Yearly Archives: 2012

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2012: DAY TWO

LIssy Trullie will be looking for love and more at Northside tonight (photo by Cory Kennedy)

The third annual Northside Festival heads into day two with its biggest show, an outdoor concert in McCarren Park featuring of Montreal, Jens Lekman, the Thermals, and Beach Fossils that should be hipster central. But don’t pass up the smaller, cheaper events at such venues as Bar Matchless, Cameo Gallery, Europa, Glasslands, Music Hall of Williamsburg, the Knitting Factory, Public Assembly, and Legion. Tonight’s promising roster includes St. Lucia, French Horn Rebellion, Lissy Trullie, Buke and Gase, and a record release party for These United States. In addition, Northside Art begins, with dozens of artists opening up their studios to visitors, and Northside Entrepreneurship continues with such panel discussions as “Fundraising for Niche Startups: Lessons from Urban Agriculture Innovators,” “Make Things Not War,” and “GZA on the Spirit of Disruption and Brooklyn.”

of Montreal, Jens Lekman, the Thermals, Beach Fossils, McCarren Park, $33.50, 5:00

Northside Art: Katie Nielsen, “Many Conversations” group show at Present Company, opening reception 6:00 – midnight, “Space Half Empty” group show at Fowler Arts Collective, opening reception 7:00 – 10:00

Neon Gold Records present: St. Lucia, French Horn Rebellion, Black Light Dinner Party, Slowdance, Lovelife, Nini Fabi, Chrome Canyon (DJ), Cameo Gallery, $15, 7:00

These United States (album release show), Grand Rapids, Your 33 Black Angels, Knitting Factory, $15, 8:00

The Whatever Blog presents: LUFF, Gold Streets, the Planes, Crazy Pills, Alyson Greenfield, Legion, $5, 8:00

PopGun presents: Lissy Trullie, the Young Rapscallions, Motive, Glasslands Gallery, $10, 8:30

FROM THE PEN OF . . . FIVE EASY PIECES

Jack Nicholson places the most famous sandwich order in film history (Sony Pictures Repertory)

Jack Nicholson places the most famous sandwich order in film history (Sony Pictures Repertory)

FIVE EASY PIECES (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Saturday, June 16, 9:00, and Sunday, June 24, 6:45
Series continues through June 24
212-505-5181
anthologyfilmarchives.org

A key film that helped lead 1960s cinema into the grittier 1970s, Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces is one of the most American of dramas, a tale of ennui and unrest among the rich and the poor, a road movie that travels from trailer parks to fashionable country estates. Caught in between is Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson), a former piano prodigy now working on an oil rig and living with a well-meaning but not very bright waitress, Rayette (Karen Black). When Bobby finds out that his father is ill, he reluctantly returns to the family home, the prodigal son who had left all that behind, escaping to a less-complicated though unsatisfying life putting his fingers in a bowling ball rather than tickling the keys of a grand piano. Back in his old house, he has to deal with his brother, Carl (Ralph Waite), a onetime violinist who can no longer play because of an injured neck and who serves as the film’s comic relief; Carl’s wife, Catherine (Susan Anspach), a snooty woman Bobby has always been attracted to; and Bobby’s sister, Partita (Lois Smith), a lonely, troubled soul who has the hots for Spicer (John Ryan), the live-in nurse who takes care of their wheelchair-bound father (William Challee). Rafelson had previously directed the psychedelic movie Head (he cocreated the Monkees band and TV show) and would go on to make such films as The King of Marvin Gardens, Stay Hungry, and Black Widow; written by Carole Eastman, Five Easy Pieces fits flawlessly in between them, a deeply philosophical work that captures the myriad changes the country was experiencing as the Woodstock Generation was forced to start growing up. The film suffers from some unsteady editing primarily in the earlier scenes, but it is still a gem, featuring at least two unforgettable scenes, one that takes place in a California highway traffic jam and the other in a diner, where Bobby places an order for the ages. And as good as Nicholson is, earning the first of seven Best Actor Oscar nominations, Helena Kallianiotes nearly steals the picture as a crazy woman railing against the ills of the world from the backseat of Bobby’s car. Five Easy Pieces will be screening June 16 and 24 as part of the Anthology Film Archives ongoing series From the Pen of . . ., paying tribute to such lesser-known but seminal screenwriters as Eastman, Jacob Brackman, Lewis John Carlino, Alan Sharp, and Norman Wexler and including such other films as The King of Marvin Gardens, Seconds, The Last Run, and Joe.

