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This programme contains strong language. | :00:14. | :00:18. | |
Tonight we are cutting a swathe through the Edinburgh Festival. The | :00:18. | :00:25. | |
Mirror Mir has a ball with Cinderella. Tangled lives in Zadie | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
Smith's latest novel, NW, that launched at the book festival. | :00:29. | :00:34. | |
Through a glass darkly, Vanishing Point's menacing new drama explores | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
internet porn. There is art everywhere. Symbolism at the | :00:38. | :00:45. | |
National Gallery. The new sound of the One o'Clock Gun. Happenings at | :00:45. | :00:53. | |
the surprise venue, Summerhall. All that and Dylan's new album, | :00:53. | :01:03. | |
:01:03. | :01:06. | ||
Tempesst. We will have live music from the | :01:06. | :01:10. | |
fringe tribute of Christine Bovill to Edith Piaf. Joining me the | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
doyenne of stage, Maureen Lipman, writer and critic, Paul Morley, and | :01:15. | :01:19. | |
Sarah Crompton, arts editor of the Telegraph, who does a sports column | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
for the paper on the side. The Mirror Mir from St Petersburg is | :01:24. | :01:30. | |
the company that gave us Nureyev, and Pavlova back in the day. They | :01:30. | :01:35. | |
are here with a staging of Cinderella. The current Artist-in- | :01:35. | :01:41. | |
Residence with the American Ballet Theatre, Alexei Ratmansky. We | :01:41. | :01:47. | |
filmed at their dress rehearsal. Cinderella has long been a staple | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
of the ballet world. But it has taken ten years for Alexei | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
Ratmansky's interpretation of this ration to riches story to reach | :01:55. | :02:05. | |
:02:05. | :02:07. | ||
audiences in Britain. For these performances, Prima ballerina takes | :02:07. | :02:13. | |
the role. The renowned Valery Gergiev directs the score. | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
director is an extraordinary conductor, he's known around the | :02:16. | :02:22. | |
world. He does very nice music. He doesn't | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
conduct so often with the ballet. Because it is a bit different. You | :02:26. | :02:33. | |
have to go with the ballerina, with the soloist, or the ballet, and he | :02:33. | :02:43. | |
plays more sim phonic. When he conducts it. You have to keep up | :02:43. | :02:50. | |
with his tempos. The Ugly Sisters, and evil stepmother, are | :02:50. | :02:55. | |
traditionally played as grotesques, but putting graceful ballerinas in | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
the roles, Ratmansky has a different take on the villains. | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
this special performance, the stepmother was made on a young | :03:02. | :03:12. | |
:03:12. | :03:21. | ||
She could be the wife of the Prince. The thing is, I think it is special | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
for the Mirror Mir, they are more different in movement and classical, | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
-- the Mir theatre, they are more different in movement and classical. | :03:31. | :03:41. | |
:03:41. | :03:58. | ||
It has a more dance style. A lot of A lot of people know this ballet, | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
but Ratmansky's also quite a classical choreographer. But it | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
seems to be quite different from what you would think of a classical | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
ballet? It is very modern and updated and bare in the way it is | :04:10. | :04:20. | |
:04:20. | :04:23. | ||
set. The thing about Ratmansky is he's based in the classical steps. | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
He's interested in different moments, quirky movement. He | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
creates a classical ballet. Where nobody just dances, everybody has | :04:30. | :04:40. | |
:04:40. | :04:57. | ||
something to say. And He's wonderful, the whole | :04:57. | :05:05. | |
characterisation of the stepmother as Mary Portis. The seasons done as | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
punk, it is Ratmansky from ten years ago. He has said himself, he | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
wasn't asked to do the staging of it, he said he would change it and | :05:14. | :05:20. | |
is changing it as we speak? doing the same things we did ten | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
years ago -- he did ten years ago he has to amend to be up to speed. | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
It is hard to know the language going on. At times I swerved all | :05:28. | :05:34. | |
over the place with it. At times I thought it was a weird Opening | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
Ceremony for when Victoria Beckham goes to buy shoes. And then an | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
inordinate amount of detail for a fairytale, and sticking on the | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
clownness and the mime, break ago I way from the classical steps, | :05:48. | :05:56. | |
verging on -- breaking away from classical steps. After a long | :05:56. | :06:01. | |
evening, I missed some of the characters, 86 people on stage, it | :06:01. | :06:10. | |
is energetic, once you breakthrough the formality, it is very moving. | :06:10. | :06:15. | |
Long the way did you miss the sign posting? We know Cinderella goes to | :06:15. | :06:24. | |
the ball in a pumpkin, there is no mice, no fireplace. The fairy | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
