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Ravel’s Brain

Series consists of research notes, photographs, correspondence, production notes, film and audio elements of the documentary “Ravel’s Brain”. Written and directed by Larry Weinstein, “Ravel’s Brain” is described as a “musical/visual tone poem” exploring the final five years of composer Maurice Ravel (1875- 1937), who due to the degenerative brain conditions of aphasia and apraxia, was
able to produce music but not write it down or perform it. The project was initiated in early 1998 by Weinstein but was not completed until 2000, due to resistance from the Ravel estate.

Featuring the performances of the WDR (Sinfonieorchester des Westdeutschen Rundfunks) Symphony Orchestra and Radio Choir of Cologne, the film features interviews with Ravel’s colleagues, archival footage of his home in Montfort- l’Amaruy and his birthplace of Basque Ciboure. The bulk of the work was filmed on location in Marrakesh, a source of inspiration to Ravel.

The documentary featured staged dramatic scenes in which Thierry Costa played Maurice Ravel, Richard Cowan as Dr. Clovis Vincent and Jacques Dewitt as
Léon Leyritz. Some elements of the film may be reused from an earlier Rhombus production “Ravel”.

The project received three Gemini awards in 2002, best picture editing in a comedy, variety or performing arts program (for David New) and best sound in the same category (for Lou Solakofski, Peter Cook, Goro Koyama, David McCallum, and Jane Tattersall) and best production design (for Ambre Fernandez). It also received awards for best direction at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival and other international documentary film festivals.

Red Violin

Series consists of scripts, multilingual translations, media coverage reports, photographs and the central prop for “The Red Violin”, arguably, Rhombus’ most ambitious and successful production to date. Written by Don McKellar and directed by Francois Girard, The Red Violin features scenes in French, English, Mandarin, Italian and German, requiring significant translation and subtitling.
Filmed on location in Chicheley Hall and Oxford in England, China, Cremona, Italy, Vienna, Austria and Montreal, the film traces the life and travels of the famous ‘red violin’, from its creation in 17th century Italy by the master Nicolo Bussotti (Carlo Cecchi), through it’s exodus from an 18th century Austrian monastery to 19th century Oxford, Cultural Revolution-era China to a Montreal auction house, where an appraiser (Samuel L. Jackson) and conservator (Don McKellar) try to establish its authenticity and provenance.
The film features actors Jean-Luc Bideau, Jason Flemyng, Sylvia Chang, Julian Richings and Colm Feore. Violin solos used in the musical score were performed by Joshua Bell.

The Red Violin received significant critical acclaim. The film swept the 1999 Genie Awards, picking up trophies for art direction (Francois Séguin), cinematography (Alain Dostie), costume design (Renée April), musical score, sound (Claude La Haye, Jocelyn Caron, Bernard Gariépy Strobl, Hans Peter Strobl), best screenplay (Don McKellar and Francois Girard), direction (Froncois Girard) and best motion picture. For the Jutra Awards of 1999, the film also took awards in the areas of art direction, best cinematography, editing (Gaétan Huot), best supporting actor (Colm Feore) score, sound, screenplay, direction, and best film.

It also won the 2000 Oscar for best original musical score (John Corigliano).

Rhombus Media fonds

  • F0118
  • Fonds
  • 1978-2006, predominant 1987-2004

Fonds consists of film and video footage (original and master elements), as well as sound tracks and audio elements, for over 50 films and television series produced by Rhombus Media Inc. including the finished products. Also includes textual, photographic, graphic and prop materials relevant to the film production process and the wider context of the company's activities.

Holdings include documentary materials and film elements from the following productions:

32 Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993)
5 Days in September aka See The Music (2005)
All That Bach (1985)
An Idea of Canada (2003)
Andrea Bocelli : Under Tuscan Skies (2001)
Beethoven’s Hair (2005)
Blue Snake (1986)
Burnt Toast (2005)
Childstar (2004)
Clean (2004)
Crossing Bridges (2001)
Elizabeth Rex (2004)
Eternal Earth (1987)
Falla: Master Peter's Puppets
Falla: Nights in the Garden
Falla:When the Fire Burns (1991)
Fanfares (1994)
Firebird (2003)
For the Whales (1989)
Foreign Objects (2000)
Four Seasons (2000)
Glenn Gould Hereafter / Glenn Gould : Au delà du temps (2006)
John Wyre: Drawing on Sound (1991)
Last Night (1998)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1995)
Making Overtures (1984)
Mozartballs (2006)
Music for Wilderness Lake (1980)
My War Years: Arnold Schoenberg (1992)
Perfect Pie (2002)
Radical Romantic : John Weinzweig (1990)
Ravel (1987)
Ravel’s Brain (2001)
Rodrigo at 90 (Concierto de Aranjuez) (1993)
Silk (2007)
Slings and Arrows : Season I, II, III (2001-2006)
Snow Cake (2006)
Stormy Weather : The Music of Harold Arlen (2002)
Tectonic Plates (1992)
Tectonic Plates (1992)
The Lanza Sessions (2001)
The Red Violin (1998)
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
Toothpaste (2002)
Top of His Head (1989)
World Drums (1987)
YoYo Ma : Inspired by Bach (1997)

