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.
Michael Powell
The films Powell made with his partner Emeric Pressburger, such as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, are classics of British cinema and he is widely considered as the most influential film-maker of his generation. This profile was made with Powell just three years before he died in 1990. He looks back over his career, which is richly illustrated by clips, and discusses his controversial dark exploration of fantasy, Peeping Tom.
Truman Capote
The infamous American novelist, short story writer and social commentator projected a compelling and often controversial public image right up until his death, from drugs and drink, in 1984. Filmed in America, this programme reflects the dark and light of Capote’s life and work. It draws on his outspoken – often outrageous – television appearances and includes recollections from many of his closest friends, as well as a dramatisation from his unfinished novel, Answered Prayers.
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.
King Lear
Shakespeare’s tragedy is one of the finest pieces of theatre of all time. To explore the play’s enduring significance, this programme recorded work in progress on a Royal National Theatre production, directed by David Hare, with Anthony Hopkins in the title role. Some of the great Lears of the past are seen on archive film, including Olivier, Scofield and Hordern, and directors Peter Brook and Jonathan Miller discuss their acclaimed interpretations of the work.
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.
Art from the South Sea Islands
This film looks at some of the most beautiful specimens of Oceanic art housed in the world’s museums. The leading French ethnographer Jean Guiart conjures up vistas of the Pacific islands as he tells the story of magnificent and colourful exhibits, explaining something of their creation, their relationship to the spiritual beliefs of those who fashioned them and how they express the cultural identity of their origins.
Sir Alec Guinness
Despite the towering success of his long career as a stage, film and television actor, Sir Alec Guinness remains intensely modest about his achievements and has seldom consented to talk about his life and career. In this rare television interview, he shares his thoughts and feelings about his profession and talks about many aspects of his work – from his first performances in the theatre, to his many film appearances. Guinness is seen in action in a variety of film clips.
Svadebka (Les Noces)
In his composition Les Noces (Svadebka), Stravinsky pictures the ceremony of a traditional Russian country wedding. The music, with its fast pace and intricate rhythmic structures, presents the composer’s greatest choreographic challenge and Jiri Kylián finds the theme an intriguing one: “Marriage is very strange, but also beautiful. In Russia, especially, it used to be rather mysterious as well, above all for the bride.” This performance was recorded in studio.
Eduardo Paolozzi
Five Themes and Variations in the Work of Eduardo Paolozzi This film on one of Britain’s major contemporary scuiptors surveys his evolving creativity since the 1940s. Paolozzi’s art and his obsessions are explored under five headings: Surrealism, Classicism, Waste, Ethnography and Time. He is seen at his work bases in London and Munich and through the eyes of associates.