twi-ny recommended events

UMUSUNA: MEMORIES BEFORE HISTORY

Sankai Juku returns to BAM for first time in nine years with UMUSUNA (photo courtesy of Sankai Juku)

NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
October 28-31, $25-$75, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.sankaijuku.com

Feeling a bit overwhelmed these days? Can’t navigate through all the emails, crowded subway trains, streets jammed with tourists? Looking for something to calm you down, relax, give you a little time to stop and be here now? Japanese dance troupe Sankai Juku has just the right remedy. This week the Tokyo-based Butoh purveyors return to New York City for the first time in five years, since performing Tobari: As If in an Inexhaustible Flux at the Joyce in 2010. They are back at BAM for the first time in nine years, as director, choreographer, designer, and Sankai Juku founder Ushio Amagatsu brings Umusuna: Memories Before History to the Howard Gilman Opera House October 28-31, following such previous BAM performances as Hibiki (Resonance from Far Away) in 2002 and Kagemi: Beyond the Metaphors of Mirrors in 2006. The dancers, covered in white talcum powder, will move agonizingly slowly through sand as they contemplate the elements: fire, water, air, and earth. The meditative piece, part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival and the company’s fortieth anniversary, features music by Takashi Kako, Yas-Kaz, and Yoichiro Yoshikawa. Should you want to try this at home, Sankai Juku founding member and longtime dancer Semimaru will lead the Butoh class “Sankai Juku: What Makes a Body Move” on October 30 at 12 noon ($25, no experience necessary) at the Mark Morris Dance Center right across the street.

THEATER & CINEMA: THE LAST METRO

Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu star in François Truffaut’s gripping WWII melodrama THE LAST METRO

CINÉSALON: THE LAST METRO (LE DERNIER METRO) (François Truffaut, 1980)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, October 27, $14, 4:00 & 7:30 (later screening introduced by Olivia Bransbourg)
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

FIAF’s CinéSalon series “Theater & Cinema” concludes October 27 with François Truffaut’s powerful Oscar-nominated WWII melodrama, The Last Metro. Set in Vichy France during the German occupation, the film takes place in and around the Théâtre Montmartre, which has been taken over by movie-star actress (and non-Jew) Marion Steiner (Catherine Deneuve) after her husband, Jewish theater director Lucas Steiner (Heinz Bennent), has apparently escaped the Nazi regime. But in fact Lucas is hiding out in the theater’s basement, where he has translated a Norwegian play, aptly titled Disappearance, and is directing it from below. The cast and crew of Disappearance include ladies’ man Bernard Granger (Gérard Depardieu) as Marion’s love interest; costume designer Arlette Guillaume (Andréa Ferréol), who refuses Bernard’s advances because of a secret reason; young actress Nadine Marsac (Sabine Haudepin), who will do just about anything to get parts; stage manager Raymond Boursier (Maurice Risch), who is deeply dedicated to the theater; and Jean-Loup Cottins (Jean Poiret), the stand-in director for Lucas. Only Marion knows where Lucas is, but danger grows when critic, publisher, and Nazi collaborator Daxiat (Jean-Louis Richard) starts sniffing around a little too much.

Catherine Deneuve on-set with director François Truffaut during the making of THE LAST METRO

Genre lover Truffaut reaches deep into his cinematic bag of tricks in The Last Metro, paying tribute to film noir, romantic melodrama, war movies, and even musicals as he references Casablanca, The Phantom of the Opera, The Diary of Anne Frank, Gaslight, To Be or Not to Be, The Golden Coach, Notorious, and Cabaret. He takes on anti-Semitism, anti-homosexuality, and anti-humanism in general while setting up a compelling love triangle that is echoed in the play-within-a movie, which is staged on a dramatic, surreal pink Expressionistic set. Depardieu and Deneuve, who went on to make such other films together as Claude Berri’s Fort Saganne, André Téchiné’s Changing Times, and François Ozon’s Potiche, might not be Bogart and Bergman, but they are a magnetic duo, Depardieu’s hulking, brutishly handsome presence dominating confined spaces, Deneuve’s refined, radiant beauty glowing amid a predominantly drab palette. The film uses the metaphor of theater as a way to escape reality, whether on an individual basis or during an international crisis, but of course Truffaut is also citing film as its own escape, a place where people flock to when times are both good and bad. The Last Metro — the title refers to the final train of the night, which passengers must catch in order to not break the strict curfew — is a beautifully made picture, the second in Truffaut’s planned trilogy of films about entertainment, following 1973’s Day for Night and preceding the never-finished L’Agence Magique. Winner of a 1990 César for Best Film of the 1980s in addition to ten previous Césars, including Best Film, Best Director (Truffaut), Best Actor (Depardieu), Best Actress (Deneuve), Best Cinematography (Nestor Almendros), Best Music (Georges Delerue), Best Production Design (Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko), and Best Writing (Truffaut and Suzanne Schiffman), The Last Metro is screening at 4:00 and 7:30 on October 27 in Florence Gould Hall; the later show will be introduced by French publisher and fragrance designer Olivia Bransbourg.