Rhombus Media (firm)

Saddest Music in the World

Series consists of scripts, correspondence, production notes, original film and audio elements, promotional material and props from the 2003 film “The Saddest Music in the World”. Directed by Guy Maddin, The Saddest Music in the World was co-written by Guy Maddin and George Toles based on the original screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro. Maddin adapted the screenplay to suit his early twentieth century film aesthetic of grainy black and white photography and slightly out-of-sync sound. The film features a number of film formats and techniques, with black and white 16 and 8mm original film negatives and some colour film imitating early Technicolor.

Described by some critics as a ‘sort-of’ musical, the film is set in Depression-era Winnipeg, with beer baroness, Lady Port-Huntly (Isabella Rossellini) hosting a competition to determine the saddest music in the world (in hopes of increasing her profits). With the tagline “If you’re sad, and like beer, I’m your lady”, the film centers on the men of the Kent family who confront the secrets of their past while locked in the competition for the prize of $25,000.Younger brother Chester (Mark McKinney), the cynical and failed Broadway producer, is ready to mesmerize his former lover with American bravado, assisted by his nymphomaniac amnesic muse, Narcissa (Maria de Medeiros). Older brother Roderick (Ross McMillan), a cellist returning from post-war Serbia, is inconsolable over the disappearance of his beloved wife. Their despairing but patriotic father Fyodor (David Fox) is tormented with guilt over the accidental amputation of the legs of his one true love, Lady Port-Huntly.

Co-produced by Rhombus and Buffalo Gal Pictures, the film won the Directors Guild of Canada’s outstanding achievement in production design (Mathew Davies) and the Genies for costume design (Meg McMillan), editing (David Wharnsby) and original musical score (Christopher Dedrick) in 2004. Guy Maddin also received the Film Discovery Jury Award for best director from the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival the same year. Maddin and and Toles received the Chlotrudis Award for best adapted screenplay in 2005.

Silk

Series consists of scripts and one digital betacam tape relating to François Girard’s adaptation “Silk”. Based on the novel by Alessandro’s Baricco’s novel, Silk follows to struggles of Herve Joncour (Michael Pitt) a nineteenth century French silkworm smuggler, who is caught between his wife Helene (Keira Knightely) and the Japanese concubine (Sei Ashina) he encounters while traveling in Japan. Also stars Koji Yakusho. Co-produced by Rhombus, Fandango, and Bee Vine Pictures.

Slings and Arrows

Series consists of scripts, production documentation, props, set designs, promotional material and original film and audio elements (including episode masters, original film and dialogue overdubs) of the Rhombus-produced television series “Slings & Arrows”. Early drafts of scripts by Susan Coyen, Bob Martin and Mark Mckinney refer to the project as “St. Ratford” and “Shakespeareville”. Other writing credits are attributed to Tecca Crosby and Sean Reycraft for Season 3 of the production.
Directed by Peter Wellington, the plot revolved around “legendary theatrical madman” Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) who returns to the New Burbage Theatre Festival (a thinly veiled Stratford Festival) to assume the Artistic Directorship after the sudden death of his mentor Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette). Geoffrey is haunted by Oliver throughout all three seasons of Slings & Arrows in which he stages and directs Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. Also starring Martha Burns as Geoffrey’s former flame/problematic lead actress Ellen Fanshaw and Mark McKinney as the festival’s scheming General Manager Richard Smith-Jones. Also stars Geraint Wyn Davies, William Hutt, Colm Feore, Sarah Polley, Rachel McAdams, Luke Kirby, Sean Cullen and Don McKellar.
Each season featured a musical number sung written by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison by actors Michael Polley and Graham Harley.
Slings & Arrows was broadcast in Canada on Movie Central and The Movie Network channels in 2003, 2005 and 2006. It was later broadcast on the Sundance Channel in the United States.
The production received Gemini Awards for the best dramatic series and best writing in a dramatic series in 2006 and 2007, best direction in a dramatic series for Peter Wellington in 2006, and acting awards for Paul Gross (2004 and 2007), Martha Burns (2006), Susan Coyne (2006), Rachel McAdams (2004), Mark McKinney (2006) and Stephen Ouimette (2007). The series also received awards from the Writers Guild of Canada Awarded for best drama series in 2004, 2006 and 2007 and awards from the Directors Guild of Canada for picture editing (2006 and 2007), sound editing (2004) and outstanding television series drama (2006).

