Living in Rome

Guggenheim Collection: The American Avant-Garde 1945–1980 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni - Closing soon!

2012-04-30T13:12:00.000+02:00

Richard Estes: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Summer 1979

After visitors at this season's blockbuster show at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni have been taken on a whistle-stop tour of all the major developments in American art in the years immediately following the Second World War, by way of sixty iconic works from the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as pieces from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in the final room they are greeted with a surprisingly lovely architectural portrait of the New York museum, painted in the summer of 1979 by photorealist artist Richard Estes.

Robert Motherwell: Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110

Whilst the previous exhibition rooms chart the Guggenheim Collection's history from its beginnings as a small window on European abstract painting in New York, to becoming world famous through its championing of primarily American movements - Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Post-Minimalism, Conceptualism, and finally Photorealism - Estes' painting of Frank Lloyd Wright's cylindrical building is pure 17th century Vermeer, a gentle reminder of the European roots of the modern art movements of the last century. Indeed, the opening rooms focus on the early works of European émigrés to New York and the rise of Abstract Expressionism through the works of Dutch American Willem de Kooning, Russian-American Mark Rothko, and German-born American Hans Hoffman, which are shown alongside US-born contemporaries such as Jackson Pollock, Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Motherwell.

Frank Stella: Harran II

Agnes Martin: White Flower

The high ceilings and the cathedral-like floor plan of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni with its seven chapel-like galleries set around a central rotunda, afford long views to the end walls of each gallery across the entire length of the building, and is the perfect setting for these works. Agnes Martin's exquisite, almost monochrome, minimalist White Flower painting from 1960, for example, faces Frank Stella's fluorescent Harran II (1967) on the far wall of the opposite side of the building. Robert Motherwell's starkly imposing Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110 (1971) is also, thankfully, given end-of-gallery pride of place (hung behind highly reflective glass it is difficult to view comfortably as one gets nearer to it).

Andy Warhol: Orange Disaster #5

Poster-boy for the exhibition Jackson Pollock, whose 1950 painting Number 18 is being used to advertise the show all over town, is represented on the other hand by unexpectedly small works – don't expect to see any huge drip paintings at this show – although the aforementioned Number 18 and Untitled (Green Silver) from 1949 are both dazzling.

It isn't easy to chose favourite works in such a hugely enjoyable show, but certainly Andy Warhol's chilling Orange Disaster #5 (1963), with its electric chair repeated 15 times, Roy Lichtenstein's humorous Pop Art growling dog Grrrrrrrrrrr!! (1965), and Kenneth Noland's gorgeous 1969 colour field painting April Tune, stick in my mind.

Roy Lichtenstein: Grrrrrrrrrrr!!

The show closes very soon – well worth a visit!

Guggenheim Collection: The American Avant-Garde 1945–1980 is curated by Lauren Hinkson and continues at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni until 6 may 2012.

Copyright on paintings © Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (web-resolution, fair use rationale).

Star-studded Red Carpet at 'The Avengers' Rome Premiere

2012-04-22T16:24:00.000+02:00

Some days ago a giant poster advertising The Avengers - this season's most hotly anticipated superhero movie – appeared on a billboard on the street below my home. On a personal level the ad campaign seems to be working, as I now can't wait to to see this film! Directed by the immensely talented Joss Whedon, the film is already garnering rave critical reviews prior to its opening next week, whilst its Italian premiere was hosted in Rome yesterday evening in a traffic-stopping star-studded event in Piazza della Repubblica.

Hundreds of fans started gathering early in the afternoon for a chance to see cast members appear on the red carpet and on the specially created stage outside The Space Cinema Moderno, and I'm delighted to report that all four stars in attendance - Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner / Hulk) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) – made it worth the wait, signing endless autographs and posing for photographs, and appearing on the elevated stage together so that even those at the back of the crowd got a chance to see them. A fun evening!

To get a flavour of the event watch the video below or click here to watch it on YouTube.

An Encounter with Roger Corman at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni

2012-04-19T13:41:00.000+02:00

Movie-buffs and fans of Gothic horror films were in for a rare treat at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni yesterday evening at the very special opening event of An outlaw in Hollywood: The world of Roger Corman, a film retrospective dedicated to the legendary director and producer. Prior to the screening of his 1961 classic adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe short story The Pit and the Pendulum, starring a wonderfully histrionic Vincent Price, the undisputed King of the B-movie Roger Corman appeared in person before a packed audience, who warmly applauded his entrance before any introductions were necessary, joining Mario Sesti on stage for a relaxed and fascinating conversation.

A phenomenally prolific independent filmmaker – Corman has either directed or produced over 400 titles – it would be hard to sum up such a long and successful career, yet through a series of pertinent questions from Sesti and generous answers from Corman, yesterday's encounter managed to do precisely that. Starting with his beginnings as a runner at 20th Century Fox, through anecdotes about taking LSD with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and the then-screenwriter Jack Nicholson, as preparation for the 1967 drugs movie The Trip (“as a conscientious director I thought I should take LSD and find out what it was like so that I could interpret the experience in the film”), right up to his latest project, a collaboration with Las Vegas film students on a heist movie with a twist called Stealing Las Vegas, this was a rewarding introduction to his work.

When asked by Sesti if it was true that The Little Shop of Horrors was made in only three days, he added that he had, in fact, pulled it off in two days and one night! Making use of a free studio, director and crew approached the film as “a joke as well as a challenge” confessing that nobody took themselves seriously on that film and that the spirit on set had positively affected the finished film. Confirming another much quoted comment from Corman, that he had never made a film that was the film he had intended to make, he went on to clarify in typically modest fashion, that a film always changes during shooting because of the input and thoughts of everybody working on the film – Corman always encouraged a camaraderie on set which helped to create new ideas, concluding that “it's director's job to pull all the thoughts together”.

The roll call of directors who were given their first big breaks thanks to Roger Corman consists of names that are now part of the Hollywood aristocracy - Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, and Jonathan Demme were just some of the names mentioned yesterday evening. Linking film studios to a long tradition starting with the Renaissance artistic studio system whereby students of great masters might eventually go on to become great artists in their own right, Corman was also at pains to stress that these great directors would have always found success even without his involvement, because of their extraordinary talent, conceding only that “it just may have taken them a little longer”.

