2006 Films   •   2006 Film Festival

Pictures at an Exhibition

Director: Natasha Turovsky

Composer Modest Mussorgsky created his most famous work “Pictures at an Exhibition” in 1874 as a tribute to a recently deceased friend, the architect and artist Victor Hartmann. The word “Pictures” in Mussorgsky’s title refers to Hartmann’s series of paintings that were compiled for an exhibition organized in his honor a year after his death. The music “Pictures at an Exhibition” musically illustrates a visit to this exhibition. Over one hundred years later, artist and director Natasha Turovsky has created her artistic version of Mussorgsky’s music, bringing her larger than life oil paintings alive as choreographed images. The recurring “Promenade” theme in the movie represents the viewer walking from exhibit to exhibit. Fifteen images come alive through digital animation creating the atmosphere and mood of each movement of Mussorgsky’s music. Each image “dances” with the music, stimulating the public to “see” as well as “listen” to the music.