Out of Focus

Day two of film programmer week at the Gothamist Interview takes us across town from a vital New York cultural institution on the west side to one of the most venerable and popular centers of art on the east side. Often overshadowed by the painters and sculptors featured in its galleries, the Department of Film and Media at the Museum of Modern Art has long been one of the most important and interesting repertory screens in town. A major reason for that is the presence of Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator of the department, who has programmed much of what the MoMA has screened for more than 35 years. (Can you imagine working for the same company since 1968? I can’t — I wasn’t born until 1971!) With the MoMA out in Queens for the past couple years while its midtown home was under renovation, MoMA film moved in to the Gramercy Theater on 23rd Street. Now with the building on 53rd reopening, MoMA film has moved back home, and it did so with a bang: a year-long, still ongoing series surveying the first “112 Years of Cinema.” MoMA also is responsible, along with yesterday’s subject, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, with the annual New Directors/New Films festival which starts this year on March 23. Larry gives us a bit of an inside peak into what goes into some of the decision making programming the MoMA, and interestingly enough, when asked about what film he hopes win an Oscar, he doesn’t mention any of the big favorites but rather one of the animated shorts. Hey, at least he’s seen them. I also find it funny, although maybe not surprising, that Larry’s “guilty pleasure” — “seeing something mindless at the AMC Empire on 42nd Street — is basically my home away from home.

I mentioned this on Friday, and now here it is. Lily and I have another week of Gothamist interviews starting today. The schedule just happened to place us in the week leading up to the Oscars – appropriate for me, I suppose. Usually, we try to vary our interview subjects – to have people from different walks of life and occupations. This week, however, Lily had the bright idea (and I say that without sarcasm) of doing a full week of interviews with film programmers, kind of as an Oscar-antidote. New York is probably the best city anywhere – even better than Los Angeles – for alternative cinema. Many places have arthouses where they get the indie and foreign films, but only a lucky few cities have full time repertory houses that through their thoughtful programming offer a phenomenal alternative to the major multiplexes and, therefore, many of the supposed “best” of the year, i.e., the Oscar contenders.

But while other cities maybe have one or two such places, New York has many. While the five we’re focusing on this week may be the most prominent, they are by no means the only ones. Unfortunately, there just weren’t enough days in the week to also talk to the Thalia at Symphony Space, Two Boots Pioneer or Anthology Film Archives. And even in this economic climate, yet another location will be opening in the coming months when the IFC Center opens in a totally remodeled Waverly Theater on 6th Avenue at 3rd Street.

But enough preamble. If you’ve read this site regularly (and believe me, I don’t assume that to be the case), you might notice that I regularly mention the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. The Walter Reade is home base for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the group behind the New York Film Festival, Film Comment magazine and, in collaboration with MoMA, the New Directors/New Films festival. The Film Society is absolutely one of the most important organizations dedicated to cinema in this country, and if you want to really learn about both classic cinema as well as modern international films, you should dedicate time to attending screenings at the Walter Reade.

A few years ago I attended an event called “Martin Scorsese Talks Movies” at the Walter Reade. Being the Scorsese devotee I am, I certainly wasn’t going to miss this. The evening turned out to literally be the director simply talking about movies (and showing a few clips of things). For those who don’t know, Scorsese isn’t just one of our greatest directors, but he’s also one of the most knowledgeable film historians around. On stage, Scorsese sat and chatted with Kent Jones, Associate Director of Programming for the Film Society and Editor-at-Large for Film Comment, and now, today’s Gothamist interview. Kent used to be Scorsese’s personal archivist, and as part of that job, the two would sit around and watch movies. Then they’d talk about them. This evening was basically a recreation of those types of conversations, and believe it or not, it was fascinating.

If you’ve ever seen Scorsese speak, you know he talks very quickly, throwing out terms and names of people and films, many of which the audience may not even recognize in the moment. But he talks at an almost manic speak, and he exudes what seems like an encyclopedic knowledge of everything film. I was struck that night by how Kent exhibits the same kind of almost photographic memory for what seems like anything ever committed to celluloid anywhere in the world, but his personality and speaking style is the ying to Scorsese’s yang. Where Scorsese is off to the races, Kent speaks deliberately and slowly with a much more mellow tone.