Generous to a fault he then signed autographs and posed for photographs for the numerous admirers who surrounded him at the close of the talk, before leaving us to enjoy one of his most iconic movies. A wonderful evening – thank you Mr Corman!

An outlaw in Hollywood - The world of Roger Corman continues at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni until 29 April 2012.

Roger Daltrey performs The Who's 'Tommy' at the Auditorium Conciliazione

2012-03-25T12:16:00.000+02:00

Roger Daltrey performing on stage in Rome - 23 March 2012

The Who's legendary front man Roger Daltrey was in Rome last week to perform the band's rock opera masterpiece Tommy. On arriving at the Auditorium Conciliazione on Friday evening to see the second of his two Roman tour dates it was already clear from the buzz of excitement in the foyer that this was going to be more than a mere concert - this was an event – with fans of all ages posing for souvenir photographs in front of the advertising billboards. After all, this was one of those “you had to be there” opportunities to hear The Who's 1969 album played live in its entirety, and sung by Roger Daltrey.

As the lights dimmed and Daltrey appeared on stage to thunderous whoops and cheers, and the opening notes of the Tommy Overture began, it became instantly clear that he had brought a stunningly good backing band with him (including Simon Townshend on guitars, looking and sounding remarkably like his older brother Pete). Moving swiftly on through the original recording with no banter - It's A Boy, 1921, Amazing Journey – it was also clear that Daltrey, who has been beset with throat problems in recent years, was in fine voice. Effortlessly charismatic and with his trademark microphone swirls, double tambourines and poses, he was clearly enjoying himself, whilst the enthralled audience was noisily appreciative - Pinball Wizard raised the roof - but curiously remained sitting, as if in respectful reverence throughout the whole Tommy performance, until very suddenly as the “Listening to you” chorus of the final track We're Not Gonna Take It began, the audience got to its feet and there was a rush, en masse, to the stage for Tommy's exhilarating finale.

Cue the second half of the concert, where freed from the discipline of the Tommy presentation, Daltrey now chatted and joked between songs during an amazing set of Who classics. Opening with I Can See for Miles, what followed was a eminently satisfying mix of both early songs - The Kids Are Alright, Pictures of Lily, a bluesy My Generation - and later rock anthems, with blisteringly good performances of Who Are You, Baba O'Riley, Behind Blue Eyes, which had most of the audience singing along, as well as The Who's frequent live cover version of Mose Allison's Young Man Blues.

To send us on our way from the concert two songs closed this unforgettable evening - Without Your Love from the soundtrack of the film McVicar, and Blue, Red and Grey, on which Daltrey played the ukulele.

Absolutely unmissable!

Full band:
Frank Simes (guitar)
Scott Deavours (drums)
Jon Button (bass)
Loren Gold (keyboard)
Simon Townshend (guitar)

Full setlist:
Overture
It's A Boy
1921
Amazing Journey
Sparks
Eyesight To The Blind
Christmas
Cousin Kevin
The Acid Queen
Do You Think It's Alright?
Fiddle About
Pinball Wizard
There's A Doctor
Go To The Mirror
Tommy Can You Hear Me?
Smash The Mirror
Sensation
I'm Free
Miracle Cure
Sally Simpson
Welcome
Tommy's Holiday Camp
We're Not Gonna Take It
*
I Can See For Miles
The Kids Are All Right
Behind Blue Eyes
The Way It Is (solo by Simon Townshend)
Pictures Of Lily
Who Are You?
My Generation
Young Man Blues
Baba O'Riley
Without Your Love
Red Blue And Grey

John Banville in Conversation at Rome Literary Festival

2012-03-14T13:08:00.000+01:00

Ranieri Polese and John Banville at Libri Come book festival

Award-winning Irish author John Banville joined Ranieri Polese on stage in Teatro Studio at the Auditorium Parco della Musica on Sunday morning for a literary discussion entitled “How I write my books” presented as part of the annual Rome literature festival Libri come: Festa del Libro e della Lettura. Now in its third year, the four-day book festival has become a hugely popular event in the Roman cultural calendar with a varied selection of lectures, discussions, book presentations, and writing workshops, as well as encounters with important international authors.

I first fell in love with John Banville's writing when I read The Book of Evidence some twenty years ago, so was excited to see his name on this year's programme. It was a huge delight to discover that in person John Banville is warm, witty and disarmingly down-to-earth. Ranieri Polese conducted an informal and intimate conversation, leaving Banville - clearly a born raconteur - plenty of space to ragale the small but attentive audience with anecdote after anecdote.

I confess that whilst I know and love the novels of John Banville I'm not at all familiar with the work of his crime fiction writing alter ego Benjamin Black, who writes a series of thrillers set in 1950s Ireland centred around pathologist Quirke. With the fifth episode A Death in Summer recently published in Italian (incidentally in Italy this series is issued under his own name, rather than his pseudonym) the talk began with a discussion about the very different writing techniques of Banville and Black – the slow and painstaking process of the former, and the fast, spontaneous writing of the latter – and how he tries to keep them totally separate, admitting that sometimes one of the two will “peer over his shoulder” and try to influence him when he is writing as the other. Talking about the 1950s Ireland where the crime books are set, he spoke forcefully about the oppressive and abusive power of the Catholic church in those times, words which could not help but resonate amongst a Roman audience.

A lesser known side to John Banville is that of his work as screenwriter and a great deal of the conversation was dedicated to cinema talk. Banville clearly loves cinema and his enthusiasm for not only the movies, but also movie stars was refreshingly honest – there was no faux nonchalance here, and instead he acknowledged the special place film stars and celebrities have as modern day “gods”. At the same time, however, he was under absolutely no illusions as to what happens to a script once Hollywood gets its hands on it – total rewrites are, it seems, par for the course. He recently co-wrote the movie Albert Nobbs with Glenn Close: “Glenn likes to tell people she wrote it – which is fine by me!” he joked.

Sadly the talk was over way too soon – I could have listened to John Banville talk for hours! The end of the discussion was met with warm applause, with the author signing copies of his books for several admirers who approached the stage.

