The Indian Film Festival, currently showing in Melbourne is an opportunity to highlight some of the Arts Library’s collections. The Festival runs to the 22nd of May, screening at ACMI and selected Hoyts cinemas.

The Indian film industry, this year celebrating its 100th birthday, is also one of the largest in the world in terms of production – 800 to 1000 films are produced each year. Bollywood, often used as a term to describe the whole of Indian film, is just one segment of the output of Indian cinema. Bollywood refers to Hindi films from Mumbai, their popularity greatly enhanced by the marketing of music and dance from the films.

Guardian Books

The International Film Guide, an annual survey of world cinema, includes an entry on Indian cinema; more comprehensive, The Encyclopaedia of Indian cinema chronicles the history of the industry, along with name and film listings.

Our book collection includes a wide range of material surveying the Indian film industry, including Bollywood, from both descriptive and critical perspectives. Bollywood Dreams presents a survey of the cultural, religious and social complexities of Indian life represented through film, its production and consumption. Indian Popular Cinema provides an overview of the industry in social and cultural contexts, and books such as Cinema at the End of Empire and Outsider Films on India discuss the representation of Indian society in Western film.

Duke University Press, 2006

Journal articles, including review literature can be found in our online databases, as well as print copies of important titles such as Cineaste, Film Comment and Variety; current issues of these and others can be found on the serials display rack in the Arts Library.

Through the Naxos Music Library  and the Alexander Street Press Contemporary World Music database you can listen to selections from Bollywood film scores, as well as examples of classical and contemporary Indian music; both of these fantastic resources are available to visitors here in the building, as well as in the comfort of your own home if you are one of our Victorian registered users.

Jane Miller

I wonder if Bollywood has tried this yet? A remarkable image from our Alma Conjuring Collection!

The invisible flight, a lady shot from a cannon: Protul Chandra Sorcar. magician

Please don’t try this at home boys and girls…….

Allegro Films 2008

Two films by Christopher Nupen feature.

Virtuoso Violinist : I know I played every note, is a documentary portrait of Itzhak Perlamn, how he fell in love with the sounds of the violin at the age of three and a half but contracted polio a few months later, and how he overcame his handipcap to become an international superstar violinist, a rare status for a classical musician.  It includes music by Bach, Bazzini, Sarasate, Beethoven and Joplin among others.  It was filmed in London, New York, Aspen and Wuppertal between 1975 and 1977, three crucial years in the development of his career.

Bach Partitas : E major, BWV 1006 and D minor, BWV 1004, features a performance by Itzhak Perlman on violin.  It was filmed live at a memorable recital in St. John’s, Smith Square, London in 1977.  The Partita in D minor ends with the great Chaconne, one of the most technically and musically demanding pieces for the instrument.

Itzhak Perlman by Gazagoal. 5 May 2006. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The Itzhak Perlman double bill commences at 12.00 noon and concludes at 1.35 pm (approx). It will be held in the Arts Listening-Viewing Room. Enter via the Arts Reading Room and Audio-visual Centre (from Trescowthick Information Centre). Admission is free. No bookings required, but come early as seating is limited. Enjoy!

Have you seen the recent film Performance featuring Christopher Walken and Philip Seymour Hoffman? It tells the story of a string quartet, appropriately named “Fugue”, at a crucial time in its 25 year international performing career. The film traces the group’s demise and rebirth while preparing to perform one of Beethoven’s last completed compositions, the string quartet – Opus 14, K.131.

Published 3 months after his death, the quartet consists of seven movements, compared to the more conventional four, but intended by Beethoven to be played as one. He wrote to a friend that he had found “a new manner of part-writing, thank God, with less lack of imagination than before.”

Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820

The library’s collections can be used to explore K. 131, and you can listen to the piece itself in the Library on a recording by the Alban Berg Quartet,  or through the Naxos Music Library performed by Peter Oundijan and the Amsterdam Nieuw Sinfonietta; available to one and all here in the building and offsite to our Victorian registered users.

Our book collection, can help with exploring the story and meaning of this piece of music, both in the context of Beethoven’s life and music history more broadly. Oxford music online has a comprehensive entry on Beethoven, covering his life and works, along with references for further reading.

Musical compositions have long been used to great effect in film scores and Changing tunes : the use of pre-existing music in film explores a wide range of musical genres from opera, classical, and popular compositions to Bolero and French accordian music.

Ashgate, 2006

A new series of books titled Music on film is worth investigating as it explores individual films and the different ways they each make use of music – including Amadeus, This is Spinal Tap, Cabaret, West Side Story and A Hard day’s Night.

Jane Miller

Limelight Editions, 2010

The film follows the film-makers as they try and find out what came of the astonishingly unappreciated 1970s US-based urban-folk musician,  Sixto Rodriguez. Despite high hopes at the time by a fixated few, the first two albums by the singer-songwriter failed to make even a marginal dent on the music scene at the time. Soon after, he slipped back into obscurity. Then the suicide rumours started to grow, as did his popularity… in some remarkably unpredictable ways.

