Entertainment blogging from The Oklahoman's Brandy McDonnell

Photo Slam to showcase 12 Oklahoma photographers Thursday at Oklahoma City Museum of Art

That’s what the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition are going for with their Photo Slam, a speedy showcase of 12 Oklahoma artists planned for Thursday night at the museum.

“It’s like a poetry slam, a story slam, the idea of a slam, where it’s like a real high-energy, fast-paced discussion,” said Chandra Boyd, the museum’s senior associate curator of education.

“The idea is that each photographer has five minutes to present their work, and they can do that in any format. … If they go over the five minutes, they get gonged. It’s fun to see the photographers’ personalities come out. They really get into this opportunity to tell about their work.”

Dynamic presentation

The Photo Slam doesn’t follow the typical art lecture format, said OVAC Associate Director Kelsey Karper.

Along with dynamic and competitive poetry slams, she said Photo Slam is inspired by PechaKucha, a presentation style developed in Tokyo in 2003. A kind of show-and-tell version of an open mike, PechaKucha — which translates roughly to “chit-chat” in Japanese — is aimed at architects and other creative types, who showcase their work and ideas in 20 images, each shown for just 20 seconds.

“It’s a way to give a presentation that’s more interesting, fast-moving and entertaining, so that’s the format that you get. But there’s a very strict time limit,” Karper said.

“We were taking these ideas from different types of really engaging presentation styles, and we kind of melded them together to come up with the Photo Slam.”

She’s not kidding about the strict time limit: Photographers who go over the time limit really will hear someone really bang a gong.

“We do encourage the artists to use their five minutes creatively. In the past, we’ve had people incorporate music. We had one photographer who went through the theater and hid things under everyone’s seats,” Karper said. “We’ve actually even had the presenting photographer taking pictures of the audience during their presentation … so I’m excited to see what this year’s group will do.”

Oklahoma showcase

The museum and OVAC served up their first Photo Slam in 2008, and Thursday’s event will mark the third installment. The slams typically are offered in conjunction with a photography exhibition at the museum. “Herb Ritts: Beauty & Celebrity,” an exhibit of 80 black-and-white images by the legendary portrait photographer, opened last week at the museum and shows there through July 28.

Carlos Knight, art director at This Land Press, selected the dozen Photo Slam participants from a pool of applicants. Oklahoma City photographer Rex Barrett will be the master of ceremonies for the juried showcase.

The 12 chosen photographers — Lucia Martinez, Wendy Mutz, Kurt Nagy, Zach Nash, Ben Pendleton, all of Oklahoma City; Natalie Slater and Chad Clark, both of Tulsa; Sarah Engel Barnett, Norman; Summer Lu, Weatherford; Thomas Tucker, Edmond; Crystal Walters, Pryor; and Reginna Zhidov Chickasha — come from around the state and have varying degrees of photography experience.” from students to pros.

“It’s any level, it’s anyone who’s aspiring or accomplished. So “I think that’s the really fun part. You’ve got like professional photographers up against people who are hobbyists,” Boyd said.

“This is really their chance to get into the museum and fill the auditorium with people who are also photo enthusiasts. … We’ve had really good attendance in the past. I think by partnering with Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, they are good to help us really connect to the art community in a way that we normally don’t get to do.”

In addition, the 12 participants work in varying styles, techniques and subject matters. Traditional photographs, iPhone shots and photo manipulations are expected to be included.

“It is limited to photography, but within photography, there’s all these variations in different styles and ways of working and photographic methods,” Karper said. “That’s part of what makes it really interesting.”

The gong doesn’t hurt, either.

GOING ON

Photo Slam

When: 7 p.m. Thursday.

Where: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive.

Admission: Free. Admission to the rest of the museum is $5 after 5 p.m. Thursdays.

Information: www.ovac-ok.org or www.okcmoa.com.

-BAM

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Video: “Herb Ritts: Beauty and Celebrity” photography exhibit opens at Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Herb Ritts may not be a household name, but much of the art he created has become ingrained in popular culture.

