Il solista

APPROFONDIMENTI | Tris di film che esplorano il sottile confine tra genio e follia.

La malattia del genio

Chi si ricorda della teoria del cinque volte premio Oscar Kirk Lazarus? Nello spiegare al collega Tugg Speedman in cosa, secondo lui, avrebbe sbagliato nel ritrarre al cinema il ritardato Simple Jack, lo invita a riflettere. “Analizza. Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man. Sembra proprio un ritardato ma non lo è. Stuzzicadenti, carte: autistico non ritardato. Prendi Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. Tardo sì, ritardato forse, apparecchio alle gambe, però affascinava Nixon e vinceva a ping pong in un torneo. Non era ritardato.

LIBRI | Il romanzo di Steve Lopez dal quale è stato tratto il film omonimo con Robert Downey Jr.

Il libro

Impazzito dolorosamente dopo aver frequentato una delle più celebri accademie artistiche degli Stati Uniti, la Juilliard School, il violinista di colore Nathaniel Ayers si rifugia nelle strade di Los Angeles diventando un barbone. Qui solidarizza con Steve, giornalista che rimarrà coinvolto dalla genialità della sua musica e che lo sosterrà scoprendo una (non sempre pacifica) amicizia. La scelta del giornalista del LOS ANGELES TIMES, Steve Lopez, è quella di raccontare progressivamente questo legame feroce, scontroso, ma profondissimo e realmente esistente fra lui e Ayers (“Il solista, ed.

VIDEO | Il video (Ansa Live).

Anteprima a hollywood

Festa a Hollywood per la premiere di The Soloist, il nuovo lavoro di Joe Wright. Il film, in uscita negli Usa il 24 aprile, racconta la storia vera di Nathaniel Antony Ayers portata agli onori della cronica dal giornalista Steve Lopez.

A Film Like a Cello: It’s Just as Delicate

STEVE LOPEZ walks into the lobby of The Los Angeles Times last fall and mentions that Nathaniel Ayers, the formerly homeless musician and schizophrenic who is the principal preoccupation of “The Soloist,” is in a music room in the basement of the building. They met when Mr. Lopez, a columnist for the paper, did a series of articles about Mr. Ayers, which became a book and now a movie starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. that will open on Friday. We step into a room jammed with all manner of musical equipment, and Mr. »

The adaptation of Times columnist Steve Lopez's book hits all the wrong notes

Remember when Lloyd Bentsen told Dan Quayle, "I knew Jack Kennedy. . . . Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy"? Well, I felt a little that way when it came to reviewing " The Soloist." I could back up and write all this in the reviewer's traditional third person, but that feels disingenuous. After all, I do know Steve Lopez, whose wonderful Los Angeles Times columns and later book about his unlikely friendship with a gifted but deeply troubled street musician started everything. And I work with Lopez at The Times, which, in an unprecedented gesture, offered its newsroom as a set and has in general bound itself to this movie with remarkable fealty. »

Struggle and Rescue, a Duet in Sharps and Minors

Some of the lost souls in “The Soloist,” a big studio movie about a one-man rescue mission, look as thin as the crack pipes clamped between their lips. These are a few of the ghosts who haunt Los Angeles, that Mecca of Fabulousness where you can go for weeks (and invariably by car) without smelling the reek of other people’s desperation. That helps explain why Hollywood types tend not to set their camera sights on homeless men, women and children, unless they’re good for a little uplift (as in the Will Smith vehicle “The Pursuit of Happyness”). »

"Le Soliste" : comment sauver le journalisme ?

Il fut une époque où Hollywood célébrait les vertus d'investigation, de courage, d'obstination de la presse, par exemple dans Les Hommes du président (1976) d'Alan J.Pakula, consacré à l'affaire du Watergate. De l'eau a depuis coulé sous les ponts, comme en témoigne ce film de Joe Wright, réalisateur anglais embarqué dans l'usine à rêves pour y adapter un livre de Steve Lopez, relatant une histoire vraie. Journaliste au Los Angeles Times, Lopez y raconte sa rencontre avec un sans-abri, Nathaniel Ayers, un musicien d'exception atteint de troubles psychiques, auquel il va consacrer une chronique régulière très populaire dans son journal, tout en tentant de le sortir de la rue. »