godmother is bag lady, bent double. It is gorgeous, I had a wonderful | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
time, if I didn't know the story of Cinderella. The wonderful thing is | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
we were lucky, we heard Gergiev conducting, which makes the music | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
glisten. The other thing that is wonderful about the production is | :06:42. | :06:52. | |
:06:52. | :06:53. | ||
how responsive it is to the music. It has a melancholy undertow. I | :06:53. | :07:00. | |
loved the final pas de deux, it is touching happiness, notes grabbing | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
it. When the Prince comes on and he's vain, and he's a bit full of | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
himself. Then he's totally taken over by that wonderful girl. Isn't | :07:09. | :07:15. | |
she, she's made of steam and breath and gossamer, just wonderful. | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
What about the fact that Gergiev was there conducting. It gave the | :07:19. | :07:25. | |
music a prominence that often, when I go to a bl let, I'm so stuck on | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
the -- ballet, I'm so stuck on the ballet, I was listening for more | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
the music? That was interesting, there was a power coming from a | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
discreet place that you couldn't ignore, that is why, occasionally | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
it felt like the music was the lead, and what was happening on stage was | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
secondry it was discreet and humble, almost. I felt after the third or | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
fourth interval he definitely had a lick of paint in his hair. There | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
was a discreet performance going on down there. That was what was | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
ultimately powerful beyond the kitschness of the performance. The | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
orchestra was incredible. They suddenly went to Spain and they had | :08:03. | :08:09. | |
those dancing boys as Aryan blonde boys, what was that to Cinderella. | :08:09. | :08:13. | |
That is Professor trying to make a ballet sequence of variations, | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
where he travels the world. The sort of thing you had in classical | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
ballet. For all the choreographers who have tackled it, it is a | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
problem, the story stops. If you were to place the Mirror Mir ballet | :08:29. | :08:38. | |
now, what -- miornmiornmiorn ballet now, what would you say -- ballet | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
company now what would you say? They reflect they are amazing, they | :08:42. | :08:52. | |
:08:52. | :08:52. | ||
have loads. Have you ever seen arms like that. Their physical presence | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
was incredible, it is like they were bred in some laboratory for. | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
That I'm talking about the men. There are two more performances of | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
Cinderella tomorrow in Edinburgh. Life in London has an enduring | :09:04. | :09:10. | |
appeal for novelists, earlier this year John Lanchester published | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
Capital, which we discussed in March. Now Zadie Smith returns to | :09:15. | :09:21. | |
the streets of her manor, where she was for White Teeth. | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
NW is about a group of thirty- somethings, all trying to find | :09:27. | :09:32. | |
their way in the capital. Zadie Smith's first novel, White Teeth | :09:32. | :09:37. | |
was published in 2000, when she was 24. It won a number of major awards, | :09:37. | :09:43. | |
she was hailed as a precocious literary talent. Set in the streets | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
of Willesden, the book explored roots, religion in a multi cultural | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
neighbourhood in London, and subsequently adapted for Channel 4. | :09:53. | :09:59. | |
I'm from the Cricklewood kingdom, where we the witness of Jehova, are | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
waiting for the Lord to come with his presence, bringing with them | :10:04. | :10:14. | |
:10:14. | :10:33. | ||
the three-fold Armageddon. Now she The novel follows four characters, | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
now in their 30s, whose lives have taken very different paths since | :10:38. | :10:48. | |
:10:48. | :11:22. | ||
their upbringing on a council Zadie Smith explores form and | :11:22. | :11:28. | |
chronology, and brings patwah that elect fies the dialogue. Is she | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
looking at North West London from afar, or is she, once more, happy | :11:32. | :11:42. | |
:11:42. | :11:42. | ||
to be home. She makes you work hard on this | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
story, did you feel you were working hard? Very hard. It says | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
curl up with it, sail vour every sentence, turn around and re-read | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
it. That is precisely what I had to do. I felt very alienated by the | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
style. The writing is diamond brilliant, the dialogue, in fact, | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
it is probably more of a film script than it is a novel. It is | :12:03. | :12:09. | |
straight from the page to the screen. All the characters are very | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
well delinyailted. Because it keeps -- delineated, just it keeps | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
chopping and changing in characters, just when you get interested in | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
someone you go on to another one. Because you get cuts and flashbacks, | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
lots of dialogue, quotation marks and without dash, you don't know if | :12:27. | :12:32. | |
they are speaking or not. Because that have it is jagged, it is very | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
savage, this book. You meet Lea and Natalie, late on, reversing through | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
their lives, you get all the codas to explain what is going on. We | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
were talking about the dialogue, mixed in with the description and | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
the pat what and everything else. She rewards -- patwah and | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
everything else, she rewards you after a while of reading, you | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
suddenly know what is going on? could enter the book at any stage, | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
when you do finish it you really want to begin it again, you realise | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
you can come in at any point. What I loved about it, where it made up | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
for John Lanchester's Capital, it is an experimental book. The whole | :13:10. | :13:16. | |
point of living and getting on in London, you have to have a | :13:16. | :13:21. | |
experimental personality. A great London novel, it might not be "the" | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
great one, but it is in the top ten. You never know where you are. Where | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
she goes from one to 185, that is where it started to sink. These are | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
the lists? It is random, it takes detours, it is like a walk around | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
London. It is information about what is happening? It was a map | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
about North West London t transcends it, it could be about | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
anywhere, it is about getting on in a city. There are four main | :13:45. | :13:51. | |
characters, Felix, Nathan, Lea and Natalie, and one called Keisha, she | :13:51. | :14:00. | |
nails female friendship in a way. She's happiest concentrating on her | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
two characters? I adored it, I couldn't put it down. I was | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
absolutely engrossed in it. She's so brilliant, observationally, on | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
what Poundland is like, and people eating outside. The women inhabit | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
that world. She gets into their mind brilliantly. I thought she | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
wrote about women and children better than anyone I can think of | :14:21. | :14:25. | |
recently. How they navigate their lives in relation to her. She's | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
very harsh on them sometimes. Zadie Smith, I have read, said she | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
doesn't actually like Natalie, in the sense that Natalie is not a | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
likeable person. It is a real accomplishment to get to you like | :14:36. | :14:42. | |
Natalie, or get you into that book? You admire her in way, you can see | :14:42. | :14:46. | |
where she's come from. She does occasionally patronise her | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
characters. How do you mean about children, mothers and daughters she | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
gets quite well with Natalie and, with Leah and her Irish mother, and | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
the way Leah sends up her mother, but actually is very reliant on her. | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
But children? I think where the relationship, the way that lowia | :15:05. | :15:09. | |
decides she doesn't want children. -- Leah decides she doesn't want | :15:09. | :15:11. | |
children. The assumption that everything is her moving towards a | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
fulfilled life with children. She rejects that, her ambivalence about | :15:15. | :15:24. | |
the definition of that, then as you come back later in it, Natalie has | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
similar ambivalence but similar journey, that is not written about, | :15:29. | :15:32. | |
women not wanting children. thought she was quite judgment | :15:32. | :15:39. | |
mental, and also I found the characters, like the wonderful | :15:39. | :15:49. | |
:15:49. | :15:50. | ||
junkie, absolutely wonderful. the actress on the roof and Felix's | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
lover? We haven't been able to talk about him, because he's a third | :15:55. | :16:01. | |
character. I love how she manages to do a 25 years of the 21st | :16:01. | :16:04. | |
century, and what happened to the different sensibility we have as | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