“Chances are you’ve seen his work and you just don’t know it,” said Sandy Cotton, development director for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, where the special exhibition “Herb Ritts: Beauty and Celebrity” opened this week.

The 80 black-and-white photos in the exhibit depict notable personalities from the worlds of film, fashion, music, art, sports and politics.

“Beauty and Celebrity” includes Ritts’ portraits of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Axl Rose, Christopher Reeve, Matthew McConaughey, Dale Chihuly, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Nelson Mandela, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, among others.

“Herb Ritts became woven immediately into American culture in the 1980s and ‘90s because of so many magazine covers and magazine editorials, fashion advertisements, commercials and also music videos. So he not only created fine art photography, but also had a very successful commercial side to his photography, one that was easily disseminated throughout culture,” said Jennifer Klos, associate curator at the museum.

“(He was) extremely influential. Herb Ritts created and propelled his own style.”

In this NewsOK video, Angi Bruss talks to Klos about the exhibit. To read more about the new show, click here.

-BAM

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Bryan Adams’ and Herb Ritts’ celebrity photographs by on view in Oklahoma City

“It’s not something I’ve ever asked anyone, nor would I,” Adams said in an email interview from his home near London.

But look at the portraits in his “Exposed” exhibit at Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center and it’s easy to see the Grammy-winning rock star has a knack for capturing candid, insightful images of fellow celebrities, including the late Amy Winehouse, Victoria Beckham, Mick Jagger, Lindsay Lohan, Kate Moss, Danny Trejo, Pink, Mickey Rourke, Sir Ben Kingsley and Queen Elizabeth II.

In that respect, Adams’ photographs can be likened to iconic images taken by the late, great Herb Ritts, renowned for his innovative and intimate portraits of Madonna, Richard Gere, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Christopher Reeve, Matthew McConaughey, Dale Chihuly, Michael Jordan, Nelson Mandela, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

Many of the California artist’s photos of famed faces are featured in the new exhibit “Herb Ritts: Beauty and Celebrity” at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

“Herb Ritts grew up in Brentwood and was neighbors with Steve McQueen, so he was very familiar and felt comfortable with this idea of celebrity. He saw these as his friends. He didn’t see them as anything different than (other people). He was very familiar with celebrity culture,” said Jennifer Klos, associate curator at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

“He’s a self-taught photographer, so when he began taking photographs in the very early part of his career, he truly was taking snapshots of his local surroundings, that being Los Angeles and celebrities. Yet it became something that he was a quite a natural with an innate sense of having a good eye. “He had the eye to determine how to see everyone in their most true, beautiful sense.”

Celebrity culture

With the rise of gossip blogs and tabloids, people are bombarded by celebrity photos nowadays. But the portraits by Ritts and Adams are a far cry from the paparazzi pics and cell phone snapshots we often see of today’s musicians, actors and sports stars.

“People are fascinated by celebrity culture. … Even over the past 20 to 30 years, images of celebrity are disseminated in a very quick way now with the Internet and digital photography. But Herb Ritts really predates the very heightened digital photography world,” Klos said. “He was still embracing the traditions of photography that have been respected in the field of art history since the beginning of photography. He had an ability to capture life in a very realistic, quick moment in time.

“What we see today is almost a heightened saturation of celebrity. Many of these images would have been in magazines — in truly the physical form of a magazine cover on the newsstand. But I think the way people see them (celebrity photos) today probably also came about due to some of the talent of Herb Ritts.” and many others through the 1980s and ‘90s.”

Ritts, who died in 2002 at age 50, took a classical approach to his portraits. He preferred to work in black and white and take his photos outdoors using natural light. He is known for his clean, graphic style and strong compositions.

But he embraced the modern methods of the day to circulate his work. The intimate publicity photos he shot of Richard Gere at a San Bernardino gas station in 1978 launched Ritts’ career after they appeared in several top magazines.

“Herb Ritts became woven immediately into American culture in the 1980s and ‘90s because of so many magazine covers and magazine editorials, fashion advertisements, commercials and also music videos,” So he not only created fine art photography, but also had a very successful commercial side to his photography, one that was easily disseminated throughout culture,” Klos said.

