Karen Kenedy Movies
- 1997
This 53-minute documentary, one episode in the six-part Canadian TV series, Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach, attempts to link Johann Sebastian Bach's personal and professional life with the modern world. It is structured by director Patricia Rozema (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing) around the six movements of Bach's Suite No. 6 with cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing amid traffic on an island in a busy street, on a rooftop, and at other locations around Manhattan. Olympic gold medallists Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean execute a graceful ice-skating accompaniment to the music because Ma believes "they did for ice-skating what Bach did for cello." Bach biographical information is provided by Tom McCamus. This film was shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. Other episodes of this series featured a Bach-inspired garden designed by Julie Moir Messervy, dimensional digital recreations of Piranesi engravings, and Yo-Yo Ma collaborations with Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando, choreographer Mark Morris, and film director Atom Egoyan. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yo-Yo Ma, Jayne Torvill, (more)
- 1991
Rip Torn does a magnificent job as American poet Walt Whitman in the fanciful period piece Beautiful Dreamers. The scene is a hellish 19th century Canadian institution for the mentally retarded. Compassionate doctor Maurice Bucke (Colm Feore) defies his superiors by treating his patients as human beings rather than animals. He even begins conducting classes for his charges, teaching them basic cognitive and manual dexterity skills. When Whitman champions Bucke's cause, the doctor is ostracized by those who fear the poet's reputation as a "wild-eyed" radicial. Based on a true story, Beautiful Dreamers is more interesting for its intentions than its execution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colm Feore, Rip Torn, (more)