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2012: DAY ONE

GZA will be performing his 1995 classic, LIQUID SWORDS, on the opening night of Northside

The third annual Northside Festival gets under way tonight, expanding to eight days of special programs and events throughout Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Hundreds of bands will be playing Northside Music June 14-17, from name groups to local newcomers. Overlapping the music section will be Northside Art, comprising more than fifty open studios, group shows, and art walks June 15-17, as well as Northside Entrepreneurship on June 14-15, consisting of more than three dozen panel discussions and seminars on the business of entertainment. The festival continues next week with Northside Film, with more than sixty shorts, features, documentaries, and animated works being screened June 18-21. We’ll be posting our daily recommendations through the first part of the festival, so keep checking back as we narrow Northside down to its key ingredients. For Thursday’s opening night, the highlights include the psychedelic White Hills, the experimental Dustin Wong, eclectic duo Eternal Summers, dance funksters Aabaraki, and Wu Tang genius GZA.

Monarch presents: Pass Kontrol, Aabaraki, Mitten, Scott Matthew, Bar Matchless, $8, 7:00

NYCTaper presents: Pontiak, White Hills, Rhyton, EULA, 285 Kent, $12, 9:00

Kanine Records & Terrorbird Media present: Class Actress, Eternal Summers, Bleeding Rainbow, Beach Day, Zambri, Air Waves, Knitting Factory, $15, 7:30

GZA performing Liquid Swords, Orchestra Grupo Fantasma, Brownout (early show only), Music Hall of Williamsburg, $30, 7:30 & 11:00

Strange Victory Touring Co. presents: Mucca Pazza, Chain and the Gang, Magik Markers, M.A.K.U. SoundSystem, Starring, Dustin Wong, Dope Body, Public Assembly, $14, 10:00

MEDIEVAL PLAY

Sir Ralph (Josh Hamilton) and Sir Alfred (Tate Donovan) discuss the socioeconomic conditions of fourteenth-century Europe in Kenneth Lonergan’s MEDIEVAL PLAY

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Irene Diamond Stage
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through June 24, $25
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

The Signature Theatre has had a thrilling inaugural season at its new Frank Gehry-designed Pershing Square Center on West 42nd St., with five strong productions in three spaces. But alas, at the end of its second cycle, it now has its first dud. Kenneth Lonergan’s Medieval Play is a silly little piffle about knights raping and pillaging across Europe as one poor soul suddenly gains a conscience. Set during the Hundred Years’ War and the Papal Schism of 1378, the play opens with Sir Alfred (Tate Donovan) and Sir Ralph (Josh Hamilton) having an anachronistic discussion about the political and economic conditions of contemporary society as they prepare to lay further siege to the countryside. But Ralph soon starts having second thoughts about the intrinsic value of brutally molesting nuns, much to the consternation of Alfred and fellow knights Sir Simon (Kevin Geer) and Sir Lionel (C. J. Wilson). With both Italy and France claiming the new pope, Urban VI (Anthony Arkin) and Clement VII (John Pankow), the battle is on, but the play lacks any kind of center as it meanders from scene to scene, throwing in a funny joke here and there but mostly coming off flat and repetitive, an uninspiring mix of 1066 and All That, Month Python and the Holy Grail, The Borgias, Game of Thrones, and your niece’s high school talent show. The cast, which also includes Heather Burns as Catherine of Siena and Halley Feiffer in a number of roles, sometimes addresses the audience directly and fools around with the purposely low-rent costumes and set design, self-referential conceits that only add to the flawed nature of the production. This time around, Lonergan, who has written and directed such films as You Can Count on Me and Margaret and written such highly praised shows as This Is Our Youth, The Waverley Gallery, and Lobby Hero, has come up with a play that is as generic as its title.

