Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance
by Charles Atlas
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: John Cage, Merce CunninghamDirector: Charles Atlas
Brand: Genius
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-07-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Winstar
Movie Reviews of Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance
Movie Review: American Masters Presents Merce Cunningham
Summary: 5 Stars
This 90-minute film by Charles Atlas[ who also directed "Hail the New Puritan" (1986), "Put Blood in the Music" (1989) and "Son of Sam and Delilah" (1991) ] was created as a co-production of seventeen international television stations. It was conceived for the 16:9 aspect ratio format, but will appear in 'letterbox' on a standard 4:3 ratio television screen.
"Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance" functions as an artistic biography of this now legendary choreographer. The first fifty minutes of the film detail Mr. Cunningham's life from his birth in Centralia, Washington in 1919 to the early 1950's and the founding of the Cunningham Dance Company, after a summer of experimentation at Black Mountain College.
Archival film and video footage provides documentation of approximately forty-five different dance works. The footage is shown in edit lengths of between 5 and 20 seconds duration. These excerpts are then intercut with the comments of friends, family members, dancers, composers, art critics and also of Merce himself, who provides anecdotes at each stage within the chronology of the biography.
The audio that accompanies these dance works, as an atmosphere or perhaps as a weather event enveloping the performances, was created by at least seventeen different avant-garde composers. These include founding Cunningham Dance Company member and musician John Cage, electronics guru David Tudor, the minimalist LaMonte Young and downtown NYC performance artist Meredith Monk.
In the film, we find that Mr. Cunningham draws his inspiration from movements of any kind, including those of animals, birds and the ordinary movements of people involved in a range of typical activities. He feels that dancers live not just to do these movements, but to 'exist' in performance and to come to realize their own unique identity through the act of dance.
The film closes with an extended discussion of the work "Biped"(1999), which describes the incorporation of three dimensional computer graphics into the context of a live electronic music and dance event.
"Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance" will serve well as a wonderful media resource for fans of contemporary art.
Summary of Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 07/10/2001 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: NrSimilar DVD Movies
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