things change. We don't want to give away what happens, you are | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
right about Felix, he's a promising character, I felt cheated I didn't | :16:11. | :16:17. | |
know him better? We are pulled up short. It is very jagged. But you | :16:17. | :16:21. | |
do love him. He actually, in some ways, I have said the women | :16:21. | :16:26. | |
characters are better drawn. He has got the great comic vignette, where | :16:26. | :16:33. | |
he sells a car to another posh drugy, and that's brilliantly done. | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
You are with him in the pub, with the used money in his hand. I loved | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
it. It is impressionist. The way she talk about it, in the book, | :16:44. | :16:52. | |
hearing a conversation outside Poundland in Kilburn, she as a | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
great antenna for conversations, picking them up on our behalf. | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
seems pretty extraordinary to me this is not on the Booker long | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
list? It makes you think the novels must be brilliant if it is not | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
considered. It has a wildness about it, that is not in the tonal | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
blandness that is required. That is what I loved about it so much, it | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
didn't have that control. It is wild. It makes you work hard. | :17:18. | :17:23. | |
a proper novel. There is alienation, and this stream of consciousness, | :17:24. | :17:32. | |
Joycey and Virginia Woolf thrown in. It has warmth, which is rare in a | :17:32. | :17:35. | |
structural complicated novel. a great balance. Decide if it | :17:35. | :17:41. | |
should be in the Booker long list. We interrupt the festival programme | :17:41. | :17:47. | |
to bring you something special. There was excitement in the Review | :17:47. | :17:55. | |
office when Bob Dylan's next album was delivered to the BBC. Would | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
Tempest, his new self-produce the record hit us like a Hurricane. | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
While much of Dylan's recent output has received warm reviews, a new | :18:04. | :18:11. | |
release always creates a fever of specktation. Some pundits suggested, | :18:11. | :18:20. | |
that Tempest was to be dill Dylan's swan song. Dylan has quashed these | :18:20. | :18:26. | |
rumours saying he has no intention of laying down his guitar. | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
Listen to that Duquesne Whistle blowing. | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
Sue fused with dark themes, from a blow-by-blow account to the | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
assassination of his friend, John Lennon, and love stories that end | :18:37. | :18:45. | |
in death and destruction. The cast of musicians is familiar | :18:45. | :18:52. | |
from Dylan's recent albums, and Tempest is self-produced under his | :18:53. | :19:01. | |
occasional pseudonym, Jack Frost. Fans can catch a glimpse of the | :19:01. | :19:07. | |
ageing Troubadour in the video of the new single Duquesne Whistle, a | :19:07. | :19:14. | |
grand old ramp on railroad songs. # Listen to the Duquesne Whistle | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
blowing # Blowing like she never blowed | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
before # Blue light rigging | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
# Red light blowing # Blowing like she's about to take | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
the door Paul, you have been listening all | :19:29. | :19:34. | |
day, we have all been listening all day. Did it catch you off guard? | :19:34. | :19:40. | |
have been searching for praises, to sing -- phrases to sing its praises. | :19:40. | :19:46. | |
I don't know if there is an original line, riff or phrase on it, | :19:46. | :19:52. | |
it is unbelievably original. Because it is Bob Dylan's fifth | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
album, it doesn't matter most things are nicked or stolen. It is | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
extraordinary, it is a double album. I don't know if anyone knows what | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
that means, if it was like the old days it would be Blonde on Blonde, | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
I would put it up there with it, it is extraordinary. For a number of | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
reasons, not least that because 20 years ago we thought he was on the | :20:12. | :20:18. | |
way out. The fact he has come alive, about the idea that he might be | :20:18. | :20:24. | |
dying, it is clearly not, it is his most confident album. His voice is | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
spectacular, I have heard it speaking, his voice is glorious? | :20:28. | :20:33. | |
is kind of controlled growl, really. It is wonderful sound. The band is | :20:33. | :20:39. | |
amazing. The sound of it, it has got this madden ghee, and you can't | :20:39. | :20:49. | |
:20:49. | :20:52. | ||
believe he's 7 -- maddener ghee, you can't believe he's 71. | :20:52. | :20:58. | |
voice is now, I thought it was Louis Armstrong, he loves the way | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
he sounds now. That's what's happened to him. He has come round | :21:02. | :21:12. | |
full circle, he's doing chaingang songs, sea shanties. It is so | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
blokeish. He's loving the voice, he has the voice he has always wanted, | :21:16. | :21:23. | |