Kent co-wrote Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, Scorsese’s brilliant 4-1/2 hour documentary about Italian Neorealist cinema, and they’re working together on a sequel. There probably aren’t that many people out there who know as much about the world of cinema as him, and we have him to thank for many of the great programs that run at the Walter Reade throughout the year.

What the hell is going on here in 2005? Just 51 days in, not even at the end of February and people keep dying. Johnny Carson, Phillip Johnson, Ossie Davis, Arthur Miller … now just this weekend Sandra Dee, John Raitt and suddenly announced last night, Hunter S. Thompson have all died as well. And I’m sure I’m probably forgetting someone just as notable, just as important as many of these others.

Dee died Sunday apparently of kidney disease at the anything-but-ancient age of 62. More people who great up in the ’70s and ’80s (or later) probably know about Dee than actually saw her movies if only from the song “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee” from the musical Grease! Dee was the original Gidget, epitomizing the perky, blond, Southern California beach-bound teenager so popular in ’50s and early ’60s entertainment. She also showed that she actually had some acting chops playing Lana Turner‘s daughter in the great Douglas Sirk melodrama Imitation of Life. In the early ’60s, Dee was one of the most popular teenage stars in Hollywood. If MTV had been around in 1960 when at 18 years old Dee married Bobby Darin, they would have most certainly been the first Newlyweds. (Hopefully, Nick and Jessica won’t suffer quite as much as Sandra and Bobby did, especially since Darin tragically died so young.) Of course, that story was just told by Kevin Spacey in his recent biopic of Darin, Beyond the Sea, with Kate Bosworth playing Dee. And in case you’re wondering, no Sandra Dee was not her birth name. Apparently, she came into this world Alexandra Zuck.

Also better known to the current younger generation for something other than what truly made him famous, 88 year old John Raitt also died on Sunday. Many know Raitt primarily as the father of musician Bonnie Raitt, but he had a successful career as an actor in his own right, especially in the theater. While mass audiences may remember his role in The Pajama Game, he made his Broadway debut creating one of the greatest characters in the history of the American musical theater, Billy Bigelow in Rogers & Hammerstein’s Carousel. His booming voice on the original cast recording, especially during the heart-wrenching Act I closing song “Soliloquy,” is enough to give you chills even without seeing the accompanying performance.

But the most tragic of Sunday’s deaths must be the apparent suicide of legendary writer and oft-called “gonzo journalist” Hunter S. Thompson. The 67 year old Thompson apparently shot himself in the head, marking another suicide by a noted, iconic and unique literary voice who many have often tried to copy but few ever get right. (Instantly, Spaulding Gray’s suicide last year came to mind.) It’s impossible not to wonder how the ridiculous amount of drugs Thompson took through the years might have contributed to him ultimately deciding to kill himself. Doctors will say that certain drugs, especially most hallucinogenics, literally change brain chemistry permanently, and while many create a europhic feeling when on them, they also can likely lead to extreme bouts of depression. Thompson was a brilliant writer with a unique voice, admired (even worshipped) by many and continuing to influence new generations who get a hold of his works. It’s easy for us to ask, “What could have been so bad?”

Look, I know the Oscars are this Sunday, and they’ll do their usual “In memoriam” tribute, but people this is ridiculous. They’ll do it next year too. No reason for anybody to rush just to try to be edited in to this year’s film clip. Please … no more dying for a while, OK? That whole “happens in threes” thing is supposed to take like a week, and then have several months off. Three in one day, that’s just too much and too hard to process. Too bad Family Guy Peter can’t take over Death’s job for a bit again.

Sorry to have disappeared like that for the past couple days, but this time of transition to which I’ve alluded a few times has begun. I’ll mention more about that over the weekend or on Monday, but for now, it’s not to jump for joy because my friend Lily and I are back with more Gothamist Interviews. In January, we swapped one of our days with another interviewer’s, so this month, we start today and will be publishing six interviews. We have something special going on next week: a themed week of interviews that readers of this site and cinephiles should enjoy.

But who cares about next week when today we’ve got the 2004 “Hot Funny Girl” (according to Rolling Stone), Jessi Klein? A bit of full disclosure here: about two years ago I interviewed for a job in development at VH1. The executive with whom I met gave me videotapes of two then-pilots to take home and write notes on. One of those pilots was the original presentation for Best Week Ever, and one of the original panelists was Jessi Klein. I had several notes on the show, but one of them was why would an audience give a crap about what a bunch of people they’ve never heard of, rather than some better known “talent,” would say about pop culture. I mean, who is Jessi Klein?!?

