Culture & Literature – Page 34 of 37

28Jan

By Michelangelo fanoNo Comments

Getting closer to the Academy

Lo and behold Royal Holloway! Award season is upon us, and here are the predictions for one of the most awaited events of the year: The Oscars. Indeed, the biggest cinematography event of the year is getting closer and closer and one is naturally led to wonder to whom the famous golden statue will go to. However, of course, it is too early to predict who might actually triumph on the night of the 22nd of February at the Dolby Theater. I'll try my best to point your way to the nominees, however. One film that most captured my attention was Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. The film is about the adventures and misadventures of the last concierge Monsieur Gustave H. (fantastically interpreted by Ralph Fiennes) of the luxurious Hotel before the war, seen from the perspective of ...

28Jan

By Alana GradyNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Music

Holloway’s Music Scene…

With the arrival of Rebecca Miller, the music department has seen a great many changes and the forthcoming term is no exception. To start the term we have the second in our celebrity masterclass series, a flute masterclass with Juliette Bausor. Principal flautist of the London Mozart Players and of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Juliette will be giving a masterclass to some of Royal Holloway’s flautists. This is generously supported by the Alumni Fund and is free to students. After their first term as Ensemble in Residence, the Badke Quartet are returning in a variety of events. They will be doing two masterclasses, one an open event to the public, coaching student chamber ensembles. Any group can take part and it is a wonderful opportunity to be coached by professional musicians. The Badk...

28Jan

By Tanya KlyasovaNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Five books you should read in 2015

Fantasy novels, YA literature, adventure stories, horrors, unexpected comebacks and exciting debuts- make sure you are prepared with a new shelf for 2015! Here are five books you should not miss: 1. J.K.Rowling's - Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination Potterheads- rejoice- our queen still has a lot to tell us! In April 14 her Harvard Commencement Speech from 2009 is coming out as an illustrated book. In it, Rowling discusses the power of imagination and the benefit of failure in her usual fun and inspirational way… and she definitely knows a thing or two about failing and imagination! Moreover- all the proceeds of the book will go to charity- 90% to the Lumos charity and 10% as financial aid for Harvard`s students! Getting advice from Rowling ...

28Jan

By Jake Kitley-GibbonsNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Leaping off the stage: How Ballet and Opera are taking risks to capture a new audience

With the success of shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, and dance classes becoming more popular as a work out style, what can be done to make ballet more accessible to an audience that isn’t stuffy? Sadler’s Wells teamed with English National Ballet seems to have come up with the genius answer. New ballets! Instead of dusting off The Nutcracker, Swan Lake or The Carmen, instead commissions are coming thick and fast for shows that can captivate a modern audience. Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands, based on the Burton movie for example has already set the stage alight, with sold out shows for its six week Christmas run. That is not to say that The Nutcracker or family favourite Swan Lake are no longer seen, instead they are reimagined into Grease like car shops, gay fantasias or comedies...

28Jan

By Catriona O'SullivanNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Rich, Russian & Living in London – A Documentary Review

‘Rich, Russian & Living in London’: a title worthy of Channel 4, but it is, in fact, the name of the BBC’s latest foray into cutting-edge documentary. An account of a selection of wealthy Russian-Londoners, we delve into the depths of a world unseen by, and unknown to most of the population. Those of us who cannot afford rhinestone-encrusted Jaguars or whimsically spend hundreds of thousands on an artwork. It is, in a way, for the majority of the documentary, a sort of fetishisation of a high-life, seemingly without care or consequence. A disgustingly gluttonous display of excess. It is appealing. But it is capitalism on steroids. A reaction against years of suppression and corruption in Russia (although the latter is merely hinted at). They have signed up holus-bolus to th...

2Dec

By Lis CarltonNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Music

The Concert that Promises to Excite! RHULSO – Windsor Auditorium – 03/12/14 – 19:30

This Wednesday 3rd December, the RHULSO goes 'all funky' when they present Michael Daugherty's 'Motown Mondays' as their concert opener, a suave and colourful journey by pop-culture American composer into Motown, through the eyes of an orchestra. Chris Richards, one of Britain's most talented young clarinettists and principal of the London Symphony Orchestra, will whip his way through Weber's dramatic Clarinet Concerto no. 1. and the orchestra will bowl you over with Brahms' powerful and glorious journey from darkness into light - his massive first symphony. The Royal Holloway Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas term concert vows to leave us feeling shaken, stirred, and mildly dizzy. Fresh from her debut at the BBC Proms, and renowned for her overtly passionate, super-energetic and full...

26Nov

By Abigail RatcliffNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Visual Arts

Anselm Kiefer and the Pornography of Art

It doesn’t take much stimulus for me to assimilate a passion about art, whether I’m revelling or critiquing, given the material I will go on until I’ve either inspired someone or angered them. It was only the other week that I found myself in a heated (and drunken admittedly) discussion with an older friend over an exhibition which I had just attended. Anselm Kiefer at the Royal Academy is absolutely spectacular. I hadn’t previously expected to connect to the extent at which I did with his love of books and mythology, and how they play a pivotal role in many of Kiefers pieces. However, he expresses the ability to carry us down to earth by combining the celestial with the realities, of the Second World War for example, a subject portrayed through many of his early works and indeed percol...

26Nov

By Michelangelo FanoNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV, Lifestyle

NewTube

Sitting alone in the room and talking to a camera – not something most of us are used to. And yet thousands of relatively normal people do those very things, pretty regularly. And have people watch them. Here’s our account of some new Youtubers that have caught our eye this month. Youtube is not only a website for funny cats and fail videos, it’s become more than that. It has recently become a job for many users, with many of them able to work for YouTube thanks to their wide audience: the more subscribers and view on a video a channel gets, the higher probability it has to get YouTube partnership and thus earn money. But the universe of video-blogging is not just made of celebrities like PewDiePie, with over 31 million subscribers: there are many who fly under the radar in vlogland. ...

26Nov

By Michelangelo FanoNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Interstellar – Good enough to be reviewed twice.

WARNING: This entire article may be biased. Why? Because Christopher Nolan. Because Matthew McConaughey. The greatest director of our time paired with, currently, an actor at the very top of his game. Interstellar promised so much for film fans: legit scientific concepts of space and time, special effects beyond your wildest dreams… essentially, most people anticipated the best film of all time. Without giving too much away, the world’s food supplies are dwindling, and dust storms threaten humanities existence - the only way is to find another planet to inhabit. Farmer and former test-pilot Cooper (McConaughey) stumbles across NASA’s secret lab and joins the crew, making a promise to meet his daughter Murphy again. The film is captured in an oh-so-very Nolan-esque way. The vast range of...

26Nov

By Thomas McDonaldNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

A film out of this world

Nolan has always dedicated himself to making truly big films. It’s why he has been compared to the likes of David Lean, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg, film makers who formed bold new ideas and presented audiences with grand set pieces the likes of which they have never seen. They are arguably generous comparisons. He does not have the cerebral or artistic qualities of Kubrick, the subtle, human aspects of Lean, and has yet to make films which are so widely embraced as Spielberg, with even his most loved films still holding as somewhat divisive. But what he does do, is make films as big as they did. Interstellar is no different. What bigger story is there than the pursuit into the great unknown that is space. Themes of progress and human development, of what unknown things lie in ...