fantastic, he's trying to get the by star sound now, Scott Lit, he | :21:23. | :21:30. | |
has done REM albums, and the steel guitar is amazing. Dylan is a | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
psycadelic historian, he's wonderful at raiding history and | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
putting it together. He's telling us history of all sorts of things. | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
It sounds ancient but incredibly contempry one of the most exciting | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
things about it, here is the guy that almost started the very idea | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
of what a long-playing record of, here at the end of what that | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
history is, there he is again, telling us what this thing is, it | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
is a work of art. It is a work of art and he's telling us for the | :21:55. | :22:00. | |
35th time that it is a work of art. He's telling us stories again, of | :22:00. | :22:07. | |
Titanic, in his way? Leonardo DiCaprio is in with the historical | :22:07. | :22:13. | |
thing. It is so dirically rich. You have a -- lyrically rich, you have | :22:13. | :22:18. | |
a Sutton Who line, you have this wonderful creativity with words. | :22:18. | :22:23. | |
There are all these little samplings of little people that are | :22:23. | :22:28. | |
made into ballads. It's like he waited and this is the moment he | :22:28. | :22:35. | |
wants to talk about John Lennon. That comes after a huge pause, | :22:35. | :22:40. | |
Titanic goes on for three years. verses. Then there is a long pause, | :22:40. | :22:46. | |
then I thought that is going off, on came John Lennon, Godliness me. | :22:46. | :22:52. | |
You sink the Titanic, and then there is more, the John Lennon is | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
very beautiful and he's acknowledging the end of a life. | :22:56. | :23:00. | |
There is a line about the last heart beat and what a moment that | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
was. It is a bit like being trapped in a cellar somewhere with 15 | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
Irishmen. Listen, let's have another quick burst of Duquesne | :23:10. | :23:16. | |
Whistle. # Listen to that Duquesne Whistle | :23:16. | :23:18. | |
blowing # Blowing like she's blowing right | :23:18. | :23:28. | |
:23:28. | :23:35. | ||
Tempest will be relosed on the 10th of September -- released on the | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
10th of September. Glasgow may be the breeding ground for Turner | :23:40. | :23:46. | |
Prize winner, but in August the Edinburgh Art Festival is an | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
explosion of installations and happenings. Now in its ninth year, | :23:51. | :23:54. | |
the Edinburgh Art Festival collates a packed programme, with 51 | :23:54. | :24:00. | |
exhibitions in 30 venues across the city. Encompassing everything from | :24:00. | :24:05. | |
Picasso to paintings by Harry Hill. The festival's flagship commission | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
this year is a new sound work from Susan Philip, who won the Turner | :24:10. | :24:17. | |
Prize in 2010. Timeline reflects the history of one of Edinburgh's | :24:17. | :24:23. | |
most sonic landmark, the One o'Clock Gun. Timeline is a sound | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
intervention that cuts through the city in a straight line from six | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
different locations. I discovered this time gun map that showed you | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
how long it took for the sound of the gun to travel across the city. | :24:35. | :24:41. | |
That made me think about sound in a city wide scale. | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
It is my own voice, where I'm singing three harmonising notes, | :24:46. | :24:51. | |
from all of these six locations. The former veterinary college of | :24:51. | :24:57. | |
the university of Edinburgh, has been reinvented as Summerhall, a | :24:58. | :25:05. | |
venue for fringe performances and art. There are key couture pictures | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
and headwear, photographed by rank kin. | :25:08. | :25:15. | |
There is an exploration of the body politics in video. Belgian artist, | :25:15. | :25:22. | |
Jean Pierre Muller, uses sculpture and sound in a street scape to tell | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
the story of some of the 20th century's greatest producers and | :25:27. | :25:37. | |
:25:37. | :25:39. | ||
musicians. At the Scottish National Gallery Van Gogh to Kandinsky. | :25:39. | :25:45. | |
"Don't paint the thing you paint but the thing expected" proved | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
inspiration. There was Monet, gauing again, and lesser known | :25:50. | :25:56. | |
artists like Walter Crane and others. The show presents symbolist | :25:56. | :26:00. | |
painting as a frame of mind, rather than a district style or artistic | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
movement. This idea of a frame of mind. Do | :26:04. | :26:12. | |
you think the exhibition hangs together as a prop gaigs. I think | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
it -- proposition? I think it does, but I don't agree with it. There is | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
a lot of paintings from people you don't see much. It is exciting. You | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
go around having an argument in your head, if the idea of the | :26:24. | :26:29. | |
