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Private Notes
Gavin Millar talks to Mel Brooks just before the London release of 'Silent Movie'.
An introduction to the magical world of wood-sculptor Sam Smith, plus a look at one of this month's major exhibitions.
Gavin Miller talks to director Martin Ritt, writer Walter Bernstein, and actors Woody Allen and Zero Mostel about 'The Front'
An interview with Stewart Parker about his new musical 'Spokesong' with excerpt; a profile of 81 year old actor Richard Goolden with scenes from 'Toad of Toad Hall' and Tom Stoppard's 'Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land'.
A fortnightly look at the big screen at home and abroad. News, views and interviews presented by Gavin Millar.
Ralph Steadman illustrates a children's anti-war story, caricatures at his local pub, and speaks about his drawing techniques and his work, including Alice, and impressions of the Patty Hearst trial and the Watergate hearings.
Gavin Miller discusses 'Network' with director Sidney Lumet and Robert Kee; Alberto Cavalcanti talks about his film career on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
Peter Stein, director of Die Schaubuhne theatre co-operative, comes to London with his Shakespeare Project. Includes extracts from 'Summerfolk' and 'Shakespeare's Memory'.
Gavin Millar talks to New Yorker critic Pauline Kael about Costa-Gavras' 'Z' and 'Section Speciale', along with her passion for the movies and how she wields her power.
Arena investigates holograms and their potential in the arts; artist Kit Williams' vivid folklore paintings.
On the occasion of the release of the third film version of 'A Star is Born', James Mason talks about the curious business of stardom and how it has changed.
Arena visits three theatres - the Mercury Theater in Colchester, the Humberside Theatre in Hull, and the Duke's Playhouse in Lancaster - to find out what they are doing, how they are doing it and why they think they should go on doing it.
A look at Ealing Studios, including excerpts of many of their popular films.
Portrait painter Philip Sutton; Helmut Weissenborn, a German WWI soldier who illustrated with wood engravings the war diary of Edward Thomas, an English poet who died in WWI; and Gothic art in Cologne.
In a special edition from Rome, Gavin Millar interviews Bernardo Bertolucci, director of 'Last Tango in Paris' and '1900', and Gore Vidal on Hollywood and 'Cinecitta'.
Prospect Theatre Company reopens the Old Vic. Includes rehearsal footage from 'St Joan', 'Hamlet', 'Antony and Cleopatra', and 'War Music', a new musical adaptation of 'The Iliad' by Christopher Logue.
Gavin Millar talks to director Bernardo Berolucci in Rome about '1900', his new five and a half hour film, as well as his earlier work.
The artist Ian Breakwall gave up painting for the art of a daily diary; Jim Dine explains why he returned from pop art to drawing the human figure.
Arena looks at erotic films, including 'Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus', 'Hardcore', and 'Come Play With Me'.
An interview with Sophia Loren on the occasion of the opening of 'The Cassandra Crossing'.
Features the 1977 Edinburgh International Festival with a new production of Carmen, the experimental shows, Film Festival, Television Festival, and art galleries.
Gavin Millar returns for a new season after a visit to Hollywood, which despite rumours of slump and panic is still the unquestioned capital of the cinema world. We talked to one of its ruling princes, John Frankenheimer, director of The Manchurian Candidate and Grand Prix, about his career in the Dream Factory, and especially his latest suspense thriller Black Sunday.
Martin Scorsese 's film New York, New York starring Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli is his most ambitious film to date. Not just a nostalgic homage to the Hollywood musical but a personal work that means as much to him, says Scorsese as Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. Gavin Millar talks to Scorsese in San Francisco and the programme includes rare interviews with Robert De Nira , Liza Minnelli and Jodie Foster.
William Feaver introduces the latest work of this unique and controversial artist, known since the 60s as our foremost concrete poet. We visit Finláy's remote home in Scotland, where he has constructed his garden as a poem, a submarine noses its way through the bushes, an aircraft-carrier functions as a bird bath, and the sign on his front lawn tells us to beware of mines - Achtung Minen !
Plus Cleveland Brown a truly original naive painter from North London whose subjects include the Spaghetti House Siege and the Queen's Jubilee.
Diane Keaton and Woody Allen talk about the filming of 'Annie Hall' and their long friendship.
Second only to North Sea oil, the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre is Scotland's most staggering and unlikely success story. Despite its location on a devastated patch of Gorbals' ground, it attracts a large and dedicated audience for its bold and often spectacular productions. A look at the company, its policy, its audience and its plays.
The Colonels have gone - and Greek cinema is emerging again. Gavin Millar talks to Melina Mercouri in Athens where she is finishing her first film since her return from exile.
This month features Richard Seifert , who created much of the new sky-line of London. His high-rise blocks - most notably Centre Point - have been the cause of controversy and scandal, while the architect himself has remained an elusive and enigmatic figure. Now he talks to Arena about his career, his personal reason for city planning, and his present attitude to high-rise building.
Plus Cleveland Brown : the work of a truly original North London ' naive ' painter - postponed from last month.
And another discovery: an exhibition of dazzling patchwork pictures made by the wives of political prisoners in Chile.
A fortnightly look at the big screen at home and abroad: news, views and interviews presented by Gavin Millar
Messing around with the classics has a long and honoured history. In the 17th century Troilus and Cressida was produced with all the dirty bits cut out. In the 18th, King Lear had a happy ending. In the 19th, vast chunks were sliced off the classics to make way for ballet and vaudeville.
In our own century we take a scalpel to the classic rather than a hatchet. Nevertheless a fascinating and vitriolic debate is now raging over the border line between interpretation and vandalism.
Introduced by Gavin Millar
This week sees the opening of the 21st London Film Festival -the festival of festivals - with new films from 24 countries. Bertolucci, Angelopoulos, Herzog, James Ivory , Marguerite Duras and most of the brightest names in cinema will be here to see their films screened. Arena: Cinema reports on this year's highlights.
The Family: Michael Bennett introduces Uncle Cyril and other members of his own family whom he has immortalised in an exhibition of photographs.
Wrapping up the Reichstag: The artist Christo has parcelled up buildings, coastlines, and human beings, hung an orange curtain across a Colorado gulf and created a two-million-dollar nylon fence along 25 miles of American farm-land. Last week CHRISTO was in London, and he explained to Arena his latest project- wrapping up the Reichstag in Berlin. The Wireless Show
This year's London Film Festival -the 21st - has been one of the biggest ever with a wider spread of films - in scale, nationality, genre and politics - than ever before. But one of the constant themes in pictures big and small has been the political struggle of Left and Right: fascism still seems everybody's favourite subject.
Featuring Bertolucci's 1900, and films by Larissa Shepitko , Syberberg, Tanner and Gutierrez.
Leonard Rossiter is currently tackling his most demanding role as The Immortal Haydon. Alone on stage for two hours, he portrays the mad 18th-century painter Benjamin Haydon , whose life of wild fantasy and ambition ended in suicide. Nola Rae is a mime artist, clown, and one of the funniest women on the stage. She re-creates for Arena some of her bizarre and poignant characters, and Michael Dean makes a valiant attempt to interview her.
The Deep opens in London this week. Written by the man who wrote Jaws, Peter Benchley , it's been the biggest grosser in the USA this year-after Star Wars, of course. Although it features an underwater Jacqueline Bisset menaced by a moray eel, it has nothing to do with Jaws, swears its British director PETER YATES. Yates has been one of our more successful exports since Steve McQueen asked him over to direct Bullitt.