Snow Cake

Series consists of scripts, posters and audiovisual material of Toronto casting interviews, a promotional kit and a Turkish dub of the film “Snowcake”. Directed by Marc Evans, “Snow Cake” is a story of love and the unorthodox friendship that develops between an autistic woman Linda (Sigourney Weaver) and Alex Hughes (Alan Rickman) who is responsible for the death of her daughter. Also stars Carrie Ann Moss. Co-Produced by Rhombus and Revolution Films.

Stormy Weather : The Music of Harold Arlen

Series consists of production notes, narration scripts, correspondence, production stills and original film and audio elements for the 2002 performance special “Stormy Weather : The Music of Harold Arlen”. Directed by Larry Weinstein, the 78 minute long celebration of the American popular composer
Harold Arlen (1905-1986) features highly stylized performances of songs such as “Stormy Weather”; “Over the Rainbow”‚ “Paper Moon”‚ and “Get Happy” by the likes of Debbie Harry, Sandra Bernhard, David Johansen, Hawksley Workman and Rufus Wainwright. Interwoven throughout the program is a dramatic treatment of Arlen’s life (Paul Soles playing the role), filled with public success and great personal sadness. Co-produced by Rhombus, BBC, SBS-TV Australia, and others. Material includes numerous contact sheets of each performance set, with artist approvals, as well as original 24 track masters of each performance.

Tectonic Plates

Series consists of four posters for the 1992 film “Tectonic Plates”. The 104 minute staged performance uses continental drift as a metaphor for the evolution of human culture. Staged in actual location in Venice and a sparse stage and pool, Tectonic Plates was critically acclaimed for its dreamlike imager, theatrical staging and philosophical intent. The production received the Christopher Columbus Award for most original and creative submission, and the most innovative award at the Figueira da Foz International Film Festival in Portugal.

The Lanza Sessions

Series consists of original film elements of “The Lanza Sessions”, a 2000 celebration of the work of popular operatic singer Mario Lanza. Directed by David Mortin, the 55 minute television special features archival footage, interviews with contemporaries and performances by Richard Margison, (as the voice of Lanza), soprano Cassandra Riddle, and Tom Burlinson (portraying Lanza’s friend Frank Sinatra). Co-produced by Rhombus, Lanza Music Ltd. And Chairman Robert Girdwood.

Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould

Series consists of 5 posters for the critically-acclaimed 1993 experimental film “Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould”. Running 98 minutes, the film directed by Francois Girard and co-written by Girard and Don McKellar was well- received in Canada and abroad.

Toothpaste : A Domestic Opera

Series consists of a libretto script by Dan Redican for the Larry Weinstein- directed 6 minute short film, “Toothpaste”, a ‘domestic opera’ about the marital difficulties between a couple centered on crusty toothpaste. Starring Mark McKinney and soprano Barbara Hannigan, the music was composed by Alexina Louie, and the production was produced by Rhombus in association with maplemedia.

Yo-Yo Ma : Inspired by Bach

Series consists of 2 film reels, photographic material and supporting correspondence and documentation for the series of six short films conceived by cellist YoYo Ma. The episodes, directed by Atom Egoyan Niv Fichman François Girard, Kevin McMahon, Patricia Rozema and Barbara Willis Sweete, feature Yo-Yo Ma performing Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied cello in collaboration with artists (including Julie Moir Messervy, Piranesi, Mark Morris, Tamasaburo Bando, and professional ice skaters Torvill and Dean) and through the filter of gardening, architecture, dance, kabuki and ice skating. The project was critically acclaimed, receiving the Gold Plaque from the Chicago International Television Competition, and a special festival award from the Sao Paulo International Film Festival. The projects were broadcast on Canadian television as a miniseries in 1997.

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