Post by davidhr on May 25, 2010 11:01:00 GMT -5
Attention this past week turned to the beginning of the filming for ‘Mme. Zhivago’, which started in Lvov, Ukraine. As you’ve probably seen, there are many photos of the initial scenes, as well as some videos on youtube of the filming process – larafabiannews.com has some of the best. Lara looks especially pretty. Thanks go to Christina and the Russian/Ukranian fans for providing this material– it’s wonderful to be kept up to date. No thanks at all to the official site (except for the forum that allows fans to make their contributions) – as one fan noted, the official site should have provided a live link to the news conference held yesterday, rather than failing to mention it at all (there is no official indication on the site that Lara is doing anything currently).
We have some information on what took place at the news conference, but, at least at this point, 24 hours later, not very much. Combined with what has been written previously, here is a brief summary, similar to info made available by Christina in the Greek Music Book - English version. The film, which consists of 11 or 12 vignettes, is costing $2.5 million, provided by Universal Music France. The vignettes do parallel the songs in the album ‘Mme Zhivago’, for which Lara wrote the lyrics to Igor Krutoi’s music. In each, Lara is “accompanied by our eternal companions, Life and Death” - the first episode has her meeting a lover who is tragically killed on his way to her. As indicated by this plot, each segment will have love as a central theme but subject to the twists of fate. From Lvov, the movie crew will then go on to other cities in the Ukraine, especially Kiev, and additional filming will take place (depending on what you read) in other European countries, the Egyptian desert, and New Zealand (hard to imagine it can go to many exotic locales on this relative meager budget). The aim is for the filming to be completed by the end of June, with the movie ready by October or November (hence pretty similar to the timing of the album’s release); at that point a decision will be made whether to show it at film festivals world-wide.
There is no doubt that for Lara the projects (album and movie) with Igor are a big role of the dice. If successful, they can open up Lara’s horizons to a newly revived international career as a singer and a new career as an actress. The worst case scenario is that both album and film are basically ignored by the international audience. She is throwing herself fully into this project – even to the point of having both Lou and Gerard there with her!
There are still numerous questions concerning this enterprise, questions that perhaps cannot be answered until everybody concerned sees how the potential audience responds. It is a curious decision for Universal Music France to produce a movie associated with an album that won’t be released in France (at least initially). The album looks like it will be a Universal Music Russia production; will it be available in other European and also North American countries through their Universal affiliates? Will Lara have an international tour to promote the album/film?
If this works, Lara’s career will be greatly rejuvenated – let’s hope for the best!
The other news of consequence was that the problems Lara has had in Quebec with the distribution of TLFM appear to have been worked out. This then clears the way for all her new albums/DVD/movie there, as well. The agreement was signaled by the release in Quebec of ‘Soleil Soleil’ as the first single, and the press announcement that the album TLFM will be available in mid-September. It was also stated that Lara will be in Quebec this fall to present the new album to the media, although a concert was not specifically mentioned (and is probably unlikely, given the magnitude of effort involved in the full TLFM production). Whatever is done in that country will have to be quick, given the expected push for Mme. Zhivago later in the fall, not to mention whatever promo may be planned for the release of the live TLFM DVD in France in September.
Last week it was noted that if TLFM stayed on the Belgian charts for one more week it would move into third place in duration of all of Lara’s albums. Well, it did, improving to #67, a gain of 7 places. Amazing staying power in that country for one of her most criticized albums.
For those of you who have tried and failed to access Hezia’s ‘Carpe Diem’ forum, apparently it is still in existence, just having technical problems. (Laetitia on larafabianweb.com had suggested that she thought it had closed.) However, the fact that Hezia was informed of these problems back in mid-March, and they still exist, may mean that Laetitia is effectively correct. If so, too bad – this was perhaps the most enthusiastic of Lara’s sites. Even larafabianweb.com is having difficulties – they’ve organized a new contest for Lara, and have had very few respondents.