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT

Performance artist Marina Abramović is present in more ways than one in intimate documentary

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT (Matthew Akers, 2012)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
June 13-26
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

For forty years, Belgrade-born performance artist Marina Abramović has been presenting cutting-edge, often controversial live works that redefine what art is. For her highly anticipated major career retrospective at MoMA in 2010, “Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present,” which was titled and curated by Klaus Biesenbach, the longtime New Yorker had something extraordinary planned: For the run of the show, from March 14 through May 31, she would spend the entire time the museum was open sitting across from strangers, gazing into each other’s eyes for as long as the visitor wanted. Documentary cinematographer Matthew Akers takes viewers behind the scenes of that remarkable show in his directorial feature debut, also called Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present. Given unlimited access to both Abramović and MoMA, Akers follows the sixty-three-year-old artist as she prepares for the exhibition; heads to a country retreat where she trains several dozen men and women who will “re-perform” some of her older works; and reconnects with former partner and lover Ulay, with whom she first performed many of the pieces in the show. Abramović is seen relaxing in a tub, chopping vegetables, and taking a rare turn behind the wheel of a car, performing relatively menial tasks compared to her art, in which she flagellates herself, carves a star into her stomach, runs into walls, gets slapped by and slaps Ulay, and allows visitors to do whatever they want to her using various objects. The film is at its best when Abramović and Ulay open up about their relationship, get emotional over seeing the old van they used to live in, and discuss their final performance, “The Great Wall Walk,” when they started at opposite ends of the Great Wall of China and walked toward each other over the course of three months, then broke up. While various art critics and curators, including Biesenbach and the Whitney’s Chrissie Iles, sing Abramović’s praises, the film never delves into the more serious meaning behind her art and avoids examining its controversial nature, save for one brief news report decrying its use of nudity. But the long scenes in which Abramović and visitors look into each other’s eyes are absolutely mesmerizing; the elegant Abramović is always steady and stalwart, her concentration intoxicating, inspiring, and more than a little frightening, the opening of her eyes a work of art in and of itself, while the person opposite her tears up, smiles, or pats their heart softly, thanking her for the intense, emotional connection occurring between them, which is essentially what all art is about. Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present opens June 13 at Film Forum for a two-week run prior to its debut on HBO on July 2, with director Akers on hand to talk about the project at the 7:50 screening opening night.

SPAGHETTI WESTERNS: DUCK, YOU SUCKER!

James Coburn and Rod Steiger have a blast in Sergio Leone’s final spaghetti Western

DUCK, YOU SUCKER! (Sergio Leone, 1972)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
June 13 (1:40 & 6:50), 19 (8:00), 21 (1:00)
Series runs through June 21
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

Rod Steiger and James Coburn star in Sergio Leone’s final spaghetti Western, set during the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s. Steiger is Juan Miranda, the leader of a group of bandits who have stolen a stagecoach. Coburn is Sean Mallory, an IRA man on the run who likes blowing things up. The sweaty Juan wants to rob the Mesa Verde bank, while the cool Sean just wants to be left alone, but the two of them soon find themselves fighting together in the revolution. The film is way too long, and Ennio Morricone’s music is way too goofy, but Leone fans shouldn’t miss this rare chance to see the restored version of this film. Duck, You Sucker! is screening June 13, 19, and 21 as part of Film Forum’s Spaghetti Westerns series, which also features such well-known classics and under-the-radar gems as Damiano Damiani’s A Bullet for the General, Giulio Petroni’s Death Rides a Horse, Carlo Lizzani’s The Hills Run Red, and Giulio Questi’s Django Kill . . . If You Live, Shoot!

TODD HAYNES IN PERSON WITH FAR FROM HEAVEN

Todd Haynes’s FAR FROM HEAVEN reveals the dark underside of suburbia

FAR FROM HEAVEN (Todd Haynes, 2002)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Thursday, June 14, $20, 7:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.farfromheavenmovie.com

Douglas Sirk and Thomas Mann would be proud. In Todd Haynes’s wonderfully retro Far from Heaven, Oscar-nominated Julianne Moore is amazing as 1950s housewife Cathy Whitaker, who thinks she has the perfect idyllic suburban life — until she discovers that her husband (Dennis Quaid) has a secret that dare not speak its name. Mr. & Mrs. Magnatech they are not after all. When she starts getting all chummy with the black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), people start talking, of course. Part Imitation of Life, part Death in Venice, and oh-so-original, Haynes’s awesome achievement will have you believing you’re watching a film made in the 1950s, propelled by Elmer Bernstein’s excellent music, Edward Lachman’s remarkable photography, and Mark Friedberg’s terrific production design. Far from Heaven is screening at the Museum of the Moving Image on June 14 at 7:00, with Haynes in person to talk about the film in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition “Persol Magnificent Obsessions: 30 stories of craftsmanship in film,” which focuses on artifacts from works by Ed Harris, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Trumbull, Ennio Morricone, Dean Tavoularis, Clint Eastwood, Haynes, and others.