Vadim Repin and the Philharmonia Orchestra | Auditorium Parco della Musica | 10 March 2012

2012-03-12T14:08:00.000+01:00

The Philharmonia, one of the UK's most important and critically respected orchestras, was in Rome on Saturday evening, to perform a program dedicated entirely to the 19th century German Romantics, at a special gala performance in the Santa Cecilia Hall at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. Under the direction of guest conductor Antonio Puccio the Philharmonia was joined for the occasion by an outstanding soloist – Russian-born violin virtuoso Vadim Repin.

The concert got off to a rousing and enjoyable start with Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, before the charismatic Vadim Repin – all twinkling eyes and smiles - strolled on stage and greeted his fellow musicians, conductor and audience. Repin's reputation rests not only only his technical brilliance, but also his passionate musicality and style, and this performance of Max Bruch's perennially popular Violin Concerto No. 1 was the perfect illustration of why he's considered one of the world's greatest living violinists – the sounds he drew from his Guarneri del Gesù 1743 Bonjour violin were achingly beautiful; I was enthralled.

Repin was cheered back on stage for a show-stealing encore – accompanied by the orchestral strings playing pizzicato, he performed a series of variations on Paganini's Carnival of Venice, a dazzling showcase of every virtuoso trick in the book, yet played with warmth and humour. An unmissable performance!

The concert was rounded out with a dramatic and hugely enjoyable performance of Brahms' Symphony No. 4, which saw both the Philharmonia Orchestra and energetic conductor Puccio enthusiastically applauded at its close, cheers which were rewarded with a further generous encore - an exhilarating rendition of Beethoven's Egmont Overture op. 84. A wonderful evening!

Full Programme:
Beethoven
Coriolan Overture
Bruch
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Encore:
Paganini
Carnival of Venice
*
Brahms
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Encore:
Beethoven
Egmont Overture op. 84

Sponsored by Q8 to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, part of the proceeds of the event were donated to the Francisville charity project in Haiti run by Fondazione Francesca Rava – N.P.H. Italia.

András Schiff – Bach Project | Auditorium Parco della Musica | 9 March 2012

2012-03-12T10:56:00.000+01:00

András Schiff, the Hungarian-born classical pianist and world-renowned Bach interpreter, was back in Rome at the Auditorium Parco della Musica on Friday evening for the third and final recital in a recent series of concerts dedicated to the Baroque composer presented as The Bach Project.

There was very little showmanship when András Schiff walked out onto the stage in the Santa Cecilia Hall – standing almost discreetly beside the piano for a brief bow, he then sat quickly at the keyboard, and without further ado, started to play. It was then that the magic began. Schiff is without doubt an enthralling Bach performer of exquisite elegant – I've never listened so keenly to the left hand part during any piano recital. And what an extraordinarily generous performer – after a tour de force of focus and stamina, in which he played not only the entire French Suites, but also the Overture in the French style, thundering applause from the audience at the concert's close brought him back on stage for an encore. Sounding as fresh and spontaneous as if he had just begun the recital, Schiff then proceeded to play the Italian Concerto, taking everyone by delighted surprise when he hushed initial applause at the end of the first movement and played the concerto in its entirety. Outstanding!

Full programme:
The Six French Suites, BWV 812-817
*
Overture in the French style, BWV 831
Encore:
The Italian Concerto, BWV 971

Rafał Blechacz plays Beethoven | Auditorium Parco della Musica | 27 February 2012

2012-02-28T17:36:00.000+01:00

Less than a year since he was last in Rome delighting audiences in the Santa Cecilia concert hall, Polish classical pianist Rafał Blechacz was back at the Auditorium Parco della Musica yesterday evening, with another young star in the world of classical music at the helm, Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who was making his debut with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Choir.

The evening opened with a rare treat - Elegischer Gesang, Op.118 and Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 112, two hauntingly beautiful and rarely-performed choral works by Beethoven - before Rafał Blechacz took to the stage to perform as the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major. Still only 26 years old and looking, if anything, slightly younger, Blechacz plays with a depth and maturity beyond his years. He is currently garnering unanimous critical praise for his latest and absolutely stunning recording of works by Szymanowski and Debussy (anybody lucky enough to have caught his performance last time around in Rome would have heard him play some of those pieces live). I am now hoping that we won't have to wait long before the immensely talented Blechacz records his own interpretation of Beethoven's piano concertos too – his playing last night was a wonderfully measured blend of intimate delicacy and sparkling virtuosity.

At the close of the concerto rapturous cheers and applause from the audience brought him back out on stage several times before he graciously conceded an encore. Blechacz famously won all the prizes at the 2005 Chopin Competition in Warsaw and it was to the work of his fellow countryman that he returned for what turned out to be an absolutely sublime encore – Chopin's Waltz in A minor Op.34 No.2. Unmissable!

The concert was rounded out with an exhilarating performance of Antonin Dvořak's Symphony No. 7, which saw both orchestra and conductor Orozco-Estrada enthusiastically applauded at its close.

Full programme:
Beethoven
Elegischer Gesang, Op. 118
Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 112
Piano Concerto No. 4 G major, Op. 58
Encore:
Chopin
Waltz in A minor Op.34 No.2
*
Dvořák
Symphony No. 7 D minor, Op. 70

Evgeny Kissin – Grieg's Piano | Auditorium Parco della Musica | 5 February, 2012

2012-02-08T15:55:00.000+01:00

Russian-born classical pianist Evgeny Kissin returned to enthral audiences in Rome at the weekend for a series of three concerts in the Santa Cecilia concert hall at the Auditorium Parco della Musica performing Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's perennially popular Piano Concerto. British conductor James Judd stepped in at the last minute for Vladimir Jurowski who had been originally slated to conduct the Santa Cecilia Orchestra, but was forced to cancel due to sudden illness.

With Rome brought to a standstill by heavy snow falls and with schools, offices and museums closed, I had feared the worst on Saturday morning and resigned myself to the fact that the concert would surely be cancelled – thanks to the goodwill of the performers and the organisers, however, the concert was merely postponed until Sunday afternoon.

Grieg's Piano Concerto is something of a warhorse. One of my own earliest memories of hearing it as a child is a television sketch by British comedy legends Morecambe and Wise in which Eric Morecambe, together with an orchestra conducted by an exasperated André Previn, attempts to perform the concerto by playing “all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order”! Incidentally, that often repeated piece of vintage comedy first aired in 1971, the year in which Evgeny Kissin was born. A former child prodigy upon whom the “genius” epithet was bestowed at a tender age – he was playing entire piano concertos from memory at age four – the forty year old adult Kissin is now a critically acclaimed virtuoso and considered one of the world's great pianists. Who better than Kissin to bring fresh life and power to those familiar motifs of Grieg's richly melodic concerto? I was utterly captivated by the understated bravura of his playing throughout the entire performance.