symbolism is about the idea, and the mood, not the thing, is Monet | :26:29. | :26:35. | |
is a symbolist, does he pay haystacks because he wants to paint | :26:35. | :26:39. | |
mood or see what the light did. I'm inclined to think it is the latter. | :26:39. | :26:44. | |
I liked how it made you argue with yourself on the way round. It has | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
my favourite painting, the Van Gogh, reaper in the field. I thought it | :26:49. | :26:55. | |
was a symbol of him imposing order on the world, he paints it from the | :26:55. | :26:58. | |
asylum window. Then I thought maybe it is about death. You have this | :26:58. | :27:00. | |
conversation. That is the proposition put forward in the | :27:00. | :27:03. | |
exhibition? You have the conversation with yourself is, I | :27:03. | :27:08. | |
found that utterly fascinating. have looking Asim bowlism as a | :27:08. | :27:15. | |
cultural bulwark, with the Finnish artists - as symbolism as cultural | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
bulwark, with the Finnish artists they were using it as a symbol of | :27:20. | :27:23. | |
Finnish culture. That was a thread running through. The artist on the | :27:23. | :27:33. | |
:27:33. | :27:36. | ||
cover, that was extraordinary? were, when you come to the palace | :27:36. | :27:41. | |
with the horse and the statue, and he's turning away, is that to do | :27:41. | :27:51. | |
with the end of the Hamashoy, or is that just what he wanted to paint | :27:51. | :27:53. | |
that day. The intensity, particularly the intensity that is | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
just about catching that moment in the evening. Capturing that scene, | :27:57. | :28:03. | |
not as a naturalist scene, but as what it made you feel inside? | :28:03. | :28:13. | |
:28:13. | :28:13. | ||
yes. Go on. You're too polite, Paul! It makes you follow a story | :28:13. | :28:19. | |
it has decided to tell. Sometimes you yes or no for a break up of | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
chronology, a break up of not following a certain thesis, it is | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
too academic for the minds and mentality and the paintings in it. | :28:26. | :28:30. | |
It is glorious, and fantastic stuff, I love the Scandinavian moments | :28:30. | :28:34. | |
that throw up. They branded it to get you in. But it is some of the | :28:34. | :28:41. | |
more obscure artist that is are more exciting? Van Gogh and | :28:41. | :28:49. | |
Kandinskys, there is two Mondrians, and that response he had to Steiner, | :28:49. | :28:54. | |
about atmosphere and colour, in terms of psychology. I sometimes | :28:54. | :28:59. | |
wished there was more, a more abstract way of compieming some of | :28:59. | :29:04. | |
this material, because it -- compiling some of the material, | :29:04. | :29:08. | |
because it doesn't flow. Six or seven great rooms with fantastic | :29:08. | :29:13. | |
paintings in, but the curating idea that it is carrying a narrative | :29:13. | :29:17. | |
annoys you, you want a wildness that represents the spirit of some | :29:17. | :29:22. | |
of those paintings. They give you some amazing paintings. And to see | :29:23. | :29:30. | |
the Van Gogh is unbelievable, with music. There was the Kandinsky | :29:30. | :29:34. | |
together saying the music and colour tonally was incredible. | :29:34. | :29:38. | |
the end you could see paintings as a score, which is Majestic to see | :29:39. | :29:44. | |
that moment happen. Let's talk about Susan Philips, the Turner | :29:44. | :29:47. | |
Prize winner. It is what she regards as being her own voice on | :29:47. | :29:53. | |
the One o'Clock Gun, a bit like the Duquesne Whistle! I would imagine. | :29:53. | :29:58. | |
The sound that starts the Dylan album, it shows you how amazing a | :29:58. | :30:02. | |
sound can be to start a moment in history. Not that I heard this one. | :30:02. | :30:06. | |
You have to be incredible alert, it is a very quick sound. I thought | :30:06. | :30:10. | |
one advantage was it made you look at things in Edinburgh I had never | :30:10. | :30:14. | |
looked before, which is the ball falling on Nelson's monument. I | :30:14. | :30:18. | |
thought it was, it is so fleeting almost it is not to be there. | :30:18. | :30:23. | |
fast. But the sight of the three of us standing in a cemetery. Full of | :30:23. | :30:29. | |
David Hum, he's grave, trying to hear it. I like t a lot of the work | :30:29. | :30:34. | |
is about the dispersal of songs and sound into an inaudible hum. I | :30:34. | :30:39. | |
thought it was meant to be that way. It is Majestic. That is very | :30:39. | :30:45. | |
symbolistic. You saw Edinburgh unfold again, and the hidden | :30:45. | :30:54. | |
corners you don't know until you are reminded. Another hidden corner | :30:54. | :30:59. | |
is Summerhal, people talking about the festival becoming slicker and | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
slicker, then the wildness and craziness of 500 rooms at Summerhal. | :31:04. | :31:10. | |
I loved it, I'm so happy someone has taken an old building and made | :31:10. | :31:12. | |
it relevant and interesting and community centre. Completely mad, | :31:12. | :31:17. | |
the operating rooms are still there, there is bits of old animal on the | :31:17. | :31:24. | |
wall. It is fantastic. Palm Hoggs, amazing couture, slightly bondage, | :31:24. | :31:27. | |
is in a room where they were clearly hanging horses and | :31:27. | :31:32. | |
dissecting them until a year ago? There is crazy energy about this | :31:32. | :31:36. | |
programme tonight, and Summerhal a wonderful place. You go in and feel | :31:36. | :31:45. | |
inspired by all the things. The fact it is dispersed, it is over | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
