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-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

It’s been a surprisingly good year for film books. Whether you are into biographies, film history, pictorials, “making of” books, or critical studies, there was something for just about everyone. This year’s list may top last year’s, which was also bountiful. As a matter of fact, there were so many worthwhile books in 2016 that I was forced to split this article into two pieces. In the coming days, I will post another article with just as many recommendations, if not more.

A House Divided

With Newt Gingrich’s call for a new House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), there may be no relevant book than Hollywood Divided: The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist (University Press of Kentucky) by Kevin Brianton. This new title centers on a now legendary meeting held by the Screen Directors Guild in 1950 (at the height of the anti-communist “Red Scare”) to consider the adoption of an industry loyalty oath. Among those present at the meeting were some of the biggest names in Hollywood―Cecil B. DeMille, John Ford, John Huston, Frank Capra, William Wyler, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, George Stevens, Fritz Lang, and Rouben Mamoulian, among others. The background to that meeting, its effect on the film industry, who was conservative, who was liberal, and the way the meeting had been depicted in the press is at the heart of this fascinating and provocative new book.

Film is Dead, Long Live the Movies

A Thousand Cuts: The Bizarre Underground World of Collectors and Dealers Who Saved the Movies (University Press of Mississippi) by Dennis Bartok and Jeff Joseph is a candid exploration of a now vanishing subculture. Drawn largely from interviews with their subjects, this intriguing work tells the stories of little known and famous collectors alike. There’s a young Leonard Maltin attending private screenings of rare films in NYC—alongside Susan Sontag, TCM host Robert Osborne discussing Rock Hudson’s secret film vault, and Academy Award–honoree Kevin Brownlow recounting his decades-long quest to restore the 1927 Napoleon. At the center of many of the stories found in A Thousand Cuts was the FBI’s and Justice Department’s campaign to harass, intimidate, and arrest film dealers and collectors in the early 1970s. Among the victims was Planet of the Apes star Roddy McDowall, who was arrested in 1974 and was forced to name the names of other collectors. Highly recommended.

Also released this year are two not unrelated books, A Light Affliction: a History of Film Preservation and Restoration (lulu.com) by Michael Binder, and In Search of Lost Films (BearManor Media) by Phil Hall. The latter work looks at the surprising number of important films believed to be lost, dating from the silent era to the 1970s, by the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Vincente Minnelli, Stanley Kubrick, and others. Read ‘em and weep. Read ‘em and weep.

Napoleon

Just recently, and at last, Abel Gance’s Napoleon (1927) has been released on DVD and Blu-ray. Digitally restored by the BFI National Archive and Academy Award-winning film historian Kevin Brownlow, this multi-disc set features a complete 2K restoration of a five-and-a-half-hour version of the film, Carl Davis’ electrifying, monumental score, a feature-length commentary, documentaries, an illustrated 60-page book, and more. It’s dizzying, and brilliant. The story behind this legendary epic film—and oh what a story it is—is told in A Revolution for the Screen: Abel Gance's Napoleon (Amsterdam University Press) by Paul Cuff, one of the contributors to the above mentioned BFI release.

The Purple Diaries

Mary Astor was one of the biggest film stars of the 1930s and 1940s. Her career peaked in 1941, the year she co-starred alongside Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon, and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Great Lie. That was five years after a scandal nearly ruined her.

In 1936, Astor’s second husband began a custody battle over their four-year-old daughter. He threatened to introduce the actress’ diary in the proceedings, which detailed her affairs with celebrities, including the celebrated playwright, theater director and producer George S. Kaufman. The diary was never formally offered as evidence, but Astor’s ex-husband and his lawyers constantly referred to it, and its notoriety grew. Everyone wondered who and what was in it? With the support of the Astor family, including access to the photographs and memorabilia of Astor’s estate, The Purple Diaries: Mary Astor and the Most Sensational Hollywood Scandal of the 1930s (Diversion Publishing) by Joseph Egan gives a detailed account of the custody battle that, for a time, pushed the Spanish Civil War and Hitler’s Olympic Games off the front pages of America.