The sold-out concert hall was maybe not as full as one would have expected under normal circumstances, but the rapturous applause and cheers of bravo from the audience were as loud as ever when Kissin took his bows at the end of the concert and was cheered back on stage for a first exhilarating encore, where he announced in a surprisingly deep voice that he would play Grieg's From the Carnival. Kissin has a reputation for enormous generosity with his encores and true to form, the audience managed to cajol him out again for one final gem – an exquisite rendition of Chopin's Minute Waltz. A must-see performer!

The concert was rounded out with Brahms' Tragic Overture, which opened the afternoon, and Tchaikovsky's immensely enjoyable Symphony No 2 - “The Little Russian”, which were also met with warm applause.

Full programme:
Brahms
Tragic Overture
Grieg
Piano Concerto in A minor
Encore:
Grieg
From the Carnival (Pictures from Country-Life, Op.19)
Chopin
Minute Waltz
*
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No 2 - “The Little Russian”

Snow in the Eternal City!

2012-02-04T18:15:00.000+01:00

When a light dusting of snow fell on the city of Rome almost two years ago in February 2010, I was amazed and delighted to have witnessed such a rare event.

Incredibly, it has snowed again this year - Friday night saw heavy snowfalls and Romans awoke this morning to find the Eternal City covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, Piazza Navona in the snow - Photo © Deborah Swain

Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986 -2011 at the Gagosian Gallery

2012-01-31T18:26:00.001+01:00

Phe-Tyr, 2004–11

Whilst Damien Hirst may have achieved worldwide fame, and some notoriety, with his sliced and diced animals pickled in formaldehyde, the British artist's current show at the Gagosian Gallery in Rome is a decidedly less gruesome affair. The Complete Spot Paintings are exactly as the title implies – precise grids of different coloured discs of household gloss enamel painted onto white or off-white canvases – and some of them are really rather beautiful. Not that Hirst's works can't be beautiful - his controversial butterfly collages with their dazzling, kaleidoscopic colours are stunning, but the thought of the artist – or presumably his numerous assistants – systematically pulling the wings off thousands of exotic butterflies to create them, inevitably makes viewing these, and other works, disturbing.

Damien Hirst is one of the few post-Warhol artists to have truly become a global brand and as if to emphasise this point the 300 or so paintings in this show are spread across all of the Gagosian’s eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong, with seventeen pieces on display in Rome. Similarly to Warhol, Hirst has only ever painted a handful of Spot Paintings himself and instead employs studio assistants to execute the works – the assistants even choose the colours. Perhaps it is the diversity of hands and very individual colour choices behind the the creation of these works that brings such variety to this exhibition – some colours positively vibrate and keep the viewer gazing at the canvas long and hard, whilst other compositions appeal less and barely earn more than a glance. Even the steadiness of the outlines and the precision of each dot might vary from canvas to canvas to create subtle, yet fundamental differences that render each piece unique, and very human, in spite of their initial machine-made impact.

Many of the paintings are titled after pharmaceutical drugs and some ways one is reminded of the multi-coloured pills used in Hirst's medicine cabinet installations, such as Lullaby Spring which contained 6,136 individually painted pills (and which sold for a record-breaking £9.65 million at Sotheby's in London a few years back). Maybe, the bad boy of British art has been a colourist all along...

I was always a colorist, I’ve always had a phenomenal love of color… I mean, I just move color around on its own. So that’s where the spot paintings came from—to create that structure to do those colors, and do nothing. I suddenly got what I wanted. It was just a way of pinning down the joy of color.

Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986 -2011 continues at the Gagosian Gallery at Via Francesco Crispi, 16 until 10 March, 2012. Worth a visit!

Image © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2011 (Web-resolution, fair use)

Mondrian: Perfect Harmony at the Complesso del Vittoriano

2012-01-23T19:49:00.000+01:00

Mondrian: Perfect Harmony at the Complesso del Vittoriano

Composition No. 12 with Blue © Mondrian/Holtzman Trust

One of the best places in the world to view the work of Piet Mondrian is undoubtedly the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague, where Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage created a Municipal Art Gallery designed to fully exploit natural light wherever possible. When I visited the museum as an art student over twenty years ago, the dazzling colours and light in Mondrian's early landscape paintings had an enormous and lasting impact on me – these works were sheer perfection. I was genuinely excited, therefore, when I discovered that the current Mondrian exhibition at the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome would consist almost entirely of works on loan from the Gemeentemuseum's vast collection of works by the Dutch painter.

Mondrian's primary coloured Neo-plastic paintings are truly iconic and instantly recognisable the world over. They are represented at the close of this retrospective by a handful of paintings in the final room, and include the Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Gray and Blue (1921) used in the poster campaign across the city, as well as Composition No. 12 with Blue (started in Paris in 1936 and completed after his move to New York in 1942), on loan from the National Gallery of Canada. As familiar as these paintings may be, no reproduction can ever quite match the thrill of the encounter with real paint on canvas – the dynamism of Composition No. 12, with its flickering optical effects, kept me transfixed.

Study for Five Trees along the Gein with Moon (1907)
© Mondrian/Holtzman Trust

Perhaps the greatest achievement of this exhibition, however, is in the way it traces the logical progression of Mondrian's artistic journey from his origins as a painter of Dutch impressionist landscape paintings in the style of the Hague School, through the various artistic movements of the twentieth century, until the influence of cubism set him on the path towards first, De Stijl and eventually, total abstraction. Symbolism, luminism, pointillism, and the vivid colors of fauvism, all played a part, as did his interest in theosophy, and it is these earlier paintings and varied styles which will surely surprise and delight any visitor with only a passing knowledge of the artist.

The Red Cloud © Mondrian/Holtzman Trust

Whilst Mondrian would eventually pare down his artistic vision into vertical and horizontal lines and blocks of saturated primaries, this tendency can also be seen in his charcoal studies of trees, which are well represented in this show, and in the architectural forms such as the lighthouses, windmills and churches that break the flat Dutch landscape, or even gorgeous splashes of colour such as a solitary salmon-coloured cloud in an azure sky in The Red Cloud (1907).

