twi-ny recommended events

LATKE FESTIVAL: A TASTE OF THE WORLD

City Winery
155 Varick St. at Vandam St.
Sunday, December 5, $32.50, 4:00
212-608-0555
www.citywinery.com

City Winery, home of the Sunday Klezmer Brunch, will be celebrating Hanukkah on December 5 with its second annual International Latke Festival, a potato-pancake cook-off featuring local chefs from Great Performances, which supplies food to many of the city’s finest cultural institutions, seeking to become the Latke Champion. This year’s contestants are Tim Sullivan, executive chef of BAMcafe and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, who will be making an American latke; Jack Kiggens, executive chef at the Plaza Hotel Grand Ballroom, going for the Cuban version; Liz Neumark, the CEO of Great Performances, attempting the Israeli edition; Marc Spooner, executive chef of Great Performances, preparing the Russian kind; and Matthew Riznyk, sous chef of Great Performances, frying up the Chinese latke. The battle will also feature live music from the Seattle-based Jewish ensemble Sasson. And yes, you’ll get to sample all of the dishes and argue that Grandma Blanche’s Yonkers latkes are still the best.

NIGHT MOVES: CLAUDE CHABROL & ARTHUR PENN

LE BEAU SERGE kicks off Lincoln Center tribute to Claude Chabrol and Arthur Penn

Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
December 3-9, $12 ($9 weekday matinees, three-film pass $27)
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com

On the surface, it might seem like the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s dual tribute to Claude Chabrol and Arthur Penn is merely one of coincidence and timing: French auteur Chabrol died on September 12 at the age of eighty, while American director Penn passed away on September 28 at the age of eighty-eight. Both made their first film in 1958, Penn with THE LEFT-HANDED GUN, starring Paul Newman as Billy the Kid, Chabrol winning the Prix Jean Vigo for LE BEAU SERGE. But while Chabrol went on to direct more than fifty films, through 2009’s INSPECTOR BELLAMY, Penn made a mere fourteen, the last being the 1989 cable TV movie INSIDE. In fact, the careers of both men were inextricably linked through the French New Wave, Chabrol being one of its earliest proponents, Penn among the first non-Europeans to adapt its highly stylized, antiestablishment aesthetic. Lincoln Center will be screening eight works by Chabrol and seven by Penn December 3-9, including the former’s STORY OF WOMEN, LA FEMME INFIDÈLE, and LES BONNES FEMMES and the latter’s LITTLE BIG MAN, NIGHT MOVES, and THE MIRACLE WORKER.

Faye Dunaway and Clyde Barrow go on a violent bank-robbing rampage in American classic BONNIE AND CLYDE

BONNIE AND CLYDE (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Friday, December 3, 6:30, & Thursday, December 7, 3:10
Arthur Penn changed the course of Hollywood — and world cinema — in 1967 with BONNIE AND CLYDE, a film previously offered to such Nouvelle Vague luminaries as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Cowritten by David Newman (SUPERMAN I-III) and Robert Benton (KRAMER VS. KRAMER), the film mythologizes the true story of depression-era bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, played magnificently by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. At its heart, BONNIE AND CLYDE is a passionate yet unusual love story, filled with close-ups of the gorgeous Dunaway, who is first seen naked, running to her bedroom window confident and carefree, more a modern 1960s woman than a poor 1930s small-town waitress. Meanwhile, Barrow might know how to shoot a gun, but he’s a dud in bed; “I ain’t much of a lover boy,” he tells Bonnie early on, so their passion plays out in fast-moving car chases and shootouts rather than under the covers (while also playing off of Beatty’s already well-deserved reputation as a ladies’ man). They pick up an accomplice in gas-station attendant C. W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard) and are soon joined by Clyde’s brother, Buck (Gene Hackman), and his wife, Blanche (Estelle Parsons), and continue their rampage as heroic, happy-go-lucky hold-up artists, leading up to one of the most influential and controversial endings ever put on celluloid, an unforgettable finale of violent and poetic beauty. Penn, editor Dede Allen, and cinematographer Burnett Guffey redefined the gangster picture with their creative use of slow motion, long takes, and crowded shots, defying Hollywood conventions in favor of unique and innovative storytelling devices, allowing the film to work on multiple levels. Coscreenwriter Benton will participate in a Q&A following the December 3 screening.

CHELSEA ART WALK: WEST 24th St.