A different, after the fact, but no less entertaining take on these events can be found in Mary Astor's Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936 (Liveright) by Edward Sorel. Here, the famed illustrator and cartoonist recounts his own lifelong obsession with the sensational trial, which for Sorel began in 1965 when he began pulling up the linoleum of his kitchen floor apartment and discovered a hidden treasure—issues of the New York Daily News and Daily Mirror from 1936 reporting on scandalous events taking place in Hollywood. Sorel’s book features more than sixty original illustrations.

Everything Orson Welles

Few directors or actors are truly worthy of more than one well done biography, let alone a multi-volume work. Orson Welles is one of those exceptions. In Orson Welles, Volume 3: One-Man Band (Viking), the third volume in his epic four-volume survey of Welles’s life and work, the celebrated British actor and writer Simon Callow details one of the most complex artists of the twentieth century, whose glorious triumphs and occasional spectacular failures in film, radio, theater, and television were each marked an individual and wholly original voice. This third volume begins with Welles’ self-exile from America, and his realization that he could function only to his own satisfaction as an independent film maker, a so-called “one-man band.”

Also out this year is Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker's Journey (Thomas Dunne Books) by Harlan Lebo, a study of a singular film masterpiece―of how it was created and how it was almost destroyed.

Everything Alfred Hitchcock

Decades after his last motion picture, Alfred Hitchcock is still regarded by both critics and fans as one of the great filmmakers. His long career ran from the silent era through 1976, the year of his final feature. The Alfred Hitchcock Encyclopedia (Rowman & Littlefield) by Stephen Whitty covers it all―the influences, the early British silent films, the later thrillers, the American television shows, the actors, screenwriters, collaborators, themes, and even the cameos. At 548 pages, it is an impressive work, something one can dip into time and again.

Also out, from the acclaimed literary biographer Peter Ackroyd, comes the curiously titled Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life (Nan A. Talese). At nearly 300 pages, this biography is anything but a gloss on one of the more convoluted directors in film history; but then, Hitch deserves at least three times that number of pages,  so perhaps this is a brief biography after all. Just as the director did in his own films, a handful of iconic film stars make cameo appearances in this book: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, and James Stewart despair of Hitchcock’s detached directing style and, most famously of all, Tippi Hedren endures the cuts and bruises of a real-life flock of birds.

Speaking of Tippi Hedren, the actress has penned Tippi: A Memoir (William Morrow), which looks back at her film career and work as an animal rights activist. There are cameo appearances here as well, including Hedren’s daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, and granddaughter, actress Dakota Johnson.

Everything Laurel & Hardy

Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies (Bonaventure Press) by Randy Skretvedt is a detailed account of how the beloved comedy team made their many classic films. At 632 pages (and with 1,000 photographs, many of them rare), this 8.5” by 11” hardcover work stands as one of the most comprehensive books ever issued on any actor or team of actors.

Also out this year is Laurel and Hardy: The Lobby Cards: A Color Collection (CreateSpace) by I. Joseph Hyatt.

King of Jazz

King of Jazz: Paul Whiteman's Technicolor Revue (Media History Press) by James Layton and David Pierce, with a foreword by Michael Feinstein, tells the story of the making, release, and restoration of Universal's 1930 Technicolor musical extravaganza. Arguably, King of Jazz was one of the most ambitious films ever to emerge from Hollywood: just as movie musicals were being invented in 1929, Universal Pictures unleashed its purse strings to bring together Paul Whiteman, leader of the country's top dance orchestra, John Murray Anderson, director of spectacular Broadway revues, and an elite ensemble of dancers and singers including Bing Crosby in his first screen appearance. And what’s more, it was done  in glorious new Technicolor. King of Jazz is an impressive film—especially seen on the big screen, and so is this sumptuous book, a kind of coda to the author’s remarkable 2015 title, The Dawn of Technicolor: 1915–1935.

For those who want to delve deeper into the genre, also out this year is Unsung Hollywood Musicals of the Golden Era: 50 Overlooked Films and Their Stars, 1929-1939 (McFarland) by Edwin M Bradley.

