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Frank Lloyd Wright: The Man Who Built America (2017) #1022
DOCUMENTARY
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Frank Lloyd Wright is America's greatest ever architect. But few people know about the Welsh roots that shaped his life and world-famous buildings. Now, leading Welsh architect Jonathan Adams sets off across America to explore Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces for himself. Along the way, he uncovers the tempestuous life story of the man behind them, and the secrets of his radical Welsh background. In a career spanning seven decades, Frank Lloyd Wright built over 500 buildings, and changed the face of modern architecture. Fallingwater, the house over the waterfall, has been called the greatest house of the 20th century. The spiralling Guggenheim Museum in New York reinvented the art museum. Wright's Welsh mother was born and raised near Llandysul in west Wales, and emigrated to America with her family in 1844. Her son Frank was raised in a Unitarian community in Wisconsin. The values he absorbed there were based on a love of nature, the importance of hard work, and the need to question convention and defy it where necessary. Wright's architecture was shaped by these beliefs. He built his lifelong home in the valley he was raised in, and he named it after an ancient Welsh bard - Taliesin. It was the scene of many adventures, and of a horrific crime. In 1914, a servant at Taliesin ran amok and killed seven people. They included Wright's partner, Mamah Cheney, and her two young children. 150 years after his birth, Adams argues that Frank Lloyd Wright is now a vitally important figure who can teach us how to build for a better world. Wright's belief in what he called organic architecture - buildings that grace the landscape and respond to people's individual needs - is more relevant than ever, in Wales and around the world. |
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Shakespeare in Italy (2012) #1376
DOCUMENTARY
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Shakespeare in Italy: With Francesco da Mosto, Samuel Barnett, Alberto Toso Fei, Susannah Fielding. Francesco da Mosto takes to the Italian road again in search of Shakespeare in Italy 2x1hour episodes. BBC. 1 Land of Love Francesco da Mosto takes to the Italian road again in search of Shakespeare in Italy. From Romeo and Juliet to the jealousy of Othello, Shakespeare used the land of love to tell his most passionate stories about falling in love. Needless to say, along the way Francesco adds some insights of his own and revels in claims that not only did Shakespeare visit Italy, but also was born in Sicily. It's a whole new take on the Bard! 2 Land of Fortune Francesco da Mosto takes a look at Italy as the land of adventure and ambition - where fortunes are made and battles are fought. Beginning in Venice with actor Ciaran Hinds, Francesco considers how his home town so renowned for its justice struck Shakespeare as the perfect setting for his disturbing tale of what happens to an outsider who goes against the law in The Merchant of Venice. Heading south to Rome, Francesco discovers how in his great Roman plays Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare used this ancient city as a smokescreen to address the most burning political issues of his day while avoiding trouble with the Elizabethan censors. Francesco meets Shakespearean actor Mark Rylance, and also pops in to Rome's very own Globe to understand modern Italy's fascination with our English Bard. Finally he travels from Naples to the beautiful Island of Stromboli, just off the north coast of Sicily, a magical setting for Shakespeare's final great masterpiece - The Tempest. |
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The Tempest (2010) #349
FILM
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Directed by Julie Taymor. With Helen Mirren, Felicity Jones, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand. Shakespeare's epic play is translated from page to screen, with the gender of the main character, Prospero, changed from male to female. |