The awkward spacial layout and lack of natural lighting at the Vittoriano make this exhibition space less than ideal for showcasing the shimmering beauty of Mondrian's early landscapes, but this is nevertheless, a must-see show and an excellent introduction to the artist's entire oeuvre.

Mondrian: Perfect Harmony continues at the Complesso del Vittoriano until 29th January, 2012.

Copyright on paintings in this post as indicated (web-resolution, fair use rationale).

Merry Christmas - Buon Natale from Rome!

2011-12-24T16:21:00.000+01:00

If you are visiting Rome over the holiday period take a stroll along Via del Corso and admire the red, white and green Christmas lights. Representing the Italian flag on the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy, the decorations stretch the entire length of the main shopping street from Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo.

Buon Natale!

RomaEuropa Festival 2011: The Irrepressibles at the Auditorium Conciliazione

2011-12-02T17:10:00.001+01:00

The Irrepressibles on stage in Rome

The 2011 edition of the RomaEuropa Festival closed on Wednesday evening at the Auditorium Conciliazione with an utterly captivating performance by The Irrepressibles, the genre-smashing British band lead by charismatic singer and composer Jamie McDermott. After wooing public and critics alike with their first studio album and accompanying show Mirror Mirror, the Irrepressibles brought a new stage piece entitled Nude to this year's Rome arts festival, including songs which will appear on their forthcoming album, as well as several from their earlier outing.

As an Irrepressibles first-timer, I really wasn't sure what to expect from this performance - there was certainly a buzz of eager anticipation in the Auditorium foyer before the show. After an hour of waiting, however, the concert still hadn't started because of some mysterious “technical difficulties” – Roman audiences are used to ten or fifteen-minute delays, but by now people had become audibly restless, if not fractious! All was quickly forgiven, however, when Jamie McDermott finally emerged from the shadows into a dim spotlight, wearing a studded leather jacket and an electric guitar, and began to sing.

With its projected images and lighting effects designed by Ami Jane Cadillac for Lavish productions, Nude is very much a multimedia performance piece, but the heart of the show is the music - traditional rock instruments such as drums, guitars, and keyboards are married with orchestral instruments like violins and cellos, resulting in a unique and enchanting blend of Baroque pop and electronic soundscapes. The glue that holds it all together is undeniably McDermott's bewitching vocals. At first listen, superficial comparisons to Antony and the Johnson come easily to mind thanks to McDermott and Antony Hegarty's gorgeous soaring falsettos with a touch of vibrato, but clearly the Irrepressibles have been influenced by many other artists and McDermott wears those influences on his sleeve to create a willfully eclectic mix, as if he has managed to assimilate just about every New Romantic band from the 1980s and then produce something refreshingly new.

Whilst clearly straddling the line between performance art and a traditional pop concert, there is nothing aloof about Jamie McDermott – during the show's finale, in fact, the entire band, who for most of the show play shrouded behind translucent screens, affording us only tantalising glimpses of them - stepped down from the stage and wandered through the audience, closing the evening in a wonderfully intimate way.

A fantastic evening – catch them if you can!

Watch a clip of the meet and greet session with Jamie McDermott signing copies of Mirror Mirror after the concert below or click here to watch on YouTube.

RomaEuropa Festival 2011: Peter Brook's 'A Magic Flute' at Teatro Argentina

2011-11-25T19:38:00.001+01:00

The 2011 edition of the RomaEuropa Festival, which embraces not only the visual arts, but also dance, film, theatre, music and performance art, is entitled “Try the impossible”. Peter Brook, the British theatre director renowned for thinking outside the box, would certainly seem to fit the bill with his utterly captivating reinvention of Mozart's most magical opera Die Zauberflöte. In Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne's adaptation the title is no longer “The” Magic Flute of the original, but “A” Magic Flute instead – a less-is-more exploration of the opera, reduced to just seven essential singing roles and two actors, accompanied by composer Franck Krawczyk's arrangements on a single piano. Performed barefoot on a virtually bare stage - the scenery is evoked through bamboo poles which are moved as needed to create the idea of prison bars, tree branches, or temple walls – this is a brilliantly simple, yet highly effective production.

The musical numbers are sung in the original German, whilst the spoken dialogue is delivered in French - with subtitles in Italian – and the cast is an international mix of talented young singers and actors, who perform on rotation during the various evenings. On the Thursday evening performance I attended Australian tenor Adrian Strooper and Turkish-Dutch soprano Aylin Sezer were just perfect as the innocent lovers Tamino and Pamina, coloratura soprano Malia Bendi-Merad was a wonderfully restrained Queen of the Night, whilst bass Vincent Pavesi was an imposing Sarastro.

Without doubt, however, it was Thomas Dolié as Papageno, a fine baritone and great comic actor, and Dima Bawab as Papagena, who delighted the audience most, eliciting a round of spontaneous applause after their duet.

A final mention should also go to the charismatic actor Abdou Ouologuem – his sleight-of-hand “magic” opens and closes A Magic Flute and his elegant presence gently guides the players from one scene to the next.

Unmissable!

Un Flauto Magico (A Magic Flute) continues at Teatro Argentina until 27 November, 2011.

Richard Gere presents 'Days of Heaven' at the International Rome Film Festival 2011

2011-11-05T18:46:00.000+01:00

Richard Gere introduces 'Days of Heaven' in Rome

No stranger to the International Rome Film Festival having attended two earlier editions of the fledgling kermesse, Richard Gere was back at the Auditorium Parco della Musica on Thursday to attend a special screening of the newly restored print of Terrence Malick's 1978 masterpiece Days of Heaven. Crowds lining the red carpet at this year's festival have been noticeably thinner than in previous years, but the charismatic appeal of a huge Hollywood star had worked its magic and Richard Gere's arrival was accompanied by hundreds of fans clamouring for a glimpse of the actor as he strolled the length of the red carpet, shaking hands and signing only the occasional autograph. The welcome in Sala Sinopoli was no less enthusiastic, and he was greeted with cheers and rapturous applause when he appeared on stage to introduce the movie.

