Rhombus Media
Rhombus Media is a film and television production company formed in 1978 at the York University Film Department by Barbara Willis Sweete and Niv Fichman, and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Larry Weinstein joined soon after. Rhombus Media developed a reputation for producing high-quality, lush art films focusing on music, theatre, and dance. The company has received many national and international awards for their work, including several Emmys: one for ''Le Dortoir'' in 1990, one for ''Canadian Brass: Home Movies'' in 1992, and one win in 1993 for an episode of the Channel 4 Series ''Concerto'', featuring Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com .... They have also won numerous Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture in 1993 for ''Thirty Two Short Films ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,765,188 people (as of 2021) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area proper had a 2021 population of 6,712,341. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Indigenous peoples have travelled through and inhabited the Toronto area, located on a broad sloping plateau interspersed with rivers, deep ravines, and urban forest, for more than 10,000 years. After the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase, when the Mississauga surrendered the area to the British Crown, the British established the town of York in 1793 and later designat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Manuel De Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. He has a claim to being Spain's greatest composer of the 20th century, although the number of pieces he composed was relatively modest. Biography Falla was born Manuel María de los Dolores Falla y Matheu in Cádiz. He was the son of José María Falla, a Valencian, and María Jesús Matheu, from Catalonia. In 1889 he continued his piano lessons with Alejandro Odero and learned the techniques of harmony and counterpoint from Enrique Broca. At age 15 he became interested in literature and journalism and founded the literary magazines ''El Burlón'' and ''El Cascabel''. Madrid By 1900 he was living with his family in the capital, where he attended the Real Conservatorio de Música y Declamación. He studied piano ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Clean (2004 Film)
''Clean'' is a 2004 drama film directed by French director Olivier Assayas, starring Maggie Cheung and Nick Nolte. It was jointly funded by Canada, France, and United Kingdom sources. It was released in the United States in 2006. Plot Emily Wang (Maggie Cheung), a former video jockey, who has been in a tempestuous relationship for several years with Lee Hauser (played by James Johnston of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), a rock musician. Lee's friends feel that Emily is bad for him, describing her as a junkie. Their young son, Jay, is living in Vancouver with Lee's parents. As the film opens, the pair have arrived in Hamilton, Canada, to see Metric perform. Following an argument in their motel room, Emily walks out and, after taking heroin, falls asleep in her car. When she returns the following morning, she finds that Lee has died of a drug overdose, and the Ontario Provincial Police are investigating. As Emily attempts to force her way into the room, the police find heroin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Childstar
''Childstar'' is a 2004 Canadian comedy film directed and co-written by Don McKellar, and starring McKellar, Peter Paige, Gil Bellows, Mark Rendall, Michael Murphy (actor), Michael Murphy, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Alan Thicke. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received four awards from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2004, Vancouver Film Critics Circle, including Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Canadian Film, Best Canadian Film. Plot Taylor Brandon Burns, who happens to be America's most famous Child actor, child star, is in Canada to shoot a big-budget action film. Wanting to get away from his Stage mother, stage mom Suzanne and the pressures of show business, he runs off set with a fellow actress, Natalie. The film's producers, concerned with the money they are losing due to a delayed shooting schedule, enlist Rick Schiller, a down-on-his-luck Independent film, indie filmmaker and Taylor's reluctant limo-driver, to find the bo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Saddest Music In The World
''The Saddest Music in the World'' is a 2003 Canadian film directed by Guy Maddin. Budgeted at $3.8-million and shot over 24 days, the film marks Maddin's first collaboration with actor Isabella Rossellini. Maddin and co-screenwriter George Toles based the film on an original screenplay written by British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, from which they kept "the title, the premise and the contest – to determine which country’s music was the saddest" but otherwise re-wrote. Like most of Guy Maddin's films, ''The Saddest Music in the World'' is filmed in a style that imitates late 1920s and early 1930s cinema, with grainy black-and-white photography, slightly out-of-sync sound and expressionist art design. A few scenes are filmed in colour, in a manner that imitates early two-strip Technicolor. Plot During the Great Depression in 1933 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, beer baroness Lady Helen Port-Huntley announces a competition to find the saddest music in the world, as a publicity stunt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Music Of Harold Arlen
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pron ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Perfect Pie (film)
''Perfect Pie'' is a 2002 Canadian film directed by Barbara Willis Sweete from a script by Judith Thompson. The screenplay was based on Thompson's play of the same name and stars Wendy Crewson, Barbara Williams, Alison Pill, and Rachel McAdams. The film concerns the friendship of childhood best friends Patsy Willets and Marie Beck who reunite after a separation of 30 years. The film premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. Summary Famed opera singer Francesca Prine, born Marie Beck, ( Barbara Williams) receives an invitation to return to her hometown of Marmora, Ontario and sing in a charity concert from her former best friend Patsy Willets (Wendy Crewson). The two friends have not seen each other in thirty years after a train accident injured them both. In flashbacks we see Marie and Patsy's friendship evolve. As a child Marie is bullied but is nevertheless befriended by Patsy who frequently invites her to her home. Patsy notices that Marie is poor and is n ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting from a football accident. After performing evenings in piano bars and competing in local singing contests, Bocelli signed his first recording contract with the Sugar Music label. He rose to fame in 1994, winning the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing "Il mare calmo della sera". Since 1994, Bocelli has recorded 15 solo studio albums of both pop and classical music, three greatest hits albums, and nine complete operas, selling over 75 million records worldwide. He has had success as a crossover performer, bringing classical music to the top of international pop charts. His album ''Romanza'' is one of the best-selling albums of all time, while '' Sacred Arias'' is the biggest selling classical album by any solo artist in history. ''My Chr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Last Night (1998 Film)
''Last Night'' is a 1998 Canadian apocalyptic black comedy-drama film directed by Don McKellar and starring McKellar, Sandra Oh and Callum Keith Rennie. It was produced as part of the French film project 2000, Seen By.... McKellar wrote the screenplay about how ordinary people would react to an unstated imminent global catastrophic event. Set in Toronto, Ontario, the film was made and released when many were concerned about the Year 2000 problem. The film was released to positive reviews for McKellar's direction and Oh's acting. It won awards at the Cannes and Toronto International Film Festivals, and three Genie Awards, including Best Actress for Oh. Plot In Toronto, a group of friends and family prepare for the end of the world, expected at midnight as the result of a calamity that is not explained, but which has been expected for several months. There has been panic and rioting after the imminent catastrophe was announced, but the chaos has since largely died down, with on ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shostakovich Against Stalin
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major composer. Shostakovich achieved early fame in the Soviet Union, but had a complex relationship with its government. His 1934 opera '' Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'' was initially a success, but eventually was condemned by the Soviet government, putting his career at risk. In 1948 his work was denounced under the Zhdanov Doctrine, with professional consequences lasting several years. Even after his censure was rescinded in 1956, performances of his music were occasionally subject to state interventions, as with his Thirteenth Symphony (1962). Shostakovich was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death), as well as chairman of the RSFSR Union of Composers (1960–1968) ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" is named after him. Family background Johannes Eisler was born in Leipzig in Saxony, the son of Rudolf Eisler, a professor of philosophy, and Marie Ida Fischer. His father was an atheist of Jewish origin and his mother was Lutheran. In 1901, the family moved to Vienna. His brother, Gerhart, was a Communist journalist, and his sister, Elfriede, was a leader of the German Communist Party in the mid-1920s. After emigrating to America, she turned into an anti-Stalinist, writing books against her former political affiliation, and even testifying against her brothers before the House Un-American Activities Committee. At age 14 Eis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |