Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway (Suite 401) between Houston & Prince Sts.
Thursday, February 23, $7, 7:00
212-254-3511
www.moccany.org
For more than forty-five years, nearly every issue of MAD magazine ended with a fold-in surprise by Al Jaffee, a full-page piece of art that became something completely different when readers brought the A and the B together and folded it in. In conjunction with the recent release of The MAD Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010 (Chronicle, September 2011, $125) — a deluxe four-volume hardcover set that includes a reproduction of every one of the 410 fold-ins Jaffee and the “usual gang of idiots” created, including a copy of the original unfolded page as well as a digital image of the folded result — the ninety-year-old Jaffee will be at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art on Thursday night at 7:00, participating in a panel discussion with MAD art director Sam Viviano, MAD writer Arie Kaplan, and illustrator Arnold Roth, moderated by Danny Fingeroth. This is a rare chance to meet a living legend in the industry, a highly influential illustrator who counts among his minions Stephen Colbert, Gary Larson, and many others. You should also check out MOCCA’s current exhibits, which include “Michael Uslan: The Boy Who Loved Batman,” “Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan,” “Artists of Batman,” and “The Art of Howl: A Collaboration between Eric Drooker and Allen Ginsberg.”
French director Michel Hazanavicius has followed his two OSS 117 espionage parodies, Cairo, Nest of Spies and Lost in Rio, with another genre exercise, this time taking on silent film in the charming international hit The Artist. Reteaming Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo from Cairo, Nest of Spies, Hazanavicius tells the story of the end of silent cinema through the clever use of the genre’s own familiar conventions. Dujardin stars as George Valentin, a silent-film idol who believes that talking pictures will just be a passing fad. Bejo, who is married to Hazanavicius, plays Peppy Miller, a young, peppy Hollywood hopeful who embraces the arrival of the sound era, rising as fast as Valentin is falling. It’s a different take on the classic A Star Is Born theme, with plenty of inside jokes and cute references about the movies, although purposefully using clichés doesn’t excuse the film from often being too clichéd itself; many of the scenes are far too predictable, offering few genuine surprises as the plot unfolds. However, Hazanavicius and his crew nail the period both aurally and visually, with splendid costumes by Mark Bridges, production design by Laurence Bennett, set decoration by Robert Gould, cinematography by Guillaume Schiffman, and music by Ludovic Bource. Excellent support is supplied by James Cromwell as Valentin’s loyal valet, John Goodman as cigar-chomping producer Al Zimmer, and Uggie as Valentin’s ever-faithful dog, Jack. Nominated for ten Academy Awards, The Artist is a fabulously made though flawed and overrated film that is a charming celebration of the movies — and a great way to get people into theaters to experience the myriad pleasures of black-and-white silent cinema.
Based on the 2007 novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, Alexander Payne’s The Descendants is a masterfully made, beautifully told story of love, loss, and family, highlighted by a graceful, wonderfully nuanced performance by George Clooney. Clooney stars as Matt King, a successful Hawaiian lawyer whose wife (Patricia Hastie) has suffered a devastating water-skiing accident that has left her in a coma. King is suddenly forced to be both father and mother to his two daughters, the troubled Alex (Shailene Woodley), who is in college, and ten-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller), something he admits in voice-over narration he is absolutely clueless about. Meanwhile, he is in the midst of deciding what to do with his family inheritance, an enormous plot of pristine beachfront property that his large group of cousins (including Michael Ontkean and Beau Bridges) wants to sell to a major developer. But his life is again turned upside down when he discovers that his marriage was not quite what he thought it had been, learning a secret about his wife that complicates things even further. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Clooney), Best Editing (Kevin Tent), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash), The Descendants never takes the easy way out. In his first film since 2004’s Sideways, Payne (Election, About Schmidt) avoids melodramatic clichés and obvious plot twists, instead creating intelligent scenes filled with complex emotions that continually defy expectations. Clooney gives one of the best performances of his career as King, a carefully measured, subtle portrayal that keeps the film firmly balanced, whether he is being shot from the front, his eyes both intensely thoughtful and painfully confused, or shown from the back, his shoulders barely steady, his head facing out into a whole new world. Payne often allows scenes to take place off-screen and behind closed doors, putting his faith in the audience, who will be well rewarded by putting their trust in him. The Descendants is another great success from Payne, one of Hollywood’s best, and most fascinating, storytellers.