After the film, it was a contemplative Richard Gere who returned to the stage to discuss the film with Claudio Masenza. Explaining that he hadn't seen Days of Heaven himself for over thirty years, he confessed that he found it difficult to relate to the man he had just seen on screen and that his memories of making the movie, and that period of his life, felt rather dreamlike now. Thanks to Masenza's pertinent questions about the technical aspects behind the making of Days of Heaven, however, this turned into a brief, but fascinating conversation, full of revealing insights into what it was like for the young actor to work with the sometimes exasperating director Terence Malick in what was his first lead movie role. Commenting on Malick's obsessive reediting of Days of Heaven, Gere joked: If they hadn't taken it away from him, he'd still be editing it today!

On the following evening Richard Gere was back at the festival once more for the closing awards ceremony, where he was presented with the 2011 Marc'Aurelio lifetime achievement acting award, joining the ranks of previous winners Sean Connery, Sophia Loren, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and the 2010 winner Julianne Moore.

To get a taste of the atmosphere at the Days Heaven screening watch the video of Richard Gere on the red carpet and in Sala Sinopoli below (or click here to watch on YouTube).

Zhang Ziyi presents 'Love for Life' at the International Rome Film Festival

2011-11-03T17:28:00.000+01:00

Zhang Ziyi and Gu Changwei at Rome Film Festival

The undisputed queen of the sixth edition of the International Rome Film Festival yesterday evening was Chinese superstar Zhang Ziyi who shared the red carpet with director Gu Changwei and screenwriter Yang Weiwei at the presentation of the in-competition film Love for Life. I'm an enormous fan of Chinese cinema and the chance to see Zhang Ziyi in person was an absolute thrill – Ms Zhang even graciously signed my DVD copy of House of Flying Daggers, so I'm feeling rather starstruck today!

Love for Life, the first fiction film from mainland China to explore the taboo issue of AIDS in the country, starring Zhang Ziyi alongside Hong Kong pop star and actor Aaron Kwok, is a devastatingly beautiful film, with two heartbreaking performances by both leads. It was warmly appreciated by the audience in Sala Sinopoli yesterday evening, and was greeted with long and rapturous applause and a standing ovation as the credits rolled.

To get a taste of the event watch the video of Zhang Ziyi on the red carpet and in Sala Sinopoli below (or click here to watch on YouTube).

Bill Nighy and David Hare present 'Page Eight' at the International Rome Film Festival

2011-11-02T14:45:00.000+01:00

Bill Nighy on the red carpet at Rome Film Festival

This year's edition of the International Rome Film Festival has dedicated its Focus section to British cinema showing a series of new-release British productions such as David Hare's Page Eight, as well as classics selected by British actors, screenwriters and directors divided into 'Punks' or 'Patriots'. To celebrate this event the red carpet has been designed by floral artist to the Royal family Simon J. Lycett. Fresh from arranging the flowers for the wedding of Prince William and Kate earlier this year, he has decked the film festival red carpet with highly unusual Union flags made out of red apples and cabbages!

Page Eight was originally created as a television movie for the BBC, but this impeccably written and beautifully acted film has recently been shown on the big screen too at film festivals in Toronto and Warsaw. Page Eight stars several leading British names - Rachel Weisz, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes - and one of my personal favourite actors, Bill Nighy, who joined the writer and director David Hare on the red carpet signing dozens of autographs and posing for photographs for fans. Later, as an unexpected surprise, they both appeared on stage in a packed Sala Sinopoli yesterday afternoon at the special screening of the film. After David Hare had explained a little about the production of the movie, Bill Nighy appeared to huge cheers and delighted the audience with a story of an Italian girl he had fallen in love with back in 1968 and making a plea as to whether she was in the audience! Unmissable!

To get a taste of the event watch the video of David Hare and Bill Nighy on the red carpet and in Sala Sinopoli below (or click here to watch on YouTube).

Noomi Rapace presents 'Babycall' at Rome Film Festival

2011-11-01T13:22:00.000+01:00

Pål Sletaune, Noomi Rapace and Kristoffer Joner in Rome

Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, best known internationally for the Swedish/Danish film adaptations of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy novels - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest – in which she so perfectly nailed the part of Lisbeth Salander, was at the Rome Film Festival yesterday evening to present the in-competition movie Babycall by Norwegian director Pål Sletaune.

To the delight of festival-goers who lined the route of the red carpet, the stunningly beautiful actress broke from her entourage and came over to sign numerous autographs for her waiting fans. She was joined in the Sala Sinopoli by the director, co-star Kristoffer Joner, producer Turid Øversveen and composer Fernando Velázquez.

With its powerfully understated, yet highly effective performances by Rapace and Joner, and Sletaune's slow-burning direction which allows the film to really get under your skin, Babycall is a hauntingly atmospheric psychological thriller, and it received well-deserved warm applause in Rome yesterday as the credits rolled.

To get a taste of the event watch the video of Noomi Rapace on the red carpet and in Sala Sinopoli below (or click here to watch on YouTube).

A Lesson in Cinema by Michael Mann at Rome Film Festival

2011-10-31T13:39:00.001+01:00

Michael Mann at the Rome Film Festival

Queues started forming early outside Sala Petrassi at the Auditorium Parco della Musica on Saturday afternoon for what was clearly one of the most eagerly awaited events in the Extra section of this year's International Rome Film Festival – a Lesson in Cinema by American film director Michael Mann. In fact, the small theatre was quickly filled to capacity leaving many disappointed fans outside.

Hosts Antonio Monda and Mario Sesti are familiar faces to cinema fans in Rome as the regular presenters of the Auditorium's Journey Through American Cinema series of encounters with contemporary American actors and directors. Whilst these events have typically encouraged an anecdotal approach in which informal conversation and questions are interspersed with film clips, the evening with Michael Mann was, instead, far more focused on the technical aspects of film making – true to its title, this was a lesson in cinema.

Michael Mann pioneered new techniques in cinema by shooting the gripping 2004 thriller Collateral in HD digital video and it was particularly interesting to hear his comments on the technical possibilities of digital - the freedom from cost constraints, which allows the director to keep filming and exploit very long takes, and also technical advantages such as nighttime shooting under street lights, perfect for a movie such as Collateral, where the entire action of the film takes place over one night driving around L.A.

