twi-ny recommended events

INGRID BERGMAN AT BAM / THE INGRID BERGMAN TRIBUTE

BAM celebration of Ingrid Bergman centennial kicks off with theatrical presentation featuring Isabelle Rossellini and Jeremy Irons

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAMcinématek: BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Tribute: Saturday, September 12, $35-$85, 8:00
Film festival: September 13-29
718-636-4100
www.bam.org/theater
www.bam.org/film

Following hot on the heels of MoMA’s Centennial Celebration of Ingrid Bergman, honoring the one hundredth anniversary of the actress’s birth on August 29, BAM joins the party with two special programs. The festivities begin on September 12 with “The Ingrid Bergman Tribute,” a multimedia theatrical staging in the Howard Gilman Opera House created and written by Ludovica Damiani and Guido Torlonia in collaboration with Isabella Rossellini, one of Bergman’s three daughters. The presentation, directed by Torlonia (Handmade Cinema), will feature Rossellini and Jeremy Irons performing material based on interviews, unpublished letters, and Rossellini’s own memories and will also include home videos and unreleased film clips. Damiani has previously staged tributes to such cinema giants as Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini. The one-night-only event will be followed by the film series “Ingrid Bergman at BAM,” a fourteen-movie, seventeen-day festival that includes some of the works shown at MoMA in addition to other classics and lesser-known fare. One of the greatest films ever made, Casablanca, starts things off on September 13; the festival also includes such gems as Anastasia, Notorious, Europa ’51, Gaslight, Spellbound, and Murder on the Orient Express as well as Gustaf Molander’s A Woman’s Face, Per Lindberg’s June Night, Vincente Minnelli’s A Matter of Time with Liza Minnelli and Charles Boyer, and Lewis Milestone’s Arch of Triumph with Boyer and Charles Laughton. Bergman, who was nominated for seven Oscars, winning three, while also capturing a Tony for Joan of Lorraine and two Emmys, for Startime and A Woman Called Golda, died of breast cancer on her sixty-seventh birthday in 1982.

DANCENOW JOE’S PUB FESTIVAL 2015

Chelsea Murphy and Magda San Millan (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)

Chelsea Murphy and Magda San Millan will host the DANCENOW Challenge at Joe’s Pub on September 12 (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
September 9-12, 24, $20-$30, 7:00
212-539-8778
www.dancenownyc.org

For its twentieth annual season, the DANCENOW Joe’s Pub Festival looks to the past, present, and future of the artistic discipline, as fifty choreographers return to the small Lafayette St. stage to present works of no more than five minutes. The festival, which encourages experimentation and innovation, takes place September 9-12, with each night hosted by different dance makers and DANCENOW veterans. “This celebration is about honoring the amazing artists, many of whom got their start through DANCENOW and now have very successful careers, who took a leap of faith to create work for our unconventional programs over the past two decades,” DANCENOWNYC founder and producer Robin Staff said in a statement. “After twenty years, DANCENOW remains steadfast in its ‘less is more’ vision, embracing limitation as a powerful inspiration for creativity.” On September 9, Raja Feather Kelly/feath3r theory and B.S. MOVEMENT: Bryan Strimpel and Shaina Branfman oversee a program with such choreographers and companies as the Bang Group, Aszure Barton & Artists, Jane Comfort & Company, and PearsonWidrig DanceTheater. On September 10, Deborah Lohse/a.k.a. TruDee and Mark Gindick host binbinFACTORY/Satoshi Haga & Rei Fukuzawa, Li Chiao-Ping Dance, Heidi Latsky, and others. September 11 includes Jamal Jackson Dance Company, Gus Solomons Jr., TAKE Dance, and ZviDance, with hosts Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott. And September 12 is led by Chelsea Murphy and Magda San Millan (Chelsea & Magda), with Doug Elkins Choreography, Claire Porter/PORTABLES, Amber Sloan, and more. On September 24, there will be a dozen encore performances, along with special guests Brian Brooks and Nicholas Leichter.

THE BLACK PANTHERS: THE VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION

Documentary looks at the history and legacy of the Black Panther movement

THE BLACK PANTHERS: THE VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION (Stanley Nelson, 2015)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
September 2-15
212-727-8110
filmforum.org
theblackpanthers.com

At the beginning of The Black Panthers: The Vanguard of the Revolution, Black Panther Ericka Huggins says, “We know the party we were in, and not the entire thing. We were making history, and it wasn’t nice and clean.” Documentarian Stanley Nelson spent seven years making the revelatory film, which details the rise and fall of a group of radical militant African American men and women who decided to fight back against the white establishment and show that black lives matter, almost half a century ago, and no, it isn’t all nice and clean. Nelson (Freedom Riders, The Murder of Emmett Till) combines powerful, rarely seen archival footage with new interviews of the people who were involved in this revolution, which was more complicated than it is often given credit for. The film is sharply one-sided; although a handful of former police officers and FBI agents state their case, their views are given short shrift. “The Panthers were a criminal organization, were violent, and they wanted to kill cops. That’s all I needed to know,” says Ron McCarthy of the LAPD. But Nelson primarily speaks with many surviving members of the party, including Kathleen Cleaver, Elaine Brown, Emory Douglas, Elbert “Big Man” Howard, Jamal Joseph, Flores Forbes, in addition to historians and journalists who put it all in perspective.

