twi-ny recommended events

SPANISH CINEMA NOW: TRISTANA

Catherine Deneuve dreams of a better life in Luis Buñuel’s TRISTANA

TRISTANA (Luis Buñuel, 1970)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Saturday, December 15, 5:30
Series continues through December 16
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com

Luis Buñuel’s adaptation of Benito Pérez Galdós’s 1892 novel Tristana is an often underrated, deceivingly wicked psychological black comedy. A dubbed Catherine Deneuve stars as the title character, a shy, virginal young orphan employed in the household of the aristocratic, atheist Don Lope (Fernando Rey), an avowed atheist and aging nobleman who regularly spouts off about religion and the wretched social conditions in Spain (where the Spanish auteur had recently returned following many years living and working in Mexico). Soon Don Lope is serving as both husband and father to Tristana, who allows the world to pile its ills on her without reacting — until she meets handsome artist Horacio (Franco Nero) and begins to take matters into her own hands, with tragic results. Although Tristana is one of Buñuel’s more straightforward offerings with regard to narrative, featuring fewer surreal flourishes, it is a fascinating exploration of love, femininity, wealth, power, and a changing of the old guard. Deneuve is magnetic as Tristana, transforming from a meek, naive, gorgeous girl into a much stronger, and ultimately darker, gorgeous woman. Lola Gaos provides solid support as Saturna, who runs Don Lope’s household with a firm hand while also taking care of her deaf son, Saturno (Jesús Fernández), yet another male who is fond of the beautiful Tristana. The film is one of Buñuel’s most colorful works, wonderfully shot by cinematographer José F. Aguayo, who photographed Buñuel’s 1961 masterpiece Viridiana, which was also based on a novel by Galdós and starred Rey. Tristana is screening December 15 at 5:30 as part of the Buñuel sidebar at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Spanish Cinema Now” series, which continues through December 16 with such other films as Pedro Pérez Rosado’s Wilaya, Alvaro Longoria’s Sons of the Clouds, and Viridiana.

LET FURY HAVE THE HOUR

Tom Morello offers his version of creative response in LET FURY HAVE THE HOUR

LET FURY HAVE THE HOUR (Antonino D’Ambrosio, 2012)
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St.
Opens Friday, December 14
212-255-2243
www.quadcinema.com
www.letfuryhavethehour.com

In his recently released book Let Fury Have the Hour: Joe Strummer, Punk, and the Movement That Shook the World, author, editor, and visual artist Antonino D’Ambrosio writes, “Let Fury Have the Hour, the book and film, is a call to celebrate the art of living, or being for, not against. For the movie, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, D’Ambrosio brought together some fifty artists to talk about how they use creative response in a positive way to deal with the social, political, and economic outrage that began in the 1980s with the separatist policies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and has exploded today. Shot over the course of seven years, the film features intelligent discourse from such musicians as Billy Bragg, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, Wayne Kramer from the MC5, Chuck D from Public Enemy, Eugene Hütz from Gogol Bordello, and, perhaps most eloquently, Ian MacKaye from Fugazi and Minor Threat. In addition, street artist Shepard Fairey (whose designs can be seen throughout the film), spoken-word poet Staceyann Chin, comedian Lewis Black, filmmaker John Sayles, author Edwidge Danticat, playwright Eve Ensler, choreographer Elizabeth Streb, skateboarder Tommy Guerrero, and many more share how the DIY punk aesthetic influences them in their work and their daily life as they continue to fight the power through artistic self-expression that understands the interconnectedness of everything. “Our freedom of speech is our freedom from death,” Chuck D states. The jumping-off point for many of those in the film, as well as D’Ambrosio himself, was the music of the Clash; the title comes from a line in the Clash classic “Clampdown.” D’Ambrosio and editor Karim Lopez supplement the original interviews, which are all conducted in personal settings unique to each individual, with dramatic archival footage of political and artistic movements from around the world throughout the twentieth century, backed by a score composed by Kramer with songs by Public Enemy, Hütz, Sean Hayes, and others. It all comes together in a rousing wake-up call that is a direct counter to Reagan’s “Morning in America” agenda. “A citizen is someone who participates,” DJ Spooky says in the film. D’Ambrosio is seeking to spread his message of creative response by getting as many citizens as possible to participate in any way they can, making an ambitious film that avoids coming off as propaganda and instead feels necessary in these hard times.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “DIRTY MONEY” / “HIM BELLY NO GO SWEET” BY ANTIBALAS

Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, 132 Havemeyer St. in Williamsburg was home to four men who would soon be making their marks in two of Brooklyn’s most popular bands. While roommates Tunde Adebimpe and Dave Sitek formed TV on the Radio, Gabriel Roth and Martín Perna started the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. Melding the Afro-fusion of Fela Kuti with Latin jazz, Antibalas became a New York City staple, encompassing a dozen members or more as they relentlessly toured and released such records as Liberation Afrobeat, Talkatif, Who Is This America? and Security. After a long road trip in support of their first album in five years, the simply titled Antibalas (Daptone, August 2012), which they recorded at Daptone’s House of Soul Studios with Roth, the band is returning to its roots with a welcome-home show December 14 at Brooklyn Masonic Temple with Red Baraat. On the new album, lead singer Amayo, keyboardist Victor Axelrod, guitarists Marcos García and Luke O’Malley, bassist Nikhil Yerawadekar, percussionist Marcus Farrar, and horn players Perna, Stuart Bogie, Aaron Johnson, Jordan McLean get plenty funky on a half dozen groovy tunes that range in length from 6:15 to 8:07, keeping the party going on such tracks as “Dirty Money,” “Him Belly No Go Sweet,” “Ari Degbe,” and ‘Sáré Kon Kon,” coming together, then breaking off into solos galore that will get even the most laconic booties shaking. It should be one wild and crazy homecoming indeed.

