Stravinsky
1966 · 49m · Canada
Directed by Roman Kroitor, Wolf Koenig
Genres: biography, documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative, tender
Composer Igor Stravinsky is portrayed informally as he conducts the CBC Symphony Orchestra in a recording session of his Symphony of Psalms and recalls people and events from music, literature and art.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A straight doc about a dead composer conducting his own work sounds like the safest possible film, but Kroitor and Koenig somehow make it feel like they're dismantling the whole concert-film tradition from within — the casualness of it all, the refusal to mythologize, actually makes you see Stravinsky differently than you would want to.
This is essential cinema because it knows exactly what it is: a document that treats its subject with formal precision while remaining intimate, situating itself in the lineage of great composer portraiture while finding something fresh in the unguarded moment between takes.
The decision to shoot Stravinsky in the studio itself—surrounded by the orchestra, catching those small gestures and glances between conducting takes—transforms what could've been a remote biography into something tactile and immediate, where you can almost hear the difference in the room.