One of the exhibit’s key images is the portrait Ritts took of Madonna for her “True Blue” album cover. He also worked with the superstar in her “Cherish” video and directed the indelible videos for Janet Jackson’s “Love Will Never Do (Without You),” Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” and Michael Jackson’s “In the Closet.”

Klos said the “True Blue” cover photo, a dramatic profile shot that Ritts took about 60 rolls of film to get, became iconic for a reason.

“It’s the idea that she is sort of strong, feminine, yet masculine at the same time. But “She is really evoking a single moment in time. You can almost see her extending her neck, creating this suggestion of her music. And I think that’s what has captivated viewers of this photograph since then, that you can almost feel the energy,” Klos said.

Relaxed portraits

About a dozen years ago, Adams took up a camera with an eye toward shooting his own album covers and wound up with a second career as a professional photographer. His OKC exhibit, which closes May 17, features photos he’s done for magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire and Interview.

“I always let people be themselves. Sometimes I have a set which can be useful to play with, or an interesting location, but the best photos I think are the simplest ones,” he wrote in his email.

With a cigarette dangling from her crimson-colored lips, Lindsay Lohan regards the camera with a rebellious sideways look. Fashion designer/Spice Girl Victoria Beckham manages to look the saucy sophisticate even perched on an inelegant-looking bicycle. A large-scale black-and-white photo of Mick Jagger showcases the Rolling Stone frontman’s larger-than-life persona.

“He’s really developed as a photographer over the last 10 years and he’s now very self-assured, I think, of what he does. And he knows a lot of these people. I think that helps so much because they’re at ease when they’re with him,” said Oklahoma Contemporary Executive Director Mary Ann Prior.

“They’re not haphazard moments. They really are all staged, but the people are relaxed and it doesn’t look in any ways forced.”

ON EXHIBIT

“Bryan Adams: Exposed”

When: Through May 17.

Where: Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center (formerly City Arts Center), State Fair Park, 3000 General Pershing Blvd.

“Last Look”: 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday.

Information: 951-0000 or www.oklahomacontemporary.org.

“Herb Ritts: Beauty and Celebrity.”

When: Through July 28.

Where: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive.

Information: 236-3100 or www.okcmoa.com.

-BAM

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“Herb Ritts: Beauty and Celebrity” photo exhibit opens at Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Herb Ritts may not be a household name, but much of the art he created has become ingrained in popular culture.

“Chances are you’ve seen his work and you just don’t know it,” said Sandy Cotton, development director for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, where the special exhibition “Herb Ritts: Beauty and Celebrity” opens to the public Thursday.

Take, for instance, the 15-foot banner of Madonna hanging outside the museum, which will look familiar to anyone who owns or once owned the singer’s “True Blue,” one of the top-selling albums of the 1980s. The black-and-white silver gelatin print “Madonna (True Blue Profile)” is one of 80 large-scale photos included in the new exhibit.

“Herb Ritts became woven immediately into American culture in the 1980s and ‘90s because of so many magazine covers and magazine editorials, fashion advertisements, commercials and also music videos. So he not only created fine art photography, but also had a very successful commercial side to his photography, one that was easily disseminated throughout culture,” said Jennifer Klos, associate curator at the museum.

“(He was) extremely influential. Herb Ritts created and propelled his own style.”

Celebrity culture

The black-and-white photos in the exhibit depict notable personalities from the worlds of film, fashion, music, art, sports and politics. Along with Madonna, “Beauty and Celebrity” includes Ritts’ portraits of including Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Axl Rose, Christopher Reeve, Matthew McConaughey, Dale Chihuly, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Nelson Mandela, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

Growing up in Brentwood, Calif., Ritts was neighbors with actor Steve McQueen. The self-taught photographer worked primarily in Southern California and launched his career with the intimate publicity photos of Richard Gere he shot in 1978 at a gas station in San Bernardino.