HELLO KITTY CAFE FOOD TRUCK

Hello Kitty Cafe truck will continue serving cute goodies on Monday in Times Square (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Hello Kitty Cafe truck will continue serving heaping portion of kawaii on Monday in Times Square (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Times Square
1565 Broadway
Monday, October 26, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
twitter.com/hellokittycafe
hello kitty cafe slideshow

The very pink Hello Kitty Cafe pop-up food truck will be back in Times Square on Monday, celebrating the recent fortieth anniversary of this fascinating feline fashion icon and avatar of the Japanese concept of kawaii, or “cute,” which sometimes seems to have taken over the globe. Devotees mourned the Hello Kitty store’s departure this past August from Forty-Second St. but can celebrate its temporary new digs at 1565 Broadway, which will remain open through the holiday season. The pink cafe van outside sells strawberry lemonade, bottles of water with a bow, sugary donuts, sweetly decorated petit-four cakes, a macaron box, dainty coffee mugs, and adorable T-shirts. Food purchases of $25 and more get you a free tote bag as well.

TRAVELOGUES: RUTH DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE

Lionel Popkin’s RUTH DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE makes its New York City premiere at Abrons Arts Center (photo by Cristal Jones)

Who: Lionel Popkin
What: Ruth Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, part of Travelogues series
Where: Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement, Experimental Theater, 466 Grand St. at Pitt St., 212-352-3101
When: October 29 – November 1, $20
Why: Bloomington-born, Santa Monica-based dancer, choreographer, and UCLA professor Lionel Popkin returns to New York City with his most recent evening-length piece, Ruth Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, inspired by legendary dancer and choreographer Ruth St. Denis’s fascination with “Oriental” culture, as exemplified by such works as Radha. “Was St. Denis’s Orientalism an act of cultural appropriation or a legitimate examination of sources of dance?” the half-Jewish, half-Indian Popkin asks. “Can a century of perspective help a contemporary choreographer reach his own point of equilibrium?” Danced by Popkin, Emily Beattie, and Carolyn Hall, Ruth Doesn’t Live Here Anymore features a score by composer Guy Klucevsek, performed live by avant-garde accordionist Klucevsek and violinist Mary Rowell, a bevy of fanciful costumes by set designer Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, lighting by Christopher Kuhl, and video design by Cari Ann Shim Sham, as well as the use of microphones, text-based projections, and a leaf blower. “Popkin’s talent lies in his ability to seamlessly blend his intellectual, personal, and kinetic approaches,” explains Travelogues series curator Laurie Uprichard. “He alternates between disarmingly informal narrator and highly structured creator of movement. The intermittent ‘pure dance’ sections are solidly constructed yet the audience is never at a loss for finding its place within the humorous texts.” Popkin’s previous works include There Is an Elephant in This Dance, Miniature Fantasies, and And Then We Eat, all at Danspace Project; he is currently in development with Inflatable Trio, which is set in an inflatable plastic living room.

REFUSE THE HOUR

William Kentridge leads a troupe of dancers, vocalists, and musicians through a multimedia journey into the concept of time and space in REFUSE THE HOUR (photo by John Hodgkiss)

NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL
Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St.
October 22-25, $52-$110
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