Radical, militant organization fights for black rights as it attempts to stage a revolution

Radical militant organization takes on the establishment in the 1960s and ’70s

Nelson and editor Aljernon Tunsil (Jesse Owens, The Abolitionists) weave together a compelling, and surprising, portrait of the organization, delving into the stories behind such critical personalities as Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, David Hilliard, Fred Hampton, and Bobby Seale. The film examines police raids, media coverage, FBI infiltration, trials, and the Panther infighting that ultimately led to their downfall. Perhaps the most frightening images in the film, however, involve the Panthers’ interaction with the police, particularly when coming out of a building with their hands up and their shirts off, trying to prove to the primarily white officers that they are unarmed so they don’t get shot in cold blood. It’s a vivid reminder of some of what’s still happening today around the country while serving as a fascinating companion piece to F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton; in fact, Nelson employs a potent, funky soundtrack by Tom Phillips along with period songs by Billy Paul, the Chi-Lites, Eugene Blacknell and the New Breed, and Fred Wesley & the J.B.’s. “It is essential to me as a filmmaker to try and give the viewer a sense of what it has meant to be black in America and consider this within our contemporary context,” Nelson explains in his director’s statement. “The legacy of the Black Panther Party had a lasting impact on the way black people think and see ourselves, and it is important that we look at and understand that.” The Black Panthers: The Vanguard of the Revolution does just that, shedding new light on a misunderstood, troubled, and dangerous organization whose legacy can still be felt today. Film Forum is hosting more than a dozen special panel discussions during the film’s run there (September 2-16), with several appearances by Nelson as well as such Black Panthers as Forbes, Joseph, Omar Barbour, Claudia Williams, and Charles “Cappy” Pinderhughes along with journalist Jamilah Lemiux, writer Rita Williams-Garcia, Panther attorney Gerald Lefcourt, and others.

ALBERT OEHLEN: “‘HOME & GARDEN’ ANNEX”

Albert Oehlen’s “‘Home and Garden’ Annex” is on view at Gagosian’s Park & 75 space (photo by Rob McKeever)

Gagosian Gallery, Park & 75
821 Park Ave. at 75th St.
Through September 4, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.gagosian.com

German painter Albert Oehlen may be displaying his bravura technique and massive talent in the huge “Home and Garden” exhibition at the New Museum, but his best work in New York City right now is uptown in Gagosian’s glassed-in Park & 75 gallery. On the north wall is “Der rosa Salon” (“The Pink Parlor”), a spectacular painting from a man who continually redefines the genre. The large-scale piece, approximately 110 × 118 inches, was painted over a plastic billboard; in fact, some letters are still visible beneath the paint, primarily the word “NO” in the lower left-hand corner, either accidental or some kind of artistic admonition. Combining reality and surrealism, the painting is anchored by several chairs, one on the right, evoking both Francis Bacon and Franz West while resembling a palette, the others at the center, a pair of comfy tannish-brown chairs, one of which is being fondled by a blond woman in shorts, actually part of an advertisement that Oehlen cut out and pasted onto the plastic base. The empty chair in the middle is like an invitation to the viewer to enter the scene. Oehlen, who lives and works in Switzerland, then painted over the advertisement in such a way as to make it meld into the rest of the imagery, the outline of the cutout visible only if you look for it. A breakfront peeks out on the left, while a lighting fixture dangles from above; below, the floor seems to just drop out. There’s so much going on in the painting that the eye doesn’t know what to focus on, flitting about from woman to furniture, from the light pouring in through a window to the far corner where the walls meet, from the squiggly shadows cast by the legs of the front chair to the big letters “NO” opposite. It’s a dramatic painting in both narrative and execution as fiction and nonfiction clash in appealing ways. Also on view in the gallery are five small collage paintings in which Oehlen incorporates images of trees in addition to the multimedia installation “1000 dances (tree),” in which Oehlen took a living tree, added such elements as Styrofoam, a metal rod, and a poster tube, and placed it behind a floor-to-ceiling translucent sheet that he partially painted pinkish red. A spotlight shines on the back, making a silhouette of the tree visible from the front, which also reflects the activity going on outside on Park Ave. Meanwhile, a lo-fi rah-rah soundtrack plays; the spotlight is supposed to flash in tandem with the music, but a technological malfunction has put an end to that.

