Jules Feiffer

This film about the American humorist – cartoonist and dramatist – was shot at his summer home on Martha’s Vineyard. Feiffer talks about his early life, his obsessive mockery of figures of authority, and the genesis of his famous stock characters, Bernard Mergendeiler and Hughie. He is also seen at work on a cartoon strip.

Ernest Ansermet

This portrait of the great Swiss conductor, Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969), draws on a wealth of archive material and the reminiscences of his colleagues and family. As founder and life-long director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, he was instrumental in making the French and Russian repertoire of the twentieth century known to music lovers around the some of Ansermet’s favourite music, played by the orchestra, under Armin Jordan, including pieces by Stravinsky, Debussy and Chabrier. Archive film of Ansermet at work includes footage of him rehearsing and conducting Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G, de Falla’s Harpsichord Concerto, Ravel’s La Valse, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade and Schumann’s Manfred Overture.

Costakis the Collector

A Film About George Costakis and His Definitive Collection of Russian Avant-garde Art George Costakis (1912-90) was one of the world’s greatest collectors. Over a thirty-five year period, he built up a magnificent collection of Russian Avant-garde paintings – the most comprehensive record of an art movement ever amassed. In this film, Costakis tells the remarkable story of how he rescued these important artworks from destruction during political upheavals in the Soviet Union and imparts his first-hand knowledge of the artists and their work.