Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki
Recently released on Blu-ray and DVD: Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki, Target: St. Louis, Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect and Farinelli.
Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki
“People are dying who should have outlived me,” says Hayao Miyazaki. Retired after turning Studio Ghibli into a world-renowned anime center, the animator mediates on the passage of time and the necessity of remaining creative and engaged in the fascinating documentary Never-Ending Man. He begins work on a short film with a team of young CGI animators and the collaboration is mutually beneficial. One of them confesses: “It might be faster to draw by hand!”
Target: St. Louis
From World War II through the 1960s, residents in many parts of the U.S. were exposed to open-air atomic tests. According to the documentary Target: St. Louis, the U.S. military sprayed African American neighborhoods in the Midwest city with a radioactive aerosol. With a scientific method Dr. Mengele would have understood, researchers with respectable affiliations were testing the effects of radiation in a future nuclear war. The disturbing assertions are partially supported by redacted documents.
Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect
Kevin Roche was the anti-Fountainhead. He didn’t design buildings for himself but for people. Mark Noonan’s elegantly paced documentary, The Quiet Architect, shows many examples of the positive influence Roche had on post-World War II American architecture. His buildings invited nature into the city, and encouraged community with the idea that built landscapes can improve the human environment. Roche is described by one of the many architects interviewed for the film as a great problem solver.
Farinelli
Not unlike the androgynous glam-rock stars of the 20th century, the 18th-century castrati Farinelli was irresistible to many women. The Oscar-nominated Farinelli (1994) was a lavishly appointed period piece by Gérard Corbiau based (imaginatively) on a true opera star in the age of Handel. It’s also a family drama with the collaborative rivalry of Farinelli (Stefano Dionisi) and composer-brother Riccardo (Enrico Lo Verso). Farinelli seduces the women and Riccardo brings the encounter to climax.
