Jude Law is all the rage in Sally Potter film set in the fashion world
RAGE (Sally Potter, 2009)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, July 8, 8:00, and Friday, July 16, 4:00
Series runs July 7-21
Tickets: $10, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.ragethemovie.com
For the next two weeks, MoMA will be celebrating the eclectic career of iconoclastic sixty-year-old British director Sally Potter with a retrospective of her work, from her 1969 short JERK through the new digitized version of her most well known feature, ORLANDO (1992), to her latest, 2009’s RAGE, which was first available on mobile devices before hitting art houses last September. RAGE is set in the world of high fashion, as an unseen teenager who goes by the name Michelangelo is interviewing a group of fourteen people involved in one way or another with a runway show introducing a new perfume known simply as “M.” As the movie proceeds, the carefully crafted characters reveal more and more intimate thoughts and reactions, in front of different-colored screens, as mystery, mayhem, and murder ensue. Among the participants are transvestite model Minx (Jude Law), wartime photographer Frank (Steve Buscemi), cynical critic Mona Carvell (Judi Dench), former “face of the year” Lettuce Leaf (Lily Cole), financier Tiny Diamonds (Eddie Izzard), his bodyguard, Jed (John Leguizamo), and pizza deliveryman Vijay (Riz Ahmed). The lurid tale is slowly unveiled as the mostly self-centered men and women talk about themselves, looking directly into the camera and staying within the same frame as the action can be heard offscreen. The cast, which also includes Bob Balaban, Dianne Wiest, and Simon Abkarian, is exceptional throughout, bringing everything to life even though Potter, who is operating the camera, never leaves the claustrophobic confines of the single tiny space. The story is rather mundane and the themes somewhat clichéd, but the way it all comes together borders on the dazzling. “I don’t want to be famous,” seamstress Anita (Adrian Barraza) says at one point. “I want to be invisible.” She’s the only one. Potter will be at MoMA for Q&As following the July 7 screening of ORLANDO (8:00), the July 8 screening of RAGE (8:00), and the July 9 screenings of THE GOLD DIGGERS (4:30) and YES (8:00).