Collateral was a film that cast Tom Cruise against type for the first time and in response to a question from the audience, Mann explained that he particularly enjoyed pushing actors out of their usual safety zones and into unknown territory – "it gets their pulses racing!" – referring not only to Cruise, but also Daniel Day-Lewis in the physically demanding role of Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans, and Will Smith, a child of hip-hop, who needed to immerse himself in 1960s and the history of the Black Power movement, before tackling the part of iconic boxing legend Muhammad Ali in Mann's 2001 biopic Ali.

Asked about his distinctive use of colour in another highly interesting question from the audience, Mann's response was very simple: "Colour? Use it!" Elaborating further, he said he uses colour to enhance the action, and as an example referred to the stunning Al Pacino beach sequence from The Insider we had just seen, in which the deep cyan blues of the shoreline were contrasted with the complimentary hues of the tungsten lighting in Russell Crowe's hotel room.

In the 1980s Michael Mann was the producer of the enormously successful TV show Miami Vice and after bringing that series to cinema screens in the 2006 movie of the same name, his latest project sees him return to the small screen once again as both producer and director of the pilot of a forthcoming HBO series called Luck. Praising the HBO cable channel as being at the forefront of a "golden age of television", as a special treat for the audience at the Rome Film Festival the encounter closed with a sneak preview trailer of the series – from the few minutes we were shown it looks to be a visually stunning piece of work.

The director then managed to sign a handful of autographs and shake hands with some of the numerous admirers who had approached the stage after the talk, before being hurried away by the organisers.

Rupert Everett, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard on the Red Carpet at the International Rome Film Festival

2011-10-29T16:10:00.000+02:00

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tanya Wexler
and Rupert Everett

Rupert Everett and Maggie Gyllenhaal, together with director Tanya Wexler, were at the International Rome Film Festival yesterday evening for the presentation of the in-competition movie Hysteria.

The actors were joined on the red carpet at the Auditorium Parco della Musica by Maggie Gyllenhaal's husband Peter Sarsgaard, where they signed numerous autographs and posed for photographs, graciously obliging the large number of fans who had turned out to see the stars in person.

To get a taste of the event watch the video of Rupert Everett, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard below (or click here to watch on YouTube).

Hollywood Screenwriter Stewart Stern at the International Rome Film Festival

2011-10-29T14:55:00.001+02:00

For fans of film director Nichloas Ray who attended the showing of Francesco Zippel's documentary Hollywood Bruciata: Ritratto di Nicholas Ray on Day 2 of the Rome Film Festival yesterday evening were most likely expecting an evening of respectful homage to a Hollywood legend. Whilst Zippel's interesting, if rather pedestrian documentary reconfirmed the given portrait of him as a brilliant, difficult man, the audience were in for quite a surprise when special guest Stewart Stern, legendary screenwriter of Nicholas Ray's most famous movie Rebel Without a Cause, spilled some less savoury beans about the director's sometimes unscrupulous working methods. Refused an original story credit for the movie, the eighty-nine year old writer has clearly never forgiven Ray for this slight. When asked by hosts Antonio Monda and Mario Sesti about the director's popularity with European audiences, he admitted that he thought such high regard was unwarranted. According to Stern, Nicholas Ray may have aspired to being as great as European directors such as De Sica or Pasolini, but simply wasn't of the same calibre. He did have high praise, however, for Ray's ability to capture the spirit of the times, and in particular, his representation of a postwar generation, which found itself either fatherless or unable to communicate with its traumatized father-figures, adding that Ray had been passionately driven to make Rebel Without a Cause to expiate his own guilt about his inadequacies as a somewhat absent father to his own children.

Stewart Stern's warmest recollections were reserved for some wonderful anecdotes about his first meeting with the iconic actor James Dean, full of those tiny, yet intimate details that bring memories colourfully to life, such as the fact that Dean gave him a strange half smile because he was actually missing his front teeth at the time, or the way that he spun around in the revolving arm chair in which he was sitting, watching his own reflection in a glass window. Fans of Rebel Without a Cause will remember the moment when Jimmy Dean's character Jim Stark moos during the planetarium lecture. What is less known is that this idea came directly from the first time that the screenwriter and actor actually met, when to break the awkward silence Dean let out a moo, and then Stern replied with a bigger, better one of his own. When he retold the story last night, to the delight of the audience, we were also treated to his amazing impressions of a flock of sheep and, finally, three different pigs feeding in a trough together, that he had also shared with James Dean at that first meeting!

Soon after Dean took Stern to a special screening of East of Eden and not since seeing Brando on stage had he seen such inspiring work from an actor. His lasting admiration for James Dean's enormous talent was palpable.

A handful of admirers approached him after the talk and he graciously chatted to us, even signing autographs for the lucky few who were able to get one before the staff and host Mario Sesti rather rudely interrupted us and whisked the star away. The evening was over far too soon – a fascinating raconteur, I could personally have listened to Stewart Stern talk for hours.

'The Lady' opens the International Rome Film Festival 2011

2011-10-28T13:17:00.000+02:00

Michelle Yeoh at Rome Film festival

The sixth edition of the International Rome Film Festival opened yesterday evening and saw the dazzlingly beautiful Michelle Yeoh grace the red carpet at the Auditorium Parco della Musica for the first Out of Competition movie of the Official Selection, The Lady by Luc Besson. She was accompanied by co-star David Thewlis and the director, with both actors taking the time to meet fans, sign autographs and generously pose for photos before entering the Sala Santa Cecilia. I've been a huge Michelle Yeoh fan ever since her Hong Kong action movie days, so I was thrilled to have tickets for the film and for the chance to see the actress up close.

Both Michelle Yeoh as Burmese pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and David Thewlis as her Oxford academic husband Michael Aris, give wonderfully measured and often moving performances in The Lady, the true story of the personal sacrifices the couple were forced to make for the sake of the wider political cause. The film received warm and protracted applause from the audience in Rome last night and a standing ovation for its stars.

To get a taste of the event watch the video of Michelle Yeoh in Rome below (or click here to watch on YouTube).

Georgia O’Keeffe at the Museo della Fondazione Roma

2011-10-11T16:04:00.000+02:00

Last year's Edward Hopper retrospective at the Museo della Fondazione Roma (formerly Museo del Corso) was one of the city's most enjoyable shows of 2010. This year the consistently excellent gallery on Via del Corso has brought another absolute icon of twentieth century American art to Rome – Georgia O’Keeffe. In what is the first major retrospective ever of this hugely important and influential artist to be held in Italy, the Fondazione Roma has worked in collaboration with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to present over 60 works, not only from the Santa Fe collection, but also loaned from major galleries and private collections around the world, as well as personal objects and numerous photographs.