At one point in William Kentridge’s multimedia, multidisciplinary chamber opera, Refiuse the Hour, projections of three large metronomes all move at different speeds, an apt metaphor for the eighty-minute piece as a whole, a wildly inventive and unpredictable presentation of sounds and images built around such concepts as time, anti-entropy, science, and art in addition to coincidence and fate. “I walk around the studio, waiting for these fragments that have come in to appear, and make sense, repeating the elements again and again,” Kentridge says, standing onstage in his trademark white button-down shirt and black pants and shoes in front of a projection of himself walking through his studio. The dialogue, with dramaturgy by Harvard history of science and physics professor Peter Galison, collides with the imagery in abstract ways, as beautiful and mesmerizing as it is confusing and chaotic. Kentridge serves as storyteller, discussing the Perseus myth and black holes, as well as a kind of conductor — the hand of the artist is often visible in his drawings and films — interacting with kinetic sculptures and the other members of the cast, which include dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo, vocalists Ann Masina and Joanna Dudley, actor Thato Motlhaolwa, and musicians Adam Howard, Tlale Makhene, Waldo Alexander, Dan Selsick, Vicenzo Pasquariello, and Thobeka Thukane, performing a score by Kentridge’s longtime collaborator, composer Philip Miller. Meanwhile, a percussion kit hangs from above, mysteriously chiming in. Sabine Theunissen’s ragtag set feels right at home at the BAM Harvey, wonderfully integrating Catherine Meyburgh’s video design, Greta Goiris’s costumes, and Luc de Wit’s choreographed movement of humans and machines. A companion piece to his immersive, deeply intellectual yet playful exhibition “The Refusal of Time,” Refuse the Hour refuses categorization, instead leading the audience down a dramatic rabbit hole where science and art intersect in a complex yet delightful symphony of words, images, movement, and music. “Can we hold our breath against time?” Kentridge asks. Refuse the Hour is nothing if not breathtaking itself, challenging the notion of performance as only Kentridge can. (For more on Kentridge’s current invasion of New York City, go here.)

PHOTOGRAPH: RINGO STARR AT THE STRAND

Who: Ringo Starr and Steven Van Zandt
What: Illustrated discussion celebrating recent release of Ringo Starr’s memoirs, Photograph (Genesis, September 21, $50)
Where: The Strand, 828 Broadway at Twelfth St., 212-473-1452
When: Monday, October 26, free with advance purchase of Photograph, 2:00
Why: On his 1973 solo album, Down and Out, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr sang, “Every time I see your face / It reminds me of the places we used to go / But all I’ve got is a photograph / And I realize you’re not coming back anymore.” Forty-two years later, he has published his memoirs in a book filled with stories and photographs from throughout his childhood and music career. On October 26, he will be at the Strand to talk about the book and his life, in conversation with Steven Van Zandt. The event is limited to the first two hundred people who have purchased the book from the Strand in advance; although Ringo will not be signing the books, each one comes with a limited edition bookplate with a reproduction of his signature. “These are shots that no one else could have. I just had the camera with me a lot of the time,” Ringo says about the photos in the book. “There’s a lot of shots of ‘the boys’ that only I could have taken. Together they chart the story of four lads from Liverpool trying to live normal lives amidst the frenzy that surrounded them.” Ringo will be back in town on October 31 with his All Starr Band for a Halloween show at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn that concludes their month-long North American Tour in conjunction with Ringo’s latest album, Postcards from Paradise.

TOP SPIN

Ariel Hsing is one of three young Ping-Pong players with Olympic dreams in table-tennis documentary

TOP SPIN (Sara Newens & Mina T. Son, 2014)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, October 23
212-924-3363
www.topspinmovie.com
www.cinemavillage.com

Unless you’re a dedicated fan of table tennis, you’ve never seen Ping-Pong played quite like this. In Top Spin, first-time feature-film documentarians Sara Newens and Mina T. Son follow a trio of young Americans through the tournaments necessary to qualify for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team and compete in the London Games. At sixteen, Fremont, California, native Ariel Hsing is the youngest women’s national champion, a two-wing attacker who calls both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet “Uncle.” Seventeen-year-old Mineola, New York–born Michael Landers is a two-wing looper who is the youngest men’s national champion. And Lily Zhang is a fifteen-year-old all-around attacker from Palo Alto and the world #2 in under-fifteen girls, usually finishing right behind Ariel. Director-editor Newens and director-producer Son speak extensively with the three players and their parents, coaches, teachers, trainers, and friends while counting down the days to each event, fierce competitions in which Ariel, Michael, and Lily play against opponents who are sometimes more than twice their age. They dedicate their lives to their Olympic dreams, spending large amounts of time away from school and their friends and family as they attempt to make the low-ranked American Olympic squad that has little chance for a medal, without even a high-paying professional league in their future. Yet they battle on, despite the heavy odds against them. Much of the Ping-Pong action is mind-blowing, particularly a late match in which Michael returns slam after slam with amazing acumen and accuracy. The film is executive-produced by Jonathan Bricklin and Franck Raharinosy, cofounders of SPiN, the Ping-Pong social club on East Twenty-Third St. that is partly owned by Susan Sarandon, who appeared in Michael Tully’s indie film Ping Pong Summer last year. Top Spin opens October 23 at Cinema Village, with Newens and Son participating in a Q&A moderated by crossword-puzzle maven Will Shortz at the 9:15 show Friday night.