I don’t know if that comment was the reason I didn’t get the job, but obviously I was wrong because Best Week Ever has turned into a pretty fun show, fulfilling the exact purpose VH1 intended, and Jessi Klein is one funny-as-hell woman who will repeatedly tell you that she’s a nobody. She’s also nice-as-hell, and was gracious enough to spend some time chatting with me. The result of our conversation is today’s interview, and personally, I think it’s one of the better reads Lily and I have produced so far.

I went to see Jessi’s weekly show with co-host Nick Kroll a couple weeks ago. It’s called “Welcome to Our Week,” and it plays for free at Cinema Classics on E. 11th Street every Thursday night at 8 PM. Jessi and Nick host, and their bits are interspersed throughout an evening of other (usually) great comedians. (The night I went, Jessi’s BWE co-panelist Paul Scheer appeared pretending to be a serial killer who was on temporary furlough so he could fulfill his love of performing stand-up comedy. Needless to say, the “jokes” were incredible inappropriate and not exactly “funny,” but the bit was hysterical and I was crying from laughing during much of it.) I would definitely suggest people check-out the show as Jessi and Nick have a fantastic chemistry and riff off each other in what seems like an effortless manner. And besides, you can’t beat the price.

And be sure to come back on Monday for the beginning of another five consecutive days of interviews that in our own way provide a perfect lead-up to this year’s Academy Awards on Sunday 2/27.

Last week on Tuesday, I mentioned there was an info session for volunteers for this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. I also mentioned that there would be another info session the following Tuesday, which, as it works out is today. See, timing is all very circular; or at least my brain is. Or maybe it’s just that I watched Primer last night which only takes 78 minutes to see but keeps you thinking and trying to figure out what you saw for the next 24 hours!

Whatever the case may be, tonight is the second cattle call info session where you can hear all the department heads beg for you to come join the festival. If you’re interested in learning more, you should check-out the Volunteer web page on the festival web site and email or call the volunteer info lines. If you’re available to come tonight, they’ll give you the details and let you know if there’s room. If you’re not, you are still totally welcome to offer your services, and they’ll fill you in on how.

Last week’s session went well and the room was pretty full which is great. The festival really only runs because of the thousands of people who offer up their time for free. I was one of those people for two years before becoming more involved. I’ve been both happy and proud to be part of such a growing institution for the New York film community, and I know I’ll be doing my part to make this year’s festival the best one yet. More on that in another post, another time ….

This is going to be a really busy week for me. The transition out of the old and into the new (jobs, that is) begins at long last, but in many respects, it’s a much bigger deal for me than simply finishing one job and starting another. I’ll talk more about that later in the week when I have more time. Meanwhile, everyone else is doing it, and I’m going to as well. Post pictures of “The Gates,” I mean. We spent a little over two hours in Central Park yesterday, and I have to admit that I was both startled and awed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s mammoth public arts project than I ever thought I would be. The color brought to an otherwise barren landscape is magnificent. The layers of trees and gates, positioned forward and sideways creates an entirely different look for the park. The drapes flapping in the wind bring movement and life to the cool and crisp air while the empty tree branches simply sit still. The light hits the frames and the drapes in different ways, and your positioning will completely affect how any one gate looks at any one time. They create majestic borders for some spaces and delineate streaming and winding pathways for others. And I haven’t even mentioned my attempts at reconcile the conception and production of it all. I plan to go back before the two weeks are up and this shock of form and color is removed from the natural landscape. My only wish is that somehow it would manage to snow before their time is done. I can only imagine how beautiful (and different) they would look set upon blankets of rolling white. Sadly, it doesn’t look like the weather plans to cooperate. It will be difficult to ever look at Central Park the same way again. I don’t place a positive or negative connotation on that statement. The park is and (hopefully) always will be one of the most special and beautiful parts of this city. Walking through it now with this installation is a brand new experience, and every pathway helps you see the park, even parts with which you’re most familiar, for the first time. I anticipate that seeing the park with The Gates gone will be almost as startling as experiencing it for the first time seeing them there. I hear several people asking why this is art? Or what makes it art? They say they don’t get it. To me, art is about looking at something — a person, an object, an image, the world around you — in a way you may or may not have thought of before and having a reaction. That’s true for performance or visual arts. “The Gates” dramatically change Central Park any way you look at that — close-up, underneath, as a group from far away. “The Gates” have been added to the canvas of the park; and in under two weeks, they will be taken away. It doesn’t necessarily have to have some greater symbolism or meaning to be art, yet for each individual, it still may. I have my ideas, and they may differ from yours. But that’s OK too. That’s part of what makes it art. More photos after the jump …