PIER PAOLO PASOLINI: ACCATTONE

Franco Citti stars as the title character in Pier Paolo Pasolin’s directorial debut, ACCATTONE

ACCATTONE (THE SCROUNGER) (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1961)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Friday, December 14, 4:30, and Thursday, December 27, 4:30
Series runs December 13 – January 5
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

After collaborating on a number of works by such auteurs as Mauro Bolognini and Federico Fellini, poet and novelist Pier Paolo Pasolini made his directorial debut in 1961 with the gritty, not-quite-neo-realist Accattone (“scrounger” or “beggar”). Somewhat related to his books Ragazzi di vita and Una vita violenta, the film is set in the Roman borgate, where brash young Vittorio “Accattone” Cataldi (Franco Citti) survives by taking crazy bets — like swimming across a river known for swallowing up people’s lives — and working as a pimp. After a group of local men beat up his main money maker (Silvana Corsini), he meets the more naive Stella (Franca Pasut), whom he starts dating with an eye toward perhaps converting into a prostitute as well. Meanwhile, he tries to establish a relationship with his son, but his estranged wife and her family want nothing to do with him. Filmed in black-and-white by master cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, Accattone is highlighted by a series of memorable shots, from Accattone’s gorgeous dive from a bridge to a close-up of his face covered in sand, many of which were inspired by Baroque art and set to music by Bach. Written with Sergio Citti and featuring a production assistant named Bernardo Bertolucci, the story delves into the dire poverty in the slums of Rome, made all the more real by Pasolini’s use of both professional and nonprofessional actors. Accattone is screening December 14 and 27 as part of MoMA’s “Pier Paolo Pasolini” series, a full career retrospective that runs December 13 to January 5 and includes such special events as “Recital: An Evening Dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini the Poet” at MoMA on December 14 and the Sunday Sessions program “Pier Paolo Pasolini: Intellettuale” at MoMA PS1 on December 16 with Paul Chan, Ninetto Davoli, Emi Fontana, Barbara Hammer, Alfredo Jaar, Lovett/Codagnone, and Fabio Mauri. In addition, there will be a number of other Pasolini celebrations around the city, including the December 13 seminar “Pasolini’s Languages” at the Italian Cultural Institute and the exhibition “Pier Paolo Pasolini, Portraits and Self Portraits” at Location One, opening December 15. Pasolini, who was murdered under mysterious circumstances in 1975 at the age of fifty-three, was a brilliant, iconoclastic, enigmatic figure who looked at the world in a unique way, filling his films and writings with fascinating explorations of religion, politics, social conditions, and even romance, well deserving of this extensive reexamination.

NETTA YERUSHALMY: DEVOURING DEVOURING

Choreographer Netta Yerushalmy makes her evening-length debut with DEVOURING DEVOURING at La MaMa (photo by Yosi Yerushalmy)

La MaMa
Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East Fourth St., second floor, between Bowery & Second Ave.
December 13-16, 7:30, $20
212-475-7710
www.lamama.org
www.nettay.com

Born in South Carolina, dancer and choreographer Netta Yerushalmy has spent most of her life in Tel Aviv and New York City, where she now resides. Her works often feature performers from Israel and New York, incorporating movement from both locations that bring them together and reveal their differences. Yerushalmy, who is currently an artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, will be presenting her first evening-length piece, Devouring Devouring, December 13-16 at La MaMa. Two years in the making, Devouring Devouring explores how viewers interpret and categorize the movement they see onstage. Much of the piece was created by the dancers communicating over the internet between Israel and New York, engaging in video conversations as the project took shape. The piece, which also includes Baroque iconography, will be performed by Joanna Kotze, Toni Melaas, Ofir Yudilevitch, and Stuart Singer — a group described by Yerushalmy as “extraordinary, wild, articulate, virtuosic, sensitive, subtle, and intelligent.” The international flavor continues with music and sound design by the bicoastal Mark degli Antoni, who was a cofounder of Soul Coughing and has scored films by William Wegman, Werner Herzog, and Wallace Shawn; set and lighting by the Brooklyn-based Lenore Doxsee, associate artistic director of Target Margin Theater; and costumes and special creations by Austin-based fabric artist Magdalena Jarkowiec, who made fluorescent hand-sewn penis dolls for anyone who donated thirty-five dollars or more to Yerushalmy’s Kickstarter campaign, which was needed to put the finishing touches on Devouring Devouring.