INGRID BERGMAN — A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION: PARIS DOES STRANGE THINGS

Count Henri de Chevincourt (Mel Ferrer) seeks a better view with Princess Elena Sokorowska (Ingrid Bergman) in Jean Renoir farce

ELENA AND HER MEN (PARIS DOES STRANGE THINGS) (Jean Renoir, 1956)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Sunday, September 6, 2:00
Series runs through September 10
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

MoMA’s “Ingrid Bergman: A Centennial Celebration” series includes several classic favorites featuring the immensely popular international star (Gaslight, Casablanca, Notorious), but the key to enjoying this festival lies in numerous lesser-known surprises. One of the most intriguing is the 1956 Jean Renoir “musical fantasy” Elena and Her Men, also known as Paris Does Strange Things. In this small gem of a film, Bergman plays Elena Sokorowska, a splendiferous Polish princess living the high life in fin de siècle Paris, quickly running out of money and strongly advised by her aunt to find a rich husband. After dispatching one lover, composer Lionel Villaret (Jean Claudio), the princess has a trio of suitors: the much older Martin-Michaud (Pierre Bertin), a stuffy, aristocratic shoe mogul; the heroic General François Rollan (Jean Marais, playing a character based on the real-life General Georges Boulanger), who is being celebrated on Bastille Day; and the playboy Count Henri de Chevincourt (Mel Ferrer), who instantly falls madly in love with her — and wishes to take her home the very day he meets her. It’s 1915, and the streets are filled with French men, women, and children singing the praises of General Rollan while wondering what will come next for the government, with talk of a coup and a dictatorship making the rounds. In the middle of it all is Princess Sokorowska, whose lavish charm beguiles nearly everyone she meets, except, of course, the general’s mistress, Paulette Escoffier (Elina Labourdette). As the men fight over her, the princess hands out daisies to bring various people good luck.

The people in Paris party in the streets in Jean Renoir farce about love, war, politics, and sex

Elena and Her Men was Bergman’s first film after leaving Roberto Rossellini, and French was the fourth language she’d spoken onscreen, following Swedish, English, and Italian. Renoir and cinematographer Claude Renoir, Jean’s nephew, bathe Bergman in an effervescent glow, as if she is an angel making her way through her would-be lovers and the always-crowded Paris. The film is not a musical in the traditional sense; no one suddenly bursts out into song to further the plot or flesh out characters. Instead, all of the singing is natural, from the princess playing piano to people singing in the streets to a visit to the opera. The color is sensational, with bright and cheerful rainbow hues popping up everywhere; the spectacular costumes — and oh, those amazing hats on Bergman — are by Rosine Delamare and Monique Plotin. This is Renoir, so there is plenty of social and political commentary as well, with a healthy dose of dark comedy and cynicism, evoking the auteur’s masterpiece, The Rules of the Game, but it’s primarily a wild farce that has fun playing with the image of Frenchmen as suave and sophisticated, especially when Eugène (Jacques Jouanneau), a goofball who’s engaged to Martin-Michaud’s daughter, Denise (Michèle Nadal), repeatedly chases after Elena’s alluring maid, Lolotte (Magali Noël), like he’s Harpo Marx. More than love and war, the film is about sex and power, as the men want it, and the women decide who is going to get it. It’s also about having faith in humanity, which is what drives the princess. “This is ridiculous! I’m ending this farce,” Henri says at one point; thank goodness Renoir keeps it going, full speed ahead, even if it often gets too silly. Elena and Her Men is the third in an unofficial trilogy, following 1953’s The Golden Coach and 1955’s French Cancan, that Criterion has packaged as “Stage & Spectacle,” as it’s also about art and the theatricality of film, which is by its very nature a fantasy, not reality. Selected for the MoMA series by Isabella Rossellini, one of Ingrid’s three daughters, Elena and Her Men is screening September 6 at 2:00; the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Bergman’s birth — and the thirty-third anniversary of her death — continues through September 10 with such other works as Fear, Stromboli, Journey to Italy, and Autumn Sonata.