Lara’s week continues with more filming. Presumably she will become fully acquainted with the process of spending hours waiting for a few minutes of live action, then waiting once again. Some fans suggested she did not look all that happy in the backstage clips available but she already had a taste of this with ‘DeLovely’. At least in this case, she’ll be on film for more than 20 seconds!
David
We have some information on what took place at the news conference, but, at least at this point, 24 hours later, not very much. Combined with what has been written previously, here is a brief summary, similar to info made available by Christina in the Greek Music Book - English version. The film, which consists of 11 or 12 vignettes, is costing $2.5 million, provided by Universal Music France. The vignettes do parallel the songs in the album ‘Mme Zhivago’, for which Lara wrote the lyrics to Igor Krutoi’s music. In each, Lara is “accompanied by our eternal companions, Life and Death” - the first episode has her meeting a lover who is tragically killed on his way to her. As indicated by this plot, each segment will have love as a central theme but subject to the twists of fate. From Lvov, the movie crew will then go on to other cities in the Ukraine, especially Kiev, and additional filming will take place (depending on what you read) in other European countries, the Egyptian desert, and New Zealand (hard to imagine it can go to many exotic locales on this relative meager budget). The aim is for the filming to be completed by the end of June, with the movie ready by October or November (hence pretty similar to the timing of the album’s release); at that point a decision will be made whether to show it at film festivals world-wide.
There is no doubt that for Lara the projects (album and movie) with Igor are a big role of the dice. If successful, they can open up Lara’s horizons to a newly revived international career as a singer and a new career as an actress. The worst case scenario is that both album and film are basically ignored by the international audience. She is throwing herself fully into this project – even to the point of having both Lou and Gerard there with her!
There are still numerous questions concerning this enterprise, questions that perhaps cannot be answered until everybody concerned sees how the potential audience responds. It is a curious decision for Universal Music France to produce a movie associated with an album that won’t be released in France (at least initially). The album looks like it will be a Universal Music Russia production; will it be available in other European and also North American countries through their Universal affiliates? Will Lara have an international tour to promote the album/film?
If this works, Lara’s career will be greatly rejuvenated – let’s hope for the best!
The other news of consequence was that the problems Lara has had in Quebec with the distribution of TLFM appear to have been worked out. This then clears the way for all her new albums/DVD/movie there, as well. The agreement was signaled by the release in Quebec of ‘Soleil Soleil’ as the first single, and the press announcement that the album TLFM will be available in mid-September. It was also stated that Lara will be in Quebec this fall to present the new album to the media, although a concert was not specifically mentioned (and is probably unlikely, given the magnitude of effort involved in the full TLFM production). Whatever is done in that country will have to be quick, given the expected push for Mme. Zhivago later in the fall, not to mention whatever promo may be planned for the release of the live TLFM DVD in France in September.
Last week it was noted that if TLFM stayed on the Belgian charts for one more week it would move into third place in duration of all of Lara’s albums. Well, it did, improving to #67, a gain of 7 places. Amazing staying power in that country for one of her most criticized albums.
For those of you who have tried and failed to access Hezia’s ‘Carpe Diem’ forum, apparently it is still in existence, just having technical problems. (Laetitia on larafabianweb.com had suggested that she thought it had closed.) However, the fact that Hezia was informed of these problems back in mid-March, and they still exist, may mean that Laetitia is effectively correct. If so, too bad – this was perhaps the most enthusiastic of Lara’s sites. Even larafabianweb.com is having difficulties – they’ve organized a new contest for Lara, and have had very few respondents.
Lara’s week continues with more filming. Presumably she will become fully acquainted with the process of spending hours waiting for a few minutes of live action, then waiting once again. Some fans suggested she did not look all that happy in the backstage clips available but she already had a taste of this with ‘DeLovely’. At least in this case, she’ll be on film for more than 20 seconds!
David