“He probably knew and grew up from a very young age sort of understanding the idea that fame or celebrity was really a byproduct of their business in Los Angeles. That happened to be their job. But he saw through to the very personal side of all of his subjects. And I think it was that true sense of connection that he was able to make with his subjects that rendered the most beautiful and natural photographs of these individuals,” Klos said.

Ritts preferred to work with natural light and in black and white, emphasizing bold shapes and compositions and spotlighting the beauty of the human form.

“Light is the key to enhancing the depth of his subjects, and it was really important to how Herb Ritts embodied the life of Southern California and the natural light that he had in Los Angeles. He focused on ‘The Golden Hour,’ which was mid-afternoon from about 3 to 6 p.m. He preferred photographing his subjects outdoors. He often photographed them on the beach, in the desert, and even on the roof terrace of his Hollywood studio,” Klos said.

“With the natural light, it allowed him to truly focus on enhancing the texture of his subjects, whether it be the sand on the beach or the shadows being reflected from the surrounding architectural or the reflections of water.”

Human beauty

Ritts’ portraits convey the strength and sensuality, fluidity and energy, of the human form. For instance, he photographed dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones in the nude in a monumental frieze, a series of images that capture the subject in various dance moves, illustrating the power and grace of the human body.

“Herb Ritts’ image of the human form becomes almost an embodiment of classical sculpture,” Klos said. “I think he wanted to capture people at a very single moment in time, whether it be in a poignant moment or a moment of heightened energy and emotion and optimism. … Whether they were models or whether they were celebrities, they were their true essence.”

While the exhibit features many of Ritts’ iconic images of famous folks, it also spans his career and includes rare photos from his 1990s Africa and “Corp et Ames” series. In 1993, the artist took a personal trip to East Africa and became enamored with photographing the Maasai people.

“It’s a look at the essence of beauty without the undertones of fame and celebrity,” Klos said. “Here you have Herb Ritts outside of his environment of Southern California yet very much inspired by some of the same natural elements … and focusing on the human body and its role in nature.”

Also, the Oklahoma City museum is the first-ever venue to exhibit photos from Ritts’ 1999 “Corp et Ames” series, featuring dancers from the San Francisco Ballet. The title is French for “heart and soul,” and the photos were originally commissioned by French Vogue, which ran about eight of the more than 45 images he included in the series.

“The editors felt that they would like ballet dancers to evoke the sculpture quality of the fashion,” Klos said. “What we’ll see here is truly a very unique series that has never been on view before … “Herb Ritts was very proud of this series and it was one he wanted to build upon before his death.”

Ritts died in 2002 at the age of 50.

“Herb Ritts passed away truly at the height of his career. He left an indelible imprint on American culture,” Klos said. “Whether he intended it or not, his images did end up shaping a generation.”

ON EXHIBIT

“Herb Ritts: Beauty and Celebrity.”

When: Thursday-July 28.

Where: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive.

Information: 236-3100 or www.okcmoa.com.

Exhibit events:

Preview Lecture with Mark McKenna, Executive Director of the Herb Ritts Foundation: 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Members’ Preview: 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Teacher Workshop: 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. (Pre-registration required)

Photo Slam (co-presented with Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition): 7 p.m. May 16

Drop-in Drawing: 2 to 4 p.m. June 1.

Making Memories (special event for caregivers and loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia: 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. June 10. (Pre-registration required)

Drop-in Art (Presented with the support of Bank of America) of celebrity collages: 1 to 4 p.m. June 15.

Lecture with Charles Churchward, author of “The Golden Hour”: 6:30 p.m. June 19.

Curator Talk with Associate Curator Jennifer Klos: 1 p.m. July 28.

-BAM

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2013 summer movie preview: “Iron Man 3,” “Man of Steel,” “Star Trek into Darkness” and more on the slate for blockbuster season

As usual, the Hollywood studios are rolling out their potential blockbusters as the year heats up. Building on popular movie myths is a big part of their plans, with sequels to “Iron Man,” “Star Trek” and “300” mixing it up with the Superman reboot “Man of Steel,” the “Monsters, Inc.” prequel “Monsters University and a new incarnation of “The Lone Ranger.”