The Marx Brothers

One of the finest books of the year is Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage (Northwestern University Press) by Robert S. Bader, a recognized authority on the famed band of brothers. Thoroughly researched and highly readable, this 500+ page book tells the story of the foursome’s hardscrabble early years honing their act in front of live audiences. Beginning with Groucho’s debut in 1905, Bader traces the origins of the characters and situations that would later come to be beloved by film goers around the world. In doing so, Bader vividly sketches the world of 1920’s vaudeville as the comedy act was on the brink of fame. 

There have been many books on the Marx Brothers. Bader’s book is one of the best. As Dick Cavett said, “Who would have dreamed that there could be much, much more to learn in still another book about the Marx Brothers? Not I. And yet, Robert Bader—focusing on the under-researched vaudeville days of the hilarious siblings—has gone where no man went before, discovering a treasure trove of Marxiana to delight the hearts and minds of those of us who can never get enough.”

Also recently released are two related titles, Gimme a Thrill: The Story of I'll Say She Is, The Lost Marx Brothers Musical, and How It Was Found (BearManor Media) by Noah Diamond, and That's Me, Groucho! The Solo Career of Groucho Marx (McFarland) by Matthew Coniam. Each are worth checking out. And speaking of theatrical siblings, also out this year is REELS & RIVALS: Sisters in Silent Films (BearManor Media) by Jennifer Ann Redmond.

Two from Academia

These two titles, both published by university presses, are each groundbreaking works which impress not only with the amount of research that has gone into them, but also for their rich detail and readability. Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934 (Rutgers University Press) by Laura Horak examines the history of gender-bending female characters in films from the early 20th century. What’s surprising is that there were hundreds of such films, and that some of them included stars we know today, like Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Katharine Hepburn.

Menus for Movieland: Newspapers and the Emergence of American Film Culture, 1913–1916 (University of California Press) by Richard Abel explores the way one traditional medium aided another then new medium. Abel offers a richly textured view of early film stardom, early film criticism, advertising campaigns, and even fan activities on both the local and national level. Published late last year, this fascinating book is a fascinating read.

In Memoriam

Though it came out late last year and went largely unnoticed, Monty Banks 1920-1924 Filmography (CreateSpace) by Robert S. Birchard with Rob Farr, Robert James Kiss, Steve Massa, Karl Thiede and the great Sam Gill well is worth noting. This slim, self-published volume surveys the career of an underappreciated early comedian and film director. It is also the last book by Birchard, a much admired film historian, film editor, and Cinecon president who passed away earlier this year. Robert Birchard is dead. Long live his many works.

There are many more titles that could have been included in this piece. So many in fact that another piece will follow in a few days. So, don’t touch that dial. And stay tuned for “More Best Films Books of 2016.”

Thomas Gladysz is an arts and entertainment writer who has been contributing to the Huffington Post since 2010. He is also the founding director of the Louise Brooks Society, an online archive and international fan club begun in 1995. Gladysz has written many articles on the actress, and is currently working on The Films of Louise Brooks for a publisher yet to be determined.

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ISTANBUL ― During the past week Istanbul locals have been waiting for snowflakes to appear in the air. It has been a humid November, with winds from the Black Sea increasing temperatures and creating a false sense of spring. Lately, it’s been difficult to tell which season we are inhabiting: a dark and cold one, or one that is still bright and warm. The day after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, the opening of a new museum exhibition was filled with young Turks struggling to make sense of the near 80-degree weather outside. News of the rise of the real estate mogul to the highest political power overseas almost failed to confound in comparison.

These days, it is not unusual to see young Turks in the city turning to art in troubled times. There is an almost palpable feeling of anxiety in Istanbul’s art scene. For some, it has led to depression, fear and melancholy. But for others, it seems to have given energy to the arts much like it did in years past.

'Even if we don't have the power to physically change things, we can find means of survival in our environment.'
Istanbul-based artist Huo Rf

During that very crowded exhibition opening in November, I was amazed by signs of optimism in the faces of young curators and artists, many of whom were irritated by those who had been leaving the country for a life in Europe, after declaring Turkey “unlivable.” In the aftermath of terror attacks by the so-called Islamic State here in the first half of 2016 and the failed coup in July that left hundreds of civilians dead on the streets and the national parliament building bombed, an overwhelming sense of uncertainty has dawned on Istanbul’s once energetic art scene. Many who belonged to it talk about a sense of responsibility to stay in Istanbul and produce new shows; this fresh wave of creativity seems to have become a way of dealing with Turkey’s anxieties.

