Francisco reviews the Tom Hanks character study of Fred Rogers, whose work in Public Television transformed children’s learning about life, and defines what “great” means as a descriptive term for film.
No Comments on A Beautiful Day in the NeighborhoodLegendary film director Martin Scorsese’s recent N.Y. Times Op-Ed essay explains why he said that Marvel Movies aren’t cinema. Francisco clarifies the definition by illustrating two criteria that only cinema possesses.
No Comments on Martin Scorsese and the Two Ingredients of CinemaOf all the qualities that audiences enjoy from film, character transformation is rarely considered, even though it is what marks all great films. Francisco discusses how the destruction of vulnerability is the chief feature of a great film character’s arc.
No Comments on “Joker” — Film as Behavioral PsychoanalysisFrancisco provides a rare follow-up to his last podcast about success and fulfillment. In this podcast, he examines the cross-disciplinary definition of success beyond mere financial attainment. The socio-historical content of success in the end is not as important as the potential to reach the public and connect with them in a way that resonates and provides value. Whether it is Kim Kardashian, Walter Benjamin, or Galileo, the resonance of the work has served as a kind of Cassandra, even if the tragedy of success is that it might be for posterity and not for the present day.
No Comments on Left and Right Brain Success CriteriaFrancisco compares two very different persons on how they visualized success and the contrasting degree to which accomplished it.
No Comments on Success and/or FulfillmentOne burden of being a genius is apparently turbocharging the brain. Francisco recalls his connection to Rosalind Krauss, genius of art history, Quincy Jones, genius of musical production, and Glenn Gould, genius of piano performance, and how all three touched him, while they suffered from brain aneurysms or strokes.
No Comments on From Quincy Jones to Glenn GouldStanley Kubrick built a legacy of impeccably produced films, most of which were realized because of his assistant, Leon Vitali, whose story of servitude and devotion is captured in the documentary, “Filmworker,” explored here by Francisco, who finds that the more he likes Vitali, the less he cares for Kubrick.
No Comments on “Filmworker” – as Film, as Factotum, and as BurdenFrancisco takes in a new film about an old assassination conspiracy that leads down an endless rabbit hold to a host of other international conspiracies.
No Comments on Cold CaseHammarskjöld: a Surreal Documentary of a Surreal Conspiracy
From the art and film world of author, director, and musician Francisco Ricardo, Ph.D.
David Amram’s Loving Tribute to Arturo Sandoval December 3, 2019
Recently the legendary composer, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, and author David Amram celebrated his 89th birthday with his usual youthful love of music, memory, and friendship at the Zebulon Cafe in Los Angeles and our cameras were lucky to capture the evening magic. Here is a small tribute to the great Arturo Sandoval, whom David met in Dizzy Gillespie’s historic voyage to Havana in 1977. David plays a composition he had written while on the voyage from New Orleans to Cuba, and here dedicates it to Arturo. Enjoy!
Amram Video