“New Tools for Social Engagement: Betaville” is one of many summit panels examining New York City’s livability
The Municipal Art Society of New York
Penn Plaza Pavilion
401 Seventh Ave. at 33rd St.
Tickets: $50-$195
212-647-1828
www.mas.org/summitnyc
New York City might never be at the top of any of the annual Most Livable Cities in America surveys, but we all know there’s no place else we’d rather be. That said, there’s more than just a little room for improvement. On October 21, the Municipal Art Society will be releasing its Survey on Livability, conducted with the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, and in conjunction with the release, MAS will be holding a two-day summit that examines how we all can help make the Big Apple even better. There will be panels, presentations, keynote addresses, demonstrations, receptions, and other events looking at such topics as “Demographics of a Changing New York,” “Civic Activism in the Spirit of Jane Jacobs,” “Art Works: When Art Builds Community,” “Resilience, Prosperity, and the New ‘Low-Carbon’ Economy,” “Moynihan Station and the Far West Side,” and “Reclaiming the Public Realm,” with dozens of architects, curators, lawyers, commissioners, nonprofit heads, politicians, activists, journalists, CEOs, and other civic and business leaders. Hey, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, so go ahead and register so you can throw your two cents into the ring as well.
After the breakout success of BORN TO RUN in 1975, Bruce Springsteen became embroiled in a lawsuit over control of his music that prevented him from going into the studio to make the highly anticipated follow-up. Springsteen found himself at a crossroads; “You didn’t know if this would be the last record you’d ever make,” he says in the revealing behind-the-scenes documentary THE PROMISE: THE MAKING OF DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN. Combining archival footage of the DARKNESS sessions shot by Barry Rebo with new interviews with all the members of the E Street Band in addition to producers Jimmy Iovine, Jon Landau, and others, editor and director Thom Zimny melds Bruce’s past with the present, delving deep into Springsteen’s complex, infuriating, and fiercely dedicated creative process. “I had to disregard my own mutation,” Springsteen says at one point, regarding his battle to avoid getting caught up in the hype that came with BORN TO RUN, so he decided that his next album would be “a meditation on where are you going to stand.” Rebo captures Springsteen and the E Street Band — from a bare-chested Bruce to a bandanna-less Steve Van Zandt — rehearsing and recording alternate takes of familiar songs as well as tunes that would later wind up on such albums as THE RIVER and TRACKS, opening up Bruce’s famous notebooks and examining his intense creative process, which included throwing away dozens and dozens of songs that he believed just didn’t fit within his vision of what DARKNESS should be. Two of the most fascinating parts of the THE PROMISE, a recent hit at the Toronto Film Festival, involve Patti Smith discussing “Because the Night,” which is about her waiting for her boyfriend at the time, Fred “Sonic” Smith, to call her, and Toby Scott talking about mixing the DARKNESS record to get the sound pictures in Bruce’s head onto vinyl. THE PROMISE: THE MAKING OF DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is screening Wednesday night at the CMJ Film Festival (and will be followed by a Q&A with Zimny moderated by Q04.3 deejay Jonathan Clarke), which opens Tuesday with CIRCUS MAXIMUS (Thomas J. La Sorsa, 2010) and also includes such films as GAINSBOURG AND HIS GIRLS (Pascal Forneri, 2010), PASSENGER SIDE (Matt Bissonnette, 2010), FIREWALL OF SOUND (Devin DiMattia, 2010), and THE CHILD PRODIGY (Luc Dionne, 2010); select showings will feature introductions or postscreening Q&As with the filmmakers, performers, and others.
In a very poor South American village, four men are needed to transport two truckloads of nitroglycerin to the scene of an industrial accident. The men jump at the chance to risk their lives for a small amount of cash because they have nothing else in their pitiful lives. Yves Montand stars in this endlessly tense, harrowing film that won the Golden Bear in Berlin, the BAFTA in England, and the Grand Prize at Cannes. The cast also includes Charles Vanet, Peter van Eyck, Folco Lulli, and Véra Clouzot, the wife of director Henri-Georges Clouzot (LES DIABOLIQUES, LES ESPIONS). THE WAGES OF FEAR will be screening as part of the French Institute Alliance Française series Hollywood Loves French Cinema, along with William Friedkin’s surprisingly gripping 1977 remake, SORCERER, in which Roy Scheider does an outstanding job playing the torturous Montand role as a driver who must go through hell to try to get a shipment of nitroglycerine to its intended destination.