“Iron Man 3” already seems to have the summer off to a marvelous start: The superhero sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. got a head-start on its domestic launch this Friday with a $195.3 million opening in 42 overseas markets last weekend.

That topped the $185.1 million start for Marvel’s “The Avengers,” which opened in 39 markets over the same weekend last year a week ahead of its record-breaking domestic debut of $207.4 million.

To ensure there’s a little something for all movie lovers — and perhaps to cut down on simulated explosions — the studios are even rolling out a few comedies, dramas and romances this season. Just remember to check your local listings, as release dates occasionally move around.

Today

“Iron Man 3”

Robert Downey Jr. slips back into the heavy metal suit of Iron Man to play billionaire playboy Tony Stark for the fourth time (or fifth, counting an “Incredible Hulk” cameo). This time, Shane Black takes the director’s seat to helm the superhero’s battle against Marvel Comics baddie the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts and Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine also return. Jon Favreau, who directed the series’ first two installments, will appear as Stark’s driver, Happy Hogan.

“Disconnect”

Jason Bateman, Paul Patton and Alexander Skarsgard are among the stars of this drama centered on a group of people searching for human connections in today’s wired world. Norman native Mickey Liddell is among the film’s producers.

May 4

“Aquí y allá (Here and There)”

After working in the United States for years, a family man (Pedro De los Santos) returns home to his small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico, and finds his daughters and circumstances have changed. In Spanish and Nahuatl with English subtitles, the film plays Saturday and Sunday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

May 9

“To the Wonder”

Filmed in and around Bartlesville, Pawhuska and Tulsa — and Mont Saint-Michel, Manche, France — by reclusive and enigmatic film director Terrence Malick (“Days of Heaven,” “The Tree of Life”), this potential awards-grabber stars Olga Kurylenko as Marina and Ben Affleck as Neil, a couple who meet in France and move to Oklahoma to start a life together, but find complications when Neil renews a relationship with his childhood sweetheart Jane (Rachel McAdams). Javier Bardem co-stars as a priest struggling with his vocation. The film plays Thursday through May 12 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

May 10

“The Great Gatsby”

The fifth attempt to adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most celebrated novel to film stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role of the enigmatic, nouveau riche playboy; Tobey Maguire as the Long Island neighbor, Nick Carraway, who is drawn into Gatsby’s dangerously decadent world; and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, Carraway’s cousin and Gatsby’s old flame. The 1920s-period drama is directed and cowritten for the screen by “Moulin Rouge!” helmer Baz Luhrmann.

“Peeples”

In this comedy, an average guy (Chris Robinson, “Hot Tub Time Machine”) travels to the Hamptons to meet his girlfriend’s (Kerry Washington, “Django Unchained”) preppy family and tries to impress her father, a federal judge (David Alan Grier, TV’s “In Living Color”).

May 17

“Star Trek into Darkness”

J.J. Abrams (“Lost”) returns to direct the second post-reboot “Trek” film, featuring Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock. Benedict Cumberbatch (“Sherlock”) is on board as a mysterious villain. In the film, the Enterprise is called back to Earth after a terrorist act, but Kirk strikes out on his own on a manhunt to capture a destructive force. The sequel opens May 15 in IMAX.

“Blancanieves”

Spain’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for 2012 centers on a 1920s female bullfighter, puts a twist on the Snow White legend and pays homage to silent films. It screens May 17-19 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

May 22

“Wagner & Me”

To mark Richard Wagner’s 200^th birthday on May 22, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is showing this documentary, in which English actor and raconteur Stephen Fry delves into his passion for the music of history’s most controversial composer.

May 23

“Renoir”

Renowned Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet), in deteriorating health at age 74, and his son Jean (Vincent Rottiers), recovering from injuries suffered in World War I, both become enchanted with the free-spirited Andree (Christa Theret), a young beauty who becomes the artist’s last model. The period family drama, set in 1915 on the French Riviera, will show May 23-May 26 and May 30-June 2 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

May 24

“Fast & Furious 6”

Agent Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) recruits Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker) to help bring down a team of high-octane thieves led by former special ops soldier Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and director Justin Lin return for the latest souped-up sequel in the long-running action series.