Wandering through Chelsea galleries can often be a long, hit-or-miss affair, but you can make a direct strike right now by taking advantage of the excellent shows along 24th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves. Abelardo Morell’s “The Universe Next Door” continues through December 11 at Bryce_Wolkowitz (505 West 24th St.), consisting of the Cuban photographer’s latest camera obscura pigment ink prints in which he turns rooms into pinhole cameras, projecting the outside world onto interior walls, resulting in such beautiful, unique images as “View of the Manhattan Bridge — April 20th / Afternoon” and “View of Florence Looking Northwest Inside Bedroom.” (Morell’s concurrent “Groundwork” exhibition, in which he utilizes a lightproof tent and periscope, is at Bonni Benrubi on East 57th St. through January 8.) Israeli-born Elad Lassry’s small C-prints of people, animals, and unusual objects in solidly painted frames will line the walls of Luhring Augustine (531 West 24th St.) through December 18, while his latest 35mm projection, of a woman and a California king snake, is shown in the back room. (Lassry is also part of MoMA’s current New Photography 2010 installation, through January 11.) German photographer Michael Wolf takes on issues of privacy and surveillance in “iseeyou,” at Bruce Silverstein (535 West 24th St.) through December 24, blowing up pixelated images he appropriated from Google Street Views and showing them along with such previous series as “Transparent City,” “Architecture of Density,” and “Tokyo Compression”; in the back gallery, Wolf has curated “City Views,” eleven voyeuristic shots of people on rooftops and in windows taken by André Kertész in the 1960s and 1970s.

Mika Rottenberg, “Squeeze” (video still), single-channel video installation, 2010 (courtesy Mary Boone Gallery)

For her latest immersive video environment, Argentine native Mika Rottenberg has installed “Squeeze” at Mary Boone (541 West 24th St.) through December 18, a usually crowded white room showing a twenty-minute film loop of a bizarre Rube Goldberg-like global factory of lettuce workers, misted butts, wall tongues, a large oracle, red ponytails, and other oddnesses creating a work of art that will never be seen by the public (be sure to read the document on the wall). And German artist Anselm Kiefer revisits his controversial 1969 show, “Occupations,” a series of photographs of him giving the Hitlergruß in historic sites throughout Europe, in “Next Year in Jerusalem” at the Gagosian Gallery (555 West 24th St.) through December 18, a massive new exhibit of vitrines of all sizes containing myriad elements that together appear to have gone through intense devastation, including clothing, typewriters, pieces of an airplane and a boat, broken glass, thorn bushes, snakeskin, burned books, metal cages, and other items. Several of the vitrines refer to such Bible stories, locations, and characters as Jacob’s Ladder, Lilith, and Mount Tabor. It’s a dizzying and overwhelming sight that evokes powerful emotions and memories.

THE WORLD IN 2011 FESTIVAL

Skylight Soho, 275 Hudson St.
92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St.
December 2-4, $75-$350
www.facebook.com/ideaseconomy
www.worldin2011.economist.com

The Economist is the best world affairs weekly being published today. In print. Digitally. Anywhere. Finance and investing professionals have known it for years, but in the past twenty-four months, a marketing blitz and increased availability — combined with Americans’ desperate need for real news — has gained the esteemed mag tens of thousands of grateful new readers. For the last quarter-century, The Economist has been publishing a special issue, “The World In,” in which they gather together journalists, celebrities, politicians, religious leaders, and others who make predictions about what will happen in the worlds of business, government, science, technology, art, pop culture, and more in the year ahead. In conjunction with the publication of “The World in 2011,” the magazine is hosting its second annual World In Festival, three days of insight and optimism from a stellar collection of thinkers. On Thursday night, the gala dinner at Skylight Soho ($350) will include former president Bill Clinton, U.S. secretary of energy Dr. Steven Chu, and THINKfoodGROUP chef and owner José Andrés and live performances by K’NAAN and Loudon Wainwright III. On Friday night, MoMA director Glenn Lowry will host performances by Wainwright and comedian Jeff Kreisler at 92YTribeca ($150). And on Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, an illustrious group of speakers will descend on 92YTribeca ($75) for a full day of lectures, discussions, and interactive debates; among those who will be sharing their views on 2011 and beyond are Majora Carter, James Diener, Anita Dunn, Andrew Excum, Andrew Freear, Jace Hall, Dr. David Kessler, Andres Lepik, Mu Socha, Alex Pollock, Karen Finney, Admiral Gary Roughead, Benn Steil, Nich Shore, Kah Walla, Dr. Nathan Wolfe, and numerous editors and writers from The Economist.