two-and-a-half acres, you fall across things all the time. You are | :31:49. | :31:54. | |
constantly turning corner noose rooms where you think you will -- | :31:54. | :32:00. | |
corners into rooms where you think you will come across the skal | :32:00. | :32:04. | |
velvet Underground playing. It is great because the previous | :32:04. | :32:09. | |
exhibition didn't have it. When you talk about the Velvet Underground, | :32:09. | :32:15. | |
when you look what was happening? Some decrepit rooms and you stumble | :32:15. | :32:19. | |
into them, they haven't been done you have at all, you have a | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
brilliant artist and fantastic pieces that spring from room-to- | :32:22. | :32:31. | |
room. You see Emin has come, Sturnham Barley, you loved that, | :32:31. | :32:39. | |
you really find out for you -- yourself. You have the David | :32:39. | :32:44. | |
Micolet room, the room is a installation of slowed down images | :32:44. | :32:49. | |
he made of naked people, mainly against black, high-definition - | :32:49. | :32:54. | |
moving, it goes to seven minutes. He has made a piece called Slow | :32:54. | :32:58. | |
Dancing, that is also on. He's a brilliant artist, it is not just | :32:58. | :33:02. | |
the trick of slowing down the motion, it is how he then arranges | :33:02. | :33:09. | |
it. He makes a trip-tick of motion. It speaks across the screens. He's | :33:09. | :33:12. | |
a really significant artist, and clever Summerhall, they | :33:13. | :33:16. | |
commissioned him, he's not commissioned in this country. That | :33:16. | :33:22. | |
is another tick, bringing in this work. You sit on bean bag, except I | :33:22. | :33:28. | |
was too rivets to sit. And you watch these beautiful, beautiful | :33:28. | :33:33. | |
bodies. You could do a programme on what you see in Summerhall, every | :33:33. | :33:40. | |
city should have one. I read about Karen, she ice-skates naked with | :33:40. | :33:44. | |
her cat it is said, I thought, that will be a laugh! Another role for | :33:44. | :33:47. | |
you! Do not fear, because the exhibitions at Summerhall are open | :33:47. | :33:54. | |
to the end of September. The Scottish National Gallery continues | :33:54. | :33:57. | |
until the end of the October. The Edinburgh International Festival | :33:57. | :34:01. | |
brings work from all around the world to the city stages, but gives | :34:01. | :34:05. | |
a platform for work from Scotland. One of the premiers come from the | :34:05. | :34:12. | |
theatre company, Vanishing Point, it may have the whimsical-sounding | :34:12. | :34:15. | |
title, Wonderland, but it is for adult eyes only. | :34:15. | :34:23. | |
Please, help me, I'm scared. I just want to go home. Wonderland was | :34:23. | :34:27. | |
inspired, in part, by a documentary, about a young British woman's | :34:27. | :34:32. | |
experience in the American porn industry. Working without a script, | :34:32. | :34:38. | |
director Matthew Lenton began by exploring the reasons why people | :34:38. | :34:43. | |
make and watch pornography. The air feels thicker. Your skin feels | :34:44. | :34:53. | |
sticky. Something stinks. The play uses live projections, as well as | :34:53. | :34:57. | |
an inner stage, encased in glass, to present a multilayered approach, | :34:57. | :35:07. | |
to the moral questions raised by violent pornography. This is how | :35:07. | :35:17. | |
:35:17. | :35:17. | ||
you say hello, is it. No handshake. This is the way we do business. | :35:17. | :35:23. | |
watch Alice, a young girl who gets given the name Heidi, and who may | :35:23. | :35:30. | |
or may not be lost in the world of sado-masochistic skin flicks. | :35:30. | :35:34. | |
really don't want to do it now. are beautiful, take off your | :35:34. | :35:37. | |
fucking bra. We also see John, sometimes known as Michael, a | :35:37. | :35:44. | |
family man, who slips out to watch extreme porn while his wife sleeps. | :35:44. | :35:49. | |
Blown up on a large screen, the audience sees what John sees and | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
more, blurring the boundaries between performance and reality, | :35:52. | :35:57. | |
and asking us to confront the complicity of the voyeur. Is that | :35:57. | :36:05. | |
what you want, Michael, you want me to be your little girl. And then | :36:05. | :36:11. | |
what? In private, whatever you like. Wonderland takes its audience on a | :36:11. | :36:16. | |
challenging adventure, but could this particular journey be a little | :36:16. | :36:23. | |
too dark for some? Maureen, as both a director and a performer, this is | :36:23. | :36:28. | |
such hugely ambitious work in terms of technically, and also an | :36:28. | :36:33. | |
ambitious subject? Let me start by saying that the acting is superb, | :36:33. | :36:40. | |
in my opinion. Particularly the leading lady, hums Hulse. The -- | :36:40. | :36:45. | |
Jenny Hulse. The staging is behind a sort of box, we look into it, | :36:45. | :36:51. | |
again with the alienation, however, it was so hard-hitting and so well | :36:51. | :36:57. | |
done, I thought, that I couldn't watch. Actually the subject of the | :36:57. | :37:00. | |
pornography, and the way, at one point, we had something that looked | :37:00. | :37:03. | |
like it was going to be very graphic, I didn't know where to | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
look, it lost me there. But I have to say it was beautifully put | :37:07. | :37:14. | |
together. I thought it was just hell. You know, far from to say, I | :37:14. | :37:19. | |
thought it was a good idea with Alice being curious, about | :37:20. | :37:24. | |
curiosity in the modern world and where it takes you. I thought they | :37:24. | :37:29. | |
workshoped it and not got anywhere. Let's be clear about this. This was | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