“The Hangover Part III”

The “Wolf Pack” reunites to console Alan (Zach Galifianakis) over a death in the family, and the party reignites in Las Vegas and accelerates in Tijuana. Todd Phillips directs and cowrites again, and Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha are back in their cups, as well.

“Epic”

Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Colin Farrell, Pitbull, Steven Tyler and Beyonce Knowles lend their voices to the animated fantasy tale from “Ice Age” co-director Chris Wedge.

“Before Midnight”

Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and director Richard Linklater reunite for the third film in their romantic drama trilogy, which picks up in Greece nine years after the events of “Before Sunset” and almost two decades after their first meeting in “Before Sunrise.”

“At Any Price”

Writer-director Ramin Bahrani’s (“Goodbye Solo”) family drama is set in the high-stakes world of modern agriculture. Dennis Quaid stars as an ambitious Iowa farmer longing to expand his family empire with the help of his reluctant and rebellious son (Zac Efron), who wants to become a professional race car driver.

May 31

“Now You See Me”

A group of renegade magicians (played by Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher and Morgan Freeman, among others) are tracked by the FBI after they stage a series of bank heists and reward their audiences with the spoils. “Now You See Me” also stars Woody Harrelson, Melanie Laurent (“Inglourious Basterds”) and Dave Franco, and is directed by Louis Leterrier (“Clash of the Titans”).

“After Earth”

A father and son — Will Smith and his real-life progeny Jaden Smith — crash land on Earth 1,000 years after humanity has been forced to evacuate the planet in this sci-fi action-adventure from director/co-writer M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”).

(more…)

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Best Bets for April 19-21, 2013: Record Store Day, “Photorealism Revisited,” Guthrie’s 89er Day Celebration, Tom Skinner and more

Here are my picks for the Best Bets in Oklahoma entertainment this weekend; a version appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.

1. Watch Oklahoma City Ballet’s production of the classic “Swan Lake” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N Walker. Information: 848-8637 or www.okcballet.com.

2. Hear Grammy-nominated guitarist Bill Kirchen at 8 p.m. Friday, Oklahoma red dirt music pioneer Tom Skinner at 8 p.m. Saturday and acclaimed singer-songwriter Fred Eaglesmith at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Blue Door, 2805 N McKinley. Information: 524-0738 or www.bluedoorokc.com.

3. Celebrate Record Store Day 2013 with live music from Jabee, Skating Polly and Depth & Current beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday at Guestroom Records, 125 E Main in Norman. The Oklahoma City store, 3701 N Western, will host Kyle Reid and John Calvin starting at 2 p.m. Saturday. Information: 701-5974 or http://guestroom-records.com.

4.  GUTHRIE — Commemorate the 1889 Land Run that with a carnival, parade, classic car show and more at the annual 89er Day Celebration, which continues Friday-Sunday around town. Information: www.89erdays.com.

5. See the special exhibit “Photorealism Revisited” before it closes Sunday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive. Information: 236-3100 or www.okcmoa.com.

-BAM

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Oklahoma City Museum of Art to offer free admission Saturday for Family Day

Take in free admission, hands-on art activities, live music and tours of the special exhibit “Photorealism Revisited” during Family Day from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive.

Celebrating the museum’s special exhibitions, Family Days are fun-filled festivals that take place throughout the year. Activities are appropriate for all ages, and no advance registration is required for you to bring your family and participate in the fun

Activities planned for Saturday’s Family Day:

Live Performance by Squirrel & Friends, 1 to 2 p.m.

Animated Films, 3 to 4 p.m.

Hands-on Art Activities

Drop-in Drawing

Face Painting

Story Times with the Metropolitan Library System

Family Tours

Scavenger Hunts

Free Admission is made possible by sponsorship from SONIC, America’s Drive-In..

For more information, call 236-3100 or go to www.okcmoa.com.

-BAM

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Movie review: “To the Wonder”

Oklahoma-bred auteur Terrence Malick offers up a wondrous cinematic poem that ruminates on the nature of love with “To the Wonder.”