Continue reading “A WALK THROUGH THE PARK WHERE THE SAFFRON IS FREE”

Whether he was the “greatest,” most “influential” or most “iconic” playwright in the history of America theater, Arthur Miller (who passed away last night at the age of 89) was a towering presence who won’t be soon forgotten. He wrote what many consider the greatest American play in history — Death of a Salesman — when he was just 33. That’s how old I am now, and I can’t even conceive being able to create such a magnificent work, one that even more than half-a-century after its debut in a country far different than the US of 1949 still resonates so deeply. Oh yeah, and he reportedly wrote it in just six weeks.

In many ways, Miller and his work foresaw modern American society as it was developing. Where community and family were once the focus of every day life, he detailed the growing disconnect of belonging as generations started moving further from their homes in order to find their own American dreams, while at the same time mourning the futility of those who try as they might, could never find their desired successes. Often, their greatest achievements might have existed in the families they created … and ignored.

Miller never even stopped writing. His most recent play — “Finishing the Picture” — premiered at the Goodman Theater in Chicago last year that got some mixed reviews. The play was about a period in his rocky marriage to Marilyn Monroe. (Believe it or not, Miller wasn’t even Monroe’s last living husband. Apparently, her first, James Dougherty, is still kicking.)

Miller’s death is a tremendous loss for the American theater. How would theater have been different had it not been for Miller’s influence and treatment of the American family as its own character rather than simply a grouping of other personalities. Would we have had Edward Albee? Or Sam Shepard? Maybe so. Would their plays have been the same? Maybe not. But even people not addicted to theater are aware of Miller and his work. Everyone, at some point during high school most likely, has read Salesman or The Crucible, maybe even All My Sons or A View From the Bridge as well/. Other than Shakespeare, there’s probably not another playwright in history so recognizable.

2005 is only 42 days old, and already we have lost some of the all-time great contributors to the arts and entertainment world — Johnny Carson, Phillip Johnson, Ossie Davis, now Arthur Miller — people who literally changed some of the most basic elements of their chosen professions, making them better and influencing generations to follow.

The world of theater was made better thanks to the work of Arthur Miller, and it is worse-off for his loss. Thankfully, his plays will remain with us always, in one form or another, and future generations of playwrights (and filmmakers) can continue to be influenced by this master’s work.

P.S.: The cinetrix rightly makes special note of Miller’s contribution to the American cinema as well. And his daughter, Rebecca Miller‘s latest film The Ballad of Jack and Rose just premiered at the most recent Sundance Film Festival, starring her husband.

I’m swamped today as I continue to get ready for my final days in my current job, so I haven’t had time to write any of the several posts I’ve intended over the past couple days. However, I went to the first night of the Walter Reade Theater’s “Film Comment Selects” series, which is dedicated to films that have yet to receive distribution in the US. Usually, many of the films still don’t have deals by the time they screen. That is not the case with the two movies I saw last night: Oldboy (which won the Grand Prix for director Park Chan-wook at Cannes last summer) and Clean (from director Olivier Assayas and staring Maggie Cheung).

Hopefully I’ll find time to address both films in more detail later. In brief, I was slightly disappointed by Clean,. I’m no Assayas expert, but I’ve seen several of his films, and this one is by far the most conventional story, especially with its reasonably happy ending. It’s the anti-Demonlover in many ways, although the two films share the quality of having incredibly abrupt endings that in their own ways aren’t that satisfying. It’s worth seeing, if only for the phenomenal Cheung (who won an acting prize at Cannes last summer for this performance), but it didn’t blow me away. Palm Pictures will release Clean later this year.