BREATHLESS (À BOUT DE SOUFFLE)

BREATHLESS is back for a return engagement at Film Forum (courtesy Rialto Pictures/StudioCanal)

BREATHLESS (À BOUT DE SOUFFLE) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Through December 7, 1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

The fiftieth-anniversary restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s Nouvelle Vague classic, BREATHLESS, will leave audiences, well, breathless. Godard’s first feature-length film, buoyed by an original treatment by François Truffaut and with Claude Chabrol serving as technical adviser, is as much about the cinema itself as it is about would-be small-time gangster Michel Poiccard (an iconic Jean-Paul Belmondo), an ultra-cool dude wandering from girl to girl in Paris, looking for extra helpings of sex and money and having trouble getting either. Along the way he steals a car and shoots a cop as if shooing away a fly before teaming up with Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg) and heading out on the run. Godard references William Faulkner and Dashiell Hammett, Humphrey Bogart and Sam Fuller as Michel and Patricia make faces at each other, discuss death, and are chased by the police. Anarchy prevails, both in Belmondo’s character and the film as a whole, which can go off in any direction at any time. Godard himself shows up as the man who identifies Michel, and there are also cameos by New Wave directors Jean-Pierre Melville and Jacques Rivette. The beautiful restoration, supervised by the film’s director of photography, Raoul Coutard, also includes a brand-new translation and subtitles that breathe new life into one of cinema’s greatest treasures. Although many of the restored movies that play at Film Forum do so immediately prior to DVD release, no DVD is currently planned for this version of BREATHLESS, so if you missed it when it ran earlier this year, you’ll have to catch it during this return engagement, which ends December 7.

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will honor Judith Jamison’s long service with special programs at annual City Center season (photo by Jack Mitchell)

New York City Center
130 West 56th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
December 1 – January 2
Tickets: $25-$150
212-581-1212
www.alvinailey.org
www.nycitycenter.org

Philly-born dancer and choreographer Judith Jamison performed with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1965 to 1980, returning in December 1989 to become the artistic director of the company. After twenty-one years in that role, Jamison is stepping down, and Ailey’s annual winter season at City Center will be honoring her throughout its run, beginning with an opening night gala December 1 featuring the company premiere of Robert Battle’s “The Hunt,” Ailey’s “Cry,” and Sweet Honey in the Rock singing live to “Revelations,” and culminating in a special farewell tribute on January 2 that will include excerpts from many of the works most closely associated with her, from “Cry” (performed by three different dancers) and “Pas de Duke” to “Reminiscin’” and “Firebird.” (Battle will take over as artistic director in July 2011.) The season will also feature specially priced family matinees that will include “Revelations” performed by a cast of fifty; All Ailey programs, with such pieces as “Night Creature,” “Memoria,” “Mary Lou’s Mass,” and “Revelations”; All New programs, introducing world or company premieres and/or new productions of Christopher Huggins’s “Anointed,” Geoffrey Holder’s “The Prodigal Prince,” Camille A. Brown’s “The Evolution of a Secured Feminine,” Jamison’s “Forgotten Time,” and other works; and performances accompanied by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (Ailey’s “Three Black Kings,” Hans Van Manen’s “Solo,” Ulysses Dove’s “Vespers” and “Episodes,” Battle’s “In/Side,” Billy Wilson’s “The Winter in Lisbon”) and other groups.

METAMORPHOSIS

Iceland’s Vesterport Theatre returns to the Next Wave Festival with the U.S. premiere of METAMORPHOSIS (photo by Eddi Jonsson)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
November 30 – December 5, $25-$65
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

In 2008, Iceland’s Vesterport Theatre, under the leadership of director and star Gísli Örn Gardarsson, made its U.S. debut with their visually arresting production of WOYZECK, and they are returning to BAM’s Next Wave Festival this week for a multimedia interpretation of Franz Kafka’s creepy short story METAMORPHOSIS. Billed as “a six-legged nightmare,” the show, directed and adapted by Gardarsson and David Farr, will once again feature a score composed by Australian madman Nick Cave and his longtime Bad Seed Warren Ellis, with set design by Börkur Jónsson, lighting design by Björn Helgason, costumes by Brenda Murphy, and sound design by Nick Manning. Gardarsson and some of his collaborators will participate in an artist talk following the December 2 performance.