Rushdie’s novel The Moor’s Last Sigh culminates in the search for a portrait that has been painted over. His starting point for the book was his interest in a real lost portrait – one of his mother, painted some fifty years ago. Unfolding a tale as fabulous as Rushdie’s fiction, this programme travels to India in search of this painting. Meanwhile, in London, the author talks about The Moor’s Last Sigh and the extraordinary conditions in which it was written. As he speaks, he himself is being painted by Bhupen Khakar, one of his favourite Indian artists.
African Art
Shot on location in Mali, this film sets looks past Western preconceptions to see the art of Africa through the eyes of Africans. It reappraises the enormous influence of African art on twentieth-century Modernism, on the work of artists such as Picasso, and includes contributions from some of the leading curators and academics who are now advocating the need to set African art against the background of the huge diversity of the cultures and traditions which have produced it.
All Night Vigil
Recorded live from London’s Royal Albert Hall, Valery Polyansky conducts the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir, with soloists Tatiana Zheranzhe (contralto) and Victor Radkevich (tenor), in a performance of Rachmaninov’s sublime sacred work. Written before Rachmaninov went into exile, the work is in Russian and scored for unaccompanied choir, since the Orthodox Church does not permit instrumental accompaniment.
Dancemakers: Lar Lubovitch
The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company exhibits a characteristic New York vitality and energy. Their idiosyncratic style of movement is loose-limbed and athletic, with a casual exuberance that asks not to be taken too seriously. Music is often the catalyst for Lubovitch’s choreography, and this is demonstrated by the two works performed in this studio recording: Concerto Six Twenty-Two, danced to Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major K622, and North Star, to music by Philip Glass.
The Death and Life of Garcia Lorca
Spain’s most revered twentieth-century poet and dramatist was born in 1899 and assassinated in 1936 during the early days of the Spanish Civil War. Location filming in Spain traces the sources of his imagery and poetic imagination, and extracts from his poems, plays and letters are intermixed with the story of his life and the events leading up to his brutal murder. His biographer, lan Gibson, also contributes, together with surviving relatives, friends and witnesses.
Ballerina
This four-part series is presented by prima ballerina assoluta Natalia Makarova. It focuses on the many aspects of the female role in classical ballet, including the way a great ballerina reaches the pinnacle of her art, how she builds up a special relationship with a partner, the great roles created for her and the handing-on of knowledge and skills. Each film contains extensive dance extracts, shot on location throughout Europe with leading dancers and companies.
Marguerite Yourcenar
Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-87) was the first woman to be elected to the illustrious Academie Française. This programme records an extended interview she gave the year before she died. At home, on the island off the coast of Maine where she lived as a virtual recluse from the 1930s on, she talks in depth about her life and work, which is illustrated with readings by actress Janet Suzman.
George Grosz
This dramatisation of the life of George Grosz (1893-1959) uses pointed illustration from his work as well as archive film. His own words and those of his contemporaries form a narration. Best-known for his savage caricatures of the enemies of the Weimar Republic, he displayed a morbid (and ambivalent) fascination for his country’s moral decay. A dreamer and a bourgeois at heart, he spent thirty anti-climactic years in the USA, sinking into cynicism, alcoholism and poverty.
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Reynolds’ portraits of eighteenth-century high society are unrivalled mirrors of the age in which he lived. This programme on the life and times of the founding President of England’s Royal Academy draws on the learned Discourses he delivered there periodically to expound his theories. It examines his paintings, visits the houses for which they were destined, and canvasses the views of scholars, critics and owners.
Jean Genet
A once-and-for-all glimpse into the unique story and thought processes of Jean Genet, one of France’s most interesting literary figures, who gave this first and only in-depth television interview just six months before his death in 1986. Genet remained unrepentant about his past as a thief and prostitute, and was still questioning society’s expectations. He had lost none of his power to overturn preconceptions and to confront and disturb his audience.