The rare truly experimental art filmmaker to gain mainstream acclaim, the famously mysterious Malick, 69, grew up in Bartlesville, and he filmed “To the Wonder” in and around his hometown, Pawhuska and Tulsa, as well as in France. Per the norm for Malick, it is largely a visual experience, and Oklahoma’s natural beauty, especially the bison herds roaming the golden plain of Pawhuska’s Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, are every bit as beguiling as some of France’s best-known landmarks.

While the film has an autobiographical bent — Malick was once married to a Frenchwoman who moved with him to the United States, where their union ultimately fell apart — “To the Wonder” mulls over universal themes.

But Malick maintains his signature esoteric post-narrative style with the romantic drama. There’s not much story and even less dialogue, leaving it to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s immersive imagery as well as the movie’s entrancing score, which melds Tchaikovsky, Haydn and Wagner with Hanan Townshend’s original music and nature’s own soundtrack of moaning winds and whooshing tides, to evoke much of the emotion.

Ben Affleck ostensibly plays the main character but utters no more than 20 words in the two-hour runtime, and half of those are muffled. His co-stars Olga Kurylenko and Javier Bardem do most of the talking via rather lofty voiceovers.

“Newborn. I open my eyes. I melt. Into the eternal night. A spark. You got me out of the darkness. You gathered me up from earth. You’ve brought me back to life,” Kurylenko intones in the opening moments, setting the scene for Malick’s meditative musings while seemingly pleading with viewers to zero out their expectations.

Admittedly, I’ve not always been open to the director’s cinematic meanderings, but “To the Wonder” delves into a topic I find fascinating: romantic love in the context of the mundane.

After all, it’s easy to fall and feel transcendentally in love amid the ancient monastery and vast beaches of Mont Saint-Michel, the island off Normandy, France, considered “The Wonder of the Western World.” That’s where we first meet Neil (Affleck), a taciturn American tourist who has embarked on a passionate affair with Marina (Kurylenko), an Eastern European single mother living in Paris.

Since he also has an effortless camaraderie with Marina’s 10-year-old daughter Tatiana (Tatiana Chiline), Neil invites them to come and live with him in Bartlesville. But the idyllic love that came so easily while on holiday becomes much harder to hold once it is uprooted to a subdivision in a strange land where Marina and Tatiana have no connection besides the inscrutable Neil.

The perpetually muted Neil doesn’t really live in his sparsely furnished suburban home. His passion, pale and understated as it is, apparently resides in his work as an environmental inspector, determinedly slogging around dreary oilfield sites and the dismal neighborhoods around them.

Marina finds some solace worshipping in the sparkling new Catholic church, where Father Quintana’s (Bardem) faith feels old and uninspired. The priest dutifully tends the poor, sick and imprisoned while desperately struggling and praying to feel a renewed connection to God.

As his relationship with Marina and her daughter falters, Neil reconnects with a bright old flame, Jane (Rachel McAdams), a flaxen-haired rancher who has recently been widowed. But he again finds it difficult to keep the hot spark of new love kindled.

Like Marina’s repeated free-spirited spins through the green and golden Oklahoma grasslands, love can be soul-altering, if it can survive the monotony of life.

On Friday, “To the Wonder” opens in select theaters and becomes available via video on demand. It will be screened at 7 and 10 p.m. Friday night at the Bartlesville Community Center. The film opens April 26 at Tulsa’s Circle Cinema and May 9 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

The Oklahoma-made film “To the Wonder” opens in select theaters and becomes available on video on demand Friday.

In Bartlesville: The film is showing at 7 and 10 p.m. Friday at the Bartlesville Community Center, 300 SE Adams Blvd. Information: www.bartlesvillecommunitycenter.com.

In Tulsa: The film opens April 26 at Tulsa’s Circle Cinema, 10 S Lewis Ave. Information: www.circlecinema.com.

In Oklahoma City: It opens May 9 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive. Information: www.okcmoa.com.

