Parsifal's Progress

Documentary about the Belgian surrealist artist who died in 1967.

Utilising the music of eminent composer Arnold Bax, this biographical docudrama focuses on Bax's complex relationships with pianist Harriet Cohen and dancer Annie.

This is the first documentary to illuminate Neue Sachlichkeit against the backdrop of the Weimar Republic and National Socialism. Dix’s works—including the key Metropolis triptych (1928–29), the great psychological portraits, and, last but not least, the landscapes with their hidden symbolism, painted during the years he spent at Lake Constance—form the starting point for this exploration of his oeuvre. They are placed in a context with works of art by George Grosz, Rudolf Schlichter, and Christian Schad, creating a new perspective on this crucial chapter in German art history.

In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's death in 2015, filmmaker Reiner Moritz produced his documentary Dmitri Shostakovich, A Man of Many Faces. With British actor John Hurt as narrator, Moritz examines Shostakovich's life, focusing in on two events in particular: the 1936 banning of his highly successful opera Lady Mabeth of the Mtsensk District, and the composer's labelling as a "formalist and cosmopolitan" in 1948. Despite such setbacks, Shostakovich went on to pursue a resilient and fulfilling career that testifies to the power of art in the face of a dictatorial terror regime. In telling his story, Mortiz weaves together rare footage of the composer himself talking and performing his Concerto for Piano, Trumpet, and Strings with captivating performances of his 15 symphonies and 6 concertos by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra and filmed excerpts of Lady Macbeth and his quartets.

Underestimated by his contemporaries, but today acclaimed as one of the greatest and imaginative composers of his time. Anton Bruckner was a genius of tones. Such great conductors like Kent Nagano, Valery Gergiev and Simon Rattle let the composer comes alive in the documentary „Anton Bruckner – The Making of a Giant“ telling the ups and downs of life through his music.

Filmed in the 1970s with the art critic Otto Hahn, this film is the only visual document which brings together the thirteen Nouveaux Réalistes who participated in the artistic movement created by critic Pierre Restany in 1960 and including the text of the declaration collective was signed by Yves Klein in nine copies. Each of the artists appropriates a piece of land from the civilization of waste: from Arman the accumulations, from César the compressions of scrap metal, from Jean Tinguely the rusty machines, from Raymond Hains the torn posters.

Nobody is better suited to undertake such a challenge than Valery Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra. Over a period of a year all 15 Symphonies and 6 Concertos have been recorded at Salle Pleyel in Paris. What an adventure for the artists and the big production team! Never before in the history of television has something like this been undertaken including the very first “Ring” for television at Bayreuth. • Dmitri Shostakovich is arguably one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. To understand his music one needs to see it in the context of his life, his social environment, the political situation, the unbelievable brutality with which the Communist Party enforced its ideological credo and the subtle ways with which Shostakovich succeeded in combining his innermost thoughts with the demands of Socialist Realism. He was a man of many faces. And beyond any doubt Dmitri Shostakovich was a musical genius.

Lin Hwai-min's Cursive II is inspired by the aesthetics of calligraphy. Set to music by John Cage, it is an exquisite meditation on the balancing of opposites presented in delicate simplicity, allowing no distraction from the details of the dance.

A portrait of the composer.

From childhood, piano prodigy Hélène Grimaud honed her skills and performed around the world. Along the way, as this documentary portrait reveals, she developed a love for animals that led to the Wolf Conversation Center, which she founded in 1999. She discusses both passions with the filmmakers, who also capture footage of Grimaud with her beloved wolves and her dazzling performances of works by Brahms and Rachmaninoff.