The last half century history of the contemporary music scene – often somewhat ironically being referred to also as “popular” – is awash with tales of unrecognised genius. Alex Chilton and his Big Star alumni, despite foreshadowing much of the refreshing introspection of the 80s indie scene, found little success with their intelligent and complicated pop tunes back in the early-mid 1970s. The Velvet Underground‘s first record, despite being released by pop-art icon Andy Warhol, opened up and inspired countless possible paths for iconic musicians thereafter, whilst simultaneously stripping elitist expectations of exorbitant musicianship, though such accolades took their time. Their peers The Stooges, who took brasher strides towards the punk aesthetic that the Velvet’s were unknowingly aiming at, were similarly misunderstood, especially so on their abrasive second album. And two of the finest alternative rock albums of the 1990s, My Bloody Valentine‘s 1991 shoegazing masterpiece Loveless and Neutral Milk Hotel‘s multi-instrumentalist folk-rock tragedy In the aeroplane over the sea,  despite getting the critics onside, were, like all the acts above, victims of their own originality, leaving many listeners with sense of being lost in the middle of an unrecognisable landscape.

The fact that this week’s screening has already booked out, though, is testament to some good existing within this often vicious corner of the art world. You just have to be patient, and learn to become your own cartographer when grid-references don’t make that much sense.

World music has, over the last 10 to 15 years, become a truly global popular phenomenon, and this remarkable database from Alexander Street Press (well over 16,000 albums) is a great way to submerge yourself in the musical culture of just about any region you can think of. Here are just a few to whet the appetite:

The American popular song, and its antecedents, continues to have a major impact on popular music around the world. This incredibly rich and varied database from Alexander Street Press delves back into its 19th century origins via Native American and African American forms, right through to the formative years of more modern genres such as rock, jazz, country, etc., etc., almost ad infinitum! I even found recordings of Rita Hayworth singing Blue City Blues and Deanna Durbin warbling away at Always! Here are a few irresistible things to get your started:

I could go on……

(Check out some of our other audio and video databases here.)

Opus Arte, c2010

As you like it features Naomi Frederick, Jack Laskey & artists of Shakespeare’s Globe.  The play is directed by Thea Sharrock in a great new production performed live at Shakespeare’s Globe in the heart of London.  As one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, As you like it stirs wit, romance and intrigue into a charming confection.  In the intimacy of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the audience is also part of the action.

Inside Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, UK.
Pic by Sourav Niyogi taken:07/06/2006. Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons.

As you like it commences at 12.00 noon and concludes at 2.25 pm (approx). It will be held in the Arts Listening-Viewing Room. Enter via the Arts Reading Room and Audio-visual Centre (from Trescowthick Information Centre). Admission is free. No bookings required, but come early as seating is limited. Enjoy!                      

Murdoch Books, 2012

This beautiful book is a guided tour through the history of the Australian War Memorial and features a host of glorious photos illustrating the remarkable artworks that sit at the very heart of its collections. Many of Australia’s finest artists and photographers have worked as official war artists, and the important role they have played in documenting Australia’s involvement in conflicts from the 19th century onwards is front and centre here.

Hurley at war : the photography and diaries of Frank Hurley in two world wars.

Fairfax Library/Daniel O’Keefe, 1986

Frank Hurley remains one of the most influential and remarkable documentary photographers in Australian history. His adventurous spirit took him to Antarctica with Shackleton, Passchendaele with the 1st A.I.F., Palestine with the Australian Light Horse and Tobruk with the 2nd A.I.F., to name just a few of his more prominent engagements! This book brings together many of his most striking images from two world wars, and while his unflinching eye was not afraid to capture the horror of war, he was also keen to celebrate the comradeship of the Australian soldier in the midst of the maelstrom.

War Requiem / Sinfonia da Requiem / Ballad of Heroes: Benjamin Britten

Naxos/Chandos, 2007

Benjamin Britten’s mighty War Requiem was first performed in 1962 as part of the consecration ceremonies for the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral, which had been destroyed during a bombing raid in 1940. Built around the Latin Mass for the Dead, Britten incorporated a number of war poems by Wilfrid Owen into the setting, linking the requiem to the two great world conflicts of the 20th century through the words of a poet killed on the battlefield in 1918. It’s a breathtaking work, at once devastating and glorious, and its impact remains undiminished.

Celluloid Anzacs : the great war through Australian cinema by Daniel Reynaud

Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2007

War and conflict have always been grist for the cinematic mill, and the Australian film industry has been busily representing the Australian soldier from its earliest years. The ANZAC legend continues to fascinate historians and artists of all persuasions, and this study (also available online) looks at how the representation of the Australian soldier has evolved over the years, transforming itself from a rather generic military type to the more characteristic “digger” figure we recognise today, at once loyal and brave as well as cynical and anti-authoritarian.