— BAM

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Best Bets for April 12-14, 2013: Gary Allan, “Chalk in the Rain,” OKC Museum of Art Family Day and Miranda Lambert with Dierks Bentley

Here are my picks for the Best Bets in entertainment happening around the state this weekend, as listed in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.

1. NORMAN — Hear country music star Gary Allan at 8 p.m. Friday at Riverwind Casino, 1544 W State Highway 9. Information: 322-6464 or www.riverwind.com.

2. See the drama “Chalk in the Rain” by Muscogee (Creek) playwright and Oklahoma native Bret Jones staged at 8 p.m. Friday and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Civic Center, 201 N Walker. Performances continue through April 20 as part of Oklahoma City Theatre Company’s fourth annual Native American New Play Festival. Information: 297-2264 or www.OKCTC.org.

3. Take in free admission, hands-on art activities, live music and tours of the special exhibit “Photorealism Revisited” during Family Day from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive. Information: 236-3100 or www.okcmoa.com.

4. TULSA — Catch Tishomingo resident Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley in concert as their “Locked & Reloaded Tour” plays at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the BOK Center, 200 S Denver. Information: (866) 726-5287 or www.bokcenter.com.

-BAM

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Video: Rachel McAdams talks about filming with Oklahoma bison in “To the Wonder”

Actress Rachel McAdams, who co-stars in Terrence Malick’s new Oklahoma-made film “To the Wonder,” visited “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Monday to chat about a variety of topics (including her grocer selling her marijuana for insomnia, which is a topic for some other blog), such as shooting with a herd of Oklahoma bison (which is the proper name, rather than buffalo) in the film.

“To the Wonder” is a romantic drama centered on an American man named Neil (Ben Affleck) who reconnects with a woman from his hometown (Rachel McAdams) after his relationship with a European woman (Olga Kurylenko) falls apart.

Malick, who grew up in Bartlesville, filmed it in the Bartlesville, Pawhuska and Tulsa areas as well as in France. The film participated in the Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate program provided by the Oklahoma Film & Music Office.

In one of the film’s most breathtakingly beautiful scenes – and believe me, this is a visually stunning film – Neil and Jane mingle with a bison herd. The scenes were shot over several days in November 2010 with the stately animals at the Nature Conservancy’s Tallgrass Prairie Preserve outside Pawhuska.

McAdams told Kimmel on Monday that the actors were warned that the bison may not be predators, but they are wild animals and must be treated with respect and caution.

“They look harmless; I mean, they’ve sort of got all that hair and those funny legs … so you think, ‘Oh, what could happen?’ And people are, like, ‘make no mistake.’ Like, the buffalo wranglers took Ben and I aside and said, ‘They’re like bears. They’re so fast, if they decide to charge you, that’s it. It’s over,’” McAdams told Kimmel.

The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the largest protected area of tallgrass prairie on Earth, according to TravelOK.com. The tallgrass prairie is a complex environment harboring a rich diversity of plants and animals, including the more than 2,000 bison. The current 39,000-acre expanse was purchased from private ownership in 1989 and is now managed by the Nature Conservancy to be enjoyed as a scenic drive.

This scenic route on public county roads takes visitors through the heart of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and through adjacent private ranches. Starting and ending in Pawhuska, the complete drive is approximately 50 miles, and takes about two hours at a leisurely pace with time for stopping.

For safety reasons, visitors are strictly instructed to stay in their cars while visiting the bison herd. For more information on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, go to www.nature.org/oklahoma.

“To the Wonder” is releasing Friday in some U.S. theaters as well as via Video on Demand. The film’s release on VOD ensures that the film will be able to reach those who do not live near a theater showing the film and can be accessed via multiple on demand outlets.

The film is showing at 7 and 10 p.m. Friday at the Bartlesville Community Center, 300 SE Adams Blvd. For information, go to www.bartlesvillecommunitycenter.com.

The film opens April 26 at Tulsa’s Circle Cinema (www.circlecinema.com) and May 9 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art (www.okcmoa.com).

To see more videos about the making of “To the Wonder,” click here. Look for my review of “To the Wonder” on Friday.

-BAM

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