In her 2012 piece for the New York Times Magazine, Suzy Hansen memorably characterized this notion as “The Istanbul Art-Boom Bubble.” “Istanbul’s art boom won’t last forever,” she predicted. “The economic crisis in the West and political instability in the East have caused the market to soften a bit, gallerists say. More important, perhaps, a majority of the buyers of Turkish art are Turks. And some of those new collectors know very little about art.”

Despite money being poured into the art scene by private institutions in the “art-boom bubble,” it lacked a sense of vitality during the late 2000s. The missing ingredient seems to be arriving now, thanks to the wrenching changes Turkey is going through.

One crucial factor in this transformation is Turkey’s neighbor, Syria. Civil war there has led to a massive exodus of people, and now Istanbul finds itself host to a large number of Syrian refugees. This, in turn, has changed the dynamic in the city as locals and Syrians alike try to figure out how to incorporate one another in everyday society, including in the art world.

Locals and Syrians alike are trying to figure out how to incorporate one another in everyday society, including in the art world.

“Art viewers in Istanbul are becoming more complicated,” leading Turkish curator Vasıf Kortun told me recently while leaving the headquarters of SALT, the artistic research center where he is director of programs. “Nowadays, we have more Arabic speakers than English speakers.”

Some of the new visitors he described are refugees that have fled the neighboring conflict. And now a number of exhibits here are catering to this city’s new reality. Recently, SALT opened “Who Throws Whom Overboard?” a show by Oliver Ressler whose works focus on borders, migration and the Syrian crisis.

Oliver Ressler’s “Emergency Upside Down” (excerpt above) is featured in the artist’s Istanbul exhibit “Who Throws Whom Overboard.”

A few meters away from the packed headquarters of this fancy institution where we were served with great wine and canapés, a Syrian family was sitting on the pavement, struggling to warm themselves. The contrast isn’t lost on me, or on many of the artists trying to depict it.

“We have many Syrian visitors,” Kortun said. “There are lots of conservative ladies inside the gallery space. And that is a good thing. When you look at the top strata of political power, there is constant crisis and chaos. But when you look at all the people who make up Istanbul’s art viewers, they seem like a very curious and increasingly interesting crowd.”

‘When you look at the top strata of political power, there is constant crisis and chaos. But when you look at all the people who make up Istanbul's art viewers, they seem like a very curious and increasingly interesting crowd.’
Turkish curator Vasıf Kortun

The mix of people and their reactions to the art here are telling about the state of mind in the country these days and characteristic of the world outside of government. Literary and journalistic responses to Turkey’s current tribulations have not manifested themselves in quite the same way nor taken the form of great novels or poems or newspaper articles. In contrast, anxieties arising in the country have fueled the art world, rather than destroyed it.

So far the tension in Turkey has not yet created any art movements we can speak of, but it has been quietly changing the way art is displayed and consumed here.

Under the shadow of prospective funding problems, political instability and the unwillingness of foreign artists to travel to Turkey, local museum directors and curators have increased the pressure on their colleagues overseas. The role they’d once been expected to play became one of initiator between the art public here and the artists there. As those abroad watched attack after attack unfold in Turkey and witnessed the coup attempt and the crackdown in its aftermath, many began to shift their attitudes about the country and with it their investment in Turkish art and artists.

It was this sentiment that resulted in some sad developments for Istanbul’s art world. 

The snub from overseas has inspired artists here to create more, to prove to the world why their work should trump terror and tumult.

Not long ago the news came that Turkey had withdrawn from European Union cultural funding program, and starting in 2017, it would no longer receive grants from Creative Europe, art professionals learned. Curators here started receiving worried e-mails from colleagues at international galleries with questions about prospective funding problems for Turkey’s art institutions.

To the art community here, foreigners’ fear of showing art in Istanbul is akin to condescension. But the local artists and curators have reacted to the situation with what seems to me like an offensive against pessimism. The snub from overseas has inspired them to create more, to prove to the world why their work should trump terror and tumult.

