14 June 2005
Tuesday 14 June 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Sartre - Antonioni - Cunningham - question, celebrate and savour with Matthew Sweet in Night Waves. And, in the second of the Pictures of Britain series, the writer David Lodge reveals how Birmingham inspires his novels.
Programme Details
Intellect, beauty and grace - or put another way Jean Paul Sartre, Michelangelo Antonioni and Merce Cunningham. This evening on Night Waves Matthew Sweet will be engaging with the achievement of all three. Sartre was born a hundred years ago this month, so what better time to ask whether one of the most dynamic and innovative minds of the 20th century still has something to say to us in the early years of the 21st. The opening of a month long season of Antonioni's films at the NFT offers a similar opportunity for reassessment. Why, for example, has one of the great names of the cinema in the 60s fallen so out of fashion? Can we really live without L'Avventura, The Passenger and Zabriskie Point ?
Then there's the evergreen Merce Cunningham who has been one of the stars of the dance world for more than forty years. This week his company began a series of five performances at the Barbican in London, and as ever visual artists and musicians are performing alongside the dancers. There'll be a rare interview with the choreographer himself.
Also in the programme Matthew will be talking to the winner of this year's Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction and as part of the BBC's A Picture of Britain season, the writer, David Lodge, will be sharing his affection for the city he now calls home - Birmingham.
Night Waves, live at 9.30pm here on BBC Radio 3
Presenter: Matthew Sweet
Producer: Zahid Warley
Additional Information :
1) The Michelangelo Antonioni Season is at the National Film Theatre in London from June 1-30.
2) Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Events run at the Barbican in London from Tuesday 14 June to Sunday 19 June.
3) Details of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/four
