twi-ny recommended events

ICONS: BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN

Eisenstein classic is part of Icons film series at the Rubin Museum

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925)
Cabaret Cinema
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, September 17, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/cabaretcinema

Sergei M. Eisenstein’s BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN might be a seminal silent classic that changed the nature of filmmaking, but it is also still a vastly entertaining movie regardless of its cinematic influence and worldwide importance. Divided into five episodes — Men and Maggots, Drama at the Harbour, A Dead Man Calls for Justice, The Odessa Staircase, and The Rendez-vous with a Squadron — the film tells the based-on-fact story of a mutiny on board a sailing vessel, the result of unfair treatment of the workers, a microcosm of the Russian Revolution of 1905 that later led to the bigger revolution of 1917. The film is like an editing primer, its approach to montage causing its own revolution at the time, particularly during the unforgettable Odessa Steps sequence, in which Eisenstein’s cuts manipulate the action in powerful, emotional ways that were new to cinema. The film also features the best mustaches in the history of movies. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN is available in numerous versions with slightly different intertitles and soundtracks; although we’re not sure which one will be shown at the Rubin Museum on September 17 (introduced by Russian writer Alex Galper) as part of its latest K2 Friday night CabaretCinema series, Icons, you can rest assured that it will be a thrilling experience, especially if you’ve never seen the film before.

OF MONTREAL

Of Montreal isn’t afraid to get a little goofy on record or at their live shows

Terminal 5
610 West 56th St.
Friday, September 17, and Saturday, September 18, $27.50-$30, 8:00
www.myspace.com/ofmontreal
www.terminal5nyc.com

Don’t let the funky grooves flying all over Of Montreal’s tenth album, FALSE PRIEST (Polyvinyl, September 14), fool you; band founder and Apollinaire Rave artistic director Kevin Barnes is still delving deep into suicide, shattered hearts, self-brutality, death anxiety, and loneliness — as well as particle wave duality, auto-da-fés, fetishized archetypes, uncalibrated skulls, frontal lobe regression, and Chinese urine. The Athens, Georgia, group, which has been shuffled and reshuffled over its thirteen-year career, with more former members than current members (and some albums recorded primarily by Barnes alone), has a ball on the new disc, mixing in falsetto funk, rollicking R&B, heavenly dance pop, and Euro-disco that has the sonic glee of Gnarls Barkley — perhaps it is no coincidence that OM has covered GB’s “Crazy.” On FALSE PRIEST, Of Montreal channels a little Beatles here (“You Do Mutilate?”), a whole lot of Prince there (“Like a Tourist,” “Sex Karma”), and even a bit of Bowie to boot (“Godly Intersex”). Janelle Monáe of the Wondaland Arts Society adds groovy raps to “Our Riotous Defects” and “Enemy Gene,” while Solange Knowles gets hot and heavy with Barnes on “Sex Karma,” which features the killer rhyme “You took me centuries to master / In the next life I will have to learn you faster.” Barnes and company — Bryan Poole, Davey Pierce, Dottie Alexander, Clayton Rychlik, Thayer Sarrano, Nicolas Dobbratz, and K Ishibashi — will be headlining Terminal 5 this Friday and Saturday with Kansas native Monáe, who recently released her debut album, THE ARCHANDROID (SUITES II AND III) (Bad Boy, May 18, 2010).

SHOP WITH A JOCK: AMAR’E STOUDEMIRE

Amar’e Stoudemire will stop by the NBA Store on September 15 for a little shopping and an autograph session

NBA Store
666 Fifth Ave. at 52nd St.
Wednesday, September 15, $20 purchase required for autograph, 5:00 – 6:00
212-515-6221
www.nba.com/nycstore
www.amarestoudemire.com

Five-time All-Star and newest New York Knickerbocker Amar’e Stoudemire will do a little preseason shopping on September 15, taking three young kids on a buying spree at the NBA Store in Midtown at 5:00 (two of whom were chosen through the Garden of Dreams foundation, the third through his Facebook page). In addition, the Lake Wales, Florida, native, who spent his first eight years with the Phoenix Suns, compiling a career average of 21.4 ppg and 8.9 rpg, will be signing autographs for fans who spend at least twenty bucks at the store. Will the 2003 Rookie of the Year have much of an impact on the 2010-11 Knicks? Well, it’s highly unlikely he will make things any worse.

