Yearly Archives: 2011

HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT: LES DIABOLIQUES

Simone Signoret and Vera Clouzot are up to no good in classic French thriller

LES DIABOLIQUES (DIABOLIQUE) (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Friday, December 9, 7:30, and Sunday, December 11, 5:15
Series runs through December 24
Tickets: $12, 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 beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques is a masterpiece of suspense, a psychological thriller that never lets up. This intense noir stars Véra Clouzot as Christina Delassalle, the mousy owner of a private school for boys run by her nasty, sadistic husband, Michel (Paul Meurisse), who is having an affair with teacher Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret). Nicole conspires with Vera to murder Michel and dump his body in a pool, and the plan works, if not exactly perfectly. Shortly after that, a young student claims to have seen the headmaster alive, frightening Christina and forcing Nicole to — well, we’ve already said too much. As the end credits say, “Don’t be devils. Don’t ruin the interest your friends could take in this film. Don’t tell them what you saw.” Les Diaboliques is based on the novel Celle qui n’était pas (The Woman Who Was No More) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, who also wrote D’entre les morts (The Living and the Dead), which was turned into the Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo. Sadly, Véra Clouzot, wife of director Henri-Georges, died five years after Les Diaboliques came out, at the age of forty-six, of a heart condition. Les Diaboliques is screening at MoMA on December 9 at 7:30 and December 11 at 5:15 as part of its Henri-Georges Clouzot retrospective, which begins December 8 with the harrowing classic The Wages of Fear and continues through December 24 with such other films as Strangers in the House, The Murderer Lives at Number 21, Manon, and Quai des Orfèvres.

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS: THE NIGHT

New York duo's concept album will be released in February, but you can download first track now

New York indie duo School of Seven Bells made quite a splash with last year’s Disconnect from Desire, the follow-up to their 2006 debut, Alpinisms, and they’re looking to ring even louder with their next disc, Ghostory (Vagrant Records/Ghostly Inernational, February 28, 2012). A concept album about a young girl and her ghosts, the record includes such tracks as “Love Play,” “Reappear,” “Scavenger,” and “White Wind.” Guitarist-producer Benjamin Curtis and vocalist Alejandra Deheza have just released the album opener, “The Night,” a portent of good things to come. You can download the song for free here; keep watching twi-ny for more information about Ghostory and a School of Seven Bells tour as it becomes available.

BONNIE & CLYDE: THE MUSICAL

Bonnie & Clyde pull into Broadway in new musical (AP Photo/Jeffrey Richards Associates, Nathan Johnson)

Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Tickets: $66.50 – $226.50
www.bonnieandclydebroadway.com

Products of poverty-stricken depression-era America, Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow both dreamed of a better life: Bonnie wanted to be a Hollywood movie star like Clara Bow, while Clyde wanted to be a famous gangster like Al Capone. Their love story is at the heart of the new Broadway musical Bonnie & Clyde, which enters with guns blazing but leaves firing a series of blanks. The show opens with a blood-spattered Bonnie and Clyde front and center, lying dead in their machine-gun-riddled car, real headlines of their demise projected on the wooden-slat backdrop. The story then goes back to their childhood, with young Bonnie (Kelsey Fowler) singing of making it in Tinseltown (“Picture Show”) and young Clyde (Talon Ackerman) predicting his daring future (“The World Will Remember Me”). Soon nineteen-year-old Bonnie (Laura Osnes) is slinging hash in a local diner, while twenty-year-old Clyde (Jeremy Jordan) has escaped from yet another prison stay and is on the run. They fall instantly and madly in love, Bonnie reading Clyde her poetry on a starry night. Joined by Clyde’s brother, Buck (Claybourne Elder), and his Bible-thumping wife, Blanche (Melissa van der Schyff), they hit the road, becoming folk heroes as they rob banks, sign autographs, and are chased by the cops, leaving a bloody path behind them. “Freedom is something I gotta steal,” Clyde declares.

Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan are the best things about misguided BONNIE & CLYDE (AP Photo/Jeffrey Richards Associates, Nathan Johnson)

Osnes (Grease, Anything Goes) and Jordan (Newsies, West Side Story) will inevitably be compared to Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty from Arthur Penn’s iconic 1967 film, which is unfair and does them a disservice, as they each deliver strong, sexy performances even as the material soars downhill faster than Clyde can drive. Book writer Ivan Menchell’s (The Cemetery Club) story is choppy and disjointed, with far too many throwaway scenes and filler (including Clyde and Buck singing about driving and a preacher and his congregation proclaiming that “God’s Arms Are Always Open”), Jeff Calhoun’s (Newsies) direction and choreography are uninspired, except for the appearance of cool classic cars, Don Black’s (Sunset Boulevard, numerous James Bond themes) lyrics are trite and stale, and Frank Wildhorn’s (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel) score flirts with Americana roots music, blues, country, and folk in the first act but doesn’t even try in the second, instead turning to overly standard and unsatisfying Broadway pabulum. The musical is supplemented with projections of actual photos, newspaper articles, mug shots, and other paraphernalia as it seeks to tell the true story of these two antiheroes, wisely choosing not to be a musical version of the movie, but it lacks the power and pace of the film, becoming a rambling tale that is determined to fill two and a half hours no matter what. They would have done better throwing away the boring, unnecessary subplots and filler and just followed Bonnie and Clyde themselves, leaving Osnes and Jordan center stage, where they belong.

MATTHEW STONE: OPTIMISM AS CULTURAL REBELLION

Matthew Stone optimistically melds the past, present, and future at the Hole (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Hole
312 Bowery
Tuesday – Saturday through December 10, 12 noon – 7:00 pm
212-466-1100
www.theholenyc.com
www.matthewstone.co.uk
optimism as cultural rebellion slideshow

Matthew Stone is the very embodiment of the twenty-first-century artist. The twenty-nine-year-old Camberwell graduate is a painter, sculptor, photographer, techno composer, curator, performance artist, provocateur, music-video director, interviewer, art theorist, DJ, shaman, and event host. This past March, he collaborated with Catherine Borra on “The Next 100 Years,” which was about nothing less than “the future of art.” Stone, a protégé of Terence Koh’s and a leader of South London’s !WOWOW! art collective, which made a name for itself through its squat parties, has installed his first major U.S. gallery show at the Hole, a stunning collection of photographs on wooden boards that reaches back into the classical past while also foretelling the next generation of art. Evoking the name of his 2007 debut solo show at London’s Union Gallery, “Future Hindsight,” the new “Optimism as Cultural Rebellion” is based on Stone’s belief that “optimism is the vital force that entangles itself with and then shapes the future.” Upon first glance, it appears that the British artist has created classical-style paintings that recall Caravaggio, Michelangelo, and other Renaissance masters, but it turns out that they are actually photographs printed on birch and, in one case, fabric, making the two dimensional three dimensional. Many of the works are made of frames that have been folded into sculptural pieces set on the floor or dramatically arranged on wooden cubes. As realistic as the images appear to be — one work lies flat on the floor, actual drapery emerging from it — closer inspection reveals impossible poses and body formations. Amid all the cynical negativity prevalent in the art world today, Stone offers a fresh, nearly irresistible alternative, sticking it to the status quo with a calm sense of optimism that is both beautiful and stirring. (Also on view at the Hole through December 16 is Matt Stone’s “Residuum,” consisting of sculptures in a variety of materials and colors in the rear gallery; Matt Stone, an SVA grad who was an assistant to Judy Pfaff and is currently assisting Marilyn Minter, is not related to Matthew Stone, and yes, their shows were put together primarily because of the similarity of their names.)

MELORA GRIFFIS: WINGS AND MURMURS — THE PAINTINGS TALK BACK

Melora Griffis, “bruised kite hope flares,” acrylic, gouache, and pastel on paper, 2010 (courtesy of the artist and 571 Projects)

571 Projects
551 West 21st St. #204A between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Thursday, December 8, free, 7:30
Exhibition on view Tuesday – Saturday through December 16, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
212-229-0897
www.571projects.com

In “wings and murmurs,” Melora Griffis’s intimate new solo exhibition at 571 Projects in Chelsea, many of the works feature variations on women’s faces, from the self-portrait “against the wall,” in which the painter, performance artist, and actress holds tight against the right side of the canvas, as if trying to hide from the viewer, to “sister,” which depicts a woman who looks like she has just been through a prizefight, and “unsichtbar,” in which the top part of the subject has been painted over in white, her face and head disappearing into the background. A bold mix of abstraction and figuration with a liberal use of white paint that melds into the small gallery space’s stark white walls, “wings and murmurs” beautifully displays Griffis’s confident brushstrokes and haunting color scheme, particularly in the ghostly “bruised kite hope flares,” which greets visitors as they enter the room. The show runs through December 16, with a special free event scheduled for December 8 at 7:30, “the paintings talk back,” in which poets Betty Harmon, Alystyre Julian, and Shelley Stenhouse will read pieces inspired by Griffis’s work, followed by an open dialogue and a musical performance by the artist.

