Excerpt from Ravel's Brain
Directed by Larry Weinstein
Produced by Rhombus Media
Music by Maurice Ravel
Musical Performances by WDR Symphony Orchestra and WDR Radio Choir, Cologne
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Ravel's Brain
, directed by Larry Weinstein,
is a musical/visual tone poem at once tragic and celebratory in its
mood. The film portrays the inner being of a great artist who was
rendered incapable of communicating with the outside world. For the
last five years of his life, Maurice Ravel was the victim of his own
lamentable circumstances. Afflicted by aphasia and apraxia, his brain
produced music, but he was unable to write it down. Ravel's Brain
features interviews with a handful of Ravel's intimates as well as
images of his home in Montfort L'Amaury and his birthplace in Basque
Ciboure where he first noticed the symptoms of his illness. The film
takes us to Marrakesh where Ravel, deep in the throes of his illness,
was so inspired by the swirling Arabic street music that he was graced
with a few moments of lucid music-making. The resulting musical phrases
and Ravel's final musical utterances are heard in RAVEL'S BRAIN for
the very first time. Finally, Ravel's brain operation that ultimately
proved to be fatal, is recreated and set to song. Awards: Best Direction, Hot Docs, Toronto Nominated for an International EMMY The Chris Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival Nominated, Golden Rose, Montreux Silver Rembrandt, Nombre d'Or, Amsterdam Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival American Psychological Association Conference FamaFest, Portugal International TV Science Fiction Film Festival, Paris The Cinematique, Canada The National Gallery of Art Film Exhibition, DC Bullfrog Films http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/rb.html Link number two web address |