an unscripted piece. It was a devised piece. I felt they hadn't | :37:32. | :37:37. | |
got far enough. What they ended up doing was simply putting images of | :37:37. | :37:41. | |
exploitation on to the stage. I agree it was well act, I thought it | :37:41. | :37:46. | |
did look wonderful. The lighting was fantastic. The way it looked | :37:46. | :37:50. | |
for me was more problematic, it sucked all the humanity out of it. | :37:50. | :37:54. | |
I felt it was exploitive, it was exactly the thing that it was | :37:54. | :38:01. | |
supposedly giving us a critque of. The sound was a one note of what | :38:01. | :38:06. | |
was on stage. No change of atmosphere? That is difficult, when | :38:06. | :38:09. | |
you tackle this subject you have to do it. The other difficulty is | :38:09. | :38:13. | |
tackling the Internet, which is a tricky thing to deliver. It is | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
something about the venue, there was many things about arriving at | :38:17. | :38:24. | |
it, it was old as an Alice in Wonderland, which it wasn't and a | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
famous celebrity. I wonder if it was at one of the dirtier rooms at | :38:28. | :38:32. | |
Summerhall it would have been better. A very important subject, | :38:32. | :38:36. | |
but you come away thinking it was an Opening Ceremony for wanting to | :38:36. | :38:43. | |
go home and have a damn good cry. He does say he wants to take you | :38:43. | :38:47. | |
further than he knows you want to go. That is the part of it that is | :38:47. | :38:52. | |
devised. The problem is devised theatre, they get a fantastic | :38:52. | :38:57. | |
amount of rehearsal time, they get 18 weeks, ten months, the rest of | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
us get three weeks and it is judged on the same standards. Do you think | :39:01. | :39:04. | |
the work, then, if it is collaborative, do you think in the | :39:04. | :39:10. | |
end it is a directed work, or is it the actors at play? You get great | :39:10. | :39:15. | |
performances and you never get a play. And I felt that if they were | :39:15. | :39:21. | |
going to do it, they should have used the rehearsal time to be | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
intellectually rigorous, to explain something, instead of simply | :39:24. | :39:30. | |
setting it before us, as a series of deeply unpleasant images. I | :39:30. | :39:33. | |
don't see how that justifies putting on a play of this sort. | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
needed to be immersed in it. It seemed to be one of the plays where | :39:36. | :39:42. | |
we needed to be involved in it some how. I think that comes back to the | :39:42. | :39:46. | |
staging. Behaves the Lyceum was a strange place to have -- by having | :39:46. | :39:50. | |
the Lyceum, it was a strange place to have it. You can't be led | :39:50. | :39:53. | |
everywhere though? They don't explain anything. For me the most | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
interesting character is the husband, who supposedly is a normal | :39:56. | :40:01. | |
man, and who is led into his deep e, darkest desires, but you don't know | :40:01. | :40:06. | |
anything about him, not a thing. I thought, come on, tell me something. | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
Did is matter if we didn't know whether the girl was his daughter. | :40:10. | :40:14. | |
You feel you were luck turd about anything that was bleeding obvious. | :40:14. | :40:21. | |
You nationwide -- you needed context about the subject. | :40:21. | :40:25. | |
mystified why you were prepared to make the journey with NW and this | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
one you find it difficult to accept a series of impressions, which is | :40:29. | :40:36. | |
all it is. For me, NW has more a richness and warmth towards it t | :40:36. | :40:40. | |
which this does not have. doesn't have warmth, because it is | :40:40. | :40:46. | |
not a warm subject. In 85 sections it did, it covered so much ground, | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
this didn't. It covers three pieces of ground. We have to agree to | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
disagree. That is the best way on the review show. My thanks tonight | :40:54. | :40:58. | |
to my guest. We will be back at the beginning of object. But we will | :40:58. | :41:02. | |
leave you with one of the Edinburgh fringe's big e hits. Here is | :41:02. | :41:09. | |
Christine Bovill with -- biggest hits, here is Christine Bovill with | :41:09. | :41:14. | |
her Edith Piaf. Le ciel bleu sur nous peut seffondrer Et la terre | :41:14. | :41:17. | |
peut bien secrouler Peu mimporte si tu maimes Je me fous du monde | :41:17. | :41:20. | |
entier Tant qulamour inondra mes matins Tant que mon corps fremira | :41:20. | :41:23. | |
sous tes mains Peu mimportent les problemes Mon amour puisque tu | :41:23. | :41:33. | |
:41:33. | :41:33. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 46 seconds | :41:33. | :42:19. | |
#Jirais jusquau bout du monde #Je me ferais teindre en blonde Si tu | :42:19. | :42:21. | |
me le demandais #Jirais decrocher la lune #Jirais voler la fortune | :42:21. | :42:31. | |
:42:31. | :42:49. | ||
# If one day we had to say goodbye # And our love | :42:49. | :42:56. | |
# Should fade away and die # In my heart | :42:56. | :42:59. | |
# You will remain Dear | :42:59. | :43:09. | |
:43:09. | :43:12. | ||
# And I'll sing a hymn to love # Those you love | :43:12. | :43:18. | |
# Will live eternly # In the bloom | :43:18. | :43:25. | |
# Where all is harmony # With my voice | :43:25. | :43:30. | |
# Raised high # To heaven | :43:30. | :43:35. | |
# Just for you # I'll sing | :43:35. | :43:45. | |
:43:45. | :43:48. |