Announcement: Tickets to Friday’s talk with Dr. Sylvain Cordier, curator of “Napoleon: Power and Splendor” are SOLD OUT. For other exhibition-related programs and events, visit the exhibition page.
Dr. Sylvain Cordier, co-curator of Napoleon: Power and Splendor, will discuss the art and objects of Napoleon’s Imperial Household.
This highly speculative historical tableau posits that the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte (Marlon Brando) rested on his impossible love for a youthful, alluring millinery clerk, Désirée Clary (Jean Simmons). A brooding Napoleon marries worldly widow Joséphine de Beauharnais (Merle Oberon) to advance his career. Still smitten with Napoleon, the fearless Désirée weds General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (Michael Rennie), an aide to Napoleon who later helps bring about the Emperor’s downfall. The stunning costumes and sets, designed to be shown in Technicolor, are as much the stars of this Hollywood epic as the performers. Director Henry Koster was an amateur Napoleon scholar. Though Brando won an Oscar for best actor for his other 1954 movie, On the Waterfront, Désirée (110 min) won at the box office.
The stunning costumes and sets, designed in Technicolor, are as much the stars of this Hollywood epic as the performers. Director Henry Koster was an amateur Napoleon scholar. Though Brando won an Oscar for best actor for his other 1954 film, On the Waterfront, Désirée (110 min) won at the box office.
The most famous romance of all time, this fiery, impatient, swaggering play about two young “star-crossed” lovers will move and enchant young and old alike. The story: in Verona, Italy, torn by civil hatred and uncontrollable street brawling, the teenaged son and daughter of rival families meet by accident, and fall passionately in love. With the well-meaning but misguided assistance of Friar Lawrence and the Nurse, Romeo and Juliet marry in secret. Almost immediately, erupting violence and tragic deaths destroy the plan to reveal this marriage and unite their families. Romeo is exiled, and Juliet’s family, unaware she is already married, plan her wedding to another man. Desperate, the teens risk everything to rescue their doomed love….
In keeping with Quill Theatre tradition, we will fully realize all the beauty and poignancy of Shakespeare’s timeless text, while staging it with vigor, immediacy, passion and easy approachability for modern audiences.
All seating is General Admission.
Quill Theatre Season Subscribers, please contact Pam Webb at the Quill Theatre Box Office: pam@quilltheatre.org | 804.340.0115
*Sunday performances are followed by a talk featuring the cast and director
A cinema enthusiast’s delight, Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016; 120 min) pieces together the bizarre true story of a collection of some 500 films, dating from 1910s–1920s, which were lost for over 50 years until being discovered buried in a sub-arctic swimming pool deep in the Yukon Territory. Using these permafrost protected, rare silent films and newsreels, archival footage, interviews and historical photographs to tell the story, this documentary depicts a unique history of a Canadian gold rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation – and through that collection, how a First Nation hunting camp was transformed and displaced.
Nominee for many awards including winning the International Documentary Association and the Critics Choice Documentary Awards.
Co-presented by VMFA and the 25th Annual James River Film Festival, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization dedicated to the art of film and film as art: jamesriverfilm.org
This will be the Virginia premiere of René Balcer’s new documentary, Above the Drowning Sea (2017; 88 mins), the epic story of the dramatic escape of thousands of Jewish refugees from Austria to the welcoming sanctuary of Shanghai, China, on the eve of World War II. Chinese diplomat Ho Feng Shan heroically defied the Nazis and his own government by issuing travel visas to those seeking to flee. Narration by actress Julianna Margulies.
René and Carolyn Balcer will appear in-person. Among his many achievements, Mr. Balcer has written, produced, and directed TV’s Law & Order series since 1991.
Co-presented by VMFA and the 25th Annual James River Film Festival, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization dedicated to the art of film and film as art: jamesriverfilm.org
“There are a number of things that set Southern artists apart from anyone else,” said photographer Sally Mann regarding her relationship with painter Cy Twombly. Discover on this tour Twombly and Mann’s deep connection to the place where they lived and created their art.
There are many types of luck: good luck, bad luck, beginner’s luck, the list could go on…
Join Colleen Yarger, Curatorial Assistant for the Mellon Collections, for a gallery talk that will explore the concept of luck across time from coin tosses to rabbit’s feet to the artistic design process.
Explore the special exhibition The Horse in Ancient Greek Art with curator, Dr. Peter Schertz and VCU Kinetic Imaging students as they share tips and animation processes they learned while creating animated scenes inspired by artwork featured in the exhibition. Try your hand at your own Greek art-inspired animations led by members of VMFA’s College Advisory Council.
Horsymposium, Flow Yen, environmental artist and 360 technical artist, with artists: Eun-Young, Joshua Cromwell, Peyton Johnson, Sheen Zeng, Ina Choi
Pegasos, animation by Wandaryna Phou
Join poet and author, Ron Smith, in the special exhibition The Horse in Ancient Greek Art as he reads poetry that was inspired by artwork featured in the exhibition. Smith, poet laureate of Virginia from 2014 to 2016, is also the author of four books and is currently writer-in-residence at St. Christopher’s School, where he also holds the George O. Squires chair of distinguished teaching.
Smith will be available following the reading to sign copies of his latest book, “The Humility of Brutes” (LSU Press, 2017), which is available for purchase in the VMFA Shop.
Join VMFA curators for a discussion of how the imagery of the horse translates across Ancient and East Asian cultures. This program will highlight works of art from the permanent collection and the two special exhibitions, Terracotta Army: Legend of the First Emperor of China and The Horse in Ancient Greek Art.