Paul Cohen – MRQE

The Winners

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

A searching, melancholy Dutch documentary about the lives of four classical musicians who won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, a victory that did not prove a guaranteed ticket to the top of the classical music world.

Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Documentary filmmaker Paul Cohen examines the lives of four men who won the Queen Elisabeth Competition, a prestigious international showcase for young classical musicians, between 1955 and 1976. Despite this impressive early success, none of the musicians went on to worldwide fame. Illness and mental burnout derail one potential great, while another’s career is hampered by politics in his native Soviet Union. Others achieve some level of success, albeit not as much as they may have hoped.

Part Time God

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Usually, a filmmaker either attempts to erase all evidence of his effort to create a film, or he obsessively focuses on himself, his art, and filmmaking in general. These latter attempts sometimes draw attention to the “constructed” nature of our personal realities in a more or less effective and entertaining manner. This present film does neither of the above, but draws attention to choices made by the filmmaker as his hand reaches to select one set of images over another. In this post-quantum physicis era, the philosophical sloppiness of pretending that the observer does not participate in an interaction with the observed is no longer sustainable, as scientists such as Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine or biologist Richard Dawkins are happy to state when the director’s finger points to them.