ROBERT RYAN — AN ACTOR’S ACTOR: THE NAKED SPUR

Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, and Millard Mitchell have a lot of physical and psychological ground to cover in Anthony Mann’s THE NAKED SPUR

THE NAKED SPUR (Albert Mann, 1953)
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Saturday, September 5, 4:30, Monday, September 7, 9:00, and Wednesday, September 9, 7:00
Series runs September 4-10
212-505-5181
anthologyfilmarchives.org

Shortly after the Civil War, bounty hunter Howard Kemp (James Stewart) is determined to bring in wanted murderer Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan) and claim the reward. Joined by grizzled old prospector Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell) and dishonorably discharged Union lieutenant Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker), Kemp gets his man, along with Ben’s companion, the young Lina Patch (Janet Leigh), the daughter of Ben’s dead best friend. They tie up Ben’s hands, put him on a burro, and head out on the long, arduous trail to turn him over to the federal marshals. But the smug, wisecracking outlaw has other plans, continually planting various seeds to try to set Howard, Roy, and Jesse against one another. Directed by Anthony Mann (Winchester ’73, The Man from Laramie) and shot in the Rocky Mountains, The Naked Spur is not just another Western; it is a multilayered exploration of lust and greed, love and sexuality, with Lina at the center of it all. When Ben needs his sore back rubbed, he asks her, “Can you do me?” Roy thinks he can do anything he wants with any woman. And Howard can’t get over a part of his past, suffering from nightmares that haunt him. Unfortunately, the complex story is dragged down by overly conventional music — “Beautiful Dreamer”? Really? — and some ridiculously staged, hard-to-believe action scenes, but it’s still worth saddling up your horse and going along for the ride. The Naked Spur is screening September 5, 7, and 9 as part of the Anthology Film Archives series “Robert Ryan: An Actor’s Actor,” which continues with such other Ryan flicks as Daniel Mann’s About Mrs. Leslie, Nicholas Ray’s On Dangerous Ground, John Sturges’s Bad Day at Black Rock, Fred Zinnemann’s An Act of Violence, and Mann’s God’s Little Acre. Select screenings will be followed by a discussion with Cheyney Ryan, Robert’s son, and professor J. R. Jones, the author of the new book The Lives of Robert Ryan. A Dartmouth grad who was born in Chicago, Ryan was an outspoken civil rights activist who made more than fifty films during his thirty-plus-year career, which ended when he died of lung cancer in 1973 at the age of sixty-four.

SENSE OF AN ENDING

A journalist (Joshua David Robinson) seeks the truth about a horrific massacre from Sister Justina (Heather Alicia Simms) in SENSE OF AN ENDING (photo by Carol Rosegg)

59E59 Theaters
59 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Through September 6, $18
www.59e59.org

Ken Urban paints a searing, intimate portrait of the Rwandan genocide and the concept of forgiveness in the gripping and powerful Sense of an Ending. It’s Easter weekend in 1999, and two Hutu nuns, the younger Sister Alice (Dana Marie Ingraham) and the older Sister Justina (Heather Alicia Simms), sit in a Kigali prison waiting to be tried in a Belgian court for crimes against humanity. Attempting to resurrect his career after a plagiarism scandal, New York Times journalist Charles (Joshua David Robinson) arrives to do a story on the nuns, initially determined to prove their innocence, unable to believe that the two religious women could have taken part in a horrific massacre at their church. But as Charles speaks with the nuns, a Rwandan Patriotic Front corporal named Paul (Hubert Point-Du Jour), and Dusabi (Danyon Davis), a bitter Tutsi who claims to have survived the brutal, cold-blooded murders, he learns more than he bargained for. “There isn’t a famine, war zone, atrocity I haven’t seen,” Charles tells Paul, who responds, “You’ve never seen anything like what’s behind this door,” referring to the entrance of the church, which hovers over the play like a doorway to hell.

An RPF corporal (Hubert Point-Du Jour) watches over two nuns and a journalist in play about Rwandan genocide (photo by Carol Rosegg)

Winner of the L. Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Award for Best New American Play, Sense of an Ending takes place in a tiny black-box theater where the audience sits in two rows on three sides of the stage, which contains three benches. Scene changes are indicated by small shifts in sound and lighting, although some of the sound effects are hard to make out; at one point, background noise sounded like it could have been coming from one of the other theaters at 59E59. Director Adam Fitzgerald (Methtacular!, Urban’s The Awake) maintains a tense, threatening undercurrent throughout the play’s ninety minutes, although Urban (The Happy Sad, The Correspondent) ties it all up a little too neatly in the end. The acting is uniformly strong, led by a particularly moving performance by Point-Du Jour (A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes, The Model Apartment) as Paul, a straightforward Tutsi soldier who shows unexpected depth. At its heart, Sense of an Ending, which debuted at London’s Theatre503 in May with a different director and cast, is about truth, forgiveness, and faith, reminiscent of Nicholas Wright’s A Human Being Died That Night, which ran at BAM this past spring and examined the case of South African mass murderer Eugene de Kock. “All I want is the truth,” Charles says to Dusabi, who replies, “You have come to the wrong place, my friend, if you are looking for truth.” Sense of an Ending continues through September 6; the September 3 show will be followed by the talk-back “Moving Forward: Rwanda and Its Citizens, Post-Genocide” with Jesse Hawkes, executive director of Global Youth Connect, and Rwandan genocide survivor and human rights activist Jacqueline Murekatete.