The Museo della Fondazione Roma has distinguished itself over recent years through its curatorial choices and in the creative, even theatrical way in which works are hung. A retrospective at Palazzo Cipolla is never an ordinary art show – it is a fully interactive wander through an artist's life which seeks to fully contextualize the artist's oeuvre and help us better understand how the work came to be made.

The Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition is no exception – turn the corner just beyond the ticket office and you will find yourself in an elaborate reconstruction of Fifth Avenue in New York in the early 1900s, the city where the young O'Keeffe started out in the early years of her career, first as a student of Arthur Wesley Dow at Columbia University, and then as the collaborator and wife of the photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz was one of the first people to champion her strikingly original early abstract charcoal drawings and watercolours, exhibiting them at his 291 Gallery in New York, and it is these works - including the gorgeous Blue Hill No. II - which open the show. The hanging of a black and white photograph of the Moon from the Equivalents series by Stieglitz alongside O'Keeffe's 1916 watercolor Evening Star No. VI is particularly effective, as is a photographic nude of O'Keeffe by Stieglitz flanked either side by two Nude self portrait watercolours (Nude Series VII and Nude Series VIII) in this first section.

The influence of the architectural shapes and skyline of New York on both artists is also explored in the juxtaposition of several Stieglitz's New York Street photographs with O'Keeffe's stunning New York Street with Moon from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Madrid.

As hugely important as Stieglitz was to O'Keeffe, however, his erotic photographs of the painter would serve to negatively influence critics, who to the painter's horror, would subsequently apply Freudian sexual interpretations to her own abstract work and, as a response, see her turn towards more realistic, natural forms. Georgia O'Keeffe, of course, took those natural subjects such as fruit and flowers - alligator pears, petunias, lillies and jimson weeds – and quite simply revolutionised the genre, creating some of the most famous and influential flower paintings ever made, with her close up and enlarged blooms painted as if seen through a macro lens.

No O'Keeffe show would be complete without these flower paintings and there are plenty here to keep her fans happy – Jack in the Pulpit No.IV from 1930 is particularly fine – but perhaps one of the greatest strengths of this show is its emphasis on landscape and the enormous impact that the open spaces and sky, dazzling colours and unusual rock formations of New Mexico and the appropriately named Painted Desert had on the artist's life and work from 1929 onwards. I would have happily spent all afternoon staring at the 1940 landscape Untitled (Red and Yellow Cliffs) and the exquisite beauty of her signature animal bone paintings – for O'Keeffe a symbol of the beauty of the desert, not death as was once again wrongly assumed by critics at the time - such as the 1936 Summer Days from the Whitney Museum of American Art.

With the later rooms transformed into the style of the adobe house that would be her home in Ghost Ranch, as well as a reconstruction of her studio at her Abiquiu home, and two short but highly informative educational videos playing on a loop, the curators have almost pulled off the impossible and brought O'Keeffe's beloved desert to Rome. Short of flying to Sante Fe to visit the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in person, this exhibition really is the next best thing, bringing the visitor closer to the artist, with a show that is both intimate and awe inspiring at the same time.

Unmissable!

Georgia O'Keeffe is curated by Barbara Buhler Lynes and continues at the Museo della Fondazione Roma, Palazzo Cipolla (Via del Corso, 320 ) until 20th January 2012.

Copyright on all images in this post as indicated (web-resolution, fair use rationale).

According to Jim: Jim Belushi Masterclass at Roma Fiction Fest

2011-09-26T15:29:00.001+02:00

RomaFictionFest programme signed by Jim Belushi

The fifth edition of the Roma Fiction Fest, which over the last four years has brought some of the biggest names in TV drama to the city, finally opened yesterday in a dramatically diminished format at its new home at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. A massive reduction in budget means that very few international stars are slated to appear at this year's festival, with a definite shift of focus towards home grown product. Thankfully, however, the inaugural event yesterday saw the arrival of the exuberant Jim Belushi on the festival's fuchsia carpet. Winner of the 2011 RomaFictionFest Excellence Award, the star of movies as diverse as About Last Night..., Salvador and K-9, appeared on stage in Sala Sinopoli to give a Masterclass about his work in television, and in particular as the lead in the smash hit US sitcom According to Jim.

The afternoon kicked off with an unseasonal, but very, very funny episode from the series - The Christmas Party – which the actor chose because of the many visual gags. This was, of course, perfect for an Italian audience unused to reading subtitles for a show they usually watch dubbed. In fact, Jim Belushi called Massimo Rossi - the Italian dubber who voices Jim in the Italian edition - up onto the stage for an affectionate meeting; Rossi revealed that some episodes were so hilarious that the actors would be forced to record their lines separately because it was impossible not to burst out laughing mid-take!

A multi-talented actor, musician and comedian, Jim Belushi is an enormously charismatic presence on stage – rather than a pure “Masterclass”, the event transformed into “An evening with Jim Belushi”, shifting from gags and stand up comedy one moment, to intimate anecdotes about his brother, the late great John Belushi, and memories of his Albanian-born father, the next. Music is also an essential part of his life and at Dan Ackroyd's insistence, he put aside initial misgivings about stepping into his older brother's shoes and now also performs as Zee Blues in the present incarnation of The Blues Brothers. At one point he even plucked an harmonica from his pocket and gave us an improvised burst of the blues!

As was fitting in a television festival, however, Jim Belushi's love of the medium was clear. Not only is he a TV performer, he is also a fan himself, who described his recent excitement at getting to meet “Batista” and “Dexter” (from the TV series Dexter) at a party. The Tudors, The Borgias and Lost were also on his list of recent favourite shows.

After two hours of sheer entertainment, as a final salute he threw himself to the ground and did a backwards somersault to the delight of the audience who were already on their feet applauding. Seemingly in no hurry to leave the stage he stayed shaking hands and signing numerous autographs.

Watch some highlights from Jim Belushi's appearance at Roma Fiction Fest 2011 – including his blues performance - below (or click here to watch on You Tube).