VOLPONE

Stephen Spinella has a blast as the title character in streamlined revival of Ben Jonson’s VOLPONE (photo by Carol Rosegg)

Red Bull Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theater
121 Christopher St. between Bleecker & Hudson Sts.
Tuesday – Sunday through December 23, $20-$75
212-352-3101
www.redbulltheater.com

Ben Jonson’s classic 1606 English Renaissance satire, Volpone, is currently enjoying its first major New York City revival in half a century, in a deliriously entertaining streamlined version at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. The Red Bull Theater production, directed with a playful hand by Jesse Berger, stars two-time Tony winner Stephen Spinella (Angels in America) as Volpone, a Venice magnifico who takes great delight in duping various local patrons out of their extensive wealth. “Open the shrine, that I may see my saint. . . . Hail the world’s soul, and mine,” he declares upon waking, referring to his treasure chests of gold. He requests a serenade by his trio of oddball servants, eunuch Castrone (Sean Patrick Doyle), fool Androgyno (Alexander Sovronsky), and dwarf Nano (Teale Sperling), who put on a fabulous little performance for their master, with the help of offstage musicians and ensemble members Jen Eden and Pearl Rhein. Pretending to be dying of a variety of awful illnesses, Volpone is visited by a series of greedy elitists who bring him expensive gifts in the hopes of becoming his sole heir and inheriting his vast riches. The parade of men and women who feign caring about him while actually praying for his impending death include Corbaccio (Alvin Epstein), a nearly deaf old man willing to cut his son, Bonario (Gregory Wooddell), out of his will in favor of Volpone; Corvino (Michael Mastro), a wealthy merchant contemplating pimping out his virtuous wife, Celia (Christina Pumariega), in order to be named as Volpone’s heir; Voltore (Rocco Sisto), a buffoonish lawyer who can’t wait for Volpone to kick the bucket; and the elegant Lady Would-Be (four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh), who uses her feminine wiles to go after the prize. Orchestrating the mad goings-on is Volpone’s right-hand parasite, Mosca (Cameron Folmar), who relishes his role as the one who casts out the bait and reels in the catch. But when Volpone goes too far, he and Mosca have to come up with a new plan or face potential ruination.

The supposedly impending death of a wealthy Venetian sets many wheels in motion in classic English comedy (photo by Carol Rosegg)

Considered one of the greatest non-Shakespearean Jacobean comedies, Volpone is a frenetic farce fraught with fanciful flourishes. Jonson has fun with the details, beginning with the characters’ names, which reveal their inner nature; Volpone means fox, Corbaccio raven, Corvino crow, Voltore vulture, and Mosca fly. He skewers English society, leaving no one unscathed, including Volpone and Mosca and the courts. Spinella has a ball playing the sly fox, addressing the audience directly as he dupes his callers with relish, but Folmar nearly steals the show as his oft-improvising servant. Trimmed down to a lean two hours from its original four, Volpone also features several raunchy musical numbers by Scott Killian and wonderful costumes by Clint Ramos that further reflect the characters’ true selves. Things threaten to get a little too crazy in the second act, but Berger steadies the ship for a grand finale. Jonson works all seven deadly sins into his tale, which still feels relevant in today’s money-hungry world, where so many are willing to do whatever it takes for wealth and power.

ROBERT C. JACKSON: NEW PAINTINGS

Robert C. Jackson, “Crossing,” oil on linen, 2011

Gallery Henoch
555 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through December 15, free, 10:30 am – 6:00 pm
917-305-0003
www.galleryhenoch.com
www.robertcjackson.com

One of our favorite shows of 2011 was Robert C. Jackson’s debut at Gallery Henoch in Chelsea, “From Ridiculous to Sublime.” The North Carolina–born, Pennsylvania-based painter is now back at Henoch with his second one-man presentation, simply titled “New Paintings,” which runs through December 15. A self-described “contemporary realist still life artist,” Jackson creates whimsical canvases filled with familiar edible items caught up in playful and sometimes dangerous situations. In “Crossing,” Oreo cookies are carefully making their way across a tightrope strung over a big bucket of milk. In “Might Need More Coffee,” a lone cup of java is surrounded by stacks and stacks of donuts. In “The Critic,” balloon dogs hover over sharp tree branches. Balloon dogs appear again in “High Stakes,” playing cards, smoking bubble pipes, and partaking in shrimp, clams, and cocktails. And in “Payload,” a rocket ship carrying a red apple is about to take off, lit by a green apple with a burning match. Other oil-on-linen works feature watermelons, oranges, and popcorn, most also including stacks of classic food and drink crates that symbolize an old-fashioned America that doesn’t really exist anymore. “By infusing inanimate objects with a personality,” Jackson explains in his artist statement, “I am able to explore the human narrative outside of personal biases.” He wants the viewer to take each painting, which reference such diverse artists as Paul Cézanne and Jeff Koons, and run with it, expanding the story being told and imagining what would happen next. But most of all he just wants people to have fun with the works, and we can attest that they are indeed a whole lot of fun.