BLOOD AND GIFTS

BLOOD AND GIFTS looks at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan through the eyes of an American operative who befriends a local warlord (photo by T. Charles Erickson)

Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzi E. Newhouse
150 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday – Saturday through January 8, $85
212-362-7600
www.lct.org

Sociopolitical playwright J. T. Rogers transported audiences to Rome in Madagascar and Rwanda in The Overwhelming, telling intimate stories of Americans abroad. In his latest work, the Lincoln Center commission Blood and Gifts, the Brooklyn-based writer examines the Soviet war in Afghanistan as seen through the eyes of CIA operative James Warnock (a strong, confident Jeremy Davidson). With his wife back in the States, Warnock heads to Islamabad as the new station chief, ready to offer cold, hard cash to Colonel Afridi (Gabriel Ruiz), a Pakistani military intelligence chief seeking to help Afghan freedom fighters, in particular the extremely dangerous and unpredictable Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Warnock joins with cynical British MI6 lifer Simon Craig (an appropriately twitchy and nervous Jefferson Mays), while their counterpart is the sly Dmitri Gromov (a very funny Michael Aronov), a Soviet agent trying to keep tabs on the American, since the United States has made it very clear that it is not getting involved in the conflict. Warnock quickly develops a close relationship with mujahideen warlord Abdullah Khan (Bernard White) and his right-hand man, Saeed (Pej Vahdat), eventually bringing them to Washington to attempt to pry more funding out of Senator Jefferson Birch (Robert Hogan) and the rest of Congress. With the cold war coming to an end, politics and family collide head-on, with the main characters taking a painful look at their own personal lives, measuring their public responsibility against their private needs as they contemplate the sacrifices they’ve made in the name of country.

Spies from America, England, and the Soviet Union are both friends and enemies in J. T. Rogers’s political thriller (photo by T. Charles Erickson)

Blood and Gifts is a powerful drama about men playing war games, about fathers and sons, about superpowers invading seemingly vulnerable yet ultimately impenetrable foreign nations. Although it takes place between 1981 and 1991, it is as much about today (Iraq, Afghanistan) and tomorrow (Iran?) as it is about yesterday (Vietnam, Korea). Bartlett Sher directs with a swift hand, moving things quickly on Michael Yeargan’s small, sparse set, which consists of a tiled floor flanked on three sides by benches on which some of the actors sit while waiting for their next scene to come up, watching the action along with the audience. Davidson plays Warnock with a square-jawed determination, heading a solid cast that also includes a humorous turn by John Procaccino as blustery CIA head Walter Barnes. Beginning life as a one-act at the Tricycle Theatre’s “The Great Game: Afghanistan” series before making its full-length debut at London’s National Theatre, Blood and Gifts is a compelling spy thriller that takes audiences behind the scenes of the inner workings of the business of war and the high cost paid by the men and women on the sidelines, as well as those right in the middle of the action.

GAGA’S HOLIDAY WORKSHOP

Lady Gaga has taken over Barneys New York this holiday season (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Barneys New York
660 Madison Ave. at 61st St.
Through January 1, free
212-826-8900
www.barneys.com
www.gagasworkshop.com

Lady Gaga is determined to be part of your holiday season one way or another, whether you want her to be or not, and we can’t say that that’s necessarily a bad thing. Grand Central has just published the deluxe fifty-dollar hardcover Lady Gaga x Terry Richardson, a behind-the-scenes photography book in which the famed lensman follows around the former Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta from August 2010 to February 2011, while Interscope has just released Born This Way — the Remix, with Zedd, Goldfrapp, Foster the People, Metronomy, and others putting their own spin on the songs from the original disc, which has topped the five-million mark in sales. And now the native New Yorker has taken over Barneys with a collection of Gaga Goodies that can be found on the fifth floor of the shopping mecca, in a space designed by her Royal Gaga-ness with Nicola Formichetti and the art collective assume vivid astro focus, featuring special-edition designer cosmetics, toys, jewelry, candy, apparel, and other accessories, with twenty-five percent of all sales going to the Born This Way Foundation, which believes in “empowering youth” and “inspiring bravery.” She has also designed several of Barneys windows, filling them with the futuristic, streamlined Gagamachine, the inviting ice-blue Crystal Cave, and the Victorian-era Gaga’s Boudoir, along with the short musical film “Constellation.” On “You and I” from Born This Way, LG sings, “This time I’m not leaving without you”; this month it will be hard for holiday shoppers to leave without at least a little bit of Gaga.