Gazette
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
Brownstein: In its 29th year, Fantasia festival boldly stays the course to outer limits of moviedom
By The 29 th Fantasia International Film Festival, kicking off Wednesday night and running until Aug. 3, once again reaches for the outer limits of moviedom with offerings from all over the map. If there isn't something among the 125 features and 200 shorts to titillate more adventurous moviegoers, it will probably come as a shock to the fest's long-standing artistic director, Mitch Davis. Billed as the continent's largest genre film fest, Fantasia's focus is as always indie-oriented, esoteric and auteur-driven, touching on live action and animated fare from all corners of our celluloid planet. But the fest also pays much homage to local fare and pioneers from our filmmaking past. Davis is fond of saying that Fantasia is 'a celebration of the eccentric and unclassifiable, playing all films with equal importance.' Eclectic would also apply. Be they the fest's opening films like the edgy Eddington, marking its Canadian première Wednesday at 6 p.m. or, yes, Smurfs, in advance of its Friday opening at theatres everywhere, Wednesday at 6:15 in French and 8:25 in English. The latter with its iconic blue critters takes animation to another level, while the former, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone, centres on a New Mexico town thrust into chaos. But Davis is equally high on Chicoutimi native Félix Dufour-Laperrière's Death Does Not Exist, an animated potboiler — first presented at Cannes and screening Thursday — pursuing a group of young revolutionaries. Or Saguenay native JP Bergeron's quirky yet poignant live-action love story Old Guys in Bed, showing Aug. 3. This is Bergeron's first feature. Better known for his 90-plus acting credits, Bergeron, 73, is an inspiration to senior filmmakers and is now planning to make Old Guys in Bed the first instalment of a gay trilogy. 'I plan to keep directing films for a while now,' says Bergeron, who previously directed a short that won a prize at the 2012 Fantasia fest. 'The way I see it is that 90 could be the new 60.' Davis is also excited about The MusiquePlus Years: Artists Who Started with the Music Video, a nostalgic look back at the station's glory days in the '90s through clips, stories and memories. It is being presented Saturday. Screenings as well as panel discussions take place at Concordia University's SGWU Alumni Auditorium (Hall Theatre), J.A. de Sève Cinema, the Cinéma du Musée and the BBAM! Gallery. Adds the ever-effusive Davis at fest headquarters in Concordia's Hall Building: 'And can't forget that we're showcasing the current exciting renaissance of Kazakhstan genre cinema with the world première of the noir-tinged folk horror chiller Kazakh Scary Tales, hosted by award-winning director Adilkhan Yerzhanov and star Anna Starchenko, and the North American première of the touching sci-fi comedy Stinker, hosted by director Yerden Telemissov.' No surprise that Davis's enthusiasm for film has struck a chord with the likes of Quentin Tarantino — whose Inglourious Basterds made its North American première at the fest and who called Fantasia 'the most important and prestigious genre film festival on this continent' — as well as with such past guests as Guillermo del Toro, Mark Hamill, John Carpenter, Ken Russell, Robert Pattinson and John Landis. This year's Fantasia will also be paying special tribute to acclaimed Hollywood film composer Danny Elfman, Canadian acting great Sheila McCarthy, veteran Montreal director George Mihalka, maverick American indie filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman and legendary American animator Genndy Tartakovsky — whose latest film, Fixed, closes the festival. Nicolas Archambault, Fantasia's director of Asian live-action programming the last 18 years, is particularly pumped about his acquisitions. 'We have a lot from Japan and South Korea, where production has been fast changing because they've been selling many of their TV series to Netflix,' notes Archambault, who had spent two months scouting films in Japan and South Korea. 'Now Korean producers really feel the need to make films to play in their theatres as well as those in Indonesia and Thailand. Indonesia is also getting there on the production front. Our challenge is to keep up because the scene is quickly evolving.' Davis points out that in the first year of Fantasia there was much attention paid to the Hong Kong New Wave movement, from directors like John Woo. 'These films were really blowing up, yet the Montreal film festivals at the time had a collective blind spot and just weren't showing them. So we did. And we've kept at it since.' That element underscores the Fantasia programming formula. 'We've always been very broad in what we play, but not so much for people with only vanilla tastes but for those who want to see something with a point of view, even like the eccentric Smurfs,' Davis says. 'We have a real consistent thread. The films can be subversive melodramas or South Korean comedies, horror, sci-fi or fantasy films or documentaries. But one thread going through them all is they are made, regardless of budget, with a purity of vision. And they take risks.' Yet even Davis is surprised that Fantasia has lasted 29 years with such fare. 'Certainly, we never expected to be around this long. Every year felt like it was going to be our last. We weren't getting any institutional support at the beginning. Every year felt like a miracle. But now we really feel supported and recognized. 'And loved.'
Perth Now
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
AFL WAG slams online troll for leaving slur on family photo
An infuriated AFL WAG has called out an online troll after they commented a one-word slur on a family photo she posted online. Mikayla Fantasia, wife of Carlton's Orazio, took to TikTok to expose the man after he commented 'spastic' on an Instagram picture of the couple with their baby daughter Sofia. She went a step further to get back at the man by zooming in on the man's profile and exposing the name of his workplace. 'POV: Your husband kicks 2.2 and some guy still comments 'spastic' on our family photo. Found his business on Instagram too. Stay classy, mate!' the video was captioned. The troll's offensive remark came after Orazio kicked two goals in Carlton's shocking loss to Port Adelaide on Thursday night last week. Paris Tier, partner of GWS Giants Conor Stone, applauded Fantasia for the public comeback. If you'd like to view this content, please adjust your . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide. 'Dude I love this game I can find out everything in a minute you let me know when x,' she wrote. Despite Fantasia's fiery response, some commenters were quick to disagree with her approach. 'I think you need to stay humble and not overreact. Your husband is in the spotlight and people can have an opinion. Learn to deal with it!' one person commented. Orazio and Mikayla Fantasia with their daughter Sofia. Credit: Instagram @ Fantasia didn't hold back. 'Of course people are allowed to have opinions. But calling someone a 'spastic' isn't an opinion, it's just offensive. I didn't know football discussion needed slurs to make a point. Nice try,' she replied.