PATHS OF GLORY WITH DAVID SIMON

Kirk Douglas discovers that war is indeed hell in PATHS OF GLORY (courtesty Photofest)

PATHS OF GLORY (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Monday, September 20, 7:40
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

Stanley Kubrick’s harrowing PATHS OF GLORY, based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb, is quite simply the best English-language antiwar film ever made. Kirk Douglas stars as Colonel Dax, a French military man who disagrees with his superiors’ insistence on sending his men into certain annihilation in order to take a worthless hill during World War I. Dax’s verbal battles with Generals Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) and Mireau (George Macready) are unforgettable, as are the final scenes, in which three random men are chosen to pay the price for what the generals call cowardice. Filmed in stunning black and white, PATHS OF GLORY puts you right on the front lines of the folly of war. Kubrick, who wrote the unrelenting script with Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson, also made the best film about the cold war (DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB), the Roman slave revolt (SPARTACUS), and, arguably, the Vietnam War (FULL METAL JACKET). PATHS OF GLORY will have a special screening at Film Forum on September 20, introduced by HOMICIDE, THE CORNER, and THE WIRE creator David Simon, who should have some fascinating things to say about one of the most emotional, powerful stories ever put on celluloid.

PETER YARROW BENEFIT CONCERT

Peter Yarrow will perform a benefit concert for the Museum at Eldridge Street on September 20

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Monday, September 20, $36, 7:00
RSVP: 212-219-0888 ext205, hgriff@eldridgestreet.org
www.eldridgestreet.org
www.peterpaulandmary.com

As one-third of the folksinging trio Peter, Paul & Mary, Peter Yarrow sang such seminal songs as “If I Had a Hammer,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” “All My Trials,” “500 Miles,” and, of course, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” a mix of traditional and original tunes that played an important role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Sadly, Mary Travers passed away in September 2009 from complications arising from her chemotherapy treatment for leukemia, but Yarrow is still keeping the flame burning, founding the nonprofit group Operation Respect, which works “to assure each child and youth a respectful, safe and compassionate climate of learning where their academic, social and emotional development can take place free of bullying, ridicule and violence”; displaying public outrage when Chip Saltsman sent “Barack the Magic Negro,” an insensitive reworking of Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” to members of the RNC; and participating in the fight against colon cancer through his 2010 tune “The Colonoscopy Song.” He has also written or been part of a number of children’s books, including THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, set for release November 15 and featuring the final performance ever by Travers, singing to a new score of the title track by Yarrow. The Christmas book serves as the perfect lead-in to Yarrow’s latest project, a September 20 benefit concert raising funds for the Museum at Eldridge Street, site of a historic Lower East Side synagogue that is being lovingly restored. Tickets are only $36, with all proceeds going to the museum’s extensive cultural and educational programs.

TIMESTALKS: JAMES EARL JONES

James Earl Jones will discuss his starring role in DRIVING MISS DAISY in a special conversation on September 20

The Times Center
242 West 41st St.
Monday, September 20, $30, 6:30
www.timestalks.com
www.daisyonbroadway.com

In 1987, Alfred Uhry’s play DRIVING MISS DAISY opened at Playrights Horizon, later moved to Broadway, and then won the Pulitzer Prize. It starred Dana Ivey as elderly southern Jewish widow Daisy Werthan and Morgan Freeman as her black chauffeur, Hoke Colburn. In Bruce Beresford’s Oscar-winning 1989 film, Freeman reprised his role, with Jessica Tandy taking over as Miss Daisy (and earning an Academy Award as Best Actress) and Dan Aykroyd playing her son, Boolie. The play is being revived this fall with James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, and Boyd Gaines in the lead parts, opening October 7 at the John Golden Theatre. Jones, who has previously appeared on Broadway in such iconic roles as Big Daddy in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (2008), Norman Thayer in ON GOLDEN POND (2005), Troy Maxson in FENCES (Tony Award, 1987), and Jack Jefferson (Tony Award, 1969), will speak with New York Times theater reporter Patrick Healy on September 20 about the new production and his long career.

BRYANT PARK FALL FESTIVAL

The Orchestra of St. Luke’s is one of the companies giving free performances as part of this week’s Bryant Park Fall Festival

Bryant Park Fountain Terrace and lawn
40th to 42nd Sts. at Sixth Ave.
Setpember 13-20, free
www.bryantpark.org

Fashion Week festivities might have moved from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center, but that doesn’t mean that the former is just going to hide its head in the sand. Beginning today at lunchtime, Bryant Park will be hosting its own Fall Festival, eight days of live music and dance featuring performances by the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Parsons Dance, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Black Rock Coalition, Ricky Ian Gordon, and, ironically enough, Jazz at Lincoln Center. Shows take place daily at 12:30 and 6:00, and everything is free.