”Turkey had been undergoing interesting and difficult times for a while now,” Huo Rf, an exciting new name in Istanbul’s contemporary scene, told me. “I have seen artists who think it will be better to go away and create a new living environment that will be more healthy for them. But I don’t think that can be the solution. Physical detachment would not bring with it an intellectual detachment. You can go as far away as you like, but in your thoughts you wouldn’t go even one centimeter.”

As artists defy reality with creativity, they’ve managed to reach even the minds of those watching Turkey with caution and skepticism.

There was a sense of defiance: those who were scared could remain so if they wished, but in Istanbul, we were here to enjoy art.

On Sept. 22, months after Art International announced that it was canceling this year’s Istanbul edition, New York-based Moving Image Immersive Media opened a special exhibition in Istanbul’s Alt Art, a new space that has become a favorite among locals. “New Realities” displayed works in augmented and virtual reality, including a compelling piece by Turkish artist Deniz Tortum that features a virtually recreated operation room from Istanbul’s Cerrahpaşa Hospital. As VR headset wearing viewers saw “the hospital through machinic vision, through point clouds,” there was a sense of defiance: those who were scared could remain so if they wished, but in Istanbul, we were here to enjoy art.

The same month Pera Museum hosted a show by Brooklyn-based new media artist Katherine Behar. At Borusan Contemporary, a new media museum located by Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait, Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky’s ambitious “Aqua Shock: Selections from the Water Project” show opened its doors to a curious and large crowd. And more recently, Contemporary Istanbul, one of the city’s leading art fairs, brought together the artistic community and made headlines in national newspapers that had largely been dominated by political articles surrounding the coup.

Recording of Deniz Tortum’s “Hospital with One Entrance and Two Exits”

The interest in art, in spite of all that’s gone on here in the last few months, seems to have stuck.

“In the past no columnist used to write about art here,” Kortun, the curator, said. “Today, Turkey’s art world has become a much more visible place, thanks to the phenomenon of the art market.” But this is nothing new for Turkey, he added, just new for this time period. “There is also a thread of anxiety that connects our day to past decades.”

‘One can trace the anxieties of Turkey's Kurds, for example, by looking at contemporary art works produced in the 2000s.’
Hasan Bülent Kahraman, Istanbul-based professor of art philosophy

Hasan Bülent Kahraman, one of the organizers of Contemporary Istanbul and a professor of art philosophy, agreed.

“Anxiety has dominated Turkey for a long time,” he said. “How could it be otherwise in a country where people have long used clandestine relationships to change the political order, either through meticulously planned juntas or revolutionary groups?”

During the 2000s, tension resulted from fears of a regime change ― that Turkey would stop being a republic ― and that reverberated in the art world as well, according to Kahraman.

“People said Turkey would turn into Malaysia or Iran. Such fears grew in the same decade where Turkey’s contemporary art scene really started coming to its own.”

A bit of anxiety harms no one.

“One can trace the anxieties of Turkey’s Kurds, for example, by looking at contemporary art works produced in the 2000s, where using subtle, ironic strategies, they articulated such anxieties in great works of contemporary art,” Kahraman added.

A bit of anxiety harms no one, in other words.

Just like their predecessors, current members of Turkey’s contemporary art scene are learning to master waves of uncertainty that the country’s political atmosphere is presenting them with in these post-coup-attempt days and turning them into something nothing short of spectacular.

“Even if we don’t have the power to physically change things, we can find means of survival in our environment,” Huo Rf said. “And that I can do through producing art. I can only exist by creating art.”  

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Mozart: The Vienna Concert 23 March 1783. Ricercar 2 CDs

On March 23, 1783, an important concert took place in Vienna, where the 27-year old Mozart had resided since 1781. From his Salzburg repertoire, he borrowed the Haffner Symphony, and added the long, heavenly concertante movement for wind instruments from the Posthorn Serenade. The brave C major Piano Concerto K. 415 was there, one of the composer's favorites, along with arias from his operas Idomeneo and Lucio Silla, plus overtures and various vocal and instrumental pieces.

Placed in the middle of Mozart at his most infectious public self sits the curiously alien Gigue K. 574 which he reportedly improvised while playing at Bach's organ in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig in 1789 (the chronology for the recording is fanciful is some of its details, but somehow it is authentic nonetheless).