On the other hand, Oldboy blew me the eff away! If Filmbrain has ever been right about a movie (as opposed to his feelings about Mr. Gallo), it’s this one. Wow wow wow! A revenge tale with many twists and turns (I actually figured out the big one before the end, but doing so didn’t lessen the impact to me), Oldboy is most definitely not for the feint of heart. It isn’t as graphically violent as I had been led to believe, but there are at least three specific scenes that are very hard to watch and a bit gorey. I didn’t find the last shot of the movie to be “so haunting, so disturbing, that it most certainly deserves a place in the ‘greatest closing shots’ pantheon,” as Filmbrain did, but that’s not a criticism of the film as much as my refraining from hyperbole. The last shot has its own dramatic power; it just didn’t knock me out of my seat, nor did it need to.

I actually saw Oldboy as being like the evil twin to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — told as a dark revenge tale. There are issues of love and memory and loss just like in Eternal Sunshine. Don’t get me wrong – these are completely different movies, and if you’re an Eternal Sunshine fan, I only suggest you see Oldboy if you can handle a bit of blood. But there are parallel themes and even events which, when the credits started rolling, made me think of Michel Gondry’s brilliant film. The film’s are also similar in one other respect: Park’s visual style and storytelling techniques are not the norm – he brings a fundamental understanding of the craft of filmmaking and even some possible allusions to earlier influences to this work.

Indie distributor Tartan USA will give Oldboy a limited release sometime in March or April which means if you’re in New York, LA or several other major cities, you’ll be able to see it. Otherwise, I’m sure the future DVD will be well worth the rental. And although I will caution again that there are a few scenes here that not everyone will want to see, this is the kind of fresh and exciting filmmaking that should not be missed.

Hopefully, both of these films are representative of the quality of this year’s “Film Comment Selects” lineup. I know I’ll be trying to check-out more in order to see for myself.

Last night’s finale of The Amazing Race on CBS once again proved why this reality show has no rival on all of television. Due to both the nature of the game and phenomenal editing, virtually the entire two hour broadcast was an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride with teams you’d want to win and others you wouldn’t. In case some of you out there have the finale recorded but haven’t yet watched it, I’ll refrain from details until after the jump.

For those of you who still haven’t caught on to the TAR bandwagon, the good news is the seventh version of the race will premiere three weeks from last night on Tuesday March 1. Annoyingly, it will feature Survivor: All-Star winners Rob and Amber — I could have happily lived the rest of my life without seeing either of them on TV again, but the universe seems to not wish to grant me such contentment. In the little preview of the next season, they were all over the place. Hopefully, that too is just creative editing, and they’ll get Philiminated (TM TWoP — careful of possible spoiling) early on.

Continue reading “TAR: STILL SIMPLY THE BEST!”

Tomorrow night from 7 PM to Midnight is a Valentine’s Day fundraiser for WET, the independent theater company Women’s Expressive Theater. (Click the image for a larger version of the invite!) Actually, the benefit isn’t for the theater group itself; rather your ticket price will go to support a new outreach program for adolescent girls – the WET Risk Taker’s Film Series. According to their web site, this new program is “an educational empowerment program for high school girls with celebrity participants designed to counterbalance the potentially negative influences girls face during high school.”

What does that mean, and why am I shilling for them? Well, I’m dedicating a small sliver of my little nook of the interwebblogosphereverse because it’s a great program, and my girlfriend is one of the mentors involved. Mentor what? Right.

Basically, what they’re doing is screening films for high school sophomore and junior girls, having a guest speaker and then breaking into smaller groups to hold discussions (led by a “mentor”) about the films and some of the issues it contained. To crib more quotes from WET’s site, the program has four objectives:

1. To encourage girls to look at film and all media with a critical, intelligent eye.
2. To recognize and challenge stereotypes based on gender, race and economics.
3. To distinguish between risks that are empowering versus risks that are damaging.
4. To inspire the girls, demonstrating by example that achieving one’s dreams is a possibility.

The first event was last month, and it included a screening of The Breakfast Club. The guest speaker was Ally Sheedy. From all reports (er …. i.e., my girlfriend), it went really well. Hopefully, this benefit will help them raise enough money to keep the programming going for a very long time.

Oh yeah … “complimentary cocktails” involving Grey Goose, Dewars and Korbel from 7-9 PM. That’s gotta be worth $11 (or $15 at the door), no?