A photograph from our Picture Collection of a lovely sketch by one of Australia’s greatest war artists, Ivor Hele

Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, c.1946

Balancing act : the authorized biography of Angela Lansbury by Martin Gottfried

Angela Lansbury’s career has been little short of phenomenol and continues apace, as her performances currently in Melbourne clearly demonstrate! Stage, screen, television, music, it’s all there and the list of people she has worked with over the years reads like a who’s who of the performing arts in the 20th, and 21st, centuries. Difficult to pick one particular favourite performance from so many marvels, but her chilling Mrs Iselin in John Frankenheimer’s film The Manchurian Candidate still turns my blood cold.

Sweeney Todd: the demon barber of Fleet Street (DVD)

And speaking of blood turning cold, Lansbury’s portrayal of Mrs Lovett in Stephen Sondheim’s grand guignol masterpiece Sweeney Todd remains one her greatest triumphs, and is still the performance that all others are measured against. A far cry from her equally wonderful performance in an earlier (and slightly less blood drenched) musical, Jerry Herman’s Mame!

James Earl Jones : voices and silences by James Earl Jones and Penelope Niven

Possessor of possibly one of the loveliest and most recognisable voices on the planet (I’ll try not to mention Darth Vader…whoops!), James Earl Jones is one of America’s finest actors, dividing his time between the stage and screen (both large and small), as well as putting that voice of his to good use in a plethora of animated films from Disney to The Simpsons.

Portraits Of Freedom: Music of Aaron Copland and Roy Harris: narrated by James Earl Jones

If you want to listen to that voice, as well as hear some very moving 20th century American music, this is a good place to start. Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait and Fanfare for the Common Man are accompanied here by some lesser known works by Roy Harris, all of which are well worth hearing. Jones’ lovely reading of the Lincoln Portrait is rather special.

And as if that’s not enough, the marvellous Boyd Gaines is in the taxi as well, and you can hear his work on this fantastic 2008 revival of Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy.

Time

Bel Air Classiques, c2009

Celebrating the 1909 Paris debut of the Ballet Russes, this Stravinsky performance showcases the original Nijinsky version of The Rite of Spring along with Fokine’s The Firebird.  Music is by Stravinsky.  With artists of the Mariinsky Orchestra and Ballet, conducted by Valery Gergiev.  Recorded live in performance in 2008 at the Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg.

Bel Air Classiques, c2009

Stravinsky and the Ballet Russe commences at 12.00 noon and concludes at 1.25 pm (approx). It will be held in the Arts Listening-Viewing Room. Enter via the Arts Reading Room and Audio-visual Centre (from Trescowthick Information Centre). Admission is free. No bookings required, but come early as seating is limited. Enjoy!

The online catalogue indicates which Listening Post the CD is available on. 

There are eight jukebox listening posts in the Arts Reading Room, where you can listen to CDs from the audiovisual collection.

Rocky : das musical : fight from the heart.

Stage Entertainment Studios, 2012

Lysistrata Jones : original Broadway cast recording.

Broadway Records, 2012

Gentlemen prefer blondes : Encores! cast recording.

Masterworks Broadway, 2012

Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett : the CBS television specials.

Sony Music Entertainment/Masterworks Broadway, 2012

Three great new original cast recordings include the Hamburg production of Rocky : das musical based on Sylvester Stallone’s 1976 hit movie, Rocky.   Gentlemen prefer blondes was recorded for the New York Encores series, being a revival of the 1949 musical, from which the classic 1953 movie starring Marilyn Monroe was based.  Lysistrata Jones is a new musical set in the world of American basketball and cheerleaders, that had a short run on Broadway recently.   Also, two legends of stage and screen feature on Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett : the CBS television specials.  This includes two classic recordings,  Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (1962) and Julie and Carol at Lincoln Center (1971), reissued together by Sony to celebrate the first programs 50th Anniversary and its follow-up.

Morning of my Life : the best of 1965-66 by The Bee Gees.

Festival : Warner Music Australia, 2013

Down Under nuggets : original Australian artyfacts 1965-1967.

Festival Records : Warner Music Australia, c2012

Push the sky away by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.

Bad Seed Ltd., 2013

Psychedelic Pill by Neil Young with Crazy Horse.

Reprise, 2012

In popular and rock music there are two new releases covering 1960s Australian classics with Morning of my life : the best of 1965-66 by The Bee Gees, and Down Under nuggets : original Australian artyfacts 1965-1967, featuring bands and artists such as The Masters Apprentices, Bobby James Syndicate and Bobby & Laurie.   Push the sky away is the latest release by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Psychedelic Pill is the latest relase by rock legend Neil Young in collaboration with the band, Crazy Horse.

Group of people using listening post in Arts room © Andrew Lloyd