Based in the Wallonian capital of Namur, the Millenium Orchestra conducted by Leonardo Garcia Alarcón, have mimicked this historic concert, "so that the listener can rediscover this monumental night as if they were there." The earthy yet sophisticated performances catch the core of Mozart that has lasted across four centuries, through times of peace and war.

Charpentier: Pastorale de Noël. Harmonia Mundi CD

Marc Antoine Charpentier's lovely Pastorale de Noël recreates Christmas Eve as it was celebrated in France during the reign of Louis XIV. Charpentier's depiction of the shepherds' vision of the angel, and their pilgrimage to the manger in Bethlehem, is simultaneously exquisitely charming, authentically fervent and naively luscious in a precursor of the Marie Antoinette style. The Lyons-based L'Ensemble Correspondances takes its name from Baudelaire's poem singing of the intercourse between music and life.

Vivarte: The Collection, Vol. 2. Sony Classical 60 CDs, boxed

Sony Classical have unleashed the second of their boxed sets devoted to the groundbreaking Vivarte series, which launched in 1989 and blazed thrilling trails under the leadership of Wolf Erichson. The music ranges from Brumel to Boccherini to Brahms, from 9th century liturgical hymns to the madrigals of Lasso and the masses of Schubert.

The players features the names that made the world safe for early music, like Anner Bylsma, Gustav Leonhardt, Jos van Immerseel, Jeanne Lamon, Bruno Weil and ensembles like Tafelmusik, Archibudelli, Mozzafiato, the Huelgas Ensemble and the Vienna Boys Choir in five of Schubert's Masses. The dedication and sense of mission that Erichson, the musicians and productions teams he worked with poured into making these recordings can still be heard today, when familiarity with these periods and their complexity of styles, has become more widely known if not more fully understood.

The 60 CDs, each in a paper sleeve with the original artwork of the former CDs, are accompanied by a 240-page booklet with the invaluable original liner notes for each recording. The price of basically $1 a disc is astounding.

The Musical Splendors of Versailles. Alpha 10 CDs, boxed

Versailles is remembered for its court, its atmosphere, its music, and the splendor which defined a moment in time with an incomparably rich cultural history. The works associated with the palace have travelled down the centuries, and today represent a precious part of the Western music tradition. In this release, Alpha retraces the musical life of the unique and luminous universe of Versailles in recordings made 1999-2013 including highly-acclaimed performances by Café Zimmermann in harpsichord pieces and arias by Lully, Céline Frisch in d'Anglebert, a selection of delectable mindless divertissements by Skip Sempé and Capriccio Stravagante, and all sorts of te deums and requiems by Lully and Charpentier.

Castles of the Loire: Royal Court Music During the Renaissance. Harmonia Mundi 2 CDs

The music at the glorious chateaux of the Loire Valley in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when they were vacation homes of kings and showcases for French cultural and musical life, comes to vivid life in the label's sumptuous new Resonances: Music & Monuments packaging, which includes a seductive timeline, a colorful fold-out map, a 20-page English booklet and two CDs worth of some of the label's greatest ever recordings, made in the glorious years from 1984 to 1994.

Today, the chateaux are historic landmarks and permanent symbols of French Renaissance splendor, many of which continue to resound with music of the period, thanks to a cultural destination industry that has rediscovered this repertory. This program is an evocation of the pleasures, festivities, hunts and dances that graced the days and nights of the court of France, and of the joyous life that reigned there for decades.

On Wars and Royal Banquets, the Broadside Band and Jeremy Barlow entertain with infectious, actually danceable dances, the Ensemble Clément Jannequin regales with a battle mass and chansons set to the poetry of Pierre Ronsard. On the second, A Feast with Rabelais, there is an appetizing selection of more chansons and instrumental pieces from the first half of the 16th century.

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The golem can look back on a long career, in Judiasm and far beyond. Its story begins in the Hebrew Bible and continues, in constantly new transformations, into the present day. The ancient human dream of creating artificial beings connects with today's world: genetic technology and artificial intelligence, computers and robots. All these endeavours to create a kind of golem.
--Peter Schäfer, Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin

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